Best Disney Movies of the early 90s

Well I had to definitely include a post about some of the greatest childrens movies from the 90s, mainly because I was a child in the 90s and so I didn't watch anything apart from these and cartoons :) ...Ok so it is just a list of Disney's finest movies from the 90s but what can I say, I think they're the best! Also there was a Disney Renaissance during the 90s, starting with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and finishing with Tarzan in 1999. During this time Disney produced loads of films, many using new computer technology, and all of them were brilliant in their own way.
So lets reel back the years and remember all those Disney classics from the 90s. Enjoy!








First up in the Disney lineup-
Beauty and the Beast


This was and, lets be honest here, still is my FAVOURITE Disney movie of all time, maybe my fave movie of all time Disney or not. Beauty and the Beast was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released to theaters in November, 1991. It is widely considered one of Disney's greatest animated films, and is the first of only 2 animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (the other being Disney/Pixar's 2009 film Up). The story is based on the fairy tale La Belle et la Bete by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont.
Now I'm pretty sure everyone reading this post must have seen the movie so you'll know the storyline but to sum up; a young, selfish prince is turned into a horrible beast and to break the spell he must find true love, then conveniently he imprisons an old inventor whose beautiful and smart daughter, Belle, swaps places with him and to make a long story short Belle and the beast fall in love and the spell is broken. And they all live happily ever after. Oh, and the servants of the castle were all turned into walking, talking objects like a candelabra, a clock and a tea-pot. What more could you possibly want from a movie!? :)

Heres my favourite scene from the movie. The servants who are objects are giving Belle an extravagent dinner at the castle and the musical number, "Be Our Guest", is totally amazing. I know all the words off by heart and I'm totally proud of that.

Next up- Aladdin

Aladdin would be in my top 5 Disney movies, I love the genie especially; Robin Williams did a great job in that role in my opinion.
Aladdin was released in 1992 and was the most successful film of that year. It is based on the Arab folktale of Aladdin and the magic lamp from One Thousand and One Nights. The film won many awards and was nominated for many, many more, most of them for it's soundtrack.
The storyline goes; poor boy meets rich girl and tries to win her affections, but this boy has a genie (who will grant him 3 wishes), a magic, flying carpet and a pet monkey who weas a fez. Needless to say he gets the girl and all ends well :)







Here's a video for arguably the most famous song from the film, "A Whole New World".








Next up- The Lion King

The Lion King was released in 1994 and it was influenced by Bible stories and by the Shakespeare play Hamlet. The film was the highest grossing animated film of all time until the release of Finding Nemo and it still holds the record as the highest grossing traditionally animated film in history.

The storyline goes; Mufasa is king of all the animals in the Pride Lands and he teaches his young son Simba to appreciate all life. He is murdered by his evil brother Scar who convinces Simba it is his fault and he runs away and eventually meets Timon, a meercat, and Pumbaa, a smelly warthog, whose famous catchphrase is Hakuna Matata, which means 'No worries'. A young female lioness, Nala, finds Simba and begs him to come back and save the Pride Lands from Scar's tyrannical rule, which he does and everything is restored. There's some very tragic moments but in the end it's a heartfelt story of how Simba discovers himself and becomes a good leader and saves everyone.

Here's a video of "The Circle of Life", one of the first scenes in the movie.

And now- Pocahontas

Pocahontas was released in 1995. It is the first Disney film to be based on a real historical character, Pocahontas, and it features a fictionalized account of her encounter with Englishman John Smith and the settlers who arrived from the Virginia Company.

It is a beautifully animated movie that has a touching story and an amazing soundtrack. Pocahontas meets John Smith and falls in love with him but his comrades have ideas for taking over the native's land and so their love is forbidden. A battle ensues and John is injured and must return to England to be treated and so he and Pocahontas bid farewell and continue on with their lives.

Here's a video of one of the most famous songs, "Colours of the Wind".

Toy Story

Toy Story was released in 1995 and features the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. It was the first feature film released to only use computer-generated imagery (CGI) and it has since set the tone for CGI movies.

Its a great storyline all about friendship and it's action-packed, it's definitely my 2nd favourite movie of all time after Beauty and the Beast. It is so bright and colourful and it has a great soundtrack. Also it made every kid who ever saw it believe their toys came alive when we weren't looking and got into all sorts of trouble.

I love Toy Story and I can't wait for the upcoming Toy Story 3! I'm like a big kid :)

Here's a video of the opening scenes and my fave song of the movie, "You've got a friend in me".

In the next post I'll continue on from 1995 til 2000. Hope you enjoyed the post!

B.I. - Before Internet...

Sometimes it's hard to imagine what life would be like without the Internet. The Internet has officially taken over the world and has changed so many aspects of life for people of all ages. Speaking from experience I know the Internet has taken over my own life since my early teen years, round the age of 13, so that would be around 2002/03. I use the Internet every day without fail; I actually couldn't live without it, I'm pretty sure Internet addiction should be a proper condition!

The Internet has everything we could ever want or need; it entertains us, informs us and with the advent of social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo, Twitter and the like, the Internet basically means we can socialise and meet new people all from the comfort of the couch. To sum it all up in 2 words; it's great.

But think back to when it all started, I bet nobody could have guessed how big the 'Net could get.

Not everyone who goes online is aware of the history of the Internet. Here are some of the basic facts and it's a striking example of how technology that we now take for granted has evolved so much.

ARPA

It all began in the late 1950s during the Cold War when the US military devised the ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency). ARPA then set up the MIT (Massachusetts Intitute in Technology) in 1965 and the goaol was to create a network that could function in a place savaged by nuclear warfare.

ARPANET

The end product was ARPANET. It was a small network and in the 1970s ARPANET went global by linking with a London University. An important part of the history of the Internet happened in the 70s when UNIX was created and email became possible.

The 1980s

Alot of stuff that I don't quite understand happened in this decade. This period saw the establishment of the Internet's major protocols. These included the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol). This was one of the earliest times that the word itself was used to describe the network.

The 1990s

By the 1990s the network had come to resemble the interface we have today. In 1991, Time Berners Lee created the World Wide Web. This invention changed the history of the Internet forever. With the hyperlinks it became easier to access information.

Mid to Late 1990s

Streaming software was introduced. Servers like America Online and CompuServe emerged. Along with these 2 servers came various service providers, offering access to the web and email. At this point Netscape and Internet Explorer would emerge as the leading web browsers. In the early days of the Internet only computer companies had web pages. However as it became more established business saw the Internet's potential and set up web pages. The open source nature of the Internet system guaranteed its success.

It has been estimated that during the 1990s the number of online users doubled or tripled every year.

The history of the Internet and its evolution has been amazing. There is no question that as the world become more connected, the 'Net will continue to have a huge impact on people and the world in general. Nowadays the Internet is everywhere and everyone surfs the web pretty regularly. It's amazing to think that less than 2 decades ago, in the early 1990s, it was basically unheard of and was still out of the reach of everyday homes and businesses.

Socialising would have been very different in the early 1990s as teens and young adults alike didn't have sites like Facebook, Bebo, Twitter and Youtube to socialise, share information and discover new things. For instance, before Facebook and Skype made it so much easier to see your friends all the time, people would have to agree well in advance of meeting up with mates and make alot of phone calls to organise get togethers. The Internet has brought us all closer at the touch of a few buttons and the flick of a mouse.

All hail the Internet! :)

90s Nostalgia...

Well the title of my blog pretty much speaks for itself really; this is a blog dedicated to that late, great decade - the 90s. The blog posts could probably be pretty cheesy at times but hopefully it'll put a smile on your face to read all about the last decade of the 20th century. I'm a 90s kid through and through and I love sitting with my friends and remembering all the old cartoons and games we had when we were younger. Things have changed so much since the 90s and in this blog I want to fondly remember everything that made the 90s great.

So just sit back, relax and take that trip down memory lane to a simpler time when mobile phones were the size of suitcases, when the Internet was only beginning and when silly phrases like 'Talk to the hand!' ran amok. Oh, remember the days...

For this very first post I've decided to write about just some of the toys that every kid or their sibling had in the 90s; mainly because when I think back to my own childhood I can distinctly remember all these games and toys that we played with as kids, as if it were only yesterday.

Remember how popular pogs were! :)

Pogs:

Ah pogs... Such a simple game that was loved by so many! These little discs kept us all entertained for hours and some people built up impressive collections. The game was simple yet entertaining, but for me and my friends, and many others, it was all about the designs on the pogs themselves and how many you had won from your own friends. Pogs rose in popularity at an incredible rate and then became old news just as quick. The game became very competitive amongst kids and eventually pogs were banned from many schools for being too distracting. It's amazing looking back that something so simple was so big in our lives. Personally, I don't think pogs would stand a chance in today's technological world. Shame.

Beanie Babies:

Much like the aforementioned pogs, these cute and cuddly, stuffed animals created a collecting frenzy in the early 90s that has lasted to this day. It seemed everyone, young and old, had a beanie baby or several. Although unlike the pogs that were collected by both boys and girls, beanie babies were mostly a girls toy. And some of the limited edition beanie babies can even fetch you a fair bit of money nowadays if found by an obsessive TY collector.

Pokémon Cards:

Don't worry, I'm not going to just cram Pokémon into this tiny little space in the first post and forget about it... Pokémon was HUGE! I just felt it really needed a mention here as a collectable toy along with pogs and beanie babies :)

As I already said, Pokémon was MASSIVE in the 90s. Thinking back Pokémon was a big portion of our childhood days. I remember watching the cartoon before school, trading Pokémon cards with friends at school and then watching more Pokémon cartoons after school. And there wasn't just cards to collect, you could collect actual Pokéballs too and pretend you were actually Ash, a Pokémon trainer, from the shows - very cool. There were Pokémon games too and everyone went crazy for them. I still have friends who are now 19 and 20 who still play Pokéon on their Nintendo Gameboy. It was the biggest craze of the 90s and I imagine everyone would agree with me on that one. But I'll write more about Pokémon in a later post, it needs its own post!

And now I think its time for abit of promotion :)

There's a 90s Night next week (Wednesday 24th March) in the Button Factory on Curve Street in Temple Bar in Dublin and it looks to be a great night out with great student drinks promos and free stuff like glow sticks and hats and sunglasses. It's over 18s and entry is €8 or €6 if you find a flyer round the city somewhere!!!

I heard about it on Facebook and it looks like it'll be a really fun night!

Ok well that's all for the first post, I'll be back soon with more memories from the 90s!