Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s that time again for another Disney+ Roundup on ‘Bradley’s Basement’. For the past four weeks, I’ve checked out four items on the streaming service, including two films, a short cartoon and a 42-minute feature blending animation and live-action. I’ve enjoyed all four items with varying measure.

The first film I saw was the 2006 film ‘Night at the Museum’. I believe I did see this film years ago when it came out on DVD in 2007, but I gave it away since then. It’s been good to revisit the film on Disney+ and it’s amazing there have been two live-action sequels and an animated sequel film since.

‘Night at the Museum’ stars Ben Stiller, who plays a divorced father who applies for a job as a night-watchman at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History. As a result, he discovers the exhibits come to life at night, animated by the magical Egyptian artifact, the tablet of Akhmenrah. 😐

Upon revisiting the film again, I found it enjoyably gripping and funny. I don’t think there’s a proper explanation for how the museum artifacts come to life in the film, but this is a fantasy comedy after all. I believe you’re allowed to suspend your disbelief for what happens when the artifacts are alive.

Ben Stiller is very good in the film, and he leads a stellar cast, including Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs and Robin Williams. There’s also Ricky Gervais, Paul Rudd, Steve Coogan, Owen Wilson, Brad Garrett to name a few. The variety of human characters and exhibits is amazing.

I don’t know if this film will prompt me to check out the other ‘Night at the Museum’ sequels on Disney+, but I’d greatly welcome the opportunity. ‘Night at the Museum’ is definitely a film worth checking out, especially when you fancy a bit of comedy and thrills thrown together with Ben Stiller.

The second film I saw on Disney+ recently was the 1999 TV film adaptation of ‘Annie’. If you’re familiar with the 1982 musical film of the same name, it should be a surprise to you this 1999 TV film exists. This is actually the second film adaptation of the 1977 Broadway musical of the same name. 🙂

The 1999 TV film ‘Annie’ was directed by Rob Marshall, who later directed ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’, ‘Into the Woods’, ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ and the 2023 live-action film adaptation of ‘The Little Mermaid’. It was shown as part of ‘The Wonderful World of Disney’ series. 🙂

‘Annie’ is about a little orphan girl who catches the attention of a kind man named Mr. Warbucks, who wants to adopt her. However, the cruel and strict orphanage owner has a scheme to keep Annie and her reward money. And this no doubt inspired the storyline in ‘The Search For Santa Paws’ film.

The film stars Alicia Morton as the titular character. There’s also Lalaine as Kate, Danielle Wilson as Duffy, Sarah Hyland as Molly, Erin Adams as Tessie, Nanea Miyata as July and Marissa Rago as Pepper. The cast also includes Kathy Bates as the orphanage owner and Alan Cumming is in the film.

There’s also Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Victor Garber and Andrea McArdle. The musical numbers featured throughout the 1999 TV film are pretty decent. I don’t know how this compares to the 1982 film, but hopefully it keeps to the spirit of what’s in the 1997 Broadway musical production.

Also, on Disney+, I saw the 1937 animated cartoon called ‘Lonesome Ghosts’, which apparently was released on Christmas Eve three days after ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ – the original 1937 film. ‘Lonesome Ghosts’ features Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy as our main trio of heroes.

In ‘Lonesome Ghosts’, Mickey, Donald and Goofy are members of the Ajax Ghost Exterminators. So, essentially, this is the first time we have Ghostbusters and it’s in a Disney animated cartoon film. 😀 I wonder if Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis were inspired by this Disney cartoon film for ‘Ghostbusters’.

‘Lonesome Ghosts’ features a comedy horror plot about a quarter of trickster ghosts who have settled into a haunted house. They’re bored as they’ve had no visitors come to the house for quite some time. There’s nobody around to fall victim to their pranks. Therefore, they soon have this idea.

They hire Mickey Donald and Goofy as the trio of ghost exterminators by telephone. Once our Disney group of Ghostbusters arrive, the ghosts amuse themselves by pranking the exterminators. What follows is a series of antics that Mickey, Donald and Goofy end up falling for with the ghosts. 😀

It’s amusing how the ghosts get scared away when Mickey, Donald and Goofy end up in some molasses, flour and syrup to make them look like ghosts. I’m surprised the ghosts were easily scared by that, especially as Donald smugly assumed they’d fled and he called them ‘sissies’ and laughed. 🙂

The fourth item I saw on Disney+ was a 1942 live-action/animation hybrid anthology film called ‘Saludos Amigos’. This film lasts for 42 minutes and is set in Latin America. There are four segments in this film. Donald Duck is in two of them and Goofy is in one. There’s also a debut in this short film.

‘Saludos Amigos’ introduces us to José Carioca, the malandro Brazilian parrot who befriends Donald in the fourth segment. José Carioca would go on to appear in ‘The Three Caballeros’ with Donald Duck. Apparently, ‘Saludos Amigos’ is a notable example of American propaganda right back in 1942.

It promotes goodwill towards Latin America and apparently was a success in helping to launch the international popularity of Donald Duck as well as produce ‘The Three Caballeros’. How the film viewed nowadays is another matter, but it’s so intriguing to see ‘Saludos Amigos’ in its four segments.

I can’t say ‘Saludos Amigos’ is a great short film. I found the combination of live-action and animation rather jarring and would have preferred it just being animation. The stories are entertaining, including Donald, Goofy and José’s stories as well as a story about a little flying plane. 🙂

The flying plane is called Pedro, actually. I wonder if that story inspired the ‘Cars’ films and ‘Planes’ by Disney. I found the ending to ‘Saludos Amigos’ very abrupt, especially when there’s no narration provided by Fred Shields at the end, as opposed to the numerous narrations featured beforehand. 😐

It’s been good to check out these four film items on Disney+ lately. ‘Night at the Museum’ and the 1999 ‘Annie’ TV film are entertaining in their own right, and it was joy to see Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and José Carioca in ‘Lonesome Ghosts’ and ‘Saludos Amigos’.

Stay tuned for another Disney+ Roundup on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ soon. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂