Cinderella {Book to Movie}

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Opening in theaters on March 13th, 2015

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This movie is rated PG and is 112 minutes. 

This should be a great movie for the whole family. It's so fun to see Disney bring their animated films to life with real actors.

Into the Woods {Book to Movie}

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The much anticipated movie Into the Woods comes out on Christmas Day. I know I will be going to this because we are big into going and seeing movies on Christmas Day. This movie and Unbroken are the two movies I will be seeing. Yay!!!

Our book club was so excited about this movie we also did a photo shoot with Classy Cosmetics, Looks for Lovelies and Summer Nicole Photography of our own rendition of the Sandro Botticelli painting "Primavera"

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Book/Play Synopsis

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Into the Woods is the imaginative account of what happens when the lives of new and old fairy-tale characters dramatically and humorously come together. Cinderella, Jack (of bean-stalk fame), Little Red Ridinghood, and the Baker and his Wife set out for the forest on a quest to find "happily ever after." Along the way they meet Rapunzel, a Wicked Witch, a lascivious Wolf, vengeful Giants, a couple of charming Princes, and their own destiny. With wit and wisdom, the authors have given us a parable about the loss of innocence, the joys and sorrows of adulthood, and the price paid for getting the things you really want.

Movie Synopsis

A witch tasks a childless baker and his wife with procuring magical items from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree. Want to know about anything your children might be scared of in this movie check out this Parental Guide from IMDB 



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Entertainment Weekly



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Meryl Streep as The Witch

Meryl Streep has won three Oscars and you probably know her from these movies: The Devil Wears Prada, The Hours,  Julie and Julia (we are reading My Life in France a story about Julia Childs in February) and The Iron Lady. She has been in so many movies there is no way I can name them all. Her current projects are: Suffragette, Ricki and the Flash, and Florence Foster Jenkins all coming out in 2015.

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Anna Kendrick as Cinderella
 We saw her first on Twilight where I think she stole the spotlight. But her biggest film so far is Pitch Perfect (the funniest movie I have ever seen, Classic) and they are coming out with Pitch Perfect 2 yay! She also was in Up in the Air with George Clooney and in 50/50. Other upcoming projects for Miss Anna are: Get a Job, Digging for Fire, and The Hollars just to name a few. This girl is busy.



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Chris Pine as The Prince

You all know Chris Pine from the Star Trek movies, Rise of the Guardians and This Means War. He has a couple movies coming out next year: Z for Zachariah, The Finest Hours, and Mantivities.

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Johnny Depp as The Wolf

We all love us some Johnny Depp. He is most well known for Pirates of the Caribbean but also Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland and Sweeney Todd. His upcoming projects include: London Fields, Mortdecai, Black Mass, Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass (I feel another book to movie here) and another Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

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Lilla Crawford as Little Red Riding Hood

Most of her work has been done on stage, that is the Broadway Stage. Into the Woods is her first film and she has another movie coming out next year called Little Miss Perfect.

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Emily Blunt as The Baker's Wife

Emily is most well known for her films: Looper, Edge of Tomorrow, and The Devil Wears Prada. Her current projects are: Sicario, Barton & Charlie & Checco & Bill.

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James Corden as The Baker

He is a British actor most well known for: Begin Again, The History Boys, and One Chance.  He has two films so far coming out next year: Kill Your Friends and The Lady in the Van.

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Mackenzie Mauzy as Rapunzel

She is on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and has been in many TV shows. The other movie she was in is Brother's Keeper. Her upcoming project is Construction.

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Billy Magnussen as Rapunzel's Prince

He is in the soap opera biz also on As the World Turns. He was in the movies: The East and The Brass Teapot. His current projects are: The Great Gilly Hopkins and I Smile Back.

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Daniel Huttlestone as Jack

He was in Les Miserables in 2012 and doesn't have any future films in the works yet.

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Christine Baranski as Cinderella's Stepmother

Christine was in How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carry and is in the TV show The Good Wife.

Lucy Punch and Tammy Blanchard as The Stepsisters

Lucy was in Bad Teacher, Dinner with the Schmucks and Ella Enchanted.  Tammy Blanchard was in Moneyball, Blue Jasmine and soap opera Guiding Light. She has a couple projects coming out soon: The Inherited and The Invitation.

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Director Rob Marshall 

 He is most well known for directing: Chicago, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Memoirs of a Geisha and Nine.  No projects currently but I'm sure we will see his work again.

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Do you want to see more Book to Movie Posts?

Still Alice
American Sniper

Into the Woods

Unbroken

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Before I Go to Sleep

Gone Girl

The Maze Runner

If I Stay

The Giver

Have a fun time at the movies! Leave your review in the comments.

xoxo,

Kellie



"Walt Disney: An American Original" Part II Book Club Ideas {by Bob Thomas}

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Let's continue with our Disney book club meeting by learning a little more about Walt shall we?

DID YOU KNOW...

That Walt was the original voice behind Mickey Mouse?

While mostly known for his skills as an animator, director and producer, Disney also tried his hand at voice acting. From Mickey’s inception in 1928, all the way to 1947, the mouse’s voice was provided by Disney before being turned over to English voice actor Jimmy MacDonald. Disney loved the character so much that he returned to the studio in 1955 to voice Mickey Mouse shorts for his company’s television show The Mickey Mouse Club.

Getting ready to discuss the book

Our members love any excuse to dress up and take photos so we set up a simple iPhone photo booth and props table to make everyone's selfie dreams come true! ;)

Angie was the PERFECT Snow White, she even had the dreamy fairytale princess look down!

Enjoy scrolling through some of our members photos and giggling along with us.

We tried to recreate how we felt when we saw Disneyland for the first time!
#nailedit

Thanks for sharing these super fun photos Kitch!

We couldn't STOP taking fun pictures! 

Photo by Kitch

Two Snow Whites and an adorable Peter Pan

I GUESS AT SOME POINT WE SHOULD DISCUSS THE BOOK RIGHT? (Hang on, let me take just one more picture...)

When we finally sat down to discuss the book Angie told us that she had a little surprise!

Keep reading...

Photo by Kitch

Angie handed out folded pieces of paper to everyone in the room and told us that she'd handmade four sets of adorable mickey ears, one for each land at Disney (Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland), and that the four random winners would each get a pair to wear and take home. 

Once all the papers we handed out we were told we could all open them to see who had won.

What happened next was priceless.

As each person opened their papers, people started yelling out with excited voices, "I WON, I WON!"

We quickly started to notice that there were more far more than four winners and that's right when Angie stood up and declared in grand "Oprah fashion," 

"YOU get a pair and YOU get a pair..." to each person in the room!

EVERYONE won a pair of the special Mickey ears!!

You can see Kitch modeling a pair of Adventureland ears below.

After each of us got our ears and put them on, we broke up into our different lands and were asked to each come up with 2-3 discussion questions based on different times of Walt's life.

Our group got the time of Walt's life that occurred during WWII.

DID YOU KNOW:

Not only did a young Disney attempt to help America on the field of battle, but he also helped several federal agencies throughout his career with animation. He created training films for the US military, propaganda films urging Americans to pay their taxes, and multiple anti-Hitler shorts meant to boost US morale at home. Disney also helped the State Department improve relations with South America by making a 1941 goodwill tour (featuring a specially made movie entitled Saludos Amigos), and later aided NASA by developing documentaries about the space program.

 

Walt received more Academy Awards and nominations than any other person in history!

Between 1932 and 1969, Disney won 22 Academy Awards and was nominated 59 times. Included amongst this trove of Oscars are three awards created specifically for him — one for creating Mickey Mouse, another recognizing his contribution of music in the field of animation, and a specially made prize honoring Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that featured a traditional statuette, and seven miniature versions alongside of it.

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After our lengthy discussion (because let's face it, who wouldn't want to talk about all things Disney related for hours?) Angie had one more surprise for us...

...A special toast to Walt.

"If visitors came to lunch, they were ushered into Walt's conference room at noon. He served them an aperitif of V-8 juice which surprised some of his international guests who expected something stronger. Walt's secretary often warned visitors that if Walt offered them a glass of "tomato juice" they had best accept it."

Angie with our V8 tomato juice shots for our special toast to Walt

Angie thanked Walt for his vision, his determination to follow his dreams and for being a kid at heart which has allowed millions of people around the world to do the same. Each of us raised our glasses to Walt and recalled our memories of Disneyland or our favorite Disney movie.

Thank you Walt for giving us all memories to last a lifetime and for a lifetime of memories for generations to come.

Sincerely, 

      Kelly

"Walt Disney: An American Original" Part I Book Club Ideas {by Bob Thomas}

This books Moderator was...

ANGIE!

*As Moderator, Angie planned the entire evening, finding all of the fun Disney décor, the Walt inspired menu, our "Imagine-Ears" giveaway, the discussion questions and topped the evening off with coming to book club dressed as SNOW WHITE!
THANK YOU ANGIE!

I've been wanting to read a biography about Walt Disney for YEARS and I finally talked my book club into reading one and the result was pure magic!

Check out some of the decorations Angie gathered up to get everyone in the Disney mood right when we walked in the door.

 

We told all the members to feel free to come wearing any Disney attire they might have and most everyone came wearing something! (You can see the majority of our members outfits in part II coming tomorrow.)
It was a testament to me to see how ingrained  and loved Disney truly  is in the world!

Before we got too far into the evening, each of us went on a blind date with a book.

I wanted to try something a little different for one of our spring meetings and I thought, 

"Why don't we do a little spring cleaning of our bookshelves?"

So, we each choose a book off of our shelves that we enjoyed and wrapped it in brown paper, tied it up with string, and wrote 3-5 "hints" on the paper of what our mystery book was about! 

As each member came they were handed a number which indicated the order in which they would get to select their new book.

It was fun to see each member read through the hints and find a new book that suited their tastes.

We all walked away with a new book to add to our shelves and a fun new book club tradition!

Angie created a menu based off of all of Walt's favorite foods and desserts and I can see why they were his favorites!

I made a Dole whip inspired pineapple punch.

To download a similar Dole Pineapple Punch recipe click HERE

ALL the food that our members brought  to this meeting was SO tasty!

You can download Walt's Chili recipe, Chris' Cold Lemon Pie and the Macaroni Mickey Mousse recipes in one document HERE.

Here are a few of the decoration details that were on the food table.

One of our members, Jenny, collects Disney artwork and we displayed many of her beautiful prints through out my house. I really loved this print of the seven dwarfs, the colors just jump at you!

After we loaded up our plates with food from our Walt approved dinner, we sat down ready to discuss this fascinating book!

Did you know:

• During World War II, when the allied forces invaded Normandy on D-Day in 1944, “Mickey Mouse” was a secret password used by intelligence officers?

• When Walt wanted to make “Snow White and the Sever Dwarfs” he acted out the entire story for his staff before they started working. The performance was so good that many of the animators were brought to tears from the story and the inspiration they felt. Walt would often reenact scenes to keep the staff motivated.

• Walt made his last Mickey Mouse short in 1953 and Mickey wouldn't appear in another cartoon till the 1983 Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

Here's a sneak peek of Part II of our Disney book club meeting that will be posted tomorrow! 

There is a LOT more magic and fun coming your way and you won't want to miss it!