Monday, December 18, 2017

Twas The Blog Before Christmas: Christmas Lights, 21st Century Disney and Netflix Christmas Movies

This is it, the final stretch. Santa is double checking his list and making sure his inventory is in check before he zooms out with Rudolph leading the way. Christmas is officially one week away and snow is already falling in certain parts of the world. Surprisingly it’s absolutely freezing here I did not expect it to get so cold so fast but apparently Jack Frost is having a field day this year.

Unlike last year this is going to be the only blog before Christmas as well as the last blog until New Years, yeah I'm taking a leave of absence for a week. So as the last blog before Christmas and the last blog of the year let's leave it off with a bang, right? Actually there isn't too much to discuss on this blog (I’m lying there’s something big to discuss) so instead I have the first of two videos that i’ve been waiting to make all year, the Christmas Lights Extravaganza 2017!

If anyone is a veteran ZAK Entertainment reader you’ll be aware I did a three part video series of travel montages using footage I filmed while out with my family looking at Christmas lights, a tradition we’ve upheld all my life. This year's isn't going to be a part three but the lights are just as awesome as ever. Today part 1 will be up for you guys to watch and this Friday December 22nd part 2 will drop. So without further ado let's get ready to jingle!


Everyone enjoy? I haven't yet mastered the whole keeping my camera to stay focused on the lights. My auto focus wouldn't work very well so I had to switch to manual focus to try and keep it focused on the lights, which isn't easy on this camera. I really enjoy doing these videos so expect this to be a ZAK Entertainment tradition. Stay tuned for Part 2 this Friday! There may be a secret part 3 if we get to go out on another trip but I'm not making any promises.

Moving on I have some massive news to discuss, that is one of the most game changing buyouts the entertainment industry has seen in years. As a lot of you are already aware the Walt Disney Company will be purchasing a majority of 21st Century Fox’s assets including TV properties, Movie properties and more for $52.4 billion in stock.

What does this mean? Disney will acquire 20th Century Fox’s massive film library including a Film Rights to movies as well as intellectual properties held by 20th Century, which means only one thing. Disney/Marvel now has the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four back under it’s belt! Yes in a feat that seemed almost impossible it actually has happened. 20th Century Fox’s studios will also now operate under Disney similar to LucasFilms and Marvel Studios. So does this mean we’ll be seeing a 20th Century Disney? Who knows. 

Disney will also purchase many of Fox’s TV networks as well as properties such as The Simpsons. Yeah remember that episode where The Simpsons predicted Disney buying out Fox? Yeah I don't either but apparently it happened in the episode “Wish You Dish Upon A Star” which first aired on November 8th, 1998. Remember those Disney parodies? Yeah you can now say the Simpsons were making fun of it’s future parent company.

Funny enough this isn't the first time Disney has bought assets from Fox, know what I'm on about? Yes the buyout of Fox Family (Which was something Murdoch bought from CBN anyway) and Saban’s properties was a previous deal made with the two companies

There's quite a lot of other nitty gritty involved in this deal but what does this leave Fox with? Well Murdoch is basically going back to basics, being left with his news corporation and sports networks in which he’ll be spinning off into a separate business.

There is a big but involved in his however, this buyout has not been approved by the United States Department of Antitrust Division and the European Commission. While this deal seems awesome in regards to Marvel it could still fall flat just the same as the AT&T and Time Warner merger did. With a merger of two massive film studios the possibility of this merger actually being approved now teeters on the edge. 

Back to Marvel I'm extremely excited to see the possibility of the Fantastic Four finally being interpreted into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The four residents of the Baxter Building have been my long standing favorite heroes in the Marvel universe so it’ll be incredible to see how Marvel reboots the franchise and integrates it into the MCU.

We’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds but I can see a lot of good coming out of this buyout despite it being such a disruption in the industry.

Speaking of Disney… Star Wars The Last Jedi has officially launched in theaters, just in time for Christmas! The latest part in the Star Wars saga is here, continuing after the events of The Force Awakens. Rey has now begun training under Luke Skywalker, previously missing and while learning she seems to be discovering something about herself, something dangerous. I haven't seen the movie myself so I can't review it yet but apparently Carrie Fisher was done Justice in this film in her role as Leia. You can watch it now so go grab yourself some tickets and get ready to experience one of the biggest movies of the year!

Christmas is only one week away so you’re probably indulging in holiday classic movies. If you have Netflix you actually have a pretty decent selection of Christmas movies available to watch this year so for this next segment I'm going to list of some of my personal favorite Christmas movies on Netflix that I believe you should watch in this next week.

Tim Allen is forever in my heart as the voice behind Buzz Lightyear but he’s also pretty well known for being Santa Claus in The Santa Clause movie series. Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, a father of one who’s life is turned upside down when he accidentally causes a man in a Santa suit to fall of their roof Christmas night. In a crazy turn of events Scott ends up having to take the place of the man, who is revealed to be the real Santa and become Santa himself, to his own disbelief.


I absolutely adore this series of films, especially the first movie. It doesn't have the greatest reviews in the world but it’s a Christmas thrill ride from start to finish. I don't find the second and third movies as great as the first but they too are filled with laughter and Christmas spirit. You can also purchase this movie on iTunes as well as the other two by clicking the link below.


Next up is something more on the green side, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I’ve discussed Jim Carrey a few months ago and I have to admit I love his version of The Grinch just slightly better then the original animation (And even the book itself). This movie takes the basic story of The Grinch and fleshes it out, giving a backstory to The Grinch and making you realize he’s not such a bad guy after all. Of course Jim Carrey brings his humor to the table as well, which leads to some hilarity as well as a funny dig at his own director, Ron Howard. Jim Carrey actually manages to turn a pretty unlikable character into a funny and actually almost relatable character while still keeping that Christmas hating grump attitude. I believe I reviewed this movie last year but I have nothing but praise for this movie. It's one of my favorites that I loved watching every year as I grew up.


Switching over to animation Netflix has, like always the three Mickey Mouse Christmas specials. The first one is of course Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas which is made up of three classic original stories that tell some worthwhile morals as well as providing Christmas joy to any Disney kid, or me who gets really nostalgic when watching this.

Then there’s Mickeys Twice Upon a Christmas which is a 2004 sequel to the previously mentioned movie. Until I watched this on Netflix I actually had no idea this movie even existed but its just as magical as the first movie and the CGI is actually pretty good for 2004.

Finally out of the three Mickey movies is Mickeys Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. House of Mouse is one of my favorite cartoons as a kid, bringing together cameos of all the Disney animated characters as well as playing old Disney Cartoons. Well this special plays a bunch of old Christmas animations as well as the infamous Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol which originally released in 1983.


Next up is White Christmas, which is a Christmas classic by all means. Starring Bing Crosby, Phil Davis, Rosemary Clooney (The more famous Aunt of George Clooney), Dean Jagger, Danny Kaye, Mary Wickes and Anne Whitfield. This Christmas Musical movie stars a singing and dancing duo played by Bing and Danny who team up with a sister act played by Rosemary and Vera-Ellen to perform a Christmas show to show a rural inn in Vermont from going broke. This movie is sweet, sentimental and just plain fun and it really has aged well over the years. Bing Crosby brings his amazing singing talents to the table with his White Christmas song that has become a worldwide classic of a song as well as the best version despite not being the original cover of the song.

Finally theres two animated movies which I discovered last year and immediately watched again this year. Santas Apprentice and The Magic Snowflake.


Santas Apprentice features Santa Claus nearing retirement. He is forced to find out of a pool of a million children an apprentice to take over as the new Santa. Some of the requirements are however that the kid had to be named Nicholas, be an orphan and have a pure heart. These two movies follow Nicholas as he copes with whats happening in his new life as well as Santa coping with his eventual retirement and this movie is beautifully animated to boot.

All of these movies are available to watch on Netflix so check these movies out over the next week as you await Santa to visit on the eve of Christmas.

For now Im going to head out, youll see me again Friday for part 2 but until the next blog I bid you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Please enjoy yourself but also stay safe during this next week. This is the end of the blog for this year and while I had to make some changes to the blog schedule this year was amazing regardless, we discussed a lot this year so lets hope we got even more to discuss next year. Actually I have a large backlog that stems back to earlier on this year so I dont think thatll be a problem.

This was ZAK Entertainment

See you next year!

Merry Christmas!

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