Daily Archives: October 26, 2016

Comic Book, Disney, Movie, Travel

Under the Spell of Benedict Cumberbatch at the #DoctorStrangeEvent

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Benedict Cumberbatch with the bloggers
Photo Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios

When I attended the Doctor Strange Press Junket last week, I was one of 25 bloggers there for Walt Disney Studios (Disclosure: All-Expenses Paid), the first person that we interviewed was the Sorcerer Supreme himself, Benedict Cumberbatch. Talk about a guy who lights up a room. When he came in and sat down he commented on the toys laid out in front of him. One of them being my Doctor Strange Funko Pop!. Benedict certainly had charm and he had everyone at the table enthralled, myself included, in his stories. While we only had him with us for 20 minutes he was completely present during that time and answered each of our questions and then took some photos with us. I don’t know how it worked out this time around but I was actually near the person we were interviewing in almost every photo. I’m standing there right behind Benedict in the photo above. And here he is with those toys I was talking about.

Benedict Cumberbatch and the toys
Photo Courtesy of Dusty Pendleton

When Benedict saw the toys this is what he said about them. His fascination with the toys definitely added to the boyish charm that he had in this interview.

“Wow. Toys R Us. Look at that. It is indeed. I love these Pop! toys. Oh no…I don’t do that in the film. That’s a stunt I don’t do in the film. Yeah, top heavy, definitely. Cloak heavy. There were some cloak heavy moments, definitely cloak heavy moments. Morning everybody.“

Then we got right into it with the questions. Everyone wanted to ask him a question. We let Benedict know that we saw the movie in 3D the night before. He had not seen the movie at that time. He was waiting for the movie to be completely ready for IMAX. That version was not ready at the time when we screened it, but you better believe that the next time I see it will be in IMAX! Continue reading Under the Spell of Benedict Cumberbatch at the #DoctorStrangeEvent →

Netflix Stream Team, Skylanders

Skylanders Academy Season 1 on Netflix Arrives Friday #StreamTeam

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Skylanders Academy TitleAs a member of the Netflix #StreamTeam I sometimes get early access to shows and I was super excited to get access to the new Skylanders Academy show that is coming on October 28th. I was able to get a screener of the pilot episode and I really liked it. The show has the humor and fun of the video game and it has been a long time coming to get Skylanders into an animated format. The animation is excellent. You can check out the trailer today and the full season on Friday.

The first episode was really well done. The show centers around three main Skylanders: Stealth Elf, Eruptor and of course Spyro. They are about to graduate from Skylanders Academy. While Stealth Elf and Eruptor are ready to graduate, a cocky Spyro thinks that he is ready but he certainly has a lot to learn about being part of a team.

Spyro is played by Justin Long and not Josh Keaton who has been Spyro in all the Skylanders video games. It is probably my biggest pet peeve of the show even though Justin does a decent job as Spyro. Spyro is really, really cocky and he ends up failing to become a Skylander during the Skylander Games. So, he has to do some deep soul searching and help when the time is needed.

Stealth Elf is played by Ashley Tisdale to great comic effect. She is the voice of reason and sensibility on the team. She motivates Spyro to be the hero that we all know he will become.

Eruptor is played by Jonathan Banks, a character actor and voice actor that you have probably seen or heard many times before. I recall him from Community. Eruptor can be counted on for some comic relief in his somewhat clueless questions.

Kaos is of course voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz because, let’s face it, NO ONE else could ever get that voice right. You cannot replace the voice of Kaos, he’s one of the biggest parts of Skylanders and has been in every iteration of the game. Kaos has all sorts of schemes as, we’d expect and it is up to the Skylanders to stop him. Actually, in the first episode it is up to Spyro himself to stop Kaos.

Rounding out the cast we have Norm MacDonald as Glumshanks and although he isn’t the original Glumshanks voice from the games he does a really great job as the character. He’s funny and glib and basically does his usual Norm MacDonald thing and it works well for Glumshanks.

The show is filled with fun action and lots of jokes. You also see tons of Skylanders around the academy and they may or may not have much to do or say but occasionally they will get a good line or two for comedic effect. I’m definitely excited to see the whole season when it comes to Netflix on Friday. Continue reading Skylanders Academy Season 1 on Netflix Arrives Friday #StreamTeam →