Disney

The Quest

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

For those of you who have been around for a while, you might remember The Quest. It was on at the tail end of the Reality Television boom of the early 2010’s. We got lots of dance, spies, murders, pirates, and other odd concepts.

The Quest was all about fantasy and magic. It was set in a fantasy world where the contestants had to go through challenges in order to be deemed the hero of Everealm.

The show inspired my book Everdome and has a lot of the same elements, although the stories and the worlds are very different.

Trivia: Everdome is a book series inside my, and my wife’s, books. The fist mention of which was in my first published novel A Study in Aether.

Read more about my inspiration from this eight year old blog post.

The Quest 2022

Disney+ is reviving the series with a twist of it being teens and not having it be eliminations. I was skeptical about the show since it didn’t have any of the same cast, but after seeing the new trailer, I’m sold and can’t wait to watch it.

I’m really looking forward to this, but it’s going to make me want to write more in Everdome. Maybe it’s time to revisit the world after my next few planned novels?

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Spin – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2021 film Spin.

Story

This is a pretty standard Disney formula teen music/sports movie. What’s different here is the lack of the usual tropes associated with this genre. There’s no mean girl, not much friends angst, no racism, and no parents yelling about what is appropriate.

The girl also doesn’t change herself for the boy, which is great.

There is a little bit more parental angst than I’d like and it was handled awkwardly in the story.

Score: 0.5

Characters

The friends and classmates were fantastic. It’s great to see that dynamic. The grandmother was amazing, she stole the show. The brother felt a little superfluous.

The love interest was perfectly annoying, as he should be.

The only character that bothered me was the dad. He had reasons for what he did but they were terribly shown and you really had to read between the lines. It made him seem like he went from supportive to ass without provocation.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The dialogue was quipy and felt appropriate, if a little extra clean, for the age and characters. I liked the nerdy talk and the pun on tikka masala tacos (tik-taco)

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The scenery and camera work are really well done and perfectly colourful. Perfect for the style of the story.

The music is excellent and had the whole family wanting to dance.

Score: 1

Fun

The entire family was bopping to the music and loving the story. It was really nice to see some of the most frustrating tropes in kids movies were turned upside down or discarded.

Score: 1

Overall

This is the teen movie I wish I’d had as a kid. The supportive friends, family, and teacher are awesome, the music fun, and the grandmother is amazing. If you enjoyed the music based movies from Disney in the early two thousands you’ll love everything about this.

I can’t wait to see it again.

Final Score: 4 Stars out of 5