... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 2 - 'PINOCCHIO' EDITION)"

My second foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. (For my Introduction/Part One, see here.) Again, do not hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/disagreements below.

Title: Pinocchio (1940; based on The Adventures Of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi)

The Plot: A wooden puppet boy, with a talking cricket as his guide, is led on a series of misadventures as he learns the value of leading a responsible life.

The Songs: "When You Wish Upon A Star," "Give A Little Whistle," "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life For Me)," "I've Got No Strings"

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (INTRODUCTION / PART 1 - 'SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS' EDITION)"

Walt Disney's Tangled is the studio's fiftieth full-length animated feature, computer-generated or otherwise, to be released directly to theaters. That's 74 years, for those keeping track – a cinematic milestone that began with Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs in 1937. Since then, they've had their share of hits, misses, classics, stumbles and technological advances, but if there's one common bond between them, it's been an honest-to-goodness desire to entertain audiences worldwide. You can hardly fault them for that.

I haven't always been the most avid follower of that old Mouse House magic. I was too old for them, I guess, by the time I started gaining any real interest in movies. Princesses, Pinocchio, Alice In Wonderland and Mowgli and Baloo... not really my thing. Those songs... not the kind of stuff you'd find playing on regular rotation on my CD player at home. As an adult, though, that's when I started to get a sense of what the animators were actually up to – to appreciate the love and are that had been poured into every frame.

... FOR "SORRY SUPERHEROES"

I don't usually bother writing about these things, but sometimes an idea is just so patently ridiculous it's hard to pass up.

Case in point: A couple of comic book properties have been getting some major press over the past month, looking to grace our TV screens as a live- action drama and an animated kids' show (respectively) in the near future, and if this is indeed a sign of our times, I want out. It's one thing to turn a comic book into a viable franchise; it's another thing entirely to treat that same property with the respect it deserves, and then to pass that along to audiences. Do it right, and you get The Dark Knight. Do it badly and you get, well, Batman & Robin.

... FOR "HINDSIGHT IS 20/20"

From TheFreeDictionary.com:

20-20 hindsight: Perfect understanding of an event after it has happened; a term usually used with sarcasm in response to criticism of one's decision, implying that the critic is unfairly judging the wisdom of the decision in light of information that was not available when the decision was made.

I had to look that up, just to make sure I understood it correctly, since it's one of those terms we so often take for granted, like a dusty old heirloom that's been passed from generation to generation. And though you get the basic gist of it, the phrase only comes to mind because you've heard it somewhere before. You know how it is. You make a mistake. You realize you made the mistake. And when the sting and the embarrassment of it finally subsides, you chuckle quietly to yourself and say, "Well, hindsight is 20/20, after all," as if that's the perfect capper to whatever learning experience you're facing at the moment. Or maybe I'm alone in thinking this way, I don't know. You're squinting your eyes at me now, confused. I can see it.

... FOR "NUMBER CRUNCHING" (OR "QUIZ TIME, PART 6")

Yesterday, Finding The Wrong Words reached a minor milestone: 7,000 page views, officially. That means I've had 7,000 visitors to the blog, whether it's someone who's read an actual post I've published, someone checking to see if there's been a new post published since the previous post, or someone who's stumbled onto the blog by mistake. Whatever the reason, I'm grateful to have so many of you visit on a regular basis, as I've always wanted to share my personal rantings and ravings with folks outside my regular circles. I count my family and friends as my biggest fans, of course, though I've also had comments from readers in the United Kingdom among other places, and I'm grateful as well for your comments as it lets me know you're actually out there, willing to lend me an ear (or eyes) for at least a moment or two. Thank you.

I realize that 7,000 page views isn't exactly breaking any records. Just this week, as a matter of fact, Charlie Sheen scored 3 million followers on Twitter over the course of a single day (this on the heels of his much-publicized release from CBS TV's Two & A Half Men). From that perspective, when you consider that FTWW has been up and running since February 2010, a number like 7,000 is far from impressive.