Back from Disneyland, I was still in a Disney mood last night. So I watched the DVD of The Country Bears, the recent movie based on the (former) Disneyland attraction, Country Bear Jamboree. The movie is about a young bear who has been adopted by a human family, but realizes that he is different. Determined to find his place in the world, he sets off to Country Bear Hall, the performance home of his idols, the Country Bears, one-time greatest country rock band in the world. When he learns that an evil banker (played by always-reliable Christopher Walken) plans to tear the Hall down, he hatches a plot to reunite the band and raise the money to save the Hall. Of such simple stories greatness is born.

Told in a straightforward manner, it is very much in keeping with the tone and feel of the original attraction. If memory serves, it didn't do particularly well at the box office, and critics didn't particularly like it. Me, I thought it was a lot of fun. It's a movie for kids about a rock band starring a bunch of bears. It's entertaining, the music is good, and the bears (done by Jim Henson's Creature Shop) are very nice. This bodes well, I think, for future films based on other Disney park attractions, like the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and The Haunted Mansion.

First things first: Happy birthday to me!

Second: Saw The Matrix Reloaded this morning. I enjoyed it, but in that way you have to enjoy the middle part of a story. I watched the first movie yesterday, so I was pretty much up to speed, memory-wise, on what had happened previously, and this feels like a pretty good continuation. However, I'm going to reserve final judgment until I see the third part, because otherwise, I'm judging an incomplete work.

I will say this, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet: be sure to stay all the way through the end credits.