Aladdin The Movie

Swimmers synch up

ST. CLAIR -- Part swimming, part dance and part gymnastics -- synchronized swimming is a sport all its own.

Sue Daniels will be bringing the annual Synchronized Swim Show back to the St. Clair City Pool at
8 p.m. today for its 53rd year.

The theme of this year's event is "Let's Take a Trip," and begins with "A Whole New World," the theme song from the Disney movie "Aladdin."

Eleven different musical numbers and a grand finale each have their own routines and will feature 22 swimmers from 8 to 22 years old.

"They do underwater upside down work, have to be able to control breath, yet make it look easy when they come up," said Daniels, the city recreation department's aquatics coordinator. "There's nothing easy about it."

Swimmers will act out trips to the zoo, outer space, the South Seas, the Trevi Fountain in Rome, down Route 66 and over to Jamaica during a number to "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)."

Daniels has been involved with the synchronized swimming shows since they started 53 years ago and she was a teenager.

"It has been a passion of mine since I was first introduced to the sport," Daniels said, remembering how she was fascinated by film star Esther Williams.

Keeping the sport alive in her local community is an important challenge, she said.

"Kids would hang out at the pool all the time and you couldn't get them away," Daniels said, noting there are more distractions today.

Fitting in seven weeks of practices between band camps, vacations and summer sports, the show has come together once again this year.

There was a surge of interest in synchronized swimming around the 1984 Olympics when it first was added to the summer games in Los Angeles and broadcast on TV. Though Daniels said local interest has tapered off, keeping the sport alive for young swimmers has motivated the return of the show for more than half a century.

The Lion King vs. Aladdin – Movie Feuds ep. 19 | Movie Feuds

It’s a clash of animated classics this week on Movie Feuds, when we debate the better of the two Disney heavyweights, The Lion King vs. Aladdin. Disney flexed their animation muscles in the early 90′s, releasing hits like The Little Mermaid, The Beauty and the Beast, and of course, Aladdin and The Lion King. Some people say there has never been a better decade for animated movies in history, and those people are Cory and Adam. But which film can reign over the others as the best Animated Disney Classic? Cast your vote in this episode of Movie Feuds.

Wow guys, this one is hard. The Lion King came out a year after Aladdin right? So both are pretty even as far as animation goes. Both scores were brilliant, I don’t think anyone can just say A Whole New World defenitly beats Can You Feel The Love Tonight because both are perfect in their own movies. The characters in these movies were unforgetable to audiences. And the scripts, the actual stories themselves… You can’t really pick, you could make a check made argument for either side. I guess thinking back to when I  first saw these movies, which was when I was like 2 and a half, I liked Aladdin more.

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