We recently had the chance to check out three of Funko’s new Disney related board games, and they’re something fans will definitely want to grab.
Remember last month when Funko Games announced their new slate of Disney board games? Well, this weekend I had the pleasure and privilege of immersing myself in three of those games and had an absolute blast.
There is no doubt that Disney Animated Studio Game, Disney A Goofy Movie Game and Disney Haunted Mansion – Call of the Spirits (Magic Kingdom Edition) are going to be party favorites, so I thought I had better share with you just how rad they really are and how much they belong in your collections too.
Disney Animated Studio Game
The summary for this game goes a little something like this:
Work together like the team at the famous Walt Disney Animation Studios to create movie magic! Produce five classic Disney films using detailed background art, vibrant paint colors, and lively sound to bring cherished stories to life on the screen. But watch out! The infamous Villains of your feature films will rush your deadlines and create all the calamity they can. As a team, you’ll use the strengths of the Animation Studio—Heart, Focus, Inspiration, Grit, and Teamwork—to vanquish the Villains and finish your films in time!
Disney Animated Studio Game is an incredibly unique board game and the one I was most excited to check out upon hearing about these recent releases, mainly because I love Disney history, art, nostalgia and the animation process. I was especially intrigued by how sound, ink & paint, background, animation cels and magic (you can take one of these five actions during your turn) could be translated into a board game. It was definitely worth getting excited about… despite the fact that I lost the first round!
Aimed at ages 10+ for 2-4 players, Disney Animated Studio Game has a lot of different items and requires a little bit more time than usual devoted to set up and understanding exactly how to play if its your first time. (Across all three of these Funko board games, I enjoyed watching the how-to-play videos that are available to players via a link provided in the games’ instruction manuals or on the Funko website. More on this below.) However, the time spent at the front end totally pays off in awesome gameplay.
The game provides a fun and interactive spin on the behind-the-scenes process of an animated film and gives players broad brush insight into some of the most critical moving parts that happen at the Studio. The villains – in both the game and their respective films – are reasonably challenging (especially when armed with their calamity effects) and the game does require some strategy considerations throughout to ensure that you don’t miss the deadline to complete the films.
Out of the feature films you can choose from (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, 101 Dalmatians and Fantasia), my husband chose Fantasia and I chose Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since this is a cooperative game, all players either win or lose against the villains. Unfortunately for us, while Rhett completed Fantasia in time, I wasn’t able to complete Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs before the deadline, so the Evil Queen succeeded in her mission and we ultimately lost that round!
A cool factor in terms of the films to choose from is that they all come with their own unique requirements (including paint requirements and character tokens) which makes each film different from the next. So each time you play, it can be fun to switch up which film you choose to see what twists and turns that particular film might take to create that differ from the film you played last time.
We played on the easiest mode (no judgment, please and thank you) but are excited to try out the other levels once we manage to get through the first round successfully on the easiest mode. (The different modes or levels are determined by how much calamity you want to have in play, ranging from one calamity card to three calamity cards.)
The art for the game is phenomenal and it is such a joy to feel like you are really “creating” something while playing. I am already dreaming of an expansion that adds more films to the lineup (Sleeping Beauty, please!). We will definitely be playing Disney Animated Studio Game again, hopefully with more players and greater success against the villains next time!
Disney A Goofy Movie Game
The easiest of the three games, Disney A Goofy Movie Game is a great addition to any Disney lover’s board game collection and is especially a must-have for Goofy Movie fans.
This game is described as follows:
Make your way across Goofy’s map, collecting fun memories for your scrapbook. Then hurry to score the best seats by the time Powerline hits the stage! Play cards to collect memories and travel to new locations. Roll the die to see if Powerline reaches L.A. or Goofy takes you on a wacky detour.
Disney A Goofy Movie Game includes 6 detailed character figures (Goofy, Max, PJ, Roxanne, Powerline and Bobby Zimmeruski), a giant gold, sparkly die which determines Goofy’s and Powerline’s next moves, and original card art which depicts beloved locations and moments from the film.
The 90s visual design captures nostalgia for the film and naturally won me over. Rhett and I played this game on the film’s 28th anniversary and had the film playing on our television in the background (highly recommended! Does any better soundtrack exist?).
Aimed at ages 7+ for 2-4 players, the game is family friendly and one that players of all ages will enjoy without any real difficulty understanding how to play. It is visually straightforward but still dynamic and engaging, and the points system is also easy enough to navigate. Rhett played as PJ and I played as Max, and we successfully made it to Powerline’s L.A. concert without too many detours! As far as points are concerned, Rhett beat me by about 10 points – his scrapbooking skills are something I should learn from for next time, it seems!
Disney Haunted Mansion – Call of the Spirits (Magic Kingdom Edition)
Disney Haunted Mansion – Call of the Spirits takes the cake as my favorite of the three games I played this weekend, despite thoroughly enjoying them all. This game is described as follows:
Disney’s beloved The Haunted Mansion comes to life—err, death—in this hauntingly fun family board game! Explore all the classic rooms of the ghost-infested manor, from the festivities-filled Ballroom to the Attic and out to the Graveyard and beyond in search of spirits. Beware, though, of the Hitchhiking Ghosts, who are notorious for “following you home” as that may spell your doom in the end!
Inspired by the Gothic-style iteration of the iconic mansion, the Magic Kingdom Park edition features new artwork from Walt Disney World as well as special glow-in-the-dark Hitchhiking Ghosts and a commemorative 50th anniversary foil seal – making it ideal for Disney fans, families, and collectors.
Aimed at ages 9+ for 2-6 players, Disney Haunted Mansion – Call of the Spirits made me want to go back to Disney World immediately, and also encouraged me to add this board game to our routine Halloween festivities every year! The art is fun, the setup is easy, and for anyone not familiar with Disney’s Haunted Mansion, the game is not too spooky – the young ones will definitely get on board and have a great time too.
The goal of the game is for you to move around the Mansion i.e. the board via your game token and collect as many ghost residents (via their character cards) as you can. There is some strategy involved as the ghosts are categorized and can be grouped up for maximum points. The challenges of the game include those cheeky Hitchhiking Ghosts, haunt cards and even duels – the duels enable players to battle it out for specific character cards. One of the coolest aspects of this competitive game is that the haunt cards are best kept secret between the players, which means you won’t know how much impact they have – and therefore who will ultimately be crowned winner! – until the very end of the game and the final point tally.
A Quick Note About Gameplay Instruction Videos
When you unbox a board game for the first time, are you keen to start playing right away, despite not yet really knowing how to play? Do you get lost in the numerous pages of gameplay instructions such that you find yourself reading the same paragraph two or three times?
If you answered the above questions in the affirmative (like I did), gameplay instruction videos are for you. With the dawn of internet and newer board games comes excellent instructional videos, and such videos for each of the above three games are a huge bonus and time saver.
Funko does an excellent job creating clear, concise and useful videos that teach you how to play. Instead of spending 15-minutes reading (and in my case, re-reading) game instruction booklets, check out the gameplay videos that usually take no more than 5-10 minutes max to watch in full. The videos also manage to be entertaining, engaging and somehow make you even more excited to play the game because you are getting the information in a straightforward and quick way, which means you get to play the game with confidence sooner.
Prefer to read the instructions yourself or otherwise have written instructions for reference? Sure thing. Each of the above games also come with their own written instruction manuals. The gameplay instructional videos are available via website link or barcode scan in each of the game’s written manuals, and are also free to watch on Funko’s website.
While I personally found Disney A Goofy Movie Game a bit too easy, and Disney Animated Studio Game a bit too cumbersome due to all the physical pieces involved (it is not a problem for older players but perhaps harder to keep track of all those pieces around younger ones), Disney Haunted Mansion – Call of the Spirits gets everything just right: not too many pieces to the game, not too time consuming to learn, clever and generally just lots of fun for everyone. It perfectly captures the spirit (get it?) of the Haunted Mansion and does such a crafty job breathing life (or death?) into the Mansion’s themes and its famous residents that fans know and love.
Which game is next on your to-play list?
