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Beat the Parents: Disney Edition from Spin Master takes one of the world’s most famous cultural institutions and applies it to the game that challenges the generations. As Disney celebrates its centennial, dating from Walt’s first “Alice Comedies,” it’s no secret that untold millions through these years have been entertained by Mickey, his friends, and countless other movies and television characters. Whether someone older watched Bambi in theaters or someone new gets their first look at Disney+ through streaming technology, every generation has something to talk about. With Beat the Parents, those young and those just young at heart can compete to see who knows Disney the best.
Playing the Game
Beat the Parents: Disney Edition begins with dividing players up into two, the blue Kids team and the red Parents team. Each team receives a token, which keeps track as they work to meet the challenges from cards. An orange deck poses Active Challenges that will make players get up and move. The green deck is packed with drawing challenges, which are perfect for media that’s been so driven by animation through its 100 years. The teams take turns trying to win the challenge in the color of the space that they are on to move ahead. If they fail, they must wait for another chance. The first team to reach the finish line wins!
Games are usually very quick since a team only needs seven successes to cross the finish line. The stakes fit well with the theme: Either before the game or upon winning, each team proposes a Disney movie to watch.
Very Active Play
Each of the two challenge decks in Beat the Parents: Disney Edition is packed with fun activities. The Active Challenges include charades where players must get their teammates to guess characters like Sebastian, Joy, or Winnie the Pooh through their actions with no speaking. “Musical Play” has players sing or hum the song on the card to see if their team can name the movie. “Up and Active” cards are widely varied, from seeing which team can howl the longest in commemoration of Puppy Dog Pals to learning who can crumple the smallest paper ball like Wall-E.
The game set includes two dry-erase boards for the Drawing Challenges. These may be trickier for some, with so many characters from the Disney universe to name. Although each involves drawing, the challenges take different forms. “Describe and Draw” has one teammate prompt another to draw and guess based only on some clues. “Kids or Parents” has one player draw a character, with the rest of the team guessing, with more challenging characters for the adults. “Kids vs Parents” has both teams drawing at the same time with the first to win, giving more energy to the competition.
Altogether Fun
Beat the Parents: Disney Edition is a board game for four or more players aged eight and up. Teams do not need to be strictly along generational lines, and they can even be imbalanced with an odd number of players. The important point is to have fun sharing in a brand that has lasted over a century with much more fun to come.
