Monday, December 26, 2011

Tangled




If you are familiar with the Rapunzel story and love that fairy tale, then you might enjoy this movie, as this is base on that story, but Walt Disney studios made a lot of changes to it.

Image credit

The story began with a narration of drop of sunlight falling to the ground and became a flower, legend has it that it heals all kinds of sickness, however a witch named Gothel found it and kept it for her own selfish gain. That when she sings a certain song to the flower it restores her youth.

One day, the Queen who was pregnant became ill, desperate to save her, the Kingdom looked for the magical flower in order to save the Queen. As Gothel was using the flower she heard the guards approached, and as she was in a hurry to leave, the flower's cover was knocked over, leaving it expose and was found by the King's guards, they took the flower and fed it to the Queen, who was healed and gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Rapunzel. Gothel sneaked in the castle to take a look at the baby, seeing that the baby's golden hair she recognized it as the flower's magic. She cut a handful of the baby's hair to bring it with her, but the hair would turn brown and lose it's magic. Wanting the magic badly, she stole the baby and hid her in her tower, keeping the magic all to herself and raising the baby as her own.

And so the King and Queen continue to lit a lantern every year on her birthday, letting it float to the sky with a hope that their baby can see it and return.

Fast forward eighteen years later, we see 3 thieves stealing the missing Princess tiara from the castle, as they were being chaste, Rapunzel was at the same time asking Gothel's permission that she be allowed to go outside to find out about the floating light which she saw every year on her birthday. But Gothel refused reminding her of the bad people outside who would recognize the magic in her hair and take it from her. She then left Rapunzel to do some errands.

Back to the 3 thieves, they were beginning to lose the King's soldier, however Maximus, the horse of the Captain of the Guards was determined not to let them go. Flynn one of the thieves was planning to steal the tiara from his partners and he succeeded when he left them behind to be captured and he hid to the tower. Unknown to him that it was Rapunzel's tower.

What will be Flynn's role in Rapunzel's life? Will she be able to see what the lights is really about?

Released on 2010 by Walt Disney
Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard
Won in Animation category in the National Movie Awards



Tangle Soundtrack can be found in St. Lyrics with lyrics

Below is the incantation being song to start the magic:



Lyrics | Mandy Moore - Healing Incantation lyrics


Official site can be viewed at Disney site.


Observation:
One of the best scene's in this movie is the one when they went out on a boat to watch the lanterns being released. This is one of the best ideas to do on a birthday release a lot of floating lanterns or any special events, or you can do this on Christmas or New Year.



I've been looking for some instructional videos on how to do this, but so far this is what I found:



Hope you have a fun filled holiday releasing this lanterns!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Waltz with Bashir (ואלס עם באשיר‎)




A documentary anime about the Massacre in Lebanon in the Year 1982.

picture credit

A dog suddenly appears on the screen, as it runs, it was slowly joined by other dogs, they ran through a bunch of people but did not harm them, it was running with a purpose, then the dogs stopped infront of a white building, where they were angrily looking up to a window where a person appeared, and saw them.

A person was narrating that story, as it was his dream, he was narrating it to his friend who was a filmmaker, the exact same person who made this anime. This is their story.

Released on 2008 by Sony Pictures Classic
Directed by Ari Folman
Won Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language





Soundtrack of Waltz with Bashir can be found at IMDb.


It has always made me sad to think a certain group of people would try and erase a group of race, I thought when the Nazi war was over this would not happen again, coz I believe that the human race would have learned their lesson, but I was wrong, and to think this still happens to day. It seems humanity as a whole is still greedy, too self centered and lesson not learned.

I wonder when will human beings stop this kind of act?

Here is a few list of the Genocide that occured-Genocide in History.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Princess Arete (アリーテ姫)




A Princess who was confined in the castle's tower to wait the right Prince for her, asked that the suitor with the most interesting magical item to offer will be the one who can have the princess hand in marriage. During the long wait, unknown to the King and guards, the Princess was sneaking in and out the castle using the secret passages. One day, as Princess Arete was sneaking back in the castle, she did not noticed that a person was following her and manage to get in the castle also.
image credit

That night, the mysterious person gave the Princess a visit, she was a witch who came to the kingdom to look for her missing magical item, but Princess Arete told her she hasn't seen it. So she left her alone.

The next day a sorcerer came to the kingdom to asked for the Princess hand in marriage, off course the advisers didn't want this, but they found the Princess missing, and the soldiers found her at the gate, as she was carrying the book. As she was reprimanded by the King, she refused to go back to the tower, and walked out, but the sorcerer stop her, and transformed her to a obedient Princess. The advisers and King saw this and decided to accept the sorcerers request and marry her to him.

During the wedding preparation, the witch disguise herself as one of the Princess maid in waiting, told her that the sorcerer was one from her land, since she is too weak to help her, the witch gave her a magical ring to aid her to save herself and left. As she is still under the sorcerers magic, she has no will of her own to defy the sorcerer. How can she save herself? Will she be able to get out of the sorcerer's magic?

Released on 2001 by Studio 4 degrees C
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
Awarded for excellence in New Century Tokyo Intl Anime Fair 21





Soundtrack and lyrics can be found at Anime Lyrics.
Translation for the lyrics on Kin'iro No Tsubasa can be found at painters-colic site.
Wallpaper can be downloaded here.


Magical items are so coveted not only in the movies but so much more in games, as they would give you the needed leverage to win the game. They are thousand of magical items mentioned in movies, tv and games that when you search for magical items online you'd be overwhelm with the results you get.

This made me wonder, which is preferable? Magical items or spells?

While looking for some magic trick, I found this interesting clip: