For those of you who kindly take the time out of your day to read this Blog, I thank you. I also would like to apologize to you, my finite viewers for being so unpredictable and diverse leaving confusion in my wake. I will from now on post regularly in an organised manner for my benefit and your sanity (I know I'm over exaggerating but it's just good writing is all). I have devised a weekly plan, if you care to read it. You will be able to reference this timetable each Saturday/Sunday so you know what you will be missing or at least you can decide what you do not wish to read if any of it:
Monday – The Weekly Quiz
Each week will devise a new and inventive quiz to test your film knowledge, visual and written questions. Of course the quizzes that are favourites, we will revisit from week to week.
Tuesday – The Weekly Review on Film/DVD/TV
Each week I will extend the review from Cinema to new DVD releases and films on TV for those who don’t want to or can’t afford to spend money on such Luxuries. The film review will be of course the main focus but will apply the same attention to detail on the other topics but it simply won’t hold the same space in the post.
Wednesday – The Filmmakers Day: So, What’s Going On?
On Wednesday, for those who are interested in filmmaking like me, I will share my opinion, thoughts and give advice so you can, unlike me, avoid the amateur mistakes I all to easily stumble into to. Festival news, competitions and filmmaking websites will be discussed in detail giving you the best (And hopefully first hand) information around.
Thursday – The Film Legend
Each Thursday I intend to look back on some of the giants in the film industry (This does exclude actors) and usually with something about them that’s topical for that week. I will take a look at their life and careers as we remember those who changed the world of film.
Friday – The Friday Night Conundrum
Each Friday There is the decision, ‘’what will we go and see?’’. Well if you would care to join me for a five minute read, I will give a list and summary of the films that are rocking the theatres all during the week and come to a final conclusion with the reviewer’s choice. It’s worth getting as many opinions as possible as you will spend the unfortunate guts of €20 that night.
Saturday – The Random Article (Optional)
The Saturday blog if I'm in the mood is whatever I feel happens to be relative and topical that failed to fall into one of the above category's. It will be about film, filmmaking, film news or anything in the film circle of life.
This timetable for those of you, who read my blog, will be kept to with strict obedience. I hope you enjoy my posts for the coming future and that you comment freely on all my blogs. This Blog is an English experiment I have undertaken to improve my technical writing and I hope very much that it is successful. Thank you for reading, and once again apologize for this week’s inconsistency and randomness.
With the changing of Facebook profile pictures to your favourite Disney character due to Disney Doppelganger week, the new release of Disney’s Princess and The Frog that has been beautifully animated in the old style hand drawn way Disney is famous for. Such motion pictures that we as children of such classics as The Lion King, Jungle Book and Bambi cannot forget. I don’t know how you feel this week but if you are in that nostalgic mood I can’t shake off then come with me and I will tell you about a legend that is responsible for this week.
Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 to Elias Disney, of Irish-Canadian descent (Another legend we could easily claim, no?), and Flora Call Disney, of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl. Raised on a farm near Marceline, Missouri, Walt became interested in drawing at an early age, selling his first sketches to neighbours when he was only seven years old. At McKinley High School in Chicago, Disney divided his attention between drawing and photography, contributing both to the school paper. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts.
During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service (What a disaster that would have been). Rejected because he was only 16 years of age, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stem, not with stock camouflage, but with drawings and cartoons (You don’t see something like that coming from Castlebar hospital, do you!).
After the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons, and later perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation.
In August of 1923, Walt Disney left Kansas City for Hollywood with nothing but a few drawing materials, $40 in his pocket and a completed animated and live-action film. Walt's brother, Roy Disney was already in California, with an immense amount of sympathy and encouragement, and $250. Pooling their resources, they borrowed an additional $500, and constructed a camera stand in their uncle's garage. Soon, they received an order from New York for the first "Alice Comedy" featurette, and the brothers began their production.
On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds (She is more important than you think, just not yet), in Lewiston, Idaho. No more than three years later in 1928 did Walt begin to create a new character after losing the rights to Oswald the lucky Rabbit. This character was the one we all know and love called ‘Mortimer Mouse’. Walt had almost began to animate Mortimer Mouse until one day he and his wife where travelling on a train where a stranger had conversed with Walt about his new creation but however disliked the name Mortimer. The stranger had instead suggested the name Mickey instead. Walt originally dismissed this name until days later, Walt’s wife, convinced him that the name Mickey just fitted better and that was that. In 1928 Mickey Mouse was born (Told you she was important).
Mickey and his talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled "Plane Crazy." However, before the cartoon could be released, sound burst upon the motion picture screen. Thus Mickey made his screen debut in "Steamboat Willie," the world's first fully-synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York on November 18, 1928 to the world and things just seemed to snowball after that.
Walt's drive to perfect the art of animation was endless. Technicolor was introduced to animation during the production of his "Silly Symphonies." In 1932, the film entitled "Flowers and Trees" won Walt the first of his 32 personal Academy Awards (How many people can say that!). In 1937, he released "The Old Mill," the first short subject to utilize the multiplane camera technique (That’s just for film buffs right there).
On December 21 of that same year, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. It was produced at the unheard cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Depression. Walt’s drive to excel in animation led him to bankruptcy twice as the film was revised numerous times till Walt was happy with the finished product. The film is still accounted as one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry grossing $66,596,803. In the depths of the depression this was astounding. During the next five years, Walt completed such other full-length animated classics as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi.
Disneyland, launched in 1955 as a fabulous $17 million Magic Kingdom, soon increased its investment tenfold. By its third decade, more than 250 million people were entertained, including presidents, kings and queens, and royalty from all over the globe.
By the late 1940s, the studio had recovered enough to continue production on the full-length features Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, both of which had been shelved during the war years, and began work on Cinderella, which became Disney's most successful film since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The studio also began a series of live-action nature films, titled True-Life Adventures, in 1948 with On Seal Island. Despite rebounding success through feature films, Disney's animation shorts were no longer as popular as they used to be, and people began to instead draw attention to Warner Bros and their animation star Bugs Bunny. By 1942, Leon Schlesinger Productions, which produced the Warner Bros. cartoons, had become the country's most popular animation studio. However, while Bugs Bunny's popularity rose in the 1940s, so did Donald Duck's; Donald would also replace Mickey Mouse as Disney's star character by 1949
As the studio expanded and diversified into other media, Disney devoted less of his attention to the animation department, entrusting most of its operations to his key animators, whom he dubbed the Nine Old Men. During Disney's lifetime, the animation department created the successful Lady and the Tramp (in Cinemascope, 1955), Sleeping Beauty (in Super Technirama70mm, 1959), One Hundred and One Dalmatian (1961), and The Sword in the Stone (1963). In 1962, after decades of pursuing, Disney finally procured the rights to P.L. Travers' books about a magical nanny. Mary Poppins, released in 1964, was the most successful Disney film of the 1960s and featured a memorable song score written by Disney favorites, the Sherman Brothers.
In late 1966 Disney was scheduled to undergo neck surgery for an old polo injury; he had played frequently at the Riveria Club in Hollywood for many years.On November 2, 1966, during pre-surgery X-rays, doctors at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center across the street from the Disney Studio discovered that Disney had an enormous tumour on his left lung. Five days later, Disney went back to the hospital for surgery, but the tumor had spread to such great extent that doctors had to remove his entire left lung. The doctors then told Disney that he only had six months to a year to live After several chemotherapy sessions, Disney and his wife spent a short amount of time in Palm Springs, California before returning home. On November 30, 1966, Disney collapsed in his home, but was revived by paramedics, and was taken back to the hospital, where he died on December 15, 1966 at 9:30 a.m., ten days after his 65th birthday. He was cremated on December 17, 1966 and his ashes reside at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Roy O. Disney continued to carry out the Florida project, insisting that the name be changed to Walt Disney World in honor of his brother.
The final productions in which Disney had an active role were the animated feature The Jungle Book released in 1967. Songwriter Robert B. Sherman said about the last time he saw Disney:
''He was up in the third floor of the animation building after a run-through of The Happiest Millionaire. He usually held court in the hallway afterward for the people involved with the picture. And he started talking to them, telling them what he liked and what they should change, and then, when they were through, he turned to us and with a big smile, he said, 'Keep up the good work, boys.' And he walked to his office. It was the last we ever saw of him. ''
Even in his death Disney continued to make films and grow. The most famous film produced by Disney studios, The Lion King made in 1994, had of course no involvement by Walt Disney due to his death 27 years prior to this and yet is the first film to come to mind of anyone when asked to name a film by Disney. Hercules, The little Mermaid, Aristocats, Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast all created in the 70s, 80s and 90s and all of them are simply testament to Walt’s inspiring life and his trust in those he left behind to carry on the good will of his name.
Walt Disney is a legend and a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was based upon the ideas which his name represents: imagination, optimism and the freedom of expression. Walt Disney did more to touch the hearts, minds, and emotions of millions of children around the world than any other person in the past century. Through his work, he brought joy, happiness and a universal means of communication to every child and adult as far and wide as he could reach. This is me, once a child graced by the magic of Disney, thanking a legend that cannot be forgot, that cannot be replaced and Certainly, our world shall know but one Walt Disney.
‘’Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy’’
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a film with a dragon in it (Been a while since I reviewed a film as well) and when I have seen one, it just so happens to be skulking deep in the recess of some dark dank cave which is brilliant if you were hoping to save a bit of money on CGI. However, DreamWorks seems to relish in the thought of displaying their beautifully designed dragon characters, although they may not be Pixar standard, but honestly I couldn’t care less. They’re clever enough make up for it with character and charm. But there is however a slow start which we must as the viewer push through if we are to enjoy what lies ahead, but if you can do that much at least, you shall see a film that cannot help but take off and have your heart soaring with.
Adapted from a book by Cressida Cowell, the film takes freedom in it's stride with its source material, but starts at the same place. Young Hiccup (Voiced by Jay Baruchel) wants nothing more than to be the best and manliest Viking, just like his father Stoick (Voiced by Gerard Butler). Hiccup's resolve is tested by his adolescent clumsiness and a sneaking suspicion that he may never be half the man that he imagines his father to be.
A chaotic opening segment sees dragons attacking a Viking fishing village, all shot in colours of earth, fire and night, but we soon settle into familiar territory: the geeky, clumsy hero Hiccup is a disappointment to his huge manly father Stoick Hiccup and resolves to find new ways to fight dragons. He invents a machine of his own with the ability to shoot down the fierce monsters that terrorise them so and sets off to find his trophy and have his father finally acknowledge his ‘’manliness’’. Instead, he finds a wounded beast (the word beast being used loosely here), which he names Toothless, and the two form a symbiotic relationship that becomes the heart and soul of the film.
Certainly, there’s a bigger, scarier plot to the dragons’ relentless raids that man and beast must work together to combat the threat in a spectacular large-scale finale, and real stakes in the fiery chaos. There are moments of brilliance there, both in the aerial dog fights and the events that bring are heroes together. While it might be a few more takes before DreamWorks really hits the nail on the head and even though they have already thrown such classics at us like Shrek and despite the lack of laughs compared to their previous films, this is probably the best DreamWorks yet.
With no film under review (trying to find time to watch How to Train Your Dragon) and the work load mounting on me I’ve decided to keep things brief but interesting. This week I have strived to invent a challenging and creative quiz as I am aware quotes can only hold your attention for so long and everyone loves a quiz. So as you can see (Or not, as is the case) there are ten pictures laid out before you. Each picture is taken from a famous film and I want you to guess the film and of course for bonus points, the actor(s) who featured in the particular picture. I know, it seems a little too easy for a film buff like you, huh? Well lets kick it up a notch then, each picture will have the actors removed from the scene via Photoshop. All you will see is the scene, clothes of the actor(s) and extra(s) in each photo. As always they’ll be easy enough for the first five but to score a perfect ten, well, we’ll see…
Rules
1.Correct answers; the film is worth one point; Actor(s) are worth two points each.
2.No googling, help or aids of any kind. All answers must come from your own knowledge
3.Character names are also accepted but are worth only one point instead of two.
4.There is a total of 38 points on offer, 14 actors and 10 films. Can you name them all?.
Hope you enjoy. And of course comments are welcome. Answers are posted below. Let the film buffing begin!
Answers (Avoid looking till finished)
A.Green Mile, Michael Duncan B. Godfather, Marlon Brando & Joseph May C. Back to the Future, Michael J. Fox D. Armageddon, Ben Affleck & Liv Tyler E. 28 Days Later, Killian Murphy F. Jarhead, Jamie Fox & Jake Gyllenhaal G. The Mask, Jim Carrey H. Gladiator, Russell Crowe I. Road to Perdition, Tom Hanks J. Good Night & Good Luck, David Strathairn & George Clooney
With the week I’m between Irish Orals and college interviews so I don’t have the time to watch the movies I want to review (Its criminal). So I’ve decided to do something different that will hopefully take less time for this week. I have compiled the film adaptations of books according to their worldwide gross profit (Figures can vary from sources but the order is correct) But I couldn’t help notice that I didn’t like it all that much but I understand you might think differently. The list goes like this:
1.The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - $1,129,219,252
2.Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) - $968,657,891
3.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ( $938,212,738
4.Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) - $933,959,197
5.The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - $921,600,000
6.Jurassic Park (1993) - $919,700,000
7.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) - $892,194,397
8.Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) - $866,300,000
9.The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - $860,700,000
10.Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) - $789,458,727
I was amazed at the fact that all the Harry Potter film made thus far (Only one more to go, book that is, technically two films) holds six out of the available ten places while Lord of the Rings takes three more places. But alone, placed bang in the middle, a three time Oscar winning film, Jurassic Park. That movie that has to be one of my all time favourites (I remember wearing out the VHS of it we had from watching it too much). I guess the increase in cinema at the turn of the millennium made this list the way it is. I would love to say that all these films deserved there places but think about it, aren’t there films adaptions of books you would rather watch instead…
I am going to give my list of the top ten film adaptions of books I have seen and would recommend anyone. Some of these didn’t make as much money as those but damn they were they good, weren’t they:
9.Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - $870,761,744
10.The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - $282,414,69
The lists here as you can clearly see are completely different and I'm aware I can't define the list just host my opinions, but that's what I am also asking you to do, show me your list and it won't be the same I can guarantee it!
I'm not oblivious as to the fact of how the list has ended up like this, there was a lot more money at the turn of the millennium and leisure time activities surged. But my concern is for the old film adaptations, what will become of them in twenty or forty years will they even be on the late night TV anymore, only to be remembered when there is no 'Lost' or Desperate Housewives to show instead. It even saddens me to think that that's where they'll stay as new generations forget about them, never hearing the songs from the Jungle Book that I simply can't forget or the brilliance of Tom Hanks bringing the character of Forrest Gump alive on front of are very eyes from the pages of a classic. Instead they will simply remain stored in film magazines archives as a simple review that drove the crowds to them in the first place, here's one person who sincerely hopes they read the books only because I fear they will never see the films.
But this isn't what bothers me the most (Although it drives me mental let it be said) What probably bothers me the most is that I could bark all day and it won't change. Even if I decided to bite, If I sent letters to magazines, they would just be published in an editorial for those to laugh or even ignored like the charities we don't feel like contributing to or worse, it could incourage a more ''accurate'' rating system for films. So I best take J.K Rowling's advice and ''Never poke a sleeping dragon in the eye''.
I can't help thinking it’s not going to change any time soon. Of course the old films will never enter this list again, for they have had there shot and must be content with placing in my list. But with hope, in the future, the books that have yet to be written (i.e books by Stephen King are always a winner for adaptations) to become films will immortalise themselves in this ''elite'' list of ten. Well, until the new Harry Potter films come out…
Well it's Friday, the weekend starts here. And as for those of you who still go to the cinema instead of going to the pub (Although I intend to do a little of both to be honest) could well be deciding on what film to see. If you haven't decided I give you a quick run down of all the films worth seeing, when close €15 - €20 is on the line you want to get your moneys worth.
Kick-Ass:
Director Matthew Vaughn has made the regular super hero something more real. It's worth watching again and again till the projector breaks or you go insane. Seriously, it’s the film of the year so far for any teenager and even an open minded adult setting a pretty good benchmark for the next 8 months. It’s quite frankly ‘’Kick Ass’’
Cemetery Junction: Gervais has pulled off something that’s more than just watchable using an overused and predictable story; he manages to make it his own. A winning combination of new actors graced with more experienced ones, manages to engage the audience effectively even if the laughs are rare it will still have you leaving the cinema with a smile on your face guaranteed
Clash of the Titans: It’s easy to spot the flaws in such a heavily CGI film but it holds its rickety supports upright throughout. If you pay for the non-3D experience you’ll enjoy it more for you money. Fans of action and swords-and-sandals epics should get a bang out of it if nothing else, but Clash of the Titans is sadly forgettable.
How to train your dragon: While certainly not on the same level as Pixar in terms of character, this is nonetheless a genuinely fun and enjoyable adventure film, with subtext galore for more receptive kids (and parents). The 3D glasses may cost a few quid more if you're taking the whole family, but it’s certainly worth it for a more engaging experience.
Perrier's Bounty:
The quirky hitmen, and violent main gangster with a fondness for long-winded monologues, will charm you for the most part until Broadbent’s accent spoils the mood , but Perrier's Bounty is sharp enough for long enough to, just about, hold its own.
Critics Choice:Kick-Ass is a clear winner this week and although the selection of films is so varied from animation, to action to satirical comedy Kick-Ass just seems to combine all of these different aspects into one film you can't help but love. I liked it so much I am going again tonight.
