An Animated Life

Once upon a time, in a land not too far away, there was a girl who looked up "animated movies" on the internet. When she pressed search, she would come up with movies like:

The Lion King,

The Land Before Time, The Jungle Book and other animated movies. Her childhood was great.

However, as the little girl grew up, the word animation seemed to change, and so did the actual art. Movies were now computer animated and included Shrek, Horton Hears a Who, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the sort. Her heart grew sad with the loss of the movies style that raised her.

If you hadn’t guessed, the little girl is me. I’m an old school Disney girl. I like the cartoon musical feel of the 1990’s children’s movies. The movies now-a-days lack the authentic feel of a cartoonist’s hard work and the songs that the little ones would continue to sing a long time after the movie was done. I miss this. Although no longer young, I still enjoy the movies of my past and a few of the present. I like watching them with my two year old nephew, yet it also saddens me. The only cartoon animated movies he will see are the ones I own from my childhood. Growing up with his future friends, he will only see the product of computers.

One thing that present day kid movies lack is the true sense of animation. Technology advances have forced the animated movies to move forward with the future as well. The animation being produced now is a product of computer generation. I find when I watch movies with computer generation, the characters lack the sense of lively hood and spirit that I found with the hand drawn animation. When an artist dedicated him/herself to a movie, they put so much effort and work into it, you can feel their very lives go into the characters to bring them to life. This is something that remains missing in today’s movies.

Secondly, the lack of musical numbers in the new animated movies makes me miss the old ones like never before. In the 90’s, no one would dream of an animated movies without at least three songs in it. Songs like Hakuna Matata!, or Bare Necessities are the very essense of my childhood. After 10 years, I can still sing along with these songs. These opportunities to sing with the characters hooked the children into sitting and watching. Now, there are no longer any original songs to be sung along to in the computer animated movies.

I can’t help but feel sad for the future generations once all these animated films wear out on VHS, and all the DVD copies are no longer available. My nephew is fortunate that my mother never threw away my precious Disney movies so now he has a chance to see what I grew up with. The true sense of animation is embodied by the 1990s movies.

Wretched Writers Welcome!

In my class recently, we have stared flash fiction. This is where my teacher had introduced us to this contest.

You know the line “It was a dark and stormy night”? Have you ever read the entire line?

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

 --Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

 It goes on, and on, then goes back in time, then comes forward again with a lengthy explanation. It is over all, probably one of the worst lines in life. There is a contest to try to make one of equal of greater worseness. This is my attempt at it:

Katharine felt horribly betrayed by her mother who had meant well when she made Katharine super (she knew how much her daughter loved potatoes and in Katharine’s ravenous state of hunger and felt that home fries would help ease the hunger away, but not the store bought kind, but the homemade home fries with the special seasoning she had made especially for Katharine) but she had unknowingly sliced, diced and deep fried her daughters best friend, Spud.

Now, at this L3 Writers Conference I had gone to a flash fiction workshop. Some of the things she really emphasized were:

A)    Character

B)     Conflict

C)    Action

Once this was done, if you wanted to expand the story, raise the stakes. I think I followed these guidelines, don’t ya think?

For more info, click The BLFC !

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Previously, I have had some pretty serious posts. The origin of mythical beats and even dolphin slaughter… but how about something a little more… happy? Perhaps even funny? Maybe I’ll just tell you some of my favourite movies and YouTube clips!

My absolute favourite comedy movie would have to be.. Monty Pythons: Holy Grail. For some reason, I find their humour quite amusing.

Take this clip of my favourite seen for an idea of why it is so great.

Their jokes are completely stupid and absurd, but I cannot resist them! This troupe of extraordinary British comedians have given me more laughs than I can count.

Now, only a few months ago did I find out about this Youtuber, but since then, I cannot stop laughing at his videos. Videos like Hot Kool-Aid, Waffles and Jellyfish have made me cry in laughter.

Here's my favourite, Hot Kool-Aid:

Lastly, the Youtube duo I watch, like to create humourus songs. Rhett and Link have created some of the most imaginative lyrics and stunts I have ever seen. from epic rap battles to fast-food drive-thru folk, they are so diverse, they keep you guessing!

If you ever need some cheering up or just a good laugh, I say check these guys out. You can tell they enjoy what they do greatly. It travels from the screen to you. The joy these guys have brought me over the last few years cannot be measured.

Red Water

“The Cove.” The name of it sounds like a horror movie. A movie where someone is trapped and has no escape from the killer that chases them. And it couldn’t be more accurate.

This film has to be one of the most moving and disturbing documentaries I have ever seen. If you haven't seen it, I'd advise that you go look it up. Watch YouTube clips, rent it from a video store- what ever!

The documentary features the rising level of mercury poisoning. There, the mercury poisoned dolphin meat is often sold at lower prices than other meat. this is probably due to the higher mercury levels that the meat contains. Also, for people to buy the meat, it is sometimes "mislabeled" as whale meat.

It escalates. The school systems in Japan were going to introduce dolphin into the lunch menu. There is no way to avoid the children from consuming this toxic food. Japanese children enrolled in schools are required to eat EVERY crumb of their lunches which are given to them by the school. There are no home made sandwiches packed at home.

            The main point about the documentary is not the mercury poisoning, but the way they are able to get hold of the meat. Dolphins would be corralled and trapped into a shallow cove. Mothers and babies are separated. There is even a moment in the documentary where the film makers were able to record the sounds of the dolphins as they called to their family members. The sound alone breaks your heart.

This is actually water... there is just too much blood for you to see the bottom...

 Then men in boats would travel across the cove, stabbing and attacking the poor dolphins. They have no way of escape. The cove is crammed, dolphin stacked upon dolphin. The water grows bloody as wounded and dead dolphins bleed out. There is a man in the movie that is in charge of the operation. He claims that when they kill the dolphins, it is in the most humane way possible. Clearly it is not the case.

I highly recommend this movie. It is horrifying and depressing. But the more people aware, the more likely it can be stopped.
To watch:

Mythical Beasts, Oh My!

            One thing I have always wondered about is mythological beasts. Could they have actually existed? Dinosaurs certainly did and they seem almost even more absurd that some of the creature’s mankind has come to fear, hunt or admire. Or are they simply something mankind has made up? To prove theories of gods, perhaps? To glorify one mans travels? There are many possibilities to where mythological beasts came from. Here, I hope to explain a few.

Unicorns

   Not many people today believe in this majestic creature. However, there is a possibly root the legend. There are animals all over the world who have a boney protrusion that may be mistaken as a horn. Animals like the rhinoceros have such protrusions but look very little like a unicorn.

  

   There is rumor to believe that the unicorn’s existence is due to exaggerations of travelers tales about animals like narwhales

   
   The Oryx, a desert antelope, is also a potential root to this fabled creature.

   No matter the origin, this creature was one pictured of beauty. It may have even just been a story for the world to revive hope for something beautiful to come out of war, death and the misery that human life often is.
(for more info: http://monsters.monstrous.com/unicorns.htm)
Dragons

A product of the human imagination? An answer formed to explain a fear of the unknown? Were they the dinosaurs? If they were, how did people from as late as the 1600s find out about the creatures buried far in the depths of the earth?

(For more info: http://www.allaboutcreation.org/dragon-history-4.htm)

A dragon is a serpents or reptile like creature that possessed magical or spiritual qualities. Some people are lead to believe that in Eastern Mythology, the physical appearance of the dragon was born spontaneously based loosely on the appearance of serpents.

(For more info : http://pictures.linkmesh.com/dragons/dragon_history.php)

         

    Perhaps humans created these monsters to protect land claims or hidden spaces filled with the “dragon’s” (or rather the persons) treasure. Certainly “ohh there’s a rabid opossum up there, I wouldn’t go there if I were you” wouldn’t be enough. Many people are nervous around, if not scared of snakes (an evil creature in most eyes), but a giant, flying, fire-breathing, mouth full of tons of sharp teeth? No thanks, I think I’ll go in the other direction.

Cyclops   

        

    A giant with one eye, bad teeth and a hunger for human flesh. These creatures were ones out of nightmares. But how could someone come up with something like this?

            Mayhap they just imagined their big, burly friend “One-Eye Bob” as a giant and threated people who made fun of them that he’d sick his friend on them?

Or, as recent scholars have stated that it could have been derived form the smiths who had possibly worn eye patches to protect their eyes from sparks. This is a strong possibility since all Cyclops from Greek mythology are associated with the smith trade.

(For more info: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/cyclopes.html)

This is my friend, Bob. Dobn't make me make him eat you...

But there may yet be another point. If you take a look at the skull of an elephant:

What would stop travellers from assuming a giant man with one eye? Especially if they hadn’t seen or gotten close enough a live elephant to compare the skull to. This has always been in the back of my mind since when I first read/heard this theory.

     So there you have it. The possible origins of some of the most fabled monsters known to man. Perhaps next week I may break out just all mythological creatures that are associated with horses? Or some who appear to be human but are truly not? Or maybe, I will just create a mythical creature’s blog? Comment below for the option you want