Blog Specimen 2

http://jessmartin3.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/blog-post-8/

Blog Post 8 – How to Train Your Dragon

http://jessmartin3.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/blog-post-11/

Blog Post 11 – Never As Good As the Originials

Blog Post # 13

Blog Post #

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a Disney icon.  He was Walt Disney’s first character and a character that represents the entire Disney company.  Mickey Mouse is also a sign of childhood and innocents and should stay that way. There have been talks that Disney is going to make a darker Mickey Mouse along with other Disney characters.  This to me would be a horrible idea and would probably hurt Disney’s reputation and Disney sales.  A lot of people go to Disney World to be kids again.  Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Pluto, to me, are the symbolism of childhood.  I loved these characters as a child and I love them now.  It would not be a good thing for Disney to make these characters darker for other people to enjoy because they already have such a high fan base.  If Disney were to make these characters darker they would more than likely lose a great amount of fans that I do not believe would be replaced with the fans of the darker characters.

The articles that I have read are saying that Disney is just trying to reach out to a different audience, which is understandable.  But there amount of fans they would gain from the darker characters will more than likely not equal or surpass the fans that they lose from developing the darker characters.

I commented on Courtney Webber’s blog and James Scutari’s blog.

Blog Post # 11

Blog Post 10

Never as good as the originals.

So many old television animations are being brought back into studios to be remade.  In my opinion this is a horrible idea.  Remakes are never as good as or better than the originals, even with newer technology people just can’t seem to remake a series or a movie that makes it.

Scooby Doo, Ghostbusters, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a couple of cartoons that I can think of right now that have been remade and sunk pathetically.  Now there are supposed to be a couple more being remade like Speedy Gonzales and Popeye the Sailor Man.  This is a horrible idea because they are just going to sink like the others did.  I remember sitting at home every Saturday and Sunday morning watching cartoons on the couch with my brother.  We’d watch TMNT and Ghostbusters.  We’d jump up and start acting out the cartoons.  When they were remade we just turned the channel because they were so awful.  Sometimes the drawings were not even as good as in the originals.

Scooby Doo is another remake that I think should have been left alone.  I still love watching the older Scooby Doo shows when they come on.  I think that they were well thought out, had great storylines, and were just over all good.  Now I think that animators of Scooby Doo are trying to take violence out of the cartoons and have more gore, which is strange to me.  Scooby Doo on Zombie Island is a Scooby Doo movie that came out in 1998.  It was okay but nothing like Scooby Doo and the Boo Brothers or Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf.  The Boo Brothers and the Werewolf were good movies that were funny, had some violence but not a lot and weren’t meant to scare kids.  Scooby Doo on Zombie Island had even less violence but more ghosts that were really creepy looking.  I just think that Scooby Doo should have been left alone.

People think that Scooby Doo tries to bring in a relationship to drugs.  An article I read says that people think that Shaggy is a stoner because he is always hungry and has a hippie attitude.  Maybe this is why they changed things in Scooby Doo but as a kid I never caught onto the similarities of a drug user and Shaggy.  I just looked at it as a funny guy who was always obsessed with food. 

I really wish that people would stop remaking movies.  I think that they should just air the old ones and leave them the way they were.  Remakes are just not as good as the originals.

i commented on Courtney Webber’s blog and James Scutari’s blog.

Blog Post # 10

Blog Post # 10

Tim Burton is the master of alternate universes and lets children believe that they too can go in to an alternate universe and not the real world may not exist, most people would not like this for their children, however, Burton makes the alternate universe awful so that the main characters want to go back to the real world.

Alternate universes may come as very confusing to a child.  Tim Burton created the movies Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas which deals with alternate universes.  Most people would not want their children to believe in an alternate universe but Burton does a good job of showing the differences in the two worlds.  Burton also does a good job of letting the children know that the other universe is not a good place and that although it may seem wonderful at the beginning, it does not last. 

Coraline is a movie in which a young girl lives at home with her mom and dad.  Her mom and dad do not seem to pay much attention to her because they are so busy with their jobs.  Coraline goes through a door in the wall and goes in to an alternate universe in which her “parents” are all about her and she can do anything she wants.  Coraline eventually realizes that things are going terribly wrong and just wants to go back home to her real mom and dad even though she may not always get her way there.  Even though there is an alternate universe, it is not where anyone would really want to be and shows that the real world is a good place.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is another movie in which there is an alternate universe.  Jack is a man from Halloween town and he wants to go to the town of Christmas.  In the alternate world of Christmas Jack realizes that it isn’t what he truly wants and desperately wants to get back to Halloween town, to the people that love him and to the girl that he is meant to be with.

Both movies by Burton deal with alternate universes.  It shows that the alternate universes are bad and that you truly have to be thankful for what you have.

I commented on Courtney Webber and James Scutari’s blogs.

Blog Post # 9

Blog Post 9

Shrek Forever After

DreamWorks does such a great job with the Shrek movies that this next one is going to be just as amazing but hopefully even better in the fact that the animation of DreamWorks has grown over the years.

Shrek Forever After is a movie coming out from DreamWorks soon.  It is going to be different than the rest of the Shrek movies according to the articles I have read.  In the last three Shreks Shrek has become a family man and let go of being a mean ogre.  Fiona is a beautiful mother of her children and is very much a housewife who loves Shrek.  Apparently in the new movie Fiona is a warrior, which is not surprising seeing as in the other movies she was always in a fight, and Shrek is going back to his old ways of being an ogre. 

The old Shrek movies are really good animated movies.  The fighting scenes are well done and the movements are really well animated.  One scene in Shrek 2 is when Fiona was doing some karate the animators put it in slow motion to have the effect on the move that people got in the movie the Matrix.  It was in super slow motion and it made the scene extra dramatic.

A scene in the first Shrek when Shrek and Donkey were trying to save Fiona from the dragon they were sliding down away from the fiery dragon.  This scene was really well done because through them sliding down you could see really good detail and it wasn’t just the same picture going by a million times.

The animators of the Shrek movies have been really good.  With this new one coming out I’m really excited to see the animation and the new story line that comes with it.

I commented on Courtney Webber’s blog and Chris DeMarco’s blog.

Blog Post # 8

Blog Post 8

How to Train Your Dragon
The movie How to Train Your Dragon is coming out in 3-D soon.  How To Train Your Dragon was a movie that was in total failure until Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois took the ropes to make it what will hopefully be a great movie. 

According to the article I read, this movie should be a great hit.  The story in itself is a great one that should not have a problem selling itself.  It is about a young Viking being trained to hate dragons and he simply can’t after he befriends an injured one.  The story seems to be one to match the hype that it is getting and hopefully will be a Disney masterpiece like so many others.
The duo teamed up to make Mulan and Lilo and Stitch.  These two movies were huge successes and did so well in the movie theaters as well as in sales after the hit the market.  Hopefully this movie will be a success too.
The only big problem it faces is it follows closely in the footsteps of the movie Avatar.  Avatar was such a hit in the theaters that it drowned out other movies, such as A Christmas Carol.  A Christmas Carol came out around the same time as Avatar and was a 3-D movie just like Avatar but A Christmas Carol failed horribly due to the fact that Avatar was out.  I hope that How to Train Your Dragon does not fail to meet people expectations set up by the movie Avatar.

Blog Specimen

Blog Post # 5

Adult Humor in Movies

Throughout animated children movies there is a lot of humor that is seen mainly to adults.

There are many animated movies that have a lot of humor and entertainment for adults as well as for children.  I watched a ton of movies as a kid and as an adult.  There are tons of entertainment in them for both children and adults.  When I was a kid I never really caught on to a lot of the adult humor that I now see as an adult.

I was watching Cars with my nephew a couple of days ago and there was one part where Lightning is talking to Sally about her tattoo.  It was not volger or anything like that but I laughed a little and my nephew looked at me and asked me what was so funny.  Since he is only five he didn’t understand that I was laughing that Lightning called her tattoo “ink.”

I have seen Peter Pan more times than I can count and each time I love it more and more.  When I was younger and Peter would talk about rum I really was not sure what it was he was talking about.  Now as an adult when he comments about rum I laugh at the fact that I now realize that pirates were portrayed as alcoholics even in this movie.  Another part in Peter Pan is where all of the Lost Boys, Peter, John, and Michael were sitting with the Indians and smoking.  It was not something that I really thought about when I was younger but now as an adult I wonder what it is that they were smoking and why they are smoking in a children’s movie.

Madagascar is another movie that is great for kids as well as for adults.  There are parts in the movie that are kind of over a child’s head.  For example, when King Julien pops out of the cake in the second movie and says something about being “naughty.”  Adults laughed because they know how the term is meant.  Children just keep watching the movie because they don’t know that the term is meant in a dirty way.

There are many more movies that are for children but have the adult humor in it too so that the adults at the movie do not get bored.  If these movies did not have the entertainment for adult in it too then they would probably lose money because adults would not want to sit through the movie for children as much as they would with the adult humor in it.

Blog Post # 3

Beauty and the Beast

Disney animation is just about the best animation there is, however, there are some scenes in some movies that the animation should be better in. 

Beauty in the Beast is a classic movie with great animation, music to go with the animation, and a great story line.  However, there are a few parts in the movie where the animation could have been better to prove the point of the characters.

Throughout the movie there are scenes that could use better animation to truly make a viewer feel how the character is feeling and help the viewer relate better.  One particular scene is in the beginning where Gaston goes into Belle’s home to propose to her.  The viewer already knows that Belle is disgusted by everything Gaston is.  As a viewer, you can tell that she is not happy to have him in her home, especially when he throws his feet up on the table.  At this point Belle plugs her nose to show the viewer that Gaston’s feet smelt badly.  In this case I think that the animator should have done more to get Belle’s point across that his feet smelt badly besides her simply holding her nose.

A scene that could have been better is when Belle’s father got to the castle.  As a viewer you know that this is not a good place for him to be stuck but I think that if there was scary music that the scene would have been even better.  When the Beast storms through the door there could have been music to add to the scene.  The animation in the scene was wonderful, however.  The animation itself did a great job in portraying that Belle’s father was in a great deal of trouble, I just think that if there had been music it would have made the scene better.

Another scene in Beauty and the Beast that I did not like was when Belle was walking back from the library and Gaston met up with her.  He told her that women should not read because it would just give them ideas.  He told her that she should start focusing on more important things like him.  I am a huge supporter of Disney movies and I absolutely love them, but this is flat out telling girls that they should not be interested in anything but finding a handsome man and I do not think that that is how a young girl should think.

To end on a positive note, the last scene where Beast is a beast is some of the best animation I have seen for the time that it was created.  The detail in the face that was a beast going into the face that was a man is just incredible.  I think that the animators did an amazing job with the detail and being able to show the transformation of the beast into a human.  It really tied things together quite well to end the movie.

Blog Post # 7

Blog Post 7

Kung Fu Panda

The movie Kung Fu Panda has some very good animation in it but it also has some scenes that could use some work.  One scene in particular comes to mind for both.  When Tai Lung is fighting the rhinos there are good animation and bad animation.  Kung Fu Panda has a good storyline, great drawings, and a great soundtrack; there are just some areas that could use some work.

When Tai Lung is fighting the rhinos inside the cave the animators could have done a better job on getting the moves that Tai Lung is doing.  They seemed choppy to me, like Tai Lung’s kung fu goes from one movement to the other with no flow in it.

Another time is when the rhinos throw all of their spears into the pit after Tai Lung.  The spears were thrown at different times but they all end up falling at an equal time.  The spears also hit the platform that Tai Lung hides under at around the same time they hit the ground even though the platform was much higher in the air.

A part of the animation that I liked, to end on a good note, was when Tai Lung would hit the rhinos and the animation would completely pause.  I liked this part because it influenced the fact that Tai Lung was hitting the rhinos with a lot of force.  It showed that even though there were many more rhinos than Tai Lung should have been able to handle that Tai Lung was going to be the one to walk away from this, the rhinos were not.

Kung Fu Panda is a great movie with very good animation, plot, and music; however there were some parts that could have been better.

Full Length Movie Blog

Full Length Movie Blog Post
The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid is a wonderful movie about a mermaid, her best friend who is a fish, and a prince that is human.  Ariel, the mermaid, is a care free teenager who disobeys her father often all for Eric, a human prince.  The storyline of the movie is very good, the sound track is excellent, and the animation is pretty good as well.  The animation in the Little Mermaid is extremely well done for the time that it was made, the fins, flippers, arms, legs, and mouths all go together on beat.
One of my favorite parts of the animation is the fins, flippers, arms, and legs of the mermaids, fish, and sea creatures move so well.  At the very beginning, when Ariel doesn’t show up for her father’s concert you really get to see a bunch of the other sea creatures playing instruments under the water.  The soundtrack to this part was right on with the beats that the sea animals were playing.  They were on beat and a viewer couldn’t tell that the animals weren’t actually playing the instruments, besides the fact they were animated. 
When Ariel sings “Part of Your World” in another part of the movie you can really see that she is under the water.  In this part, as well as all of the other parts of the movie, you can really tell that this movie is taking place under the water in a world far away from ours.  Her hair floats, she has to constantly be swimming,  Flounder’s fins are always moving, and there are also bubbles everywhere to indicate that they are under water.
Sebastian is an awesome character in this movie with his animations as well.  Throughout the movie you can always see each movement that Sebastian makes with his legs, his mouths, and his claws.  Sebastian is a very difficult character to draw and the animators did an amazing job to show everything that Sebastian does.
The very end of the movie is also well done.  The animation with Ursula and King Triton is absolutely amazing.  When King Triton is shrunk into a sea creature you can see the details in him shrinking and I just think this part is really cool. 
The animation in the Littler Mermaid is well done.

Blog Post # 6

Blog Post # 6

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks used to be horribly animated and drawn but through time they became so much better than what they started out to be.

Alvin and the Chipmunks, the animated series started off as one of the worst looking cartoons I had ever watched as a kid.  The drawing themselves were just horrible and the movements of the arms and legs were not drawn to move as smoothly as they do now.  The storyline of the show was great, it was about three chipmunk brothers growing up in the human world with the great ability to sing.  The drawing and animation just needed a little work.

As most things do, Alvin and the Chipmunks grew with time.  Eventually the drawings became much better.  The movements of the arms and legs became advanced and were even able to do some of the amazing things that Alvin does with the guitar.  The thing that was improved the best was when the mouths of the Chipmunks began to fully match the words when they were singing, it wasn’t like they were lip sincing anymore. 

Now Alvin and the Chipmunks have grown even further and are now stars of two full motion pictures.  These movies are great and the animation in them is really good as well.  Alvin and the Chipmunks have come an extremely long way from where they started out as horrible drawings with a great story line.

I commented on Courtney’s blog and James’ blog.