Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Coraline Review



                                                  Coraline

In the horror animation movie, Coraline, a young girl named Coraline Jones, as an only child, lives with her parents in an old house. This isn’t just any house though. As Coraline explores through it, she comes across a little door that leads to a living nightmare.
As the movie begins, Coraline receives a gift from a young boy named Wybie. The gift appears to be a look-a-like doll of herself. She then begins to beg her mom to go play outside in the pouring rain and her mother is just fed up with Coraline’s questions and doesn’t want to be bothered. So, Coraline decides to ask her father and he tells her to look around the house and get comfortable with it. As Coraline looks around the house, she finds this little, secret door. Coraline’s mother unlocks the door and behind it is just a brick wall. She was very disappointed about it. Later that night, Coraline’s father makes dinner, but Coraline does not like his cooking and decides to hop into bed. As Coraline is asleep, e few mice decide to go into her bedroom, which wakes her up. They lead her to that little door and this time, it’s a whole different scenario. Behind the door, is a stretched tunnel that leads to a house similar to hers, but everything inside is much different. All the people have buttons as eyes, including her “other parents”. They show love, care and listen to her when she wants to be listened to. but when she falls asleep, she wakes up in her real house. Coraline’s wish of having all these things has finally come true. However, Wybie’s cat, which speaks in this “other world”, tells her she’s in danger. Coraline is too blind to see that, but as soon as her parents are in danger, Coraline must bust a mission to save them and herself, because she realizes that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
          One of the most mind-boggling things I found during the making of this film, are the creations of the puppet characters. Every detailed body part of the puppet depicts the motion during the movie. Stop motion animation filmmaking, is incredible and it’s time consuming as well. For example, a certain scene, depending on the length, may take weeks & weeks to 
 get just one screen shot. Everything is handmade for the puppets, from the outfits, to the eyes, the hair, the mouth, and so forth.
The motion created for these characters are very precise and thorough. The movement of each body part must be made in a particular way, so that when the movie plays as a whole, the motion of the characters have a precise flow. The people in charge for this particular job must have a lot of patience and know what kinds of positions to place the characters at certain times.
I personally enjoyed this movie. Each of the characters had a distinguished role and each one of them was important. Coraline was my favorite character, because she is the main character and had the most significant role, which was experiencing what it would be like without her parents and wishing for the wrong thing. I think that this movie sends a message that says “be careful what you wish for” and one of my favorite quotes that relate to this movie is, “appreciate what you have before time appreciates what you had”. After watching the movie, you will see why.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Atourina's Glee Premier


                                                                   GLEE!

Glee
                         The opening premier of Glee kicks off as the students at West McKinley High School return to star in the Glee club. As the lead vocalist leaves for New York, students audition to become the new rising star. Differences among students create competition and struggle to fight for their dream! 
 The episode starts off with Jacob exposing his gossip blog of how everybody’s summer went. Tina has dumped her boyfriend Mike and also changed her tattoo from “Mike Chang Forever” to “Make Change Forever”. I think that’s actually a good one. However, in New York, Rachel tries to get over being lonely and puts up with her alcoholic dance instructor, 

Cassandra and Rachel
Cassandra. She is such a bully and it really does suck to see Rachel have to deal with someone like her. Rachel mates with a junior named Brody, who according to her, basically sleeps around with the whole school. The fact that Rachel is in a long distance relationship and a guy like Brody lives with her, he just might be the type of guy to deceive her into liking him. Auditions back at West McKinley High heat up as Jake gives attitude to the judges for not letting him finish the song, when really they stopped him because they thought he was good. Jake seems to be short-tempered and rude and little did he know that he was going to make it through. An astounding performance by a young lady 
Marley's audition
named Marley Wow’s the crowd and is likely to become the new lead vocalist, but there is a downside. The new cafeteria lady, who is made fun of by the Glee club because of her obesity, happens to be Marley’s mother. I think it is so disrespectful to see something like that. It breaks my heart to see people putting down others. But soon after Marley stepping up and telling them the truth, the group felt horrible for saying such cruel things and decides to apologize. What a relief! I would have been so angry if they didn’t do so, because Marley seems like a very polite and pleasant young lady. Darren, who is part of the club and also Kurt’s lover, convinces Kurt to go to New York, because he believes 
Darren and Kurt
it would be a good experience for him. Kurt decides, though scared, that it’s best to go to New York as well. At last, he reunites with Rachel, which is his best friend, surprising her with a gracious hug. It felt good to see that, because now Rachel isn’t going to be so lonely anymore. Overall, I think the show is pretty good, but it’s a bit confusing, because it’s the 4th season and I’ve never seen it before. Hopefully it gets even better!