Paperman Review

(I know I talked about this in my last post, but I just cannot stop thinking about this, it is THAT amazing).
“Paperman,” the Disney short before “Wreck-It Ralph” was by far the cutest animated short I have ever seen in my life. Nothing compares. All my feels, guys! ALL. MY. FEEEEELLLLLSSSSSSS!!! The music on it was just out of this world. Seriously. I can’t! In a short few minutes, it portrayed a better love story than any other movie I can even think of (especially Twilight). My gracious. I don’t have words for how much I loved it!  You cannot begin to comprehend! I was tearing up by the end at the sheer beauty of it and my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Go see "Wreck-It Ralph". And if you miss the short at the beginning, prepare to hate yourself unwillingly for the next eight years at least.

Wreck-It Ralph Review

WATCH TRAILER 

Oh my gosh, it was such a fun movie! With details EVERYWHERE regarding retro arcade games. I'm sure it was every gamer’s dream (I'm not much of a gamer myself, but I picked up on a lot of the jokes. However, you don't have to be a gamer to enjoy it. You'll just have an extra layer of humor to appreciate.) Not to mention the characters themselves were absolutely amazing! Ralph and Vanellope were a truly fantastic duo, but Fix-It Felix and Sergeant Calhoun weren’t far behind. (Also can I just say how flippin' ADORABLE Felix was? Like what a little sweetheart! He might've been my favorite character. "*hits prison bars with hammer* *they get stronger* Ahh! Why do I fix EVERYTHING I touch!?")

Now regarding the movie itself: Even though most of the plot was pretty predictable, there was a mother of all plot twists at the end that I was not expecting at all that completely blew my mind (so brava for that one Disney writers)! There were also hilarious jokes (the one joke I absolutely DIED at were the Oreo guards chanting like the guards from the Wizard of Oz, but instead it was: "OreEEEo OreEEEEEEEo OreEEEo OreEEEEEEEEo". I seriously could not stop laughing), a number of heartwarming scenes, as well as heart wrenching scenes, and the animation was fantastically stunning! The colors, the textures, the way each character from different games moved. I say, GO WATCH IT! You’ll enjoy it for sure!

And don’t even get me started on the short before the movie, Paperman. It was beautiful. The simplicity, the cute story, the 3D overlapping 2D, the music, and the characters... It deserved the price of admission on its own! I was grinning so big at the end and had tears in my eyes. The animation, the ANIMATION. Ugh! I hope this starts a new wave of animation, something to show that 2D should not be overlooked or ignored.

All in all, I'd give Wreck-It Ralph an 9/10 and Paperman a 10/10. So go watch the movie. Really. Just do it.

Doctor Who- A Brief Explanation

So I know most of you people know that I watch a TV show called Doctor Who. I also know that most of you have no idea what on earth it is about. You might have picked up on a little bit of the idea based on my Facebook posts or just things you've seen around, but you're probably still confused as to what it's really about. That is what this blog post is for. To quote David Tennant (who plays the 10th Doctor) "it's very difficult to explain Doctor Who and not sound like a lunatic", but I'm going to do my best.

The primary basis of the show is about a humanoid alien who travels through time and space in his time machine-spaceship that looks like a police telephone box that's bigger on the inside, and he fights monsters/aliens and saves planets. Did you get all that? Maybe you should go back and read that first sentence again. There's a lot of info there.

Did you do it? OK, good. Now we can move on.

The alien I mentioned above is called "The Doctor". Like, that's his name. Just "The Doctor". The man who makes people better. People in the show always ask, "Doctor who?" "Just the Doctor". That's why the show is called Doctor Who. The Doctor isn't his real name though (but no one knows what it is. There's some horrible, dark secret surrounding it). Since he's an alien, the Doctor can change his face, his whole body, in a process called regeneration. He has regenerated 10 times now, so he's had 11 faces so far. Regeneration only happens when he's dying though. So if you were once confused why several different men would be referred to as the Doctor, now you know why.

Like I said above, the Doctor travels through time and space fighting monsters/aliens and saving planets. Sure, that might not sound very appealing to a lot of people. I mean, typically I'm not into that kind of genre; all sci-fi and what not. However, Doctor Who's sci-fi is different from the typical stuff. You kind of have to watch it to understand, but the intricacy of the plots and the way you're always kept on the edge of your seat in wonder is awesome!

However, the reason most people really love Doctor Who is not because of the primary basis I listed above. Ask any true Whovian. It's because of the pure emotion put into it. Seriously, never have I seen a fictional show that can make you feel so good about life and how important you/everyone is, but also make you sob your eyes out over... whatever it may be. (Of course there's lots of funny stuff too. I laugh my head off a lot of the time).

I found a children's book that somebody made that explains Doctor Who. I'm going to post it here:

So there you have it. A Doctor Who summary. If you want a more in-depth explanation, you can read my posts from a year ago here (also here and here), where I go into detail about time-travel, regeneration, his enemies, his companions, the series background, the intricate plots, the Doctor himself, and well pretty much everything.

If you would like a little brief explanation VIDEO, you can go here. I'd recommend watching it. It explains this sooooo much better than me.

Favorite Movies

Now I am terrible at picking favorites. Those people who know me are well aware of this. I don't have a favorite anything. Favorite type of food, favorite type of music, favorite books, favorite anything. If I like the song, I like the song. It doesn't matter if it's pop, country, hip-hop, rap, jazz, or whatever. It just depends on the song. This goes for anything. If I like the book, I like the book. If I like the food, I like the food. I don't have a favorite type of anything (TV shows are the only exception). This includes movies.

So what's with the title, you ask? Yes, it's true, I don't have favorite movies. Well, I will have favorites, but they'll constantly change. I'll be obsessed with one movie one week and another the next. However, the point of this post is because there are exactly three movies that may not always be in the top spot, but I will never, ever be sick of watching and will probably almost always say yes to watching one of them.

They are as follows:
--The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)
--While You Were Sleeping
--The Mask of Zorro

I'm not sure what is about these three films, but they are just forever endearing to me. I say, time and time again that the plot is what always brings me back. (If it weren't for While You Were Sleeping, I would say that my favorite film genre is somewhere in the swashbuckler category or the secret identity category.)

THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL

TRAILER

PLOT: Sir Percy Blakeney is a typical fop, surrounded by adoring ladies and clueless gentry. However, he is also a master of disguise and bears an infamous secret identity: the Scarlet Pimpernel, dashing and fearless rescuer of victims of the French Revolution! Sir Percy also falls head over heels for the beautiful Marguerite who is also wooed by Chauvelin, Robespierre's Chief Agent for the Committee of National Security.

Also one of my favorite books of all time (actually, probably my only other exception to my "no favorites" rule are books). Of course the book is better, but this movie version is very good as well. I will never get tired of it. The actors play their characters so spot on! Especially the main characters. The guy that plays Sir Percy is just so spot on with all the characters he portrays when he's posing as the Scarlet Pimpernel. And then his foppish Sir Percy is so hilarious and believable, I love it. I love the whole mystery of the plot, the "secret identity", and so on.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

TRAILER

PLOT: Lucy is a lonely fare collector on the Chicago elevated railway who has a secret crush on a handsome commuter named Peter Callaghan. On Christmas day, Lucy rescues Peter from an oncoming train after a mugger pushes him onto the tracks. Peter falls into a coma, and Lucy accompanies him to the hospital, where a nurse overhears her fantasizing aloud, "I was going to marry him." Misinterpreting her, the nurse tells Peter's family that Lucy is his fiancée. The mayhem escalates, when Lucy meets Peter's suspicious yet charming brother.

I love everything about this movie! Even though it's such a ridiculous and unlikely situation, the way it plays out and the way it's written just kind of makes it seem like it could happen. The writing is brilliant, the characters are hilarious, and the plot is fantastic. This movie is so quotable, it's one of my favorites to quote. Lots of people say they always watch this around Christmas time. Please. I watch this year round! I wouldn't exactly say that this is one of the prettiest movies I've ever seen, but I always say that the plot is what always brings me back for round 2, 3, 4, etc.

THE MASK OF ZORRO

TRAILER

PLOT: The original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega, is captured and imprisoned just as Spain concedes California to Santa Anna. 20 years go by and his mortal enemy, Don Rafael Montero, returns to California with a plan to become wealthy at the expense of the peasants. The original Zorro escapes from prison and trains a new Zorro to take his place.

There's just something about this movie in comparison to other sword-slashing, horse-chasing, swashbuckling, adventure films. This one is just so good! The main plot is excellent, and the subplots are just as entertaining and not at all confusing and/or pointless like subplots sometimes are. All the actors play their characters extremely well and are very entertaining to watch. The costumes are gorgeous and the sets are stunning (since most of them are on location). Plus, I just absolutely love superhero-esque/secret identity stories.

Moroni

This is the devotional I gave in my Book of Mormon class based on the reading assignment of Moroni 7-10 (NOTE: "moonwalking bear" is referencing this video).


I think that the obvious can be moonwalking bears within itself sometimes.

People always looks for the lessons and morals in the actual words of the scriptures. And I’m not saying that’s bad. No, that’s great! That’s spectacular! I’m not discouraging it in any way. By all means, study the doctrine taught there. But a lot of people tend to overlook the actual stories and the people or characters in them. We can learn a lot from them.

So I wanted to focus on Moroni himself.

Personally, as I read the scriptures, I think about who is writing it and what situations they are in. As I was reading these last few chapters, I began thinking about Moroni. What an amazing man he was!

He had everything taken from him. His family, his possessions, his country, and his freedom. He had to flee and hide for his life from the Lamanites. He writes in Mormon 8:1, “I, Moroni, do finish the record of my father, Mormon. Behold, I have but few things to write, which things I have been commanded by my father.” This makes it seem that he thoughts that he would only live for a few days or weeks and would only finish the history with a few comments. Of course, he lives for several more years, constantly being hunted.

I’ve got this fantastic book called DEFENDERS OF FAITH by Douglas J. Bell. It talks about the heros of the Book of Mormon from a modern day soldier’s perspective. It’s a really good book, I highly recommend it. Anyways, there’s a chapter dedicated to Moroni and it talks about how soldiers today are given specific training for if they are separated from their troops, or if they’re captured. Like if an Air Force pilot is shot down over enemy territory, this special training is put into play to evade the enemy until they could be rescued or until they could find their way back to their own forces. (The book goes into more detail).

But think about Moroni’s evasion of the enemy for a moment. He didn’t have anywhere to go. South was the Lamanites, the Gadianton robbers controlled the northern wilderness, and (modern knowledge tells us) the Aztecs controlled the rest of the north. The Aztecs were a rather bloodthirsty people who probably wouldn’t have accepted him.

Mormon 8:3-4, 8-9 gives us some insight into his thoughts, “And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfill the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not. Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth; and whither I go it mattereth not... And behold, it is the hand of the Lord which hath done it. And behold also, the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war. And now, behold, I say no more concerning them, for there are none save it be the Lamanites and robbers that do exist upon the face of the land.”

Super sad commentary there. See, by reading between the lines, you can see how lost and without purpose he feels. He thinks it is the end.

Have you ever felt lonely? Without friends or someone to care about you? Try multiplying that by like a thousand and then put your life on the line on top of that. That is how Moroni felt.

When he comes back with his own book, he has more energy and confidence than before. (He’s ONE of the few writers in the Book of Mormon who seems to feel a bit inadequate about his writing). Because previously in Mormon 8:12-13 he says, “And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. Behold, I am Moroni; and were it possible, I would make all things known unto you. Behold, I make an end of speaking concerning this people. I am the son of Mormon, and my father was a descendant of Nephi.”

At the very beginning of his own book he says (Moroni 1:1-3): “Now I, Moroni, after having made an end of abridging the account of the people of Jared, I had supposed not to have written more, but I have not as yet perished; and I make not myself known to the Lamanites lest they should destroy me. For behold, their wars are exceedingly fierce among themselves; and because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ. And I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ; wherefore, I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life.”

Even in the middle of his horrible situation, he still held onto his firm faith and testimony. Of course, we all know about his final testimony in chapter 10. He thought himself lacking eloquence before, but chapter 10 is just so straight forward, and beautifully written.

Moroni 10:2-5 says, “And I seal up these records, after I have spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you. Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”

We think our trials are bad? We think finals are hard? Pfft! This guy had it hard. We can learn a lot from his example.

Me and my Mouth

...wut?

I know, I could go in a whole bunch of different directions with a title like that. It's not what you think. Probably what I'm going to write about is the last thing you'd ever think of. I actually just want to dedicate this to one little quirk of mine: my speech patterns. I have actually managed to figure out the origin of most of them over the past 19 years of my life, so we'll see how this goes.

My biggest "inspiration"

I'm quite proud of my quirky speech patterns. They make me unique. They're one of the few things that I can count on that people will find funny (or possibly, weird) about me. A little bit of them creep into my writing, but for the most part, they stay out and my writing stays professional. My friends and family always laugh and tease me about silly things I say and how I pronounce things. You wouldn't be surprised if I told you that they mostly stem from my childhood TV watching, would you? No, I didn't think so.

I read this article not too long ago that said the subconscious will start assimilating traits from your favorite characters from books and movies over time, the more you watch/read them. Therefore, you will start acting like them, dressing like them, talking like them, etc. You see where I'm going with this?

My first speech "impediment", I suppose you could call it, comes from Tigger. Yes, I have finally figured it out! After years of wondering. Actually several of my speech patterns stem from here, I've noticed, but the biggest one is the pronouncing things as they're spelled. Words like "knight" or "pizza" or "hola" or "hallucination". I actually say the "K" in "knight". I pronounce "pizza" as "pee-zz-uh". I say "hole-uh". I say "ha-look-in-ae-shun". I do this because I grew up watching Tigger do it all the time. Another part of it was that it was a spelling technique I used in school. I knew how to spell it because that's how I pronounced it in my head. Then I just started saying the words like that out loud for fun and to be funny, and it sort of stuck. I seriously cannot drop this one, it's become such a habit that I need to focus in order to say it correctly sometimes. So, it's become a speech impediment rather than a speech pattern.
Also, I suppose this next one is a stick-on to the 'pronouncing things as they're spelled', (although it's not exactly doing that). It's how I sometimes pronounce words with "ible" on the end. Like "horrible" or "terrible" or "incredible". I say "ibibble" instead of just "ible". "That's horribibble!" or "How incredibibble!". This one also got latched on from Tigger. He does the exact same thing all the time.

The second one comes from Tigger as well. Making up words. Tigger would always make up words like "Tigger-nometry" or "hear-llucinations" or "hipper-posterous". I know I've come up with a couple words before, but I've mostly come up with phrases (mostly interjections), such as "Holy fudge muffins!" or "Sweet celery sticks!". Not quite as clever as Tigger, but still. Oh! I've thought of a word I use on occasion: "embarrassible" (embarrassing and horrible combined). You use it as such: "How embarrassible!" or "That's embarrassible."

My third one is the non-descriptive rant. The only one not stemmed from Tigger. I actually mentioned this one recently in a previous post, not by that name, but still. It stems from the TV show, Kim Possible, from watching my favorite character, Ron Stoppable. He would always get hurt or something and cry out saying something like: "Ow! The hot steamy badness!" or "The thorns! They hurt with the poking!". I do that. Point out the obvious and/or be non-descriptive in my rants while under pressure or in pain.

Pivotal Moments in my Childhood

5) THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES CAME OUT

I can hardly remember when the first movie came out, I can barely even remember seeing it for the first time (lame, I know). Same with the second one. The first one I have a relatively clear memory about is the third one, I actually remember seeing that one, but there wasn't anything too special about that experience. I'm sure there was a lot of hype back when the first movie was first announced (of course there was), but I just remember when the last two movies were coming out (the last book split into two parts). Holy cow, so much hype! Potterheads took over my other blog temporarily when the last movie came out.

4) DUMBLEDORE DIED

Goodnightly! Possibly one of the saddest moments of my existence! I got the 6th book shortly before my family and I headed up to Utah... or Idaho? for a Christensen family reunion. I read it during the entire car ride and spent most of my time reading it while we were up there. I can actually remember the exact moment when I read Dumbledore's death. Luckily I was alone, because I was probably pulling some weird faces that would have worried some people. I was upstairs in the Dearden's home (so it must have been Utah!) on my "bed" in the middle of the day, I'm not sure where everyone was. I was very intrigued and weirded/freaked-out by the horcrux experience that I had just read, and then Snape freakin' kills Dumbledore! Oh my freakin' camels on horses! Of all the grrr! I was shocked, then devastated, then furious, then unable to read through my tears. I had to wait forever to talk about it with someone though because NO ONE had finished it! I was like "why do you people read so slow!?!??"

3) KIM POSSIBLE AND RON STOPPABLE GOT TOGETHER

I remember watching the latest Disneychannel original movie back in like 6th or 7th grade, Kim Possible: So the Drama, thinking it was a pretty good movie, even better than the last Kim Possible movie they made, then all of a sudden, it's the end, at the prom, and Kim and Ron are dancing together and they kiss! I was just like, "Whoa! No wait, what?". Then I had rewind and watch again to fully compute, then I was like, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! OMGOMGOMG! 8DDD". And the next day my friends and I were flipping out over it at school. Kim Possible was one of the most popular shows back in the day, practically everybody watched it and just that Kim and Ron had been best friends forever and then they kiss, it was just like I could hear the hallelujah chorus. For some reason, I hadn't really seen it coming, but once it happened, I was unspeakably happy (although looking back, I should have seen it coming, there were lots of things leading up to it).

2) SIRIUS BLACK DIED

Oddly enough, I think I remember this getting more "freaking" than Dumbledore's death did. Probably because it was the first major/likeable character's death in the series. I remember reading the 5th book (it was the first one I read on my own without my mom reading it to me) and getting very into the intensity of the battle at the ministry, then all of a sudden Sirius is dead. It was another one of those moments where I had to go back and read it again and again. Then I was crying, like actual tears were coming out of my eyes. How could JK Rowling do this!?!! He was like my favorite character and Harry's only family and he was awesome and, and... *cries* It was truly devastating and me, my friends, and fans didn't stop talking about it for weeks.

1) DISCOVERING THAT THE DISNEY "D" WAS NOT A "G"

I cannot pinpoint the exact moment I figured this out, but I think every child has this moment at some point in their life. It's just that "Ah-ha!" moment. But seriously, doesn't it look like a backwards "G"? I distinctly remember as a little kid, honest to goodness thinking it was actually a "G", even though I knew it said Disney. I even remember learning to read and I could read the rest of the word "isney", but I still thought that the first letter was a "G", but I just ignored it and thought it was some sort of weird pronunciation/spelling thing. I thought, for the longest time, that you spelled Disney "Gisney", but still pronounced it "Disney". I don't remember the moment when I recognized the "D" within the "G", but I think I was older, after I knew how to read.