Movie Review of Disney's "Tarzan"

Directed by Chris Buck and Kevin Lima, Disney's 37th feature length animated film, Tarzan, was an innovated endeavor that took almost 4 years to create. It was released on June 18th, 1999 and featured the voice talents of Tony Goldwyn (Tarzan), Glenn Close (Kala), Minnie Driver (Jane), Rosie O'Donnell (Terk), Wayne Knight (Tantor), Brian Blessed (Clayton) and Nigel Hawthorne (Professor Porter). The music in this Disney animated film was used very differently than in other animated features. There is only one song that is sung only by a character and that is "Trashin' the Camp" sung by Terk. The rest of the music is sung by Phil Collins and a back-up chorus. The musical score was written by Mark Mancina. There was a new animation technique developed for this film and they call it "deep canvas." This uses a computer to make the objects on the screen appear to be in 3D. The camera is able to move 360 degrees around a character and/or an object. It was an amazing experience to watch. Tarzan is a film based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' story "Tarzan of the Apes." This film focuses mainly on Tarzan's origins in Africa.

Tarzan's family is shipwrecked on the African Coastline

The treehouse his parents built

Tarzan's dead parents

The movie starts off with a montage under the song "Two Worlds, One Family" showing how Tarzan and his human parents were shipwrecked on the beach of Africa and how they build a home for themselves in the edges of the jungle. It also shows the gorillas living together in peace deep in the jungle. The head male gorilla's mate sleeps in a nest, holding her baby tight to her but the baby wakes, sees a frog hop by, gets out of his mother's arms and chases it. The mother and father are waken by noises and discover that their baby has been caught and killed by a leopard. A period of time passes and we see her travelling alone at the end of the group until she stops and hears a baby crying. She rushes towards the sound and finds the baby human in his cradle and the mother and father's dead bodies by bloody leopard paw prints and scratches in the wooden floor.

Tarzan reaches for Kala to pick him up

Kala meets Tarzan

Sabor, the leopard, tries to kill Kala and Tarzan

The female gorilla picks up the baby and decides to keep it and rocks it lovingly in her arms when they are interrupted by the leopard trying to kill them but mainly trying to kill the baby. A fight ensues and at the end the female gorilla is able to escape with the baby.

She arrives back at the group of gorillas and the first dialogue occurs here. The group of gorillas are relived to see Kala (Close) returning to them. A few other females with kids come over to her and Kala shows them the baby human that she's decided to name "Tarzan." The head male, Kerchak (Lance Henriksen) does not want Tarzan to stay with the group he demands that Kala take it back. Kala begs and pleads until he lets her keep it but unlike the baby gorilla they lost, he will not call Tarzan his son. That night his mother starts to sing him a lullaby as they go to sleep that Phil Collins finishes.

Kala shows the other gorillas Tarzan

Tarzan and Terk, age 5

We go forward 5 years and watch Tarzan get ridiculed and teased by the other gorilla kids for being different. He does have one good gorilla friend and her name is Terk (O'Donnell). She helps him get out of trouble with Kerchak but when she goes off to be with her other two gorilla friends she tells him that he can't come with her because he can't keep up and if he could keep up then he could come. Terk arrives at the edge of the cliff where the other two are waiting. She's barely stopped when Tarzan slams into her back. Now, Terk doesn't want her other friends to think she's a weakling or feels sympathy towards Tarzan so she tries to think of a way to get rid of him. Terk then tells Tarzan that to stay with her and her other friends he has to get a hair from an elephant.

So Tarzan jumps off a cliff to go get an elephant hair

We meet Tantor just before Tarzan gets an elephant hair

 Long story short, he gets the hair but causes the elephants to stampede. A baby elephant, Tantor (Knight), is left behind with Tarzan and Terk when Kala and Kerchak get there. Kala is just glad Tarzan's safe but Kerchak is furious and yells at him.

Tarzan sees his reflection

 Tarzan runs off and sits at the edge of a small water pool. He looks at his reflection and sees how different he looks from other gorillas then slams his fists into the water to break up the image. In doing so he gets some mud on his face and he sees that it makes him look more like a gorilla so he starts to put more on himself. Kala gets there and talks with him, wipes away the mud, and shows him the similarities between them and how Kerchak just doesn't understand. Tarzan tells Kala that he'll make Kerchak understand by becoming the best ape ever. This leads into another montage under the song "Son of Man" where we see Tarzan growing up and learning to do new things like swing through the vines and use a spear. We see his friends, Terk and Tantor, grow up with him and by the end of the song Tarzan is 20 years old and fully a man.

Tarzan fights Sabor

He and Terk start to wrestle and Tantor keeps telling them to stop. Then just as Tarzan gets Terk in a headlock he freezes sensing that there is something dangerous nearby. Terk has to yell at Tarzan repeatedly to get his attention and finally release her from his grasp. Then the leopard, Sabor, leaps into the group of gorillas and goes after Kerchak. Tarzan gets his spear and diverts the big cat's attention to him and they fight until Tarzan finally kills him. Tarzan lifts the leopard into the air above his head for all to see and gives them the famous Tarzan yell. Then he takes the body up to Kerchak. It looks like Kerchak is going to finally accept Tarzan into the group when they all hear a gunshot and Kerchak orders everyone to move away from the area of danger.

Tarzan spies on the newcomers 

All of the gorillas follow him but Tarzan decides to go to investigate the noise rather than do as ordered. He finds strange tracks in the jungle and metal bullet casings. Another gunshot leads him to where he sees two men walking through some bamboo. The man firing the weapon is Clayton (Blessed) and the short older man in a safari hat is Professor Porter (Hawthorne). Tarazn watches as they are joined by a woman named Jane (Driver). Then Porter points out that they're standing in a gorilla nest and Jane sees that ahead of them are many more. Jane and her father, Professor Porter, have come to Africa to study gorillas.

Jane shows the baby baboon her sketch of him

Porter and Clayton continue on to look at the other nests when a little baby baboon jumps down to the ground to get a piece of fruit. Tarzan watches as Jane pulls out her sketchbook and starts to draw the little monkey but when she looks up he's gone but then she feels him climb up her back and over her shoulder so she shows him the sketch. The baby monkey looks at it then grabs the whole book and runs off with it and Jane comes running after him to try and get it back. She finally tricks him out of it and he starts crying loudly.

The baby baboon's family go after Jane

Jane hears a noise, looks up and sees that there is a whole tribe of baboons surrounding her up in the trees and they do not look friendly. Jane starts to run and they chase her with Tarzan following. Tarzan manages to help Jane escape from the baboons then as the baby baboon and its parent float by their spot on a tree limb using Jane's parasol Tarzan talks in monkey sounds to the baboon.

Tarzan saves Jane from the baboons

Listening to each others' hearts

Then he gets the sketch from Jane and gives it to the baby monkey. Jane then tries to leave but gets stuck between 2 tree branches and says "It can't get any worse, can it?" It starts pouring down rain right as she finishes the sentence and then she says "Obviously it can." With Tarzan's help she manages to get unstuck. Then they are both on the same tree branch as Tarzan examines Jane and she tries to keep him away. After a lot of confusion, some involving Tarzan mimicking what Jane says, Tarzan tells Jane his name and Jane tells Tarzan her name. Then they hear a gunshot and Jane asks Tarzan to take her to her camp and off they go swinging through the trees.

We leave Tarzan and Jane and watch as Tantor, Terk and some other gorillas go searching for Tarzan. They come across the human's camp although the humans aren't there at the moment. The editing goes from cutting shots of different items back to Tantor's horrified face.

Disney's Mrs. Potts in the camp

 During this we see the pots and dishes from Beauty and the Beast. The gorillas start playing around with all the interesting stuff that make interesting noises. Soon, after the addition of Tantor playing trumpet sounds using a gramophone horn they have a good beat and melody going and Terk starts to sing "Trashin' the Camp" which is really not a song of words but more of a song of sounds. She is occasionally joined by the others singing too. Cut to the other gorillas hearing the noise and heading towards it. Cut to Clayton and Porter looking for Jane who then turn and head back towards the noise. Back at the camp the animals are totally destroying everything and making a huge mess when Tarzan and Jane arrive. Jane stops and stares at the gorillas while Tarzan runs up to Terk and they wrestle a bit as Jane realizes that Tarzan has been raised by gorillas.

Terk and Jane

 Then Tarzan turns around and tries to introduce Terk to Jane when Jane hears something very close behind her, turns around and looks up into the dominating face of Kerchak. He roars at her and she collapses on the ground and tries to protect her head by holding a cooking pan/bowl over it. Kerchak sniffs her all over and roars at Tarzan as the rest of the gorillas, including Tarzan's mother Kala, come into the camp behind Kerchak. Kerchak looks up and grunts at the others in a clear message that says we leave now and you have to follow me. Tarzan starts to leave too but hesitates until Kala pulls him away and they all go off into the jungle. Right after they left, Clayton and Jane's father arrive back at camp. Jane emphatically tries to tell them what happened and they finally catch on when she tells them about the gorillas had been in their camp. They ask where and she tells them that they left and that Tarzan left with them.

Kerchak tells the gorillas to stay away from the humans

Cut to the gorillas gathering around Kerchak in the jungle as he orders them all to have nothing to do with these creatures but Tarzan argues against him and starts to leave when his mother says to listen to Kerchak but Tarzan looks at her very accusingly and says "Why didn't you tell me there were creatures that look like me?"

Cut to Jane in the camp trying to explain to her dad and Clayton about Tarzan using a blackboard and chalk. Clayton scoffs at her but right when he's about to say that she really only just imagined Tarzan jumps down into the camp. Tarzan starts to imitate Clayton while Clayton tries to ask him where the gorillas are. It isn't working so Jane says "Mr. Clayton, I think I'll take it from here." Now insert montage under the song "Strangers Like Me" of Tarzan learning how to be human including language lessons.

Tarzan learns to read

Jane learns to swing on vines

Tarzan shows Jane his world

The volume of the music lowers as Clayton insists Jane ask Tarzan about the gorillas because the ship that will be taking them back to London could arrive at any day. So Jane asks but Tarzan says no because of Kerchak. Segue back into full volume song as Clayton gets madder and madder trying to find out gorilla information and Tarzan continues to learn new things. The song ends when Tarzan sees the last slide from the projector come to light. It is a slide of a man down on one knee offering a bouquet of flowers to a woman. He goes out and makes a bouquet and brings it back to the camp the next day but he finds the camp crawling with people packing and carrying things to a huge ship off the coast. He hears Porter and Jane begging the captain to give them more time but he says no and his crew continue to pack and haul things out to the ship.

Tarzan tries to get Jane to stay

 Tarzan tries to give the bouquet to Jane but she asks him to come with them to England but also tells him that he wouldn't be able to come back. Then Tarzan gets on one knee, offers Jane the bouquet which she accidentally knocks most of the flower petals off of and says "Jane must stay with Tarzan." She starts half heartedly to tell him reasons why she can't stay but Tarzan says "Jane... stay. Please." Jane says "I can't," and then runs away from him crying. Clayton comes over and insinuates that Jane would stay if Tarzan showed her the gorillas. Finally, Tarzan agrees and he takes them to their nesting area after having Terk and Tantor create a diversion and lead Kerchak away from the group.
Tarzan leads Jane, Porter and Clayton to the gorilla nesting area where they find Kala waiting for Tarzan. Tarzan tells Jane that Kala is his mother and tries to introduce them but Kala backs away from them, fearfully and into the jungle.

Tarzan show Jane and Porter the gorillas

However, as he tries to call her back and Jane and Porter try to help more gorillas appear all around them up in the jungle trees. Clayton gives an evil grin and marks the location of the gorilla nesting area down on his map. Jane plays with some baby gorillas and Porter gets groomed by some of the gorillas and other gorillas try to take Clayton's possessions. The Tarzan teaches Jane a phrase in Gorilla. He tells her that she said "Jane stays with Tarzan." Jane then starts to try to explain that she can't but suddenly Terk and Tantor appear ad right on their heels comes Kerchak. Kerchak tries to attack the humans but Tarzan holds him back and yells for them to run. They do. After he lets Kerchak go, Tarzan stares down at his hands as if he cant believe what he has done and when Kerchak accuses him of betraying his family he runs away into the jungle.

Tarzan's real family

Kala finds him and finally shows him where she found him and that she isn't his biological mother. She just wants Tarzan to be happy and if he wants to go with Jane then he can. Still, she cries when he comes out dressed in his father's clothes indicating that he is leaving with Jane. He tells her "No matter where I go, you will always be my mother."

Cut to morning on the beach where Tarzan meets the other humans and they get into the row boat to ride in so they can get out to the big ship. A minute right after they're on their way, Tantor and Terk arrive on the beach calling out to Tarzan and Terk gets mad because he never said goodbye. After she angrily throws some rocks into the sea Tantor looks at her and says "I'm gonna miss him too."

Now back to Tarzan and the others whose rowboat has reached the big ship. When they climb aboard they are attacked and captured and thrown into the cargo area with the captain while Clayton and his men head out to capture all of the gorillas to take back to England and sell. Clayton makes sure that Tarzan knows it's his own fault for telling them and showing them where the gorillas were located before he leaves to attack them. Tarzan gives out a very loud yell of "No!" Which echoes out over the sea to the edge of the jungle were Terk and Tantor are. They hear it and deduce that Tarzan is in trouble but Terk doesn't want to go help him. She's still mad that she didn't get to say goodbye but Tantor knocks some sense into her and they go out to the boat and help release Tarzan from his prison. He immediately heads out to save his family.

Clayton and his men attack the gorillas

Cut to the gorillas right as the bad humans start their attack. The battle goes downhill and the enemy is winning until Tarzan, Tantor, Terk, Jane, Porter and a herd of elephants arrive. They all fight and ultimately win when Tarzan fights Clayton who gets caught and tied up in a ton of vines and accidentally hangs himself by trying to cut his way free with his machete.

Clayton accidentally hangs himself

It starts to rain. Tarzan heads back to the others and sees that Kerchak has been fatally shot. As he lays dying, Kerchak finally accepts Tarzan as his son and tells him that he must lead their gorilla family now that he will not be there to do so. Then Kerchak dies and Tarzan takes his place as leader of the group.

Kerchak dies

The next morning Tarzan says goodbye to Jane and Porter on the beach. As they row out to sea Porter tells Jane she should stay since she obviously loves Tarzan and he succeeds when Jane jumps out of the boat and runs through the water to get to Tarzan and knocks him over in a rush to kiss him.

Jane and Tarzan kissing

It only takes Porter a few minutes to realize that he wants to stay too and he says to the man rowing their boat, "Captain, tell them that you never found us, eh? After all, people get lost in the jungle everyday. Tootlepip." Then he jumps out of the boat and swims to meet the rest of the family on the beach. Before he gets there Jane goes up to the other gorillas and tells them the phrase Tarzan taught her in gorilla language, "Jane stays with Tarzan."  Everyone cheers and there is a reprise of the song "Two Worlds, One Family."

Swinging through the trees

 During the song it shows Tarzan and Jane swinging through the trees together and as they land on a branch and the camera goes past them you hear Tarzan's famous yell. End credits start rolling here.

The End

The voice actors and the animators did and amazing job of portraying the characters, both human and nonhuman, and they definitely met my expectations. The use of the "deep canvas" technique made the world around the characters seem more real and in turn made the characters seem more real.

The film techniques in this movie included the "deep canvas" as I mentioned before which made the world look 3D and not flat. They used light in a much different way in this story than in others. In most movies light symbolizes safety and darkness danger but in Tarzan the opposite was true. In the darkness of the jungle the gorillas and Tarzan were safe but wherever light was there was danger. Another thing they did that stood out to me was right after the animal villain was killed the human one shows up and is wearing the same color as the leopard's coat. The music in this Disney was used in a way much different but just as effective as previous movies. The characters did not sing any of the songs except one. Most of the songs were background music accompanied by film montages. It was a very good technique and definitely help set the mood of the movie.

Example of the "Deep canvas" technique

I would definitely say you should go watch this movie. Mostly because of the new usage of music and to see the "deep canvas" technique but also because it tells a new story of Tarzan that the other movies made about him do not do. It shows his life growing up in the jungle with the gorillas instead of his travels in Europe and America. So yes, go see this movie!

Tarzan Screenshots

Self Evaluation for working on the short film "A Poker Hand"

I don't actually know if this is supposed to be published to our blogs but I think that it would make a good blog journal entry so here goes:

Working on my film, "A Poker Hand," was harder than I expected due to the fact that the only two people making this film were Christina Harper and myself. I tried to cover all the bases that I could so that I wouldn't be a burden to Christina. Starting the whole project off was when my script was chosen to be used for a short film. I was very happy and excited that my ideas and thoughts on paper were going to come alive onscreen. I was prepared to be the Director as well as Screenwriter and Editor because to start off with here were 3 people in my group. When that person dropped out I also had to become the Cinematographer. This was not an easy thing to do but lets continue from right after my script was picked. So the first thing I needed to do as a Director was Storyboard and Cast the actors necessary to make the film. While I did this Christina scouted locations, looked into permission contracts if necessary and a whole bunch of things that the Producer has to do and she mainly composed the Production book herself after asking me for my input for the different things that belong there. So I casted the 4 actors, Andrew, Shea, Kelly, and Paige to play the characters. I casted Travis Spangenburg to be the Narrator. So let's met the cast and crew of "A Poker Hand."

Andrew Andrulewicz played "The Man"

Shea Lee played "Carol"

Paige Newman played "Alice"

Kelly Towles played "Brie"

Travis Spangenburg played the "Narrator"

Christina Harper is our wonderful Producer

Me, the Director

Andrew the Cat was our Moral Support

 I Storyboarded the short film out and ran into a problem.  My Storyboard had almost 90 cells in it. (Also, since we had no location solidly picked out it was impossible to be sure of whether or not what I was storyboarding was possible. So I just hoped for the best and went on with the program.) I knew that there was no way that I'd be able to get all the shots I wanted so after I wrote down a shot list I went back through it at the same time as i was going through the script and cut some of the shots that were not necessary to the story or that, with no budget, were impossible to get filmed. I still had a ton of different shots that I wanted listed and it came down to being on set and seeing what was possible to do in the time that we had and made further cuts to the shot list from there. We got lucky and were able to find a place to film that had a bathroom that one could see from a poker table in the room next to it. However, the place we found had a window and that mean that we would only be able to do night shoots since that is when the action occurred. After seeing the set it was very apparent that many of the things that I originally wrote in the script were not possible to do with this location so that, while compromising some of my ideas, helped shorten the shot list. I learned basically the first day of shooting that I would not be able to get my dream film done exactly as written. I had to take the time to decide what changes I needed to make so that the essential plot and feel of the film stayed the same.

Bathroom part of the set

View of the bathroom from the poker room

Poker Room view of the set

While it was difficult to do, I sacrificed some shots and costume/makeup ideas so that we were able to get the film done. I was not going to be able to paint all of the characters' faces one whole color so I changed it to just putting a card suit symbol on their cheeks, when that turned out to be impossible to keep constant, I sacrificed it to help with continuity. This was also the reason that the brandy bottle and glasses were cut from the filming. Continuity was the main issue I looked at when I was going over the revised script and making even more changes. I made sure that none of my actors was wearing any jewelry so that that wouldn't be a continuity problem and with the help of Shea made sure the makeup each actor wore remained the same throughout the days we were shooting which is in itself no small task. The biggest continuity problem that I came across while editing was the placement of the poker cards and poker chips. I had to scrap many takes for that reason.

Our biggest Continuity Problem

One of my duties during filming was to check out the camera, lighting, and sound equipment for us to use to shoot our film. I had to check it out from Pam Sears and carry it all across campus to my dorm which caused me pain in my shoulders and back. I made sure we had this everyday we were shooting after my mistake of the first day and forgetting to check out sound equipment.

With the help of the girls in the production, I was able to costume everyone in somewhat the costumes that I wanted when I wrote the story. My biggest concession on that part was accepting the fact that the wig we were able to get was not going to make the character look older since it was pure white. We tried to dirty it up but nothing worked and I eventually accepted the fact that this is a student film and that we had to work with what was possible and not necessarily what I really wanted. The only person that did not contribute to costuming was Andrew which is totally understandable when you think about i. Since he's a guy it is unlikely he would have had the clothing and items necessary to impersonate a woman. So Christina and I were able to get him a costume so he could impersonate a woman out of our combined wardrobes.

Andrew becoming the old woman with the help of Shea Lee

Andrew wearing the horrible White Wig

During shooting I ran the camera and Christina held the boom. Christina also helped set up lighting equipment while I set up the camera and the set itself. She helped me dress the set and rearrange the lighting so that whomever we shot would be visible.

Lighting the set

I also ended up choreographing the fight sequences for 2 of the deaths by myself and 1 of the death's with Shea's help. The fake blood I had bought at Party City to use in this sequence was toxic and Shea wanted to have blood coming out of her mouth after she died. So, I came up with a concoction that looked like blood but was not toxic to eat. It consisted of maple syrup, red food dye and I mixed in powdered sugar to make the syrup thicker. The result was quite pleasing to the eye but not to the stomach. It actually looked better than the fake blood I had bought so we never ended up using the fake blood that I bought, instead we made more of the syrup and powdered sugar concoction. I never tasted it myself because I knew it would be nasty but Shea wanted the blood so she was willing to use it for the few takes we had to get the shot done but it was obvious that it tasted horrible.

Screenshot: Blood dripping from Carol's mouth

Filming the shots myself turned out to be somewhat better I think than having a separate cinematographer. I was able to see what I was getting and when I got to the editing I already knew what I was dealing with. After 5 days of night shoots, our filming process was completed and we all went out to he Waffle House that night after 12am to celebrate. It was kinda funny and odd since I got their first. There were a couple of policemen sitting at a table near me while I was waiting for the others to get there and I still had stains on my fingers and hands from making and using the bloody concoction. I felt kinda like a criminal almost caught red handed. However no one asked about it and anyways it smelled like syrup and I was in a Waffle House. One thing that helped prove the validity about whether the blood looked real was when Andrew arrived. He still had some blood on his arm near the elbow that he was having trouble getting off his skin so he picked up a napkin and started to wipe it off but it wasn't working well then one of the waitresses came over and asked if he needed a band aid. We all laughed and explained that it wasn't real blood and we had been shooting a student film and everyone laughed. One thing I can now do to basically anyone in the production is whenever we're together and there is a bottle of syrup nearby, I can point at it and say, "Inside joke." Then most of the cast would laugh but Shea would get angry since she's the only one who actually tasted it.

From Left to right: Paige, Shea, Kelly, and Andrew
All in their costumes on the last day/night of shooting

After filming most of the work fell to me to get the piece edited on time. So I sat down with my Mac and iMovie and started going through the almost 4 hours worth of footage taken to make this 6 minute film. It took awhile but I was able to come up with a decent preliminary edit to show my cast and crew mate Christina by Tuesday. My next job was to mix in sound and music to add to the film. And let me tell you it is almost downright impossible to find any music in the Public Domain in the USA. I tried and finally ended up using sounds from Freesound.org for almost all the effects and music. The only exceptions were the two pieces of music with lyrics that I did find in the Public Domain. After I added those into the film Christina came over and together we put together the end credits making sure to name every single job that someone had to do and put their name by it so they would get credit for doing it. With that done we went over the bloopers I had pieced together for the cast copies of the DVDs which I'm almost through with. I just need to add the credits to the end of it. But that's not a required part of our project so it can wait. After finishing the edit it was time to transform it into a DVD. I sent the project to iTunes and sent it from there to my DVD maker software. I came up with a menu and background music that works really well. So my DVD is now made and ready to be turned in. Actually it was ready last Thursday so it could be turned in on time on Friday but then we got an extra week to work on it and I made just a few changes before declaring it finished. I am trying to upload it to  this blog but I don't know if it will work. It wouldn't do it the last time I asked it to.

Screenshot: Girls discover that "He's a guy!"

So if it doesn't load which it doesn't appear to be doing, make sure you watch it in class or get a copy from me. And I hope you enjoy "A Poker Hand," a short film made by myself and Christina Harper aka Crazy Cat Productions.

Movie Review for "Stardust"

Stardust is a film directed by Matthew Vaughn starring Claire Danes (Yvaine), Charlie Cox (Tristan Thorn), Michelle Pfeiffer (Lamia, head of the three sister witches), Robert De Niro (Captain Shakespeare), Sienna Miller (Victoria) and Ian McKellen as the voice of the Narrator.

The movie starts off with a prologue segment narrated by McKellen as he tells the story of a boy who lived in the village called Wall in England who wrote to the Royal Academy of Science 150 years ago asking them a question. They thought it was a practical joke but still wrote a letter to him telling him that his inquiry was not possible and that there could not be a hidden kingdom/universe on the other side of the wall bordering his village. We watch as Dunstan Thorn (Nathaniel Parker) tries to get past the wall's ancient 24 hour guardsman (David Kelly) to see if there really is another world on the other side because from this side all it looks like is just a field. He tricks the guard and finally gets past the wall and ends up in another world. He walks around a festival marketing area and meets a slave girl who gives him a lucky snowdrop flower in exchange for a kiss. After her mistress leaves for a moment she takes Dunstan inside her mistress's wagon home but before they get in Dunstan sees that the girl has a magic chain tied around her ankle that whenever cut or broken instantly snaps back together. She tells Dunstan that she is a princess who was tricked into being a witch's slave and it is that chain that holds the her in the witch's power.  Dunstan cuts it to try and free her and holds a piece of it but the other two pieces connect together and she is not free. Then they go inside the wagon.

We zoom out of this area until we see a map with England on one side and the magical kingdom of Stormhold on the other so the scientist who wrote Dunstan was wrong. Dunstan returned home that night hoping his adventure would soon be forgotten however nine months later he received an unexpected souvenir. The guard hands Dunstan a basket with a baby in it and tells Dunstan that the name of the child is Tristan. We pan up to the night sky with stars shining brightly and in their midst the title of the film,  "STARDUST" forms from stars that quickly go away leaving the sky the way it was before the title was shown.

Long story short, Tristan captures the fallen star for his "love Victoria but on his way back people are chasing after him in order to steal the star and kill her and eat her heart to gain immortality. Along the way they meet strange people, good and evil, and have help getting further on their journey. Almost at the end of the trip Tristan realizes he loves the star, Yvaine,  and not Victoria. Confusion makes Yvaine believe Tristan doesn't love her and she is captured by 3 evil witches who are going to kill her until tristan shows up and with the help of his long lost mother sets her free but the way the witches get destroyed is by Yvaine, doing what stars do best, shine. Then it turns out that Tristan is the long lost heir to the kingdom of Stormhold and so becomes king with Yvaine as his queen and after they reigned for many years they used a babylon candle to travel to Yvaine's home in the sky where they still shine together. And that's the end of the movie.

The actors in Stardust met my expectations and they portrayed the key roles very well. With the help of an original and unusual storyline it combines comedy with fantasy in a pleasing way. The romance was a good example of how false love wants proving actions while true love does not require all actions to prove their truth.

The film used many techniques that help bring the story alive. The costuming was wonderful and help reflect the inner character that wore them. Tristan's costume suggested an innocent young and handsome adventurer. Yvaine's costume reflected the fact that she was once a star with the shimmering silver dress as her first costume it's not hard to imagine her as a fallen star. The costumes of the seven princes (both the dead and the living since they all eventually die) helped reflect their arrogance and feelings of superiority. The setting for the film was fantastic and the special effects and CGI were top notch. The music helped give a sense of this fantasy wold but also had themes that echoed our world today. It helped pull everything together.

Definitely go see this movie. It has a refreshing and original plot (even though it is an adaptation of the book by the same name it is still original since the book's storyline is original) which is fun to watch. The story is so refreshing to me since it does not follow the same plot line as other fantasy movies. The scenery and costumes are another great reason to go see this film. So go see it! And enjoy watching it!

Blog Journal: Watching Films and listening to soundtracks

Recently I've been watching films to review without listening to their soundtracks separately. I decided that after I reviewed The Hunger Games I would buy the soundtrack and listen to it and see if I could place the music at the right time and where it occurred in the movie. I listened to it in my car as I was driving home. Some things stood out to me like the fact that there aren't very many vocals used in the soundtrack except on one song "Horn of Plenty" which is the anthem for Panem. However I realized that when I had watched the movie I had not even noticed that there were words during this particular part of the movie, where the Tribute Parade happens. I also found out that the music tracks on the CD were not in the same order as they were in the movie. Some were but some weren't. Also there was one piece of music not used in the film but it was in the soundtrack. It is called "Countdown" and obviously, if it had been placed in the movie it would have occurred at the start of the Hunger Games right before and after the tributes leap off of their pedestals and run to the cornucopia. I could match it in my head with the action that occurred in the movie. The decision to keep only what Katniss hears during that part of the movie must have been decided after this particular score was written. Another thing that bothered me was there was no finale to the music and no end titles music. But the music itself was good and was pleasant to listen to.

Media Literacy Topic #3: Part B - Stereotypes and Genres

List as many stereotypes as you can.

Blondes are all air headed and not smart.
People from the country are rednecks and all act like hillbillies.
People from the south all speak like Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind and they are not as smart as people from the north.
Popular people are not normally very smart people.

Is there any truth to the stereotypes you listed? 

Some.

If yes, how?

A few of the stereotypes have people in them that act in the way that is expected of them which causes the whole group to be judged by one or a few people and not actually everyone in said group.

Give one of the stereotypes being used in a movie.

Blondes are air headed.

Why do you think it was used?

It was used to disprove that the said stereotype is typical of all blondes.
This was used in the movie Legally Blonde in which the movie portrays that not all blondes fit that specific stereotypes. Blondes can be very smart.

Was your reaction to the stereotype positive or negative?

My response was positive.

Why?

I'm glad the movie showed that not all blondes fit the air headed stereotype which in turn helps people understand that stereotyping is not really the best way to judge another person.

List as many film genres or types as you can.

Action/Adventure
Thriller
Horror
Comedy
Romantic Comedy
Suspense
Drama
Documentary
Animated

Do any of the genres you listed use specific stereotypes?

Yes

What are they & how are they used?

A lot of Action/Adventure movies use ruggedly handsome males to portray the lead role
Horror movies use blondes to be killed first because they believe they are stupid.