Friday, July 29, 2011

I Need Your Help!


I need your help! I've finished planning the skeleton of a new story. However, what I need a lot of, I don't know too much about. What I need you to do is come up with some vampires, new and old, and say who they are, what they're from, and if they're the antagonist (bad guy) or protagonist (good guy) in their movie/book in the comments box. For example, the "good guys" would be New Age Vamps, such as Edward (Twilight) and Darren Shan (The Vampire's Assistant) and the bad guys would be like Dracula (Dracula) and Count Orlek (Nosferatu). However, for the hugeness of the story, I can't use four vampires if there's going to be a huge "war" between the New Age Vamps and Dracula's Army. In case you're wondering what this is for, here's the poster:

So use your knowledge. And in advance, thank you for your help.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

TV Movie Review: A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!


Last night, Nickelodeon released a direct-to-TV movie based off its hit series The Fairly OddParents, A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! The movie features teen favorites Drake Bell and Daniella Monet along with adult favorites Jason Alexander and Cheryl Hines in cameo roles.

The story is about Timmy Turner, the young pink-clothed character from the TV show, as an adult, still in the 5th grade, still living with his parents, and still has his fairy godparents. His parents desperate to get him out of the house so they can retire and head fairy Jorgen wanting him to grow up, Timmy does all he can to act like a child to still have his beloved godparents... and their Poof. However, when Tootie, an ugly girl from his child-childhood, returns to Dimmsdale as a, according to the story, beautiful woman, Timmy begins falls in love, much to the dismay of Cosmo and Wanda, his fairy godparents. Meanwhile, Mr. Crocker, Timmy's teacher, joins forces with Hugh J. Magnate, Jr., an anti-nature guy who wants to destroy Dimmsdale Park to build a hotel/oil well, to capture Wanda and Cosmo to make their evil wishes come true.

While the show sometimes gave me a headache, the movie actually pleased me. The movie replaces most of the show's crass humor with a theme and perfect plot structure. The show shows a young boy who gets fairies and uses them to wish for rather selfish things, hardly for anyone's benefit, and all is fun except for antagonists.

The movie has the following pros:

  • Nostalgia: It's refreshing to see that the creators of the movie haven't lost gags from the original series such as Crocker's fairy-spams and brings back old characters, such as the Mayor of Dimmsdale and Chompy the Goat, AJ, and Chester.
  • Dimensional Villain: You can't have a good movie without a villain with a purpose other than world domination. Magnate is a man who wants the things that his "daddy" never gave him or let him do such as play in a ball pit, go in a playground, and have friends.
  • Good Conflict and Resolution
  • Good Theme: Selfish to Selfless
  • Acting: Drake Bell does a good job as Timmy Turner and David Lewis brings back the craziness of Crocker.
All in all, I think that Grow Up, Timmy Turner! is the best thing that's happened to the OddParents series since the Wishology trilogy.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

School Project: Hobbit Trailer

This is my favorite school project thus far. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy The Hobbit fan-made trailer! Here is the link.

(I'm starting to really dislike Blogger's video embedding options and formatting!)

Thursday, April 7, 2011

A Visit to Hobbiton

I think that this'll be my most acclaimed fan-fiction yet on this blog. I'm not going to go into much Kingdom Hearts lore and will try to merge the two together like it was a normal level in the video games. I plan to include several of Tolkien's characters. I expect comments from Hobbit fans. Enjoy this first chapter, based on the first two chapters of the novel. I'll try to put something together. I wanted to post this earlier, but conflicts arose. Well, here it is! "Hey Sora, look! A new world," cried Donald from the cockpit of the Gummi Ship. "Gawrsh," said Goofy. "It looks like there's something going on down there." And indeed there was. Only very few times were they able to see consequences from outside worlds, but they saw fire spurting from this world, which looked like a mountain plain and forests from the heroes' view. They decided to land in this world, Hobbiton, to solve the problem down there. After they hid the Gummi Ship behind some trees they found, they left the trees and saw something they had never seen before: tiny, fat, hairy people walking in and out of houses in a hill! One of them walked by them. Not too far behind the pudgy man came a taller but short, bearded man- a dwarf! But they realized it wasn't just one dwarf; there were two- no,three-four-five-six-there were twelve! "Well, this sure beats Snow White!" exclaimed Sora. Trailing behind was a Man with a magic stick. "Hey, sir," said Sora to the wizard. The wizard turned towards them in response. "What's going on around here?" the Keyblade Master asked. The wizard replied, "This is The Hill in the Shire in Hobbiton. I am Gandalf the Grey, a very well-known wizard, especially to Mr. Baggins. Twelve dwarfs and I and Mr Baggins are going to reclaim the dwarf's treasure. Don't worry; He invited me to tea, so I thought I bring a few friends with me. (He's got enough room in that hole of his, anyway.) Would you like to join?" "Sure," Sora answered. "I'm Sora, and this is Donald and Goofy. Who are the," Sora struggled for words to refer to the Hobbits in the proper manner without insulting them. "The hairy men?" he went with. "Oh, them," Gandalf said. "They are hobbits, fat because they eat six meals a day, but are kind peace-loving creatures. They like to party, but they dislike machines. Notice their bright clothing and hairy feet; their feet are like the soles on your shoes. They live here. Now to Mr Baggins' house." And so they followed Gandalf and the dwarves. The dwarves sang songs on their way to the hobbit's house which Sora, Donald, and Goofy couldn't help but try to sing along to.
March! March! March! March!

To the burglar's house.

March! March! March!

To get our treasure back!


The evil dragon Smaug

Killed the dwarfs in fog!

So we will go and kill him and get our treasure back!


March! March! March!

With the wizard Gandalf.

March! March! March!

So we'll be happy once again.



Some dwarfs got excited and ran to the hole in the Hill once they saw it. Sora, Gandalf, the iconic Disney characters, and a rather proud dwarf and three others. Then at last they came to the Hobbit's door. "Yes, this is the one," Gandalf assured himself. He knocked with his magic stick. Gandalf noticed Sora, Donald, and Goofy's rather bad posture before entering a hobbit's home. "Look sharp!" Gandalf scolded them.


The three stood straight like soldiers and stayed rigid even after the hobbit opened the door. The dwarfs got impatient and tried to squeeze past the Animals and the Men, but Gandalf tried to keep them back while trying to push the three heroes forward, knocking the three of balance, which Gandalf repeated, and the dwarfs went flying from Gandalf incidentally kicking them; this made a rather big mess on Mr Baggins' front door. The dwarfs got up, rather grumpy, and passed the Animals and the Men. "This is why we don't like Animals," and "Men can't get shown the door," the dwarfs mumbled after they introduced themselves before the hobbit.




"Gandalf!" the hobbit cried.




"Well, you did invite me for tea, and we've got some things to plan out," Gandalf answered.




"Well, at least you brought dinner," Mr. Baggins said, looking at Donald. Donald jumped in fright onto Sora's head. "Ah! It talks!" the hobbit cried. The hobbit ran away, obviously distraught. After the unexpected party had some drink and some food, Gandalf announced why they were meeting here at The Hill. They were to journey from the Shire, go through the Misty Mountains due to their being a shortcut to get to the dragon Smaug. A dwarf named Thorin explained the sad story of how the dwarfs once thrived with treasure, and were attacked by Smaug who destroyed everyone and everything in the town, except for the dwarfs' treasure which was kept in the dragon's cave. Thorin's ancestors saw the entire scene before their eyes outside the village. "And in the midst of this mission, some of his may not return, some may not live, or we all shall live or perish," Thorin stated gravely. At this statement, the hobbit fainted.




After a few minutes of recuperating, the Hobbit came and was ready for the mission. He sent everyone out for an early morning. The next day, Sora waited with the dwarfs at a local tavern for the Hobbit. "Gawrsh, don't you think it's been a while?" Goofy asked.




"Usually he dusts his mantelpiece. He must not have found our note this morning. I'll go grab Bilbo," answered Gandalf. Not too long after, they were off on magnificent horses and ponies to the Misty Mountains. As they trotted along, civilization seemed to decrease. Shadows began to emerge, turning into awful beasts with menacing, yellow eyes that showed no expression. "Great toadstools!" exclaimed Gandalf. Bilbo yelped in fright. "Protect Bilbo, dwarfs. That's an order! The Animals, the boy, and I will take care of the creatures of Shadow!"




"Heartless," muttered Sora. He slashed at the closest one by him with his Keyblade sending it back a little. It began to swim towards him with increasing speed until it jumped at him. Sora thrust his Keyblade up, causing the beast to dissipate. He turned to see Gandalf and Donald throwing magic spells at the Heartless and Goofy defending the dwarfs from the oncoming swarm. Sora threw his Keyblade at a horde of the shadows. Gandalf, upon realizing the coming of the darkness of the night, conjured up a powerful spell, making light from his wand spread for miles upon miles, clearing any sight of the Heartless.




"Make haste!" ordered Gandalf. They finally came upon a resting place during a torrent of rain, making everyone gloomy.




"Hey, where's Gandalf?" asked one of the dwarfs.




"That darned wizard deserted us!" Thorin cried, followed by a couple of curses.




"Hey!" cried Bilbo. "What's that over there?" He pointed towards a fire in a forest.




"A fire in this weather is beyond me," mumbled a fat dwarf. "Hey, burglar! Go check it out."




Bilbo gulped. What have I gotten myself into? he thought. He ran off to see the fire because arguing was futile. Time passed. The rain was getting harder and harder and didn't seem to stop. Sora sneaked off to help Bilbo, followed by Donald and Goofy, and eleven dwarfs. Thorin said, after they ran off, "I don't care about the hobbit. If he's killed, what do I care? What about your people, Thorin? Well, uh, well,.... And if the hobbit dies, then the mission is failed and the treasure shall never be achieved and Smaug will continue to bathe in it. Oh, all right!" And off Thorin ran, carefully and stealthily.




Sora turned the corner to see Bilbo being tossed around by some trolls. "I've never had burrahobbit before. I wonder how they taste," One of them said.




"Well, you're not gonna know!" Sora said, jumping out from the trees and kicking one of the trolls into the fire. It screamed in pain and punched Sora, who became trapped in the arms of the another one of the trolls. Goofy managed to bash one in the head with his shield, knocking it down, but became trapped himself in a sack with Sora right behind him. Donald tried fighting back with a flurry of spells, which the trolls brushed off.




"Perhaps we can eat this duck instead?" one of the trolls suggested. Donald quacked in fear and shot a fireball in that troll's face, an icicle in another's face, and sending lightning down on the last.




"Never mind. He burns my tongue," the duck's captive said.




"He's too cold," cried the second.




"Shocking," said the last. The trolls stuffed the three in a sack. They expected more intruders and grabbed several sacks, and captured the dwarfs, even Thorin, who threw a good fight.




"So I say kill the duck (he's overcooked, that temper of his), and eat the rest," said one of the trolls.




"I say kill them all," said a voice that sounded awfully like one of the troll's.




"Why would we do that, you idiot?" replied one of the trolls.




"You said it!" another replied.




"Or we could eat them all!" rang in the voice.




"Not the duck! Not the duck!" yelled another. And the trolls kept arguing like this on and on and on.




"And now, trolls, Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!" Gandalf cried. And with that, the sun came and the trolls turned to stone. Donald managed to finally burn his sack open, and Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Gandalf freed all the dwarfs, who were once again, rather grumpy.




"Search the trolls' hideout!" Gandalf suggested. And they found different items such as swords and food that would indeed help them later on.




"Follow me to Rivendell. I know someone there who can help us," said Gandalf.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Redemption for Kingdom Hearts?


As I was playing Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, I started thinking about fan responses to the extra titles of the series. Re:coded, the lowest critically rated title in the series, 358/2 Days, and Birth by Sleep are the extracurricular titles that Square Enix has released. Now SE has the mainstream Final Fantasy series where its games have virtually no connection to each other, and spinoffs and other non-numbered titles. Why do we love the extra Final Fantasies, and get antsy about Kingdom Hearts non-numbered games? Today, I began to think that Tetsuya Nomura has gone a little giddy about bonus games. In fact, he didn't want to make a midquel between Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 at first! Then he decided to make a story about Roxas which was generally well-recieved, a prequel to the series, which was praised for its innovative gameplay, and a true sequel to the second game, which fell below expectations. And even now we have not received the extremely-asked-for Kingdom Hearts III. However, he may have a purpose.

Kingdom Hearts started out as a little experiment: Will a video game combining family Disney and teen-to-adult Squaresoft be a success? It was and a sequel was inevitable. Two came, one receiving mixed reaction and the other being praised. Due to unanswered mysteries in the last game, Square Enix decided to make a game about the prologue's character ( the latter which was overly well-loved). 358/2 Days could, in a way, be counted as fan service as not much to the story is added-it's just a minuscule gap filler to decide what fanfiction writer was right. Then Square decided to get on the ball to reveal the true identity of the saga's main antagonist, Xehanort, to set the stage for Kingdom Hearts III and Dream Drop Distance. While it is a gap of time in the canon, it gets players excited of what's to come. Now Square could cut right into Kingdom Hearts III, right? A small question could be answered in the very beginning to make Kingdom Hearts III a direct sequel. Wrong. Instead of explaining plot holes in a conventional book or short film or interview, Square decided to make an episodic video game for phones that virtually no one used, then re-release it on the Nintendo DS (which, come to think of it, could have been less frustrating and had better plot presentation and execution). Now that one question was answered in 24 hours (a considerably short time to beat a video game, compared to the previous installments lengths of around 40-60 hours), we finally have what we have today.

Now with the semi-annoying voice acting of Bret Iwan voicing the greatest cartoon character on earth, and coming to the finish line with a lackluster entry, Square Enix has one last chance to prove whether their bonus entries should be played anymore with Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance on the new Nintendo 3DS portable console. From gameplay videos seen in January, there's so much potential for the 3D game. However, potential doesn't automatically equal great game as seen with Nintendo's 3D Steel Diver. In order for people to stop whining about Kingdom Hearts III, Square Enix needs to make 3D have a killer story and lovable characters along with making it lengthy enough to keep people occupied. Right now, the concept is great and it seems like its going to be equal to, if not better, than Birth by Sleep. While old foes will return, as confirmed by the trailer, hopefully Square Enix will learn from their Re:coded mistakes and not Re:do them again with this new portable installment.

As for Kingdom Hearts III, since it will close a saga in the series, it will be a grand finale. At first, when they announce a new installment in this series that's not a redo, I imagine the boss battles and how epic they are going to be. But then I realized, even if you have epic bosses (speaking of which, I was initially excited about replaying bosses in the DS installments, but after Re:coded, I wish the game was better), you need a epic closer. Kingdom Hearts II did a rather fine job of potentially ending the series, but a breath still remained. Kingdom Hearts III should have great graphics. As a former PS2 lover and a Wii devotee, I originally wished that an installment for the Wii, but after seeing some of the mediocre Wii graphics, Kingdom Hearts III needs to be on the PS3. The voice acting in Re:coded bored me when watching the video replay, so Square Enix needs to be sure to have passionate voicing. Kingdom Hearts III has a weak skeleton right now as 3D hasn't been released yet, but what Square Enix should keep in mind is to have bone-tingling dialogue and heart-warming characters and an epic finale story. If they don't accomplish the latter, they'll have to bring back Xehanort for another battle and that would be pointless.

Well, that's my opinion. If any of you have anything to object or add or want to say anything, tell me and everyone else who reads this blog, put it in the comments box below!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Valentine's Day Poem

This is a bit belated if you count it as a Valentine's Day poem, but if you count it as any old poem, enjoy!

OH! One so fair,
Do I dare?
Why does love give me a scare?
I can't live a life of hate;
Bu, oh, can I wait?
Yet chills come when I think of a date.

Candy! Candy!
It would come in handy.
I could spell out my heart
without having to part
From embarrassment
(Yes, that would leave a sentiment).

But hey, why not?
She's hot.

NOTE: This poem reflects no inward feelings but rather a cute rhyme for a grade. I feel in no way that I should do any of these things but I was illustrating a character.

Teacher Note: "Funny!"

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Stories to Come

Well, recently I've had some brainstorms and I've decided to release some of the names of the ideas. (Don't worry, a true post will be coming up soon; I'm still finishing the E3 equivalent of blogging. [Nerd joke])

First off, fans of my favorite story on this blog will enjoy that I am considering a Super Smash Bros. Meets Kingdom Hearts sequel.

Second idea: During a roadblock on the road (don't ask), I drew a character sketch. This sketch inspired an amazing, epic, explosive plot. This story is so epic that I will not reveal its true title, also because it is foreign and a major plot point in the story. So the only name I will give you is Codename: Anime Adventure.

While writing this post, I thought of an idea that retro story fans will enjoy: A true Spudd sequel story! In case you don't remember who the Spudds are, David Spudd was prominent in the Phantom of the Keys story. If you still don't remember, visit the archives on the left, click the 2008 arrow, click the following May arrow, and click new feature.

I'm writing some books right now, so perhaps I'll include some preview excerpts to entertain you. So please comment. I want to hear your hype over these stories, and if you have an idea, post in the comment box, and I'll try to make something of it in a new Novel Idea segment! So c'mon and let me know!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

What's To Come

I guess the last two posts you could call a teaser of what's to come, but this here is the kickoff.

So you've seen a few videos that I could not resist posting, but this is what you should really expect this year:

  • More Short Stories. I think I'm gonna have some tricks up my sleeve.
  • {NEW} Poetry. I wrote a Valentine's Day poem a few days ago so expect that and more if it's well-received.
  • Videos! What random blog is without videos that inspire or entertain a writer?
  • Plain-Normal-Random-Posts-Like-Normal-Posts-That-You-See-Almost-All-The-Time Posts. Need I say more?
  • Reviews. I need to help my readers in deciding what to watch/play, so this is for YOU and my pleasure. (Heh, profit and pleasure. Bonus points if you can tell me where that phrase ("Profit and pleasure") is from before APRIL 8. I'll give you a hint:
Louis: Well, hello, Dolly!
Dolly Levi: Oh, how d'you do, Louis?
Thornton Wilder: Before you two start singing an iconic song from a well-known musical, would you please take notice to the play I wrote about a certain Dolly Levi, HORACE VANDERGELDER, and Cornelius Hackl? I'd rather not hear "The Merchant of Yonkers." I mean Shirley Booth was in the movie version! Thank you.

Do you think I made it too subtle?)

  • {NEW} Testimonials. As you grow up, you realize how strange the world is. Other times, you just want to share about vacations.
  • Well, this part here belongs to you. Feedback. Haha. Just kidding. I won't force it out of you, but I would like some.
This year will be rather fine, so I hope I haven't lost any readers. But I ask of one thing: Make this a bookmark or a tab on your internet browser, 'cause I'm gonna post somewhat frequently. See ya then.

Friday, February 18, 2011

The Most Emotional "Wicked" Video Ever

This was Kristen Chenoweth (girl in white)'s final performance along with Idina Menzel. If you think about that and the lyrics and the acting (when you can see it), you can tell how heart-warming it is. This isn't even acting. This is real, heartfelt emotion. Before you watch this, bring a box of tissues. No matter how tough you are, if you listen and watch this with the background meaning, you'll cry. Enjoy.


Sunday, February 13, 2011

Awesome Video

This video is of a girl singing a majority or "Who I'd Be" from Shrek the Musical while playing the piano. I just happened to come across this and needed to post it.




This is the original:

A blog (formerly) dedicated to film: reviews, news, and everything in between.