Living in the small town of Tawau there wasn’t much to do except go to school, go for tuition, swimming classes, art classes, music classes … you get the drift. It was all work no play for Eva’s mom. Our only form of entertainment was a video player and tons and tons of taped and retaped Disney cartoons.
Hence, I grew up watching Disney animated movies such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Dumbo (I cried my eyes out), Bambi (I cried my heart out), Pinocchio, Lady and the Tramp, Robin Hood, Oliver and Company, Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Book, Aristocats, 101 Dalmations, Sword in the Stone and the Rescuers.
Later on, I was stuck on Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, the Little Mermaid, the Lion King, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch (a favourite), and much later on, Pixar animated films like A bug’s life, Monster’s Inc., Toy Story 1 and 2, Finding Nemo (a favourite), Ratatouille, the Incredibles (my all-time favourite) and most recently Bolt and Up.
Disney is also responsible for movies like Enchanted, Hidalgo, the Princess Diaries, Pirates of the Carribbean 1,2 and 3, High School Musical 1, 2 and 3 (the only Disney movie listed here that I did not watch), National Treasure 1 and 2.
I’m looking forward to The Princess and the Frog and Rapunzel.
Wow, I’m such a Disney geek.
Okay, ramblings aside, Disney was synonymous with Happily-Ever-Afters, Prince Charmings and Princesses, villains in all forms (related or not) and good triumphing over evil or bad.
Everything was clear cut; everything was black and white; everything was simple.
From all those years of ‘research’, here are some of the typical themes in Disney movies.
Fairies use wands and have oddly-proportioned wings.
e.g. Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Pinocchio.
Stepmothers are evil.
e.g. Snow White, Cinderella (and because these two are the forefronts of the Disney heritage, it will forever be imprinted in our minds that stepmoms are evil)
Villains exist in family circles.
e.g. Snow White and her stepmom, Cinderella and her stepmom+stepsisters, Simba and his uncle, Scarface.
You can be the hero or heroine only if you have no parents or just one.
Snow White (orphan), Tarzan (orphan), Aladdin (orphan), Mowgli (orphan), Peter Pan (orphan), Wart aka Arthur (orphan), Simba (only mom), Dumbo (just Mom), Cinderella (where’s her father?), Ariel the mermaid (only Dad), Nemo (only Dad), Tarzan’s gf, Jane (only Dad), Princess Jasmine (only Dad), Pocahontas (only Dad), Bambi (just Dad), Belle (only Dad).
Exceptions: Hercules (doesn’t know who his parents are), Mulan (they only come in at the beginning and at the end), the Incredibles (it’s a family so this does not count.)
There’s always a tinge of royalty somewhere.
Aladdin’s gf is a princess.
Cinderella’s bf is a prince.
Ariel, Snow White, Aurora are princesses.
Belle’s beast is a prince in reality.
Tarzan, Simba, Bambi and Pocahontas are royalty in their own lands.
Hercules is major royalty – son of Zeus aka Greek God.
Princess in the movie Enchanted and the Princess Diaries are a little off the tradition but still, princesses.
Female villains have very weird hairdos or hairpieces.
e.g. Ursula in Little Mermaid, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, Cruella de Ville in 101 Dalmations, the stepmother and step sisters (Prunella and Godzilla –whatever their names are) in Cinderella,
Princes and princesses are incredibly good-looking, have flawless skin, are well built , are not stuck up and have good morals too. The kind of people you look for in dating services.
All Disney princes and princesses
Animals talk. Particularly if you are a dog or cat.
All Disney cartoons.
If you’re the hero or heroine, you can definitely sing in tune.
All Disney cartoons.
If you’re the villain, you can definitely sing in tune.
All Disney cartoons.
If you’re a talking animal, you can definitely sing in tune.
All Disney cartoons.
The good always wins in the end and happily ever after is a definite must.
All Disney cartoons.
The last one is probably one of the strongest reasons why we all love Disney. Deep down inside, everyone is looking for a happy ending and whilst our ending does not come after the credits, at least when we are in the cinemas or in front of the telly watching a Disney animated film, we forget all our worries, submit to the stereotypes and succumb to that nonsensical notion that good will forever be triumphant over evil.
Showing posts with label Magic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magic. Show all posts
Sep 29, 2009
May 29, 2009
The King and Queen of Music
There was a time when loving Celine Dion was cool. Now, it's cheesy... but I don't care. I still love her. Another artiste I love would be ... Elvis. Yes, Elvis Presley. I love his songs. I don't know all of them but I like the ones I do know, including the one called If I Can Dream.
Put one of the biggest selling female artiste in the world together with the King, the one of the biggest selling artiste of all time and you will get this. Oh, and did I say that it's a live performance? A duet of the weirdest kind?
Lovely isn't it? The first time I bumped into the video above, which has been watched more than 1.37 million times, I spent hours searching for the explanation of how those two could be placed on stage with the video playing at the background over and over and over and over again. What can I say? I'm a fan.
Back to the explanation: No, that is not an impersonator. And no, it is not live CGI either. The fact is... both Elvis and Celine were not on stage in front of the AI audience when the performance was broadcast. In fact, Celine was not in the house (couldn't resist) the night the performance was shown on the American Idol stage, or to be more precise, on the screen.
The audience you see in the video is actually pre-recorded, as was Celine and as was Elvis (a few decades earlier). The three components were painstakingly pieced together: Celine performed in front of a green screen, Elvis was 'cut' out of an original video he was in (you can find it on Youtube, his mannerisms in the original video were exactly like in the video above), brushed up and placed on an imaginary stage with Celine then the audience was added in, and voila! Jaw-dropping performance. Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that for the scenes that show the back of Elvis; that was a body double. Everything else was done through the magic of technology.
Don't you just love dreams coming true? ...If I can walk
Put one of the biggest selling female artiste in the world together with the King, the one of the biggest selling artiste of all time and you will get this. Oh, and did I say that it's a live performance? A duet of the weirdest kind?
Lovely isn't it? The first time I bumped into the video above, which has been watched more than 1.37 million times, I spent hours searching for the explanation of how those two could be placed on stage with the video playing at the background over and over and over and over again. What can I say? I'm a fan.
Back to the explanation: No, that is not an impersonator. And no, it is not live CGI either. The fact is... both Elvis and Celine were not on stage in front of the AI audience when the performance was broadcast. In fact, Celine was not in the house (couldn't resist) the night the performance was shown on the American Idol stage, or to be more precise, on the screen.
The audience you see in the video is actually pre-recorded, as was Celine and as was Elvis (a few decades earlier). The three components were painstakingly pieced together: Celine performed in front of a green screen, Elvis was 'cut' out of an original video he was in (you can find it on Youtube, his mannerisms in the original video were exactly like in the video above), brushed up and placed on an imaginary stage with Celine then the audience was added in, and voila! Jaw-dropping performance. Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that for the scenes that show the back of Elvis; that was a body double. Everything else was done through the magic of technology.
Don't you just love dreams coming true? ...If I can walk
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