• 12Dec 09

  The Princess & the Frog - best movie ever?

  

  So by now I'm sure you've heard all of the hullabaloo surrounding Disney's new animated feature, The Princess and the Frog. It featured Disney's first black princess, which raised quite a lot of controversy before the film's release. It was also Disney's attempts to return to form, to recapture the spirit of the Disney revival of the late 80s/early 90s. Disney had a lot riding on this one. Personally, as a huge fan of Disney, I had high hopes as well. My anticipation for this movie was sky high; every time I saw a commercial for it I would shush everyone in the room, and when we finally got to the theatre on the day of the film's release, I was so excited that I was literally bouncing in my seat.

  I am so happy to report that it lived up to all of my expectations. It's got that wonderful Disney charm that so many of us were hoping for. Tiana is a great addition to the Disney princess line up. She's hard working, sassy, and talented, one to make her own destiny instead of waiting for it. Despite the film being set in the 1920s, she's a modern girl.

  Speaking of setting, the New Orleans backdrop is exquisite. New Orleans is a city that I'm very familiar with, and that I love dearly. I've traveled a lot, and it's definitely in my top five of cities I've ever been to. My university is about an hour and a half drive from New Orleans, and I take a couple of trips down every semester. It's truly an enchanting place. Disney has captured it in a beautiful way. When I first saw the St. Charles streetcar, pictured above, my heart soared. The animators captured the city in breathtaking detail including things that would be easy to miss like the black iron poles used for tying up horses, still seen throughout the French Quarter. The music in the film is incredible, blending gospel, jazz, and zydeco, staying true to the unique Louisiana character.

  The characters are endearing, my favorite being the trumpet playing aligator, Louis. He's the source of a lot of the funny moments in the movie, of which there are many. As a little girl, I grew up loving Disney movies and all the princesses. Beauty and the Beast is the first movie I remember seeing in theatres. My little sister is now 9, and so all through my teenage years I was watching them over again. They're so familiar to me. I don't remember the first time I heard the songs, or the first time I laughed at these now familiar jokes. With Princess and the Frog, I will remember everything. I find that pretty cool.

  I adored the film. I know most of you are guys who have little to no interest in Disney princess cartoons, but go see it if anything at all makes it interesting to you. It's a beautiful, beautiful film.

  With that said, hey d00ds, what's up? Been awhile! Speaking of New Orleans, two pretty cool things happened there this semester! Mailer_Daemon came to visit me on his fall break. It was fun! On another N.O. trip (I told you I take a few ), I went to THE BEST CONCERT I've ever been to, of The Swell Season. It was a magnificient, beautiful night. If they come to your town, even if you've never heard of them, I encourage you to go. I left that concert feeling full of hope and just marvelling at how beautiful life is. Funny how music can do that.

  • Posted Dec 12, 2009 1:34 pm PT
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• 2Sep 09

  Professor Layton & the Curious Village review/short story up!

  I had a lot of fun writing this. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think!

  Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 9.5

  • Posted Sep 2, 2009 10:19 am PT
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• 29Aug 09

  Beautiful Katamari review up!

  Hey everyone! I hope all of you are doing well! For those of you who have recently started school again, I hope the transition has been alright! Summer 2009, you were a good one! I just started back, and I have a feeling this is going to be a busy, busy semester. If you see me around less, that's why. It's going to be good, though... I'm really excited to be back at my uni in the states... it's been nine months because of my time in England, so it's good to see all these people again!

  I know I teased this awhile ago, but I just finished my Beautiful Katamari review. I gave it a 7.0. I liked the game a lot, but it was undoubtedly missing some of the greatness of its predecessors. We Love Katamari is easily the better game, which is disappointing... no one likes it when a sequel is worse than the games that went before it! It's still fun, though, and worth the $20 it goes for now. You can read the review here. Next up will be my review of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Should go up soon, maybe even this weekend! My BK review was very traditional, but I want to do something fun for the Layton review. We'll see how it goes.

  Something else fun happened this month - I was Gamespot's moderator of the month for August! You can check out my cool little red badge in my profile, but not for much longer! I was selected due to a writing contest we had... the objective was to write an article that we thought would benefit the Gamespot community. I wrote about tips for acting respectfully on the forums. You can check out the article the Moderator Collective! I'd love to link it to you properly, but Gamespot's HTML error hates me and never lets me do what I want. Here's the link: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/unions/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26997413&union_id=15969 (Note to the power's that be: PLEASE FIX THIS IT MAKES ME SAD!). While you're there, consider becoming a member of the Moderator Collective! It's a way for users of the site to get to know us mods better. Also, here's the mention of me being MotM in Gamespot's Community Report. For being MotM, GS sends us a game. My choice was... Bioshock? I know, I know... it's old as dirt! Still, I've never gotten around to playing it and have really wanted to. Since I chose an old, cheap game, Jody let me pick two old, cheap games! Fun times! I also got Mass Effect. Looking forward to playing both of them now that my Xbox is finally back from getting its RROD repaired!

  That's all for today loves. I hope you all have amazing weekends!

  • Posted Aug 29, 2009 11:35 am PT
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