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    PocketSword

    PocketSword

    Reference and Book

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    App

    PocketSword is a Bible Study app for the iPad, iPhone & iPod touch (iOS 8.0 and above) that is built...

Paprika (2006)
Paprika (2006)
2006 | Animation, Sci-Fi
9
7.7 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The DC Mini was created to not only record and watch a person's dreams, but to actually enter them as well. It was created by Kosaku Tokita at the Foundation for Psychiatric Research and was meant to be a form of therapy to help people find the purpose of manic disorders and other manias such as fear or anxiety issues. But when the DC Mini is stolen and the same dream is being implanted into people while they're awake with chaotic results, then the research foundation takes it upon themselves to try and find out who is behind all of this. Tokita, along with Atsuko Chiba and Torataro Shima, are on the case. But who is Paprika and how does Detective Toshimi Konakawa fit into the equation?

Let me just start off by saying I loved this film. It is weird, it is unusual, and it's creatively original. I think those are some of the best reasons to like Paprika other than the fact that the animation is incredibly fluid and crisp and the story is quite good, but we'll come back to those points shortly. With a film like Paprika that is so complex and so good, there's a lot of key points to mention.

There seems to be so much going on in the film even though it pretty much centers around one dream and it's a dream for the ages. One of the things I love about Paprika is that whenever this dream is implanted into somebody while they're awake, they just start spitting this random gibberish that doesn't make sense until you actually see the dream and see this parade. The way this parade bleeds into not only Detective Kogawa's dream, but into the real world is also a sight within itself.

Over the years I've found that not only anime fans but fans of foreign cinema prefer to watch the film in its natural language with subtitles rather than the English dubbed version. I'm not talking about someone who just watches anime occasionally, but die hard fans. The English dubbing used to be pretty bad on a lot of anime titles, but it's either progressed quite a bit since I last watched a dubbed title or this film is an exception. I had no problems watching the English dub of Paprika. The voices all fit the characters, it was synced up well, nothing really sounded out of place. I'd actually recommend the English dub over the subtitled version. The audio, in general, was very good. The soundtrack also fit Paprika like a glove. The music during the parade dream is a perfect example of this.

The animation of Paprika is where the film really shines. Each surreal dream is illustrated beautifully and each cel of animation flows in an almost realistic fashion. It's some of the best animation I've seen in an animated film that isn't entirely CGI. The story also reeled me in since what started off as something somewhat simple wound up being more complex than what I once thought. Most of Tokita's dialogue where he's describing why he created the DC Mini and it's purposes are a huge mouthful of scientific jargon that's hard to comprehend to its full extent on the first viewing of Paprika. I got more than what I expected story-wise and I was extremely happy with that.

Paprika is an extremely well animated, intelligent, trip into one's imagination that I'd recommend to anyone. The best way I can describe the film is by saying it's kind of like Akira with a story that actually makes sense. Track this film down, whether you're a fan of animated films or not. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
  
    LearnEnglish Kids: Playtime

    LearnEnglish Kids: Playtime

    Education and Entertainment

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    App

    Read and watch fun animated songs and stories to help your child develop in key areas in English:...

    SING to READ

    SING to READ

    Education and Music

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    “Educational, great fun and simply the best way to help adults and children understand the choices...

    Peekaboo Barn

    Peekaboo Barn

    Education and Games

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    Open up the world-famous Peekaboo Barn, perfect for toddlers. Inside the little bouncing barn,...

The Chateau
The Chateau
Irene Taylor | 2010 | Fiction & Poetry
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is a DNF (did not finish) for me, I always try my very hardest to complete a book when I'm given an opportunity to review it. The author Irene Taylor has no doubt worked extremely hard her entire life gaining a masters degree and also on this, her debut book but I felt as if I was being spoken down to. What's wrong with ordinary plain, down to earth English? not everyone has a masters degree in modern language. This said, I did enjoy the descriptions of the places and the paintings etc, the author really made these come to life and I wished she'd done the same for the characters. I'm half way thought this book and I still barely know them, I have no emotional attachment to any of them. Sadly I'm kind of bored with it and feel I'm just going through the motions.

Netgalley review
  
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Connie (244 KP) rated Amazon Kindle in Apps

Jun 7, 2018  
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle
Book
10
9.1 (292 Ratings)
App Rating
Wide variety of books available and growing daily (2 more)
Partnered with Audible
Account is transferable from device to device
I can't access English titles from stores based in other countries (0 more)
My go-to for ebooks!
This is an app I depend on daily. I can find everything from hidden gems, free books and classics to wildly popular current titles and even self-published books. Most titles that I want to find are available, sometimes even before the physical copy can be found nearby! Add in that I can get the audio book for a greatly reduced price through Audible if I buy the book via Kindle first, and I'm totally sold on this app. I also greatly appreciate that the books sync across devices, which makes it a heck of a lot easier to keep up with the material I'm reading.

Basically, there's nothing not to love about this app!