Abarat 2: Days of Magic, Nights of War
Book
A dazzling fantasy adventure for all ages, the second part of a quartet appearing at two yearly...
Sarah (7800 KP) rated Onward (2020) in Movies
Oct 5, 2020 (Updated Oct 5, 2020)
A Pixar film with a fantasy setting, what's not to like? It's a great take on elves, wizards and mythical creatures and also relevant to today's society with it's cultural references and technological advancements. And unicorns acting like stray cats? Genius. The plot itself is exactly the type of quest you'd expect in a fantasy, with your typical Disney/Pixar tropes (dead parent). However this story doesn't necessarily turn out the way you'd expect and I have to commend Pixar for not being predictable. Like Frozen before it, this plays out in a rather emotional and heartwarming yet fairly unexpected way. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get any "feels" watching this!
There's no real need to say that this film looks amazing. I think it'd be more surprising if a Pixar film didn't. It also has a great voice cast although my only real negative of this film is that I felt like the cast could've been given more to work with. It may have just been me not paying attention, but I struggled to even notice John Ratzenberger (which is like missing the late Stan Lee in a Marvel film).
Onward is an unusual Pixar film. For me it falls between the aforementioned categories. It's not "bad" enough to just be very good but it's not quite brilliant, although I did enjoy it very much and laughed a lot more than I was expecting.
Rebel Rose (The Queen's Council #1)
7.0
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Happily ever after is only the beginning as Belle takes on the responsibility of becoming queen and...
Chasing Slow: Courage to Journey Off the Beaten Path
6.0
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Chasing Slow models HGTV star Erin Loechner's journey to help you break out of the...
Ooredoo TV
Entertainment and Photo & Video
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Enjoy a whole world of entertainment on the go, watch live TV and Videos on demand wherever you are...
Minifig Collector
Catalogs and Entertainment
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"Minifig Collector" is a must have app for LEGO™ enthusiasts and Minifigure collectors! Take your...
Leela Kids: For 3-15 Year Olds
Education and Utilities
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Techcrunch - "Leela Kids opens up the world of podcasts to children." Lifehacker (Australia) -...
TacoDave (3847 KP) rated Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) in Movies
May 7, 2022
I'll say this: Sam Raimi used to be one of my favorite directors, but with this movie he has officially turned me off the Marvel universe. It is nonsense.
Example A: dreams are actually real events happening in alternate universes, so if you dream about showing up naked to work, a version of you really did that.
Example B: reading the book of evil allows a witch or sorcerer to "dream walk" and inhabit the body of an alternate version of themselves. It never explains how this works, but apparently you can "aim" your dream-self because Doctor Strange is able to intentionally dream walk into a dead body and use it. He can't move between universes, but somehow he can do this.
Example C: the city of Kamar-Taj is destroyed and everyone killed except for Wong and Strange. Yet in the last scene the city is full of warriors practicing. Where did they come from?
Example D: Cool cameos! Mr. Fantastic! Professor X! But they all die. Every single one.
Example E: Wanda's whole motivation is to go to a different universe to be with her kids. But why not go to a universe where Vision is still alive? Wouldn't that be her goal? NEVER EXPLAINED.
It doesn't stop there, but that's a good sampling of how nonsensical the plot is. Nothing is explained, nothing make sense, and rules are made up out of whole cloth. Doctor Strange as a zombie? Sure. How? We don't know.
I'll never watch this again and might not watch future Marvel movies, especially considering you have to watch WandaVision on Disney+ to fully understand this movie.
David McK (3562 KP) rated Thrawn Ascendancy Book I: Chaos Rising in Books
Jun 21, 2022
Mitth'raw'nuruodo.
The blue-skinned, red-eyed Imperial antagonist of Timothy Zahn's 'Heir to the Empire' series of Star Wars novels from the early 90's, and one of - if not [i]the[/i] breakout characters from that book.
Yet to make his appearance in live action (as an aside, I imagine maybe someone like Benedict Cumberbatch in the role), although he is one of the few characters to survive the 'great purge' when Disney bought out Lucasfilm and re-branded the old Expanded Universe as 'Legends', appearing in the later seasons of the animation 'Star Wars: Rebels'.
This is the first in a new trio of novels, with the opening text reading something along the lines of: 'A long time ago beside a galaxy far far away ...' which, in itself, helps set the scene. Beside a galaxy. So we're not in the realms of the Empire/The Rebellion here, or even in the realm of the Clone Wars, although we are - as the novel later makes clear when Thrawn encounters a key character from that period of time - in that particular era.
So, a prequel then? Maybe, but - I have to say- to me, this particular version of Thrawn just somehow *feels* different than that from the old EU. There's a certain Je Ne Sais Qua about that - I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's like meeting the identical twin brother of your best friend: they may look alike, sound alike and even dress alike but there's a certain indefinable *something* that's not quite right ...
Is it this version of Thrawn's political naivety? His seemingly not-quite-so-ruthless tactical genius? I don't know, but I will probably read more to see if/how the character evolves into that I am more familiar with.
Kristy H (1252 KP) Oct 5, 2020