Frozen

So, two weeks ago (same time as the final of melodifestivalen) I finally sat down and watched the latest animated movie from Disney, Frozen. The good parts is that is very good animation, the music works alright (of course Let it Go is one of the better songs) and it's fun to notice the small throwbacks to other Disney-movies. Most oblivious is the wall painting dresses during the first song. There's a golden Belle dress, a blue Cinderella dress, a red Sleeping beauty and the mulch-colored Snow White dress. Or I believe it's hinted at those dresses.

Is it something wrong then in the movie? Too many damn songs. This is the reason I started disliking the Disney Renaissance in the 90's since there was song after song and it felt like love songs or how do you feel. Of course that could also be due to me turning into a teenaged boy. Really, it was huge for me that Atlantis didn't have a single song. But that's nothing compared to here when the songs literary stacks up on each others. Then the story, it works fine about sisters love for each other, what does true love means and love at first sight etc. but compared to the original story of the Snow Queen where this lonely girl travels all the way to the north pole to save her best friend from the clutches of the Snow Queen as he's slowly dying from the mirror shard turning his heart to ice and only through the girls love (more akin to friendship) his heart un-melts and they escape. 

And my sister mentioned they intended the snow queen to be evil in the beginning, but after doing Let it go, they changed their mind (which I clearly saw as that scene ends on Elsas "evil sexy grin"). They should have kept that, show some more disaster of the eternal winter brought upon them and ended with Elsa realizing her wrongs and sacrificing herself for her sister, forcing her childlike sister to grow up (seriously, she annoyed me quite a bit about her behavior and attitude) and if we still need a happy Disney ending move forward a year next winter and Elsas restored to herself with the first snow of winter since... she is the snow queen, the end everyone's happy. And freaking show how cold-hearted Elsa has become and don't let the driving conflict of the story be a simple communication problem between them. That bugged me as well. Maybe I'm to old for Disney movies these days.

15 days later

What happened? Last I can remember was watching the final of Melodifestivalen and then right before the result my mind is completely empty, who won? Sanna Nielen won with two measly points with a ballad over the more energetic Ace Wilder? It's the Eurovision debacle of 2003 again when Sweden undid the chance for Belgium to win by not giving them a single point. The swedish people has a lousy taste. Well, that shows my thought on that spectacle, why didn't I write about the final 5 episodes of the mysterious cities of gold? Well, the renovation of my parents house now reached the stage that it's impossible to live there so we recorded the episodes, but as things look I won't be able to see them until May. If they were recorded properly.

 

So what have I been doing in the meantime? Well, after much searching I was able to find the whole series of Peter Pan no bouken (trans. Peter Pan's adventures or Peter and Wendy), an anime from 1989 which I watched on Fox Kids (which later become Jetix and later transformed into Disney XD). Now, as a child I only watched a couple of episodes, and most were from the second half of the series, which had very little to do with the original story (or the disney movie which I'm more familiar with. Mostly the final episodes when they are in Maze Castle and the ending. Although until I watched the series from start to finish I thought I missed the final episodes, and I can see way cause it feels rushed. 

The first half is the kids coming to Neverland, fighting Hook and establish the characters, but this format changes when.Hook fools Tinkerbell, kidsnaps Wendy, traps Peter and blows up their hideout. Only by the sacrifice of Tinkerbell Peter prevails. So they set out looking for her and suddenly there is a dark magician destroying the land, a princess Luna who tries to help them and battles her own destiny. The ending occurs at the dark castle as the dark magician and Luna has fused and actively tries destroying Neverland forcing Hook firing a cannonball causing Wendy and Luna fall into the black mirror. Inside a battle for Luna's soul occurs with Wendy being knocked unconscious and Luna's inner child stabbing her evil side turning the black mirror white. Then it pretty much sends the children home, we jump a few years into the future and Wendy's daughter Jane follows with Peter instead.

There's no resolution to plots like John and Tiger Lily (she even disappears after the first half and are mentioned twice) and the ending feels to short, after they exit the white mirror and the new Queen Luna appears it directly cut to her waiving goodbye to the others as they fly away on their ship. No moment to reflect or explain in more detail what happened or so. Aside from that it was a fun nostalgic walk down memory lane, sadly only japaneese voices, but probably for the better since I found one episode with the Swedish dubbing, my god. I would probably prefer the English, if I could find more than snippets of episodes.

Endgame

So what happens? Well I must have missed part of the beginning since they seem content with the situation trying to get out of the desert together. Meanwhile Mendoza search for the kids and gets attacked by bandits sent out by Zares. Of course he beats them and give chase for their leader. Sancho and Pedro follows. They all meet up outside the temple and enters, discovering that the place is booby traped by some madman and it gets worse as Zares attacks. Mendoza fights him of for amoment until Zares corners him at a gore. Sancho and Pedro tries to help, but are thrown besides Mendoza and then Zares strikes the earth throwing the men to their doom. The kids hide and then falls into one of the traps by the madman and Zares is seemingly chrushed by a boulder (I would presume he survives).

Now who is there to save them? Ambrosius who tricks the madman and puts him to sleep with some gas and we learn that they have been mislead since the eyes they searched for originated in the Himalayas, Shangri-La anyone? Ambrosius heads of and Tao follows him believing the spaniards are dead and the culmination of the Mu-Atlantis conflict. Estaban and Zia searches and eventualy finds them (it's a children show after all) in a opening in the mountain. They head of and reunites with Ambrosius and Tao, which also leads to the resolution of the conflict. 5 episodes to go.

The Atlantean Problem

So the big reveal of the first minutes is that Estabans forefathers is from Atlantis, which Tao overhears, establishing a couple of episodes of antagonism between the main characters. Which feels rather forced. IT'S OVER 10 000 YEARS!!! JESUS! Did his parents brainwash him into hating atlantiens that was belived destroyed at the same time? That's plausible I guess, but he has known Estaban for months, he saved him from the Olmecs and so forth, why should it matter? And really, both civilizations destroyed each other in a cold war turned nuclear as said by the High-Priest of the city of Gold aka Estabans father... oh, alright, maybe Tao has legimitate concerns in disbeliveing it, but it still feels forced on screen.

Anyway, Ambrosius brings forward the Mu pyramid which they blast with the dragon statue revealing semi-holographic shapes were one seems like a encycopedia with blue-prints, symbols and text in Mu. One symbol they identify as a carving in the gobian desert so after taking the old man to his home they head west to an oasis. There they refill their rations and promis to guard a merchants wares so they can stay. Meanwhile the fued gets worse between Tao and Estaban until the night after a swim... where I guess we get a throwback to one of the Manchu Pichu-episodes of the first season where Tao and Estaban bathed in the nude, but this time with Zia (of course completely covered by the water). She fakes a Jaws-moment to get the boys to save her and stop feuding each other. Doesn't help and after an interlude by a camel Tao accidently scares it and Estaban gets lost in the desert. Tao and Zia gets to him, a sandstorm breaks out and the fued reach it's climax and Tao disapears in the storm.

I can see how it on papers seems like an epic downpoint in the story, the kids seeing a split based on their forefathes who caused the destruction of the greatest civilizations on earth. Sadly it feels a bit rushed with just that fact caussing it. Maybe it also linked toward Tao's inferiority complex toward the other kids since in the lastest episodes he wasn't of much use since he isn't one of the chosen and doesn't have a medalion, he also almost caused their death. Still, lashing out on a close friend, also the only friends he have had is a bit hard to take just at face-value. Maybe with flashback from his parents or the story of the evil atlanteans to make us symphatize, at the moment it just feels out of nowhere and stubborness from his side.

The Child of the Sun

So Estaban is dying and they showed the scorpion sting again so I just missed it. How to save him? Zia gets flashbacks to flashbacks when her father talked about healing snake venom and then when she met the head monk of the shaolin temple and got some herbs. Or more accuratley seeds. How to get the blades necessary? Go back to the secret garden and open a glass container and replace the seed since the "flame oven" seems to create a 5-seconds life cycle of each plant. Then I made the connection that this must be a seedbank in case of the destruction of mankind (which in the show happened with the thermalnuclear war berween Atlantis and Mu). Of course replacing an unknown plant with a common herb feels abit... destructive. Well, they get back and put them on the wound and they have to wait the night out. Now we also goes back to the ravine and a hand is show, perspective shift, and we see someone climb ups walking toward the kids. Obviously the old man survived. He and Tao searches for an exit until dawn.

Meanwhile the grown-ups sneak above the wall in the airship and Mendoza sneaks in checking out a mirror where a crystal pyramid is hidden behind. Why? Is it really Mendoza? I might imagine things, but sometimes when he move it sounds like a thump, is it Zares? Anyway, Ambrosius compass acts up and they land finding an opening in the earth. They procced to blow it up.

Of course this is near the kids and the blast lets the sun in filling the cave with light, and of course this awakens the child of the sun, Estaban. They get out and the children run around in the light with a music score that sounds a lot like something from original series. To be continue!

The Secret Garden

So Estaban and Zia finally gets out of the maze and enter, what I pressume is what the title alludes to, the garden (still with fantastic music). Some sort of flowers that grows as they come near encased in glass. Some sort of fire burn in a container. They place the golden statue in front of it and the black pearls comes of and rolls into the fire (one must question if it rolled accidently right since it seemed to roll of center or if something drew it in). Then it procceds to levitate out and back to the statue, the statue glows up blinding the screen and then... nothing. Except maybe the pearl glowing. They decide to get out.

Meanwhile Tao tries to climb down, but are trapped on a cliff (with scorpions appearing on the wall). The old man notice a disturband in the vegitation and avoids getting chrushed, but destroying the door mechanism. Of course it's the captain. After a chase the old man is cornered at a ravine ith only a dagger to decend himself. The captain charges with his sword. It ends with both falling backwards and we see the captain fall down (I assume the old man clings on to the cliff or something like that since it is a kid show). Our second death everyone (if Mayuka isn't released from the temple that is).

Mendoza and gang tries to fix the airship and of course Sancho and Pedro fires of a couple of smoke bombs. A neat thing is that the preview from last episode made it look like the mongols would attack them, but in actuallity they fled, leaving this kid behind who Mendoza captures. After clearing out that missunderstanding they finally flies of.

Outside the maze Estaban climbs up and rescue Tao from the cliff and scorpions and they take the elevator up, closing the hole below them. Zia and Tao starts looking for the old man, Estaban meanwhile starts to loose sight and then falls, stinged by a scorpion. Poisoned near death, I know how it feels buddy. If we saw him get stung I don't know, I probably missed that. Will he survive? Well, yeah obviously, but how is the question. And the answer is on the next episode.

Doin' the Omoralisk Schlagerfestival '14 (4)

And here it comes, the hard rock group with the very similair sounding bas and drum pattern. I don't know exactly which song or artist for that matter, could be either Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica or Marilyn Manson for what I know. Oblivious plagiarism. Sadly that was one of the better songs. Other remarkable songs, or more correctly noticable, was some ballad with a girl all dressed in blue. Not much of a stage show, but it was decent enough. The other one was another rock group with a girl as a singer... they didn't make. Really better stage presence, but the song really wasn't as good as the hard rock group. The first two went to the second chance, the finalist was this boy... copy of all other boy... acts? And lastely this veteran schlager group... appearing in this disco ball with a song about disco. The rest... unnoticable for me... I belive, might as well have been easily forgotten which is a huge problem for this kind of songs.