Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 animated film directed by Tim Burton and released by Walt Disney. It has a powerhouse cast, mainly composing of Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway. The film is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. In the movie, the now nineteen-year-old Alice, 13 years after her last visit, returns to Wonderland as a young woman and with a new mission.

Plot. In a garden party, nineteen-year-old Alice Kingsleigh is suddenly confronted with a marriage proposal. Confused, she runs away and encounters a rabbit in a blue waistcoat. She chases after it and then accidentally falls into a large rabbit hole. Alice is transported to a world called Underland. There, she meets the White Rabbit, the Dormouse, the Dodo, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The strangers argue whether she is “the right Alice” who is bound to slay the Red Queen’s monster called Jabberwocky and restore the White Queen to power. The group is found and then chased by a group of playing-card soldiers led by the Knaves of Hearts. However, Alice escapes into the woods.

The Knaves of Heart tells the Red Queen about Alice, and immediately, she orders the soldiers to find Alice. Meanwhile, Alice finds Mad Hatter who is consequently seized by the enemies when protecting her. Instead of going to the White Queen, she proceeds to the Red Queen’s castle and pretends to be a servant named “Um”. She learns that the only weapon that can kill the Jabberwocky is the Vorpal Sword which is locked away inside the Bandersnatch’s  den. After befriending the monster, Alice escapes the castle and delivers the sword to the White Queen. Yet, the Queen gives her the sword for only “Alice” can fulfill the destiny. To clarify her confusions, Alice meets with Absolem the Catterpillar and is reminded of her past visit to Underland, which she mistakenly called “Wonderland” at the time. With her memories returned, Alice finally takes courage. Also, the Hatter is saved by the Cheshire Cat from execution and then calls for a rebellion against the Red Queen.

When the Frabjous Day arrives, both the White and Red Queens meet on a chessboard-like battlefield and from their armies, they send forth their chosen champions – Alice and the Jabberwocky. After a difficult battle, Alice wins the battle. As a punishment, the Red Queen and the Knaves of Heart are banished to the Outlands. The White Queen gives Alive a vial of the Jabberwocky’s blood which can take her home. Alice bids farewell to Underland with a promise to return.

Alice goes home. She then stands up for her family and vows to live her own life.

Commentary. Alice in Wonderland is a unique and refreshing version of a favorite children’s tale. Here, Alice has grown up and returns to a dull, chaotic, and dark Wonderland. Compared with the tale, the movie has less adventures but more drama. The young woman Alice finds her true self in the Wonderland, while fulfilling a great prophecy. Despite the dark atmosphere of the setting, the characters are very delightful, humorous, witty, and engaging. It is really feels great to see the familiar characters, yet now in Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI). It is nostalgic and dramatic at the same time. Though the images are really plausible, the movie is not very different from other such films which have better visuals than plot.

Actors. The actors in the film have done well, especially Johnny Depp (though the design and look of his character here is reminiscent of his other roles) and Anne Hathaway. I guess they all fit perfectly well into CGI.

Reception. Alice in Wonderland is a huge commercial success, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 2010 worldwide (behind Toy Story), and the sixth highest-grossing film of all time worldwide. It is also director Tim Burton’s highest-grossing film, as well as the highest-grossing children’s book adaptation.

Critically, the film received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an average score of 5.7 out of 10. In Metacritic, it received a rating score of 53 out of 100. 

Rating. Alice in Wonderland is visually excellent but the whole movie itself rests on ordinariness. So I would have to give it two and a half stars out of  five.

Deception

Deception is a 2008 thriller film starring Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman, and Michelle Williams. It is written by Mark Bomback and directed by Marcel Langenegger.

Plot. In separate chance encounters, accountant Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) meets Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) in a boardroom and a mysterious blond woman (Michelle Williams) in a subway. The next day, Jonathan contacts Wyatt and they play tennis after work. While having lunch, Wyatt switches their phone and only later that Jonathan realizes it. Jonathan tries to reach Wyatt but he is unsuccessful. Soon, a woman contacts him through Wyatt’s phone and arranges a meeting in a hotel that night. Jonathan agrees and the following day, he presumes that Wyatt must be on some kind of an exclusive sex club.

Wyatt calls Jonathan and encourages him to continue his participation with other list members. The club is secret, encounters are random, and there must be no exchange of names or conversation between partners. In the weeks that follow, Jonathan participates with several partners. Incidentally, one of the women he encounters is the blond woman he earlier meets in the subway.  Based on her pendant, Jonathan names her “S”.

Later, Jonathan stumbles on “S” again but when they are already on the hotel, an event shakes Jonathan’s world. He is about to return to his room from getting an ice when he discovers that “S” is gone and that there is blood on the bedsheets. He goes home and found Wyatt waiting for him. For him to see “S” again, who is held captive, Wyatt must steal $20 million from an investment firm he will audit in a few days.

In the succeeding days, Jonathan discovers revelations about the secret club. More painfully, he founds out that “S” is also a conspirator in blackmailing him. However, Wyatt completes the wire transfer to a bank but secretly adds Wyatt’s name as co-signer. Now in Madrid, Jonathan agrees to help Wyatt withdraw the fund if he splits it with him. They are able to pull out the money, and after which, Jonathan offers his money if Wyatt tells him where “S” is. Wyatt agrees and brings Jonathan to a secluded place. He is about to draw his gun and shot Jonathan when “S” appears and shots him instead. Jonathan rushes over to “S” and begs him to talk with her. She calls it off and apologizes to him for she is unaware of Wyatt’s plan. She then takes a cab and leaves Jonathan.

In the final scene, Jonathan makes another chance encounter with “S” in Madrid, and both exchange smiles.

  

Commentary. Deception is an engaging drama thriller. It is fast-paced and exciting. As the title suggests, the film has many twists and surprises. It keeps viewers guessing and wondering. One of the deceptions is that Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor must switch faces and roles. It was the fun part since both very well copied each other.

However, the movie is overserious, uncharismatic, and predictable. Though it is drama, it entirely lacks humor which makes it less exciting. So much also have happened that the ending seems not worth it. I feel the movie is too long and unsatisfying.

Reception. The movie was met with negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 13% of critics gave a positive review. In Metacritic, the movie received an average score of 32 out of 100. It did fairly well in the box office, ranking #10 on its opening weekend.

Rating. Jackman and McGregor are really great in the movie. However, even their brilliance cannot make the movie more entertaining and indulging. It is really the movie’s fault. Well, I can give the movie only two stars out of five.

Movies about the End of the World: Natural Disasters

Disaster movies almost always become instant blockbuster hits. The suspense and the breathe-taking special effects are some of their impressive elements that audiences love to watch them again and again. Some of these films deal with the extinction of humanity, and one style of ending the world is through the random actions of the universe and of nature. With their unpredictable and unstoppable rage, forces from outside and within Earth break loose. Here are five movies about the destructive force of the universe and nature.

Deep Impact

Deep Impact  was released in May 8, 1998 by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks. It was directed by Mimi Leder and stars Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman, Téa Leoni and Robert Duvall.

The movie follows the effort of humanity to destroy a comet due to strike Earth. It begins with teenage amateur astronomer Leo Biederman, and consequently professional astronomer Marcus Wolf, discovering an unusual object, which is actually a comet, near the stars Mizar and Alcor. A year later, the President of the USA announces that a 7-mile-wide comet named Wolf-Biederman is approaching Earth and it is large and strong enough to end humanity. The USA and Russia launches the spacecraft Messiah with a mission to destroy the comet with a nuclear weapon. The mission failed and the comet is instead split in two smaller rocks – Biederman (1.5 miles wide) and Wolf (6 miles wide). With this failure, governments around the world established building underground shelters.

 

The smaller rock, Biederman, impact Atlantic Ocean, creating megatsunamis and devastating Atlantic coasts of many countries. The bigger rock, Wolf, would impact western Canada and create a cloud of dust that will block out the sun for two years, enough to destroy all remaining life. With their last ounce of courage, crew of the Messiah undertakes a suicide mission and saves the world.

Deep Impact opened with an overwhelming success, grossing at least $349 million overall on a $75 million production budget. In Rotten Tomatoes, 46% of critics enjoyed the film, giving the film a rating of 5.7/10. On the other hand, Metacritic gave it a score of 40 out of 100.

Armageddon

Two and a half months after Deep Impact opened, Armageddon was released in cinemas. It is directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and released by Disney’s Touchstone Pictures. The movie has an amazing casts, featuring Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Owen Wilson, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, and many others.

The movie opens with a meteor shower destroying a space shuttle and parts of New York City. Immediately, NASA finds outs that a huge asteroid will collide with Earth in 18 days. NASA then plans to implant a nuclear device 800 feet inside the asteroid which, when ignited, will divide the asteroid in two that will fly past the Earth. To accomplish this, NASA hires Harry Stamper, the best deep-sea oil driller in the world, and his team. They undergo training and then deployed inside the shuttles Independence and Freedom. After one shuttle fails and an inaccurate landing on the asteroid, they realize they lose their entire driller. Meanwhile on Earth, fragments of the asteroid destroy Shanghai and Paris. The team is left with a backup plan – to ignite a nuclear weapon on the surface of the asteroid. But the triggering mechanism is damaged, and in a heart-breaking ending, team leader Harry Stamper takes a last bold step to detonate the bomb and split the asteroid.

Armageddon is deemed to have more scientific inaccuracies than Deep Impact, just like the idea that NASA can really do something about a major catastrophe like that in a very short time. However, Armageddon bested the other in the box office. With its budget of $140 million, it grossed a total of at least $553 million, making it as the highest-grossing film of 1998. It received a rating of 41% on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 42 on Metacritic.

Knowing

Knowing is a science fiction directed by Alex Proyas and stars Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury, and Lara Robinson. It was released in 2009 by Escape Artists and Summit Entertainment.

Knowing blends science fiction and popular religious beliefs. It begins in year 1959 and young Lucinda Emery, a lonely girl who hears whispers, writes a page full of random numbers and places it inside a “time capsule” designed by the school. The capsule is buried underground, to be opened only after fifty years. Later, Lucinda is found in a closet with her hands bloody from scratching the numbers into the door. Fifty years hence, 2009, the time capsule is opened and sketches are given arbitrarily to all students. Professor of astrophysics at MIT Jonathan Koestler is there in the ceremony whose son Caleb happens to receive Lucinda’s page of numbers. Jonathan notices the number sequence 911012996 on the page and realizes it refers to the date and number of deaths from the September 11, 2001 attacks. Jonathan further makes similar discoveries with the other numbers – all reference to major disasters in the world. Jonathan looks for Lucinda and founds out she has died from a drug overdose. Instead, he meets Lucinda’s daughter Diana and granddaughter Abby, who like Lucinda and Caleb, also hears whispers. With the predictions in the page, Jonathan bears witness to two disasters. And what is more shocking is that the world will end by October 19. In his laboratory, Jonathan discovers that a massive solar flare will soon reach Earth and burn everyone else. As the movie ends, the voices that the children hear are actually “angels”. Along with the other “chosen ones” Caleb and Abby are taken into a beautiful and safe new world, while Jonathan and the rest of the world face the final disaster.

The movie received mixed to negative reviews. 33% of critics in Rotten Tomatoes gave a positive review with an average score of 4.7 out of 10. Similarly, Metacritic gave it a score of 41 out of 100. Though the movie is not a critical success, it was a huge box office hit as it opens #1 in March, 2009. (See full review)

The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 science fiction disaster film. It stars Dennis Quaid, Emmy Rossum, Iam Holm, Jake Gyllenhaal, and many more. The movie explores the deadly effects of global warming which will consequently lead to a new ice age.

While drilling for ice core samples on an expedition in Antarctica, paleoclimatologist Jack Hall and his colleagues Frank and Jason makes a startling discovery. Later, he presents his findings on global warming at a United Nations conference, but several diplomats are unconvinced with this. However, Professor Terry Rapson of the Hedland Climate Research Center in Scotland believes in Jack’s theories after he observes a massive drop in the ocean temperatures. He contacts Jack whose weather model show climate changes caused the first Ice Age and can predict what will happen. Sadly, their model shows global freezing in seven to ten days. In the following days across the world, violent weather cause mass destruction, including a massive snowstorm in New Delhi, a hailstorm destroying Tokyo, Japan, and a series of devastating tornadoes in Los Angeles. Worse, a huge system spanning the northern hemisphere develops into three massive hurricane-like superstorms, with their eyes holding super-cooled air that instantly freezes anything it comes in contact with. Knee-deep floods in a mix of rainwater, saltwater, and sewage drowned many urban cities in the northern hemisphere, including New York City. It is a deep freeze and lead characters survived by taking shelters in abandoned spots. In the end, most of the northern hemisphere is covered in ice and snow.

The Day After Tomorrow is a huge blockbuster hit, becoming the sixth highest grossing movie not to be #1 in the US box office. However, Rotten Tomatoes rated the movie only at 45%, with an average rating of 5.3/10. Moreover, Yahoo! Movies listed the film as one of the Top 10 Scientifically Inaccurate Movies in 2008. It was criticized for its idea of a series of catastrophic atmospheric occurring over a course of hours, instead of several decades or centuries.

2012

2012 is a 2009 science fiction disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, and many others.

The movie starts in 2009 with some scientists discovering that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are causing the temperature of the Earth’s core to increase. In 2010, international leaders begin a secret project to guarantee humanity’s survival. Approximately 400,000 people are chosen to board “arks” constructed at Cho Ming, Tibet, in the Himalayas. In 2012, Jackson Curtis, a science fiction writer in Los Angeles, takes his children Noah and Lilly camping in Yellowstone National Park. There Jackson meets a radio show host who tells him that the theory of polar shifts and the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar predict that the 2012 phenomenon will occur. He also learns about the ark project. The family returns home as seismic activity increases along the west coast of the United States. After surviving the earthquakes and eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, the family, along with some friends and people they meet along the way, manages to arrive at the arks in Tibet. They stow away on the ark, and soon, megatsunamis approach the site. There is chaos as the ark’s gate fails to close up, rendering the ship unable to start its engines. Some of them are killed, while others emerge as heroes. In the end, as the floodwaters from the tsunami recede, the arks journey to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

The movie is a great financial success. In 2009, it became the 5^th highest grossing film in that year and the 35^th highest grossing film of all time worldwide. However, Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie an average rating of 6.1/10 with 39% of its critics giving positive review. In Metacritic, it only received a score of 49 out of 100.

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Cloverfield

Cloverfield is a 2008 disaster film produced by J. J. Abrams and directed by Matt Reeves. It stars young Hollywood stars Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, T. J. Miller, Odette Yustman, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, and Ben Feldman. The movie is distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Plot. The film begins with a disclaimer that the footage is from a case called “Cloverfield” and was found in the area “formerly known as Central Park.” Hence, what the audience will see is a video segment from a personal camera recovered by the United States Department of Defense. The video consists of the events taped on the night of May 22 and the morning of May 23. Occasionally, flashes from the older video dated April 27 is seen as those new segments are actually taped over the older one.

On the night of May 22, Rob’s brother Jason and his girlfriend Lily prepare a farewell party for Rob who will be moving to Japan. A friend named Hud uses the camera to film testimonials for Rob. There in the party, the main casts for the movie are introduced. After an argument, Rob’s girlfriend Beth leaves the party. Then suddenly, an apparent earthquake strikes and New York City suffers a brief power outage.

A devastating explosion ensues and the party-goers immediately evacuate the building. The head of the Statue of Liberty crashes in a nearby street. Amidst the dusts, Hud records what appears to be a giant hand of a creature several blocks away. Jason, Rob, Lily, Hud and Marlena attempt to escape the city on the Brooklyn Bridge. A huge tail then destroys the center of the bridge and many people are killed, including Jason. The rest are forced to flee back to Manhattan.

Rob finds out from a call that Beth is trapped in her apartment and unable to move. The four then sets out to rescue Beth. Along the way, they encounter several small spider-like creatures in a subway. Marlena is wounded and consequently dies as her body inflates and explodes. The three soon find Beth’s apartment and then free her from the rubbles that trap her. The four make their way to Grand Central Station where they meet the gigantic monster again. There are military forces around and Lily is raced into a departing helicopter. Rob, Beth and Hud then embark another helicopter and while in air, they witness U.S. Air Force bomb the monster. Suddenly, the monster attacks their helicopter and crashes into a grassy clearing in Central Park.

The three survives the crash and the film restarts in the morning of May 23. From the helicopter’s radio, it is announced that Hammerdown protocol will begin in 15 minutes and that anyone who hears the siren is within the blast zone. The three hurry up, but when Hud returns to recover the camera, he encounters the monster again and attacks and kills him. Rob and Beth grab the still-recording camera and take shelter under Greyshot Arch in Central Park as air raid sirens begin to blare and bombers to blast. Rob and Beth take turns in recording their last testimonials of that day as the bridge crumbles and debris covers the camera.

Review.  Cloverfield is a very suspenseful disaster film. Unlike others, the film gives more personal feeling to the audience. It is like picking up a camcorder along the street and viewing somebody else’s footage on it. It is very crude, and though we do not know the persons inside the film, we feel their terror and helplessness. We breathe with them, flee with them, and even seem to “die” with them. With this accept, Cloverfield has achieved believability, originality, and creativity.

The movie also succeeds in its desire to create another memorable monster in the movies. Cloverfield monster is not like King Kong or Godzilla which many love. It is the exact opposite; we dread and fear this gigantic monster and wish to end its menace and evil.

Reception. Cloverfield is both commercial and critical success. It was the first film in 2008 to gross over $100 million. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 76% of its critics gave a positive review. In Metacritic, the film received a rating of 64 out of 100.

Rating. Overall, I find the movie to be very fresh and exciting. Though it lacks good moral lessons to teach, it succeeds in gaining deep emotional attachment to viewers as suspense and drama are built wonderfully throughout the film. For this, I will give the move four stars out of five.

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Five Essential Movies about the Power of Imagination

Some movies defy imagination. Breathe-taking places. Never before seen monsters.  Heart-pumping adventures. These are some of the things that such movies bring. But more than exploring the power of the imagination, a few leaves us wonderful message and great lessons. That after watching the film, we are not only awed by its creativity and grandeur, but also overwhelmed with its story and message. Here are five essential imaginative movies.

Pan’s Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth (Spanish: El laberinto del fauno, “The Faun’s Labyrinth”) is a beautiful epic masterpiece by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro, one of the best movie directors in the recent age. The movie is in Mexican and Spanish language and though opened in 2006, it was only widely released in 2007.

The movie wonderfully intertwined reality and imagination in a child’s mind as she braves a trying time. It is set in Spain in May-June 1944, five years after the Spanish Civil war. Ofelia, a lonely girl, travels with her pregnant mother and arrives at the post of her new stepfather, an officer of the post-Civil War Spain. The place is near the mountains where Spanish guerillas were also living. Unknown to the officer’s knowledge, several guerillas disguise and work inside the post. One day, Ofelia discovers an abandoned labyrinth, and inside, she meets a Faun who tells the fairy tale of Princess Moanna of the Underground Realm who escapes to the Earth, forgets her past and dies.Both Ofelia and the Faun believe she is the reincarnated Princess and before she can come back to the underworld, she must pass several missions. As Ofelia accomplishes the challenges, the war in the mountains builds up, her mother becomes more ill with her pregnancy, and sooner, Ofelia is suspected as one of the guerillas as she does things in secret. In the end, Ofelia, despite her heart-breaking death, becomes the hero for both worlds.

Pan’s Labyrinth became an instant classic the moment it was opened. The movie effortlessly weaved great fantasy with a distressful and troubled world. The fantasy was all so real that after watching the film, audiences would wonder if everything has been real despite certain small clues in the movie. Expectedly, the movie is very well received. It gathered a rating of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and 98% on Metacritic, becoming the fourth highest rated movie of all time in Metacritic. In box office, it also performed brilliantly as it places itself as one of the highest-grossing foreign films of all time. Pan’s Labyrinth also appeared on several critics’ top ten lists of the best movies in 2006, particularly in TIME Magazine (#1), and New York Post. Lastly, the movie received nomination as Best Foreign Language Film in both Academy and Golden Globe Awards in 2007.

The world inside the labyrinth is very magical. Each of Ofelia’s adventures is exciting and sometimes scary. The monster “Pale Man” and the Faun itself are some of the best creatures in the movie. Pan’s Labyrinth is undoubtedly one of the most creative, most original and freshest movies of all time. (See full review)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a 2009 fantasy film directed by Terry Gilliam. It stars Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Andrew Garfield, Tom Waits and Lily Cole. Ledger’s sudden death temporarily suspended the shooting, but his role was later recast with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell.

The movie follows the wandering of a theater troupe whose leader, Doctor Parnassus, has previously made a bet with the Devil which he wins and is awarded immortality. The troupe now travels around, taking audiences through a magical mirror to explore their imagination. They are then presented with a choice between self-fulfilling enlightenment or gratifying ignorance. Later, the Devil appears to Doctor Parnassus and reminds him of their earlier agreement – that the soul of her daughter Valentina will be his when she turns 16, which is due in three days. However, Parnassus manages a wager with the Devil and both agree that whoever wins five souls first, Valentina will stay with him. The troupe suddenly makes extensive shows every night, now with a stranger named Tony. Near the end, Parnassus, Tony, and Valentina enters the mirror and faces the imaginations brought alive by their secrets, lies, dreams, frustrations and failure. Valentina is eventually freed from the bargain, Tony “dies”, and Parnassus succumbs to a miserable life.

Filming of the movie has really become challenging as Ledger dies along the way and as the film is shot through several locations like London and Vancouver. Production began in December 2007 and was finished only by late 2008. All the hassle was compensated by the huge success of the movie. It debuted #3 on its first weekend at the UK box office and #2 in both France and Italy. It already did break even, even before its opening in North America. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a rating of 66%, and 63% for Metacritic, which are highly positive. The movie also received several nominations, including two for Academy Awards.

The worlds inside the Doctors Parnassus’ mirror are the best parts in the movie. The imageries are all vivid, colorful, alive and mesmerizing. How enlightenment and ignorance are represented inside the mirror, like the beautiful motels, gondolas, and endless desert, are very creative and inspiring. Truly, it is a mind-boggling and partly sad movie.

Spirited Away

Spirited Away is one of the best films produced by Japan. It is an animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 2001.

The movie begins with a family getting lost when moving to a new town and then discovering an abandoned amusement park. They explored the park and when the parents tasted some delicious food, they are turned into pigs. Chihiro Ogino, the only child in the family, becomes desperate to save her parents. When nightfall comes, a “ghost” boat emerges on a river and only then Chihiro realizes that her family has entered the world of the spirits. With the advice of a friend she meets, Chihiro asks for a job in the bathhouse so she can stay and rescue her parents. Chihiro, whose name is now changed to Sen, undergoes several trials and misadventures. But Chihiro must pursue and pass the tests. And along this journey, Chihiro moves from a child to a young adult, capable of love and wisdom.

Spirited Away is a very huge success, becoming the highest-grossing film in Japan. It also received a high rating of 97% at Rotten Tomatoes, ranking as the thirteenth-best animated film in the site. In 2002, it bagged the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film. In 2010, Empire Magazine ranked it as #10 on its “The 100 Best Films of World Cinema.”

The movie is very imaginative that it gave us a splendid bathhouse with fanciful funny creatures inside. The more original creations in the film are “No Face” and Haku, the river spirit.

Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia is a 2007 fantasy drama film based on the novel of the same name by Katherine Paterson. It is produced by Walt Disney and stars child wonders Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb.

The movie is about two ten-year old neighbors, Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke, and the world they invented called Terabithia. The world they discover is inside the woods which they can only visit when they swing across a creek on a rope (the bridge). In Terabithia, they race and play and fight against unknown creatures like the talking trees and the troll. Here, anything they imagine comes to life. But it is not only pure adventure for Jesse, for eventually, he learns to come to terms with his distraught family and his frustrations in school. And just when things seem so beautiful, he must learn to face a tragic and sad ending – Leslie’s death.

The film deals with imagination and death in such subtle ways that audience root for each character and each event. With the movie, viewers will see a beautiful and serene world where lovely creatures dwell. The monsters are portrayed with good heart and their violence is only driven by certain loneliness and lack. Bridge to Terabithia was very much welcomed by audiences and critics that it got a positive rating of 85% at Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 74 at Metacritic.

The Neverending Story

The NeverEnding Story (German: Die unendliche Geschichte) is a 1984 movie adaptation of the novel of the same name by Michael Ende and is co-produced by German and American companies. It stars Barret Oliver, Noah Hathaway and Tami Stronach.

The movie tells about the boy who discovers a magical book. Bastian Bux, a quiet boy who loves to read, stumbles about a book entitled “The NeverEnding Story” while he hides in a bookstore to escape from the school bullies. He manages to “borrow” the book from the grumpy bookseller despite his warning that it is “not safe’. He then hides in the school attic and began reading the book. The book describes the magical world of Fantasia which is being threatened by a force called “The Nothing”. The Childlike Empress of Fantasia summons the warrior Atreyu and gives him a magical medallion called the Auryn to help him defeat The Nothing. Atreyu goes through several adventures and finds out that the only way to stop The Nothing is for the Empress to be given a new name by a human child. Only when the kingdom is placed in a desperate situation that Bastian realizes that the book calls for his help. He shouts the name “Moonchild” and he suddenly finds himself inside the story, face to face with the Empress. With his imagination and wishes, Bastian saves the world of Fantasia from the evil forces.

The NeverEnding Story is one of the most imaginative films in the 80s. At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film produced outside of the USA. The film opened to mostly positive reviews, garnering a rating of 85% at Rotten Tomatoes but only a score of 46 out of 100 on Metacritic. The movie is greatly praised for its stunning special effects and creativity. Despite this, the film underperformed in the box office.

The fantasy world of Fantasia is beautifully created and very breathe-taking. Audiences would truly love the characters Atreyu and the luck dragon Falkor. The movie was then followed by two sequels: The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter and The NeverEnding Story III: Escape From Fantasia.

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