Jungle Book Fever

Watched The Jungle Book a couple of days ago and have been in fangirl mode ever since. Here's a TJB-inspired picture I made. Hopefully there'll be more soon.

Also, Happy Earth Day!

UPDATE: It's been a month since I said I'd draw some more pictures, so here are a few I made today.

I'd had a very specific image of Kaa in my head for a long time. Unfortunately, when I tried to transfer that onto paper, it looked nothing like what I'd imagined.

I tried making a picture on my computer too (thank you, Clipart leaves and trees) but to my greatest dismay, both my attempts have ended up looking like they were drawn by 10 year olds. In fact, 10 year old me has made nicer pictures. But I absolutely deserve points for trying.

Shere Khan. And the whole fire thing, you know.

And a brighter picture of the first one I drew.

  
I also wanted to draw Baloo and Bagheera, but after what happened with Kaa, I don't really feel like it right now. I might try some other time, though.

Every New Beginning Is Some Beginning's End

No more sleeping in until 10:30 in the morning. No more going back to bed after realizing that for a holiday, you’re up shamefully early. No more rummaging through the fridge and eating at odd times. No more chatting with friends for hours. No more spending all day listening to music and lounging around in nightclothes doing practically nothing.

I start work today, in a few hours, and I’m as nervous as could be. Why else would I wake up at this unearthly hour? I can stay up this late without too much trouble, but I am NOT a morning person. Never been this jittery except on the days we had basketball matches in middle school and high school. (Yes, I used to play basketball, and for someone of my height and general level of laziness I was quite good.)

It’s not so different, come to think of it – wake up early in the morning, pace up and down, do some warm-ups in an attempt to calm down, and prove yourself by putting on the best show that you can. Except that now I get to drink coffee instead of/ in addition to milk. And of course, I won’t be running around the office in bicycle shorts.

See? Not cool.

I’d rather not sleep another hour now because I have so much to worry about – what if I wake up late on the first day? How do I handle the possibility of a smelly person sitting next to me on the bus? What happens if I get to the office too early? What if I leave behind something important at home? Do employees get good coffee? Will the lunch break be long enough for me to quickly get some coffee from Gloria Jean’s? How many times a month can I buy coffee from there without going almost broke? What if they moved? (Hey Gloria Jean’s, do I get some coffee on the house in return for the free advertising?)

I know, I know, I write about coffee way too much. It threw me off track. What was I talking about? Ah yes, I was listing out deep, pensive questions that pave the way to finding a quick solution, should the problem arise. It’s a little distressing, dreading all the things that could go wrong. Excuse me while I think of something to cheer myself up a little. Maybe I’ll watch the last few minutes of Surf’s Up.

I’m back. (Why am I pretending this is a live chat? Maybe it’s because I’ve personified this window, so it’s like a dramatic monologue to a patient – if passive – audience.) Anyway, I have to mention how watching the last ten minutes of Surf’s Up before the credits roll – from the beginning of the contest to the beautiful final scene that ends with the awesome song – actually calmed me down. I recommend it to anyone with the jitters, because hey, how can you not be happy when you have cool penguins, an exciting surfing contest, brilliant animation, comic relief, an awesome funky chicken, that New Radicals song, and a perfectly splendid happy ending?

Now that I feel a little better, I’m thinking: They chose me through legitimate selection, so I shouldn’t be worried sick. My only real worry is that I may get thrown out due to the non-surfacing of blinding awesomeness, but I’ll try and make sure that doesn’t happen. I’m good as long as I make it through the probation period, do at least equally well after, and don’t (either during or after this stage) act delinquent.

Here’s to the beginning of my life as a working woman! (Ew, that makes me sound old.) Wish me luck!

Happy Feet vs. Surf's Up

Originally published on: 20/03/2011

No, this is NOT a rational, step-by-step, relatively unbiased comparison and analysis of the two films.

When Happy Feet was out in the theatres, dozens of my friends were raving about it – “You haven’t watched it yet? You should, it’s really really cute”. It ran successfully for several weeks, but I watched it much later after borrowing it from a friend.

Surf’s Up came out not too long after, but no one I knew had watched it, and in a couple of weeks it had disappeared from cinema halls. I only watched it because it happened to be showing on the television when I was at my uncle and aunt’s place.

My reaction to Happy Feet:

And when anyone talks about Happy Feet…

I’m not saying it was a bad film. It was quite cute, there was a lot of singing, and the Mexican penguins were hilarious. It just wasn’t nearly as great as I expected it to be. It’s definitely in the bottom half of my list of animated films in descending order of preference.

My reaction to Surf’s Up:

This is me (although I don’t look anything like this) when anyone mentions anything related to Surf’s Up

Really though, that film is so underrated. It has great animation, amazing visual effects, funny humour, adorable characters, and an interesting storyline in the form of a mockumentary. It left me feeling oh so happy!

I found that a lot of blogs put up links, so I’m guessing (or hoping) it’s not illegal and that I won’t get sued for attaching one. I thought I ought to, to make up for my immature and unimaginative drawings (and I don’t look like myself even in a single picture)

Surf’s Up trailer:

I might as well put in the Happy Feet trailer too:

Basically, what I’m trying to say is, watch Happy Feet if you want to, but do make sure you watch Surf”s Up!

Tangled

Originally published on: 23/02/2011

I watched 7 Khoon Maaf a few days ago, and it made me think back to the last time I completely enjoyed a film. Surprisingly, there weren’t too many I could even consider. Haven’t watched a good Hindi movie in ages (If I remember right, the last one I thoroughly enjoyed was Jab We Met) and even the English non-animated films I’ve watched recently haven’t lived up to my expectations. For example, I can’t deny that Black Swan is well made, but it just isn’t my kind of movie. Who wants blood and horror when you can have sunshine and rainbows and happy people singing? (I’m sure many people do, but I am obviously NOT one of those people)

So it’s only natural that I loved Tangled. Sure, most of it was predictable, but it was an interesting take on the Rapunzel tale, and so cute! There were times when I found the length of her hair a little disturbing (How does she ever wash it? Does she even wash it at all? How many lice can hide in that stuff? How does she move around with that awful weight?) but I suppose there’s no point in questioning all the logic that goes into a fairy tale. Also, overall it was just so adorable that it didn’t matter much. My three favourite things about the movie:

3. Flynn Rider’s “smolder”

2. The CUTE chameleon

1. The pretty, pretty lanterns!

Thank god for Disney! (And thank Disney for heaven!)

And look, lovely new background theme!