Oh Captain, My Captain

That title sure got your attention, huh Mr. P?

You thought this was gonna be about Walt Whitman?

You're only sort of mistaken.

BEHOLD!!

DEAD POETS SOCIETY!!!

You came to the wrong neighborhood
from: www.huffingtonpost.com

Short teaser thing:
So we've got all these boys that go to this really elite boarding school called Welton Academy. All of their parents want them to grow up to be doctors and lawyers and go to Ivy league colleges and stuff. These boys have been stuck in boring but 'useful' classes like Latin and trigonometry all their lives. Suddenly, they find themselves in a poetry class taught by a notoriously nutty teacher named Mr. Keating.
Keating was a student at Welton Academy, and was a member of the long forgotten Dead Poets Society. The Dead Poets Society was basically a club that would sneak out of the school at night, go to a cave in the woods, read poetry, and try to get girls to join them. The boys reconvene the Dead Poets Society, and start their arpe diem fueled adventures.

Characters:
((I'm doing spoilers here since a lot of the big stuff is with each character, so as the usual warning: Spoilerific from here on out))

Neil Perry: Neil is the perfect son. His dad REALLY wants him to become a doctor, and is determined to do anything to get him there. He justifies his actions like making Neil take extra math classes instead of working on the school paper, as 'giving you more opportunities than I had'(but honestly it borders on emotional abuse).  In Keating's class, he finds out that he loves poetry, and it becomes his gateway to self expression. He is the one that revitalizes the Dead Poets Society, and embraces the carpe diem philosophy by trying out for A Midsummer Nights Dream, and getting the part as Puck. Of course, he couldn't tell his dad, as his dad would freak the freak out. He completely and totally rocks the role (even while wearing atrocious twig gloves), but his father is obviously not happy about it when he finds out about it the day before the play. His dad immediately takes him out of Welton as soon as the play is over, and says he'll send him to military school, which will put a stop to this 'nonsense'. Seeing no other way out of his dads controlling ways, Neil kills himself.

Todd Anderson: Todd is the new kid at school. His brother was a top student at Welton, and Todd has no chance of coming out of his brothers shadow, as Todd is very shy and awkward. He's Neil's roommate, which is how he gets into the group in the first place, and is also part of Keating's poetry class. At first, he refuses to speak to pretty much everyone except for a few close people. One day, he has to recite a poem that he wrote for class, and with a BARBARIC YOP, he overcomes his anxiety, and is more confident. He's very loyal to his friends.

Knox Overstreet: Knox is the romantic. While he's at dinner with his parent's friends, he meets their daughter Chris, who he falls head over heels for. He writes poetry for here, gives her flowers, and sort of half stalks her(?). Unfortunately, she's dating a big football player who goes to her school, so dorky Knox doesn't have much of a chance. One night, he's at a party that she invited him to, and he's kind of drunk, and tries to put 'the moves' on a sleeping Chris (note for any guys that read this: DON'T DO THAT. I DON'T CARE HOW DRUNK YOU ARE, THAT IS CREEPY AS FRICK), and gets beat up by her boyfriend. Knox goes to her school the next day, gives her flowers and reads her a poem, and then gets kicked out. However, it apparently worked since they go to watch Neil's play together, and presumably live happily ever after.

Charlie Dalton: He's the clown. He's pretty much there just for comic relief, and honestly I can't remember anything that would add depth to his character besides his jokes.

John Keating: This guy is the freaky poetry teacher everyone is talking about. In Christian boarding school terms, he's very eccentric. He has his students rip up their textbooks, stands on his desk a lot, has his students call him 'captain', and encourages underground clubs that breaks nearly every school rule. He really emphasizes free thinking, and creativity. His motto is carpe diem, which is latin for sieze the day. Basically he's the cool English teacher that everyone loves. Unfortunately, he's also very irresponsible. Though he has good intentions, he is extremely irresponsible. I think he was really in love with the idea of his students having a freedom that he never got, and was too carried away with it to see the repercussions of his actions. Neil's death wasn't entirely his fault (not even mostly his fault), but it was partially his fault, and he got fired because of it (in the scene which is pictured above, and butchered with a pathetic joke :). He's also played by Robin Williams, which automatically makes him a great character.

There are a bunch of other students, but I can't really remember much about them to constitute a long enough bio, so you're just gonna have to watch the movie if you're curious about them.

Reaction:
Besides the atrocious 80's music and Neil Perry's weird as shit Puck gloves, this movie is absolute cinematic GOLD.
The weird thing about this movie, is that I'd seen the beginning of it twice in different classes, but we never got much farther than when Niel throws Todd's desk set off the bridge. So basically, I never saw the end.
OH GOSH THE END MADE ME SO SAD.
BUT IT'S TOTALLY WORTH IT, and if you read the spoilerific parts (which you shouldn't if you want to watch the movie), don't let anything sad deter you from watching the movie.
I'm at a point where I can really relate to a lot of things in this movie, like wanting to go against what your parents want, and having really awesome friends to help and help you through stuff, and how awesome poetry is and a bunch of the other major themes. I'm sure that any of the teens that read this can find something in that movie that reaches out to them.
This movie is really worth it guys. Watch it, and you're sure to love it.


((Quick side note. I don't think I've ever apologized for my atrocious run on sentences. I am truly sorry, but the ranty breathless feeling you get from them is what I'm trying to convey)).
(((Quick side note 2: I don't think Mr. P made it this far, but if he did (or anyone in Honors English did), then you should watch this neat little video about The Odyssey))).

Howl's Moving Castle is Moving........((oh gosh I'm sorry))

Sorry for the crappy title, but I'm supposed to be creative with these.

Have I mentioned yet that I'm a huge Ghibli fan?
Well in case I haven't, I'm a huge Ghibli fan.
For those of you that don't know, Studio Ghibli is an animation studio from Japan that is famous for movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Spirited Away. You guys would probably recognize Ponyo and The Secret World of Arrietty, as those were really big in the U.S.

From:movies.film-cine.com

I've seen almost all of their movies (unfortunately I can't find Castle in the Sky or Grave of Fireflies anywhere).
I own Ni No Kuni (which I'm unfortunately stuck on and I really need to get past this dang boss!)
I also bought a little Totoro plushie at a con, but his eyes fell out because they weren't sewn in for some reason?
I'm looking for little sunglasses for him.
ANYWAY, the movie I thought I'd start out with (as there will most likely be many Ghibli posts) was Howl's Moving Castle.

Plot:
So this movie is based off of a book with the same name ((I read the book and the sequel so don't tell me I'm a bad person for not reading it)).
It's about a woman named Sophie, who works in her father's hat shop. She is the oldest child, which is a bad thing because she's doomed to fail because of it (for some reason).
Probably due to her oldest-ness, one day she accidentally pisses off the Witch of the Waste who then turns her into an old woman.
She then goes off in search of Howl, a wizard who is rumored to kidnap and eat young girls' hearts, to try and get him to help her change back.

Characters:
Sophie Hatter- the protagonist of the story. I sort of explained what happens to her above, so I won't tell it again.

Here's a lot of the characters in this neat little gif
From: micastillovagabundo.blogspot.com

Howl Pendragon- A wizard that lives in a magical living castle that runs from all sorts of responsibility. He's voiced by Christian Bale (a.k.a Batman), and it's very fun to freak out about it and imagine that Batman is screaming "There is no point in living if I can't be beautiful".

Markl: Howl's young apprentice who is learning magic. He's voiced by a young Josh Hutcherson, so I have a headcannon that Peeta was training to be a wizard but had to give it up to help with the family bakery.

Calcifer: A fire demon who has Howl's heart. He powers the castle and is a total sassmaster. He's voiced by Billy Crystal, so I have ANOTHER headcannon that Calcifer is either a childhood Mike Wazowski, or a more evolved Miracle Max.

Turniphead: A cursed scarecrow that turns out to be the kidnapped prince of another kingdom.

Witch of the Waste: A witch who fell in love with Howl and vowed to own his heart. She makes a lot of messes over it.

Differences between the book and the movie:
Markl is actually named Michael

Michael is a much older kid  *15 or so), which I guess they changed so they could have little Josh Hutcherson being adorable.

Sophie has two sisters, Martha and Lettie.

Michael and Howl each pursue one of Sophie's sisters, but it gets very complicated because the sisters are in disguise as each other, and then they get in a big fight because they both think that they're dating the same one or something and.....just read the book for this part because it's really complicated.

Howl turns out to be from OUR universe, and was born in Wales. He has a sister there and is known as Uncle Howell to her kids. It's beautiful and really adds to the story.

The Witch of the Waste is the real and complete villian, and is eventually killed by Sophie and Howl.

Sophie actually has magical powers, and can "talk life" into things. It's actually a really cool power cus she can get brooms to do cleaning for her and stuff.

Final Reaction:
I love this movie to death, alright. It was my first Ghibli movie and I just fell in love with the art and the storytelling and the voice acting and the music and the mood and the everything. I love Howl and I want to be Sophie's best friend. I want to babysit (or hang out with, depending on the version) Markl and lovingly tease Calcifer. This movie felt so important and (in a way) real that it makes you feel like you could just step in a magic door into that world (ha, references).

Here is a link to go watch the full movie! It doesn't get past the filter (for everyone that applies to), so use another computer to watch it.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Before you get your hopes up, no, this is has absolutely nothing to do with the Twilight series. If you are into that sort of thing, please go away. This isn't your type of blog anyway :)
Okay, now that the twihards have been directed elsewhere, who here has ever played a Legend of Zelda (which will be abbreviated to LoZ from now on)? I hope at least a few of you, cus then at least SOMEONE will understand my excitement.
Though I love the series as a whole, my absolutely favorite game is Twilight Princess. It is the 13th game of the series, and was the first LoZ game to come out for Wii. There are a few key elements to this game that make it special to the LoZ series (or at least for me).

Story:
It does follow the normal guidelines. Something happens to Zelda, and Link has to go out and save her by solving puzzles in 9 different temples.
In this version of the story, Hyrule has been invaded by the creatures of the Twilight Realm. Zant, the King of Twilight, steals the light from the guardians of Hyrule, plunging the land into darkness.
There is more to it than that of course, but I don't want to give any spoilers for those of you who haven't played. The plot is so complex and interesting that it makes you want to invest 20+ hours of your life into a game.

Characters:
I love the characters in this game so much. You have the necessary characters, such as Link, Zelda, and Gannondorf. but then there's the characters that are exclusive to this story.
This is Midna, your companion in the game. Normally, your companion is a little fairy who has absolutely no depth, and is very annoying. Midna isn't like that at all. She's a very snarky imp from the Twilight Realm that decides to help Link take down Zant. As the game progresses, you learn more and more about her which I can't tell you about now because spoilers but GOSH DARN IT SHE'S AWESOME!

Then theres these kids, Beth, Colin, Malo, and Talo. They go through the entire game with you. Well, not really, but they're there since the very beginning. At the begining, they're all really bratty (except for Collin, who's just a weakling), and you sort of hate them for bugging you about a slingshot. At first, they're simply characters to teach you how to do moves. They come back later, and are scared out of their minds because they've been kidnapped by monsters and are hiding with a shaman. You save them, they're safe, so what? But they come back a third time, and they're very brave and have become heros. I know I'm not describing it well, but the development is incredible.

I'm not going to go into the other characters for brevity's sake, but geeze it's great.

Enemies:
Again, the classic enemies are still there. There are still poes and Zelda's version of piranha plants, but there are still some great ones in Twilight Princess. This is a shadow beast, one of Zant's soldiers. I didn't know it's name the first time I played the game, so I went around calling them freaky-zombie-reggae-guys. I cringe at the thought, but in my defense, I was 12. This is just one of the awesome new enemies that debut in Twilight Princess.
Since they're the ones that you're running around and fighting the entire game, it's essential for them to be interesting. Trust me, the
dozens of different enemies you encounter in the game keep everything interesting.



Graphics:
I know that a bunch of people hate the more 'gothic' look, but I really enjoy the darker feel. I mean, I've played the games with toon Link, and I think that the more realistic look is great after so much chibi.

I just like the realistic feel better *shrug*

Music:

Music has always been heavily incorperated in this series. In Ocarina of Time, you play different songs on the Ocarina to transport, control time, and manipulate stuff. In Skyward Sword, you have the harp to unlock tests. In Twilight Princess, YOU are the instrument. While Link is in wolf form (I know I haven't addressed it, just roll with it), you howl the obligatory songs until very late in the game (when the harp comes in). 

Besides the gameplay aspect, the backround music is beautiful. It always perfectly fits the setting and theme of the moment. The music ranges from perky and fun (mostly for mini-games), to dark and ominous. 

In conclusion, I freaking love this game. I recommend it whole heartedly to anyone who enjoys video games, fantasy, or a good story. If you want to find out more about the game, here's the wikipedia page.

Photo credit: 

http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/write.ign.com/4065/2012/09/223543-midna.jpg

but-when-i-grow-up.deviantart.com -

www.gengame.net 

caminorojo.activoforo.com

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/The_Legend_of_Zelda_Twilight_Princess_wii_wallpaper3.jpg

P.S: I'm sorry for any confusion that this has caused people that haven't played the game. I know some of it doesn't make sense out of context. If you have questions, you can leave a comment, do some research on your own, or play the game!