“Tangled Ever After – Rings”
Rapunzel and Flynn walks to the altar but the ceremony is cut short when Pascal and Maximus, as flower chameleon and ring bearer, respectively, lose the gold bands. A search and recovery mission was in order. As they try to find the rings they leave behind an adventure of chaos – Coming back are the friendly crew and customer thugs of the inn that Rapunzel befriended in the first film. We have to look find out two things…Will Maximus and Pascal ever make it to the church in time and will they finally get Flynn’s nose right? 
Let’s see, can’t wait!
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for:
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Madagascar 3 – Europe’s Most Wanted
Just when we thought Alex and the gang have settled, they’re out again as castaways. This time…in Europe. Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippopotamus, and Melman the Giraffe sets off to New York after spending six years in Africa. If you remember, one of the monkeys said that it will take them six to nine months (to which Marty asked; 69 months?) in repairing the plane they would use to go back to New York. It perhaps took them 6 years in actuality.
Still trying to get home to their beloved Big Apple, the gang along with King Julien, Maurice and the Penguins set out for a comedic adventure. Their journey takes them through Europe along the way where they find the perfect cover: a traveling circus, which they reinvent – feisty, wildly – Madagascar style.
Four main stars reprises their roles: Ben Stiller as Alex, Chris Rock as Marty, David Schwimmer as Melman and Jada Pinkett Smith as Gloria along with Sacha Baron Cohen as King Julien. The film is directed by Eric Darnell and Conrad Vernon.
Theatrical poster, don’t forget to mark your calendar for June 8′s showing! ^_^
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Luxo Jr. – Pixar’s first Official Short
Do you know Luxo? That’s the bigger version of the popular hopping lamp you see on Pixar movies and logos. The smaller version is Luxo Jr. – both were conceptualized in 1986. I suddenly remembered in 2001 hubby also did a 3D rendering of a lamp inspired by Pixar when he was starting to learn Studiomax.
So this is a short (short for short film ^_^) that features Luxo, a lamp on a desk along with Luxo Jr., a smaller version. Luxo Jr. was playing with a rubber ball, the one we often see in Pixar movies particularly Toy Story and Monster Inc. – the one with red stars in it. At first, the two were playing roll with the ball and Luxo Jr. is not seen on screen. When he appears it is to fetch the ball that has rolled by Luxo…he then brings it back and tries to balance only to deflate it later on. Luxo Jr. hops out of the screen again and Luxo appeared surprise when a bigger ball rolled by him.
The short was made to showcase what Pixar can do regarding animation. Luxo Jr. is technically the first Pixar short film as The adventures of Andre and Wally B. was released under Lucasfilm but both were created by John Lasseter.
Graphic-wise, the short shows the use of shadow mapping, clearly the objects appearing as the lamps light on it would appear in light. Anything behind would be in shadow or depending on how Luxo and Luxo Jr. moves, the shadows were placed accordingly. Since the two are moving, they were presumed to have limbs and the movements were done with ease. Notice also the power cords as they move when Luxo Jr. hops.
Interestingly, Luxo although spelled lukso in my mother language means jump or hop. I searched if it would mean the same in Spanish since the words are often close to my mother tongue but jump in Spanish is salto while luxo means luxury in Portuguese. Turns out that the lamps were inspired by John Lasseter’s own Luxo brand task light on his desk.
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The Adventures of André and Wally B. – First Pixar Shortfilm
Two years before Steve Jobs bought Pixar, then known as The Graphic Group from Lucasilm, the first computer animated short was released and it marked the beginning of a successful animation history. The film was by award-winning animator John Lasseter intended for his son. Although this short is not technically a Pixar at that time but Lasseter is best known for Pixar so— oh, you get what I mean.
The film depicts the story of André, an unknown creature being awakened by a bee, Wally B. Annoyed, André distracts the bee so he can run away but Wally B followed him and stung him (off screen). Wally B. is later seen with a bent stinger flying away to the other side of the screen. André, still unseen tossed his hat at Wally B. as a mockery.
The film runs about 1:53 minutes complete with credits and released in December 1984 and shown in Brazil in 1985. Would you really believe this 3d piece was made in 1984? I bet you knew Back to the Future but not this one…
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Die Schlümpfe/The Smurfs
I can’t remember the last time I watched a smurf episode…but it’s clear that’s when I was ten since according to wiki that the show has been running from September 12, 1981 to August 25, 1990. That means it started when I was 2-months-old and was televised for 9 years more! Whew!
I won’t be giving out spoilers but here’s a trailer so you pretty much get the story but seeing it in the big screen is a different experience! I am so glad they did this, I mean for the more than 30 years that the Smurfs existed (comics prior), it’s so nice to see them still around. Glad that the kids get to know them. As usual, marketing and freebies abound. We got us keychains and an album to collect 3D cards, see them here.
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Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children (2005)
I’ve been thinking of posting Tron Legacy obviously being the latest film that is game-related that I watched but decided on one of my favorite Finaly Fantasy films. It follows the story of Cloud and Tifa, two characters from the Square Enix (then only known as Square) game released for Playstation in 1997.
Since I know the game story it was easy to understand from the beginning where the story left off, it may be different for those who haven’t played the game.
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The city of Midgar, where the game also took place, is stricken with a sickness called geostigma. It is caused by the life stream of the planet, which in the game means the planet’s life force. A trio of villains—Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz— said to be remnants of Sephiroth, have appeared wanting to gather Jenova’s cells to restore Cloud Strife’s former nemesis to life. Cloud, who has been living in seclusion for two years as a delivery boy and working with Tifa Lockhart, returns to Midgar to solve the mystery of geostigma and do whatever it takes to prevent Sephiroth from coming back and destroying the planet.
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Music, cinematography, animation, action wise, the film was done so well. Polished rendering of details and environment, great character designs and smooth fight sequences were to watch out for. And yes, I like Cloud. I remember listing him as one of the top 5 characters I’d love to meet if they were real.
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