Brain Spill Movie Review #1

Brave

Setting

Brave takes place in a Scottish Kingdom in medieval times. Stories in the movie tell of a kingdom ruled by four brothers until one brother tried to control too much power and turned against the other brothers, taking all the power for himself. In the movie, the land is ruled by four clans: the king's clan along with the clans Macintosh, Macguffin, and Dingwall.

Summary

Merida, the daughter of the king, loves to ride her horse and do archery. Her mother, Elinor, and father, Furgus, (but mainly her mother) have planned for her to be betrothed to one of the three firstborn sons of the three clans. Merida does not want this, and when the time comes, she shoots for her own hand, being the firstborn of King Furgus. In anger, Merida cuts down a tapestry her mother had worked on for a long time. Elinor then throws Merida's bow into the fire. Merida runs of into the woods and finds a witch, who she pays to change her mother. Merida gives a fruit tart given to her by the witch to her mother, who promptly turns into a bear. The story is about how Merida tries to turn her mother back into a human.

Characters

Merida

Merida is the main character of the story, the princess of the kingdom. She likes archery and horseback riding. She also is completly against getting married. Pixar makes a point of making Merida seem prideful in the beginning, especially when it come to her mother. Merida blames her mother for everything revolving around the unwanted betrothal to one of the sons of the clan leaders. Merida really wants to be free.

Elinor

Elinor is the Queen of the kingdom and has set up the whole betrothal, which is not surprising, given that she basically runs the country for her husband, Furgus. Everybody seems to listen to her, except for Merida. This really bugs her. She, at the beginning of the movie, shows the attitude of an overbearing mother. This overbearing-ness along with Merida's pride are what drives the plot forward in the story. The two attitudes continually clash.

Furgus 

Furgus is the king of the whole kingdom, though his wife basically runs the kingdom for him. He is a strong king, but is missing a leg due to an encounter with a bear. He is an interestingly stupid character with little change throughout the story. He has trouble keeping the clans from fighting with one another and with him.

The Triplet Brothers

The Brothers are not at all main characters and probably have no voice parts in the entire movie, but they do play a main role in getting people stuff. They help get Elinor out of the castle after she turns into a bear. The brothers also get the key from Maudie after Merida gets locked in the bedroom. They're mainly just in the movie, though, to add some comedy to the movie.

Lords Macintosh, MacGuffin, and Dingwall

The Lords are important because they add a sense of urgency to the betrothal and marriage of Merida. The Lords are the loose connections that the King has with the clans. The three sons of these three lords are the possible suitors, and Merida's fight for her own freedom puts the Kingdom on the verge of civil war. These lords provide an urgency to the plot.

Conclusion

The movie is very good, with a good plot, but has trouble mixing humor and seriousness. I believe that this movie is beginning of a new chapter for PIXAR. All of the other movies of PIXAR are comedic, while this movie has a much more serious plot. Though it is not the best PIXAR movie, it was very good. I give it 8 out of 11 penguins.

Brain Spill Book Review #7

The Hunger Games

Setting

The Hunger Games is a book written by Suzanne Collins about America in a distopian future. The Capitol is the center of wealth and the government and controls the twelve districts around it. The twelve districts were forced into submission after a large inter-district rebellion. As a warning to the other districts, the capitol completely destroyed a thirteenth district by bombing it. As part of the post-rebellion agreement, each district must give the resources it produces to the people back in Capitol. Also, once a year, each district must provide two tributes, a boy and a girl, for the Hunger Games The tributes, all of which are between the ages of 12 and 18, will then be put in a large arena where they must fight to the death.

Summary

Our story is told from the perspective of Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old from the poor area of District 12. Katniss lives with her mother and younger sister, Prim. To feed her family, Katniss illegally hunts outside of the borders of her district with her friend Gale. When her sister is chosen as tribute for the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place. A boy named Peeta is chosen as the male tribute from District 12. Peeta and Katniss, along with Effie and Haymitch, their trainers, go to the Capitol. The story revolves around the two tributes trying to gain the support of sponsors from Capitol and fighting for their lives in the Games themselves.

Characters

Katniss

Katniss is the narrator of the story. She is also, in my opinion, the most annoying character in the entire book. The whole time, Katniss is always angry, or sad, or suspicious, and that's not all. Katniss goes on to describe in detail how angry, sad, etc. she is at certain people. Yes, I understand she is fighting for her life, but can't she just show happiness a bit more? The one time she does show trust and is not acting is when she is with Rue. 

Peeta

Peeta is the other tribute from District 12. He seems better than Katniss because at least his actions are nicer and are actually nice instead of pretending to be nice for personal gain. He does happen to be lovesick with Katniss, which is his main annoying quality. He doesn't seem to realize (even though he helped plan this) that Katniss is only pretending to be in love so that she can get them sponsors and get them out alive. Whatever.

Gale

Gale is Katniss's hunting buddy from District 12. He's sort of not really mentioned too much other than that he is, like Katniss, in a situation where he is supporting the rest of his family. He mainly appears asa kind-of-sort-of-maybe love interest for Katniss which is keeping her from falling for Peeta. We know he is annoyed at the Capitol and that he takes his anger out while he's in the woods. He also helps to support Katniss's family when she leaves for Capitol.

Haymitch

Haymitch is the coach of Katniss and Peeta. He's their coach because he's the only living winner of the Hunger Games from District 12. He is also a major drunkard. He is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting characters. We can see his fear of the past through his continual drinking, which he uses to keep down the memories of his time in the Hunger Games and his time coaching tributes who he watch die in later Hunger Games. We can also see his attempt to save at least one of the tributes by focusing the sponsor's gifts on Katniss.

Rue

Rue is a tribute from District 11 who becomes allies with Katniss partway through the games. she brings out the best in Katniss, mainly because she reminds Katniss of Prim. Rue is 12 years old, and is the youngest tribute that year. Katniss allies with Rue because Rue reminds her of home. Because of this, Rue brings out the little happiness we see in Katniss, which is, besides herself, something that only Prim, Gale, and (until he died) Katniss's father.

Effie

Effie isn't really important, but I want to clear something up. Some might say that Effie is more annoying than Katniss, but that is not true. Effie, with her strange catchphrases and colored wigs, is a comical sort of annoying. She brings a sort of light tone to a dark plot. Katniss is just depressing.

Conclusion

The book is a good, intense read, even though I don't like Katniss. The book mixes moments of emotion with moments of action. In the book, the idea of an over-powerful government which people are fighting against is always interesting and always popular. I give it 7 waffles out of 11.  

Brain Spill Book Reviews #6

Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen

By H. Beam Piper

Anybody who has done a little bit of reading in the genre of science fiction knows the idea of alternate universes. This is the idea that whenever somebody or something makes a choice, two universes are formed: one where the person made the chose one thing, and one where a person chose the other. Lord Kalvan is an alternate universe book, but to the extreme level. A group of people, known as the Paratime, are able to travel through the thousands of alternate universes that there are, and they have taken it up upon themselves to keep order within these universes. One time, on accident, a Paratime trooper accidentally encounters a Pennsylvania policeman, Calvin Morrison. Morrison shoots the trooper, but is accidentally transported to another universe, which Morrison refers to as Otherwhen. Calvin, known as Kalvan in Otherwhen, becomes a powerful leader in the Otherwhen kingdom of Hostigos. The story revolves around the Paratime trying to track Kalvan, the wars between Hostigos and other kingdoms, and Kalvan trying to bring down the over-powerful house of Styphon, a religous group with the only knowledge of gunpowder. Although much of the story is politics and war strategy rather than action, the book has an interesting concept and plot. One of the most interesting things the book brings up is the reorganization of language and territory in eastern North America.

Picture from http://www.listal.com/viewimage/50412h

Brain Spill Book Reviews #5

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

By Douglas Adams

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a very random book. The book basically created the genre of random comedy. In the book, a man named Arthur Dent is taken by his friend Ford Prefect, an alien from a planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, off of the planet Earth seconds before the Earth is destroyed. Soon, the two hitchhikers catch a ride on the stolen ship, Heart of Gold, with ex-president of the galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox and a fellow human, Trisha McMillan. The four of them, along with a depressed robot and an overly happy computer, go on a quest to find the legendary planet of Magrathea and in search of the question of life, the universe, and everything. The book is filled with plenty of random events and characters and makes it the father of all random books. The book is very well written, 8.5 out of 10! Hurrah!

Brain Spill Book Reviews #4

The Looking Glass Wars

By Frank Beddor

The Looking Glass Wars is a book that starts off in the magical kingdom of Wonderland, where a select few people are able to make things happen simply by using their imaginations. Princess Alyss Heart is celebrating her birthday party, when her evil Aunt Red crashes the party, brings news of how she killed Alyss's father, proceeds to kill Alyss's mother, then takes over the kingdom. Alyss is forced to leave the palace by her bodygaurd, Hatter Madigan, but the two of them accidentally fall into a portal to Earth. Alyss comes out in England, while Hatter comes out in France. Hatter searches for ten years to find Alyss. When he finally does and they go back to Wonderland, they find that Red has completely messed up Wonderland, and they must fight Red to retake the kingdom. The book is a cool new take on Alice in Wonderland, though not as whimsical as the original. The book, though, was thoroughly interesting and thus deserves 8 stars out of 10! Yay! Congratulations! You earn 5 imaginary Golden Duckets!

http://media.gunaxin.com/the-looking-glass-wars-stomping-fairy-tale-ass/38014

Brain Spill Book Reviews #3

Flatland

A Romance of Many Dimensions

By Edwin A. Abbott

Flatland is a book written by an English schoolteacher and theologian named Edwin A. Abbott. Flatland is basically a a book written from the point of view of a square who lives in a large two-dimensional world. The book was actually published under the pseudonym, A. Square (Get it?). The book is divided into two parts. The first part simply explains how a 2D world is able to work. This section, though cleverly thought out, is long and somewhat boring. The second part gets to the plot of the whole story. In the story, the square has a dream that he saw Lineland, a land in the 1st dimension. He tries to explain the second dimension to the King of Lineland, but the King does not listen and eventually tries to kill the square. The next day, the square is visited by a perfect circle, claiming to be a sphere. The sphere explains the whole 3rd Dimension to the square, but the square tries to kill the s0-called sphere, refusing to listen. The square is taken by the sphere and is shown the 3rd Dimension (Spaceland) and the land with no dimension (Pointland). The story is interesting, yet somewhat boring at the beginning. 6.5 stars out of 10! Yay for books!

Picture from http://romeda.org/rePublish/.

Brain Spill Book Reviews #2

Larklight

Setting

Larklight is a book written by Philip Reeve that takes place in the 1800s if Isaac Newton had invented space travel. The story begins in a house which is a satellite in space. In thsi world, the British Empire has expanded to the moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and the Moons of Jupiter. Most of the (human) characters act like people out of a Charles Dickens novel, but in space.

Summary

 The story starts when giant spiders attack the (floating space) house of Myrtle and Art Mumby and they escape to the moon, where they are taken onto the ship of pirate Jack Havock. The book, told from the viewpoint of Art Mumby -- with some excerpts from Myrtle -- and tells of the tale of how Art, Myrtle, and Jack try to discover who the giant spiders are and what they want with the house of Art and Myrtle.

Characters

Art Mumby

Art is the narrator of the story and the main character. He dreams of exploring deep space and going on adventures, but is stuck in his floating house, Larklight, listening to his sister play piano. He is a fun character, but even as the narrator, very little is learned about him.

Myrtle Mumby

Myrtle is the most annoying character in the entire book. Not only does she insist on playing piano all the time, she always tries to be lady-like, which drove me mad about halfway through the book. She changes more than most characters, but it is a very sudden, unusual change and is probably not the book's main character.

Jack Havock

Jack Havock is the most famous pirate in all of the British Empire, though he is younger than he is thought of in the papers. He roams the Solar System with his very eclectic crew of alien-escapees from a lab in London. Havock has a sad past, that I will not spoil, and is one of the deeper characters in the story. He saves just about everybody in the entire cast of characters from certain death.

Mr. Webster

Mr. Webster is the name of the head giant spider who attacked Larklight and kidnapped the Mumby children's father. He is the antagonist of the story and his race and intentions unfold very nicely as the plot continues.

Nipper

I just put Nipper in this character summary because he's a giant crab.

Conclusion

The book is well written and unfolds very nicely and evenly. I enjoyed the majority of the book as well as the hover hogs. The characters do not develop much throughout the story, but this more of a 'show-me-a-new-world' story rather than a hero's journey story. 8.5 out of 11 pancakes.

*Pancakes are not provided by blogger.

Picture from http://www.scificool.com/tomas-alfredson-to-direct-larklight/