DoodlePlanet Christmas Special

DoodlePlanet has become a regular haunt for me now, and I certainly didn’t want to miss the Christmas Special. Nine local artists contributed some fantastic works of art and raised over £200 for charity. The idea of using art to raise awareness and money for worthy causes is so inspiring and I hope to be asked to contribute someday.

For the first time I was lucky enough to arrive at DoodlePlanet with my lovely boyfriend, Dan, who had already planned his drawing for the evening.

I myself had decided on either “a sexy Christmas pin-up girl” or “some Christmas chibis”. My first DoodlePlanet event saw me bombing as I tried to draw a Halloween themed scene, and ended up cramming as many stupid little drawings onto the canvas as possible. My second outing, and I came home with a relatively satisfying Little Mermaid watercolour.

This time I drew four pictures and came home with two.

At first I made an attempt to create my chibi Christmas scene, but lack of interest and a nasty ink spill caused me to abandon it. However, it turned out to be popular with a lot of female students.

My second drawing was worse than the first, a charcoal scribble that I later used as a palette for my marker pens. I deliberately avoided taking a photograph of it.

For the third drawing I took inspiration from my twin sketchbook and tried to replicate/improve on a design for Taste the Blood’s EP cover. However, I became frustrated and angry when things didn’t go to plan; I lowered the girl’s arms too much and so ended up having to draw her breasts, which I had been intent on covering up. Also her face looked ridiculous. I grabbed a pile of charcoal and smeared the drawing with it, added some handprints and wrote the word “SEX” as the title.

At the time this had all been a big joke, and Dan and I had a laugh about it. But as it turns out it was quite a popular drawing that night. During the auction a group of men stated that they wanted to bid for it. Whether they were intoxicated or not didn’t matter to me, I was pleased as punch. Unfortunately, my work wasn’t in the auction.

So perhaps I had drawn this out of annoyance, or perhaps I had drawn it in order to provoke or offend. Either way people seemed interested by it. What irritates me the most about it though is how out-of-proportion the girl looks. Oh well, there’s always next time.

Finally, I found a seat on the floor, a small blank canvas and just relaxed, and came up with my best piece. Both an excuse to practice drawing girls and an excuse to practice tattoo placement, I wound up with this image of one of my original characters, who I like to refer to as Bluey, due to her blue dreadlocks. She’s sitting, being her usual cheeky self, showing off her body art, piercings, funky hair and tie-dyed t-shirt, and telling the world to flaunt it if you’ve got it, whatever “it” may be.

I’m pretty proud of this drawing (not the colouring however), and I’m confident that I will improve with each DoodlePlanet. I’m looking forward to the next one.

As for Dan he produced this amazing replica of the Afro Samurai. He really put every effort into it and it came out great considering the image was tiny on his iPhone! I’m so proud of him, and we both know he will get better and better the more he draws!

Until next time, Happy Holidays!

Formative Assessment Feedback

My formative assessment didn't go as bad as I thought/hoped it would. Well it was bad, but not awful. They pretty much told me everything I already knew; I work too slow, need to speed up. My problem is I waste too much time thinking about what I want to do and trying to organise how to get there in a particular order, but my assessors told me I need to loosen up and just go with it really. Stop thinking, start doing. I've been telling myself that for months, it's harder than it sounds.

Now I have until tuesday to get the layout pages for my Narrative comic drawn up. It's not impossible, but it's going to take a lot of time and effort. Unfortunately this weekend I had planned to work myself ill on the Mabinogion project, because that, to me, seems the most essential (it's a paid commission after all, and God knows I need the money and recognition).

So I've decided to dodge between both projects for the next three days, going from one to the other whenever I get bored of them, taking suitable time out for the necessities: food, sleep and video games.

At least they agreed with me when I told them I'm coping better than last year, when I was a mental wreck, but I still get panic attacks and an all-over-body rash just thinking about deadlines.

Still I got a B+ for my Journal Article on The Body, which is good, considering I lost interest in writing it near the end (which is perhaps why one of the comments about it was "the conclusion felt a bit lacking". Fair enough). I will need to find an exceptionally intriguing subject for my dissertation next year in order to keep myself interested.

I have two ideas already:

1. The comparison between traditional animation, compared to the era of CGI. This would be a re-writing and lengthening of an essay I wrote in college (that didn't do very well), because I am still so passionate about this subject and really want to do it justice. Also, since college we have had 3D films coming out, a lot more stop-motion animated films (Coraline, Fantastic Mr Fox) and also Disney's The Princess and the Frog is set to be released soon, in a gorgeous return to traditional hand-drawn animation.

2. My second idea is a cliched one that has probably been done over and over, but one that I could definitely get my claws into: the idea of Contemporary Art (also known as really bad, skill-less tripe) as a selling point. I'm not a huge fan of the post-modern idea of art, where people can take a rotting animal carcass and sell it as "an expression of life". It's intolerable. But I will also explore the idea that artists like myself, and many people working in comics, illustration, games design (etc.) today could also be considered post-modern artists. After all, we're all living in the same age. Some of us just have better ideas and more talent than some.

Those are my two current ideas anyway. We've been advised to start thinking about our dissertation in advance, so it plagues my mind daily, as do ideas for my final major project.

Next week I will be conducting "research" at Manchester's Odeon cinema, in the form of movie-going. Wednesday is Where The Wild Things Are day, and friday is reserved solely for the intense ride that is going to be Avatar in mind-imploding IMAX 3D. If I survive you will be able to catch some reviews on my other blog in the weeks to come.

Until next time!

“Dad” Comics, DoodlePlanet and Christmas Cards

I thought it would be fitting at this time to upload some of the personal things I am currently working on, as so far I’ve just been talking about work that I am doing for other people.

First of all, something I started over a month ago were plans for a mini-series, or online comic, simply called “Dad”. The strips have no real storyline, but instead represent moments or conversations that I have had with my dad over the last (nearly) twenty-one years. My father and I have always had a very strange relationship, in that we are alike in so many ways, and can sometimes have these great bonding sessions, whilst at the same time criticising and resenting each other; myself for the lack of attention he showed me as a child, my dad because of the lack of interest I show in having a normal life.

In many ways I admire and look up to him, but at the same time I often wish he were a different person. As I said, it’s a very odd relationship. The aim of these comics is not to show either of us in a bad light, but just to express the odd and infrequent moments we share together. And these are real moments the way I remember them.

The first comic I drew is a total mess, but only for the sake of it being the thumbnails for a much more detailed comic. Hopefully, if I see my dad enough, I will have enough material to turn this idea into a daily or weekly online comic.

"Dad - 20 years of Outfits" can be read here:

Page 1

Page 2

Twice in the last two months I have attended a local event known as DoodlePlanet, set up by Compulsive Scribbler. The premise of the event is just to let people come in, have some drinks and doodle on large boards of canvas left lying around the place. It happens maybe once or twice a month at Telford’s Warehouse in Chester, and once at the Glyndwr Student’s Guild.

It’s such great fun and a good way to get non-artists drawing, as I found when I took my boyfriend, Dan, along and he really enjoyed it.

Poor Dan didn’t have time to finish his psychedelic illustration because he arrived late…

... whilst I spent the night trying to paint something decent with watercolours. I came up with my own version of Ariel and Flounder from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

The next DoodlePlanet in on December 17th, again at Telford’s Warehouse, and everyone is welcome to come along. After all, it’s a Christmas party too!

And speaking of Christmas, I have been working on a design for a Christmas card that I would like to produce this year for my friends and family. At the moment the line-art still needs a clean up, then I need to shrink it down and apply several copies to a sheet of A3 or A2 acetate so that I can screen-print more than one card at a time. Only trouble is I’m not sure how to do that. I’m not so good with photocopiers.

The design features two characters from a holiday card series I am inventing called Minky Pinky (don’t even ask where the name came from, as I’m not too sure myself). I’ll hopefully have more cards designed for birthdays, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and so on.

So there’s a chance now I wont have much to say until after the holidays. If that be the case, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year from me!

A very busy Christmas, and a hectic New Year!

Perhaps you can tell from my long absence that I have been hard at work, struggling through piles of sketchbooks and notepads. Well, the latter is accurate, but I certainly don’t think I’ve been hard at it. No more so than the rest of my brethren.

Yesterday we presented what (little) work we had to the rest of the group, and I was relieved to see that I was not as behind on my projects as I initially thought. In fact, I was even further ahead than some people. And yet I’m still panicking because the deadline for four of my projects is fast approaching, and I’m not making a vast amount of headway.

I guess I should really stop taking on so many things at once. That or I should learn to be more organised. But when you’re a lethargic young woman, trying to juggle a boyfriend, an education, a social life, afterhours clubs, commissions and personal time, it can get extremely overwhelming, and I find that trying to plan things out is much harder than just diving into things and getting on with it. I’m no different from anyone else my age (well, a little different).

So here’s a brief update of where I am at the moment:

1. My first paid commission, aka: The Mabinogion. Well the deadline is just over a month away (ironically the same day as most of my other projects – nightmare) and I haven’t gotten as much done as I’d hoped by this point. But I’m not too worried, as I always do my best, fastest work when I’m under pressure. I was hoping my first real piece of outside-work would be handled a lot more professionally, but I’m still getting used to the idea of doing this stuff for a living.

I’ve pretty much gone through each and every story in The Mabinogion, and applied one or two ideas to each one. There’s a total of about thirty for me to mess around with, and I only need twenty. I’ve also drawn up some thumbnails to represent what my final illustrations may look like. All that needs doing now is the full-sized images, which I think is the part that will take the longest. Then after that, a quick clean-up and I’ll send them off to the client, who should hopefully approve of them pretty quickly. What I like about this brief is that I’ve been pretty much left to my own devices and imagination. What I don’t like about this brief is that that I’ve been pretty much left to my own devices and imagination. It’s a double-edged sword.

Finally, the colouring should be done over Christmas, which shouldn’t take too long, as I’ve been asked to keep it simple.

2. Work is underway on two short comics I mentioned before: a Horror-story, which isn’t horrific at all, and also an autobiographical piece that references the plight of the Collyer brothers. The basic stories for both comics is pretty much sorted, I’m just now working on character and location designs, along with some thumbnails, then the final comics will be finished over Christmas.

The horror story is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz of sorts, except it’s aimed at very young children. Dorothy is replaced by a baby girl, whilst the scarecrow, tin-man and lion have been changed to a spider, a broken tin-soldier toy and a one-piece baby suit. I am avoiding the use of greys and blacks in the story to appeal to a young child’s sense of wonderment for colour and brightness, and there is absolutely no dialogue in the work, because I wanted to represent how a baby cannot speak and will have to communicate with body language and expressions.

The second comic on the Collyer Brothers has developed into an autobiography, whereby I refer back to the famous pair as a means of getting over my own struggles with OCD and paranoia. So far I have some character designs for my boyfriend Dan as he will look in the comic:

Dan Designs

I was inspired by not only my own experiences, but by two books that I was lent by Dan Berry; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Unlikely by Jeffrey Brown. Both books depict a semi-life story told by the authors in a very honest and touching way. The art styles differ, as do the storylines, but both have enormous heart and left me experiencing a weird emotion that I’ve never quite been able to put in to words; like happy and sad at the same time.

Watch out for my reviews of Fun Home and Unlikely, as well as my finished comics.

3. Also in the works now, and this I’m very excited about, is my documentary on body modification. It’s called “Pins and Needles,” and is being filmed, as I write this, in high definition. It involves the participation of many of my friends, colleagues and some strangers, who I have asked very graciously to give me their views and opinions on body modification or, to be more specific, tattoos and piercings. I am looking forward to posting it online when it’s finished, as I’m hoping it will spark some good discussion, so keep your eyes peeled. For this I also have to write a 1200 word journal, so hopefully that should be up soon too.

4. One of my more abstract projects is an album cover design for my partner’s local Metal band, Taste the Blood. They’ve recently started recording their material after only a year of gigging and playing some great venues.

They’ve pretty much let me take over the cover, so I’m free to do what I please with it. So far I’ve come up with three basic ideas, the first being very basic: a beautiful, gothic woman, sitting drinking from a glass of blood.

The two other ideas I have are based on their main song on the EP, “Medusa’s Serpent”. One image is split in two and shows Medusa looking like an innocent young woman on one side, whilst her evil side takes over most of the album cover. The other idea is slightly more raunchy and features a topless woman holding a snake whilst blood pours from her eyes, nose and mouth. All very Metal.

All the ideas are based around the bands love of B-Movie’s and Hammer Horror films, hence the band name Taste the Blood (of Dracula). So as well as, I hope, giving the band a brilliant cover for their first EP, I will also be getting my work out to the general masses in the music industry, which suits me fine.

And so, that’s basically all of my professional work put into context. As always, comments and input are very welcome.

Film review: Antichrist - Not for the faint of heart

Without a doubt, Antichrist is as controversial as it claims to be, and is certainly not a film to watch when you are feeling let down by life, lest it cause mass-suicide.

As a fan of Lars Von Trier I am familiar with his other works of a similar nature; Dancer in the Dark, although displaying a message of hope and childlike imagination throughout, ends with an unhappy conclusion, whilst Dogville dedicates itself to showing how rotten human beings can become when threatened by beauty, innocence and youth. Both films deal with the vulnerability of women against men.

Antichrist deals with quite the opposite and has even been accused of being misogynistic, due to the theme of Witchcraft. I myself study Witchcraft and feminism, and found this to be just a paranoid comment by politically correct moron, whether male or female. Just because a film has a female villain, does not mean it is sexist.

I wont go into great detail, because trying to describe this movie in a few paragraphs is remarkably difficult, and I want to leave some surprises for you to find yourself. But if you do decide to watch it, be warned that it requires something of a strong will and gut. It also requires one to be open-minded, as the film is very “art-school”, with outdoor shots of nothingness to convey a sense of loneliness, and close-ups body parts to emphasize the effects of stress on the person.

It is filmed in four parts, or chapters, “Grief”, “Pain”, “Despair” and “The Three Beggars”, as well as a prologue and an epilogue. Although it isn’t that long (about an hour and forty) it feels much longer because of the airiness of the beginning and middle, and the action doesn’t really happen until the last twenty minutes or so. Unfortunately, this makes for a film that can only be watched every now and again.

The first five minutes or so is filmed in lustrous HD and scored beautifully, using the aria “Lascia Ch’io Pianga” (click here for Sarah Brightman’s version). The tragedy of the whole scene mixed with the operatic tones makes for a hear-wrenching opening scene.

It tells the story of a couple (known only as He and She) who lose their child in a freak accident. The mother blames herself and is unable to cope with his loss. She only finds comfort in quick bursts of passionate sex with her husband (which, would you believe, he is dead against!) and this serves to explain the amount of sex and nudity in the film.

In order to cure her, the psychiatrist husband takes her on a remote healing vacation to a cabin in the middle of some vast woods, ironically known as Eden, where she once stayed alone with her young son, and where the rest of the film is set. It is the place she fears most.

The trailer and the name of the film seem to hint at some supernatural tale, but that is far from the case. Everything is very real, and deals with the impact of grief, sexuality and insanity rather than ghosts or back-from-the-dead murderers. There is also an eerie twist, where you discover why their child died.

It’s a shocking movie, in more ways than one. Whether it’s the death of a child in the first few minutes, the graphic masturbation or constant scenes of sex, or the twisted abuse that She inflicts upon He in the final half hour, there is something that will disturb you when you watch Antichrist. And I do recommend it to the over-18s and the film-people out there. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are excellent as the tortured couple, and it is fair to say that you really pity them for what they go through…

You can watch the Trailer here.

Film Review: Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs

I’m one of those people who often end up eating their own words, but am usually happy to be proved wrong. When I first saw the trailer for Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, I was indifferent. First of all, the title was ridiculously long (which is why I shall henceforth refer to it as ‘”Cloudy”), and secondly the art style was very unusual, compared to the detailed, expression-ridden faces I see in Pixar films. First mistake: taking something at face-value.

I remember feeling similarly uninterested in another of Sony Pictures Imageworks films – Surf’s up – and yet found that I enjoyed myself, and laughed, quite a lot throughout that film. Second mistake: taking something at trailer-value.

Trailers, in my opinion, are often completely rubbish. Blood the Last Vampire (the live-action version) made the film look worth its salt, and we all know how bad that was.

The point is, I really enjoyed Cloudy. So this is an extensive review of a good animated film, complete with spoilers.

Flint Lockwood is a misfit inventor with severe social difficulties. The local kids think he’s weird, the local policeman thinks he’s a troublemaker, and his dad thinks he’s wasting his time, and should come and work at the family store for a living. They all live on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean called Swallow Falls, where their main source of food is sardines, of which the town was once famous for.

Flint has grown up watching the town decay in poverty, and his unusual inventions go to waste, until one day he invents a machine that can turn water into any kind of food one can dream up. He just needs the power of the town generator.

Enter Sam Sparks, the “cute and super-perky” news reporter and Flint’s love interest, on the day the Mayor decides to turn Swallow Falls into Sardine Land, and also the day Flint decides to hack into the main power-source on the island. Chaos ensues, as it should, and his food machine explodes, destroys Sardine Land and escapes into the atmosphere.

So Flint ends up in big trouble. Until, by some miracle, cheeseburgers start falling from pink clouds. The only explanation: Flint’s machine has somehow lodged itself into the nearest raincloud and continued to work.

Now food is raining down onto the town of Swallow Falls - renamed Chew and Swallow- on a daily basis and the people are happy, despite the huge amount of edible waste soiling the streets (but that can all be solved by another of Flint’s inventions). Lockwood becomes a hero and the town becomes a major tourist attraction, solving poverty and making everyone happy again.
Or so it seems... well it wouldn’t be a good movie without some kind of problem, would it? Flint’s dad still has issues with his invention, the Mayor is getting fatter and greedier, and the falling food is growing to insane proportions. And I’ll leave the summary at that.

Now there’s no mistaking the unusual art style of this film. The super-cartoony characters and their insanely large eyes would look much more at home in 2D than trying to balance their proportions in 3D. And yet as the film goes on, you become more comfortable with the style, and you realise how smooth and detailed the animation actually is. It’s hard to tell in the first half-hour or so, where everything is horrendously fast-paced, to the point sometimes where you cannot understand what a character is saying. But it’s the later slow moments where you really get to see what a good effort this is. The most memorable scene, I think, is where Flint and Sam are bonding in a giant jelly (or jell-o if you’re American) castle. The scene is funny, but also moving, because of the art direction and character development we witness. I won’t go into too much detail, but this is a great movie for bigging-up nerds and girls with glasses.

Another way that this movie is different, and almost refreshing in a way, is the fact that it is actually aimed at children, and thus there is no logic involved in the film whatsoever. Whilst Pixar always aim to add a touch of realism and beauty to their films, and DreamWorks tend to throw at least fifty dirty jokes at the adults, Cloudy is pretty much just for kids, in that it’s daft, illogical and very speedy in its story-telling.

Don’t get me wrong, there are the underlying messages that may affect adults. Believe in yourself, Be true to who you are, Your dad really does love you, and so on. But I felt as though if I hadn’t watched and enjoyed this film, Sony wouldn’t have cared, because it is for the children.
Saying that, the references to Yellow Submarine in the end credits, and the awesome addition of Mr. T to the voice-cast, are not to be missed by any self-respecting adult. And it is a funny film, whether you laugh at the antics of Flint’s talking Monkey, Steve, or his geeky ringtone or the various references to different countries dealing with the food crisis. Incidentally, in London, it rains tea and everyone wears bowler hats. I thought that was pretty accurate.

So there you have it, I recommend you give the film a chance, and don’t go by what you’ve seen in the trailer, because you may miss out. If you’re craving the days where films for children were innocent, smut-free and just impossible but fun, then you should enjoy this little nugget (HA! I made a food joke, about a film, about food...)

Welcome to October 2009

So... this is my "Artist's Journal".

It's basically a diary of what's going on in my professional life, as I adapt to working freelance. I've been advised by pretty much everyone to keep a working blog, in order to help me reflect back on my own experiences as an artist, and to perhaps allow anyone, who's interested, the chance to see how I go about my professional work.

Currently, I am working on four big pieces:

1. My first paid commission, for a well-known company. I'm keeping it under wraps for the sake of it being a private matter, but I will let you know how I'm getting on with the project. At the moment it's still in the planning stages, but I'm doing a lot of research in my own time in order to give my client more than what he initially asked. I believe giving more than your best is always a good thing. Who's going to say to you "That work is too good and you've done too much of it"? It's better to do too much than too little.

2. I'm working on a project (a Graphic Novel basically) that defies all the basic rules of a horror movie, but is still able to be classed under the title of "Horror". So that means no blood, death, scares, monsters, etc. Sounds hard, doesn't it? Well it certainly is. Still in the planning stages of this one.

3. My third piece of work is based around the story of the Collyer Brothers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers). At the moment I'm experimenting with ideas because, although initially it's going to be a Graphic Novel short, I would also like to fiddle with the idea of an interactive piece that will get people thinking about the subject in different ways. For example, if they're empathetic towards the Collyer Brothers, perhaps a set designed after one of their cluttered bedrooms will have the viewer reeling back in disgust. Maybe that sounds too ambitious, but as I said earlier, it's always best to do too much rather than too little.

4. I am also working on a article that explores this quote from Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a 20th century philosopher:

"The body is much more than an instrument or a means... it is our expression in the world."

As an artist I feature mainly human characters in my work, as I have a great interest in our physical body and it's language. The quote gives me an excellent opportunity to explore my theory of the human body as art, whilst also dispelling myths about beauty and pornography. I will post my article when it is complete, and am open to any feedback.

As well as these larger projects I am also working on improving my portfolio with some side-projects, including a tattoo porfolio, which I am hoping will land me a job as a tattooist's apprentice in a year or two; a series of greeting card designs, featuring 'cute' Manga-style characters. I hope to personalise these for different clients to make some extra money and get my work out there; I have a few short films in the planning stages with my partner, including a documentary on body modification in November; I am also hoping to work with my partner on some album artwork for his band, and will be entering this years Welsh Libraries Arts Competition (http://library.wales.org/express-yourself/), as well as participating in Liverpool's Big Draw (http://culture.org.uk/News.aspx?newsId=98).

So I'm frantically busy!

Until next time,

Jem

And the Oscar for Best Animated Film goes to...

(Images from wikipedia.org)

Well it's going to be a tough call come 2010. I have just seen the two best animated films from 2009, and cannot fathom which is better than the other. But does that really matter? Do Oscar's really matter at the end of the day? The way I see it just having people appreciate your movie should be thanks enough.

The two films I am talking about are, of course, (Disney) Pixar's Up and Studio Ghibli's Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea. Two beautiful films from the two best (in my opinion) animation studios on the planet. Both of them keep to the same rule: that storytelling is key. And let's face it, it's paid off for both of them. They should be proud, and I bet they are.

I'll start with Ponyo, which I saw in it's original Japanese, as it's not currently available on DVD over here. And to be honest, Ghibli films always sound much better in their original language.

Ponyo, it has been confirmed, is based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, another of my favourite classics. Ponyo is a little fish who lives with her sisters and human/sorceror father in a submarine under the sea. But Ponyo, who is developing much quicker than her sisters, dreams of a life outside her home. One day she sneaks off and travels to the surface world on a jellyfish. There, she is rescued from a bottle by a little boy called Sosuke (who gives her her name), who befriends her and promises to keep her safe forever.

But Ponyo's father is furious and takes her home where Ponyo rebels and uses her powers to become human. She escapes her home for good, accidently releasing a dark power that threatens the planet. The only way this disaster can be reversed is if Sosuke can truly learn to love Ponyo for who she is, thus removing her powers and making her a fully-fledged human girl.

The film's premise is simple, innocent and beautifully rendered in traditional 2D animation, as is the style of this fantastic company. There are plenty of laughs and a few tears but it's a great films for kids and adults alike, maybe even more so for the adults. After the bore that was Tales of Earth Sea, it's good to see that Ghibli is back to it's inspiring self. This is possibly their greatest film yet.

And then there's Up. As a huge Pixar fan I make a point of seeing every one of their films as soon as they're released into cinemas, and they have never left me disappointed. Up is no exception. It's gorgeous, it's funny, but most of all, it's heart-breakingly lovable. Seriously, I don't think there was a dry eye in the house during the first ten minutes, even my boyfriend was tearful (sorry Dan, the world needs to know!) And if you're not crying during the sentimental scenes, you will be when you meet the mean dogs who're after our heroes. I wont mention anymore, but that it was just such a funny scene, and so unexpected.

The story starts in the childhood days of Carl Frederickson, a pioneer of his favourite TV Show, "The Wilderness must be explored!" He imagines a life full of adventure and travelling. But in modern day America he is old, grey and lonely, and his beloved house is about to be bulldozed. Carl decides that the only way to finally stick-it to the corporate giants, trying to re-house him, is to escape the city and finally fullfil his lifelong dream of journeying to South America. He does this by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, and floating away in it.

Along the way he accidently picks up an eight-year-old Wilderness explorer who is out to earn his final badge for Assisting the Elderly; a talking Dog, Pixar-style; and a mysterious rare bird called Kevin.

Adventures arise in all sorts of situations, and hilarity is inevitable when you have talking dogs and bizarre birds in the cast, but the films most powerful moments are always the most emotional scenes. There's a strong message of following your dreams, keeping promises and an underlying theme of father-and-son bonding, but this in no way means it's a film just for the male-half of film-goers. I really enjoyed it, and as far as I've heard so has everyone else who has seen it. I always say to people that Pixar never let me down, and I stand by that remark.

So who will win the Oscar this year? Do I really care? No, I would rather people just watch both movies and enjoy them as I did. Oscars are not the most important thing in the world.

Anime Update

(All images are from Google, I don't own them)

Currently I am struggling my way through a pile of anime. Why do I feel I have to do this? Well honestly, I hate feeling like a "n00b" (is what they call me) because everything I'm watching is pretty old.

My whole life I've been behind on TV shows, gadgets, the latest fads, either because I had no money, or (let's face it people) I had a life to live. I didn't discover anime until Pokemon (although I watched Princess Knight as a toddler and own an anime version of The Wizard of Oz), and even then I had to ask my mum to tape it off CBBC for me, because I was too busy playing outside.

Sadly, I no longer play outside. Although I'm not constantly sitting indoors watching anime or the latest american sitcom, I still feel an obligation to catch up with those who are. So you may have already watched these animes, but I'm going to review them anyway:

Elfen Lied: I got about halfway through episode ten last night, before I realised how late it was. How twisted is this show? Answer: very dark, almost shocking to watch. I'd never thought I'd say that about a cartoon (yes, it is a cartoon, it's just Japanese). I think it was episode nine with the puppy, but I spent about ten minutes with my mouth hanging open. And then there was Mayu's back story. First time I've ever seen that in an anime. Nevertheless, I am enjoying the series, despite the fact that Nana, Mayu and "Nyu" all have the same generic, squeaky anime-girl voice. Thank you America, your dubbing skills haven't failed to make Moe characters annoy me yet (notable exception: Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh). Edit: Also, how beautiful is the song "Lilium"?

Umi Monogatari (aka Sea Story): Well, this is an odd one for me, because the insane cuteness of it and bright colours would normally put me off. But it's about Mermaids (kinda) and anybody who knows me, knows I love Mermaids, and stories about the sea. I'd compare it to Card Captor Sakura, without some of the humor; Fruits Basket, without the romance; but there's no doubt it's beautiful, and keeps me watching. The simple premise is that Marin and Urin, two girls from the Ocean, come to the surface to return a ring to Kanon-chan, a dark and moody girl who has been jilted by love. Add a talking sea-turtle and an evil force known as Sedna, and you've got a strange fantasy/sisterly-bonding story. Well, I'm enjoying it anyway.

Gurren Lagann: I still can't pronounce this one right, but I think it's Guh-rahn Log-on. Anyway, this is surprisingly good. I say surprisingly, because I tend to find Mecha incredibly boring (with the exception of Tranformers). I wont go into detail, because most people will know this anime by now, it's pretty huge in Japan and America. But I enjoy the brotherly bond between Kamina and little brother Simon. Kamina is probably my favourite character with his brash, determined attitude, but for once the half-naked female, Yoko, doesn't irk me, despite numerous pantie-shots and boob-jokes. I am only on episode four, but I have high-hopes for this one. It feels like a mash between Trigun and Fullmetal Alchemist and (funnily enough) Power Rangers. And it was made by the guys who did Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. So what could possibly go wrong?

Ranma 1/2: So I'm about twenty years behind on this one, so what? I've seen two episodes and I love it. But it's clearly written by a women, by how nonchalantly the female characters wander around displaying their breasts (see also: Chobits by CLAMP). The characters are adorably drawn, the humor is spot on, and the animation is old-fashioned, jerky and well, eighties, but it only serves to make me love it all the more. For those who don't know (and there will be a few, mainly those emo girls who watch Naruto and Death Note thinking they're the only animes worth watching. Idiots) Ranma 1/2 tells the story of Ranma and his father, two men with a problem. When they are doused in cold water Ranma becomes a girl and his father becomes a giant Panda. To make matters worse, Ranma is engaged to a fiesty girl called Akane, and they don't get on. Cue hilarious and awkward shoujo moments and a lot of billowing Sakura blossoms.

Yakitate! Japan: Thanks to Mark Wilkins for mentioning this on my Facebook status. As you do, I looked up the character he referenced and discovered Yakitate! Japan. And then Kairi explained to me that Yakitate! Japan is a pun, because the series is basically about a boy trying to bake a national bread for Japan. Pan means bread, so the title pretty much means Baking Japanese Bread. Anyway, I watched the first minute of it before the opening titles and I laughed a lot. It just looks daft and a lot of fun. I mean it's about a bakery for crying out loud. It's one of the more simple premises I've come across anyway. I think I'm going to enjoy it.

Filler Post: "Patriotism"

Yesterday I was watching the evening news when an article came on about Scottish Pride. The reporter was going about the streets in Scotland, asking the residents if they felt more Scottish than British. Pretty much every one of them said yes.

I felt an abundance of sadness at this; not that the Scottish feel pride, but more because I don't. I feel I am British only because I live here, and I don't feel Welsh at all. I don't hate Wales, but I wasn't brought up here. I didn't even know there was a Welsh language until 2000.

I claim to be British when people ask, but I honestly feel no patriotism for this country. I have no pride in our chav-filled streets, no pride in our education system, no pride in our government. I enjoy our traditional pubs and our Cornish pasties, but I feel no pride in them. I love our London museums and art galleries and architecture, but they belong to England, and the people of England; not to me.

In all honesty, the only country I've ever really considered myself a part of is the one I was born in, and that's Germany. I spent only about six years of my life there, but it was where I was the happiest (cue Nazi accusations). No, I am technically not German, my parents are Welsh, but none of us can speak any language other than English, and even then, we don't have accents (correction: my father can speak German, having learned in the Army).

So my question is how do you feel about your country, or perhaps not your country? I know a few people who feel a bigger link to Japan or Finland, even though they were born and raised here. Is nationality a technical thing, or a state of mind? Because I feel German, even though I am not.

Welcome and Toy Story 3D (2009)

(Image from: moviecarpet.com)


Welcome, curious one. This is the blog of Jemima Lee. I am currently a nobody, I'm afraid. This blog is mainly for University purposes, but it is also a means for me to express myself and develop professionally, as well as (hopefully) make friends.

For my first blog, I have prepared a review.

Yesterday (my 6-month anniversary with my boyfriend :D) I went to see 'Toy Story 3D' at my local Odeon, and I discovered two things.

1. After nearly fifteen years, this is still one of the best animated films ever to have emerged. The script is perfect, and the animation, though noticably glitchy at times, is still smoother and more pleasing to the eye than some of the garbage seen on screens today; those ten-a-penny CGI movies.

2. After nearly fifteen years, Pixar is still one of the best animation companies out there, if not the greatest. Each one of their films is so full of heart and the endurance of intelligence, imagination and hard work never fails to amaze me. It will be a long time before they let me down with one of their films, and to be honest I don't think they will.

'Up' is released in the UK next week, and rest-assured I will be first in line to see it. I've only been waiting a year and a half (darn Americans, keeping it to themselves)!