Life is Like a Box of Chocolates... You Never Know What You're Gonna Get.

     Forrest Gump is a movie that captured the hearts of many people from all around that globe. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and was released in July 1994 and was based on the novel with the same title by Winston Groom. The original book was published in 1968, but then again, we’re not here to talk about that. The movie became a hit back in the 90s and is considered one of the most popular and high grossing movies of all time. It was nominated in 59 awards and won 29 out of all those.

    The story starts with a little Forrest Gump having a problem with his legs and was forced to put braces on them. He would often hang with his friend Jenny near or on the big tree near their place and according to him, Jenny is the most beautiful girl he has set his eyes on. One day, a group of bullies started chasing Forrest and Jenny told him to run as fast as he can. Although he had braces on his legs, he didn’t let that obstacle hold him down. He kept running until the braces broke off and he was able to get away. Even though a lot of people thought that Forrest was mentally challenged, he excelled in different aspects through his love and devotion to those that were close to his heart, which in turn humbled everyone by the realizations. When he joined the army, he met his best friend Bubba and they talked about how his mother is a shrimp cook for a rich family. Bubba loved shrimp and they both envisioned a future in the business. The friendship was short lived when Bubba died in the war. Forrest stayed true to their plans and built the Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant and branched out in states everywhere. He gave 50% to Bubba’s mother which shocked her to see that the amount equaled to more than a million dollars. Even though he became successful in life, he was stayed humble and still longed for Jenny. Throughout the story, she would come and go in his life and in the end, it was revealed that Jenny gave birth to Forrest’s baby boy. He later asked for her hand in marriage and took care of her even up to the day that she passed away.

    In the beginning and ending of the movie, a feather was shown floating through the air and a lot of people were giving their own interpretations about it -- even Tom Hanks gave his own. As for my own interpretation, I believe that the feather meant how all of us are like feathers that are floating through air. Our fates are never decided by ourselves, even if we think we’ve planned everything. One way or another, a slight change in the wind can alter one’s direction. It doesn’t specifically mean that we’re going to be alone in the journey, because just like in the movie, wherever we may drift, there will always be other feathers that will flow and dance with us through the wind.

- Vieo

Sources:

forrest_gump-10693.jpg, Retrieved October 9, http://free-extras.com/images/forrest_gump-10693.htm

Forrest Gump Screenshot, Retrieved October 9, http://www.fanpop.com/spots/forrest-gump/images/1814957/title/jenny-photo

That's a Shirt? I Always Thought It Was a Skirt!

    Hey Arnold! No, I’m not calling you Arnold. It’s the title of a show back in the 90s. Hey Arnold is an animated series with the genre of comedy and drama. It was directed by Craig Bartlett and was published on Nickelodeon in 1996. It had five seasons and a hundred episodes, showing more or less twenty episodes for each. The show was cut in 2004 after their 100^th episode special which was an hour long, entitled “The Journal”.

    The story is about an orphan kid named Arnold who lived in a boarding house building that was owned by his grandparents, Phil and Gertude. He’s a fourth grader in a school called Publica School 118 (or PS 118, for short) who’s wise beyond his age. Helga, who has a crush on him, would often act mean and shove him away just to hide the fact that she likes him. His best friend Gerald on the other hand is a kid who loves telling urban legends that would make the story even more interesting. There’s also Harold who’s a bully but in reality, he’s actually a scared kid trying to make everyone feel inferior. There are a lot of characters in the cartoon that had his or her own problems and insecurities, but they would often confide in a solution that wasn’t either right or very healthy. That’s where Arnold comes in. He often helps his friends go through problems, giving them advices and showing them what’s right and what’s wrong. Often times, he’d be faced with his own problems, but in the end, he would always think rationally and choose what’s right.

    As a kid, I remember watching Hey Arnold for the first time and thinking: “what a strange shape for a head…” Then again it’s a cartoon and most cartoons have weird looking characters. I guess that’s what makes them memorable at times--the image and style of the art--but you know, I don’t think that that’s what makes Hey Arnold unforgettable. I honestly believe that it’s the story of the cartoon that keeps everyone entertained, because the story itself has its small values and lessons that can be applied to anyone of any age. There’s a wide variety of characters which can actually make viewers relate and see themselves in some situations that were being shown. That in itself is something worth cherishing especially when you know you learned your lessons through the help of a football shaped head kid. Haha!

See you all on the next run,
Vieo

Sources:

hey-arnold-viaduct.jpg, retrieved October 8, http://playingwithpolitics.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/hey-arnold-animating-the-benefits-of-urban-design/

Hey-Arnold-old-school-nickelodeon-295350_1024_768.jpg, retrieved October 8, http://www.fanpop.com/spots/old-school-nickelodeon/images/295350/title/hey-arnold-wallpaper

The Floating Palace

    One of the most popular movies and known love stories back in the 90s would definitely be Titanic. I mean, who wouldn’t forget it? The story of the movie was inspired by the real life Titanic that collided with an iceberg back in April 1912, off the coast of Canada. It was said that the ship was indestructible only to have their words backfire at them after the accident. So going back to the movie, it was spearheaded by Director James Cameron who has Leonardo DiCarpio and Kate Winslet as its lead stars.

    The story started with a group of explorers and treasure hunters searching the Titanic for a necklace called “Heart of the Ocean”. Instead of finding the necklace, they came across a sketch of a woman who was wearing the treasure. It was later published on the news and Rose Dawson became aware of the discovery. She contacts the group and informs them that she is the one on the sketch. Rose recalls the story of everything that had happened while she was still young and was on the ship. At first, she was under the pressure of an engagement that will save her family’s financial problems which made her thought of ending her life. Jack, however, was there and convinced her to think things through and not jump over the edge of the ship. They form a friendship that eventually developed into romance, but was short lived once the Titanic sank. Jack and Rose stayed together waiting for a life boat to rescue them. After hours of waiting, Jack froze to death leaving Rose no choice but to leave him. In the end of the movie, the 84 year-old threw the necklace into the water saying that it belongs to the ocean without the group having knowledge of the incident or that it was with her the whole time. She sleeps and was reunited with Jack once more.

    The movie was nominated in and garnered various awards including Best Picture and Best Director. It also grossed $1.8 billion with spending only $200 million, making it the first to have ever reached the amount. That being said, the impact it had on people was immense and was very memorable. The story itself touched most hearts and others were brought to tears. You definitely have to give props to not only the ones involved in the making of the film, but also to the ones who gave so much inspiration for the story.

Bon Voyage,

Vieo

Sources:

Titanic Movie Poster, Retrieve October 7, http://free-extras.com/images/titanic-11421.htm

Titanic, Retrieved October 7, http://free-extras.com/images/titanic-11431.htm

Omlette Do'froumage

    Dexter's Laboratory is a cartoon series made by Genndy Tartakovsky which was, at first, a project for the Cartoon Network channel, but it was later adopted into the network as a regular series which aired in 1996 but was halted in 2003. It showed 4 seasons of two segments of short stories for each episode, making each story fast and actually very enjoyable. The first time I saw Dexter’s Lab as a kid, I was amazed at how it had a different kind of art compared to other cartoons that I used to watch. The colors were bold and vibrant which made me tune into it even more. Over the years, it made game adaptations and various artists like will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas and Prince Paul helped build its first music CD entitled “The Hip-Hop Experiment”.

             

    The story of Dexter’s Laboratory (or Dexter’s Lab in short) revolved around an eight-year-old boy genius who has a secret laboratory in his room which only his sister and nemesis knew of. Despite so many odd happenings in the house, his parents were completely oblivious of their son’s doings and never had a clue about it. Due to his irritation of his ditzy older sister, Dee Dee, he made his lab a no Dee Dee zone. Even though Dexter had all the smarts to make his lab have high security, his sister still gains access to the lab with some stroke of luck and prances around destroying most of what Dexter builds. At one point, he met his arch-enemy at school, who prefered to be called Mandark, who exceeded his intelligence and made him insecure and low in confidence. Mandark falls for Dee Dee and Dexter plotted a plan that would transfer her to Mandark’s secret lab in order for her to wreak havoc and destroy his creations. Although the story didn’t revolve around just them, it also had cameos of Dexter’s pet monkey who’s a secret agent and his favorite superheroes, The Justice Friends (which was parody of the characters from Marvel comics).

    Thinking about the cartoon series now makes me remember and relive childhood memories of how I would stay up at night just to be able to watch the show. I am not surprised that it gained the title of being one of Cartoon Network’s greatest classics because it is definitely one for the books in my generation.

Au revoir,

Vieo

Sources:

3298.jpg, retrieved October 6, images.tvrage.com, http://images.tvrage.com/shows/4/3298.jpg
753.jpg, retrieved October 6, http://www.tv.com/shows/dexters-laboratory/

Go go Power Rangers!

    In 1993, Saban Entertainment released the hit series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (or Power Rangers for short). The original series released up to three consecutive seasons but came to an end in November 1995. Before it was halted though, it became popular with kids all around the globe which pushed them to make a movie based on the series. Just as the series, the also became a success.

    The story of the Power Rangers revolved around the life and adventures of five teenagers from Earth who were chosen by Alpha 5 from the command of a wise sage named Zordon due to the information that reached him about the release of an evil sorceress who they called Rita Repulsa. Each Power Ranger had a specific color and dinosaurs representing them. Throughout the series, it was shown that Rita would often send her minions to defeat the five teenagers in order for her to have control over the planet. Although due to constant failure, Rita formulated a plan to kidnap a human and manipulate him to go against the Power Rangers. Tommy became the Green Ranger but was under a spell which made the Power Rangers believe that he was on their side. Eventually the spell was broken but the powers that were given to him by Rita remained. She tried to take them back but only to be disappointed once again. This time, the persistent Rita kidnaps their parents which forced the Power Rangers to give up their Power Coins which were used for them to morph and gain powers.

    Even though the series ended in 1995 and it was passed on to different companies, the success of the Power Rangers was undeniable. Up to this day, after the first series and movies, it continued to make even more follow ups that kept children (and even old time fans) entertained. To top it all off, the merchandises that was produced based on the Power Rangers (eg. masks, costumes, swords, action figures) are not only selling as collectibles now, but it also made my imagination as a child alive.

See you around, 'cause it's morphin time,

Vieo

Source:

MMPR Group, Retrieved October 5, http://fandomania.com/the-nostalgia-factory-power-rangers-1-mighty-morphin-power-rangers-era/

MMPR The Movie, Retrieved October 5, http://loyalkng.com/2010/02/19/mighty-morphing-power-rangers-japan-japanese-opening-catchy-tune/

Tugs Tugs Tugs!

     Now I know that as I write this I’m only 21 years old and I would barely have no knowledge of what a Rave was if I was a 90’s kid but Raves were all the Rage back in the day and if my brother didn’t go to as many as he did in those years then I probably wouldn’t know as much about them as I did today.

     Now Raves are just a more exotic way of calling it a party yes there were different things but essentially it was a party a gigantic party in a tiny place. It was usually held in some club or if people were wild enough in some abandoned warehouse. Now we have Raves to thank for a bunch of cool things. First and foremost is the music stuff like Dubstep and House music most likely have their roots in Rave music or Trance music which for people in the 90’s was the equivalent of club music, we also have to thank ravers for things such as using lights in parties whether it was a blacklight which basically made things that were color white shine a nice violet highlight or if it was a strobe light that made everything look like it was moving in slow motion. My favourite contribution of raves though were the glowsticks which we still use up to today in parties back as a kid those things would keep me entertained for hours upon hours in the dark. Now if you had all these then you could throw yourself a rave.

     We actually owe the blue print to most of our parties to the 90’s by having raves the 90’s laid the groundwork for all of the intense parties that we have today.

Much love,

Vieo

Sources:

Raves, Retrieved October 4 from Imageshack.us, http://98.img.v4.skyrock.net/981/abrk/pics/907726924_small.jpg

Zero to Hero

    Hercules was probably my favourite Disney movie next to Aladdin. Why? Because it was a fresh take on something old and it had a male lead. Now to refresh everyone’s memories, Hercules was a movie that was made back in 1997 by Walt Disney Pictures which was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. The story was based on a popular mythical demigod named Hercules (or Heracles) who was an illegitimate child of the god of sky and thunder, Zeus and mortal woman Alceme. The real Greek mythology story is different from what Disney showed its audience, although it still captured the hearts of people (especially kids) from all around the globe.

              In Disney's version of Hercules' story, it was shown that he was the son of Zeus and Hera (goddess of marriage, women and birth). Mount Olympus had a celebration of his birth but only his uncle Hades (god of the dead and riches, king of the underworld) was not pleased by the news. He discovered through The Fates that in 18 years, the planets will align and show where Zeus had locked up the Titans and he will be able to overthrow his brother and be the king of all the gods. That is... if Hercules doesn’t stop him. He formulated a plan and had his minions, Pain and Panic, steal him from his crib. Since gods cannot be killed, they made Hercules drink a potion that will turn him human, but will only succeed if not a drop was missed. The minions failed to do the job properly which turned Hercules into a demigod--and out of fear, they never informed Hades of what happened. He was adopted by a mortal couple who could not bear children and raised him as their own. Through the years, he eventually found out that he was the son of Zeus and he seeked to take revenge on Hades and stop him from taking over Mount Olympus. It wasn’t easy for him, but his experiences through the journey made him learn the value of friendship, love and loyalty.

          A lot of people liked the movie so much that it actually grossed thrice of what the company spent in the making of the film. It also inspired the makers to make a video game out of it for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows 1997 so that all the fans could enjoy the story and relate even more to it through a first person experience. Not only did they make a video game based on it, but also a Disney TV series which showed the story (that was not in Greek mythology) of Hercules as a teenager and how he grew up, trained and learned everything that he knows that made him who he was in the movie.

Hercules' Step Brother,

Vieo

Sources:

Hercules official movie poster, Retrieved October 3 http://www.logoi.com/pastimages/img/hercules_3.jpg

Hercules Official Disney Art, Retrieved October 3 http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100606075231/disney/images/c/cc/Disney-hercules-lithograph.jpg

7th Heaven

    7^th Heaven will probably be one of my favourite drama television series. I remember back when it was Holy week and my family would head up to Tagaytay for a couple of days. There wasn’t much to do there but there was a saving grace and that was that the 7^th Heaven Marathon showed during this time and that’s what helped me get into the show.

    In the simplest way to describe it the show was basically about a family, the Camden’s made up of 7 members, the Eric the father being a reverend, his wife Annie being the out-going mom and their 5 children Matt, Mary, Lucy, Simon and Ruthie and how they would deal with real life issues. The teens would deal with growing up, bullying, and bodily changes while the adults dealt with things like spousal abuse, teen pregnancy and so on and so forth. Each episode was very engaging in the sense that they had to face these problems and find the best way to solve them. Of course being the family that they were all of them looked out for each other and usually intervened in each others behalf in order to solve whatever problems they were facing that episode. It was a basic formula but it was one that worked since the show produced 11 seasons and gave the cast countless awards. The series had a great run with cameos from various celebrities and reunion episodes and it didn’t end on a sour note the show ended on the series terms, to add to that this was also Jessica Biel’s first ever major acting role before she became a movie star.

    Overall though, 7^th heaven is something you can watch with anyone whether it be your family, your girlfriend or even your barkada. I promise that they will relate to at least one of the characters on the show and that will be enough to get them hooked. I know it worked on me because I had an instant connection with Simon and that’s what made me await each episode. In fact I may have to download or buy the DVD boxset of that show when I get the chance.

Wannabe member of the family,

Vieo

Sources:

7th Heaven cast. Retrieved from Moviepics.wcu.game.ru on October 2