A Look at Some Popular Disney Characters

 

 

 

A Look at Some Popular Disney Characters

By Stanley Lewis

 

 

 

No matter the age of the child or what their favorite characters are, there is certainly something to be said for the magic of Disney and some of the terrific characters that they have created. In many ways, Disney makes its money from storytelling, and this is easily seen in some the characters that have sang and danced their way into our hearts.

 

 

When looking around at the various Disney characters out there, there are so many to choose from. One of the more iconic Disney princesses out there is certainly Ariel, the mermaid who fell in love with a prince and gave up her undersea kingdom to follow him on land. The music score was stunning, and the mermaid herself was determined, sweet, and downright adorable.

 

 

Another Disney princess that many people will recognize on sight is the strong-willed Jasmine, who appeared in Disney's Aladdin. Jasmine was a princess through and through who was forbidden by her father to marry anyone save a prince. Though Aladdin was certain the star of the show, Jasmine lit up her scenes with a combination of quick with and regal grace.

 

 

 

 

Of course Disney has more than princesses to offer to their eager audience. What about pirates? There's no pirate that can match Jack Sparrow, the captain of the Black Pearl, whether he is sailing into harbor on bedraggled raft or taking on the East India Company. Johnny Depp brought a great deal of charisma and charm to this character, and his performance is one that has greatly pleased his fans.

 

 

Lucy from the Chronicles of Narnia is an adorable character who tells us that Disney heroines can come in any age and any size. She is quite small when she first encounters the world beyond the wardrobe, but that doesn't stop her from standing beside her brothers and sister bravely in the face of the White Witch. She goes on to become a Queen of Narnia in her own right, reigning alongside Peter, Edmund, and Susan from Cair Paravel.

 

Another standout from the Disney characters is Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow up. He lived in the land of Neverland where children who had fallen out of their prams ended up, and he was the leader of the Lost Boys. We first meet him when he is charming Wendy, John and Michael Darling into flying away from their bedroom window and joining him in a life of adventure.

 

It is difficult to speak of Peter Pan without speaking of his arch-nemesis the pirate Captain Hook. When Peter cut off Hook's hand and fed to the a crocodile, he won Hook's undying anger, and hook has come up with many plans to capture and kill both the Lost Boys and their leader, which finally does culminate in their last and fateful meeting.

 

 

 

Disney is founded on good storytelling, and even if the stories are ones that we have heard over and over again, it is worth noting that we still love the Disney versions. We watch them over and over again, and every time, we find something new. Disney costumes still remain a popular choice with children today, despite the vast number of modern television, movie and comic book characters around today.

How Old is Too Old to Love Cartoons?

 

 

 

How Old is Too Old to Love Cartoons?

By Jordan Gottlieb

 

 

 

 

              

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am going to be completely honest here. I am well past the age that most people would think is acceptable to watch cartoons. I am a married father and have a college degree and manage a business. You would think by looking at me that my favorite television shows would be the news and professional sporting events. But boy oh boy would you be wrong. Just what is my favorite television show you might want to know...King of the Hill. I think it's awesome.

All of that begs the question: is there a point at which you are too old to enjoy and even love cartoons? I obviously think that the answer to that question is a resounding no. No way, no how.

 

Of course, there are different kinds of cartoons and different levels of fan enthusiasm. Do I consider myself too old to watch alot of what comes on on Saturday mornings? You bet I do. Those cartoons are mind numbing to say the very least. On the other end of the spectrum, there are cartoons like Sponge Bob that many people well past the age of 20 find hilarious that I just don't get. I fall into what I like to think of as a happy medium.

For a while I was a huge "The Simpsons" fan. I had nearly every episode memorized for about 10 seasons worth of shows. But, as with most animated series where the characters never age, there is only so much of a story and then things kind of fizzle out.

 

 

On classic show that I never seemed to get in to that alot of other adults love is Scooby Doo. I think for many people there is a powerful feeling of nostalgia watching their favorite childhood toons as an adult.

 

 

 

 

The level of cartoon enthusiasm can range from subtle to full blown obsession. Various examples I have seen include someone whose personal checks featured their favorite character which was subtle enough to someone with a Tweety Bird tattoo which seemed a little extreme but still well within the realm of reason to a lady who literally has a "Disney Room" that is filled with every conceivable Disney character.

All About Anime, Manga, And Western Animation

 

 

 

All About Anime, Manga, And Western Animation

By Gabriel J. Adams

 

 

 

The word anime is almost synonymous with Japanese culture, where it is as much a part of society as the newspaper or magazine. Most anime are actually derived from their manga (comic) counterparts, and the word is basically an abbreviation of animation, but specifically cartoon or comic animation. In fact, manga is a very popular form of literature in Asian countries, and a lot of manga titles are actually have a historical or contemporary flavor to it.

However, it might surprise many to know that there is not a lot of differences between Western and Eastern animation. Both share many common techniques and approaches, but perhaps Western animations have been trending towards using more sophisticated technology. Many of the most famous creators of anime still prefer to do things using the traditional methods, and are less reliant on computers and technology.

 

 

The biggest difference between the two styles of anime are probably the types of genres explored in the animation, and some of the peculiar features that are only found in Eastern animation.

 

Since anime and manga is such a big part of Eastern culture (you can find manga book shops everywhere in countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan), it tends to be more broad in the topics covered. Themes such as sports, relationships, history, military, political, humor and medicine or science have all been the subject of anime. In fact, there is probably an anime or manga for just about anything that you can think of. However, Western culture seem to be very specific with its animations, and tend to focus on heroes and villains, actions and consequences.

 

 

Some of the most interesting features of Asian anime is the use of dialogues within the dialogues. That is, as a particular scene is unfolding, there will be commentary from the characters within the animation providing a third person perspective from people involved in the plot. Also, the interplay between imaginary and real-life is often strong, with characters able to take words out of their speech bubble, or pull out various instruments from empty space.

 

 

To give you a taste of Japanese anime, and understand some of the things we've been talking about, have a look at some of the most popular Japanese anime: DragonBall, DragonBall Z, Naruto, Blackjac, Eyeshield 21, Slam Dunk. If there is something you are interested in, you will almost certainly find an anime or manga that covers the topic. So why not take a look in your favorite bookstore today, you never know just what you'll discover.

MMORPGS: World of Warcraft

 

 

 

REVIEW

MMORPGS: World of Warcraft

By Stefan Pratter

 

 

 

 

Introduction

If you're into computer games, you probably have heard of World of Warcraft, the latest hit produced by Blizzard Entertainment, and you're probably aware what an MMORPG is. If you're not, let me explain it quickly. A MMORPG is a massivly multiplayer online roleplaying game that allows thousands of players to play in a persistent game world.

World of Warcraft currently entertains close to 7 million people world wide. It has drawn many of the mmorpg veterans but also introduced a lot of new people to the genre. Why is world of warcraft so successful? Well. I think it comes down to more than one thing.

First of MMORPGs are usually not that easy to get into, often the player is presented with a awkward interface, tons of options and a lot of things going on around them in general the first time the log onto the game. Blizzard has done a pretty solid job in keeping the interface simple and stupid, allowing even newbie players to get into it at a quick pace. Hints and Tips help guide the true MMORPG newbie along as well. When the developers of the game created the interface, and gameplay in general their goal was for it to be easy to get into it, but to be hard to master.

They have definitely accomplished the first part, the second part can be argued about. What defines a good player in an MMORPG basically comes down to two things.

1) Does he know his character and the abilities

2) Does he pay attention

There are no twitch skills involved, and in my opinion if you're looking for a competitive game, current mmorpgs - including WoW - are not the place to look at. If you want skill-based competition stick to RTS and FPS games.

The second thing that makes wow so successful is most likely the name of the producer and their huge fan-base - which they deserve by all means - after having released such great games as the diablo and warcraft series, which were all huge hits.

Let's get to the review part :)

 

 

 

 

Character Creation

Like every MMORPG or MUD out there the journey always begins with the character creation. You get to pick your site - alliance or horde , your race and a few visual features. Character customization is definitely one of the game's weakest points, the diversity and amount of features to select and change for character remind of Everquest which was released almost 8 years ago. You get to chose

* between a handful of faces

* skin tone

* between a handful of haircuts

* between a handful of facial hair styles

* hair color

It is probably not a huge deal, and its certainly nothing game breaking, a bit more would have been nice though.

 

First steps

As you take your first steps within WoW, getting used to the user interface, you will quickly notice that the game is very quest driven. You can earn most of your character's experience via quests, you will still be grinding mobs for exp once in a while though.

The starting quests also lead you along nicely, out of the starting area to the bigger towns and into the deep dungeons

 

The world

The amount of detail that was put into the world of warcraft is amazing and stunning. The cartoony style may not be everyone's cup of tea, but whether you like it or not you cannot dismiss that the world has a lot of character. It is filled with content too, and you will find yourself stumbling from point of interest to point of interest.

 

The dungeons

The dungeon instances, which are zones that belong to you and your group, while pretty linear most of the time are also amazingly done. The boss encounters are fun, and the best loot is gotten from doing instance runs. The dungeon instances are supposed to be the group part of the game (aside from pvp) and it would be unwise to enter them alone unless you're like 20 levels stronger than the mobs inside the dungeon.

 

The way to 60, and beyond

Most people I've talked to tell me they have the most fun leveling their characters to level 60, because it is quick paced most of the time, and only slows down rarely. The quests are done well, and there is just so much to discover.

Once you hit 60 you're basically stuck with three things to do though

a) do instance runs (raids) for items

b) grind monsters for money

c) pvp

Now this might sound as if it should be enough. But the core problem is this: there is no character advancement beyond 60 other than getting items. These items are gotten by raiding elite dungeons with your guild, playing the bazaar game or by gaining rank while pvping.

Right now, if you're a raider, you raid so you can raid more. There is no reason to take that super dagger of stabbing into a normal 5 man dungeons and just carnage stuff left and right, other than for the sake of carnageing - is that even a word.

The game at this point, 2 years after its release, direly needs some alternate advancement, luckily the expansion (The Burning Crusade) is right around the corner, so that should help out some for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Server Issues

This is were i have an axe to grind, so pardon my rant

Ever since wow was released , the game has had severe sever stability issues. I guess they did not expect the kind of amount of people to buy the game back then and got surprised. Not a big deal, most of the MMORPGs face server issues the first few days of the game's release, even if is not as popular as wow.

But even after 2 years of development it is sad and annoying to see that the same server problems still exist, while not as severe, and the servers need to go down for maintenance weekly.

 

Content Updates

We all know it, Blizzard likes to do things correctly, and they always take their time. The thing is, that this is a MMORPG. People need to be handed new content almost constantly, waiting 3-4 months between content updates that deliver content that was promised to be in the game when it was released just seems weak. Then again i can certainly appreciate the amount of work that must be needed to create the content. It wouldn't be so bad if there was actually some way of alternative character advancement.

This review may sound a bit harsh and don't get me wrong, WoW is an amazing game, and what the artists did is just mind boggling. I leveled 3 characters to level 60, and as i was progressing along through the vastly different world zones of the game there was always this thought on mind.

Wow is an amazing online world, but it is as if they do nothing with it. Where is the dynamic world, that i imagined when i first read about WoW in 2002. There has been a world event of the opening of a raid instance that involved the players gathering resources for a month or two and then battling in a war like scenario to unlock the dungeon. While this is definitely a step in the right direction it is not enough. Next generation MMORPGs need to be developed with dynamic behavior in mind. The world needs to change and feel less static.

 

 

 

Fazit

World of warcraft is a great game, and you will definitely enjoy leveling your character. After that it is uncertain, you will have to see for yourself. Doing raid instances can be fun, unless you don't like to rely on people. PVP can be fun too if you're into that kind of thing. Heck, even trying to amass huge amounts of virtual money can be fun to some people.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

 

 

 

 

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

By Anthony Chatfield

 

 

 

 

Since the first time Link circled the lands of Hyrule on his epic quest to save the Princess Zelda and set right the evils of Ganon, his and her names have been synonymous with brilliant game making. The first mention of Twilight Princess some years ago was met with as much excitement and hoopla as any Zelda game in development. But then they showed us a video of the gameplay. There in full glory was the grown Link of Ocarina of Time fame slashing away with the Master Sword. The vision was beautiful and after the cel shaded diversions of Wind Waker, nearly brought tears to fanboys the world over.

The Legend of Zelda was back, and with a vengeance. The name of Link would filter between avid Nintendo fans for months and years to come until it finally saw the light of day. It took a long time for Link's newest adventure to finally show up on the shelves, and a good part of that delay was announcement and late 2006 release of Nintendo's newest console, the Wii. The Big N held back their biggest game of the year to retool and revamp it for their next gen console entry.

But was it worth it. The controls, the gameplay, the little changes made - were any of them worth the wait and the dual release of the game on two consoles? The answer to that question is the simplest thing I get to say to you here. Absolutely.

 

The newest Zelda adventure, Twilight Princess, is by far the best reason to own a Nintendo Wii. The game is a masterpiece on almost every level, to the point I'm almost willing to call it the greatest game ever made. We've heard this a lot, that this game is the greatest. That it surpasses what Ocarina accomplished years ago. And as my own favorite game, it's hard to ever put anything above Ocarina in terms of scope, depth, and innovation. But we're going to try.

 

 

The Presentation

The first thing you notice when you boot up the game is the scope. You'll notice it even more later, but even right off the bat, at the title screen, Link sits atop Epona looking up at the great ruins before him and his quest. The ambience is darker, matching the game's title, and by far more adult. Everything is drowned in sepias, browns, and grays. The vibrant yellows and greens of Wind Waker are gone in favor of something more earthly and grittier.

And then there's Link. Full grown and already a local hero to the children of his village, this is the first game in which Link spends his entire adventure as an adult, with fully realized emotional range and involvement with the other characters. Whereas some other Links are detached from their surroundings by his age and the lack of voice acting, this Link is as carefully entwined with these characters as any Square Enix game.

And the world. Well, this is Hyrule as it oughta be. It's huge. And by huge, I mean massive. And by massive, I mean incredibly large, beyond even the earliest visions of previous games. Imagine the Hyrule Field of Ocarina of Time and that's one screen in Twilight Princess. Now multiple that tenfold and you have a rough idea of how big this game is.

Quests are still formulated in the basic dungeon crawling formula, but this time around Nintendo throws in a few twists, all the while creating something much more seamless and organic in terms of storytelling than any of their earlier entries.

 

 

The Story

 

The story picks up our young hero in his village in the farthest corner of the map, a wrangler on a ranch and the hero to the village children. One day, without notice he's taken from his home and transported across a strange black frontier into a Twilight world. In this twilight world he encounters Midna, a strange creature of the twilight who will help guide him through his upcoming journey. More importantly, we find our favorite green clad hero transformed into a wolf.

It might remind you of Clover's recent Okami, and it should, because the two characters are similar in their execution, but Link's is different. This is temporary. You'll change back into Link, don't worry. But for now, have fun with your wolf version. Midna sure does.

You'll meet the Princess and then it's off to battle, as Link attempts to unwrap the folds of Twilight from Hyrule and defeat the dark thief who unleashed it. This is a darker story than the previous games. All throughout, as you fight and defeat the denizens of twilight you find yourself engaged in epic battles with hoards of enemies and included are some of the greatest cinematics in any game so far. The eye for drama here could craft a beautiful film with the same energies.

Link's quest lead him to save the children from his village, then the entire world, and all the while you're as entangled in his quest as any game on the market, or any novel in the book store, or film in the theater. This is epic with a capital E, and there's messing around with that statement.

 

 

The Gameplay

The gameplay is probably the one thing most of the new Wii owners out there were worried about. For a game designed for the Gamecube, how does the Wii remote handle? Beautifully. Honestly, I can't imagine playing this game any other way. The precision gained while shooting an arrow or swinging the sword, or fishing is incredible and makes the entire process that much more enjoyable, because instead of worrying about the accuracy of your left thumb, you can focus on how incredibly cool it is to shoot a shadow beast down from half a mile while on horse back.

And that's where this game grows so well on its predecessors. It strives in every instance to think of a new and exciting way to craft a scene. From jousting sequences to rail shooters, to scavenger hunts in the dark Twilight Princess again and again displays its innovations with a big smile and a sweeping gesture.
And the dungeons? Dungeons are the key to any Zelda game. They make up over three quarters of the game and the difficulty combined with the methods in which one solves them makes the game fun or not (Wind Waker...I'm looking at you). Well, first off the dungeons don't take up quite the volume of gameplay here as they did in the past. Wait, don't gasp yet. This game is long. Very long, the longest one by far, and the dungeons are just as long, and full of innovative puzzles and solutions, each of them unique and fun in its own way. However, the rest of the game is so packed with content that it balances out better than any past Zelda game.

The Ocarina of Time's themed dungeon format returns here, with battles in the trees with monkeys, Goron wrestling matches in the bowels of a volcano, and underwater antics with the Zoras. And they're even more fun this time around.

 

 

The Sound

It's not perfect. I'm sorry, I feel bad about it, but I have to tell you that this game has a few flaws. They're small, but they're there and they do detract a bit from the game. The music first off is still stuck in the midi formats from the cartridge days. You've moved to DVDs Nintendo. Full orchestration is not a reality you can ignore forever in your games, and it would have made those epic scenes that much more jaw dropping. The game also skews away from voice acting in the same mannerism of its predecessors, but this isn't necessarily a flaw as hearing Zelda speak might only detract more than it would add. But, the orchestra would have been great.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall

It's epic, it's amazing. It's one of the best games of all time. Is it the best? I still won't give it that title, withholding my supreme adulation for its Nintendo 64 forefather, but it's mighty close, and the best reason around to buy a Nintendo Wii right now. Call it an even 9.5 out of 10. Genius.