Pixar – Enter The World!!!

Your childhood is where it all starts – the wildest thoughts but still possible, the most colorful worlds, the talking animals and what not. For most of us, the word “animation” is synonymous with “cartoons” and if you’re talking of cartoons, you can’t miss the good ol’ days of your childhood when Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Tweetie, Tom & Jerry and others were your most sought after characters. Their heroisms, dumbness and pranks left you wanting for more of them.

But then comes the time to say goodbyes. Our childhood starts dissolving in our memories. All the bright and colorful worlds go blurry. The talking and laughing animals and birds seem a laughable idea. We’ve grown up. Cartoons become a thing of the past. Thrills, sex, knowledge-power and real life give us a call.

Amidst all this, somewhere faraway a world was in the making. A world of few technicians, animators and creative minds for whom cartoons were not just a reminiscence of their childhood but an untapped world of entertainment with great potential of satisfaction for them as well as the world. These were the people who gave us our favorite animation movie house “Pixar”, which initially worked on producing film sequences with Lucasfilm, was then purchased by Steve Jobs and finally joined Disney Studios to give us some of the best animated movies we’ve ever seen.

Since more than a decade, each year Pixar takes its worldwide fans on a joyful emotional ride into the most stunning animated worlds of characters that are amusing and still equally believable. Like the touch of Midas converted everything into gold, Pixar’s touch to animation and CGI made every object and being beautiful, real and most of all true to life. Let’s Enter the World of Pixar and have a look at some of its works:

(1) Toy Story (1995)

We see the world from our eyes. Pixar saw it through the eyes of toys by bringing them alive in this wonderful film about life in the world of child’s closest love - toys.

The film was about friendship, unity and rivalry in the world of toys of a boy after he brings to his collection a modern spaceman toy who easily takes the top position over other toys in the list of his favorites. The movie was loved not only by “toy-playing” children but even the youngsters and elders for the story and its adorable toy characters Buzz Lightyear, the spaceman, Woody the cowboy and Mr. Potato Head to name a few. Though the movie has already taken us “To infinity and beyond” of fun and entertainment twice, hope the best is yet to come once again this year.

(2) Finding Nemo (2003)

The most commercially successful Pixar film, grossing over $800 million worldwide, Finding Nemo was the tale of a lost baby fish that started at the bottom of the ocean and reached to the hearts of its viewers and stays there till date.

Audience sincerely appreciated the father-son underwater adventure that explored the animated worlds of rich blue ocean with Nemo as it moved through its coral reef home to the school with its most weirdest, often funny talking sea creatures to the dangerous human world in Sydney and back to ocean with the help of its father and others of its species. No wonder, how lost Nemo is, someone somewhere’s always finding him out.

(3) Cars (2006)

What begun as a world of victory and glamour ended on a stunning realisation and redemption of the meaning of friendship, love and family in this world of Pixar’s live automobiles.

We all loved Lightning McQueen’s pride, Doc Hudson’s secret and the unforgettably funny Mater in this Pixar classic that came with a simple message – “Life means more”. Also, the simultaneous story of Route 66 – a once brimming with traffic countryside road finally abandoned for human convenience and development created a beautifully somber emotion in the lives of movie’s characters and for many of us as well. Combined together by Pixar’s unique story-tellers and animators, Cars surely were winners all the way.

(4) Ratatouille (2007)

Set amidst the beautiful city of Paris (now animated and even better), Ratatouille is the story of following your smallest dreams and making it big in life against all odds – a philosophy that was beautifully explained through the characters Remy (a rat dreaming to become a chef), Linguini (from “nobody” to somebody), Anton Ego (the food critic) and Chef Gusteau (“the figment of Remy’s imagination!!”)

Undoubtedly, the show stealer seems to be the hardcore food critic Anton Ego who’s hard as a shell critic character melted down after trying his childhood favorite “Rat.aa.too.ee” and realising that “Anyone can cook!!” As for the audience, they returned back again to relish one of the Pixar’s most palatable dish.

(5) Wall-E (2008)

Wall-E, acronym for Waste Allocated Load Lifter – Earth Class was another Pixar film that earned applause all over the world for its levels of creativity, story-telling and animation.

A serious issue like what the future might hold for us if we continue to live the way we do today was combined with a light-hearted love story of a lonely robot left behind on planet Earth as Waste Allocated Load Lifter – Earth Class, or Wall-E. The most endearing part of the movie truly was Wall-E’s light-hearted love story with EVA and the friendship he shared with the sole being on Earth’s rubble – a tiny cockroach. Director’s vision for putting an emotion as natural and pure as love in a mere manmade machine was truly appreciated. And the message that a tiny two-leaved plant could save the entire human generation’s a message to us all too. Try interpreting yourself or search for Wall-E.

(6) Up (2009)

When we all thought how much Pixar could excel its own works, it presented us with Up. The film combined Carl Fredickson’s emotional tribute to his wife with Russell’s attempts to bag the Ellie Badge, all in the background of an adventurous trip to South America’s Paradise Falls by a most unbelievable route – blowing Up the house with thousands of balloons. And like always, during the journey, we met some more “Pixar”ed characters like Charles Muntz, Kevin the bird, and a dog talking through its collar – that made the trip as memorable a Pixar film as it can be.

The film’s already won two very deserving Golden Globes – for the animated film and for original background score by Michael Giacchino. We all hope it goes Up somewhere at the top of the list.

As is evident, apart from stunning animation and creativity which have been the foremost strengths of any Pixar film, what has given it a strong fan following is the style in which it creates emotional situations by touching the core sentiments of its lead characters - sometimes by taking you to the most unthinkable worlds and creating a story out of it that stays with you long after and at other times, by simply creating a theme piece that speaks more for the characters than the characters themselves.

No wonder, Pixar lives upto its motto – “We believe in impossible.”

Meet Thakar

meet.thakar@yahoo.com

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Dr. Editor Or How we learned to stop lumbering and love the fast-paced

LONNNNNG FADE IN… A beautiful landscape of a lofty knoll… A lonely side by road surrounded by verdurous fields… Nothing happening except an occasional howl of a distant eagle… 5 minutes pass by… (A boy in the audience starts becoming uneasy and gives a nasty look to his grandfather who has forcibly brought him to watch what he calls one of the ‘literate’ movies. The boy otherwise would have gone to watch some animated movie of Pixar which, according to his grandfather, was worse than watching ‘Rich and Richie’.) A small car appears near the horizon of the lonely side-by road.(Thank God!) The car takes its own sweet time to cover the entire journey. (This was probably achieved when the director was agitated since the actor always drove at 30Kmph and the director wanted him not to go beyond 20Kmph and so after many takes somebody might have suggested to jam the brakes so that even if the actor tried he would never surpass 15 kmph. At this, the director was ecstatic.) The car applies the brakes near a dilapidated house. An actor slowly emerges out of the car. He walks near the door and gives a knock. Nobody responds. He knocks again after a minute or so. (A critic in the audience tries his best not to allow sleep to lull him. He has to stay awake since he came to the theatre after reading the review of a more renowned critic:”FASCINATING! A MUST WATCH. 4/4”) A beautiful but slatternly actress opens the door and is confounded to find her husband. Her eyes instantly become watery and she hugs the man. The man:”jebuna…jebuna…ipsa femiissa..” The subtitles:”Don’t cry…don’t cry… I’m back.” (In the audience, a girl tries to caress her boyfriend. But the boyfriend snubs austerely at her lascivious attempts because he has to make her believe that he is a part of mature audience and is currently enjoying the “allegorical” and “metaphorical” movie. However, he has already smothered many yawns; the muffed yawning has caused his eyes to water and reveal the reality.) After an age, the screen shows “Fin”. The audience claps.

“KKUNNTS film festival. The filmmakers should submit their movies before the due date.”- The newspaper read the next day. A well-made slickly edited film was sent. Its director received a mail: "We apologize for your film has not been shortlisted for the competition.” A somewhat tardy film received the nomination. But no prizes for guessing, our film (aforementioned scene) received the ‘The Golden Lion and Tiger’ (The biggest accolades!).

Nobody can deny the veracity of abovementioned anecdote. For many years our critics had been praising such films and have been finding out the “implied meaning” which even the director would have never thought. Anybody opposing this tradition was called a ‘Philistine’ and immature. This was because of some highly conceited, pretentious and sanctimonious directors (Please note that I don’t mention any names. Especially you: Anthony Minghella!)

However I jubilantly announce the good news. Fortunately, this notion is depleting now, at least here in Hollywood. More and more importance is being laid on the slickness and watch ability. The Golden Globes and the Oscars have helped immensely in doing so. The most prominent example that I reckon is that of ‘The Departed’. ‘The Departed’ competed with some, let’s just say, dawdling movies. Nobody expected ‘The Departed’ to win; having known the predictable tradition of the Oscars. But because of a few honest men in jury, ‘The Departed’ grabbed the Oscar. This incident not only obfuscated the conventional audiences but also defined the future of the cinema. More slick films were made and they got the recognition. The formulaic classic films have started to become obsolete. The Editors have started enjoying special prerogatives now.

Fast-paced films not only help to hold the audiences but in this process they aptly reflect the necessary human emotions. Think of Schindler’s List- the Paramount of human sentiments. It succeeds in making you experience all emotions without allowing you to look at your watch. In fact, Spielberg has always adeptly maintained the balance between the emotions and the entertainment. Talking about recent times (by which I don’t mean that Spielberg is outmoded), Christopher Nolan has taught us to raise the bar, to push the envelope and eradicate the sloppy cinema. The Dark Knight and The Prestige are inarguably some of his most absorbing films.

With Avatar grabbing both the biggies at the Golden Globes, (though ‘The Hurt Locker’ would have been a better option) we have conquered the cinema. Even the revered film makers are now daring to be outlandish and risible. So even now if you claim that you love the slow-paced, prolix and prosaic movies then “of course you are not looking. You want to get fooled...”

Paritosh Bhole

paritoshbhole@yahoo.co.in

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Movie Review: Hurt Locker

Hurt Locker is pulse raising and thought provoking!

During my childhood I happened to live close to Army personnel’s colony. Sometimes an old signboard in that campus caught my attention. It said, "War is an art” It always perplexed me, how can horrible event like war be an art? Hurt Locker is undoubtedly one of those very few war movies which somehow explains this philosophy. War is indeed horrible but art is not always romantic either.

The movie begins right at ground zero in Iraq, where bomb squad technicians are trying to diffuse a bomb. This courageous group comprises of soldiers who are ready to challenge against the odds and risk their lives everyday. Sergeant Sanborn & Specialist Eldridge are already mentally exhausted after loosing their team leader in a deadly blast, to make the matter worst they are joined by a cowboy personality, James (Jeremy Renner) who just does not seem to fear anything. He is willing to step into the deadliest fields without even hint of hesitation. When he is introduced to the audience, it feels like we are witnessing another Hollywood reckless hero but as the movie unfolds, he turns out to be much deeply realized character with uncanny decision making ability in highly critical situations of life and death. It feels mysterious the way he behaves with extreme alertness with willingness to face life threatening situations as if he cannot live without pulse raising acts. He resembles to those sportspersons who get addicted to drugs when they are not on the field because their daily life just does not seem to be exciting enough! The uniqueness of the James lies in his hatred for war. He hates unwanted battles but he cannot live without it!

Kathryn Bigelow is in commanding position in direction, realizing all the characters with distinguished landscapes. She has succeeded in taking care of minute details to fill up the frame with the most believable images of posttraumatic era in ragged Iraq.

What makes‘ Hurt Locker’ a unique war movie? It’s action sequences? No! The sequences are breath taking but not something you have never seen before. The dramatic moments? No! Still, you will feel the agonizing pain with tiring and pulse raising stress. The script? Well, of course not. The whole story line feels like events of different timeline arranged in best possible manner, it does not feel like conventional film. Then which factor makes this movie stand out as a great war movie? Well, It’s sole philosophy on war. War can be an addictive drug.

Surely, Hurt Locker is an Oscar contender this year for best movie and best direction. Watch out Avatar!

Running time: 130 minutes. Rated R (profanity, graphic violence).

Deep Panjwani
universalexperiment@yahoo.co.in
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Avatar ready to sink Titanic

Avatar Eclipsed original Star Wars this weekend, racking up 54 Million in 4 days and reached 500 Million milestone in North American box office with record of 32 days beating The Dark Knight which managed this unprecedented feat in 45 days. This movie is now on third position in domestic market of United States Lagging behind only Titanic & Cape Crusader movie. The Pendora flick easily broke record for highest collection during 5th week after the release, both on Domestic & International markets.

When Avatar opened with below expectation 77 Million with bad timing of snow storm alert in many states across America, no box office guru would have imagined this colossal collection across the globe. In fact for many years Titanic's 1.8 Billion tally remained fantasy even for Hollywood Moguls like Peter Jackson & Steven Spielberg. Avatar is still very strong on both the fronts and ready to challenge the 2 Billion mark in next three weeks.

There is no question about whether Jim can sink his own Titanic or not, the only question is when!

Deep Panjwani
universalexperiment@yahoo.co.in
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The Many Moods Of An OST

Music is a very integral part of story-telling in any movie. The picture running on screen can capture the viewer’s vision and attention but an apt musical piece will enthrall the very mind of the viewer immersing him right inside it – straight to the character.

An OST (Original soundtrack) or Music From The Motion Picture is a collection of a theme, its variations and other instrumental pieces played in the background of any scene in a movie. It defines the emotion that is being expressed by the character on screen – the emotion that the director wants his audience to feel so as to make them connect well to the movie. And this is what the right music does – it can bring tears to your eyes, fear to your nerves and a hope to your mind.

Take for example the theme from Titanic (1997) (Music - James Horner) – a single theme music sung in different voice variations and instruments alone captures the love of Jack and Rose (Rose, The Portrait) as well as the gloom of its survivors (Never An Absolution). The title theme of King Kong (2005) (Music - James Newton Howard) a mere 60 second piece takes you to the deep and dangerous forests of Skull Island but “Central Park” from the same OST beautifully reflects Kong’s love in an alien world for one single human being without saying a word.

The tinkling theme with which Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (2002) raises a beautiful curiosity about the magical world of Hogwarts from Harry’s vision gives an hint of battle between terror and courage when played for Harry Potter And The Order of The Phoenix (2007). Disney Pixar’s Ratatouille’s (2007) (Music - Michael Giacchino) theme inspires in you hope despite all odds – like it does in movie for Remy and Linguini but Up! (2009) (Music - Michael Giacchino) which comes from same animation house has a theme to remind of a lost relationship that still brings joy and tears to Carl’s eyes and eventually yours too.

The theme by John Williams for E.T. (1982) reflects the innocent friendship of E.T. with a human child but the same musician gave theme for Jurassic Park (1993) which extensively captured man’s pride and victory over nature alongwith an anticipated excitement of finding the extinct creatures back on earth and “moving in herds”!

Of course, the list is endless. The above references covered just a few of the many, often unknown and unrealised sentiments that a movie can make you feel with the right musical note - excitement, joy, gloom, hope or dread being the most common ones.

No doubt, you have to be a real movie buff to let the soundtrack (sorry, after all this, I’ll prefer soul track) spread over you. People often take no note of a playing instrumental piece in the background thoroughly stunned by what’s presented to them on screen but a consecutive watch simply makes them realise that what’s unseen on the screen has truly enhanced the beauty of what’s seen on the screen.

To put it in short, it might not be wrong to say that an OST is to the mind what 3d effect is to the eyes. Both make a viewer’s experience almost as real as life itself...

Meet Thakar
meet.thakar@yahoo.com
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Who is an IDIOT?

CAUTION: The Following blog has nothing to do with the film 3 Idiots, as much has been saidand written about it. Nor it is about the infamous Chopra-Hirani/Bhagat Controversy as thisjob is greatly (and overly) done by our News Media. This blog is devoted to all the writers (c’mon all type of writers…screen writers, playwrights, novelists, and of course bloggers…Don’t drag me into controversy) around the globe.

“When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.” - James Earl Jones

Jean-Luc Godard used to like saying that his films had a beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order. Although popular cinema in France and Italy, for example, had recognized screen-writers critically, such a playful and eclectic approach to screenwriting and filmmaking as suggested by Godard's comment has traditionally characterized the more personal cinemas of many nations of Europe and elsewhere.

While writers calling themselves screenwriters emerged in Hollywood as early as the late 1920s, there were few European filmmakers or writers who would call themselves "screenwriters." In contrast to Hollywood, where few have ever been both writers and directors on the same film, in Europe and other countries around the world, the "double-duty" position of writer-director has been the norm. The advantage of the auteur approach is that films get made with a consistent vision and with a minimum of interference from teams of writers, producers, and others. Thus an Ingmar Bergman film such as Det Sjunde inseglet ( The Seventh Seal , 1957) or Trollflöjten ( The Magic Flute , 1975) is easily recognizable as a "Bergman film" because of his control from page to screen in all aspects of filmmaking.

“A screenplay is not a finished product; a novel is. A screenplay is a blueprint for something - for a building that will most likely never be built. “ - Nicholas Meyer

And thus the quality of cinema in India suffers owing to the fate of screenwriters. Screenwriters in India have never been considered to be the spinal cord of the film and writers have always left to live in shadows casted by limelight taken by Stars and Directors. Literature is such an important part and parcel of each and every aspects of society that to present it in the words of Goethe is “The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.”…

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

Forgetting the source from where the germ of the entire film comes is the age old attitude that Indian film industry has adopted right from exploiting R.K Narayan (author Guide) by not paying him the pre-decided payment for the purchased rights of the novel to Chetan Bhagat for fetching away from him well-deserved credit. And the ratio of the films made out of the books is very low too. India once upon a time considered to be the world of Story tellers, where the greatest screenplay (the Mahabharata) to be written ever is considered by many intellectuals, is lagging behind the world cinema today just for turning its face away from literature.

Koi Mil Gaya, a sci-fi (more romantic and masala) film released in 2004 plots around an alien left out by mistake by its family members on the earth. The film has taken its main elements from 1982 Blockbuster E.T. On thinking level itself our industry is behind by 20 years from others..Keep aside the idea of executing it. Screenplays and other literature all around the world except here involve a lot of thinking and study and hence the writers get the credit they deserve.

Hopefully the success of 3 idiots may lighten up the brains of the makers here to find the solace in literature and the writers get their deprived credits and handsome paycheques.

"Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money." - Jules Renard

Signing off I am going to leave you with a list of ten of the best considered screenplays by Writer’s Guild of America. This is the result of the polling as voted upon by the organization's professional film and television writers - a list of the 101 Greatest (Film) Screenplays of All-Time, to celebrate the greatest achievements in film writing in cinematic history.

"Like a composer of a classic symphony or an author of a beloved novel, the most memorable and moving pictures would not exist without their principal architect: the screenwriter."

10 The Godfather Part II
(1974; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, based on Mario Puzo’s novel "The Godfather"

9 Some Like It Hot
(1959; dir. Billy Wilder)
Screenplay by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond, based on "Fanfare of Love", a German film written by Robert Thoeren and M. Logan

8 Network
(1976; dir. Sidney Lumet)
Written by Paddy Chayefsky

7 Sunset Boulevard
(1950; dir. Billy Wilder)
Written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman Jr.

6 Annie Hall
(1977; dir. Woody Allen)
Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

5 All About Eve
(1950; dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on "The Wisdom of Eve", a short story and radio play by Mary Orr

4 Citizen Kane
(1941; dir. Orson Welles)
Written by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles

3 Chinatown
(1974; dir. Roman Polanski)
Written by Robert Towne

2 The Godfather
(1972; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel by Mario Puzo

1 Casablanca
(1942; dir. Michael Curtiz)
Screenplay by Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, based on the play "Everybody Comes to Rick’s" by Murray Burnett and Joan Aliso

Rahul Bhole,
swades_wethepeople@yahoo.co.in,
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History of animation

History is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record.

An Egyptian burial chamber mural, approximately 4000 years old, showing wrestlers in action. Even though this may appear similar to a series of animation drawings, there was no way of viewing the images in motion. It does, however, indicate the artist's intention of depicting motion.

Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion drawing can be found in paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.
A 5,200 year old earthen bowl found in Iran in Shahr-i Sokhta has five images of a goat painted along the sides. This has been claimed to be an example of early animation.[1] However, since no equipment existed to show the images in motion, such a series of images cannot be called animation in a true sense of the word.[2]

The phenakistoscope, praxinoscope, as well as the common flip book were early popular animation devices invented during the 1800s, while a Chinese zoetrope-type device was invented already in 180 AD.[3][4][5][6] These devices produced movement from sequential drawings using technological means, but animation did not really develop much further until the advent of cinematography.

There is no single person who can be considered the "creator" of the art of film animation, as there were several people doing several projects which could be considered various types of animation all around the same time.

Georges Méliès was a creator of special-effect films; he was generally one of the first people to use animation with his technique. He discovered a technique by accident which was to stop the camera rolling to change something in the scene, and then continue rolling the film. This idea was later known as stop-motion animation. Méliès discovered this technique accidentally when his camera broke down while shooting a bus driving by. When he had fixed the camera, a hearse happened to be passing by just as Méliès restarted rolling the film, his end result was that he had managed to make a bus transform into a hearse. This was just one of the great contributors to animation in the early years.

The earliest surviving stop-motion advertising film was an English short by Arthur Melbourne-Cooper called Matches: An Appeal (1899). Developed for the Bryant and May Matchsticks company, it involved stop-motion animation of wired-together matches writing a patriotic call to action on a blackboard.

J. Stuart Blackton was possibly the first American filmmaker to use the techniques of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation. Introduced to filmmaking by Edison, he pioneered these concepts at the turn of the 20th century, with his first copyrighted work dated 1900. Several of his films, among them The Enchanted Drawing (1900) and Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) were film versions of Blackton's "lightning artist" routine, and utilized modified versions of Méliès' early stop-motion techniques to make a series of blackboard drawings appear to move and reshape themselves. 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces' is regularly cited as the first true animated film, and Blackton is considered the first true animator.


Fantasmagorie by Emile Cohl, 1908

Another French artist, Émile Cohl, began drawing cartoon strips and created a film in 1908 called Fantasmagorie.[7] The film largely consisted of a stick figure moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects, such as a wine bottle that transforms into a flower. There were also sections of live action where the animator’s hands would enter the scene. The film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, which gave the picture a blackboard look. This makes Fantasmagorie the first animated film created using what came to be known as traditional (hand-drawn) animation.

Following the successes of Blackton and Cohl, many other artists began experimenting with animation. One such artist was Winsor McCay, a successful newspaper cartoonist, who created detailed animations that required a team of artists and painstaking attention for detail. Each frame was drawn on paper; which invariably required backgrounds and characters to be redrawn and animated. Among McCay's most noted films are Little Nemo (1911), Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) and The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918).

The production of animated short films, typically referred to as "cartoons", became an industry of its own during the 1910s, and cartoon shorts were produced to be shown in movie theaters. The most successful early animation producer was John Randolph Bray, who, along with animator Earl Hurd, patented the cel animation process which dominated the animation industry for the rest of the decade.

Next time I will talk about INDIAN ANIMATION History.
Thank you.


Vinit Kanojia
info@foreshadowpicture.com
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Avatar vs. King Kong (Humanity vs. Humans)

The entire world awaited the mega-release of one of Cameron’s grandest films after a long period – Avatar. Yes, the wait was truly paid for. Cameron completely enchanted his fans and viewers with the look of planet Pandora, its weirdest creatures, the Na’vi tribe and the gigantic level of action – all of which have been appreciated by one and all, once and even again.

The hardcore movie buffs have already compared Avatar to Peter Jackson’s King Kong which is another big budget movie about life in another world. At some parts, both the movies have a similar story movement – first, as the viewers are introduced to the worlds of Skull Island (King Kong) and Pandora (Avatar) and then the action sequences that take place in these worlds.

Apart from the enormous and rich look, both the films have proved the same point – that the human thirst for power is highly insatiable. Bringing a gorilla to survive amidst human society, exploring an alien planet for a precious resource and going to the extent of destroying its race – man does it all merely because his view is limited to his own good. When, after complete exploitation, the planet that we are gifted with could provide no more for man’s progress, he moves ahead to continue his plunder in alien worlds disregarding any laws of nature or mutual species or race survival.

The end message of both the movies has however been starkly contrasting In Avatar, Jack Sully and Dr. Augustine prefer to choose the simple living rules of an alien world and follow them as their own as against those of their own kin that taught them to grab just materialistic pleasures. On the other hand, in King Kong, the creature is brought to an alien world where he fails to live as per their rules and finally meets his end at the hands of powerful humans despite several attempts by Ann Darrow to protect him. Here lies the difference. Difference that humanity survives and dies because of mankind himself. Some choose to protect it at their cost, others choose to protect themselves at its cost.

Of course, the blind race is still on – irrespective of the fact that the treasures of other worlds that please human eyes exist merely because their true owners chose not to exploit them like us in one go but continued to worship them as a lifelong blessing. The Creator gives all of us the option of choosing between wealth and wisdom. It is upon us to choose either a limited chunk of wealth or an ever-replenishing flow of wisdom. Colonel Quaritch (Avatar), Carl Denham (King Kong) and their respective teams acted like “humans” choosing to destroy the world of natives for their gain of millions. Jack Sully, Dr. Augustine and Ann Darrow however truly saw the wrong path chosen by their fellow humans and initiated to undo the wrong in one way or the other by choosing “humanity” or compassion for life rather than for material millions. Their realisation to save humanity till the end is indeed a message to all of us – to value the virtues that were born in and out of humans but are now left behind in just a few followers of humanity.

Meet Thakar
meet.thakar@yahoo.com
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Why World Needs Movies?

Movies are one of the most beautiful ways man has ever made to share his imaginations with the rest of the world. For almost all of us, movies are a reflection of our dreams, nightmares, hopes and fears.

A man’s thought takes him as far as he can take it. So, for some of us, our thoughts and imaginations just take the feeble shape of exciting ideas but for others they shape up as world-famous Oscars or Golden Globes. And that’s where cinema shows and its proves its beauty.

All of us have a story to tell, dreams to share and visualize – a world far away from ours where anything is possible and everything can be true. And so we all love movies because they are made up of all our hidden hopes, fun, disappointments, fears, angers and resulting crimes and many more emotions that we are made up of. While watching a movie, you’re in front of a screen but there’s another you on the screen, going very much through what you always thought or dreamt might happen to you – be it seeing the end of the world, or brutally ending your hardest enemies or embarking on a journey who’s actual adventures you’ll never know till you’re a part of them.

And that’s not all. As the story on screen moves ahead, which by now is already yours, you gradually would have found answers to a dozen questions inside you that you’ve never thought of asking anyone but have been searching answers for all the same. They come like a beautiful revelation, one who’s results can help you achieve the best in life, often that which you have never fathomed.

But that’s just a class of viewers. The major one and a rather more compelling group is yet to be talked about.

Hollywood – The name that defines the movies people watch itself gives an array of reasons or genres as we all call them and that brings its viewers from across the world to cinemas for their regular dose of entertainment.

A genre is a class of art having characteristic form. When it comes to Hollywood, it gives a dazzling list of genres to choose from, no matter whether the viewer is a worshipper of crime, a romantic soul or an highly imaginative lover of the real world. Right from wars and crime to dramas and romance to sci-fi thrillers and even fantasy and animation, Hollywood finely serves all its viewers with the most choicest gourmet each year and makes them look forward to more fantastic stuff in form of sequels, novel-based movies and major comebacks, the most recent being by James Cameron, Peter Jackson and Quentin Tarantino alongwith highly awaited Christopher Nolan’s Inception.

For the hardcore movie lovers, the mere first ever 30 second teaser of their favorite director’s newest flick is enough to bring them to cinemas while the rest follow as the hype builds up over a period of time.

Next follow those who love a very recently developed and endearing genre of movies – animation. A highly colorful and comic world which was earlier assumed exclusively for children now has a very strong fan following thanks to highly imaginative directors and technicians from Pixar and Dreamworks who gave us unforgettable and immensely real characters like Nemo, Wall-E, Lightning Mcqueen and the noodle-slurping Panda.

Often, bookworms have looked forward to seeing the imagination of their authors on big screen and measure how well did they picturise it inside their own minds. Yes, those are the novels and graphic novels based movies we are talking about. The earlier classics include movies like Gone With The Wind, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc. that were pure drama. However, the chain continued, rather improved in the last decade with movies like Jurassic Park, Harry Potter Series, The Da Vinci Code, The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, etc., all of which were based on bestseller books and concentrated not only on drama but even the special effects and sets as were required by the original book’s storyline. These films have been equally successful in creating a strong fan following like any other genre mainly because they brought the reader’s bare ideas and imaginations to stark realities and pushed the reader (now a viewer) to have a better image of what he so far comprehended merely in his mind. And thus, we have enjoyed the experience of facing T-Rex, The Dark Lord and King Xerxes.

Also, there are the age-old but equally entertaining genres of sci-fi thrillers, romantic comedies, horrors, war and crime. Stunned viewers have admired, sobbed, talked about and returned back to see those awesome effects and gargantuan size of cinema in these genres which are still one of the best that Hollywood can and continues to provide.

To sum it all up, movies are more than form of entertainment. They’re a realisation of our wildest thoughts and wackiest imaginations and therefore a part of our self.

or to put in Joker’s words, “You complete me..!”

Meet Thakar
meet.thakar@yahoo.com
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AVATAR tumbles all the box office records!

After seeing Avatar, you feel like coming out of another world called Pandora, still the story and characters could have been worked out in much deeper way, like it was done in Titanic but surely you can not deny the effect of transcending in to another space with Na'vi people!

Anyways, nothing more to write about Avatar because you must have seen it twice. I recently got reports from Variety that Avatar has broken record for highest gross during second and third weekends. The opening of the film was good (not the best, trust me!) with 77 Million across the US box office. If you talk about a 'general' hollywood movie track at box office, what 'generally' happens? The collection sees steep decline up to 50% (In mediocre film case, 70%) but Avatar amazingly kept it self up to only 3% decline! Not only that in third weekend the decline was only 10%! This is amazing. For a long long time we have not seen a blockbuster behaving like Avatar on box office, not even Dark Knight! May be only king of the world knows how to earn the most green at Box Office! The movie has earned over 1 Billion over box office in merely 19 days (which is also record) and trust me, the Titanic's record of 1.8 billion is under severe threat!

Only time can tell if Jim can topple his own remarkable feet that he achieved a decade ago.



Deep Panjwani
universalexperiment@yahoo.co.in
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