Movie Review: Pixar Adds Another Tearjerker with The Good Dinosaur!

This review is spoiler-free, that I promise you!

Before I begin to expose my thoughts of my The Good Dinosaur experience last night, I would like to say a few words about the Pixar short Sanjay's Super Team that accompanied Good Dino before it was shown to anticipating viewers.

Sanjay's Super Team is hands down the best Pixar short I've ever seen, eclipsing La Luna (supported Brave) by a long mile as my favorite animated short film; as well as redeeming the studio after their corny and lousy Lava (premiered with Inside Out).

Sanja Patel directed the short film, based on his childhood with his parents living in America. He used to play with Superhero toys while his family performed Hindu ritual, which was not what he wanted to do.

His Super Team is closely based on that, a 7-minute film that takes Sanjay into a daydream adventure with Hindu deities while his father performed their daily ritual. The story is somewhat like all superhero films, but the visuals and color palette took it to another level!

After seeing the short, I think Mr. Patel is really a creative and intuitive director, somehow managing to capture all the elements that would have made a great animated superhero film like Pixar's own The Incredibles.

Now, here's the main part, my review for The Good Dinoasur:

First and foremost, I think the most important aspect of this film are the animated VISUALS. God knows the budget for this film must be very huge, everything just looks GREAT! The landscapes were beautiful, the rivers looked like they were actually real, the underwater scenes were stunning, and the characters were so well structured you might as well think you are in 2020's. I swear, NO FILM STRUCK ME LIKE THIS VISUALLY SINCE GRAVITY. If only animated films were eligible for Academy's Visual Effects category, then this one would likely take it!

Critics are unfairly harsh about it though, having to follow-up Inside Out's universal acclaim and humongous Box-Office results. True, it's not as intellectual as the story of Joy and Sadness but, if other animation studios delivered this one, critics would praise it to high heavens! Pixar really set a high standard for their films, and while The Good Dinosaur fell short of it, the main core value of a Pixar film is still there, heart and emotions.

While the story seemed familiar, it was not necessarily dull. It had the visuals that engaged people to watch it without ever trying to look away from the screen. And no, whoever said that it is similar to Ice Age or Croods needs to validate this point, because as far I what I have seen last night, it is far from those two!

Personally, I think this film is finding ways to deal with your fears. Arlo (the dinosaur) had been really afraid of almost everything, since the time he hatched. And the ending brings a nice closure to the development of his character, eventually finding his way to Spot (a human child) and meeting a lot of dinosaurs in his journey home. "You can't eliminate your fears, but you can outrun them!" is perhaps the best line in this movie, which says it all!

While the score (film music) is neither as emotional as Michael Giacchano's score for Inside Out, it is still pretty memorable, it sets the tone quite nicely in the beginning of the film, and the main theme is gorgeously happy, but also adds a little bit of melodrama.

It is fairly comedic, in fact I laughed way more than I ever did with Inside Out, but then again, they were 2 different movies that shan't be compared to each other. I think it's comically in line with Croods, without the help of a lot of characters, which goes a lot to say! There was a scene when Arlo said, "Hello?" and an audience right behind me replied, "It's me." loud enough that the whole theater bursted into laughter!

As I said in the title, it is another TEARJERKER, and yes I did not lie with this one. I cried near the end of the film, it was super emotional and powerful, perhaps because I could relate it too with what is going on in my real life right now, but I really felt it, and I know that the girl right beside me sobbed too! Pixar really made a unique way of telling it, an improvisation that a lot of other films tried to do but failed.

I would love to pay again for this film just to look at this scene:

IT WAS ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT, it really gave me goosebumps for more than a minute. It was an experience beyond words, same thing that happened with Gravity. I know it will never look as much as good in my 720P screen, but at least I've managed to experience this phenomenal scene!

I think I will leave it here. This one's a really good and fun watch, teary at the end and contains some nice lessons as well that kids will eventually eat up. For people like me who loves to watch Pixar flicks, I could never let this go, so I had to watch it. And while it fell short of the "Pixar story standards", I would still give it an A+ for touching my heart, for making a world that was so breathtaking and almost realistic, and for delivering a scene that was worth way more than the ticket price I paid! 

If you have some questions or reactions, feel free to comment. You can also look for me on my Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts! Thanks for reading. 

Silly Things People Do When They Are In-Love!

I don't normally talk about other people, I have always been self-centered, but something about these past few days got me interested about gossips again!

Being a keen observer in this world, it's rather simple to figure people out! For example, it is easy to tell that a person is in love by the way he/she speaks about someone, you can always see the enthusiasm!

I have observed a lot with my friends, I just don't talk because I don't want to speculate! But something really bothered me 2 weeks ago and I can't help but share it. This is true.

So I will talk about this girl, she and I are very close and before you speculate, let me tell you first and foremost: this story is not about US, it is about HERS.

She and I are very close friends, obviously, though we don't see each other every day. But this girl, she really knows how to keep a secret. To her surprise though, I am an observer and I know how to work around people!

Her secret? Well, she is madly in love with someone, someone I know. I figured out the name of the guy, it was always my speculation that there was something going on around with the two every time I was with him. 

Remember what I said about enthusiasm? Yeah, he keeps talking about her, but during that time, I had no doubts they were just good friends. I already had my little amount of speculation though, but that was like 4 months ago already.

I put that speculation to rest because I don't want a good friendship ruined, you know, manufactured romance is not good based on my experience (mmhmm)!

However, 2 weeks ago, she opened it up, and to my utmost delight, my speculation turned out to be correct! She is blaming it all to the guy, for giving her motifs that he liked her, even though he shouldn't! The guy seems like he has no idea how he makes this girl feel!

Now it is always our topic every time I get to see the girl.

Some people have their ways of surprising me, and I bet that the next paragraphs will surprise you too! She has taken everything into SIGNS.

To try her luck, she asked for a sign to confirm that the guy indeed has the same feeling towards her, kind of silly but some people do it this way! 

First sign:

She was riding her way home around 9 pm, she asked God for a sign, "Lord, if I see someone in a red shirt when I get out of this jeepney, then he is really into me!" When she arrived to her destination, horror struck her eyes like lightning, someone in a motorcycle shoot past right in front of her eyes, and you guessed it, the guy was wearing a red shirt!

Now that could basically happen to any of us, it's very coincidental, but to her, she's still not convinced! (However, you can almost feel for her, she must be delighted!)

The next day, she asked for another. But this time, something that is not very coincidental:

She looked at the contacts saved on her phone, she saw someone (a guy) who has not contacted her for more than a year already, so she asked God, "Lord, this is almost impossible but if this guy will message me within this day, then my crush is really into me!" Not 3 short hours later, she received a wrong-sent message from the guy! 

This really caught me off-guard when she told me! It's not like every day things like this happen, but she still doesn't want to believe it.

And so, she asked for another, "one last time" she told herself, a very spontaneous one:

It was 8 pm, she was walking around insert place here on her way home, she asked God again "If I see him right here, right now, then Lord, it is really true that our feelings are mutual!" And to her horror, she can't believe it (she almost passed out) when she saw him at insert place right after she asked for a sign.

Well, that seemed really hard to believe, I was like, "Are you conjuring some story to make you feel better?", but I trust this girl, she is not like the one who tell lies!

After every thing that happened, she still doesn't want to confront him. "He's just a good friend," she told me. But surely, the signs must have meant something. Or am I being too optimistic?

I'll leave her story there, time for the side notes.

Sometimes, love will make us do silly things. And we do these things to make ourselves feel good, we keep hoping that these signs are true so that we have something to hold on to for ourselves rather than confront someone and examine their true feelings. 

This, I have learned in these past few days: YOU WILL NEVER GET ANYWHERE IF YOU KEEP ON WAITING.
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No, I'm not going to be the bridge between the two. I would rather make her a real life Forrest Gump.

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An Open Letter to the Girl Who Broke My Heart

It's not a letter, but I like the way the title sounds!

Recently, I have been very busy with my schedule I had to say goodbye to my classmates earlier than I used to, and this led to an speculation that I am seeing/dating someone again. I am terribly sorry to inform everybody that I am still very happy with my own company!

When I started college, everyone was different, it's like a clash of every society, there's the rich with their cars, pretty ones sitting on the table, geeks facing their tools, models on high fashion, and then there's some of us, raised without the glimpse of city living. It was certainly hard at first, but to make a point, it was certainly harder when you're lost in a sea of lovers!

However, making some friends wasn't really that hard to accomplish. Pretty soon, I've managed to introduce myself in at least 10 people and made good impressions with them. But trust me, nobody ever believed me when I said I have never been in a relationship before. It became a little bit embarrassing after a couple of months, and to feed my ego, I had to make a synthetic connection with someone, preferably a classmate!

During my first year, I've met this girl, she was/is awesome, intelligent, hard to figure out, very strict, fun to be with, and sooner than later, my classmates seemed to notice the two of us and they had to manufacture a romantic fanfiction between the two us. I tell you, manufactured romances are neither good or bad, but it becomes a joke after a while. And they're hella effective too, with a little to no effort, my heart seemed to expand thrice the size and I began to imagine what it feels like to be in a relationship and it felt good! But I had to consider other factors.

You see, in a manufactured romance, there's what they call "bridge", you know someone who links the two of you to become closer. Most of the time, it's the bridge who brings out the drama and the comedy, he always had the laughs and the jokes ready, and the right amount of teasing. It was good at first only to grow out of hand, and then all of a sudden I realized that it's true what people said, "bridge is always the owner." Sigh.

So at this point, it seems like I'm blaming it to the bridge, right? But now that I've searched my feelings, I have to blame myself. I never took any actions and before I knew it, the ship has already sailed!

IF THIS WAS A ROMANTIC STORY THEN IT WAS REALLY A TRAGEDY, but because this is not a romantic story, I STILL GET TO LIVE HAPPILY AGAIN! Surprise!

Some things beyond everybody's control are bound to happen whether you or I like it or not. 

Not that I became numb after being heartbroken (I get to recover in 3 days!) but I decided to tell myself that love is not for me yet. I had to comfort myself in silly ways, sometimes by telling my mind, "You're here to study, not to find the love of your life,"; sometimes by thinking, "Cheer up, the world is so big, by the time you're 25 you're gonna travel around the world alone and by chance, you're gonna meet her,"; sometimes by looking at the flaws of other relationships, "Look at them always arguing, look at him being commanded by her, etc.,"; and at times trying to find comfort in songs, like the one Mumford & Sons song, "I'm not ready, I'm not strong enough to carry the weight of your love."

I know, I told you, those ways are really silly but THE MIND IS EASY TO TRICK, I have learned ways to control it better than my heart, (lol) and now I am really glad that that part of my life happened, that I had the privilege of being heartbroken. 

*plays Adele's Can't Let Go in the background. Thanks for reading!

A Weird But Brutally Honest Fact About Me!

I just found out that blogs need introductory posts, looks like I haven't got one so I present you this! This is weird because I don't do stuff like this, but since it's a must I'll give it a go.

Profile portfolio:

• Name: Laudemhir Jan M. Parel
• Age: 18
• Current Location: Davao City
• Occupation: Student (Mining Engineering @ University of Southeastern Philippines)
• Blog: Opinions Avenue

Well, that was kinda silly! Either way, let's get this ON!

A weird but brutally honest fact about me: I HAVE AN OBSESSION WITH HAND MASSAGE!

I am terribly ashamed to say this, but yes, ask my sisters, ask my mom, ask my dad, ask my classmates, and probably ask my neighbor whom I got to work at a store once, and they'll tell you all about it!

Whenever I'm home and mom's watching the primetime drama, I always sit right next to her, give my hand and she knows exactly what do to! She's the only one who doesn't complain to be honest, a session could last an hour and she wouldn't mind, love her so much!

And to be fair, dad's got to do it too right before bedtime! But he's a bit too harsh, I had to stop like after a minute or so. And he'll be like, "What? That's the right thing to do, if it doesn't hurt then it's not effective!" But duh, I only do it for pleasure and not for pain.

My sister's a bit interesting though, she massages my hand every Sunday, (yes, it's a schedule!) at Church because that's the only time we'll be together (other days than that, it's just a no-no, we don't get along, me and my sister), but she always have one condition, "massage my hands too so that I can have a sample!" A damn mess but I still give it a go.

Now my classmates are not bothered by it anymore. I think they have grown accustomed to it, so much that every time I give my hands, they do their respectful jobs! I think it's absolutely cool though, I get to know some of their personalities based on their touches! Some of them press real hard (they're a bit harsh in real life too, trust me!), some are soft (mostly the girls), some are sweet (yay!), one seems like a real pro (Miss Sharmaine), one (Arnel, I see you) just likes to tickle, my closest friend (yup, Ralph I'm speaking about you!) is the harshest of them though, he's always pressing the one between the thumb and the index finger and it's excruciating, but I know he's been doing it on purpose to punish me for being close with one of our girl friends! Kind of rubbish but I understand. :)

I don't exactly know why I have come to this, but it's inevitable now! I think it all started during my first semester in college, but back then it wasn't this worse, I only had to give my hand for a massage for like once a week, and now it has to be like every hour! I know it's a mess but it's truly a weird fact about me! So if you're bound to be my friend, then please be sure to accept the fact that every time I am around, you'll be ready to give my hands the massage they deserve! :)

Sigh, that was hard! Story of my life indeed. 

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NEWS! Billboard Confirms Adele's 25 Already Sold 2.3 Million Copies in the US

It seems like Hurricane Category 25 is not on it's final form yet, though it's impact in the music industry has already been marked as "catastrophic".

The When We Were Young singer has already amassed more than 2.3 million copies already, for her latest album 25, confirmed by Billboard. Well that's a lot of copies, isn't it?

Adele will take the top spot from Justin Bieber, after topping last week's chart selling more than 520,000 pure albums after competing head to head with One Direction. It is to be noted that two big releases were crowded into a single week because music experts had already expected the impact that 25 will leave in its path!

It looks like Adele's humongous return to music will at least be five times the amount of copies Bieber sold last week.

And for the record, Adele has beaten Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again's record of 1,319,000 copies, (a feat that Taylor Swift has come close in her 3 previous efforts) in just a span of a day!

While she's at it, she will probably destroy the almost impossible record of NSYNC's No Strings Attached (2.4 million copies) as she already registed 2.3 million copies in just 3 days!

In a poll recently conducted by Rolling Stones in their Twitter account, it seems like there are still many potential buyers to come!

Have you already got your copies of 25? Go and grab one, be part of this incredible music history!
Purchase 25 on iTunes or Amazon.

Katy Perry Premieres "Every Day is a Holiday" in H&M's Holiday Advert (Video Plus Gifs!)

Earlier this year, rumors started spreading that Katy Perry was working on new Christmas music. It was not until mid-November that Hollywood Reporter confirmed that she will be present in H&M's Holiday Campaign, with a brand new song made purposely for the ad campaign called "Every Day is Holiday". The song composed by Perry, long-time collaborator Dr. Luke, Sarah Hudson, Hal Ritson and English DJ and deep house producer Duke Dumont, features similar 90's dance-theme with her previous song "Walking on Air".

The recently announced highest-paid popstar by Forbes is featured as a fairy in the video, another campy addition to her colorful videography. Watch it now:

(Bonus!) Gifs from the video:

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The Sad Truth about the Philippine Cinema

My friends watched the recently-released local title “Everyday, I Love You” and they kept telling me to watch it because it’s very romantic and touching. And every time they do, they got the same reply from me, “I’m not paying to watch it. Either I wait for my sister to download an HD copy of it or I’ll catch it on TV,” but still, they keep on insisting.

The truth my friends, is that I’m tired of the same clichéd romantic-comedies our local directors have been offering since the beginning of this millennium. An accomplice of mine seemed to agree with my reasoning, he stated, “If a huge amount of people turned up in cinemas to watch romantic-comedies, then our filmmakers will continue to cater this demand!” In short, he’s inferring that we should limit ourselves in supporting films like this, in order for other genres to thrive in this country.

I’m not saying we should stop making romantic-comedy films but, it’s getting tiring. It’s all the same story, poor girl/boy falling in love with a rich man/woman of his/her dreams or either one moves out to another country and then goes back to search for new love, man these kind of stuff does get boring. We all knew it’s going to have the same ending. For someone who is accustomed of foreign films and their brilliance, I think our cinema is due for a change.

Furthermore, my accomplice opened up the visual effects of our cinema and how we’re far behind, technically. In fact, the first edition of Star Wars (1977) was visually better than what we’ve achieved this decade, which is frightening because in this day and age, everyone would have thought we’ve had good use of the latest technology. In my opinion, I think the sole reason for this could again be attributed to my first point, “There’s just too much demand for Rom-Com and too little for other genres.”

If we have been constantly making CGI-based films or sci-fi films, then perhaps we could have at least advance visually. But of course who would dare? No directors or studios would invest that much money for this, not unless a local Christopher Nolan mind would do so. It’s all for the profit.

I stopped watching local movies by the time I decided they’re not worth it anymore (although on special occasion when the rating for the movie is high and above standards, I do watch it). I don’t hate them, contrary to what my friends are thinking; I just don’t think they’re worth the time and money. They’re just made solely for entertainment and to tickle everyone’s hearts. I do agree that they could really tickle someone’s hearts, but I’m looking for growth. And our directors should, no one will ever be called visionary here if they keep sticking to their old formulas. And don’t tell me that “don’t fix it until it’s broke” because sooner or later, we will all come to realization that we’re just being tricked.

What people needs to understand is that I am a movie enthusiast, I find comfort in movies, I let the power of movies control my head as they leave thoughts to ponder. In the past month or so, the movies I watched were:

• Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)
• Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
• Dope (Rick Famu2015)
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, 2015)
• Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant, 1997)
• Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015)
• A Brilliant Young Mind (Morgan Matthews, 2014)

If you noticed, some of the movies I watched were a bit dated. Well that’s essentially a part of what I called #AClassicAWeek project, a project of mine that started midyear to discover classic films that shaped the cinema of today’s generation.

However, there’s no traces of these films in our recent local titles, in fact we have come as far to diminish animated titles too. It certainly does not help that we are always using song titles in our films, for real though, can’t we be more original and serious thinkers?

Examining the films above, it is obvious that I have never seen a single Filipino movie either in cinema or in DVD last month. The last one, and perhaps the only time where I’ve seen a local movie in a theatre this year was Heneral Luna. Now this one is very interesting, out-of-the-box, high-budget film that turned to blockbuster even after a lackluster opening due to positive word-of-mouth.

The risk that the director and studio took certainly paid well, and if some of our well-known directors had the guts to go outside of their limits too, then perhaps we could have had a thriving community full of visionaries. Heneral Luna is basically a testimony that not only romantic/rom-com films can achieve box-office heights in the country, if it’s fresh, informative, and something new to us, then we might as well get on board with it.

Hopefully enough, we don’t get too carried away by our feelings. I know that love is important and that it is in our nature to crave for romantic films, but please, there’s far too many genres to discover and cultivate in this world. In this day and age, we need diversity and growth.

Adele's 25 Summed Up in Gifs!

And because everyone is literally talking about how good 25 is, I've decided to compile gifs while listening to the album! Gifs are so funny, they really replicate people's emotions without meaning to (if you like to read my track-by-track review of the album, click here), so without further ado, here they are:

When "Hello" and "25" reached #1 in both iTunes Song and Album charts:

And it was basically game over for everyone:

When she exploded into the last chorus of "Hello":

When the chorus of "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" starts and you can't stop dancing awkwardly:

When the final chorus starts and you're bopping to it no matter what everyone says:

When basically all the fun stops because the sensual "I Miss You" starts and you gotta be like:

And then you realize you don't have someone with you so you call him/her and cry:

When she hit the goddamn note in When We Were Young and you try to imitate it:

And then she basically pull all the heartstrings when she sings, "Let me photograph you in this light in case it is the last time.":

When she does it again with the heart-wrenching ballad "Remedy":

When she stops being emotional because she knows she'll leave everyone lying on the floor, so instead try to do a bop song "Water Under the Bridge" and everyone has to dance to its chorus like:

When you thought "River Lea" is going to be emotional because of the church piano:

And then it metamorphosed into a gospel-dance track:

When she basically steps back in making you cry again, in "Love in the Dark", especially when the chorus hits you so hard you have nothing to do but cry:

And when you don't want to cry halfway through the song, but then the bridge happened and you can't escape:

When you thought you're safe when the song is finished and then "Million Years Ago" reminds you of why Mariah Carey's "My All" became a classic:

When you realize Adele has no mercy at all when she has a song called "All I Ask" which will make you feel same things when you first heard "Someone Like You":

And then you'll feel this:

Or worse, this:

And for one last final vocal acrobatics, she presents to you "Sweetest Devotion":

The sweetest devotion

Hitting me like an explosion

All of my life, I've been frozen

The sweetest devotion I've known

And lastly, for the general consensus of the album, the gif that would summarize it is this:

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