Monday, January 24, 2011

The Princess and the Frog

I FINALLY got a chance to watch "The Princess and the Frog" at the beginning of January. It was such a cute movie! I didn't realize until I watched it that it was set in the New Orleans bayou. Disney did a really good job of depicting the setting and bringing it to life - I could almost feel the warm, muggy air. It reminded me of our stay at the Port Orleans Resort in Disney World last summer (the resort has a Southern mansion/bayou theme).

The story was quite unique. I enjoyed the new aspect of Louisiana voodoo, although I was a bit surprised to see it in a Disney movie. I was also surprised by some of the scenes involving the villain, like when he called up creepy shadow monsters. They were actually rather scary, and I can imagine several younger children getting extremely frightened.

However, I did like Disney's fresh take on the movie. The main character, Tiana, is not born a princess - rather, she grows up in a poor community and has to work hard to achieve her dreams. I liked all of the other characters as well, including Ray the firefly. There are no fireflies here in Washington so I have to get my fill of them through books and movies! I've always wanted to see a real firefly...

I liked some of the songs, but they were definitely a bit disappointing compared to many of Disney's other songs. I had trouble figuring out the words several times, especially since many of the voices (unique as they were) were a bit hard to understand.

The main thing I liked about the movie was the message of working hard - not just having a goal, but actually doing your best to reach it. This is something that never really comes across in any other Disney movie, so I was glad to see it here.


"The Princess and the Frog" was definitely not my favorite Disney movie (in fact, "Tangled" was much better in my opinion), but it was still adorable and entertaining and worth the time.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Harry Potter Calligraphy

Finals are over, so I'm back to blogging! One thing I wanted to share with you was a calligraphy manuscript that I did in art class in December. I decided to write the Harry Potter school song from the first book.

By the way, it's much harder than it looks - everything has to be perfect and if you even make one teeny tiny mistake (spelling mistake, writing a letter in the wrong font, having one letter look weird, smudging), you have to start over because you're using India Ink (which is permanent) and "calligraphy" means 'beautiful writing,' so it HAS to be exactly perfect.

Anyways... here it is!

(you can click on the pictures to enlarge them)





Thursday, January 13, 2011

Bleh... studying

Finals are coming up next week, so I'll be off this blog until next Friday the 21st. Sorry... see you then!

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Blizzard

I discovered this poem in the January edition of Cricket Magazine and just wanted to share:

Above and around us
the white dragon howls,
hoarse and hollow.

Ice-claws click
at the windows.
We cower inside.

Sudden silence.

The monster sprawls
across our lawn;
the dragon drowses.

Our boots crunch
on mounded shoulders,
crush diamond scales.

Winter's spell:
now we
breathe out dragon-steam.

-by Sandi Leibowitz

The Butt Book

by Artie Bennett, illustrated by Mike Lester

The Butt Book is a fun, cute picture book for little kids... all about butts. Funny without being crude or inappropriate, this book uses colorful pictures and great rhymes to entice young readers, for example:

Patches found on baboon rumps
help them when they sit on stumps.

On their butts, skunks have a gland
that sprays a stink no one can stand.


So it's educational as well as entertaining! I also learned a few new synonyms that I never knew before. :)

I can see how this irresistible book would encourage reluctant young readers to pick up books and read more. However much we deny it, this is the type of stuff that little kids love and find hilarious, and if it results in more books in their hands, awesome! I would definitely recommend this to younger children, and even teens and adults will probably get a kick out of it.

(pdf provided by author)