Le Petit Prince (2015)

When I read the book years ago, the picture of an elephant swallowed by a snake was the most interesting thing and it was unforgettable. The description about how adults preferred numbers came true when a friend of mine told me about how good her French teacher was with statistics. My conclusion at that time was French people were very good with numbers and statistics, just like what it said in The Little Prince book.

My favourite picture from the book

It's different from Indonesian people, I think. Most of us probably cannot answer if you ask how many islands in Republik Indonesia, except elementary students. We also don't care about statistics, like % of people live in big cities, population growth, ....

The Little Prince movie is very interesting. The main character is a little girl - not sure how old she is, but her height is half of her mother, and is about to enter an academy. Her mother is a hard-working woman who leaves her alone in the house until she comes home from work. Her father is even busier, he travels around the world and gives her a snow-globe for a birthday present every year.

The admission interview in the Werth Academy

During a summer holiday, the little girl must study hard so she can enter the Werth Academy. The audience can see how she lost herself in the world of adults [She can't even answer a simple question like: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Most children know the answer, although the answer is usually the same: either a doctor, a soldier, a pilot, a police, an engineer; and they usually do not become that when they grow up.], until the mother and daughter moved house and the little girl meets their new neighbour: The Aviator.

The Aviator's house itself is different from others. The others's are minimalist, similar, pale and boring. His is like something comes out from a story book.

The Little Girl and the Aviator

The Aviator, now old, is lonely. He sees the little girl study very hard, scheduled by her mother to the minute, so he tries to make her enjoy her childhood by telling her the story of the Little Prince. When she gets interested, she is disappointed by the ending, i.e. The Little Prince died.

The Aviator's yard

However, when the Aviator is gravely ill, she tries to make him get his spirit back by looking for the Little Prince, whom she believes still alive. She does find him, but he now has grown and becomes an adult and seems to have forgotten his days with the Aviator in Sahara desert.

The story of the Little Prince from the book is depicted beautifully. I don't know what the characters were made of, sometimes they looked like they were made from recycled paper.

Taming the Fox

I have known the Little Prince book for years, so the fictional story has become familiar to me. The little girl part, with the relentless activities, also looked real. But when she flied an airplane and went to an asteroid, I thought it was too much and didn't make sense. But when I think about it again: if the Little Prince can travel from his asteroid to the Earth by the help of birds, why the little girl cannot drive a plane?

The Book of Life (2014)

This movie is one of the most colourful I have seen. It's presented in a story-within-a-story style.

A bunch of kids visited a museum on the Day of The Dead. They were not in mood until they knew that their guide was a sexy young lady. In there they saw 'The Book of Life'. "All the world is made of stories and all of those stories are right here." Then the guide began her story.

The little town of San Angel

Below the little town of San Angel, which was the center of the universe, laid the Land of the Remembered - for those who lived on in the memories of their loved ones - and below that was the Land of the Forgotten. The Land of the Remembered was ruled by a beautiful lady called La Muerte; while the Land of the Forgotten was ruled by an old man named Xibalba.

In San Angel, La Muerte and Xibalba saw two little boys, Manolo and Joaqin, who were trying to win the heart of a beautiful little girl named Maria. They made a bet on who would win the girl. La Muerte said it would be Manolo, and Xibalba said it would be Joaqin. Xibalba cheated by giving Joaqin a medal that would kept him from injury and death. Meanwhile, Maria's father sent her to Spain to study in a convent.

Years passed. Manolo became a musician and bullfighter, while Joaqin became a soldier. After Maria had returned, her father wanted her to accept Joaqin's marriage proposal so Joaqin would stay and protect the town from a group of bandits. However, Maria seemed to tend to choose the romantic Manolo. Before Manolo could tell Maria about his feeling, she was bitten by a snake. Manolo thought she had been dead, and committed suicide by letting the snake bite him. He went into the Land of the Remembered, but could not find Maria there, because she was still alive.

Manolo arrives in The Land of the Remembered

Manolo tried to persuade Xibalba, who had become the ruler of the Land of the Remembered,  to let him return to San Angel, but Xibalba challenged Manolo to defeat his worst fear first.

Manolo, Joaqin, and Maria: best friends.
The characters are made from wood.

The music in this movie was enjoyable although the voice of singing Manolo was too pop for me. I prefer stronger voice.

Brave (2012)

Brave is not as good as I've expected. I expected it would be great because it was made by Pixar. It's not bad, either, because to me, any Pixar movie is still better than animations by other companies.

The Scottish accent in Brave is so heavy, there is even a character who cannot be heard clearly what he is saying. Without subtitles, it would be hard for me to understand the dialogues. The story itself reminds me of Brother Bear and The Emperor's New Groove.

The main character here is Princess Merida, firstborn of King Fergus, who must choose among her 3 suitors - none is what we call a typical Prince Charming. She refuses to choose, of course, and asks a witch to change her mother. Instead of changing her mother's opinion, the witch changes her into a bear. Now Princess Merida must find a way to change her mother back.

Actually, when I read the title, I imagined the heroine here would somehow lead her people against the enemy or something like that. Well, the plot is nothing like that. She is a spoiled child, who refuses to listen to her parents, and finally has her mother bewitched.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

Last Sunday I went to watch this Tintin movie. I had avoided to see any promotions (trailers, movie clips, stills), so I was looking forward to this.

I watched it with a friend. Things were bad at first. I arrived first at this noodle restaurant and she sms-ed me to order a portion for her. It turned out the order was wrong. How could I know that she had given me the wrong name, but the right price? We divided the (wrong) food for 2. After lunch, we went to buy tickets, but the 13.45 show had been sold out. She was upset again, and said that we should have bought tickets first before having lunch. [I would happily do that if I had the credit card used for 'buy 1 get 1' promotion.] We ended up watching the 2.55 show, and in 2D; which was another reason for her to be angry: we had wanted to watch the 3D version, but that day, the only 3 theatres played the 3D were far. Most theatres in Jakarta had only showed the 3D for a week.

The movie was great. Beside The Secret of the Unicorn, there were also elements from The Crab with the Golden Claws. The Bird brothers' were removed from the story and Mr Saccharine became the bad guy - which was a great idea, because he actually looked like Red Rackham. The movie was not exactly like the books (like the TV series) so the audience had things to look forward to. The chase scenes were spectacular and I enjoyed them very much. Although there were changes, the characters were not changed (except Mr Saccharine), they were still characters that we had loved and still loved. The creator of Tintin, Hergé, was not forgotten, he appeared in the beginning of the movie, drawing Tintin in the fair.

After the movie ended, my friend's good mood was back and she said the movie was funny and very good. Snowy was a bit different from the book (the drawing/shape), but we loved how he reacted against Bianca Castafiore's voice. [I hoped there was more emotion on Signora Castafiore's face, or was it intended to make her stone-faced?] We can't wait for the sequel, hope Prof. Calculus will appear, and hope the scenes where the Thompson Twins pump and pump again will be included.

Tangled (2010)

I know the story of Rapunzel: A pregnant woman wants a rapunzel leaf and her husband steals it from their neighbour's garden. This neighbour turns out to be a witch who wants the new born baby for payment of the rapunzel leaf. She jails the baby girl, named Rapunzel, in a high tower, whose only way out is a window which can be reached by climbing Rapunzel's very long hair. Time passes and a prince finds the way to enter the tower and falls in love with Rapunzel. When the witch finds out, she cuts short Rapunzel's hair, throws her away, greets the prince, blinds him and throws him away as well. Many years later only Rapunzel, who already given birth to twins, meets her prince again and cures his blindness with her tears.

This Disney version of that story is a bit difference. Tangled, as it is called, is a very entertaining movie, although I must say that I am a bit annoyed of how they are always ruining classic stories. A pregnant queen is sick and the whole kingdom is searching for a certain Rapunzel flower to cure her. A witch has been hiding the flower to keep her young and beautiful. When the flower has been taken away from her, she finds that the queen's baby girl's golden hair is as magical as the flower; so she takes the baby away and hides her, named Rapunzel, in a high tower. Every year on their lost baby's birthday, the king and queen and their people fly lanterns into the sky. Rapunzel watches the shining lanterns from her window and dreams to be able to see what they are, for she thinks they are some kind of stars. Then enters the rogue prince, who is actually a wanted man for thieving.

I think since The Little Mermaid, Disney make the characters very modern. The expressions, the dialogues are so lively... I myself prefer the classic way. Snow White's prince or Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty are my favourite. They have manners. These modern characters, begins with prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, sometimes can look stupid and not elegant at all. It's like watching degradation in human characters, in this case - represented by cartoon characters.

Up (2009)

I think Up is the best movie made this year. Who wouldn't like to watch how a childhood's dream comes true? The story begins with little Carl and Ellie who idolize Charles Muntz, the adventurer who lost his reputation in the society after being accused of faking archaeological discovery. Muntz swears that he will not come back unless he has a living proof. Years gone by, Carl and Ellie live happily, until comes the time when Ellie passes away and their little home is threatened by tall buildings around. By tying thousands of balloons to his house, Carl is off to South America to realize Ellie's dream: placing the house near the top of Paradise Falls. What Carl doesn't know is that a young boy is hiding in his porch when he takes off.

I love the pink colour on Russell's cheeks. It's very cute. And Dug's expression when Carl scolds him, "Bad dog! Bad dog!" He is so ashamed, although at that time he wears no cone of shame. Oh, who doesn't want to own a talking dog? Some of them even can cook and choose a good wine. Too bad Muntz is the bad guy in a Disney production and we know his fate in the end. He probably will be more famous in selling talking dogs than bringing Kevin to America. As for getting back his honour, well, in this era of GPS etc, he can make a video of the bird in her habitat and let an expert examine the movie if they don't believe him.

What I always like about Disney's productions, is that they have better language, and not as vulgar as those made by other companies. A few days ago I watched a couple old episodes of Donald Duck and saw two hens in two different episodes and noticed the funny sound like a hen's sound. Nowadays it is rare and that actors who lend their voices to animals speak like normal human.

Up also contains a moral lesson (at least): to realize a childhood's dream can make one happy, but there is one more important thing and that is to help others in need.

Kung Fu Panda

I actually had no intention to watch this, but since Lastri did, so we went. With the 'pay 1 for 2' promotion we didn't have to pay too much. The theatre was full and we sat in the 3rd row; never before we sat this close and we were rather dizzy. The movie turned out to be very funny and we laughed a lot.

The hero is a fat panda called Po. He helps his father (perhaps not his real father for Mr Ping is not a panda, but a goose) in their noodle restaurant, but dreams to become a great warrior and work together with the Furious Five. One day Master Oogway from the Jade Palace chooses Po to be the Dragon Warrior whose destiny is to defeat the evil Tai Lung; so Master Shifu (he reminds me of Yoda) has to work hard to train Po, who himself believes that Master Oogway has chosen the wrong person.

Unlike several DreamWorks Animation movies I have seen, far as I can remember there is no curse word in this. I find the story is a bit ridiculous, for how is it possible that a new student can beat the mighty Tai Lung, who has spectacularly escaped from the well guarded prison? The Valley of Peace is also a funny place, for most of its inhabitants are rabbits and pigs. In all, this is a very entertaining movie.

Glass Mask

13-year-old Maya Kitajima is good for nothing, but can recite the whole dialogues from a 3 ½ hour-movie she has seen only once, including the gestures of the actors and their positions. When long-forgotten actress Chigusa Tsukikage sees her, she knows that she has found a perfect candidate to play the Crimson Goddess in the future. The Crimson Goddess is a legendary stage play and only a perfect actress can play it. The rights belong only to Chigusa Tsukikage, the only one who has played the role until a terrible accident destroyed her face, and she refuses to sell it to anyone, including ambitious Masumi Hayami, the young president of Daito Production Company, and Hajime Onodera, the producer of Ondine Theatre. Meanwhile, Ayumi Himekawa, a genius with perfect acting technique, also wants that role. Later Ayumi and Maya become life-long rivals, but they always admire each other. Both take any role, no matter how small or unimportant it is, because they believe that every role brings them one step closer to become the actress who will able to play the Crimson Goddess.
Mme. Chigusa teaches Maya that on stage she must wear the glass mask of the character she is playing in order to become the character completely and forget about her own. Maya runs away from home because her mother doesn’t allow her to act and she has a hard time dividing her time for school, theatre and half-time job. Her only consolation is that she has a secret fan who sends her purple roses and supports her in many ways. Maya doesn’t know that the Purple Rose is the man she hates the most.

Glass Mask (Garasu No Kamen) manga by Suzue Miuchi was very popular here in mid 90’s, but the final book had never been released here or have I missed it? I don’t think so! It has become a very favourite of mine, along with Candy Candy.

This animation brings a lot of memories. There is a very touching scene when Masumi visits Mme. Chigusa who is ill, bringing white roses and a basket of fruits; and Maya is so angry to see him (because she just heard that Onodera, and presumably Masumi, had sabotaged Tsukikage Theatre Group in a competition, resulting disqualification for them despite Maya’s wonderful efforts to perform it solo since the rest of the cast were late); and Maya snatches the flowers from him and throws them right into his face and throws apples at him. She doesn’t know how much Masumi cares for her.