50. Spirited Away

Spirited Away directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli) 2001

Genre

Film

Honors

Best Animated Feature, 2002 Academy Awards

Review

Chihiro is moving to a new city with her parents.  Her father takes a wrong turn and drives down a disused lane.  At end of the path there is an entry way.  The family gets out to explore, though Chihiro is reluctant.  The family find themselves in an thoroughfare of restaurants.  Chihiro's parents become hungry and when they stumble across some food begin to eat gluttonously.  Before long they have transformed into pigs.  A young boy tries to warn Chihiro away, but she and her parents end up crossing into an alternate plane of existence where humans are not allowed.  Chihiro manages to get a job at a bathhouse in exchange for her name.  She works hard and long at the bathhouse and tries to discover a way to save her parents.

Opinion

The movie is deliberately paced, but visually gorgeous.  I appreciate that everything about the film is more complex than it might seem on its surface.  Villains are not pure evil and the film does not end with the villains destroyed (as many Disney movies do).  Instead Chihiro's journey is one of personal growth and developing friendships.  While I've read that many of the figures in the film are pulled from Japanese folklore, as someone unfamiliar with these folk tales, the film felts mysterious and novel to me.

Ideas

I think it might be fun to track down the folk stories that inspired Spirited Away and create a slate of programs around the stories and the film.  Early programs could focus on individual tales and the movie could be the culmination of the festivities.

P.S. This is post number 50; it's been great fun tracking down and spending time with the various materials for this course.  I've had a wonderful time creating all of the imaginary programs and book displays of these materials.  Thanks for a great class.

49. Arkham Asylum

Arkham Asylum (Rockstar Games) 2009

Genre

Video Game (Playstation 3)

Review

The game begins with Batman apprehending the Joker and taking him to Gotham's prison for the criminally insane: Arkham Asylum.  Soon, the Joker escapes, takes Commissioner Gordon captive, and releases all of the prisoners.  Batman has to traverse the island, battling many of the supervillians he's helped capture in order to save Gordon and wrest control of the island from the Joker.  There are encounters with Poison Ivy, Bane, Killer Croc, and the Scarecrow.

Opinion

The game is rated "T for teen" and some parents of tweens may deem the game too dark. too scary, or too violent.  The levels with the Scarecrow are particularly frightening.  And part of Joker's plan is to use a toxin called Titan -- which is like a super steroid -- on himself to gain strength.  In the last battle Joker has taken the drug and increases in size and takes on an even more garish appearance than normal, which may also be scary.  But because Batman has wide popularity, many tweens will likely play the game or want to.  The game is engrossing and fun, with a complex and sophisticated story (even if game play is mostly about punching people and using gadgets).

Ideas

This game might not be a great choice for library programming.  It's long and complex and only allows one player at a time.  If the library has a station for patrons to play games, this one is popular enough that it may warrant inclusion.  But you should be prepared to face challenges by parents of young children.

48. NBA 2k11

NBA 2K11 (2K Sports) 2011

Genre

Video Game (Playstation 3)

Review

NBA 2K11 is 2K sports annual NBA Basketball video game featuring rosters from the 2010 NBA season.  The game's cover features Michael Jordan who last played basketball in 2003.  This suggests, correctly, that the game will be somewhat backward looking.  Indeed, there are a series of classic team lineups that players can choose to use -- including the 1995-96 Seattle Supersonics (the Supersonics moved to Oklahoma and became the Thunder in 2008).  These classic lineups mean that you can control retired players like Jordan, Gary Payton, Larry Bird, Dominque Wilkins, Bill Laimbeer, and Magic Johnson.  The game includes a number of play modes: you can select a team and play/simulate full seasons, you can play against a friend, you can play online, or you can play a series of scenarios from Michael Jordan's career.  You can also create your own players.

Opinion

Like many sports games, the NBA 2K series is annual, meaning that this game has been "replaced" by 2K12, 2K13, and soon 2K14.  Still, this particular entry may have more appeal for parents of tweens (who may have been fans of Larry Bird or the Seattle Supersonics).  On Playstation 3, it takes awhile to get used to the controls if you are an avid player of the NBA 2K series, because 2K changed the configuration for this entry.  The graphics and sound are superb with announcing from Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg. 

Ideas

This game might be a great choice for a family gaming night at the library.  Many people over the age of 30 play video games, and this game might be a fun one for connecting parents and children.

47. Phineas and Ferb

Phineas and Ferb created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) 2007

Genre

Television program/Streaming Video (Note: while I watched an episode on Netflix; my library did have some copies on DVD, but many discs were checked out and I wanted to start from the beginning; it's also not clear to me if the full seasons have been released on DVD or merely collections of selected episodes).

Review

Phineas and Ferb follows the exploits of the titular step brothers.  The theme song indicates that the actions take place during summer break.  The episode I watched was split into two separate 11 minute stories.  The first involved the stepbrothers building a massive and insane roller-coaster while their mother (stepmother for Ferb) was grocery shopping.  Phineas' sister Candace spends the episode trying to get her mother to see what the boys are doing.  But at every attempt, the evidence Candace tries to show her mother disappears (children tear down a poster at one point, and powerful magnet on a helicopter lifts the entire roller-coaster out of sight before the mother sees it).  While the boys build, then ride their coaster, their pet platypus slinks off to his job as a secret agent.  He's sent to stop his nemesis (who's covered the Eastern seaboard in tin foil and hopes to use a powerful magnet to change the direction of the earth's rotation, though he's not sure what this will accomplish).  Eventually the disparate threads come together when the platypus rigs his nemesis' magnet to a helicopter.  The path the roller coaster takes after the helicopter lifts it up is too insane to describe in words.  Here are some pictures: 

Opinion

The show is frenetically paced with lots of guitar driven rock music in the background.  The first episode seems to set the formula for every subsequent episode.  The step brothers are inventive, their sister goes crazy trying to get their mom to see what they are doing, the platypus has to foil his evil nemesis and in so doing covers the boys' tracks, Candace is in love with the boy who works at slushy burger, a little girl named Isabella is in love with Phineas, and Ferb only speaks once per episode punctuating the story with a punchline.  It's funny and inventive, but also highly overstimulating (almost painfully so).  Some tweens would absolutely love it.

Ideas

I think it would be fun to tie crafts to the episodes.  So, for instance, the first story deals with the building of a roller-coaster.  It would be fun to watch that story with some tweens and then have a miniature roller-coaster building event or competition.  In the second story, the boys sculpt Candace's face on Mount Rushmore; this story could be coupled with a sculpting program.

46. Wizards of Waverly Place

Wizards of Waverly Place created by Todd J. Greenwald (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) 2007

Genre

Television program/Streaming Video (Note: while I watched an episode on Netflix; my library did have some copies on DVD, but the season 1 disc was out and I wanted to start from the beginning).

Review

The Wizards of Waverly Place is a family sitcom about three siblings in New York City who are being trained by their father to be wizards.  It seems that they have to keep magic a secret from everyone around them.  After the first two episodes, the individual characters didn't seem to have particularly distinct personalities; all of the characters felt flat, and the actor playing the children's father -- David Deloise -- seemed to be trying his best to impersonate his own father: actor Dom Deloise.  I watched two episodes: one in which Alex (the daughter played by Selena Gomez) uses magic to duplicate herself, so she can go to a sale at a clothing store and be in wizarding class at the same time; one in which Alex continually uses a time travel spell to help her brother have the perfect first kiss.  Magic seems inevitably to come with negative/humorous consequences on the show (which makes sense on a purely formulaic level as its the uniqueness of the given situation that most situation comedies mine for humor).

Opinion

The show feels very much like a Harry Potter rip off with its wizarding school elements; its combination of a fantasy world and the real world; and the fact that the family's sandwich shop is called the Sub Station and looks like a former train station.  But the show itself is very standard sitcom fare -- at least in its first two episodes.  The situations are tired and cliche: a sale in a department store where Alex has to race against her nemesis to get the jacket she wants; Justin's nervousness over his first kiss.  I felt that the first two episodes put a lot of focus on fairly superficial topics: the importance of getting the right jacket or how performing poorly at your first kiss could ruin your life.  Surely, teens and tweens already feel these anxieties, but the show merely seems to reinforce their anxieties without suggesting alternative view points or questioning where these pressures come from.  At the same time, I appreciated that the show wasn't overly pedantic or preachy.  Still, the show suffers from mediocre premises and terrible acting.  It serves as much as a vehicle for promoting the career of Selena Gomez (who stars and sings the theme song) as anything else.

Ideas

The library could certainly screen the show for tweens; it might be fun around Halloween or as a tie in with other magical or fantasy books, films, or party themes.

45. Avatar: The Last Air Bender

Avatar The Last Airbender by Michael Dante DiMartino (and many others) (Nickelodeon Animation) 2005

Genre

Television program/DVD

Review

In the world of Avatar, warriors can control one of four elements: air, water, fire, or earth.  For each generation there is one warrior -- the Avatar -- who can control all four elements.  He or she is supposed to be born into successive tribes (i.e. in one generation the Avatar will be born into the tribe that controls water, and in the next, the tribe that controls air).  The Avatar is supposed to help bring peace and balance to the world.  At the time the story begins there has not been an Avatar for 100 years, the fire tribe is making war with other tribes, and the air tribe has disappeared.  The series begins when Katara -- a water bender -- and her brother Sokka find a boy frozen in a glacier named Aang.  It becomes clear that he is an airbender and the Avatar.  The children must journey to the four tribes so Aang can master all of the elements.

Opinion

The show nicely balances childish whimsy like flying bison, Aang's desire to go "penguin sledding," and gross humor: Aang's bison sneezes green mucus onto Sokka (reminiscent of slime from Nickelodeon's early days) with complex stories about war and genocide.  While clearly directed at and designed for children, the show challenges them to think.  I also appreciate the strong female character Katara.

Ideas

The show is bound to appeal to children of both genders; in fact a sequel to the show, Leged of Korra, is being produced with a female main character.  Screenings of the show, or events based around it could be fun programs for tweens.

44. Batman The Brave and The Bold

Batman The Brave and The Bold developed and produced by James Tucker &
Michael Jelenic (Warner Home Video) 2010

Genre

Television program/DVD

Review

In each episode Batman teams up with a different DC comics hero.  Each adventure is self contained, so the show is episodic in nature with no overarching plot lines.  In the first episode Batman teams up with the Jaime Reyes version of Blue Beetle (Reyes is the most recent incarnation of the Blue Beetle; he is a teenage boy, who was first featured in the comic books in 2006).  The two are set to divert a meteorite headed toward earth, but as soon as they leave earth's atmosphere, the Blue Beetle loses control of his suit: it makes a wormhole and takes Batman and Blue Beetle to a strange planet populated by amoeba-like lifeforms.  Each year a villainous alien raids their planet, kidnapping the residents and using their bodies for fuel (because it is Silver Age-inspired and clearly intended for children, this usage doesn't destroy the amoeba-creatures, it merely injures them).  Batman and Blue Beetle craft a Seven-Samurai-style plan, hoping to encourage the amoebas to fight for themselves.  At first Blue Beetle does all of the work defending the amoebas, until the villain uses the frequencies of a gong to disrupt the powerful Blue Beetle suit.  Batman and the amoebas are left to die on a space buoy, and Blue Beetle is taken captive.  Batman shows the amoebas how to harness the energy of their bodies to create weapons.  Ultimately Blue Beetle shows his heroism and the amoebas learn to defend themselves.

Opinion

It's heavily influenced by the Silver Age Batman (roughly 1956 to 1970) and so draws some influence from the 60s Adam West television show: it's not afraid to present outlandish plots (see above: sheesh!) or be funny.  Batman's costume is also the blue and grey of West's -- in place of the black costume he often wears in the comic books.  The show does involve a fair amount of cartoon violence; in the episode I watched that meant a lot of non-lethal gun-play.  Some parents may object to this.  But no one dies, and the show is funny and filled with adventure.    

Ideas

The show would be a fun part of a program on superheroes or comic books.  One episode is 22 minutes long; it might be a good way to begin an afterschool program.  You could use the video to get the attention of the kids and help them calm down as you focused them on another activity.