Replay: UAAP Cheerdance Competition

Channel 23 was replaying the 2007 UAAP Cheerdance Competition yesterday. I never got to watch it when it was live, and now I missed half of it. That's why I looked them up in YouTube:



In case you don't know, UP was champion, UST was 1st runner-up, and FEU was 2nd runner-up. UP's music was predominantly rock, and they employed hard moves in SYNCHRONIZATION. UST was lively to watch and looked more like a pep squad than UP, but their routines were slightly predictable. They were well synchronized and had a pretty cool domino-effect/falling down routine at the end, but they didn't have the hard-to-do moves of UP. FEU started out pretty lame, but brought down the house at the end.

NU had more of the standard routine, not too many hard moves that might have earned them extra points. Adamson had nice dance moves tucked in here and there ... also lacking in the more hard stuff that could have gotten them more points. Half of UE's routine reminded me of water ballet. Pretty rad but they lacked the "hyper" factor. They could do with more dancers, too.

Ateneo was disappointing. They were all over the place and did not look synchronized. They spent too much time setting up those pyramids, flips and tosses that you don't see much going on while they were at it. How do I say it? .... there wasn't fluidity when it comes to putting together their moves? It wasn't one smooth number, but a series of flips, pyramids and tosses? They were reportedly in 4th place if there is ever an award for fourth place. If that's true, then I guess those tosses earned them enough points.

DLSU had the pitiful mistake of having too much props and not having enough practice using them. They had a really upbeat start and was doing fine till they started pulling out those upside down, not in order letters, and banners that made a jigsaw puzzle on the floor rather than show their school logo. Scratch those props faux pas, and you can say their routine is livelier and more fun than Ateneo or UP. The cool endings still belong to UST and FEU.

Prince Caspian Trailer

I saw this trailer shown on cable TV days ago, but some may not be aware that it's already available.

Presenting the preview of the movie Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian


For any fan of the first movie, and especially for fans of both the movies and the books they're based on (like me), this is undoubtedly a much-awaited sequel (My mind was actually going "wheee!!" when I first saw this trailer).

Prince Caspian's theater release will be May 16, 2008.

You may want to check out the website: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/

Movie: Golden Compass

	Studio:	New Line Cinema
	Release:	December 7, 2007
	Genre:	Action/Adventure, Drama, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Adaptation
	MPAA Rating:	PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence

I loved the novel, which is why I had to see this movie. Like most adaptations, a lot of stuff from the novel was cut out. They are little things that probably wouldn't matter in the movie, but in the novel they emphasized the differences between our world and Lyra's world - like Texas being a country separate from the United States (the label "lone star state" makes more sense in their world), and the Church under the title of Magisterium had retained and spread its power over nations.

The pace of most of the movie is slow ... and might actually bore those who are looking for adventure. Although I don't think that the issue of "Dust", which is the root of the trouble Lyra finds herself in, was explained enough in this movie, I also think that the academic discussion of it will add more to the boredom factor. The movie is picture perfect though, and has a good cast.

Kidman played the enigmatic Mrs. Coultier perfectly, although she did not really look like the Coultier described in the novel. Dakota Blue Richards wasn't my idea of Lyra either, but she was feisty enough when the scenes needed her to be... and it is important that Lyra comes across as the girl who always gets into trouble for being too inquisitive. There's even less of Lord Asriel here than in the novel, which makes the character more mysterious.

When it comes to Lee Scoresby, my image of this cowboy was more of the "Marlboro" commercial type, or the rough cowboys Clint Eastwood played. That's because Scoresby was always on the go, and basically lives in his air balloon. I had not thought of Scoresby as the dapper, sheriff type of cowboy I saw in this movie.

On daemons... I don't know if those who didn't read the novel actually grasped that they are souls. It was wonderful how the CGs for daemons were created in this movie. Pan is as cute as I pictured him to be. The artists really studied animals ... it was lifelike when Pan was in the form of a cat and bristling with anger. It was also cool how they showed that Mrs. Coultier controls or hurts other humans by making her golden monkey make a move on their daemons first.

Since we are on the subject of CG animals I must say that Iorek rules! Loved the bear in the novel, love the bear in this movie. The combat scene just rocks! Your heart will truly go to, and cheer for, Iorek as he tries to defeat his bigger adversary. When Iorek's paw is hurt, he hops along and tries to retain balance ... and I find that piece of detail coming from the CG artists great! I don't know why they had to change the name of the bear king from Iofur to Ragnar ... I could only speculate that Iofur is too close to Iorek and therefore confusing.

I did say that most of the story went at a slow pace. It does pick up a bit and climaxes at the battle of Bolvangar ... with Serafina Pekkala's witch clan (I have to emphasize that it is Pekkala's clan that helped Lyra, since in the novel some withches were on the other side) and Gyptians overrunning the facility and saving the kids - including Lyra and her friend Roger. After that, the movie ends abruptly, with promise of more adventure coming from Lyra who intends to "makes things right" - whatever that means for the character (at this juncture in the timeline, she has not yet grasped how much worse the problem is).

This ending is albeit more positive than the novel's ending. In the novel, Lyra joins her father Lord Asriel, believing him to be on the good side since her mother (Mrs. Coultier) and the rest of the Magisterium is after him. Lyra would later feel betrayal when Lord Asriel "kidnaps" Roger when she is asleep, then kills the boy in order to get the big burst of energy he needs for his experiment. Watching the portal between worlds open after the death of Roger, Lyra realizes that her mother and father have similar goals though they may not be on the same side. The promise of more adventure in the novel comes from Lyra's decision to cross the portal on her own and try to find the source of Dust herself.

I don't know if this movie will make enough money to justify making the sequel. The movie has two problems to deal with: (1) a boycott from religious organizations who take offense at the portrayal of the Church in the novel, and make an issue of the author being an atheist; and (2) the novels may have a fanbase that will definitely see the movie, but that fanbase is not as big as that Narnia, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings.

The boycott for the Golden Compass is ridiculous in my opinion. The movie has actually toned down the reference to the Church in its portrayal of the Magisterium, and there is little in the movie that encourages atheism.

On the other hand, a boycott on a movie based on the second novel, The Subtle Knife, would be understandable. Pullman's Dark Materials novels are intended to be anti-Narnia. And like the Chronicles of Narnia, where it is not apparent that Aslan is Jesus until one reads the sequel, Pullman's atheism and the heretic elements that religious groups would find offensive are to be encountered by the reader in the second book. Witchcraft in Harry Potter is nothing to compared to what one will find in the Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass. The theories presented in the last two books are actually in league with what is "revealed" in Dan Brown's DaVinci Code when it comes to unsettling religious groups. And if we're talking of quality and not merely shock factor, then the Da Vinci "revelations" are crap compared to what Pullman presents in his novels. I must say that if you weather these without losing your faith, then you would end up with stronger faith.

The movie's website is http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/

It has a page where a series of 20 questions will reveal your daemon. I took the "quiz" twice:

Which do you think fits me better:

Alexius - who is solitary, fickle, flexible, passive and spontaneous?:


or Callum? ... who is solitary, modest, fickle, flexible and passive?

Movie: Enchanted

	Studio:	Walt Disney Pictures
	Release:	November 21, 2007
	Genre:	Action/Adventure, Comedy, Kids/Family, Musical/Performing Arts, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Animation
	MPAA Rating:	PG for some scary images and mild innuendo.

In my opinion, this movie is something to take note of because of the following reasons:

1. It deals with animated characters becoming "real" ... which is different from movies that pulled "real" humans into cartoonworld or cartoon characters retaining their cartoonishness in the real world.
2. Disney spoofs its own classic animated movies. Previously, you'd find the spoofs in movies made by other studios like rival Dreamworks (Shrek).
3. The movie explores how the Disney formula (the innocent good guys, the singing, the helpful creatures) would actually hold in a place like New York (not very well).

In other words, Disney has just let loose in New York a cast of characters that would have no problem securing slots in a mental institution.

Amy Adams, who I last saw in "Wedding Date" (she made more movies after that but I haven't watched any of them) stars in Disney's "Enchanted". Already in her 30s, there are some scenes where the lines near her eyes already show. Nevertheless, she is still youthful-looking and very pretty. In this movie she plays Giselle, a character that incorporates all the known princesses of classic Disney animated movies.

Playing Prince Edward, which again incorporates within his character all the known princes of classic Disney animation, is James Marsden - who I loved more when he played Lois' husband in Superman than when he was in X-men.

The two were pretty hilarious ... Giselle is all sweet, kind, innocent, and annoyingly chirpy while Prince Edward is a heroic, nice but vain and arrogant prince ... who is blessed with cluelessness regarding his stepmother's wicked strain.

Rounding off the top three characters that live in the fairytale land of Andalasia is Queen Narissa, played by Susan Sarandon. She pulls off the sexy villainess ... but I bet Michelle Pfeiffer would have played it more wickedly... starting with the eyes.

The New Yorker who has stopped believing in fairy tales and who plays good Samaritan to Giselle is Robert, played by Patrick Dempsey. It's funny, but at the same time questionable, how Robert tolerates the lost girl who might have escaped from a mental institution. Not everyone would still be helpful after discovering that the girl you saved from the mean streets:

• cuts your mats, tablecloths and curtains to make clothes
• insists she is a princess and must wait for her prince who is looking for her
• invites animals into your home - even the kind most people consider pests like rats and cockroaches
• endangers your relationship with your girlfriend by her mere presence in your apartment; and
• has the embarrassing habit of bursting into song

I had to chuckle when Robert says "I don't sing" ... because exposure to the other Disney hit "High School Musical 2" made me remember the scene where sports guy Chad says "I don't dance" to drama geek Ryan.

What really stuns me is that Amy Adams and James Marsden actually did their own singing in this movie. Carrie Underwood merely sings the pop-flavored song played at the end of the movie. Before watching the movie, I thought Carrie sung the songs sang by Amy Adams' character. By the way, the music isn't bad either... the songs were written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.