Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) is a rabbit who wants to be a cop – the tradition domain of much larger animals with more aggressive natures. And she hates sneaky foxes – until she meets Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) a fox that is more than he appears. Or is he?
It’s a film that explores whether we can change our nature, or whether we should find ways to work within our nature. And I feel like I really should have liked this film. But I found it overly cheesey and annoying, and overall, just a bit crap. Apart from the sloth. He was brilliant.
Zootopia won the Oscar for Best Animated Film of Year.
Mormons are crazy. No, that’s not strictly true; I think most religion is pretty crazy in one way or another. If you read Under The Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer you can see some of the craziness that led to the formation of this religion. But essentially, it’s not that much crazier that most religions. One of the big issues that a lot of non-Mormons have with this religion is the whole polygamous marriage concept. Most branches of Mormonism do not approve of multiple marriages, but if we cannot laugh at the crazy man with many wives, what’s the point?
Big Love looks at several aspects of Mormon life in Utah. One is the main family; Bill Henrickson(Bill Paxton) has three wives, Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicolette (Chloe Sevigny) and Margene(Ginnifer Goodwin) and has children with them all. They live a quite mainstream existence – they have three separate houses with a communal backyard area. Most people don’t know about their complicated relationship, not even the neighbours. But Bill also has to deal with his family back on the compound. These are the types of Mormons regularly featured on Jerry Springer and the like. You know, wearing prairie dresses and often one man has, like, twenty wives (often sisters, often very young) and a million children and they live off welfare. On the compound there is ‘the prophet’, Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton) who is out to destroy Bill.
It’s a very interesting show, but I lost steam for it somewhere around the third season. There have been five seasons made, but for me I don’t really care what happens from here.
Another in the twist-on-a-fairytale genre, Once Upon a Time is set in two worlds; the current day reality of a town called Storybrooke in the US, and in the world of fairytales. The evil witch Regina has put a spell on the fairytale world that has caused the characters to lose their memory and they are now living a modern day existence. Along comes Emma, a bail bondswoman who is tracked down by Henry, the child she had and adopted ten years previously. Henry was adopted by Regina, who is one of only two from the fairytale land who know the truth. He has figured some of it out, and tried to convince Emma that she has to lift the curse.
It’s pretty convoluted story-wise, and at times, it feels that extra events have been pushed in just to get the full twenty-two episodes into the series. Each episode looks at a different fairy tale, and shows how the characters have ended up in Storybrooke.
This show is clearly aimed at a younger audience. There are some dark storylines, but in general, it is much lighter and less gruesome. I do find, however, that I don’t really believe the reactions of many of the characters throughout. Despite some of the lengthy unraveling of characters’ pasts, many still seem very two-dimensional and I think this takes a lot away from the show. But then there’s Robert Carlyle, who is so amazing. Even he is not enough to make this an awesome show, but it’s pretty good. Good enough for me to watch the first season and I’ve now started watching the second season.
ireckonthat 