Hello everyone, Happy New year! I guess…. it’s not been that great so far…. It’s too cold here.
Not much to report other than if you haven’t seen yet, there are special Chapters of Never Alone from Satoru’s POV. Make sure to go check them out!
Now that the holidays are over, I hopefully will finally get back to working on DHC. It’s my focus for the future; Camp Disaster will put pushed back. I want to get Destiney Second Edition out this year. When, I can’t promise. But I can promise this:
-Hardback will have two bonus chapters.
-Paperback will have one bonus chapter.
Lots of sad/awful things have also hit my beta reader, so I’m going as I can. Once I have her notes, I should be able to move forward.
Pop Culture Corner:
I do believe a man can fly….
If nothing else, that Superman trailer has the right music. That was something that annoyed me the most with the Snyderverse was Superman and Batman not having their themes. When you are teaming them up, give them their proper themes. If it’s like The Dark Knight Trilogy (which I love its soundtracks) it’s fine to do something original. But this, oh, no, you need their proper themes. The teaser of the teaser (I hate those) I cried because I heard those special few notes. I could hear them after years of missing them. And when I heard in the full trailer, I fully broke down. That music! Truth, Justice, and the American way. It made my heart soar like it has not in ages to see a trailer for something. Save Mario and Garfield. Someone pointed out that the electric guitar with the theme is like the Justice League theme using an electric guitar. I don’t know if they did on purpose or not, but oh my gosh, that gave me so much hope.
I love the new actor (Justice though for Henry). He channeled Reeves so well, the Clark Kent we all know and love. My only thing is I am annoyed with is Green Lantern. Of all the GLs, we get GUY?! WHY!!!!! URGH! I want John, dang it. Oh well. Gunn said this was a Superman film, so I hope that the Justice Society (or League not sure which one they are going with but I’m not risking spoilers with this one) does not hog it too much. Everything looks good. I have a fair amount of hope for this movie.
And with that being said…
There is no other movie I really want to see this year save Superman and Jurassic World. I have no love for the How to train your Dragon live action. It is so unnecessary. There is a Looney Toons movie. I might definitely check that out, but beyond that. Nope. Most are unwanted/poorly cast/made live action adaptions or sequels. I will be doing more reviews of “Dollar Bin finds” and similar instead. I’m tired of Hollywood’s deafness when it comes to movies.
Review: The boy and the heron
I had some reward points to use up, so I rented The Boy and the Heron (Studio Ghibli, 2023) and watched it on New Year’s Eve. It was an emotional roller coaster. The English cast had Robert Pattinson as the Heron (the reason why I desperately wanted to watch it) along with Christen Bale doing another Studio Ghibli (He was the voice of Howl which came out in 2004 which is surreal…), along with William Defoe doing a voice as well. I kicked myself at the end. I have no idea how I didn’t recognize Defoe’s voice. I just watched reaction videos for the McGuire Spiderman movies.
I was engaged from the offset, easily able to guess that it was during World War 2. The story is an emotional story full of loss and trying to find stability and move on from that loss. It’s a deep story that is on the emotional chart right between Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke. It’s not like Grave of the fireflies where it wreaks you and you will never watch it again (I know the summary of that movie and I will never watch it, I just can’t) but it’s not like Howl’s Moving castle or Spirited away that you could watch on repeat. It’s a once-a-year type of rewatch.
My favorite thing about this film was Rob’s performance. I know his “Batman” voice, his “American” voice, and his normal British voice….and I could not hear any of it in his performance. I listened hard and not once did I go “yep that’s Rob’s voice”. He did a fantastic job and I really hope he does more voice acting (as The Batman 2 was delayed again, for the love of Gotham why).
It is a wonderful deep story I would expect from Miyazaki. I am glad that he can’t stay retired and keeps giving us these amazing animated films that are so much better than anything we are getting in Hollywood currently (yes, I said it, and that is that).
That is all for now. Post as soon as I have any new updates.
Lots of Love,
Dragonninjawriter
Kathleen L Shay 