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2012 (of the Yellow Age)
People incidents
Ian Abercrombie (Seinfeld, Army of Darkness, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) died in Hollywood, California, on January 26th, 2012 at age 77, from kidney failure.
February 7, 2012
FEBRUARY 7, 2012
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Laurie Main (Welcome to Pooh Corner) died on February 8th, 2012 in Los Angeles at the age of 89.
On February 11th, 2012, Whitney Houston (The Bodyguard) passed away at the age of 48, due to drowning and the “effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.”
The Lorax (March 2, 2012 – August 7, 2012)
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MPAA Rating: PG 9for brief mild language)
Critic Score: rotten54%.
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Consensus: Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is cute and funny enough but the moral simplicity of the book gets lost with the zany Hollywood production values.
Box office: $348.8 million
Plot
Ted Wiggins (Zac Efron) is an idealistic boy, who lives in “Thneedville”, a walled city that, aside from the human citizens, is completely artificial; everything is made of plastic, metal, or synthetics with no living plants. Ted has a crush on local environmentalist Audrey (Taylor Swift), who wants to see a “real tree” more than anything in the world, and decides to find one in order to impress her. His energetic Grammy Norma (Betty White) secretly tells Ted the legend of the Once-ler (Ed Helms), who will tell anyone about trees if you brought him fifteen cents, a nail, and a shell of a great-great-great grandfather snail. When Ted leaves Thneedville in search of the Once-ler, he discovers that the outside world is a contaminated, empty wasteland. Once the boy finds him, the Once-ler agrees to tell Ted about the trees on the condition that he listens to the story over multiple visits. Ted agrees, but on his way home, he encounters the mayor of Thneedville, Aloysius O’Hare (Rob Riggle), who is also the proprietor of a company that sells bottled oxygen to Thneedville residents. O’Hare explains to Ted that because trees produce oxygen free of charge, he considers it a threat to his business whenever he hears people talking about them. After revealing that he has “security camera eyes” all over the city, O’Hare pressures Ted to stay in town. However, Ted continues to sneak out of O’Hare’s sight (with his grandmother’s encouragement) and learns more of the trees’ history.
Over Ted’s various visits, the Once-ler recounts the story that when he was a young man, he departed his family to find good material for his Thneed invention and make a business. After stumbling upon a lush Truffula Tree forest, the Once-ler meets the guardian of the forest, the Lorax (Danny DeVito), after cutting down a Truffula Tree. The Lorax urges Once-ler to leave the forest, but Once-ler refuses. Eventually, the Once-ler promises not to chop another tree down, and the two seem to begin a friendship of sorts. Then, the young businessman’s Thneed invention becomes a major success and Once-ler’s family arrives to participate in the business. At first keeping his promise, the Once-ler continues Thneed production by harvesting the Truffula Tree tufts in a slow, but sustainable manner. However, his greedy and lazy relatives soon convince him to resume chopping down the trees. Over time, the Once-ler’s deforestation spirals into a mass overproduction. Flushed with wealth, the Once-ler rationalizes his short-sighted needs into arrogant self-righteousness, and the Lorax’s helpless protests do not stop him. The Once-ler pollutes the sky, river, and landscape, until the very last Truffula Tree falls. With no further chance of business, he is left broken and abandoned by his family, with his mother disowning him, and with the region uninhabitable because of his business’s pollution, the Lorax sends the animals off to find a new place to live before he departs into the sky, leaving only a stone-cut word: “Unless”. Distraught and ruined, the Once-ler became a recluse.
After he finishes telling his story, the Once-ler finally understands the meaning behind the Lorax’s last message, and gives Ted the last Truffula seed in hopes that he can plant it and make others care about real trees once more. Ted’s desire to impress Audrey also becomes a personal mission to remind his town of the importance of nature. O’Hare, still determined not to have trees undermine his business, takes heavy-handed steps such as covering Audrey’s nature paintings, closing off the door that Ted uses to see the Once-ler, and forcibly searching Ted’s room for the seed. Ted enlists his family and Audrey to help plant the seed, which has begun to germinate after water was accidentally spilled on it. O’Hare and his employees pursue the dissidents until they manage to elude him and reach the town center. When Ted finally attempts to plant the seed, he is interrupted by O’Hare, who rallies the population to stop them by telling the people that trees are dangerous and filthy. To convince them otherwise, Ted takes an earthmover and rams down a section of the city wall to reveal the environmental destruction outside, thereby showing them what O’Hare is encouraging. Horrified at the sight and inspired by Ted’s conviction, the crowd defies O’Hare, with his own henchmen expelling him from the town. The seed is finally planted, and Audrey kisses Ted on the cheek. Time passes and the land starts to recover; new trees sprout, the animals begin to return, and the redeemed Once-ler is happily reunited with the Lorax.
People incidents
Robert B. Sherman, of the Sherman Brothers, died in London on March 6th, 2012 from an age-related illness at the age of 86.
(April 2, 2012) – At last! Treat for Elmer Bernstein fans, Disney soundtrack fans and lovers of great film music in general! World premiere of Elmer Bernstein's actual soundtrack for Walt Disney Pictures animation fantasy, directed by Ted Berman, Richard Rich. Not to be confused with roughly half hour of re-recorded highlights done by composer in Utah, new Disney/Intrada release offers all 75 minutes of music in dynamic stereo from actual multi-track soundtrack scoring session masters, lovingly produced by Disney's Randy Thornton. Bernstein offers wall-to-wall music for ambitious tale of young hero battling evil Horned King with titular cauldron at heart of conflict. Massive score plays as part of composer's high profile eighties animation/fantasy/sci-fi canon that includes HEAVY METAL, SATURN 3, GHOSTBUSTERS, SLIPSTREAM, SPACEHUNTER. Numerous themes populate florid score, colorful orchestrations abound. Spotlight splits between animated ideas for characters, thundering action they encounter. CD packaging sports beautiful cover painting of cauldron, liner notes by Jeff Bond & producer Thornton plus gorgeous full color shots of theatrical poster, detailed animation scenes, composer Bernstein at scoring sessions. Exciting entry in Disney/Intrada on-going series of classic soundtracks restored from the Disney vaults. Elmer Bernstein conducts.
APRIL 2, 2012 – AT LAST! TREAT FOR ELMER BERNSTEIN FANS, DISNEY SOUNDTRACK FANS AND LOVERS OF GREAT FILM MUSIC IN GENERAL! WORLD PREMIERE OF ELMER BERNSTEIN’S ACTUAL SOUNDTRACK FOR WALT DISNEY PICTURES ANIMATION FANTASY, DIRECTED BY TED BERMAN, RICHARD RICH. NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH ROUGHLY HALF HOUR OF RE-RECORDED HIGHLIGHTS DONE BY COMPOSER IN UTAH, NEW DISNEY/INTRADA RELEASE OFFERS ALL 75 MINUTES OF MUSIC IN DYNAMIC STEREO FROM ACTUAL MULTI-TRACK SOUNDTRACK SCORING SESSION MASTERS, LOVINGLY PRODUCED BY DISNEY’S RANDY THORNTON. BERNSTEIN OFFERS WALL-TO-WALL MUSIC FOR AMBITIOUS TALE OF YOUNG HERO BATTLING EVIL HORNED KING WITH TITULAR CAULDRON AT HEART OF CONFLICT. MASSIVE SCORE PLAYS AS PART OF COMPOSER’S HIGH PROFILE EIGHTIES ANIMATION/FANTASY/SCI-FI CANON THAT INCLUDES HEAVY METAL, SATURN 3, GHOSTBUSTERS, SLIPSTREAM, SPACEHUNTER. NUMEROUS THEMES POPULATE FLORID SCORE, COLORFUL ORCHESTRATIONS ABOUND. SPOTLIGHT SPLITS BETWEEN ANIMATED IDEAS FOR CHARACTERS, THUNDERING ACTION THEY ENCOUNTER. CD PACKAGING SPORTS BEAUTIFUL COVER PAINTING OF CAULDRON, LINER NOTES BY JEFF BOND & PRODUCER THORNTON PLUS GORGEOUS FULL COLOR SHOTS OF THEATRICAL POSTER, DETAILED ANIMATION SCENES, COMPOSER BERNSTEIN AT SCORING SESSIONS. EXCITING ENTRY IN DISNEY/INTRADA ON-GOING SERIES OF CLASSIC SOUNDTRACKS RESTORED FROM THE DISNEY VAULTS. ELMER BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS.
Titanic 3D (April 4, 2012 – September 11, 2012)
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for disaster related peril and violence, nudity, sensuality and brief language)
Critic Score: cf-lg88% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 8/10
Consensus: A mostly unqualified truimph for James Cameron, who offers a dizzying blend of spectacular visuals and old-fashioned melodrama.
Box office: $2.187 billion
Plot
In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and his team aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh search the wreck of RMS Titanic for a necklace with a rare diamond, the Heart of the Ocean. They recover a safe containing a drawing of a young woman wearing only the necklace dated April 14, 1912, the day the ship struck the iceberg. Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stuart), the woman in the drawing, is brought aboard Keldysh and tells Lovett of her experiences aboard Titanic.
In 1912 Southampton, 17-year-old first-class passenger Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), her fiancé Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), and her mother Ruth (Frances Fisher) board the luxurious Titanic. Ruth emphasizes that Rose’s marriage will resolve their family’s financial problems. Distraught over the engagement, Rose considers suicide by jumping from the stern; Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a penniless artist, intervenes and discourages her. Discoved with Jack, Rose tells a concerned Cal that she was peering over the edge and Jack saved her from falling. When Cal becomes indifferent, she suggest to him that Jack deserves a reward. He invites Jack to dine with them in first class the following night. Jack and Rose develop a tentative friendship, despite Cal and Ruth being wary of him. Following dinner, Rose secretly joins Jack at a party in third class.
Aware of Cal and Ruth’s disapproval, Rose rebuffs Jack’s advances, but realizes she prefers him over Cal. After rendezvousing on the bow at sunset, Rose takes Jack to her state room; at her request, Jack sketches Rose posing nude wearing Cal’s engagement present, the Heart of the Ocean necklace. They evade Cal’s bodyguard (David Warner) and have sex in an automobile inside the cargo hold. On the forward deck, they witness a collision with an iceberg and overhear the officers and designer discussing its seriousness.
Cal discovers Jack’s sketch of Rose and an insulting note from her in his safe along with the necklace. When Jack and Rose attempt to inform Cal of the collision, he has his bodyguard slip the necklace into Jack’s pocket and accuses him of theft. Jack is arrested, taken to the master-at-arms’ office, and handcuffed to a pipe. Cal puts the necklace in his own coat pocket.
With the ship sinking, Rose flees Cal and her mother, who has boarded a lifeboat, and frees Jack. On the boat deck, Cal and Jack encourage her to board a lifeboat; Cal claims he can get himself and Jack off safety. After Rose boards one, Cal tells Jack the arrangement is only for himself. As her boat lowers, Rose decides that she cannot leave Jack and jumps back on board. Cal takes his bodyguard’s pistol and chases Rose and Jack into the flooding first-class dining saloon. After using up his ammunition, Cal realizes he gave his coat and consequently the necklace to Rose. He later boards a collapsible lifeboat by carrying a lost child.
After braving several obstacles, Jack and Rose return to the boat deck. The lifeboats have departed and passengers are falling to their deaths as the stern rises out of the water. The ship breaks in half, lifting the stern into the air. Jack and Rose ride it into the ocean and he helps her onto a wooden panel only buoyant enough for one person. He assures her that she will die an old woman, warm in her bed. He dies of hypothermia but she is saved.
With Rose hiding from Cal en route, the RMS Carpathia takes the survivors to New York City where Rose gives her name as Rose Dawson. She later finds out Cal committed suicide after losing all his money in the 1929 Wall Street crash.
Back in the present, Lovett decides to abandon his search after hearing Rose’s story. Alone on the stern of Keldysh, Rose takes out the Heart of the Ocean – in her possession all – and drops it into the sea over the wreck site. While she is seemingly asleep or has died in her bed, photos on her dresser depict a life of freedom and adventure inspired by the life she wanted to live with Jack. A young Rose reunites with Jack at the Titanic‘s Grand Staircase, applauded by those who died.
People incidents
On April 25th, 2012, Paul L. Smith (Popeye, Dune, Maverick) died in Ra’anana.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (April 27, 2012 – August 28, 2012)
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Awards: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominee
MPAA Rating: PG (for mild action, rude humor and some language)
Critic Score: cf-lg86% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Consensus: It may not quite scale Aardman’s customary delirious heights, but The Pirates! still represents some of the smartest, most skillfully animated fare that modern cinema has to offer.
Box office: $123.0 million
Plot
In 1837, the Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant), inexpert in the ways of pirates, leads a close-knit, rag-tag group of amateur pirates who are trying to make a name for themselves on the high seas. To prove himself and his crew, the Pirate Captain enters the Pirate of the Year competition, with the winner being whoever can plunder the most. After several failed attempts to plunder mundane ships, they come across the Beagle and capture its passenger Charles Darwin (David Tennant). Darwin recognises the crew’s pet Polly as the last living dodo, and recommends they enter it in the Scientist of the Year competition at the Royal Society of London for a valuable prize. Secretly, Darwin plans on stealing Polly himself with the help of his trained chimpanzee, Mr. Bobo, as to impress Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) whom he has a crush on; the Pirate with a Scarf (Martin Freeman) becomes suspicious of Darwin’s motive after one failed attempt to steal Polly.
The pirates disguise themselves as scientists to enter the competition, and the dodo display wins the top prize, which turns out to be minuscule trinkets and a meeting with the Queen. The Pirate Captain hides Polly before the meeting. There, the Queen requests that the Pirate Captain donate Polly for her petting zoo. The Pirate Captain refuses and accidentally reveals his true self, but Darwin steps in to spare the Captain’s life, secretly telling the Queen that only the Captain knows where Polly is kept. The Queen lets the Pirate Captain go and orders Darwin to find Polly by any means necessary. Darwin takes the Pirate Captain to a tavern and coaxes out of him that Polly is stashed in his beard. Darwin and Mr. Bobo are able to steal the bird, leading on a chase into the Tower of London where the Queen is waiting. She dismisses Darwin, and instead offers the Pirate Captain a large sum of money in exchange for Polly, which for the Pirate Captain would be enough to assure his win as Pirate of the Year. He accepts the offer and returns to his crew, assuring them Polly is still safe in his beard, though the Pirate with a Scarf is suspicious of his newfound wealth.
At the Pirate of the Year ceremony, the Pirate Captain wins the grand prize from the Pirate King (Brian Blessed), but rival pirate Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) makes the Queen’s pardon known to all. The Captain is stripped of the prize and his pirating license, and admits his loss of Polly to his crew, who abandon him. The Captain returns to London, intent on rescuing Polly. He reunites with Darwin, learning that the Queen is a member of an exclusive dining society of world leaders that feast on endangered creatures, and that Polly is likely on her flagship, the QV1 to be served at the next meal. The Pirate Captain and Darwin work together to steal an airship to travel to the QV1. Mr. Bobo, meanwhile, goes to find the rest of the Captain’s crew to enlist their help.
Aboard the QV1, the Queen locates the Pirate Captain and Darwin and attempts to kill both of them, but together they best her. In the battle, they accidentally mix the ship’s store of baking soda with vinegar, causing a violent reaction that rends the ship in two. The Pirate Captain rescues Polly and they escape safely, leaving behind a furious Queen. With his reputation among pirates restored because of the large bounty now on his head, the Pirate Captain is reinstated as a Pirate, and he and his crew continue to explore the high seas in search of adventure.
In a few post-credits scenes, they leave Darwin on the Galapagos Islands, Mr. Bobo joins the Pirate Captain’s crew, the Queen is left at the mercy of some of the rare animals she had planned on eating, Black Bellamy is forcefully stripped of his trophy by the Pirate King because of the Pirate Captain’s new infamy, and the crew present the Pirate Captain with their own homemade Pirate of the Year trophy.
People incidents
Digby Wolfe (Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In) died in Albuquerque, New Mexico on May 3rd, 2012, after a short battle with cancer.
George Lindsey (The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D., Hee Haw) died on May 6th, 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee following a brief unspecified illness. He was 83.
FILE - This Dec. 28, 1984 file photo shows actor George Lindsey posing for a photo outside of a Los Angeles restaurant. Lindsey, who portrayed Goober in the television series "The Andy Griffith Show", has died, Sunday, May 6, 2012. He was 83. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, file)
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (June 8, 2012 – October 16, 2012)
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MPAA Rating: PG (for some mild action and rude humor)
Critic Score: cf-lg79% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Consensus: Dazzlingly colorful and frenetic, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is silly enough for young kids, but boasts enough surprising smarts to engage parents along the way.
Box office: $746.9 million
Plot
Many days after bidding the penguins goodbye, Alex (Ben Stiller) suggests to his friends and the lemurs that they should go to Monte Carlo to get the penguins and the chimpanzees and fly back to New York City, which they agree to do.
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In Monte Carlo, the penguins and chimpanzees have been saving up their daily winnings from the casino to fly back to Africa and bring their friends home. Animal control led by Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand) chases them around the city, with Alex and his gang barely escaping, DuBois vowing to capture Alex and add him to her collection of animals she’s captured.
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In the skies of France, the plane crashes as the authorities close in. They come across a circus train consisting of Stefano (Martin Short), Gia (Jessica Chastain), and Vitaly (Bryan Cranston), and manage to gain entry, claiming that they are circus animals themselves. The animals soon learn from Stefano that they are performing in Rome and London, where they plan to impress a promoter to get them on their first American tour. Before the zoo animals’ claim is discredited, the penguins suddenly appear with a deal to purchase the circus themselves; however, the circus animals’ show in Rome proves to be a failure.
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In route to London, Stefano soon reveals to Alex that Vitaly was the biggest star of them all, but quit due to an accident in one of his stunts; therefore, the friends losing faith in the circus. At a stop in the Alps, Alex convinces the circus to continue pursuing the circus, in the process they grow closer.
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Meanwhile, Dubois is arrested in Rome after causing problems with the local police officers while chasing the animals, but escapes and discovers that Alex was the missing lion from the zoo in New York. Once free, Dubois recruits her injured men and they head toward the Alps, forcing the animals to proceed to London despite incomplete rehearsals. Alex finds Vitaly preparing to leave and convinces him to stay by reminding him of how he enjoys performing the impossible. He suggests that he uses hair conditioner as a safer lubricant to perform his flaming ring jump as well as fix his damaged fur. As a result, Vitaly’s stunt is performed perfectly and the show is a spectacular success. After the impressed promoter arranges for an American tour, Dubois shows up with a paper showing that Alex was missing. Though the penguins are able to foil Dubois’ plan, Alex is forced to confess that the four of them are just zoo animals trying to get home, disappointing the others who feel used and lied to by the four of them.
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The zoo animals and circus go their separate ways, but arrive in New York City at the same time. Realizing how much their adventures have changed them, the zoo animals find that their true home was with the circus. Before they can go back, however, Dubois tranquilizes and captures them, before being discovered by the zoo staff, who believe she is responsible for returning the missing animals. Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) and the penguins manage to get to the circus and convince the circus animals to rescue their friends.
Back at the zoo, Alex awakens to find that he alone with his friends are trapped in larger fence enclosures. DuBois who was honored by the zoo guards secretly loads a poison-filled dart into a gun that she hides inside a foam finger in preparation for publicly executing Alex. The circus animals arrived led by Skipper (Tom McGrath) and are able to defeat DuBois and her henchmen, Alex and his friends decide to permanently join the circus to pursue their adventures. Meanwhile, DuBois and her henchmen are in boxes bound for Madagascar just like Alex and his friends in the first film.
Brave (June 22, 2012 – November 13, 2012)
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Awards: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Winner
MPAA Rating: PG (for some scary action and rude humor)
Critic Score: cf-lg78% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Consensus: Brave offers young audiences and fairy tale fans a rousing, funny fantasy adventure with a distaff twist and surprising depth.
Box office: $540.4 million
Plot
In Medieval Scotland, Merida (Peigi Barker), a young princess of the clan Dunbroch, is given a bow and arrows by her father, King Fergus (Billy Connolly), for her birthday. Her mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), is dismayed. While venturing into the woods to fetch a stray arrow, Merida encounters a will-o’-the-wisp. Soon afterwards, Mor’du, a huge demon-bear, attacks the family. Merida flees on horseback with Elinor, while Fergus fights off Mor’du at the cost of his left leg.
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Later as a free-spirited young woman, Merida (Kelly Macdonald) discovers that she is to be betrothed to the son of one of her father’s allies, much to her dismay. Reminding Merida of a legend of a prince whose pride and refusal to follow his father’s wishes destroyed his kingdom, Elinor warns her that failure to consent to the betrothal could harm Dunbroch.
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The allied clan chieftains arrive with their first-born sons to compete in the Highland games for Merida’s hand in marriage. Merida twists the rules, announcing that she is eligible to compete for her own hand as the first-born of Clan Dunbroch. She defeats each of her suitors in an archery contest, shaming the other clans and leading to an argument with Elinor. When Merida leaves, she follows the wisps to the hut of an elderly witch. Merida bargains with the witch (Julie Walters), and receives an enchanted cake that will change her fate.
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When Merida gives the cake to Elinor, it causes Elinor to transform into a black bear. Merida returns to the witch’s cottage with Elinor, who still retains most of her human personality. The witch has abandoned the cottage but left a message: unless Merida is able to “mend the bond torn by pride” before the second sunrise, the spell will become permanent. Merida and Elinor are led by the wisps to ancient ruins, where they encounter Mor’du. Merida discovers that he was the prince in the legend, transformed by a similar spell. Merida vows to her mother that she will not let her become a wild animal like Mor’du. She believes that she can reverse the spell by repairing a tapestry she damaged during their argument.
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The clans are on the verge of war. Having learned the importance of responsibility from her experience with her mother, Merida intends to declare herself ready to choose a suitor as tradition demands. However, with silent encouragement from Elinor, she instead insists that the first-born should be allowed to marry in their own time to whomever they choose. The clans agree, breaking tradition but renewing and strengthening their alliance. Merida sneaks into the tapestry room with Elinor. Elinor, who is losing her humanity, attacks Fergus, but suddenly regains her composure and flees the castle. Mistaking the queen for Mor’du, Fergus pursues the bear with the other clans. With the help of her younger triplet brothers, who have been transformed by the enchanted cake into bear cubs, Merida repairs the torn tapestry while riding after her father. The clans and Fergus capture Elinor, but Merida intervenes before Mor’du attacks. Mor’du scatters the clan warriors and targets Merida. Elinor intercedes, using her bear strength to hold off Mor’du until he is crushed by a falling menhir. This releases the spirit of the prince, who silently thanks Merida for freeing him. As the sun rises for the second time, Merida realizes the mistakes she has made and reconciles with Elinor, causing the queen and the triplets to turn back into humans.
Later, Merida and Elinor work together on a new tapestry when they are called to the docks to bid farewell to the other clans.
July 3, 2012
JULY 3, 2012
July 3, 2012 (10th anniversary)
JULY 3, 2012 (10TH ANNIVERSARY)
People incidents
Ernest Borgnine (Marty, McHale’s Navy, From Here to Eternity, SpongeBob SquarePants) died of kidney failure on July 8th, 2012 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He was 95 years old.
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Joey Travolta’s Film Camp: San Francisco (2012)
At July 1st, 2012, I departed 3705 NW Columbia Avenue and headed down Interstate 5 down south to Walnut Creek in northern California with my friend Roscoe. Roscoe and I stayed at the Renaissance Club Sport Hotel with his wife Hester. I brought a few DVDs (Titanic (in honor of the blockbuster’s 15th anniversary and the centennial of the sinking) and two of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ least commercially successful films (Home on the Range and Treasure Planet (in honor of its 10th anniversary)).
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I went to St. Mary’s College for Joey Travolta’s Short Film Camp (10:00 AM – 3:30 PM). At film camp, I danced to start camp, I played the judge at the filming of Tree Trial, and I watched Hugo. I took the train to San Francisco. At San Francisco, I went to Pier 39, Alcatraz Island, Disney Store (where I collect some stuff from Brave (Pixar Animation Studios’ first fairy tale film about a Scottish princess) (Merida in her hood form and Harris, Hubert, and Hamish) and Rapunzel in her wedding dress in Tangled Ever After), the Ferrari store, and the Walt Disney Family Museum. Roscoe, Hester, and I went to San Jose to go to Raging Waters. At Raging Waters, I went on Bombs Away, Dragon’s Den, Pirate’s Cove, the Wave Pool, the Lazy River, Blue Thunder, and Shotgun Falls. I went to Berkeley and visited University of California, the bookstore, Rasputin’s Music and Videos, the Brazil cafe for dinner, and the toy store. I went downtown Walnut Creek and went to Barnes & Noble and I went to the movie theater and see Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted and Brave.
The trip ends at July 13th (the day of the release of Ice Age: Continental Drift).
People incidents
Ginny Tyler (Davey and Goliath, Fantastic Four, Space Ghost) died on July 13th, 2012, aged 86 at a Washington nursing home.
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Ice Age: Continental Drift (July 13, 2012 – December 11, 2012)
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MPAA Rating: PG (for mild rude humor and action/peril)
Critic Score: rotten37%.
Average Rating: 5.1/10
Consensus: Ice Age: Continental Drift 3D has moments of charm and witty slapstick, but it often seems content to recycle ideas from the previous films.
Box office: $877.2 million
Plot
While Scrat (Chris Wedge) inadvertently causes the break up of Pangaea, Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are forced to deal with the trials and tribulations of their teenage daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer), who has trouble fitting in with her peers. Ellie tries to support her daughter, but Manny becomes exceedingly over-protective. Meanwhile, Sid‘s (John Leguizamo) family returns, but only long enough to drop off the elderly Granny (Wanda Sykes) before abandoning them both. Shortly after, a continental break-up separates Manny from the herd. Trapped on a moving chunk of ice with Sid, Granny, and Diego (Denis Leary), Manny has no choice but to ride out the current. Meanwhile, a giant land shift encroaches on Ellie, Peaches, and those remaining on land, causing them to make their way toward the land bridge.
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Meanwhile, Scrat, in a subplot, finds an acorn that has a treasure map on it that directs him towards an island. After violent weather pushes them further away from land, Manny’s group is captured by a band of pirates sailing on a floating iceberg led by a Gigantopithecus, Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage), who attempts to press them into his crew. When they refuse, Gutt tries to execute them, leading to their escape, which inadvertently cause the ship and food supplies to sink. Gutt’s first mate, a female sabretooth named Shira (Jennifer Lopez), joins them after she is left for dead.
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The herd washes ashore on Switchback Cove, which gives a current back to their home. Manny coordinates a plan using a group of hyrax to steal a new iceberg ship that Gutt is planning to use, and they are able to escape using the ship, Shira staying with Gutt. Gutt forms another ship and plans to seek revenge on Manny.
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After narrowly escaping a pack of sirens, Manny, Sid, Diego, and Granny return home only to find the land bridge destroyed and that Gutt has beaten them and taken Ellie, Peaches, and the rest of the herd hostage. A fight issues, as Granny’s pet whale Precious arrives and fends off Gutt’s crew. Manny defeats Gutt in a final duel on an ice floe and reunites with his family and friends. Gutt subsequently encounters a siren that assumes the shape of a female Gigantopithecus, and is eaten alive. With their home destroyed, Precious takes the entire crew, including Shira to a lush island.
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In the film’s epilogue, Scrat discovers the island on the map, known as Scratlantis (a parody of Atlantis), but his uncontrollable urge to hunt acorns in the acorn-rich city inadvertently causes the entire island to sink when he unplugs an acorn drain holder; Scrat is then ejected into the newly created desert now known as Death Valley, California.
People incidents
Norman Alden (Back to the Future, Ed Wood, Tora! Tora! Tora!) died at the age of 87 on July 27th, 2012 from natural causes in Los Angeles.
Geoffrey Hughes (Coronation Street, Yellow Submarine, Keeping Up Appearances) died from the illness on July 27th, 2012.
ParaNorman (August 17, 2012 – November 27, 2012)
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Awards: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominee
MPAA Rating: PG (for scary action and images, thematic elements, some rude humor and language)
Critic Score: cf-lg87% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Consensus: Beautifully animated and solidly scripted, ParaNorman will entertain (and frighten) older children while providing surprisingly thoughtful fare for their parents.
Box office: $107.1 million
Plot
In the small town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts, Norman Babcock (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is an 11-year-old boy who speaks with the dead, including his late grandmother (Elaine Stritch) and various ghosts in town. Almost no one believes him and he is isolated emotionally from his family while being ridiculed by his peers. His friend, Neil Downe (Tucker Albrizzi), is an overweight boy who is bullied himself and finds in Norman a kindred spirit. During rehearsal of a school play commemorating the town’s execution of a witch three centuries ago, Norman has a vision of the town’s past in which he is pursued through the woods by townsfolk on a witch hunt. Afterward, the boys are confronted by Norman’s estranged and seemingly deranged uncle Mr. Prenderghast (John Goodman) who tells his nephew that he soon must take up his regular ritual to protect the town. Soon after this encounter, Prenderghast dies from a sudden stroke. During the official performance of the school play Norman has another vision, creating a public spectacle of himself which leads to his father (Jeff Garlin) grounding him. His mother (Leslie Mann) tells him that his father’s stern manner is because he is afraid for him. The next day, Norman sees Prenderghast’s spirit who tells him that the ritual must be performed with a certain book before sundown that day; then making him swear to complete the task, Prenderghast’s spirit is set free and crosses over. Norman is at first reluctant to go because he is scared but his grandmother tells him it is all right to be scared as long as he does not let it change who he is. Norman sets off to retrieve the book from Prenderghast’s house (having to take it from his corpse).
He then goes to the graves of the five men and two women who were cursed by the witch, but finds that the book is merely a series of fairy tales. Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a school bully, arrives and prevents Norman from reading the story before sundown. Norman attempts to continue reading from the book, to no effect. A ghostly storm resembling the witch appears in the air, summoning the cursed dead to arise as zombies, who chase the boys along with Norman’s 17-year-old sister, Courtney (Anna Kendrick) and Neil’s older brother, Mitch (Casey Affleck) down the hill and into town. Having realized that the witch was not buried in the graveyard, Norman contacts classmate Salma (who tells them to access the Town Hall’s archives for the location of the witch’s unmarked grave) for help. As the kids make their way to the Town Hall, the zombies are attacked by the citizenry. During the riot, Norman and his companions break into the archives but cannot find the information they need. As the mob moves to attack Town Hall, the witch storm appears over the crowd. Norman climbs the Hall’s tower to read the book, in a last-ditch effort to finish the ritual, but the witch strikes the book with lightning, hurling Norman from the tower and deep into the archives.
Unconscious, Norman has a dream where he learns that the witch was Agatha Prenderghast (Jodelle Ferland), a little girl of his age who was also a medium. Norman realizes that Agatha was wrongfully convicted by the town council when they mistook her powers for witchcraft. After awakening, Norman encounters the zombies and recognizes them as the town council who convicted Agatha. The zombies admit that they only wanted to speak with him to ensure that he would take up the ritual, to minimize the damage of the mistake they made so long ago. Norman attempts to help the zombies slip away so they can guide him to Agatha’s grave, but is cornered by the mob. Courtney and the kids confronts the crowd and convinces them to back off, arguing that their rage, fear, and misunderstanding make them no different than the cursed townsfolk from long ago. Judge Hopkins (Bernard Hill) guides Norman’s family to the grave in a forest. Before the grave is reached, Agatha’s magical powers separate Norman from the others. Norman finds the grave and interacts with Agatha who has become a vengeful spirit/poltergeist in the spirit dimension, determined to stop the cataclysmic tantrum she has been having over the years. She asks him to leave her be, but Norman holds his ground, telling her he understands how she feels as an outcast. Norman endures her assault and eventually convinces her that her vengeance is accomplishing nothing and persuades her to stop. Norman tells her that there must have been someone who was kind to her.
Agatha recalls happy memories with her mother. At last, having finally encountered someone who understands her plight, she is able to find a measure of peace and cross over to the afterlife. The storm dissipates, and she and the zombies all fade away. The town cleans up and regards Norman as a hero. In the end, Norman watches a horror film with the ghost of his grandmother and his family, who have grown to accept Norman for who he is.
People incidents
On the morning of August 20th, 2012, Phyllis Diller (The Pruitts of Southampton) died in her Brentwood, Los Angeles, California home of natural causes at age 95.
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August 21, 2012 (35th anniversary)
AUGUST 21, 2012 (35TH ANNIVERSARY)
August 21, 2012
AUGUST 21, 2012
August 21, 2012
AUGUST 21, 2012
August 21, 2012
AUGUST 21, 2012
On August 23rd, 2012, Jerry Nelson (The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock) died at his Cape Cod home from complications of his illness, a month after his 78th birthday.
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Sun River
At August 26th, 2012 after my father, age 51, returns from the Olympics at England, I departed from 3705 NW Columbia Avenue and head on to Deschutes County with my family and my pet dogs, Q and Zero. I brought a few DVDs (The Lorax, The Rescuers Down Under, Pocahontas, The AristoCats, and The Rescuers (in honor of its 35th anniversary)). I will have my new books from the new Disney Fairies’ film, Secret of the Wings. The new water park is called Sun River Homeowners Aquatic Center. I went bike riding, went to the Fort Rock Park with Q and Zero, and go see ParaNorman.
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The trip is ended at September 1st.
People incidents
On September 3rd, 2012, Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile, Armageddon, Daredevil) died after suffering a heart attack in Los Angeles.
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Lance LeGault (The A-Team, Magnum, P.I.) died on Monday, September 10th, 2012 at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 77.
Finding Nemo 3D (September 14, 2012 – December 4, 2012)
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Awards: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Winner
MPAA Rating: G
Critic Score: cf-lg99% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 8.7/10
Consensus: Breathtakingly lovely and grounded by the stellar efforts of a well-chosen cast, Finding Nemo adds another beautifully crafted gem to Pixar’s crown.
Box office: $940.3 million
Plot
Two ocellaris clownfish, Marlin (Albert Brooks) and his wife Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), admire their new home in the Great Barrier Reef and their clutch of eggs when a barracuda attacks, knocking Marlin unconscious. He wakes up to find that Coral and all but one of the eggs have disappeared. Marlin names this last egg Nemo (Alexander Gould), a name that Coral liked.
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Nemo develops a smaller right fin as a result of damage to his egg during the attack, which limits his swimming ability. Worried about Nemo’s safety, Marlin embarrasses Nemo during a school field trip. Nemo sneaks away from the reef and is captured by scuba divers. As the boat departs, a diver accidentally knocks his diving mask overboard. While attempting to save Nemo, Marlin meets Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a good-hearted and optimistic regal blue tang with short-term memory loss. Marlin and Dory meet three sharks – Bruce (Barry Humphries), Anchor (Eric Bana) and Chum (Bruce Spence) – who claim to be vegetarians. Marlin discovers the diver’s mask and notices an address written on it. When he argues with Dory and accidentally gives her a nosebleed, the blood scent causes Bruce to enter an uncontrollable feeding frenzy. The pair escape from Bruce but the mask falls into a trench in the deep sea.
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During a hazardous struggle with an anglerfish in the trench, Dory sees the diving mask and reads the address located in Sydney, Australia. The pair swims on, receiving directions to Sydney from a school of moonfish (John Ratzenberger). Marlin and Dory encounter a bloom of jellyfish that nearly kills them. Marlin loses consciousness and wakes up on a sea turtle named Crush (Andrew Stanton), who takes Marlin and Dory on the East Australian Current. Marlin tells the details of his long journey with a group of sea turtles, and his story is spread across the ocean. He also sees how Crush gets on well with his son Squirt (Nicholas Bird).
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Meanwhile, Nemo is placed in a fish tank in the office of a dentist named Phillip Sherman (Bill Hunter) on Sydney Harbour. He meets aquarium fish called the Tank Gang, led by a moorish idol named Gill (Willem Dafoe), who has a broken fin. The fish learn that Nemo is to be given to Sherman’s niece, Darla (LuLu Ebeling), who killed a fish by constantly shaking its bag. Gill then reveals his plan to escape, jamming the tank’s filter, forcing the dentist to remove the fish to clean it. The fish would be placed in plastic bags, and then they would roll out the window and into the harbor. After an attempt at the escape goes wrong, a brown pelican, Nigel (Geoffrey Rush), brings news of Marlin’s adventure. Inspired by his father’s determination, Nemo successfully jams the filter, but the dentist installs a new high-tech filter before they can escape.
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After leaving the East Australian Current, Marlin and Dory are engulfed by a blue whale. Inside the whale’s mouth, Dory communicates with the whale, which carries them to Port Jackson and expels them through his blowhole. They meet Nigel, who recognizes Marlin from the stories he has heard, and he takes them to Sherman’s office. Darla has just arrived and the dentist is handing Nemo to her. Nemo plays dead to save himself as Nigel arrives. Marlin sees Nemo and believes he is dead before Nigel is thrown out. In despair, Marlin leaves Dory and begins to swim home. Gill then helps Nemo escape into a drain that leads to the ocean. Dory loses her memory and becomes confused, and meets Nemo, who reached the ocean. Eventually, Dory’s memory returns after she reads the word “Sydney” on a drainpipe. She directs Nemo to Marlin and they reunite, but then Dory is caught in a fishing net with a school of grouper. Nemo enters the net and orders the group to swim downward to break the net, enabling them to escape. After returning home, Nemo leaves for school, with Crush’s son Squirt, and Marlin, no longer overprotective, proudly watches Nemo swim away with Dory at his side.
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At the dentist’s office, the high-tech filter breaks down and the Tank Gang escapes into the harbor, belatedly realizing they are still confined in plastic bags.
People incidents
On September 25th, 2012, Andy Williams died of bladder cancer at the age of 84 at his home in Branson, Missouri.
Hotel Transylvania (September 28, 2012 – January 29, 2013)
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MPAA Rating: PG (for some rude humor, action and scary images)
Critic Score: rotten45%.
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Consensus: Hotel Transylvania‘s buoyant, giddy tone may please children, but it might be a little too loud and thinly-scripted for older audiences.
Box office: $358.4 million
Plot
In the aftermath of the death of Dracula’s wife Martha (Jackie Sandler) at the hands of an angry human mob, Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) designs and builds a massive five-star hotel in Transylvania in which he raises his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and to serve as a safe-place getaway for the world’s monsters from fear of human persecution.
Famous monsters such as Frank (Kevin James) and his wife Eunice (Fran Drescher), Wayne and Wanda Werewolf (Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon) and their massive immediate family, Griffin the Invisible Man (David Spade), and Murray the Mummy (CeeLo Green) often come to stay at the hotel which is completely human-free and safe for monsters.
On Mavis’s 118th birthday, Dracula allows his daughter to leave the castle in order to explore the human world, but he sets up an elaborate plan using his zombie bellhops disguised as humans to make them seem intimidating and frighten her home. The plan works, but the zombies inadvertently lure a 21-year-old[11] human named Jonathan (Andy Samberg) to the hotel. Dracula frantically disguises him as a Frankenstein’s Monster and passes him off as “Johnnystein”, a distant cousin of Frank’s right arm. Jonathan soon encounters Mavis and the two “Zing” (a form of magical attraction). Unable to get Johnny out of the hotel without notice, Drac quickly improvises that Jonathan is a party planner, brought in to bring a fresher approach to his own traditional and boring parties. Jonathan quickly becomes a hit to the other monsters, especially Mavis but this disgusts Dracula greatly. Drac orders Johnny to leave, but Johnny is brought back by Mavis. After being shown the beauty of a sunrise by Johnny, Mavis is inspired to give humans another chance. Meanwhile, the hotel chef Quasimodo (Jon Lovitz) with the help of his pet rat Esmeralda learns that Johnny is a human and kidnaps him in order to cook him. Dracula intervenes and magically freezes Quasimodo to keep him from telling anyone that Jonathan is human. Dracula leads Jonathan to his quarters and shows him a painting of his wife. Much to Dracula’s surprise, Jonathan knows the woman in the painting and relates a story about how she fell perfectly in love with a count, but died in a mysterious fire. Dracula reveals the full painting with himself in it and confirms the truth of the tale, and proceeds to tell the full version, thus explaining why Dracula built the hotel and the origin of his overprotective behaviour. Jonathan is understanding and Dracula develops respect for his knowledge, and the two bond. Jonathan then tries to leave for good, but Dracula convinces him to stay to avoid ruining Mavis’s birthday.
The party is a great success the next night, and Mavis looks forward to opening a gift from her deceased mother. However, when Jonathan and Mavis share their first kiss, Dracula overreacts and in his outburst confesses to deceiving Mavis with the town. A still-frozen Quasimodo bursts in and the Fly (Chris Parnell) translates from his frozen speech that Johnny is a human disguised by Dracula. The guests are outraged by the deceit at play, but Mavis is undeterred and wants to be with Johnny even knowing he is human. Jonathan feigns disinterest in Mavis and rejects her out of respect for her father and leaves the hotel. Mavis then angrily yells at Dracula and flies off. Dracula finds Mavis on the roof with her mother’s present. He learns it is a book about how her mother and Dracula “Zinged” and fell in love. Dracula realizes that Mavis and Jonathan are the same, and he should not have interfered.
The monster guests are furious and checking out en masse, but Dracula apologizes and quells their anger. After confessing that he isn’t certain if human kind has become tolerant of monsters, Dracula manages to convince Frank, Wayne, Griffin, and Murray to head out into the human world help him find Jonathan, and with the scent-tracking ability of Wayne’s daughter Winnie they learn that he is bound on a flight to America soon. The four head to the airport, but are held up in a town celebrating a Monster Festival along the way. Instead of being frightened by the appearance and powers of real monsters, the humans admire the group, and a team of men dressed as vampires help Dracula by providing him shelter from the sunlight while he rushes to the Airport. Drac arrives to see Jonathan’s plane taking off, and he gives chase in bat form, burning in the sunlight. After getting Jonathan’s attention, Dracula makes his way to the front of the plane and uses his mind-controlling power on the pilot (Brian Stack) to help him apologize for his actions. Jonathan accepts his apology; Dracula then manipulates the pilot to return to the Transylvanian airport for a “refuel”.
Dracula returns Jonathan to Mavis. Jonathan confesses that their Zing was mutual and the two kiss, making Dracula realize his daughter has grown up and can make her own decisions. The monsters finish celebrating Mavis’s party as Dracula, Mavis, Jonathan and their monster friends sing “The Zing” to the audience of hotel guests.
October 2, 2012
OCTOBER 2, 2012
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Frankenweenie (October 5, 2012 – January 8, 2013)
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Awards: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominee
Critic Score: cf-lg87% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Consensus: Frankenweenie is an energetic stop-motion horror movie spoof with lovingly crafted visuals and a heartfelt, oddball story.
Box office: 81.5 million
Plot
Young filmmaker and scientist Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) lives with his parents, Edward (Martin Short) and Susan Frankenstein (Catherine O’Hara), and his beloved dog, Sparky, in the quiet town of New Holland. Victor’s intelligence is recognized by his classmates at school, his somber next-door neighbor, Elsa Van Helsing (Winona Ryder), mischievous, Igor-like Edgar “E” Gore (Atticus Shaffer), obese and gullible Bob (Robert Capron), overconfident Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao), creepy Nassor (Martin Short), and an eccentric girl nicknamed Weird Girl (Catherine O’Hara), but communicates little with them due to his relationship with his dog. Concerned with his son’s isolation, Victor’s father encourages him to take up baseball and make achievements outside of science. Victor hits a home run at his first game, but Sparky, pursuing the ball, is struck by a car and killed.
Inspired by his science teacher Mr. Rzykruski‘s (Martin Landau) demonstration of the effect of electricity on dead frogs, a depressed Victor digs up Sparky’s corpse, brings him to his makeshift laboratory in the attic and successfully reanimates him with lightning. Seeing Weird Girl’s living cat, Mr. Whiskers, the undead Sparky escapes from the attic and explores the neighborhood. He is recognized by Edgar, who blackmails Victor into teaching him how to raise the dead. The two reanimate a dead goldfish, which turns invisible due to an error with the experiment. Edgar brags about the undead fish to Toshiaki and Bob, which, in panic of losing the upcoming science fair, inspires them to make a rocket out of soda bottles, which causes Bob to break his arm and Mr. Rzykruski to be blamed and fired due to his accused influencing and reviling the townsfolk for questioning his methods when he steps up for self-defense. So, the gym teacher replaces Mr. Rzykruski.
Eventually, Edgar’s fish disappears when he tries to show it to a skeptical Nassor (who was told by Toshiaki), and when Edgar is confronted by Toshiaki, Nassor and Bob on the baseball field at school, he accidentally reveals Victor’s actions, inspiring them to try reanimation themselves. Victor’s parents discover Sparky in the attic and are frightened, causing the dog to flee. Victor and his parents search for Sparky while the classmates invade the lab, discovering Victor’s reanimation formula. The classmates separately perform their experiments, which go awry and turn the dead animals into monsters — Mr. Whiskers holds a dead bat while it is electrocuted, resulting in him fusing with it and becoming a monstrous bat-cat with wings and fangs. Edgar turns a dead rat he found in the garbage into a wererat, Nassor revives his mummified hamster Colossus and Toshiaki’s turtle Shelley is covered in Miracle Gro and turns into a giant Gamera-like monster. Bob’s Sea-Monkeys grow into amphibious humanoids. The monsters break loose into the town fair where they wreak havoc.
After finding Sparky at the town’s pet cemetery, Victor sees the monsters heading to the fair and goes with his classmates to help deal with them — the Sea-Monkeys explode after eating salt-covered popcorn, and Colossus is stepped on by Shelley, while the rat and Shelley are returned to their original, deceased forms after both being electrocuted. During the chaos, Persephone, Elsa’s pet poodle, is grabbed by Mr. Whiskers and carried to the town windmill with Elsa and Victor chasing after. The townsfolk blame Sparky for Elsa’s disappearance and chase him to the windmill, which Mayor Burgermeister accidentally ignites with his torch. Victor and Sparky enter the burning windmill and rescue Elsa and Persephone, but Victor is trapped inside. Sparky rescues Victor, only to be dragged back inside by Mr. Whiskers. A final confrontation ensues, and just as Mr. Whiskers has Sparky cornered, a flaming piece of wood breaks off and impales the bat-cat, killing him instantly. The windmill then collapses on Sparky, killing him again. To reward him for his bravery and saving Victor, the townsfolk gather to revive Sparky with their car batteries, reanimating him once more. Persephone, who has a hairstyle similar to Elsa Lanchester’s Bride of Frankenstein, comes to Sparky as the two dogs share their love and kiss.
People incidents
Ken Sansom (Winnie the Pooh, Transformers, The Chipmunk Adventure) died on October 8th, 2012 due to complications of a stroke at the age of 85.
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October 9, 2012
OCTOBER 9, 2012
John Clive (A Clockwork Orange, The Italian Job, Yellow Submarine) died after a short illness on October 14th, 2012 in England.
October 16, 2012 (35th anniversary)
OCTOBER 16, 2012 (35TH ANNIVERSARY)
Russell Means (Pocahontas, The Last of the Mohicans) died on October 22nd, 2012, less than a month before his 73rd birthday, due to esophageal cancer.
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Wreck-It Ralph & The Pixie Olympics Arcade (November 2, 2012 – March 5, 2013)
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Awards: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominee
MPAA Rating: PG (for some rude humor and mild action/violence)
Critic Score: cf-lg87% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Consensus: Equally entertaining for both kids and parents old enough to catch the references, Wreck-It Ralph w/ The Pixie Olympics Arcade is a clever, colorful adventure built on familiar themes and joyful nostalgia.
Grade: B-
Box office: $471.2 million
Plot
When Litwak’s Family Fun Center & Arcade closes at night, the various video-game characters leave their normal in-game roles and are free to travel to other games. Within the game Fix-It Felix, Jr., the characters celebrate its titular hero Fix-It Felix, Jr. (Jack McBrayer) but loathe the game’s villain character, Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly). At a support group for video-game antagonists, Ralph reveals his desire to stop being the bad guy. Rosetta (Megan Hilty) is busy helping to set up flowers for the big night, when she meets a new garden fairy named Chloe (Brenda Song), who drops a lump of dirt in front of her, accidentally getting her dirty and, because she’s ironically afraid of dirt, causing her to freak out until Silvermist (Lucy Liu) douses her with a water droplet. Chloe announces she has been training for the Pixie Hollow Games and is excited to be competing. Even though the garden fairies have little hope of winning and haven’t ever won, Chloe is confident that she and her partner can turn things around and end the losing streak. When it comes time for the team selection with Fern (Zendaya), Chloe has already volunteered and Rosetta is selected to be her partner.
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Back home, Ralph finds the other characters celebrating their game’s 30th anniversary without inviting him. Felix reluctantly invites Ralph to join them, but the others isolate him. Gene (Raymond S. Persi), the Niceland’s mayor tell him that if he won a medal, just as Felix does in their game, they would respect him. The night of the games, Rosetta wears a fancy, formal, pale-red gown, certain that she and Chloe will be eliminated after one round. The storm fairies, Rumble (Jason Dolley) and Glimmer (Tiffany Thornton), are the heavy favorites to win the competition. They have won the last four years in-a-row, winning four winners’ rings each and wanting to get a final ring. The first event is leapfrogging. Similar to chariot racng, the teams ride on frogs, yoked together by an harness. Then the competitors leapfrog over one another to the finish line. Rosetta refuses to get onto the frog, but finally does when the spectators yell in protest, leading to total chaos on the racetrack.
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At Tapper’s root beer game, Ralph learns he can win a medal in the first-person shooter game Hero’s Duty. Ralph enters the game and encounters Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch), its leader. Between game sessions, Ralph climbs the game’s central beacon and collects the medal, accidentally hatching a Cy-Bug, one of the game’s enemies. It clings to Ralph as he stumbles into an escape pod that launches him out of the game. Meanwhile, with Ralph missing, a girl (Stefanie Scott) reports to arcade-owner Litwak (Ed O’Neill) that Fix-It Felix, Jr. is malfunctioning. Since broken games get unplugged, leaving their characters homeless, Felix searches for Ralph.
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Ralph crash-lands in Sugar Rush, a kart-racing game. As he searches for his medal, he meets Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), a glitchy character who takes the medal and uses it to buy entry into a race. King Candy (Alan Tudyk) and the other racers, consisting of Taffyta Muttonfudge (Mindy Kaling) refuse to let Vanellope participate, claiming she is not really part of the game. The next day, Rosetta and Chloe continue to compete in a series of games, such as dragonfly water skiing, twig-spheres, and mouse polo, slowly moving up in the standings during each game. But things start to turn south in the final challenge of the day.
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Ralph helps Vanellope build a kart. At her home in Diet Cola Mountain, an unfinished racing course, he discovers she is a natural racer. Back in Hero’s Duty, Felix meets Calhoun, who warns that the Cy-Bugs can take over any game they enter. As the pair searches for Ralph and the Cy-Bug in Sugar Rush, they separate when Felix, enamored with Calhoun, inadvertently reminds her of her fiancé, who had been killed by a Cy-Bug in her backstory. Calhoun finds hundreds of Cy-Bug eggs underground, and Felix becomes imprisoned in King Candy’s castle during his search for Ralph.
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At the end of the teacup race, there’s a series of chutes covered in slimy mucus that the teams must slide down to get to the finish line. Chloe dives down the chute with no double, But Rosetta, afraid of getting muddy and dirty, nervously crawls down the chute, to Chloe’s dismay. However, they’re still in the games since Iridessa (Raven-Symoné) and Lumina (Jessica DiCicco) after Iridessa coated their cup in too much pixie dust, causing them to crash into the roof of the cavern. Regardless, Rosetta’s actions put them in last place, and no team has ever won from last place. For the first time in the Games, Chloe is starting to doubt Rosetta. Desperate, King Candy hacks the game’s code to retrieve Ralph’s medal and offers it to Ralph, explaining that letting Vanellope race would be disastrous for both her and the game. Fearing for Vanellope’s safety, Ralph wrecks the kart and returns to his own game, but finds that everyone has evacuated except for Gene, expecting the game to be unplugged in the morning. Discovering Vanellope’s image on the Sugar Rush cabinet, Ralph realizes that King Candy had lied and she is an intended part of the game, not a glitch. Ralph returns to Sugar Rush, finds Felix and Vanellope with the help of Sour Bill (Rich Moore), the king’s assistant, and asks Felix to fix the wrecked kart.
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As the race proceeds, the hatched Cy-Bugs attack and Felix, Calhoun, and Ralph battle them. Vidia (Pamela Adlon) and Zephyr (Alicyn Packard) take the shortcut and crashed, then Terence (Jesse McCartney) and Fairy Gary (Jeff Bennett) try to jump the pond but land in it, leaving just the garden and storm fairies. Rosetta and Chloe take the mudslide mountain short and successfully make it over thanks to Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman) adding built-in spikes to the wheels and a propeller to cross the steep mountain and get ahead of the storm fairies. When Vanellope catches up to King Candy, her glitching reveals that he is actually Turbo, a character from an old game, Turbo Time, who sabotaged a newer game out of jealousy, causing both to be unplugged. Vanellope escapes from Turbo, who is consumed by a Cy-Bug. The group flees the doomed game, but Vanellope finds she cannot pass through the exit. Calhoun says the game cannot be saved without a beacon to attract and kill the Cy-Bugs. However, in the last leg of the race, Rumble uses Glimmer’s lightning ability to zap one of the wheels causing the girls’ cart to crash. Glimmer is appalled.
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Ralph heads to Diet Cola Mountain, where he plans on collapsing its Mentos stalactites into the cola at the bottom, causing a blinding eruption that would attract the bugs. Before he can finish, Turbo, merged with the Cy-Bug that had consumed him, attacks him and carries him away. Ralph breaks free and dives toward the mountain, intending to sacrifice himself to start the eruption on impact. Vanellope in turn uses her glitching abilities to save Ralph. The eruption starts and draws the Cy-Bugs to their destruction, including Turbo. Seeing their cart destroyed, Rosetta and Chloe push their cart over the finish line and at least finish together. Vanellope crosses the finish line, restoring her memory and status as Princess Vanellope, the game’s ruler and lead character, while keeping her advantageous glitching ability. Rumble is already celebrating his victory, when Queen Clarion (Anjelica Huston) announces that the garden fairies are the winners. Rumble protests, until the Queen shows him that Glimmer abandoned him just before the finish line for cheating, thus his victory doesn’t count. Therefore, the garden fairies win.
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Felix and Ralph return to their game in time for Litwak to see that it is in fact not broken, sparing it from being unplugged. Calhoun and Felix marry, and the characters of Fix-It Felix, Jr. gain a new respect for Ralph. The movie ends with Rosetta and Chloe celebrating with their best friends that they broke their losing streak.
The Red Carpet: San Francisco (2012)
At November 4th, 2012 (just two days after Wreck-It Ralph & The Pixie Olympics Arcade is released), I board the plane with my Mother, Roscoe, and Hester and head to Oakland and stayed one night at the Renaissance Club Sport Hotel. I brought two DVDs (Titanic (in honor of the blockbuster’s 15th anniversary and the centennial of the sinking) and The Muppet Christmas Carol (in honor of its 20th anniversary)).
Tonight, I, my mother, Roscoe, and Hester went to St. Mary’s College for the Joey Travolta’s film premiere.
That was the one-day trip and it ends at November 5th, 2012.
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People incidents
Lucille Bliss (Crusader Rabbit, The Smurfs, Invader Zim) died from natural causes on November 8th, 2012 at the age of 96.
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Rise of the Guardians (November 21, 2012 – March 12, 2013)
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MPAA Rating: PG (for thematic elements and some mildly scary action)
Critic Score: cf-lg74% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Consensus: A sort of Avengers for the elementary school set, Rise of the Guardians is wonderfully animated and briskly paced, but it’s only so-so in the storytelling department.
Box office: $306.9 million
Plot
Jack Frost (Chris Pine) is awakened from the depths of a frozen pond with amnesia. Upon discovering no one can see or hear him however, he wanders off alone. Three hundred years later Jack, as the spirit of Winter, enjoys delivering snow days to school kids, but resents that they do not believe in him and still cannot see him. At the North Pole, the Man in the Moon warns Nicholas St. North (Santa Claus) (Alec Baldwin) that Pitch Black (Jude Law), the Boogeyman, is threatening the children of the world with his nightmares. He calls E. Aster Bunnymund (the Easter Bunny) (Hugh Jackman), the Sandman/Sandy, and Tooth (Isla Fisher), the Toothfairy, to arms. They are then told that Jack Frost has been chosen to be a new Guardian. Jack is unimpressed by this position, as he feels wronged for not being believed in, but North convinces him to aid them in facing Pitch.
Visiting Tooth’s world, Jack learns that baby teeth contain the memories and innocence of the children who lost them; Jack’s teeth are included and he informs her that he has forgotten his true identity. However, Pitch raids Tooth’s home in order to kidnap all of her subordinate tooth fairies (except Baby Tooth whom Jack managed to save), so that the children’s teeth can’t be collected. If the teeth aren’t collected the children will stop believing in her. In order to complete the scheme, he also steals all the teeth thus preventing Tooth from sharing Jack’s memories with him. In order to thwart the Boogeyman’s evil plan, the group decides to travel the world collecting the lost teeth. During their journey, they come across a young boy named Jamie (Dakota Goyo), who is awakened during a quarrel between North and Bunnymund. Since he believes in them, he can see all of them except for Jack. Pitch’s nightmares attack in full force, provoking Sandy into action as the Guardian of Dreams. Jack aids him, but fails as Sandy is overwhelmed and seemingly destroyed by Pitch.
As Easter approaches, the dejected Guardians gather in Bunnymund’s home. With the unexpected aid of Jamie’s little sister, Sophie (Georgie Grieve), they begin the process of painting eggs for the coming morning. After Jack takes Sophie home, he is lured to Pitch’s lair by a voice. While there, Pitch taunts him with his memories and fears of not being believed in. This distracted Jack long enough for the nightmares to destroy all the Easter eggs, ruining Easter and causing children to stop believing in Bunnymund. After losing his trust in the disappointed Guardians, Jack isolates himself in Antarctica, where Pitch tries to convince Jack to join his side. When Jack refuses, Pitch threatens to kill Baby Tooth, unless Jack gives him his staff. Jack agrees, but Pitch breaks Jack’s staff and throws him off a chasm. Jack unlocks his memories and he remembers that he was a mortal human boy who fell into a frozen pond while saving his younger sister from falling through. This memory inspires Jack and he fixes his staff and returns to Pitch’s lair to rescue the kidnapped baby fairies.
Due to Pitch’s powers, all the world’s children’s beliefs in the Guardians fade, except Jamie’s. When Jack finds even Jamie’s faith in them is wavering, he causes it to snow in his room and makes him realize that Jack Frost exists. Jack is finally seen and heard after centuries and while the weakened Guardians face Pitch in battle, Jack and Jamie gather Jamie’s friends, whose renewed belief bolsters their fight against Pitch as well. Pitch tries to terrify the children with his nightmares, but their dreams prove even stronger, resulting in Sandy’s resurrection. Defeated and no longer feared, Pitch tries to retreat, but his own nightmares turn against him due to his own fear and drag him under the desolate bed into his own world. Afterward, Jamie and his friends bid goodbye to the Guardians as Jack accepts his place among them as the Guardian of Fun.
People incidents
Mel Shaw (Fantasia, Bambi, The Fox and the Hound, The Lion King) died from congestive heart failure on November 22nd, 2012 at the Woodland Care Center in Reseda, California, at the age of 97.
Monsters, Inc. 3D (December 19, 2012 – February 19, 2013)
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Awards: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Nominee
MPAA Rating: G
Critic Score: cf-lg96% Certified Fresh
Average Rating: 8/10
Consensus: Clever, funny, and delightful to look at, Monsters, Inc. delivers another resounding example of how Pixar elevated the bar for modern all-ages animation.
Box office: $577.4 million
Plot
The parallel city of Monstropolis is inhabited entirely by monsters, and is powered by electricity which is generated from the screams of human children. At the Monsters, Inc. factory, skilled individuals called “scarers” access the human world through closet doors in children’s bedrooms, to scare the children so they will scream. It is considered dangerous work, as human children are believed to be highly toxic to monsters.
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However, energy production is falling because children are becoming more difficult to scare. The company’s chairman, Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn), is determined to find a solution. James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman) is the organization’s top scarer, but he is engaged in a fierce rivalry with a sinister chameleon-like monster, Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi).
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One day, Sulley discovers that Randall left a door activated on the scarefloor, and a small girl (Mary Gibbs) has entered the factory. After failing to put her back, Sulley takes her home. His best friend Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) is on a date with his girlfriend Celia (Jennifer Tilly), and chaos erupts when the child is discovered to be there. Sulley and Mike escape the Child Detection Agency (CDA) and gradually discover that the little girl is not toxic after all. Sulley grows attached to her and names her “Boo”. They smuggle her into the factory in an attempt to send her home. Randall discovers that Boo is there and tries to kidnap her, but instead he kidnaps Mike.
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Randall reveals that he has built a terrifying machine which can be used to extract all possible screams out of captured human children, thus solving the company’s production problems. Randall straps Mike to the machine, but Sulley unplugs it and reports Randall to Waternoose. However, Waternoose is secretly in league with Randall, and exiles Mike and Sulley to the Himalayas. The two are taken in by a Yeti, who tells them about a nearby village which can enable them to return to the factory. Sulley heads out, but a frustrated Mike refuses to follow.
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Randall straps Boo to the Scream Extractor, but Sulley saves her by destroying the machine. Waternoose sends Randall to get Sulley. Mike returns to apologize, but thinks Sulley is ignoring him because an invisible Randall is attacking Sulley. Sulley manages to temporarily incapacitate Randall, and escape with Mike and Boo.
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Randall pursues them as they speed through the factory, riding on the doors that are heading into a giant vault where millions of doors are stored. Boo’s laughter activates the doors, which allows the pursuit to pass in and out of the human world. Randall attempts to kill Sulley, but Boo attacks him. Sulley and Mike trap Randall in the human world, inside a trailer, where the residents, who mistake him for an alligator, beat him with a shovel.
Sulley and Mike find Boo’s door, but Waternoose sends it back to the Scarefloor. Mike manages to distracts the CDA. Waternoose reveals that he is working with Randall to kidnap kids and use the Scream Extractor in order to keep the company from going out of business. The CDA, having recorded this confession, arrest him. The CDA’s leader is revealed to be the librarian Roz (Bob Peterson), who was working undercover for two-and-a-half years, trying to expose Waternoose’s plot. Sulley and Mike say goodbye to Boo, and return her to her home. Then, on Roz’s orders, Boo’s door is shredded to prevent any more escapes.
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Sulley comes up with a way to end the company’s production problems. The monsters now enter children’s bedrooms to make them laugh, because laughter is ten times more powerful than screams.
Mike takes Sulley aside, revealing he has rebuilt Boo’s door, and only needs one more piece, which Sulley took as a memento. Sulley enters and happily reunites with Boo.
People incidents
Charles Durning (Evening Shade, Rescue Me, The Sting) died of natural causes at his home in Manhattan on December 24th, 2012 (Christmas Eve), age 89.
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San Diego & Palm Springs
At December 28th, 2012, after three days ago after Christmas, I left 3705 NW Columbia Ave with my family and went to Portland International Airport where I board the airplane heading for San Diego at southern California. I brought a few of DVDs (Brave, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Finding Nemo, Up, and Treasure Planet (in honor of its 10th anniversary)).
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Entrance to the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, San Diego, California.sancl_exterior_2011_fpleonardo-1067798-exterior_s-image
I stay in the DoubleTree Hotel with my grandma Joan, my aunt Amy, my uncle Jaime, and Isabella. I went to San Diego Zoo, Belmont Park, and SeaWorld. I went to the Fashion Valley mall to visit the Disney Store (where I collect the late Christmas gifts including Cinderella from Cinderella, stuff from Wreck-It Ralph & The Pixie Olympics Arcade (a new Walt Disney Animation Studios film about a arcade game bad guy who dreams of becoming a hero and a garden fairy who compete in the Pixie Hollow Games), including Rosetta, Ralph, Chloe, Vanellope, Felix, Taffyta, the Sugar Rush racers, and the figurine set and stuff from Monsters, Inc. including Mike, Randall, Waternoose, Sullivan, Boo, Celia, George, and Roz and the Electronic Monsters, Inc. Factory playset). At New Year’s Day, the beginning of 2013 (the most thrilling and exciting year), we arrived at Palm Springs and stayed at Rancho Las Palmas hotel. We went to see Rise of the Guardians, Wreck-It Ralph & The Pixie Olympics Arcade and Monsters, Inc. in 3D (in honor of its prequel next year). The hotel has a river and two slides. We visited Joshua Tree National Park that Dad told me about the pictures of it in our living room.
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At January 4th, 2013, the trip ends and we head back to Portland.
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