I was thinking recently about the films I watched when I was a child. These films remind me, whenever I watch them, of those wonderful summer holidays as a kid watching some great films. It’s quite an eclectic mix but I hope they remind you of films you used to watch as a kid. So let us countdown to my favourite film from childhood.

10. Clueless

9. The Little Mermaid

8. The Lion King

7. The Sword in the Stone

6. Legally Blonde

5. Dirty Dancing

4. Sleeping Beauty

3. Robin Hood Men in Tights

2. The Princess Bride

1. Gone With the Wind

Well, well, well. So I came home to this news today. For more I had to head to io9 and Kotaku for their takes.

There is no denying that the Disney brand is HUGE!!! I am sure Walt Disney had no idea it would become what it has today. Disney is a part of so many childhoods (mine included), just like some of the other brands under their wings PIXAR and Marvel to name two. I’m the right generation to have been raised on the Star Wars films too, from memory my parents saw at least one of them on a date night before they were married!

But is Leia a new kind of Disney princess? or have we been looking at Disney Princesses the wrong way all this time.

“Hey! There is no way Leia is like all the other princesses” I hear you shout, but hang on a second. Aren’t all Disney princesses a mix of the damsel in distress and heroine? Personally I think they are. Take Snow White* (the very first Disney Princess). Here is a girl who simply by being pretty has made the Queen hate her so, to save her life she charms the man meant to kill her then braves the forest alone until she finds the dwarves. But still the Queen finds her and tricks her into a sleep to be woken only by true loves kiss. Disneys Snow White is kind and beautiful and cares about those silly little dwarves when no one else did. Yes she is rescued by Prince Charming but its not all smooth sailing on the road to love.

Leia too starts off life as a princess, who then has to work with the men to save the day. Ok I will admit she is definitely more badass than Snow White (but I am putting that down to the 40 year gap between the two films) and she was a respected leader during the rebellion (but I put that down to being raised essentially by the Duke of Edinburgh and the daughter of an elected Queen and Darth Vader). I will also concede that Leia showed her badass chops earlier than modern ones do but again it was the 70s. Maybe Luke should be a Disney princess, a kid who grows up a poor farm boy to find out he is jedi and Naboo royalty**.

The words above come directly from the studio. You cannot deny that they are as true of Leia as they are of Jasmine, Snow, Mulan, Aurora, Cinderella, Pocahontas, Belle and Ariel.

There is no denying that I hope our daughters will be nerd girls. But it would be nice if our nerd daughters could also appreciate that there is magic in this world of ours, and that to believe in the impossible is to be alive. Maybe that is what Disney was trying to tell us all along.

*no letters, I know that the Disney version of all fairytales is weak compared to the originals but my point still stands. ** don’t google that as Naboo royalty is elected so the story is very long and complicated, ekk!

The Top 5 and Bottom 5 of Oz Comic-Con Melbourne

This past weekend saw Melbourne’s first Comic-Con, a name synonymous with nerds, cosplay, guest stars and (to an ever decreasing margin) comics. To attend one of these for the first time is an experience unlike any other, but it is not one that is perfect, idyllic or in certain circumstances, even enjoyable.

The Melbourne Oz Comic-Con had its fair share of problems, and if you were to follow its Facebook page you would see some world class “nerd rage” over what some people perceived as a mismanaged event. While those displeased are clearly the loudest, it is unclear if they are the majority, so in the sake of fairness we present the Top 5 and Bottom 5 of Oz Comic-Con.

Top 5

5.) Exhibitors

One thing Oz Comic-Con had that was similar to almost any exhibition, conference or show was people out to sell their wares. Which can range from great – where you find a company you knew nothing about that fills a need you didn’t even know you had – to “gouging” price wise. Oz Comic-Con leaned more to the former, and while the latter was present, none of the sellers ever felt particularly pushy. Most were content on letting the flow of traffic browse their wares with a passing conversation and not an attitude of “buy it or GTFO”.

4.) The guest photos and signings

Disclaimer – This does not refer to the organisation, lines or waiting associated to the photos and signings but for the guests themselves. All the guests were great, willing to make brief banter with guests who had been waiting hours to see them, and extra props to Patrick Stewart and Stan Lee in particular, who crammed as many photos and signings as humanly possible, even after the organisers oversold their ability to do so. They exuded professionalism, even under pressure and duress.

3.) Guest panels

Some guests treated the panels like acting jobs, others like a personal Q&A session, but every one of them brought something fun and entertaining to the table. The Australian attendees may not be as chatty question-wise as their American counterparts, but the guests took it in their stride and were always gracious and thorough in their answers.

2.) Prepurchase of VIP and Platinum Tickets

There were a lot of things that Oz Comic-Con did wrong ticket wise – overselling, mismanaged lines and many more things that belong in the second part of this article – however one good thing they had was the ability to buy a bypass for the queues under the title of “VIP” and “Platinum” tickets. While far more expensive, and having to be bought well in advance, these VIP and Platinum passes were worth their weight in gold, if you are someone who considers time to be money. Being able to sleep in until 10am and then make your way straight in, as well as the ability to walk out mid-day and come back without having to re-queue makes a world of difference.

1.) The people and cosplayers

Regardless of being a regular or VIP attendee, if you went to Oz Comic-Con, you would have spent at least an hour waiting in a queue for something. Being able to watch cosplayers and try to guess who they were dressing up as, and how they found the time to make such extravagant costumes (as well as in some special cases, what degree of sneeze intensity would send them flying out of their costume) made lining up that much more bearable.

In the same regard, standing next to the same person for hours on end often opened the floodgates to conversation, and easily the best thing about Oz Comic-Con were the people who attended it. Brought together by a common interest, the conversations that arose were just as interesting and enjoyable as anything the organisers came up with.

Bottom 5

5.) People

Normally as a rule, I’m against murder. However when facing the prospect of having the person in front of you drop dead meaning that there’s one less person between yourself and your goal – only 5 metres away, but a twenty minute wait – you begin to see the perks. As stated above, when in a queue you can normally generate a rapport with those around you, yet when you’re just trying to get through a queue blocking an entrance (as often faced by the VIP and Platinum ticket holders) people just become a mass of angry, rude and pushy bodies. If you are somewhat of the “meeker” temperament (as many nerds are) you may find having to push people to the side to simply get to where you need to be a quite dehumanising experience. We did.

4.) Branding

Simply put, the branding looked cheap. The website went down at a the drop of a hat, the social media control was nearly non-existent and the whole lead up felt like it was being winged one day at a time. Some would say “oh it’s their first time” and that excuse goes a little way, but as someone in the advertising field, I can say the logic in successful companies is “If I don’t know how to really do it, hire, find or ask someone who does”. It comes across as cheap, arrogant or greedy if you don’t.

For all the condemning, this really is constructive criticism; it’s an area that can be improved. Don’t just use mates who can use iMovie or give you a freebee website – Rebrand, get better servers and hire a marketing person or company to just deal with this aspect and the event will only grow.

3.) Treatment of VIPs

The pre-bought VIP tickets were a wonder for queue jumping, the exclusive sessions and in theory were a great idea. The problem came with the execution of those ideas – no effort was made to separate VIP queues from regular admission and the instruction given to all VIPs of “Just go to the front of the queue and talk to the volunteer there” is at best not thought out and at its worst actually a worse experience than just lining up normally, as there was no way to get to the “front” of the queue without pushing all the way from the back against people who had no intention of letting you through (See: 5.) People).

2.) The dinners

At Oz Comic-Con there was an opportunity to have dinner with a celebrity. This option was not cheap and engendered certain expectations. Our guests (Sir Patrick Stewart and his son, Daniel) were much like the ride at the beginning of Jurassic Park – one no-show and one who felt ill and couldn’t stay long. Much like the dinosaurs in that film, I had no hard feelings towards the men who didn’t come or couldn’t stay long; they are humans who were jetlagged and had worked a very long day.

The distain here fell to the organisers who came across as simply greedy. They put as many people on two tables as physically possible so it was often difficult to hear or see the celebrity. The event was not cheap and yet something as simple as drinks were not included (this surprised even Sir Patrick Stewart, who at the beginning of the evening when asked if he wanted a drink exclaimed “We ALL need drinks here!”). A round table with drinks, a private room, fewer people, not making the celebrity work a 12 hour day (and if necessary up the price to compensate) would have resulted in 12 glowing reviews instead of 30 negative ones.

(As a side note, to anyone at that dinner, all I can say is thank you – the conversations with you all during and after dinner made the whole event a good learning experience, rather than a massive disappointment.)

1.) Signage

Recently humanity came up with an amazing machine that could help with relaying instructions. You should look into it.

I tweeted last night about deciding whether to dress up for OzComicCon this weekend. In the end I decided not to* but I thought this a timely reminder to be careful what you cosplay.

*If you were at all interested I decided not to dress up for a couple of reasons:

• Melbourne in winter is cold … and unless I was to go as Princess Leia on Hoth I would probably freeze
• Sci-fi women are either scary tough … or slutty, and again its too cold for that.
• All that walking around the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre requires comfort, which a lot of the costumes aren’t … which surprises me given all the running

Richard found this and thought of me, very wise and this is exactly my experience of the film. I love books and hope you have a good book to curl up with this weekend. Actually, lets be honest curling up with a book is such a treat as an adult. I used to spend days on school holidays in a comfy chair by the window reading but now the only reading I get to do is on the bus.

Image source

I went and saw the brand new Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn this morning. I’ve read the books a few times and have enjoyed the previous films though this was the first I saw one I got to see on the big screen^.

If you haven’t seen it/read the book be aware spoilers are coming!

Overall a good film, there are some charming moments and if all else fails Jacob does get his shirt off though significantly less than the last films (an obvious sign that we are dealing with serious, adult concepts now).

Part 1 of Breaking Dawn the book was by far my favourite of all of them and I would say the same of the film.

Bella’s wedding dress blew me away! Kristen Stewart has an amazing figure and the dress is my favourite kind of wedding gown – simple, elegant, classy and I am a sucker for lace.

What sold it for me was that this was the meatiest Edward story. Sorry Team Edward but I often felt before he was too perfect and therefore not a perfect match for Bella. He gets some balls when he finally refuses to give in to Bella on the whole turning her into a vampire thing. Then in this film we actually see him disagree and criticise her. It was so good to see him yell at her, before he always seemed to indulge her. Could make an argument that it takes getting married for him to stand up for himself but I disagree, I think this is just the first time Bella went too far. Who can blame him, I would be furious if Richard willingly put himself in harms way as Bella does.

I’d read that the birth scene was full on and perhaps if you were 12 it would be, but I thought it was pretty close to the book so what I had expected. What I did find troubling was how convincingly they showed Bella slowly but surely fade away, I mean the girl looks like she really is that sick.

I was impressed with how they handled imprinting and Bella turning. Not too much of a cliff hanger but enough to get a taste of what is to come.

Pro tip: just because the credits start doesn’t mean the film is over, stay patiently for a few more minutes for a sneak into the next film.

^Coming back to this, I believe there are some films that you have to see on the big screen to really appreciate them, this wasn’t one of them. Personally, having seen it it can wait until DVD!

Elmo is cool. He is joyful. His giggle always warms my heart. But I never really thought about the person with his arm up Elmo making him real. And that, to me, is the magic.

But the trailer for the documentary about the man with his arm up Elmo, Kevin Clash, seems to be as warm and wonderful as Elmo. Will definitely be seeing this one! Visit the films website and checkout the trailer!

Random aside, Thursday is big movie release night in Australia so moving forward I am going to have a regular “Movie to See” post. Some will be new movies and others will be classics. I studied film so love any excuse to talk movies.

The quote comes from an interview with Julianne Moore that appeared in The Age last weekend.  Its such a positive attitude to have regarding aging and I feel it at 30. Yes my twenties are over and I have some great tales to tell but I will never be 30 again! Enjoy this moment, this moment, because it won’t come again.

Julianne Moore truly is my favourite actress. The first movie I saw her in was nine months and everything I have seen her in has impressed me.