5 детски книжки, превърнати във филми, които Young_Jedi препоръчва да прочетете... и гледате

Започвам с уговорката, че става дума само за книги, преведени и издадени на български :)

1. Мост към Терабития / Bridge to Terabithia

Животът на Джес Арънс завинаги се променя, когато на първия учебен ден едно ново момиче храбро застава на старта на момчешкото състезание и надбягва всички. В това число и самия Джес, който цяло лято се е готвил да бъде най-бързият в училище.
Това не е много обещаващо начало на едно приятелство, но Джес и Лесли Бърк стават неразделни. Лесли е необикновено момиче. Заедно тя и Джес създават Терабития, вълшебно царство в гората, чиито граници се определят единствено от тяхното въображение. После една сутрин се случва ужасен инцидент. Когато най-накрая Джес успява да изплува от бездната на мъката си, той разбира колко много сила и кураж му е дала Лесли и решава да построи мост до тяхната приказна страна.

Ако харесвате "Братята с Лъвски Сърца" на Астрид Линдгрен, то горещо ви препоръчвам и "Мост към Терабития" на Катрин Патерсън. Рядко се случва, особено в детската литература, сериозни теми да се засегнат толкова дълбоко и така истински, и едновременно така невинно и простичко. Трогателна и красиво написана история.

А филмът е чудестна адаптация, вярна на оригинала, която осъвременява историята (книгата е писана в края на 70-те), без да губи и частица от атмосферата и духа на книгата. A must see! Трейлърът е доста заблуждаващ, изглежда ви като следващата "Нарния", "Хрониките на Спайдъруик" или "Златния Компас"... всъщност става дума за нещо много различно... и в класи над тях!



2. Подвижният замък на Хоул / Howl's Moving Castle

Софи има лошия късмет да е най-голямата от трите сестри в семейството си. Според всеобщите очаквания това неминуемо води до провал във всяко едно нещо, с което се захване. Един ден тя съвсем неочаквано се сблъсква с необяснимия гняв на Вещицата от Пустошта. Така се оказва под въздействието на ужасяващо заклинание, което я превръща в старица. Единственият й шанс да развали проклятието, което тегне върху нея, е в магическия замък, който никога не спира да броди из близките хълмове - подвижният замък на магьосника Хоул...

Не бях подозирал, че филмът на Ghibli е правен по роман. Самия факт, че Миязаки е решил да използва романа като основа за свой филм е достатъчен, за да провокира интерес. Книгата на Даян Уейн Джоунс е първата от общо три, които до сега не са екранизирани или издавани в България. Втората е Castle in the Air, но няма нищо общо с Laputa Castle in the Sky.



3. Как да си дресираш дракон / How to train your dragon

Първата от голяма поредица... Ако не броим илюстрираната книжка която поставя началото на цялата "преведена от старонорвежки" поредица. Филмчето на DreamWorks се радва на успех, ако и с българското издание на книжката се случи същото, надявам се че ще издадат и останалите заглавия...

1. Hiccup the Seasick Viking (2000) Children's picture book
2. How to Train Your Dragon (2003)
3. How to Be a Pirate (2004)
4. How to Speak Dragonese (2005)
5. How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse (2006)
6. How to Twist a Dragon's Tale (2007)
7. A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (2008)
8. How to Ride a Dragon's Storm (2008)
9. How to Break a Dragon's Heart (2009)
10. How to Steal a Dragon's Sword (2011)

4. Чарли и шоколадовата фабрика / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Чарли Бъкет обича шоколад. А господин Уили Уонка, най-чудатият изобретател в целия свят, отваря вратите на изумителната си шоколадова фабрика за пет деца. Това е наградата на живота им! Вечни смукалки, Карамели за коса, голяма машина за дъвки и река от шоколад очакват щастливците. Чарли само трябва да намери златния билет и неговото вкусно приключение може да започне.

Напоследък Enthusiast са се захванали да издават детската библиография на Роалд Дал (лично аз предпочитал да стоя настрана от творчеството му "за възрастни"...). Най-накрая освен Фабриката на български е и продължението - Чарли и Големият стъклен асаньор.

Филмът на Тим Бъртън (да се престорим, че не е посягал към Алиса...) е един от малкото случаи в които екранизацията е по-добра от литературния оригинал! Една от основните причини е обогатената история - ексцентрично-екстравагантия Уили Уонка (Джони Деп) вече си има предистория, обясняваща чудатостите му... Строгият баща-зъболекар (не кой да е а Кристофър Лий). А и да не забравяме шоколадовата закачка с "2001: Космическа одисея"!



...и за десерт!
5. Туве Янсон - тук няма да се спрем на една книжка, а направо на цялата Муминска поредица! В очакване ня ик."Дамян Яков" да издадат и последната девета книжка (всъщност тя е първата по написване, но нямам идея защо ще е последната по издаване у нас), смятам да гледам четвъртия сезон на Moomin (който от скоро е издаден на запад на DVD). Това е само една от многото адаптации по книжките и комиксите на финландската художничка. Бих казал, че е от златните години на аниме-копродукциите, когато се появиха познатите у нас европейско-японски сериали "Пчеличката Мая", "Али Баба", "Боско" и др. А стига да ви се гледа - ето от къде можете да си свалите: Приятно гледане ;)



А ето и две приказки от муминската долина...

Poster of the Week #22

Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price - all of them on one poster... this is just EPIC!

"House of the Long Shadows" is the last film in which old friends Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee had the chance to be together.

ps. The fourth one, whose name is not on the poster for some reason, is western/horror vet John Carradine - David/Roberth/Bruce/Keith Carradine's father.

The Horror Express

Finally something happened in my generally uneventful life so I'm not gonna miss the oportunity to mail you something different than the usual work-is-all-the-same-and-Uni-is-boring-what-am-I gonna-do-after-I-graduate kind of crap :)

Remember an old horror movie with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Telly Savalas -"The Horror Express"? It's about a train going through Siberia and some weird events going on... Transporting a frozen prehistoric creture, presumably "The Missing Link", through the Russian wilderness and before you know it the creature comes back to life and flashing around with glowing red eyes it leaves a trail of corpses with bleeding eyes and as if that is not enough by itself the train is attacked by Cossacks, it comes out that the prehistoric creature is actually just a body "inhabited" by an alien form of life that came to Earth a billion years ago and just when you think it can't get any worse, the creature resurrects all the corpses and the train gets full of zombies!!

Cool, isn't it? Well, my story is a bit similar :)

This Sunday there was a Jedi meeting in Sofia, the 1st since December (and in December I couldnt go). We started our website and forum 6 years ago and we have this tradition, each March we get together and celebrate - it's the best oportunity to reunite with my old Star Wars buddies! By the way this Sunday we'll celebrate again, this time in Plovdiv :)

I was to take an early train at 8am and be in Sofia 10:20. My mom of course laughed at me, she never believed I can get up early and get together my stuff and take my lazy ass to the trainstation in time... But I proved her wrong! After all we're not talking about some stupid lecture at the Uni where I dont even want to go, let alone be on time...

The meeting was to start at 14:00 so I had some time to kill and I met with Temenuga, a girl who gave me and Ania some shelter when we were in Sofia, a good friend of mine. We wakled and talked, went around the bookstores where I couldn't resis but spend some (ok, ok, not "some", "a lot of") money on a great big encyclopaedia in English about the history of the comics and graphic novels.

Then I met with my Star Wars pals, we had some beers and we were talking about life in general, how cool the new "Clone Wars" TV series are, trying to remember if we celebrate 5 or 6 years birthday and so on... Time is never enough when you are with friends, I know that well, cause even four months in Poland were not enough. When it was time to go some of them came with me to the station and thank God, cause otherwise maybe I'd miss my train - it was in some remote area with no lights at all, only the red stops of the back car were on to indicate that there is something out there.

It came out that it's an international train going to Turkey. It was old, broken and with no lights. It was also nearly empty. I got in the 1st compartment, where it was just me and some of those guys with stupid fashion haircuts and sunglasses I hate. My friends were trying to tell me something from the outside, so I came out again to see what they were saying. They told me that there's a free compartment I can get for myself, they saw it from the outside but mby the tiem I got there it wasnt free anymore. So theer was one man in every compartment of 6 places, but I didnt want to spend the next 2 hours in bad company, so I was trying to see in the dark who is in the compartments... Another stupid looking guy, some prbably talkative grandma, some drunk bum, some old guy... Ok, a young woman! Usually they don't eat, blow their nose, pick their nose, smell bad, get drunk or talk to strangers on the train. (And by the way probably she would like to have someone normal there just in case, if something happens... I guess it's not exactly a pleasant experience for a girl to travel all alone by night on a train like this... but back then this didn't come to my mind. I was yet to realize it... )

I threw my backpack inside and opened the window to talk to my friends while the train was still there. Then the train started to move... I was listening to some music and relaxing, fortunately after some 5 minutes the lights came on and I could read a book. I was about to finish H.G. Wells' "The Invisible Man" ... (What a coincidence, Peter Cushing's character in "The Horror Express" is called Dr. Wells :) )

All of a sudden something falls outside in the coridor! I see a man, going down like a cut down tree and BANG! on the floor! I left my book right away and opened the door. A man at about 60 was laying down in the coridor, he wasnt moving at all, his eyes were open... I kneel and I ask him "Are you OK? I will help you to stand up..." no reaction at all. His eyes are so dim that I can't really tell if he is blind or drunk or something else.

A frame from "The Horror Express"... believe it or not, but the guy on the floor looked a lot like this, only without the blood.

I didn't feel any strong smell of alcohol. Are you OK? no answer, I wave in front of his eyes and I get no reaction at all, he moves his hand a bit and blinks, so he is alive ok, but still... What can we do? I ask and the girl has no idea. I go around the car to see if the ticket control guy is around but he wasnt. I ask the man again if he wants me to help him and f he will stand up but he doesnt respond... What can we do? I close the door and the girl is scared and stressed, and I tell her "Wow, geez, what kind of things happen on these trains..."

I see some movement in the coridor and I open teh door again. Out of the next compartment there's a guy coming out, 60 something, and ugrly as hell, like some drunk-London-beggar-criminal-right-out-of-Oliver-Twist or something. His hair greasy, his clothes dirty and his face crooked in a horrible grimace. "Do you know him?" I ask and I point at the guy on the ground. "Is he from your compartment?" - he waves and makes some sounds that cannot be possibly categorized as human speech. "Wont you help him stand up?!" and he waves with his hand like trying to say "The hell with him, leave him there, who cares!"

I closed the door again and me and the girl exchanged some words, she was scared and I asked her where is she going. She said she is from Pazardjik (I mean Пазарджик, whatever the English spelling is), it's one stop before Plovdiv. And introduced ourselves with nice to meet you and everything, talked a bit, it came out that she studies History in Sofia and so on...

And then some movement again, the guy in the corridor tried to stand up. At about the third try he managed and walked down the corridor. We continued our talk. "And I thought that Ive already seen things on trains!" and she asked me about it and I told her about my trip to Prague with Mesut and Gosia and the adventures we had...

After some time the ugly guy showed and knocked on the glass. I opened the door and asked him what does he want. He was mumbling and guesturing with his hands. I understod that "the other drunk man" ... did what?! went there? where? outside?? "yea yeaaa.. ousside!" outside?! outside of the train??? "yea yea, off da train... hez craizy" he fell of the train?! OMG!! and the girl was speechless too!! I closed the door, OMG he said that the other guy went there and fell off the train! - But they wont stop the train for him now? - Of course not, we cant even find the ticket guy, and even so he wont believe him, even I am not sure if I believe him... and the girl said "Let's NOT believe him!" - after all what could we do except hope that the drunk bum didnt fell out and died...

The ugly guy came again and again, waving at us and guesturing like "the other is crazy, he is out of the train", then he went away... and we were sitting there talking, then this guy walked down the corridor again! So after all he didnt fall out!! Thank god!

After some time the ticket control guy came and put some order into things, "Come on, I wont deal with you all night!" and I think he threw them out of the train on the next station or something, I dont know.

And this girl was telling me "So you see, you wanted to direct movies and you find yourself in a movie! Who could direct this crazy thing?"

So finally it was her stop, we exchanged phone numbers and then I was waiting alone for my stop.

Before I was back home and that's the end of my adventure!

But let's wait and see what will happen this Saturday on my trip to Turkey :)))

The Witch Mountain Series

"Race to Witch Mountain" will be released on 13 March 2009. It's not like this movie's gonna rock your world and change your perceptions of modern cinema, but still - it looks entertaining enough, and I'll see it for sure as a fan of the original and its sequels.



Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson helps two alien kids with superpowers get back to their spaceship and escape the grip of the US government/military guys.

I've seen the original movies years ago on BNT in their Saturday Walt Disney block, and I can say I had a great time watching them.

The first "Escape to Witch Mountain" is based on a novel I've never seen, let alone read, and it was released in 1975, starring Donald Pleasence (SEN from "THX 1138", and later to become famous as Doctor Samuel Loomis from the "Halloween" series)

In 1978 the Escape was followed by "Return to Witch Mountain", and this time the treat is Christopher Lee.

Actors Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann are together in both films: this one, the original 1975 Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain, as Tia and Toony. In 2002 Ike directed a short titled "The Blair Witch Mountain Project" in which he and Kim step once again in the shoes of their characters for a mockumentary, a gift for the fans of the series. Disney did wise and decided to pay some tribute themselves - Richards portrays the roadside waitress and Eisenmann portrays the Sheriff in an upcoming film.

And while you can get your hands on the first two movies, the next two are hard to find:

In 1982 a TV-sequel was released - "Beyond Witch Mountain"

In 1995 Disney re-made the original as a TV-movie with the same title.

Witch Mountain FanSite: http://deadendinternet.com/witchmountain/

Movies #8

Today I'm going present you one of my favourite actors. I like him since I saw Star Wars for the first time at the age of 7. If I have to describe him with one sentence only I;ll probably use one of his cult lines from Star Wars - "Charming to the last". Years later I watched him in "Horror Express" together with Christopher Lee. I think this was the movie which introduced the Hammer Horrors to me. So when I had to present a homework in the Uni on British Culture I decided to talk about Peter Cushing and his movies. The text bellow is gathered from various sources on the net.

Visit:
http://www.petercushing.com/
http://www.petercushing.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cushing

Peter Cushing

Peter Wilton Cushing was born on 27 May 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, in England. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey by his mother Nellie Marie and father George Edward, who was a quantity surveyor. At an early age Cushing was attracted to acting, inspired by his favorite aunt, who was a stage actress. While at school Cushing pursued his interest in acting and also in drawing - He was an artist, skilled in drawing and painting; as a young struggling actor, he supplemented his income by selling scarves that he hand-painted and later, as an established actor, had showings of his water colors. His sketch of Sherlock Holmes became the official logo for the Northern Musgraves, a British Sherlock Holmes society. At this time he also dabbled in local amateur theater until moving to London to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on scholarship. He then performed in repertory theater, deciding in 1939 to head for Hollywood, where he made his film debut in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) directed by James Whale, a classic filmmaker of the Black and White age of the cinema, who shot masterpieces like Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man. Other Hollywood films included A Chump at Oxford (1940) with the famous comic duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Vigil in the Night (1940) and They Dare Not Love (1941). However, after a short stay, Cushing returned to England by way of New York (making brief appearances on Broadway) and Canada. Back in his homeland he contributed to the war effort during World War II - Turned down for military service on health grounds, he instead joined a theatre company that performed at military bases.

Cushing came to work with actress Helen Beck, and the two fell deeply in love. They married in 1943. After the war he performed in the West End and had his big break appearing with Laurence Olivier in the film Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing's future partner-in-horror Christopher Lee also had a bit part. Both actors also appeared in Moulin Rouge (1952) but didn't meet until their later horror films. During the 1950s Cushing became a familiar face on British television, appearing in numerous teleplays, such as 1984 (1954), as Winston Smith in the movie based on George Orwell’s novel. At the end of the decade he began his legendary association with Hammer Film Productions in its remakes of the 1930s Universal horror classics. His first Hammer roles included Dr. Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula (1958) and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959). Years later he appears on screen as the renowned detective in the classic TV series based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and once again in “Sherlock Holes and the Mask of Death” in 1984.

Cushing continued playing the roles of Drs. Frankenstein and Van Helsing, as well as taking on other horror characters, in Hammer films over the next 20 years. His film career had taken off establishing him at once as a cult hero of the horror film aficionados, with Christopher Lee as the monster. These two, along with director Terence Fisher and writer Jimmy Sangster, claimed the next ten years of horror movie making as British. Hammer was to become the most successful british film company of all time and Cushing played an integral role. He also appeared in films for the other major horror producer of the time, Amicus Productions, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and its later horror anthologies, a couple of Dr. Who films (1965, 1966), I, Monster (1971), and others. By the mid-1970s these companies had stopped production, but Cushing, firmly established as a horror star, continued in the genre for some time thereafter. When once asked about his favorite horror movie Cushing said: "Strangely enough, I don't like horror pictures at all. I love to make them because they give pleasure to people, but my favourite types of films are much more subtle than horror. I like to watch films like Bridge Over the River Kawi, The Apartment or lovely musicals." He also said: "Who wants to see me as 'Hamlet'? Very few. But millions want to see me as Frankenstein so that's the one I do. If I played Hamlet, they'd call it a horror film. People look at me as if I were some sort of monster, but I can't think why. In my macabre pictures, I have either been a monster-maker or a monster-destroyer, but never a monster. Actually, I'm a gentle fellow. Never harmed a fly. I love animals, and when I'm in the country I'm a keen bird-watcher."

In 1971, Peters beloved wife Helen died after a prolonged illness. It was a loss from which he never fully recovered. He threw himself into his work, but spent most private hours dreaming of when he and Helen would be reunited in Heaven. Peter Cushing was a deeply Christian man and attended St. Alphege Church in Whitstable, he also did extensive charity work and never failed to sign his cards and photos

Perhaps his best-known appearance outside of horror films was as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' phenomenally successful science fiction film Star Wars (1977). Prior to being cast as Tarkin in Star Wars (1977), George Lucas considered using him as Obi-Wan Kenobi (which ultimately went to Alec Guinness). Carrie Fisher said in an interview that doing her scenes with him in the Star Wars (1977) were difficult for two reasons: she thought the lines were ridiculous and she found Peter to be so polite and charming off camera that it was hard to project the sense of disdain that her character, Princess Leia, held for his character, Tarkin.

Cushing himself says about his role in Star Wars: "My criterion for accepting a role isn't based on what I would like to do. I try to consider what the audience would like to see me do and I thought kids would adore Star Wars."

Biggles (1986) (aka "Biggles: Adventures in Time") was Cushing's last film before his retirement, during which he made a few television appearances, wrote two autobiographies and pursued his hobbies of bird watching and painting.

In 1989 he was made an Officer of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the acting profession in Britain and worldwide.

Towards the end of his life - he showed no regret or remorse about the things he had or hadn't done. His only regret was losing his wife and living for over twenty years without her. So he looking on death with a faith in God and reunification with Helen in Heaven.Peter Cushing died on 11 August 1994 in Canterbury, Kent, England, UK at the age of 81 with more than 130 movies in his filmography.

After he died, his colleague and close friend Christopher Lee said in an interview that he never felt closer and more open to any of his other friends than he felt to Peter.

Peter Cushing was one of those actors who took great pride in the work he did and it shows with each performance. His mere presence in a film was enough to guarantee it being an enjoyable experience.