Top 11 Animated Movies

After seven months, my dad finally updated his blog, woot! We were talking about blog topics last night and he came up with the idea of his favorite eleven things in a category (authors, movies, etc.) since it's 2011. I thought this was a great idea, so I hope he doesn't mind if I steal- I mean, borrow, it. You're a trendsetter, Daddy! So here's my Top 11 Animated Movies, since I've been in a major Disney mood for the past few days. These aren't in any particular order, but the next Top 11 should be.

Top 11 Animated movies

1. Swan Princess: I grew up on this movie, and it’s such a beautiful story. Yes, it’s the damsel in distress storyline with the handsome prince who saves her, talking animals, magic, and singing, but I think the love story is actually kind of logical. Two kids who started out hating each other and then growing to fall in love? Beautiful. And the soundtrack is great; fun little tracks and the beautiful love song “Far Longer than Forever”. I love Disney, but this is my all-time favorite movie.

2. Lion King: Ah!!! This is paradise for an animal lover like myself. This movie appealed to me in every way: talking animals, wonderful songs, and it was set in Africa. My inner black kid rejoiced. I don’t think there’s a character I don’t like, except maybe Timon and Pumbaa. Same situation with the soundtrack (except for “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”). This movie exposed me to the wonderful Elton John, who I will probably live in awe of purely for “The Circle of Life” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”

3. Prince of Egypt: I normally can’t stand bible movies, I really can’t, but this one blew me away musically and visually. This is the only time where I’d rather watch the movie than read the book, because Dreamworks made Moses’ story pretty epic. I've been enamored with Egypt ever since I saw it. The soundtrack was marvelous. Every. Single. Song. Pwned. The movie was visually stunning as well. Too bad Joseph King of Dreams failed to measure up.

4. Hercules: This inspired my life-long love for Greece. It's inaccurate, but still a wonderful story with a great soundtrack and fun trials. Hades was fantastic; he's never looked more fun. Michael Bolton, the vocal love of my life, recorded a track for it. Oh yeah.

5. Beauty and the Beast: Oh wow. Two years ago I could’ve cared less about this movie. Then I watched it again and the adult in me was floored. I guess as a kid I was just mad that Belle wasn’t a real princess and I was always compared to her, so I kind of held a grudge against her for that. But after I watched it as an adult, I feel honored for the comparison. Not only is she brunette, she’s smart, brave, loves to read, and loyal to the very, very end. It was such a beautiful story.

6. The Little Mermaid: Another Disney flick, yes, but I grew up in the Disney Renaissance. The Little Mermaid was a cute movie. I didn’t care for the songs too much, but both Ariel and Eric were different from the princes and princesses I usually saw, so I liked them a lot, and still do. I think I’ve always been behind King Triton too, ‘cause even as a child I think, I knew he had a point. A sixteen-year old isn’t old enough to get married. Whatever, they’re cartoons.

7. Mulan: Asians. That’s all I have to say. Plus it’s a girl pretty much owning the manliest character in the movie. Win.

8. Aladdin: I realized something. I love ethnic Disney movies. Jasmine was gorgeous, Jafar was hot (dinosaur, I know, I’m creepy), and the soundtrack was good. Of course, I only like “A Whole New World”, and I accept that. Apparently this is the movie I learned how to work the VCR with and as a toddler, I made my family hate this movie. Maybe this is why the South hates Arabians…

9. My Neighbor Totoro: WIN. Ties with Swan Princess for my favorite. My dad and I bought this movie when I was but a small child at our local Half Price books and we’ve loved it ever since. I show it to everyone I know that owns a VCR and even have a stuffed Catbus. This introduced me to the amazingly wonderful Hayato Miyazaki, who has created many other beautiful anime movies. Ugh, love him. I think I’d marry him if I could, just for Totoro.

10. Quest for Camelot: It came during the time where Disney movies with princesses and strong female characters were ruling the animated world and, like Swan Princess and Thumbelina, it was confused by many kids as a Disney movie. This movie is probably why I’m not as girly as I should be. Kayley is a girl who looks up to her dad and wants to become a knight, which was pretty much me when I was five. This movie was the only time I’ve ever liked Britain. Except for Harry Potter and Ben Barnes.

11. Nightmare Before Christmas: EPIC WIN. It’s probably the only movie that could beat Swan Princess and My Neighbor Totoro. I’ve grown up with this movie for 18 years now and it’s a major component of who I am today. Whenever I came to my grandparents as a kid, we’d go to Blockbuster and I always picked NMBC. It took me 17 years, but I finally got my own copy!! When I was a kid (and still to this day) if I couldn’t be Santa Claus, I wanted to be the Pumpkin King. On second thought, I’d rather be the Pumpkin King. Jack Skellington made Santa cool.

Honorable mentions: Rock-A-Doodle, Thumbelina, 101 Dalmatians, and Oliver and Company.

Robbie Rosen: One of AI's new recruits

I had to blog about it. Last night I watched American Idol's season 10 premiere. I quit the show after Chris Daughtry got kicked off and haven't watched it since, but I'm tuning in this season because, well, Steve Tyler's hot. I know, he's a dinosaur, but I'm never seen a T-Rex look that good.
So far, I like Steve as a judge. He's honest and doesn't hold back, but Jennifer Lopez kind of needs to calm down and it looks like she's trying to run things. Randy was Randy, and I rarely have a problem with that. I like this panel. It will never be the Holy Trio that was Simon-Paula-Randy, but it will do.
Finally, the whole point of this post. There was this 16 year old named Robbie Rosen who is absolutely adorable. He wasn't "I need to marry him" cute, but "Aw! I want to adopt you!" cute. He seemed so excited and so confident in his abilities that I knew if he sucked, I would cry. Luckily for me, the moment he opened his mouth and sang was the best moment of the show so far. He auditioned with The Beatle's "Yesterday" and everyone was floored. Of course, he got a ticket, and it would've been a crime if he didn't. He's my favorite to win, hands down. Check him out on this vid.

Beastly

If you keep up with my Twitter, you've probably noticed that aside from commenting on the weekly WWE Raw episodes, I've been raving about this movie coming out called Beastly, starring some British kid named Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens and also features Neil Patrick Harris and Mary-Kate Olsen.
Let me complain about casting for a minute. I don't have any real beef with Vanessa Hudgens, but she's usually put in the same category as Miley Cyrus and other Disney starlets, so I immediately cringe and start to scream at the casting directors for selling out, which is unfair I admit. And I'm starting to get tired of British actors coming over with the American accents and taking American roles. Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia are fine because they're all British, but have you noticed a trend in Hollywood? R.Patz, Andrew Garfield (the new Spiderman), and this Pettyfer kid (who is also the new "hunk" from that alien movie, I Am Number Four) are getting all this American attention. We have good, non-Disney actors who could fill these parts, but since Cedric Diggory came to America and started biting people, the Brits are getting national attention and appearing on movie posters everywhere. People are like "Hey, the British accent is hot now. Let's put you in a movie. Would you like some pudding?" It's a bit much now. We fought too hard for independence, you guys. Can we please stick to it?
On another note, I love NPH and am glad to see Mary-Kate back in something worth paying attention to. I've missed the Olsen sisters and am excited to see Mary-Kate on the big screen where she belongs.
Now for the story: it's a modern version of Beauty and the Beast, but more in the beast's perspective. I know, it pretty much ruined the plot, but I promise it's going to be worth the money to go see it. Watching the trailer made me cry. It's going to be beautiful!! If there's not a midnight premier, I'm going the first day.

Whew!!

Because it's so cold, I originally decided not to worry about hardcore working out until around March, but Brandon's Just Dance 2 game for the Wii kind of shattered my plans. I've playing around on it lately and not only is it crazy fun, it's a bit of a workout! It tricks you by having dances to these great songs and makes you think "Ooh! I have to do this one and this one and...." but three songs later you're panting, sweating a bit, and having the argument between your tired body that wants to take a break and the child in you that's screaming "Aah! It has Pussycat Dolls too! Let's do one more!" I figure that I'll probably keep doing this during the day and when March rolls around I'll include the kick-boxing DVD too. I'm gonna look good after all this work hopefully. People complain that videogames encourage obesity and discourages exercising, but then companies bust out with stuff like this that is addicting and healthy. Maybe instead of sitting on the computer and complaining about it, they could pick up a Wii controller and burn some calories with the rest of us :).

Man attacked by children on the Metro

Last night, I saw a video of a D.C. man getting attacked by a couple of kids while trying to read a book on the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station. And when I say kids, I mean they supposedly looked between 11 and 12. He was trying to read and one of the kids hit him on the back of the head; then a girl started hitting him while others jeered and laughed. This whole ordeal gave him bruises, scratches, a knot on his head, and some bleeding. The most disgusting part of all of this? Many saw, no one helped, and the man was forced to come to his own rescue and get help. Oh, people recorded the attack on their phones, but no one bothered to use those handy phones to call, hm, I don't know, 911, or go and press the emergency button.
I don't know about everyone else, but let some twelve year old kid hit me on the back of the head and his little friend try to join in. No one could save those kids fast enough. And how is no one going to help? I can understand not getting physically involved or even not taking it seriously at first when they see that kids are behind it, but that guy got seriously hurt, and that could have easily been prevented. Whether it was planned or random, it wasn't funny at all. Someone got hurt, and no one had the decency to at least alert a metro worker.
You can read the story here.

New Year's Post

It's the first post of 2011!! I hope everyone had a good New Year's, because I sure did. During the first moment of the new year, I was watching Edge of Darkness with Kathleen and our first meal was Taco Bell.
I've decided against New Year's resolutions. They're hard to keep up with and usually wind up never getting done. So I'm just going to have some new rules instead, so I can hopefully have a less complicated year this time.

Kayla's Rules of 2011
1. No smoking in the car: I don't smoke, but I have friends who, after a certain period of time, made my car smell horrible, and Shuyin deserves better than that. So no more smoking in my baby.
2. No phone calls while on vacation: I can't tell you how many times I've been on a vacation high, only to be brought down by a few certain people calling me and ruining my mood. So I've made the decision that if someone's not in the hospital or someone's not messing with my things, then it's not important to call me about while I'm on vacation.
3. No unnecessary drama: The pretty much pertains to one person. Sorry, but if it doesn't affect my circle, I'm not getting involved or even talking about it.
4. Not so much rushing: I'm tired of being rushed into things, whether it's a relationship I'm still not sure about or some kind of life plan. I'll figure it out on my own time and at my own pace, and that's just how it's going to be.
5. I'm having fun: I really don't have enough fun these days. It's making me a jerk. So I'm going to go out there and have a good time, within reason. Hm, I guess this could be counted as a resolution.