Movies and books have to be very created in very different ways. And I don't mean the obvious. I mean the way the story is portrayed and put together. It's most obvious when they turn a book into a movie (and sometimes the reverse). The bonus features on the first Narnia movie talk about some of their decisions on turning a book into a movie. 

The pacing has to be shifted to fit the medium. They'll rearranged some scenes to maximize impact. For example, the scene where Aslan returns was shifted back until after the start of the battle. So when Peter leads the Narnians to war, you don't know that Aslan will be coming to their aid (also, I had this suspicion which was confirmed when I watched the bonus features - the White Witch takes the mane she cut off of Aslan and wears it as a collar during the battle). 

Inevitably the filmmakers have to leave some scenes out, for timing. And sometimes they'll add scenes to make certain things clearer. In this case, they added the entire battle scene that was only mentioned briefly in the book. And they did a great job (which I can't say of the second Narnia movie). The battle shows Peter and Edmund fighting and earning the right to lead this kingdom.

They often add little visual details too. For example, the White Witch's ice crown slowly melts throughout the film. 

They also don't tell you that Aslan is a lion. If you're not familiar with the books, you wouldn't know until he first appears. Which gives his introduction more impact.

And despite all of the differences between visual and written media, I still love to study movies and shows for ideas. It will never be the same, but there is often some sort of inspiration!

Spring Fever

Beautiful weather after lots of rain. Reading books by great nature writers. 

The consequence? 

Crazy spring fever. Some of it's faded now, but I was ready to take to the hills for a while. It's still tempting. I've done a ton of work in the garden, which fulfilled a little of that desire to get out. 

Just going for a walk isn't really enough. It's pretty, but you don't get immersed in anything. You just pass through it.

I always roll my eyes when I'm listening to an audio book, and they mispronounce words.  It makes you think that the reader doesn't really know what they're reading about.

Magellanic penguin

 

Pink-backed pelican

Chilean flamingo

Roseate spoonbill

A Chance to Study

I rarely reread books. There's just too many new ones I'm trying to get to! 

But I recently reread the beginning of Mistborn. I really have to reread things. It's a great way to study the writing. 

(Me stating the obvious) 

 

It's been a while, so here's a couple zoo photos

Tiger salamander

A wood cockroach finishing the molt into its adult form.

A Big Name Change

I've been thinking for a long time about changing the name of my Pokémon fanfic. I resisted for a while, but it was inevitable. The name never fit. It came from an old idea that was too overdone-all that "chosen one" stuff, which I luckily left out. There are some good "chosen ones" out there, but it's no good for what I have. 

It took a long time to build up the courage to decide that I was really going to change the name. After all, I'd been using it (goes to check my fanfic account) since 2009. 

And then I actually had to come up with the new name. I did tons of brainstorming. I wanted to keep "Path" in there somewhere, since that's usually how I referred to it, and I like the imagery of the path, both literal, and figurative. For all my brainstorming, nothing seemed quite right. And then randomly something popped into my head. "Sheltering Path." That was more like it. It implies protecting and caring for. Which is something they certainly have to learn about on their journey (from naive kids who have no business raising a Gyarados, but do anyway, until they gain the strength to help protect those around them, and even challenge the common ways of catching Pokémon). 

So, I just went through my documents and websites and changed all of the titles from "Path of the Chosen" to "Sheltering Path." It's now official!

We'll see how it goes!

Q=Ch?

When I read Japanese words that are spelled with English letters, the pronunciation makes sense. At least for the most part - there is an occasional silent letter. But the Japanese words still make a lot more sense to read aloud than actual English words.

But seriously, who assigned English letters to Chinese words? For example, when I first saw Big Fish and Begonia, I thought the boy's name was Cho. And then I saw it written down as "Qiu."

Why didn't they just use "ch?" I've seen q used a few places, so it's not just a one-time thing. 

(Is there a way English has tried to refer to the tonal parts of words? That would be cool)

The Nowhere King

So I just watched a..... really strange Netflix show called Centaurworld. (Spoilers)

The opening was really intense and set the scene for great battles to save worlds. (First 4 minutes and 40 seconds of the show).

And then horse falls into another world and spends the next season trying to get back to her Rider. 

You know, I like some weirdness. But this one was too weird for me. I'm not even sure why I kept watching it. Season 1 was filled with bizarre creatures that have conversations with their own farts, and so on. There were important messages in it, but it was hard to take some of them seriously. The "Taurnado" song was really cool (And "Where does Food Come From" got stuck in my head for far too long). During this season, Horse goes from being a powerful warhorse to a "wibbly wobbly" cartoony horse. 

 At the end of season 1 (Episode 9 starting at 14:10) Horse finally makes it back to rider. And then follows a truly touching reunion.

Then the villain appears. 

And man, this is one freaky monster. And the song. It's brilliantly creepy. The melody is so lovely. But the words are so dark, and the music box background is off-key and sets your teeth on edge. 

Ooh, shivers. Awesome. 

Horse and Rider escape, and there's another season where humans and centaurs building their forces to fight the Nowhere King. Man, it twas so cringy that they just left that knife in Stabby's back the whole time. Yeah he had been a monster, but still. (And is Becky Apples going to become wibbly wobbly too if she stays in Centaurworld?)

Then in the last episode, we find out where the Nowhere King came from. It was awesome.

The elktaur is so normal looking compared to the other centaurs (though I like the designs for Wammawink and Zulius). I love watching his animation. He's both cute (his front half) and elegant (his elk half), even though he doesn't seem to see any of his own good sides.  Did he saw off his own antlers to look more normal? Elk do shed their antlers, but it doesn't seem that's what happened this time. 

Anyway, the Nowhere King's back story was really impressive. I was glad I watched through the show, just to see the monster and his origin.