Author Archives: newiilson

The Misselthwaite Archives Adapts The Secret Garden on YouTube

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With mother’s day just passing, I find myself reminiscing and missing more the things I use to do with my mom rather than past ways we celebrated the holiday. One of my fondest—and also possibly the nerdiest—is when we use to go to the library to rent VHS tapes. They were free but there was a limit of how many you could take out at a time and we were each allowed to pick just two of three. You might think two or three is a relatively large number for a nine year old but when you live in a house without cable a VHS tape is worth more in its ounces than gold!

My point is that it was on one of these public library treasure hunts that I first stumbled across The Secret Garden, an enchanting mysterious tale of a young girl who befriends a sickly boy and has magical adventures in a long forgotten garden. I watched the movie, completely enchanted to the point where I ended up having my mom hunt down the book for me and it is a piece of literature that I still re-read today as a twenty-something.

It seemed like a wonderful splash of serendipity when I found The Misselthwaite Archives—a web series adaptation of that same beloved novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s that recreates the characters in a fresh modern way—on Youtube.

I was drawn in almost immediately when I realized this inventive adaptation bumps the characters ages up from adolescents to disgruntled teens, swaps a manor for an academy and the cholera that kills the original heroine’s family for a sudden accidental car crash.

I normally shy away from modern takes on classic tales, but this looks good—really good—and I’m actually kind of giddy that I found it while it’s still airing weekly!

Watch new episodes Wednesdays and Fridays at 9am on YouTube, and find all their multimedia accounts at MisselthwaiteArchives.com.

GOJIRA!

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Spanish_Godzilla_2014_Poster“Damn, I love the sound of Godzilla’s roar,” was the first thing my husband said as we walked out of the movie theater, and I have to admit it was pretty badass. I was extremely excited for this movie, which is kind of ironic since I was only introduced to Godzilla in college. My introductory film was Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992). I never thought a moth would be such a viable villain, but it was amazing and every Butterfree butterfly Pokémon I ever played has been hence forth named “Mothra”.

Some of my favorite moments were pretty classic; the slow emergence from the sea, the charging tail, the surprisingly parallels between Godzilla and Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character and even a heart wrenching moment when the female MUTO’s babies are killed, but I was also impressed with the plot. The film begins with us seeing an old skeleton of a monster (later coined MUTO) and some dried out egg sacks. Then we skip forward to a mysterious radio active steam explosion in a nuclear plant that kills a few scientists and renders the city inhabitable.

This ties into the discovery of a pair of MUTO no one thought was had survived having a San Franciscan romance. There were so many little touches, and some character arching that made the movie feel just a tad more satisfying then if it had just been fight scenes, interesting relationships between the characters and back-story that made it logical for the characters paths to cross and intertwine.

There was a very nice group of well-known actors: Elizabeth Olsen (Silent House), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass 2), Ken Watanabe (The Last Samuri), Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) and of course I’d be ridiculously neglectful if I didn’t mention Bryan Cranston (Malcom in the Middle, Breaking Bad). The only weird thing about the acting was that Ken Watanabe played this introverted scientist. He mumbled a lot and leaned on things looking gloomy and forlorn and didn’t really do or say much. However, he was an expert of sorts on the history of Godzilla and past MUTOs so it made sense for him to be there.

I could’ve used more Godzilla smash scenes, but then again, I don’t think there could ever be enough of that. To be fair, there was quite a bit and the director had this way of showing just a little taste of Godzilla fighting before cutting away to something else. I really enjoyed those teasers and the fight scenes kept getting longer and more detailed, leading up to the mega fight scene that is a classic cannon ending.

The monster’s themselves looked believable, nothing bulky or awkward. It was actually very realistic looking and I can appreciate that attention to detail. Even simple things like when Godzilla dived under arm ships; it created a wave that rocked the ships. I know I’m gushing and fan-girling a bit, but it was just so well done! Overall I was very pleased and (if you couldn’t have guessed) I am extremely in favor of future films and the revival of the Godzilla movie franchise.