Tag: Disney

The legend of Zelda (NES) review

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Before I begin this blog I would like to apologise for my lack of blogs over the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot on my mind recently and this has caused me to really not be in the mood or in a comfortable atmosphere to write decent blogs or reviews.

Over the years we have had a lot of very impressive Nintendo titles especially from my personal favourite series The Legend of Zelda. As much as the series is still really fun I do sometimes feel that the games are losing the sense of adventure the original games had to offer and this really sucks because gamers of our generation are not experiencing the Zelda games the same way a lot of us did when we was younger, due to this I feel that most gamers don’t realise just how far back the Zelda video game series goes. So today I want to share my experiences and adventure I had when I first played The Legend of Zelda for the NES.

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First of all I think this is a good time to mention that the Legend of Zelda is one of the very few NES games which allowed players to save their data and trust me in this game having the feature is definitely  useful as the game can take a long time to beat the first few times. This is due to the massive size of the over world which I find to be very impressive especially for an NES game.

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This game got a lot of advertisement when it first came out but the most noticeable advertisement was a rap, this video is hilarious but take note when the cool kid says “Woah nice graphics”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI3rO3PbYOo

Now don’t get me wrong It think the game looks great, there is plenty of enemies to fight and I can happily say that with the NES having a limited colour palette I think Nintendo did a really good job in the colour department. The graphics actually do look smooth in some areas of the game but as much as I really like the enemy colour palettes, I do wish there more variety on colour in the dungeons and over world because this game does suffer from a similar issue to the original Super Mario Bros where the colours and environments do seem to repeat themselves a lot of the time, but that may be because the game is meant to confuse player in order to give them a bigger sense of adventure.

Speaking of enemies some of my favourites include

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Darknuts

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Ghini’s

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Ghibdo’s

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Keese

 

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Ropes

 

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And the creepy but very mysterious Pols Voice

A little fact about Pols voice: Pols voice are afraid of loud noises, in the European and USA version of the game nothing could be done to scare the Pols voice but in the Japanese version the player could make a noise into the Famicoms Microphone to stun the Pols voice.

These are just a few of the enemy names, as you can tell it is all a bit weird but Nintendo obviously liked this Idea because they kept the enemy names for future titles.

The music in this game is very good, but I do feel that just like the original Super Mario bros that it lacks music tracks. I may be being nit picky here but I find the music to get very annoying especially the over world music as this is the music you mostly hear in the game. To my knowledge the game only has three tracks not including the end credits the over world theme, the dungeon theme and Ganons dungeon theme.

Throughout the game the player will need to find specific items in order to proceed throughout the world and these items are not always so easy to find because most of them require link to bomb a wall but there is no indication of what walls to bomb so a lot of time it will be trial and error.

The game consists of 8 dungeons before you can finally take on the final dungeon to face the final boss.

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As an old school gamer I have played most of the classic Nintendo games but personally I find this to be one of my favourites to play through time and time again. The sense of adventure this game provides is amazing. I highly recommend this one to any old school gamers but chances are that most of you have already played this game and if so why not boot your old Nintendo’s and play it again.

A little Fun Fact: Did you know that The legend of Zelda was inspired by Walt Disney’s Peter Pan. Pretty cool right

Hope you enjoyed this review

This review was written by Dan (Padawan)

Walt Disney’s Bambi Review

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Released in 1942 by Walt Disney, Bambi really is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Just looking at the first few frames of the movie really helps show the amount of effort Disney put into Bambi and the animation they produced really helped bring the movie to life. 

ImageBambi is about a young fawn (Baby Deer) called Bambi, The whole movie is pretty much the story of Bambi growing up but the movie really does make the audience feel like this is a real wild animal and before you complain that the movie is too cutesy at the beginning I have only one thing to say ITS A BABY OF COURSE ITS GOING TO BE CUTE !!. 

Bambi provides its audience with some beautiful background work and some very good character development all the animals really do seem like their real animals for example Bambi has two main friends in the movie A rabbit called Thumper and a Skunk called Flower which turned out to be a dude which was a big surprise. Thumper is very similar to an actual rabbit because of the way he acts and because he thumps his foot just like a what an actual rabbit does when feeling certain emotions such as excitement or fear. Flower is very shy and hardly comes out to play, as you may know skunks are not very sociable creatures and feel threatened very often so its not often that a skunk will come out of hiding, Disney decided to make the skunk very bashful I guess this was so that children watching the film didn’t feel like the skunk was afraid or upset.

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At the moment the movie may seem very girly but I can assure you that by the second half the movie really starts to pick up with some very well designed action sequences. This mostly happens after that infamous scene which made children all over the world cry

By far apart from the animation my favourite part of Bambi is most definitely the music, The character Bambi actually has music for everything it does as if the music is part of Bambi himself as a baby the music is very soothing and almost comical but as Bambi grows up Bambi’s music changes to a more intense level and this helps show the changes that Bambi has to make in order to survive by himself in the wild. Even the rain and the wind has its own music my particular favourite is the song little april showers which plays during the raining scene, each drop of rain is a new note in the song and this helps give of a really cool and rather clever effect. 

Bambi is beautiful movie but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone only to people who can appreciate cinema for other things other than story. Don’t get me wrong Bambi has a great story but I feel that everything else deserves more appreciation from the critics because of how well it is all executed. You can clearly tell that this is a Disney movie and personally I think its one which is definitely worthy of being called a classic

Hope you enjoyed this blog

This blog was written by Dan (Padawan)

Aladdin (Genesis/Mega Drive) Review

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Their have been a lot Aladdin games made since its release in 1993 but the two best selling Aladdin games always seem to cause arguments among fans. When it comes to video games the biggest debate is what was better Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis and a subject often brought up is the Aladdin games people still to this day will argue which version is better the super Nintendo platforming adventure game or the sword fighting action platformer on the Genesis. I was a sega kid growing up and I feel the super Nintendo version gets way to much praise (yes I have played it all the way through) so today I will review and try to defend the Aladdin game I grew up with.

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What I love

A lot of classic licenced games are just a way for developers to make money so the arrangement of levels didnt really matter as long as developers made money and the kids are quiet right?  Wrong this ruined video game experiences for me as a kid because if I was playing a game based on one of my favourite movies I wanted the levels to be in the same order as in the movie so that I got a fun experience which made sense. Aladdin kind of did this and by that I mean yeah the levels are in the correct order for the most part but some levels in the game didn’t make sense as they didn’t follow the movie at all, for example their is a stage in the desert where aladdin needs to find the scarab to open the cave of wonders but according to the film Jafar already had the scarab. This does annoy me but to be honest it doesn’t annoy me that much because there isnt many stages like this in the game and like I said for the most part the level order is spot on.

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For me the best aspect of the game is the animation, sure the super Nintendo version looked gorgeous and was burting with colour while the Genesis version was kind of MS DOS looking with very faded colours. The Genesis version did have one advantage in the graphics department though and that was the realistic animation on all of the character’s, honest to god the animation in this game is amazing for a Genesis game, nthe characters have real looking movements which help bring the game to life allowing to game to feel like your in the movie, Every thing from jumping on a camel, running over hot coal to cutting an apple in half just looks awesome and this is something the super Nintendo version didn’t do so well.

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What I didn’t love so much

You know I said that the overall look of the game is kind of MS DOS looking well sadly I have two gripes about the music in this game the first problem is that the songs are in the wrong order so that kind of ruins the experience and to top it all off the music sounds very MS DOS and this can get really and annoying, really fast. On the bright side it isnt as atrocious as that final stage music in Mc Kids which usually causes me to mute the tv.

My second problem is that the developers werent that creative when it came level design, this caused the game to be very boring and ugly compared to the super Nintendo version. The genie level is a great example to use because its a level which can have no limits. Below is a comparison of both games

Super Nintendo

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Genesis

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My final complaint is that unlike the super Nintendo version the Genesis version has no save feature or password system. This game isnt easy so not having these features is not the best idea since this is supposed to be a children’s game and since the game is pretty short (the ending is lame by the way) it may have been fair to have unlimited continues, but you can gameover in this game and if you do its back to square one, the games awful platforming does not help. You can buy continues (wishes) and lives from the selling dude, but come on kids don’t want buy stuff they just want to progress and kill things.

And that just about wraps up my review, Aladdin on the Gensis is a great game which does have its fair share of flaws
I’m going to rate aladdin a 7/10 a great game which could have been a lot better. Oh and as much as I love this game I will agree  that the super Nintendo version is the better version of the game but at the end of the day the super Nintendo version was made by Capcom while the Genesis version was made by Virgin games so what did you expect.

I hope you enjoyed this blog
This blog was written by Dan (Padawan)

Three actual endings to some Disney Classics

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The Little Mermaid

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Disney Ending

Ariel is a mermaid who wants to be human and after what appears to be an entire movie trying to do this she makes a deal with an evil sea witch called Ursula. Ursula turns Ariel into a human but if she doesn’t find and kiss her prince within three days she will become one of Ursula’s slaves. Ariel doesn’t manage to do this and then gets captured by the sea witch, her father king Triton takes Ariel’s place, because of this Ursula gets hold of the crown and becomes what appears to be an evil Goddess but unluckily for her Prince Eric drives a ships broken bow right through her stomach. With Ursula defeated Triton turns Ariel into a human again and Ariel and Eric get married.

Actual Ending

The evil sea witch splits the mermaid’s tail in two and when she goes on land she pours blood everywhere, the prince finds this to be pretty funny and makes the mermaid dance for him while she suffers humiliation and pain. The Prince is to marry another woman and if he does the mermaid will dissolve, in order to save herself the mermaid must convince the prince that she saved his life. Unfortunately the mermaid doesn’t succeed and is told that she can save herself from a nasty fate if she proceeds to murder the prince. The mermaid disagrees and returns to the sea which leads to her dissolving.

The fox and the hound

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Disney Ending

The fox and the hound ends with Copper the hound protecting his childhood friend Todd the fox from his master. Todd then goes and settles down with a vixen while Copper carries on his life as a happy working dog.

Actual Ending

In the book the hound is a blood thirsty beast who wants revenge on the fox for the death of one of his fellow hounds during a hunt. Once the hound sniffs out the fox’s home the hounds master proceeds to kill both the fox’s vixen and her cubs. The hound proceeds to chase down the fox until the fox eventually dies of exhaustion, the hound and his master go home but the master shoots the hound because a child got infected by rabies and the hound was to blame. The master was then sent to a rest home.

Hunchback of Notre Dame

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Frollo proceeds to set the Gypsy Esmeralda on fire while Quasimodo is chained to his bell tower in perfect view of the deed, using a combination of his strength and his anger Quasimodo breaks free and rescues Esmeralda, Phoebus proceeds to smash the crap out things and Frollo meets his fate when he is cast into the fires of Paris. With frollo defeated Quasimodo realises that Esmeralda is way out of his league and so he gives her Phoebus, Quasimodo is then carried though Paris and celebrated for his heroic deeds.

Actual Ending

Esmeralda has three potential suitors and no Quasimodo is not one them because she is quite clear when she tells him that he is a hideous beast, one of the suitors happens to be Phoebus who eventually wins her heart and gets his way with her. Frollo stabs Phoebus in the back (he doesn’t die) and blames Esmeralda for the deed, Esmeralda is hung by the neck until death in the public square for all to see. Quasimodo throws Frollo from the top of the cathedral and then proceeds to climb into Esmeralda’s grave, curls up with her body and then starves to death.

 

Well there you have it Disney really can make the most horrible of things magical and nice, but these are not the only stories Disney have changed and I can’t wait to share some more endings with you however I can’t do that until I have read the books so until then.

I hope you enjoyed this blog

This blog was written by Dan (Padawan)

Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo review

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When it comes to easter there is only one animated movie which springs to my mind, Ive always wondered why easter is the most unpopular holiday to have animated movies. Christmas and Halloween have got loads of animated movies so why not easter? Oh well I guess I will just have to review the only one I can think of Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo
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Springtime with Roo is about Roo wanting to celebrate Easter with all of his friends. Roo and the gang all go to Rabbits house so they can get the annual Easter decorations that they use every year, problem is that Rabbit wants to celebrate Spring Cleaning Day instead so he cancels Easter forever for his own selfish needs and he makes everyone clean his house. Later on we find out that Rabbit canceled eater because last year no one followed his schedule and did things how they wanted, so they could make sure that Roo had a great first Easter, everyone left Rabbit and did the Easer egg hunt without him. The movie now turns into Charles Dickens tale and all of Rabbits friends have left home because they are fed up with Rabbits attitude,  Rabbit is upset and begs for a second chance, he wakes up the next morning and realises that isnt too late to save Easter. I won’t say no more but if you are familiar with the story of Scrooge then you already know how the story is going to end.

I’m not going to lie after buying this on eBay and looking at the cover I wasnt expecting a lot from this movie especially since it never got a theatrical release. I wasnt expecting a lot but I wasnt expecting it too suck either. There is nothing about this movie which makes it worth seeing , the animation is mediocre, the songs are annoying and overall the movie is just boring. If you want to see a decent Winnie the Pooh movie go and watch the Grand of adventures of Winnie the Pooh or even the Tigger Movie but I defiantly wouldnt watch this one.
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If both Tigger and Piglet got half decent movies then its only fair that Roo does too, and where the hell Owl in this movie?  Did he die or something I guess he was pretty old, but come on Owl is quite a big character in world of Winnie Pooh some indication of his where abouts would have been nice.

I hope you enjoyed this Raggle Fraggle Review
Have a great easter
This blog was written by Dan (Padawan)

Walt Disneys Snow white and the seven dwarfs review

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As well as being the first animated movie by Disney Snow White and the seven dwarfs is also the first full length animated movie to ever be made so it only seems right to pay tribute to it.

Released in 1937 Snow White and the seven dwarfs is the story of a young princess called Snow White (named for having skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony). The Evil Queen gets told by her mirror that Snow White is pretty than her and the Evil Queen is not having this so she hires a hunter to kill Snow White and bring back her heart. In the mean time Snow White falls in love with a prince who quite literally only has a few lines in the whole movie and most of those lines are sung, any way the hunter finds Snow White but he won’t kill her because apparently she is to pretty and so he tells her to run away and instead he brings what I believe is the heart of a pig to the evil queen. It isnt long until the Queen finds out that Snow White is still alive and shes decides to kill Snow White herself the Evil Queen poisons an apple and takes the form of an old hag before hunting for Snow White

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Snow white finds 7 Dwarfs (Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy,Sleepy,Bashful, Dopey and Doc) and she hides out in their cavern, the Dwarfs go to work in he mines and The Evil Queen finds snow white in her hag form and she offers her he apple.

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Snow White takes a bite out of the Apple and she dies, the Queen takes off not realising that Snow White can be brought back to life with a kiss from her true love.

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For a film that came out in 1937 I have got to say I’m impressed the animation is spectacular for the time, the film has some very delightful songs and as a whole its a very enjoyable film. I recommend seeing this one not just because its a good film also because it is Walt Disneys first animated movie making it a very important part of animation history.

How to do a Disney Night

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This isnt an animated movie review but its a blog explaining this really awesome event me and my friends invented, the event is called disney night

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So what is disney night?

Disney night is an event where you and your friends watch loads of disney movies

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Now there is one rule to the movie selection, they must disney but they also must be animated disney movies the reason for this is because we as critics find there is more nostalgia in the animated classics than there is in the newer live action movies such as Pirates of the Carribean or the haunted mansion. You can however watch the live action movies if there are animated sections within the movie examples would be Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Roger Rabbit etc.

What do you need?

Disney

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This one may seem kinda obvious since the event is called disney night, I suggest a large collection or that you at least have good broadband because If you don’t personally own any Disney DVDs you can at least stream them via the internet.

Alcohol

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Having a good amount of alcohol is essential to a Disney night because even though it is fun to watch disney sober but its even more fun getting more and more drunk as each movie gets watched, oh and if your too young to drink really sugary drinks work pretty good also.

Friendship

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I gather you all have friends, if not get some because the best part of Disney night sharing all of the experiences with eachother. I don’t know if your as big of a Disney fan as me and my friends but if you are I am positive you will love Disney night as much as we do because just like Disney its also pretty magical.

This blog was written by Dan (Padawan)

Saturday animated movie review: Shrek

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Sharpen your pitchforks and light your torches because I am one of the few people who don’t like Shrek

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Story

Shrek voiced by Mike Myers is an ogre who lives a peaceful life in a swamp, Shrek is a stereotypical ogre who enjoys mud baths, eating bugs and animals, being disgusting and scaring away any villagers who try to kill him. One day Shrek finds a bunch of fairy tale creatures are living on his swamp because the evil Lord Farquad has banished them from their homes, because of this Shrek heads off on an adventure with a donkey voiced by Eddie Murphy to find Lord Farquad and to get his swamp back. Shrek finds Lord Farquad and is told that he will get his swamp back if he rescues Princess Fiona voiced by Cameron Diaz from her tower which is guarded by a ferocious dragon Shrek agrees and heads out with Donkey to rescue the princess.

So what don’t I like about this movie, well in my opinion its just boring I will agree that I like the story and there are some moments which get a laugh out of me like the part when Fiona sang to the birds and they exploded that had me in stitches when I first saw the movie and what does she do with the eggs does she raise them, no she cooks them and that’s awesome. I wish the movie had more jokes like this instead of annoying pop songs and jokes which a lot of the time don’t make sense, its like when Donkey says he is going to make waffles the entire thatre was laughing at that joke and I don’t get it, is it because he is a donkey and shouldnt be able to make waffles because he has hooves?. Another thing that annoys me is that most of the movie is Shrek and Donkey talking which could be a good thing if what they talk about most of the time had a purpose or was funny but it isnt it just drags on and annoys the hell out of me. I do on the other hand really enjoy some of the characters my particular favourite being the ginger bread man, the animation is really impressive and at the end of the movie the morale that even if someone is ugly on the outside they can be loving, caring and beautiful on the inside is executed perfectly and is a lot better than most Disney Morales.

My final verdict is that if you have not yet seen Shrek go and see it because its not a terrible film its just overated in my opinion

I do however love the sequel but I will get to that another day

I hope you have enjoyed this raggle fraggle review
This review was written by Dan
If you respect my opinion I will respect yours

Saturday animated movie review: Walt Disneys Tarzan

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Tarzan was the first movie I ever saw in the cinemas as a kid and it was also the first disney movie I had ever seen.

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Tarzan is the story of baby who lived in the jungle with his family and at the same time some gorillas also had a baby. Sadly a cheetah kills the gorilla baby and it also kills baby Tarzans parents, the mother gorilla finds baby Tarzan abandoned and so she takes baby tarzan to her gorilla partner Curshak but sadly he dosent like Tarzan as much as she does. Later on the movie skips ahead a few years and we see that tarzan is now a young man, the movie than skips ahead a few more years and Tarzan is now an adult. This is where the movie kicks in as Tarzan meets the british love of his life Jane.

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Jane had come to Africa with her father and the soon to be villain of the movie Clayton (I don’t know if their is any relationship between Clayton and Janes family) to see the Gorillas.

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Like I said Clayton is not straight away the villain until we find out that he dosent just want to see the gorillas and he actually wants to shoot them so he sell their heads and fur for money and the lenghts he goes to, to try and suceed in this.

Tarzan may not have a bad ass villain song but it does have a bunch of amazing tracks by none other than the music legend Phil Collins, some really smooth and rather impressive animation  and in my opinion one of the best story lines in disney history. If you have not yet seen Tarzan then I reccomend that you watch it.