Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Ransom Riggs did a great work writing the New York Times best seller book Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and I can’t imagine someone else but Tim Burton as director of the film with the same name.

Jake is a boy that has a very close relationship with his grandpa, that used to tell him wonderful and scary goodnight stories about his childhood during World War II; grandpa Abe told Jake about a place where everyone could be themselves, a place for peculiar children, children with paranormal abilities, run by the wise and good Miss Peregrine, a woman with the peculiarity of being able to transmute in a beautiful bird, and also, she can manipulate time!  But, he also told Jake about horrific monsters that chased them, so they could not live a peaceful life.

Unfortunately, grandpa Abe dies in mysterious ways and Jake cannot get over it. So he decides, with the help of his psychologist, to make the trip that will change his life, the travels to Wales with his dad to investigate and find out more about the children’s home. Maybe, it wasn’t only goodnight stories his grandpa told him?

Once again Eva Green did a great work playing the role of Miss Peregrine; but, there is also other amazing actors in this movie, like Samuel L. Jackson, Terence Stamp and Judi Dench.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for peculiar Children is one of the most seen movies in 2016 worldwide.

This is a movie with lots of hidden meanings, and I loved all the locations. The beautiful Wales landscapes and the wonderful castle – home for children, with its magic green garden.

Frankenweenie

This is a beautiful, sweet, dark, 3D stop-motion animated film directed by Tim Burton and clearly inspired by Mary Shelley’s horror novel Frankenstein.

What makes the movie beautiful is that it’s entirely made in black and white, but you’re so focused on the plot that you forget that there are no colors while you’re watching.

Here Burton analyzes feelings like friendship between animals and humans, loneliness and the important balance between science and faith.

Victor is a strange boy with no friends and a huge interest for science. His only friend is his dog Sparky. But Sparky dies in an in an accident, and Victor cannot accept that.

He wants his friend back, so he uses his scientific abilities to resurrect the dog. The dog comes back, but things will not go as Victor expected, and at the end he just has to face the fact that things changes.

In an interview Burton explained that this is one of his most autobiographical movies, and that he was like Victor when he was a little boy.

Once again Danny Elfman did a great work with the score of the movie, and on September 2012 Frankenweenie: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records, winning the Saturn Awards as Best Music in Animated Film.

Frankenweenie’s Award nominations and won prices are countless.

 

 

 

 

Dark Shadows

If you’re searching for a strange, but funny and dark film, this is the case. Dark Shadows is once a time a mystic and very clever work by the brilliant director Tim Burton, played by many talented actors, such as Johnny Depp, Eva Green and Michelle Pfeiffer. Burton’s style is evident, but he always manages to make unique movies.

This is the story of the vampire Barnabas Collins, a very old vampire imprisoned in a coffin by his jealous ex-lover and witch Angelique. Most of the story is set in a beautiful dark and spooky mansion, where the cousin of the protagonist lives with the rest of his family.

Dark Shadows has not a linear plot, so it may seem a bit confusing, but that’s what makes the film unique. I think that the film focuses more on the story, and on how the characters react to different experiences; every character reflects a different human aspect and different feelings. The story is powerful and very funny at times. The movie has received mixed reviews.

Another collaboration with the great Elfman that scored the film is a plus. An entire album of all the tracks from the film was released in 2012; and obviously you can hear most of the music during the film, really amazing.

Also, this gothic horror comedy film is based on a soap opera of the same name of 1966, that had some of the same features, such as melodramatic performances and numerous dramatic plot twists.

If someone is interested in watching it, here is the trailer: 

 

Halloween Must-See: The Addams Family

This is a brilliant show that can be considered a real classic Gothic Horror TV series. If you have not seen it yet, you just have to, and this is the perfect period; The Addams Family is an iconic TV show, and its enduring popularity had led to numerous references in popular culture, and has inspired artwork, music, films, games and musicals.

 

Charles Addams (1912 – 1988), has become one of the most popular American cartoonists after creating the first sketches of The Addams Family in 1938, that was published for the first time in the American magazine of reportage and satire The New Yorker. His idea was that of creating a satirical inversion of the classical American family, but with darkly humorous and macabre characters. The family lives near a graveyard in a Victorian mansion, sharing macabre interests. But, they are not depicted as an evil family, on the opposite, they are very kind with each other, and friendly with their visitors; the only thing is that they are very strange. And that’s the feature that makes this TV show so hilarious.

There have been several TV series productions during the years; the first of them was all shot in black and white and was produced in 1964 by the ABC TV network. The New Addams Family was filmed in 1998 in Canada. The original story was proposed, but with more modern elements and jokes.

 There have also been several film productions, as Halloween with The Addams Family, in 1977, where the family celebrates Halloween together.

The music is also a very important part of the show, and a CD compilation of The Addams Family TV series was released in 1981; there have been several musicals, and there will be more: in 2017 a brand new musical of the Addams Family will be played in the UK.

In 2010 it was announced that a film of The Addams Family would have been produced by the brilliant Tim Burton, a stop-motion animated film based on Charles Addams’s original drawings, but unfortunately, it has been cancelled. Let’s hope they will get again on this idea in the future because it would be awesome if Tim Burton directed a movie like this.

 

 

 

 

 

The History of Fantasy: when the genre arose

Fantasy is a very ancient art, and it has developed throughout the centuries in various subjects: cultural studies, history, literature, music, art, plays, music, cinema… and I could go on and on. But what are the elements that make a fantasy work? The predominant characteristics of Fantasy are tales or stories in which we have myths, imagination, supernatural, symbolism and surreal elements; but we can also have dark elements, magic castles and creatures, and most of the times, a really close correlation with nature. Fantasy has many subcategories.

 

We have the first written forms of the Fantasy genre in ancient Classic Latin, Egyptian and Greek mythology, but also in the Celtic and Scandinavian tradition.

The Medieval period played a very important role in the distribution of written Fantasy fairytales and stories; in fact, scribes used to spend years writing down several copies of ancient literature, so they would be transmitted to the future generations and their work is very precious today (despite many works was destroyed and burned by repressive censorship, if it was believed that the work was against the religion of the moment).

 

A fundamental role was played, as I already said, by J. J. R. Tolkien, from 1954 and until now. He is considered the “father” of Fantasy because he managed to take this genre at its peak and make it one of the most important and followed today, by young generations and old ones.

Some names of talented fantasy authors today are J. K. Rowling (how can we not mention her?), Stephen King, George Martin, and Christopher Paolini; these are some of the names that have greatly contributed to make the Fantasy genre successful today.

 

We also can’t forget that from the seventies the first Fantasy role plays was created, as Dungeons & Dragons. Nowadays there are fantastic role plays that you can physically play with, but with technology the development of computer and Play Station video games are real (as Final Fantasy or The Lord of the Rings).

Fantasy is wonder, imagination. You get to know new worlds and fantastic stories.

What’s your favorite Fantasy work?

Edward Scissorhands

This 1990 American dark fantasy film is one of the most amazing works written and produced by Tim Burton, and one of his most successful movies, receiving numerous nominations at the Academy, and winning many awards.

 

The beautiful story is about a grandmother who tells a goodnight fairytale to her granddaughter on a winter night on where snow comes from. Everything began with a man created with scissors instead of hands (played by Johnny Depp), and now living in a gothic mansion on a hill, isolated by other human beings. Despite his aspect that could instill fear, he has a good soul and he has the capability of making wonderful ice sculptures with the help of his scissor hands.

 

Burton claims in an interview that Edward’s story comes from his childhood memories, and in particular how lonely he felt and isolated from other children; and he also tells that Shelley’s Frankenstein and other classic books had also an influence on this story.

The score is also beautiful, and it’s created by Danny Elfman.

 

Something that not everyone knows is that Edward’s makeup and hairstyle are inspired by Robert Smith, leader of the famous band The Cure; and another curiosity is that in Tim Burton’s new Alice in Wonderland, you can clearly see Edward’s sculptures represented into the garden of the Queen.

If you watch this movie, you can truly understand why Tim Burton is nowadays seen as one of the most talented producers of the world, he really is. This film is pure magic.

 

The real meaning of Frankenstein

First of all, I just want to underline that this is one of the best books I have ever read. I didn’t expect it to be so great, but it was.

In the common imagination there is this cruel monster that terrorize everyone, a creature without soul. That’s not what the story is about! There is so much more than just this.

Victor Frankenstein is a very diligent student with a huge passion for science and chemistry. He knows he is talented and he has the dream to do something that no one before him had succeeded in doing, and after working very hard both day and night, he manages to create another human being. Turns out the plan didn’t go how he wanted; when the being begins moving, the inventor is so scared by his tremendous presence, that he just runs away, hoping he will not see the monster he created anymore for the rest of his life. The monster, that actually has no name at all during the entire story, is scared being for the first time in the world. He just need to be loved by someone, but he will soon discover how cruel and superficial the man can be. At the beginning he is like a child, he wants to know more about the world and the people, and living alone in the wilderness he tries to talk to someone and change his condition of loneliness, but he soon finds out that people is afraid of him and hate on him due to his appearance, which leads him to fear and hide from them. With time, after being denigrated and disappointed several times, he is so unhappy that he becomes a monster, being capable only of hating men, swearing revenge to his creator for bringing him into a world that hated him so much.

In my opinion, the monster depicted into this novel is not the scary creature known by anyone as the symbol of the book, but the man. The monster is actually a highly sensible creature in the beginning of his life, he is good, caring, helpful and have a high intellect, curious about nature, literature and languages. He helps a little girl from drowning into the river and saves her, he collects logs in the forest and leave them in front of a family house every night, so the people living there don’t get cold in the winter; but, guess what? The only thing he has in return for that, when people sees him for the first time, is hate.

Victor Frankenstein, on the other hand, puts so much effort in creating something, and when he is finished, he doesn’t take on his own responsibilities. He is the creator, he should have learned to “the monster” how to live his life into this world, he should have learned him how it is to be loved and respected. He should have loved him and followed him, no matter how scary and horrifying his aspect is, because the appearance is not important if you have a good soul.  Instead, he just quits and he continues living his life as anything had never happened.

Despite the novel has been published in 1818, it’s a very modern book. The great English author Mary Shelley, published Frankenstein anonymously, mixing into the book elements from the Romantic period, but also gothic and horror details. Why I think it’s a modern book is for the powerful words written by Shelley, but also because this gothic novel has been considered by critics as an example of science fiction: the modern experiments in the laboratory to achieve fantastic results is now, in our modern society, everyday life for us.

If you have not read it yet, I highly recommend this book to you.

Melodies of The Nightmare Before Christmas

One of the most famous movies produced by Tim Burton is The Nightmare Before Christmas, a motion dark fantasy musical film that tells the story of Jack Skellington, mixing during the entire movie the Halloween atmosphere and the Christmas atmosphere. Due to its success during the years, The Nightmare Before Christmas is the first stop-motion animated feature to be entirely converted to 3D.

When you listen to the soundtracks during the movie, you just know that it will be a success. There are melodies that catch the attention of all listeners, and let you enter into the Halloween world, but also into the Christmas world. It’s like you’re there, and you also understand better the characters of the film.

The skillful man that wrote the music is Danny Elfman, an American composer, song writer and record producer. You probably know Elfman because he also wrote the soundtracks of the movies Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Batman (1989), in addition to the music of the American television comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives (that I love).

Elfman is now one of the most important composers in the world, winning a Grammy, an Emmy, having several Academy Award nominations and winning 24 BMI Film & Television Awards during his brilliant career.

In 1985 the professional collaboration and friendship with Tim Burton begins; together they worked making Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Ed Wood, Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride, and of course The Nightmare Before Christmas. Their next project is the upcoming film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.  Can’t wait to watch it!

But, talking about The Nightmare Before Christmas, the soundtrack of the film, with the same name, was nominated in 1993 at the Golden Globe for Best Original Score.

 

Many famous singers have made covers of the songs, among which Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple and Fall Out Boy.

Given that the success of the film has been worldwide, there are several foreign language versions of the soundtrack, each features tracks sung by vocalists in their native language.

In my opinion the soundtrack of The Nightmare Before Christmas is unique, because you really understand the movie by the music and the texts of the songs; it’s a mix of scary, joyful, emotional melodies that totally fit into the story.

 

What do you think about this film? Do you like the soundtrack?

 

Alice Through The Looking Glass

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. Alice Through The Looking Glass is a fantasy adventure film based on Carroll’s book Through The looking Glass.

We all know the story about Alice in Wonderland: this is the sequel.

The combo Johnny Depp – Tim Burrton is as always outstanding, and the addition of great actors like Matt Lucas, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter makes the film even better.

This time, Alice comes across a magical looking glass that takes her back to Wonderland. Here she finds her good friend the Mad Hatter that is acting madder than usual. He is sad because his family is missing after the Attack of the Jabberwocky and he wants to find them again. Alice talks with Time in order to help the Mad Hatter; she wants to go back in time to discover how things went, despite Time claims that it is not possible, and that you cannot change the past, only learn from it. I love how Time Is represented here, placed in a palace full of golden clocks hanging from the sky; every clock represents a human being.

Alice doesn’t accept what Time is saying to her, and she steals a thing called Chronosphere, that allows her to go back to the past. The girl will learn that some things just can’t be changed, and the personalities of the people we meet in the present are always forged from the experiences of the past: a troubled relationship between a boy and his father, the envy of a sister, but also the love and support of a family. All these topics are analyzed in this film, through beautiful metaphors and captivating stories.

Also, Alice has spent the past three years following in her father’s footsteps and sailing the high seas; that’s what really makes her happy. This is not what the society expects from a girl in the Nineteenth Century. But, at the end, she decides that she has the right to do whatever she wants in her life, and follow her dreams.

I absolutely love Johnny Depp’s interpretation of the Mad Hatter in this film and I think no one could play this role better than him.

At the end of the movie, when the Mad Hatter has to say goodbye to Alice, he says:

“In the garden of memory, in the palace of dreams, that’s where you and I shall meet.”