This is like the only film that ever makes me almost cry. You see I hardly ever cry, hardly ever.
It always drives my friends nuts that I don’t cry at films or TV shows, they are always like “do you have a heart?”
Well yes I do, and the one Disney film that really gets me is Remember the Titans.
Remember the Titans is a film based on the true story of story of an African American coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), as he tries to bring together a racially divided team at the T. C. Williams High School in 1971 Virginia. I think it is one of the best Disney films, Sports films, and films based on a true story ever made.
So the film is about a town that going to have an integrated school, of which many of the students (black and white) don’t agree with. Coach Boone is putting together a football team, and won’t stand for having anyone think they are better than another because of the color of their skin. He takes them away to train before school starts, and by doing so is able to stop the division and form a cohesive group. They however face a lot of challenges when they get back as people in the town don’t approve. In the end, all the team members are able to work through their own judgements, issues, and racism; fulling bonding and being life-long friends.
So the part that always tears me up comes near the end of the film. Gerry (white), the team captain, and Julius (black) have become best bros. Gerry’s girlfriend doesn’t approve of this and gives both the cold shoulder. As she doesn’t want to hang with him, and Julius is taking out his girlfriend, Gerry decides to go cruising around town. Unfortunately, he doesn’t pay attention to where he is going and crashes.
We see him in the hospital where it is discovered that he can never play that kind of football again as the injury to his legs are too massive. The whole team goes to see him, with Julius trying to get in, but the nurse won’t let him as only family is allowed. Gerry stops her by saying:
“[Julius visits Gerry in the hospital]
Nurse: Only kin’s allowed in here.
Bertier: Alice, are you blind? Don’t you see the family resemblance? That’s my brother.”
I am so tired of hearing over and over again that Frozen is the first Disney movie to teach girls that you don’t need a man to save you. It is not. Now I’m not denouncing Frozen but there are plenty of films that came before that taught the very same lesson.
1) Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Alice in Wonderland is the film based on the books Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Alice has to undergo many challenges: shrinking, growing, getting stuck in a house, crazy men, and an even crazier Red Queen. The Red Queen tries to kill Alice and who saves her? Does a man save her? NO! Alice saves herself. SHE SAVES HERSELF!!!! Alice is truly hardcore.
So Pocahontas is a story based onnot the exactlife of Pocahontas. Now Pocahontas is a revolutionary figure, trying to learn more about people who come from other walks of life, along with trying to bring together those of different backgrounds. Does a man save her? NO! Pocahontas saves her people, John Smith and her home. Strong, independent woman who doesn’t need a man. In fact her man is the damsel in distress. And she shows women they don’t need a man long before Frozen as she ends up with no one. She rejects Kocoum first, as that isn’t the life she wants, but doesn’t end up with John Smith either.
Mulan tells the story of a young girl who pretends to be a boy so that she can save her father from joining the army and try and achieve greatness. She clearly doesn’t need a man to save her as she saves EVERYONE! THE Chinese Army, Shang (her bf), the Emperor, and ALL OF FREAKING CHINA!!!!!!!!! SHE SAVES FREAKING CHINA!!!!! CHINA! Did they do that in Frozen? NO. They saved Norway (which should have been Denmark as that is where the story originated. I mean Hans Christian Anderson is are most famous Dane, the one my people can be proud of and what does Disney do? Freakin’ betrays us by placing it in Norway). China is way, way bigger and more populated than Norway.
Now this is a horrible film based on the adorable cartoon, about a man so full of gadgets trying to save the world. Now let’s all be honest here, the film and tv show is named after Gadget but the true hero is Penny. We all know that he would have been dead if Penny hadn’t saved the day. She always, always, always has to save him.
5) Mototcrossed (2001)
A Disney Original Movie (DCOM), this modern telling of Twelfth Night. When Andrew is injured and can’t compete in the motorcross competition and the family is in trouble, Andrea cuts her hair and pretends to be Andrew to save the day. What was that I said? Who saves the day? Andrew? NO! Andrea. She saves her family’ s business, her brother, and becomes the first female motorcross star. No guy saves her. She does it all on her own
Andrea pre-haircut and post-haircut.
6) The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)
In The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Lizzie and her friends travel to Italy in a school trip and she is mistaken for an Italian superstar. She pretends to be her, having a huge adventure. Now just like Frozen Lizzie has a love that is not true. She falls for Paolo, but he’s really a jerk (That makes this the first Disney film to prove that first loves are not true. And who saves Lizzie from this jerk? A man? NO! ITALIAN LIZZIE. It’s pretty horrible accent, but yeah she saves the day.
In this Disney Original Movie (DCOM), Kim Possible is saving the day again, but this time traveling through time. Now how can people forget this? Really now? Kim saves EVERYONE. 24/7 no one ever saves her. One of the toughest Disney girls.
8) Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
In Howl’s Moving Castle, a young girl named Sophie gets transformed into an old woman and caught up in a huge adventure with the wizard, Howl. In the film Sophie saves Howl. Without Sophie’s help he’d be dead and still a coward. Sophie is awesome and saves the day.
9) Avalon High (2010)
Avalon High, A Disney Original Movie (DCOM), is about a high school contains reincarnations of characters from the Arthurian legend. Even though this film totally sucked and wasn’t remotely like the book, the main character, Allie, saves everyone because she is the descendent of Arthur.
10) Brave (2012)
In Brave, Mérida saves the kingdom and her mom. Without her the whole mess wouldn’t have started, but then again it wouldn’t have been resolved.
So you see, Disney has been trying to instill that lesson for a far longer time. It’s just that most of can’t see it because we aren’t looking for it, instead we are looking for ways to hate on Disney.
Yep, Jurassic Park III sees the return of Dr. Grant, Sam Neil. 😀 It was supposed to have Jeff Goldblum too, but he injured himself and dropped out.
A lot of people don’t really like this film either.
However, I really like it. I like all the Jurassic Park films. 😀
This version isn’t based on any books of Michael Crichton, but was a newly created plot with a few pieces from the orginal scripts. They took the aviary scene in her from the orginal Jurassic Park novel. But more about that later.
So the film starts off with two people parasailing around Site B of Jurassic Park, where The Lost World took place. They go into a fog, and the next scene are gone!
Dr. Grant has become famous for his discoveries, but more people want to know about the Jurassic Park incidents than what he has found.
Dr. Grant: [Dr. Grant is giving a lecture] Now, are there any questions?
[everyone in the audience raises their hand] Dr. Grant: Questions not related to Jurassic Park
[many people lower their hand] Dr. Grant: Or the incident in San Diego, which I did not witness.
[everyone else lowers their hand]
Dr. Grant goes to visit Ellie who is married with a baby. (Now this is something I hate, in the book Ellie & Dr. Grant weren’t dating she was already engaged, so I hated in the films how they were dating in the first film but then weren’t together in the last one.) Dr. Grant and his assistant Billy are working together to create a larynx of a Velociraptor. The two are appraoached by a couple, the Kirbys, who like to go on wild adventure trips and want to have an air tour of Jurrassic Park. They got a special permit and will only be up in the air. Dr. Grant is adamant, no way, but then the Kirby’s place an extremely large check in his face that changes his mind.
While on the plane, Dr. Grant discovers that the two are lying. They have actually been planning the whole time to stop on the island. Dr. Grant tries to get them to stop, when he gets knocked out.
So Dr. Grant is on the island. Although its not the same one, as he was on Site A originally. They try and leave, but are stopped by a Spinosaurus, something that was’t on InGen’s list. As they try to escape, a T-Rex appears and they manage to escape right before the Spinosaurus snaps the T–Rex‘s neck.
As they are moving through the island, and being followed by the Kirbys & Co., they discover parasail remains.
This when the whole story comes out. It turns out that the Kirbys are divorced. The wife is remarried and her husband and the Kirby’s son went parasailing and disappeared. The father, played by William H. Macy, went to the traveling agency and hires a guy. The guy who is a “mercenary” and “knows guys” doesn’t really know or do anything he said he could. And the check is completely fake too. They are looking for their son Eric and needed a guide, so they tricked Dr. Grant. Unfortunately, Dr. Grant was never on Site B, so he’s like I don’t know what is out here.
The group is trying to make its way through the island without dying, and they end up in the actual area where the dinos were constructed. The one they showed them in Jurassic Park was all for show, but isn’t the real area. When they are there they get attacked by Raptors.
What’s interesting about this portrayl of the raptors is that the designers wanted to incorporate the archeological findings. Scientists have discovered that Raptors were covered in feathers made out of keratin. They couldn’t go completely over the top, so they just put the feathers on the head.
The group gets seperated and Dr. Grant finds himself all alone. He is saved by a young boy, Eric Kirby. Eric Kirby, against all odds, has managed to survive 8 weeks on the island. He’s been living off candy, uses dino pee to scare things off, etc. Eric used to be a big fan of Dr. Grant too.
Erik: Be careful with that. T-Rex. It scares some of the smaller ones away but attracts one really big one with the fin.
Dr. Grant: This is T-Rex pee?
[Eric nods yes]
Dr. Grant: How’d you get it?
Erik: You don’t wanna know.
Erik: I read both of your books. I liked the first one more. Before you were on the island. You liked dinosaurs back then.
Dr. Grant: Back then they hadn’t tried to eat me yet.
Dr. Grant: Did you read Malcolm’s book?
[Erik nods]
Dr. Grant: So?
Erik: I don’t know. It was kinda preachy. And too much Chaos. Everything Chaos. It just seemed like the guy was high on himself.
Dr. Grant: That’s two things we have in common.
The two go out looking for the rest of the group when Eric hears his father’s satellite phone.
I love the Spinosaurus there, he reminds me of my dog Katy, when she gets all riled up and you have her chew toy, she makes that face, posed to attack.
The group manages to escape and head to the compound, hoping to find some radio equipment to call for help. After they catch their breath, Billy asks for his bag back, and Dr. Grant tells him he is fine carrying it. Billy keeps insisting and insisting that Grant hand over the bag. This makes Dr. Grant very suspicious and he looks inside, discovering that there are raptor eggs in there. Along the way, Billy found some and took them, hoping that when they got off the island he could sell them. That’s why they have been chased by raptors.
Dr. Grant is furiuous with Billy. And who can blame him. I mean that it has to be tempting to steal those eggs, but come on Billy these aren’t chickens.
Billy Brennan: You have to believe me, this was a stupid decision but I did it with the best intentions. Dr. Grant: With the best intentions? Some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions. You know what, Billy? As far as I’m concerned, you’re no better than the people that built this place.
They then make their way into a large outdoor cage that hold pteradactyls and other pteranodons. This one of the freakiest scenes in the whole movie. It is super creepy with the fog and the birds. When my sis, niece, and I went to the San Diego Safari Park they have the birdhouse/plant area, it looked JUST like the aviary in Jurassic Park III. I kept saying that if I go in, there are going to be pteradactyls in there that are going to try to kill me. It freaked my niece out soooooooooooooooo bad!!! She started crying and said she wasn’t going to go in. We had to say so many things to convonce her that she would be okay.
Anyways so they get in the aviary they think is abandoned, but it turns out there is something hiding in there.
The group is reeling from Billy’s death, and make their way down the river on a boat. They float by the Spinosaurus’ poop and find the satillette phone. The Spinoisaurus comes upon them and they begin to fight to get away.
Dr. Grant manages to get out “Site B River” on the satillete phone to Ellie before he loses it to the river. They manage to get away again. The Kirbys are now all reunited and happy and want to be together.
They are almost free when they are come upon by the raptors. They sense that the Mrs. Kirby, Amanda, is a female and go straight for her. Dr. Grant saves the day when he uses Billy’s larynx creation. He blows in it just right so that it sounds like other Raptors are calling for help.
After they manage to get out of there they take off to the coast where the Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy are waiting for them. They even manage to find Billy.
Billy Brennan: I rescued your hat. Dr. Grant: Well… that’s the important thing.
They all make it home okay.
So a couple of years ago they were talking about making a Jurassic Park 4 film, which my friend Margarita and I were super excited about it. But then they canceled when Michael Crichton unexpectedly died.
However, now that it is back on and supposed to be out in theaters in 2015, I am so jazzed! In a few years I can include it in the Horrorfests. 😀
Well that concludes our Jurassic Park Week. 😀
Here’s a cover page/poster I made for my Halloween countdown on Facebook.
janeaustenrunsmylife 