Project Disney - Hercules

Project Disney: The plan is to tackle all of the Disney films, re-reading the classic stories and tales that inspired many of them and to look at how the changes the filmmakers made, the new elements they introduced and the essential elements they kept. We will, of course, be talking about the films as movies as well, saying why we enjoy them and what some of our favorite moments are, but our focus will be on looking at them as adaptations. For the films that are not drawn from any one work we’ll be looking at some of the possible literary influences that we see in the stories. I am participating in Project Disney inspired by Picture Me Reading!  

I have been waiting for Hercules on Project Disney forever!  This is one of my all time favorite Disney movies.  I will say though that this movie was harder to pinpoint the origin story for the film.  Hercules is apart of Greek Mythology, so there are a lot of stories and books that have to do with his background.  The movie of course doesn't just focus on the Hercules myth either... it includes the muses, Pegasus, Megara,  and lots of mythological monsters.  I know all the songs for this movie, and I of course watched the Hercules cartoon series on Disney channel.  I loved that show so much.. it explored way more mythology then the movie. For this Project Disney I read : Edith Hamilton Mythology and Don't Know Much about Mythology. Plus a lot of internet research.

The movie mainly follows Hercules from his birth to adulthood.  Hades discovers that Hercules will someday prevent Hades from taking over the world. So Hades makes it his mission to take away Hercules immortality.  Hades sends Hercules a drink to do this but Hercules leaves one last drop. Hercules is not allowed in Olympus anymore unless he can prove himself a true hero. Hercules is trained by Phil and falls in love with Meg. Eventually Hercules is able to prove he is a hero by saving Meg and is allowed on Olympus. So since this movie is totally not like the myths I thought we could compare the myth to movie.  I will try to talk about the myths as they appear in the movie.

The beginning of the movie has the Muses are telling us the story of Hercules.  The Muses sing gospel songs to us and just seem to love Hercules. The Muses in Greek mythology are actually daughters of Zeus. There are 9 of them and they aren't really friendly to humans... nor do they have anything to do with Hercules in mythology.

Next up Hercules is revealed to be a demi-god born to Hera and Zeus.  In the movie he is the only child of Zeus and when Hades sends his minions Pain and Panic to poison Hercules.  While they are doing this Amphitryon and his wife Alcmene walk up on them and find the baby Hercules.  They have been wanting a baby for a long time so they adopt him. In the myths Zeus actually sleeps with Alcmene and she becomes pregnant.  Zeus actually appears to her looking like her husband so she had no idea. Zeus sleeps with a lot of women and Hera is very unhappy about this (Zeus and Hera are brother and sister). Hercules is also a twin, his brother's name is Iphicles.

Next up we meet Hades.  I love love Hades in the Disney movie.  His attitude is fabulous and to be honest I think he is funny.  In the original versions Hades is actually not a scary guy (not like how Christians think of the Devil).  The Greeks think of him as just another god trying to take care of the dead in the underworld.

Hercules is first seen in the film as a young man who goes out and finds a satyr Phil to help him train for the obstacles he must go through to be allowed back in Olympus. OK as for the myth.  The reasons he ends up doing his ten famous tasks is a long story. He kills a lion that has been bothering the town of Thebes and then the king there allows him to bed his daughters.  Hercules ends up with 50 children from this!!! Hercules continues to help the town of Thebes and Hera becomes jealous of his accomplishments so she drives him mad.  He kills two of his children (at this time he is married to Megara and it's 2 of his children with her).  He goes to see the Delphi Oracle and discovers that if he completes ten tasks for Eurystheus he will be immortal again and allowed in Olympus.

Pegasus.. who doesn't love that horse in the movie.  I love how buddy buddy he and Hercules are.  So cute.  The real story of Pegasus does not have him coming from a cloud, rather he comes from the blood from Medusa's head when Perseus chopped it off. Also... Poseidon's son is the person who rides and tames Pegasus.  Earlier I mentioned Phil or Philoctetes.  In the movie he is satyr and trains Hercules.  In the myth Philoctetes does actually meet Hercules but not until the end of Hercules story.  Philoctetes is actually human and meets Hercules as he is dying.  Philoctetes lights Hercules funeral pyre.

Let's chat about Megara now. In the film Megara is seen trying to get Nessus the centaur to join in the Underworld for Hades.  In the scene Hercules sees her and saves her, which is how Hades finds out Hercules is still alive.  Megara has sold her soul to Hades to save her ex-boyfriend. So she pretty much has to do what Hades says.  Hades now hires her to lure Hercules into traps.  In the original myth Hercules murders their kids so he marries Megara off to his cousin. This is really the only time she is in the myth. Nessus on the other hand plays a huge part in the story of Hercules. Nessus steals Hercules second wife and Hercules of course beats him down because of it.  While dying Nessus gives Hercule's wife a potion to give to Hercules if Hercules does anything to hurt her.  She gives Hercules the potion when she thinks he is having an affair and it burns Hercules so bad he rips off his own skin and lays dying.

Hercules' 12 tasks (they become 12 because he supposedly cheats on two of them)  are pretty much just shown in a montage in the Disney film. We do see the Hydra of Lerna but Hercules defeats it in a different way. He gets help from his cousin who burns the necks after the heads have been chopped. The big battle at the end of the movie with the gods and Hercules battling the Titans is fun to watch.  In the film after the battle Hercules decides to stay on Earth with Megara since she can't enter Olympus.  In the myth Hercules goes to Olympus after he dies.

As you can see... Hercules has a lot going on.  I love the film though.. the music in this film is some of my favorite.  The Michael Bolton "Go the Distance" song is just amazing.  The film and the myth are so completely different this time around in Project Disney but I had fun comparing the two.  There really is a lot more information that I didn't include in this post since it was already getting so long.  I recommend you go out and read more information on Hercules.  His story is just fascinating.





Be sure to check out my other Project Disney:
Snow White
Cinderella
Peter Pan
Treasure Planet
Sleeping Beauty
The Great Mouse Detective 
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Princess and the Frog
Pinocchio 
Fantasia 
Beauty and the Beast
Lady and the Tramp
Alice in Wonderland
The Rescuers
The Rescuers Down Under
Tangled
Oliver and Company
Mulan
The Little Mermaid
Bambi
101 Dalmatians
Frozen
Fantasia 2000
The Jungle Book
The Emperor's New Groove
The Sword in the Stone
Aladdin
Atlantis
The Aristocats
The Lion King
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Robin Hood
Pocahontas
Dumbo
The Black Cauldron
Mary Poppins
Lilo and Stitch  
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Make Mine Music
Tarzan 
Melody Time

Titanfall- Video Game Review

Titanfall

I recently purchased the Xbox One for the game Titanfall.  I was going to wait to buy it but when the game came out and everyone was excited I jumped in.  It's too bad that I don't love the game.  It is a first person shooter game with the added bonus of a huge robot (Titan) that spawns after about 2 minutes of game play.  You can either jump in the Titan and use it to fight or have the Titan follow you and fight with you.

My least favorite part of the game is the campaign. You cannot play this game solo, or off the internet. You must be signed in to Xbox Gold. This isn't a problem for me since I have Gold but for others this could be a problem. Also, the campaign is so confusing. I still haven't played it from start to finish. You can barley hear the dialog since you are in the middle of a battle the whole story. I haven't been able to start the game from level 1 either. I have to start where the last person playing last off... so if someone in your household was playing and got to level 6 you have to start there.

The multiplayer can be a lot of fun though with friends playing.  You can team up and jump and ride on each other's Titans. There is a large amount of game play types... capture the flag, territories.  I do enjoy that. The mic on the Xbox One though is sometimes screwy.  I have spent forever trying to get the party chat to sync up.  Really Xbox needs to fix that.  It will just take time though to get used to navigating the new Xbox dashboard.

I was able to get this game for free with my Xbox One purchase.  I like it but don't love it and just can't see it staying popular as a multiplayer only.  I also question what will happen when there aren't very many players playing anymore?  Will NPCs be put in instead?  Since you can't play a solo campaign I think eventually the game just won't be sucessful in a year from now.  6 out of 10

Does One Post Get All the Views?

Every now and then I check my stats on google analytics.  Probably just like all of you.  For me though... I have certain posts that get tons of views.  My Project Disney posts.  Now I am not bothered by this... but I wonder if those readers go on to read the rest of my blog?  Project Disney is such a specific subject.. I read the source material for the movie and then compare book to movie.

I often wonder if other bloggers have a post that has kind of gone what we will call "viral" on their blog.  What is that post about?  I do think some of the hits on my Disney posts come from Pinterest.  Where people could possibly just been clicking for the picture itself. I try to find ways to entice these readers to go to other places on my blog.  I have read blogger tips that say to look at your most popular posts and use those posts to get people to stay on your blog.

What do you do on posts to keep people around?  Do you do anything special for this? Of course getting people to your blog is easy, but getting them to follow and stick around is a whole different ball game. I am using linkwithin (which looks funny now as I get a blog makeover), I link up to links that I think are relevant to the post, I do try to get people to bounce around.  What do you think?  Oh and I just had to throw some Archer gifs in this post ... they have nothing to do with anything!

Sunday Post

Let's chat about what's going on this week... on my blog.. on other blogs... on the internet... and just everywhere!    I link up my post to Sunday Post and Stacking the Shelves.


On the Blog:
-May 4th is Star Wars Day:  May the 4th Be With You- Star Wars Pop Up Review
-I talk about the new Spiderman 2 movie and what I thought of it.
-Top Ten Book Covers Framed As Art  this was so fun to me!  I love art so fantastic covers are totally my thing.
-I review Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
-I post another  Comic Adventures Issue #10 ... I talk about the terrible comic Age of Ultron.. I can't believe the next Marvel movie is going to be based off this comic!

Around the Blogospere:
- Kelley at Oh the Books talks about Benefits of Reading YA as an Adult.
-Feed Me Books now talks about what you do when a series ends. 
-Great Imaginations shares their Burn Book where they talks about 50 bloggers that they love! 

Internet:
The new show Gotham comes out soon....please please be good!!!

Books Books Books.
Gaw I am so behind on reading.  Next week is Bout of Books though so I should be able to kick it in gear.  I have been playing video games at night instead of reading so that doesn't help me stay caught up either!!   I have been researching Hercules and Pocahontas for my next Project Disneys coming up.  Too bad neither have just one book they are based off of! Any recommendations for these two people's biographies or mythology books???

Bout of Books 10- Updates and Challenges

I am going to participate again in this read-a-thon!  I really need to get caught up on some books andwhen I saw others participating in it I knew it was perfect for me.  It starts on the 12th!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

Don't forget to use the #boutofbooks hashtag when updating on Twitter and follow boutofbooks.
I will be updating my progress here on my webpage and on my my twitter page. 
I will only be updating to this page so check back here. I also will be doing my challenges on this link so scroll down to the bottom to see them!

Oh and I am an expert this time around so I really hope I get to stop by your blog and see how you are doing!

Time Devoted to Reading
 I would like to try to read 2 hours a day at least.

 My Goals:

I would like to participate in a twitter chat.  I participated in one last time around and it was a lot of fun and a GREAT place to get advice from other people.   

Books I want to read:  I have a few ARCs of comics and I need to get those read!  
The ones with no titles are Batman vol 4, and Damian Son of Batman

Updates

Monday
Number of books I've read today:0
Name of book:  The Selected Works of TS Spivet
Total number of books I've read:0
Number of hours read: 2 1/2.  I was on a road trip back home from Kansas so I got to read in the car.
What else I did: Since I was gone all weekend I am trying to catch up on blog posts and visit blogs since I am an expert and want to go out and cheer everyone on.  I am also catching up on my own blog posts and the challenges.

Tuesday

Number of books I've read today: 0
Total number of books I've read:0
Name of Book: The Selected Works of TS Spivet
 Number of Hours I've read: 2 hours
 What else I did: I may have done more reading... if I had brought a book to the DR. with me this morning.  I went for labs expecting to me in and out and then when I got there my labs weren't in the system so I waited an hour.  I know better then to not bring a book with me everywhere!!!

Wednesday

Number of books I've read today:Still on the same book
 Total number of books I've read:
 Books: The Selected Works of TS Spivet
Number of Hours I've Read:  Maybe like 30-40 minutes
What else I did:  I watched 3 season finales of shows.. Arrow, Once Upon a Time, and Agents of Shield so that backed up my reading.  Then I hosted a twitter chat for the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge I am hosting. Though it seemed to me that the people participating didn't realize I was a host... and that only Kimba was a host.  That was awkward.  Then I went to jump into the Bout of Books twitter party but didn't end up saying anything.  Last two times I participated I felt like my posts were just lost in the crowd so I just read other posts.  Plus I had probably spammed my followers enough tonight with twitter chat!  LOL!  As an expert I have been visiting a lot of blogs.

Thursday

Number of books I've read today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 1
 Books: The Selected Works of TS Spivet
Number of Hours I've Read: 2 hours?
What else I did: I just couldn't finish the book I was reading.  I had to mark it as a DNF.  I tried to read it and love it but it just didn't work for me and I didn't want to spend anymore time on it.  I feel so guilty for quitting but I just was really struggling with it.  It was making my readathon go really slow too.  I wrote the review and it will up on Monday.

Friday

Number of books I've read today: 0
Total number of books I've read:
Books:
Number of Hours I've Read:
What else I did:

Saturday

Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:
Number of Hours I Read: 
What else I did:

Sunday

Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:
Number of hours I read: 
What else I did: Not sure if I will do anything today because it's playoffs and the Denver Broncos are playing!

Challenges/Giveaways

Monday 5/12
If you like X, try Y -- The Book Barbies

If you like unique books with another story in the margins try The Selected Works of TS Spivet! #boutofbooks @reiflarsen
— Angie (@kingmod) May 13, 2014

Tuesday 5/13
Bookish Battle Royal -- My Life in Books

1. Choose three or more fictional characters as combatants – they can be haphazardly picked or themed (for example, I went with badass classic literature protagonists)
2. List three strengths and weakness for each contender (feel free to skip this step if you’re using social media to participate in Bout of Books i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads…)
3. Determine who would come out victorious and give a little explanation why you think they would win – get creative with the outcomes!
4. Link in the comments and if you tweet about this challenge make sure to use the hashtag #bookbattleroyal in addition to #boutofbooks because I want to see all your dueling characters!

Ok this challenge seems fun so I am totally in! I thought I would pick Stephen King chacters:

#1 Danny from the Shining by Stephen King
Weakness: young boy, trapped in hotel with abusive father,
Strength: Can read minds,

 #2 Roland from the Dark Tower by Stephen King
Weakness: Detached, Unsympathetic, scarred from death of friends and family,
Strength: Gunslinger, Loyal,

#3 Randal Flagg from Stephen King books
Weakness: Has to follow Crimson King, sometimes appears to be just some kind of trickster
Strength: Appears in many different incarnations,

I think that with Danny being able to see into people's minds he would be able to see what the others would do in a fight before it happens.  Roland would probably protect Danny from Flagg throughout the fight. While Flagg has always been an enemy against Roland through all time. Roland would eventually win because Flagg would probably disappear into another time. 

Books You're Looking Forward To -- River City Reading

Wednesday 5/14
Book Pairings -- My Overstuffed Shelves

Thursday 5/15
Spell It Out Challenge -- kimberlyfaye reads

I love these (when they aren't poetry!)  Here is my name Angie

Friday 5/16
Cover Scavenger Hunt -- Book Monsters
Rainbow Book Challenge -- Neon Yeti Reads

Saturday 5/17
Show an Author Some Love -- Doing Dewey

Sunday 5/18
Retitle Your Current Read -- Oh Magic Hour


Twitter Chats
(chats last approximately one hour)
TZC = Time Zone Conversion

Monday: 1pm CST (TZC)
Wednesday: 8pm CST (TZC)
Saturday: 10am CST (TZC)

Comic Adventures Issue #10

I read a lot of comics and rarely review them here on the blog. That's because I really don't have a lot to say for an entire post.  So I thought I would review several comics on one post.  I will still review graphic novels on their own now and then, but this is where I will talk about super-hero type comics (DC/Marvel) or sequels to some that I have already reviewed.

This issue we talk about Superman Vol 3 Fury at World's End, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore,    Age of Ultron Marvel, and Kingdom Come DC.

I myself enjoyed volume 3 of the Superman DC New 52 though most of the reviews I have read other people did not like it. The beginning was a little confusing.  Once I picked up where the story was going I was fine.  I liked that the comic included Superboy and the Justice League.. even a little Lex Luther.  I do think you should read Supergirl Vol 1 before reading this comic.  Though I suppose it is easy to pick up that she has entered Earth and is confused about being here. I like the parts where we see Superman at the Daily Planet and hanging out with Jimmy Olsen (his new roommate).  Those parts are fun.  4 out of 5








I have bee wanting to read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore for a long long time.  First off I loved Watchmen also written by Alan Moore.  So I knew he was a good writer.  Plus the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has a lot of literary characters in it.  Allan Quatermain, Mina Murray, Captain Nemo, Dr. Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde and Hawley Griffin ( the Invisible Man) are all in this volume.  The art work is even more amazing! I love all the detail in the pages and the "old" look the colors give the comic.  Really this is a great and impressive comic! 5 out of 5

Let's be honest. I haven't read a lot of Marvel. But I do love Marvel movies. So when I found out that the next Avengers movie was going to be called Age of Ultron I had to go and pick up that comic. My library had the whole volume and I read it in one sitting. SNORE. What? Whedon says he is going to give Ultron a new story and let's hope he doesn't follow this comic AT ALL. The book starts off with Ultron pretty much destroying the Avengers and the World. The Avengers here of course aren't the same team we see in the movie.  It is a much larger team consisting of many different heroes (including Spiderman, Fantastic Four, etc).  I also didn't feel like the series really came to a close.  What exactly happens to Ultron.  Plus we have a few comics just thrown in here that seem pointless to the story arc.  Plus Wolverine is who most of this series is about.  WOLVERINE??  While I like Wolverine I just didn't like him in this at all.  2 out of 5 

I picked up Kingdom Come by DC from the Interlibrary Loan from my library.  I hadn't heard of this comic before because it was published in 1997 and back then I didn't read comics.  Apparently this comic is top notch in the comic world so I was happy to jump in and read it.  I have seen the art before (which I love)... Alex Ross is well known for his superhero art.   I did think it was a little confusing at the beginning.  Once I caught onto the story though it took off. The story is very deep.  It really tells us what would happen if superheros did become gods among us. The story takes place in the future so all the superheros have aged.  We seen an old Batman and Superman. Superman has retired and gone into hiding along with the rest of the Justice League. Eventually Superman sees what has happened to the world and comes back to help. The meta-humans have taken the laws into their owns hands.  Disregarding humans and human laws.  Lex Luther and the humans are trying to step in and fix it, give the power back to humans.  The ending of the comic is so wonderful.  One of the best endings ever.  Three superheroes meet up in a cafe and have a wonderful chat with each other.  I think this is a typical superhero story.  All is lost and everyone goes in to save the day.  This story did have a little more to it though.  It reminded me a little of The Watchman when the question is asked "Who Watches the Watchmen".  In Kingdom come we must decide who was at fault—the renegade super heroes with their lack of respect for life or society for picking that style of heroism over the old style that was Superman's?  This comic has a lot more deeper meanings then a lot of the superhero comics I've read before.  I really am glad that I found out about it and read it.  It is no wonder people love it and it is well known in the comic book world.   5 out of 5

 

 

Well that's it for comics this time around... can't wait to read what comics come into the library next!!

I am now up to 42 books towards my Graphic Novel Reading Challenge!

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe- Review

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

I was so excited when my book club pick Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe!  It is also perfect for this month when everyone is talking about diverse book #WeNeedDiverseBooks .  It is not only writtern by a Mexican-American but it is also a LGBT novel. I am hoping the discussions really take off this month in the book club.  I also read this book also with a blog read, I finished it the day the Read Along ended!

Here is the goodreads description of the book:

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.  

When I first heard about this book and saw people reviewing it I totally assumed it was a fantasy.  The cover artwork made me think this was going to be some sort of epic fantasy.  So I was really surprised when I discovered what the book was really about.  A couple of young boys growing up in El Paso, TX.  I actually couldn't put this book down.  I read it so fast.  Once the story took off I didn't want to lose the flow of the story telling.  I loved the two Mexican-American boys trying to find their way in the world. We read the whole book from Aristotle's perspective.  I totally related to him, even as an adult.  Questioning myself and my purpose.

I like that the characters start out as innocent boys.  Honestly the boys were supposed to be 15 but they seemed to act more like they were 12 to me. I loved that Dante was a boy who would cry, save birds, and just be gentle.  Then on the other hand we have Ari who is willing to fight anyone and keeps his emotions in check. I do think that the book didn't really have like a major plot.  We simply follow these boys through a year in their life.

The boy Aristotle discovers that he is a homosexual in the book.  The sad thing is he pretty much knew it but hid it from himself and the world because he was afraid of what others would think.   I don't know if you have ever heard the song Georgie by Rod Stewart but it is an amazing song.  It is about a homosexual man and what he goes through.  I remember my mom taking me out in the garage one night and we sat in the car and she had me listen to this song for the first time (we didn't have a CD player in the house yet.. old school!).  The end of this book reminded me of this song.  Go listen to it now.  

What I enjoyed most about this novel was the growth of the characters from beginning to the end.  Not just the boys but their parents and siblings. I do wish it would've had more of a plot line going but I suppose that was not the point of this book.   I really did like this book though I didn't love it.  This quote here though was amazing: The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain.  
 
The crystal balls says: 

Fog is coming.....  in the middle of the road on this book!