Ali's Articles

  One of the keys of making a good story is having a likable protagonist, who is the main character of the story, the one we’re supposed to root for, the one we’re supposed to relate to, the one we want to support in their darkest hours and much more! We don’t want to make them too perfect otherwise they’ll be too boring, though if they feel insecure or have silent moments it can work, with characters like Charlie in the 2005 adaptation of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Rodney Copperbottom from Robots, Flik from A Bug’s Life or Po from Kung Fu Panda, credit to one of my favourite YouTubers Mr. Coat for mentioning a few of those characters I mentioned, he said that we do need more decent and good hearted protagonists, I agree. It also works if certain protagonists have flaws, like being a bit selfish or can be a bit of a jerk, shows that we are all human and not perfect, as long as we learn from our mistakes and try to be better. This can be tricky however, if the characters are...

  So, I’m sure you remember my first story had me comparing Shark Tale and Chicken Little, I said that I consider the former a guilty pleasure, and I still stand by that. However, I also stand by the fact that the main plot is terrible and Oscar is a terrible protagonist. The movie tells the typical rags to riches story very poorly. A lot of movies told the rags to riches story a lot better, in fact, one movie that came out 13 years later, told this kind of story better, and that movie is my all-time favourite musical movie, The Greatest Showman. Now maybe I’m biased because I love this movie so much, especially because it reminds me of the time I went to see Hugh Jackman in concert with my mom, and he actually saw me and my poster, I had never been so happy. Last Christmas, I even got to attend a sing along screening of the movie, it was so much fun! Anyway, I’m getting off topic. The Greatest Showman has a similar plot to Shark Tale, a down on his luck guy wishes for a better l...

  Whenever I would go to the mall, one of my favourite stores to visit was the Disney Store. Now, it may seem like your average toy or retail store, but there’s a lot more to it. It feels magical and fun to be in. Sadly, when COVID hit and Bob Chapek was the CEO, things went terribly for the stores, they were closed for a while and Chapek cared more about money than magic and he shut down almost all of the Disney Stores, which broke the hearts of many Disney fans including myself. There are so many things that made the Disney Store a truly magical place to come to, today’s story is about what made the Disney Store just that. Toys The Disney Store used to sell a lot of nice toys. They had cute stuffed animals from the Disney or Pixar projects like Winnie The Pooh, Toy Story, Monsters Inx, Finding Nemo, the princess movies, Lilo and Stitch, Mickey Mouse and his friends and so much more! Whenever I visited, I would sometimes cuddle or play with them, I would pretend Mickey and Min...

  There are a lot of movies out there. Some are masterpieces, some are mediocre and some are trash! I love seeing films, some animated movies like Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Rise Of The Guardians, Coraline, The Peanuts Movie, Sing or the Super Mario Bros Movie. I love some live action movies like Matilda, Forrest Gump, Kate and Leopold. I also love musicals, like Little Shop Of Horrors, The Wizard Of Oz, Mary Poppins, The Sound Of Music, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Greatest Showman! I also enjoy comedies, like some of the DreamWorks movies like Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Megamind and some other live action comedies like Elf, Mean Girls, Meet The Parents and Fockers. However, there is no other comedy I enjoy more than my favourite movie of 2003, (along with Finding Nemo) School Of Rock! I didn’t know about this movie when it was new, I had started elementary school and my parents probably didn’t think it was a good idea to show it to their kids, I was 4 a...

  You might remember the time I compared both Shark Tale and Chicken Little, I mentioned that they both had potential but got messed up because of executive meddling and because either Jeffrey Katzenberg or Michael Eisner butted in, the films became critical failures and embarrassments that even the companies seemed embarrassed to admit that they made them, most of the time. Disney and DreamWorks’ low points didn’t go so well because they forgot to do something that is an important thing to do when making a story, or anything else, it’s to always trust your instincts and follow your heart, if you do, things will work out in the end. A little over a decade before these two low points came to the big screen, Pixar Animation Studios almost fell into that trap but were thankfully able to fix the problem and learn the lesson I mentioned, and that’s where the Black Friday reel comes in, but since this is Pixar’s first movie, let’s start with an origin story. Origins After working on ...