The only child, Number Seven, or Vanya as she likes to be
called, without powers is perhaps slated to be the most powerful of all the
superhero children gathered at the Umbrella Academy. In the first episode we’ve
already seen Vanya, played by Ellen Page, practicing violin on a stage. She’s
written a book, and her dream patterns were beeping off the chart and compared
to the relatively normal brain patterns of the other children. She is clearly
the most creative of the group, and that’s what makes her dangerous.
Diego and Luther are the tanks. Time and space travel boy is
a freak! His fight scene against what appears to be an elite military group was
incredible. Suggestive woman is dangerous, but says she has stopped using her
power. And Klaus, a drug addict and cliché, speaks with the dead – that’s a
different kind of freaky. That leaves Vanya, who is undervalued and
underappreciated.
Creativity and the resulting innovations are what set the humans
of today, homo sapiens sapiens, apart from other humans and animals. Being able
to make something and then turn that to other uses is how people became the
dominant species on Earth. People aren’t the fastest or strongest. They aren’t
even the smartest necessarily, but people adapt the situation to their needs.
Too cold? Build a fireplace and house. To hot create an air conditioner. To
wet? Open an umbrella.
Vanya also trained with her father though she may not see it
that way. She knows what the people in the group can do and how to use their
powers, and as soon as she adapts her thinking to solving the problems at hand,
she will be the one to guide the members of the Umbrella Academy to greatness
with better chances for success.
Spoiler Alert: CBS’ “Salvation” illustrates the problem of a countdown. When a show has a significant, world-ending event on the calendar, it can only end poorly. The asteroid is coming and for two seasons of “Salvation” the main thrust of action comes from the reaction of people to the asteroid and the ineffectual efforts of the government, a rogue hacker organization and a genius billionaire to divert the asteroid from its course. There are plenty of amazing, thought-provoking episodes, especially in the first season. And then there are the dumb actions, mostly in the second season.
By the penultimate episode, none of that matters. Humans are
doomed by the incoming asteroid. Old rich and evil people have made off with
the show’s namesake spaceship/lifeboat for humanity and there’s nothing left to
do but tie up loose ends, except “Salvation” is a TV show and needed a way to
continue if it were picked up for a third season. (It wasn’t.) That’s when the
writers decided it wasn’t an asteroid.
If you’re writing a series with an asteroid and you’ve built
it up to the point of impact, you either need to end it with a bang or with the
success of people over nature. In this case, “Salvation” decided to offer a
vote of no winner and scuttle everything it had built up to the last episode,
which was unfortunate because they could’ve gone out with a bang.
I was lucky enough to be invited as a journalist to Malta Comic Con 2015, where I met the man who built R2D2 for the Star Wars films of the 1970s and 1980s. Tony Dyson was a personable, friendly man who invited me outside to interview him about creativity. For a Star Wars fan writing a dissertation on creativity, this is about as good as it gets. Dyson summed up his advice for people who want to be more creative in two words – “Play more.”
In the stage play when Tinker Bell drinks the poison that is intended to kill Peter Pan and starts to fade, Peter says it’s because not enough people believe enough in fairies. If the audience could believe more in fairies, and show that belief through applause, Tinker Bell could be saved. This isn’t the only time that the two characters are associated with belief.
In Disney’s 1953 screen adaptation, Peter tells the Darling children that they can fly. “All it takes is faith and trust… and a little bit of pixie dust.” As long as the children think happy thoughts and believe they can fly, they can.
The first step to improving your creativity is to believe
you can. Too many people believe that creativity is an innate gift bestowed
upon a blessed few at birth. The reality is that everyone is creative, you just
have to harness it, practice it and release your inhibitions. None of that can
happen unless you believe in your own creativity and your ability to improve it
first.
Many Disneyland attractions already have movie attached to them. The Jungle Cruise will get its eponymous movie, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in 2020, though the boat designs were based on 1951’s “The African Queen.” The Indiana Jones Adventure has a series of films and a TV show based on the popular character; there are rumors of a fifth film in the works for 2021. Tarzan’s Treehouse is connected to Disney’s animated feature of the same name and was formerly known as the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse; the Swisskapolka is still played in memoriam of the former incarnation. This leaves only the Enchanted Tiki Room as an attraction in Adventureland without a movie.
The Pirates of the Caribbean has had five movies based on it. A sixth one was scheduled but the writers walked out and Disney has yet to clarify whether the reboot will move forward. The Haunted Mansion had a terrible movie made about it and deserves a do-over. Tom Sawyer’s Island, based on the Mark Twain stories of Tom and Huck Finn with a pirate overlay, has a movie starring JTT and the tie-in to the Pirates of the Caribbean. The seasonal Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes have the surprise hit of the 1950s “Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier,” which started on the weekly Disney TV show and moved to the theaters after it became so popular. New Orleans Square is pretty much covered unless you want to count the Blue Bayou or Club 33 as attractions.
Critter Country’s Splash Mountain is based on the never-to-be-seen-in-the-U.S.-again “The Song of the South,” and Winnie the Pooh has several films, and TV shows – most recently, “Christopher Robin.” The Country Bear Jamboree also got a movie; however, the film released after the show was evicted from the premises.
Over at Frontierland, the Mark Twain doesn’t have its own movie; neither does the Sailing Ship Columbia or Big Thunder Mountain. Big Thunder Mountain does have a series of comic books. The Golden Horseshoe Stage was designed by Harper Goff who also did the saloon in “Calamity Jane.” The Shooting Exposition is another attraction that is missing a movie. But does it deserve one?
Fantasyland is all about the mostly animated films of Walt Disney, which contributed to the TV show “Once Upon a Time.” From “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to “Frozen,” just about every attraction has a movie to go with it. “Dumbo” and “Alice in Wonderland” are represented twice, and that’s not including the miniatures in Storybookland Canals. Even the Matterhorn is tied to “Third Man on the Mountain.” It’s a small world, however, does not.
Toon Town is also replete with films, or at least, the short cartoons of Disney’s past. Home to the Big Five, Toon Town also features nods to the Disney Afternoon with Gadget’s Go Coaster. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” provides the framework for Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin.
Tomorrowland has its own movie, which was better than it was given credit for. The attractions in Tomorrowland mainly rely on “Star Wars,” “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo for their themes. The exceptions are Space Mountain, the Monorail, the Astro Orbitor and Autopia.
Main Street U.S.A.’s attractions appear to be completely
ignored by Disney’s movie making machine. Great
Moments with Mr. Lincoln, the Penny
Arcade, and the Main Street Cinema
are all attractions without movies though Disney did distribute “Lincoln” in
2012. None of the vehicles on the
street have their own films.
So, which of the attractions that do not have films should
be made into a movie? Or is Disney going to need to create new attractions to
find the next Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? Leave your comments below,
include a possible plotline, just keep it PG.
Thinking deeply about a subject is part of becoming more creative. If you like Disney, a great place to start to think deeply and improve your creativity is with “Disneyland Is Creativity: 25 Tips for Becoming More Creative.” Preorder “The Haunted Mansion Is Creativity” for a more in-depth analysis of my favorite ride. For other articles related to Disney check out these links.
Let’s forget the mildly entertaining and somewhat inconsistent shorts that Disney spun from its billion-dollar franchise ‘Frozen’ and look at the new teaser that just dropped. A determined Elsa faces the fury of a stormy coastline. Was she kidnapped and left on an island? Shipwrecked? We don’t know. We do know, by the determination in her face and body language, that she’s going to get off the island using her ice powers. The ocean can’t defeat her. (I don’t know why she needs a running start or how long she plans on running.The ocean is big.) She could probably make a stairway or bridge over the waves, but that would be way less cool.) Winter is coming!
Floating multi-colored diamond shapes…
All the SVENS! Gather the herd, we have places to run!
Anna shows off her athleticism. That’s quite a leap. Of
course, tossing a bust around like it’s a bouquet of flowers showed off some of
Anna’s unexpected strength.
Elsa is fighting fire to save her friend Olaf. Is this the
time we see the demise of Olaf? If this scene comes before Elsa fighting the
ocean… I fear for our friend who likes warm hugs. Maybe, it’s retribution for
the short that was too long and shown before “Coco.” Olaf! Some people are
worth melting for. Just maybe not right now!
The wind through the leaves as fall settles across the land.
Has fall come too early? After Elsa’s eternal winter of the first movie, is
this how the trees would react? Are those two new characters? It doesn’t look
like Christoff’s coat. And he’s being blown like a leaf on the wind. It could
be Hans or the son of the Duke of Weselton.
There’s a fell voice on the wind. All of those blowing
leaves… It’s the Fall of Elsa. How else would a queen, her sister and the
official ice deliverer be able to leave the castle and ostensibly the kingdom? Who
did they leave in charge? Hans? He was a capable leader who seemed to care
about the people of Arendelle, even if he wanted to kill the sisters.
The all female version of “Vuelie,” the seemingly weirdly out of place opening to the first movie featured a choir of men and women. This trailer version is different. And cut! No, Anna, I didn’t mean that literally!
I have already proposed several different plotlines that I’m pretty sure Disney didn’t consider. You can see them on my Patreon page as a preview of my planned book “Penguinate! The Disney Company” if you join today! You might also want to check out five bad pick-up lines from “Frozen” at our Weebly archives.
After 13 episodes of “Salvation” the most unforgivable action came from an assassin. He shoots his target at close range in the shoulder, then shoots a bystander in the chest and head. He had surprise on his side, so this should have been an easy task. Instead of checking on his target to see if she was still alive or dead, he douses everything in flammable liquids and starts a fire.
Dude. Seriously? You’re an assassin. Your next move after shooting the bystander would’ve been to go around the desk and finish off the target. Morgan Freeman in “Nurse Betty” said it best, “Three in the head, you know their dead.” (I use the quote in “The Pirate Union.”)
Because this professional killer and cleaner didn’t do his
job, the target was able to send an incriminating email and accomplish the
task, her death was supposed to prevent. We aren’t 100 percent sure that she’s
dead, so it might be that this assassin did not complete his mission at all.
Maybe, this makes the story more interesting, but come on.
All I want is for people to do their jobs well. Whatever your profession,
whatever work you do, do it well. Even if you don’t like it. Until you quit,
you need to instill in yourself the habits that will transfer to any other work
you choose. Doing the job correctly should be a top priority for everyone who
is employed.
And, I guess, I also want a story that’s a little more
believable. The fate of the world is in question; this assassin knew that the
target needed to be eliminated. He should’ve completed the job correctly.
One of the reasons why video games are so popular and so
easy to play for hours is because they set up quantifiable goals that allow you
to understand whether you’re being successful or failing. It’s not just save the
princess; it’s save the princess while scoring the most points or doing so in
the fastest time. Hardcore gamers will sit for hours trying to gain levels, get
treasure, discover secrets, complete side quests, and feel accomplished. Even
gamers who play Match 3 games or Farmville have goals they can measure – one more
level to complete or a certain score to attain. The numbers are tracked, saved,
compared to your friends, and celebrated when milestones are reached.
Every so often, I get caught up in one of those point-and-click
Facebook games, like Farmville or Castle Age, and I become totally obsessed
with them. I’m building characters. I’m building farms. I’m building castles. I’m
fighting monsters. I’m raking in the fake currency. I’m completing quests, and
in the best of these, I’m connecting with people on the Internet I will
probably never meet in person. In short, these games allow me the opportunity
to feel successful and enjoy the feeling of actually building toward something.
It’s a feeling that seriously lacks in real life.
No matter how many blog posts I write, how many books I
sell, or how many SEO articles I write, I don’t see the results that show I am
building toward something. Instead, my real life looks like I am spinning my
wheels and staying afloat, with the weather and waves threatening to change all
that.
These games have a time element and a rewards system. Just
wait five minutes, and you get another point, or energy bolt, or gold piece to
spend. Of course, you always have the option of throwing the developers some
real money to get more of whatever makes the game go. The more you play, the
more new lands you find the more powers you develop and the more secrets you
discover.
Discovery also lacks in life, even as I seek out new
experiences and new information. It seems like I am surrounded by old
information that is told in different ways over and over. It’s like looking up
30 articles on heart attacks to see that chest pain is the most common symptom
for men. It’s something we all know. Isn’t there anything new out there?
Recently, I got caught up in “Magic the Gathering: Arena.”
It’s a great game. You collect cards and decks. You build decks, and then you
battle against other people that you can’t really communicate with. It has all
the elements I love: Discovery, strategy and card collecting. (I had so many Magic
cards when I was in my teens and twenties.) And then there’s the winning – who doesn’t
love winning? I just can’t continue on with it knowing the responsibilities I
have.
These games are time- and attention-stealers. They don’t do anything to advance you forward, and if you’re like me, they suck you in and reduce your effectiveness in other areas of your life. If you’re thinking about the next reward you can get in your match three gems game or Candy Crush, you’re not thinking about how to solve other problems you’re facing or how to help other people get through life better. Yes, they are fun, and if you can play them in moderation, more power to you. I, however, cannot. Now, if there were a point-and-click game that translated into helping people. That might be a game worth getting lost in.
“Trust is the most valuable commodity in the world” –
paraphrased from the Russian Defense Minister Toporov on “Salvation.”
In fewer than six months, the world will end. All it would
take to save the world is to launch a gravity tractor equipped with the newly
developed EM drive into space. It seems like it should be a relatively simple
thing to accomplish. The biggest issue is that no one trusts each other enough
to let anyone else do his or her thing, and it starts at the top with the
governments of Russia and the U.S.
REM: It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Russia cuts off all diplomatic ties to the U.S. and threatens war. They know the asteroid is coming, and they don’t have the ability to build an EM drive, in spite of having kidnapped one of the scientists responsible for its invention. Russia threatens to shoot down anything shot into space and has already destroyed any satellite capable of crashing into the asteroid (which they should do, because if the asteroid is blown to pieces, it will result in a lot of meteors raining down on Russia and other countries in the Eastern Hemisphere rather than an extinction level event.) Russia threatens these things because they found that the U.S. has already dropped one asteroid on them (using the real-life Chelyabinsk meteor as part of its story).
Kaa the Python: Trust in Me
The U.S. president refuses to acknowledge the action, and
the only way to move forward with a launch is for billionaire Darius Tanz to
take PR official Grace Barrows to Moscow. Barrows is friends with the former ambassador,
who may be able to arrange a meeting with the Minister of Defense. Pointless
shenanigans (meaning the death of Barrows’ friend and the frame-up of Tanz and
Barrows for her murder by polonium) ensue and the two meet with Toporov, who
demands a test of their trust. Barrows and Tanz drink the tea laced with
SP-117, which is not sodium pentothal, and tell the truth about what they want
and how they propose to get it.
Russia still doesn’t trust the U.S., but it trusts Tanz and
Barrows. The launch is a go. Yay! We’re going to save the world with a joint
operation between the U.S. and Russia… Scrap that. The world learns about the
asteroid, and Russia withdraws its people again. The Secretary of Defense sends
up the rocket with the only EM drive, as far as he knows, and it gets shot
down. The world will be destroyed because government officials couldn’t do the
right thing. The only plan anyone has left is to shoot nuclear missiles at the
asteroid as it gets closer, and every scientist has already said that plan won’t
work. (Tanz has a secret plan, but the Secretary of Defense doesn’t know this
at the time he makes his stupid decision.)
Liam, the kid scientist responsible for the discovery of the
asteroid and calling its attention to Tanz and then develops the EM drive,
finally gets his ex-girlfriend Jillian back to Tanz Industries to do a job she’s
uniquely qualified for. She may be willing to get back together with Liam;
after all, she had to keep the secret from her family and discovered how difficult
it was. Then, the reporter shows up, attempts to blackmail Liam and reveals to Jillian
that they kissed. Liam is dumbstruck.
First of all, this is not how a good reporter behaves. However,
it’s the second time that this particular reporter attempted to blackmail
someone. She has also made friends with people who could provide her with
information for her story. She’s going to get the story regardless of the
morality involved in the methods to get it. Her story is the reason the
Russians pull out of the launch deal. She is also the reason why Liam and
Jillian have more trust issues than before.
Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust
While in Russia, Barrows and Tanz engage in a tete-a-tete,
which results in an SP-117 kiss. Barrows is dating Harris Edwards, her boss at
the Department of Defense. This action would likely undermine their relationship
by destroying the trust they have in one another, but back in the states, it’s
clear that Edwards doesn’t trust her. Professionally, he revokes her security clearance;
personally, he goes to a bar and has sex in the bathroom with the bartender.
When Barrows gets back to the U.S., he arrests her and then accuses her of
sleeping with Tanz. Dude, that ship sailed when you went to the bathroom with
the bartender. What gives him that right? Oh, and he’s being set up by someone
to make it look like he ordered Barrows to be assassinated.
Fleetwood Mac: Little Lies
Barrows daughter doesn’t trust her and ends up in Re/Syst. Tanz makes a deal with RE/SYST, who tack on a malware program to monitor Tanz’ work from here on out. With all of the lies and deception, it’s hard to see how anyone will gain another person’s trust.
Instead of people trusting in each other, we’re stuck with a
bunch of egos, lies, and the inability to let it go for the sake of saving the
human race. Everyone is involved in making shady deals and shadier decisions
that work to undermine what little trust they’ve built up. Worse, everyone is
ready to believe the worst of someone else; they turn on a dime regardless of
their confessed feelings. If this show is any indication of the truth about
people and trust, there is little difficulty in believing that a few people at
the top will wind up destroying the Earth for petty reasons and because they
lack the humanity, intelligence, and moral compass required to do the right
thing for everyone rather than the right thing for themselves. If people facing
the end of the world can’t trust each other, how can normal people in everyday
life expect to do so?
Trust isn’t an easy thing to rebuild. Once it’s broken,
there are few people who are big enough to build it back up, and few people who
change for the better in order to justify rebuilding the relationship. Human beings
are creatures of habit. If a person engages in behavior that destroys trust he
or she will probably engage in the same behavior again no matter the good
intentions the person may have. The point is: Trust is the most important
commodity in the world. The world is ending for someone every day; inspire
trust and help make it easier to face.
Penguinate! Positive Creativity 