The Cat Returns (DVD)

Studio Ghibli (Producer) & Morita, H. (Director). (U.S. release May 2, 2003). The Cat Returns. [Animated film]. United States: Viz Media.
UPC 786936268836

•Plot Summary
Haru is like many teenage girls, shy and awkward, and not entirely sure she belongs where she is. Since childhood though, she has had one aspect that made her unusual-she can talk to cats. It begins with the giving of a box of fish-shaped crackers to a starving white kitten, and the film begins with Haru saving another cat as he rolls a box across the street into incoming traffic. What Haru does not realize, is that the cat is a prince, and Lune's father offers his son's hand in marriage. When the courier misinterprets Haru's response for a yes, the King of Cat Kingdom comes to visit her. Although she declines the offer, the King won't take no for an answer, and despite Haru visiting a mysterious cat known as The Baron for aid, she is kidnapped. The Baron and his friends (Toto and Muta), must infiltrate the Kingdom in order to save Haru, who has been turned into a cat since her arrival. She begins to lose pieces of her memories, and almost accepts the offer, but The Baron, Toto, and Muta arrive on the scene. As it happens, Lune does not wish to marry Haru, and is in fact in love with one of the palace servants, Yuki. Yuki has been helping Haru from the first, whispering to her to find The Baron, and was the same kitten that Haru saved that first day with the crackers. Muta is also in disguise, a former adversary of the Kingdom who ate an entire lake of fish in one day, causing mayhem years earlier. The escape is successful, and Haru returns to her human form, finally accepting and liking who she is as a person.

•Critical Evaluation
An amusing, and light-hearted piece of work. Fantastic cast of characters, and wonderful animations. Like most of Miyazaki's films that have been adapted for U.S. watchers, this one includes famous voices (Anne Hathaway as Haru, Cary Elwes as The Baron, Elliot Gould as Toto, and Tim Curry as the Cat King).

•Reader’s Annotation
Suitable for younger views as well, this film is actually a sequel to Whisper of the Heart, which included the characters of The Baron and Muta, though one does not need to see that film to understand this one.

•Information about the author
Hayao Miyazaki was born in Japan, in January of 1941, the second of four boys. He attended Toyotama High School, and graduated from Gakushuin University, with degrees in political science and economics. Many of his scenarios reflect this combination of majors, as they include strong female characters, pacifist politics, and themes of people vs technology.

He is the co-found of Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company located in Tokyo. Until Titanic was released in Japan in 1997, his film Princess Mononoke was the highest grossing film in the country, and with it he won Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards.
Two of his later films, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle were both either won or nominated Japanese Academy Awards as well.

•Genre
DVD, Animated Film

•Curriculum Ties
Art

•Booktalking Ideas
Famous animators, Japanese culture

•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 6-12/Ages 11-19

•Challenge Issues
N/A

•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
Someone in the last class meeting mentioned that Miyazaki films were suggested to her as possibilities for this project. My daughter loves his films, and I had just requested this one via Netflix.

Circ du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (DVD)

Miano, A. (Producer) & Weitz, P. (Director). (Released February 23, 2010). Circ du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. [Motion picture]. United States: Universal Studios.
UPC 025195038393

•Plot Summary
Darren Shan is sixteen, and practically perfect. He's good looking, popular, has stellar grades, and a fantastic family. His best friend, Steve, is the complete opposite. When the two receive an invitation to attend a circus performance intended for adults only, and Steve recognizes the Ring Master as an ancient vampire he read about in a book, things begin to escalate. Steve wants immortality, to be special, but it's Darren that receives this "gift" when he is forced to make amends for his friend's behavior. The circus is filled with freaks of all kinds, the abilities Darren now possesses aren't always what they seem to be, but it turns out you can play on Gameboy consoles in a coffin. Steve is jealous of Darren's new existence, and is adopted by the vampire's main nemesis, the two friends are suddenly becoming sworn enemies.

•Critical Evaluation
Based on the novels by the same name, and suitable for both teens and tweens. Very tongue-in-cheek humor, but great performances by some considerable box office stars (like John C. Reilly-as the vampire, and Salma Hayek-as the bearded lady/seer).

•Reader’s Annotation
Humorous look at life as a near-vampire, from a teen's perspective.

•Information about the author
N/A

•Genre
Film, Movie, DVD, Motion Picture

•Curriculum Ties
History, Literature

•Booktalking Ideas
Halloween, historical accounts of vampires, circus performers/freak shows, tolerance

•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 6-12/Ages 11-19

•Challenge Issues
N/A

•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
I missed this film in theaters, but since I have been intending to update my vampire blog (which began as part of a class on Vampirism in Literature-UCSB German 182), I wanted to see this film. Also, I thought my daughter would enjoy it, even if she didn't understand all of the references.

Whip It

Mendel, B. (Producer), & Barrymore, D. (Director). (Release date January 6, 1010). Whip It. [Motion picture]. United States: Fox Searchlight Pictures.
UPC 024543641964

•Plot Summary
Since she was a little girl, Bliss Cavendar has been in beauty pageants, primarily due to her mother's need to relive her youth in the same series of pageants. Bliss lives in Bodeen, TX, a fictitious town near Austin, where the most interesting thing to do is go to work-at the local B-B-Q stand. When Bliss goes to Austin to shop with her mother, she picks up a flier advertising an exhibition for the local roller derby team, the Hurl Scouts. Enthusiastic, Bliss and her best friend (Pash) convince their parents they are going to watch their school's football game, when in fact they take Pash's car into Austin. Maggie Mayhem, one of the Hurl Scouts, encourages Bliss to try out for the team. Bliss lies about her age in order to do so, and is soon part of a new life, which includes regularly lying her to her parents about her whereabouts. Meanwhile, Bliss has also started dating Oliver, a rocker she meets at one of the Hurl Scout parties. She's with him when Pash is arrested, her friend's dreams of attending an Ivy League school in order to get out of Bodeen, potentially up in smoke. When Bliss's mother finds out the truth of what Bliss has been doing, Bliss runs away, but Maggie gives her another piece of encouragement-to make up with her parents. Oliver goes away with his band on a small tour, and missing him, Bliss looks up the band's site on the Internet-allowing her to also see a picture of Oliver with a blonde, a blonde wearing the t-shirt Bliss gave to Oliver to take with him, a t-shirt that actually belongs to her mother. Bliss returns home, and tells her mother what happened with Oliver, and agrees to be in the major pageant that conflicts with the Hurl Scouts' final game. They never won before Bliss was on the team, despite their coach (Razor's) guidance, but Bliss is the faster HS ever and Razor has designed new plays. The Hurl Scouts finally have a shot at being in first place, and Bliss is literally the league's poster girl. It is seeing a clip of Bliss, and her poster, that finally results in her reticent father telling his wife that he thinks they ought to let Bliss have her chance with the roller derby. Bliss's mother gives in, her father takes she and the Hurl Scouts to the arena, and once more they lose. Still, her mother comes to watch Bliss, she has made up with Pash, and she has confronted Oliver, letting him know she won't be the girl that whines or puts up with the lying boyfriend. The Scouts lose, but there is always next year.

•Critical Evaluation
Humorous look at how a teenager comes into her own, despite small town life, and a controlling mother. Bliss is fallible, but has good intentions, and there is a certain proud moment when she tells Oliver she "won't be that girl", stating he has to return her mother's t-shirt.

•Reader’s Annotation
Suitable for tweens and teens. Bliss makes a few mistakes, but comes out as a viable role model for teen girls. Based on the novel Derby Girl.

•Genre
Motion Picture, Film, DVD, Movie

•Curriculum Ties
Sports

•Booktalking Ideas
Girls in competitive sports, small town life for teens, roller derby

•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 6-12/Ages 11-19

•Challenge Issues
N/A

•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
I grew up in Texas, and wanted to see Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. This film received good reviews when it was released, and turned out to be even better than I had expected. I plan to read Derby Girl soon.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Heyman, D., Barron, D. (Producers) & Yates, D. (Director). (2009). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. [Motion picture]. United Kingdom: Heydey Films. United States: Warner Brothers Pictures.
UPC 085391200390

•Plot Summary
In this sixth of the seven films to be produced based on the popular series of novels, we find Harry at the subway station reading a newspaper, and flirting with the waitress in the diner where he's reading. Looking up, he sees a train pass by, and Professor Dumbledore is standing on the other side once it's gone. When Harry goes to meet his professor, Dumbledore explains that he and Harry have somewhere to go, and that Harry's things will be waiting for him at the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when he arrives. Transporting Harry along with him, the two arrive at a dilapidated ruin of a house, and Dumbledore reveals that an old arm chair is in fact a professor he wants to have return to the school, Slughorn. Harry doesn't know why, only that it's connected to Lord Voldemort, who used to be one of Slughorn's students. The Dark Lord's activities have been escalating, with not even muggles safe any longer, and Slughorn begrudgingly agrees to return to the school. While still in London, and after visiting George and Fred's new joke shop, Harry, Hermoine, and Ron notice Draco Malfoy skulking about. He enters Borgin and Burkes shop, a place selling antiques, and meets with several of the known Death Eaters. On board the train bound for Hogwart's, Harry begins to eavesdrop on Draco's conversation with his friends, but Draco knows he is there. Casting a spell on Harry that renders him unable to move, Draco leaves him on the train, and Luna Lovegood locates Harry via her special glasses. Late in arriving on campus, Harry and Ron are also late to attend Potions glass with Slughorn. Not having books for the class yet, Slughorn tells the boys to use ones from the cabinet. The both dive for the new one, but Harry is too slow (curious for the Quidditch Seeker), and ends up with the older of the two books. What he finds inside, carefully scripted notes, launches him to the top of the class. Harry receives a potion for Liquid Luck, one that makes all his work successful, until the effects wear off. Later, Ron and Hermione think that Harry has placed some in Ron's drink so he will succeed at his first Quidditch match, but Harry later shows Hermione the untouched vial-Ron succeeded on his own. The former owner of the book is someone known only as The Half-Blood Prince. Hermoine attempts to research this person in the library, but finds nothing, and her level of tension mounts. Used to being the best in almost every class, she doesn't trust the information Harry is finding in the book, and is also having trouble of her own. Ron has been receiving attention from Lavender Brown, and the two begin snogging all over the school. She asks Harry what it's like he sees Ginny Weasley snogging Dean, her boyfriend, and he explains it's the same as when she must watch Ron and Lavender. Meanwhile, Dumbledore has shown Harry a fake memory, one between Slughorn and young Tom Riddle. He also requests that Harry allow himself to be "collected" by Slughorn, who has a habit of liking to have only the best, and brightest, students around him. After a failed attempt by someone to kill Dumbledore results in one student being nearly killed (as she was to have been messenger), Dumbledore and Harry know they are running out of time. He drinks the Liquid Luck potion, and goes to visit Hagrid, only knowing that he should. On his way, he comes across Professor Slughorn, who accompanies him. They find Hagrid mourning the death of his friend, the large arachnid, Aragorn. Eventually, the trio end up back at Hagrid's, the two men drunk. Hagrid passes out, and Slughorn explains about a flower he once received that turned into a fish. It was from Harry's mother, and Harry explains how her love saved him, but that it would have been for nothing without the knowledge Harry has been trying, unsuccessfully, to get the Professor to reveal. Slughorn relents, and gives Harry the memory, who then shares it with Dumbledore. Tom Riddle asked about a piece of magic that would allow him to store pieces of his soul away, and in so doing, keep him from ever being able to die. Dumbledore and Harry realize Tom killed seven people in order to store his soul away in seven artifacts. The diary Harry punctured using a basilisk horn was the first, a ring from Tom's family, was the second. He and Dumbledore go to retrieve what his Professor to believe to be another. Harry must agree to do what Dumbledore says, and the two retrieve a locket, which ends up being a fake. While this all goes on, Draco Malfoy has been given the task of killing Dumbledore, and is only saved by Snape when he and Harry engage in a pitched dual. He's been practicing in the use of a cabinet that will enable him to be transported to any location he wants, and Snape has made an Unbreakable Vow with Draco's mother, to keep her son safe. As Draco finally locates Dumbledore alone, he cannot kill the Professor, and the other Death Eaters arrive to urge him to action. Dumbledore looks to Snape, who has passed Harry with a finger-to-lips motion for silence, and asks only, "Please". Not trying to defend himself, Dumbledore is struck by Snape's magic, and falls from the castle wall-dead. Harry gives chase, and Snape keeps repelling his magic, finally explaining over Harry's exhausted body that the young man should not use his own spells against him. They are spells from the book, and Snape is the Half-Blood Prince. After Dumbledore's death, Harry knows he has to get rid of the book, but cannot bring himself to do it. Ginny takes him to the Room of Requirement, tells him to close his eyes, and hides the book in the room. The two have their first kiss, but there is more to be done. The search to find the third horcrux had been for nothing, but Harry knows he must go on, and Hermione explains to her friend that she and Ron will go with him on his quest.

•Critical Evaluation
Shortest of the films, although the book was the longest of the series, except for the last. Order of the Phoenix members are barely seen, and the search to find out about the identity of the Half Blood Prince is limited to the one mention where Hermoine looks for intel in the library's collection. Much of the film adaptation is given up to scenes of Harry and Ginny's shy interactions, and Ron snogging Lavender, until they break-up. Without certain elements from the novel, such as the muggle attacks, the relationships between older characters being developed (such as Tonks and Lupin), and the search for the rightful owner of the book, Snape, the ending does not make a great deal of sense.

•Reader’s Annotation
Adequate as a stand-alone film, but misses some of the elements that made the novel arguably the best in the series.

•Genre
DVD, Motion Picture, Film

•Curriculum Ties
N/A

•Booktalking Ideas
Harry Potter, witchcraft and wizardry in pop culture

•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 6-12/Ages 11-19

•Challenge Issues
As with all the Harry Potter-related books and films, there is the possibility of a challenge based on the angle of supposed real witchcraft and spells. Recommendations include asking the challenger to read the book, with the purpose of finding actual instances of material that might lead young adults into dubious behavior, as well as pointing out that these are just works of fiction, and that spells used in the book are likewise imaginary.

•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
I was a huge fan of the novel, and wanted to see how the two compared. With my daughter away for the Summer when this came out, and mixed reviews, the DVD viewing seemed the best idea.