Film Review: Pan’s Labyrinth

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fantasy, Guillermo Del Toro, Ivana Baquero, Pan's Labyrinth, Serio Lopez

When I was in Lancaster not long ago I took the opportunity to use some vouchers I’d had for some time. I headed to HMV with the vouchers which were good for five sterling and had a good look for a DVD priced at no more than that. It took a while to find anything I was interested in at that price but I was very tempted by an animated film adaptation of Appleseed, a manga written by Shirow Masamune who wrote Ghost in the Shell, the subject of my last book review. In the end though I went for this fantasy masterpiece from Guillermo Del Toro.

Sometimes writing reviews of things seems a little futile. Chances are you’ve heard of Pan’s Labyrinth and even if you haven’t seen it you know it’s very well thought of based on what other reviewers have said. It’s difficult to know what I can add that hasn’t already been said before. The answer is probably nothing but I have to delve into what I take from film experiences particularly. The most obvious thing to me is that Pan’s Labyrinth boasts just about the most loathable villain of any film I’ve seen.

Creating villains that are easy to hate shouldn’t be difficult, they’re the bad guys, we’re supposed to despise them, but somehow most of the most famous movie villains end up being revered. Everybody loves Darth Vader, the Joker, General Zod etc. and with good reason, they’re all awesome. If a storyteller can create a scene-stealing villain they occasionally become more popular than the heroes they fight against. The key, therefore, to making a hateful villain is to take away anything likeable, cool or human about them. This is what has happened with Captain Vidal, he is a cold, merciless, brutal, fascist bastard and we really detest him for it.

For those of you that don’t know the film is set in 1944 Spain where freedom fighters are desperately combating the fascists, an unusual setting for a fantasy film but one that works extremely well. The heroine is the fanciful Ofelia, a girl charmed by fairytale whose pregnant mother has recently remarried, Captian Vidal being the groom and father of the unborn baby. They travel to join the captain at his mountain post where his men are trying to root out a pocket of guerilla resistance. Soon after arrivinf Ofelia meets Pan, a faun with a proposition. If she can accomplish the tasks he sets for her she can take her place as the princess of the undergorund kingdom he serves. The story intertwines the soldiers’ conflict with the rebels and Ofelia’s adventures into fantasy.

As fantasy goes this falls under the heading of ‘grotesque’, not something I’m particularly fond of in fantasy but it works well here. Ofelia’s tasks see her infiltrating slimy holes and secret rooms packed with giant bugs and revolting monsters the most memorable, and terrifying of which is a bald, humanoid freak who keeps his eyes in his palms and snacks on fairies. These sequences carry an assured and well-realised visual style that never distracts from what’s going on outside. The biggest monster, naturally is Vidal who thinks nothing of crushing a man’s face for no reason and taunting his victims before he tortures them. When he gets a taste of his own medicine it’s a moment that could invoke cheers.

It’s not exactly a cheerful movie either, the whole cast seems to suffer on some level and the moon is distictly meloncholy as epitomised by the film’s recurring musical theme, a haunting lulluby, isially hummed to heart-rending effect. The brutality is mixed with a sense of mystery and peril and the cast all shine without exception.

Verdict

An unrelenting yet strangely touching dark fairytale that reminds us that the darkest nightmares of our imagination are overshadowed by real life evil. The kind of theme that you don’t forget whether or not you enjoy it.

Book Review: Ghost in the Shell – Shirow Masamune

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Aramaki, Batou, Ghost in the Shell, manga, Motoko Kusanagi, Shirow Masamune, Tagusa

I’m not ecactly a manga connoiseur, in fact this is the only one I own although it’s an area I’d like to get into. I am however a confirmed Ghost in the Shell enthusiast -  I can’t get enough of the animation. This, the manga, published in 1989 inspired first a highly succesful and very influential theatrical film of the same name in 1995, a film which has recently received an upgrade called Ghost in the Shell 2.0 featuring CG visuals in some scenes. Further to that an anime series called Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex was made in the 2000s of which there were two seasons. Show for show it was the most expensive animated television show ever made. The original film received a sequel in 2004, Ghost in the Shell 2 – Innocence which sported incredible visuals. Stand Alone Complex also gained a non-theatrical feature length film, Solid State Society. Although this isn’t the first time I’ve read the manga I did so completely aware of how much of a fan of the animation I am so I’m in the strange position of judging the original text against the standard of its tie-in material.

Ghost in the Shell fits into the cyberpunk sub-genre of sci-fi and is set in Japan in the near future, around 2030 by which time there have been a further two world wars, one of which was nuclear. Technology has advanced to such a degree that the cybernetic enhancement of human bodies has become commonplace with some cyborgs being 97% prosthetic. Brain augmentations allow people to act like computers and connect to the net and it’s even possible to hack people’s brains. I could go into a lot more detail than this, in fact detail is the word. It’s an incredibly complex world Masamune has created exploring themes of psychology, philosophy, politics and technology along the way. The story concerns a secret government organisation called Public Security Section 9, a small, tactical unit specialising in cases of cyber-terrorism and the manga is seperated into several stories outlining their cases.

The heroine is Motoko Kusanag, known as the Major and probably my favourite ever anime character, a sexy cyborg who is as prosthetic as it is possible to be and extremely talented in areas of combat and ‘diving’ the net. There’s plenty of action of course but the stories and the philosophical musings of the characters are what stand out just as it is in the anime. The episodes take in the uncovering of a government facility that enslaves children, a hapless garbage collector being used to hack into an important political figure’s interpreter as part of an assassination attmept and the mysterious case of the puppet master, a sentient computer programme intent on fusing with Motoko.

It’s impossible for me to write about this without mentioning some of the differences from the animation. Most of the characters aren’t the same, Motoko varies from hyper-talented cyberbabe to goofy, Aramaki the section chief looks like an ape, but the most noticeable difference is the focus on comedy. It’s actually very funny, sometimes featuring very cartoonish panels. The exact quality of the drawings is not consistent but this is a good thing, Masamune breaks up the ponderous wordiness with some welcome irreverence.

Ghost in the Shell, whether the manga or the animation is not the sort of thing that I can automatically recommend as it’s inevitably quite devisive. There’s no arguing with the depth and visionary quality of it as a work of fiction but it’s not easy to follow. The storytelling is often confusing, Masamune is not shy about plastering the dialogue with in-universe jargon and even if you do get it it’s not necessarily going to be to everyone’s taste. Boys will like it a lot more than girls for obvious reasons (explicit action, lesbian threesome) and it really helps if you’re into Japanese culture. I realise I’m not the best judge of manga but if your personality type fits all of these prerequisites you’ll definitely enjoy Ghost in the Shell the manga but I can’t honestly say I like it as much as the films and Stand Alone Complex.

Verdict

A remarkably deeply thought-out and entertaining manga that combines action and complex storytelling with interesting debates about humainty. Approach with caution though, I can’t promise it will be for you.

Game Review: The Legend of Zelda – Oracle of Ages (GBC)

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Capcom, Game Boy Colour, Link, Nayru, Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda - Oracle of Ages, Zelda

Ten years, that’s how long it’s taken me to see this game’s proper ending. I described in my Oracle of Seasons review how the two titles link together to unlock extra content including an alternate finale and how I missed them both on their initial 2001 release. I’m very happy to finally tick off another item from my video game to do list. So now it’s time for the verdict on Oracle of Ages, the better of the two games.

Like Seasons the story of Oracle of Ages sees Link being sent by the Triforce to a land in need, this time Labrynna. No sooner has he arrived than Nayru, the Oracle of Ages is snagged by the evil sorceress Veran. Pretty soon mischief goes on in Labrynna’s history, affecting the present as calamty befalls many of the people. It’s up to Link and Nayru’s overenthusiastic guardian Ralph to save the day, which means travelling across the mysterious land in search of the eight Essences of Time for which they require the assistance of Labrynna’s female Maku Tree.

 

Lynna City is right in the middle of the map.

Oracle of Ages does nothing to slter the Zelda formula, combining open-ended exploration with combat and puzzle solving in cleverly conceived dungeons. Ages takes a leaf out of Ocarina of Time’s book for its standout feature by representing the recurring light/dark world mechanic as matter of chronology, although here the two time periods are divided by four hundred years instead of seven. By playing the Harp of Ages you can travel from present to past and vice versa, an act that opens the way to some great puzzles. Landscapes change between the two ages adding strategy to where you choose to make the jump and your actions in the past have a marked effect on the present. One town you visit has been desecreated by a past calamity but travel back and avert said calamity and the place becomes peaceful and colourful in the present. It’s a trick that’s used again and again to staisfying effect.

Labrynna itself and the stories to be found there are more mysterious than Holodrum. The past is dominated by Queen Ambi whose sad story sees her building a tower in the centre of the map. While she’s not a bad guy there’s an unmistakble sense of menace surrounding her that the game slowly teases you with as you progress. Most locations offer some fairly memoraqble challenges from having to reclaim your pinched equipment at Crescent Island to exploring the watery depths of the ocean near Zora’s Domain and the maze of caves and passages at Rolling Ridge.

 

You can alter the course of this water.

While Oracle of Seasons placed the focus on action and combat, Ages bombards you with puzzles and they are what really stand out about the game. In addition to the clever organisation of the overworld the dungeons are simply fiendish featuring one that sees you raising and lowering the water level rather like Ocarina of Time’s Water Temple. The eight dungeon in particulr is a real test of spatial awareness and complex thought. They’re a great set of dungeons, clearly better than Seasons’ somewhat forgetable offerings. Even the bosses feel like puzzles challenging you to work out how to beat them using the many items you gather through the quest.

Indeed the items unique to a Zelda game offer one way in which to judge them. Oracle of Ages does reasonably well in this regard. The game’s best new piece of equipment is the switch hoon a hookshot-like device that allows Link to swap places with objects and even enemies, again making for some clever puzzles. Other standouts include the mermaid suit which greatly increases your swimming ability and the seed shooter, a range weapon that lets you shhot at an angle and lets you bounce your seed projectiles off walls.

 

The past era is gloomier than the present.

I have to make a confession and admit that neither of my Oracle reviews have been that good. This is simply because having missed them upon their original release I’ve never felt a very deep connection with the two games. I’m of the opinion that games can only be accurately judged at the time of release and although I rate both games highly I think my appreciation of them took a hit by not playing either for so long. What else can I say? These are two magnificent games full of things to discover. That’s all you really need to know and the strange block I seem to have about writing about them shouldn’t matter.

Presentation – 9

It’s a Zelda game and there’s a standard the entire series never falls below. The limitations of the hardware transcend the game’s ability to immerse you and the ideas are packed in.

Gameplay – 10

Like I said it’s a Zelda game and there’s a standard. This formula is timeless, deep, balanced, satisfying and rewarding. Ages’ puzzles lend it an edge over Seasons. Anyone who likes brainteasers will be in heaven.

Graphics – 8

It’s a mark of the quality of Link’s Awakening that the same design can still be full of charm years later. The use of colour really paints a vivid difference between the two ages.

Sound – 9

The same sounds as Link’s Awakening but haunting tunes like Nayru’s song make it really shine.

Difficulty – 8

The puzzles demand a a high level of concentration but the combat is much less punishing than Oracle of Seasons.

Longevity – 9

Just as long as it’s partner with an equal amount of secrets to explore. Zelda always gives you value for money.

Verdict

The superior of the two games is a cerebral and mysterious affair with a deeper story, better characters vastly more engaging dungeons and a million different reasons to love it.

9.4

out of 10

Book Review: Mariel of Redwall – Brian Jacques

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adventure, Brian Jacques, Dandin, Gabool, Mariel, Mariel of Redwall, Redwall

In an effort to avoid Redwall fatigue this is the last book in the series I’ll be reading for a little while. Following my pattern of reading one I’ve known for years (in chronological order) and alternating that with one I’ve never read (in pulication order) the next in the sequence is the 1991 title Mariel of Redwall, the first book to be published following the original trilogy of Redwall, Mossflower and Mattimeo and the next in reading order after Outcast of Redwall.

Mariel of Redwall takes place relatively soon after the abbey’s completion (in fact the bell-tower is still under construction) and follows the tough and tenacious mousemaid Mariel. Gabool the Wild is the searat King of Terramort Isle where he commands his murderous fleet of pirates from Fort Bladegirt and he has recently plundered a magnificent bell created by Joseph the bellmaker for Lord Rawnblade of Salamandastron. After being attacked by Joseph’s daughter Mariel he punishes the mousemaid by driving her into the wild sea during a storm. Mariel miraculously survives washing up on the shore near Mossflower country but her memory is gone. She defends herself from gulls with a makeshift weapon, a knotted length of rope she names Gullwhacker and before long ends up at Redwall Abbey where the recitation of a mysterious poem brings her memories flooding back. Together with spirited mouse Dandin, a descendent of Gonff armed with Martin the Warriro’s sword she sets off to deliver justice to Gabool.

Meanwhile said tyrant’s tendency to off the captains serving under him leads his former right-hand rat Greypatch to desert the island, absconding with the Darkqueen, the best ship in the fleet. Gabool sends the flotilla to track down greypatch and reclaim the Darkqueen but in the meantime is tormented by waking nightmares in which the mysterious bell torments him with its ringing, sending him slowly mad.

It’s a good’un this as you’d expect Jacques’ early work to be weaving one of the best sets of charcters in the series and casting them in an eventful fast-moving story that taps into the spirit of adventure in similar fashion to Martin the Warrior. Mariel is arguably Jacques’ best heroine, all feisty indomitability and resolve and is a quite different charcter from the series other great heroine, the gentler Rose. The unique Gullwhacker she wields represents a nice hook for her warriorlike character. Her equal is Dandin, the next best hero mouse in the series after Martin and Matthias. Restless spirit and reckless courage personify Dandin as outlined by his first notable moment which sees him bungee-jumping off the bell-tower.

There are plenty of other memorable characters too, such as blind herbalist Simeon who has the uncanny ability to sense pretty much anything. Then there’s Mother Mellus who fulfills the role of badger mother at the abbey and is constantly on the tails of Bagg, Runn and Grubb, among the most mischievous and amusing Dibbuns (abbey youngsters) in the series. Lovesick Tarquin L Woodsorrel is the harolina-wielding hare who can barely open his mouth without mentioning the name of Hon Rosie whose raucous guffaw marks her out. Not to mention Gabool the Wild who goes down the Tsarmina path of villainy by losing a few marbles during the story. They’re a great bunch to read about.

And the plotting is pretty efficient too, never lingering in one place or on one subject too long whilst leaving plenty of room for standout moments like Mariel’s unconscious telling of her backstory, one of the more entertaining exposition scenes I’ve ever read, and of course the adventure through dark woodland and dangerous sea.

It’s no mistake that Mariel of Redwall was given a direcdt sequel in The Bellmaker because it’s one of the most likeable entries in the series. Yes there have been better books and the plot does little to really stand out but when the spirit of escapism is this strong sometimes that’s all you need.

Verdict

A great standard by which the series can be judged featuring all the staples and an excellent set of characters including two of the best hero characters in the canon.

Top Ten Disney Villains

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animation, Captain Hook, Cruella de Vil, Disney, Frollo, Gothel, Hades, Maleficent, Prince John, queen, Ratigan, top ten, Ursula, villains

To honour the release of Disney’s fiftieth animated feature Tangled here’s my list of the ten best baddies in the studio’s history. Disney aren’t short of a villain or two and it was a tough list to compile, I had to leave some great nasties out of it. I was also sorely tempted to include ‘Man’, the unseen threat in Bambi but decided ultimately to stick with tangible characters. From ten to one here they are.

10. Professor Ratigan (The Great Mouse Detective)

How could a Disney villain voiced by Vincent Price not make this list? The Professor Moriarty to Basil’s Sherlock Holmes is Disney’s and mousedom’s Napoleon of Crime, a nefarious schemer and rat, sorry, mouse of ambition. He feeds his own underlings to cats and has the downright tenacious cheek to commit treason by usurping the queen. His traps are bold and brutal but the real reason he sticks in the mind is because of Price’s delightful drawling charicterisation.

9. Hades (Hercules)

Sporting some awesome flame-effect hair and wit dry enough to cause a drought in a rainforest the God of the Underworld is one of the mouse house’s more amusing villains. Voiced by James Woods Hades steals the film effortlessly but there’s more to him than a warped sense of humour as his temper has to be one of the most explosive in all cinema. And think of it this way, he’s a god, if every villain on this list got together for a scrap he’d win hands down.

8. Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

I’m not too sure what it is that makes Ursula so awesome. Maybe its the character design, after all you’re not likely to foget the sight of an obese octopus witch in a hurry. Maybe it’s her style of villainy, tricking Ariel out of her voice is pretty original and rather nasty. Whatever it is most people are agreed that she leaves a big impression.

7. Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmatians)

A villain so popular that her whole image and personality have entered popular psyche. As motivations go the rampant desire to look simply fabulous darling in a fur coat might not seem all that heinous but when it’s at the mortal expense of a ton of cute monochrome puppies you know you’ve got a seriously twisted individual on your hands. She’s also one of the few Disney villains whose character comments on society morally, highlighting the shameful obsession with materialism and image.

6. Gothel (Tangled)

The latest arrival at Disney’s party of nasties is among their subtlest, maybe not in terms of motivation, Mother Gothel is desperate to remain young eternally but it’s her methods that set her out. Emotional blackmail, passive-aggressive behaviour and a nastily controlling nature mark her as one of Disney’s most believable and therefore most monstrous creations.

5. The Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

Sometimes all a villain needs to be is scary. The unnamed queen in the studio’s first feature-length picture is frightening enough normally but it’s her transformation into an old hag that sticks in people’s memories and imaginations. The scene remains one of the most striking in animation of the era and the whole persona of the character maintains a timeless menace.

4. Prince John (Robin Hood)

This cowardly thumb-sucking lion sits firmly in the camp of funny villains. Voiced brilliantly by Peter Ustinov this would-be king is as hilarious to watch as he is blackhearted both able to imprison the population of an entire town and cry for mummy when he doesn’t get his way he may not be the most threatening villain but he’s definitely one of the most memorable.

3. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)

In many ways there’s nothing obviously special about Maleficent. Fulfilling a similar role to Snow White’s queen she is a simple duchess of darkness driven by jealousy and spite but several things make her stand out. First there’s her timelssly menacing character design and then the fact that she turns into a freakin’ dragon for undoubtedly the best climactic battle sequence in the Disney canon.

2. Captain Hook (Peter Pan)

And the award for funniest Disney baddie goes to the dastardly pirate Captain Hook. One of children’s literature’s most well-known wrong-uns is brought to vivid life in Disney’s excellent adaptation of J M Barrie’s classic tale in which he desperately schemes to wipe out Peter Pan. His nastiness is brilliantly offset by hysterical slapstick. Try to watch as he cowers from the crocodile, gets pounded by a canon or scoots off over the water like a skimming pebble and not laugh.

1. Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

This may have been a tricky list to compile but there was nothing difficult about choosing who to place at the top. Frollo is without doubt the most evil and hateable Disney villain, his inhumanity, self-righteousness and cruelty to Quasimodo are enough to make you loathe him but when he starts sleazing onto Esmerelda you realise you’ve got something you never thought you’d see in a Disney animation – a sex pest. His song Hellfire is unquestionably the studio’s darkest musical number and his heinous, obsessive hatred of the gypsies marks him as the most vivid example of a very real type of villain, the kind driven by blind prejudice.

Film Review: Tangled

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animation, Disney, Flynn, Gothel, Maximus, Pascal, Rapunzel, Tangled

These are exciting times in the principality. This weekend last I travelled up to Lancaster to stay with my good friend AntBuoy for a few days where the two of us and our other excellent chum Astarico furthered our plans for moving to London together which, all going well, will happen towards the end of March. Whilst there, apart from seeing AntBuoy’s most excellent play Incarnation, he and I happily trundled off to the well-presented Vue cinema in Lancaster to watch Disney’s fiftieth animated feature, Tangled.

When I was a young prince I wasn’t interested in watching films like The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast because those were girls’ films. I was a stupid kid and those are now two of my favourite Disney pics but it looks like Disney have cottoned on to pre-teen boys’ casual sexism with their latest fairytale based on Rapunzel by renaming it the gender-neutral Tangled. It worked, the audience in the Vue screening had boys as well as girls and with Metro claiming the film is ‘for little girls only’ while the kind of movie review sources you should pay attention to (Empire and Total Film) laud it with praise it’s good to see Disney’s latest seeing the success it deserves.

It really looks like Disney are refinding their form. Since the Millenium their animations have lacked creative focus and the kind of inspired sense of magic the studio is loved for and a little bit of me died when the Mouse House declared it was abndoning traditional cel-animation to focus on CG. God bless John Lasseter. Since his appointment as Disney Animation head honcho the studio has been turning things around, returning to both cel and fairytale with last year’s The Princess and the Frog which saw quiet success. That’s why I was confident that this, their first CG fairytale, and the first such in 3D would be a success and I was right.

After a handful of half-decent 3D trailers the best of which was for Disney’s next project, a revival of Winnie the Pooh, and a couple of adverts for 3D TV which, I have to say really improves watching football judging by the clip shown, the show started and it was a breeze throughout. This is one of those fairytales everyone is familiar with but few know intricately so I can’t be sure how close the story is to the original fairytale although I don’t think Rapunzel was a princess until Disney came along. Anyway, late in her pregnancy the queen of a well-groomed, idyllic kingdom falls deathly ill prompting a desperate search for a legendary flower that could save her. Said flower is under the monopoly of an old crone who uses it to stay young and doesn’t take kindly to its removal. The queen is saved but the flower wilts bequeathing its healing properties to the newborn girl and more specifically her blonde hair. Old hag, name of Mother Gothel takes the liberty of breaking into the princess’ bedroom and cuting off a lock of her hair but upon seeing it lose its light and turn brown she realises she needs not just the hair but the girl attached to it and so kidnaps her in a scene that made a sprog along the row cry. Gothel imprisons the infant Rapunzel in a tower in a hidden valley in the middle of a forest and raises her as her own daughter, never cutting her hair which, when Rapunzel sings, will revitalise her youth.

It’s a new direction for Disney villains and the relationship between Rapunzel and Gothel is one of the most interesting Disney have ever weaved recalling Quasimodo and Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. There’s plenty of reason to hate Gothel with her passive-aggressive treatment of Rapunzel forming an emotional prison much harder for the feisty blonde Rapunzel to escape than the tower but although all her motivations are selfish it’s impossible not to get a real sense that she genuinely loves Rapunzel on some level. It’s an original and intriguing setup and drives the whole film well. The character of Rapunzel repeats the young-girl-dreaming-of-greater-freedom story of Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and really offers very little more in terms of depth but she’s very easy to like and sympathise with given her situation and the fun that’s had with her neverending stream of golden hair is irresistible. So far, so girly.

Things get good for the boys when rugged, cocksure thief Flynn Rider comes on screen with a neat, parkour introduction and some colourful and breathless chase sequences to get their teeth into. Flynn is exactly the sort of arrogant hero everyone loves, completely confident but rubber-faced enough to be funny and likeable while maintaining slightly more depth than most of Disney’s leading men. His brand of cynical wisdom (‘I don’t do backstory’) lends the film with the kind of wit grown-ups will appreciate. Then there are the inevitable comedy animals, both of which succeed, on the one hand Rapunzel’s chameleon buddy Pascal amuses with his silent expressions and on the other snow-white super-stallion Maximus takes the concept behind the Terminator and makes it hilarious.

So Rapunzel and Flynn strike a deal and the two depart the tower in search of the meaning behind the floating lights that have enthralled the former on her every birthday and the film never drops below a high level of entertainment value featuring great action, the best of which involves a breaking dam and some aquaplaning, great laughs such as the hilarious extremes of Rapunzel’s reaction to her new-found freedom and moments of unadulterated joy, namely Rapunzel spreading the joy upon her arrival at the kingdom’s capital in a spellbinding sequence of dancing and lantern-lighting that takes its place as the film’s brightest highlight. The songs are decent but not quite as successful as those of The Princess and the Frog with the opening number concerning Rapunzel’s daily routine falling flat. They pick up from there but none of them, as AntBuoy shrewdly observed on our way out of the cinema, were catchy enough to hum.

The most consistent joy however is the vibrant, colourful visuals which are outstanding throughout evoking the very best kind of lighthearted escapism with its varied pallette and beautiful lighting. Rapunzel’s glowing hair is lovely to behold and all the characters look fantastic at every moment. The 3D was pretty good in general. This being only the second film I’ve seen through those hilarious glasses I don’t consider myself an expert on the subject but the effect of it gave the environments plenty of immersive depth with the moments of objects jumping out of the screen sensibly restrained. It was occasionally blurry but not cripplingly so.

The film rattles on at a nice pace, slowing up only once or twice for some exposition and the like and the ending when it rolls up is surprising and satisfying. The only thing Tangled really lacks is something extra special to raise it to the next level. As it is Disney have effortlessly crafted an engaging tale that is bursting with likeability and a solid, focused and entertaining drive that taps into the wonderful spirit of joyous escapism.

Verdict

Disney round out their half-century with a thoroughly entertaining piece of fantasy high-jinks that strikes the right balance of appeal for boys and girls alike with plenty of wry jokes to amuse adults. With any luck we could be on the verge of another Renaaissance.

Book Review: The Taggerung – Brian Jacques

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Brian, Brian Jacques, Deyna, Jacques, Mhera, Redwall, Taggerung, The Taggerung

The Redwall bus keeps on rolling. This is the sixth book in the series I’ve reviewed and we’re not even half way through it.

The Taggerung, published in 2001 takes place after Marlfox and is the third book to feature Lady Cregga Rose Eyes. Sawney Rath is the chief of the coast-dwelling Juskarath tribe. His father was a Taggerung an exceptionally skilled warrior born once in a generation.  When his vixen seer Grissoul foresees the birth of a new Taggerung at Redwall abbey he plots to kidnap him and amke him his clan’s prised asset. The Taggerung turn out to be a baby otter called Deyna whose father takes him to a ford as part of an otter birth ritual but Sawney’s efficient hordebeasts slay him and take the child to raise him as one of them.

There are some genuine surprises in this one. The most noticeable departure from the familiar formula is how the roles of villains are handled. From the get-go we seem to be in different territory from usual, the Juskarath tribe far from being this massive horde seems relatively small and unambitious. Sawney himself appears to fill the role of the horde chief but a fairly early twist involving him shifts the focus. Notably he is uncharacteristically cautious for a Redwall villain, the suggestion of attacking or even going near Redwall is quickly dismissed based on stories of previous warlords’ failed attempts to conquer the place. It makes a nice change of pace. The story itself is pretty original too giving us a reversal of the Outcast of Redwall scenario with a decent character growing up amongst evildoers but managing to maintain his decency. His ultimate journey away from the tribe is the story’s drive at least on one side. Of course there are goings on at Redwall too with Deyna’s sister Mhera engaging in a series of riddles left by the departed Abbes Song. The Redwall riddles are always a joy and provide a wonderfully interactive experience and the riddles in the Taggerung are no different, at least until the frustrating ITTAGALLs turn up. You’ll know what they are and why they’re frustrating if and when you read the book. Although this focus is fun and the subject of Redwall’s next abbey leader and it’s rather lovely to read about Redwall in happy times the story itself as somewhat thin. It’s no rollercoaster but it’s decent.

And there are some nice twists and turns along the way. It turned out to be one of the least predictable books in the series and at times aspects of the plot slotted in nicely. Deyna, or Tagg is a likeable and vividly tough hero but he is upstaged a little by his overconfident companion Nimbalo the Slayer. Other stand out characters include Gruven the inept Taggerung wannabe, Fwirl the energetic mousemaid and Rakky the otterfixer. Overall it’s nothing to write home about but it’s better than Lord Brocktree.

Verdict

By no means one of the Redwall classics but there’s enough going on here to keep fans entertained. The story is original for the series and some of the twists are geunuinely surprising.

Game Review: The Legend of Zelda – Oracle of Seasons (GBC)

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adventure, Din, Game Boy Colour, Link, Nintendo, oracle, Oracle of Seasons, seasons, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda - Oracle of Seasons, Zelda

It was only a matter of time before I reviewed a game in the wonderful, magical, beautiful Legend of Zelda series, my undisputed favourite thing. I first fell in love with the series when I was about eight years old and my mum bought me a copy of The Legend of Zelda – Link’s Awakening for my Game Boy. I had played the game at a friend’s house before and was immediately intrigued by the top down perspective, the various items and weapons and the open-ended world at a time when I was used to playing linear side-scrollers. Being a young kid and a novice to the series and its logic it took me a very long time to finish Link’s Wakening, about four years I think but I never lost interest even when I was stuck. Nintendo accomplished miracles with the title crafting a beautiful world with deep, rewarding gameplay, an unforgetable soundtrack and real dream-like atmosphere, which, for anyone who knows the story is totally appropriate, all this on the very limited hardware of the Game Boy. The game remains one of my all time favourites (if you’ve seen my Top 100 Games 2011 post you’ll see it comes 5th) and holds up superbly well against the rest of the series. My second Zelda game was Ocarina of Time itself which cemented the franchise as the highest in my esteem. There’s nothing quite like playing a Zelda game. You get all the immediate fun of exploration and combat and using items in the perfectly balanced gameplay, the mystery and atmosphere of the stories, brilliant freedom to explore the detailed worlds and every aspect of video game design including graphics, script, music and challenge is never less than stellar. The series is a model of consistency with fourteen quality titles released to date only one of which failed to make my 2011 Top 100. Now that I’ve finished playing the three new games I got for Christmas it’s back to replaying classic oldies and there’s nowhere better to start than Zelda.

With both Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time 3D incoming the prospect of two Zelda releases in one year is about as exciting as things get but back in 2001 we had two released in one day. The Legend of Zelda – Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda – Oracle of Ages were both released for the Game Boy Colour and exist side by side as sister titles that interact with each other in a lot of innovative and clever ways. Unlike the Pokemon twin sets which are basically the same game with very minor distinctions the two titles are completely different adventures in different worlds with seperate stories, a fact too often forgotten as they’ve been listed together as one game in various articles I’ve read. The games can communicate with each other using link cables allowing players to trade items and whatnot but more significantly upon completing either game you are given a code you can use when starting a new game for the other title that unlocks extra content including the best ending.

It seems to be arunning theme for this blog because in a similar way to my failing to keep up with the Redwall books or try the Fire Emblem series when it first arrived in the UK I actually missed both of these titles when they were first released, something that, being a confirmed Zeldaphile, I’m rather ashamed of. It was a good four or five years before I got round to tracking down copies of the game and I found Seasons much earlier than Ages. When I did finally get Ages I used the code given to me upon completing it to play the secondary version of Seasons. Now, when you complete one of these additional playthroughs you don’t get another code for the first game, instead you’re forced to play the game in the regular way, which is precisely what I’ve had to do here. I’ve seen Seasons’ best ending but not Ages’ so I’m playing the two games side by side to complete the cycle at last some ten years after the titles’ release.

 

Minecarts just like in Donkey Kong Country appear in some dungeons.

The Legend of Zelda – Oracle of Seasons sees the evergreen young hero Link, ever the quiet one, sent by the Triforce to the land of Holodrum where he meets Din, the fiery dancing beauty who also happens to be the Oracle of Seasons. Before you can say ‘damsel in distress’ Din is kidnapped by general Onox a crime that has a huge effect on Holodrum sending the seasons into disarray and causing the Temple of Seasons to sink below the earth. With the help of Impa, Princess Zelda’s attendant and the Maku Tree, a relative of Ocarina of Time’s Deku Tree no doubt, Link sets off in search of the eight Essences of Nature that will allow him to rescue Din and return Holodrum to normal.

As per the Zelda formula you need to explore the world of Holodrum insearch of the eight dungeons one by one wherein you are challenged to explore a carefully constructed maze engaging enemies and puzzles building up an arsenal of weapons, taking down bosses and completing side-quests. Using this formula both Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages present their stories with the same tools first seen in Link’s Awakening. The graphics are identical to the earlier game with Link’s character model and a number of NPCs returning unchanged. The same goes for much of the landscape though there are some new designs. The sound too is largely recycled but all of these elements were strong enough the first time round that they hold up very well. Many tunes from Link’s Awakening recur but there are plenty of new tunes that do their job very well from the chirpy and cheerful Horon Village theme to the haunting echoey Tarm Ruins tune. The controls too are unchanged with the various items assignable to either button. All in all it wasn’t broke and Capcom, who made both games for Nintendo, didn’t fix it.

 

Can you guess which season this is?

So the joy of exploration and puzzle-solving are present and correct but the game needs to stand on its own and do more than rinse and repeat the formula. Seasons shakes things up with a couple of neat variations on the dual world mechanic first pioneered to spectacular effect in A Link to the Past. As you travel around Holodrum the current season, spring, summer, autumn or winter fluctuates between areas as you move between them. Some regions have a preset standard season that will always arise whenever you arrive there while other places have a random season. Aside from the pretty colours and some of the features of the landscape looking different a number of important things change between seasons in such a way as to block or open up a path for you to follow. For example in summer you might find vines growing up a cliff that you can climb that won’t be there in any other season. All this is is another way of restricting where you can go until you have the right tools, which is nothing new to Zelda but it’s great to see imaginative new ways of achieving this. Of course this means that you need to be able to have an effect on what season it is which is where the Rod of Seasons comes in. When standing on a tree stump you can swing the Rod of Seasons to change the current season. Cleverly the game restricts what season you can switch to to begin with. When you first get the item you’ll only be able to make it winter but one by one you unlock each season. It’s a pretty great frame for the game and really draws you in to its unique character but Seasons’ tricks don’t end there. The dual world mechanic is reimagined again in the sense that there is literally a second world to explore in the form of Subrosia, an underground realm a fair bit smaller than Holodrum but still sizeable enough. You access Subrosia via a number of portals found throughout the world. There are no seasons to worry about here but there’s plenty to see and do and it’s fairly well integrated into the game.

The dungeons are strong on the whole and offer a high level of challenge and some decent puzzles but lack some of the soul of those found in Link’s Awakening. The dungeons don’t seem to have a clear thematic distinction in the same way but they’re always atmospheric and highly immersive. Aside from the usual side quests including a trading sequence the like of which we again first saw in Link’s Awakening Oracle of Seasons has some new ideas such as rings which can be found throughout. The rings you wear have various effects such as improving the effectiveness of some of your items and can be traded with an Ages cart via a link cable. There are new items of course one of the most prevalent of which is you seed bag. You can carry five varieties of seeds which can be used for different effects such as making you run fast or warp you to a different part of the map and you later get a slingshot that lets you fire them at enemeies. The best new item however is the Magnetic Gloves which work like a hyperevolved hookshot. You can use the gloves to manipulate metal objects either by drawing them towards you or pushing them away by holding the button. Each time you let go of the button the polarity of the gloves changes allowing you to achieve the opposite effect on the objects which have a standard polarity that never changes. Better still you can move Link by positioning him towards unmoveable metal objects and using the gloves to move him across a room either towards or away from the object allowing you to croos large gaps. The item is used brilliantly well and makes for the best puzzles in the game.

 

These vines can only be climbed in summer.

One way in which the two games differ is in their focus on the gameplay. While Ages is more geared towards challenging puzzles Seasons is more about the combat throwing all kinds of aggressive emenies at you. It can get pretty intense at times and even a veteran of the series like me was killed many times in this playthrough. The bosses in particular are very tough, especially the final battle with General Onox. It’s never unfair though and represents exactly the sort of challenge a dedicated gamer craves.

The formula of The Legend of Zelda is so strong that it never really goes wrong but each new iteration needs something to make it shine. Capcom did a fine job with Oracle of Seasons but this isn’t the kind of game to challenge the best of the series. It’s a tremendously well-rounded experience, perfectly paced with plenty of variety and a strong identity and is one of the best Game Boy Colour games and among my favourite original handheld titles. That a game of this high quality is among the less brilliant games in the series should give you a fairly emphatic idea of how great this series is.

Presntation – 9

The superb formula is treated very well here with plenty of new ideas and everything feels as it should. That said it borrows a heck of a lot from the much older Link’s Awakening.

Gameplay – 10

Miyamoto got it emphatically right with The Legend of Zelda and the various improvements to the outstanding gameplay in sunsequent iterations most notably A Link to the Past built the foundations for Oracle of Seasons which takes up the mantle perfectly with some neat ideas of its own. Timeless.

Graphics – 8

Featuring immensely likeable character sprites and pretty collour schemes for the changing seasons it’s a strong graphical package but not a huge upgrade from Link’s Awakening.

Sound – 9

Again following the lead of Link’s Awakening the tunes and effects are superb throughout with plenty standing out and the right moods evoked at every moment.

Difficulty – 9

The heavy combat focus makes this one of the most challenging games in the series post NES. It’s ideal for challenge jumkies and makes completion a rewarding feat.

Longevity – 9

A pretty big overworld and eight dungeons make it a long game that taken time to complete and the added bonus of the extra content unlocked by codes and side quests only make it better.

Verdict

Oracle of Seasons is just another classic Zelda game and one that fits into the canon very nicely indeed and while it stands brilliantly on its own the best thing about it is that it’s just half of the story. Any Zelda fan who might have missed this and doesn’t mind the outdated graphics sould definitely pick it up.

9.3

out of 10