Tag Archives: Review

#BookToAdaptationReview1

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This is the first time I’m doing a review like this but I thought it would be interesting. My first book review of the year was for the book Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, and you can read that here. The main reason why I read it is that I wanted to watch the Netflix series, and also because I love ballet. I took dance classes when I was younger before switching to gymnastics, and I took a ballet class in college. I’m the type of person who likes to read the book before watching the adaptation. There have been very few cases where I’ve watched the adaptation before reading the book. I’ve probably done it less than five times. Now on to the review which, I will try to keep as non-spoiler as possible.

The show did switch the names of a few of the characters but kept the personalities the same. I was able to match the show characters to their book characters. The show also changes what happened to Cassie and the ballet that the students perform. The show kept June’s complicated relationship with her mother, which I appreciated. If you’ve read the book, you know there’s a lot of drama, and the show did not skimp on that.

If you’re wondering what I enjoyed better, I enjoyed them both equally. The show is binge-worthy and entertaining. I hope there’s a season two which follows the events of Shiny Broken Things. 

#LittleWomenReview

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I’m pretty sure that I wrote the following review when I was in fourth grade. There will probably be some grammatical errors as what I am posting is the original that I wrote in fourth grade, I think. The following review is of Little Women (Great Illustrated Classics) by Louisa May Alcott. Great Illustrated Classics are abridged (shortened) versions of classic books.

Little Women is a story about four sisters. Their names are Meg, Beth, Jo, and Amy. It was Christmas time during the war. Their father, Mr. March, was away at war as a Chaplain. He wasn’t well enough to be a soldier. The girls were thinking about Christmas and how they hated being poor. They were thankful to have a mother and a father, but they were worried about their father getting hurt or even killed in the war.

Each one of the girls had one dollar. They were trying to decide what to do with the money. At first, they all thought they would buy something for themselves that they really needed. Jo wanted to buy herself a book. She was a bookworm. Beth, the piano player, needed some new music. Amy wanted to get a nice box of drawing pencils.

Meg’s job was to take care of a nervous, fussy old woman, and she was getting tired of it. She wished they could just have the money they used to have when they were little, so they could have lots of pretty things. The sisters were sitting around the fireplace when they heard their mother come home. That’s when they decided to buy something for her with their money.

I think it must have been very hard to live during the war. I would not like it if my father had to go away and be around all of that fighting. It was very nice that the girls decided to buy something for their mother for Christmas instead of spending their money on themselves.

Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack Review

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Screen Shot 2017-03-14 at 10.20.14 AM

Screenshot from my iTunes library

 

It’s been a while since I’ve written a music post on my blog.  I figured I would discuss my thoughts on the Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack.  I have the standard edition, but I have listened to the deluxe edition on Spotify.  I’ve been listening to the soundtrack non-stop, and I love the updates on some of the classic songs.  I also love the new songs.  Below are my thoughts on every song.

“Overture”- This is the first of five new songs on the album as there wasn’t an overture on the original soundtrack.  I love how this is an instrumental mashup of all the songs on the album.

“Main Title: Prologue, Pt. 1”- This is just the opening monolog set to music.  The music makes the spoken words more ominous.

“Aria”- This is the second new song, it’s a short, fun opera.

“Main Title: Prologue, Pt. 2”- This is the second part of the opening monolog.
Belle and Belle (Reprise)- I am very impressed by Emma Watson’s singing on these, and yes I know some vocal editing was done, but I love that I could still tell that it’s her singing.

“How Does a Moment Last Forever (Music Box)”- This is the third new song, and I really like it.  The instrumentation is really pretty, like a music box!

“Gaston”- I love the music breaks in this song, they’re fun and make me want to dance the Can-Can.

“Be Our Guest”- This is just as fun and epic as the original.  It really doesn’t seem like any changes were made to this song.

“Days in the Sun”- This is the fourth new song and I really like it.  It’s a little sad, but it’s also about finding hope in breaking the curse.

“Something There”- I always loved this song, and I love the updated ending with Mrs. Potts and Chip.

“How Does a Moment Last Forever (Montmartre)” Emma Watson- This is the second out of three renditions of this song.  There’s a sadness to this song, as it’s about moving on, yet still remembering the past.

“Beauty and the Beast” Emma Thompson (1 of 3)- Yes, there are three different renditions of “Beauty and the Beast” on the soundtrack.  While I still prefer Angel Lansbury, Emma Thompson does a really good job with this song.

“Evermore (Dan Stevens)”- This is the fifth new song and this is the first rendition of it.  I really love this song, I saw a minor spoiler of when this song plays in the movie and I think it will fit the scene perfectly!  If you’ve watched the 1991 movie, you’ll notice that instrumental is the same as the one that plays during the opening monolog.

“The Mob Song”- This is still as dark and angry, and is the same as the original with the exception of the actors who are singing it.  At least, I didn’t hear anything different.

“Beauty and the Beast (Finale)”- This is the second rendition and there are two new verses in this one that wasn’t in the original and they really add to the song.

“How Does a Moment Last Forever” (Celine Dion)- This is much different than the first two renditions, as it has additional lyrics.  I’m really happy that Celine was able to have a song on the soundtrack and in the movie.

“Beauty and the Beas”t (3 of 3) John Legend and Ariana Grande- I love their rendition of this song.  Their voices blend really well together,  and I couldn’t think of two artists other than them to sing the duet version.

“Evermore” (Josh Groban)- I really feel like this is the perfect song to close out the album, and if you listen to it, you’ll understand why.

While I love this soundtrack, there is one thing that I would change.  I don’t think it was necessary to break the “Main Title: Prologue” into two parts.  There is nothing achieved by having it in two parts, I think it actually takes away from how melancholy the prolog really is.

#MagiciansNephewReview

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I found this review when I was going through my old school stuff. I wrote it on October 23, 1998, I was in fourth grade.

The Magician’s Nephew is a story about two children, Polly and Digory who go on an adventure. The start out at Polly’s house, in a corridor that connects to Digory’s house. They ended up in Digory’s Uncle Andrew’s study, where they weren’t supposed to be. When they got there they found a bright red wooden tray with lots of rings on it. There were pairs of yellow and rings together, the size of regular rings, but they were very bright. There were a lot of other things in the room. In the middle of the room was a great big chair. They didn’t even know that Uncle Andrew was sitting in the chair until he turned around and faced them. He was very happy to see them because he wanted to try his experiment. He first tried the experiment with a guinea-pig, but he had no way of knowing if it had worked. Uncle Andrew asked Polly to pick up a yellow ring when she did, she vanished out of that world. Digory got very nervous, so Uncle Andrew let him go look for Polly. He had to bring one yellow ring to get there, and two green rings to bring them both home.
Digory entered the new world by coming out of a pool of water. When he got out, he wasn’t even wet. All around him, there were trees and dozens of other pools. He met up with a girl he thought he had met before. They went exploring the new world together. Every time they went on a new adventure they had to jump into a different pool. Each place they went they met someone new. First of all, they met a terrible Queen named Jadis, who wanted to go back home with them, but she caused trouble. Next, they met up with a Cabby from London and his horse named Strawberry. The Queen was still with them and started a horrible fight with the Cabby. She ripped a lamp-post right out of the ground and started hitting people all around with it. Digory and Polly put on their yellow rings as Digory grabbed the Queen’s ankle and they all vanished out of London. They even had Uncle Andrew, the Cabby and the horse with them. In this new land, Jadis was very weak, like she had lost her magic powers. The land was very bare, but far away in the distance, they began hearing a soft singing voice. It made everyone feel peaceful, except for Jadis. They discovered that the voice was coming from a lion. His hame was Aslan. The lion was just walking around and singing. Every time he opened his mouth to sing, the world filled with beautiful grass and trees and flowers. They were all so excited about this that they didn’t even think to be afraid of the lion. The Queen was so angry about the beauty that she hit the lion on the head with the lamp-post. He acted like he didn’t even feel it and he started walking towards her, then she disappeared into thin air. Everyone was so happy that she was gone.
The lion kept on singing and things kept appearing, animals, plants, more trees, even a new lamp-post. This was Narnia, the most beautiful, peaceful land they had ever seen. The lions singing was like magic. Everyone loved it here, but they knew they couldn’t stay here forever. Digory had to get home to try to cure his mother of her disease. He brought her an apple from a magical tree, and when she ate it, she was cured in less than a day.
Digory and Polly had a wonderful adventure in the land of Narnia and all the other worlds, but they were happy to be back home once again.
The End.
I think this book was very exciting because Polly and Digory went on so many different adventures. They got to travel to lots of different places and see so many magical things. They were such good friends because they did everything and went everywhere together. They got along so well together. Digory got scared when he thought that Polly had disappeared forever, but when he used Uncle Andrew’s magic rings and found her, he was very happy.

I think this book was a little hard sometimes, but I would recommend it for anyone to read.