The Story of Soichiro Honda

Wonderful piece of work. I love the animation style and design, I love the story plotting, I love the music, I love almost everything. Most importantly, the message touches deep in my heart.

Click here to know more and view the animation and their makings.
http://micheledauria.com/

~Believes in Your Dreams~

Perfect 10 year-old Voice in a Touching Song.

I was browsing Youtube searching for more singing videos and came across this brilliant piece of video. I'm not sure what his name is or if he is famous, but I was so shocked to hear his brilliant voice with the brilliant song.

I was so touched by the song and especially by the perfect singing voice of this 10 year-old (according to the info written on Youtube) boy. I just thought this song is perfectly performed and the message is clearly conveyed by his clean touching voice and perfect singing skills. If you know something about singing, I'm pretty sure you would appreciate as much as I do. =)

Coming Animations which I'm Looking Forward.

Imagi HK's Astro Boy - New Teaser Trailer

I think it looks good and promising, although the Professor Ochanomizu in the animation trailler doesn't look quite similar to the original character design which used to be appeared in the comic.
It's been years since the last time I read the Astro Boy comic when I was a kid back in Malaysia. Really bring back some memories. I hope Imagi will be doing a good job producing a touching story according to the robot boy background which we all kids who used to like. Can't wait to catch it next year. If I ever have a chance to participate this project too, it will be so.. soo......Marvellous!! hahahaaa...



For higher quality view, check the HD version here.
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/astro-boy/30167/main

-End-

Want to Learn Japanese? Sing it ! ^^

For those who love to learn some basic japanese. Here you go, have fun with your first lesson: "1st-10th of the month".



Remember to practise everyday ok. Sing it everyday. Sorry to ruin the best song in the world, but u have to sacrifice some good songs to learn something else. hahahahaa....

Additional found:
More fun for beginners. ^^







OMG, the more i watch the longer i laugh ...hahaaha...
Well, it may sound stupid, but it's the best way to learn and remember. Since it's stupid, you will remember it easily, won't you? hahaha
Hope you guys have fun learning some basics today. haha.. Sayonara! (>_^)b

New Nintendo DSi ～ I Want!!!

Releasing November 1st in Japan. Woohoo !!

Wonderful Animation - The Chestnut Tree

It's been a long while since I last saw a great 2D Animation.
The more you watch this animation, the more story you will understand , the deeper you dive into the creator's mind and world. I'm not sure the rest, but it touches me so deep and the more I re-watch this, the more I love this piece of animated story-telling. Did I mention that the animation is super smooth and super Awesome?!!!
No doubt, this piece of great animation has been saved into my "Best Animation Eternity Collection".

Tokyo Game Show 2008

Amazing & Creative Dancing Groups from 舞林大道

Lately I have been watching this Taiwanese dancing competition (舞林大道) on Youtube. It's really a very good competition and very touching to know that every dancers have their own story. Dancing is actually a healthy exercise and could be considered as career too. Therefore, this program is really good to show to the public especially youngster's parents that dancing is not equal to bad influence or meaningless. Every dancer has their own dream and passion. When I watched this show, it really touches my heart and allow me to see more perspective in different world standing on different shoes.

I've picked some of the best dancing groups as below.
Enjoy watching, they will blow you away... hahaa.. =D

Dissidia Final Fantasy

Voice Character Introduction


Trailer 2


Final Fantasy I Fight Demo


Tidus VS Jecht (FFX) Fight Demo


Onion Knight VS Cloud of Darkness (FFIII) Fight Demo

Animation Mentor Student Reel Summer 2008

Local Color - Trailer

A meaningful movie trailer that draws my attention and reminds me of what had happened to me. And also seems like a great movie to remind everyone of us to keep our passion burning and have faith. Though some may not able to achieve what they wanted to achieve due to certain life related problem, but doesn't mean that is the end of hope. Keep inspired, keep the passion burning no matter how long it takes to achieve in real life. You never know what good would happen next... you just have to have faith and patience. That is what I believe.

The above and following are specially dedicated to a friend of mine who is still holding hard the edge in order to achieve what she wanted to achieve in life. Hang in there my friend. I believe in you. You will get there someday soon, have faith. =)


Online Videos by Veoh.com

-End, but Never End of Hope-

The Alchemy of Animation

Osaka & Kyoto Summer Trip

Last week was my one-week summer vacation. And I spent 3 days outside Tokyo. I went to Osaka and Kyoto with my colleague.

The trip was great, and I especially like Kyoto the most. Compare to Tokyo, Kyoto is totally different city. It has a different type of atmosphere and the feeling was just different. When you are there , you can tell. hehe...

Here are some of the pictures I took during the trip.


Album 1
=======================================================

Album 2
=======================================================


-End-

The Sky Crawlers

I watched this movie with my friends 2 weeks ago.



To be fair again, before I start sharing my own view on this movie, I would like to declare here that, everyone's review of movies in this world is totally subjective based on ownself's knowledge of technicals, entertaining level, acceptance to public depending on different races, cultures etc. So there is no right or wrong, the only thing left is just about Agree or Disagree. =)

So, lets begin shall we? haha... Well, after watching the whole movie, I did have a feeling that this movie is not my cup of tea. haha.. The overall feeling about this movie is like a Wong Kar Wei (Hong Kong famous award winning director) movie. Except that I like Wong Kar Wei's movie better. hahaa...
I'm not saying that Arty-Farty movie isn't good, but sometimes it just doesn't work well if the director doesn't "slot in" the correct montage into correct space and timing. That's what I feel for The Sky Crawlers, although I realise that the story is adapted from a novel, which in fact I never read it before.

By just judging from the movie alone (watching as a brand new audience without knowing the original novel story), The Sky Crawler movie looks like a draggy movie with no better reason. Half way through it may seem like Arty-Farty, but after almost finish the movie, I just feel that the Arty-Farty was inserted with not much good reason, and in fact, most of the draggy shots are not so necessary, in my very humble opinion.

For example, most of the shots in The Sky Crawlers ended with long pause with frozen poses and almost lasted for 5-6 seconds. I'm not saying this type of movie-making style isn't good, but this type of style should be used carefully and meaningfully without over-using it. For The Sky Crawlers, this type of frozen poses at the end of the shot could be used in may be 2-3 shots which are considered necessary to bring some different taste to the audience once in a while throughout the movie. Unfortunately, the director has over-used them and put almost half of the movie into such dead silent frozen pose draggin all the way which doesn't look like meaningful or other words, kinda too much. Again, my point of view. Well, you may say I'm not the type of too-Arty-Farty person who may not appreciate super Arty-Farty movie which almost becomes much more boring than watching a screen saver of 3D square box rotating itself over 100 times. Sorry for the bad metaphor... haha.. =P



Well, story wise, there may be some little surprise at the end, but the technique of conveying is kinda "not fresh", and doesn't look like a surprise even though the story seems like trying to tell a small surprise to the audience. hahaa.. Anyway, overall feeling is, monotone.... sorry to say that, even though some may say "Hey! This is the famous Mamoru Oshii who made Ghost in the Shell you know! Who are you to judge his brilliant work!". hahahaa... well, I may not as old as him and as experienced as him, but when comes to movie and general entertainment, be it on the theater or small TV show, your feeling cannot lie to yourself. If your feeling feels something not right, that means that something is not your cup of tea or may be it doesn't work well to some other people.

I wasn't expecting funny or gags from this movie, I even knew that this movie is serious since it's an adaption from a existed novel. However, overall, it was really over-done. When it is overdone, the climax will be killed. Speaking of climax, I just want to say that, as far as i remember, I really couldn't find any proper climax which really could touch my heart (when i said touch, doesnt always mean related to crying.. if you know what i mean, ok). Again, overall, the graph of this movie pacing and excitement was just almost Monotone....not totally, but almost..

Enough story and pacing talk, lets move on to more technical stuff, like animation and CG adaption. Well, I dont feel like want to comment much, but i just wanted to say, the character animation is not really impressive compare to what I expected before watching this movie. Some parts may look good, but mainly , throughout whole animation, they just look flat and unlively and like almost dead zombies talking to each other (this may be over-exagerated but almost true..haha). Another specific pick is that, unnecessary fun dog animations had been inserted into too many scenes, which is also overly-done. Those effort should have been transfered to other character animations to make them better and lively. Other than that, there were also some parts which had no consistency of the main character's personality. From my observation, one character has been established to be having personality A, but all of a sudden, the animation style of the character in certain scenes gives away the believability of the first establishment for that character, and ended up confusing all the observant-type of audience. It may be not obvious to normal audience, but it just can't work for us who worked in the same field. Well, I'm not sure about how other animators think about this, but that's just my own view. May be that's what it is from the novel.. I never know. Pardon me if I'm wrong. =)



Ok, next, CG. There were quite a lot of CG in this movie especially those Fighters scene and Base n stuff. As far as the color and style concerns, I would say, it can be considered a weird combination, which may be or may be not acceptable to a lot of people. Well, it started to make me feel that it worked for me, but slowly observing more scenes like sky view and mountains and other scenery, i realised there were too many types, in terms of color schemes and textures. I could at least find 3 different types of backgrounds schemes and styles throughout the whole movie. Well, for normal audience it may look good or stylish or something new, but well, to me, I wasn't trying to be stone-head, but but... i just thought that it's kinda like a bit inconsistent in terms of overall movie designs.... well, it's subjective again... that's just what i feel..hahaa... =P

However, I have to say that I love the designs of the planes and the mood of the planes with certain backgrounds was good too, IF, I judge it scene by scene without considering consistency with other scenes. =)

Ok lar... I guess it's about time I pen off.. though I never use any pen to write this.. Duh~!! hahahaaa...
Well, finally, like other reviewers around the world, I would like to rate for this movie based on my own humble personal view of movies (coz I love movies!). =D

My Rate for The Sky Crawler is as followed:

Overall Story: 5/10
Technical (Animation): 6/10
Technical (CG/Designs): 6/10
Technical (Story Editing/Pacing): 5/10
Technical (Sound Effects/Music): 6.5/10

Average Rate of the movie: 5.7/10

p/s: Although I'm not fan of Ghost in the Shell, I think I like it much better than The Sky Crawler. =P

~End~

Back From Osaka & Kyoto Trip

It was a fun trip... going to show some photos and talk a little bit more, but i'm pretty tired now... head is empty... so.... will blog other day about my trip... Just to stop by to say that I'm safe back home in Tokyo. ....so.... stay tuned...

World of WarCraft - Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic

Thanks to a friend of mine, Danny, I was able to realise another Blizzard's latest release of a marvellous cinematic!

Character designs, atmospheric musics, atmospheric colors, camera angles, camera motions, particles simulations, even narration are all wonderfully done! Speaking of character designs, I specially love the cool Dragon!! Super duper COOL!!! I hope they will release the figurine in the market in future, and I will definitely be waiting... It will be worth for my dragon collection! haha...



** Click here to watch Higher Quality version.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38881.html

~End~

Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008

This event was a private party exclusively for Square Enix Online Members only (http://member.square-enix.com). Of course, I'm one of the members too since long time ago. haha...

This event was held beginning of last month (August). And this event was just meant for around few thousands members for just 2 days at Shibuya. What do I mean by "meant for few thousands members"? It means, we, members have to apply online and within one month, they had a lucky draw and those members who are luckily picked will be allowed to attend the private party. And guess what!! I DID apply online in July and eventually DIDN'T get the lucky pick. Super SAD! I hate lucky-draw! I always have no fate in that thing ever since I was a kid... That is so unfair! (T-T)

Anyway, after reading recent game magazines reporting what had happened in the private party, I felt excited and feel like sharing here with you all, especially those Square Enix's gamers or supporters, who of course haven't found out about this.

I've captured some pictures from the magazines that I bought, but sorry for the bad quality if it doesnt turn well to everyone. I snapped with my mobile camera which only 2MegaPix. hhahaa... And I also dug some videos from the youtube and compiled them here together for your viewing pleasure. Well, the quality may not be as good as original (that is most definitely..haha), but I still want to thank them for uploading online for everyone to view. THanks! =)

Well, whether or not I could get the first-hand view of the stunning trailers, I just hope I could get the first-hands-on on the game during their release dates respectively. hehe...

Oh by the way, I'm really looking forward the coming Tokyo Game Show next month! Hope to see more stuff coming up. Yesshh !!! Can't wait!!






























For those who are interested to know about their release dates (in Japan):

「FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS FINAL FANTASY XIII」Series

* ・FINAL FANTASY XIII (PLAYSTATION 3) [release 2009]
* ・FINAL FANTASY Agito XIII (PSP) [To Be Announced]
* ・FINAL FANTASY Versus XIII (PLAYSTATION 3) [To Be Announced]

「KINGDOM HEARTS」Series

* ・KINGDOM HEARTS Coded (Mobile) [Coming Winter]
* ・KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days (Nintendo DS) [Coming Winter]
* ・KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep (PSP) [release 2009]

DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY (PSP) [release Dec 2008]
PARASITE EVE - The 3rd Birthday (Mobile) [release 2009]
SIGMA HARMONICA (Nintendo DS) [Already Released]
FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN COMPLETE (Blu-ray) [release Mar 2009]

Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008 (IGN Report)


Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008 (Some Fan's Photography Compilation)


Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP) Latest Trailer


Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP) In-Game Demo


p/s: Ever wonder what Party DKΣ3713 stands for? hehe.. ;)

Stop Motion Animations - Animal Planet

Seen this some time ago, but still refreshing to watch it again and again.
Plus, every simple message from the animation is meaningful to everyone. So why not share it here? Enjoy. =)

http://animalssavetheplanet.com/?page=home

~End~

New WarHammer Online Cinematic

http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/flash/WAR_cinematic_08.html

Rotten Tomatos Review: Star Wars - The Clone Wars

Lesson Learned: As a professional CG creator, don't ever give yourself an excuse that the movie is just for kids. If Pixar can attract almost every heart of young and old, so can you, so can we.

~End~

"最後一面" - Wonderfully Meaningful Song Written by 徐佳瑩 & 李伯恩

I was so touched by the lyrics and the tunes and every bits of the compositions. Perfect written song! I was so touched and goose bumps all over me no matter how many times I listen to it. I can't wait for Xu Jia Ying to release her first album! And this song is a MUST!

Oh, by the way, this song is about saying sorry and goodbye to the Earth we love yet polluted at the same time. Therefore it's meaningful and hope everyone will do their parts to keep our Earth safe for everyone's sake.

Save the Earth, before we say sorry to the Earth.



-End-

Wall-E BluRay/DVD Disc Releasing November??

What the !!! It will not be shown in Japan till December , and they are releasing DVD/BluRay coming November??!!! Arrgghh!!! I cant believe it! (angry)

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1665

I need to fly to HK and watch this before they release in DVD!!! No money, need to hi-ja_k a pl_ne.

Upcoming Stop-Motion Animation - Coraline

3D Maps on Google Map

When my colleague showed me this in the office last week I was totally shocked. I can't believe Google Map has been developed till this level, well, when you check it out, you may see some goods and bads. So far it's good and brilliant, but bad point is, your action everyday is being watched and recorded from outer space every minute every second, ever day. Kinda scary.

Well, put aside the bad points for a minute, and lets check out the cool points of this new feature.



Below are some sample 3D view maps i attached to my blog here. Feel free to click and drag on the pictures below to view all 360 degrees. And also can move forward and backward. Have fun.

My Apartment (1st floor, far last one near the open field)


大きな地図で見る

My Working Place - Production I.G(fx)


大きな地図で見る

p/s: I believe so far only few countries are updated with these features. For example Japan and the U.S. , haven't tried other countries yet, but definitely not yet for my own country - Malaysia. Was wondering if I ever able to see my mum watering the plants at the garage. hahaha...

Although it may seem safe that Google just showed the streets only in 3D views, but in their database, I bet they definitely keep more detailed photos and records of our daily lives inside our house area far from the outer streets. Scary huh... imagine you were watched everyday. You are in the Truman Show!!! Except that your pictures and records are yet to be exposed to publics. So, make sure you pee in a "satellite-proof" toilet next time.

Dreamworks' KungFu Panda Rocks!

Ever since Shrek 1 and 2, I hadn't been impressed by any Dreamworks Animations until today I watched Kung Fu Panda, and it finally changed my view on their production which almost always happen to focus on effects and voice casts instead of story plotting.
Kungfu Panda is so far is the best among other Dreamworks movies, even much better than Shrek overall. This Kungfu Panda movie is a serious-bring-fun movie, at least not like some stupid "unlaughable" gags from Madasgascar or Shark Tales which disgusted me so much...oh ~ and don't get me started on that...



The movie is touching, is well-plot, good story-telling, not so much focusing on famous voice cast anymore (for example, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu's dialogue was awfully little BUT I LIKE IT~!! Initially I thought Dreamworks would force gags and boring dialogues to every single characters in order to "show the existence" of their famous voices on the screen, but i was so GLAD that they didn't! And all the gags throughout the movie was just nice and not too over, except the beginning part when Panda was trying so many tricks in order to get into the castle. (I thought that was overly done and very old type of gag and don't so well anymore.)
However, other than that, I never thought the whole movie would have worked so well! Good job to the production team for this project! Finally some good quality stuff was baked and served to everyone who have been craving for good dishes. The ticket for this show was really worth it, I must say. Good job Good job! haha..



After talking about the most important thing of a movie, lets move on talking about technical stuff and designs. And I really impressed by their animation styles and character's personality and almost all good poses and staging throughout the movie. The turtle was wise and touched my heart as if I feel that it's like my father talking to me. There was no unnecessary gag for the turtle, (which dangerously Dreamworks could have put that in, luckily they didn't.) I was so glad and I really like the character of the Turtle and also the Shifu!



The only one negative comment I could think of, is that there were TOO many effort-less passer-by (villagers) which turned out to be PIGs. Too many of them and designs does look like effortless. Well, i could think of an excuse or rather reason for them to do that, is that they want to make those main characters to stand out from the crowd. However, it just doesn't look so fun or comfortable just to see so many PIGs (of course also surprisingly a lot of Rabbits) just to bring out the attention of the main characters. hehe...

Anyway, the negative parts are just very minor, most importantly the story and animation have served all viewers with satisfied vision. Good job again, KungFu Panda Production teams! I don't mind to watch Panda 2, but please please.. cancel Panda 3 if you guys are starting work on it.. coz .. u know what i mean... i don't want to get disappointed like Shrek 3, which almost coming out Shrek 4... I can't believe it and I have no total interest on the next instalment anymore.. Please please! Go for new ideas and surprise all of us! Don't dig in the same hole... coz not all the Golds will be found in the same place! Dig somewhere else! ok?! Pleaseee .... Digging the same hole will only disgust a lot of people...

~End~

崖の上のポンヨ Ponyo on the Cliff

I just watched the latest Miyazaki's new film - Ponyo last night. Last night was the first release day.



To be honest, I can't say it was a total disappointment but I have to tell the truth that, I wasn't impressed by the movie, compared to his all previous marvellous works.
No doubt, technical animation wise, was good. Drawings and backgrounds are still as stunning. Background wise, some parts may look unmatched, but overall looks great. I've been knowing Miyazaki style, but this time, it generally has some little difference compared with his previous ones.

This Ponyo movie reminds me of 2 animations. One, clearly, reminds me of Little Mermaid. Two, reminds me of one of the Miyazaki's 10-min short films shown in Ghibili Museum, which regarding few kids who had their own wonderful ocean imaginations in their kindergarten school.

After I watched finish the full movie, I felt that I would rather appreciate it more if it happens to be just a short film named Ponyo. Looking at the full-length movie point of view, I don't think I can accept totally what I saw on the screen. I mean, the story didn't actually touch me in some way or rather in other words, there was no climax nor important obvious messages to be conveyed. I always liked Miyazaki works. His creativity, his innovative of thinking, his fantasy world, his wild imaginations had always been locking my heart and brought me to his world, and also touched by his messages. But..... I have no idea why, this time, and for the first time, I felt I have lost touch of his great story-telling world.

For the first time, I didn't say WOW after seeing his movie, and for the first time, I felt "flat" and "emotionless" after the movie. There were gags and fun scenes around here and there of course to keep my face smiling, but I don't think this is what I was looking for from his movie. I was kinda expecting something big and heartwarming, some ups and downs, some great and strong story telling...... However.. sigh... sadly to say, the editing of the whole movie and the story telling and also the progress towards the ending, was .... was... kinda disappointing...... or may be it was too abstract? =(

I'm just telling what my heart feels. Ultimately, I really really didn't feel anything strong after watching Ponyo. And I still dont know what better words to describe the "emptiness" within this story. It looks like a short film to me, a funny character designs with great animation drawing skills, coloring and stuff.

The movie itself has not much complicated conversations. Mostly are kids talk and simple conversations to make the story pretty easy to understand even though you don't understand japanese so well, but of cors you also need some basic japanese skills to understand some basic conversations in order to understand what is going on during the important part when the adults talked. I may not able to master Japanese skill fully yet, but the movie conversations were simple enough for me to understand, so I am pretty sure that I didnt miss anything or misunderstood anything before I wrote all these comments.

However, despite of all the negative comments I wrote above, if you treat it as a cute fun animated short film, I guess it is still worth to watch in the theater. I was kinda studying his animation drawings during the movie too. The details, smooth animations, beautiful color sense, are all still there to be appreciated. Especially all the water animations! Undersea creatures! All of them are incredibly well-drawn and well-animated! No doubt for that!

But. The only thing that made my heart slipped away is just the story-telling. And this is the most important thing in a movie, and yet it was indeed weaker than his previous works, in my humble opinion, again.

To add on, when I talked to my friend this afternoon who happened to know a director who knows Miyazaki well, she told me that this Ponyo story was some kind of reflection of Miyazaki's own personal life and the ideal world which he thought his family could have been to. After hearing this, I kinda understand now what he was trying to tell and his intentions. However, watching from a total idiotic audience's view, the story somehow just couldn't work for some people, unfortunately. It is not just about the story intentions, but also the story-progressing and plots. It was just ....somehow...somewhere something is missing, and the progressing was weird too. Well, may be when you guys watch it for yourself, you may understand what I was trying to say.

Of course, different people may have different point of view in everything. Nothing is wrong or right. Children may like it, some adults may like it too. It just happened that it didn't work for me that well, as compared to his previous great story-telling. And hereby, I'm just leaving some of my words of honesty from the bottom of my heart, which means no harm to anyone or anything intentionally. So please don't get mad ya! Coz I'm Miyazaki's work fan too. Just that this time it doesnt work for me so well.

Despite of all the above negative words, honestly I still appreciate his great effort of this Ponyo film and still respect him as a great model artist in this 2D animation industry. He is still great! He is still a talented person. Again, my respect to him will still remain and never fades. Arigatou! Miyazaki san!



~End~

Pixar's WALL-E released first in the U.S., released last in Japan.

Wall E !!! It's finally released in the U.S. on last Friday!
It has confirmed that Japan will only show Wall-E on the theater on 20th December 2008.
Check the world-wide releasing date list: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/releaseinfo



Yes, Japan is the latest among the long list of release all around the world!
I was like "What THE XXXX??!!!" "D** L** L** M** !!! @#*&%#*#%$*#^%@*#&@*#& "
That is freaking late !!!
*Phew!~* Sorry that I "swore" up there... That's one of the ways i release my upset and tension... hahaha...



Well, despite the stupid arrangement of the release date for japan and all around the world, lets move on and get excited about what this film is about to bring us, be it young or older generations. I've read so much articles and reviews on the web, and apparently this brilliant movie has stamped a permanent recognisable mark on the global animation white board. What do I mean by that? It means, it had great reviews (even before the official release on theaters last friday) and has been commented as the Best Pixar animated movie EVER! Damn, I really want to feel what everyone's feeling right now!!! Want to see with my own eyes how Excellent the movie is!



So far, Rotten Tomatoes (a world wide well known entertainment review site) has given Wall-E an Excellent result - 96%. Check out the reviews: http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/wall_e/

And here's the latest Box Office result report as of yesterday (Sunday) after the 2-days release.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988258.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

I have compiled some of my collections and bookmarked Youtube movie featuring Wall-E animations. Check them out. Even without knowing the story (which I bet it will be marvellous and brilliant, and I heard that it was touching.), the animation itself is believable, funny, entertaining and excellent in terms of technical.

First, here's the latest latest Wall-E trailer. (though they have many different trailers and teasers had been released months ago).
Note: The following Quicktime movie trailer may take some minutes to load due to it's large filesize.



Next, here are few compilations of short promotional animations featuring Wall-E himself.













~End~

Beautiful Music, Beautiful Movie - August Rush

It's been a long time since the last time my tears pumped up to almost full tank of my eyes during a movie. I've never thought I would have "received" so much heart-moving moments within this movie - August Rush.

From the moment I watched the trailer of this movie many months ago (yes, Japan is slow in releasing again), I told myself I had to watch this. I knew it is going to be a good story. And I'm SO GLAD that I caught this movie yesterday in the theater. Without any doubt, I love this movie. It is a beautiful story with beautiful musics.

It's about music connecting to life. It's about the world, filled with musics attached with loves. The real power of music could touch our hearts, heal our hearts, and what's more, it could heal our souls.... deep deep inside us.....

The orchestrated music in the movie was really marvellous. Simply Beautiful! I can't replace any other words other than just Beautiful. Especially the ending.

I was so touched throughout the whole movie. Like I said, it's been a long time since the last time I couldn't hold my tears. Yes , again, it was beautiful. Great movie! Touching movie! Beautiful Movie! Must watch! (if you haven't already of course.) Highly recommended.

Immediately after the movie, I bought the original album of the soundtracks of this movie from the theater gift shop. I couldn't help it. I crave for good musics! I live with good musics! Music is part of my life. Music gives me inspirations of my life, teaches me about life, softens my heart to know the world better, to know the people better. Music is a Wonderful thing~....
I can't imagine my life without music.

Below is the list of musics which I specially ready for you.
Please listen with your heart~ (- -)

Disclaimer: The following MP3s are converted from original CDs and the MP3s are not for sale nor intentionally violating any copyrights laws. The following MP3s are uploaded to personal website just for blog-user's online listening pleasure ONLY. Please purchase the original Soundtrack CD if you like the musics below.

01 Main Title
02 Bach _ Break
03 Moondance
04 This Time
05 Bari Improv
06 Ritual Dance
07 Raise It Up
08 Dueling Guitars
09 Elgar _ Something Inside
10 August's Rhapsody
11 Someday
12 King Of The Earth
13 God Bless The Child
14 La Bamba
15 Moondance (Album Version)
16 Washington Square
17 Arpeggio Theme
18 Basketball To Organ Loft

~Music is Everywhere. You just need to listen.~

高尾のホタル(Fireflies at Takao)

Last night I went to Takao area with a bunch of new friends for the "search & view" of the fireflies. It was my first experience to see fireflies in real life. hahaa.. And the smooth floating green light twinkling up in the trees and around the bushes and plants was really amazing! It was like magical lights hanging in the air..haha..

However, may be the timing we chose wasn't completely right, so we only managed to see few at a time, though I was highly expecting to see a whole big bunch of beautiful greenish dotted stars hanging up in the air like what we usually see in the movies.. hahaa...

Well, it wasn't a total loss though, I still managed to make new friends among them , and despite my broken japanese communication skills, we went to karaoke after the fireflies session and really had a good time singing and laughing all the way. Surprisingly, they had really good voices. I also sang some chinese songs and surprised them... though they had no idea what the songs are about.. muahahaha....

Due to the reason we sang until 2am, we missed the last train, and therefore we moved on to a bar and sit down chit chat and had some drinks... until 4.25am, where the first train starts running. hahaha.... wow.. yeah, tired, but fun. Yeah, bad for health, but well, once in a while, i guess should be ok... hahaha... really not much chance to make new friends like this. hhaa... =D

Special thanks to a friend of mine, ベイベイ who invited me for this outing, and thanks to her, I made some new cool friends. ありがとうね！ベイベイ～　=)

-End-

ファミ通Press Start 2008 - Game Symphonyに行きたい方を大募集！

そのコンサートに興味が持っている方は大募集です！

去年のも行きました。メチャ楽しかったよ！音楽が素晴らしかったし、僕の大好きの作曲家の植松信夫さんもいったし！　だから、今年も行かなきゃ！（笑）

このメセッジを見たら、もし皆さん興味があったら、是非僕にメールしてください！一緒に行こうかなと思います。誰でもいいです。この機会にも新しいゲームやるの友達大募集です！あはは～。ゲームと音楽が大好きだからね！皆さんと一緒ゲームとか、音楽のことが話して楽しみにしていますよ！

じゃ～メールよろしくね！ 待ってますよ！　(^o^)V

情報リンク：　http://fami-web.jp/pressstart/about.html

日本人にのノート:　日本語はまだ下手だから、もし以上の内容は変な言葉があったら、ごめんね！あはは～


I'm "recruiting" here any old or new friends here to join me this coming September's Game Symphony Concert in Shibuya, Tokyo (14th Sept 2008, Sunday), organised by Famitsu PRESS START.
I went to the last year one and it was really a great and splendid experience! And I'm so excited about the coming one! The heat of loving game musics is burning hot in my heart now! hahaha..

Anyone who is interested and passionate about games and game musics, please don't hesitate to drop me an email or message on this comment box in my blog to let me know. If you are in Tokyo, we can meet up and join the force! If you are from other countries who don't even know me but bump into my blog by accident or by search from google, no worries, come and join too! hahahaa.... This is the best time to make new friends and share our wonderful interests and passions! hahaa...

So! Let me know ASAP ok! I'm waiting! But won't wait too long since the Ticket booking day has started now. Well, hear from you guys! To Gamers !!!! Woohoo~!!!

Let the Power of Music Begins!!!

-Crazy Kento-

Metal Gear Solid 4 Soundtracks

Though I could not afford a PS3 to play Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4) now, I still can enjoy the imagination by listening to the game soundtracks. hahaa... Just bought this yesterday.

And I'm going to share this 2-discs musics with you all (especially those who are game music lovers or MGS gamers) on my blog here. I've converted from my discs and uploaded to the links below. Hope you guys enjoy the music as much as I do. =)





Disclaimer: The following MP3s are converted from original CDs and the MP3s are not for sale nor intentionally violating any copyrights laws. The following MP3s are uploaded to personal website just for blog-user's online listening pleasure ONLY. Please purchase the original Soundtrack CD if you like the musics below.


Metal Gear Solid 4 Soundtrack List
Disc 01

01 Old Snake
02 Love Theme
03 Gekko
04 Haven Troopers
05 BB Corps
06 Dorebin 893
07 Vista mansion
08 Laughing Octopus
09 Breakthrough
10 Endless Pain
11 White Blood
12 Call Me Hal
13 Midnight Shadow
14 Paradise Lost
15 Great Escape
16 Desperate Chase
17 Raging Raven
18 Confrontation
19 Mobs Alive
20 Violent Ceasefire

Disc 02

01 Next Gen Control
02 Crying Wolf
03 One More Reboot
04 Sin
05 Atonement
06 Infinite Loop
07 Everything Ends
08 At Dawn
09 Screaming Mantis
10 Guns of the Patriots
11 No Place to Hide
12 Sorrow
13 Full Circle
14 Everything Begins
15 Father & Son
16 Metal Gear Saga
17 Here's to You
18 War Zone
19 A Rebellion Rests
2o The Hunter
21 The Hunted
22 Forced Hand
23 Under Curfew
24 Unmanned Army
25 Cold Memories
26 For Liberty
27 Surrounded

~Enjoy~

iPhone 3G Launching In Japan 11th July

Watched the news 2 days ago on TV and realised iPhone 3G is born and it is going to be sold in Japan as well with another 20 over countries simultaneously. And I guess one of the good news is that the price is considerably cheap. USD199 (approx 20,000 yen)
It is really tempting but I know I cant afford any of that so soon. Besides I'm also still struggling whether I should get Wii or PSP or PS3 or iPhone now. hahaaaaa.... I definitely cant afford all of them at the same time coz I will go bankcrupt. Hmmm... tough choice... =P

Pixar's Wall-E (Newest Extended Clip)

Soooo Cute! I love the animation, I love the reactions, I love the plot(of this scene), I love the gag! Though it is just a robot thingy, but so much obvious expressions and characteristics you can see from the animation itself. Great job again Pixar! You never let us down! And THanks to all the Pro Animators who worked on this excellent-to-be movie. You guys are the greatest! Bringing life to a dead robot is really the noble task! 3 Cheers!!! =)

Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) Releasing 12th June in Japan.

I want to get PS3!!! But I also like so many Wii games! And I also want to play other cool games like FF Crisis Core and Monster Hunter on PSP! And I have Nintendo DS and PS2. BUT I DON'T want to play Xbox360. hahahaa....

Big Buck Bunny

It is finally released online and DVD since last week 30th May.
A brand new production after the first animation Elephants Dream (http://www.elephantsdream.org/) which done with total open source software - Blender in Linux environtment.



It is quite impressive to have such outstanding result of the quality. Honestly I rather enjoy this 2nd short than the first one (Elephants Dream) which didnt appeal much to me, personally. hahaa...
This new animated short (Big Buck Bunny) may not be the best short that I've seen so far, but I like it very much and most importantly it is quite entertaining. Plus, the animation is good and believable. Secondly, character designs are well done too. Generally I enjoyed it.



Big Buck Bunny is available now in DVD or free download online from their website (http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/) or could be seen on Youtube as usual. Below is the embedded link I link it to my blog here for easy to view.
For those who are interested or want to support their product by buying their DVDs (come with tutorials and sources that they used for the current project), please kindly go to their official website and also check out their history and production details. It is really inspiring. Especially to see how much effort and passion they put into the last 6 months. And of course the free open source software helps a bunch in their production too.

I myself probably will order a copy of their DVD to support what they have done and salute their creativity and passion.

I have just downloaded the software Blender and going to explore it soon, and hope it will get fun. If you are interested too, you may download from here. http://www.blender.org/
Have fun you guys!

And at the meanwhile, lets enjoy what they have done this time. =)


-End-

Pixar's New Short - Presto

Another brilliant Pixar work is on the way. This newest short will be premiered soon in June and during the release of Wall-E on the theater. Can't wait. However, none of them will be launched here in Japan any soon. I guess I will have to wait till at least this winter, while other people are enjoying the first sip. boohooo..... Sadd.... =(







-END-

The Making of Kung Fu Panda

The following is the latest extended trailer/teaser. I like it very much. Very entertaining and I love the idea. Good job, Dreamworks!

Cool Animated Commercial

Nothing much to say. It looks cool to me, and just wanna share with you guys.

Quick Update after Missing In Action for few weeks!

Yo Friends! Good to be back again to Tokyo! Sorry for missing in action for few weeks. I was lazy to update anything on my blog in the past 2 weeks after i came back from vacation. haha..

Man! I missed my trips and all my friends and also all the SEA (South East Asia) Food, again! hahaa.... The biggest regret that I have so far is that I did not have the chance to eat Durian when i was back then. Sigh! What a pity! But I still managed to eat a lot of good food back there. Chow Kuey Teow, Prawn Noodles, Dim Sum, Bak Kut Teh, Sugar Cane, Yong Tao Foo, Fish Noodles, Hainan Chicken Rice, Duck Rice,Hokkien Mee, and most importantly my Mum's Home Made Cooking and super delicious chinese soup! Yummzzz!!
Man, the more i mention now, the more i miss them! Got to stop..haha...

Well, the trip was really a great one. Met lots of friends for lunch, dinners and also Karaoke! In the 2 weeks vacation, I have been to karaoke 3 times. It was really fun! hahaa.. Went to a karaoke with my KL friends in KL, Malaysia. And because it was my birthday on that week, I was exempted from paying the charges for the whole singing and buffet session. hahaa.. So happy.
And I also want to take the opportunity here to thank some of you who bought me meals and stuff! Thank you! I really appreciate very much guys! Really happy! :D

Speaking of which, I've finally said goodbye to my 20s, and started to enter a new stage of life which starts with the big "3". hahahaa... Well, here comes the new me! Which I don't think will be any difference.... I'm still so childish..hahaha...
Actually age doesnt matter, what counts is our heart. If your heart is young, you are young, no matter how old you have turn into. So keep smiling and be cheerful and be positive. Bad thing happens, you choose to see it as a bright path to lead you to another new adventure. =)

Well this time I'm not gonna show much photos except some which I took while I was having my birthday party in Tokyo with my art-mates which organized by my Sensei. My sensei was so kind and generous. She cooked so much good food and specially made one big pot of super hot & spicy curry just for me coz she remembered that I told her before that Malaysia curry is 5 times hotter than Jap Curry. And she really did look for spices and made the curry from scratch and ended up 7 times hotter! hahaa... I was sweating eating her 3-day effort curry. Everyone else reacted the same.. hahaa...
Arigatou Sensei!!! Thank you so much for the effort! =D

And also thanks to all my art-mates for the meaningful wishes and interesting presents. It was really a fun night. And I ended up "Da Bao-ing" (bring home) a lot of left-over curry, soup, cakes etc. And those food lasted me for another 2-3 days without spending on outside food. hahahaaa..... Check out the photos below later and you will see how much they are. But I felt very grateful that all of them care about me, especially my Sensei. She's caring, kind and really really funny woman! hahaa... Talking with her can really release stress. hahaa...

Ok, here are some of the photos.




My portion of cake with the mint choco name plate.


As I've mentioned above that I had to bring back all the food home, I've used this bag to pack in all the pots of food with the help of my sensei. hahaa....


After unpacking at home... these are the portions of left over. hahaaa...


Compilation of all my presents from all my Japanese friends.


This is the first Gundam in my life! hahaaa... One of my art-mates gave me this and he said this is one of the modern Japanese culture to give Gundam during birthday party. When I first heard it I was like "Huh? Serious??!" hahaaa... Anyway, I really like it very much! I feel like a kid again! hahaa....


This is a origami. And the top one is a box of pencils with the designs of Japan Trains. =D


A piggy Cactus! hahaa.. cute right!


A great book of Color Gallery! It covers a lot of colors related to culture, nature, people, places in Japan. Very good reference for color sense!


Written by my Sensei. It was written behind the painting that she's drawn for me. One of them (the above writing + painting) was actually meant for my mum. It was a present for my mum by my Sensei. And I've brought it back to my mum last month. The painting of the 2 Owls. The reason she drawn Owl for my mum is because Owl in japanese is called "Fukurou", and it has the same sound and pronunciation with 不苦労(No Stress or Happiness). It was a meaningful painting as well as a present for my mum. Thank you sensei! Arigatou !!! =D


Mini USB Speaker.


Now you see, Now it Brights! Cool huh! =D

~End~