Top 5 Pixar films

Fans of Pixar's animation films would probably already know that a new film from them, their first fairy tale called Brave, would be out in cinemas by the end of June 2012. Pixar had released twelve films so far but do you ever wonder which of these films took in the most money in the box-office? Here are the top 5 highest-grossing Pixar films based on the worldwide taking.

No. 5 ~ Ratatouille

It's about a rat who dreams of becoming a French chef even though he is a...rat. Obviously a rat and a kitchen do not suppose to mix with each other but the film teach us that if you dream big and determined enough, you can achieve your dream even if you are a rat. Ratatouille took in $623,722,818 in the worldwide box-office and sealed its place in number 5.

No. 4 ~ The Incredibles

When a group of superheroes are retired (or forced to retired), can they live a normal lives like everybody else? Apparently, the answer is no for one superhero and when he takes on a job that requires him to use his super power, he realized there is more to the job than he had expected. A combination of an action film and a family film, The Incredibles took in $631,442,092 in the worldwide box-office and placed fourth on the list.

No. 3 ~ Up

Up is more of an animation for adult when it comes to its theme but luckily the animal characters made it appealed to children too. The film is about an elderly man who was joined unexpectedly by a young Wilderness Explorer in his quest to fly to South America in a house floated by balloons. With intake of $731,342,744 in the worldwide box-office, Up is the 3rd highest-grossing Pixar film.

No. 2 ~ Finding Nemo

As the film's title suggest, the film is about a clown fish who races across the sea to find his son who was abducted by a human diver and be put in an aquarium. Joined him on his quest is a fish with a short-term memory. Finding Nemo is the second highest-grossing Pixar film with a worldwide intake of $867,893,978.

No. 1 ~ Toy Story 3

The third film in the Toy Story series, Toy Story 3 brings back Woody, Buzz and the gang in a whole new adventure as they find themselves in a daycare centre as their former owner prepares to go to college. The film became the first animated film to make over $1 billion worldwide and thus is the highest-grossing Pixar film with worldwide intake of $1,063,171,911.

Are you happy with the list? Are there any of your favourite Pixar's film missed out from the top 5? I was personally disappointed that WALL-E didn't make into the top 5 but it still made a lot of money though. Brave would be internationally released in June 2012, I wonder how well would the film be received by audience?

Images from Yahoo! Movies.

Hunter X Hunter (2011 anime) ~ Hunter Exam story arc review

The first story arc of Hunter X Hunter anime (the 2011 remake) had just finished its run on Animax Asia. It revolves around the Hunter Exam that our four protaganists; Gon, Kurapika, Leorio and Killua, enter in order to become professional Hunters and to get the Hunter license that can open to so many doors and opportunities. Each of them had their own purposes in entering the tough and cruel exam; Gon wants to meet his Hunter dad; Kurapika wants to get his revenge on the famous criminal group, Phantom Troupe, who had murdered his entire Kurta Clan; Leorio wants money to further study and become a doctor to give free treatment to his patients; while Killua just wants to get away from his assassins family.

The Hunter Exam that they entered consists of 5 phases. For the first phase, the candidates just had to follow the examiner through a long run to get to the second phase site. Sounds easy but this phase will test the candidates stamina, and they also had to run past a swamp that filled with ferocious creatures. The second phase involves cooking, but the ingredients that the candidates need to cook are the wild boars, which can be deadly to catch, and the eggs of the spider eagles, which in order to get the eggs the candidates had to jump through a gorge.

In the third phase of the exam, the candidates were left on a high tower known as the Trick Tower and need to find a way to escape from it in 72 hours. In the tower, they were faced with prisoners who were hired as the examiners of the exam. For the fourth phase, each candidates were given a target (one of the other candidates) and were left in an island for several days. While there, they need to fight each other for their badges and collect points to proceed to the next round.

The fifth and final phase of the Hunter Exam involves a one-on-one combat between the remaining nine candidates. One win will guarantee the winner the hunter license while the loser will have another chance by fighting others, but not all candidates have the equal amount of chances. Plus, out of nine candidates, only one will fail and eight others will get the hunter license, if no one is killed of course. If a contestant kill another during the combat, then that contestant will automatically get disqualified and the remaining contestants will officially passed the exam. Tricky.

Now let's talk about the quality of the anime. I did missed several episodes (like phase two of the Hunter Exam) but personally, I think the anime looks really good and well made with great voice acting. I love the voice acting of the four protagonists especially Gon and Kurapika. But some of the best ones are from the antagonists; Hisoka and Gittarackur @ Illumi. The episodes were neatly separated between each other and does not interfere with the flow of the story. But some of the scenes in the anime were a bit downplayed compared to the original manga probably to reduce the violence. The one that I thought were obvious was when Killua killed the serial killer prisoner in the Trick Tower during phase three of the Hunter Exam.

The story is, of course, great. I love to see the different personalities of the characters and how they interact with each other or respond to certain events. Our main heroes; Gon with his cheerful attributes and determination, quick-thinking Kurapika with his calm demeanor, Leorio with his clumsiness and funny comments and Killua with his cool act; have that strong presence that made me always rooting for them. But what I love to see the most is the friendship that bond as the characters gone through the tough exam. It was really inspiring.

Another great part of the anime is the background music in which it brings the adventurous mood of the story. The opening and ending theme are great too. The opening theme "Departure!" is sung by Masatoshi Ono while the ending theme is by the Japanese band Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas called "Just Awake".

I highly recommend this anime to everyone, whether you're a fan of anime or not. It has great plot, great characters and great music. What more could you asked for? If you haven't watch the anime yet, you can still catch it on Animax Asia (Astro Malaysia Channel 715) from Monday to Friday at 7.30 pm with repeats at 10.30 pm.

Images from Animax Asia.

Resident Evil 6 - Captivate 2012 Trailer

I'm too excited to not share this trailer. It's a new trailer for the new game in the Resident Evil video game series, Resident Evil 6. More details can be found in this trailer in regards with the characters. New female villain! Sherry Birkin! Son of Albert Wesker! And Chris Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy aiming their guns at each other?!? Looks to be an epic scene!

Resident Evil 6 is scheduled for release on October 2, 2012 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. You can also see the video by clicking here. Enjoy!

Rasukan Siluman by Imai Yasue ~ review

What is Rasukan Siluman in English? Honestly, I don't know but you can find this manga translated in Malay in Malaysia and Brunei. This manga by Imai Yasue, originally published in Japan as Watashi No Naka Ni Akuma Ga Iru, has 7 different stories with different horror elements in it. The first story is about a young girl who were trapped in a town where everybody suddenly becomes lazy and selfish, and how the world collapses because of it. The second story tells about twin sisters who can literally feel and experience what their other half felt. To make things worst, they fall for the same guy and begin to hate each other because of it. The third story is about a female student who was selected as one of the candidates who must survive on a deserted island along with several other students. On the island, she suddenly loses control of herself and were afflicted with the 7 deadly sins.

The fourth story is a compilation of 3 short episodes that were all started at a railway station. The first and second episodes don't really have a plot, but the third episode has a quite interesting story about a girl who falls in love with the wrong man. The fifth story is about a young girl who saves a magic cat and were granted 3 wishes. Because of her frustration with her life, she begins to make strange wishes which turn out deadly.

The sixth story is about a young girl who suddenly became a target of a town when she was announced as a murder suspect in a local news. Together with a friend, she made a run from the crowd and try to clear her name. The seventh and last story in the manga, and also my favourite chapter, is about a girl who steal some sort of pills from her friend in which she believes can make her swim faster and become champion in swimming competition. But will the pills cause harm to her body?

Although the artwork in the manga doesn't look very scary and frightening, but the stories do have that eerie feeling of horror as you read them. In fact, the images doesn't have to look scary because the stories already are. But for those horror fans who are looking for gory type of stories like the one you found in Junji Ito's manga would be disappointed. I was confused with the front cover artwork as it was not related to any of the stories in the manga. Maybe it was just an indication to show that this is a horror type of manga. I also notice some error in the drawing but it was really minor and was not obvious. Besides, I enjoy the stories and that what really matters for me.

Overall, Rasukan Siluman is a good horror manga with decent artwork and good stories. If you don't like to read manga with a long story and enjoy reading short chapters of different stories, then Rasukan Siluman is a suitable choice for you.

You can find more info on this manga and other interesting manga titles at Gempak Starz website.

Image from Gempak Starz.

Rating the superhero in The Avengers film

I had watched the movie and instead of a regular movie review, I think I will just write down about what I think of the superheroes that were featured in The Avengers and how they fare with each other. Let's start!

Captain America

Captain America (or Steve Rogers) character was played by Chris Evans. He's a charming character and certainly a gentleman compared to the rest of the superheroes probably because he is a man from the past. It's interesting to see that he's the opposite of Robert Downey, Jr.'s character, Tony Stark @ Iron Man where he is always in a serious mood while Tony Stark seems always in a no-I'm-not-interested mood. He has a strong presence among the other superheroes and certainly will gain a lot of fans (especially girls) with his handsome feature.

Iron Man

Iron Man (or Tony Stark) played by Robert Downey, Jr. incredibly well, just like he did with the previous two Iron Man movies. In my opinion, he is the best played character among all the other superheroes in the film. He grabbed attention every time he is on screen with his witty and sarcastic comments and carefree and almost arrogant attitude. I think he will have the most fans among guys with his high-technology and cool Iron Man suits. And he is more than just a mortal in an armor suit; his strength is equivalent to the other characters like Thor and Hulk and he can fight drones of armies from another world just like the rest of the team.


Hawkeye

Played by Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye aka Clint Barton is the only character in the film who were not featured in the other Marvel Cinematic Universe's movies before. Because of that, he is a bit overshadowed by the other superheroes, but the movie still managed to portray his strength and agility in fighting that made him even more deserving to be in the team just like the rest of the superheroes. With his bow and arrow, he had that charisma and a cool vibe everytime he's in a fight scenes. Hopefully they will feature more of him in the upcoming movies in the series.

Thor

The mighty god of thunder was played by Chris Hemsworth. I feel like his character was a bit downplayed compared to the rest of the superheroes eventhough the incident in the film should be more personal to him because of the involvement of Loki, his adoptive brother. But he still gets plenty of screentime to charm the audience with his godly power. I just hope that they put more emotion to his character than bragging about his strength.

Black Widow

The only female superhero in the team, Black Widow (or Natasha Romanoff) is played by Scarlett Johansson. I'm glad to see that they had developed her character into a more prominent role in the team. She's not just an eye candy or someone's love interest, she's a fighter and she fights alongside the boys against the alien enemies. I like strong female character and Scarlett Johansson certainly played her character well.

Hulk

Dr. Bruce Banner or Hulk as he was called when he turned big and green, played exceptionally well by Mark Ruffalo, seems like the unwelcome superhero in the team. But I'm happy to see that he has a fan in the form of Tony Stark. I like the scene where he had a conversation with Tony Stark aboard the SHIELD aircraft carrier. Mark Ruffalo's interpretation of Dr. Bruce Banner @ Hulk was refreshing and a great addition to the film. His character was certainly my favourite from all the other superheroes of The Avengers. Hopefully  they won't change the actor anymore for this character.


There you have it, my take on the superheroes that were featured in The Avengers. As I wrote above, my favourite pick is the Hulk. What about you?

Images from Yahoo! and Screen Rant.