Synopsis

This movie is a prologue to the much acclaimed Shrek series, but the focus this time is on the origins of the character Puss in Boots. Puss was childhood friends with the (in)famous Humpty Dumpty, and they grew up together in a small orphanage in San Ricardo. Humpty has always been an adventurer and dreams of finding magic beans to get to the magical castle in the clouds to find the golden goose. Puss started out rather shy and reserved, but soon warms up to the outgoing and chatty Humpty. The 2 make a pact to complete their adventures mission together, but Puss soon gets sick of Humpty’s dirty ways. In a bid to keep Puss by his side , Humpty tricks Puss into becoming his accomplice in a bank robbery. Puss is wanted, and begins leading an outlawed life.

On one occasion, Puss hears about news of the magic beans. Apparently, they’re now in possession of a murderous couple, Jack and Jill. Puss decides to take this chance to get the beans and clear his name. However, his plans are thwarted by another cat thief, Kitty Softpaws. It turns out that Kitty is Humpty’s new partner in crime. Humpty convinces Puss to join him in his quest for the magic beans. The trio succeed in snatching the beans from Jack and Jill and ultimately gain access to the castle in sky and kidnaps the golden goose.

However, Puss soon discovers that all this is Humpty’s plot for revenge against Puss for leaving him behind to get caught and thrown in San Ricardo prison. Meanwhile, the golden goose’s mother comes in search for her child, and pledges to wreck havoc in the town of San Ricardo. In the end, Puss saves the day, returning the golden goose to her mother and peace back to San Ricardo.

 My Thots

If you’re familiar with fairy tale stories like Jack and the Beanstalk, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, etc, this movie is going to change the way you look at these stories and characters. I’m not sure if I really like Humpty as a baddie, but I sure enjoy Puss as a hero. I must admit, not everyone will enjoy this movie, but if you’re a cat-lover (like me) you’ll definitely love this! My favorite scene in the movie had was Puss challenging Kitty Softpaws to a dance fight in the Glitter Box pub. Cats, cats and more cats! That’s my kind of movie! Me-ow!

I also loved watching Puss the kitten, shy and reserved, yet curious and brave when necessary. His entrance into the orphanage sent the entire cinema audience going “Awwwww…”. Baby Puss is simple irresistible!

Overall, this is a movie I’ll recommend, although I probably would not let young children (12 and below) watch this. Meanwhile, I’ll be anticipating this movie’s release on DVD.

Trailer

Synopsis

The movie starts with growing up snippets of a pair of unlikely brothers in Smalltown, Gary and Walter. While Gary is your typical “normal” American boy, Walter is a puppet stuck at being 3 feet tall. Just as he starts to despair, he discovers The Muppets. The 2 brothers grow up to be ardent Muppet fans.

One day, Gary decides to bring Walter along on a trip to LA to celebrate 10 years of dating his fiancé Mary, much to Mary’s chagrin. Nonetheless, the trio make a much anticipated visit to the now abandoned Muppet Studios. Walter accidentally discovers oil tycoon Tex Richmond’s evil plan to acquire the Muppet Studios, only to tear down the Muppet Theater and dig for oil. Walter and Gary take it upon themselves with the task of saving the Muppets and their theater, and along with a reluctant Mary, they find Kermit and convince him to gather the Muppet family and put up a fund-raising telethon show to raise 10 million dollars to keep their beloved theater, as well as the rights to the Muppets name.

However, the Muppets have been estranged from each other and have not been in contact in a long while. Eventually, the team travels around the globe to pick up all other the members of the Muppet family. They are faced with the reality that their popularity and chemistry have lapsed since their last performance together. Ultimately, they brave all odds to beat the evil villain and keep the Muppet Studios. Meanwhile, Walter discovers the inner Muppet in him and joins the gang as the newest cast member.

 My Thots

I fondly remember spending hours in front of the TV every week watching The Muppet Show, very much like Walter did in the movie. It sure has been a while since they last appeared on screen (big or small), so it was good to see them all again this movie.

My favorite part of the movie had to be when Kermit and the gang sang Rainbow Connection. I was half expecting the cinema audience to burst out in song along with Kermit because I was singing along myself. Ah.. happy memories indeed.

Overall, this is definitely a happy healthy source of entertainment for the entire family!

Trailer

I took leave from work on my birthday. 2 weeks ago, to catch the much anticipated grand finale of the Harry Potter saga. As I’ve expected, the best seats were already taken by the time I got to the cinema, so I settled for the next best thing available, and off-center seat in one of the back rows. It was the cinema’s 76th anniversary and they were giving away free popcorn and soft drinks for every regular-priced to ticket. Since I’d already taken breakfast, I chose to get a discounted ticket with my credit card instead. I wasn’t a big fan of popcorn anyway.

SPOILER ALERT: The following may contain spoilers, so if you’ve not watched the movie or read the book, you may want to give this post a pass until you’ve done at least one of two.

The final Harry Potter book is probably (IMHO) the one that’s most packed with Christian themes among all the 7 books, particularly the plot leading up to the final face-off the between our main protagonist, Harry Potter, and his arch-enemy, Voldemort. Hence I had high expectations for the movie rendition, especially after watching the trailers on YouTube.

I chose to watch the high-definition version with digital surround sound rather than 3D since it was much cheaper, and also because I didn’t want to end up with a headache after the show. Moreover, I’ve heard that the 3D version wasn’t that much more impressive. Although the Harry Potter themed 3D glasses did look like quite a tempting collectible.

The movie opens with a very downcast Snape, looking like he’s deep in thoughts. The scene immediately switches over to Voldemort, who is standing victoriously at Dumbledore’s grave, after gaining possession of the infamous Elder Wand. The adventures of Harry and his sidekicks ensues as they continue to hunt down and destroy the remaining Horcruxes. Their wild goose chase eventually leads the trio back to Hogwarts. This is also where Harry and Voldemort will have their final showdown.

As I sat in the cinema watching the scenes fly by at break-neck speed, I was grateful that I’d already finished reading the book. Even then, I still find it a little difficult to catch up with fast plot. It was like I was on some sort of high-speed roller coaster ride, exciting and breathtaking. The group of young girls sitting in the row in front of me were squealing towards the end when the bad guys started to die off one by one. We all had a good laugh when the infamous epilogue appeared at the end. And when the movie ended, the entire cinema roared with enthusiastic applause.

My favorite part of the movie had to be Harry’s death in the Forbidden Forest. To me, this was one of the climaxes in the movie. Harry’s brief afterlife moment where he converses with Dumbledore at he deems as King’s Cross Station was particularly witty and thought-provoking. This is also the point in the book where Christian, some even Catholic, references are abundant. Harry sacrificing his life to save Hogwarts very much mimicked Christ’s sacrifice of Himself to save humanity. When Voldemort marches into Hogwarts with the limp, “dead” body of  Harry, pronouncing his “victory” and demanding recognition of his lordship, I was immediately reminded of our Lord’s death on the cross. If the devil had a physical body with which he could speak, I’m sure he would have screamed victory at the top of his voice, just like Voldemort did.

Naturally, when Harry literally sprang back to life. The crowd at Hogwarts were exhilarated, not to mention the bunch of squealing teenage girls seated in the row in front, just like the disciples where when Jesus returned on Easter Sunday. Thankfully, there weren’t any “doubting Thomas-es ” around this time to spoil the mood.

Finally, Harry brings down Voldemort, after an intensive chase and battle of spells. However, the lethal blow which ultimately led to Voldemort’s demise was his refusal to repent of his evil ways. Voldemort attempts to attack Harry with a deadly spell, which our hero deftly deflects in self-defense, inadvertently “redirecting” the evil spell back to the one who mouth it. Another classic example of the golden rule in action: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

As the tagline on the movie states, “It All Ends Here”. I’ll definitely be missing my (almost) annual dosage of Harry Potter movies, unless Ms Rowling decides to go back on her words. I know I didn’t quite do the movie justice with my brief review. Here are a couple of folks who’ve done a much better job than me:

• Spiritual Popcorn
• Another Cup of Coffee

You might also want to check out the Secrets of Harry Potter podcast (website)|(rss) from SQPN, where they explore various Christian themes in the Harry Potter series, and discuss Harry Potter books and movies. I particularly loved their detailed review of the latest movie. Definitely a must-listen if you’re a fan!

I found time to watch this 3rd installment of the Narnia series after my crowning procedure. So with half of my jaw numbed by the after-effects of the anesthetics, I embarked on this adventurous voyage with Edmund and Lucy Pevensie and their cousin Eustace Scrubbs.

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains some spoilers, so if you’ve not watched the movie or read the book, you may want to give this post a pass until you’ve done at least one of two.

Narnia3 is extremely rich in Christian undertones. The main mission of the Dawn Treader crew is to break the evil spell from the dark powers residing on the Dark Island. However, to accomplish this, they will need to follow a mysterious blue star to get to the island of Ramandu, during which they will be tempted by their darkest secrets and their inner demons.

“I tried to do it myself, but I wasn’t strong enough.. then He came closer.. it was painful, but it was a good pain”

That was what Eustace said about how Aslan helped him change back to his human form after being transformed to a dragon, his punishment for coveting the enchanted treasures of the evil ones. This also aptly describes our relationship with God. Although we try our bests to be good, we’re often not strong enough to do it by ourselves. Only with the help of God can we overcome the temptations from the world and from our inner selves. Though the process will cause us pain, but it is a good pain that will bring us to our ultimate destination, Heaven, God’s country.

Towards the end, there’s also mention of Aslan’s country, where the brave and valiant are always welcome. Reepicheep receives his well-deserved reward as he’s welcomed into Aslan’s country. Aslan also tells Lucy that although he cannot be with them physically, he’ll always be within them in spirit. He also says “you must learn to know me by another name in another world“. Much like how we must learn to recognize God in our world.

I must say, C.S. Lewis is a genius! He beautifully injects his Christian beliefs into his literature. Through his literature, we’re able to see Lewis deep love of God and Christianity. The Chronicles of Narnia series have really prompted me to explore more of Lewis’ works.

For those who’ve not watched the movie, here’s the trailer to whet your appetite.

Update: I had some issues connecting to my blog via the Android app, so I’m editing this draft once again on the desktop. That also explains the delay. Apologies!

2 weeks ago on Thursday, I took a day off from work to do a medical examination for insurance purposes, as well as to catch the 1st part of the final installment of the Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, or HP7 as it is affectionately known. HP7 opened on Singapore’s big screens on 17th November, Wednesday, which was 2 days (3, if you take in the time difference) earlier than USA. That came as a rather pleasant surprise to me, considering that the fact we normally only get to see most movies months after they’re initially screened in the States.

Being the finale of the 7-part adventure, HP7 promised many mini climaxes as Harry and friends hide from The-One-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, while trying to figure out how to destroy the remaining pieces of Voldemort’s soul hidden in the missing Horcruxes. All that without any user manuals or instructions. Not to mention the gloom that follows the murder of their beloved mentor Dumbledore. If you’ve not caught yourself up on the previous 6 installments, you will quite lost with all the fast-paced action that’s going on in this one. The protagonists themselves are also trying to figure out how they’ve landed into such a predicament. Frustrations and teenage angst abound. I don’t want to spoil too much for those who have not watched this yet, so let’s just say there’s lots of problem solving, confusion, running, hiding, more confusion, more running, fighting, and even more confusion.. you get what I mean.

Overall, I think this was a well-made production. Although the ending of this movie left us thirsty for part 2, it was cut-off at a rather logical and strategic point in the book. I’m anticipating more exciting adventures in 2nd half of the finale already!

Meanwhile, here’s the official trailer for your viewing pleasure. For a more in-depth review, please read what Steven Greydanus has to say over at DecentFilms.com.

iBreviary

One of the most popular Catholic apps on iTunes App Store has finally arrived on the Android App Market. The iBreviary is developed by an Italian priest, Father Paolo Padrini. The app has sections for the Breviary, Reading of the Day and Prayers, and is wonderful for Catholics to be able to keep up with their daily devotions while on the go.

Evangelizo – Daily Gospel

This app is developed by the folks behind evangelizo.org, and reflects the corresponding Gospel and Readings sections on dailygospel.org. There’s also a Saints section and an additional Prayers section hidden in the menu. You can also choose between the Ordinary Roman, Extaordinary Roman, Maronite, Melkite and Armenian Liturgical Calendars.

Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina stands for Divine Reading in Latin. The Lectio Divina app for Android consults the Catholic liturgical texts (readings, psalms, gospel) taken from universalis.org, and the lives of saints for each day or a date chosen.

Sincere Prayer

The Sincere Prayer app contains 4 major sections: Prayers and Verses, Prayer Journal, Daily Readings, Mobile Rosary. Worth mentioning is the Daily Readings section which contains links to various websites and podcasts where you can get your daily readings.

Mobile Prayerbook

This app offers a collection of Catholic prayers for you to take on the go. There’s also a Catechism section, which is great for folks who want the Catechism at their finger tips.  The user interface on this app is rather simple when compared to the others mentioned here, but still, it gets the job done. There are also separate apps available for Mobile Litanies and Mobile Rosary.

Catholic Mass Daily Readings

I had an earlier version of this app installed on my phone, where there were only daily mass readings and a prayer section. The latest update now has Liturgy of the Hours (Lauds and Vespers) as well as a Rosary section. Sadly I had problems updating to the new version, after I uninstalled the older version. So now I’m between a rock and a hard place. I tried contacting the developer directly via email, but he wasn’t very helpful, and has since stopped responding to my email. I’ve yet to see the latest version for myself, but the print screens and description from the developer’s blog look promising. At least for the short time that I had the earlier version on my phone, I had quite enjoyed it. I do hope to be able to install this on my phone once again.

All the apps mentioned are available free on AppBrain. Some of these apps are location specific, so you may not see it on the Android App Market. There are also some paid apps such as the iMissal that I’m not able to review here since I do not have access to paid apps here in Singapore. If you know of some good Catholic apps for Android, please let me know!

Like Apple iPhone’s iTunes App Store, there’s also an Android Market available on the phone, where I can search for and download apps. Currently, only selected free apps are supported in the Singapore version, which is fine since I’m a bit of a cheap-skate who prefers free than paid. But certain premium apps that I’d like to own permanently is only available as time-limited free trials in the Android Market, which gets frustrating sometimes. Luckily, with the sudden surge in manufacturers putting out new Android phones, and more and more people taking notice of the Android OS, more and more developers are producing fun and cool apps for this relatively new mobile platform. Here’s some of the apps I have on my phone right now.

I’ll like to highlight some of my favorite apps here, but I’ll probably have to do it in parts since, as you can see, I’ve got quite a few.

Today’s main focus will be on touchscreen keyboards for Android. We’re all used to the traditional T9 and QWERTY keyboard layouts on the phone, but typing on the phone is still quite a challenge when you’re using the touchscreen instead of a physical keyboard, particularly on the QWERTY layout, where the keys are much more cramped. Recently, there has been a new trend of keyboards where all you have to do is to slide or swipe your finger from one letter to another without lifting it up to form a complete word. The more common and popular ones which I’ll list here are the SlideIT keyboard, the ShapeWriter keyboard and the Swype keyboard. Something to note here is that these keyboards are not exclusive to the Android platform alone, most if not all of them are available for the iPhone and Windows Mobile as well.

SlideIT keyboard

This is the first “slide” keyboard I’ve tried and I took to it like fish to water. I loved it! It’s snappy and smart enough to figure out words from the doodles that I draw on the screen, even very long and complicated words. I found myself typing much faster with this than on the default T9 keyboard. There’s even a Graffiti feature that let’s you draw numbers and special symbols. Pretty cool! Here’s a video of the SlideIT keyboard in action.

The only couple of gripes I have with it is that the capitalization isn’t too smart. It also a bit of a hassle to input numbers and special characters as I’ll have to touch one of the shortcut keys to switch to the numeric/special character layout.

The free version available on the Android Market is time-limited to 30 days, and like I’m unable to get the paid version anywhere. The guys from Dasur, the company behind the SlideIT product have said in reply to my query, that the Android paid version will be available for sale on the website soon.

ShapeWriter keyboard

Since I couldn’t get a paid version of SlideIT, I decided to search for other options out there. I discovered ShapeWriter, which is a free alternative. The look and feel is similar, but ShapeWriter has smarter capitalization, and the number pad is much cuter. Entering special characters on ShapeWriter is also much easier as all you need to do is to long touch the key to access the special character behind. I’ve read about some complains about ShapeWriter’s accuracy on some forums, but I have no issues with it so far. Here’s a video of ShapeWriter in action.

ShapeWriter has announced that they plan to take the ShapeWriter keyboard off the Android Market on June 20th 2010 for an indefinite period of time. Users are strongly urged to download the latest Version 3.0.9, which does not expire. So if you have an Android device and are thinking of finding a free alternative to replace your current touchscreen keyboard, now is the time!

Swype keyboard

This 3rd and last keyboard that I’m featuring here is a little special, because it is the only which I’ve not had a chance to try hands-on. I signed up for the close beta on their website, and was  invited. However, I was unable to install the keyboard ultimately as it says that the screen size of my X10 Mini is not supported. How disappointing.

Nonetheless, this is by far the most popular slide/swipe keyboard out in the market today. Here’s a video of Swype in action.

I hope you’ve found this short review helpful. More next time!

image courtesy of Sony Ericsson

I’m typing this post from my brand new X10 Mini. I’ve had it for 2 days and I’m totally loving it! This is the miniature version of Sony Ericsson’s flagship Android phone, the Xperia X10. It currently runs on Android 1.6, an older version of Google’s popular phone operating system. Although it’s 2 versions behind the latest version 2.2, this phone still packs punches.

Like Apple’s iPhone, the X10 Mini is fully touch-screen and features tons of apps to keep one entertained, most of which a downloadable from the Android Market, Google’s equivalent of Apple’s iTunes App Store. Although there aren’t as many apps developed for Android as compared to the iPhone, most of the essential stuff (for me at least) are there. One of these essentials is this WordPress app that I’m typing this post in. Pretty cool huh?

Well, that’s all for now. More on my new phone another day, when I find time to sit in front of the computer. Bye!

This one is not exactly *NEW* new, but it is one of the recent additions to the big family of SQPN. If you like food, and hopefully like Catholicism too, you’ll probably like The Catholic Foodie podcast (rss). Join Jeff Young on his foodie adventures where he talks about faith and food.

Another new member of SQPN is the In Between Sundays podcast (rss), a podcast that gives you the essentials to live in the world outside of church. Join Nick & Pat Padley where they talk about life as Catholic young adults, ways to grow in faith including specific prayers, websites to visit and practices. They believe that being people of faith requires more than just one hour on Sunday, and we all know that they’re not the only ones who believe that. By helping you develop your body, mind, soul and emotions, the Padley brothers hope to help you become the best person you can be.

As its name suggests, the Among Women podcast (rss) is specially created to celebrate the beauty and grace of Catholic Faith and Life among women. Join Pat Gohn as she does some faith sharing, teaching, and conversation woman to woman. I’ve just started listening to this podcast after it recently the SQPN family, and I’m already hooked by Pat’s beautiful “radio DJ” voice.

Thanks to Lisa Hendey’s mention on her Catholic Moments podcast (rss), I was made aware of the Marian Cenacle Rosary Podcast (rss) by Susan Bailey. If you’re a frequent listener to the Catholic Music Express (rss) podcast or the Catholic Rockers podcast (rss), or if you’re familiar with the Catholic music scene in general, I’m sure you’ll be familiar as Susan as singer, as well as the person behind GrapeVine Online ministry and the GrapeVine News Minute podcast. Susan is also the author and composer of a Catholic book and CD, Mary, Queen of Peace Meditation Guide & Sung Rosary, which this podcast is based on. The Marian Cenacle Rosary Podcast now has a new supplement known as “How Can I Keep from Singing,” a faith-in-action podcast with personal sharing from Susan on how praying the rosary, studying the word of God and other spiritual exercises has nourished her faith and kept her strong in the midst of trials.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably also know that Deacon Tom Fox, who does the Deacon Moments section on the Catholic Moments podcast has started a new podcast with his lovely wife, Dee Fox. The Catholic Vitamins podcast (rss) is dedicated to helping you find the right nutrients that can add a lift and just the right amount of ‘zest’ to your faith practice.

SQPN’s official shwag guy Jeff Nielsen has finally caught the bug and started his own podcast, Catholic Pilot (rss). Jeff talks about his adventures as a commercial air pilot.

If you like reading, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the Catholic Book Club podcast (rss). Join Katherine Barren from Catholics in a Small Town as she interviews a series of noted Catholic new media personalities and others to talk about the book, Choosing Beauty by Gina Loehr, and how choosing beauty can affect our lives in profound ways.

We’ve had quite a few podcasts for and by women in this post. If you’re a man looking for some inspiration and spiritual guidance, you might be interested in the  Catholic Men’s Podcasts sponsored by the National Fellowship of Catholic Men and the Catholic Men’s Fellowship of Pittsburgh PA. There are 2 channels. Channel 1 (rss) is an ongoing weekly audio reflection of the upcoming Sunday Mass Readings from the perspective of Catholic male spirituality. Channel 2 (rss) is a compilation of hundreds of hours of various audio presentations geared toward Catholic masculine spirituality, inspiration, and general faith formation.

Last year was the Year of St Paul, so for those of you seeking to study the life and teachings of St Paul, you might want to listen to the Catholic Perspective on Paul podcast (rss). Created by Taylor Marshall, this podcast is an outgrowth of his book, The Catholic Perspective on Paul, which is set to be released in summer of 2010.

If you find some of the descriptions I’ve given above look familiar, let me admit that I’ve been a little lazy, and have “lift” most of the descriptions right from the related websites themselves.

Whew! That was quite a long list!

For links to these and other fine podcasts, please hop over to my Podcasts page.

Since many of my friends are iPhone/iPod Touch users, I started collecting and listening to AudioBoo feeds of some of them. Here is my little collection so far:

• Barb in Nebraska (ultimate SQPN groupie)
• Dr Paul Camarata (host of The Saintcast)
• Greg Willits (co-host of The Catholics Next Door)
• Fr Seraphim Beshoner (host of Catholic Under the Hood)
• Pat Padley (co-host of In Between Sundays)
• Rob Williams (host of Catholics Down Yonder)
• Lisa Hendey (host of Catholic Moments Podcast, co-host of Faith & Family Live! Podcast)
• Captain Jeff (official “shwag maker” for SQPN)

If you have an AudioBoo feed to share with the rest of us, please let me know.