The Avengers: "We have a Hulk"

"But let's do a head count here. your brother the demi-god, a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend, a man with breath-taking anger management issues, a couple of master assassins, and you big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

Two words: Tony Stark. What resembled Transformers: Dark of the Moon in terms of breath-taking cinematography, the action-packed thrill and the dark apocalyptic atmosphere became more than just what thirteen-year-old teenagers and Marvel fanatics lined up for; even their girlfriends and self-proclaimed geeks like me itched to watch Joss Whedon's block-buster hit and most-awaited movie of the year The Avengers.

And it's all because of the intellectual and witty humor--that Ironman has become overly famous for in his two movies--infused in the dim and end-of-the-world plot. And even though the laugh-off-the-seat punchlines were 90% Tony Stark, the other Avengers and even Loki had their own funny moments to contribute--they are a team after all--how Thor immediately denied that he and Loki are true brothers when Black Widow told him Loki has killed 80 people in two days; how Captain America, Thor and Ironman wrestled like real ten-year-old kids fighting over a precious in-demand action-figure doll (aka Loki) (Thor: Do not touch me again! Tony: Then don't touch my stuff.), and how Steve Rogers aka Captain America always boiled over Tony's witty sass-mouthing (Steve: Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you? Tony: Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.)

As we witnessed how Tony Stark also idolized The Hulk very much he even invited him to visit Stark Tower (his candyland), we also witnessed the end of the world as it is when Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson, Ironman) activated the Tesseract at the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, a hypercube with a powerful energy source and opened a portal releasing exiled Norse god Loki (Tom Hiddleston, Thor). With plans of conquering Earth, he stole the Tesseract and manipulated  Hawkeye and astrophysicist Professor Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) to help him escape and collect Iridium for the Tesseract needed to stabilize it.

With The Avengers' Initiative (which served as epilogue scene for all Marvel Hero movies involved in this movie), Nick Fury assembled Black Widow ( Scarlett Johansson), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Ironman (Robert Downey Jr.) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to stop Loki with his plan of wiping out the entire planet with the Tesseract. Complications immediately exploded with Thor interrupting the mission as he still had "unfinished business" with his brother, and all members--especially Tony and Steve--having "friendship" issues.

They managed to capture Loki but worse misunderstandings followed when Tony and Dr. Bruce Banner (aka Hulk) (friends as they immediately became mainly because they spoke the same "language") were able to breach Nick's security files and found out that The Avengers and the Tesseract were to be used by the government to create nuclear weapons, thus making them "not a team, but a time bomb".

Just as the heroes were caught off-guard, Loki's army attacked their ship led by Hawkeye, where Dr. Banner finally lost control, threatening and attacking not only the enemies but also Thor and Black Widow as well, and hard-core enemies Captain America and Ironman had to work together to keep the ship from crashing. Thor faced his brother Loki again, but fell into his trap and fell from the ship.

Tony's agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg, Ironman) tried to stop Loki but was killed in the process, and together with Nick's "dramatic" scheme  because the Avengers needed "a push in the right direction", the team reunited to finish the job and save the world.

Led by Captain America, the battle began as Loki, with Prof. Selvig's assistance assembled the Tesseract to open the portal that led to the world of the Chitauri, the alien race Loki recruited and released his army that all brought me back to the plot and the Decepticon aliens of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. In the end, Black Widow was able to close the portal using Loki's Tesseract staff just seconds before Ironman delivered his atomic bomb (which was released by the government to destroy Manhattan) to Chitauri portal.

PIXAR @25: The Incredibles "No capes!"

Sometimes when our family becomes our weakness, it becomes our strength.

The movie's inpiration coined from director Brad Bird deeply moved me, as, for some reason I could relate to the concept of being torn between two things and thinking there's nothing left but to choose, when in fact I didn't have to at all.

With Pixar's release of The Incredibles (2004, directed by Brad Bird) came another touching but hilarious feature film for worldwide audiences of all ages. And for the first time our childhood characters were all clad as human beings in real superhero costumes. Another first time? They're a family of supers.

To complete the debut celebration, we witnessed how, surprisingly, heroes were despised after the innocent majority decided Mr. Incredible and the rest of the "mutants" destroyed enough of the city and they should stop their work. "Blending in" became the heroes' motto since then as they hid their identities and powers amongst millions of civilians.

As Bob Parr (aka Mr. Incredible, voiced by Craig Nelson) itched for some action and chased his old dream as a famed superhero, he didn't know the price he'd pay for--his family. Suddenly we witness it's not about saving the city we've long perceived in a hero routine, but saving his family instead.

It didn't take long for Bob to realize he could do what he loves without leaving his family behind, because in times when he's weak, his wife and children were his strength.

I was taught that in a family, it's about giving part of yourself to each one while also leaving a part for your self-growth. When both parties have fully accepted it, the concept of sacrifice and difficult decisions would hardly exist anymore.

"I can't lose you again!" This scene when Bob tried hard to say he wanted to work alone because he couldn't risk losing his family again always makes me cry, thinking how his family could weigh a thousand times more than his passion as a superhero.

I'll never forget Edna's (Brad Bird) comical advice as well, saying there should be no cape in Bob's new suit, given the tragic endings of most heroes because of their capes.

Maybe Bob's family did weigh a lot more than his life-long dream, because his wife and kids were already his dream come true.

THE INCREDIBLES Fact Sheet

1. The movie's inspiration came from director Brad Bird, sewing it from his experiences when he struggled to meet the demands of his family and his mounting opportunities in filmmaking.

2. The Incredibles is the very first Pixar feature film to use human cast, with the character's attitutdes adapted from Bird's family members (click here for detailed story).

3. Pixar created Universal Man, a highly "morphable" model capable of creating hundreds of unique background and side characters for the movie.

4. It reaped an Academy Award for Best Animated Film and Best Sound Editing. It also became Pixar's second highest grossing film with more than $629M in worldwide box office receipts.

PIXAR @25: A BUG'S LIFE (1998) "It's a buggy bug world out there"

The Ant Island

The definition of a true hero is when you succeeded in saving others even if they hadn't believed in you.



The memory always comes back, when my siblings and I used to watch A Bug's Life (1998, directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton) over and over again in VHS. The architectural design of the colony's anthill has always marveled me and made me want to dissect the pile of mud in our own backyard.

After peeking into the life of toys, Pixar took their wild imagination to the next level and entered the world of ants and bugs for us to learn the true meaning of heroism.

While the rest of the ants endure the routine manually collecting food and portraying slavery, Flik (Dave Foley) takes a stand with his inventions to collect more food the easy way, although he strongly believes ants shouldn't do the dirty job for the lazy freeloading grasshoppers.


We were still young and took the childish pleasure of turning on the water hose and wiping out the anthill in our backyards. And while watching A Bug's Life, we lick on our lollipops and suddenly contemplate on the real life of ants under the scorching sun, carrying heavy seeds and beans and realizing that at the end of the day, the food was not for them to munch.

While we once accepted the norm that ants are boring insects and simply never cease to line up, we've witnessed Flik's wild journey and even the colorful life of an insect circus troupe we've never imagined before.

It seriously depresses me that I last watched this movie when I was nine and I desperately want to watch it again. I had missed the vibrant circus troupe, especially Francis (Dennis Leary) the ladybug who's always mistaken as a girl, and Tuck and Roll (Michael McShane), the Hungarian twin pill bugs who, by character definition, always ended up fighting.


But what I missed the most was the group's quest to outwit Hopper (Kevin Spacey) and his swarm of grasshoppers by making a large fake bird, and how, at a young age, I finally understood one's dream of changing his own way of life because he believes it's not his.

Tuck and Roll: always ending up fighting

Somehow, a true hero is not officially defined as the Superman who saves the day, but the outcast who simply wants to change the world.




A BUG'S LIFE Fact sheet


1. The makers of A Bug's Life had admitted establishing the impression from a bug's point of view was no easy task. Pixar had even created a "bug cam" and shot the world from a bug's viewpoint to capture and refer from its majestic transluscency.

2. It became the highest grossing animated movie of 1998, collecting $362M in worldwide box office receipts.


3. The movie also garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Comedy Score, a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and four ASIFA Hollywood Annie Awards for Outstanding Feature, Directory, Writing and Production Design.


4. The Aesop fable The Ant and the Grasshopper became the movie's inspiration, when one day writer-director Andrew Stanton and storyboard artist Joe Ranft chatted about the story.

When heroes retire and villains miss the normal life

The day couldn't be safer and more secure with Metro Man (Brad Pitt) looking out for despicable villains. One day he's there; one day he's not.


Dreamworks also got out of the box and let the villains conquer the big screen. Megamind (Will Ferrell) finally deciphered the hero's Achilles' heel, and managed to incinerate him to the bones. What's next? He takes over the city, feel the power and ends up getting bored without any more hero to fight to.

And so he invents one to keep the story alive, but ironically ends up being the hero of the city instead. And the story itself is merely about villains abruptly changing into heroes; it's more about how both parties eventually get sick over their pre-destined lives.


WHEN HEROES RETIRE


Our heroes grow old, too. I was taught that when one gets old, he tends to look for simpler things in life. Nevertheless, there has been no record of any Walt Disney or Marvel hero growing old still wearing that silly cape and hovering above the city. We've seen Metro Man contemplate about the importance of life before getting killed. He realized he had missed a lot of things and focused much on saving people who didn't even teach him about life.

And so the hero just retired, and left the apathetic people to fend for themselves. It's true among us anyway: we get bored everytime and itch to try something new. Change is our nature, that's why it's stupid to be disappointed when things wouldn't be the same again.


WHEN VILLAINS MISS THE NORMAL LIFE


I honestly found it corny that Megamind was emotionally changed by a woman. Nevertheless, this made our blue-painted villain to enjoy the simpler life and fall in love.


After all, he was not really born a villain--he was made one through years of staying at a local penitentiary with prisoners teaching him bad guys are good ones. He was always humiliated at his school as well.

It's mainly about being sure about the things we really want in life while we're conscious at the moment. We may want something just because we're influenced by others to want it, but it won't obviously make us happy and contented. In this part of the story, Megamind the villain managed to choose to change, telling us we can, too.

Out of villains we worship heroes: So who's the real hero?

We learn better things from villains, because of villains and through villains.


Have we ever wondered if our childhood favorites like Superman or Spongebob or Avatar didn't endure enemies like the criminal Lex Luthor or the evil Zuko or the unfriendly Squidward, would we even idolize them? If such villains didn't stand up for what they selfishly believed, our heroes would be nothing but show-off, extraordinary people possessing useless in-born powers. I believe from villains--even from problems and conflicts--we find our own heroes.

To be appropriately dressed for the recent occasion, I studied and reread about Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Charles Dicken's epic A Christmas Carol. I thought about the irony of grumpy Grinch and cold-hearted Ebenzer Scrooge portrayed to be the spotlight for both stories. It's true, nevertheless--I believe villains are way beyond what heroes could ever be.

THE GRINCH


One can really blame Dr. Seuss for making the Grinch's heart "two sizes small", making the latter all grouchy and isolated and evil. But then we all know the story is not mainly about his wicked attitude and his insane plans of robbing the Who's Christmas paraphernalia.

Mainly it was about his redemption to descend from his 10 000-feet-high cavern and be not cold-hearted anymore, and about his conclusion that Christmas--and the happiness of having Christmas--is not defined by material things, but by pure love, acceptance and the act of giving whole-heartedly.


Dr. Seuss could've made the Who family the main characters. But he didn't. A sweet hug from a child, a thoughtful greeting from a stranger and a warm welcome can be easily portrayed by rather human-looking protagonists with powerful or humbler characters. But instead, Dr. Seuss made us learn something real from an ill-tempered, green-painted but motivated creature named the Grinch.

EBENZER SCROOGE


Charles Dickens was equally smart. His character was worse off and more serious, though. In his A Christmas Carol, Ebenzer Scrooge despised Christmas, loathed poor people saying the world's better off without them, strictly kept to himself and developed to be a workaholic.


And for rational reasons. Apparently disastrous tidings always came during the holiday season: his father left him in a boarding school as a child; his fiancée Belle left him for a less-workaholic man, and his closest relative and sister Fran died. These just made him more anti-sociable and apathetic to all the people in the world.


But then good fortune of Past, Present and Yet to Come spirits guided him and showed him the consequences of his grumpy actions. In the end, he decided to change, repented and finally knew "how to keep Christmas well".


And this might just be the biggest lesson for us: the power of change. We might never know anything about it if there aren't villains.

Through villains, we exclusively learn and understand more. We consider our bad-tempered teachers our worst enemies, but then we learn to be highly motivated to do what they said we cannot and prove to them what we got. 


We loathe criminals, killers, wayward children and the delinquent. But if we're open-minded enough we learn they've become who they are because of the Nature vs. Nurture phenomenon, and we can later conclude it was not their fault.


Russell Crowe once said: “I like villains because there's something so attractive about a committed person -- they have a plan, an ideology, no matter how twisted. They're motivated.”


Heroes are made out of villains. If there are no villains, there are no heroes. We just might never know how much we could learn from them.