Musicals

Musicals make me happy. Simple as that. Usually (not always) musicals are really happy, there is nearly, almost, always a happy ending and there is singing and dancing….. WHAT MORE CAN YOU WANT!!??!!

I love musicals because I am a movie nut and love to sing. I’m always singing – you can ask anyone I know – if we hang out, I’m bound to sing. I don’t what it is…what i love so much. Actually, I read somewhere that singing is actual good for your health. I dont know how or why but maybe that’s why I do it. I’m subconsciously trying to stay healthy through song. Anyway, singing just makes me happy and fluffy inside.

I would say I’m pretty open-minded when it comes to musicals, as in I pretty much love every musical I’ve ever watched. I love online musicals especially by the company Starkid. But I love musicals ranging from the 1950s to today.

One of my favourite musicals of all time is “Singin’ in the Rain”. It’s just a classic! It never gets old. It’s one of those musicals where you can watch it over and over again and never get bored. I love Gene Kelly!! Who could be considered the Prince of old hollywood musicals. I love his talent and he’s just such an inspiration to many. Other musicals he has starred in I absolutely love are; An American in Paris, Brigadoon, On the Town and many more. I remember watching Brigadoon for the first time. I was about 12 years old, just come back from holiday and it was about 1-2 in the morning and it was on BBC3 and I watched it with my dad. I stayed up to finish it, loved it so much I begged my mum for the DVD and the kind-hearted soul that she is… I received it the next day. There is just something about “old” musicals that will never age.

Grease is another one of the favourites – I mean I even love the terrible sequel with Michelle Pfiffer. Again I was introduced to Grease at a young age, I was about 8 or 9 years old. My older cousin who I was very close with, put it on when I sayed over one time. I loved it so much it was on repeat, pretty much all the time. For my 11th birthday, my cousin took me to see Grease in the West End on stage. I was so excited I wore a Pink Ladies jacket, black top, black sequinned leggings and brown wedged shoes. I dressed up for the occasion, had a lot of people stared at me, which made me a bit self-conscious, but I just kept telling myself, “You’re a fan and 11 years old. THIS IS OK.” Anyway, the show was incredible! I will remember it forever. Growing up I admired Frenchie, I felt like we had a lot in common – she was bubbly, friendly and just a kind soul. She never wanted to disappoint her friends. I related that, I still do now but I just don’t have that constant worry of disappointment in the back of my mind. I also have a more matured mind and I can actually understand what I relate to.

If I talk about every musical that I loved we would be here forever!! I’m going to stick to films musicals or film adapted musicals or musical adapted films. You get what I mean!! I will do West End in another post.

Burlesque – 2010 – Christina Aguleria and Cher – I like this musical due to the cast, the music and dancing. The musical is just amazing! You have some fun raunchy songs and some emotional ones, that hit you right in the feels!

Hairspray – 2007 – Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron, Queen Latifah, John Travolta and so many more!! – This star-studded cast has created one of the best remade musicals! (In my opinion) This is not the original but it’s a bloody good remake. Everyone is just perfection when portraying their roles and it’s just brilliant. Hairspray is also great as one of the main plot lines is racism in america in the 60s – specifically Racial segregation within a TV show in the film.

Les Miserables – 2012 – Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Helena Bohem Carter – I mean what can I say?? This is a star studded musical and it’s amazing. Incredible moving musical about the French Revolution, I cry every time! I would love to see it on stage (One of my main goals in life), I sadly missed my chance to see the amazing Carrie Hope Fletcher perform as Eponine but I still really want to see it!!

I think I’m going to end it here because I can go on and on and on.

Hope you enjoyed this post!!

And I’m out

Wiseflower xx

 

Fandoms

Fandoms mean a lot to me, I think that’s starting to become obvious. I’m part of many fandoms, I’m a Oncer, Stark, DisneyKid, Lost Girl, Potterhead. Now all of these fandoms are to do with films and TV but obviously fandoms are so broad….is that the right word?? Anyway fandoms can extend through music, art and practically anything.

Fandoms are like another family. But this family you can relate to on another personal level because you all have the same thing in common – you enjoy whatever TV show, film etc, And you can get to know so many amazing people just through talking about music, film etc.

Throughout 2016 my friend (R) and I have grown closer and I love her to pieces. We have always been friends but we were not incredibly close – whilst we were in school we connected more because she discovered a new interest and love for Harry Potter and I was known as the HP girl so she was able to express her interest and freak out with me and not feel weird about it because I understood her reaction. We then discovered we both enjoyed YouTube videos and liked the same YouTubers so we could happily fangirl to each other about this as well. She introduced me to anime and im still getting into it. I’m starting of slow with English dubbed films. I have loved every anime film she has shown me so far. (R) also told me to watch Game of Thrones and give it a chance. It was GoT or the Walking Dead and I don’t do zombies. I know I’m late to the party but I absolutely love it! At times I’m a bit confused, it kind of like ONCE in the sense that you have to pay attention to everything that is going on because if miss a small detail, it will throw you off track and you will be super confused. But, its okay I have (R) to explain everything to me if I get confused.

So with that information, what I’m trying to say is, fandoms can bring people together – specifically best mates as well as family. My sister and I have always been close, however there was a phase where we became distant toward each other because she was growing up and being a moody teenager (sorry Bess!) and I was a little kid, She’s four years older than me, and through her teenage years she became more obsessed with horror, fantasy, vampires and all that stuff, which at the time, I considered really scary. Actually to some extent, I still find scary now, I can deal with some horrors but I can’t be doing with paranormal and psychological horrors – they terrify me!! As well as zombies – I can’t deal with those either, when I was 14/15 I had an experience which developed those fear further. Anywayyyyy I’m getting off topic!!

What was I saying?? oh yeah….

My sister and I rekindled our bond through Harry Potter after I finally started reading the books and she also introduced me to Starkid. For those who don’t know, Starkid is a musical theatre production company who create parody musicals and upload them to YouTube. So through films, musicals and basically becoming apart of the same fandom, it has brought my sister and I close together.

So what have we learnt from this post:

• You meet strangers online who become you friends and “other family” who understand and accept your craziness
• Fandoms bring you and your friends closer together
• As well as family members

I will go into more detail about my different fandoms in multiple posts.

I’m out.

Thanks for reading

Wiseflower x

The Addams Family Musical

I’M GOING TO SEE THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL!!! I’M SO EXCITED!!

I love musicals. Like that’s it. I love musicals, growing up in the West End, I have been fortunate enough to see many musicals live. This is the first musical I will see not in the West End. I’m going to Woking to see it with one of my best friends. We are both theatre nerds and we both love Carrie Hope Fletcher who will be portraying Wednesday Addams. We both wanted to see the show from when they started their tour in London, but at the time i was saving money to go to Warner Bros Studio later on in the summer, however that did not happen. (I’m hopefully going at Christmas.)

We never ended up going, so I got my Addams update through Carrie’s social media and Youtube videos ‘Watch Me Wednesday’ and I accepted that I would never see it. A couple of months later, I went to my great aunts house and she had a magazine for Woking Theatre and Addams was on the front of the magazine. I got excited again – it was like a gleam of hope to go – I talked to my friend about it, asking her if she still wanted to go and she did so spontaneously at 11:50pm, I bought two tickets and we are going to Woking!!

I’m so excited!! I actually can’t wait. I feel sorry and apologize in advance to the person who sits next to me, I’m going to be so excited I’m going to be an actual mess, crying with happiness and singing and screaming and a nightmare basically. I will try my best to keep calm and keep my cool and to not fangirl as much but like I said; I will try.

We go in September and we are already planning the day, what we are wearing, what time to get to Woking, if we are going to do some exploring, I’M JUST SO EXCITED! I have tweeted about it and three members of the cast like my tweet and I was (and still am) ecstatic!! I can’t wait!!!!

Anyway I will update you when I see it.

I’m out!

Thanks for reading!

WiseFlower x

I’ve done it again

Oh my god! I’ve done it again abandoned this blog for 2 months! Let’s just say, I’m really crap at this! The past two months I haven’t even been busy, I just completely forgot. If you haven’t guessed by now, I have an awful memory. I’m surprised I even survived school. I mean I barely passed my A-Level exams because my memory is so bad.

Anyway, like I said I havent been busy but I was away for about 10 days. I went to Surrey with my mum and looked after my great-aunt. And you know what….I had such a great time. It was so nice to be away from London for a while! Away from the noise and it was great to be able to slow down for a while, even if it was short. London is always busy and bubbling – it’s non-stop! Time slips away from you and not in a good way. The day moves so quickly. To be able to slow down for a short amount of time was just enough to relax and sort my head out. I feel like everyone needs those sort of days. Just to take some time to themselves and SLOW DOWN! Everything happens so fast and we grow up so fast, it’s scary.

I have been back in London for almost a week and I did not miss the drilling and building work that’s happening in my area. It’s honestly a nightmare!! It happens ALL DAY! 8am – 6/7pm. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I’m just like “SHUT UP!!” I try to get away from it like going to a park or just going for a walk but everywhere you go in London at the moment there is drilling. Whether it be road works or building work, you just can’t escape it.

I’m out!

Sorry for not uploading and I’m sorry that this post is me basically ranting about how noisy London is.

WiseFlower x

Disney

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the world’s second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue, after Comcast. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923 – by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney

For anyone who doesn’t know what Disney films are- Disney films usually consist of a heroin or hero finding their way of life and helping either save the world or save themselves from distraught.

Who doesn’t love Disney!?!?!?!? Just like most people across the world, I grew up with Disney and I am so happy that I did. Disney (near enough) always ends with a happy ending; there may be struggles throughout the film but what’s life without the struggle? Anyway, Disney teaches us (most of the time) that everything happens for a reason and you can always be happy. It’s up to you to do that.

There are different sections of Disney; Live Action, Pixar and the Classics. I love all three of the subcatergories of Disney but the Classics are my favourite. People who meet me and get to know me, more often than not, ask “What’s your favourite Disney film?” and I can never give them one definite answer, because it’s so hard to choose one. Disney have created so many amazing films that choosing one seems criminal.

The first ever Disney classic film to be released was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. Personally, I am not a huge fan of Snow White mainly because I do find it kind of dodgy. When I was younger I found Snow White to be quite a scary film because of the old hag. (The Evil Queen in disguise). The old hag terrified me and to this day she still does! Another reason I found it quite scary was because of the pitch of Snow White’s voice…. it’s incredibly high! However, I will admit, even though I found her voice creepy – I do love to sing like her because of the quiver in her voice. I find it quite fun! Anyway, as I’ve gotten older I obviously now know it is a film and it’s not real and the old hag isn’t real and is not going to come to my window at night asking me to eat a poison apple to kill me.

Disney have released 53+ classic animated films over 80 years and they are still going! They have made such progress in their storylines and princesses and main characters over time. I feel Disney still have a long way to go howver they are on the right track.

Some of my favourite Disney Films are:

(synopsises from IMDB)

Tangled (2010) – The magically long-haired Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time, and who she really is.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) – An arrogant young prince and his castle’s servants fall under the spell of a wicked enchantress, who turns him into the hideous Beast until he learn to love and be loved in return. The spirited, headstrong village girl Belle enters the Beast’s castle after he imprisons her father Maurice. With the help of his enchanted servants, Belle begins to draw the cold-hearted Beast out of his isolation.

The Little Mermaid (1987) – Rebellious 16-year-old mermaid Ariel is fascinated with life on land. On one of her visits to the surface,which are forbidden by her controlling father. King Triton, she falls for a human prince. Determined to be with her new love, Ariel makes a dangerous deal with the sea witch Ursula to become human for three days. But when plans go awry for the star-crossed lovers the king must make the ultimate sacrifise for his daughter.

Treasure Planet (2002) – A futuristic twist on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Treasure Planet follows restless teen Jim Hawkins on a fantastic journey across the universe as cabin boy aboard a majestic space galleon. Befriended by the ship’s charismatic cyborg cook, John Silver, Jim blossoms under his guidance and shows the makings of a fine shipmate as he and the alien crew battle a supernova, a black hole, and a ferocious space storm. But even greater dangers lie ahead when Jim discovers that his trusted friend Silver is actually a scheming pirate with mutiny on his mind.

Big Hero 6 (2014) – Robotics prodigy Hiro lives in the city of San Fransokyo. Next to his older brother, Tadashi, Hiro’s closest companion is Baymax, a robot whose sole purpose is to take care of people. When a devastating turn of events throws Hiro into the middle of a dangerous plot, he transforms Baymax and his other friends, Go Go Tamago, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Fred into a band of high-tech heroes.

Aladdin (1992) – When street rat Aladdin frees a genie from a lamp, he finds his wishes granted. However, he soon finds that the evil has other plans for the lamp — and for Princess Jasmine. But can Aladdin save Princess Jasmine and his love for her after she sees that he isn’t quite what he appears to be?

Moana (2016) – An adventurous teenager sails out on a daring mission to save her people. During her journey, Moana meets the once-mighty demigod Maui, who guides her in her quest to become a master way-finder. Together they sail across the open ocean on an action-packed voyage, encountering enormous monsters and impossible odds. Along the way, Moana fulfills the ancient quest of her ancestors and discovers the one thing she always sought: her own identity.

Those were just a few that are my favourites and that I definitely reccomend.

Hope you enjoyed this post on Disney!! I had fun writing it.

WiseFlower1529 x

ITS BEEN SO LONG!

Hi! I kinda of abandoned this blog……… I DIDN’T MEAN TO!! I PROMISE! The last post I wrote I got a pain in my wrist. Don’t know whether it was due to too much typing or something else but I had to rest it. And then I got caught up with things at home and whats going on with my friends and here we are nearly three months later.

Anyway I will back to post more often and lets see how this goes

 

WiseFlower1529 x

Starkid

Hey Peeps!!

If you didn’t know, Starkid is a YouTube theatre production company who create incredible parody musicals to your favourite films such as Star Wars, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and of the one and only Harry Freakin Potter! Based in Chicago Illinois, they are best known for their Harry Potter musicals, which are, by the way, AMAZING! The music, choreography, plot, all of it is just fantastic. A Very Potter Musical was their first musical released on YouTube and it was a huge success. It is over 2hrs long so make sure you clear you schedule to watch it (I promise it’s definitely worth it!!)  Starkid have (at the moment) 10 full length musical, each over 2hrs long and this has happened over the space of 8 years. Their fan base is spread all across the globe and we are one community who appreciate their talents and enjoy witnessing their fantastic journey. 

I fell in love with Starkid because of my sister, she got me hooked, this was about 4-5 years ago. She told me she found the perfect video for me because it included three of my favourite things; Harry Potter, musicals and Darren Criss. I grew to love Starkid beyond the AVP trilogy, they had created amazing content in between and continued to do so after. Two of my favourite musicals they have ever created are Starship and Twisted. 

Starship is like The Little Mermaid but in space. (Not sure, but I think that’s how Starkid themselves described it). It’s just brilliant. The music is my favourite thing about the musical, it is just phenomenal!! My favourite song is Status Quo performed by Joey Richter. It has so many inspirational words. If you every feel down or done with the world – I would listen to this song. 

“I kick down the walls around, they don’t how strong I am. I’m not defined by boundaries, they could never understand I’m so much more, more than Status Quo!” 

Like this small verse speaks so much – don’t live up to stereotypes and society’s norms – be who you want to be and achieve what you believe in and what you are passionate about. You are so much more than the Status Quo. 

My other favourite musical by Starkid is Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier. Twisted is an Aladdin parody musical told, however, as the title suggests, it’s not about Aladdin but Ja’far. I would say that the main quote or tag line from this musical is “There are two sides to every story”, and this musical puts an emphasise on that. Jafar is constantly harassed by the villagers, who blame him for all of their problems despite his attempts to solve the kingdom’s socioeconomic inequality. In this musical, Jafar is kind, caring, loses his wife and child and still tries to help people. It shows how society can change their opinion of you due to your status.

Like I said previously Starkid contains three of my favourite things; Harry Potter, Musicals and Darren Criss. That’s right I said Darren Criss…you know the gay guy from Glee. Well, before he became better known as Blaine, Darren Criss went to the University of Michigan and performed as Harry Potter in Basement Arts production of A Very Potter Musical.  He was brilliant and he still is in all of his work today. A Very Potter Musical was the first Starkid product of theirs I ever saw…and I was in love. This musical was a combination of several Harry Potter books but Philosopher’s Stone, Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows in particular were significant and dominant in this parody’s storyline. To be honest, sometimes I argue that although the stories are mashed, I think that they are arguably sometimes more accurate than the films. I don’t even know. Anyway, they created another two Hp musicals which are epic and extremely long!!! Three and a half hours long each!! Put them together and they are longer than a school day in England. (Average is 6hrs).

I love Starkid and the main reason why is because they are so ordinary, in the best way possible! They all have “normal” jobs, they have their normal lives. And on the side they are able to do something that they love, perform to the people who helped get where they are today by watching videos of them as lovable characters on the internet. They are grateful for their fans and you can just see it when they meet them after their shows or just by chance. 

Hope you enjoyed this post, hopefully by the end of it you gathered that I love Starkid and all that they do, they are a group of talented human beings who bring joy to many across the world. And that you should probably watch one of their comically genius musicals. (Give them a chance, you may enjoy them).

I am a member of the Dikrats.

WiseFlower xx

Beauty and The Beast (2017)

Yesterday, I went to see Disney’s Live Action; Beauty and the Beast…

IT WAS MAGICAL!!!

Oh my goodness….Where do I even begin?

Let me start with the trailers, I was so excited to find out there was going to be a live action Beauty and the Beast as it is definitely one of my favourite Disney films of all time. Belle has always been such an inspiration to me, she was a Disney girl who read and said no to an extremely handsome man because he was ugly on the inside. Belle taught me its ok to read, its ok to say no and most importantly beauty lies within. When watching the trailers for this film, I was in pieces!! I was emotional and I was just so excited to watch this film. To see Emma Watson as Belle, singing and dancing. I was very intrigued. I have been a huge fan of Emma Watson from a young age because I grew up with her as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter franchise. I was extremely excited to find out that Emma Watson was going to be portraying Belle as I felt she is the real life Belle; an intelligent head strong woman.

Now, time for the film, I had very high expectations because being the film nerd that I am, I wanted the live action to be an exact replica to the animated film. I knew that this was possible but i still hoped and dreamed. To be honest the live action is extremely close to the animated, there are obviously a few tweaks to make it slightly their own. However, I am extremely grateful to how close they were to the original. As I hoped it was also very musically, I can imagine myself watching this film being performed live on stage because it just had quality. The film had extra songs which I assume were from the broadway version. “Days in The Sun” performed by main characters in the castle – which I thought was beautiful and full of emotion. “Evermore” – performed by The Beast and I just…UgH!!! It was everything to me, it was after the dance between Belle and Beast and he sets her free so she can save her father and it just gave me all the feels. I was already emotional (teary not full on crying) during the dance because it was just so visually beautiful and again…gave me all the feels. THEN the Beast performs Evermore…thats why I lost it and full floods of tears were falling from my eyes. What made it so beautiful to me were the lyrics and then his vocals. As the song progressed he sounded even more human, he let her go because he loved her and this showed the human and prince inside him who knows hows to love and has fallen. One point that is related and kinda of unrelated, another reason why I loved this song so much was because of the broadway feel it gave off, as well as, to me, it felt a bit Moulin Rouge-y and I really enjoyed that… I don’t know why. I loved each of these new songs that I have never heard before. Especially the Beast’s song, I was so moved by it and was in tears. I’m basically just an emotional wreck!

This version of beauty and the beast was very clever in the way they filled one big question from the original…..What does Belle do other than read??? She’s an inventor! She invented a washing machine out of a barrel and horse power (literally). So instead of wasting time washing her clothes, she can use that time to continue to read.  I thought the link between the enchanted rose and the castle was really cool and clever. Every time a petal fell from the rose, a piece of the castle crumbled. The fact that during the song “Belle” the school children were all boys reinforcing that woman are not to be educated and then you have Belle challenging that stereotype and that’s why the whole village finds her strange. Also why they go back crap crazy when she is teaching a little girl to read so they throw her CLEAN laundry on the dirty ground! Like in this scene, I don’t even know how Belle kept her cool, because if someone was to throw my CLEAN laundry onto a dirty floor because I was teaching a little girl how to read….. I would have LOST MY SHIT! I would full on shouted, been violent and everything. I would be fucking pissed. Anyway, I digress, I’m sorry, I got angry and carried away.

More awesome things about this film is character depth. Unlike the animated version, Beast and LeFou have so much more character depth and I am so happy and they did things right in this film.

Beast – we get to know more of his back story; about his parents why he is a selfish little git – side note, when he turns into the beast he is an adult not an eleven year old boy – we get know details about his mum and dad and how they influenced him to be how he is by the way he was raised. In the animated, the Beast cannot read because he forgot or something but here he is says himself that he was highly educated as a prince would have been and gives Belle the most epic eye roll after she tells him that her favourite Shakespeare novel was Romeo and Juliet. He has so much sass and that gave him more of a comical approach which I enjoyed. A sweet moment is when Belle finds him reading in a romance book in the garden after he sassed her for enjoying them but the main reason he started reading romance was because they are Belle’s favourite.

LeFou – has so much more depth and is not a bad guy!! He is just in love. As most people know LeFou is an openly gay character in the film and loves Gaston as friend and more. It isn’t shown as obviously as you would think, however, it is shown through dialogue and body language. They made LeFou have more of a character arc and he was much more than a bumbling villain sidekick. LeFou doesn’t instantly follow him, but questions him. As the film continues, he gets more uncomfortable with Gaston’s behaviour and actions. He felt bad for leaving Maurice in the woods for the wolves. In the battle between humans and objects, he even switches sides and saves Mrs Potts from being smashed into a million pieces.(Him and Gaston are in a bad place right now). LeFou sees his wrongs, makes them right and therefore gets his happy ending. He is not a bad guy. LeFou like the animated, is incredibly funny. Josh Gad is a comical genius and represents this in his character perfectly. The casting was perfection!

One final thing about the film that made me extremely happy was the costumes. They were historically correct, especially the characters with higher statuses such as the prince and the servants. Beauty and the Beast is supposed to be set in the 1800s – the french revolution – so they have a certain fashion style and they got it right, the make up, the clothes, the white fancy wigs….everything was great. The main characters costumes were brilliant also because although they were slightly different to the animated, I’m totally cool with that. For example Belle’s costume, the iconic yellow dress, she didn’t have corset making her have a realistic waist, as well as allowing her to move when dancing. The blue “peasant” dress, she wore bloomers and brown boots which are much more practical. So even though the costumes were adapted from the original the colour palettes were spot on!! I was super thrilled by this.

I’ve gone on about this film for age….I will spoil no more!!

Hope you enjoyed this post – if you got to the end, my message to you is GO SEE THIS FILM!! IT IS EVERYTHING!

Speak soon!

WiseFlower xx

Hello!!

Hi!!!

Welcome to my blog page! I have no idea what I’m doing but im mainly going to be talking about my interests on here and random topics that I may want to talk about.

The reason I’m creating this blog is, sometimes, I have random moments throughout the day where I think about a topic for hours and write all my thoughts down, whether they be in a notebook, on my phone or even on a tissue! With this blog they will all be in one place and other people can read them and share their opinions – I’m always intersted in reading other peoples opinions. They can be incredibly interesting or incredibly funny.

Basic things you will learn about me:

• I’m a huge Harry Potter fan (like I’m at the point where it’s becoming unhealthy)
• I love to sing (not professionally)
• I love disney, musicals and the tv show Once Upon a Time
• I love film and TV
• MAKE-UP : I love “playing” and experimenting with makeup

and I think thats about it!!

Enjoy this photo of Hogwarts from the Warner Bros Studio Tour. xx