REVIEW: Wraith's Forest

(the following review is based off a Reviewer Copy I received)


Wraith's Forest shows much promise. L.J. Leger has a budding grasp on her use of prose, parts of the story read beautifully and were extremely enjoyable. The story is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast Fairy Tale with a few minor changes. Jenna is a sixteen year old girl who is appointed with the job of harvesting fruit from a magical tree so the local Wizard can make an elixer that would help keep the balance of the valley. One of the fruits is bruised, with the weight of her failure on her shoulders, Jenna needs to venture into the forest to find a magical blade from the mysterious and dangerous Wraith.

The book's only real flaw is the execution of the story. The fruit and the elixir portion of the story feels a little bit forced. Since this idea feels slightly far-fetched it is hard to feel any connection to Jenna or the people in her village. You find yourself asking: why is the elixir important? The character of the Wizard is also a little bit sketchy bouncing between a young man and a stereotypical mustache twirling denizen.

Jenna's interaction with the Wraith is the strongest portion of the story, but it feels a little bit rushed. I expect this is just because of the length of the story (it is a novella). There is much room for more interactions between Jenna and the Wraith, and possibly more information on his backstory. He is by far the most fascinating character in the story. The ending is a little bit cliche, but cute none the less. 

All in all I did enjoy this story, it just needs a little bit of work. If the Author even chose to, this story could end up being fleshed out into an entire novel.

I look forward to reading more of Leger's work.

FILM Review: Disney's Beauty and the Beast

So today I went out to the theatres and took part in what many people label a cash grab on Disney's part. Maybe that's exactly what it was, but seeing it on the big screen was totally worth it. When Beauty and the Beast came out in 1991, I was way too young to go to the theatre and sit still through an entire movie (or so my parents decided) so when I was first introduced to the movie, it was at home on my TV Screen. I'm not exactly sure what sparked the re-release of the Disney movies back into theatres, but I'm assuming the success of The Lion King had a major effect.

Okay, so I kind of just lied there. Walt Disney, had originally wanted to re-release his films in theatres every couple of years, but this was before the beauty of home video. Sadly, Disney's plan was taken and twisted and what we have now is pure evil in the form of the Disney Vault (man I really want Aladdin on DVD).

So Beauty and the Beast. If you've been living under a rock since 1991, Beauty and the Beast is the story of a total douche-bag of a prince who has a spell cast on him to turn him into a Beast (and makes him forget his real name) and everyone in the castle is turned into talking household objects and supplies. There is hope though, if the Beast can fall in love and be loved in return, then the spell can be broken. But he only has up until his 21 birthday. This is about when Belle walks in. She's the pretty odd ball in her small French Town and wins over the audience with her "I want more" song. Her biggest problem is that she is being pursued by the "traditional hero" Gaston. She has no interest in him, at all but since she's pretty and proving to be a challenge Gaston gets his creeper on and tries to marry her. Also he abuses a book.

Belle's father takes a wrong turn and ends up at the Beast's Castle and becomes his prisoner, Belle a good daughter runs off to rescue him. When the Beast confronts her, she trades her freedom for her Father's, leaving her stuck in the castle. With Belle stuck in the castle, the movie is now set up for the usual Disney romance... you know what I'm talking about.

But wait, the Beast is a total douche. Did you forget that? The thing about Beauty and the Beast that always amazed me was that Belle doesn't actually fall madly in love with the Beast right away and give into the Stockholm Syndrome story that's waiting to happen. The Beast continues to be a jerk to Belle for a while, and rewatching it now I could believe that there was no hope for the flowers of love to blossom between them. But we all know in the end it does. The Beast saves her, and she in turn cleans his wound. The two of them begin to bond and get to know each other like normal people. Which is refreshing.

Don't get me wrong, I love this movie. I love the story (remember, hopeless romantic), I love the animation, the songs, the side characters, I love to hate Gaston. The movie is beautiful. It did lose some of its majesty in 3D though. This was a hand-drawn 2D movie (mostly) so by adapting it for 3D the movie looked flat. It was like watching paper cut outs play infront of you. There were some scenes were the 3D really did work. When Belle's Father first arrives at the castle, the castle is just made to seem that much lager by the 3D Animation, the Gargoyles look pretty damn creepy. The dance sequence with the title song was gorgeous in 3D and so was the Beast's transformation into the Prince.

The Beast as ???????? The Prince

Speaking of which, last term in one of my courses we were talking about the transformation of the Beast into a Human. When the Beast became a human, he just loses something. He's not as cool as he's been when he was a monster. I'm interested in other people's opinions on that. As a kid, I think I fell into the category where I liked the Beast more than I liked the Prince. He was cooler, he could protect Belle, he lived in a creepy castle and he looked hilarious in that blue suit that he had to squeeze himself into. When it comes to marketing the Beauty and the Beast, you don't really see the Prince. There are no posters of Belle with the Beast Prince-afied. I expect that has to do with marketing. But the bottom line is. When you watch Beauty and the Beast, you're there to see The Beast not a Prince, you're there to watch that giant water-buffalo of a creature. Just saying.

So all in all. I loved finally getting to see the movie on the large screen. I loved hearing the questions the little kids asked their parents as they watched the movie (probably) for the first time. If you love the movie, I highly recommend going to see it. Remember, you get to see the Tangled short too.