Book Review: The Accidental Zombie by Samantha Lienhard

Posted on July 29, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

I recently picked up The Accidental Zombie (Horror Comedy 97 pages) by Samantha Lienhard because it seemed interesting and amusing.

“Nathan Harris has always lived a quiet, uneventful life. Every morning, he leaves his isolated house on the edge of town to ride the cable car up to the top of the snow-covered mountain, where the Rey Research Facility waits. There, he works all day with his best friend and fellow scientist, George Davidson, until it is time to go home for the night. Science is his passion, and his world is one of peace and stability. Until now. When their latest assignment goes horribly right, Nathan and George find themselves in possession of a terrifying secret – a zombie has escaped their lab to run loose in the facility. Worse still, they quickly become convinced that if anyone were to find out about it, the two of them would be forever stigmatized as mad scientists. After all, no one accidentally creates a zombie. With only their wits, the lab’s resources, and George’s arsenal of video game knowledge at their disposal, the two set out to stop the zombie before it is too late.”

The addition of the amnesia portion of the zombie infection added a new twist to a common story, which I thought was very interesting. Can you imagine being bit by a zombie and then not remembering? Because that makes things even more complicated. There’s so much in the modern entertainment world these days about zombies and the zombie apocalypse that most people would immediately seek some sort of treatment if they found themselves bitten by a person, especially one that portrayed zombie-like behavior. I thought the subtle references to the modern zombie culture were amusing and I was highly entertained by how Nathan and George realized how ridiculously they would be viewed by anyone who saw what they were doing.

I thought this story was a lot of fun and also a pretty accurate representation of how the zombie apocalypse might actually start, which is to say, not via some evil, nefarious plot by a large, corporate organization but rather accidentally.

The two scientists, Nathan and George, are definitely bumbling scientists and it amused me greatly to see Nathan’s interactions with his peers and the other people in this story, as well as George’s opposite views on dealing with social situations. Right from the beginning, Nathan is set up as being socially awkward and not particularly good at dealing with people and then he’s thrown into a situation where he has to deal with people in order to save them from becoming a zombie. I think Nathan did a great job throughout his character arch of showing that he really could learn how to interact and care about people. Maybe I’m not saying that very well because Nathan always cared about people, he just got better at demonstrating his care for the people around him. Take his interactions with Mike, the gentleman who operates the cable car, for instance. In the beginning of the story, Mike attempts to interact with Nathan and Nathan doesn’t know how to respond. By the end of the story, Nathan realizes that he needs to do better to show Mike how appreciative he is for Mike’s presence in his life.

There was an element of mystery with this story, as well, because Stacy was bitten, but didn’t demonstrate the same characteristics as the others who were bitten. This was also interesting because it’s not clear how or why the zombie was actually biting people. Stacy’s bite was on her arm under her coat and that’s such an interesting place for a zombie to bite that I was sometimes thinking that maybe Stacy wasn’t bitten by the zombie and that there might have been other things going on. She was bitten, then treated the wound, then covered it up. I thought this part of the story was nicely done.

Overall, I would probably rate this as a three on my rating scale. It’s a good, quick read with fun characters and a lot of amusement.

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Movie Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Posted on July 29, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

I actually went and saw Avengers: Age of Ultron a couple of weeks ago and I’ve debated about doing a movie review on it, since I am still 50/50 about how I feel about it. I hadn’t gone to see the movie earlier because I knew there was a romantic subplot that involved Black Widow and it made me annoyed, frustrated, and angry.

Here’s why.

If you don’t already know, I’m asexual. Since that is a huge part of my identity and how I see the world, I can’t adequately express how frustrating it is to always have romantic storylines and subplots shoved in my face. There doesn’t seem to be any positive and realistic representation of asexuality in the modern entertainment industry, and this applies to movies as well as books. The trend these days seems to be that you can’t save the world or have a happy life unless you are involved in some sort of romantic relationship and I believe that this is contributing to the unrealistic expectations people have concerning relationships and happiness.

Everything with Black Widow in this movie frustrated me. Just because she’s female, she automatically has to have some sort of special or romantic relationship and is seen as the potential love interest for just about any of the male members of the team. And then she is being the one to give the Hulk a “lullaby” and turn him from angry back to human? But then it gets even better when she gets all teary about not being able to have kids? Really? So we get the flashback of Black Widow’s time in the Red Room and Hawkeye and Black Widow are the only two members of the team who don’t have their own origin movies. And I would put money down that if they ever do a Black Widow movie, either they’ll do it so badly that it will flop or they’ll include some sort of romantic subplot.

Why can’t people just be focused on saving their world like in Pacific Rim and Mad Max: Fury Road? Why does there always have to be some sort of romantic element?

Anyway. That’s my rant about movies and romance.

The other thing that really discouraged me about this movie was the treatment of the Maximoffs. I spent a good portion of my youth reading comic books, with a special focus on Marvel Comics and the X-Men universe. Quicksilver and the Scarlett Witch are the children of Magneto and originally start out as members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Their history is so much more powerful than being genetically modified by Hydra. I mean, Scarlett Witch completely rewrote the entire Marvel Universe all by herself in the comic books, but that level of potential isn’t even hinted at in this movie. And Quicksilver is faster than bullets so what happened to him doesn’t really make sense. He also didn’t burn through his shoes or have that sense of dark purpose like he did in the early part of the comic books.

Now, to be fair, I did laugh multiple times throughout the movie. There were a lot of really amusing lines and some entertaining sequences. I did find the movie amusing. The movie had a lot of action and random violence and that was good. I liked what they did with Vision and how they were actually true to that character. Plus, he looked cool.

Overall, I think this movie is only going to be a mid-grade two on my rating scale. It’s not a movie that I have any desire to watch repeatedly and I’m highly unlikely to pay full price for it and will wait until it comes out on video at a severely discounted price before I will even remotely consider purchasing it.

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Always Thankful :-)

Posted on July 26, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

I am absolutely thankful for each and every person in my life. Whether we’ve barely met in person, we sometimes hang out at cons, we never talk at all, we stalk each other on facebook or other social media, we went to school together sometime in our past, we talk every day, we are just random coworkers who see each other occasionally, we visit each other and have amazing adventures, or if we hang out and read or watch movies, I am thankful for you. Whatever your role in my life, you matter to me and I think of you throughout my days. You may not think you matter or that I don’t notice you or I don’t care, but I promise you that I do. Not only do I care, but I am thankful for you and whatever your role in my life is. I can not tell you enough or ever adequately express to you how thankful I am for you and how much you mean to me. You are strong and courageous, smart and intelligent, funny and entertaining, awesome and amazing, kind and generous, caring and loving, fantastic and wonderful, talented and dedicated, beautiful and gorgeous, handsome and dashing, sexy and alluring, and spectacular in every way. Thank you for being a part of my life. Thank you for being you.

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Book Review: Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Posted on July 19, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

I actually finished Dreams of Gods and Monsters (YA Fantasy 613 pages) by Laini Taylor on Thursday of last week but have only had the chance to sit down and write the review tonight.

“What power can bruise the sky? The New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion as – from the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond – humans, chimaera, and seraphim strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.”

This was the third book in the trilogy with Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight. The first book was assigned reading for my Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and the second book was so good that I was eagerly anticipating reading the third book.

I think it’s safe to say that Zuzana is easily my favorite character in this entire series. She is loyal to her friends, especially to Karou, and she accomplishes huge tasks with the sole purpose of taking care of her friend. Loyalty and dedication are big things for me, and that’s probably why I reacted so positively to Zuzana as a character. She is ridiculous and amusing and works to learn other cultures in order to bridge the gaps between the chimaera and the seraphim. She appreciates the wonder and the amazement of Karou’s world and she has very human thoughts, such as her desire for warmth and chocolate and cleanliness. She is smart and works hard and she doesn’t take the easy way out when it’s presented. Also, I can’t stress enough how hilarious Zuzana is and how much I appreciate her sense of humor. Books that can make me laugh are always a good thing 🙂

I’m probably going to give away some spoilers from the book and the series as a whole now, so if you haven’t read the books and you’d like to be surprised by what happens, you should probably stop reading here.

I was a bit confused for a while as to what role Eliza could possibly have throughout this book, since introducing a brand new, unknown character in the last book in a series seemed a little bit odd to me. As the story progressed, I got the sense that she was going to be some sort of link to the seraphim, but I really couldn’t figure out how that was going to work. I liked Eliza’s interactions with Morgan because he was such a well-written, slimy character. It was actually quite easy to dislike Morgan a great deal. He was an example of so many people I’ve met throughout my life. I could tell that he was slimy and how terrible things were going to be for Eliza with Morgan having any sort of power in her world.

Zuzana and Mik’s wish in order to help Eliza was actually really brilliant. I was truly impressed with how careful and thoughtful they were with their wording in order to use their wish for the most benefit. I’m actually a solid fan of Zuzana and Mik in general. They are a great couple and I like how they are two very average humans who are doing extraordinary things with very simple tools. Like Mik taming a stormhunter with his violin. And Zuzana taking charge of Eliza, even when she was just being a very unsettled woman who was babbling incoherently. They are both such great people.

While I do understand why it was important to show that the new chimera and seraphim worlds would be fully intermingled by having Liraz and Ziri partner like Karou and Akiva, I felt a little bit cheated that the one character I was hoping would turn out to be asexual fell into another romantic relationship. It seemed to me that everyone in this story had to be partnered off and that only by having a partnered relationship could any of them be chosen to help save the world. But I’m pretty used to things like this happening all throughout my entertainment venues, so while I was disappointed in Liraz developing a love interest, it was clearly hinted at throughout the last parts of the second novel and definitely at multiple points throughout this novel.

I think one of the last things I’ll say about this book is that it was really long. I didn’t read as quickly through this novel as I did through the second novel, nor did I enjoy this one nearly as much as I enjoyed Days of Blood and Starlight. It’s still an interesting read because of the concepts of good and evil and how the human world is biased to see evil as good if it comes in a specific package, but this book just didn’t grab me as much as the second one did.

Overall, I think I would rate this book as a high two or a low three on my rating scale. I’m glad that I read it and I’m certain that I will reference this book again, but I don’t know how much I’ll actually reread this book from the series.

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Book Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Posted on July 12, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

When I recently purchased Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I also picked up the second book in the series, Days of Blood and Starlight (YA Fantasy 513 pages) by Laini Taylor because of the description on the back of the book:

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war. This is not that world.”

This sounded like a book that I would enjoy greatly, that would be filled with epic battles and a world where love doesn’t conquer everything, so I purchased it with the hopes of reading something that would be at least mostly realistic in showing that the world is not filled with sunshine and happiness. Changing the world, no matter what world you’re trying to change, takes hard work, sacrifice, and isn’t just magically fixed overnight because two people love each other.

Needless to say, this book was right up my alley 🙂

I’m kicking myself in the shins a little bit because my book review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone somehow didn’t include how absolutely fantastic it was to read a book that had an amazing female friendship in it. The friendship between Zuzana and Karou in both books is an accurate portrayal of true friendship and it was one of the elements of both books that really added depth and amusement for me. The friendship was really brought out in Days of Blood and Starlight, though. In the early parts of the book, Zuzana sends some pretty hilarious emails to Karou, including the one on page 23 where Zuzana ends her email by saying, “Also: Write back to signify your continuing aliveness or I will give you the hurts.” This amused me greatly because it is one of the many times throughout both of these novels where their friendship is shown as something true and not superficial. Their friendship is fun and light-hearted and also serious and “I will risk everything to save you.” Zuzana figures out that Karou probably isn’t doing very well and so she risks everything to find Karou and do whatever it takes to help her. This is exactly the kind of friendship that is the most appealing to me. Especially when Karou demonstrates the resurrection process for the first time to Zuzana and Mik and Zuzana shows Karou the wonder, the beauty, and the art in Karou’s work. It’s at that time when Karou starts to look at the way her life is going in a different light, and also when she starts to take more action regarding what she actually wants in life. Zuzana’s return to Karou’s living area gives Karou actual life again and Karou stops being a victim and starts taking charge of her surroundings.

I think Zuzana has easily become my favorite character in this book. In a lot of ways, I think that’s because of where I’m at in my own life. She is doggedly loyal to her friends, specially to Karou. Zuzana works to find Karou and sacrifices anything and everything for her friend. I also do this. I will sacrifice everything for my friends. I also have the same highly entertaining sense of amusement as Zuzana. She is excited about things that are amazing. She works to make friends in an environment that should be hostile to her, but she makes the best out of the situation anyway. She’s adventurous and caring, dedicated and amusing. She’s a fantastic friend, and a great character in these novels.

One of the other things that really struck me as a similarity between my life and the story in this book involved Karou’s relationship with Akiva. I know and understand what it feels like to have such a powerful connection to someone and for that connection to be with someone you don’t exactly get along with at the current time. A short amount of time can be filled with joy, happiness, and dreams, but due to circumstances beyond your control, the person to whom you are connected sees you as the villain and the enemy. No matter how many times you attempt to make amends or explain what happened, you remain on opposite sides. You believe the person who represents the other part of that connection sees you only as a villain and you yourself see their actions out of context. The truth is that you are both doing the best you can to make the best out of really terrible situations and that if you just gave each other a chance to participate in open and honest communication, things would get better. This is exactly the story of Karou and Akiva, and this is also exactly my story right now as well. When a connection that powerful exists, ignoring it tends to not go very well for either party involved.

One other thing that really struck me was that I think one of the characters in the story, Liraz, is asexual. This makes me absurdly happy. On page 285, she describes her view on intimate relationships: “She had said she didn’t feel fear, but it was a lie; this was her fear: being left alone. Because of one thing she was certain, and it was that she could never love, not like that. Trust a stranger with her flesh? The closeness, the quiet. She couldn’t imagine it. Breathing someone else’s breath as they breathed yours, touching someone, opening for them? The vulnerability of it made her flush.” Liraz is also a warrior and her whole focus is on protecting her brothers, Akiva and Hazael, and the idea of sexual relations does not appeal to her. She’s a fantastic warrior and still maintains close relations with Akiva and Hazael, which shows she’s dedicated to what she does and also that she’s not an inhuman robot like people seem to think asexuals are.

I continue to be intrigued by the view of the angels versus demons aspect of this story. When shown both sides of the conflict, Karou and Akiva have both realized that neither side is actually fighting to make the world a better place. Instead, they are killing each other and innocent civilians for the sake of blood, violence, and death and not to make the world a better place. The angels aren’t the good guys any more than the chimeras are the bad guys. In both cultures, it’s actually the leaders of those cultures who are blood-thirsty tyrants who stopped being the saviors of their people and instead became the exterminates of not just their opponents, but also their own families. Thiago and Jael are doing more damage to their own populaces than the opponent. This novel shows fairly clearly the cost of war and that war just for war’s sake will only result in the death of everything, which is no life at all.

Overall, I would say this book is probably a four on my rating scale. I’m glad I own it, it was a highly addictive story for me with fantastic characters, and I am likely to read it again in the future.

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Movie Review: Jurassic World

Posted on July 5, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

I went and saw Jurassic World yesterday and it was exactly what I was expecting and wanting it to be.

The movie seems to start out exactly where Jurassic Park left off, which I think did a lot of good things for the movie. I honestly wasn’t too impressed with the two Jurassic Park sequels and I don’t even remember them very well, though I do own all three movies. But when I say that the movie started out exactly where the first movie left off, I mean that this movie takes place about twenty years after the incidents with Jurassic Park and now the park has become an actual theme park with rides, attractions, and the desire to create something so that ticket sales will increase.

As the movie progresses, we got little snippets of parts from the original movie, such as the banner and the original welcome center. Some of the references to the original movie might have been lost on me, since it’s been so long since I’ve seen any of them. I think some of the characters were also lost on me. But I still enjoyed the fact that they included so many tidbits for people who are fans of movies where dinosaurs eat man and woman inherits the earth 🙂

I have to admit that things in my personal life have been a little less-than-ideal lately and I was only too happy to spend two hours watching a movie where dinosaurs go tromping around eating a bunch of people. There were so many times when I laughed at either the ridiculousness of what the characters thought was a good idea or how the dinosaurs dealt with some of the remarkably unintelligent people throughout the movie. If the movie had been interactive in any way, I probably would have asked the characters several times why they thought what they were doing was any sort of a good idea. But it amused me, and that was definitely the point of the movie.

Overall, I would rate this movie as a high three on my rating scale. I may or may not buy it when it comes out, but it was certainly entertaining to watch 🙂

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Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Posted on July 5, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

The common reading for my Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University for the June 2015 Residency was Daughter of Smoke and Bone (YA Fantasy 418 pages) by Laini Taylor.

“Who is the daughter of smoke and bone? From master storyteller and National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor comes a sweeping and gorgeously written modern fantasy about a forbidden love, an ancient and epic battle, and hope for a world remade.”

The very first thing I have to say about this book is that the world-building is absolutely fantastic. This book definitely challenges people’s conceptions of good and evil and the fight that is often portrayed between groups described as monsters and angels. Most of the world-building, for me, came from Karou’s sketchbook, which I think is one of my favorite parts about the entire book. Along with the fact that Karou is an artist living in Prague. In chapter two, Zuzana looks through Karou’s sketchbook and that’s where Issa, Twiga, Yasri, and Brimstone are first described. I am absolutely fascinated by Karou’s sketchbook and the vivid imagery used with Prague as the main part of the story.

The world-building continues as Karou hints at her tattoos and her blue-growing hair. Karou shows magic in the world she knows by wishing tiny itches on Kazimir and this bit of magic continues throughout the story, especially when Karou travels through the door into the world where Issa, Twiga, Yasri, and Brimstone reside.

One of the things that was discussed during the classroom portion of this reading was how this book fits into the Young Adult genre. We discussed how the main character, Karou, was dealing with a variety of thoughts and concerns that are usually more associated with teenagers and younger personnel. Some of these concerns involved the search for identity, dealing with romance and romantic tendencies, and a need for independent adventures away from parental figures.

As soon as the book switched over to more of a romance and less of an adventure story, I lost interest. I’m not a fan of romance stories, but I’m not opposed to them, either. I think the reason the romantic element in this book annoyed me so much was because I was getting ready to believe that Karou was actually the daughter of Akiva and Madrigal. So I was taken rather off-guard when Karou and Akiva started being more romantically inclined.

I’m not really going to go into more detail about the book because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read it. I will say that it was one of the few books I’ve read lately that intrigued me enough for me to enjoy the book and I would have finished it even if it wasn’t a homework assignment.

Overall, it would rate it as a solid three on my rating scale. While I’m not entirely thrilled with the romantic element, I do understand why it’s there. But the world-building and the concepts of good and evil are so well done in this book that I am definitely glad I own it.

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Theater Review: Mary Poppins

Posted on June 13, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

Last night, I had the privilege of watching the live musical Mary Poppins at the Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts.

I think this was one of my favorite shows so far. There’s probably a lot of reasons why I enjoyed this show so much, but I think that my absolute favorite part of the entire musical last night was the costumes. I think it says a lot about the amount of time and artistic talent that continues to go into the costuming for the musicals I see down at Thalian Hall because the costumes have been pretty spectacular for every show I’ve seen.

Here’s what I mean.

The stage is set up with several chimney walls going across the entire stage. When you enter the hall and find your seat, the orchestra is hidden underneath the stage, so really, the first indication as to what kind of show you’re likely to get is once the house lights dim and the stage lights focus on the characters. At that point, the music comes on and the tone for the production is set. So when the first character on stage is a chimney sweep named Burt, who is authentically dressed in slacks, a nice shirt with a vest, and a cabby hat, you know that every care has been taken with the production of this show.

The scenery in this show was also fantastic. One of the early scenes had a backdrop that covered the whole stage and was a wonderful artwork of leaves and painted trees. The amount of time and effort put into the sets was astonishing. The main set, with the inside of the house on Cherry Lane, was marvelous. Actual stairs went up the back portion of the stage and the characters would go upstairs to the children’s room and actually go off stage that way.

The costumes were fabulously done. I can’t say that enough. The scene with Mary Poppins, Michael, Jane, and Burt in the park was pretty spectacular. The characters walk on scene with several large, brick walls and a statue in the park. I honestly thought the statue was a real statue until Cornelius came to life. And then there were a ton of dancing statues and I was amazed because of all the time and effort the coordination of all those costumes must have taken. Making that many people into realistic-looking statues must have been a time-consuming project. Plus, finding that much silver and gray fabric and the face paint? It was fabulous. Of course, I felt fairly badly for the Poseidon statue at the end of the production because it was probably no easy task holding that trident out and absolutely still.

The chimney sweep scene was probably my favorite out of all of the dance numbers, and that’s mostly because of how intricate and energetic that scene was. I do have personal bias here, though, because the “Chimney Sweep” song has always been my favorite from Mary Poppins. I really liked the classic, chimney sweep costumes and the tap shoes, though.

Another great part about the costumes happened during the scene about conversations. I have never seen so many brightly-colored, fantastic suits before. There were bright blue suits and dresses, orange suits and dresses, yellow suits and dresses and so many others. The artists on stage danced and sang with such energy that it kind of made me envious of them and I wished that I could be on stage with them. They really brought out the fun in all of the songs and I found myself humming and dancing a bit in my seat during all of their songs.

Speaking of dancing, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” was a fantastic song. The music was fantastic and addictive throughout the entire presentation and the orchestra did a great job with all the songs. The amount of choreography combined with the bright and beautiful costumes with the superbly done music really showed off the best parts of live musicals, in my opinion.

It’s hard to choose a favorite part of this musical because so much of it was fantastic. The artists on stage did a fantastic job with their characters and character development. I could see so much of the story based on what the characters conveyed with their body language. Everyone was authentic and clear with all of their singing and speaking roles. Everyone on stage did such a fabulous job that it was easy to suspend reality and get caught up in the story.

I think that overall, this play will rank a four on my rating scale. I would happily go see it again and highly recommend it for anyone who wants to spend a nice night out at a classic theater.

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Future Dreams

Posted on May 30, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

adventure_buddy2

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Movie Review: Home

Posted on May 3, 2015 by C.A. Jacobs

So it was actually on Thursday evening that I went and saw Home in the theater. With the exception of a fantastic woman and her two kids, I had the theater entirely to myself. The other woman was pretty fantastic and we chatted about our jobs and such before the movie started and her two kids were both quite well-behaved, and highly entertaining.

Home is a movie about a group of aliens called Boov who are generally a cowardly race, constantly on the run from the Gorg, another alien race who have destroyed a number of the planets the Boov once occupied. One of the Boov, Oh, doesn’t really fit in very well with his people and he is notorious amongst his people for making mistakes. Oh eventually encounters a human girl, Tip, who avoided the Boov relocation program and is waiting for her mom to return. Tip is clever, smart, fun, sassy, and has fantastic taste in music. She also takes care of her cat, Pig.

I was a little confused by the beginning of this movie, as it didn’t appear as though the people of Earth put up any sort of fight at all, but I’m pretty sure that was just the adult in me who refuses to accept that we wouldn’t fight back, no matter how potentially squishy and non-hazardous the invading aliens appeared, or how “comfortable” our required living areas were. So it took me a little bit of extra work for me to suspend my views on the real, gritty world in which I live in order to appreciate the non-violent intent of this movie.

As Tip and Oh meet, they don’t start out liking each other. There is a lot of distrust and a lot of disgust. They decide to work together because they have common goals and neither wants to be captured by the rest of the Boov. Tip is afraid that if she loses her freedom of movement that she’ll never find her mom and Oh is positive that the Boov will extinguish him if they catch him. Tip is a fantastic representation of the best of humanity. She works with Oh, even after he almost ditches her. She waits for him when she could have left. She is loyal and fulfills her promises, even when Oh doesn’t appear to want to always keep his promises. She takes care of Pig and she is responsible with her mom’s car, as well as thoughtful in grabbing her mom’s present. She teaches Oh about being human, including driving and dancing. She’s smart and did well in classes like math and science, which should always be encouraged.

Oh wants to have friends. He wants to be social with other Boov. He decorates his new home and invites all his neighbors. He desperately craves a sense of community that he doesn’t have. He makes mistakes and is curious, which are traits the Boov do not encourage. The Boov, as a whole, seem to have a huge amount of anxiety and fear in their lives. I’ve struggled a bit with anxiety myself in the past year and the small amount of exposure I’ve endured with anxiety is amazingly large amounts of no fun. So the fact that the entire race is anxiety-ridden is something to think about, especially since they would have been dealing with that same anxiety and lack of community for their entire lives.

Naturally, Tip and Oh learn a lot from each other and eventually become friends. Oh learns to trust Tip and follow her towards danger instead of running and hiding from his problems or things he is terrified of. Both Oh and Tip use their uniqueness to work together to save Earth from the invasion of the Gorg. It’s a heartwarming story about friendship, family, and how you can do amazing things if you find someone who is also not quite good at fitting in like you.

So I guess the underlying moral of this story is that if you find someone who is weird like you and you become friends, work to keep them in your lives because without them, your life will be lonely and not nearly as fulfilling as it would be if you had someone to hang out with and spend time with. If someone excepts you as you are but still wants to help you learn and grow, that person and that friendship is golden and worth more than anything else you can imagine. Also, if you have the strength to face your fears, your life will likely get a lot better. But if you don’t have the strength on your own, find people willing to stand with you or for you and be a friend to them.

Overall, I’d say this movie is a high three or a low four on my rating scale. I will happily buy it when it comes out and probably watch it repeatedly. I think the only reason I have for not giving it a solid four is because the real world isn’t like this. In the real world, when you find someone who is an amazing friend, they’ll eventually ditch and you’ll be on your own again. Everyone is temporary and it sucks. But that’s why we have movies and entertainment venues such as this – to live in an imaginary world, if only for a few hours – where friendship matters and the people you care about will be willing to fight for you and care about you, too.

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