The Lion King in 3D

Ratatouille - Anyone Can Cook

Ratatouille is a beautiful story about Remy, a rat with an extraordinary passion for food. He delights in mixing flavours and proudly displays his refined palate to his family. And yet, for all his connoisseurship, Remy is still a rat - and occasionally does very ratty things. 

Sadly, during a food hunt in an old lady's house, he and his entire family are shot at and forced to flee. They run amok, climb over the roof, escape through the sewers, and use several bits of rubbish as makeshift rescue boats to float away. In the process, Remy parted ways with his father and all his friends. Alone and nowhere to go, he found comfort in a book he stole from the old lady's house - Gusteau's recipe book that he read with passion. He certainly does not find it hard to memorise everything he reads.

Coincidence - or twist of fate - while roaming, he discovers he's in Paris and notices Gusteau's. Gusteau's is a renowned establishment serving exclusive dishes created by the late chef Gusteau. The restaurant is run by his sous-chef, Skinner, who operates it for profit by marketing frozen food.

Then comes Alfredo Linguini. Linguini's mother has died, but before her death, she wrote a letter and asked her son to deliver it to Chef Skinner. Linguini is hired as a garbage boy at Gusteau's restaurant. Later, when Skinner opens the letter, he discovers that Linguini is, in fact, Gusteau's son, but he keeps the news to himself. 

Linguini knows nothing about cooking, but accidentally knocks over a pot of soup and, in a panic to fix it, adds various ingredients. He is helped by Remy, and to the staff's surprise, the customers enjoy the delicious soup and ask for more. 

Both Linguini and Remy have lost their parents, and from that moment on, they form a bond. Remy finds an opportunity to share his savoir faire with Linguini, and they work together.

There are many lessons to learn from the story

Life happens: 

One is a garbage boy, unaware that Chef Gusteau is his father and that he carries a legacy. The other is a talented rat, passionate about cooking, yet despised by society. Those who come from a lower class are often looked down upon, treated as less than nothing, and assumed to have no future. Yet the most talented individuals do not always come from high society; they can be anyone. As Gusteau famously said, "Anyone Can Cook," echoing Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me."

Talent is innate and is not defined by society or social class. Linguini's father was a great chef, yet Linguini himself does not know how to cook. Ironically, the one who comes from a lower background, Remy, whom society despises and who learned his craft from Gusteau's recipe book, becomes his mentor. 

This is where the story moves beyond food and enters the heart of human experience. 

Ratatouille portrays real-life situations. We judge others by their looks, and we categorise them as insignificant because of their background. We fail to recognise their talent and often do not want to know them. When talent is finally revealed, like in the case of Remy, who helped Linguini prepare a Ratatouille that transports the stern, cold, and feared food critic Anton Ego back to his childhood, the restaurant staff walks out in disapproval. Remy's talent challenges them all. 

 This scene brings to mind another of my favourite Bible verses:

"...not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise: God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him." (1 Corinthians 1:28 to 29)

Indeed, many of us are looked down upon and reduced to the level of a rodent like Remy, but in God's eyes, we are precious. Even Anton Ego, who once dismissed Gusteau's motto, "Anyone Can cook," revises his views after tasting Remy's humble ratatouille and admits, "Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere."

If Ratatouille speaks to your heart, I'd recommend watching it if you haven't already. And if you have seen it before, watching it again may shed new light on its message. 

How To Train Your Dragon

At first glance, How to Train Your Dragon appears to be a simple animated adventure about Vikings and dragons. But beneath its humour and breathtaking visuals lies a story that echoes an ancient and timeless theme: how God - or providence, if you prefer often chooses what the world considers "lowly, despised, and insignificant to confound the wise and the powerful, demonstrating His power, revealing His strength through weakness and preventing human boasting, so that all glory goes to Him." (1 Corinthians 1:28) 

Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), the son of the village chief Stoick, is not your typical Viking hero. In a culture that celebrates brute strength and dragon slaying, he is small, clumsy, and more inclined to invent than to fight. Like the young shepherd David standing before Goliath, Hiccup appears unqualified by his society’s standards. Yet, from the very beginning, the film quietly suggests that leadership is not always forged through physical power, but through wisdom, courage, and vision.

Eager to prove himself - and to earn the respect of his peers, especially Astrid (America Ferrera), a brave and determined girl of his age - Hiccups builds mechanical contraptions in an attempt to defeat the most feared dragon of all: the elusive Night Fury. During one of his experiments, he succeeds in trapping one. This should have been his moment of triumph. But instead of killing teh dragon, Hiccup hesitates.

Curiosity overcomes fear, and compassion interrupts violence. He frees the wounded creature, later naming him Toothless. This decision becomes the turning point of the entire story. What was meant to be an act of conquest becomes the beginning of an unexpected friendship. Their connection highlights the deep bond between humans and animals, present since their creation in the Garden of Eden. While dragons (the old serpent) often symbolise evil in the Bible, setting the spiritual meaning aside for a moment, the story celebrates the remarkable friendship that can exist between man and beast.

As Hiccup cares for Toothless, he discovers that the dragon is unable to fly due to a damaged tail. Using his ingenuity, Hiccup designs a prosthetic fin that allows Toothless to soar once more. Together, they rise into the sky, sharing breathtaking flights above clouds and oceans. These moments are more than thrilling spectacles- they symbolise freedom, trust, and the healing power of kindness. 

 Their bond deepens, and eventually Astrid discovers the secret. Instead of exposing Hiccup, she joins them, sharing in the flight of joy and uncovering a truth far greater than any Viking legend: dragons are not evil by nature. They are driven to attack villages because they themselves are enslaved - forced to serve a colossal dragon that rules through fear. This scene subtly echoes the Garden of Eden, when the serpent, once upright, became the servant of the devil and was cursed to crawl on its belly and eat dust (Genesis 3:14). Just as the dragons here are manipulated into wrongdoing, the serpent was compelled to carry out evil, bearing the consequences of its bondage. 

This revelation reframes everything. The real enemy here is not the dragons but the cycle of fear, domination and misunderstanding that binds both sides. In real life, the same principle applies: often our greatest struggles are not with our fellow humans, but with the spiritual evil forces that influence our physical world, as the Bible reminds us: 

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12) 

Hiccup does not defeat Toothless through violence; he befriends him, ending the cycle of enmity. Likewise, Scripture calls us to put on the whole armour of God - truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and the word of God (Ephesians 6:13-17) - so that we can face challenges wisely and justly. When people hurt us, fighting back often only deepens the wounds. Forgiveness, understanding, and moral courage are far more potent weapons, as Hiccup demonstrates with his compassion and patience. 

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Inspired by Hiccup’s journey and the lessons it teaches? Experience the whole adventure yourself—How to Train Your Dragon is available on Amazon.

MY FAVOURITE CARTOON OF THE 80’s- THE SMURFS

Smurfs, the little blue scientific creatures are back to life suddenly.



The smurfs are back to life. It’s like I’m travelling back to my childhood. They were my favourite cartoon of the 80s and I’m still in love with those little blue creatures who made my days happy after a turf day at school.


THE SMURFS- A BRIEF STORY


The Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs in French), come from the imagination of the Belgian cartoonist Peyo from his real name Pierre Culliford and live in the wood.”Culliford’s initial comic first appeared in the Belgian magazine Spirou, and several decades later was adapted into an English language children’s television series by Hanna-Barbera Productions, titled The Smurfs.” According to legend, it is said that while Peyo was having lunch with colleagues, he forgot the word salt and referred to it in french as Schtroumpf. “Pass me the Schtroumpf” he said instead of: “Pass me the salt”. Later the word was translated into English as Smurf.


THE SMURFS WORLD

 The Smurfs live in community in the village of the Cursed Land-”Le Pays Maudit” in French through dense forest and travel long distances. They dwell in mushroom-likes houses with slight difference in size and shapes; tailor made according to taste mostly located in desolate and rocky land with just a few trees. Some are located in the middle of a deep forest with grass, a river and vegetation. Humans such as Gargamel are shown to live nearby, though it is almost impossible for an outsider to find the smurf village except when led by a smurf. Even though there world is called the Cursed Land life as shown on the picture, looks very colourful and the inhabitants are happy doing their daily tasks.

THE ECONOMY

In Curse Land, money is not printed so there is no headache, no hassle, no stressno loan repayment, no competition instead they rely on their generosity and “Savoir Faire” based on what each and everyone is good at. Barter system and creativity are the main pillars of the economy. Each and everyone create something he/she is good at and exchange it for something he/she needs. [I think the little blue people could teach us humans specially politicians on that particular matter ].


THE SIX MAIN CHARACTERS



Meet Brainy Smurf. Brainy is the kind of guy who thinks he knows better than everyone in the village. He pretends to be the expect and very often lectures the others whom he thinks does not know much. He wears thick glasses as he is extremely short-sighted and is avid reader and keeps a lot of books in his house. He is also quite arrogant and uses big words he probably made up himself when he converses with others. The others dislike him and and when he enters into a long bout of lecturing, some frustrated smurf often angrily smashes him on the head with a big wooden mallet.

Papa Smurf- the oldest cheerful leader in the village- 542 years old. He is an old gentle good fella and love his people. He is easily distinguishable as he is the only one who wears red and grows bushy white beard. Papa Smurf is the voice of wisdom. All the other Smurfs turn to him when they need advice and he is always ready to help. He also has the responsiblity to make sure that harmony is kept among each and everyone. When real chaos rises among them, Papa Smurf takes very drastic measures, often using magic.

Handy Smurf - Really very handy little guy with a pencil in his ears. Creative and enegetic, Handy Smurf helps the community in fixing stuff around. He is also well known for known for his amazing technological creations, such as the telesmurf (telephone), Weather Smurfing Machine, and Smurfmobile.










Lazy Smurf-Sleeps anywhere, anytime. There is no place which is not suitable for a little nap. Under the building site, in the shade of mushroom, behind the bush, in fornt of the bush, under the wheelbarrow…anywhere is just comfortable. The first thing Lazy Smurf thinks of when he gets up is at what time he is going back to bed.

Clumsy Smurf-Clumsy is the one who is often tripped up by his two clumsy feet. He is easily identified as he has a western accent. He is very sensitive sometimes and cries when others refuse to let him play in a team. His name speaks for himself, he is very slow his movemnets and is prone to accident. Putting aside his clumsiness, he is a very happy and soft hearted guy.






Reporter Smurf-The journalist of the village. He walks around wearing a newsroom-style visor and carries a notepad. He always on the lookout for a big scoop to report back to the other in the village, and with Gargamel around there is always plenty of smurfy news on the horizon. He likes to impress by writing controversial news which eventually puts him in trouble.




 

ATLANTIS-THE LOST EMPIRE

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Starring: Michael J. Fox, James Garner


Director: Gary Trousdale

Rated: PG

RunTime: 88 Minutes

Release Date: June 2001

Genres: Animation, Kids, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

The opening scene portrays the downfall of Atlantis. A massive tsunami  is descending upon the mythical city of Atlantis and everyone is running out of control trying to save their lives as the city empire's boundaries are sealed off by mysterious energy shields protected by the Guardians of Atlantis. In the middle of the turmoil, the Atlantean Queen is summoned by the gods to depart from earth to the sky and this happens under helplessness eye witnesses; among them, Kida the Queen's daughter herself. Atlantis city is doomed forever. Submerged by waves, it's remaining people start a new life under water.

IN THE MEAN TIME IN WASHINGTON

Milo Thatcher a young and handsome linguist and cartographer, works in the local university. Milo is full of ambition and obssessed with the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. He aspires to follow in his late grandfather Thaddeus Thatch's footsteps to discover the said lost city of Atlantis. He gains possession of a sacred book-apparently a mistranslation of a lost ancient manuscript, the "Shephard's Journal", that places Atlantis near Ireland. He believes this book will guide him to the mythical city of Atlantis but when he shares his discovery and intention with the university board, they refuse to believe him and his request for an expedition falls on deaf ears.

Fortunately for Milo, news of the copy of the sacred book found by him has reached the rich Preston B. Whitmore (John Mahoney) a friend of his grandfather. Mr Whitmore holds the original shepherd journal given to him by Milo's granfdfather Thaddeus. Whitmore has already set in place a team of researchers and high-technological equipment for the expedition and as he believes that Milo has the final clue, he therefore offers him to join them which Milo accepts with happiness.

The team sets out for the expedition on a high-technological submarine. Milo is teased by the senior mission crew, led by Commander Lyle Rourke (James Garner) and his second-in-command Helga Sinclair (Claudia Christian), but slowly is accepted by them. On their way, the submarine encounters dangerous attacks by a giant mechanical leviathan. Most of the crews die leaving only a handful of survivors to carry on. Hope is not completely lost and the survivors discover an open-air cavernous route which leads them to the city Atlantis. There is another twist when they fall into a well of dormant volcano, they find themselves into a giant underground opening with Atlantis in the centre. Everyone is speechless when they meet the Atlanteans who can also speak english. Kida immediately befriends Milo when she discovers that he can interprete ancient Atlanteans writings, she seizes the opportunity to use his skills and takes him to several murals to translate. The crew is then brought in front of Kida's father, King Kashekim Nedakh (Leaonard Lemoy) who requests that they leave but Rourke the Commander proposes that they stay for at least one night. The request is approved and the crew is free to do so.

Kida and Milo like each other a lot and she relates to him the story of her mother and how she was summoned thousands of years ago by the gods-The-Heart of Atlantis-to protect the city from the tsunami.

During the mission something unexpected occurs. Little does Milo know that Rourke has changed his intention. He now plans to capture" The Heart of Atlantis" by force. He uses brutally and urges King to tell him the location of the sacred Heart but things are easily said that done, once there he is unable to capture the object. He is paralysed and can only witness Kida who is naturally caught up in the Heart of Atlantis surrounded by the stone faces of past Atlantean kings and infuses itself in her thus disabling power to the city. She remains for a while up in the air before being pulled down to ground. Once on teh ground, she is immediately captured by Rourke and his men who place Kida in a container to bring her to the surface. But Milo and his friends soon realise that this is killing the Atlanteans, they fight Rourke and try to save Kida. He uses the energy from the crystal to power some fliyng vehicles and manages to rescue Kida and stop Rourke. In the meantime a volcano erupts and is about to consume the city. But Kida is saved on time and she rejoins the Heart which is activated to release energy and create a shields against the eruption. The city is saved and Milo who has now fallen in love wit Kida, decides to remain in the city and they became the King and Queen of Atlantis.

It's a lovely story. Is it a love story with an expedition to find a lost city as background or are there real lost cities under water? We don't know. If yes will they submerged one day. Whatever? Atlantis - The Lost Empire- is a passionate movie with a mixture of love story, ambition, curiosity and expedition involved. Besides it is educational and incites curiosity. It's also about the courage and passion who drive people to their fate.  Milo is obssessed by Atlantis. It's passion beyond measure ingrained in him.

Recommanded movies for all ages.

KARATE KID (2010)

The Karate Kid

Starring: Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith, Taraji P. Henson

No job and no future for Sherry, Dre's mum (Jaden Smith) therefore they are leaving their comforatble home in West Detroit to relocate to Beijing where a bright future is awaiting Sherry. Everything is new for Dre but he makes friends easily with other kids and has a crush on the 12year old Mei Ying a young promisimg violonist. She reciprocates and loves him a lot. As a result Dre gets into trouble with Cheng (Zheinwei Wang) who is a close friend of Mei Ying's family and sees the realtionship between the two with an evil eye. Cheng is a Kung Fu prodigy and he takes advantage of that to bully and give a hard time to Dre. Later, with the help of his friends, Cheng will harass and humiliate Dre around the school. He is not happy as he is constantly bullied and insists that he wants to go back home but this won't happen. Their new home is now Beijing according to Sherry.

Dre is left to himself and seeks revenge. On one occasion he seizes a bucket of polluted water which he splashes around Cheng and his friends. A pursuit develops and Cheng and his Friends chase Dre up until they reach him and beat him up. During the brutal attack the maintenance man, Mr Han (Jackie Chan) intervenes to dispatch Dre's tormentors and reveals himself as the master Kung Fu.
Dre finds an opportunity to learn Kung Fu and asks Mr Han to teach him but the latter refuses as he prefers that peace is restored between the kids. He meets with Cheng's teacher Master Li (Yu Rongguang), who always teaches his students that they should have no pity and no mercy for the enemy. The teacher refuses peace but wants challenge and Mr Han promises that the fight takes place at an upcoming tournament, and that now on, Li's students leave Dre alone until the tournament. The amused Li agrees, but tells Han that if Dre doesn't show up during the tournament, he will personally bring pain to Han and Dre.

A series of hard training begins for Dre. At first he tries to help trying to impress Mr Han of the many tricks he knows but Mr Han's teaching starts by showing him to spend hours taking off his jacket, hanging it up, dropping it, and then putting it back on again. He's been doing it for quite a while and is frustrated but the teachings intensify and goes to the next level until he gets ready for the tournament. By the time the tournament match comes Dre has learned all the techniques and is ready for battle. In teh arena he is still a bit under-confident and is slow to achieve parity with his oponents but he soon begins to beat them, and advances to the semifinals. He meets his final opponent Cheng and the latter strikes Dre's already injured leg. Dre retreats but refuses defeat. He is now confident that he can beat Cheng and wants to finish him up. He remembers one thing that Mr Han taught him during the training: "life always knocks you down" but you have to stand up.





Dre is determine to win that battle. He returns to the arena and adopts the one-legged form he first learned from the woman on the mountain, attempting to use the reflection technique to manipulate Cheng's movements. Cheng charges Dre, but Dre flips, and catches Cheng with a kick to his head, winning the tournament, along with the respect of Cheng and his classmates, both for himself and Mr. Han.

The Karate Kid is a wonderful movie. It's not only entertaining for both kids and adults alike but it is also a teaching about overcoming fear and adversity. Dre is bullied and feels the pressure on himself. He is not happy at all and wants to raise to the challenge. When he meets Mr Han he decides to learn Karate to face his enenmy and confront his fear. "life will always knock us down but we can choose to get back up", this statement seems to have impacted Dre and he will stand on those words. He believes, he is determined that someone else is not going to rule his world. He is confident, he is positive and defiant. Nothing will stop him. He has decided to take matters in hands and will be trained for that. That's the way it should in life folks. Never let the enemy defeat us. Whatever the hard situation we go through we've got to do something.


Another teaching is the training Dre goes through. Dre thinks he will impress Mr Han with the few things he knows but the beginning of the teaching starts by taking off his jacket, hanging it up, dropping it, and then putting it back on again. To achieve what he wants in life , he is reduced to humility, patience and persistence even when its boring without which he won't achieve his goals.

This is not new at all. The same principles apply in our daily life. We tend to think that things are easy to achieve, we like short cuts instead of hard work and patience. We try to impress instead of starting by the basic- take off your jacket, hang it, drop it, put it on... Well it's not about jacket here but about things that we have to do patiently when we are facing difficult situation. We tend to rush to the next level without being prepared but one thing at a time.