Rock-A-Doodle Rock-A-Doodle was always a childhood favorite movie of mine. I enjoyed the animation and the catchy songs; I could connect with the characters and I cared about what was happening in the story. This 1992 kids’ movie written and directed by former Disney animator Don Bluth stars Chanticleer, a singing rooster who leaves the farm to look for work in the “big city” after the sun rises one morning although he didn’t crow; and Edmund, a boy turned into a kitten, desperate to bring Chanticleer back home and “save the farm”. Of course all of their barnyard friends are along for the ride. As a child, the story made perfect sense and I found myself rooting for the main characters. Now I am an adult and my son watches the exact same old …show more content…
tired but true VHS copy of the movie that I did, day in and day out. It’s amazing that it still plays after twenty plus years. After reviewing it again so many times, I find myself noticing plot errors that never even occurred to me as a kid. I analyze and pick apart the characters and their motives, and can’t always say that I am 100% on board with the moral of the story. Cleary, I have too much time on my hands and probably am borderline insane from seeing this movie on repeat. The first issue that I have with Rock-A-Doodle is the main plot of the movie.
In the movie, Edmund (the boy) is read the story of Chanticleer by his mother. The story goes that the Grand Duke of Owls (he hates the sun!), sends someone to pick a fight with Chanticleer to distract him from crowing. He forgets to crow and he, and the rest of the farm, see that the sun rises without him. He feels worthless and ashamed, and clearly unneeded on the farm so he moves to the city and looks for work. Meanwhile, Edmund and his family’s farm is caught in a huge storm and flood. The sun has not been out for days so he calls on Chanticleer for help. He is turned into a cat by the Grand Duke and together with the other animals on the farm, goes looking for Chanticleer. Now here is the part of the story with I what perceive as a major plot hole. Edmund (the cat) and company want to bring Chanticleer back home so that he will crow and the sun will come up and the rain will stop, and the farm will be saved! So, which is it? Does his crow bring up the sun or does it not? When he forgot to crow, the sun came up anyways. Then he left and the sun ceased to rise again because he wasn’t there to crow. It makes no sense and is never explained in the movie. As a child I never noticed, as an adult I am pulling out my …show more content…
hair. Another plot point that I question is the so called moral of the story.
When Chanticleer leaves the farm, he basically makes it BIG as a rock star singer. He is for all intents and purposes, the rooster version of Elvis with “20,000 people out there screaming his name” each night. He is extremely successful (he even has movie deals!), albeit lonely. He misses his friends on the farm even though they laughed at him. Now, Edmund and friends might also miss Chanticleer but they mostly want him to come home and make the rain stop. How many roosters can fulfill their dreams of being Elvis? For every rooster trying to make in big in the harsh music industry how many succeed? I haven’t seen a statistic but I am guessing the success rates are low. Are there really no other roosters that can crow? Can’t literally any rooster go work on the farm and bring up the sun? It has to be Chanticleer, who is by now referred to only as The King? It all sounds pretty selfish to me. It’s like a burger flipper landing a huge acting role in a major movie, and McDonald’s begging him/her to come back because no one else can make fries quite the
same! Although these two aspects of the movie perturb me, I still think it’s a great show. I find myself singing the songs to my toddler and becoming nostalgic at certain scenes. I still laugh at the jokes and sometimes find myself quoting the movie in my everyday life. I find it appropriate and fun for my kid, and haven’t grown to loathe it from overviewing yet. I would recommend it to adults and children alike, although I probably wouldn’t point out the qualms I have. After all, most kids movies don’t make perfect sense once you get down to it. Right?
In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,
In The Big Field, author Mike Lupica explores the theme, "Success uses motivation as fuel." Lupica portrays this theme through the main character, Hutch. Throughout the entire book, Hutch, a young boy that has just recently joined a highly talented baseball team, displays moments that exemplify this main theme. Hutch and his team have a chance to play in the stadium of the Miami Marlins, a Major League Baseball team, as long as they can keep winning games and advancing through a challenging tournament; however, Hutch's favorite position on the field, shortstop, the position located between 2nd and 3rd base, has already been filled on the team. Unfortunately, Hutch gets a demotion from shortstop, to second base, the position located between 1st base and 2nd base. Although Hutch was disappointed and melancholy about the switch in position, he was even more upset about the downgrading of leadership, since the
The production of Honky is a satirical comedy, following the lives of five people and the language of racism. While it focuses on the plot of 5 characters, the storyline was well thought out and intriguing. One actor in specific, Gerard Joseph, who played Thomas, did an exceptionally well job at conveying emotion and projecting to the audience, in my opinion. The overall directing, from the actors to the soundtrack and lightning, seem to be presented with excellent detail. Overall, this production was well done.
Hope and joy can be hard to find especially when times are tough. This is a situation in Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse , the character Billy Jo and her family are living in the time of the Dust Bowl and are struggling financially . Her father is a farmer in a time where nothing grows and after an accident Billy Jo’s mother passes away. This is a big part of Billy Jo is effected emotionally and shows seems very sad. Billy Jo has to move and has to move on and find joy and hope even in tough times.
Piaget believed that a child’s development is neither intrinsic (learning based on interest) or extrinsic (learning from an outside force, such as a parent). He believed that a child develops based on his or hers interactions in the environment (Mooney 2000). Piaget created four stages of cognitive development, some of which can be seen in the film “Cheaper by the Dozen”. A few examples of characters that display Piaget’s theory are the twins, who are in the preoperational stage and lack the concept of conservatism, and the mastermind, who is in the concrete operational stage and show's the concept of decentralism. These characters will have Piaget’s theory applied to them in the following paragraphs.
A theme evident in the play Seven Guitars was the African-American man’s struggle for dignity and self-awareness against society and its malevolence. The rooster representing the average African-American man and Canewell and Hedley’s encounters with the rooster in the play depict this. Canewell talks about how roosters down south are different from the roosters up north. He says that the roosters did not crow during times of slavery. Crowing symbolizes waking up, with no crowing no one ...
“Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brothers brother’s was worth a pocket watch.” (p.27)
Ever since he was a little boy Randall Woodfield felt like women were against him. Growing up he despised his two sisters because they teased him and he felt like he was treated differently than his sisters. For the rest of his life Randall would misperceive women. Randall Woodfield would value himself based off of how women thought of him. The one woman he cared most about was his mother. He never wanted to disappoint her or let her down in any way. Randall always felt incredibly upset when he disappointed his mother; a lot of his actions during his younger years were made based off of what his mother would think or want him to do. While in high school Randall excelled in sports mainly football and he would later go on to play in
Andie (Molly Ringwald) The main character of the story is a rejection according to the students in her Chicago High School. After school ends Andie spends most of her time working at a record store, her older boss (Annie Potts) Is one of her best friends and Co-worker. Andie likes to hang out with Duckie who has a crush on her, Andie helps Duckie study because if he doesn't get good grade he won’t be able to pass the year. Blane first meets Andie at the record store, she works at after a few days Andie starts falling for him, but does not know if she would be socially accepted. “Pretty in Pink” was released in 1986.
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry has many interesting characters. In my opinion, the most fascinating character is Ruth because of her many emotions and captivating personality. She goes through extreme emotions in the play such as happiness, sadness, anger, stress, and confusion. Ruth is very independent, firm, kind, witty, and loving.
The youngest Pevensie brother, Edmund, is the mischievous child among his siblings in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He is a representation of the possibility of what can go wrong when a child is not properly taught and does not follow set boundaries. Edmund’s subversion of set standards is the cause of a great deal of the troubles the Pevensies face in Narnia. For example, when he goes to the White Witch’s castle instead of listening to the others when they say Aslan is the true leader. In order to redeem himself, he must first be renewed and return to an earlier state. He is not allowed to stay indignant, but is reformed when he learns that Aslan is really the true ruler, and Jadis is not. He is allowed to do so because of his status as a child who is still developing. Edmund’s corruption and later redemption show that he is not really wicked, but has an innate goodness.
In this story, like the others, the rather ordinary narrator descends into madness and makes expectations break and fear form. The raven itself actually contributes to fear as well. The raven does not change at all as it only stands still and repeats, “Nevermore,” to the narrator.
They boys find a crow, that they later eat. Some believe seeing a crow is a sign something bad is going happen. Some of the boys believe they shouldn't eat it based on the legends, while the other thought their luck couldn't get any more worse based on the conditions they were in,which was not true because as a result of eating the bird they almost lost their friend Saidu. In the novel it states “ one afternoon, while we were searching for food in the deserted village, a crow fell from the sky. It wasn't dead, but it was unable to fly. We knew this was unusual, but we needed food and anything at that point would do[...] sometimes night has a way of speaking to us, but we never listen. The night after we ate the bird was too dark. There was no stars in the sky, and as we walked, it seemed as the darkness was getting thicker[...] A we were about to set foot on the bridge, we heard footsteps on the other side, coming towards us[...] Kanei began whispering our names. When he called out Saidu’s name he didn't answer[...]”(Ishmael pg 81-81) this whole quote is about the Oman or legend of coming across a crow. The crow was a warning for the guys that they didn't pick up
Edmund lusted for all of his father’s power, lying to his gullible brother and father aided him in his plan for total authority along with destroying their lives. As bastard son of Gloucester, Edmund wanted to receive all of the power destined for his brother, Edgar, who was Gloucester’s legitimate son. Edmund stated his disapproval of his brother, “Wherefore should I/ Stand in the plague of custom, and permit/ The curiosity of nations to deprive me/ For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines/ Lag of a brother? Why bastard?”(1.2.2-6). Edmund wanted the respect and love that Edgar received even though he was Gloucester’s bastard son. He claimed that he was not much younger or “moonshines lag of a brother” therefore he should be considered just as smart and able-minded as any legitimate son. He built up hatred toward Edgar and in order to get rid of him he convinced his father that Edgar had betrayed him through a letter. The letter that Edmund made read, “If our father would sleep till I waked him, you/ should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live/ the beloved of your brother, Edgar”(1.2.55-57). Edmund portrayed Edgar as the son that would kill Gloucester only to inherit his money and share his inheritance with Edmund. Gloucester believed Edmund, sending out guards to kill Edgar for his betrayal...
Noah is the one of the main characters of The Notebook. He is the hero of this novel. Noah represents true love and true loyalty. In a way, The Notebook is similar to every modern day romance movie, and Noah represents the “dream man” that all the girls always imagine of having. The characters in movies are used to symbolize ideas, and in this novel, Noah represents true, faithful, committed love. Noah remains loyal to Allie even in the situation where he is unsure whether they will ever meet again or not.