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Happy Monday
The final curtain fell late Sunday (May 21, 2017) on the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, known widely as “the Greatest Show on Earth.”
The circus, which traces its lineage back to showman P.T. Barnum’s traveling museum in the 1800s, performed its final show at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y.
–Greg Toppo, USA Today, May 21, 2017
Sadness is the emotion most of us felt when we heard about the news described above from a couple months back. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was famed tradition and a pioneering act in the art of show business. Its theatrics should still be wowing audiences today and far into the future.
Happiness (at least in a mild sense) is the emotion an increasing number of us are feeling upon learning of a brand new musical produced for the silver screen titled, The Greatest Showman. Starring musical veterans Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and Michelle Williams, the new movie is slated for release this Christmas. The film tells the story of P.T. Barnum…
See for yourself.
First, the music in the trailer is, well, not the greatest. However, it is a musical, so it gets a free pass. Second, is it fair to say that Hollywood, specifically 20th Century Fox, was a little late to the show “the Greatest Show on Earth”? This is to imply that the promotion and potential widespread success of The Greatest Showman could have provided the rejuvenating spirit the circus desperately needed before giving its final performance earlier this year.
Ultimately, will The Greatest Showman be so awe inspiring as to help bring back “the Greatest Show on Earth” to and for the people?
Hey, Twinkies came back from the dead…
and now it’s even an ice cream flavor! Anything can happen in this world when a fond memory from our childhood is involved.
Especially a great memory.
Have a Better Week Than Last Week.
Winnie the Pooh is…True?
Sort of.
(Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin, Disney)
Warning: Naming your stuffed animals can be life-changing.
Creativity is not something that can be memorized from a textbook. In its purest and most imapctful sense, creativity is a reaction or a feeling someone has to something or someone that few (if anyone else) sees. It happens when it happens. And creativity can be a truly wonderul thing when it rises from the normal everyday.
While we’ve all watched and enjoyed the adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, including his best human friend Christopher Robin, it’s a safe bet that most of us don’t know the story-behind-the-story. Well, later this year, moviegoers will discover the former that inspired the latter.
To think it all started when British author A.A. Milne was casually introduced to some wonderfully named stuffed animals…
There is just something magical about England of yesteryear (or the days of yore, if you’re like Rachel Green) with its picturesque architecture and dreamlike parks. Maybe that special feeling we have is the result of so many creative people before who have subtly transformed these pleasant thoughts from England into our illustrious reality over the course of many generations? Cheers, either way. And it looks like Goodbye Christopher Robin aims to showcase one of those delightfully impressionable chapters in that evolving lineage of happy thoughts from that place across the pond.
A.A. Milne, his son and his cast of characters are not rock stars like the Beatles. However, their tale of heartwarming imagination continues to “top the charts” (of sorts) with children and parents alike, spanning multiple generations…like the Beatles.
Also like the Beatles, Winnie the Pooh wants to hold your hand.
All Aboard & No One Ignored
The whole “murder thing” aside, the Orient Express looks like the quality of train Sheldon Cooper would enjoy.
Murder on the Orient Express will hit movie theaters this November.
The vibe of this film is a fun, yet sinister murder mystery with as many twists-and-turns as a train is structurally able to endure. And the star-studded cast (Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Leslie Odom Jr. and Josh Gad) has the potential to elevate a standard whodunit to a clever and surprising edge of your seat cinematic puzzle.
One guarantee for Murder on the Orient Express:
This film will be a character-driven thrill ride.
The New Face of Wonder, Meant to Inspire Us All
Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson.
Now that I have your attention, prepare yourself for the reality that they are your parents. Well, not literally your reality, but that these two are parents in the cinematic reality for the new film Wonder. The two acclaimed actors, for similar and different reasons, play the part of parents to a young boy (Jacob Tremblay).
Quick note: The casting of Wonder is incredible.
From the trailer (seen below), the characters portrayed by Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson have a young son who has endured scarring plastic surgery that resulted in an improved, yet still slightly disfigured face.
In other words, the son is different.
And in elementary school (and middle school…and high school…and so on…), people who act and appear differently face challenges that can paralyze all things social. For anybody who has felt or feels that way, Lionsgate Movies has produced a film that will inspire new wonder to your world.
This movie is set to take off into a heartwarming galaxy when it hits theaters this November.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 