My Experience With... Liberty’s Kids.

A fact about myself: I loved school.

I mean, it was almost an obsession. I especially enjoyed mathematics and the arts. Those do seem to go hand-in-hand with each other, don’t they? Science and Language Arts weren’t too far behind, though I will admit that my high school Anatomy and British Literature classes did give me a bit of a run for my money. And of course, my Bible classes were always as informative as they were enjoyable. I also preferred homeschooling, even though I did spend several years in “regular” schools. I was a straight-A student all through High School... And then College kicked me around like I was a rag doll. It was still all too enjoyable for me to fully stress over my grades. (I didn’t have a low GPA, by the way. Just saying.)

Another fact about myself: I hated history and social studies classes. Could. Not. STAND them. Not that I hated learning about it. Shoot, I actually liked learning about the Medieval Feudal System, among other things. What I didn’t enjoy was the tests. I could barely remember American facts outside of what SchoolHouse Rock songs I knew by rote. I complained very frequently to my mother / teacher, who reassured me that it was important to at least learn about history and to try my best, even when it was tough.

It was years before she finally felt safe to tell me that she hated history classes, too.

Now, not all history and social studies classes were too unpalatable. I had SchoolHouse Rock (as afore mentioned), the Carmen Sandiego CD games series (especially Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, which I maintain is way better than the original TV show), the Eyes on the Prize VHS series, courtesy of the library, Our Friend Martin, and of course, Liberty’s Kids.

Still, even with all those cool things,

not even my Switched-On Schoolhouse

system made learning history fun.

  

This show first memorably came into my life when I was a young teen. It was during a time when my mother was perming my hair. Some of you may or may not know, but any perm requires lots of rinsing and a time of neutralizing, to restore the hair’s pH balance. To relieve neck strain and to keep me from becoming too uncomfortable, my mother would take kitchen chairs and line them up next to the tub in such a way that I could lie down on them, with my head and (at that time, quite long) hair hanging over the side and above the tub. With the removable showerhead, my mother was an unstoppable force, a wizard with my often unpredictable mane. And with a TV in the adjacent kitchen, the process wasn’t too boring.

I guess you could say that my first encounter was more of a radio experience. I heard the audio, but the way I was positioned, I couldn’t quite see it. Also, because this was on PBS, the frequent changes to the Liberty News Network made things a little harder for me to follow. I asked my mother what was going on, and she didn’t quite know, except that it was a history show that looked really good. She then told me it was called Liberty’s Kids. Then I found out from Radio Disney that Aaron Carter was one of the singers for the theme song. Considering I was one of the many female human beings who had a crush on him at that time, I was more than elated.

It didn’t take long for me to track the show down, and I would watch it live and record it to VHS to watch after classes and school, depending on my schooling status. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it, seeing Sarah grow and become an American, and of course watching Henri’s antics. I also enjoyed James’s maturity during the series, and Moses was just plain awesome! Ben Franklin would have to be my favorite character, though.

Years passed, and naturally I stopped watching it bit by bit. I found out that it came out years later pretty early in the morning on a digital channel that played 80s, 90s, and 00s cartoons. I would set up my VHS player to record it, along with Gomer Pyle, USMC on a different channel.

Yeah, yeah, I know some of you are scratching

your heads, but if you think my broad taste in

TV shows is weird, you should see my music library.

At this point, they had taken out the oh-so-cool mini segments from between scenes, which left me a touch disappointed, but I was still grateful to watch an old favorite show again. It did not last long, however, as they changed the lineup. I figured I’d never see Liberty’s Kids again.

Thank God I was wrong. I happened to be in a Wal-Mart, and by chance as I was browsing DVDs, lo and behold the four-disc set was there. Unfortunately, once again, the extra clips weren’t there, but I wasn’t upset about it this time. There was too much for me to truly enjoy about this series, as well as why I enjoyed it. It showed diversity, passion, charm, grit, truth, emotions, and heart. Sure, we all knew that America would turn out all right at the end. But did we, at times. And who can actually hum the little bit of music at the end of every scene?

In short, it got me, if nothing else, excited to learn about American History. If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do. It’s an eye opener into America in the 1770s to the 1780s. Plus it’s more than just about America vs England, and who comes out as the victor. It shows life, which rarely shows a true winner. And of course, new solutions bring about new problems, as shown in this show. If you’re hoping that the physical quality of this show is on par with Disney, I would respectfully ask that you clear your mind of such criticisms. True, it’s not of the highest quality, but the intensity of this show outshines it all.

As for the shorts, well, may I recommend the still-functioning Libertyskids.com, which I’ve just recently found out about?

I’ve just finished watching the DVD set. I kinda lost it shortly after I bought it. Found it right after I just recently organized my life (mostly, anyway). It took quite of few nights that would put Netflix binge-watchers to shame, but it was soooo worth it. 100%, A+, etc., etc., and the proper emjois to go with it. Just watch it, even if you watch it at least once.

So, what’s your favorite Carmen Sandiego video game?

My Experience With... A Goofy Movie

You know you’re starting to get old when movies that came out around your childhood hit the 20- or 25-year mark.

I first noticed this with Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Lion King, but continued to notice when this hit me:

A Goofy Movie is now 21 years old. That’s insane.

The whole story behind A Goofy Movie is that Max is in high school and his dad is... Well... Goofy. I would SERIOUSLY like to know what happened with Max’s mother, and how on EARTH she and Goofy got together. I mean, really think hard.

I’ll give you a minute to gather your brains.

It’s the last day of school, and the last chance for Max to get the lovely classmate Roxanne -- who we don’t even see after the movie until House of Mouse -- to go out with him even notice his existence. So he puts on a big show for her in the middle of assembly, which eventually epically fails, but it does get him to go with her to an end-of-the year party, where a live performance by rock star Powerline will be broadcast. Now, about that failed show, it does get him in trouble with the principal, who takes it way too far on when he calls overly sympathetic father Goofy at his job (presumably, K-mart?).

Fearing his son’s “inevitable” juvenile delinquency and the electric chair, he decides to take Max on a fishing trip for summer break in Lake Destiny, Idaho, where his dad used to take him, and he announces it to pretty much everyone he encounters on the way home, including his co-worker, neighbor, and rival, Pete. Did I mention that they’re supposed to be on the east coast? Max comes home and Goofy is packing for the trip. At first, Max thinks Goofy is going with Donald Duck, but is told that Max is supposed to be going with him that very day.

Max ends up going to Roxanne’s house to tell her the bad news that he can’t go to the party with her because of the trip. Roxanne suggests that she probably can find someone else to go to the part with, and that gets him nervous, so he ends up lying to her saying that he’s going with his Dad to the Powerline concert in LA and that Goofy knew Powerline from being in a high school band. I did meniton that they live on the east coast, right? Amazingly, she believes it and becomes excited about it. Max and Goofy then head off on a crazy adventure, where they both learn more about each other, and Max, in the end, somehow ends up appreciating his father more.

Yeah. I’ll admit... I am not crazy about this movie at all, even when I was younger. I didn’t like Max, considering he was such a stick in the mud the whole time, plus I’d like to know what happened between the years of Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie. How’d he get so mean, rude, and surly? Yeah, his dad’s embarassing, but isn’t everyone’s dad, at least from time to time? I love my Daddy, but there are still times when he’s singing along with the old school station that make me want to crawl under the car. Same thing with my Mom when she sings some old school songs or says something rather funny yet embarassing about my life. Still love them, but I’ve never been all angst-y about it. I watched it again in college, and pretty much everyone agreed this was a terrible movie morally.

But we all agree that two things were AWESOME about A Goofy Movie.

Stand Out and I 2 I.

Both are songs by Powerline, a Michael Jackson / Prince / Devo powerhouse combo voiced by Tevin Campbell, and was reincarnated into live action years later by Bruno Mars.

No, seriously, look at this BuzzFeed article. If you don’t have time, look at the pictures below.

The resemblince is stinking amazing.

Anyway, these songs are beyond age-defining, but they are timeless classics that were attached to an, at best, very mediocre movie. And really, those are the only songs that are worth remembering from the movie.

Overall, I call this a dud. The only reason I would ever watch this again is for those two songs and those two songs only. I also admit it was cool that they had a cameo role go to Pat Buttram, who was a Disney voice acting legend.

Would I let my child watch it? Erm... jury’s still out on that one. That child would have to be really grounded in good values before seeing this movie. However, I would totally have my child listen to those two songs, mainly because they are just so good! Plus, the fact that they have practically nothing to do with the movie itself and can hold their own as regular songs really helps! It’s kinda like The Prayer from (shocker-of-all-shockers) Quest for Camelot, which I believe might have been a better movie.

Ehh, jury’s still out on that one, too.

Now because I’m such a nice, caring, lovely person to you guys, I’ll attach Stand Out and I 2 I to this blog post, both in video and audio form for your personal enjoyment.

   

I did watch An Extremely Goofy Movie for the first time a few years ago, which was... Meh. Really, really, meh. No Roxanne, no Powerline, Max and Goofy are in college, and Max is all angst-y again. That’s it. Oh yeah, and something about a skateboarding challenge. Really nothing to write home about.

What’s your favorite movie soundtrack? (Note: the movie itself doesn’t have to be good.)

My Experience With... The True Meaning of Smekday / Home

Welcome to my first Book vs. Movie Experience blog post! When I first discovered this really underrated franchise, I just KNEW that I had to jump on it, especially since I had time to read the book before watching the movie!

I was still on Facebook when I first found this out. I was subscribed to Tall N Curly -- if you've never visited that site before, she's hilarious and amazing (recommended for 14 and up, sorry kiddies!) -- and she posted a screenshot of Home with the phrase, "WE'RE IN!" After question marks popped above my head, I read further to find that DreamWorks made their first female, curly-haired, dark-skinned, ethnically ambiguous animated protagonist, something Disney has yet to do (HINT, HINT!!!!).

I was so stoked I wanted to SCREAM! So I read her article, watched the trailer on YouTube and... had mixed emotions (no pun intended). On one hand, I was still starry-eyed at the fact that a (seemingly) Black young girl was a) mixed with something else b) a protagonist and hero of sorts, and c) NORMAL!!!! She was not any particular stereotype! She had issues, but I mean, there were ALIENS taking over the planet. This plus seeing the Black people portrayed in War Room gave me a renewed hope in the cinematic industry. And of course, learning that Jim Parsons was the voice of the alien sent my fangirl meter over 9000. What does that Yu-Gi-Ball-Z thing mean again?

Then I read the comments. No, there weren't insanely discouraging racist comments, none that I can recall anyway. It was something of what the fanbase did to the Jem and the Holograms movie... they pointed out the deviation from the original source material.

I am typically a "book-over-movie" type of young woman, and I usually get ticked / peeved when I figure out a movie is based off a book, while I'm watching the movie. This is part of the reason I haven't seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy yet, even though I own The Fellowship of the Ring on VHS. I'm sorry, I always feel lost reading The Two Towers. I will prevail!!! ... Eventually. But I digress.

Knowing full well that there was a book that I had not read yet and I had not seen the movie, I went into overdrive and got The True Meaning of Smekday. It was surprisingly thick for a YA novel, considering the attention span of today's youths.

(Man, I love that monkey.)

It was also surprisingly impressive. It tells the tale of a young girl named Gratuity "Tip" Tucci, a 14-year-old girl who was writing a school essay on, what else, the true meaning of Smekday. Now, again, I hate giving out spoilers on these things, usually, but I will give some details about the book and the movie, plus a more comprehensive list of comparisons that may contain spoilers.

"Smekday" is named for the alien race Boov's captain, Smek, who decided to take over the earth, relocating humans to more condensed living areas around the globe, as a means of escape from the evil Gorg, which I dare not describe here. Hey, I want to leave some reason to read the book. Tip initially writes the essay (as a mandated assignment for a nationwide contest) giving a more general aspect of the actual event that happened on Christmas Day, and the whole takeover by the Boov. She is then asked to rewrite it as what is meant to her, more so than the Boov. She explains in further detail, including an expansion on how she befriended a Boov named J.Lo. Her tale ends up winning the contest, and was set to be in a 100-year time capsule.

I loved the fact that this book is not your average novel. It has, for the most part, an essay format to it, and it even has gorgeous illustrations, including some b/w graphic novel pages. There are four particular pages in this book that cracked me up -- if you read the book through, you'll see why. Another thing I personally enjoyed was the fact that Adam Rex, the author, was unafraid to step outside the color lines. Firstly, Tip is Black on her father's side (her father is unknown), and Italian on her mother's side, yet, she's not the stereotypical "biracial child." (See below.)

 (Heh. "Biracial." What's the other race, Faunus?)

In fact, I was shocked when the DreamWorks version of her looked like this!

By the way, as a side note, I noticed a lot of people ship
(unsure if it's "friend-" or "relation-") Tip and Hiro (Big Hero 6).

I personally wouldn't mind seeing a crossover like this.

Shoot, Oh and Baymax... FIST BUMPING???

(Fangirl meter is off the charts.)

Anyway, here's the original design. Personally, I wish DreamWorks had kept the kinky-coily puffs.

Okay, is it me, or does she look like if Mulan were also Black?

Comment below if you see it.

Anyway, the whole point of that was Tip was multiethnic, but she looked more distinctively black than ethnically ambiguous. This, in the book, causes some social confusion which is still quite evident in real life today.

The whole point is, it's an excellent read for ages... ehh... 12 to adult. If your child's old enough to take some of the content, or if you wish to go through the book with him / her, I'd take it down to 10, 8 at max.

After reading the book, I decided to rent the movie. YES, I AM THAT FRUGAL, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Do not get me wrong, I enjoyed it. I just tried making mental notes of the differences, and it didn't work. The gap between reading the book and watching the movie was too big, so I re-read the book and watched the movie again, this time, one after the other, and holding the book in one hand and my DVD remote with the other.

For the record, and this is coming from someone who can be (and has been) a very voracious reader, this is a two-day read, at least. If you can finish it in one sitting, I wish I could give you a medal.

The movie itself..... rrrgghmmm, how do I put this?

It was a really, really cute movie. As a movie called Home. But even as a movie it was a little sub-par.

On the technical side, this would've been some awesome animation, had it come out maybe 5 or 10 years ago. Shark Tale is a wonky looking piece of animation (despite it's being a cute, funny movie), but seeing as how it came out in 2004, it had a little wiggle room, despite the fact that Pixar came out with The Incredibles. 2004 had The Polar Express, yet it also had The Snurks.

It's okay, I had to Google that last one, too.

In any case, as bright and colorful as Home's animation was, not to mention how well Tip's hair came out, it wasn't anywhere close to The Penguins of Madagascar, which came out the year prior.

Now, to be able to put a book like The True Meaning of Smekday into a feature film could take one extra-long movie (not unreasonable), or a trilogy of movies (tetralogy, if the filmmaker decides to use the lame cash grab method of dividing the last chapter into two movies), so I can understand that some things needed to be changed in order to fit the standard frame of approximately 90 minutes. Of course, some of the original source material can be pretty heavy, too. They probably would've gotten away with making a hard PG-rated film in the '80s, but my guess is that the producers were going for a much lower demographic than Adam Rex was, so needless to say, watching the "alien abduction" scene was MORE than underwhelming compared to my imagination.

Like I mentioned before, I'm not totally bashing the movie itself, as its own entity, but.... hmm. Remember when I mentioned the fact that Tip looked Black, despite being Multi-Ethnic. Well, there does seem to be some ambiguity looking at Tip in the DreamWorks film, but she's still a (relatively) dark-skinned, green-eyed, curly-haired young teen girl. Here's probably the one thing that bugged me the most about this entire film.

There's a scene where Tip, voiced by Rihanna, and--

HOLD IT!!!!! What??! Okay, not hating on

Rihanna, but, that's just a weird choice to play

a thirteen-year-old girl, especially when she

doesn't have the vocal acrobatics to sound like

essentially a younger version of herself, at easiest.

-- her mother, Lucy, voiced by Jennifer Lopez--

Okay, again, not my first choice. Lucy Tucci is

supposed to be of Italian descent, but I guess 

they didn't focus on that very much. Never mind 

the fact that this J.Lo didn't seem remotely

Italian in the movie. Sorry, just the fangirl 

talking in me. Whatever. Anyway. Proceed.

experience their first snow in the US.

Uhh... first... snow? They're supposed 

to be from PN, aren't they?

Lucy is slipping and falling in the snow, much to Tip's amusement. Then I hear Lucy saying "We're from Barbados! We're not used to snow!"

...

The photo above doesn't even begin

to convey the feelings I got from this

fangirl-tick-off trigger.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW???!!!! Tim Johnson (director), DreamWorks, what were you thinking??! Just because you managed to get Rihanna to be a voice talent in your film, you suddenly decide you want to CHANGE TIP'S ORIGIN???!!! Are you joking? The whole point of The True Meaning of Smekday was to tell a story from a person from whom a story is not traditionally told! I think a Black/Italian girl who looks black would totally qualify! It's not enough for a girl to just be dark-skinned(ish) with green eyes and curly hair. With that info it could be virtually anybody! I suppose you decided to take that and run in completely the opposite direction. Are you afraid of making a heroine Black? Or are you afraid of people's reactions to making a heroine Black?

Seriously, this was the biggest marketing

poster style that was used. It features Pig, the cat,

who has pretty much ZERO bearing on this

version of the story, but no Tip, who is Pig's owner.

*sigghhhh....* I apologize for the two paragraphs of ranting, and I get where they're going... sorta. They wanted an awesome soundtrack. Rihanna's a good singer. Make her a voice actress in this story and, boom, you save money in production. Same thing with Jennifer Lopez. Now, since Rihanna voices the main human, Tip, in the story, they decided to make her from Barbados, like Rihanna. Now people from Barbados can be Black or Multi-Ethnic, but it still doesn't have the same effect as an American girl who has a Black father and an Italian-American mother.

To the majority of the viewers in America, there is way less tension about a darkish-skinned (Seriously, I can tan darker than that just by being in the sun about 15 minutes.) girl from the West Indes than a, for all intents and purposes, Black/White girl who "looks more Black than White." If you don't believe me, just look at the women out there who are represented as Black women. The number of people that represent Black Women in mainstream media, who I would consider "fit the mold" -- aka Dark-Skinned women with more distinctively African features -- is a very small group that is hopefully growing. Sure you have your Twitter and Instagram stars, but Madison Ave. still turns a blind eye to these beauties.

Syntax matters, people.

Like I said, that was probably the most disturbing thing about the movie, which is more of a fangirl / representation thing. It's not a horrible change, I just personally think they tampered with the source material way too much in a stitch effort to make a cute little kids' movie.

The only other thing that I will say kinda weirded me out about the movie was the Gorn. I hate to give away the ending, but... let's just say the Gorn revelation reminded me of the climax of Chicken Little. That's all I'm gonna say about it. For those of you who've seen both movies, you know what I'm talking about.

As for the rest of this movie, I will say that Jim Parsons pretty much saved this movie. Even though I could pretty much hear Sheldon Cooper in all his lines, he nailed the Boov dialect really well! I'm actually surprised they had him use his own voice for the role, especially considering his vocal prowess in The Big Bang Theory. Steve Martin... ehh.... I'm sorry, but they could've done WAY more with his character, Captain Smek. They make him WAY more obnoxious and cowardly here than they do in the book. Yes, Smek is kind of a dictator in the book, and yes, he is running away from Gorn, but not for the sake of running away. And unlike the book, Smek is a HORRIBLE political figure! At least with The True Meaning of Smekday, he tries to make a deal with the humans to band together against the Gorn, rather than try to strike a peace deal with an intergalactic bully. Plus, he's super whiny. Steve Martin's performance in The Pink Panther 2 was a more enjoyable performance. Ah, well. At least he has classics like Father of the Bride and Trains, Planes, and Automobiles (BEST. THANKSGIVING. MOVIE. EVER!!!!!) to remember.

Those crazy factors aside, yes it was rather cute. I did enjoy seeing a very colorful J.Lo Oh, seeing the friendship between J.Lo Oh and Tip blossom, and the story from J.Lo Oh's point of view was an interesting take on the feature itself. Also, the fact that the journey is global does add a new factor to the story.

Which do I like better? The True Meaning of Smekday, obviously. It is really in-depth, and would make an excellent movie, if done correctly. Home, as a movie, like I said before, is really cute, though. I'd let my proverbial eight-year-old watch it. I would wait until he/she is twelve or thirteen before reading the book, though, just out of proverbial parental discretion. I give the book five of six Boov, and the movie 5.6 of 8 Smeks. You guys do the math at home.

Alright, the moment you've all been waiting for, here is my official comparison list of The True Meaning of Smekday and Home!

I told you it was long!!!!

Incidentally, the soundtrack to Home is on Spotify, and I took a listen to quite a few of the songs. You'd think that an album with Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez would be better than what they've cranked out... ah, well. Toward the Sun is still a half-decent song. ^_^

What books and movies have you seen together? Would you recommend any to me? Do you want to see more of these? Please let me know in the comments below!

See you!!!