Lists

Picture of a TV show: SpongeBob SquarePants
Picture of a movie: WALL·E
Picture of a game: mario kart
Picture of a game: Spore
Picture of a game: nintendogs
Picture of a game: 102 dalmatians: puppies to the rescue
Picture of an author: Bill Watterson
Picture of an author: Rick Riordan
Picture of an author: Tove Jansson
Picture of a book: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Picture of a book: Holes
Picture of a book: Comet in Moominland
Picture of a book: Tales from Moominvalley
Picture of a book: Moominsummer Madness
Picture of a book: percy jackson & the olympians
Picture of a TV show: iCarly

12 Movies, 6 Books, 4 Shows, 4 Games, 3 Authors, 2 Music Artists

Nostalgia Factor

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These things are good but they wouldn't be nearly as good if they hadn't defined my childhood

movies
movies

WALL·E

2008
In a distant, but not so unrealistic, future where mankind has abandoned earth because it has become covered with trash from products sold by the powerful multi-national Buy N Large corporation, WALL-E, a garbage collecting robot has been left to clean up the mess. Mesmerized with trinkets of Earth's history and show tunes, WALL-E is alone on Earth except for a sprightly pet cockroach. One day, EVE, a sleek (and dangerous) reconnaissance robot, is sent to Earth to find proof that life is once again sustainable. WALL-E falls in love with EVE. WALL-E rescues EVE from a dust storm and shows her a living plant he found amongst the rubble. Consistent with her "directive", EVE takes the plant and automatically enters a deactivated state except for a blinking green beacon. WALL-E, doesn't understand what has happened to his new friend, but, true to his love, he protects her from wind, rain, and lightning, even as she is unresponsive. One day a massive ship comes to reclaim EVE, but WALL-E, out of love or loneliness, hitches a ride on the outside of the ship to rescue EVE. The ship arrives back at a large space cruise ship, which is carrying all of the humans who evacuated Earth 700 years earlier. The people of Earth ride around this space resort on hovering chairs which give them a constant feed of TV and video chatting. They drink all of their meals through a straw out of laziness and/or bone loss, and are all so fat that they can barely move. When the auto-pilot computer, acting on hastily-given instructions sent many centuries before, tries to prevent the people of Earth from returning by stealing the plant, WALL-E, EVE, the portly captain, and a band of broken robots stage a mutiny.
books
books

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Terry Pratchett
The Barnes & Noble ReviewWith the debut of his first young-adult novel, science fiction writer Terry Pratchett invites readers ages 12 and up to visit Discworld -- an imaginary land well known to Pratchett's adult following. At the heart of this tale is a slightly twisted take on the old Pied Piper theme, a talking, thinking cat named Maurice, and a supporting cast of equally talented rats who bear such comical names as Big Savings, Nourishing, and Dangerous Beans. Maurice and the rats have teamed up with a young lad named Keith to implement a clever moneymaking scheme. Upon entering a town, the rats make a general nuisance of themselves -- stealing food and widdling on things -- until the townsfolk become desperate to get rid of them. Then Maurice and Keith appear on the scene and offer to save the day by ridding the town of its infestation for a small fee. It seems like a surefire plan until the group arrives in the town of Bad Blintz and gets hooked up with Malicia, a young girl with a vivid imagination and a knack for finding trouble. When it's discovered that Bad Blintz already has a rat problem -- one that a couple of shifty-eyed rat catchers claim to have under control -- things turn deadly. For lurking beneath the town's streets is an obstacle course of mangling rattraps and noxious poisons. And beyond that is a monster so powerful and ugly, even Malicia couldn't imagine it. As Maurice and the rats battle for their very survival, a number of provocative themes surface: life after death, good versus evil, and the sacrifice of the few for the many. But be forewarned -- those in search of lighter fare in these troubled times may not find what they are looking for in Pratchett's vision Despite plenty of razor-sharp wit and lighthearted moments, this tale has an underbelly as dark as the tunnels beneath Bad Blintz. Though The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is deeply witty and engaging, some readers may find parts of the story -- descriptions of how some of the rats die and how others eat their dead -- rather intense. (Beth Amos)
books
books

Comet in Moominland

Tove Jansson
[Note: Rating increased from 3 to 4 stars after reading the first moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood.]Moomintroll’s quiet life is upended when foreboding images of a star with a tail send him journeying to speak with the Professors at the Observatory. Meeting new friends along the way and forging through perilous adventures together, Moomintroll and his companions arrive at the Observatory where they learn a comet is headed towards earth. Worse yet – the comet is predicted to land precisely where Moomintroll lives with his Moominpappa and Moominmamma. Moomintroll must find a quick way home if he’s going to warn his family in time. It’s not difficult to see why ‘Moominmania’ exists. Jansson’s book conveys an innocence rarely found in modern titles. An undeniable charm exudes from her fanciful characters – the same type of odd yet memorable creatures one anticipates finding in an L. Frank Baum novel. Moomins have a simple way of life. Their relaxed attitudes, gardens, and lovingly prepared meals are reminiscent of Tolkien’s hobbits. In fact, Jansson’s descriptions of the whimsical setting often invoke the sense that one is reading about an alternate Shire – a feeling made more robust by Moomintroll and his friends journeying to the Lonely Mountains. Halfway up the hill on their way grew a clump of blue-trees covered with big yellow pears, and of course they couldn’t get past that without Sniff deciding that he was hungry. It certainly looked mysterious. Overhead the branches of the plum trees, oaks, and silver poplars met and formed a dark tunnel which led away into the unknown. Despite the impending threat of a comet hitting the earth, Moomintroll and his companions are relatively carefree. They remain (mostly) focused in their task to hurry home as they're shuffled from one peculiar instance to the next. The narrative lacks a sense of urgency, yet there’s something cathartic about the sweet simplicity of Moomintroll’s adventure. Sprinkled with darling illustrations, Comet in Moominland is a gentle tale of friendship and family.
books
books

Tales from Moominvalley

Tove Jansson
What a bunch of strange, opaque, elliptical little stories. This is my first entry into the Moomin world, Jansson's books having passed me by as a child. I was dubious - the pastelly coloured covers of the editions I keep weighing in my hands then returning to the shelves in Unity have put me off - but this was lent to me by a close friend whose taste I trust. I flipped the book over and read the blurb first: If you found a tiny golden dragon with green paws, would you know what to do it it?Well, Moomintroll thinks he knows what to do. But when he takes his new-found pet home, things don't work out as planned!At the sight of that exclamation mark my heart sank. Japes ahoy, I thought - cute little animals getting up to whimsical things.I couldn't have been more wrong. It might be because I was dropped into the Moomin world without any preparation, but the only thing I would childlike and traditionally delightful in this book were the names of the various creatures - the Moomins themselves, the Mymble, the whompers and creeps and fillyjonks, all words to savour across the lips.Apart from that, I found the stories dark and puzzling and quite moving. In 'The Spring Tune' Snufkin is interrupted in his solitary wanderings (he is trying to let a song come to him, "a new tune, one part expectation, two parts spring sadness, and for the rest, just the delight of walking alone and liking it") by a little creep (some kind of forest creature) whose chatter drags him back towards his obligations, and who then asks him for a great favour - a name of his own. Snufkin, eventually, reluctantly, diffidently, offers 'Teety-woo' - "a light beginning, sort of, and a little sadness to round it off." And thenThe little creep stared at him with yellow eyes in the firelight. It thought its name over, tasted it, listened to it, crawled inside it, and finally turned its snout up to the sky and softly howled its new name, so sadly and ecstatically than Snufkin felt a shiver along his back.'The Fillyjonk who believed in Disasters' is a small, fantastical, psychological study of a woman who is living a life that doesn't fit her properly, and chafing against it, breaking free in the only way she can - her imagination:Those storms of her own were the worst ones. And deep down in her heart the fillyjonk was just a little proud of her disasters that belonged to no one else.Gaffsie is a jackass, she thought. A silly woman with cakes and pillow-slips all over her mind. And she doesn't know a thing about flowers. And least of all about me. Now she's sitting at home thinking that I haven't ever experienced anything. I, who see the end of the world every day, and still I'm putting on my clothes, and taking them off again, and eating and washing-up the dishes and receiving visits, just as if nothing ever happened!Some of the stories are relatively straightforward - little Ninny, the girl who has become invisible out of neglect, and becomes visible again once enfolded in the Moomin family; the gentle satire of the Moomin's first Christmas.But it's 'The Secret of the Hattifatteners' that really sticks in my mind. Despite the ludicrous title, it strikes me as having strange similarities toMalory's Holy Grail - a journey undertaken not from choice but from some force of fate, of unhappy and bemusing travels, of fear and discovery (up until the last couple of pages, which gentle back down, without the tragedy of Malory).It's the opening of the story that really struck me:Once upon a time, rather long ago, it so happened that Moominpappa went away from the house without the least explanation and without even himself understanding why he had to go.Moominmamma said afterwards that he had seemed odd for quite a time, but probably he hadn't been odder than usual. That was just one of those things that one thinks up afterwards when one's bewildered and sad and wants the comfort of an explanation.That's not an opening that belongs in a whimsical children's book. That's the beginning to a hundred thousand children's stories about why someone who shouldn't have left did. I'm not sure now if I want to back-read more of Jansson's books, or if I want to move straight on to her adult books and savour the weirdness of this little collection a little longer.

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