Tico of the Seven Seas

 is a Japanese anime series by Nippon Animation. It is about an 11-year-old girl and her best friend Tico, a female orca.
Unlike the other series in Nippon Animation's "World Masterpiece Theater" line, "Tico of the Seven Seas" is an entirely original story. An English dub of the series, entitled "Tico & Friends", was produced by Ocean Studios. The dubbed series omits major character deaths and also edits out some violent, bloody and death scenes; one episode from the original version, which focuses on the aftermath of a major character death, is even omitted completely and replaced with a makeshift clip show episode (although some scenes from the omitted episode are included in the replacement).
Plot.
Nanami Simpson is a young Japanese-American girl. Having lost her mother when she was young, she now lives with her marine biologist father, Scott Simpson, on board his research vessel, the "Peperonchino". Scott has been in search of a creature known as the Luminous Whale, a whale that can glow brightly underwater, for many years and is determined to eventually see it and preserve its existence. Nanami also is close friends with an orca named Tico, who was rescued as a baby just before Nanami was born. The two have an unbreakable bond and swim with each other every day. As a result, Nanami gradually learns to hold her breath longer and swim deeper than other humans can.
Scott's search from the Luminous Whale soon puts him at odds with the Gaiatron Corporation, a greedy research conglomerate led by the ruthless and ambitious Adrienne Benex, who wishes to exploit the creature for a rare element it seemingly carries in its body. Aiding Benex are her right-hand man, Gaulois, and Dr. Charles LeConte, an old acquaintance of Scott's who is obsessed with the Luminous Whale.
Together, Nanami, Scott, and Tico, along with Scott's first-mate and right-hand man, Al Andretti, seek to locate the Luminous Whale before Benex and Gaiatron can. Over time, they are joined by a few new crew members:
As their journey goes on, the crew of "Peperonchino" encounter and make both new friends and enemies, and form bonds with each other, as they race against the corrupt Benex and Gaiatron to find the Luminous Whale first.
Music.
Opening Theme
Ending Theme


The Sands of Time (Hoeye novel)

The Sands of Time is a children's fantasy novel by Michael Hoeye. "The Sands of Time" is the second in the Hermux Tantamoq series beginning with "Time Stops for No Mouse", followed by "No Time Like Show Time", and "Time to Smell the Roses". In each one Hermux Tantamoq, mouse, watchmaker, and occasional detective, is the main character.
Plot summary.
At the beginning of the story, protagonist Hermux Tantamoq is approached by his father's friend, Birch Tentintrotter, to investigate whether the present-day rodent civilization was preceded, and its technology informed, by a feline civilization now obscured. Following an attempt by antagonist Hinkum Stepfitchler (the son of Birch's mentor) to discredit Birch's thesis, Hermux and pilot Linka Perflinger accompany Birch to the Western desert, where they confirm that the feline civilization existed, and that the rodent population were its slaves. They are thereupon captured by Hinkum Stepfitchler, who reveals that his family made their fortune by plagiarizing the cats' technology. In his subsequent absence, they escape, and expose his plan to the rodent society. Thereafter the ruined feline city is re-created at a rodents' museum, with all its artifacts, at a grand celebration.


Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends

Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends is an independently produced puppet show that has been cablecast weekly on cable TV in New York City since February 21, 1983. The show ran on public-access television cable TV channels on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Queens Public TV and aired online every Sunday afternoon over Pawpet Broadcasting Network.
The show is based in Rapid's home of New York City, and follows him and his friends both in town and around the country. In recent years the show has expanded to include Rapid as a mascot. Throughout the years, he has attended many events such as the Ocean City, New Jersey Doo-Dah Parade, the Long Island Ducks Mascot Day, 10 Cheesevention events for Chuck E. Cheese's and ShowBiz Pizza fans(from 2004 until 2013), and the New York City Easter Parade.
Richard Concepcion, the producer and puppeteer of Rapid T. Rabbit, died on August 1, 2017 in his apartment of natural causes.


Bugs in Love

Bugs in Love is a "Silly Symphonies" animated Disney short film. It was released in 1932, and was the final Symphony to be shot with black-and-white film.
Plot.
A carnival is made by insects out of garbage. The carnival includes a Ferris wheel made out of a bike tire and pedals, a "slide" made out of a pipe, and a record player "merry-go-rond".
Two love bugs are skating on a broken mirror when the female bug leaves to her house to freshen up. The male bug follows her.
While the two are courting, a crow flies by and spots the two bugs. Licking his lips, he sneaks closer to them. He starts chasing after the two bugs. The crow scares the male bug into a glass bottle and puts a cork on the bottle. The female bug runs into her home. The crow follows her, and chases her around the room while she tries to hide.
Meanwhile, the male bug escapes from the bottle he was trapped in and runs to save his lover. The male bug begins to fight the crow when another bug sees the battle. He warns all the other bugs at the carnival about the crow. The bugs stop what they are doing and together defeat the crow and save the couple.
Comic adaptations.
The "Silly Symphony" comic strip began on January 10, 1932 with a storyline about Bucky Bug, an original character inspired by "Bugs in Love". Bucky starred in the "Silly Symphony" strip until March 4, 1934.
In 1943, the anthology comic book "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" began publishing original full-length comic book stories, and the first new 10-page Bucky Bug story appeared in issue #39 (December 1943) -- "A Cure for Gout," by Al Taliaferro. Bucky's stories appeared monthly for the next six years, ending with issue #120 (September 1950). The stories were drawn by a number of artists, including Carl Buettner, Vivie Risto, Ralph Heimdahl and Tony Strobl.
Home media.
The short was released on December 19, 2006 on "".


Omba Mokomba

Omba Mokomba is a Disney television series exploring viewer questions about animals and wildlife. The series aptly describes itself as "The station for animal information!" The cast of the show includes three main characters: Mokomba (For whom the show is named after; Benjamin Brown), Candace, (show producer; Natasha Pearce), and Mr. Plunkett (a Capuchin monkey).


Nordy Bank (novel)

Nordy Bank is a children's adventure novel by Sheena Porter, published by Oxford in 1964 with illustrations by Annette Macarthur-Onslow. Set in the hills of Shropshire, it features children whose camping holiday seems to engage the prehistoric past. Porter won the annual Carnegie Medal for excellence in British children's literature.
Roy Publishers issued the first US edition in 1967, retaining the original illustrations.
Plot summary.
Six children plan a camping trip during the Easter holidays, deciding on Brown Clee Hill as it is out of the way of summer visitors. They set up camp on the top of the hill, which turns out to be the site of an Iron Age hill fort, Nordy Bank. Bronwen is particularly susceptible to the atmosphere of the place, and shows unexpected knowledge about its construction. Her personality begins to change, as from a quiet good-natured girl she becomes argumentative, then increasingly withdrawn and sullen. Bron is aware of the change and frightened by it. Her friend Margery believes she is possessed by the spirit of an Iron Age woman.
Meanwhile an Alsatian dog of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps escapes while on his way to retraining by the National Canine Defence League after being retired due to partial deafness. Being muzzled, he is unable to hunt and becomes increasingly hungry. When the dog appears lurking round the camp, the dog-loving Bron reacts with fear and hostility, calling him a wolf. However, his forlorn state eventually rouses her true self and she befriends him.
References to actual history and geography.
The novel is set primarily in a precisely described location, Nordy Bank on Brown Clee Hill in Shropshire. The surrounding countryside, the Shropshire Hills, the village of Clee St. Margaret, and the market town of Ludlow also feature prominently. (As of 2007 Porter lives in Ludlow.)
The ancient hill fort at Nordy Bank was designed for defence against men or wolves. The novel describes the differences between Roman, Iron Age and Stone Age camps on the site.
References to other works.
Margery and Bron quote from A. E. Housman's poem "The Welsh Marches" while looking at the surrounding landscape. The novel echoes the theme of the poem, the long history of warfare in the region, the "war that sleeps" in the land itself.
For reading in camp, Bron takes Rosemary Sutcliff's novel "Warrior Scarlet", about a boy in Bronze Age Britain whose test of manhood is the single-handed killing of a wolf. When the army dog first appears, she is reading aloud to the others a wolf attack on the boy's sheep.
Literary significance.
In "The Nesbit Tradition", Marcus Crouch calls "Nordy Bank" Sheena Porter's finest book. He describes the camping scenes as beautifully done, conveying a sense of adventure and good companionship, but he regards the novel as primarily concerned with the development of personality. "In "Nordy Bank" Sheena Porter shows how self-discovery can go hand-in-hand with the discovery of society. It is an effective lesson, the more so because the lesson is contained in an absorbing and dramatic story and the inner and outer themes are inseparable."
Porter and "Nordy Bank" won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for 1964, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.


Les Shadoks

Les Shadoks () is an animated television series created by French cartoonist Jacques Rouxel (26 February 1931 – 25 April 2004) which caused a sensation in France when it was first broadcast in 1968–1974.
The Shadoks were bird-like in appearance (in the tradition of cartoon birds they had beaks with teeth), were characterised by ruthlessness and stupidity and inhabited a two dimensional planet. This planet was of irregular shape, which was continuously changing - causing major earthquakes - hence their desire to find a new home world.
There was a series of caves on the Shadok planet, known as the "Gulp" which was essentially a prison for undesirables.
One Shadok who stood apart from the others was the pirate - who was habitually drunk - and instead of the popular hobby of putting ships into bottles - he liked to put bottles into his ship.
Another set of creatures in the Shadok canon are the Gibis, who are the opposite to the Shadoks in that they are intelligent but vulnerable and also inhabit a two-dimensional planet. The Gibis were polite, always greeted each other formally, and kept their brains inside their bowler hats. The Gibi planet was a flat disc, finely balanced that if one Gibi went to one end of the planet; another would have to go to the far end to keep the planet balanced. Thus, the Gibis also wanted to find a new home world.
Ultimately, both saw the Earth as their ideal home - and both began to construct rockets to reach it
The Shadoks were eventually able to leave their world thanks to the improved intelligence of one of their number; who happened to find a hat which one of the Gibis had lost.
Once both races reached Earth, much mayhem followed and they eventually realised it was not the ideal home they first thought.
Rouxel claims that the term Shadok obtains some derivation from Captain Haddock of Hergé's "The Adventures of Tintin" and the Gibis (who wear Bowler hats, which unlike their heads, contain their brains) are essentially GBs (Great Britons).
The Shadoks were a significant literary, cultural and philosophical phenomenon in France.
Even today, the French occasionally use satirical comparisons with the Shadoks for policies and attitudes that they consider absurd. The Shadoks were noted for mottos such as:
The Shadoks had five monosyllabic words in their language: "Ga", "Bu", "Zo", "Meu" and "Ni" (French spelling). But their brain had only four cells. So they could only remember the last four ones heard.
The Shadoks were also noted for their seemingly useless and endless pumping — as the Shadok say: "Better to pump even if nothing happens than to risk something worse happening by not pumping" and "When the Shadoks pumped, nothing happened; and the more they pumped, the more nothing happened."
In 1973, The Shadoks appeared on Thames Television, London's ITV company, in the early evening. Kenneth Robinson provided the narration in English. His narration to The Shadoks is very fondly remembered by those who heard it.


Rampage Puzzle Attack

Rampage Puzzle Attack is a puzzle game for Game Boy Advance, developed by Finnish development house Ninai Games and published by Midway Games.
The game is a clone of the puzzle game "Drop Mania" and based on the "Rampage" characters. At the beginning of the game, the three characters from the original game, George, Lizzie and Ralph, are available, but more characters who appeared in other games of the series can be unlocked through the Rescue mode. The characters appear on screen during the gameplay, climbing the side of the play arena or being caged at the bottom. The game uses password saves to track player progress.
It was the first console game to be developed in Finland.
Gameplay.
Gameplay-wise, the game is similar to Ninai's earlier games in the "Drop Mania" series and "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo".
The basic idea is that the player drops two colored blocks at a time to the playfield. The blocks then merge into contiguous areas. When the player drops a flashing "detoblock" of matching color to touch the area, the entire area is removed and scored. This can lead to chains and combos, and to higher scores.
The game includes a single- and two-player modes. The following modes are available in single-player:
Two-player modes include Rescue mode, Score mode (competition for higher score) and Attack mode.
Reception.
The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.


Shaun the Sheep (video game)

Shaun the Sheep is an adventure game developed by Art Co., Ltd and published by D3Publisher's America and Europe branches for the Nintendo DS handheld console. The game is based on the popular Aardman Animations series of the same name. The game was released on September 23, 2008 in the United States. In the game, Shaun must find and rescue the sheep before the farmer gets home.
Gameplay.
Shaun is controlled by the control pad or the stylus while walking, exploring or solving problems in a fully 3D area with 3D characters around. While most sheep are not difficult to find, some sheep, like Timmy or Shirley, require a minigame to be started in order to be rescued. Every time enough achievements are reached, new areas are unlocked to find more sheep.
Plot.
The sheep have escaped and Shaun must find the rest of the flock before the Farmer comes home. Gamers play as Shaun and interact with favorite characters such as Shirley, Timmy, Bitzer and more as they adventure through their favorite scenes and explore areas from the series like the junk pile, the sheep pool and the circus tent. Players utilize the DS touchscreen and microphone as they experience three different gameplay modes: Story Mode, Mini-game Mode and Collection Mode and maneuver around obstacles, access hidden areas, and try their hand at eight unlockable mini-games and eight collectible slide puzzles. Five “micro” games offer players more interactivity and depth by showcasing memorable moments from the show such as saving Timmy from the circus high wire or making a ball of wool to distract Pidsley the cat.


Battle at Big Rock

Battle at Big Rock is a 2019 American short film directed by Colin Trevorrow. It is part of the "Jurassic Park" franchise, and follows the events of " (2018). It stars André Holland, Natalie Martinez, Melody Hurd, and Pierson Salvador. On September 15, 2019, it premiered on FX and was subsequently released online.
Plot.
Set one year after the events of ", a blended family from Oakland, California goes on a camping trip at the fictional Big Rock National Park in Northern California, approximately from where dinosaurs from "Fallen Kingdom" were let loose. The film chronicles the first major confrontation between humans and the dinosaurs.
The family is enjoying their camping when they are suddenly greeted by a "Nasutoceratops" and her baby. To their terror, an adult "Allosaurus" attacks the "Nasutoceratops" baby and the mother tries to protect her baby. A battle ensues between the two dinosaurs and the family decide to hide inside their RV. Eventually, a third "Nasutoceratops" appears from the woods, driving back the "Allosaurus". The "Nasutoceratops" escape and the baby of the family starts crying. Hearing the cry, the "Allosaurus" starts wrecking the RV apart in order to feed on the family hiding inside. To their relief, the daughter shoots the "Allosaurus" in its head and eye with a crossbow, which causes the dinosaur to flee.
During the credits, found footage clips of dinosaurs and other creatures are shown; a pack of "Compsognathus" harmlessly chase after a scared little girl, a "Stegosaurus" causes a car to swerve and drive off a cliff, fishermen in a boat peacefully pass by a "Parasaurolophus" on the banks of a river, the "Mosasaurus" eats a great white shark after it eats a seal, and a "Pteranodon" swoops at a dove that had just been released at a wedding.
Production.
Development.
The idea for the film originated when Universal Studios asked Trevorrow if he would be interested in making a potential "Jurassic World" short film, and he accepted. Trevorrow wrote the short film with Emily Carmichael, who was already working with him to write "" (2022). The short film's story remained the same throughout the project's history, as Trevorrow believed the next logical step for the franchise would be for campers to encounter dinosaurs following the events of "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom".
To maintain secrecy on the project, no auditions or casting calls were held. A casting director who knew Trevorrow helped lead a secretive search for the child actors. The film marked Melody Hurd's acting debut. Trevorrow chose André Holland and Natalie Martinez as he admired their acting in other films.
Filming.
Filming took place in Ireland in January 2019. Filming locations included Powerscourt Estate. Ireland was chosen as redwood trees outside Dublin resembled national parks in northern California. Filming took place with a small crew over the course of five days. Larry Fong was the film's cinematographer. Much of the film was shot using a hand-held camera, as Trevorrow wanted to see if audiences would accept such a filmmaking style in a "Jurassic Park" film, which he later felt they did.
Industrial Light & Magic created CGI dinosaurs for the film, as well as reference maquettes, while John Rosengrant of Legacy Effects created an animatronic "Allosaurus". The film had a much smaller budget than the full films in the "Jurassic Park" franchise. Originally, the film was going to be shorter than eight minutes. After filming concluded, Trevorrow decided to add end-credit scenes depicting dinosaurs. Because he could not film any new scenes, he instead searched through YouTube videos that could be integrated into the film. The rights to each of the online videos were purchased for use in the short film, and dinosaurs were then added into the videos.
Music.
Amie Doherty composed the film's score. Doherty was contacted in October 2018 about composing "Battle at Big Rock". She met with Trevorrow in December 2018, and was chosen to compose the film. After filming concluded, Doherty's score changed slightly over the next four months as the film underwent editing. Doherty said the score was mainly tightened to fit in with the events depicted in the film. The musical recording process took place at Abbey Road Studios, where an 80-piece orchestra recorded the score in May 2019.
Release.
The short film was initially scheduled to accompany the theatrical release of Universal's "Hobbs & Shaw" in August 2019. On September 10, 2019, it was announced that the film would instead premiere on FX on September 15. Trevorrow was surprised at the amount of secrecy maintained on the project up until the announcement. Mattel had released toys for the film prior to its release, and a fan site had also learned of the film, but its existence otherwise remained largely unknown. After its television premiere, the short film was released online through YouTube, as well as JurassicWorld.com and the website for NBC.
Reception.
Critical response.
"Battle at Big Rock" received acclaim from critics and fans alike.
Stuart Heritage of "The Guardian" called it, "...by far the best in the ["Jurassic World"] series..." Julia Alexander of "The Verge" claimed, "[The film] has everything a "Jurassic Park" fan would want..."
Charles Pulliam-Moore of "io9" described it as "solid." Josh Millican of "Dread Central" described it as "...a tasty little treat..." Mike Reyes of "CinemaBlend" described it as "...a sight to see..."


Baree, Son of Kazan

Baree, Son of Kazan (1917) is an American novel by James Oliver Curwood. About a wild wolfdog pup who bonds with a girl living with her trapper father on the frontier, it is the sequel to "Kazan".
Plot.
"Baree, Son of Kazan" is a novel about a wild wolfdog pup sired by Kazan (1/4 wolf, 3/4 dog) and born of blind Greywolf (pure wolf). It explores Baree's survival after he is separated as a young pup from his parents. He eventually is cared for by Nepeese and her father Pierrot, a trapper.
He bonds with Nepeese, and the novel develops from there. James Oliver Curwood took the well-used "a boy and his dog" formula, and created a great adventure story about a girl and her dog. He used this theme of a strong heroine, rather than a male hero, in many of his stories.
Films.
The novel was adapted as a film, "Baree, Son of Kazan" (1918), starring Nell Shipman as Nepeese. In 1925 David Smith directed a revised film version by the same title, starring Anita Stewart.


Three Bags Full

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story (original German title: "Glennkill: Ein Schafskrimi") is 2005 novel by Leonie Swann. It is a detective story featuring a flock of anthropomorphic Irish sheep out to solve the murder of their shepherd. Written originally in German, the novel became an international bestseller, and has been translated into more than 30 languages.
Plot.
In the Irish village of Glenkill, George Glenn is a shepherd who is a loner, estranged from his wife, and is fond only of his sheep. Every day, after he lets them out to graze, he reads to them from romance adventure novels and textbooks on sheep diseases. At the start of the book, the sheep find George dead, pinned to the ground by a spade. The rattled sheep decide that they must find his killer. This turns into a difficult task, as sheep can’t talk to people; and though they understand the human conversations they listen in on, like the one between George’s widow Kate and Bible-basher Beth Jameson, they do not always understand the details. Not even the smartest of them, Miss Maple, Othello and Mopple the Whale, can understand the human's behaviour, and are particularly confused by the neighbourhood priest, though they conclude that his name is evidently God. They are afraid to confront suspects like butcher Abraham Rackham, and are suspicious but fearful of their new shepherd Gabriel O’Rourke, who is raising a flock of sheep for slaughter. And even after a series of providential discoveries and brainwaves reveals the answer to the mystery, they still have to figure out how to let the humans know.
List of human characters.
Below is a list of notable human characters and their roles. Contains plot details.
Themes.
Largely humorous in character, the novel displays a strong knowledge of sheep behavior, biology, husbandry and breeds (the merino and hebridean are present, among others). Using the perspective of the flock, Swann makes comedic jabs at human character and institutions.
Reception.
According to "Kirkus Reviews", the sheep characters outshine the human ones, and "the sustained tone of straight-faced wonderment is magical". "The Guardian" review praised Swann for "gnawing" and "wriggling" her way into a gap in the anthropomorphized animal detective novel, thereby succeeding to avoid hackneyed "gumshoe" tropes. "The Independent", in a rave review, found the sheep to be a successful and appealing parable for humanity, and concluded that the book has "charm without whimsy, and is touching without being sentimental". Publishers Weekly called Three Bags Full "refreshingly original", and observed that Swann's "sheep's-eye view and the animals' literal translation of the strange words and deeds of the human species not only create laugh-out-loud humor but also allow the animals occasional flashes of accidental brilliance".


Farmyard Symphony (film)

Farmyard Symphony is a 1938 Silly Symphonies animated short film. It can be seen as a precursor to "Fantasia" due to using various pieces of classical music in one short. The film was directed by Jack Cutting and produced by Walt Disney.
An adaptation of the short was featured in the "Silly Symphony" comic strip over six weeks, from October 23 to November 27, 1938, around the time of the film's theatrical release. While the short doesn't have much of a story, the comic adaptation expands on a running gag involving a piglet looking for food, giving one of the piglets distinctive markings and a name (Spotty), and turns the gag into a short narrative. Spotty Pig also appeared in a nine-page story in the "Silly Symphonies" comic book issue #2 (1953).
Plot.
Set to various classical pieces, the animals of a farmyard go about their daily business. The highlight is a rooster wooing a white hen, with the other animals joining in until they hear a sound more welcoming to them: the call of feeding time.
Pieces included.
In order of appearance, the film includes the following pieces and arias.
In addition to the above pieces, the film features a few excerpts adapted by Leigh Harline from traditional tunes (such as the one to which "Chick, chick, chick, chick..." is sung by the peasant woman), as well as original orchestral passages of his, which have no classical source.
Home media.
The short was released on December 4, 2001 on "", as an Easter egg in the "Accent on Music" section. It is also a bonus on the "Make Mine Music" DVD.


Tunnel Through Time

Tunnel Through Time is a 1966 science fiction novel written by Paul W. Fairman under American science fiction and fantasy author Lester Del Rey's byline. It is a children's time travel adventure.
Plot summary.
The novel tells the story of a teen named Bob Miller whose scientist father, Sam Miller, has invented a "time ring," a circular device that allows time travel. Bob and his friend Pete travel through time in search of Pete's father ("Doc Tom," a paleontologist) who has disappeared while traveling alone. Beginning in the Mesozoic Era (Tom's planned destination), the story depicts various adventures while the travelers jump from point to point in Earth's prehistory in search of the missing scientist, and their attempt to get home again.
Literary significance and reception.
This book was used in many elementary and middle school classrooms for reading and literature classes, and gained a notable popularity with its straightforward but dramatic writing style.
Publishing history.
The book was originally published in hardcover by the Westminster Press in May 1966 and in paperback by Scholastic Inc. It was reprinted several times, most recently in 1974.


The Wireless Wire-Walkers

The Wireless Wire-Walkers, also released as Wireless Wire Walker, is a 1921 silent animated film starring Krazy Kat. The film marks the final Krazy Kat film produced by Bray Studios before the filmmakers moved to Winkler Pictures.
Plot.
Krazy opens a pair of umbrellas for some reason. Momentarily, his buddy, a weasel, shows up holding some balloons. Krazy takes the balloons, and places them under the umbrellas.
Krazy and the weasel later put up an acrobatic show where hundreds of spectators come to watch. Their act involves a wire attached to two poles. The weasel is first to go on the wire, and performs well. Krazy also goes on the wire, and performs good too.
Krazy and the weasel attempt to do a wireless act as Krazy takes out the wire. The two performers then brought their umbrellas with balloons underneath. The weasel is again first to perform and manages to walk around as if there's a wire on the poles. But before Krazy could perform also, the balloons under both umbrellas burst. This infuriates the audience who start chasing them. The chase continues until everyone runs off an edge and falls into a canyon.


Sonic Riders

 is a 2006 racing video game for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in which the player controls characters from the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series on hoverboards. In the game's 16 tracks, the player competes against characters—either controlled by computers or other players—in story and battle modes. It was developed by Sonic Team and Now Production, published by Sega, and released in February 2006 in Japan and North America. It was released in Europe the following month and for Windows at the end of the year. A Game Boy Advance version, developed by Backbone Entertainment, was canceled.
The game was produced in commemoration of the "Sonic" series' 15th anniversary and was the first "Sonic" racing game since the 1997 Traveller's Tales game "Sonic R". Sonic Team wanted to make their own game that was superior to any previous "Sonic" racing game. It was designed to appeal to fans of "Sonic" and extreme sports video games; the development team did not take inspiration from any prior games. "Sonic Riders" was also the last "Sonic" title produced with the involvement of Yuji Naka, who left Sega shortly after its release.
"Sonic Riders" was released to mixed reviews but was a commercial success and was later re-released under the GameCube and PlayStation 2 bestseller lines. Reviewers criticized its gameplay, controls, and overall design; some praise was directed at the visual style and the sense of speed while racing. Overall, they deemed it a lackluster game—both within the "Sonic" franchise and the racing game medium—that had its highlights but ultimately fell to its shortcomings. Despite the mixed reviews, two sequels, "" (2008) and "Sonic Free Riders" (2010), were developed and released.
Gameplay.
"Sonic Riders" is based around characters racing each other using devices known as "Extreme Gear", anti-gravity-equipped vehicles consisting of hover boards, hover skates, and hover bikes. Players compete to finish three laps around a racetrack before their opponents and complete the race in first place. Each race features up to eight characters competing. A key component of gameplay is the air tank, displayed in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Air serves as the fuel for Extreme Gear, and is depleted gradually as the race goes on. Characters can also perform a Boost, which will give them a sudden burst of speed at the cost of a significant amount of air. If a player boosts into an opponent, their character will attack and stun the opponent for a brief period. Air is also more quickly spent using techniques like cornering, which allows the player to round sharp turns with ease, and building tension before a jump, which involves using the air to propel the player higher off of ramps. If a player runs out of air, their character will start running on foot; this prevents them from boosting, attacking, cornering easily or using charged jumps. Players can refill their air by performing tricks when jumping off ramps or off opponents' slipstream, with higher-rated tricks sequences restoring more air. Players can also collect rings scattered across the track; collecting a certain number of rings will cause their character to level up for the remainder of the race, increasing the strength of their attacks and extending their maximum air capacity.
"Sonic Riders" features 16 playable characters, including guest characters from "Nights into Dreams", "Space Channel 5", and "Super Monkey Ball". Each individual character has different statistics, altering their performance slightly in races, though some characters are restricted from using certain types of Extreme Gear. Characters are divided into one of three classes, each with different abilities: Speed characters can grind on rails, Power characters can break certain objects, and Fly characters can fly through boost rings. Each race track features multiple shortcuts that can only be accessed by characters of a specific class. Players can spend the rings they acquire at the in-game shop to purchase new Extreme Gear, each of which possesses unique statistics and properties. The game includes eight unique areas, each with two track variants, for a total of 16 tracks. Only five tracks are accessible from the start; the remainder are unlocked through progression in the game's story mode and by winning Gold in both the World Grand Prix tournaments, in which players race through five consecutive tracks and attempt to get the highest overall score.
The game's Story Mode is divided into two campaigns, whose events intersect with one another: The "Heroes" story, focusing on Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles; and the "Babylon" story, focusing on the Babylon Rogues, consisting of new characters Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, and Storm the Albatross. In each campaign, players take part in consecutive races with predetermined characters, and must take first place in each race to continue the story. Completing the Heroes campaign unlocks the Babylon campaign, which includes an epilogue in which the two stories converge. The game also features a Mission Mode with 100 missions to complete, each of which tasks the players with completing a specific objective within a time limit, such as collecting objects on the track or destroying a certain number of obstacles. Completing each mission awards players a bronze, silver, or gold medal based on their performance; by completing missions, players can unlock new characters and special Extreme Gear. Up to four players can also compete in the game's single race and battle modes.
Plot.
Jet, leader of the thieving Babylon Rogues, observes the Key to Babylon Garden, an artifact and family heirloom said to unlock the secrets of their Babylonian ancestors. Doctor Eggman arrives and claims he can use the Chaos Emeralds to make Babylon Garden rise, asking for the Rogues' help in retrieving them. The Rogues agree and steal an Emerald, but run into Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, who are also looking for the Emerald. Sonic gives chase, but Jet escapes with the Emerald. The next day, the three heroes see Eggman on a digital billboard advertising an Extreme Gear race known as the World Grand Prix, with the Chaos Emeralds offered as the grand prize. When they realize that the Rogues are participating, Sonic and his friends enter as well.
Team Sonic, joined by Amy Rose, compete with the Rogues in several races. During the final race, Wave sabotages Sonic's board, allowing Jet to defeat Sonic and win the Grand Prix. Jet uses the Chaos Emeralds to make Babylon Garden appear, hoping to discover the legendary treasure of the Babylonians. Eggman steals the Key from Jet, intent on taking the treasure for himself, and heads for the garden, with Amy grabbing Eggman's ship in an attempt to stop him. Sonic grabs a new board and pursues Eggman, but Jet challenges him to another race, seeking to defeat Eggman first. The two arrive at Babylon Garden and find Eggman, who is holding Amy hostage. Combining their powers, Jet and Sonic manage to retrieve Amy and the Key.
Jet uses the Key to open a secret door, leading the Rogues inside a Babylonian ruin. Team Sonic follow them inside, where they encounter the Babylon Guardian, a giant creature tasked with protecting the treasure. The two teams defeat the Guardian, causing a chest to appear. Eggman returns and demands they give him the treasure, but passes out in confusion upon discovering the treasure is only a carpet. Using the Key, Jet manages to make the carpet fly, revealing that the magic carpet is an early form of Extreme Gear. Team Sonic and the Babylon Rogues go their separate ways, with Jet promising to race Sonic again one day.
Development.
"Sonic Riders" was developed by Sonic Team and Now Production for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Windows, and Xbox in commemoration of the "Sonic" series' 15th anniversary. The game was directed by Kenjiro Morimoto and produced by Takashi Yuda. Series co-creator Yuji Naka served as executive producer. "Sonic Riders" was the last "Sonic" game that Naka was involved with; he resigned to form his own company, Prope, shortly after its release to focus on original games. Yuda said Naka provided input at the beginning of development and additional advice as the game progressed. The game runs at 60 frames per second, and features a 2D animated opening cutscene produced by Production I.G and directed by Kazuto Nakazawa, as well as CG-animated cutscenes by Blur Studio.
The game was the series' first racing game since Travellers' Tales developed "Sonic R" in 1997. According to Yuda, in the years after "Sonic R"s release, Sonic Team received many requests from fans for another "Sonic" racer. Though he played and enjoyed "Sonic R", Yuda believed Sonic Team, "who knows Sonic best", should make another game that was superior to any previous "Sonic" racing game. Yuda also did not want to make a conventional racing game, instead desiring a dynamic, unique style of gameplay that would allow the player to perform tricks. Being able to do this in a car was illogical; Sonic Team noted that surfing and snowboarding were more flexible. As the concept had a heavy emphasis on air, hoverboards were chosen since they could work in any environment and still be fun to use.
"Sonic Riders" was primarily designed to appeal to fans of "Sonic" and extreme sports games, while the multiplayer modes were included for casual gamers. Yuda has said Sonic Team did not take any influences from prior "Sonic" games, reasoning they wanted to create a truly new experience that was unlike anything else from other "Sonic" games. The characters were chosen based on how relevant to the game's story they would be. The game's antagonists, the Babylon Rogues, were created because Sonic Team wanted to include "Air Pirates" as Sonic's rivals. Yuda considered them best-suited for "Sonic" series racing games, and noted "Sonic "characters are usually designed with one specific storyline in mind. Levels were designed to be "crazy" but still feature classic "Sonic" elements.
The score was composed by Tomonori Sawada, Fumie Kumatani, and Kenichi Tokoi. Two vocal themes were written for the game and performed by the artist Runblebee, "Sonic Speed Riders" (written by Sawada) and "Catch Me If You Can" (written by Runblebee). Yuda said the music was written to be "fast paced and give you that heart pounding feeling you should have during a high-speed race". A soundtrack album, "Sonic Riders Original Soundtrack "Speedbeats Grand Prix"", was released in March 2006.
"Sonic Riders" was announced in the September 2005 issue of "Famitsu", before being showcased at the Tokyo Game Show later that month. The console versions were released in North America on February 21, 2006, Japan on February 23, 2006, Europe on March 17, 2006, and Australia on March 23, 2006. The Windows version was released in late 2006. A Game Boy Advance (GBA) version was developed by Backbone Entertainment but never released. According to artist Keith Erickson, it used an "Out Run"-style game engine and was supposed to launch at the same time as the other versions. Sega of Japan learned of this version and requested that Backbone add more 3D elements but keep it on the same production schedule. This would have required the engine to be completely rewritten, something Backbone considered impossible, so Sega canceled it.
Reception.
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, "Sonic Riders" received "mixed or average" reviews. Throughout 2006, the game sold 930,000 copies. The GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions were later branded as part of the Player's Choice and Greatest Hits budget lines, indicating strong sales.
The game's presentation received mixed reactions from reviewers. "GameSpot" thought the visuals were well-produced and praised the brightly colored levels and character models, but noted frame rate drops and thought the environments looked "kind of drab and muddy" when the gameplay slowed down. "GameSpy" agreed and cited the graphics as one of the best parts of the game. "IGN" was more conflicted: they praised the graphical effects and backgrounds, but were critical of the blocky geometry and blurry textures and thought it was not as pretty as competing games. "Nintendo World Report" ("NWR") also called the graphics inconsistent. Of the game's music, "IGN" and "GameSpot" agreed it was just generic "Sonic" melodies, but "IGN" wrote the game had "a few surprisingly ambient and worldly tracks that ... better fit with the themes of the different locales." "NWR" called the soundtrack fitting.
Reviewers criticized or had little praise for the core gameplay and controls. "GamesRadar+" derided the loose, floaty physics engine, writing it caused cheap deaths. "Eurogamer" thought the premise showed promise and worked well as races started, but found it ultimately became messy, complicated, and convoluted. "IGN" lamented that the game was "neither a full-fledged racer or an engaging snowboarder, but a shallow compromise of both." They also found the hoverboards were technically pointless when considering that Sonic is fast on his own. "GameSpy" described the gameplay design of racing, attacking opponents, and performing tricks as inconsistent: "Most games quickly prioritize these actions for you based on results," they wrote, "but "Sonic Riders" seems to yield similar results no matter what".
Still, the game's sense of speed was generally praised. "IGN" wrote "Sonic Team has done a solid job of delivering on speed and anarchy" and cited the pace as making races unpredictable and fun. "GameSpot" agreed and described the turbulence-riding as inventive. "Eurogamer" thought the speed was exciting and wrote it reminded them of the original Sega Genesis "Sonic" games. "GamePro" was more critical, agreeing with "Eurogamer" the speed was exciting but feeling that it made the game feel "more like a surreal rollercoaster ride than a game". Difficulty maintaining speed was noted by many reviewers. "GamesRadar+" called it "almost impossible... Clipping a corner or bumping into a wall can bring your 200mph screamfest to a complete halt", and "Eurogamer" wrote it was the game's biggest flaw. The pitstop system was especially criticized; "GameSpy" wrote it made no sense for a "Sonic" game, and "GameSpot" said it sucked the fun out of "Sonic Riders".
Overall, reviewers deemed "Sonic Riders" an average entry in the "Sonic" franchise. "IGN" believed it was an improvement from the series' previous game "Shadow the Hedgehog" and would be fun for "Sonic" fans, but was nonetheless found its design choices questionable and felt it simply existed to cash in on the popularity of snowboarding game franchises like "SSX". "GameSpot" said the game was occasionally entertaining but suffered from lackluster gameplay, and "GamesRadar+" thought it proved that the once iconic "Sonic" franchise "has now become a dumping ground for half-baked games."
Sequels.
A sequel to "Sonic Riders", titled "", was released in 2008 for the Wii and PlayStation 2. A third title, "Sonic Free Riders", developed by O-Two, was released as a launch title for the Xbox 360's Kinect peripheral on November 4, 2010.


Attack of the Sabretooth

Attack of the Sabretooth is a 2005 American made-for-television horror film directed by George T. Miller and starring Robert Carradine, Nicholas Bell, Brian Wimmer, and Stacy Haiduk. It was filmed on location in Fiji Islands and premiered on the Sci Fi Channel on July 14, 2005.
Niles, a multimillionaire, creates a new resort and theme park on an island in Fiji that features genetically-engineered sabre-tooth cats. He brings a huge group of investors, and a group of student tourists to the island to show off his creation, only to have a power failure result in the cats getting loose. The students and the park personnel try to avoid the bloodthirsty cats as they munch their way through every human in sight.
Plot.
On a remote island, a Primal Park security guard enters a locked restricted area, where a sabre-tooth cat kills him. As Alan performs an inspection, Niles takes his ex-brother-in-law Grant and Autumn to a hotel where other investors are waiting. Security guards Savannah and Sundip ignore an alert on a gate, but Alan insists on checking it. College students Kirk, Alaina, Robbie, Alys, and Collette arrive to complete a scavenger hunt, and Niles takes them to the hotel.
After reporting an open gate, Alan finds the dead guard, and a sabretooth kills him. Sundip radios Savannah to let her know about the breach. As the students break into a shopping center complex, Savannah learns the cats have not returned to their pens. After Niles' pitch to investors, Savannah recommends to him they shut down the park, but he refuses. Kirk and Robbie set off an alarm. When Robbie and Alys hack into the computer system to turn it off, they accidentally release all the sabretooths. Sundip discovers the dead guards, but is unable to contact Savannah because the security system is down. A sabretooth kills him as he hunts it.
The students split up to find their objects. Savannah and Brian discover the power is out and the cats have free run of the island. Brian meets up with Sachariah in the park area, where Sachariah lets him know he was able to get the cats back in their pens. As the students locate their objects, Brian and Savannah fail to get the system back up. Niles takes Grant and the other investors to the shopping area, and the students split up to avoid being caught.
As Brian works on the main switch board, a sabretooth kills Alaina. Robbie hears her screams, runs to help, but is too late; he flees to the lab. Sachariah tells Savannah the cats are loose because of the power failure, and she decides to kill them despite Sachariah's objections. Brian finds Alys and Collette, who tell him there are two more kids to find.
When Autumn complains of feeling ill, Niles takes her and Grant to his office. Niles reveals to Grant the planned zoo will feature a mated pair of nearly 800 lbs sabretooth cats, but Niles refuses to allow Grant, who doubts he has the cats, to invest. Once Niles leaves, Autumn cracks his safe and steals his research. Brian and the girls arrive in the lab and find Robbie. Savannah finally reaches Brian on the radio, but the transmissions are too garbled to understand. While Brian leads the students to safety, they run into the female sabretooth. After hiding the students in a nearby room, Brian uses himself as bait, lures the cat into the lab, and kills it via an explosion. Brian tells the students there is another, larger male still on the loose.
As Kirk and a drunk investor make out, the male sabretooth tiger kills her; Kirk runs off. Brian and the kids run into Sachariah, who reveals there are three cats total, not two. The third one, which Niles kept secret, is one ton and can only move around by dragging itself. He also reveals that all three cats are bulimic, which means they must constantly eat. When Savannah tells Niles about Alaina's death, he blows it off, and she leaves angrily. Back in the complex, Robbie offers to fix the system if they can get to the control center. Niles orders Brian to find and save the cats, but Brian refuses.
The male sabretooth kills Kirk before Brian shoots it. As Robbie fixes the system, the male cat kills Sacharaiah. Savannah warns the investors to leave. In the park, a cat kills Grant, but Autumn does not notice. As Brian tracks the male's blood trail, Savannah finds the deformed cat. Niles attacks her, but he flees when the cat approaches, only to be accidentally killed by a sabretooth cat model. Savannah kills the deformed cat as Brian arrives. He tells her he shot the other cat and that it probably crawled off to die. They get the students and leave, while the male cat kills Autumn.
Reception.
Jon Condit of Dread Central rated the film 2/5 stars and wrote, "Repulsively dumb characters, insipid dialogue, surprisingly gory death scenes, not so surprisingly terrible special effects, but at least it moves at a reasonably brisk pace and has a few mildly entertaining moments."


All a Bir-r-r-d

All a Bir-r-r-d is a 1950 Warner Bros. "Looney Tunes" cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. It was written by Tedd Pierce and directed by Isadore "Friz" Freleng. The short was released on June 24, 1950, and stars Sylvester, Tweety and an unnamed bulldog, who would later become known as Hector the Bulldog.
The title is an adaptation of the familiar train conductor's call, "All aboard!" The instrumental theme used to underscore the motion of the train is "".
Plot.
In the opening scene, a train pulls into the station in a town called Gower Gulch, where Tweety's owner says goodbye to him and entrusts him to the care of a conductor in the baggage car.
Tweety then notices Sylvester in the cage. Sylvester then opens the small door of his carrier and extends his paw to tap on the door of Tweety's cage. Tweety answers, and as Sylvester tries to grab him, the vigilant conductor swats his paw with a cane. The conductor hangs Tweety's cage on a hook in the ceiling to keep him safe and sound and warns Sylvester to behave.
As soon as the conductor leaves the car, Sylvester proceeds to stack various articles of baggage to reach Tweety's cage. When Sylvester tries to grab Tweety again, Tweety finds the emergency cord, and pulls it, which causes the train to screech to an instant halt and sends poor Sylvester sailing through the air across several passenger cars, until he lands in the engine's furnace with the tender behind it. Sylvester quickly leaps out the firebox and runs back to the baggage car, and as he angrily stalks Tweety, Tweety pulls the cord again, and restarts the train, but sends Sylvester through the air into a garbage can lid that Tweety hides. Sylvester starts chasing Tweety, but is stopped by the conductor, who interrupts the chase and orders Sylvester back into his cage.
In the next scene, Sylvester is in his cage next to a bulldog, who starts growling at him. Annoyed, Sylvester shouts "Aaaaaaah, shut up!" and whacks the bulldog with an umbrella, but is still with Hector growling at him, and yells "Aaaaaaah, shut your big yap, or I'll let you have another". At that moment, the train is approaching an incline and as it ascends, Sylvester slides into the bulldog, who punches him and sends him into the wall. When Sylvester slides back down, the train continues to climb, and sends the bulldog punching the poor cat again. In one occasion, Sylvester mutters "Mother,". As Sylvester starts sliding down yet again, the train starts moving down the incline, sending Sylvester sliding back to the wall and making him think he is safe, until he sees the bulldog sliding down toward him with fist extended to punch him again, which allows Tweety to say, "Poor puddytat!"
Sylvester makes another attempt at stacking the baggage to reach Tweety. Tweety reaches for the emergency cord again, only to see that it has been cut and that Sylvester is holding it. Tweety pulls it anyway, and again sends Sylvester flying through the air, until he nearly lands in the engine's furnace again. Sylvester comes back and snatches Tweety, but when he hears the conductor's footsteps, he stuffs Tweety into a mailbag and leaves it on a hook alongside the track. Sylvester smiles sheepishly as the conductor walks by, then dashes to the observation car to grab the mailbag. He reaches inside and instead of Tweety finds the bulldog, who immediately chases him away.
As Tweety is swinging inside his cage, Sylvester saws a hole in the roof and again finds the bulldog, instead of Tweety, who starts pursuing Sylvester atop the train. Sylvester momentarily eludes the bulldog by ducking into a space between two passenger cars, then both start running in the opposite direction. As Sylvester prepares to knock the bulldog out with a club, the train heads into a tunnel, slamming Sylvester in the face into the bridge above it (This attempt was later used again in Half Fare Hare with Bugs, Ralph and Ed.)
The train finally returns to Gower Gulch station, where Sylvester, disguised as Tweety's "mommy", gets out of a taxi and rushes to the baggage car to claim him. The conductor hands him the cage, which is covered, and Sylvester hurries back to the taxi with the cage. As the taxi drives away, Sylvester uncovers the cage, it was revealed that the bulldog is inside the cage instead of Tweety! The taxi pauses at a mile marker post, and the bulldog rips it out and pummels Sylvester with it as the taxi speeds along the road. As Tweety (everyone forgot it) observes this from the caboose of the train, he sadly says, "Uh-oh, da puddytat's dot anudda pwaymate! It's donna be awfwy wonesome fwom here to Pasadena."


Dragon Fighter

Dragon Fighter is a Sci Fi Pictures original film that premiered on January 4, 2003 and was directed by Phillip J. Roth. It stars Dean Cain and Kristine Byers.
Plot.
The movie begins in Southern England in the Middle Ages and then six knights are seen riding in horses towards a destroyed town. They see the remains of burned buildings and dead people until they come upon a mother and her dead baby. She quickly dies and then a rhino-sized dragon flies overhead, the knights follow right behind, vowing to kill the creature. The six knights arrive at the dragon's lair, where they see skeletons of horses and people (the dragon's past victims), suddenly the dragon surprises them by shooting fireballs at them. The knights divide up into loose groups, carrying with them barrels of gunpowder and hide, then two knights appear and fire flaming arrows at the dragon but they miss and the dragon torches one of the knights with its fire breath. The other knights then attack, but the dragon dodges their arrows and shoots a fireball at the gunpowder barrels, which causes them to explode. This causes a cave in that traps the dragon and the knights inside, with only one knight managing to escape, who then moves on.
1,000 years later in the nearby desert of California, Captain David Carver (Dean Cain) transports Dr. Ian Drakovitch, who is carrying a suitcase, to an ultra secret underground research facility, where the scientists in it specialize in cloning endangered or extinct animals. David asks if there are top secret items in the suitcase, which surprises Dr. Drakovitch, but he admits that David is correct. The helicopter, which the men are riding in, develops fuel problems but David safely manages to land the craft.
He is then lead into the facility, where he is assigned as the new security officer and is introduced by Captain Sergei Petrov (Hristo Shopov) (a Russian security officer) to all the other people including Dr. Meredith Winter, Dr. Greg Travis, Kevin Korisch and Bailey Kent. He is also introduced to Cookie (a deaf man and the cook of the facility) and then after finding his room, David heads into the meeting room where Dr. Ian discusses what he found in a cave in Southern England. He says that he collected the remains of a strange "winged dinosaur" and that they were found alongside human remains and also that they are over 1,000 years old. The other people don't believe this, saying that the remains are too young to be that of a dinosaur's, but David suggests that the remains are those of a dragon's. This agitates Dr. Drakovitch but the other guys laugh at the possibility of this. David heads outside to try to fix the helicopter but is coaxed by Dr. Winter to head inside to see the cloning process. Dr. Ian then orders the fossil samples to be cloned by two unnamed scientists in hazmat suits inside a cloning chamber and says that the whole animal should be reformed within 24 hours.
However, to everyone's surprise, the cloning process is completed within 3 hours, much shorter than originally planned. This worries David and he tells Greg to get him some weapons but there are only shotguns and pistols with both regular and tranquilizer shots. Dr. Ian sends the two scientists into the cloning chamber to retrieve the specimen but there is an explosion in it, which blows the whole room apart. David gets worried and tries to go in but is blocked by Dr. Ian, who tells him not to go in there so that he doesn't contaminate the specimen. David orders him to get out of the way and open the door or he will shoot the hell out of him. This works and when they go in, they found the whole room destroyed and that the creature blew a hole in the back of the room leading into an underground basement. Dr. Ian orders the creature to be only subdued not killed and both David and Greg head into the basement, directed by Dr. Winter from inside the lab. They later find the consumed bodies of the two scientists.
Suddenly Winter picks up something big heading towards the men on her radar but it is having interference with the radar, Greg and David get separated and now the thing in the radar heads for Greg. Suddenly Greg is ambushed and killed by the dragon, David heads for his rescue but is too late and instead finds the dragon eating Greg. David loads his shotgun with the regular shots and fires at the dragon but the dragon's skin is too tough and barely has any effect on it. This makes it only mad and the dragon breathes fire at David, who quickly dodges it and runs away with the winged reptile on hot pursuit. He heads back into the lab and is almost fried by the dragon, he then orders the others to open the door but Ian refuses. Capt Sergei orders the scientist to open the door or he will shoot him, he finally does and lets David in. Both he and Sergei then head into the hallways to reach the elevator so they can all escape but the back hallway explodes, killing Sergei.
The dragon blasts its way out from the basement and David runs back into the lab, Dr. Winter then tells that the dragon has blasted the entire system, causing an automatic lockdown and trapping them. Bailey tells everybody that the dragon is getting hungry and that it will wander around to search for food and a nest, it is also warm-blooded (much like the dinosaurs) and that it needs to keep itself cool, so the scientists have to revert the cooling system to a different spot in the facility to lure the dragon away from the elevator. To do this, they need a laptop, which is in Kevin's room, so David orders Kevin to come with him because he is the only one who can open it, at first he refuses to go but after being threatened by David, he agrees to go with him. They finally make it into his room but Kevin then insists that he wants to stay, David leaves him (calling him a stupid-ass idiot), grabs the laptop and heads out. Kevin plays some music, which attracts the dragon towards David, who shoots at it and barely escapes back through a vent. The dragon then slams the side of Kevin's room; he gets angry and opens the door, but sees nothing. He then hears something outside again and hits the door switch with a baseball bat. He finds the dragon there, which quickly kills and eats him.
David heads back into the lab with the laptop but it is slightly damaged, they download the information needed to gain access to the elevator into the main computer but Dr. Ian goes mad and starts shooting the mainframe, causing it to get screwed up even more. Also the damaged mainframe activates a self-destruct system, which will cause the entire facility to explode in minutes. David then has to head back into the vent to reach a storage box so he can reboot the elevator's system manually (he also finds out that Cookie isn't really deaf but pretended to be so he could get a job) but the dragon comes back and attacks him with its fire breath. David manages to escape and heads for the storage box and successfully manages to reboot the system but is then ambushed again by the dragon, David fires a couple of shots at the dragon and heads into Dr. Ian's room where he discovers evidence that the doctor had known that the fossil was a dragon all this time and he finds pictures and books of dragons and a sword. David heads back to the lab and gets the remaining people to head for the elevator before the entire base explodes.
They head into the elevator but the dragon heads back and fries the elevator's wires with its fire breath, preventing it from moving up. Now the survivors have to climb out from inside the elevator but the dragon rams itself into the door, trying to get inside. David throws Bailey a pistol, which she then uses to attack the dragon but has no effect on the creature. Bailey runs out of bullets and asks David for some more but the elevator's door opens up and the dragon quickly breathes fire into the elevator, killing both Bailey and Cookie. Dr. Ian, David and Dr. Winter and her pet cloned dog head outside and start up the helicopter, just before the whole facility explodes. However the dragon manages to escape by squeezing through the elevator vent, climbing outside and flies after the helicopter. The dragon then attacks the helicopter by slamming into it and breathing fire at it, David tries to shake off the dragon but it keeps coming. He calls for backup at a nearby military base and Dr. Ian opens the side door of the helicopter to take some pictures of the dragon but it comes near and knocks him out of the helicopter, causing him to fall to his death.
Finally five F-16 Fighting Falcons come to the rescue but it is found out that they can't lock on the dragon because it is too cold for their heat-seeking missiles so instead they try to repeatedly ram into it. The dragon gets mad, turns around and fires a fireball at one jetplane, blowing it apart and causing it to slam into another jetplane, destroying them both. The dragon keeps following the helicopter at hot pursuit and the craft is about to malfunction, thanks to the earlier problems with it, David figures that it is heading for the nearby city and that they got to keep it away from there. He orders the F-16's to fire a missile anyway but it misses the dragon, he then has an idea and tells Dr. Winter to take control of the helicopter. He opens up the fuel hatch and dumps half the fuel on the dragon, he then fires a flare gun at it, causing it to burst into flames. With a target hot enough to fire upon, the jets fire a missile at the dragon, which kills it, David's helicopter begins to fall down to the ground and after a rough landing, David, Winter and the cloned dog make it out alright, the two have a cheesy moment and plan on going out for dinner. Back at the destroyed facility, two soldiers head in to investigate and retrieve anything from the explosion, they discover a second lab under the first one and a cloning chamber housing a dragon embryo, which quickly grows in size, breaks out of the chamber and kills the two soldiers.
Cast.
Bio Dragon.
While there is no official name some fans refer to the monster as Bio Dragon; another name occasionally used to refer the creature is the "Genetic Dragon".
The monster was roughly 30 feet (about half that was its long counterbalancing tail) long, 6 feet tall when moving at speed, and nearly double that when fully erect as if to breathe fire or otherwise. It moved in a traditional theropodian stance with its long, dexterous arms folded and held near, but not to, its chest; the wings stayed tight to its back when not in use. The dragon had the typical horns and spines of dragonkind, but weren't too elaborate in design or size. The dragon was a stony grey-black color. It was obviously carnivorous and, as stated in the film, warm-blooded. Its endothermic nature combined with breathing out fire was its only serious fault because it needed to stay in cooler areas to keep from suffering from heat stroke or exhaustion, so it kept near the air conditioning vents in the facility. This would also explain why the reptile was living in England in the Middle Ages, a relatively cold place. Like any other dragon, it can breathe a napalm-like stream of fire, fly/glide and condense the flames into somewhat explosive fireballs with the added addition of having tightly interlocked armored scales that is sturdy enough to withstand many bullet shots, even a shotgun couldn't breach the scaly skin of the flying reptile. It could, however, be destroyed by ordinary missiles from fighter jets like any real animal. Sound effects included some unique hisses and snarls, along with the generic monster effects used in many films of the genre.


Chuck Chicken

Chuck Chicken (Kung Fu Chicken in China) is a Flash animated television series created by Animasia Studios. The story takes place on a bird-filled island of Rocky Perch, and tells the story of Chuck who turns into "Kung Fu Chicken", providing Kung Fu style security and protection to the citizens of the island. When Chuck inherits a very special amulet in the shape of a golden egg with amazing powers, he uses it to defeat evil to protect the island.
The show has 52 episodes and is in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia, and Thai. Originally 52 episodes were released in 2010 with 11 minutes each for Season 1. Season 2 is currently in development. It was made possible by the funding provided by the Malaysian Government under the Ministry of Communication and Multimedia, and it took Animasia Studio approximately 18 months for production by 100 Malaysian creative talents. Netflix has also picked up the show and is now playing it worldwide. But however, this show has been removed from Netflix along with Harry & Bunnie, making it no longer to be watched here.
Powers.
Chuck is able to use 12 super powers while using the magic egg.
Sinister Emperor is able to use super powers while using the black egg.
Collaboration.
Animasia Studio have also collaborated with Sasbadi Holdings Berhad to produce Chuck Chicken Books and Games for sale and distribution worldwide. In addition, the books such as Colouring Books and Comic Books will have Augmented Reality (AR) Technology embedded inside.


Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage

Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage is an action video game developed by Viacom New Media (a then-sister company to Nickelodeon, who had broadcast "Looney Tunes" cartoons at the time of the game's release) and published by Sunsoft released exclusively for the SNES in 1994. The player controls Bugs Bunny as he fights traditional Looney Tunes villains in order to confront the main villain of the story, animator Daffy Duck. The game's title is derived from the 1955 animated short "of the same name", which follows a similar plot of Bugs at the mercy of an antagonistic animator, revealed to be Elmer Fudd. The characters in the game were voiced by Greg Burson.
Gameplay.
The goal of the game is to guide Bugs who is trapped by Daffy Duck in a painting and has to traverse through various stages based on old Looney Tunes shorts. Bugs can jump, dive into holes, and attack by either jumping, kicking, pieing, or perform a spin attack that drains his health which is in the form of a carrot. He can regain his health by finding carrots which become scarce as the game progresses as well as items that either stun or kill enemies in one hit. The game features characters such as Elmer Fudd, Marvin the Martian, Yosemite Sam, the Tasmanian Devil, and Wile E. Coyote. Many of whom function as a boss towards the end of a level. The levels vary from simply going left to right to making your way down while avoiding enemies who become harder to defeat such as pigs who harm Bugs with various projectiles coming from their slingshots, robots who will electrocute Bugs if he gets too close and black cats that can cause Bugs to get crushed by various objects such as safes and horses due to superstition if he crosses their path. In some levels you have to learn how to out think and out maneuver the boss such as Toro the Bull from Bully For Bugs and Taz while also figuring out how to damage them.
In the final level Bugs has to spill all of the paint Daffy uses while avoiding his 3 alter egos. After spilling all of the paint Bugs then has to defeat Drip-Along Daffy if all the paint hasn't been spilled or Robin Hood Daffy if all the paint was spilled as well as avoid Duck Dodgers who can't be defeated at all and can kill Bugs in one hit with his laser blaster.
The credits play, but there's tons of dynamite there. After the credits finish rolling, Daffy pops up and says, "You're despicable!" The "That's All Folks" title card appears and an explosion shakes the camera.
Reception.
"Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage" garnered a highly favorable 4.3-out-of-five review from "Nintendo Power", giving much praise to the graphics, animation, variety of level types and audio and writing that "Sunsoft uses the Looney Tune license for the maximum effect and fun".
The game currently holds a 75.50% rating on review aggregation website GameRankings.


Jenny Oldfield

Jenny Oldfield (born 8 August 1949) is an English author who wrote Definitely Daisy, Animal Alert, Home Farm Twins, the Half Moon Ranch series and other pony books.
The "Horses of Half Moon Ranch" series follows Matt Scott and his little sister Kirstie Scott. Matt and Kirstie's mom Sandy Glassner Scott owns a horse ranch and Kirstie spends as much time as she can with the horses that she loves dearly. However, they experience many trials and tribulations in the series and have to overcome these problems. Furthermore, Kirstie cannot bear to see horses be abused and mistreated and in some of the books goes to extreme lengths to prevent this occurrence. There are about 24 books in the series. Kirstie also loves to cowboy-up with her best friend Lisa.
Oldfield was born and brought up in Harrogate, Yorkshire, she says that even as a child she wrote stories and made tiny books, complete with illustrations. She lives in Yorkshire and has two children, Kate and Eve.
She writes under her own name and several pseudonyms, including Jasmine Oliver, Donna King, Kate Fielding, Tina Nolan and Kate Pennington. She was also involved in the Animal Ark series, writing, along with several other authors, under the name Lucy Daniels.
Born and brought up in Harrogate, Yorkshire, Jenny Oldfield went on to study English at Birmingham University, where she did research on the Bronte Novels and on Children's Literature. She then worked as a teacher, before deciding to concentrate on writing. She writes novels for both children and adults and, when she can escape from her desk, likes to spend time outdoors. She loves the countryside and enjoys walking, gardening, playing tennis, riding and travelling with her two daughters, Kate and Eve.


Judith Berrisford

Mary Berrisford (born 1912) was a British writer of children's pony stories which are very similar to those of the Pullein-Thompson sisters, as well as other animal story and books on gardening. She was born in Staffordshire in 1912. She also wrote under the name Amanda Hope.
She married Clifford Lewis, with whom she wrote under the pseudonym Judith M. Berrisford.
Bibliography.
As Judith Berrisford.
Other pony books.
Dates unknown


Road Runner a Go-Go

Road Runner a Go-Go is a 1965 Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. It is one of three cartoons reused from the unsold pilot "Adventures of the Road Runner" (the others were "To Beep or Not to Beep" and "Zip Zip Hooray!"). The short was released on February 1, 1965, and stars Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
Milt Franklyn was credited as the musician with the correct spelling of his name. Unlike "To Beep or Not to Beep", this cartoon doesn't feature an entirely new soundtrack by Bill Lava, due to budget cuts. The cartoon includes the sequence of "Adventures of the Road Runner" with Wile E. Coyote speaking to the viewing audience. The cartoon also features a theme song called "Out in the Desert", loosely based on the song "Down by the Station". The original pilot was produced by David H. DePatie with supervising director Chuck Jones.
Home media.
The theatrical release version of the original pilot is available on "Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2", Disc 2.


Grk book series

The Grk books are series of children's books following the adventures of a boy called Tim and a dog called Grk. The series is written by Josh Lacey under the pseudonym Joshua Doder. The series is published by Andersen Press in the UK and Delacorte Press in the USA.
There are eight volumes in the series: "
The Grk books have been widely praised for their “infectious mix of thrills, spills and off-the-cuff humour” (The Scotsman) and “pure adventure fun” (Kirkus Reviews). “Not since Tintin and Snowy has there been such a touching boy-dog partnership,” wrote Amanda Craig in the Times.
"A Dog Called Grk".
The first book in the series is "A Dog Called Grk". A dog follows Tim home from school one day prompting Tim to play detective and find out who this mysterious dog belongs to. He discovers that the dog is called Grk and his owners have been kidnapped and imprisoned by an evil dictator, Colonel Zinfandel. This discovery leads Tim on a series of wild adventures where he must pilot a helicopter and break into a high security prison.
"A Dog Called Grk" was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award.


Red Riding Hoodlum

Red Riding Hoodlum is the 75th animated cartoon short subject in the "Woody Woodpecker" series. Released theatrically on February 11, 1957, the film was produced by Walter Lantz Productions and distributed by Universal International. The short is based on the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood", written by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.
Plot.
Woody Woodpecker's nephew Knothead and niece Splinter are reading the story of Little Red Riding Hood when Woody sends them on an errand to deliver a basket of goodies to their grandmother's house. They encounter a wolf and soon realize that their trip is occurring just like the original Red Riding Hood story. While the wolf takes a shortcut, Knothead & Splinter take a "short-shortcut" to get to Granny's house first. But along the way, Knothead & Splinter encounter the homes of The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears and the Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe, before Smokey Bear informs the two that the next house is Granny's.
Knothead & Splinter convince Granny to read them the story of Little Red Riding Hood to distract her while they deal with the wolf. Granny eventually encounters the wolf, but instead of being frightened, Granny puts on a red wig and make-up and gives the wolf a big kiss. The cartoon ends with Granny and the wolf getting married by a dog minister while Knothead & Splinter hold Granny's wedding dress train.


Sonic Free Riders

 is a motion controlled racing video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega exclusively for the Xbox 360. The game requires the use of Microsoft's Kinect peripheral and was a Kinect launch title in November 2010.
"Sonic Free Riders" is the seventh racing game in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series, and the third entry in the "Sonic Riders" trilogy. It is a direct sequel to "". The game's story centres on the series' main antagonist Doctor Eggman announcing a second World Grand Prix, secretly planning to gather data from the riders to program into his robots. It is the first game in the series (alongside "Sonic Colors") to be released following a recasting of the series’ voice actors. From 2005 to mid-2010, titles included the 4Kids voice cast from Sonic X. However, it has a new cast of voice actors under the direction of Jack Fletcher, with the exception of Mike Pollock, who continues to voice Dr Eggman.
The game received generally unfavourable reviews from critics; though praise was given for the game's graphics, music, multiplayer, story and amount of content, heavy criticism was given for the game's motion controls, which many found unresponsive and inaccurate.
Gameplay.
"Sonic Free Riders" is a hoverboard racing game featuring characters from the "Sonic the Hedgehog" franchise. The game is controlled by using the player's body to navigate their chosen character through the course. Actions include bending their body to steer, performing kicking motions to increase speed, and jumping to perform tricks which earn more boost. The player alternatively has the ability to ride bikes, controlled by steering motions. By collecting enough rings, players can increase their level during each race, which enhances their attributes. There are several power-ups and weapons which each require specific motion actions to activate, such as a missile which is thrown like a football or a boost that is activated by shaking a soda can. As before, characters are divided into Speed, Flight, and Power classes, each of which can access specific shortcuts. Players can equip special attributes to their Gear, such as improved cornering or the ability to break through barriers, which can be changed by switching the riding stance. Players can also perform special moves if they are falling behind in races.
The game's main single player campaign is the Grand Prix mode, where players select from one of four teams of characters to play through the story. Along with Time Attack and Free Race modes, "Sonic Free Riders" also features a few multiplayer modes that can be played cooperatively. Tag Mode allows two players to race together, requiring synchronized coordination to perform combined tricks, while Relay mode, playable with up to 4 players, requires teammates to swap places after each lap. The local multiplayer supports up to two active players, while online player multiplayer features one active player per console for up to 8 players. The game also supports voice recognition, allowing players to navigate menus using their voice.
Plot.
The story takes place after the events of "Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity". Unlike past "Sonic Riders" titles, "Free Riders" takes a more arcade-style approach to its storytelling, omitting full CGI cutscenes in favor of static character images and short dialogue exchanges between races.
Doctor Eggman, disguising himself as "King Doc of Toreggmania", announces another World Grand Prix and promises vast riches to the winners. Though everyone sees through the disguise, four teams enter the competition, each seeking to prove themselves the best or win the prize money. However, at the award ceremony, Eggman reveals himself and his true motive: to gather data from all the racers to program into the ultimate Extreme Gear. The other racers defeat Eggman, but his E-100000G robot reveals itself to be a disguised Metal Sonic, who deceived Eggman and stole the data for himself. Metal Sonic challenges Sonic to a final race, but loses and is forced to flee. Though many of the competitors are disappointed that the promised treasure was fake, they are happy to have enjoyed their time racing.
Audio.
"Sonic Free Riders", alongside "Sonic Colors", marks the first title to be released following a major recasting of the series' voice actors in 2010. Sonic titles released between 2005 and mid-2010 featured voice actors from the cast of the "Sonic X" anime, recorded at 4Kids Productions in New York City. However, "Free Riders" features an entirely new cast of actors under the direction of Jack Fletcher, recorded at Studiopolis in Los Angeles, with only Mike Pollock reprising his role as Doctor Eggman. Although both voice language tracks are included in the game disc, the text and voice language is determined by the console's region settings, with no in-game option to change them. The voice changes resulted in mixed reactions from critics and fans of the series.
The game's soundtrack was written by Tomonori Sawada and Koji Sakurai. The game's theme song, "Free", was written by Jun Senoue, with lyrics written by Johnny Gioeli and performed by Chris Madin. An additional cover of the song performed by Senoue's and Gioeli's band, Crush 40, was included on the game's official soundtrack.
Reception.
The game received “generally unfavorable reviews” according to review aggregator Metacritic. Many reviewers panned its motion controls, which they felt ruined the game and made it a bad launch title for the Kinect. IGN was one of few publishers to give a positive review, calling it a strong launch title for Kinect, although criticizing the motion controls stating that they "make it hard to just jump into the game". Some commended its amount of content, number of multiplayer options, graphics and storyline. Official Xbox Magazine also gave it 7.5, praising the wealth of content and multiplayer options while criticizing occasional unresponsiveness in the controls. GameTrailers gave the game a score of 4.5, panning cumbersome controls that tax the body. Joystiq gave the game 1/5 stars, calling it "the equivalent of patting your head while rubbing your stomach while riding a unicycle." Brian Crecente of Kotaku also reviewed it negatively, calling it "the most broken of the Kinect titles I've played." Kotaku's Crecente later reported that the responsiveness of the controls seemed to differ between persons, with fellow reviewer Stephen Totilo saying the controls worked fine for him.


The Roadents

The Roadents is an animated web series by Bix Pix Entertainment, Inc., produced for the C Spot on Crackle. It is about two guinea pigs, Pee Pee and Buttercup, that travel in a 1983 Winnebago. There are over 20 episodes. It was created by Justin Hilden, executive produced by Kelli Bixler, and is produced by Kristofer Updike.


Sonic Labyrinth

 is an action and puzzle game developed by Minato Giken and published by Sega for the Game Gear in 1995. The game features Sonic the Hedgehog exploring maze-like stages from an isometric perspective. Dr. Robotnik has robbed Sonic of his trademark speed, so Sonic walks slowly but can roll into a ball and dash across the stages. Critics thought the game was a unique addition to the "Sonic" library but flawed by convoluted controls and repetitive gameplay. It has received generally negative reviews in retrospect and is considered one of the worst "Sonic" games ever. "Sonic Labyrinth" was rereleased on "Sonic Adventure DX" and on "Sonic Mega Collection Plus", as well as the Nintendo 3DS in 2012.
Gameplay.
"Sonic Labyrinth" is an action and puzzle game with pinball elements. It is presented in an isometric perspective, and has been compared to "Marble Madness". Series villain Dr. Robotnik has tricked Sonic the Hedgehog into wearing special shoes designed to rob him of his speed, so Sonic must collect the Chaos Emeralds to release the shoes from his feet.
The player controls Sonic, navigating him through maze-like stages filled with enemies and obstacles that hinder his path. Sonic walks uncharacteristically slow, but can roll into a ball and dash across the levels to take out enemies and avoid danger. This spin dash move can be charged for extra speed and damage. Sonic must collect three keys in each stage and bring them to the goal to advance to the next level. Sometimes the keys may be hidden within enemies. The game has four zones, each containing three stages. After each set of three stages, there is a bonus round of collecting rings and a boss battle. Collecting 100 rings in the bonus round will net the player an extra life. After finishing the game, a time attack mode is unlocked.
Development and release.
"Sonic Labyrinth" was developed by Minato Giken, and published by Sega. It was released in Japan on 17 November 1995, in North America that November, and in Europe around October or November. The game was included in "Sonic Adventure DX" (2003) as an unlockable bonus, and in the compilation "Sonic Mega Collection Plus" (2004). It was rereleased for the Nintendo 3DS on the Japanese eShop digital distribution platform on 16 May 2012. It was later released in Europe on 5 October 2012, and in North America on 17 June 2013. The North American release came as part of a campaign by Nintendo to release 8-bit games on the 3DS eShop following a draught of releases on the distribution service. The game does not take advantage of the system's 3D stereoscopic functionality.
Reception.
Critical reception to "Sonic Labyrinth" was mixed. Multiple reviewers wrote about difficulties controlling Sonic as he bounced wildly around the levels. "Mean Machines Sega" wrote that "you can get through each level with a bit of practise but you're left wondering how you did it." "Electronic Gaming Monthly" ("EGM") did not like the game's isometric perspective, thinking it contributed to problems directing Sonic around. "GamePro" wrote that small screen made it occasionally difficult to see what was occurring. They did like the graphics however, as did "EGM" and "Mean Machines Sega", the latter which thought they echoed the graphics of "SegaSonic the Hedgehog" (1993).
Reflecting their positive thoughts, "Mega Fun" thought "Sonic Labyrinth" featured innovative gameplay. "GamePro" and "Famitsu" both compared the game to "Marble Madness". "Sega Magazin" thought the game was challenging with sophisticated level design. "GamePro" believed it was the most interesting of the recent "Sonic" additions to the Game Gear library. One reviewer at "Mean Machines Sega" thought it was a good puzzle game to play in short segments, and may be worth the time for fans of "Sonic" games, pinball, or puzzles. However another critic from the same magazine thought the game was frustrating and repetitive. "EGM" also thought the game became repetitious after a few levels and would be boring for more experienced players, although "Sonic" fans may enjoy it. They concluded their thoughts writing: "This title overall tried to mix the standard side-scrolling "Sonic" game with a worthless pinball title and failed. In turn, this one just comes up short in both playability and enjoyment, causing boredom after the first few stages."
Retrospectively, reception has been negative and is frequently described as one of the worst Sonic games. In a retrospective review, "Nintendo Life" gave the game a "poor" 4 out of 10 score. They criticized the controls and illogical level design, and the start-stop nature of the gameplay. They also wrote about Sonic's lack of speed when walking on foot, which they thought was baffling for a "Sonic" game. "USgamer" called it "a poor man's version of "Marble Madness", taking the worst of that game and the worst of "Sonic" and cramming it into one title. Absolutely dire." "Nintendo World Report" called it "a demented version of "Sonic 3D Blast"", drawing similarities through its isometric style. "Official Nintendo Magazine" called it "a dreadful game with an identity crisis" and "one of the worst "Sonic" games ever".


The Strength and Agility of Insects

The Strength and Agility of Insects is a 1911 British short silent documentary film, directed by F. Percy Smith, featuring close-ups of houseflies and other insects secured and juggling various objects with their feet. The films in this series, which included "The Acrobatic Fly" (1910), "caused an absolute furore when they were first shown to the public," and, according to Jenny Hammerton of the BFI, Smith, whose stated intention "was of course to entertain the public, but also to demonstrate the strength and agility of those insects we might unthinkingly squash or swat when they settle on our lunch," "was forced to justify his methods in the press, guaranteeing that there was no trickery involved and certainly no cruelty."


Search for the Beast

Search for the Beast is a 1997 American horror film directed by R.G. Arledge and starring Rick Montana as Dr. David Stone, a scientist searching for a giant man-beast said to inhabit the Okaloosa wilderness. The film is considered by many to be to one of the worst films ever made.
Plot.
The film opens with an implied soft-core sex scene involving two teenagers who are camping in the wilderness of Okaloosa. A Bigfoot-like creature invades their campsite and kills the two. The next five minutes of the film play like a faux-documentary with a narrator, Dr. David Stone (Rick Montana) explaining the story of the Bigfoot. The film then changes to a normal movie, and the father of one of the victims, Milton St. John (David F. Friedman) asks Stone, as the leading expert on the Bigfoot, to lead an expedition in an effort to capture the Bigfoot before it can kill more people. Stone does not want to capture the beast, but agrees to try to take photos and videos of the creature.
The next day, Stone's graduate assistant, Wendy (Holli Day), convinces Stone to let her come along on the expedition. Stone agrees and takes Wendy into his office to show her some grainy footage he previously took of the Bigfoot. Stone and Wendy, along with four colleagues (Dan, Jay, Bob, and Darlene) depart in a van to begin the expedition, but stop along the way to ask directions of a guitarist, Crazy Joe. The group hike fifteen miles to their campsite. When they arrive, they set up camp and exchange monster stories. Stone and Wendy share a tent, where she confesses she has had a crush on him since she was an undergraduate.
The next morning, Stone and Wendy discover the others have gone out looking for the beast save for one of St. John's hired hands, Dan. Stone leaves Dan and Wendy to look for the others, but Bob and Jay are killed. Dan assaults Stone and takes Wendy hostage for unexplained reasons. He ties Stone up and, with Wendy and Darlene at gunpoint, forces them through the forest. Stone escapes and encounters a group of Dan's henchmen, who he deals with. Dan abandons Darlene and Wendy escapes and finds Stone. Dan is killed by the Bigfoot while Stone and Wendy escape in a truck driven by Crazy Joe.
Reception.
In his book, "Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies: A Film Critic's Year-Long Quest to Find the Worst Movie Ever Made", "Empire" film critic Michael Adams criticizes "Search for the Beast" for a hissing soundtrack, poor cinematography, misspelled credits, and shoddy acting on the part of two amateurs whom he refers to as non-actors. Adams describes Bigfoot as looking like the "lovechild of Marty Feldman and a monkey and pans the movie's overindulgence in soft core porn. He gives the film a rating of a 12 out of 100, the worst rating he'd given a film to that point.


The Sneezing Weasel


Muriel Wace

Muriel Wace (1881-1968) was an English children's book author known by the pseudonym Golden Gorse.
Among her works was the popular "Moorland Mousie" (1929) (illustrated by Lionel Edwards), the story of an Exmoor Pony, believed to be strongly influenced by Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty". Wace carefully maintained her anonymity, and did not allow her publishers to disseminate any biographical information about her. She wrote four fictional pony books, in addition to highly regarded instruction manuals.


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Dreamwave Productions)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a comic book based on the characters of the same name published by Dreamwave Productions in 2003. The first four stories are based on episodes of the 2003 TMNT TV series, but told from the view of supporting characters, before the creation of new stories, just as the original issues of "TMNT Adventures" followed the 1987 TV series before developing new stories.
The series ran for seven issues before it was cancelled as Dreamwave went out of business.


Amphibious (film)

Amphibious is a 2010 thriller film directed by Brian Yuzna and written by Yuzna, John Penney, Somtow Sucharitkul and San Fu Maltha. It stars Francis Magee, Janna Fassaert and Michael Paré.
Plot.
Skyler Shane, a marine biologist, meets Jack Bowman, at a northern Sumatran lake to search for prehistoric samples. During this expedition, they encounter some smugglers who have their headquarters on the lake. Tamal, an orphan who was sold to the smugglers as a slave, begs Skyler to save her. Since the child reminds Skyler of her lost daughter Rebecca, she agrees, not knowing what secret is lurking in the water. Ever since Tamal has been on the lake, strange things have been happening: more and more people disappear and are devoured by a creature from the deep.
Production.
This was Yuzna's first film as director since the 2005 film "Beneath Still Waters". The film was also the first Dutch 3D production and was filmed in summer 2009 at various locations in Indonesia.
Release.
The theatrical release date for the film in the Netherlands was 1 November 2010.


Father of the Bird

Father of the Bird is a 1997 Looney Tunes cartoon directed and co-produced by Stephen A. Fossati and produced by Chuck Jones and Linda Jones Clough starring Sylvester. This short only had a limited theatrical release and was the only Sylvester short produced by Jones, and also the final Sylvester cartoon he was involved with.
Plot.
Sylvester finds a sparrow egg in a nest. Before he can eat it for breakfast however, a little bird hatches out and calls him "Mama." He warms to the idea of being a father and instead of eating it, he protects the bird throughout a series of near-disasters.


The Magic Bird

The Magic Bird () is a 1968 Italian animated film. It is also known as "Perils of Problemina".


Mamma Moo and the Crow

Mamma Moo and the Crow () is a 2008 Swedish animated feature film directed by Igor Veichtaguin after an original script by Jujja and Tomas Wieslander featuring the character Mama Moo.


Fifteen Dogs

Fifteen Dogs: An Apologue is a novel by Canadian writer André Alexis. Published by Coach House Books in 2015, the novel was the winner of the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2015 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, as well as the 2017 edition of "Canada Reads".
It is the second novel in a planned cycle of a five-novel quincunx that Alexis will use to examine faith, place, love, power and hatred, the first being "Pastoral", which was published in 2014.
An apologue, the novel tells the story of a group of 15 dogs, kennelled at a veterinary clinic in Toronto, who are suddenly gifted by the gods with human consciousness and language.
Plot.
Over drinks at Toronto's Wheat Sheaf Tavern, Hermes and Apollo get into a debate about whether animals could live happily if they had the same cognitive and speech abilities as humans. They decide to wager a year of servitude on the outcome of granting the gifts of human reasoning and language to a group of dogs in a nearby clinic.
Given their newfound abilities, the dogs are able to escape the clinic and make their way to the city's High Park, where they set up their own new protosociety. The novel then explores the functioning of their new society through the impact of human values, such as individuality and personal freedom, on the conventionally hierarchical social order of dog packs. Key characters in the canine society include Atticus, a Neapolitan Mastiff who naturally emerges as the group leader; Majnoun, a black poodle who is reluctant to trust other dogs; Frick and Frack, a pair of Labrador retrievers who are leery about their new reality; and Prince, a mutt who embraces his language skills to become a poet.
Themes.
Language.
The dogs develop their own language, which creates conflict in the pack. Prince becomes a poet and his passion for language is a source of pleasure for him. Some dogs appreciate his use of poetry and wit, but other dogs find it strange and hate it. Majnoun learns to understand and speak English, which forges a bond between him and a human (Nira) as they have long conversations and learn about one another.
Death.
The immortal gods Apollo and Hermes are fascinated with mortals on Earth because of their relationship with death. Throughout the book, the reader learns how each dog dies and whether or not the dog died happy. The death plots include murder and euthanasia. The death of humans is also part of the narrative along with how the dogs respond.
Poetry.
The novel includes several poems composed by Prince. At the end, the author includes a "note on the text" where he describes the poetry genre used throughout the novel.
Love and friendship.
Several dogs form friendships (Bella and Athena; Dougie and Benjy) that they experience differently because of their gift of intelligence. Majnoun asks Hermes about love and Prince loves language.
Awards and honors.
It won the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize and Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for a Toronto Book Award.