This report addresses: Live Action Disney Remakes

Here Are The 12 Finest Animated Movies You Can Watch Right Now

0

Here Are The 12 Finest Animated Movies You Can Watch Right Now:

Animated movies have been a form of art that many people have loved for one hundred years.

Animation is fun for people of all ages because the art can be drawn in 2D, 3D, and motion graphics, as well as stop motion.

Community score: 3.8

If you're reading this review of the season finale of Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc and you're the type that tends to get sad or irritated when folks have critical things to say about the series, I'm just going to warn you right now that I have some thoughts about this episode.

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Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week.

And it’s no surprise: If you’ve ever stepped foot in a Disney resort restaurant in the morning, you can bet on the distinct smell of malty goodness wafting through the air, tempting you to take a bite.

From mini versions to full-size Mickeys topped with whipped cream and berries, these now-iconic waffles aren’t just a hit in the U.S.

This report addresses: Live Action Disney Remakes

Title:

Content: Here Are The 12 Finest Animated Movies You Can Watch Right Now

0

Here Are The 12 Finest Animated Movies You Can Watch Right Now:

Animated movies have been a form of art that many people have loved for one hundred years. Getting more and more famous over the last few decades as technology keeps getting better. Animation has grown into a well-known film form that’s not just for kids anymore.

Animation is fun for people of all ages because the art can be drawn in 2D, 3D, and motion graphics, as well as stop motion. Plus, Netflix has put together a great collection of comedies, cartoons, and some of its own original shows.

It’s also a love that most of us never fully grow out of. If you ask any parent what they loved most about having a child, they’ll probably say it was watching a cartoon with their kids. There aren’t many other ways to have such a great time while having fun.

But the best animation movies aren’t just for kids or people who miss their youth. They work on many levels and with a wide range of people of all ages.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie:

When it came to the box office, the biggest and craziest IP grab of the year was also one of the hottest. It made $1.36 billion global and beat out every other 2023 movie until Barbie came along.

The movie starring Chris Pratt has made almost 40 times as much money as the infamous live-action Super Mario Bros. failure from 30 years ago. Also, it’s pretty good for what it is: a 92-minute color wheel of Nintendo fan service that’s fun to watch.

We love how it takes us back to classic Mario game worlds such as the Mushroom Kingdom, the Jungle Kingdom, and Rainbow Road. The Super Mario Bros. Movie doesn’t really try anything new with its story, but it’s also not as annoying as a movie that winked a lot.

Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic give Mario a character arc that is similar to that in his games. They also take a lot of ideas from those games and use them to create as many of Illumination’s thrillingly artistic scenes as the movie can hold.

How To Train Your Dragon:

The 2010 movie How to Train Your Dragon started a hugely popular series. The movie takes fans to the Viking village of Berk, where dragons and the individuals who kill dragons are everyday life.

During all of this, there is Hiccup, a young, innocent Viking with big dreams. When he meets the Night Fury, a powerful dragon, his ideas about the supposedly dangerous beasts quickly change.

There have been many exciting adventures for Hiccup and Toothless since then, but their very initial one, which is about the strange bond they form, is still their favorite. The art has also held up very well, which makes the whole series great for watching again and again alongside the whole family.

The Adventures Of Tintin:

Steven Spielberg, the director, worked on The Adventures of Tintin for decades. He once said that the comic book series was like “Indiana Jones for kids.”

See also  Obi-Wan Kenobi is encouraged via Kurosawa and "poetic westerns". His director talks about her influences

In the 1950s, the story takes place in Belgium, where the curious reporter Tintin buys a small model of a ship named the Unicorn. This sets off a chain of events that culminate in a bad ship collector capturing him.

He meets Capt. Archibald Haddock on board, whose grandfather was the captain of the real Unicorn. Full of high-energy adventure, Tintin is a great way to start reading about Indiana Jones’s exciting adventures.

It has beautiful CG animation that uses motion capture. The movie won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, and John Williams was nominated for another Oscar for his unique music.

Pinocchio:

Pinocchio was the most beautiful animation movie ever made. It’s the pinnacle of what movies can do. It has had a huge impact on fantasy. For example, Steven Spielberg uses the beautiful song “When You Wish Upon a Star” in his dream movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Disney’s second movie, which was a big disappointment at the box office at first, starts with a cricket singing softly and then jumps into scenes from a nightmare on a fair stage in front of a jeering crowd, inside a monster whale, and beyond recognition.

It’s incredible to consider that this content is intended for children, but that’s precisely what gives it its power: it serves as a means to connect with the underlying theme of self-discovery.

Don’t lie to yourself or to other people. This is a hard idea to fight with. For decades, cultural thinkers have talked about Pinocchio in terms of psychosexuality or as a way to help middle-class people fit in.

That’s like taking apart a globe of snow to find that it’s only filled with water. The movie makes you feel a lot of different things. It’s an exciting journey with themes of shame, redemption, death, and rebirth. He will always be alive as long as people draw, paint, make up stories, and dream of stars.

Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget:

Despite their fear of being pacified and ground up into bits, they continue to plan, strategize, and set things up. The long-awaited follow-up to Chicken Run isn’t much better than the first movie, but it does almost everything you might have wanted from going back to the stop-motion world of the first movie.

Within Dawn of the Nugget, Ginger, Rocky, and their daughter Molly need to plan a new breakout after learning that Mrs. Tweedy has married again and learned how to charm chickens into being obedient and easy to kill.

However, not all of your favorite characters are voiced by the same players. Bella Ramsey’s character Molly adds a new-age twist to the chickens’ relationship. Dawn of the Nugget isn’t quite as good as the first movie, but it’s a lean, well-polished production, and the stop-motion battle scenes are especially fun.

Monsters, Inc:

As you might expect, Monsters, Inc. is one of the best cartoon movies of all time. It’s a classic that will transport you back to simpler times.

The movie takes place in the busy city of Monstropolis and is about James P. “Sulley” Sullivan as well as his close friend Mike Wazowski. They work at the named company, which turns the power of children’s screams into energy.

See also  Everything You Need to Know About Video Pre-Production

When a little girl named Boo walks into the monster world by chance, they set out to get her back to her own world safely. Along with its great world-building as well as cutting-edge animation, Monsters, Inc. is great because of Sulley and Mike’s deep journey of self-discovery.

When Boo shows up, it changes and tests their long-held ideas about what human children are like, which is a very important lesson in accepting others as they are and learning more about those who are unusual.

The Angry Birds Movie:

Even though it might be unfair to praise the film adaptation of Angry Birds for not being a complete failure, things could have been a lot worse. Based on the hugely popular app of the exact same name, the movie is about Red, an animated bird who starts to think that the new pigs living on his island are up to no good.

EW says that the movie “delivers a mildly diverting mix of winky meta-jokes as well as moral lessons, cannily pitched at both the next generation of tiny consumers as well as their more sophisticated parents.” Individual experiences may differ depending on one’s ability to appreciate puns and humor suitable for children.

Spirited Away:

For anime fans all over the world, all animation is the pinnacle of Japanese animation and one of the best stories about free-flowing ideas in movies.

It’s a movie that makes kids feel free to be curious and strange, and it makes adults remember how they used to feel. The story combines basic fears such as being relocated, separated from one’s parents, and the fear of permanent loss.

Even more deeply, Spirited Away was a collection of old folktales about the hidden lives of radishes as well as other gods, the wrongs we do to nature, and the punishments she gives us. The movie is beautifully put together by director Hayao Miyazaki, but at its core, it’s a story regarding growing up.

Let’s not fool ourselves: the world is weird. But maybe, as people, we are strangers. People are always telling Chihiro that she stinks; she fumbles around and makes people angry. Being humble in the face of eternal forces is the lesson here.

Critics were amazed because they saw similarities with Japan’s burst economic bubble and dirty rivers. Still, the writing continues to be sufficiently powerful to stand on its own. It’s a patchwork of thoughts, fears, and dreams brought to life through masterful craft.

Unicorn Wars:

The description of this movie as “Care Bears meets Apocalypse Now” is pretty accurate. In the movie by Alberto Vazquez, cute, colorful cubs fight a strange race of black unicorns during a bloody, angry battle.

There are some very funny and gross cartoon fantasy movies of the decade within this one. The characters are cute and well-designed, and we get to know them well before their horrifying deaths.

Unicorn Wars makes a point about the military, propaganda, and faith, but it also says things about the nature of war and the human situation along the way.

See also  Robert A. Altman, Founder and CEO of ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's Parent Company, Dies

“All empires as well as all nations have their own stories to explain why they fight,” Vazquez said in an interview. Even though Unicorn Wars is an animated movie, it doesn’t have a real chance of winning an Academy Award. However, it’s a great example of what the form can do.

Inside Out:

Inside Out was a Pixar movie that goes deep into the workings of the mind. It presents viewers with Riley, an 11-year-old girl, and the feelings that make her happy, sad, angry, scared, and disgusted.

Riley’s feelings are all over the place when her family moves to an unfamiliar town. The movie is worth seeing just for the idea, and it does a great job of showing how people feel.

Fans of Pixar movies know that the main characters have a level of emotional depth that makes them more interesting. The cartoon movie gives a true picture of mental wellness and how it can change during big changes or as a person grows up.

Apollo 10½:

After Waking Life as well as A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater went back to rotoscope animation with this trip through the summer of 1969. Stanley, a young boy with a lot of imagination, is interested in the Apollo 11 journey to the Moon and dreams of being on board the historic spaceship.

Jack Black, who fondly remembers his youth, provides the voice of Stanley as an adult. Fans of Linklater’s Oscar-nominated picture Boyhood are going to notice that he is back on familiar ground here, looking at the process of coming of age with a longing eye.

Many reviewers gave the dreamlike movie high marks, praising its dreamy mood and bright animation.

My Neighbour Totoro:

Some directors work hard and sweat to create their great works of art. The Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki seems to grow things from seeds, putting them in good soil and watering them slowly until they bloom. My Neighbor Totoro is the quietest and gentlest movie on this list.

It’s about curious kids, naughty dust fairies, magical trees, and shy forest animals.  In its own quiet way, though, it’s additionally one of the richest as well as most striking. This story has deep roots in Japanese culture and tradition, in the author’s own past, and in a shared youth full of wonder stories as well as a love of all things that grow.

There is sadness in the movie the fear of losing a parent, the loneliness as well as the anger of being a child but it also has a very light touch, enjoying simple things like raindrops on an umbrella, dust motes floating in the sun, and midnight dances in the garden.

The art style is definitely Japanese, and the theme song is so sugary and chirpy sweet that it’s hard to get rid of. But the result as a whole is one of a kind and covers everything. It takes us back to a world we all lived in at some point and may live in again.

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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc
Episode 8

by James Beckett,

How would you rate episode 8 of
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc ?
Community score: 3.8

If you're reading this review of the season finale of Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc and you're the type that tends to get sad or irritated when folks have critical things to say about the series, I'm just going to warn you right now that I have some thoughts about this episode. In fact, just so we don't end up parting on poor terms, I'll go ahead and start with some positives! As always, on a technical level, the work that ufotable is putting into Demon Slayer is pretty damned impressive. Do I have some hot takes on how the studio is choosing to use all of that technical polish? Oh boy, do I ever. Still, the show looks and sounds just as wonderful as it ever has. Also, there are a couple of damn fine cuts of primo, Grade-A action here. That's not surprising, at this point, but you know what? There is a bit about halfway through this finale where Muzan gets his body blown into bits and regenerates it layer by layer in grotesque and horrifying detail; all of this, only to have his new body impaled by a dozen blood spears before his head freaking explodes like that guy from Scanners!

That whole part? That was sick as hell. I had fun with it. It's Demon Slayer spectacle at its very best. There! I think I've provided a very generous helping of genuine and enthusiastic praise of this last episode of the Hashira Training Arc. If this is where we part ways, I wish you nothing but the best, and hey, there's going to be a few movies to close out the series, I hear! Hopefully, those will be fun too. Go in peace, my friend.

…are they gone? Alright, good. Now that I've gushed about the four minutes and thirty-five seconds of this overstuffed mess of a finale that actually brought me joy, we can talk about the other thirty-five minutes and fifty-three seconds. You can probably guess by now how I felt about those.

Where do I even begin? Well, I suppose I can start with the literal beginning, since it's just a repeat of the obnoxious and hilarious slow-motion Muzan scene that ended last week's episode, except with some new credits spliced in so that someone out there can claim that the sequence helps build up the episode's atmosphere. Between this, the five minutes of ending credits, and the ridiculously out-of-place Taisho Era Secrets skit that comes afterward, it sort of does end up making for a perfect season finale, thematically speaking. In a self-indulgent and wasteful season filled with meandering padding, here we have a self-indulgent and wasteful season finale that is itself filled with meandering padding (and also about four minutes of a decent action scenes).

Look, I don't want anyone who isn't familiar with my tastes to get the impression that Muzan and Kaguya's nearly fifteen-minute-long conversation is a failure because I simply lack the patience for dialogue-heavy storytelling. Hell, the last two entire episodes of YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master have been nothing but a bunch of people standing in a circle and talking at each other—and it's the most riveting anime of 2024! No, my problem with this entire opening scene of the finale is that it is representative of everything Demon Slayer is bad at, all in one handy exemplar. I would love this scene if the story had put even a bit of effort into establishing the characters of either Muzan or Kaguya before this moment but this is the most meaningful interaction with another character that either of these two has ever been given. I would love this scene if Demon Slayer could come up with something more interesting for these two to talk about for nearly the runtime of a regular episode of the show. I would love this scene if ufotable's flashy presentation hadn't devolved into self-parody like it so clearly has (I know I couldn't have been the only person who was laughing at the way that the show treated Kaguya's murder-suicide of his entire family like something out of a Zack Snyder action scene).

Unfortunately, we live in a world where Demon Slayer has fully committed to treating a script that has all of the substance of a middling episode of The A-Team—as if it is Prestige Cinema for the Ages. Hell, maybe if this whole season had been edited down into a single 90-minute feature, it really would feel prestige enough to earn all of that pomp and circumstance. A single movie can get away with a lot more than four hours of chopped-up television episodes can, after all! I am more than happy to talk the ear off of anyone who will listen about why James Cameron's Avatar movies freaking own because they're just ridiculously expensive remakes of Dances With Wolves, etc. It's all about pacing, tone, and whether or not the creators in charge can wrangle the vibe of a story in such a way that they can justify the choices they make to their audience.

In this season of Demon Slayer, we spent weeks watching Tanjiro wander around while the story occasionally tried to insist that it was building to something incredibly climactic and intense—only for the finale to bungle Muzan's first (and possibly only) chance to be a real character instead of the sneering villain on the back of a cereal box. Meanwhile, the Hashira spend the entire episode running to the scene of the crime and methodically taking the time to introduce themselves and their attacks. Then, the finale ends by pulling the most predictable “Psych! The villain isn't going down that easily!” card ever and trapping everyone in Muzan's Computer Generated MC-Escher Funland. Is it so much to ask that a season dedicated to an entire training arc at least gives the main character of the show the chance to demonstrate anything at all that he gained from that training?

In other words, no, I do not feel like Demon Slayer has justified its choices or the story it is trying to tell. Not in this finale, and, if we're being honest, not for the last couple of seasons. To tell the truth, I was glad when I heard that the show was going to be capping off its run with a trilogy of films. Even a trio of two-hour movies will be easier to sit through than this letdown of a season.

Rating:

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.

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Title:

Content: Can you make Mickey Mouse waffles at home?

Did you really take a trip to Disney if you didn’t have a mouse-shaped waffle for breakfast?

Forget Dole whips and churros, the Mickey waffle is arguably the most famous Disney food ever created. A staple of any great Disney parks vacation, the beloved breakfast item has become a sought-after family tradition for many. In fact, a 2014 Disney Parks Blog post claims 3.6 million Mickey waffles are eaten each year at Disneyland and Disney World alone.

And it’s no surprise: If you’ve ever stepped foot in a Disney resort restaurant in the morning, you can bet on the distinct smell of malty goodness wafting through the air, tempting you to take a bite. Delicious and adorable, our obsession knows no bounds with Mickey-shaped imagery forever immortalized in endless collections of merchandise — like t-shirts, phone cases, backpacks and even waffle-scented lotion.

From mini versions to full-size Mickeys topped with whipped cream and berries, these now-iconic waffles aren’t just a hit in the U.S. at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, but at Disney parks across the globe.

At Tokyo Disneyland, you can bask in the glory of an entire restaurant dedicated to them. One of the resort’s most popular eateries, The Great American Waffle Co., has been known to offer wildly inventive versions, including golden brown waffles topped with custard and strawberry sauce or azuki bean and matcha ice cream. At Disneyland Paris, you can have a tres bien time strolling Main Street with a sugar-coated waffle or one laced in decadent chocolate. Brightly-hued red velvet Mickey waffles are the favorite at the sun-soaked Aulani, a Disney Resort located in Hawaii.

So, what’s the secret to giving Mickey waffles that distinct taste we crave after every vacation to the most magical place on earth?

The internet seems to believe it’s in the mix: Carbon’s Golden Malted waffle and pancake mix, to be exact.

While Disney Parks declined to comment on whether Golden Malted is the mix they use across their properties, Twitter, Reddit and other online forums are full of theories that point a white-gloved finger directly to the brand. One #distwitter (an unofficial hashtag used by Disney enthusiasts to discuss all things Mickey) user even photographed a delivery truck carrying boxes of the mix headed to Disney World.

An online authority in Disney food, the Disney Food Blog also claims it is indeed Golden Malted. According to their sources, Disney began experimenting with the mouse-shaped waffles in the ’80s as a collaboration between Disney’s secret batter supplier and Walt Disney Imagineering. Together, they figured out how to create a waffle iron that wouldn’t distort the face of Mickey Mouse once cooked. Because of the lack of social media at the time, none of this was documented by park goers, leaving it unclear when or where these Mickey-shaped waffles first popped up in the Disney resorts or how they rapidly spread to hundreds of Disney dining locations. But, it all goes back to the mix.

What is Golden Malted?

The Carbon family, led by patriarch Fred Carbon, patented their family recipe (along with several types of waffle irons) for Golden Malted waffle and pancake mix in 1937. The distinct taste of the Carbon family recipe can be attributed to the use of real malt, vanilla and the highest-quality wheat flour. This secret vanilla-malted formula produces a waffle that’s golden-brown while also being light and fluffy. And, the aroma a Carbon waffle creates is also a signature part of the experience.

Golden Malted, now owned by New Carbon Company, still leaves Carbon’s name on the brand and is the largest supplier of waffle mix in the United States, selling over 350 million waffles per year at over 50,000 locations in more than 60 countries. Now ubiquitous with hotel chain breakfast buffets, Hilton, Choice Brand Hotels and Wyndham are just a few they provide their mix to exclusively.

So, are Disney waffles Golden Malted waffles?

Yahoo Life reached out to Golden Malted for further sleuthing, but they declined to answer as well.

As a regular visitor to Disney parks since the ’80s, I’ve had quite a few Mickey waffles in my day. So, in the name of research, I decided to put the internet theories to the test. Armed with Golden Malted waffle and pancake mix and a Mickey waffle iron, both easily purchased from Amazon, I set out to test the theory.

I followed the exact instructions provided on the packaging, combining the mix with egg, water and melted butter. Then, I went to work, pressing out several Mickey-shaped waffles in my own kitchen.

Was I able to make Mickey waffles at home?

Oh boy! I’m happy to say that yes, it seems you can make Mickey waffles from the comfort of your own home, no resort reservation required. The first at-home Disney moment for me was that familiar malty smell as the waffles were cooking. The finished product was identical to what’s served at Disney Parks with a crunchy, golden brown exterior making way for a light and airy inside.

While eating these waffles at home won’t be followed by a spin on Dumbo the Flying Elephant or a delicious Dole whip, they are still nothing short of magic.

Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Life’s newsletter.

Claudia has worked as a journalist for various print-based magazines for more than 5 years. She brings together substantial news pieces from various parts of the US and rest of the World.


This report addresses: Live Action Disney Remakes

Here Are The 12 Finest Animated Movies You Can Watch Right Now

0

Here Are The 12 Finest Animated Movies You Can Watch Right Now:

Animated movies have been a form of art that many people have loved for one hundred years.

Animation is fun for people of all ages because the art can be drawn in 2D, 3D, and motion graphics, as well as stop motion.

Community score: 3.8

If you're reading this review of the season finale of Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc and you're the type that tends to get sad or irritated when folks have critical things to say about the series, I'm just going to warn you right now that I have some thoughts about this episode.

×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week.

And it’s no surprise: If you’ve ever stepped foot in a Disney resort restaurant in the morning, you can bet on the distinct smell of malty goodness wafting through the air, tempting you to take a bite.

From mini versions to full-size Mickeys topped with whipped cream and berries, these now-iconic waffles aren’t just a hit in the U.S.

This report addresses: Live Action Disney Remakes

Title:

Content: Here Are The 12 Finest Animated Movies You Can Watch Right Now

0

Here Are The 12 Finest Animated Movies You Can Watch Right Now:

Animated movies have been a form of art that many people have loved for one hundred years. Getting more and more famous over the last few decades as technology keeps getting better. Animation has grown into a well-known film form that’s not just for kids anymore.

Animation is fun for people of all ages because the art can be drawn in 2D, 3D, and motion graphics, as well as stop motion. Plus, Netflix has put together a great collection of comedies, cartoons, and some of its own original shows.

It’s also a love that most of us never fully grow out of. If you ask any parent what they loved most about having a child, they’ll probably say it was watching a cartoon with their kids. There aren’t many other ways to have such a great time while having fun.

But the best animation movies aren’t just for kids or people who miss their youth. They work on many levels and with a wide range of people of all ages.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie:

When it came to the box office, the biggest and craziest IP grab of the year was also one of the hottest. It made $1.36 billion global and beat out every other 2023 movie until Barbie came along.

The movie starring Chris Pratt has made almost 40 times as much money as the infamous live-action Super Mario Bros. failure from 30 years ago. Also, it’s pretty good for what it is: a 92-minute color wheel of Nintendo fan service that’s fun to watch.

We love how it takes us back to classic Mario game worlds such as the Mushroom Kingdom, the Jungle Kingdom, and Rainbow Road. The Super Mario Bros. Movie doesn’t really try anything new with its story, but it’s also not as annoying as a movie that winked a lot.

Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic give Mario a character arc that is similar to that in his games. They also take a lot of ideas from those games and use them to create as many of Illumination’s thrillingly artistic scenes as the movie can hold.

How To Train Your Dragon:

The 2010 movie How to Train Your Dragon started a hugely popular series. The movie takes fans to the Viking village of Berk, where dragons and the individuals who kill dragons are everyday life.

During all of this, there is Hiccup, a young, innocent Viking with big dreams. When he meets the Night Fury, a powerful dragon, his ideas about the supposedly dangerous beasts quickly change.

There have been many exciting adventures for Hiccup and Toothless since then, but their very initial one, which is about the strange bond they form, is still their favorite. The art has also held up very well, which makes the whole series great for watching again and again alongside the whole family.

The Adventures Of Tintin:

Steven Spielberg, the director, worked on The Adventures of Tintin for decades. He once said that the comic book series was like “Indiana Jones for kids.”

See also  Obi-Wan Kenobi is encouraged via Kurosawa and "poetic westerns". His director talks about her influences

In the 1950s, the story takes place in Belgium, where the curious reporter Tintin buys a small model of a ship named the Unicorn. This sets off a chain of events that culminate in a bad ship collector capturing him.

He meets Capt. Archibald Haddock on board, whose grandfather was the captain of the real Unicorn. Full of high-energy adventure, Tintin is a great way to start reading about Indiana Jones’s exciting adventures.

It has beautiful CG animation that uses motion capture. The movie won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, and John Williams was nominated for another Oscar for his unique music.

Pinocchio:

Pinocchio was the most beautiful animation movie ever made. It’s the pinnacle of what movies can do. It has had a huge impact on fantasy. For example, Steven Spielberg uses the beautiful song “When You Wish Upon a Star” in his dream movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Disney’s second movie, which was a big disappointment at the box office at first, starts with a cricket singing softly and then jumps into scenes from a nightmare on a fair stage in front of a jeering crowd, inside a monster whale, and beyond recognition.

It’s incredible to consider that this content is intended for children, but that’s precisely what gives it its power: it serves as a means to connect with the underlying theme of self-discovery.

Don’t lie to yourself or to other people. This is a hard idea to fight with. For decades, cultural thinkers have talked about Pinocchio in terms of psychosexuality or as a way to help middle-class people fit in.

That’s like taking apart a globe of snow to find that it’s only filled with water. The movie makes you feel a lot of different things. It’s an exciting journey with themes of shame, redemption, death, and rebirth. He will always be alive as long as people draw, paint, make up stories, and dream of stars.

Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget:

Despite their fear of being pacified and ground up into bits, they continue to plan, strategize, and set things up. The long-awaited follow-up to Chicken Run isn’t much better than the first movie, but it does almost everything you might have wanted from going back to the stop-motion world of the first movie.

Within Dawn of the Nugget, Ginger, Rocky, and their daughter Molly need to plan a new breakout after learning that Mrs. Tweedy has married again and learned how to charm chickens into being obedient and easy to kill.

However, not all of your favorite characters are voiced by the same players. Bella Ramsey’s character Molly adds a new-age twist to the chickens’ relationship. Dawn of the Nugget isn’t quite as good as the first movie, but it’s a lean, well-polished production, and the stop-motion battle scenes are especially fun.

Monsters, Inc:

As you might expect, Monsters, Inc. is one of the best cartoon movies of all time. It’s a classic that will transport you back to simpler times.

The movie takes place in the busy city of Monstropolis and is about James P. “Sulley” Sullivan as well as his close friend Mike Wazowski. They work at the named company, which turns the power of children’s screams into energy.

See also  Everything You Need to Know About Video Pre-Production

When a little girl named Boo walks into the monster world by chance, they set out to get her back to her own world safely. Along with its great world-building as well as cutting-edge animation, Monsters, Inc. is great because of Sulley and Mike’s deep journey of self-discovery.

When Boo shows up, it changes and tests their long-held ideas about what human children are like, which is a very important lesson in accepting others as they are and learning more about those who are unusual.

The Angry Birds Movie:

Even though it might be unfair to praise the film adaptation of Angry Birds for not being a complete failure, things could have been a lot worse. Based on the hugely popular app of the exact same name, the movie is about Red, an animated bird who starts to think that the new pigs living on his island are up to no good.

EW says that the movie “delivers a mildly diverting mix of winky meta-jokes as well as moral lessons, cannily pitched at both the next generation of tiny consumers as well as their more sophisticated parents.” Individual experiences may differ depending on one’s ability to appreciate puns and humor suitable for children.

Spirited Away:

For anime fans all over the world, all animation is the pinnacle of Japanese animation and one of the best stories about free-flowing ideas in movies.

It’s a movie that makes kids feel free to be curious and strange, and it makes adults remember how they used to feel. The story combines basic fears such as being relocated, separated from one’s parents, and the fear of permanent loss.

Even more deeply, Spirited Away was a collection of old folktales about the hidden lives of radishes as well as other gods, the wrongs we do to nature, and the punishments she gives us. The movie is beautifully put together by director Hayao Miyazaki, but at its core, it’s a story regarding growing up.

Let’s not fool ourselves: the world is weird. But maybe, as people, we are strangers. People are always telling Chihiro that she stinks; she fumbles around and makes people angry. Being humble in the face of eternal forces is the lesson here.

Critics were amazed because they saw similarities with Japan’s burst economic bubble and dirty rivers. Still, the writing continues to be sufficiently powerful to stand on its own. It’s a patchwork of thoughts, fears, and dreams brought to life through masterful craft.

Unicorn Wars:

The description of this movie as “Care Bears meets Apocalypse Now” is pretty accurate. In the movie by Alberto Vazquez, cute, colorful cubs fight a strange race of black unicorns during a bloody, angry battle.

There are some very funny and gross cartoon fantasy movies of the decade within this one. The characters are cute and well-designed, and we get to know them well before their horrifying deaths.

Unicorn Wars makes a point about the military, propaganda, and faith, but it also says things about the nature of war and the human situation along the way.

See also  Robert A. Altman, Founder and CEO of ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's Parent Company, Dies

“All empires as well as all nations have their own stories to explain why they fight,” Vazquez said in an interview. Even though Unicorn Wars is an animated movie, it doesn’t have a real chance of winning an Academy Award. However, it’s a great example of what the form can do.

Inside Out:

Inside Out was a Pixar movie that goes deep into the workings of the mind. It presents viewers with Riley, an 11-year-old girl, and the feelings that make her happy, sad, angry, scared, and disgusted.

Riley’s feelings are all over the place when her family moves to an unfamiliar town. The movie is worth seeing just for the idea, and it does a great job of showing how people feel.

Fans of Pixar movies know that the main characters have a level of emotional depth that makes them more interesting. The cartoon movie gives a true picture of mental wellness and how it can change during big changes or as a person grows up.

Apollo 10½:

After Waking Life as well as A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater went back to rotoscope animation with this trip through the summer of 1969. Stanley, a young boy with a lot of imagination, is interested in the Apollo 11 journey to the Moon and dreams of being on board the historic spaceship.

Jack Black, who fondly remembers his youth, provides the voice of Stanley as an adult. Fans of Linklater’s Oscar-nominated picture Boyhood are going to notice that he is back on familiar ground here, looking at the process of coming of age with a longing eye.

Many reviewers gave the dreamlike movie high marks, praising its dreamy mood and bright animation.

My Neighbour Totoro:

Some directors work hard and sweat to create their great works of art. The Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki seems to grow things from seeds, putting them in good soil and watering them slowly until they bloom. My Neighbor Totoro is the quietest and gentlest movie on this list.

It’s about curious kids, naughty dust fairies, magical trees, and shy forest animals.  In its own quiet way, though, it’s additionally one of the richest as well as most striking. This story has deep roots in Japanese culture and tradition, in the author’s own past, and in a shared youth full of wonder stories as well as a love of all things that grow.

There is sadness in the movie the fear of losing a parent, the loneliness as well as the anger of being a child but it also has a very light touch, enjoying simple things like raindrops on an umbrella, dust motes floating in the sun, and midnight dances in the garden.

The art style is definitely Japanese, and the theme song is so sugary and chirpy sweet that it’s hard to get rid of. But the result as a whole is one of a kind and covers everything. It takes us back to a world we all lived in at some point and may live in again.

Title:

Content: ×
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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc
Episode 8

by James Beckett,

How would you rate episode 8 of
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc ?
Community score: 3.8

If you're reading this review of the season finale of Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc and you're the type that tends to get sad or irritated when folks have critical things to say about the series, I'm just going to warn you right now that I have some thoughts about this episode. In fact, just so we don't end up parting on poor terms, I'll go ahead and start with some positives! As always, on a technical level, the work that ufotable is putting into Demon Slayer is pretty damned impressive. Do I have some hot takes on how the studio is choosing to use all of that technical polish? Oh boy, do I ever. Still, the show looks and sounds just as wonderful as it ever has. Also, there are a couple of damn fine cuts of primo, Grade-A action here. That's not surprising, at this point, but you know what? There is a bit about halfway through this finale where Muzan gets his body blown into bits and regenerates it layer by layer in grotesque and horrifying detail; all of this, only to have his new body impaled by a dozen blood spears before his head freaking explodes like that guy from Scanners!

That whole part? That was sick as hell. I had fun with it. It's Demon Slayer spectacle at its very best. There! I think I've provided a very generous helping of genuine and enthusiastic praise of this last episode of the Hashira Training Arc. If this is where we part ways, I wish you nothing but the best, and hey, there's going to be a few movies to close out the series, I hear! Hopefully, those will be fun too. Go in peace, my friend.

…are they gone? Alright, good. Now that I've gushed about the four minutes and thirty-five seconds of this overstuffed mess of a finale that actually brought me joy, we can talk about the other thirty-five minutes and fifty-three seconds. You can probably guess by now how I felt about those.

Where do I even begin? Well, I suppose I can start with the literal beginning, since it's just a repeat of the obnoxious and hilarious slow-motion Muzan scene that ended last week's episode, except with some new credits spliced in so that someone out there can claim that the sequence helps build up the episode's atmosphere. Between this, the five minutes of ending credits, and the ridiculously out-of-place Taisho Era Secrets skit that comes afterward, it sort of does end up making for a perfect season finale, thematically speaking. In a self-indulgent and wasteful season filled with meandering padding, here we have a self-indulgent and wasteful season finale that is itself filled with meandering padding (and also about four minutes of a decent action scenes).

Look, I don't want anyone who isn't familiar with my tastes to get the impression that Muzan and Kaguya's nearly fifteen-minute-long conversation is a failure because I simply lack the patience for dialogue-heavy storytelling. Hell, the last two entire episodes of YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master have been nothing but a bunch of people standing in a circle and talking at each other—and it's the most riveting anime of 2024! No, my problem with this entire opening scene of the finale is that it is representative of everything Demon Slayer is bad at, all in one handy exemplar. I would love this scene if the story had put even a bit of effort into establishing the characters of either Muzan or Kaguya before this moment but this is the most meaningful interaction with another character that either of these two has ever been given. I would love this scene if Demon Slayer could come up with something more interesting for these two to talk about for nearly the runtime of a regular episode of the show. I would love this scene if ufotable's flashy presentation hadn't devolved into self-parody like it so clearly has (I know I couldn't have been the only person who was laughing at the way that the show treated Kaguya's murder-suicide of his entire family like something out of a Zack Snyder action scene).

Unfortunately, we live in a world where Demon Slayer has fully committed to treating a script that has all of the substance of a middling episode of The A-Team—as if it is Prestige Cinema for the Ages. Hell, maybe if this whole season had been edited down into a single 90-minute feature, it really would feel prestige enough to earn all of that pomp and circumstance. A single movie can get away with a lot more than four hours of chopped-up television episodes can, after all! I am more than happy to talk the ear off of anyone who will listen about why James Cameron's Avatar movies freaking own because they're just ridiculously expensive remakes of Dances With Wolves, etc. It's all about pacing, tone, and whether or not the creators in charge can wrangle the vibe of a story in such a way that they can justify the choices they make to their audience.

In this season of Demon Slayer, we spent weeks watching Tanjiro wander around while the story occasionally tried to insist that it was building to something incredibly climactic and intense—only for the finale to bungle Muzan's first (and possibly only) chance to be a real character instead of the sneering villain on the back of a cereal box. Meanwhile, the Hashira spend the entire episode running to the scene of the crime and methodically taking the time to introduce themselves and their attacks. Then, the finale ends by pulling the most predictable “Psych! The villain isn't going down that easily!” card ever and trapping everyone in Muzan's Computer Generated MC-Escher Funland. Is it so much to ask that a season dedicated to an entire training arc at least gives the main character of the show the chance to demonstrate anything at all that he gained from that training?

In other words, no, I do not feel like Demon Slayer has justified its choices or the story it is trying to tell. Not in this finale, and, if we're being honest, not for the last couple of seasons. To tell the truth, I was glad when I heard that the show was going to be capping off its run with a trilogy of films. Even a trio of two-hour movies will be easier to sit through than this letdown of a season.

Rating:

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.

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Content: Can you make Mickey Mouse waffles at home?

Did you really take a trip to Disney if you didn’t have a mouse-shaped waffle for breakfast?

Forget Dole whips and churros, the Mickey waffle is arguably the most famous Disney food ever created. A staple of any great Disney parks vacation, the beloved breakfast item has become a sought-after family tradition for many. In fact, a 2014 Disney Parks Blog post claims 3.6 million Mickey waffles are eaten each year at Disneyland and Disney World alone.

And it’s no surprise: If you’ve ever stepped foot in a Disney resort restaurant in the morning, you can bet on the distinct smell of malty goodness wafting through the air, tempting you to take a bite. Delicious and adorable, our obsession knows no bounds with Mickey-shaped imagery forever immortalized in endless collections of merchandise — like t-shirts, phone cases, backpacks and even waffle-scented lotion.

From mini versions to full-size Mickeys topped with whipped cream and berries, these now-iconic waffles aren’t just a hit in the U.S. at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, but at Disney parks across the globe.

At Tokyo Disneyland, you can bask in the glory of an entire restaurant dedicated to them. One of the resort’s most popular eateries, The Great American Waffle Co., has been known to offer wildly inventive versions, including golden brown waffles topped with custard and strawberry sauce or azuki bean and matcha ice cream. At Disneyland Paris, you can have a tres bien time strolling Main Street with a sugar-coated waffle or one laced in decadent chocolate. Brightly-hued red velvet Mickey waffles are the favorite at the sun-soaked Aulani, a Disney Resort located in Hawaii.

So, what’s the secret to giving Mickey waffles that distinct taste we crave after every vacation to the most magical place on earth?

The internet seems to believe it’s in the mix: Carbon’s Golden Malted waffle and pancake mix, to be exact.

While Disney Parks declined to comment on whether Golden Malted is the mix they use across their properties, Twitter, Reddit and other online forums are full of theories that point a white-gloved finger directly to the brand. One #distwitter (an unofficial hashtag used by Disney enthusiasts to discuss all things Mickey) user even photographed a delivery truck carrying boxes of the mix headed to Disney World.

An online authority in Disney food, the Disney Food Blog also claims it is indeed Golden Malted. According to their sources, Disney began experimenting with the mouse-shaped waffles in the ’80s as a collaboration between Disney’s secret batter supplier and Walt Disney Imagineering. Together, they figured out how to create a waffle iron that wouldn’t distort the face of Mickey Mouse once cooked. Because of the lack of social media at the time, none of this was documented by park goers, leaving it unclear when or where these Mickey-shaped waffles first popped up in the Disney resorts or how they rapidly spread to hundreds of Disney dining locations. But, it all goes back to the mix.

What is Golden Malted?

The Carbon family, led by patriarch Fred Carbon, patented their family recipe (along with several types of waffle irons) for Golden Malted waffle and pancake mix in 1937. The distinct taste of the Carbon family recipe can be attributed to the use of real malt, vanilla and the highest-quality wheat flour. This secret vanilla-malted formula produces a waffle that’s golden-brown while also being light and fluffy. And, the aroma a Carbon waffle creates is also a signature part of the experience.

Golden Malted, now owned by New Carbon Company, still leaves Carbon’s name on the brand and is the largest supplier of waffle mix in the United States, selling over 350 million waffles per year at over 50,000 locations in more than 60 countries. Now ubiquitous with hotel chain breakfast buffets, Hilton, Choice Brand Hotels and Wyndham are just a few they provide their mix to exclusively.

So, are Disney waffles Golden Malted waffles?

Yahoo Life reached out to Golden Malted for further sleuthing, but they declined to answer as well.

As a regular visitor to Disney parks since the ’80s, I’ve had quite a few Mickey waffles in my day. So, in the name of research, I decided to put the internet theories to the test. Armed with Golden Malted waffle and pancake mix and a Mickey waffle iron, both easily purchased from Amazon, I set out to test the theory.

I followed the exact instructions provided on the packaging, combining the mix with egg, water and melted butter. Then, I went to work, pressing out several Mickey-shaped waffles in my own kitchen.

Was I able to make Mickey waffles at home?

Oh boy! I’m happy to say that yes, it seems you can make Mickey waffles from the comfort of your own home, no resort reservation required. The first at-home Disney moment for me was that familiar malty smell as the waffles were cooking. The finished product was identical to what’s served at Disney Parks with a crunchy, golden brown exterior making way for a light and airy inside.

While eating these waffles at home won’t be followed by a spin on Dumbo the Flying Elephant or a delicious Dole whip, they are still nothing short of magic.

Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Life’s newsletter.

Claudia has worked as a journalist for various print-based magazines for more than 5 years. She brings together substantial news pieces from various parts of the US and rest of the World.


This report addresses: Tai Chi & Fall Prevention

In a recent sit-down interview with HoustonTexans.com, Joseph discussed his coaching background as well as his thoughts on how he can help improve the Texans' secondary.

After six seasons in San Francisco as a co-secondary coach with Johnnie Lynn, how excited are you for this next step in your career?

On the one hand, you could enjoy the show for the ensemble’s dedicated performances, the pitch-perfect soundtrack choices, and the thoughtful portrait of, in the words of Dr.

Is Lottie, revealed in “Doomcoming” as the Antler Queen from the premiere episode, really clairvoyant, and are her visions actually the future?

Sport

Valtteri Bottas: one of F1's most underrated talents finds his balance in gravel racing

Ahead of the new season, we speak to Bottas about Alfa Romeo's prospects for 2023, being Lewis Hamilton's teammate, and the long, eventful journey to finding his happy place in life

For Valtteri Bottas, time is precious.

Before the lights go green in Bahrain, GQ talked to Valtteri Bottas about the season ahead, his passion for gravel riding, and how it took him hitting rock bottom in order to find a little balance amongst all the chaos.

This report addresses: Tai Chi & Fall Prevention

Title:

Content: Q&A with Vance Joseph

Defensive backs coach Vance Joseph joined the Texans this offseason after six seasons with the San Francisco 49ers.

Joseph, 38, began his NFL coaching career with the 49ers in 2005 as a defensive assistant. He was promoted in 2006 to secondary coach, a position he shared with Johnnie Lynn until 2010.

Joseph also has coached defensive backs at Bowling Green, Colorado and Wyoming. He played defensive back in the NFL for two seasons, appearing in 17 games with the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts from 1995-96. A native of Marrero, La., he played quarterback and running back at Colorado.

In a recent sit-down interview with HoustonTexans.com, Joseph discussed his coaching background as well as his thoughts on how he can help improve the Texans' secondary.

After six seasons in San Francisco as a co-secondary coach with Johnnie Lynn, how excited are you for this next step in your career?

"I'm excited about it. Working with Johnnie was great times because he was an experienced guy and we could learn a lot from each other. But this is exciting. It's a good, young secondary, and hopefully I can help them with just fundamentals and technique and just basic football. They're close. I mean, they play hard and they're smart and they want to be good, so it's going to be a fun challenge."

What do you think about Wade Phillips and the opportunity to work with him?

"Oh, man. That's why I'm here. Wade, he's one of the icons on defense in the NFL. I've worked with three of his guys – Billy Davis, Mike Nolan and Greg Manusky – and they've all said the same thing about Wade: 'He's a great guy to work for. He's a bright guy. You're going to learn from Wade, and you're going to be good.' So I'm excited about the opportunity."

Working with those three coaches in the past, how similar were their defenses to what you'll be running here?

"Very, very similar. Their structure is very similar. Obviously, some of the terminology has changed over the years, but the structure of the defense, it's basically the same. And that was the connection. That made it easy for myself and for Wade. It's going to be a quick offseason, so it helps to have people who know your system so he's not training me, he's not training Reggie (Herring). Bill's (Kollar) a D-line guy, so for him, that's just the same principles. But the 'backer and the secondary coach, it helps to be in that system so he's not spending time training us so we can coach the players."

You're still pretty young (38). Who have been some of the biggest influences on your career so far?

"Well, I'm not that young. But my mentor was Tom McMahon – he passed away. I GA'd for him at Colorado. He was the first real coach I ever worked under. His foundation is what I still use as far as teaching, being a progressive teacher. And obviously, I've worked with Mike Nolan, who was a great defensive mind – who still is – in the NFL. Billy Davis has been in the league 20 years. And Greg Maunksy, he played for 12 and he's been a coordinator for now six. So I think a combination of all those guys. And I've been blessed to be really in that same family tree for my entire NFL career. And now with Wade, it's the same family tree, so that's neat. That's an easy transition."

What are some of your fundamental coaching philosophies?

"When you work with guys like that, you understand quick that players come first and the scheme second. So you do what players do well. It's a fundamental game. That's never going to change. Tackling, footwork, eye placement, that's always going to be the game. It's a game of error; the team who makes the least mistakes wins the game. So for me, it's a fundamental game. It's always players first and scheme second. Scheme helps you win, but the player fundamentals keep you winning."

What excites you about the group of players that you're stepping in to coach here in Houston?

"They're young. That helps, because most of them are blank pages so they don't have a lot of bad habits. They're aggressive. And they want to win. When they're young and want to win, that means they will work at it. Having veterans helps, but if you're young and aggressive, you can play in this league and win in this league."

How much has your experience playing in the NFL helped you relate to current players?

"Well, I think it gives you a little bit of credibility. Not all, because a lot of ex-players have coached. I think with players, if you can help them keep their jobs, they respect you, but if you can do that and also you've played, I think it's instant credibility. You kind of know what they're going through physically and mentally, so it just helps you understand players better, that's all. But it doesn't mean you're going to be a great coach because you played. That's totally separate. It helps you sometimes, but in some cases it can hurt you also, because you can't coach your *talent or you can't coach your *limitations or your strengths. Every player's different. Coaching's different than playing. So for me, it's a big deal but not a big deal."

You had a pretty interesting playing career, going from quarterback at Colorado to defensive back in the NFL. In what ways has that transition been beneficial to you as a coach?

"Even as a player, being a quarterback my entire life helped me play defense better, because I can obviously recognize what offenses are doing. So I knew the danger zones from a defensive perspective. So even coaching now, I can watch the offense and I can know exactly what they're doing and who they're trying to attack. I think to be an effective offensive or defensive coach, you have to know what the opposite sides are doing. I mean, you can go out there and just play ball and not know what they're trying to attack, and that's not the way to go. But for me, it's helped over the years, understanding offenses, route combinations, protections and quarterback reads. That helps me a lot. I can see it and get it right away without even thinking about it. It just comes natural to me. So that's been a plus."

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Content: meat deets

Who Is the Girl (Seemingly) Hunted and Eaten in the Yellowjackets Premiere?

Photo: Paul Sarkis/SHOWTIME

Spoilers follow for Yellowjackets through episode nine, “Doomcoming.”

Yellowjackets is awash in, for lack of a better term, weird shit, with just enough ambiguity to make you wonder whether what you’re watching is real, imagined, or somewhere in between. On the one hand, you could enjoy the show for the ensemble’s dedicated performances, the pitch-perfect soundtrack choices, and the thoughtful portrait of, in the words of Dr. Ellie Sattler, “sexism in survival situations” without treating it like a puzzle to be unlocked. On the other hand, whether in the 1996 or 2021 timelines, there are inexplicable things that are just pretty damn fun to theorize about! What is the deal with that monstrous eyeless man, and that red glint to Taissa’s gaze? How long can an individually owned furniture store really survive in an era of IKEA, Ashley, and Bob’s? Why is Shauna’s daughter Callie such a brat? Is Lottie, revealed in “Doomcoming” as the Antler Queen from the premiere episode, really clairvoyant, and are her visions actually the future? And doesn’t that symbol carved in the trees and the cabin’s attic floorboards look like a woman’s body, speared through and hung up with a hook?

That final query stands side by side with the series’ most long-running mystery, the one introduced in the premiere’s opening minutes that has since hung over Yellowjackets like a ghost. Who dies in that opening scene? The sequence is all of 90 seconds or so, and it’s eerie and brutal. A girl runs through a snowy forest, bleeding from her foot, wearing what looks like a thin nightgown. (It’s giving, very bleakly, Wind River.) As she sprints, crying and panting, the young woman passes various symbols carved in tree trunks (including one that looks like a watchful evil eye) and totems made of bones, feathers, and bark. Closed captions tell us there are “whispering voices” everywhere, including “calling in distance,” “cawing,” “panting,” “screeching,” and “howling.” Then the young woman falls into a deep pit full of spikes and dies.

Is she fleeing? Is she being hunted? Either way, she ends up hung upside down and drained of her blood, then seemingly butchered, roasted, and eaten by the Antler Queen, her six masked followers, and Misty, the only survivor who reveals her face by the end of the episode. (Samantha Hanratty, who plays Misty, was the only cast member on set in Mammoth, California, during the filming of this sequence; everyone else is played by stunt doubles.) We now know after “Doomcoming” that Lottie is the Antler Queen, but we’re no closer to knowing the identities of the six non-Misty girls — or the one they kill.

This is what we do know: The girl is tall-ish, has dark hair, and is wearing the gold heart necklace worn around Jackie’s neck in her first official moment onscreen (receiving unsatisfying hand stuff from Jeff in her New Jersey bedroom pre-crash). We also know the person cannot be Shauna, Tai, Nat, or Misty, for whom we’ve met adult counterparts. (Reminder that in episode three, “The Dollhouse,” Jessica says to Tai, “Some of you guys just love living off the grid,” but other grown-up survivors haven’t yet been introduced.) That doesn’t seem like much to go on, and yet. Winter is coming in the Canadian wilderness, and in advance of season one finale “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi,” I’ve ranked my guesses for who that mysterious teen-turned-meal might be, from most to least likely.

1.

Mari, booze maker and Jackie sycophant

Photo: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

Mari is that No. 2 girl in the popularity hierarchy (like Courtney and Whitney in Bring It On, from Jackie’s curiously anachronistic favorite movie characters list) whose purpose is cruelty. Think of how quickly she slides up next to Jackie at the lake once she realizes Jackie and Shauna are sparring, and how easily she suggests that she and Jackie move their lockers together when they get back to New Jersey. She’s a follower, not a leader (she joins Tai on the attempt to find help; she agrees to turn back once things get rough; she supports Lottie in hunting Travis), and she’ll never be queen bee. If she were, she’d probably be a real jerk about it; I’m thinking Shannen Doherty in Heathers vibes. She’s got the height and the black hair, and her status as a B-level Yellowjacket means her death would still be shocking, if not necessarily narrative-breaking. I could see Mari complaining about something innocuous (not getting the fur pelt she wanted?) so annoyingly that the other survivors are like, “Ugh, let’s just eat her already.”

2.

Lottie, in a twist!

Photo: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

Yes, we know Lottie is the Antler Queen. But looks-wise, with her height and her beachy waves, she could be the running girl, right? This would be unexpected, but might be an option if the deer crown is something that can be passed between the girls. Does someone come for Lottie and claim the Antler Queen mantle for themselves? A deposition! A coup! Eat your heart out, The Crown.

3.

The obvious choice: Jackie

Photo: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

This is the easy pick, but let’s indulge it. We see the heart necklace on Jackie first, then she gives it to Shauna, then Shauna gives it back to Jackie, and now Shauna and Jackie are in the awkward spot where the latter knows the former was sleeping with her boyfriend, but she hasn’t said anything because Jackie is a messy bench who loves drama and psychological mind games. What if Jackie’s complete lack of outdoor skills turn her from teammate to prey? She hasn’t been chopping wood. She’s pretty bad at collecting water. She pissed off Van very early by running away from the fire in the plane rather than trying to save her. (Van is definitely the girl standing over the pit wearing that co-ed soccer T-shirt, right?) And Jackie slept with Travis, who “doesn’t belong” to her, according to Lottie. Maybe that’s enough to get her on everyone’s “ostracize and eat” list?

Photo: SHOWTIME

I do wonder, though: What happened to the necklace the girl was wearing? Could someone have pocketed it after pulling her out of the pit but before draining her body? Maybe this necklace, like the ring Travis gives to Javi, is a piece of jewelry to watch for in the 2021 timeline. And if Jackie is actually a time traveler, well, that opens up various other possibilities.

4.

Yellowjacket #1, Yellowjacket #2, or another extra?

Photo: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

How many Yellowjackets are there? There are 11 players on the field during a soccer game, and let’s say every position has a backup player. That would bring the Yellowjackets team total to about two dozen, which sort of syncs up with the number of girls we see frolicking in the lake and on the beach in “The Dollhouse.” But that number certainly shrinks or expands as the series desires. The cabin is always full of sleeping figures, yet they don’t all attend the seance, and some of them disappear during the shroom-induced assault and chase of Travis.

Remember them, the two on the far right of Shauna and Travis?

Photo: SHOWTIME

Or her, on the right of Natalie?

Photo: SHOWTIME

Or them?

Photo: SHOWTIME

You probably don’t, because they haven’t been given names or screen time! So maybe it’s cheating, but the actresses who play Yellowjacket #1 (Mya Lowe), Yellowjacket #2 (Princess Davies), and so on? They certainly seem like they’re just sticking around to serve as meat.

5.

No one, because the cannibalism is an illusion!

Photo: Paul Sarkis/SHOWTIME

I am contractually obligated to mention this theory, because certain members of the Vulture staff believe it: They do not think the girl from the opening was eaten at all! There’s a lot of suggestiveness in how this opening is shot and edited, and I certainly think we’re being led to believe the meat we see being cooked on that spit was human. But my colleagues are not wrong that we don’t see a human-butchery scene à la the first season of The Terror, and we don’t see anyone picking up a leg like a gigantic drumstick and gnawing on it. So maybe that flesh is actually bear or deer or wolf, and we’re just projecting our worst cannibalism assumptions upon these girls — as have so many others, from the people writing unauthorized books and magazine articles about them to Taissa’s opponent for New Jersey State Senate. In my heart of hearts, though, I 100 percent believe that they ate that girl, and that they’re going to eat again. Remember how zealously Misty bit into that gas station jerky? She’s got the taste! There is no doubt in my mind, but only time will tell.

Who Is the Girl Eaten in the Yellowjackets Premiere Episode?

Title:

Content: Sport

Valtteri Bottas: one of F1's most underrated talents finds his balance in gravel racing

Ahead of the new season, we speak to Bottas about Alfa Romeo's prospects for 2023, being Lewis Hamilton's teammate, and the long, eventful journey to finding his happy place in life

For Valtteri Bottas, time is precious. Last season, the Alfa Romeo driver passed the decade mark in Formula One, having been a mainstay on the grid through his years at Williams, Mercedes and now Alfa. Going into the 2023 season, the Finn has an impressive (though often forgotten) 10 wins and 67 podiums under his belt, along with five constructors' championships with Lewis Hamilton and two second-place finishes in the drivers' championship.

Before the lights go green in Bahrain, GQ talked to Valtteri Bottas about the season ahead, his passion for gravel riding, and how it took him hitting rock bottom in order to find a little balance amongst all the chaos.

The new season's about to kick off. Does it feel like your first day back at school?

Absolutely. The machinery is different from year to year, everybody's fresh from the break – with no jet lag! It's exciting to discover the new car and how you're going to perform against others. I'm sure if you ask everybody in F1 again in October or November, it'll be a different vibe!

How do you get back into racing mode?

It happens pretty automatically. From mid-January, we start having simulator days and it builds up both mentally and physically. I usually take a bit of time off after the season, but I only had one week of not doing much. Basically, my coach told me that for December, I could do whatever I wanted, so I had a solid cycling month in Australia, rode my bike for 2000 kilometres on gravel. When it comes to January, I start to do a bit more of the specific training you need for Formula One – a bit more systematic gym work, a bit of reaction speed and coordination training.

It sounds like the cycling will have kept you fit in the off-season!

There's the positive physical effect with cycling, the performance gain for endurance and cardio, but it's really good for the head, too. If you compare cycling to running on a treadmill or being on an indoor bike, you never switch off completely – you're always aware of certain things, so your brain is working as well. Sometimes in the season, I'll use it as recovery, almost like a stress release. It's pretty good for clearing your thoughts.

What would you class as a successful F1 season this year?

To be better than last year. We want to see progress in the team, we want to see better results, and I want to get better results – I've given myself a target to be on the podium at least once this year. We also want to be more consistent. Last year, we started well, but then as the season went on, we struggled a bit with reliability. Based on what I've seen so far with this new car, the quality seems to be a step up.

Do you think finding a good balance contributes to successful racing?

In the end, it's all about human performance. The better your headspace, the better your well-being and the better your physical fitness, the better you're going to perform. I feel like everything is in great balance. I'm aiming to have my best season to date, for sure. After testing last week, I went with [girlfriend] Tiffany [Cromwell, professional road and gravel cyclist for Canyon-SRAM] into the desert near Dubai and we just cycled for a couple of days, with some epic rides in the mountains. Those kinds of things are important, even if it's two or three days, just to disconnect and escape the F1 world for a bit.

How do you stay physically and mentally fit through a hectic season?

What you learn over the years is how important simple things become in aiding your recovery. You need to be able to really listen to your body and try to sleep and eat well. Maintaining your fitness and well-being throughout the season is not easy. You need to find the right balance in training because it's so easy to overdo it. I've done so myself – eight or nine years ago I managed to get myself into a real overtraining state. I learned a lot from that.

How easy was it to slip into that state?

When you're hungry for results as an athlete, and you want to be the best, it's quite easy to forget the simple things and take care of yourself. It's way easier to train too much than not enough. It's a combination of certain things: nutrition, how much you train, the intensity, how much you sleep. Then you put all the outside pressure and stress on top of that. It was way more difficult to get out of – I got into that state in about six months, but to get out completely was a two-year project.

What did that process look like?

Firstly, it was about realising my fitness level had dropped, and it was starting to affect me mentally – I'd started to feel almost miserable, and the simple things in life didn't feel so fun anymore. I had blood tests and fitness tests, and you could see that everything was not OK: all the stress levels were high, my fitness level was the lowest it had probably been in my whole career. I needed outside help as well. I found a coach and we started a recovery project, which started with correcting my nutrition. I wasn't eating enough and I was training too much. I had a few months of not being allowed to do anything physical, but I was still racing: I still had to travel, still do the Grand Prix distances, and just try to manage it. Finally, the first winter break came and I could actually give my body a proper rest. The next season, I still sometimes suffered from heart palpitations, and every time I did group interviews, I started to feel dizzy, almost panicky. That kind of stuff was all related, and only went away one and a half years after the dip. It was quite something.

How do you deal with the fine margins between success and failure in F1?

When I was young, I took Formula One – and life – too seriously. I took how I was evaluated or ranked almost personally and I let the pressure get to me too much. Over the years, you become more confident and you care less about what people say. The ideal situation is that you don't feel any outside pressure; that the only pressure comes from yourself, and that you can control it.

That pressure must be even stronger in a sport that has such huge rivalry narratives.

That depends on personality but you just need to accept the fact that we can all have dinner together as drivers but the next day we're going to race as hard as we can to beat each other. It's the same within the team. You need to be able to work well with your teammate, but then, once it's qualifying time, or race time, you want to be ahead of him. Respect is the number one thing. If you have respect both ways then it works, but it's quite a cutthroat sport because sometimes you're battling for your job: your seat for the next year.

It must be important to have time away from the sport. How do you relax and recover?

Being on my bike is the perfect escape from the F1 world. It's so different. The F1 world is noisy and high-pressured; cycling is almost the opposite. Normally, it's quiet, relaxing, and the physical effort also produces endorphins, so you tend to think more positive things. It's a great way to clear my mind and at the same time do some good for my body. I'm involved in quite a few other things [a gin company and a coffee roastery in Finland] so it's good to have things that I can get nicely distracted by. It's so important to disconnect sometimes, to have something other than F1. That's a mistake I made earlier in my career – you're burning the candle at both ends, and that doesn't work for the long term.

Why do you have such a passion for gravel riding, and why is Finland such a good place for it?

With gravel you can get to places that you never thought you would go. Even in my hometown, I managed to explore lots of new roads, even though I spent all my childhood there. It's pretty fast-paced and you can play and slide about with the bike a bit more. It's more interesting than road racing, to me at least. Finland has nice, fast gravel. There's also great nature – it's beautiful. For FNLD GRVL in June, it's close to midsummer, so you have almost endless daylight. It's super green at that time, too, with clean water, clean air, no pollution. It's just a good place for it.

What is it about Canyon bikes that resonates with you?

If I do something, I want to have the best equipment, then I can only blame myself. I like technology, and they're really nicely designed and engineered bikes. It's a really cool brand as well, from the events they support to the range of bikes they have, from road to downhill. They're always evolving: it's a really dynamic and innovative brand, always trying to be on top of the game.

Does the camaraderie of gravel riding and extreme sports in general attract you?

The first gravel race I ever did was SBT GRVL in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I didn't really know what to expect – I'd heard it was cool, but you make so many new friends and connections, whether it's outside or within the race. There's good respect. It really feels like everybody is welcome: no matter how big or small you are, your gender or background, it doesn't matter. Everyone is on the same line, as it should be. You can be on the start line with pro athletes, you can compare yourself to the very best in the world.

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