It really does seem as though music has been around since the beginning of forever, doesn't it? People have used music to express how they feel when words are not enough to do so for hundreds of centuries now. In Othello, Desdemona randomly starts to sing, in front of Emilia, when she is feeling wary and fearful of Othello, but nowadays when we're feeling angry, overwhelmed, or anything we just plug in our earbuds and listen to our music. Obviously in those times they didn't have iPods or anything like that, but it was still weird to just randomly burst out into song. She is so caught up in her emotions that she doesn't even care anymore.
When I was younger and was sitting about a foot away from the t.v. watching Disney movies, I would always wonder why they would just start singing out of nowhere. Now I can see that it was to set the mood of the movies, and to get the audience to continue watching it. (That realization only took about 10 years).
It's amazing how the lyrics to a song can match up to your current situation and give you the solution to the problem without you even realizing it. That was what always made me love music. -Post by Kathleen
The best villian EVER was in Othello by Shakespeare. Iago pretends to be everyone's friend to get the information he needs in order to use and manipulate it to anger others. He thinks up an elaborate plan that is executed and destroys many relationships.
This characteristic is also seen in the villians in nearly every Disney movie. They all pretend to do something but in actuality what they are doing is all a part of a plan to get what they want.
Look at Dr. Facilier, a.k.a. The Shadow Man, from the movie The Princess and the Frog. He takes advantage of Lawrence's dire want to become a prince, and transforms him to look like Prince Naveen using a voodoo talisman, causing Prince Naveen turn into a frog. The Shadow Man only cares about money, so his plan was to have Lawrence, who looks like Prince Naveen, to propose to and marry Charlotte, daughter of a really rich man named Big Daddy, so he can kill Big Daddy and split the riches between himself and Lawrence.
Have you ever had someone in your life who was a disguised evil? I know I have. I saw this saying on Facebook and I figured I might as well share with you even though you've probably already seen it: "Don't fear the enemy that attacks you, but the fake friend that hugs you."
Ahh, that feeling when your English class reads yet another classic by everyone's favorite English playwright, Shakespeare. This year we are reading Othello, which from our small introduction, I believe to be about love, jealously, and racism. Doesn't everybody love those themes.
Oh the beauty of Shakespearean English.
So there are pretty much three main characters, which are Iago, Othello, and Desdemona (Of course there are other important main characters, I just saw these as the most important). So before the book even starts, Othello, a Christian Moor and Venetian general, has eloped with Desdemona, the daughter of the Venetian senator Brabantio. Another person named Roderigo is in love with Desdemona and before the book starts he had Iago try to court her with all his money. And Iago, the book's villain, is Othello's second-hand man, but was passed over for a promotion to lieutenant, so understandably he wants revenge.
Okay enough background information, and on to what I really want to talk about: how I see the book in terms of the Pixar movie, Toy Story.
So we have Woody as a blend of Iago and Roderigo and Buzz as Othello. Of course, these aren't perfect character matchings, but they work in a way.
A cowboy like this could never be a villain, could he?
Iago and Roderigo, like Woody, probably mostly started out as okay people. However through certain events, they became compelled to embrace the road of evil. For Woody, it was being replaced by Buzz by Andy. For Iago, it was being passed over for a promotion, and for Roderigo, it was not getting the person he loved. While it remains to be seen the actions of Iago and Roderigo, Woody certainly showed the extent he would take for revenge, attempting to make Buzz seem lost to Andy so that he would be the favorite toy once again.
He would certainly fit into a Shakespearean play.
So Buzz is supposed to be Othello in our crazy Toy Story/Shakespeare mix. Othello in the beginning of the play certainly seems like a hero, honest, well-respected, and of course he's already gotten the girl! Buzz is also honest in a sense, but he is also naive, a trait that I believe will show in Othello later. Buzz is also manipulated by Woody, as he had replaced him as Andy's favorite toy. I get a feeling Iago is most certainly going to manipulate Othello as the book progresses, although for revenge and not necessarily jealously.
So, why are we putting Othello in terms of Toy Story? Well the inner child in me naively hopes that by the end Iago and Othello will make up and be best friends like Buzz and Woody, but of course that probably isn't Shakespeare's style. No, the real reason we put Othello in terms of Toy Story is to see how certain themes, in this case revenge, transcend time and are often altered to suit the prevailing audience of the time. In addition, being able to compare and contrast characters with totally different characters helps us to obtain an understanding of the characters. Their similarities and differences allow us to make certain insights on how we think they will develop and what the plot may have in store for us.
One of the most universally strongly disliked type of person is one whom we all have known at one point in our lives. It's not the tyrant. Not the hypocrite or the landlord. Not the liar (well perhaps to some degree...). It isn't even the criminal, no. No no, friends. It is someone who can hurt us far worse than that. It is...