There is no doubt when we say that we have had a tough year this year. 2016 just didn't turn out the way we thought it would and right now, we're seeing a lot of hate in result of the U.S. election. So I thought that now would be a good time to acknowledge some good things that have been announced or released the past week, just to lift your spirits up.
1) The new Beauty and the Beast trailer.
Now that there is a full length trailer, everyone's super excited, myself included. Now before, I was really nervous about Disney making a live-action version of this classic film, so much that I wrote about it here on Odyssey. Like a lot of people, this film holds a special place in my heart, it was one of the biggest parts of my childhood, and it would have been heartbreaking to see this beloved story tainted. But now after seeing the trailer, all my doubts and fears went away. Emma Watson is absolutely perfect as Belle, Kevin Kline is perfect as Maurice, the Beast looks amazing (a round of applause to the special effects team!), everything about the trailer made me fall in love with Beauty and the Beast all over again.
2) Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
A full-length trailer has been released for this long-anticipated series. A lot of people have grown up reading this popular book series and have long waited for a visual adaptation of the adventures of the Baudelaire children. With A Series of Unfortunate Events being the most expensive show Netflix has done so far, the quality is top-notch; they have spared no expense. With Neil Patrick Harris playing the dastardly Count Olaf (applause to the make-up team by the way!), this show couldn't look even more perfect! Heck, it might even inspire some of us to pick up the series again, or even start it for the first time! There is no doubt about it that A Series of Unfortunate Events is going to be a real treat.
3) Hayao Miyazaki is coming out of retirement to do one last film.
Just in case you don't know, Hayao Miyazaki is an acclaimed Japanese animator, from animation company Studio Ghibli, who has made classic films such as My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, and Spirited Away. In summary, he's awesome. In 2013, after the release of his film The Wind Rises, he announced his retirement. This isn't the first time this has happened. He first retired after the release of his film Princess Mononoke in 1998,only to be inspired to make the film Spirited Away, earning him an Academy Award in 2003. This will be the second time he has come out of retirement and it's to make a short film, Boro the Caterpillar, which was only available to see at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Japan, into a full length film. This will possibly be the last film Miyazaki will ever make, since he predicts that it will take five years to make this movie (2019 is the target year, right before the 2020 Olympics), which will make him 80 years old when the movie is finished. Us Ghibli fans around the world hope that Miyazaki will be able to complete Boro so that he can share is brilliance with the world one last time.
4) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is finally in theaters.
A new era of magic has just arrived! It's J.K. Rowling's screenwriting debut, and so far Harry Potter fans are in awe. Inspired after the fiction Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, this film tells the story of magizoologist Newt Scamander visiting 1920s New York, where his magical creatures are accidentally released into the city and it's a race to get them back to safety. This is a dream come true for a lot of us. Harry Potter was probably one of the first major book series that you have ever read (it was for me), and as a kid you were swept away into a world of witches and wizards, and taught us that hope, love, and courage are some of the greatest spells in the world. After the last Deathly Hollows movie came out, we thought that was the end, but we still nurtured our love for Harry Potter; To us, him and his friends will last forever. But when it was announced that J.K. Rowling was going to to grace us with an expansion of the Wizarding World in America? Us Potterheads were overjoyed. One of the world's most beloved worlds has returned. Raise your wands and rejoice.
