Carja

Nektara

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Nov 302011
 

From the journal of  Ardebast Raconteur:

Many moons ago, when I was barely older than a pup, I met Gordon. Gordon was a great bear and an even greater friend. He shared my love of stories and for a time we travelled together in search of the great ones. In time though, Gordon settled down in Calix’s Cross. There he got married and raised a family. I would make it a point to stop at Gordon’s whenever I passed through the Cross to see how he was doing. He’s gone now but his children remain, Logar and Nektara. Logar is a good fur, strong and loyal, but it’s his sister, Nektara, that I see big things for.

Nektara, is short for a bear. Her brother calls her Half, “because she’s half the bear she should be.” Only Logar can get away with calling her that though. Though she may be small in stature, she is immensely cunning and sharp of wit and will not hesitate to call upon her wits to cut a detractor down to size.

In addition to her intelligence, Nektara is also musically gifted. For as long as I can remember, she has always had her flute and the songs she plays on it are hauntingly beautiful.

The last I heard, Nektara was preparing to apply to the Academy. Given her natural gifts, I would expect that she will quickly accepted.

Carja’s Notes:

Nektara first appears in the first of a series of birthday stories I wrote for my friends. Her name originates from my poor auditory senses: When I was watching the Ewoks cartoon in French, I misheard the character Latara’s name as Nektara. I may have heard wrong, but I liked the name anyway, so I decided to use it myself. Nektara’s small size is a nod to her Ewok roots.

I wanted Nektara to be a musician because the friend I wrote the story for is passionate about music. I chose the flute specifically because that’s the instrument that Latara played in the cartoon.

In the Funnies, Nektara naturally develops into the straight man to Todrick’s over the top character. I don’t see that relationship changing any time soon.

Todrick

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Nov 302011
 

From the journal of  Ardebast Raconteur:

I met the fox, Todrick, on one of my trips through Verdant, the City in the Treetops. He’s an earnest young fur, and quite likeable.

Furs don’t often make their home in Verdant. That’s what makes Todrick so unusual. To add to his mystique, noone, not even Todrick himself, remembers how he came to live there. Todrick is an orphan with not even the slightest idea as to his origins, so in his case it’s forgiveable, and of course, the Avian are not known for their memories.

I can see it in Todrick’s eyes that he yearns for more. Someday I expect he will leave Verdant in search of…well, I don’t know what exactly. Adventure perhaps? I would suspect that finding out where he comes from might be a motivation as well.

Carja’s Notes:

Todrick first appears as a fur that Nektara encounters in the first of a series of three birthday stories I wrote for my friends, but I had the idea for him much earlier.

Foxes are my favorite animals, so it was a no-brainer that one of my characters would be a fox. His name is a nod to Todd from Disney’s The Fox and the Hound.

While there’s a little of me in all my characters, I’d say Todrick, as he appears in the Funnies, is the one that I’m most like: He’s somewhat of a spaz with a short attention span. I didn’t originally intend for him to turn out that way, but found him taking that role the more I wrote him.

Musings on The Muppets

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Nov 282011
 

I just came back from an afternoon at the theater. Not just any theater, mind you. I was revisiting the Muppet Theater as the Muppets returned to the big screen this weekend.

To put things in context, I wouldn’t qualify myself as a hardcore Muppet fan. I mean, I had never seen the original Muppet Movie until I was like thirty and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen The Great Muppet Caper in its entirety (I watched the heck out of The Muppets Take Manhattan though). Like a lot of folks from my generation, I grew up on Sesame Street. I remember the day Big Bird learned that Mr. Hooper died and what that entailed. I remember the day everybody finally learned that Mr. Snuffleupagus was real. Those were big TV moments for me. The Muppet Babies were a staple of my Saturday morning cartoon viewing. I didn’t get into Fraggle Rock and The Muppet Show was something I wasn’t ready to appreciate as a child. I couldn’t stand the “special musical guests”. I just wanted to see more Muppet mayhem. It turns out, I still do.

When you’re growing up, you figure your childhood heroes will be around forever. Then you hear the news that Jim Henson died. Wow. How can Jim Henson die? He’s Kermit the Frog! He’s Ernie! He’s Rowlf the Dog! But there it was. A few months later, The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson aired. It marked the end of an era. The Muppets, with the exception of the Sesame Street cast, went through a dark period. There were revival attempts, the  occasional Muppets adaptation-movie, but it wasn’t the same. Kermit, Fozzie and Piggy were on screen, but they weren’t being themselves.

Flash-forward to a couple of years ago. I hear that Jason Segal wants to be involved in reviving the Muppets. I like Jason. He has that goofy charm that fits in so well with the Muppets. If he’s involved, who knows what might happen? Still, I have my doubts.

Then, the ad campaign started with the multiple movie parodies They were really nifty. Things were looking up. I was actually looking forward to the movie. As the premiere date drew nearer, I read some advanced reviews and they were surprisingly glowing. Hey! Could this be for real? Well, on Sunday, November 27, 2011, I was all set to find out.

And?

It was GREAT!

I’d read that part of the theme for the movie was that today’s cynical world needs the Muppets more than ever. Well, that nails it right on the head. The Muppets is about friendship, optimism, finding your place in the world and having fun. It’s the perfect pick-me-up. I was with a good buddy and we both agreed that The Muppets was a lot of fun. The musical numbers were toe-tapping good and I admit that I even got a little teary-eyed in places.

There was one blogger who said he wished they’d focused more on the humans, namely Jason Segal and Amy Adams. What? Seriously? Don’t get me wrong, Jason Segal rocks in How I Met Your Mother and I loved Amy Adams in Enchanted, but a Muppet movie that focuses on the humans? Why, that’d be like a Transformers movie that decides that nobody wants to see the giant robots and focuses on the hu–well, you get the idea. When I go into a Muppets movie, I expect to see Muppets and plenty o’ them. I was not disappointed.

For the longtime fans, there are plenty of references and musical cues from the TV show and the first three Muppet Movies (Muppets From Space is ignored). Rather than just keep the movie dated in the past though, they freshen things up as well. I can’t wait to see the movie in English so I can hear the songs in English. I suppose I could buy the soundtrack (I probably will).

While I don’t think Jason Segal needs to be in any future Muppets projects, I hope he stays involved. He “gets it” and the Muppets needs someone like him at the helm to make sure the franchise doesn’t lose itself again.

Does The Muppets need to be seen on the big screen? Probably not. But if you don’t go see it in theaters, you’ll have to wait for the DVD release and really, why would you want to do that? We spend so much money on things we don’t need. Well, everybody needs to smile! So go out and see The Muppets!

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