YooBot

Having done some work with the British Heart Foundation during my time on placement, I was excited to see what the next installment of Grey's campaign for the BHF was going to be. Knowing they were targeting a younger market I was pleasantly surprised to see the "Yoobot" site. A yoobot is a virtual you, you put in your age and register, you can even upload your face as a picture! Your yoobot gets to live your life, basically, online and through your actions, you can see how the yoobot is affected, for example if you feed it too many burgers, you can see it become ill and even die!

I think this is a great site to teach children from a young age about heart disease, especially with obesity become such a large problem for the youth of today. Its fun for us bigger kids too! Go to http://yoobot.co.uk/ to try it out!

Etsy

This is a website that I have been aware of for quite a long time, but have only remembered recently. It is a site sort of like ebay but instead of selling everything, it is a community for artists to sell their wares. It is also a social network where artists can communicate with each other and see what's going on.

I think it is a great site because of the handmade, community aspect, it is kind of like a family. I have bought a few lovely things on there, and is somewhere different if you are looking for that personal gift. So go on etsy.com and browse away!

Waltz with Bashir

aWaltz with Bashir is an animated film made in 2008, and tells the story of a soldier who fought in the first Lebanon war in the 1980's. He has completely lost his memory excpet for a recurring nightmare he has about 26 dogs chasing him.

This film is a really interesting way of looking at war. does making it animated make it more accessible to the public? Does it make the film appeal to kids more? Does it make politics more real, and more people interested in politics?

I definitely recommend this film for anyone who is interested in animation (like I am) and also those who are interested in politics, or the Middle East.

Fame

I went last night to see Fame, a remake of the fantastic 1980 film set in a New York school of performing arts.The original movie poster

Now, being an absolute Fame original devotee, I was expecting a lot from this "re-invention" of, in my opinion, a classic!

I'm usually not a fan of remakes, with films such as "The Italian Job" falling short of their originals.
Fame reminds me why I'm not a fan of remaking the classics. It really did not live up to the original. The set, songs, actors and plot were all there, but somehow did not fit together quite so perfectly. There was definitely something lacking, and I think it was the plot. It went all too quickly and there was hardly any character development.

This film had none of the earlier grittiness of the original, and the characters had just a tad of Hollywood sparkle about them, which didn't really fit with the earlier film.

I also think that the characters were exaggerated too much, you had the really shy introverted girl who dressed like a nerd, the typical wacky director who had the same glasses as every other cool nerd from american films, and the not-pretty-but-beautiful girl who doesnt know her own talent.

In the end, the film just didnt strike the same chord with me as the original, and I think others felt the same.