Atin 'to Project
This seven-minute animated documentary features three stalwarts of the Philippine animation industry Avid Liongoren (animated films Saving Sally and Hayop Ka!), Tanya Yuson (animated series Trese), and Luis Suarez (animated film RPG Metanoia) as they discuss the challenges they faced in the industry and how Filipinos deal with intellectual property, which plays a crucial role in the creative industry.
Alongside this film is a supplemental two-minute video clip/AVP about copyright infringement and plagiarism.
Together, the short film and the AVP comprise the project's partnership with the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights (BCRR) through the Copyright Plus Program, a flagship project that aims to cater to the copyright-related needs specifically of the marginalized, unserved, underserved, minority groups or persons of the society.
Project Background
This project was a brainchild of Blog Caliguia and Rianne Hill Soriano and it was eventually entered to the IPOPHL's Copyright Plus Program for funding within the year of experiencing the lockdowns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted to a production workflow leading to an animated documentary project with supplemental AVP. The three documentary subjects were interviewed via Zoom and their interviews were utilized as soundbites while also creating their animated characters and eventually recreating the interviews in animation format.
Get ready for the ultimate Mario experience with this amazing stop motion animation featuring a chubby princess and your favorite Mario characters brought to life with clay! All this made live during our zoom workshop!
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a 2023 American computer-animated adventure film based on Nintendo's Mario video game franchise. Produced by Universal Pictures, Illumination, and Nintendo, and distributed by Universal, the film was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and written by Matthew Fogel. The ensemble voice cast includes Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, and Fred Armisen. The film features an origin story for the brothers Mario and Luigi, two Italian-American plumbers who are transported to an alternate world and become entangled in a battle between the Mushroom Kingdom, led by Princess Peach, and the Koopas, led by Bowser.
After the critical and commercial failure of the live-action film Super Mario Bros. (1993), Nintendo became reluctant to license its intellectual properties for film adaptations. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto became interested in developing another film when Nintendo was bringing its older games to the Virtual Console service, and through Nintendo's work with Universal Parks & Resorts to create Super Nintendo World, he met with Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri. By 2016, the two were discussing a Mario film and, in January 2018, Nintendo announced that it would collaborate with Illumination and Universal to produce it. Production was underway by 2020, and the cast was announced in September 2021.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released in the United States on April 5, 2023. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but audience reception was more positive.[6][7][8][9] It has grossed over $892.1 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 2023 and setting box-office records for the biggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film and the highest-grossing film based on a video game.
Italian-American brothers Mario and Luigi have recently started a plumbing business in Brooklyn, to the derision of their antagonistic ex-employer Spike. Their father also disapproves of Mario's new business. After seeing a significant water main leak on the news, Mario and Luigi go underground to fix it but are sucked into a Warp Pipe and separated.
Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, ruled by Princess Peach, while Luigi lands in the Dark Lands, ruled by the evil Koopa king Bowser. Bowser seeks to marry Peach and will destroy the Mushroom Kingdom using a Super Star if she refuses. He imprisons Luigi to threaten Mario, whom he sees as competition for Peach's love. Mario meets Toad, who takes him to Peach. Peach plans to ally with the primate Kongs to help repel Bowser and allows Mario and Toad to travel with her. In the Jungle Kingdom, King Cranky Kong agrees to help on the condition that Mario defeats his son, Donkey Kong, in a fight. Despite Donkey Kong's immense strength, Mario defeats him using a Cat Suit.
Mario, Peach, Toad, and the Kongs use karts to drive back to the Mushroom Kingdom, but Bowser's army ambushes them on Rainbow Road. When a blue-shelled Koopa General destroys part of the road, Mario and Donkey Kong plummet to the ocean while the other Kongs are captured. Peach and Toad return to the Mushroom Kingdom and urge the citizens to evacuate. Bowser arrives aboard his flying castle and proposes to Peach, who reluctantly accepts after Bowser's advisor Kamek tortures Toad. Mario and Donkey Kong, having been eaten by an eel-like Maw-Ray, learn they both want the respect of their fathers. They escape the Maw-Ray by riding a rocket from Donkey Kong's kart and hurry to Bowser and Peach's wedding.
At the wedding reception, Bowser intends to execute all of his prisoners in lava in Peach's honor. Toad smuggles an Ice Flower into Peach's bouquet, which Peach uses to freeze Bowser. Mario and Donkey Kong arrive and free the prisoners, with Mario using a Tanooki Suit to save Luigi. An enraged Bowser frees himself and summons a Bomber Bill to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom, but Mario knocks it off course and directs it into the Warp Pipe where it detonates, creating a vacuum that causes Bowser's castle to be transported to Brooklyn. As they fight Bowser, Mario and Luigi grab the Super Star, become invincible, and defeat the Koopas. Bowser is shrunk with a Mini Mushroom and imprisoned. Mario and Luigi are hailed as heroes and celebrated by Brooklyn's populace, including their parents and Spike. The film ends with the brothers beginning a day of plumbing work, now living in a house in the Mushroom Kingdom.
The artwork depicts the deciding moment when Alexander unleashed his light cavalry, who fell upon the wings of the Crusading army as they crossed the frozen lake. Here, Mongol or Turkish horse archers and cavalry attack the Danish contingent on the left flank of the Crusading force. (Angus McBride © Osprey
Publishing)
Artwork from 100 Greatest Battles by Angus Konstam.
On April 5, 1242 (April 12, according to the proleptic Gregorian calendar) on Lake Peipus near the Crow Stone, the battle between the Russian force led by Alexander Nevsky and Teutonic Knights took place . The battle went down in history under the name of ‘Battle of the Ice’.
After the defeat in Nevsky battle of 1240 the Swedes did not oppose to Russia any more but the German knights sought to approach the borders of Novgorod and Pskov lands. In 1240 were seized the fortresses of Izborsk and Pskov. Feeling a new danger, the people of Novgorod, led by Prince Alexander Nevsky rose against the enemy. In March of 1242 Pskov was liberated. After that the Russian force moved toward Izborsk. Meanwhile due to reconnaissance the Russians found out that the enemy sent small troops to Izborsk while the main force were directed to the Lake Peipus.
According to military historians about 10-12 thousand knights gathered on the Lake’s ice. Alexander Nevsky had 15 to17 thousand soldiers. The majority of the latter were infantrymen who yielded seriously to knights in armament and battle training.
At dawn of April 5 (12) the crusaders formed up their army in a triangle the sharp angle of which was turned toward the enemy. Alexander Nevsky placed the main force not in the center which was usual for the Russian troops but at flanks. In front of the Russian army was an advanced detachment of light cavalry, archers and slingers. The rear of the Russian battle formation was turned toward the precipitous eastern shore of the lake. Prince’s major cavalry lied in ambush behind the left flank.
As the forces approached one another, the Russian archers shot a shower of arrows at the knights but the armored knights managed to rumple the first regiment. Having cut the advanced troops the knights found themselves in front of the precipitous shore of the lake and could not develop their success. The Russian troops attacked the enemy triangle from right and left. The selected soldiers of Alexander Nevsky (his druzhina) attacked the enemy’s rear. The battle lasted till the late night. When the knights wavered and ran, the Russians chased them in the direction of the today’s cape of Sigovets. Thin coastal ice started to collapse under the horses and heavy armored crusaders.
As a result of the Battle on Lake Peipus the Germans and Novgorod concluded a treaty according to which the crusaders were obliged to leave all the seized Russian lands.
In the history of fighting against the German invaders the Battle of Ice is an important date. Though the Germans did not stop their campaigns to Russia they could no more make a serious damage to the Russian lands.
On April 18, the Day of Military Glory of Russia is celebrated — the Day of the Victory of the Russian soldiers of Prince Alexander Nevsky over the German knights on Lake Peipus (Battle on the Ice, 1242).
Lit.: Бегунов Ю. К., Клейненберг И. Э., Шаскольский И. П. Письменные источники о Ледовом побоище //Ледовое побоище 1242, М; Л., 1966; Данилевский И. Ледовое побоище: смена образа // Отечественные записки. № 5 (20) 2004; Зверев Ю. Ледовое побоище происходило: на суше // Техника и оружие. 1995. № 1. С. 20-22; Кирпичников А. Н. Ледовое побоище 1242 г.: Новое осмысление // Вопросы истории. 1994. № 5. С. 162-166; Новгородская первая летопись старшего и младшего изводов. М; Л., 1950. С. 72-85; Трусман Ю. И. О месте Ледового побоища в 1242 г. // Журнал Министерства Народного просвещения. 1884. № 1. С. 44-46.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
"The Byzantine writers deplore the loss of an inestimable pearl: they forgot to mention that, in this fatal day, the Asiatic provinces of Rome were irretrievably sacrificed." - Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Everybody knows the Turks were badass. That's a given. I mean, you can't read anything about the military history of Eastern Europe without being regaled with tales of insane, daring Christian knights demonstrating the quality of their solidified concrete holy nutsacks by standing up to the mighty, face-crushing Turkish hordes and somehow pulling victory from the jaws of inevitable defeat. So it stands to reason that since fighting the Turks and surviving without being impaled by your own spiked gauntlets was such a tremendous, noteworthy achievement, then these were obviously a ruthless, vicious, powerful civilization of earth-breaking killmongers so insanely tough that they ate baby reindeer and urinated Red Bull energy drinks, right? Well, if that's the case, why is it that most Westerners can't name a single notable Turkish hero aside from Suleiman the Magnificent, Barbarossa, and maybe Selim the Grim?
The Turks, much like the Persians, just need a better PR campaign or something, because they have a totally badass warrior pedigree on par with that of history's best. These guys forged a series of tempered-steel empires that dominated the fuck out of huge tracts of lands across Europe and Asia, and maintined a millenia-spanning stranglehold on Eastern military dominance running from the pre-Crusade middle ages to the end of World War I - a badass Xbox Live achievement that they owe in no small part to the warrior-king Alp Arslan and the role he played in the knife-point castration of the armies of Byzantium in the 11th century.
Adud Al-Dawla Abu Shuja Alp Arslan Muhammad succeeded his uncle Tughril Bey as Sultan of the Seljuk Turks in 1063. His first order of business was of course to crush all opposition to his accession and have any pretenders to the throne violently executed by the sharpest gardening instruments in the Turkish Empire. Once that was out of the way, Alp Arlsan decided to show the world that even though the Seljuks were newcomers to the scene in the Middle East, that this Sunni Muslim empire of nomadic Central Asian steppe warriors could get out there and brain fools with the best of them. Alp Arlsan, known as "The Valiant Lion" of the Turks, immediately assembled an appropriately-imposing force of Turkish cavalry and horse archers and set his sights on destroying all trace of the Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor.
At this point in history, the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium was still a pretty serious military threat, but years of über-corrupt rulers, reckless spending, and miscellaneous douchery left the entire system completely decrepit and over-the-hill, and Alp Arslan figured that he was just was the guy to deliver the final kick in the balls that was going to show the Greeks once and for all that they were no longer the big dogs in the Mediterranean. Alp and his armies figured the best way to demonstrate this fact was by blitzing into a number of small buffer states between Byzantium and the Seljuk Empire and utterly laying waste to everything they could find. The Turks, who were pretty pumped up about stabbing with intent to kill, found themselves facing off against Byzantine mercenaries who had gone months without getting paid and had shockingly little interest in getting themselves decapitated for a king who couldn't give a shit about them. The Turks captured Phyrgia, Cappadocia, Anatolia, and a bunch of other places that seem to only exist in ancient times, before facing stiffer resistance in Armenia and Georgia. The Armenians fought so hard and pissed Alp Arslan off so hard that after he finally captured their capital he ordered it torched to the ground and the entire population massacred. Hey, I didn't say he was a fine upstanding citizen – I said he was a dude you didn't want to fuck around with.
After pretty much smoking everything in Asia Minor by the end of 1068, Alp Arlsan decided to leave the mop-up work to his lieutenants, and he headed back home to his harem to chill with his plunder and babes and start planning an invasion of Fatimid Egypt (who, like Byzantium, was also pissing him off for some unspecified reason). Well no sooner did Double-A leave Asia Minor than some brave-yet-delusionally-misguided Greek Emperor decided he was going to put a humongoid army together and actually start fighting back against these unstoppable face-crushing marauders. Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes assembled a tremendous force of Macedonians, Greeks, Romans, Normans, Armenians, French, Modavians, and whatever else he could find (he even had a member of the Scottish royal family in his ranks) and set out to teach Alp a lesson in getting his face punctured by a flying sword-stroke of Western justice.
The balls-out assault caught Alp Arslan's men off-guard, and before you know it Diogenes started winning a bunch of victories and talking about how he was the fucking hottest shit since Greek Fire. The Turks were driven back beyond the Euphrates River by an army of 100,000 Western knights, and Diogenes laid siege to the remainder of the Turkish army at the city of Manzikert in 1071.
