Similarly, I slept quite well last night. Maybe still not as well as I need (I've got a bloodshot left eye, usually an indicator I'm not getting proper sleep even though last night felt amazing), but it was good. My nap was also relaxing, albeit not actually achieving a dream.
One thing I wanted to mention: recently, we (that is, my sister and I) watched Disney Night on Dancing With The Stars. It was filled with great dances, but by far the star of the night was the Mulan paso doble. It's something you just have to see in order to believe how amazing it was.
A result? I had the "misfortune" of having the song stuck in my head.
I can live with that! (Okay so Rise Against's Prayer of the Refugee kinda sorta replaced it as I began typing this thanks to conversations surrounding me, but it's come back and is dueling with that song for dominance in my brain.)
But speaking of Mulan.
I wanted to take the time to make a blog post this morning to say that it is one of the best films of all time. It's not quite in my top three, but it's definitely in my top ten somewhere. The film is just amazing. One of the best parts for me is the sheer extreme, poignant, potent mood swing in the middle of the film, and I think it's one of the most powerful examples of a mid-movie shift in tone ever.
Specifically, up to that point, the film had largely been humorous, even slapstick. The guys were cheerful, boisterous, boastful, and talking about their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, as they moved, happily, and then...
...Bam.
Dead. stop. As the horror sets in. It's probably one of the most devastating scenes in a Disney film: the sheer destruction and carnage shown in a kids animation film is incredible; the scale and utter terror invoked at seeing the ravaged land is chilling. They never show us things you'd see in a more adult movie--but they didn't need to; the implication was implied with enough strength that the message got across. It was stunning in one of the most heartsinking ways possible, conveying the message:
Yes. This is about soldiers. And they are fighting a war. There was nothing glorious about it; they were fighting for survival. The sheer drastic switch, suddenly and abruptly, is immediately obvious in just how strong it could tell you that this was serious, the Huns were not to be taken lightly, and were a force to be reckoned with, and how daunting the odds our heroes faced would actually be: the veteran army was wiped out, and they the rookies were all that remained. The scope, the magnitude, of that scene, can't be stated enough as how wondrous it was.
Yet the thing I love about the film most of all would have to be it is the film which features Mulan in it. Why? Well...I'll have to make a follow-through blog on the subject between college and tae kwon do, because I'm expecting that subject to be about two hours a ramble in length.
I might lose some of my material, which will make me sad, but I, uh...kinda do need to use my class time for class.
But basically, Mulan is one of the greatest heroes of all time--not Disney heroes. Heroes, across all media, by all artists, of all time. I don't think I'll need to argue that hard to prove my point. But I think the magnitude of my statement might require a little bit of explanation, so I should go into it.
Later.
Got school right now.