#Allen Enlow
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
The Dragon Spell (2016)
I see low-budget animated films make the same mistakes made over and over again. I donât understand why. Iâm not saying the people behind The Dragon Spell arenât talented but they had to know they didnât have Toy Story 4 money, so why do they and their kin try to reach for the stars when they could so easily go for the cookie jar on the counter instead? Clumsily written, ugly and stiff, I wonder who could sit through this movie and honestly say they had a great time.
Years ago, a ferocious dragon terrorized the world until a tanner named Ciryll (Mike Pollock) defeated it. Now, the dragonâs spirit lingers in the body of the sorceress Siringa (Melissa Schoenberg), waiting for the day when it can re-claim its true form and resume its reign of terror. Meanwhile, Cyrill's son, Nicky (voiced by Kate Bristol) is determined to live up to his father's glory. When he and a magical talking bat named Eddie "The Magnificent" (Allen Enlow) accidentally travel through a portal to another realm, they embark on an adventure to return home.
Trying to scratch together a synopsis for this film must have scraped at least a couple of months off of my lifetime. I feel like Iâd need to go on and on to properly explain what this movie is about to make you understand why the writing is so bad. The film begins with a promising flashback showing us the tanner defeating the dragon. Itâs all done via stylized, 2-D animation and looks great. Cut to the main story. You assume the dragon was killed thousands of years ago, that what we just saw was one of the cornerstones of the vast library of myths and legends this world has to offer, but no. What we just saw happened less than a decade ago. The tanner? Heâs still alive. The dragonâs skin? Itâs just up in the rafters of his home. When the camera shows it for the first time, Nicky wows. What? Why? Has he never seen it before? Itâs been in his house since he was born, hasnât it? The wizard, Adler (William Tost), knows the dragonâs spirit is after the skin but he hasnât gotten the monster slayer to destroy it forâŚ. reasons. Keep in mind, this is the first few minutes. This gives you a hint of the sort of penmanship weâre dealing with.
While the textures, hair, etc. are detailed and professional, theyâre slapped on top of ugly character models. You get strong âLocal grocery store chainâ vibes from everyone. Objects donât have weight, the batâs anatomy is all wrong, and a flying wooden ship sails through the air like its pilot is a pro when theyâre actually at its wheel for the first time. The dragon, meanwhile, moves as gracefully as a duck on land. It doesnât make any sense as a deliberate choice. Even as something incidental, itâll have you scratching your head. The people at work HAD to know this wasnât going to work. I donât mean story-wise, I meant visually, someone had to - at some point - say âHey, are we sure the art director isnât perpetually drunk? these designs donât work together at all.â The worst offender is Rocky (Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld) and her sidekick, a female squirrel so grotesque you swear thereâs something wrong with its genes. Thereâs a twist about Rocky thatâs so badly fumbled I had it figured out, then second-guessed myself just before the actual reveal. Itâs one of those movies thatâs so predictable it circles around again to surprise you, except when weâre talking about the witch, whose ultimate role in this story is so obvious it wouldâve earned the writer a big, fat, red âFâ from their teacher.
Conceived as a comedic adventure for kids, the only time The Dragon Spell is funny is when you listen to the lyrics of its only song. I donât know whatâs going on there. The words make no sense in any context. Key verses include:
Nothing can go wrong if you know the animation
Life is a movie and youâre the animation
Sometimes life can be like a lead hole
Let your life play out like a movie
Live the life shine it every day
Make your movie with the computer of the day
...
Yeah. You read that correctly.
While these make for some laughs - the equivalent of a delicious cheeseburger in the middle of a barren wasteland - itâs not enough to recommend the film, even as something âSo bad itâs goodâ. Though the screenplay isn't good enough to make me think slam-dunk character designs and movements would've made a difference, that's a big issue with this film - and others like it. The film is too ambitious for its budget and can't compensate with "easier" elements of the filmmaking process. By this, I mean the writing, songwriting, voicework, etc. the kind of things a single, hardworking and dedicated person could polish off on their own. If you can't get the animation down, you have to make up for it in another department.
The Dragon Spell only lasts 85 minutes but it feels like so much more. I can't even say that it's enlightening or educational as a failure. It's just dull and disappointing. âMagical lands have their downsidesâ indeed. (English Dub, May 27, 2022)
#The Dragon Spell#Movies#films#movie reviews#film reviews#animated movies#animated films#Manuk Depoyan#Olena Shulga#Kate Bristol#Allen Enlow#Melissa Schoenberg#2016 movies#2016 films
0 notes
Text
Happy! Season One Review
AssHat seems reasonably content with season one of Netflix's Happy! #Review
Former Detective Nick Sax is an alcoholic loner who relies on narcotics to fill his life with meaning and interest, in turn relying on his skills as a gun for hire to provide for his habits. However, after having a near death experience he is visited by Happy, a small blue flying unicorn which only he and his daughter can hear or see. Happy has been sent by his daughter Hailey to help Happy freeâŚ
View On WordPress
#2018#7/10#Action#Adain Bradley#Ahmadu Garba#Al Linea#Alex Minnick#Alexander Aguilar#Alexander Jameson#Alison Fraser#Allen Enlow#Anais Lee#Andrew Voegeli#Anne Troup#Annie Pisapia#Anthony Pettine#Anthony Vaughn Merchant#Antonia Rey#Art Shrian Tiwari#Ashley Michel Hoban#Ashley Paige Albert#Ashlie Atkinson#Asra Arif#AssHat#Ava Englenton#Bartley Booz#Ben Cole#Benjamin Snyder#Benny Elledge#Bill Walters
0 notes
Video
youtube
Iâve been on Youtube for an entire year! Granted I realize maybe a fraction of my followers actually watch my stuff, but I appreciate you guys at least putting up with me shilling my show for the year Hereâs a montage of almost all our videos this past year, including our interviews with:
Dennis Johnson (Gangplank) Kellen Goff (Funtime Freddy) Bill Farmer (Goofy) Collen Clinkenbeard (Luffy, Gohan, and loads of others) Christopher Daniel Barnes (Prince Eric and 90â˛s Spiderman) Amanda C. Miller (Sailor Jupiter) And the other voice actors who were kind enough to promote our show! Heather Masters (Circus Baby) Vicki Winters (Coco Bandicoot in Crash 2) Greg Snegoff (Robotech) Allen Enlow (Joker in Batman Dark Tomorrow)
Again, thank you all!
#The Voice Over Show#Youtube#one year anniversary#FNAF#five nights at freddy's#kellen goff#heather masters#Funtime Freddy#Circus Baby#Disney#Goofy#freddy fazbear's pizza#Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator#FNAF 6#Star Wars#Pokemon#Pokemon Go#Ryhorn#Pikachu#Snorlax#Kingdom Hearts#Collen Clinkenbeard#Christopher Daniel Barnes#Kimberly Brooks#Jasper#Steven Universe#Spiderman#Little Mermaid#Prince Eric#Sailor Jupiter
13 notes
¡
View notes
Text
Cheryl Burnett
Timing. Trust it.
For Cheryl Burnett, itâs evident from the onset that timing played a critical role in her beautiful story.
Being a small-town girl from Centralia, Missouri, Burnett wasnât on most college coachesâ radar.
In fact, at the time, few coaches invested any time or money into recruiting at all.
âPlayers simply went to college and then chose to play,â Burnett said. âIt wasnât until 1976 that coaches started to recruit because colleges were first getting scholarships.â
Burnettâs story of becoming a Jayhawk starts with how Kansas recruited her.
âI was a little country kid from a very small town in the middle of Missouri, and the only way Kansas ever saw me was because one of the assistant coaches by the name of Shelia Moorman was working a camp,â Burnett recalled. Â âSo, later in my playing career at Centralia High School, this assistant coach, Moormanâwho went on to become a great coach herselfâwas the reason I was recruited to Kansas.â
Despite the early adversity associated with being from a small town during a period where recruiting hardly happened in the first place, Burnett still found her way to Lawrence, Kansas, where she helped galvanize the womenâs basketball program.
Not only did Burnett become an instrumental piece to the Kansas womenâs basketball team, she also broke a transformational barrier in becoming the first KU female granted a full-ride athletic scholarship.
In doing so, Burnett opened the door for thousands more female student-athletes to follow in her footsteps as a scholarship athlete at the University of Kansas. Burnett is adamant it was all about good timing, though.
âIâve been blessed to be the age that I am due to Title IX,â she said. âI wasnât the best player and thatâs where I go to someone like Adrian Mitchell-Newell, who was much more talented in every way than I was, but I was just at the time where Title IX created the opportunity for the coaches to offer it to me rather than somebody like Adrian who had already been in the program.â
Thereâs âironyâ to the story that many people have never heard.
Initially, the scholarship was intended for another young basketball phenom.
âHereâs the irony,â Burnett explained. âLeAnn Wilcox was from KC and we went to basketball camp together and we would have loved to have played together. Sure enough, Kansas was offering her the scholarship and I was next-in-line. LeAnn turned Kansas down to go to Kansas State. So, the irony is, the first (KU womenâs athletic) scholarship could have been LeAnn Wilcox, but she became the first at Kansas State. So, I could very well have not been that very first full-ride scholarship,â
Fortuitous timing provided Burnett an opportunity of a lifetime, which the humble guard made the most of and then some.
Under the leadership of Marian Washington, the Jayhawks were coming off two consecutive losing seasons.
Burnettâs first year at KU (1976) certainly was not short on obstacles. The Jayhawks finished 11-15, which appeared to be a step backward from their 13-14 campaign a year prior.
Despite the sub-par record, Burnett made an immediate impact, averaging a career-high 10 points per game as well as playing stifling defense for the Jayhawks.
Expectations for the womenâs team entering 1977-78 were certainly much higher than they had been in prior years. Not only did Kansas have Burnett returning, but they also added a player who would become major college basketballâs career womenâs scoring leader in Lynette Woodard (3,649 points from 1977-81).
âI had the tremendous honor of having a teammate by the name of Lynette Woodard,â Burnett reflected. âI also had the pleasure of playing with Adrian Mitchell.â
Adrian Mitchellâwhose jersey will officially be retired on Sunday, January 28 when the Jayhawks take on rival Kansas Stateâranks second in Kansas history for points scored with 2,124, behind Woodard, whose jersey already hangs in the Allen Fieldhouse rafters.
Clearly, this collection of young talent had the potential to put Kansas womenâs basketball on the national radar and they certainly did not disappoint.
Burnettâs second year on the team featured the biggest two-year turnaround in program history. With legendary coach, Washington, still leading the way, the Jayhawks finished the season 22-11 and participated in postseason play for the first time since Marlene Mawson was Kansasâ head coach in 1970.
While Woodard and Mitchell brought the scoring punch, Burnett found her niche elsewhere, âMy impact was first defensively, then my ability to pass and certainly my ability to foul, as I was the all-time foul leader for quite some time at KU; I didnât want to waste any of those fouls,â Burnett joked. âLastly, leadership.â
The same leadership that Burnett brought to the Jayhawks every day for four seasons is the same that helped her later on in life, when she achieved tremendous success in the coaching ranks.
On one road trip, the Jayhawks were set to take on Old Dominion and Nancy Lieberman, also known as âLady Magicâ (a nod to Earvin âMagicâ Johnson).
It was a privilege for a relatively unknown Kansas program to venture to Virginia for a tilt with such a well-respected program which contained one of the nationâs top talents in Lieberman.
Sure enough, Washington and her staff called upon Burnett to take on the tall task of covering âLady Magic.â
Naturally, the Centralia, Missouri native welcomed the challenge.
Burnett hopes that her teammates, coaches, and fans remember her for both the defensive intensity and hard work that she brought with her to the hardwood.
According to Burnett, it was âThe blue-collar part of the game, not the flash part of the game,â that allowed her to succeed at such a high level. While defense was her primary focus on the court, she was enough of a scoring threat that opponents had to respect her offensive skill set as well.
This versatility and dependability gave Burnett the âitâ factor that coaches and experts often refer to when discussing athletes.
Between Woodard, Mitchell, Burnettâs combined talents on the floor and the vision of Washington, the Jayhawks finished the 1978-79 season with a 30-8 record, good for the most single season victories in program history.
More than anything else, Burnett believes that historical season and program turnaround was the culmination of Kansasâ coaching staffâs great recruiting efforts. Over the years, Washington had become well-known as a pioneer of recruiting nationally and it paid clear dividends for the Jayhawks that season.
Burnett capped off her iconic Jayhawk career with a 29-8 senior season, which featured a third consecutive postseason appearance for the team.
From Dr. James Naismith to Dr. Phog Allen to John McLendon to Marlene Mawson and beyond, basketballâs influence on the University of Kansas and conversely, KUâs influence on the game basketball is powerful beyond measure.
Burnett embraced this history in a unique way during her time as a Jayhawk.
âI used to go up into Allen Fieldhouse and sit in one of the top corners,â she recalled. âOf course, Iâd sit on a #10 seat because that was my number, and I would sit up there and think about the history of basketball at the University of Kansas and how I wanted to represent that incredible history as a player and as a person.â
Itâs tough to think of someone who represents what it means to be a Kansas Jayhawk more so than Burnett. The grit and tenacity she displayed on the court as a player carried over into her post-playing days career: coaching.
âI had known from a very young age (that) I wanted to coach,â Burnett explained. âOne of the greatest influences of my life was my high school coach Jim Enlow.â
Enlow coached both the boysâ and girlsâ basketball teams at Centralia High School for over 30 years. He was known to take the boys on the road to scout, but never took the girls along. That was until one of his prodigies, Burnett, questioned his tactics during her freshman year at CHS and things changed quickly after that.
âBy golly, he put me in the car with all the guys and him and we went to scout tournaments,â Burnett remembered. âI wanted to be like Coach Enlow; not only just to coach, but because I could see the impact he had on othersâ lives and thatâs what I love about sports.â
Burnett continued that sentiment when she said, âBasketball has been my passion my entire life and I knew I was going to coach from that moment forward. I just didnât know where.â
Many believe it was at Lawrence High School that Burnettâs basketball coaching career began, but she says thatâs a common misconception.
Instead, to complete her education degree at KU, Burnett spent a semester at LHS assisting with the volleyball team, a sport which she knew nothing about.
It was during her stint at Lawrence High that Cheryl met future Kansas Athletic Director, Bob Frederick. Dr. Frederick wound up at Illinois State, a school which Burnett would compete against annually later in her coaching years.
Timing.
âAgain, (it was the) right time, right place,â Burnett said. âBack to Leanne Wilcox, we played Kansas State five times a year. I played against one of my best friends five times a year! Their assistant coach, Jane Schroeder, got the head coaching job at the University of Illinois and ironically I ended up working for them.â
Despite being long-time rivals, Schroeder and her staff recognized and respected the way Burnett played the game enough to offer her a graduate assistant position at Illinois.
Similar to the opportunity to become the first female scholarship athlete at Kansas, Burnett once again prospered from what she deems âlucky timing.â
It did not take long for Burnett to display her potential in Champaign on the sidelines for the Illini. Schroeder offered a full-time role after just a semester and from that point, Burnett never looked back.
While her time at Illinois was shortâjust three yearsâBurnett and the rest of the staff led Illinois to their first ever NCAA tournament appearance in 1981-82.
As exciting as that accomplishment was for the Illini coaching staff, thatâs when an opportunity to return home arose for Burnett.
âOf course, with Missouri being my home state, I chose to come back to Southwest Missouri State as an assistant,â she explained.
After working as an assistant coach for three more years, this time under Valerie Goodwin, Burnett could once again sense a new opportunity on the horizon.
Timing.
Goodwin departed for the University of Oklahoma in 1987, which wound up being immaculate timing for Burnett.
âIt opened the door for an assistant coach who was there for three years, to interview for the job. Why Dr. Mary Jo Wynn ever hired an assistant coach, Iâll never know,â Burnett said.
Clearly, Wynn saw in Burnett what many others have throughout her life.
The blue-collar work ethic that made Burnett such a valuable player on the court herself was having the same impact on her coaching career.
It wasnât sunshine and rainbows right away for her at Southwest Missouri State, however.
âIt took a while to get the program established because at the time, not too long before I was there, it was a DII (program) moving to DI,â Burnett explained.
Despite the tremendous challenge of transitioning from the Division II ranks to Division I, the schoolâs administrative support staff did everything they could to set Burnett up to succeed.
And succeed she did.
âI always say that the stars aligned,â said Burnett regarding her 15 years at the helm of the Bears in Springfield.
Not only did their program lead the nation in attendanceâdue in large part to a support group called the Fast Break ClubâSouthwest Missouri State was also the first womenâs basketball program to be featured live on ESPN, âI can still remember the day our administrator walked into my office and asked, âHey how would you like to be the first womenâs program on live ESPN?â Of course, I said, âAwesome!â Then they said, starting time: midnight. So, we played a live game at midnight in Springfield, Missouri, and sold out,â Burnett recalled.
Another barrier broken for the legend.
Coaches from across the country would reach out to Burnett and ask what her secret to success was.
âPeople wanted to know how we built the club,â Burnett recalled. âHow we got the fans, how we got the players in such great shape and then how we got our players to play so hard.â
For Southwest Missouri State womenâs basketball, it all began with the type of student-athlete they recruited.
Burnett and her staff prided themselves in their pursuit of A-students, overachievers in the classroom, socially as well as individuals with a spiritual base of some type that, âCreated an infinite ability to believe and of course they had to be team oriented. They had to make sacrifices for their team.â
This approach was a fundamental reason Burnettâs teams thrived during her 15 years at the helm of the program for Southwest Missouri State.
Burnettâs teams won nine Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) championships during her time in Springfield. Additionally, they received invitations to the NCAA Womenâs Division I Basketball Tournament 10 times and advanced to the Final Four in 1992 and 2001.
In those 15 seasons, she compiled a sensational record of 319-136 (.701 winning percentage).
Burnett also played a pivotal role in developing Jackie Stiles at Southwest Missouri State from 1998-01. Stiles set the NCAA career scoring record with 3,393 points, a record that held up until February of 2017.
Despite offers from top tier womenâs basketball programs across the country, Stiles ultimately chose to take her talents to Springfield, Missouri. This is due in large part to the recruiting efforts Burnett and her staff employed.
While everyone else was recruiting eighth graders and high schoolers, SMSU assistant coach Lynette Robinsonâa former player at Illinoisâentered a small Kansas gym filled with fifth graders in the middle of the summer.
Sure enough, thatâs where Stiles was playing.
Timing.
âJackie was a coachâs dream,â Burnett said. âIâm not sure she didnât teach us more than we taught her.â
Burnett eloquently stated, âWhat an honor to have played with Lynette Woodard, who would probably be one of the all-time scoring leaders and then being able to coach Jackie Stiles, who was the all-time leader for yearsâŚright place, right time.â
From receiving the first full female athletic scholarship at KU to the GA position at Illinois to the opportunity to return home to Missouri to do what she loved: developing strong, successful women, timing was clearly the common denominator in Cheryl Burnettâs story.
Burnett retired from the game she dedicated her life to in March of 2007.
While deep down her ultimate dream was always to return to the University of Kansas in a coaching role, she says her coaching days are done.
âI canât work that hard. (I) Did it for 30 years and itâs somebody elseâs turn. Iâm just enjoying living vicariously through (past players and assistants), I call them my kids,â Burnett explained.
What Cheryl Burnett did not only for womenâs college basketball, but all of womenâs athletics at the University of Kansas and beyond cannot be understated. The circuitous nature of life led her on a ride that impacted hundreds of young womenâs lives.
While Burnett may never be seen on a bench again, her legacy will continue to live on through the careers of her âkids.â
All thanks to timing.
Once A Jayhawk, Always A Jayhawk.
0 notes
Text
AARP Bulletin Zongo and Me
This is the directors cut of Zongo and Me, that I just completed for the AARP Bulletin. The concept was to adapt portions of the print article and shoot it as a one man play. The inspiration came from John Lithgow performing Newt GIngrichâs press release on the Colbert Report and the classic reading of Green Eggs and Ham by Jessie Jackson on Saturday Night Live. Without the right actor the project would have been sunk from the beginning, so it was pure luck to find Allen Enlow. Allenâs ability to fine tune the voices was amazing and made my job much easier. A typical exchange was, âI need a little less Nicholson and more Cruise!âÂ
A higher quality link can be found on my site:Â http://joshuakessler.com/clients/AARP/AARP_Zongo.mp4
0 notes