Category: Entertainment

Following a broadcast by the supposedly late Emperor Palpatine, Kylo Ren obtains a Sith Wayfinder device, leading him to the uncharted planet Exegol. There, he finds a physically impaired but an alive Palpatine, who reveals that he created Snoke as a puppet to control the First Order and lure Kylo to the dark side. Palpatine unveils a secret armada of Star Destroyers and tells Kylo to find and kill Rey, who is continuing her Jedi training under Resistance leader Leia Organa. Finn and Poe Dameron deliver intel from a spy that Palpatine is on Exegol; Rey has learned from Luke Skywalker’s notes that a Sith Wayfinder can lead them there. Leia reveals that an ally on Pasaana may be able to help. Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewbacca, BB-8, and C-3PO depart in the Millennium Falcon.

The group encounters Lando Calrissian, who points them to the Wayfinder’s last suspected location. Kylo learns where Rey is through their Force bond and travels there with the Knights of Ren. Rey and the others discover the remains of the assassin Ochi, his ship, droid, and dagger inscribed with Sith text, which C-3PO’s programming forbids him from interpreting. Sensing that Kylo is nearby, Rey goes to confront him. The First Order captures the Falcon, Chewbacca, and the dagger; Rey, attempting to save Chewbacca, accidentally destroys a First Order transport with Force lightning. The group escapes on Ochi’s ship, presuming Chewbacca to have died in the explosion.

Poe suggests traveling to Kijimi to have the Sith text extracted from C-3PO’s memory. The process wipes C-3PO’s memory but reveals coordinates to a Wayfinder on Kef Bir.[8] Rey senses that Chewbacca is alive, and the group mounts a rescue mission. While Kylo searches for Rey, the group infiltrates his Star Destroyer with the help of Zorii Bliss, an acquaintance of Poe’s. Rey recovers the dagger and has visions of her parents being killed with it. Kylo informs her that she is Palpatine’s granddaughter; the Sith lord had ordered Ochi to recover Rey as a child, but her parents hid her on Jakku to protect her. General Hux saves Poe, Finn, and Chewbacca from execution, revealing himself as the spy. He permits the group to escape on the Falcon but is executed for treason.

The group arrives on Kef Bir. Jannah, an ex-stormtrooper and Resistance sympathizer, leads them to the remains of the second Death Star, where Rey locates the Wayfinder. Kylo, having tracked the group to Kef Bir, destroys Rey’s Wayfinder and asks her to help him supplant Palpatine. Leia, dying, calls to Kylo through the Force, distracting him as he duels with Rey, who impales him. Sensing Leia’s death, Rey heals Kylo and takes his ship to exile herself on Ahch-To. Luke’s Force spirit encourages Rey to face Palpatine and gives her Leia’s lightsaber. Rey leaves for Exegol, using Kylo’s Wayfinder. Kylo converses with a memory of his father, Han Solo; he throws away his lightsaber and reclaims his identity as Ben Solo. Palpatine has a Star Destroyer obliterate Kijimi as a show of force.

At the Resistance base, R2-D2 restores C-3PO’s memory. The Resistance follows Rey’s coordinates to Exegol, where she confronts Palpatine; he demands she kill him to transfer his spirit into her. Lando brings reinforcements from across the galaxy to join the battle. Ben arrives to help Rey, overpowering the Knights of Ren. Recognizing Rey and Ben as a rare Force dyad, Palpatine drains their power to rejuvenate himself. He attacks the Resistance fleet with Force lightning and incapacitates Ben. Rey, weakened, hears the voices of past Jedi, who lend her their strength. Palpatine attacks her with his lightning, but Rey deflects it using the Skywalker lightsabers, killing him and herself. A severely injured Ben revives Rey by transferring the remainder of his life force into her. Rey kisses Ben; he dies and his body vanishes, becoming one with the Force. The Resistance destroys the remainder of Palpatine’s armada.

As the Resistance celebrates, Rey visits the abandoned Lars homestead on Tatooine, where Luke grew up. She buries the Skywalker lightsabers, having built her own. A passerby asks her name; she replies, “Rey Skywalker” to honor the memory of Luke and Leia.

The character of Mr. Bean was developed while Rowan Atkinson was studying for his master’s degree in electrical engineering at The Queen’s College, Oxford. A sketch featuring Bean was shown at the Edinburgh Fringe in the early 1980s. A similar character called Robert Box, also played by Atkinson himself, appeared in the one-off 1979 ITV sitcom Canned Laughter which also featured routines used in the motion picture in 1997.

One of Bean’s earliest appearances occurred at the “Just for Laughs” comedy festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1987. When program coordinators were scheduling him into the festival program, Atkinson insisted that he perform on the French-speaking bill rather than the English-speaking program. Having no French dialogue in his act at all, program coordinators could not understand why Atkinson wanted to perform on the French bill instead. As it turned out, Atkinson’s act at the festival was a test platform for his character and he wanted to see how his character’s physical comedy would fare on an international stage with a non-English speaking audience.

The character’s name was not decided until after the first episode had been produced; a number of other vegetable-influenced names such as “Mr. Cauliflower” were explored. Atkinson cited the earlier comedy character Monsieur Hulot, created by French comedian and director Jacques Tati, as an influence on the character. Atkinson also cited the influence of Peter Sellers, who had previously played similar “fumbling fool” characters, notably Hrundi Bakshi in The Party (1968) and Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther films. Stylistically, Mr. Bean is also similar to early silent films, relying purely upon physical comedy with Mr. Bean speaking very little dialogue (although like other live-action sitcoms during this period, it featured a laugh track). This has allowed the series to be sold worldwide without any significant changes to dialogue. In November 2012, Atkinson told The Daily Telegraph of his intentions to retire the character, stating that “someone in their fifties being childlike becomes a little sad.” In 2016 however, Atkinson changed his mind by saying that he would never retire playing Mr. Bean.

Pinkfong is the children’s educational brand of SmartStudy, a South Korean educational entertainment company. Pinkfong consists of mainly children’s songs, of which the most famous is “Baby Shark”, with more than four billion views on YouTube. Their educational channel has more than 20 million subscribers, with brightly-colored programming of stories, sing-along songs, and dances represented by a pink fox named “Pinkfong”. The global product development company has more than 4,000 children’s videos, songs, games, and apps.

Formation

Pinkfong was formed with the inception of SmartStudy at their Seoul headquarters, in June 2010. A Los Angeles branch with a few employees opened in 2016, and another is located in Shanghai. The U.S. branch’s CEO Bin Jeong said the name was created from the pink fox character, and the fun sound of “fong” that sounded similar to “phone”. The focus is on children ages one to five years old. By 2015, the company had released 520 mobile apps with central base apps like “Pinkfong Nursery Rhymes”. SmartStudy’s CFO and co-founder Lee Ryan Seung-kyu said typical nursery rhymes were usually “slow and calm” so they began with a small project, searching for a more upbeat song “for the new generation” that would appeal globally. The “Pinkfong! Kids’ Songs & Stories” YouTube channel was launched on December 13, 2011, with the brand character, a pink or magenta-colored animated cartoon fox, a Prince from the planet Staria, that was inspired by the fox in the classic French book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Comparisons to other animations

Pinkfong joined another “beloved” anthropomorphic character named Pororo, a longtime children’s favorite in South Korea, in the preschool education market. Both characters became recognizable worldwide and like Pororo, children and parents began associating the pink fox with children’s education. In May 2017, journalist Kim Young-joo of the newspaper JoongAng Ilbo wrote that Pinkfong, a pink desert fox character that combines a fox and a phone, is “emerging as the second Pororo”, with housewives with young children calling him “President Pinkfong”.[9] CEO Lee said that Pinkfong might be described “somewhere between Disney and Sesame Street”. An August 2018, a comparison of YouTube channel subscribers showed the established brand, Sesame Street, had 3.9 million subscribers and Pinkfong had 10 million.

Ejen Ali: The Movie is a 2019 Malaysian computer-animated spy-fi action film. The film follows teenage agent spy Ali as he has to uncover a mystery that threatens the city of Cyberaya and risking loyalty to his secret agency MATA.

It is directed by Usamah Zaid Yasin and co-written by Usamah himself, Shafiq Isa and Fuad Md Din. It is the first film made by WAU Animation, based on its TV animation series, Ejen Ali. It is released simultaneously in 3 countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei on 28 November 2019.

Background

Ali is a 12-year-old boy who becomes an agent at MATA (Meta Advance Tactical Agency), a secret agency protecting the city of Cyberaya. This all happens after he accidentally activates a gadget named IRIS (Infinity Retinal Intelligent System). IRIS is a device created by MATA which enables the wearer to perform more actions. Ali is the only one who can use IRIS now because it is synchronized with him. So he is trained as an agent. Together with his uncle Bakar and other young agents, they cooperate in MATA missions.

Synopsis

Ejen Ali is embracing his role as a MATA spy and the only master of IRIS now. But unknown to Ali, MATA is developing new improved version of IRIS, the IRIS Neo. When IRIS Neo starts being used for all agents, Ali begins to question his usefulness to MATA. He is approached by a mysterious person named Niki who claims to know about his missing parents’ whereabouts. Risking his loyalty to MATA, Ejen Ali will now embark on a thrilling chase to unravel those mysterious links.

Katarina “Kate” works a dead-end job as an elf at a Christmas shop in London, which sells ornaments all year round. She is homeless after being thrown out by her flatmate. While at work, she notices a man outside, staring upwards. She talks to him, learning that his name is Tom.

After an unsuccessful singing audition, Kate sees Tom again, and they go for a walk, where he charms her with his whimsical observations of London. The following morning, she discovers that her failure to lock the shop has led to a break-in. Her boss, who she refers to as “Santa,” expresses disappointment in Kate, implying that she has changed from the thoughtful and kind person she used to be.

Isolating herself from her last friend, Kate is forced to return to her parents’ home. Yugoslavian immigrants, her mother, Petra, suffer from depression, and her father, a former lawyer, works as a minicab driver as he can’t afford to retrain to practice in the UK. Kate resents her mother, who dotes on her while ignoring Kate’s sister Marta, a successful lawyer.

Kate begins spending more time with Tom, who rides a bike and volunteers at a homeless shelter, which she initially mocks. Looking for Tom, who says he keeps his phone in a cupboard and often disappears for days at a time, she begins helping at the shelter in the hope of running into him but finds that the staff does not know of him.

While celebrating Marta’s promotion, Kate ends up outing Marta, who lives with her girlfriend. She then runs into Tom, who takes her back to his apartment. Kate reveals that a year earlier, she was seriously ill and had to have a heart transplant. Kate says she feels half dead and questions whether she has the talent to make it as a performer. After opening up to Tom, Kate tries to initiate sex, but he declines.

After spending the night with Tom, Kate begins taking small steps to improve her life, taking care of her body, setting up Santa with a Danish man who loves Christmas as much as she does, apologizing to Marta and her girlfriend, and singing Christmas songs to busk for money for the shelter. After a few days, she runs into Tom again, but when he shuts down the idea of a relationship, she walks away believing he doesn’t truly love her.

Nevertheless, Kate continues to try to do good in her daily life. Finally, wanting to make amends to Tom, Kate returns to his apartment only to meet an estate agent who is holding viewings. He reveals that the previous owner was killed in a bicycle accident a year ago, and the place has been empty during the probate process. Finding his phone in the cupboard, Kate realizes that Tom was the organ donor whose heart is now inside her and that all their interactions were just herself, and she only imagined Tom was there. Going to a small garden, which was Tom’s favorite place, Kate encounters him again, where he says his heart will always belong to her.

For Christmas, Kate organizes a show utilizing the talents of the people at the shelter and inviting all of her friends, new and old, including her entire family as well as the newly coupled Santa and Danish man. Kate delicately performs a solo of the Wham! Song Last Christmas intertwined with flashbacks of her so-called ‘encounters’ with Tom until revelry ensues when the curtain raises, and she is joined by the band of performers. Later, Kate and the family celebrate Christmas together, joined by Alba, Marta’s girlfriend, for the first time.

The Christmas celebration fades out, and a bright light transitions to a summer scene where a visibly healthier, happier Kate is seen writing in her journal in the garden to which Tom introduced her. She is sitting on Tom’s memorial bench with a plaque bearing his name and birth and death years. Smiling and visibly joyful, Kate looks up, as Tom always advised.

Unknown to his friends, Spencer kept the pieces of the Jumanji video game and one day repaired the system in the basement of his grandfather’s house. When Spencer’s friends Bethany, Fridge, and Martha arrive, they find Spencer missing and the game running and decide to re-enter Jumanji to save him. Spencer’s grandfather Eddie and his friend Milo Walker hear the commotion and inadvertently get sucked into the game too before any of Spencer’s friends can select their avatars. With a new quest offered to them by Nigel Billingsley, the teenaged friends must help Eddie and Milo get used to their in-game avatars, get them to help find Spencer and Bethany, and escape Jumanji once again and for all.

Cast:

Dwayne Johnson as Dr. Smolder Bravestone: Eddie’s avatar (who was previously Spencer’s); a strong, confident archaeologist, explorer, and the leader of the team. Zachary Tzegaegbe will portray a young Smolder Bravestone.
Danny DeVito as Eddie Gilpin: Spencer’s cranky, but well-meaning grandfather.
Jack Black as Professor Sheldon “Shelly” Oberon: Fridge’s new avatar (who was previously Bethany’s); a paleontologist, archaeologist, cartographer, cryptographer, and geometric.
Ser’Darius Blain as Anthony “Fridge” Johnson: A Brantford High School football jock, who cares more about football than studying. He and Spencer, who were childhood friends, reconciled by the end of the previous film after years of disassociation. His experience as Franklin “Mouse” Finbar in Jumanji helped him learn to rely on others and his brain rather than brawn.
Kevin Hart as Franklin “Mouse” Finbar: Milo’s avatar (who was previously Fridge’s); a diminutive zoologist, Linguistic and weapons specialist.
Danny Glover as Milo Walker, Eddie’s eccentric friend.
Karen Gillan as Ruby Roundhouse: Martha’s avatar; a commando with talents in martial arts and is now able to wield nunchucks.
Morgan Turner as Martha Kaply: A shy and cynical intellectual at Brantford High School. She and Spencer started a romantic relationship at the end of Welcome to the Jungle. Her experience as Ruby Roundhouse in Jumanji helped her learn to not be judgemental and to be more confident with herself.
Awkwafina as Ming: A new avatar who specializes in burglary, pickpocketing, and lock-picking.
Nick Jonas as Jefferson “Seaplane” McDonough: a young aircraft pilot.
Alex Wolff as Spencer Gilpin: A nerdy student at Brantford High School, who is Eddie’s grandson. His previous experience as Smolder Bravestone in Jumanji, helped him cope with his anxiety and panphobia, and to develop assertiveness. Spencer rebuilt Jumanji after Fridge had destroyed it. He then gets sucked into the game for a second time, and his friends, grandfather, and his grandfather’s friend follow with a plan to rescue him.
Madison Iseman as Bethany Walker: A pretty, popular, egocentric, teenage girl at Brantford High School. Her first experience as Sheldon Oberon in Jumanji helped her learn to care more about others. She ends up in the body of a horse named Cyclone in Jumanji.
Rhys Darby as Nigel Billingsley, the players’ main in-game NPC (Non-Player Character) guide.
Colin Hanks as Alex Vreeke: A married man with children, who as a teenage gamer was trapped inside the Jumanji video game for many years; until he was rescued and returned to his time period in the previous film. Vreeke survived by taking shelter in a home built by a previous player in the game, named Alan Parrish.
John Ross Bowie as Jurgen’s Spokesperson

A team of Angels, led by senior operative John Bosley, capture international smuggler Jonny Smith in Rio de Janeiro and turn him over to American authorities. A year later, the European division of the Townsend Agency is informed that Elena Houghlin, a programmer employed by tech entrepreneur Alexander Brock, wants to expose her superior and Peter Fleming, Brock’s head of development, for covering up a potentially dangerous flaw in Calisto, an energy conservation device she helped invent that can trigger fatal seizures when used. She meets with operative Edgar Bosley to turn over evidence of Fleming’s wrongdoing, but the meeting is ambushed by an assassin named Hodak, who manages to kill Edgar and leaves Elena to drown. Edgar’s protégé, Jane Kano, rescues her and brings her to operative Rebekah Bosley with the help of her partner, Sabina Wilson.

John, who has since retired from the agency, discovers that Rebekah has tagged him with the agency’s specialized subdermal implant without his knowledge. Rebekah tasks the Angels with breaking into Brock’s corporate headquarters to steal the remaining Calisto prototypes before they can be duplicated and Elena joins them. She finds one of the devices but is forced to use it to escape, killing a security guard in the process. The other prototypes are already gone, and Fleming is identified as the thief. Rebekah tracks him to Istanbul, where Jane utilizes one of her old intelligence contacts to locate Fleming. They track him to a remote rock quarry, where the supposedly-imprisoned Jonny is revealed to be Fleming’s intermediary for selling Calisto. Hodak is also present and kills Fleming before the Angels break up the sale. Rebekah suddenly disappears, allowing Jonny and Hodak to escape with the prototypes.

Returning to their safehouse, Sabina shares her growing belief that Rebekah is secretly working against the agency and has been manipulating them to steal Calisto for her own benefit. The safehouse is bombed, and when Rebekah shows up, John shoots her and rescues Elena, believing Sabina and Jane are dead. The two are still alive, however, and when Rebekah reappears, she explains everything: John is the real traitor, having spent the last few decades secretly building his own network within the agency after he was passed over to succeed the late Charlie Townsend.

John takes Elena to a party hosted by Brock, who is also in league with him but is unaware that John intends to weaponize Callisto. Using Elena’s colleague Langston as a hostage, he forces her to program a Calisto device to kill them both before leaving. The Angels, having deduced his plan due to the information provided by Smith (Rebekah’s informant), show up and rescue Elena and Langston. Jane exacts revenge by impaling Hodak on a spike, while Rebekah catches up with John and his men. Outnumbered, she has other Angels posing as guests subdue the men, while Sabina knocks out John with a punch. Brock is arrested for conspiracy, and Jane and Langston start a relationship. Elena is accepted into the Angels after passing a series of rigorous training exercises and receives an official Angels tattoo.

King Agnarr of Arendelle tells a story to his young children Elsa and Anna, that their grandfather King Runeard, established a treaty with the tribe of Northuldra by building a dam in the Northuldra’s homeland, the Enchanted Forest. However, a fight occurs, resulting in Runeard’s death. The battle enrages the elemental spirits of water, fire, earth, and air of the forest. The spirits disappear and a wall of mist encases everyone in the forest. Runeard’s son Prince Agnarr barely escapes with the help of an unknown savior.

Three years after her coronation, Queen Elsa of Arendelle celebrates autumn in the kingdom with her younger sister Princess Anna, Olaf the snowman, Kristoff the kingdom’s ice harvester, and Kristoff’s reindeer Sven. When Elsa hears a mysterious voice calling out to her, she follows it and unintentionally awakens the elemental spirits, which forces everyone in the kingdom to evacuate. Grand Pabbie and the Trolls colony, aware of the situation, arrive at Arendelle and Pabbie informs them that they must set things right by discovering the truth about the kingdom’s past.

Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven embark on the Enchanted Forest, following the mysterious voice. After the mist parts at Elsa’s touch, the air spirit, in the form of a tornado, appears and sweeps everyone in its vortex. Elsa stops it by firing streams of snow, forming a set of ice sculptures. They discover the sculptures are images from their father’s past and that their mother, Queen Iduna, was a Northuldra who saved Agnarr. They encounter the Northuldra and a troop of Arendellian soldiers who are still in conflict with one another. The fire spirit appears Elsa discovers it to be an agitated magical salamander and calms it down. Elsa and Anna form a truce between the soldiers and the Northuldra by explaining that their mother was Northuldran and their father was Arendellian. Elsa later learns the existence of a fifth spirit who will unite people and the magic of nature.

Elsa continues to head north with Anna and Olaf. They find their parents’ shipwreck and a map with a route to Ahtohallan, a mythical river told by their mother to contain all explanations of the past. Feeling guilty that her parents were lost at sea in search of answers to her magical powers, Elsa decides to travel alone and sends Anna and Olaf away to safety. Elsa encounters and tames Nokk, the water spirit who guards the sea to Ahtohallan. Reaching Ahtohallan, Elsa discovers that the voice was the call of Iduna, and that her powers were a gift from the magic of nature because of Iduna’s selfless act of saving Agnarr, making Elsa the fifth spirit who unites differences. Elsa wields her mother’s mantle and also learns that the dam was built as a ruse to reduce the Northuldra’s resources because of Runeard’s dislike of the tribe’s connection with magic and that Runeard was the one who initiated the conflict by killing the unarmed leader of the Northuldra. Elsa sends this information to Anna before becoming frozen, having ventured into the most dangerous part of Ahtohallan, which in turn causes Olaf to fade away.

Anna receives Elsa’s message and concludes that the dam must be destroyed for peace to be restored. Anna finds and awakens the sleeping gigantic earth spirits, and lures them towards the dam, which is destroyed by boulders hurled by the giants. Elsa thaws out and returns to Arendelle, stopping a flood from the destroyed dam. As the wall of mist disappears, Elsa reunites with Anna and revives Olaf. Kristoff proposes marriage to Anna, who happily accepts. Elsa explains that she and Anna are now the bridge between the people and the magical spirits. Anna becomes the Queen of Arendelle, while Elsa becomes the protector of the Enchanted Forest who regularly visits Arendelle as peace is restored in all the lands.