1000304 Woody Wins An Oscar

February 28, 2011

Woody Wins an Oscar!

The Academy Award for Best Animated Film goes to Toy Story 3

By Brenda Iasevoli

Toy Story 3 took home the Oscar for Best Animated Film on Sunday night at the Academy Awards, in Hollywood, California. The Disney/Pixar cartoon beat out The Illusionist and How to Train Your Dragon.

 The director of Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich, accepted the award. "Thank you to audiences all over the world who came out in historic numbers and embraced a movie about talking toys that, hopefully, had something very human to say," he said.

This is the fourth Oscar win in a row for Disney's Pixar Animation Studios. In all, Pixar has produced six of the 10 Oscar winners for Best Animated Feature, including Finding Nemo, Wall-E and last year's winner, Up.

Toy Story 3 also scored a golden statue for Best Original Song for "We Belong Together," by Randy Newman. The cartoon was nominated for Best Picture, but that honor went to The King's Speech.

A Royal Success

The King's Speech snagged four out of a possible 12 Oscars, for Best Picture, Actor, Director and Original Screenplay. In the film, actor Colin Firth plays King George VI of Britain, who struggles to overcome his stutter with the help of a speech therapist, played by Geoffrey Rush.

To make the film accessible to a wider audience, it will be edited and re-released with a PG-13 rating instead of an R. (An R rating prohibits anyone younger than 17 from seeing the film without an adult.) The retooled version softens the main character's fits of cursing, or swearing.

Firth doesn't like the idea of cleaning up the language, especially since King George VI's angry swearing fit helps him to momentarily overcome his speech problem. "Really, it's about a man who's trying to free himself through the use of certain words," Firth said backstage at the Academy Awards. "I still haven't met the person who would object, so I think the film should stand as it is."

An Inspirational Ending

The Academy Awards show ended on a high note. The fifth-grade chorus from Public School 22, in Staten Island, New York, stole the show with their performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The kids swayed and moved to the beat. They closed their eyes and gestured with their hands. In the end, their performance earned them a standing ovation from the star-studded audience and high-fives from Academy Awards co-host Anne Hathaway.

Chorus leader Gregg Breinberg said an Academy Awards producer had become a fan of the kids after watching online videos of their performances of hit songs, including Lady Gaga's "Just Dance."

"The Academy has done everything they can to make the students feel like this is their night," Breinberg told TFK. "That's the best part. It's wonderful to see the kids being treated respectfully. I'm so proud."

The P.S. 22 Chorus members aren't strangers to fame. In recent years, they have performed for President Barack Obama, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Since chorus members change every year, singing at the Oscars is the new group's first big gig. What's next for the singing sensations? The 65 fifth-graders will perform on The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special, today.

Max- The Oscar Awards is very hot recently in America. Everyone in the whole world is excited about who won the Oscar awards, and what exciting performances are performed. On last weekend, my family watched the Oscar awards in the evening. We knew that the whole ceremony was so long, so we only watched one part of the program. We saw Toy Story 3 won the best animated film and best music (?), and also saw many shorts’ awards. In the middle, we also saw some singers singing the movie’s songs. I think the best part of the show is playing some movies remix, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Toy Story 3 and some other movies. It was really funny! We also know that the new movie, “The King’s Speech” was very popular now, and the movie had 12 nominated awards, so it’s very easy to get an Oscar on a popular movie. At the end of the show, I know that this movie got 4 Oscars. And the film, “Black Swan”, got the best actress award, and also I think this movie is very good, so I’m looking forward to see this movie. In the Oscar Awards, the competition of all the awards are very intense, but we should thank all the actors for giving us many good movies to watch.

1000218 Hooray For Hickory

Hooray for Hickory!

A Scottish deerhound named Hickory takes the top title at the Westminster Dog Show

By Andrea Delbanco

Competition was fierce at the 135th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, in New York City. Millions of people tuned in to watch the two-day, televised event to find out who would win Best-in-Show.

 The Westminster Dog Show is the oldest and best-known canine contest in the United States. It has taken place in New York City every year since 1877. This year, nearly 2,600 dogs representing 170 breeds entered the competition at Madison Square Garden.

America's New Top Dog

Hickory's full name is Foxcliffe Hickory Wind. The 85-pound Scottish deerhound, who loves to chase deer and rabbits, comes from a big farm in Virginia. "She's not used to lights, camera and noise," says her handler, Angela Lloyd. But Hickory wasn't intimidated by the big-city competition at the Garden.

Hickory's final round of competition on the famed green carpet included a Scottish deerhound, a Pekingese, a Portuguese water dog, a Chinese shar-pei, a smooth fox terrier, a bearded collie and a black cocker spaniel. Hickory became the first of her breed to win the title of America's Top Dog. The 5-year-old dog de-thrones last year's winner, a 4-year-old Scottish terrier named Sadie.

"I think Hickory could feel my lead that I was excited and went with it," said Lloyd. For Lloyd, who won a different prize once at Westminster in 1998, it was a dream come true. "People who own, breed, show dogs dream of this day," she said.

Hickory's prizes include a purple-and-gold ribbon and a shiny silver bowl. She'll also get to enjoy a steak dinner and a trip to the top of the Empire State Building—a whole lot of big-city fun for a newly famous farm dog.

Max-Dogs are not only cute or cruel, but they can do many actions. In normal life, we have dogs to play and feed them. But some people maybe knows how to learn dog tricks, because dogs are naughty sometimes, like pooping in the wrong place, scare some people or even bite them. So we command the dog some tricks, like telling it to lie down, sit down, or tell them don’t bark at night. Also some people will teach the dog to catch Frisbees, and teach them how to swim. I think this winner’s owner had taught Hickory a lot of tricks.   Dogs aren’t the same as the other animals. Like comparing the dog with a monkey, dogs aren’t smarter than monkeys, but dogs are people’s good partners. We love dogs, so we can share our life with dogs. Sometimes dogs are good helpers. The help the cops the solve crimes. And some rich people buy dogs to keep them happy. So that’s why dogs are loyal to humans, and why people need them so much.

Aaron and the Princess

  Aaron and the Princess

One day, Aaron went to a costume party, and met a girl who dressed up into a princess. At the party, Aaron really loved this girl very much, so he asked for her address and telephone number. After the party, Aaron went to the girl’s home. He got his guitar and started to sing. But he sang so loudly at night, the neighbors woke up and started to argue at Aaron. Aaron was so shocked! He realized the address was wrong, so he went home sadly. After he walked home, some people gave him a surprise! He saw all the people in the costume party, and also saw the princess! They celebrated another party, and everyone played happily. Aaron also danced with the princess, and went home with the princess! Aaron was happy today, because he found his own girlfriend.

1000127 Electronic Cars

Electronic Cars

By Max

     I wonder what things can be better by electronic power. Like cars and motorcycles, I think the gasoline inside it makes the environment worse. We should find some vicariousness energy to use in some cars and motorcycles, and also other things.

     This year, I went to a winter camp that we can build electronic cars, and also, it is a green source that we could use. At this camp, we learned about some things in our electronic car set. Like we learned some racing wheels, gears, and some other stuff that we need to use. Not only had we learned about cars, we also learned some green energy that can generate electricity. Like using wind, water, sun power, and using tides and hydrogen can generate electricity. I saw Christmas trees made of solar energy boards, some wind generators, and also saw a train that can use hydrogen to move! And the teacher told use about hydrogen cars. They use hydrogen to move, and this kind of cars doesn’t cause air pollution.

     Most of the time in winter camp, we build electronic cars. We first build some easy cars, like the basic car, the three-wheel car, and the antique car. After we built the whole car, we use our remote controllers to play it. The first car we built only goes front and back, so I think it’s bad. Later, our cars can turn left and right and also push and lift things by building the bulldozer. But the bad part is, at the first day we build electronic cars; we always build the car, test it for a few minutes, and “demolish” it to build another car. At the second day, after we built the bulldozer, we have a race. At the first race, we need to drive the car to a place, and use the car to push the bottle to the finish. Some people think it’s impossible, but some people made it easily all the way. I was at the middle at the score, so I don’t think it’s good. At the second one, we drive the car to the finish line and answer some questions to win. At the end of the winter camp, I think the camp is fun, so maybe I can join it again.

     I think electronic cars are so good, and I wish to make it real in future life. Now I can play my electronic cars all day, and have fun playing with it!

1000122 Year of the “Floral” Rabbit

Year of the “Floral” Rabbit

By Max

     In Taiwan and some other Asian countries, there is a festival called the lantern festival. Before, when people are celebrating lantern festival, they probably will use some traditional lanterns and stuffed dumplings to celebrate the festival, but now we use some big and colorful lanterns, made of steel wires and a big piece of cloth, and also many big lights to make it shiny. And we use some dumplings stuffed with sweet or salty fillings, we all like it! From the day of the lantern festival, there would be many places that we could see those big lanterns. Also, Kaohsiung’s lantern festival has a lantern competition. At lantern festival, they would put all of the lanterns that are in the competition in lantern festival to let the visitors see them.

     At the day of the lantern festival, there would be many tourists that see the lanterns. So it is so crowded, and that we should protect our safety, and have fun on this festival!

1000107 Bicycling Around Taiwan

Bicycling Around Taiwan

By Max

     Taiwan is a very beautiful place in Asia, since hundreds of years ago, the Portuguese found Taiwan, and because it is a beautiful island, they call it Formosa, which is Taiwan’s old name, and drew it on their maps. Taiwan is a beautiful island, but our island also has a lot of problems. Like Taiwan’s earthquakes are usually big, and frequently, because the island is on two plate tectonics, so it does that frequently. And the population density in Taiwan is over an enormous 600 people per square mile! And, global warming is continuing, so some people like to ride bikes. Maybe some bike riders only concentrate on their bike speed, or some people like to ride slowly, and cycle around Taiwan. Some people like to concentrate both speed and ride long courses. In long rides, you need proper planning, and practice a few weeks too. In conclusion, biking is a good sport, and a healthy activity and hobby too, no matter what way you ride your bike.

991231 Pinocchio

Pinocchio

By Max

     I think most children are like Pinocchio. They play all day,  and don’t go to school most of the time. They don’t study at school either, they just play and eat lunch. But I wonder why Pinocchio is so gullible? Maybe he doesn’t really think about things that who is lying. So I wish don’t copy Pinocchio again (the first three-quarters of the story). And I also know Lampwick is bad too. He is a bad boy who only tells someone studying is bad, boring and it’s like burning hell. He also tells someone just go to play. But he also gets his payback: he turns into a real donkey. I see a lot of kids and teenagers do like that, too. They just play, and do bad things like smoking, speak dirty language and steal things from other people.

     This story is talking about many things in your life. Pinocchio, he is a naughty, selfish and greedy boy, but he changes after his dad was sick, and he become a good boy. Mr. Fox and Mr. Cat (let’s call him that way) are liars. Liars are bad and they lied to many people, and if you do that in real life, you would even gat a death sentence because of lying. And the doctors like to fight each other, one says it is dead, but the other one says it isn’t, and I like them the most, because they are funny (I wonder that doctor who always say “He/She’s dead” must be fired).

     But, we need to learn from Pinocchio. He was affected by many bad people, and almost changes his mind to evil, but he can find the right direction to a good boy. I would say a second time, he is really a good boy.

From: Skyline Classic Comics, Pinocchio