‘Elf’ movie review

By: Lily Sheldon & Sophie Elmstrom

*Warning: This review contains spoilers.

The movie ‘Elf’ is a comedy Christmas movie starring Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell. It was directed by Jon Favreau and was released on November 7th, 2003. This movie is a fan favorite amongst many Christmas fans and we will give you a rundown.

The movie starts when Buddy the Elf (Will Ferrell) is accidentally transported to the North Pole as a baby and raised with Santa’s elves. One elf (Bob Newhart) in particular stands up and becomes Buddy’s “father”. Buddy realizes that he doesn’t fit in when he starts towering over the elves, so he travels to New York to find his real father (James Caan). Santa (Edward Asner) gives Buddy a warning ahead of time informing Buddy that his father is on the naughty list and Buddy is determined to fix him.

Buddy goes through quite the journey while he is walking to New York City, including a scuffle with a local raccoon. Once Buddy arrives he soon realizes that people aren’t as nice as they seem to be. He visits his father’s office in the Empire State Building but Buddy is quickly kicked out by the security. With nowhere to go Buddy finds himself at the store Gimbels and gets mistaken for a worker at their Christmas area. He meets Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) who shows a cold personality towards the Christmas season and is just at her job for the money.

Buddy learns that Santa is visiting the store the next day and spends all night setting up decorations for “Santa”. Buddy then causes a brawl when he realizes this mall Santa is not in fact the one he knew in the North Pole. Buddy goes to jail and his father picks him up with resentment towards him, but he gives in and takes Buddy to get a DNA test where they soon discover that Buddy is in fact his real son.

Once Buddy finds a place to stay with his father and brother he begins hanging out with Jovie a lot more and introduces her to why Christmas is the best holiday. They soon fall in love with each other.

Walter, Buddy’s father, works as a publisher and gets fired once Buddy runs away from home and he has to leave his meeting to search for him. Michael (Buddy’s half brother) is concerned and scared for his safety while he and Walter frantically search for Buddy. While on this search, on Christmas Eve, Santa’s real sleigh crashes in Central Park, and Buddy and his family are left to save Christmas. In order to save this holiday they must make the holiday spirit come back to life as this is how Santa’s sleigh is powered. Many people in the park begin to sing Christmas carols and it generates enough energy to power his sleigh. Christmas is saved and Buddy makes a book about his adventure to New York with his father’s publishing company. Buddy marries Jovie and they bring their newborn to the North Pole to visit Papa Elf.

This movie received 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 7.1/10 on IMDb. Some audience reviews loved the humor aspect of the movie, and the light-hearted feel. People also really enjoyed seeing Will Ferrell as Buddy, as they think he fit the role very well with his humor. Reviewers think that this is one of the best Christmas movies out there and it will put you in the holiday spirit with a smile on your face.

Overall, we rated this movie a 10/10. It is very funny, and a classic Christmas movie. We have both watched this movie countless times, and it never fails to keep us entertained. We think the story line is very unique and that they casted the movie perfectly. This movie gives us more Christmas cheer every time we watch it. We are so glad to have this heart-warming comedy for the holiday season.

You can watch ‘Elf’ on Hulu.

WORLD IN FLAMES | CONTINENTALS WAR: ARCERIUM RISING 9

By: Hoaseng Thao

THE NEXENS OF GREAT TERRA

Nexens, or Homo Nexums, evolved from Humans like many other races, however unlike most of them that evolved to have animalistic body parts, Nexums retained nearly 99% of Human traits with the exception of being naturally taller with the average healthy Nexen growing up to, or even over, seven feet tall.

Their lack of animalistic traits and unusually tall stature, made the Nexens visually inferior to other humanoid races, who believed them to be a mistake in human evolution and were not worthy of having special traits like themselves. Because of this, Nexens were often forced into slavery, with them being the main labor force for Great Terra. That was until 32 BH.

In 32 BH, the slavery of Nexens in Great Terra gave birth to a Nexen boy in Triaag, a mining town for slaves. Growing up, the boy learned to read and write from the few books he stole, where he learned what life of being free was like, or at least from what few words he understood.

But when Great Terra’s economy collapsed in 16 BH and the empires within started to show their cracks, the boy seized the opportunity and fled from the small town, to embark on a journey across the world.

His journey across the known world as a Nexen on the run, would see the start of his radical ideas of a new world, one where freedom, liberty, and justice was the norm for all beings. By the time the Revolutionary War started in 18 BH, the boy, amongst the low ranks of the revolutionary army, stood above his fellow soldiers and preached his ideas of a new world.

His words enlightened those who listened, and they too would spread his words. As the Revolutionary War continued, the boy grew to become a prominent figure amongst the revolutionaries; historians still don’t know his real name but he is known by his moniker, Hero.

THE CONTINENT OF EUSONA

“Map of the Eusonan Continent, c. 1949”

After the failed Terran September offensive of 1949, Great Terra realized that they could not break Coalition forces in Kyusia. So their focus turned to Eusona, a continent known for its abundant arcerium fields, but one that had fallen behind most of the world in technology.

“Tectonic Coalition propaganda, c.1949”

Most Eusonan nations at the beginning of the 20th century, especially those in the south and east, lacked the industrial power to exploit its abundant arcerium fields. Many countries still relied on horse drawn carriages to travel from place to place, despite the car being made in the dawn of the century. But the few Eusonan nations that had the industry to exploit the abundant amounts of arcerium, became the dominant powers on the continent.

The wealth sustained by arcerium guaranteed the lucky few nations to rapidly modernize, such as the case of the Kirston Empire, who by the time of the war, had the largest arcerium deposit on the continent.

“Great Terran Propaganda, c.1949”

THE START OF THE EUSONAN THEATER

January 15th, 1950, The Cazar Empire invades Kirsto with an army of 500,000 strong. For the past eight months, the Cazars had steadily mobilized their army to the Kirston border without detection. The Cazars overwhelmed the unprepared Kirston army, and within four days, they had already conquered the Kirston capital, Eve. The Kirston army retreated to the Grai mountain range, a strategic range that is home to the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Torrest at around 32,000 feet tall.

With two thirds of their country under occupation by March 12th, and their abundant arcerium fields in the north now under Terran control, Kirsto’s civilian population found themselves the target of Cazar’s wrath.

At first the occupation plan was to relocate the civilian population from the country to central Cazar where they would be put into refugee camps, but when they discovered that most Kirstons in occupied territories were Nexens, the plans changed. The Cazars would still relocate Kirstons, but with the exception of those who were of Nexen origin.

Believing that the inferior Nexen race was the cause for the downfall of Great Terra in the past and for their part in the creation of the “false” Hero, the Cazars in their fit for glory, rounded up the Nexens population en masse, prolonging them to harsh conditions for days before executing them. The numbers vary, but historians believe over 9 million Nexens were killed. A new word would sprout from this mass murder campaign, they call it genocide.

“‘A Nexen painted Red’ by Jon Reese, c.1960. Was once believed to be destroyed in a bombing during The Grants War”

THE WRATH OF GREAT TERRA

As refugees from Kirsto fled into neighboring nations, they brought with them tales of the horrors committed by the Cazars, their illegal removal of Kirston natives and their mass executions of Nexens would only spread fear across the continent.

Before the Coalition could even respond to the invasion of Kirsto, the Cazars in an ambitious operation, invaded its way to Coalition member states on the Valkyrie peninsula. Countries like Icana and Polka fell to Cazar within the first week of April, as their armies were no match to Cazars due to the large technological gap between them.

Coalition member states on the Valkyrie peninsula, Pavlovia, Luxona and Kalavia, panicked as not only was Cazar already within Luxonan territory, but another Great Terran state, The Osteran Socialist Union, was now invading through the Lapish Channel and were now threatening to take Luxona’s capital.

The quick advancements of Great Terra in April saw the Coalition states in Eusona caught off guard, and by June 2nd, the peninsula was cut in half as Cazar and Osteran forces met one another at the Battle for Tattburg.

Although being important Coalition member states, the Coalition did not have the logistical capabilities to send troops and supplies to support their allies in Eusona, as Great Terran states such as Epreau and Hoshira, controlled the Krinian ocean with their superior fleets. With no support, the Coalition in Eusona had only one choice to protect their people.

August 20th, 1950, the Federal Republic of Luxona, the Kingdom of Pavlovia, and the Grand Duchy of Kalavia, issued their terms of surrender to Great Terra, which was accepted immediately. The Coalition was hit with their worst loss of the war, as they now lost three of their founding members to Great Terra. It appeared that soon enough the war was going to be a Great Terran victory.

Widji Leaders

By: Siri David

Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.com

In the beginning of November some friends and I went to Crosby farm in Saint Paul. While we were there, we planted trees. The organization we do this with is called Widji Leaders. Widji is a YMCA summer camp that focuses on getting kids into the environment while, teaching them life skills. They lead backpacking all over the western part of the country and canoeing trips all over the Boundary Waters and Quetico. During the winter they want to keep kids outside and teach them how to help the environment.

We met at Crosby Farm at nine and worked until 12. We planted a total of 60 trees in the forest.

They shared a step-by-step process of how to plant them and how each step will help the trees grow. We covered the trees in a biodegradable plastic to protect them from animals who will eat the growing trees. On top of the plastic we would put mesh so that way birds wouldn’t land on the plastic and fall inside and get stuck.

We were also taught about the environment down by the Mississippi River. We learned about how the water affected soil and caused it to become a lot softer. That area of land also goes through a lot of harsh weather including flooding, rain storms, hail, and intense winters. This means that the trees that are growing have to go through a lot to survive, and not all of them do.

There are so many steps you can take to help better the environment in your community. There are so many organizations that do volunteer work where they clean up areas that have larger amounts of trash or areas that are just clearly struggling more within the environment. Along with that there are also places you can volunteer to help plant trees like I did. Doing these tasks might not seem like a big deal, but if you look at where our environment is heading you realize anything can help.