Apple TV Plus Archives | Otaku No Culture

Tetris. Must All The Bricks Fall Break Down?

Nobody in America knows who truly owns Tetris, and to find out who can license the rights is a lot more difficult than playing the game when the bricks are falling fast!

Tetris (2023) Movie Poster Playing on Apple Plus

Despite a lot of exaggerated moments about how the Tetris licence is acquired, this historical thriller is very exciting to watch. If only more semi-biographical works were like this, I wouldn’t need to consult the huge book library I have concerning the golden era of video games.

Anyone can go online to learn how this game was invented. It’s nicely summarised in this film, but to dramatise the legal problems to the level that director Jon S. Baird stylises it as requires more than an intimate knowledge of all that went on. Noah Pink wrote a script that chronicles the events leading up to the discovery of a simple but addictive puzzle game. What he adds includes how Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) is feeling the pressure. He’s a family man who wants to succeed as a business manager. This subplot shows everything he’s willing to sacrifice.

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Layma’s Poem Prepares Us for a Magic Carpet Ride

The pen is mightier than the sword, and in Layma’s Poem care more than your standard mystical meaning as a world in chaos tries to wreck one poor girl’s soul.

Freestyle Digital Media
On Demand (Apple TV+) and Digital, Feb 21st

In Syria, a young girl (voiced by Millie Davis) is getting ready to embark on a magic carpet ride while a civil war breaks out in Aleppo. And what we witness in Layma’s Poem is a tale that delicately balances between the reality of her life and another fantasy that’s not too different from Pan’s Labyrinth. Thankfully, it’s not totally scary. But to help her during this trying time is a book of wisdom by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī. This author is more commonly known as Jalaluddin Rumi.

It helps her understand everything that’s going on not only from his time (800 years ago) but also now. What we hear can also teach us something too about patience and virtue. Although the younger version of this poet hasn’t earned his recognition as a person of wisdom yet, what he learns from his peer and later imparts to the girl is very inspiring.

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On Why Charlie Mackesy’s “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse” Tugs at the Heart

This animated short is adapted from Charlie Mackesy’s storybook of the same name. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse left me wondering how faithful the art is between the two.

Available on Apple Plus

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse is a very deeply moving story that’s very multilayered. This animated short is adapted from Charlie Mackesy‘s storybook of the same name, and it left me wondering how faithful the art is between the two. I debated purchasing a copy at a bookstore just because I loved the tale. But hot after its Christmas release, both they and even the local libraries couldn’t keep it on the shelf long, and I waited my turn to take it out.

The movie has a quality that feels like a Victorian age children’s novel has come to life. In regards to what this author wanted to share as a message to viewers is very encouraging. There’s more to teaching readers the value of compassion, but also love. And the other life lessons that it imparts will certainly have many thinking. When it’s beautifully complemented with a piano soundtrack, the comtemplative feel good vibes will certainly last!

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Behind the Mac and Magic: The Mystery of Skywalker Sound is Free to View

Available to watch on Apple’s YouTube channel is Behind the Mac: Skywalker Sound. This mini-documentary released today in honour of Star Wars Day

Available to watch on Apple’s YouTube channel is Behind the Mac: Skywalker Sound. This mini-documentary released today in honour of Star Wars Day goes behind the scenes in what goes on in at this studio. We see more than how some of those magical sounds are made. We get insights into an aspect of the movie-making process that makes the filimed footage come alive.

Additionally, we see the technology used to fine tune the raw vibrations to what audiences hear in that film! Some of it may seem surprisingly low tech, but for the high, it’s no surprise Apples are used. Logic Pro is the software of choice at this studio. And from what I can notice, the servers look like they’re Apple G5s!

This video is a terrific watch to see how sound and image all gets put together. It may even perhaps inspire those who want to work in the movie-making industry to take up a position as a foley artist. Although some may argue Skywalker Sound desire to be fully digital will kill this position (please read my review of Actors of Sound here), I think this profession will be always be around in one form or another. Behind the Mac: Skywalker Sound nicely tells us why we need people who take ‘psycho acoustics’ seriously. They are the folks who’ll be out there in the natural and synthetic environment to record the next big thing. Who knows, maybe that sonic boom will be put in the next movie we’re about to see on the big screen.

Skywalker Sound Documentary:

Finch’s Hope for the Future

Craig Luck and Ivor Powell crafted a wonderfully complex and sad tale about what it means to be alive in Finch.

Available on Apple TV Plus
Spoiler Alert

Finch (Tom Hanks) may well be the last man on Earth. After a solar flare razed the Earth, the planet is devastated. He has Goodyear, his pet dog, to be his companion, but it’s not enough to give him hope. At first, he built a simple droid to assist in his day to day living, but he knew he needed another companion. The bot he builds combines traits and a look between Number 5, Wall*E and C3P0. But its programming could not be uploaded fast enough as the old man and his ensemble have to flee. There’s an approaching electrical storm.

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Apple TV Plus is All A “Blush”

The super deformed style character design in Jim Mateo’s Blush is very adorable, and it us a sense that there’s a life for the two kids we meet in this short film.

Blush (Short 2021) - IMDb Spoiler Alert
Available on Apple TV Plus

Joe Mateo’s computer animated short film, Blush, is definitely his most personal to date. After working on high-profile movies like Meet the Robinsons and Big Hero 6 in varying capacities, to see him direct is a win. In the former, he wrote the story about a boy getting a glimpse of the future, but is facing abandonment issues (he was left at an orphanage), and the latter, about a teen who loses his big brother and fears he has no one close to be with ever again.

The theme of loss is common for this storyteller, and he ups it another notch by exploring what it’s like to lose hope when a spaceship crashes on a desolate dry planet, and there’s no way to call for help. He’s somewhere in the boon dogs of space, and the small planetoid he lands on is bereft of life.

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