'Five Wonders'

Following on from my last blog post, here I am explaining what will happen when my character visits the different countries and cities.


In Britain, it seems that when thinking of China, you automatically think of the food, and the Chinese New Year is something that is picked up on in Britain too. I think that a New Year would be a great first location for my animation to start and for the saying of 'New Year new me', which a lot of people believe in. As my character is finding herself growing up, this would be a good connotation and hint to what will happen in the story. 'People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good incoming luck.' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year] This I think, makes a good starting point for my characters journey and again, will be a good connotation for her sweeping away ill fortune and starting a life travelling round the world. Something else that I could include in the China scene is chinese lanterns, which are featured in the film Tangled. These lanterns could signify and represent her letting go of her bad life and starting a fresh. In Tangled, I think that the lanterns make the scene really pretty, colourful and this sort of idea could work in my animation if done right.

Christ the Redeemer, which is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is said to be the 5th largest Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ in the world, symbolizing Brazils Christianity. Rio boasts the world famous festival, known simply as 'The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro'. It's held before lent every year before lent and has over 2 million people rush and parade through the streets per day. The carnival is all about fun, where people dance sing and parade through the streets dressed in bright colours and fancy dress. This could be the part of the story where she finds herself moving to the next country sooner than she thought because of her trouble fitting in in Jordan, and the carnival lifts her spirits and makes her happy and prepared for the rest of her journey. The picture below shows the imensity of the crowds and the bright and colourful atmosphere, which again, I will use in my scrapbook animation.

Her next destination will be to the Taj Mahal in India. India reminds me of a place of great diversity with the countrys cohabitants living in such different worlds, from the slums to the millionaires, such as the stars of their Bollywood movies, for example. This image became clearer to me more than ever after watching the film 'Slumdog Millionaire' (directed by Danny Boyle), which shows a boy from the slums proving his innoncence of not cheating whilst playing the on the television show 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'. The film shows his struggles through his childhood and how he used his own initiaive to survive. The film feautures a scene where they visit the Taj Mahal in a ploy to scam tourists and make money, from the train journey to the attraction. The clip below is from the film and shows the children stealing and selling to rich people on the train.

 

 From my perception of India through the Slumdog Millionnaire film, I would like my character to travel through India and experience the different takes on life they have, as well as their different demographics and the way that the rich and moneyless live differently. From visiting the Taj Mahal, she will see the children who beg for food and money around the building and also the rich of India, being the tourists and how the different civilisations treat eachother. She will see children begging and later playing when their working day is done- making her see a different perception of life and it will teach her a vital lesson in life- which every one will experience at some point- with the idea to 'appreciate the smaller things in life.' It will hit home to her exactly how lucky she is, and although she will feel low at some points. She will come out of the eye-opening experience and this will be the first major time that the audience see her flourish and start to grow older.

She then travels to the next wonder, The Pyramids of Giza, which were built as tombs for the ancient countrys Pharoahs. The main religion on the country is Muslim, which will be another culture and religion change to what the character will be used to. Whilst visiting Egypt, she will meet a Muslim boy of her age who she falls in love with and has a secret relationship with during her stay here because they are both worried about the shame and shock that it may or may not bring upon his family. This brings out the rebellion in which teenagers often thrive upon and also the controversy in religions and their views and their impact on the characters. This idea I had reminded me of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, where two young lovers have a hidden relationship because of their families rivalry.

 Another thing that she will come into contact with whilst in The Pyramids is peer pressure of drugs. From personal experience, Egyptian drug dealers are very keen on trying to sell to tourists inside the ancient pyramids, with workers offering them at every chance they can whilst working inside the tombs. This is something that she will come face to face with, and although her lover choses to take the drugs, she will not give in to the peer pressure. Again, this shows rebellion on her boyfriends behalf, but also her having to deal with passing on something that she knows is wrong and illegal even with the pressure her boyfriend tries to put her under. After seeing their relationship blossom, they are caught by her boyfriends father and so she moves to her next destination. She has to leave her boyfriend and experiences heartbreak for the first time.


Lastly, she vists Italy where the Colosseum is located. This wonder is an ampitheatre built by the romans in 72 AD. As Italy is in Europe, she finds that it is less of a culture shock to the rest of the countries. Italians are known for their hearty meals, stereotypically being pizza and pasta. She finds a group of girls who she becomes great friends with when she's eating in a restaurant for dinner. She spends almost all of her time with them, night and day and they become the best of friends. Although all the girls speak good english, they still have a language barrier and of course, their different languages is something they do not have in common. She notices more and more that the girls choose to speak in Italian around her rather than English, which makes them grow apart. She feels disheartened by this, but as we have seen her story make her evolve from a vulnerable teenage girl to a young adult, she choses to go home and back to her family and friends where she knows she will be happier.


She travels home, and there is a shot of her in an aeroplane with a world map in the background, showing her travelling home from Italy. On the plane, you see her in the window and how her character and appreance has changed throughout the trip- showing her blossoming and growing into herself. She reminises on her trip, and although it wasnt exactly how she had anticipated, with maybe more lows than highs, she understands the quote shown at the beginning of the animation 'The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read one page' and she realises she has the rest of her new life to look forward to, now she is no longer an unconfident immature teenage girl and is instead a beaming, happy young adult.