Best ever year for Disney movies? (In terms of success, if not always quality)

Walt Disney Studios have had an up and down year this year - almost entirely up in terms of both the quality and success of their movie releases, but with one particularly notable down (in terms of quality, anyway).

They started the year brightly with the US box office number 1 movie, the daft-but-fun "National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets" (which was released and first went to number 1 at the end of 2007). They then released the fairly enjoyable "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" movie in February, which also went to number 1 at the US box office. That was followed by yet another US number 1 in May, the well made but slightly disappointing Narnia sequel movie "Prince Caspian".

Then came the utterly enchanting "WALL-E" from Disney's Pixar Animation Studios, one of the loveliest cartoon movies ever. In June it too became a US box office number 1 movie. Lovely! But then Disney completely spoilt their "year-to-date quality record" by releasing the appalling "Beverly Hills Chihuahua", which somehow managed to be the US number 1 movie for two weeks running earlier this month. Good grief! Must have been something to do with the ongoing Global Financial Crisis, lol!

Currently Disney have yet another US number 1 movie (their 2nd this month and 6th - count 'em: six number 1's! - this year) with the reasonably enjoyable "High School Musical 3: Senior Year". That will be followed on November 21st by the promising-looking CG cartoon movie "Bolt".

Given that Pixar's John Lasseter has been overseeing the development of Bolt, and that John Travolta provides the voice of the eponymous star character (with Miley Cyrus also providing voice talent in the movie), it seems likely that this will also be a US box office number 1 upon its release. If that does turn out to be the case, it will be Disney's 7th number 1 movie of 2008 (and Miley Cyrus's 2nd - she's only 15, and will be 16 two days after the release of Bolt, bless her). But even if it doesn't make it to the number 1 spot, Disney have already had a mighty fine time of it this year. I can't find any definitive information to confirm the fact, but I feel sure it must be their best ever year, in terms of the number of number 1 movies, if nothing else. :-)

I have to say that I love Disney and Pixar - they bring a lot of joy into an ever-increasingly tumultuous world. Okay, so a lot of the purely Disney stuff is really cheesy, but it is always fun (Beverly Hills Chihuahua aside). And everything from Pixar has so far been pure magic.

Interestingly, after trawling around all over the web for current and historical information about Disney and Pixar movies, I discovered from a number of news articles that appeared on September 24th (don't know how I missed them at the time) that Pixar's "Cars 2" movie will now be released in 2011 and not the originally intended 2012 (having bumped 2011's planned "Newt" back to 2012 instead - see my post from June about the original release schedule here). Make of that what you will, but it seems to me that there is perhaps a hint of this having been money-motivated, given the massive merchandise sales that resulted from the first "Cars" movie. I really hope that's not the case though. Still, for now things seem to be fine, and next year's Pixar offering "Up" sounds like it will continue where "WALL-E" left off in the quality stakes.

To help keep your mind on happy fantasy things and away from unhappy real-world financial crisis-type things, here are some quality Flash games based on Disney's better movies of the year (each game includes desktop wallpapers plus links to even more games based on their respective movies):

  National Treasure 2: The Platform

  Prince Caspian - Target Practice

  WALL-E: Space Race and Space Ball

  High School Musical 3: Pinball

  Run Bolt Run

As always, you can find these and dozens more great Disney and Pixar games at my (cleverly named) "Disney and Pixar Games" site. Enjoy! :-)

P.S. Okay, so there must be some of you out there that actually liked Beverly Hills Chihuahua, otherwise it wouldn't have been the US number 1 movie for two weeks running at the beginning of this month, would it? For those of you who are fans of this very silly movie, here is a very decent Flash game based on it:

  Beverly Hills Chihuahua: Follow That Smell

More about the Global Financial and Economic Crisis

(This is with reference to my previous post on the subject, which you can read here: England, Thailand and the Global Financial Crisis)

I have long been a fan of GlobalIssues.org, it is a long-standing, reputable and often shocking site (in terms of explaining the truth about what is really going on in the world), yet one which also gives hope that there can be a better future. Go and read the latest headlines there for yourself right now, and you'll see exactly what I mean.

In particular, read this brilliant article about the Global Financial Crisis that is still in catastrophic progress even as I write this post (stock markets crashing again everywhere - and here's a great site for getting up-to-date values of all the world's stock exchanges).

I think it is the most excellent and insightful article I have yet read about this entire disaster, and consequently I feel there isn't much more I can say on the matter. I just hope that this madness stops quickly and that the greedy people who caused it all in the first place are made to pay for it through the most severe punishments possible.

Free online platform game recommendations

If you're bored, or depressed about the ongoing Global Financial Crisis perhaps, and want something fun to cheer you up and pass some time away, try these two excellent free Flash platform games based on Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie series:

  Pirates of the Caribbean: Cursed Cave

  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dutchman Depths

You can find them both, together with loads more fun and cheerful Disney games, at my Disney and Pixar Games site (which also links through to all my other online game sites too, for an extra bit of boredom-relief).

England, Thailand and the Global Financial Crisis

What a disastrous end to an epic week! October 10th, 2008 - henceforth to be known as "10/10", no doubt. The day the world finally had to wake up to the fact that having a global economy means that when there is a problem in one economy, it will quickly become a problem in all other economies due to their implicit global inter-connectivity, regardless of the claims of some rather foolish national leaders who until very recently were denying that their particular countries would be affected by the "Anglo-Saxon Problem" (are you feeling it now Germany? Japan? Arab Nations?).

An unprecedented global financial crisis such as this needs rapid, radical, globally co-ordinated responses to resolve it - and so far it has received none of real worth other than a rather paltry (though unique in history) round of worldwide interest rate cuts on Wednesday. The consequence of this virtual inaction at the highest levels is that (quite predictably) the entire global economy has now imploded, with stock markets all around the world suffering from massive drops of 20% or more over the course of the week. It's a good job the weekend has arrived to put a brake on things, although quite what will happen on Monday morning when business resumes is anyone's guess. Even if the belated G7 and Group of 20 meetings that are taking place over the weekend come up with any really good plans of action, I think it will not really help much in the short term now, and that things will get worse for a while yet before they can start improving. Oh dear. Life in England and Thailand may never be quite the same again.

One thing that has been puzzling me more than anything through all of this, given my dual English and Thai life, is the GB Pound to Thai Baht exchange rate. Today the rate is around 58 Baht to the Pound, which is really low compared to recent years - earlier this year for example it was 68 Baht. Although the UK economy is under severe downward pressure at the moment, history shows that Thailand (with its export-driven economy) is traditionally the weaker of the two economies in times of economic woe such as now. That the Baht is so strong against the Pound therefore seems to me to be rather at odds with general long-term reality. Weird.

Like pretty much everyone everywhere, I am now suffering some financial difficulties, although thankfully I have no loans and no credit to worry about, so I will get off much more lightly than most people during this crisis I suppose. I am truly sorry to see that so many hard-working people will lose so much now through no real fault of their own. That this all seems to have been initially caused by the unbridled greed and stupidity of a relatively small number of fatcat bankers and financial traders in the US and UK (and replicated at least in part in other countries too - again, you know who you are!) is what really cuts the most here. These people must be made accountable for what they have caused, and must be severely punished (including having personal bankruptcy forced on them all in my opinion) in order to set an example so that it will not happen again.

I was heartened to see that the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said he wanted to see the perpetrators punished, though I doubt any such punishments will be anywhere near severe enough if and when they are meted out. These few tens of thousands of greedy, selfish, stupid people have almost destroyed the entire world economy for goodness sake! They are global financial terrorists! They have done far more damage than anything Osama Bin Laden has ever done!! Make no mistake - many people will die as a direct result of this disaster, either through despair-driven suicide, stress-induced illness, increased violent crime, or a sudden lack of medical funds and facilities in poorer countries. And millions upon millions of people everywhere now face severe financial hardship for many years to come. So the greedy fatcats that have caused this must be made to pay a very heavy price, as swiftly as possible - no excuses!

WebRing.com - a great place to find what you're looking for

If you're looking for a different way to find interesting websites than using the same old search engines over and over again, try using WebRing.com for a change.

I've been using it for over 10 years and it has always been an excellent resource for finding really cool sites. It consists of tens of thousands of sites connected together into groups (rings) organised around popular themes such as "Disney", "Cartoons", "Games", "Super Mario" and so on.

I manage the very popular and long-standing Lilo and Stitch WebRing, and I recently created a brand new ring that I hope also proves to be popular: The Computer-Generated Cartoons WebRing.

SpongeBob SquarePants online fun and games

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you already know that I love cartoons and video games. SpongeBob SquarePants is one of my many favourite cartoons, even though I am much too old for it according to convention! :-) I especially loved the big movie a few years back, it was very surreal and really funny.

There are some great free SpongeBob online video games on the web, and here are some links to the best of what's out there for you to try for yourself:

SpongeBob SquarePants online games and wallpapers in my Dan-Dare.org site

SpongeBob SquarePants games at SpongeBobOnlineGame.com

The SpongeBob Online Games Blog

Free games featuring Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age and more

I have created another new section in my ever-expanding group of fun and games websites, this one being for games related to computer-generated cartoon movies such as Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age, Horton, Open Season and so on (i.e. "non-Pixar" movies):

Shrek and Other CG Movie Games

I designed it to compliment these and other existing site sections:

Disney and Pixar Games

Sonic and Mario Games - Page 1

Sonic and Mario Games - Page 2

Wedding Photos

A bit late I suppose given that I got married two months ago now (see here), but never mind - a few photos of my wife Su and myself in traditional Thai wedding costume can now be found here, if you're interested in seeing them. :-)

Virgin Comics buyout and renaming

Virgin Comics, which published the recent adventure of Dan Dare that ran from November last year until July this year, was the subject of a management buyout on the 24th of this month and has been renamed to "Liquid Comics".

It is unclear at this time what will happen with regards to any possible further Dan Dare stories.

A bit of an eco-rant!

I don't normally (if ever) get political in this blog, but perhaps I should make it a regular feature. After all, politics is one of my favourite subjects, at least in so far as I'm interested in issues like: why do the citizens of the UK and the US seem to believe they live in free democracies when clearly they do not? (fraudulent presidential elections, tricked-and-lied-to electorates, lobbied-and-paid-off politicians, unelected prime ministers, CCTVs everywhere even in school toilets, etc., etc.), and why do people everywhere seem to think that just saying they are green and that they care about the environment is the same thing as actually being and doing those things in truly meaningful ways? You get my drift, I think...

Anyway, this article just caught my attention in Yahoo: Nature's Budget Has Run Out For This Year. Take a look at it and have a good read of it, hopefully you'll find that it makes sense just as I much as I do, and hopefully you'll also know that there isn't a darned thing can be done about it..... except try and live your life by consuming and wasting as little as you possibly can! Every day, all year, every year! Simple really.

I mean, it's really simple. Stop buying things you don't need (this week's fashionable clothes items and/or accessories, the newest must-have techno toys, tiny-bit-better mobile phones, trinkets, baubles, bangles, pretty shiny things, any other kinds of useless junk), and stop eating and drinking junk packaged in tons of plastic too. You, me (I do it all already), everyone can save the planet that way. Don't wait for everyone else to do it first before you do it, start for yourself and be a trend-setting go-getting green planet-saver!

Oh, and if you can, please try not to fall into the "it's okay, I recycle" trap. Really, think about it. Isn't that a lot like not really caring what you're doing? You may recycle, but are you sure what you send for recycling actually gets recycled, and if so in environmentally sound ways? And even then, wouldn't it just be a whole lot better to stop using up so much stuff in the first place, and save all the effort of making the junk and then recycling it later. Less is more: less junk used and discarded is more resources saved = planet saved, surely.

Here is another tale of ecological woe in today's news, as if more were needed really: Methane Escaping From Arctic Sea Bed.

A final thought from me on all this for now: It seems to me that the vast majority of adults in the world are parents (of children, obviously), so how is it that the world is getting into such a huge environmental mess? Surely even the big bosses of the businesses that are helping to create the big mess (i.e. all consumerism-related businesses, i.e. most businesses), with their neverending drives for more profits from more sales from more advertising from more production, are parents too in most cases? How then are they, and every other parent, going to explain to future generations what it is that is going on right now? Don't they care, these parent types? They seriously should, don't you think?! ;-)

(Oh, and by the way, I've no children and don't want any, I don't own and don't drive a car because I use public transport and my legs instead, I don't buy endless consumer items either on credit or for cash, I replace things only when they are truly worn out and broken, I don't buy more food than I can eat, I buy virtually no pre-packaged food, I live in small but comfortable shared accommodation, and consequently from all that I have a really low eco-footprint plus low living costs and not many worries, just in case you are wondering. I have no glass houses so I can throw stones! Truth be told, I don't really need to care what everyone else does to the planet, given that I choose not to be a parent. Except I do care. Very much.)

Be a Pinball Wizard - play these 10 brilliant online pinball tables

I love a good game of pinball, don't you? If you do, here are ten really cool online pinball games for you to try out:

  WALL-E Pinball

  Ratatouille Pinball

  Prince Caspian Pinball

  National Treasure Pinball

  Flushed Away Pinball

  Ben 10: Alien Force Pinball

  Mr. Men and Little Miss Pinball

  Illuminati Pinball

  Pepsi Wild West Pinball

  Old-Skool Flash Pinball

Movie games, Cartoon games, Sci-Fi games, Anime games, Video games

Since my previous post was about my large online collection of wallpaper pictures, I thought it might be useful to also list a few links to my equally large collection of very closely related online games:

Cartoon, Movie, TV, Sci-Fi and Anime Games - Page 1

Cartoon, Movie, TV, Sci-Fi and Anime Games - Page 2

Disney and Pixar Games

Sonic and Mario Games - Page 1

Sonic and Mario Games - Page 2

Hopefully you will find it all to be very entertaining..... :-)

More free Desktop Wallpapers than you can shake a stick at!

If you are looking for free high quality non-watermarked Sci-Fi Wallpapers, Movie Wallpapers, Cartoon Wallpapers and Video Game Wallpapers, then you have come to the right place..... :-)

I like to change the background wallpaper picture on my Windows desktop every month or so, to keep it interesting. As a result of that I have collected (and in some cases created) a lot of wallpaper pictures over the years, mostly related to my interests in sci-fi, movies, cartoons and video games. I have added the very best ones to my group of entertainment websites, just in case any of you out there might also be interested in them.

Here is the current list of them all, as links to 1024 x 768 pixels screen size pages - there are alternate versions and larger sizes for many of them (plus there are also free Flash online games included with almost all of them, just for the extra fun of it):

Star Wars
Star Wars R2-D2
Harry Potter
Sonic the Hedgehog (x 5 alternate versions)
Sonic Heroes
Shadow the Hedgehog
Super Mario Bros. (x 5)
Mario Memories
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
PoKeMoN (x 3)
Puyo Pop Fever
Super Monkey Ball
Donkey Kong
Mega Man
Crash Bandicoot
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo 2 - Monsters Unleashed
Wacky Races
Tom and Jerry
Looney Tunes (x 2)
Futurama
The Simpsons (x 3)
More Simpsons
The Simpsons Movie (x 2)
Thunderbirds Movie
TMNT Movie
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Power Rangers S.P.D.
Power Rangers Mystic Force
Transformers Movie
Transformers Animated
The Matrix (x 2)
Hellboy II - The Golden Army (x 2)
Batman Begins
Batman - The Dark Knight (x 2)
Superman Returns
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Hulk
The Incredible Hulk
Star Trek (x 3)
Star Trek Ships of the Line
Star Trek USS Enterprise (x 4)
The Fast and the Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
National Treasure - Book of Secrets
Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End
The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian
Toy Story 2 (x 2)
Toy Story 2 Little Green Men
A Bug's Life
For the Birds
Monsters, Inc. (x 2)
Finding Nemo (x 2)
The Incredibles (x 2)
Cars (x 2)
"Real" Cars
Ratatouille (x 3)
WALL-E (x 3)
Walt Disney / Mickey Mouse (x 2)
Winnie the Pooh (x 2)
Lilo & Stitch (x 2)
Chicken Little
Meet the Robinsons
Ice Age
Robots
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who
Shrek
Shrek the Third
Shark Tale
Madagascar (x 2)
Flushed Away
Bee Movie
Kung Fu Panda
Open Season
The Ant Bully
SpongeBob SquarePants (x 2)
More SpongeBob SquarePants
Catscratch
Danny Phantom
Avatar
Naruto
Ben 10 (x 2)
American Dragon (x 2)
Camp Lazlo
Dexter's Laboratory
Astro Boy
The Smurfs
Mr. Men and Little Miss
Garfield
Garfield Movie
The Muppets
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Felix the Cat
Betty Boop (x 2)
Dan Dare (x 4)
South Park
Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas
GTA IV (x 2)

(See this wallpaper site for visual links to some of the above.)

So there you are - wallpaper, wallpaper, everywhere! Enjoy! :-)

The new Star Wars CG movie might be rubbish, but the original trilogy still rules!

Yesterday I reported that the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars film has been widely slated in the media, with a unanimous "thumbs down" from all the major film critics. No-one it seems, other than the producers, has anything positive to say about it. Oh dear!

At least the original trilogy of Star Wars films - Episodes IV, V and VI - is still considered to be one of the best film series ever. Phew!

It's always worth watching the three original films again even after all these years, and you can do that for free, in a rather unusual way, right here:

Watch the entire "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" movie as an animated GIF

Watch the entire "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" movie as an animated GIF

Watch the entire "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" movie as an animated GIF

I guess you may possibly have already seen them because they have been around for a while now, but like the proper versions of the movies, they are certainly worth watching more than once - they're great fun and very clever, aren't they?

Here are some more great free Star Wars online goodies for you if you're interested:

Star Wars Animated GIF Movie Clips

Star Wars Movie Series Images and Music

The new "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" movie gets a big thumbs down!

Yesterday was a bit of bad day for me, given that I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter and Star Wars. First, there was the news that the release of the new Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", which I have been looking forward to for ages, has been delayed from this November until July next year (see here). Oh dear.

Now it seems that the new Star Wars CGI movie, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which I have also been looking forward to for ages and which was released yesterday, is not very good at all, going by all the negative reviews I've read of it today. Oh dear, oh dear. There is an excellent article which sums it all up over on the MTV website, which you can read here if you wish.

Still, it's been a really great year for movies so far this year, notwithstanding the above. WALL-E is my favourite at the moment. If, like me, you like movies and games you'll find loads of movie related games, including a large WALL-E collection, on page 1 and page 2 of my Cartoons, Movies and TV Games website...

The "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" movie has been delayed

According to a story that has just appeared on Reuters, the release date of the sixth Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", has been pushed back by production studio Warner Bros. from November this year - the new scheduled release date is now July 17, 2009. Oh no! I was so looking forward to seeing it this year!

Apparently, Warner Bros. said it had decided to make the change to bolster its release schedule for the lucrative summer moviegoing season - a period that can account for as much as 40 percent of Hollywood's annual box office receipts.

Warner Bros. President Alan Horn said the studio was also still feeling repercussions from the three-month Hollywood screenwriters strike that ended in February but which has "impacted the readiness of scripts for other films".

"We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family ... release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first instalment", Horn said.

The studio said the change of date would not alter production plans for the final, two-part Potter movie adventure, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". The release date for part one is tentatively set for November 2010.

"Deathly Hallows", the seventh and last story from British author J.K. Rowling about the boy wizard and his friends at Hogwarts School, was published in July 2007. The series has sold an estimated 400 million copies, and the books have been translated into more than 60 languages.

See my Harry Potter Movie Series Gallery and Harry Potter Book Series Gallery pages for more information - both pages also include some Harry Potter online games to play.

Kind people and an extremely worthy cause to support

I shall make the assumption that you have a kind and caring heart. I feel quite safe in making this assumption because I have found that the vast majority of people do have kind and caring hearts, despite what is often portrayed in the popular media about an increasingly mean society - that's just negative spin to sell more papers! (And you know which paper I'm talking about in particular if you've ever read the Daily Mail! Oh dear. Each to their own, I suppose.)

Anyway, on the basis that you are indeed a kind and caring person, please can you spare 5 minutes or so to visit the Macmillan Cancer Support website here and read up on who they are and what they do - you will, I promise, find it well worth the small effort. Then, please make a donation of any amount you can afford via their very secure web server - no matter how big or small your donation, it is vitally important because it is our donations alone that enable Macmillan Cancer Support to do the wonderful work that they do.

Thank you.

I was reminded of this truly worthy cause by a very kind and helpful person named Phil Payne - cheers Phil! If you are a website owner and you have any problems with your site in terms of search engine rankings, Phil is one of the best people to speak to about it. Visit his site here, or look him up in the Google Webmaster Help Group here.

Got married yesterday!

This is just a quick note about it, as I'm currently much too busy to write anything else!! ;-> I'll post some wedding photos at some point in the future.

"Cristiano Ronaldo is a modern slave", says Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA

According to an article in Yahoo! today, which you can read here, the controversial president of FIFA, Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, thinks that the Portugese-born Manchester United footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is like a "modern slave" because he cannot move to another football club (Real Madrid) whenever he wants due to his current contract obligations to United.

I'm sorry, but that is absolutely the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard anyone in a position of responsibility say, ever!!

23-year-old Ronaldo currently earns around $250,000 per week in wages, and like everyone else born and living in Europe is free to do pretty much whatever he likes when he likes, except break legally-binding, freely-entered-into business contracts. Clearly he is not forced to live a terrible life of great hardship and degredation, and so clearly he is nothing whatsoever like a slave!

Also, when everything Blatter reportedly said yesterday is fully considered, it seems very much like the FIFA president is saying that Ronaldo and all other players should not have to honour their contracts with their football clubs. What an utterly astonishingly stupid thing for him to imply! That would be the end of club football if that became a reality.

Blatter is well-known for being a pompous buffoon with a particular bias against anything to do with English football, and with this latest idiotic outburst he has further demonstrated his unsuitability to be the head of world football. Quite how he managed to become president of FIFA in the first place, and remain in the position for ten years so far, is a complete wonder. (Actually, it isn't really such a wonder - search Google for "Sepp Blatter corruption" to see for yourself.) Clearly, I need to copy his example in order to be more successful in life. Good grief, he should be sacked immediately!

(And just in case you are wondering, I'm not biased towards Manchester United, quite the opposite in fact - I am an Arsenal fan, and so it would actually be better for me if Ronaldo was to leave United.)

Free Disney and Pixar online games

To make it easier to find all the Disney and Pixar games that are scattered around my various fun and games websites, I have just created a new site index page that lists them all together in one convenient, easy-to-find place. You can view it here...

FREE Disney and Pixar Flash Online Games

Just for the extra fun of it, all the games listed on that page also include wallpaper pictures that can be used to decorate your computer's desktop background. Enjoy! :-)

Virgin's Dan Dare comic in a new book + a free gift!

Virgin Comics have just announced that they are compiling the first three issues of their Dan Dare comic into a special hardcover edition, complete with all Gary Erskine's artwork together with all the different cover artwork. The price is $13.99, and you can order it from here: VirginComicsStore.com

For a limited time they are offering a free Dan Dare iPod skin worth $15.00 with every order of the book (see here for details of the skin). Nice!

Meanwhile, the seventh and final issue of the Virgin Comics series will be out next month - don't miss it!

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and the other Narnia stories

Walt Disney Pictures/Walden Media's "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian", the second movie in the Narnia series, was released in the US on May 16th, and will be released in the UK on June 26th. I read all seven Narnia books as a child and loved them, especially the first three, and I have to say that I also really enjoyed the first movie in the series, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" - it fully lived up to my expectations. I shall make a real effort to see the new movie, although I want to watch Disney's other new movie, "WALL-E", first.

I have added a few Narnia Flash online games to my Free Fun and Games website for you to play, in case you are a fan of the series like me - two Prince Caspian ones are listed below:

  Prince Caspian - Pinball

  Prince Caspian - Gryphon Attack

C. S. Lewis's wonderful series of "Chronicles of Narnia" books can be a little bit confusing in one sense, because the third book written and published - "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" - is actually the fifth in the series in terms of the internal story chronology. It will also be the third movie to be made, currently scheduled for release in 2010, and from that I think it is reasonable to suppose that the movie series will continue to be produced in the book publication sequence - movies of all seven books are planned.

Many of the books in the Narnia series feature stories that follow on in a different sequence to the one in which they were written and published. This is completely different to another very famous series of seven books, the "Harry Potter" stories, which all follow each other sequentially in terms of both the internal story chronology and the dates they were written and published.

To help clarify the situation, below is a list of all the Narnia books in their original publication sequence annotated with their internal chronological sequence:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) - 2nd story
2. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951) - 4th story
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952) - 5th story
4. The Silver Chair (1953) - 6th story
5. The Horse and His Boy (1954) - 3rd story
6. The Magician’s Nephew (1955) - 1st story
7. The Last Battle (1956) - 7th story

There are conflicting opinions about which sequence is the best one to actually read them in. For me, the publication sequence works best, for the simple reason that it is the one in which the stories were created by C. S. Lewis.

Retro games sabotaged for fun

Back in January I reported on what was at that time a great new little site, www.RetroSabotage.com. Five months later, the site has now grown into something of an internet phenomenon, being widely praised in a variety of respected journals including Edge magazine. I am happy to have played a small part in helping with this meteoric rise.

The site is brilliant, totally unique, and is now a good deal larger than when I first reported on it. It presents a number of very funny "sabotages" of some of the all-time classic early video games, and if you like a good laugh and old games, go and check it out now...! :-)

Planned future Disney/Pixar movies

Following on from my WALL-E post yesterday, I thought it would be interesting to find out what movies Pixar Animation Studios currently have confirmed for future production. It is a very interesting schedule indeed (you can see the press release I found here), and is as follows:

Due for release this coming June 27th in the US and July 18th in the UK is, of course, "WALL-E".

Next year's Disney/Pixar movie will be "Up", a story about Carl (Ed Asner), a 78 year-old man who has always dreamt of exploring the world and living life to the full but who has never actually done it. Upon meeting an 8 year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell, the two become unlikely friends and set off on the thrilling adventures that Carl has always longed for.

In 2010 the Disney/Pixar movie will be "Toy Story 3", a follow-on to the 1995 original movie and the 1999 first sequel. The casts from both the previous movies are set to return in a new story which will involve Woody, Buzz, Jessie and all the rest of the toys being dumped into a day-care center after their owner Andy departs for college.

In 2011 there will be a huge break with tradition because there will be two Disney/Pixar movies in the same year for the first time ever. The first of these is going to be "newt", a story about the last two blue-footed newts in the world (whose home is in a college science lab) who must overcome their dislike of each other in order to "get it together" and save their species. The second, due for release around Christmas, will be "The Bear and the Bow", a new fairy tale (Pixar's first) set in a mythical Scottish realm.

The final Pixar Animation Studios movie currently confirmed for future production is scheduled for release in 2012 and is "Cars 2", a sequel to the 2006 original which reportedly involves Lightning McQueen, Mater, Sally and the other main characters from the first movie "going international". It seems probable to me that this will involve McQueen moving away from the US racing circuit to try his luck on the European circuit that was briefly mentioned in the first movie.

So, lots to look forward to there then. Personally, I am really happy to see that there will be new Toy Story and Cars movies because the previous ones are amongst my all-time favourites.

WALL-E, and other Disney/Pixar movies

So... it's almost time for the release of the annual new Disney/Pixar movie, which this year is the highly-anticipated "WALL-E". As always (see my similar post last year) I am really looking forward to this latest offering from the geniuses at Pixar Animation Studios. The trailer for it (watch it here) looks absolutely amazing and hopefully the actual movie will be just as good. Early reviews for it are overwhelmingly positive, which certainly bodes well...

To celebrate this happy almost-upon-us occasion, there is now a collection of 34 Flash online games in my Free Fun and Games website based on WALL-E and all the other Pixar movies, some of which you may have seen before if you are already familiar with my site, some of which are completely new. Here is a list of 18 of those games (links to the other 16 games can be found within the ones listed below):

  WALL-E: Space Escape & Cup Shuffle

  WALL-E: Scrap Shoot & Trash Tower

  Ratatouille: Rat 'N' Roll Pinball

  Ratatouille: Grab the Grub

  Cars: Tractor Tippin' & Ramone's Coloring

  Cars: Lightning McQueen's Desert Dash

  Cars: Luigi's Casa Della Tires

  The Incredibles: Thin Ice

  The Incredibles: Top Trumps

  Finding Nemo: Cruisin' with Crush

  Monsters, Inc.: Mike's Memory Game

  A Bug's Life: A Bug's Land

  Toy Story: Catch That Moving Van

  Buzz Lightyear: Operation Alien Rescue

  Toy Story: Bowl-o-Rama

(Note: All the above games also include related desktop wallpaper pictures as an extra bonus for you!)

Dan Dare online at the Science Museum, London

Further to my post in April about the wonderful new Dan Dare Exhibition at the Science Museum in London, there is now a really interesting online story about the exhibition that you can read here at the museum's offical site: Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain.

Danny Dare

When I started this blog in May 2006 I gave myself the nom de plume Danny Dare, just for the fun of it since I am a huge fan of Dan Dare. However, for some reason a lot of people seem to think that is my real name, so I have now changed my Blogger profile to display my real name of Peter Inns, in the hope of avoiding any future confusion. My posting name will still be Danny Dare though. I hope that clears that up! :-)

The slaying of St. George by the Labour Party

On April 23rd I posted an article about it then being St. George's Day, the national day of England. I opined about how it was pleasing to see that it was now growing in popularity after some long years of decline and virtual neglect. So imagine my surprise today when I saw this article on the web highlighting how incredibly unimportant the day still seems to be to this increasingly tiresome UK Labour government (from the AFP news agency, June 11, 2008):

(Quote)
LONDON (AFP) - A minister has admitted that the government spent a mere 230 pounds promoting St George's Day over the last five years.

Culture Minister Margaret Hodge confessed that her department spent 116 pounds on promoting England's national day this year, two pounds more than in 2007 -- and absolutely nothing in the previous three years.

The admission provoked outrage from at least one patriotic member of parliament.

"I think it is a shameful indictment and it needs to be changed," said deputy Andrew Rosindell, who is chairman of parliament's all-party Saint George's Day Group.

"We must be the only country in the world that spends nothing or virtually nothing on celebrating its national day. It is a great pity.

"I was expecting it to be low but not that low. Other countries in the world such as Australia and the United States spend a lot of time and effort in promoting their national days and we should be doing more.

"There needs to be a change in the culture of government in the way it approaches something like this."

Saint George's Day, which falls on April 23, is an annual non-event in England.

It is generally punctuated by breweries trying to cash in and promote a party atmosphere; left-wingers saying that patriotism should be reclaimed from the racists; a variety of English eccentrics; and everyday folk wondering why the English just don't seem to bother.

The fact that Saint George's Day is not a public holiday only adds to the general lack of interest.
(End quote)

Good grief, what an utter disgrace! I don't think matters are much helped by the fact that so many members of the Labour government are actually Scottish - see this article in The Times from June 1st for proof, and a possible future resolution, of that exceedingly thorny issue.

An excellent example of what is wrong with England these days

That this is a headline story in some of the English media today (or tomorrow, depending on your time zone) is, to me at least, highly indicative of why England is not the international power that it once was (and I quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland for a pertinent online example):

(Quote)

Cheryl Cole joins 'X Factor'
Cheryl Cole has won the battle to follow in the footsteps of Sharon Osbourne as the new 'X Factor' judge.

(End quote)

Really, who cares!?! Why is it so important to English people to know that a marginally talented pop singer, who is foolish enough to remain married to the amazingly self-serving, philandering and mediocre footballer "Cashley" Cole, has become a judge for a TV talent show that invariably showcases people with even less talent than either her or her husband possess? (As if that was actually possible.)

There is a new English "disease", and it is the seemingly inexhaustible obsession English people now have with "celebrity".

Really people, will you please just get over it and concentrate on the really important things in life, like: Why aren't England in the European Football Championships currently taking place in Austria and Switzerland, despite having fantastically overpaid players like Cheryl Cole's husband playing for them? :-)

Oh, wait a minute... of course, it's because England have fantastically overpaid players like Cheryl Cole's husband playing for them. Players like him have no real incentive to play their hearts out for their country any more. Playing for their super-rich club sides, posing as models for fashion designers and fizzy drinks manufacturers, being seen to be fully living the "celebrity lifestyle" in every conceivable way - these things are always going to be far more important to them in these celebrity-obsessed times.

Of course, Cashley and his type always give ample lip-service to the national team (they've got to try and protect their media images after all, especially given their frequent off-the-field misdeeds), but that is seldom followed through with any real conviction on the football pitch - they're clearly too scared of getting injured and being unable to play for their club sides and pose as models for one thing.

And let's face it, back on the "celebrity" side of things, "Posh and Becks" were and still are a sad joke (although at least Becks has always been a half-decent footballer), "Jamie and Louise" should never have been considered as being newsworthy in the first place, and there was no need whatsoever to inflict the dreadful "Wayne and Waynetta" (sorry, "Wayne and Coleen") on the world. That "Cashley and Cheryl" now seem poised to take over the title of "top English celebrity couple" says it all really (assuming Cheryl really is silly enough to take Cashley back). Oh dear.

Who wants to see a Dan Dare movie get made?

Me, for one! I would love to see someone take a chance and make a Dan Dare movie. It's long overdue - Dan is an all-time classic science-fiction character, and his arch-enemy The Mekon is one of the best alien "bad guys" ever created (see my DanDare.org.uk site, which is all about them both, if you don't believe me).

Really, there should be a trilogy of movies based on Frank Hampson's mid-1950s trilogy of Dan Dare comic-strip stories that comprised "The Man From Nowhere", "Rogue Planet" and "Reign of the Robots" (the last movie would also need to include the follow-on short story that was also produced by Frank called "The Ship That Lived", for the sake of full story-arc closure).

These 50 year-old stories are of such a high standard, and were so far ahead of their time when they were created, that they would need very little alteration to bring them fully up-to-date. They could be real classic movies if produced by someone like Steven Spielberg.

There is an excellent article about this very subject over on the Coventry Telegraph newspaper's blog site, written by David Bentley. If, like David and me, you feel that there should be a Dan Dare movie, there is a potential way for you to help get one made: read David's article and then leave a comment at the end of the article saying that you want a Dan Dare movie to be produced - this will show the people who have the ability to get such a project off the ground just how much we all want one.

You can read the article and post a comment here: Dan Dare revived in new exhibition and comicbook - now we want a movie!

Mario & Sonic Online Game Recommendations - Part 8

Part 8 in my ongoing series of Mario and Sonic online game recommendations is now available to read over on my MarioSonicGames.com blog, featuring 3 new excellent Sonic Flash games for you to try. If you are a Sonic the Hedgehog fan, I am sure you will enjoy them - you can check them out here.

YouTube access is back in Thailand today!

Hooray, it's back after being blocked yesterday, access to YouTube in Thailand has been fully restored! (See my previous post here about it here.)

I just tried accessing my YouTube Dan-Dare.org Channel and it's working fine. There's still nothing about the access blocking in the news though (except my previous post about it) - weird!

YouTube has been blocked in Thailand as of today!

As of today (May 14th, 2008), access in Thailand to the whole of the YouTube site has been blocked. It was working fine yesterday. I know this because I currently live in Thailand, and I visit YouTube most days to see what's new in there. This is the message that appears in my web browser when I try to access www.youtube.com - "Sorry, the web site you are accessing has been blocked by the request of The Communication Authority of Thailand. For more information please contact: Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Building 9, TOT PCL Chaeng Wattana Rd. Laksi Bangkok 10210. Tel. 0-2505-7147, 0-2568-2498".

Upon encountering the block I searched the web for news on the subject, but could find nothing relevant. The newest article I could find was from April 4th, 2007, over one year ago, so I have no idea what is going on with it at the moment.

The aforementioned year-old article (which you can read here on the BBC news site) relates to when access to YouTube was blocked in Thailand last year due to a US-based user uploading a video that was highly insulting to the King of Thailand (Thai people love their King, and insulting him is absolutely unacceptable to them, not to mention illegal). I was of the understanding that following that episode, YouTube had agreed to work with the Thai government to ensure there were no similar problems in the future. So I wonder what's happened this time?

So, GTA IV is released at long last!

Delayed from October last year to ensure absolute perfection in the finished game, finally Grand Theft Auto IV is here, released today all over the world (except Japan - sorry Japan!)...



Available on the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles, it has met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, suggesting that the delay has paid off handsomely. Here are two of the earliest reviews:

"As a fan, my expectations were exceeded," said Ricardo Torres, editor of GameSpot, a game review site.

"It's what GTA was always meant to be, but couldn't be because of the technical limitations of the previous consoles. With the current hardware, they have a canvas that lets them paint whatever they want. The city, which used to be just a background for the game, has so much detail that it feels alive. The level of immersion is crazy."

New York Times reviewer Seth Schiesel went even deeper: "The game sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts. Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun."

Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated video game ever, GTA IV is expected to become the biggest selling game of all time. I've been a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series since GTA2 came out on the first Sony PlayStation nine years ago, and I certainly intend to get hold of a copy of this latest installment as soon as possible... You can visit the official site for the game here.

There is a free Flash online game that is very similar to GTA2 in one of my fun and games sites - click on the following link, or the image below, to play it:

Gangster Life

Concerning the quality of free online games...

This may sound a bit ungrateful of me, given that the games are all free to play, but I have noticed a growing tendency amongst many of the free online game websites to put every single game that is available on the web into their sites, regardless of the quality and reliability of the games concerned. Indeed, a great many of these games are of poor quality with bugs that cause major problems when playing the games, often including "logic traps" and other "fatal errors" that stop the games all together. Oops!

It seems that the chief motivation for this approach is simply to rapidly increase the number of games the sites concerned have in their inventories, so that they can boast things like "we have a collection of 2,500+ games". In my opinion this is a rather silly approach, because surely when someone plays any of the "buggy" games that don't work properly, they will get frustrated and annoyed. Surely that defeats the whole point of playing the games, and visiting the sites, in the first place? Oh dear...

Because I have always valued quality over quantity(!), my group of online game sites currently feature a more modest total of around 750 carefully selected high quality games. I have personally fully tested each of them to ensure there are no bugs and that they all work properly. So you can rest assured, you will find no frustrating and annoying problems with any of the games in my sites! To add to the fun, there are also many galleries of images, animated GIFs, music samples, movie clips, desktop wallpaper pictures and more, related to many of the games in my sites...

You can visit my sites (and check the quality of everything for yourself) by using these links:

Online Amusement Arcade #1

Online Amusement Arcade #2

Online Amusement Arcade #3

Online Amusement Arcade #4

100+ Mario and Sonic Games

More Mario and Sonic Games

Dan Dare Exhibition at the Science Museum, London

An interesting new exhibition entitled "Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-tech Britain" opens on the second floor of the Science Museum in London this coming Wednesday (April 30th). It runs until Sunday October 25th next year and admission is free (to the whole museum except the IMAX cinema).

Here is what the official page for the exhibition at the Science Museum website says about it:

(Quote)
Dan Dare’s rocket fleet roars high over Venus to trounce his arch foe – the power-mad Mekon. Meanwhile, back on Earth, another extraordinary future is unfolding – one which laid the foundation for Britain’s hi-tech consumer society.

After 1945, though war-weary and broke, Britain found huge pride in wartime advances such as radar, penicillin and the jet engine. Discoveries like these were now tipped to kick-start world-beating industries, bring prosperity and bankroll the emerging welfare state.

In an age before globalisation, products from rockets to radios sprang from local roots. Together they reveal a fascinating ‘lost world’ of British design and invention – a glimpse of a time when the TV in the corner was a Murphy, not a Sony.

This exciting new temporary exhibition explores the role played by technology in creating post-war Britain.
(End quote)

There is an excellent article about the exhibition in yesterday's Times newspaper entitled "How the 1950's hero Dan Dare helped shape history with Utopian visions" and sub-titled "A new exhibition suggests that the Eagle’s Dan Dare had an influence way beyond his time" - you can read it here.

For more information on Dan Dare and his arch-enemy The Mekon, visit this one of my Dan Dare websites here.

St. George's Day, England (viewed from Thailand)

Today is St. George's Day in England, which (because St. George is the patron saint of England) is an annual day of English national celebration that has risen in popularity in recent years after decades of being somewhat ignored. See this article in today's Daily Telegraph newspaper regarding the growing interest in, and importance of, the day in England.

(Note: For those of you not entirely clear on the subject, the country of England is part of the island of Great Britain (Britain for short) which also consists of the countries of Wales and Scotland. Great Britain together with the country of Northern Ireland (which is geographically joined to, but politically completely separate from, the nation of the Republic of Ireland) forms the nation of the United Kingdom (U.K. for short). So, to be English is also to be British, along with the Welsh and Scottish peoples, and together with the people of Northern Ireland to be British is also to be a U.K. Citizen. I hope that clears all that up for you! :-)

Although I currently live in Thailand, it seems a good thing to me that England celebrates itself more these days - for far too long English people (myself included) have been rather reluctant to rejoice in our national identity. Since almost every other nation on earth seems to properly celebrate itself at least once per year, so should England, surely? After all, we have given the world so many modern-era benefits, such as the English language, parliamentary democracy (first established in 1707), the Industrial Revolution (which started in the late 18th century and which continues today as Industrialisation), Portland cement (which helps build the world we live in), modern railway systems, the electric motor and the jet engine to name some of the most important. Oh, and William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin - three of the most famous men in history, surely - were all English. :-)

I didn't realize until I carried out a search on the subject that other countries also have St. George as their patron saint and celebrate the day too, though sometimes on a different date than April 23rd. Amongst these are Bulgaria, Georgia (which makes sense!), Greece and Portugal. See the Wikipedia entry on Saint George here for more details.

Happy St. George's Day!

Thierry Henry wants to leave Barcelona! (Allegedly)

My all-time favourite football player, and one of the greatest former Arsenal players ever, Thierry Henry, reportedly wants to leave Barcelona (for whom he left Arsenal last year - see my previous post about that here) and come back to play in the English Premier League, preferably based in London.

See this article in today's News of the World tabloid Sunday newspaper for full details of the story.

If Thierry really is going to leave Barcelona, it's clearly going to be too much to hope that he will return to Arsenal given the views of the club manager (Arsene Wenger) on the subject, which just makes me even sadder now after the initial sadness of seeing him leave the club in the first place. I have been an Arsenal fan virtually all my life, and a fan of Arsene Wenger since his arrival 11 and a half years ago, but since last year I have become increasingly of the opinion that Wenger should quit!

A controversial opinion perhaps, but I feel that despite his previous great success at the club he has seriously lost the plot now. He has failed to win any trophies for the past three seasons (including the current almost complete season - Arsenal are, realistically speaking, out of the race for the Premier League title now despite winning yesterday), he increasingly blames poor refereeing decisions for causing defeats (see here for a recent example) rather than accepting that his own tactical errors are actually to blame, he has an apparent almost pathological non-English player bias (see here for details) which is quite embarassing to me at least (being, as I am, English, and with Arsenal being an English club), he still insists on selecting Philip Senderos who is without doubt the worst defender ever to play for the Arsenal first team (although he was only a substitute yesterday, thank goodness), and he let Thierry Henry leave only to possibly now let him return to a rival Premier League club. Good grief!

Note: I will of course fully retract the above satatement if Thierry does return to Arsenal and/or Wenger wins at least the "Double" next season if, as I suspect will be the case, he doesn't quit. Lol! :-)

Some of the most popular games in my websites for you to try

Here, for you to try for yourself when you have time, and based on visitor stats from last month, is a list of 10 of the most popular online games in my group of fun and games websites which include MarioSonicGames.com and FreeFun.Dan-Dare.org:

(Note: Many of the game recommendations below also appear in other posts in this blog - they are collected together here to make it easier to find them all.)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultimate Flash Sonic
One of the most popular Flash games on the web, and it's easy to see why - this incredible fan-produced effort is as close to a perfect game as you will find anywhere. With fast-paced, flawless Sonic platforming fun all the way, this game incorporates the best elements of all the classic 8-bit and 16-bit Sonic games, and includes unlockable extra characters, levels and other fun bonuses too.

And just in case you want it, here is a lovely little cheat password for the Ultimate Flash Sonic game that allows you to level-select the Ice Paradise zone when you play the main game as Tails, and also allows you to have Tails follow you if you want when you play the game as any other character (just like in the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive/Genesis "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" game if you have Tails follow Sonic): 115013101010101

(Additional note: If you use the above cheat password and have Tails follow Cream, he replaces Cheese the Chao who normally follows Cream.)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog Flash
An excellent official Flash mini-version of Sega's 2005 "Shadow the Hedgehog" game for the Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox, complete with the gunplay that is now synonymous with Shadow.

Super Mario Bros.: New Super Mario Flash
Play as either Mario or Luigi in this brilliant fan-produced Flash remake of the classic 8-bit and 16-bit Super Mario Bros. platform games. As well as including its own excellent ready-made series of levels for you to play, the game also features a programmable level editor for you to create and play your very own levels (and some example level codes are included for you to try too). This is rapidly becoming one of the most popular Flash games on the web - play it for yourself to see why.

Here is an additional level code for you to use in the New Super Mario Flash game's level editor, just in case you want it. It is called "Bowser Dual" (the name says it all) and was submitted to me by Caleb Burton. To use it just click on the text box below, right-click and select Copy, then click on the game link above to open the game page and follow the instructions in there for how to insert the code into the level editor and play it:

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Super Mario Bros.: Super Mario Sunshine 64
A superb fan-produced 2D version of the 2002 Nintendo GameCube game "Super Mario Sunshine", complete with a fully-functioning FLUDD.

Super Smash Bros.: Super Smash Flash
The name (almost) says it all - this is an awesome fan-produced version of Nintendo's brand new game for the Wii console, "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", with the ability to play as (or against if you prefer) Sega characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow in addition to all the standard Nintendo characters such as Mario, Luigi, Link, Zelda, Kirby, Megaman, Zero, Samus Aran, Fox McCloud, Naruto, Pikachu, Mewtwo and more. The game features a host of unlockable extra levels and characters in single-player mode, plus there is a 2-player mode for some serious "VS." brawling action.

Megaman vs. Metroid
A challenging and fun fan-game where you must guide Megaman through a variety of levels featuring "Samus Aran" and other classic "Metroid" game characters.

Star Trek: Flash Trek V2.0
A truly amazing fan-produced Star Trek game where your mission is to try to free the galaxy from the tyrannical rule of the Dominion and their Cardassian allies.

Ratatouille: Grab the Grub
An official game based on last year's smash-hit Disney/Pixar movie "Ratatouille" where you must guide Remy the Rat through a series of mazes grabbing food while avoiding the chefs trying to stop you.

Cars: Lightning McQueen's Desert Dash
An official game based on the 1996 mega-hit Disney/Pixar movie "Cars" where you get to race as Lightning McQueen against The King, Chick Hicks, Boost and Snot Rod.

Trivia: Did you know that "Cars 2", the sequel movie, has just been officially announced for release in 2012? See here for more details.

Buzz Lightyear: Operation Alien Rescue
An official Toy Story-related game based on the Disney cartoon series "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" - help Buzz Lightyear rescue all the Little Green Men who have been captured by the Evil Emperor Zurg.

Trivia: Did you know that a third movie in the Toy Story series, "Toy Story 3", is scheduled for release in 2010? See here for details.

I hope you enjoy all these games!

Virgin's Dan Dare digital comic has moved...

...to a new URL (with reference to my previous post about it, which you can read here).

You can now read the new adventures of Dan Dare from Virgin Comics online here.

Nothing much to report at the moment...

...except that currently I'm right in the middle of a bit of a major life-change (moving home to a completely different part of Thailand, that sort of thing) and that is why I haven't posted anything to this blog for a while. I'll get back into proper blogging mode again once my life has settled down a bit. :-) That said however, I have posted a few entries over on my MarioSonicGames.com blog this month that you may like to read...

Mario & Sonic Online Game Recommendations - Part 7

If you'd like to try out some more Mario and Sonic online games, Part 7 in my ongoing series of recommendations is now available to read over on my MarioSonicGames.com blog. (And there are now over 130 Mario and Sonic games for you to play in the main MarioSonicGames.com site.)

Yahoo! and the UK property market

This was on the front page of Yahoo! UK yesterday:



It made me laugh, although I'm sure Yahoo! weren't really offering to help people take advantage of the misfortune of others whose homes are repossessed by panicky banks and then put up for sale, it just looked that way through coincidence, right? I mean, I know Yahoo! is in a spot of bother at the moment having recently posted disappointing financial results and consequently being the subject of a takeover bid by Microsoft, but surely they're not that desperate to make more money..... :-)