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Review: Moana Redefines the Disney Princess

December 13, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Deja Harrison

Staff Writer

Beware: unavoidable spoilers in this review!

As a girl growing up, I had the craziest obsession with Disney princesses. Every year for halloween I was a Disney princess until the age of 12 when I had pretty much did them all from Cinderella to Tiana. But as I got older, I noticed the lack of diversity in the princesses I grew up adoring. Disney princesses are typically portrayed as skinny, white and fawning over a prince. This bothered me because I could never relate to the princesses I grew up adoring, none of them looked like me.

This year, however, Disney got my attention again with the release of their latest film. Recently Disney has been trying to mix things up a bit and portray different races and body types of young women.

Their newest princess, Moana, is a polynesian teenager on a mission to save her people from the destruction of the world. Moana is less of a princess and more of a chief to her people on her island of Motunui, which is an early settlement in the North island of New Zealand. She is heir to her father who grooms her into becoming a proper leader of their homeland.

The movie starts with showing a story of how the world was formed: in the beginning Earth was just oceans, until the island goddess Te Fiti came about and used her heart (a small green stone) to create life. Without it all life would die. Her heart was stolen by a shape-shifting demigod named Maui who wanted to give it to humans so that they would be able to create life on their own. Maui was then battled by Te Ka, goddess of lava, for the heart. He loses, leaving him and the heart lost in the ocean. The ocean chooses Moana a few years later to sail the oceans, find Maui, and have him return the heart.

The only problem with this quest — and, being a Disney movie, there has to be some kind of challenge — is that Moana doesn’t know how to sail, and her father won’t let her or anyone else leave the reef because of the dangers of the ocean. Moana finally decides to leave after the sudden death of her grandmother who tells her she has to save their island or it will die because the heart of Te Fiti has not been returned. The rest of the movie revolves around Moana setting out on her quest to save the world. With Maui, her pet rooster Hei Hei, and the ocean as her allies she is unstoppable.

Overall I found the movie very enjoyable. The story that was told is based off a real Polynesian legend about the oceans and islands which I find very interesting. I think that Disney did an amazing job portraying the culture and a young woman of color. Unlike earlier princesses of color like Tiana, Moana doesn’t look or act like every other Disney princess and I think that’s what makes her stand out a lot more. She is strong and doesn’t need a man or anyone else to rescue her, she is the rescuer of her own people. The only negative aspect of this movie is the confusing portrayal of Polynesian and Hawaiian culture. I was very unaware that she was polynesian until I looked at the plot of the movie and it said so; Disney gave the impression that she and her people where Hawaiian. I wish they would have done a better job of making it very clear that she was Polynesian and not Hawaiian because children should know the difference. Still the movie completely exceeded all of my expectations and I applaud all those involved. It is a very good movie for children of different culture, body types, and goals to watch.

Luke Cage Review

November 8, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Meymey Seng

Staff Writer

On September 30, 2016, Netflix recently put out Marvel’s first TV series starring a black superhero. He goes by the name of Luke Cage, and has special abilities, such as unbreakable skin and super strength.

He was first seen in Marvel’s Jessica Jones, where he was the owner of a bar in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. In that series, he had a relationship with Jessica and was determined to help her take down a villain named Kilgrave, but that’s a story for another time.

Their relationship did not last, so he decided to move to Harlem, New York, which is where the Luke Cage series began. Wanting to live a normal life, he becomes a janitor at Pop’s barber shop, and a dishwasher and bartender at the club “Harlem’s Paradise”.

Of course, things are not as calm as expected, and a lot of crimes are happening all throughout Harlem. Luke wants to stay out of it, although Pops, the owner of the barber shop, pushes the idea that he should make use of his abilities and help.

With the convincing from Pops, Luke decides to take action and is awarded the title “Hero of Harlem”. He denies being a hero, claiming that he just can’t sit back and watch the chaos happening around him. The rest of the season follows that theme.

Before watching Luke Cage, the show that got me hooked onto the Marvel TV series was Jessica Jones. Personally, I was never a huge fan of Marvel. I could recall watching Spiderman a bunch of times, although I can never remember actually watching the full movie, along with other Marvel productions. So, when my friend recommended Jessica Jones for me to watch, I was very hesitant. They say never to judge a book by it’s cover and this is also true for TV series.

After a couple weeks of pushing this show to the back of my mind, I decided to try it. I clicked the first episode, expecting not be to be into it and I was most definitely wrong. The ending of the first episode caught me off guard and I had the urge to watch episode two. This craving continued and I finished the season in three days. I immediately started Luke Cage right after.

Although Luke Cage is an amazing show, I have to admit, it starts off slow. The first episode was an intro to the show, describing everything. It starts off with Luke, Pops, and the customers discussing basketball. The slow pace continues until halfway through the episode, when the three boys that regularly goes to Pop’s barbershop: Chico, Shameek, and Dante, steals money from Cottonmouth, who is the owner of Harlem’s Paradise.

To conclude, with the humor, history, romance, action, and suspense of this show, I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a good watch. Some of the actors that I really liked in particular were Mike Colton who played as Luke Cage, Mahershala Ali as Cottonmouth, and Alfre Woodard as Mariah, who was the councilwoman. What I liked about Mike Colton was his realistic acting and determination. In order to fit the role of being a very masculine man, he changed his diet and workout plan, resulting in gaining thirty pounds of muscle! Also, Mahershala Ali was able to convince me into believing that he was a ruthless character, until seeing his backstory. His backstory made me wonder if he is fully at fault for his actions if that was how he was raised? I also really enjoyed Alfre Woodard’s acting because she was able to make me hate her character and I constantly had to remind myself that she is not the actual character.

Now, my perspective has opened and I’ve learnt to not judge a show just by what it’s apart of. It turns out that I’m actually very intrigued with these Marvel productions. I can’t wait for the following series of Luke Cage to come out, which is called Marvel’s Iron Fist. This is said to be released on March 17, 2017.

Locker Talk: What will you miss most about SLA

June 4, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Senior Heather Campbell, "I'm going to miss the the teachers and the students because they are all really unique, and lovely." — Senior Heather Campbell, “I’m going to miss the the teachers and the students because they are all really unique, and lovely.”

Senior Sam Lovett-Perkins, "I'm going to miss Ms. Echols the most because she's a great cook!" — Senior Sam Lovett-Perkins, “I’m going to miss Ms. Echols the most because she’s a great cook!”

Senior Jennifer Wright, " I'm going to miss SLA as a community and Students Run Philly Style." — Senior Jennifer Wright, ” I’m going to miss SLA as a community and Students Run Philly Style.”

Senior Abraham Musselman, "I'm going to miss the baseball team." — Senior Abraham Musselman, “I’m going to miss the baseball team.”

Senior Ryan Haris, "I'm going to miss my friends." — Senior Ryan Haris, “I’m going to miss my friends.”

Senior Annisa Ahmed, "I'm going to miss my advisory and my advisor because he did a lot for me." — Senior Annisa Ahmed, “I’m going to miss my advisory and my advisor because he did a lot for me.”

Senior Jesus Jimenez, "I'm going to miss that one person that makes you smile everyday." — Senior Jesus Jimenez, “I’m going to miss that one person that makes you smile everyday.”

New Policy Results In Sub-Par Subs

December 18, 2012 by lpahomov 1 Comment

By Tytianna Broadwater & Annisa Ahmed

Staff Writers

This year, the substitute teachers are different.

In the past, when teachers reported absent, district schools could call ahead to the School District of Philadelphia and could request a substitute teacher by name.

With all of the budget cuts to the School District, many teachers were let go in June of 2012. So, at the start of this year, the District has given laid off teachers the option to substitute teach where they would like. Schools can no longer make specific requests. As a result, popular substitutes like Mr. Salters, known around the school as “Pop-pop,” and Mr. Petrovsky, have rarely been at SLA this year.

“They won’t let our old, familiar subs be a part of the community anymore,” said Secretary Diane LoGiudice. “In other words, if I have a job that has been sitting out for two days, even though the subs that I know that are familiar with our school, they don’t have the option of to pick up that job and come in.”

Instead, a rotating cast of substitutes have replaced them — and many of them have a hard time getting used to SLA’s relaxed style.

“Some of these subs are old school,” Ms. Diane said. “It’s like there is no talking in the classroom, no you-can-text-your-teacher, no you-can-leave-to-go-to-the-bathroom. They start calling the office, and I have to tell them, ‘Yeah, it’s okay.’”

Senior Ryan Harris has witnessed this strict behavior first hand. Harris spends one of his bands acting as the Student Assistant Teacher for one of English-History Teacher Joshua Block’s classes.

One December 13th, Mr. Block was out with pneumonia, and Harris walked in, expecting the period to be just like any other, minus the head of classroom.

The substitute, however, wrote rules that went against the open nature of SLA, such as no hats or hoodies, no chewing gum, and no more than four people to a table. He also complained about the temperature and fiddled with the thermometer, even though there was a sign saying not to.

When the students had already signed in, the substitute then stopped class, saying that the number of people in the class did not match up with what was written on the sheet.

“He would name a student that was not [in the classroom] and then he would look at me, basically telling me to find that student,” noted Harris. “I didn’t want to cause any trouble, so I did.”

Later on, the substitute fell asleep during class. The situation was difficult for Harris to watch.

“A lot of kids that I sit near were asking me, ‘Why can’t you be our teacher?,” said Harris. “And, the whole time I didn’t know what to do. I told them that they just had to listen to what sub has to say and come to me for any academic problems.”

290bd99f-ba84-4248-bd3f-a1594a30caec — Photo Credit: Wynn Geary

English Teacher Larissa Pahomov has the opposite complaint, where a substitute let several students out of her classroom to “work in the hallway.”

She jokingly suggested strategy to combat the issue of students leaving a class in bulk in the presence of a sub: “I think I will have a big sign on my desk that says ‘Only let one student out of the room at one time.’”

Junior Isabela Supovitz-Aznar, for one, missed seeing Mr. Salters, and had a bad experience with a substitute teacher who was covering for her Advisory. When she was the last person to come ask for her transpass, “He said, ‘Oh darn, I thought I had a free trans pass for the week. It sucks I don’t get to keep it.’”

As of now, there is no hope that the District will allow SLA to pick substitutes again, but the school will solve any problems as they happen.

“If there is a problem when the sub is there,” Ms. Diane said. “Stop by the office and I will handle it.”

Contact(s): tbroadwater@scienceleadership.org – aahmed2@scienceleadership.org.