In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia and Kevin review the latest animated movie from Disney Wreck-it-Ralph. Also they discuss about their first impressions, trailers, the animated short Paperman, what they like and didn't like about the movie, video games, and their overall opinion. Warning: major spoilers ahead!
Also as an added bonus, Patricia sings badly more than a few times!
Hey guys, welcome to another installment of First Impressions. Yes, I know, it's been a while since I've done one of these things. But I needed to write this down. I have recently seen the Disney movie Wreck-It-Ralph. What did I think of it? It was AMAZING!! I mean it, it is one of Disney's best movies I've seen in recent years. The concept was an amazing love letter to a hardcore video gamer like myself, the characters were all memorable, the voice actors did a fantastic job with their performances, the animation was beautiful, and the references are great. I felt that Disney is really taking note of the work that Pixar is doing with their movies because Wreck-It-Ralph feels like Toy Story mixed with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? with video game characters. I felt like I was watching a Pixar movie with Wreck-It-Ralph and I was seeing a Disney movie with Brave.Even the cartoon short Paperman was incredible! It was brilliant, had fantastic black and white animation, and had a great charm to it. I'm hoping that this short will win for "Best Animated Short" in the Oscars as oppose to La Luna. I like them both, but Paperman blew me away! If you haven't seen Wreck-It-Ralph yet, what are you waiting for? Go see it now! But we're not here to talk about Wreck-It-Ralph. I'm going to talk to you about one of the trailers I saw for an upcoming animated movie. I've seen movies that I was thrilled to see such as Oz: The Great and Powerful, Rise of the Guardians, and The Hobbit. But then the mediocre and unimpressing movies, in my opinion, showed up like The Smurfs 2, The Croods, Despictable Me 2, and a kid with a dinosaur that I don't really remember. The last trailer I saw before going into Paperman is the movie I'm going to be talking about. It's called Escape from Planet Earth. The movie is about two brothers from the planet Baab. One of them is a strong and admired space pilot named Scorch Supernova and the other one is the leader of the space station BASA named Gary. When BASA's chief tells Scorch of a dangerous mission involving a dark and dangerous planet, he decides to go there. He lands on the dark and dangerous planet, which happens to be Earth, and gets captured by the men from Area 51 led by a mean general named Shanker. When Gary finds out of Scorch's capture, he, his wife, and son work together to save Scorch and he meets up with some kooky aliens who are locked up in Area 51. Out of all the trailers I saw, I found this one to be the second most mediocre movie I've seen. The first being that dinosaur movie.It's a bit underwhelming, cliched, dumb, and predictable. I felt that I've seen countless movies like this and I'm not interested in seeing it. It sort of reminds of Planet 51, but in reverse. The man who is directing this movie worked on other movies such as Despicable Me and Horton Hears a Who, so immediately it doesn't sit with me that this is going to be good. There are a lot of good movies for kids that are coming out this year and next year that are going to unique and different and this one will be one of those movies that'll blend in with the crowd as nothing special. Here's the trailer for your enjoyment. If you are thinking of seeing this movie or you're going to skip it, post it in the comments below.
That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading. -Patricia
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! A time in which we have delicious food surrounded by our families as we talk about everything that we're thankful for. After our bellies are full with turkey and all the trimmings, time to sit back and watch our favorite programs we tune into every year.
Eh, not quite.
That's a given.
There we go! Much better. Every year as kids, Nickelodeon would have marathons of our favorite shows that we would tune in and see. Also in the mix would be some of the Thanksgiving specials that they would air. While Thanksgiving specials in general aren't as prominent compared to Halloween or Christmas specials, they still give us that warm feeling inside.
Today I'm going to review a very forgotten Nickelodeon Thanksgiving special. That special was none other than Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest which debuted on November 29, 1989.
Around 1989, Nickelodeon was starting to establish itself as the #1 kid's network due to the popularity of Double Dare, Eureeka's Castle, Total Panic, and Hey Dude, but still wouldn't have their own exclusive cartoons until two years later. So before Nickelodeon formed its own identity with their style of cartoons, the animation they were known for was the animation that came from their promos and ads during the shows that were on at the time. In fact, Joey Ahlbum, the main animator behind the iconic "doo-wop" dinos was one of the directors of this special as well as the animator behind the small segments that showed during the special. You probably remember about Joey Ahlbum from my review of Standby: Lights, Camera, Action!
So, that's right. Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest was the very first original animation exclusive to the network. Is this classic special still heartwarming and sincere after over 20 years later or is that the indigestion kicking in? This is Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest.
We first cut into a few animated segments consisting of how they made cranberry sauce and trying to interview a wild turkey. Then we cut into our first segment called Thanksgiving Nightmare.
It's about a mouse and a cockroach wanting to eat the leftover food left by the family who lives at the house they reside in. When trying to get the leftovers, they bump into each other and start having a war with one another. They band together their friends and fight over to see who would get the leftover feast. All of a sudden, the family cat comes along and disrupts them. The mice and roaches leave a huge mess all over the house until the cat comes and vacuums the mice and roaches in. The leader mouse and roach are left and they work together to free their friends. They succeed and leave the house in a huge mess. The family comes back upset and kicks the cat out of the house. We then cut to the mice and roaches enjoying their food.
After this segment, we cut into more animated shorts consisting of a mother rabbit feeding her family, turkeys disguised as meeses, and a hunter looking for his main meal for Thanksgiving.
After that, we cut into the second animated segment called Thanksgiving Dreams.
It's about a boy, his sister, and his mother going through struggles during the Great Depression. They know that they're not going to get a Thanksgiving feast due to little food in the house. The boy and the sister have a dream about having a Thanksgiving feast before their eyes. They're shrunk down to small size and see with amazement talking, singing, and dancing utensils and food.
Ha! I wish!
Anyway, as time goes on, the boy accidentally knocks over too much yeast onto a bowl of dough and then arises an evil dough monster. The boy tries to fight him off, but he's stuck in the dough. He uses his clever wits and gets himself unstuck and grabs the pepper shaker. The dough monster sneezes and explodes! The boy and the girl wake up to a delicious smell! When they go downstairs, they see a wonderful Thanksgiving feast! The mother claims that it's a miracle and they begin to eat. Then she claims that there's too much pepper in the food. The segment ends with the boy smiling and winking at one of the carrots on his plate whom he saw in his dream.
The Thanksgiving special comes to a close with how an astronaut and turkeys celebrate Thanksgiving and an elderly couple finishing their Thanksgiving meal with watching TV.
This Thanksgiving special was a classic for many old school Nickelodeon viewers and they would be eager to watch this every year. That is until the 90's came along and Nickelodeon then focused on Thanksgiving with marathons of popular shows and Thanksgiving specials from their own exclusive Nicktoons such as Rocko's Modern Life, Rugrats, Hey Arnold, CatDog, The Wild Thornberrys, and more. Afterwards, this special was scrapped from TV and hugely forgotten except for hardcore Nickelodeon fans.
Overall, this special was nothing special. While it was trying to create a really good Thanksgiving special, the end result was a bit mediocre and underwhelming. Thanksgiving Nightmare was like a Tom and Jerry ripoff and Thanksgiving Dreams has an inconsistent plot and animation. In one scene, there's no animation movement at all and it's trying to come off as serious and sad. The next scene, the boy and girl shrink and look like they entered in another cartoon entirely. The scene with the dancing food and utensils looks like it came from a 1930's cartoon short. As a Thanksgiving special, you're better off watching the other Nickelodeon Thanksgiving specials which we'll talk about tomorrow.
However, as I watched more of this special, I found a certain charm to it that I had not found in any other Nicktoon since. Maybe it was because this special was the first indication of their own work and not relying on acquiring it from another source. Maybe it was the style of animation of the short that would never feature on any of the Nicktoons to come or classic cartoon shorts from the 30's and 40's being the inspiration make it unique. I'm not sure what, but Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest started to grow on me the more I watched it.
You should check it out due to what this special really was. It was also the starting point for many of the people behind it just as then producer Vanessa Coffey, who would be the vice president of animation for Nickelodeon and was under the direct supervision of Nick exec Herb Scannell who would later go on to become President of the Network after Gerry Laybourne left. In fact, one of the segments that was going to be in Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest was about a "group of babies looking at Thanksgiving from their perspective. When Paul Germain (one of the co-creators of Rugrats along with Klasky-Csupo's Gabor Csupo and Arlene Klasky) pitched a show to Vanessa about "talking babies" (irrespective of the Thanksgiving Special), one of the reasons she liked the idea was because of the "Thanksgiving from a baby's perspective" segment that was almost used for the Thanksgiving Special.
While Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest hasn't aged very well, it's still recommended to check out from how they got started to be where they are today.
All this information was brought to you by Mathew Klickstein and his upcoming book Slimed! An Oral History to Nickelodeon's Golden Age. To know more information about this book, visit his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/NickOralHistory.
That's all for now. Tune in next time as I tell you my top 5 favorite Nickelodeon Thanksgiving specials. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.
The first episode of Old School Lane's newest podcast has Patricia and Kevin talk about their experience with the Nickelodeon tribute. Also, expect Patricia trying to get Kevin to say "I don't know", Kevin butchering video game villains' names, and answering the questions from their friends at Manic Expression.
Hey guys, it's that time again for another countdown! This time, we're
covering a very emotional topic: the top 10 saddest moments in Nickelodeon. I've
seen countless lists on Top 10 saddest Disney moments and other sad moments from
our childhoods, but as of yet, not from Nickelodeon. You might be thinking that
that the #1 kid's network would never have anything sad to damper a kid's mood,
well you would be surprised.
There are a lot of sad moments on our favorite Nickelodeon shows and movies
that we're surprised that it even was shown on TV. We may not realize it yet,
but these sad moments are relatable and so emotional that we can't help but shed
a tear or two. So grab your tissues as we countdown the top 10 saddest moments
in Nickelodeon.
10. Big House Blues from The Ren & Stimpy Show
In this episode, Ren and Stimpy get captured by a dog catcher and end up in a
dog pound. They're happy at first celebrating with their new dog friends until
they learned that they better soon get adopted or else they will be put down for
good. Ren ends up getting adopted looking like a poodle due to Stimpy's
hairballs and Stimpy is left behind. What we get is a sad moment as Stimpy cries
because he's not only going to be put down eventually, but his best friend in
the world is leaving him behind. It's very low on this list because Ren ends up
with Stimpy again, so the episode has a happy ending!
9. Eliza's misfortune from The Wild Thornberrys Movie
I've already said in my The Wild Thornberrys review that I don't
really care for the show. In my opinion, it's a bit overrated and Klasky-Csupo's
second weakest Nicktoon. The movie is okay, just okay. However, there was one
moment that I felt a little sad for Eliza. She makes a huge mistake by not
watching a baby cheetah enough for it to get kidnapped, she's looked upon as a
odd girl among her family so she's sent over to a all girls' boarding school in
England, when she does return to Africa, she finds out that the baby cheetah was
kidnapped by poachers, they take Debbie as a hostage, and Eliza ends up giving
away her secret of having the ability to talk to animals. Her gift of talking to
animals to save her sister who makes fun of her all the time and not have the
ability to speak to her best friend Darwin is a bit depressing. However, in the
end, she gets it back.
8. Porkchop's Arrest from Doug's Christmas Story
Doug's Christmas special starts off pretty normal with him and his friends
going ice skating. But then when Beebe makes her way to the thin ice, Porkchop
bites her leg in order for her to stop. Beebe thinks that Porkchop was attacking
her, so Porkchop ends up being arrested in the dog pound. Doug tries to defend
Porkchop in court and tries to free him by reminding the citizens of Bluffington
that he's a good dog who has done good deeds to everyone. The majority of the
Christmas special ends up being really sad and depressing as Doug tries to get
Porkchop out of the dog pound. In the end, he does and everything is happy
again.
7. The Submarine Moment from Rugrats Go Wild
I hate this movie! In my opinion, this is the worst movie in the Rugrats
trilogy! For those who haven't seen it, it's a crossover movie with the
characters from Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys. There are so
many things that are wrong with this movie: the main villain is lame, Spike
talks for the first time and he's very annoying, Nigel loses his memory and is
now has the personality of a baby, and the babies goes through the same plot as
The Rugrats Movie with them getting lost in a jungle. But there was one
moment that was a bit depressing for me. Nigel and the babies go inside a
submarine, but the oxygen is low. Nigel knows that they're not going to make it,
so he comforts the babies by telling them a story to calm them down. This is my
favorite moment in a movie that's very mediocre: it's sad and depressing about
the possibility that these characters might die. But in the end, they're fine
when Marianne, Debbie, Stu, Didi, Howard, Betty, Chaz, Kira, Charlotte, and Drew
work together to raise the submarine.
6. Mother's Day in Rugrats
There are a ton of sad moments in Rugrats, mostly containing towards
Chuckie. But the Mother's Day special is the most well known. Everyone is
getting a gift for their mom on Mother's Day except for Chuckie. So the babies
try to find Chuckie a new mom, but with no luck. Angelica ends up being
Chuckie's mom and Chuckie does things for her. In the end, Angelica quits being
Chuckie's mom and locks the babies in the closet after ruining her Mother's Day
gift. Chuckie finds a box containing his mother's old objects after Chaz was
trying to hide it from him. Chaz finds out that Chuckie found the box and talks
about his mother to him. He reads a poem that she wrote about Chuckie right
before she died and Chuckie learns that his mother is still around.
For a lot of people who grew up with Rugrats and watching Nicktoons,
this is #1. So why is it number 6 on my list? Because originally, Chuckie's mom
was alive. According to an interview with Paul Germain, the co-creator of
Rugrats, he claimed that the reason why Chuckie's mom wasn't around as
much was because Chaz and Melinda were divorced. This seems to make sense
because the episodes "Chuckie vs. The Potty" and "Real or Robots" mentions
Chuckie's mom briefly. But when Germain left Rugrats and co-created
Recess and Lloyd from Space, Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo
changed it and made Chuckie's mother dead.
While "Mother's Day" is sad, I felt that Germain's idea of having Chuckie's
parents divorced is much stronger and more original. It would have been nice if
there were some disagreements and issues with the relationship with Melinda and
Chaz during Mother's Day and Chuckie doesn't understand why his parents are
tense and angry sometimes. But instead, it follows the
"mother-is-not-around-because-she's-dead" cliche that many shows from the 80's
and 90's were doing. If Klasky and Csupo would have kept the original idea,
then Chaz would've been the second divorcee in Nickelodeon shows during the
90's. The first being Ken Stevenson from The Journey from Allen
Strange. Nonetheless, I must say that this episode is classic, iconic, and
very sad.
Now we're about to get into the very sad moments and there are some spoilers
ahead. If you haven't seen any of these moments and you wish to check them out,
stop right here. If you wish to continue, grab another box of tissues and let's
continue.
5. The Tale of the Dream Girl from Are You Afraid of the Dark?
As you recall from "Old School Lane's Top 10 Are You Afraid of the Dark?
episodes, Kevin and I love this episode. It's not necessarilly scary, but
it's thrilling. In this story, a boy named Johnny finds a ring in his locker.
When he puts it on, he can't take it out. When he goes to sleep, he sees a
beautiful girl named Donna in his dream. When he goes to school the next day, he
sees Donna. He gets messages from her to meet up with her and to go with him,
but Johnny doesn't understand. When his sister reveals to Johnny that Donna was
a teenage girl who passed away in a car accident with her boyfriend months ago,
Johnny is shocked that a ghost is after him and he doesn't want her to haunt him
anymore. The ring gets loose and Johnny decides to take it to her grave.
The sister then tells him the shocking conclusion to Donna's story: when
Donna and her boyfriend went on a date, their car gets stuck in railroad tracks.
Donna's ring fell in the back of the car and the boyfriend looks in the back to
try to get it back for her. But then, it was too late and they both died. Johnny
puts two and two together and learns that he was Donna's boyfriend and that he
has been dead the entire time without realizing it. The end of the story
concludes with Donna returning to her grave and Johnny going back with her. This
story is shocking and sad at the same time, but ends in a bittersweet moment. It
literally got me breaking down into tears at the end.
4. Helga On The Couch from Hey Arnold
We all know that Helga has a screwed up life: her father's a blowhard and
gives his attention to his older sister, his mother is depressed and lays around
the house all day, and his older sister is perfect in every way. She's pretty
much forgotten and is non existant in her family. But then everything comes in
full detail when she tells her story to a therapist. It makes us feel sorry for
Helga more seeing her as a 5-year-old overshadowed by her teenage older sister
winning a lot of trophies, playing piano, and being class valedictorian. Walking
to preschool alone in the rain is very sad and the only reason why she isn't a
depressed, crazy, and moody 9-year-old is because of Arnold. His kindness shines
through to Helga and it was love at first site for her. But Arnold doesn't know
this and Helga is afraid to tell him. Helga was already a developed character
and this episode develops her more. A very sad, depressing episode of Hey
Arnold that is very memorable, well written, and well executed. Truly one
of the best Nicktoons ever!
3. The Tale of Ba Sing Se: Iroh's Story from Avatar: The Last
Airbender
Another fantastic Nicktoon is definitely Avatar: The Last Airbender.
There are so many sad moments in this show that I can easily make a top 10
list just on this show alone. But this one is very, very sad. There are four
tales of "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" from the characters from the show: Katara and
Toph, Aang, Zuko, Sokka, Iroh, and Momo. But Iroh's story is my favorite. It
starts off simple: Iroh is shopping around Ba Sing Se buying things like a
basket and fruit. He interacts with the citizens of Ba Sing Se, sings a song for
a crying toddler, gives advice to a group of kids, and more. In the end, we see
him go to a tree putting up a piece of paper, the fruit, and lighting up some
candles. It happens to be his dead son's birthday and he starts crying and
wishing that he could've been there to help him during the war. The song "Leaves
from the Vine" emphasize the sadness even more. If that's not enough to make you
cry, Iroh's story concludes with this.
On July 21, 2006, Mako, the voice actor for Iroh, passed away with throat
cancer while the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender was still
going. A lot of people were saddened not only because of Mako's death but
because many people felt that the character was going to leave. A lot of people
loved the character of Iroh and we afraid of what was going to happen to him.
But then his protoge Greg Baldwin continued the voice of Iroh. Not only is this
episode very sad because of Mako's death but because of Iroh's story. He was
such a developed character of being on Zuko's side, calming his anger down, and
following his path of capturing the Avatar. He's a laidback guy while being a
badass at the same time known as The Dragon of the West by the Fire Nation. It
gets me teary eyed everytime I see Iroh's story. If an episode of a show can
make me cry, then the show has delivered on presenting itself with a ton of
emotions very well. In Avatar: The Last Airbender's case, it has and
it's still remains as one of the best shows that Nickelodeon ever released.
2. Mrs. Gordon's Retirement from As Told by Ginger
While the episode is called "No Hope for Courtney", Carl and Mrs. Gordon
steal this episode. Mrs. Gordon decides to retire for good after putting up with
Carl and Hoodsey's mayhem for too long. Carl is sad and disappointed and does
everything in his power to get Mrs. Gordon back to teaching. He tries everything
but with no luck. He even throws a party for her in order to get a chance to
tell her to come back to teaching. You might think that in the end of the
episode, she looks in her heart, changes her mind, and comes back to teaching,
right? WRONG! So very wrong! The next day, the principal reveals to the class
that Mrs. Gordon had passed away. That's right, Mrs. Gordon actually died in
this episode. The actress who voiced her, Kathleen Freeman, passed away on
August 23, 2001 due to lung cancer. While Mako and Bob Doyle did pass away
during their years voicing the characters of Iroh and Grandpa Lou from
Rugrats, at least they had gotten different actors to voice their
characters. But in this case, Mrs. Gordon does not return in As Told by
Ginger, which makes this moment very sad. We have gotten to know Mrs.
Gordon for a few seasons of As Told by Ginger and to here an
unexpecting thing like this had me bursting into tears. The closing credits
going in silent captures this moment even more. Truly a fantastic and sad moment
in the most underrated Nicktoon ever.
This would've been #1, but I recently discovered a more sadder and depressing
moment from another classic Nickelodeon show. Something that I did not expect to
see in a million years given when it was aired. But I cannot deny putting it at
#1.
1. The Mountains of Beyond from The World of David the Gnome
I know, I know. You might be saying to yourselves "Wait a minute. David
the Gnome? That show that was on Nick Jr. in the 80's? Why is this sad?"
Here me out. What do numbers 5, 3, and 2 have in common? It involves with death.
But while those were supporting characters, this is not. In the last episode of
The World of David the Gnome, the main characters David and Lisa die.
The main characters that we have gotten to know and loved through 23 episodes
are going to die. The entire episode is dedicated to their last day. As you
know, a gnome's life span is 400 years. When David and Lisa reach their end,
they spent their time saying goodbye to their woodland friends, David finishes
his journal, and they travel to see a friend named Casper who is also reaching
the end of his life and does not wish to die alone. The next day, Swift takes
David, Lisa, and Casper to the mountains. David tells Swift to not go any
further. Swift sees as David and Lisa hug each other and wish each other goodbye
as they turn into apple trees.
This is beyond depressing! How many Nick Jr. programs do you know that end
their shows with the main characters dying in the end?
None! Watch this clip of the last episode and tell me that you feel a
little bit sad watching this!
Now remember that this was a show intended for
3-year-olds. Seriously, that's so sad and depressing! I watched The World of
David the Gnome when I was little and I'm surprised that I discovered this.
This moment truly deserves to be #1 in my opinion.
That concludes my top 10 saddest moments in Nickelodeon. What are your
favorite saddest moments in Nickelodeon? Post it in the comments below.
That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Now go watch
something happy and cheerful!
What better way to conclude our review of Taina then talking to the girl who played her: Christina Vidal. Starting at the age of 12, her first movie was the 1993 comedy Life with Mikey starring Michael J. Fox, Cyndi Lauper, Nathan Lane, and David Krumholtz. Then afterwards, she was in a few movies and TV shows and was a member of a girl group called Gemstone until she got into the popular teen sitcom Taina where she played the leading character. Afterwards, she was in a few movies and TV shows such as Freaky Friday starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, See No Evil, and I Think I Love My Wife. Nowadays, she's a dedicated acting coach, actress, and singer. I had the opportunity to interview Christina so I hope you enjoy it. Patricia- In what age did you know that you wanted to act? Christina- For as long as I can remember. I auditioned for Life with Mikey when I was 10 years old. It was my first audition and I didn't have an agent or a manager at the time. It was a cattle call audition. And it just continued from then on.
Patricia- What inspired you to go into acting?
Christina- Ever since I saw my sister on TV I said "I wanna do that"!! (Her sisters are actresses Lisa and Tanya Vidal) Patricia- What was the audition process like for Life with Mikey? Christina- It was really exciting. Especially when I got to audition with Micheal J. Fox. Patricia- What was it like working with Michael J. Fox, Nathan Lane, Cyndi Lauper, and David Krumholtz?
Christina- Micheal was so nice to me, he really took me under his wing. Nathan was funny, but quiet . Cyndi gave me singing tips, and David and I became like best friends.
Patricia- What was your favorite episode of Taina?
Christina- My favorite episode of Taina is the one about our singing group. It's called Making the Band.
Patricia- Taina was the first TeenNick show whose main character was Puerto Rican. How did that feel to represent your nationality in that show? Christina- I am very proud to be the first Puerto Rican girl to have her own show. Patricia- Today, you are an actress, a singer, a songwriter, and an acting coach. Do you think that Taina would become any of these professions today? How do you imagine what her career would be? Christina- I think Taina would definitely have her name in lights now. She wanted stardom, that was never my pursuit. Patricia- One of the main reasons that Taina was cancelled because it attracted more girls when Nickelodeon at the time wanted to attract only boys. Nowadays, we have shows like iCarly and Victorious. In a way, Taina was ahead of its time. Do you think that if Taina was released today, would it get as much of a following compared to 10 years ago? Christina- I think Taina would be very popular today. Taina was the forerunner show for all of those other show. Patricia- What was it like working with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis on Freaky Friday?
Christina- Lindsey was so much fun. we became fast friends. I miss her. Jaime Lee Curtis was like everybody's mama on set! Patricia- Who were your favorite singers that made you become inspired to get into the music industry? Christina- I always loved singing, even before I started acting. I listened to Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Gloria Estefan... Currently my favorite singer is Brandy Norwood. Patricia- As an acting coach, what advice would you give someone who wants to go into acting?
Christina- My advice as an acting coach is... Commit to the process and let go. Be patient with yourself and never do anything you don't absolutely love and believe in.
Patricia- What are your upcoming projects?
Christina- No upcoming projects.
Patricia- Alright then. Christina, thank you so much for taking the time for this interview.
Christina- Thank you.
You can follow Christina on Twitter @CVDramatix. That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading. -Patricia
It's the year 2001. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Lord of the
Rings: Fellowship of the Rings, Monsters Inc., and Shrek debuted
in theaters. Disney's House of Mouse, Fear Factor, The Weakest Link,
and Six Feet Under were released on TV. With the surgence of shows for
Hispanics on Nickelodeon such as The Brothers Garcia and Dora the
Explorer, Nickelodeon decided to create another one. That show is the
TeenNick sitcom called Taina and it debuted on January 14, 2001.
The show was about a Puerto Rican teenage girl named Taina Morales (played by
Christina Vidal) attending the Manhattan High School of the Performing Arts so
that she can obtain her dream of being an actress and singer. She goes to the
school alongside her friends Renee, Lamar, and Daniel. Renee Jones (played by
Khaliah Adams) is Taina's wacky best friend. She's attending the school so that
she can pursume her dream of being a comedienne. Lamar Johnson (played by Chris
Knowings) is attending the school so he can be a journalist. He is the editor of
the school newspaper and has a huge crush on Taina. Daniel McDaniel (played by
David Oliver Cohen) is attending the school so he can be a musician. He and
Lamar are best friends and get themselves in crazy situations together. We also
are introduced to Taina's family consisting of her mother (played by Lisa
Velez), father (played by Josh Cruze), younger brother (played by Brandon
Iglesias in Season 1 and Jacob Urrutia in Season 2), and grandfather (played by
Manolo Villaverde), a hangout cafe called Papito's owned by a man named Papito
(played by Ruben Rabassa), and Taina's rival Maritza Hogg (played by LaTangela
Newsome).
In every episode, Taina, Renee, Lamar, and Daniel get themselves into crazy
situations while trying to accomplish their dreams. Also in the mix, there's
representing your culture when it comes to Taina and her family. In moments in
which Taina would get in trouble or has doubts about her acting and singing
ability, her mother and her grandfather give her advice to never forget where
she comes from. In one episode when Taina's mother tells her briefly about being
a little girl from Puerto Rico coming to America without knowing how to speak
English and struggling to adapt, she tells Taina "You're a Latina. You have
strong blood."
The show was created by Maria Perez-Brown, one of the co-creators of the Nick
Jr. program Gullah Gullah Island and executive producer of The
Mystery Files of Shelby Woo and The Big Help. She wanted to create
a show that focused on the Puerto Rican culture while at the same time the
culture that is outside New York City. She was inspired by a life she would have
liked to have when she was a teenager, her "fantasy experiences". She also
intended to break a large amount of Spanish stereotypes that was portrayed on TV
at the time such as everyone speaking only Spanish and the family members being
very stupid. In Taina's case, only the grandfather has a Puerto Rican
accent since he is the only one who was born and raised in Puerto Rico and the
mother is very smart and liberal. At the time, Taina was a bit risky to be
released on TV since the majority of the shows had either a Black or a White
cast and the Latinas were casted as minor characters. Perez-Brown decided to do
something different and casted Latinas in a very realistic way like The
Brothers Garcia did a year before.
''It's about taking the genre, like a comedy, to capture the Latino world,''
Ms. Perez-Brown said. ''It's not just putting Latino faces on television.''
The show was a huge hit among teenage girls. It pulled in a huge amount of
ratings for Nickelodeon and Taina became one of the most popular programs on
TeenNick. However the show was cancelled after 2 seasons on May 11, 2002. Some
actors pursued in other things after Taina while others faded into
obscurity.
Christina Vidal has acted in other movies and TV shows such as Sabrina,
The Teenage Witch, Hotel, Chasing Papi, Girlfriends, ER, Freaky Friday, Monk,
House, See No Evil, I Think I Love My Wife, Castle, Magic Man, and
Fairly Legal. She's currently an acting coach.
Chris Knowings has been in a few TV shows such as The Nick Cannon Show,
Lazytown, and is currently one of the main characters in Sesame Street.
LaTangela Newsome is currently a singer and a member of the City Kids
Repertory Group in Manhattan.
Lisa Velez is the lead singer of her band Cult Jam and is still going strong
with her music.
It wasn't because the popularity was waning, it was because Nickelodeon was
gearing their programs for boys at the time and Taina was gearing more
towards girls. So despite the huge ratings it was getting and the huge
popularity of the show, Taina had to go. Boy, how the times have
changed. Nowadays, the majority of the teen sitcoms on Nickelodeon have female
protagonists like iCarly, True Jackson VP, Unfabulous, Zoey 101, and
Victorious. In fact, when you think about it, Victorious is similar to
Taina: a girl who goes to a performing arts school with her friends getting
themselves into crazy situations. However, Taina is so much
more superior than Victorious because the characters are more relatable
and developed, the setting is more real, and Taina actually had opportunies and
chances to become a star. She was involved with being with a band, a R&B
group, and being in a TV show. Also, it represents her Puerto Rican culture
quite well with her family. Overall, Taina was ahead of its time and
would paved the way for the shows following its format of the future programming
shows for Nickelodeon. Sure, the guest stars are a bit dated, but other than
that, Taina has held up quite well. If Taina would've been
released a few years later, then the show would have lasted much longer, but
unfortunately it was out at the wrong place at the wrong time.
If you're fans of shows like Victorious, then skip that show and
watch Taina instead. I highly recommend checking it out.
That's all for now! Tune in next time as we have a special interview with one
of the actors from Taina. Afterwards, we talk about the greatest sci-fi
series to ever come out on Nickelodeon Invader Zim.
Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.
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