‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ is an Oasis of Fun

(Photo Credit: Nintendo)

By Veronica Longo

Directed by Katsuya Eguchi of Super Mario World, Star Fox 2, Wave Race 64, and Yoshi's Story, “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” released on March 20, captivates players through an entertaining social experience with beautiful graphics. The game provides a wonderful, family-friendly outlet for players of all ages, along with online play features.

Since its initial release in 2001, Animal Crossing has always allowed players to create customizable content, from shirts to houses, as well as to recreate the world as they see fit. Using the Nintendo online features, dedicated players can create a variety of mini-games like hide and seek or maze racing, host events, and even swap meets to trade items on their island. While versions of the game have previously been released for the GameCube, Wii, DS, and 3DS, the franchise has seen unprecedented success on the Nintendo Switch console. 

The premise is very simple: the main character goes to a deserted island with two other animal neighbors to build a new life. To improve the island, villagers must complete goals such as finding fruit or other materials on the island to build items by asking ever-helpful raccoon Tom Nook, “What should I do next?” The game clock and calendar are in real-time.

Once the latest goal of having in-game performer K.K. Slider appeared, new features become available to the players. The newest update allows players to build rivers, cliffs, fences and roads for a total transformation of the desert island into a talk show, carnival, and even obstacle course or maze. This leads the player to an open world where players decide what can happen next.

The unique ability to transform the villager has consistently drawn players to this franchise. One day they can be an island princess and the next day, a ninja. Players can also purchase outfits using in-game currency and re-decorate their houses or use in-game items to turn them into classrooms, concert halls, or cafés; the possibilities are endless.

The game is wildly popular among celebrities and public figures who are fans.

Bronx native and U.S. House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been seen within the game, visiting another player’s island and saying how enjoyable it is. Gary Whitta, a screenwriter, is using the game to interview real celebrities, like Felicia Day, and even invited Ocasio-Cortez to participate.

Now, during a time when social distancing is the norm, the ability to play with friends is one of the game’s greatest selling points. Participants have even used the game to recreate virtual dates, as well as to conduct memorial services, graduations, and weddings for loved ones.

Up to 8 players can play online or locally in an island. (Photo Credit: Nintendo)

Through Nintendo Online, players can visit their friend’s islands. Up to eight players can visit at once, making it a fantastic way for friends to gather across distances. Frequent updates, such as the Earth Day event released by developers on April 23rd, patch errors and add new features.

These updates are often due to community feedback and reports.  The Reddit community for “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” has grown to over 1 million subscribers. This forum hosts wholesome activities such as the community meet-up, tips and tricks, and showing the ropes to newbies.

The game has outsold all other games released in North America during March, just in physical copies alone according to Venturebeat.com. Within Nintendo’s lineup, the game has also outdone debut sales of other popular titles, such as “Super Mario Bros.” and “Legend of Zelda,” coming in third place only behind the “Smash Bros.” series.

“Animal Crossing: New Horizons” is transforming the way people play video games and provides players with a way to reach out during the ongoing COVID-19 quarantine. Take a trip to Tom Nook’s getaway island and stay awhile; it is a great way to combat stress.

Pixar’s ‘Onward’ Pushes All the Right Emotional Buttons

(Photo Credit: Disney)

By Melissa Tejada

Released on March 6 and directed by Dan Scanlon of “Monsters University,” Pixar’s “Onward” brings a touching and refreshing new perspective in a world consumed by technology. With a foundation built on the game “Dungeons and Dragons,” it is a heartwarming adventure from beginning to end.

The film follows the story of two elves, Ian Lightfoot (Holland) and Barley Lightfoot (Pratt), on a quest to find a gem that will bring back the other half of their deceased father for one day, starring Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Octavia Spencer.

Ian is a shy, painfully self-conscious high schooler, and Barley is an enthusiastic fantasy-game fanatic, obsessed with “Dungeons and Dragons.” Ian and Barley live in New Mushroomtown, where their father, Wilden, died of an illness shortly before Ian’s birth. Meanwhile, their mother, Laurel (Louis-Dreyfus), is in a new relationship with a centaur named Colt Bronco (Mel Rodriguez), whom they both dislike.

(Photo Credit: Disney)

On Ian’s 16th birthday, Laurel gives him a gift Wilden left behind before his death. Ian and Barley unwrap a magical staff with a rare gem and a letter with a “visitation spell” which requires a rare gem to make it come to fruition. Ian, who inherited his father’s mage abilities, is only able to summon his lower half because, as the spell is put into action, the gem breaks. He is also in a novice position because magic has not been practiced anywhere for hundreds of years.

Barley uses his knowledge of his game in order to find a replacement and summon the other half of their father before sunset when then spell wears off.

One of the movie’s highlights is the inclusion of an LGBTQ+ character, a purple cyclops named Specter (voiced by Lena Waithe). This inclusion caused an uproar in multiple Middle East markets that eventually banned the film.

Motherhood is also a central theme of the movie, and Laurel exemplifies the struggles and sacrifices inherent to being a mom. She protects her children at all costs, putting her life in danger to make sure they have their hearts’ desires and accomplish their goal of seeing their father. While most mothers do not fly around with a legendary warrior to save their sons from certain death, “Onward” makes it clear that moms are superheroes.

What is most impactful is the movie’s approach to death and how the absence of a parent can shape a child’s perspective. Neither of the brothers lack love, though to fill the hole after his father’s loss, Ian crossed boundaries that made him become a better version of himself.

Despite being a children’s movie, “Onward” creates a space for an open conversation about death. Since the movie aired just before the national response began to the COVID-19 pandemic, it wasn’t given its fair chance to shine. As theaters closed amid the COVID-19 crisis, the much-anticipated film ultimately failed at the box office. Disney+ was forced to bend its streaming after released policy and make it available weeks after release, as opposed to months.

But in today’s context, watching the characters cope with grief is particularly comforting and meaningful as viewers might be dealing with death amid the current pandemic. While it may lack the creativity that ancestral Pixar movies have possessed, “Onward” is absolutely worth watching because of its resonating message and uplifting scenes.

‘Tiger King’ Highlights Hypocrisy in Private Zoo Industry

(Photo Credit: Netflix)

By Denise Phillip

Netflix’s new docuseries “Tiger King” has quickly grown into what can only be described as a cultish obsession. It garnered traction after a slew of celebrities including, Kim Kardashian and Chrissy Teigen, weighed in with memes and future dream-casting films on social media.

Released March 20, the show chronicles the lives and scandalous activities of the most infamous big cat breeders in America, and in the process exposes the dark underbelly of the “big cat” world.

Seven jaw-dropping episodes follow the central star: Joe Maldonado-Passage, a roadside zookeeper and eccentric, over-the-top “big cat” enthusiast in Oklahoma.  Also known as “Joe Exotic” or the “Tiger King,” Maldonado is a mullet-wearing polygamist with two husbands. He was a failed presidential candidate in 2016 and a libertarian candidate for governor only two years later and is often depicted as cuddling and wrestling with his tigers, while wearing a gun strapped to his hip.

(Photo Credit: Netflix)

Maldonado is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for charges, including eight counts of falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violations of the Endangered Species Act. However, the series barely dives into the world of cruelty and suffering the animals endure as part of the breeding and selling process. Instead, it focuses on the drama between Maldonado and his arch-nemesis in the industry, Carole Baskin.

Flower crown-wearing, bike riding animal rights activist, Baskin owns a Florida sanctuary known as Big Cat Rescue. Baskin has devoted her life to saving big cats and lobbies to outlaw breeding and personal ownership of exotic cats in the U.S. Her cat sanctuary business relies largely on unpaid volunteers, despite the funds raised.

Although she was supposed to act as the voice of reason, scandal follows Baskin as well, as Joe accuses her and it was insinuated in the series that she might have killed her second husband, Don Lewis. Lewis was a wealthy man who disappeared in 1997 after attempting to take out a restraining order against his wife. Because of the bizarre twists and turns in her story, it’s hard to know whether there’s any truth to these suspicions. Viewers are left guessing, forced to turn to social media to discuss their theories.

But Baskin and Joe Exotic aren’t the only over-the-top characters in the series. They’re matched by Bhagavan “Doc” Antler, another polygamist who, according to one former employee, coerces teenage girls into working 100-hour weeks at his ranch. If you’re thinking Woah, I agree.

Jeff Lowe also joins Maldonado’s world and brags about using his exotic pets to lure women to his bed. Both Antler and Lowe’s facilities pretend to operate with rescue conservation purposes, when in fact animals are ripped from their mothers immediately after birth and subjected to abuse.

(Photo Credit: Netflix)

Watching humans and tigers interact on-screen is one of the most appealing aspects of the show. The natural strength and power of the animals are exciting, as is the unveiling of the secrets behind how these cats are used for profit, which is in fact a blatant disregard for their well-being.

However, while “Tiger King” tells an incredibly compelling story, it also turns the events depicted into a large, terrible spectacle. 

Sadly, Netflix dropped the ball by choosing to focus on the perpetuated drama rather than diving deeper into the abuse the animals suffered at the hands of the zookeepers. The series paints Maldonado and “Doc” Antler as colorful, funny, strange characters who are heavy on the shock factor, as opposed to the cruel and villainous men that they are. Maldonado has defended his reasoning for killing tigers, calling it an act of “mercy,” according to the New York Times.

Throughout the series, we see examples of Maldonado’s violent and cruel ways. He fantasizes about torturing Baskin and jokes about sending her snakes for her birthday. He is so often overheard saying, “I’m gonna kill that B*tch,” that the viewer automatically knows to whom he is referring. Operating in a world of misogyny, Baskin is able to hold her own by launching repeated lawsuits his way.

“Tiger King” makes it apparent that there are no heroes. It’s a messy story about drugs, guns, sexual abuse, suicide, embezzlement, and attempted murder. The blatant exploitation and abuse of the tigers and employees leave viewers feeling uncomfortable yet enlightened about the “big cat” industry.  The docuseries is eye-opening, hard to turn away from, and will make viewers think twice about visiting private zoos.