Underdog Prevails 1 Chase Dine Fredrick Kisamore III Joshua Meola Adaiah Wright Mrs. Stanford ENG 124 15 December 2015
When The Underdogs Prevail J.K. (Joanne) Rowling, the author of the ​
Harry Potter​
books series, did not start out as successfully and as easily as some may perceive based on her present­day status. J.K. Rowling struggled financially and used state benefits, such as welfare, and suffered from the loss of her mother along with depression. While she was on welfare, she began writing the series, and they eventually became a success after an initial press of one thousand books sold out, paving way to a booming franchise and a massive fan base (Deane, Investopedia). In her domain of writing novels, J.K. Rowling was initially considered an “underdog”. An underdog, as defined by the Oxford Dictionaries, is a competitor to have little chance of winning a fight or contest or someone who has little status in society. An underdog’s rise to glory can make for an interesting and inspiring story, and with the advent movie theaters, disk players, and the formation of various film industries, this concept has become widely used. For the ​
Friday Film Festival​
, this proposal showcases seven films that lie suitably under this category: ​
Big Hero 6​
, ​
Horton Hears A Who​
, ​
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs​
, ​
Catwoman​
, ​
Rocky I​
, ​
The Longest Yard​
, and Heathers​
. These works target audiences of all age groups, from young children to mature adults, Underdog Prevails 2 and provide them with entertaining yet inspirational stories that prove that a struggling person can rise well beyond their peers’ expectations. We begin with the movie, ​
Catwoman​
. The setting takes place in a large city where main character, Patience Phillips (Halle Berry), works in the art department ("the practical version of my passion") as a graphic designer of ads for beauty cream. Specifically, a revolutionary new Hedare Corporation beauty cream to be released in one week named “Beau­line”: a product of the cosmetics to reverse the effects of aging. Patience was talented, but she was insecure and a people­pleaser, and when confronted by her egomaniacal CEO boss, Mr. George Hedare (Lambert Wilson), about her designs, she became completely intimidated. The next morning, a growling cat sat outside her apartment window and she thought it was stuck. When she stepped out onto the window ledge, she found herself in a precarious position atop an unstable air conditioning unit. A passing police officer named Detective Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt) stopped his car. Believing she was attempting to commit suicide, he rushed up the stairs to her apartment to help save her life, and then learned that she was only saving someone’s cat. One of the company's scientists in the development lab, Dr. Ivan Slavicky (Peter Wingfield), suspected from his long­term studies that the new product was defective and had serious side­effects: over time, the beauty cream would cause a person's skin to decay. As Patience was delivering her new ad design at the midnight deadline to her boss at Hedare headquarters, she overheard protests and concerns, such as, "I can't live with turning people into monsters. You gotta let me pull the plug. We can't let this go on the shelves." Patience was spotted and fled as one of two security guards fired his gun at her. She ran into a waste treatment area and jumped into a water pipe. Her boss' evil masterminding wife, Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone), ordered, "We can't risk it; get rid of Underdog Prevails 3 her," and the pipe door was sealed and flooded, causing Patience to drown. Afterwards, her body was surrounded by cats, and she was revived by the magical breath of the cat she had attempted to rescue earlier. She woke with a heightened sense of perception and quick reflexes, prowled through the city's streets, and found that she could leap great distances like a cat. Overall, Patience defeats the beauty cream corporation, thus making Patience the victor of the story. The movie was made in 1989 and has a runtime of 1 hour and 43 minutes. Another movie that relates to the adult genre is ​
Heathers​
. Winona Ryder's character, Veronica, becomes befriended by a group of very popular girls called the “Heathers”, made of three girls, all named Heather. Veronica's problem is that she now hates her friends. These Heathers are awful. One Heather pushes Veronica too far when she makes fun of her at a party for vomiting and tells Veronica that she will tell everyone what happened. Veronica recruits her boyfriend to cook up something to make Heather throw up. Her boyfriend, JD, played by Christian Slater, is somewhat psychotic and slips liquid drainer into the concoction which ultimately kills Heather. JD gets the idea to make it look like a suicide and Veronica agrees to write the letter. When two boys spread a rumor about Veronica, they "commit suicide" in a "repressed, homosexual suicide pact." And when one Heather dies, a new Heather gets into the queen bee spot, unleashing even more tragic happenings on classmates. Life at Westerburg High goes on pretty much unchanged. A third Heather (Heather McNamara/ Lisanne Falk) tries to kill herself but is stopped by Veronica, who asks, "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" Heather answered, "Probably." But this Heather soon cheers up and eventually becomes a cheerleader. Veronica is thus the film's winner, befriending Martha and saving the entire school from J.D.'s using a bomb to create a mass "suicide." Significantly, Veronica's first act as class Underdog Prevails 4 leader is to pull that red hair­tie off of Heather (Duke). "Heather, my love," Veronica says, "There's a new sheriff in town." The "Heather way" is thus replaced with the “Veronica way”. The movie was made in 2004 and has a runtime of 1 hour and 44 minutes. Another great film that the whole family will enjoy is ​
Rocky​
, directed and produced by John G. Avildsen, Robert Chartoff, and Irwin Winkler. Sylvester Stallone stars as Rocky, an up­and­coming boxer. There are many other actors that partake in the movie, including the main cast of Burt Young (Paulie), Carl Weathers (Apollo), Burgess Meredith (Mickey), and Talia Shire (Adrian). Most of the actors went on to make other movies, including the other ​
Rocky successors. Rocky gets a chance for a title shot against undefeated boxer Apollo Creed. Rocky, being one of the greatest underdogs of all time, goes to the fight with high hopes. Apollo Creed was coming into the fight almost knowing that he would win. Everyone but Rocky’s close friends and family knew he was going to lose. Rocky was just a small club fighter in Philadelphia, and his only source of income is collecting debts from a local crime boss, but he had ambitious eyes to make a name for himself, causing Rocky to be a supreme underdog. He then came out to the fight prepared and focused. As the match began, Rocky was taking hit after hit; there appeared to be no win in sight for him. But he did the unthinkable: he kept fighting. No one thought this amature fighter would last past the first round. Rocky ended up knocking Apollo down for the first time in Apollo’s career. This is the first time that Apollo Creed actually had a good fight. Rocky ended up going all twelve rounds and losing. Rocky knew that if he was the only person not to get knocked out by the champ, and he could go the distance, he was meant to be a boxer. Which he did, and later went on to become one of the best fake boxers of all time. Underdog Prevails 5 The run time is an hour and fifty­nine minutes long. ​
Rocky​
is a great movie, making it a notable addition to the ​
Friday Film Festival​
. The Longest Yard​
is not only a comedy, but with the storyline that this film holds, it is also an uplifting story of an underdog. This movie takes place in a prison, located in Texas. Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) is the main character and the quarterback for the prisoners’ football team. The prisoners, consisting of Deacon Moss (Michael Irving) and Cheeseburger Eddy (Terry Crews), came above the bad practice field and horrible equipment and beat the guards. Paul Crewe was accused of many things; he was accused of murdering the Caretaker (Chris Rock), causing many setbacks to the underdogs. Though every odd was against them, the prisoners still came out on top. They had to play Coach Nate Scarborough (Burt Reynolds), even though he was way out of his time to play the game of football, he pulled through and helped the prisoners win in the football game. The prisoners are amazing underdogs. The director Peter Segal made the three stars out of five stars movie.(Ebert) The movie reviews all around were mediocre. There was no amazing reveiws yet, there was no horrible reviews. The movie is a fairly average movie all around. The runtime for the movie is average also, running at one hour and fifty­three minutes. The setting of ​
Horton Hears A Who​
takes place in the depths of the jungle of Nool. A fairly large jungle, it was inhabited by animals of all sorts, ranging from kangaroos, yaks, bears, elephants, and anything in between. The story begins with an elephant, Horton. Horton is the jungle’s nature teacher, but according to everyone within the jungle, he’s nothing more than a loser, or a nobody. Horton, played by actor, Jim Carrey, finished one his daily expeditions giving tours of the jungle, and hears small cries on what appears to be a speck of dust. Initially, he didn't Underdog Prevails 6 think much of it. After all, it was only a speck of dust, right? Throughout this animated adventure, directed and produced by ​
Jimmy Hayward​
, ​
Steve Martino​
, Bob Gordon, and Bruce Anderson. Horton discovers that there is life upon this frail speck of dust. After countless attempts to inform his jungle of the life within this dust speck, the jungle decides that Horton, only wanting attention, is downright crazy. No one believes him. He then takes on the heroic task of saving the speck from his jungle, who is determined to rid this dust speck from the area and end Horton’s “crazy antics” for good. Horton knows he must prove to his jungle inhabitants that there is, in fact, living creatures on this tiny speck. The only way to make them believe is to prove it to them. Throughout this movie, with a run time of 86 minutes, Horton builds a friendship with this tiny speck. The speck is its own world, Whoville, which is ran by Mayor Ned McDodd played by actor Steve Carell, and his extensive family: Sally, his wife, played by actor Amy Poehler, ninety six daughters, and one son, JoJo, voiced by actor and singer/songwriter Jesse Mccartney. They all work together with Horton to save their town. It concludes with Horton, the jungle’s “nobody” as the jungles hero. Not only to his jungle, but to the town of Whoville. This film, released in 2008, racked up an upwards of nearly 300 trillion dollars in the box offices. Critics say, “Horton is loyal, stubborn and compassionate.” In this animated film, the audience can easily connect and Horton is the perfect example of an underdog. Despite all odds, did the unthinkable. Horton not only stayed true to himself through all of his adversaries, but he also proved his entire wrong after everyone doubted him, he saved an entire town that only he could hear. That takes true courage, making Horton a prime example of an underdog. Underdog Prevails 7 Flint Lockwood, voiced by actor Bill Hader, is a self proclaimed inventor who has had his fair share of failed experiments. In the film, ​
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs​
, his entire town of Swallow Falls doubts scientific abilities. The setting of the this film takes place in Swallow Falls, a small town whose entire economic system is based on the production and distribution of sardines. The entire town eats sardines; they puree it, they steam them, you name it, they’ve done it. Flint, however, is tired of the everyday menu of sardines. Known as the town’s outcast, Flint and his side kick, a monkey, Steve, have better things in mind. Flint's dream, ever since he was a young boy, was to help invent something that would change lives forever, and that's exactly what he did when one of his experiments to invent a machine that creates food goes terribly wrong. It just so happened to be the one time where his continuous list of wrong experiments finally went right. His accidental experiment was exactly what his town needed; it was a machine that caused food to fall from the sky! The new popular attraction that caused food to fly from the sky caused for all sorts of tourism. People from all over came to see this new contraption. The town was able to not only bring a new menu to their citizens, but they were also able to bring in a profitable income. Flint, after his many failed experiments, became the scientist that saved his town. This animated film was initially based off of the novel written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, which was published in 1978. The film, which came out in 2009, was directed by ​
Phil Lord and Christopher Mille​
r and produced by Pam Marsden. With a runtime of an hour and thirty minutes, this fun, family, movie was a huge success in the theaters, racking up more than 240 million dollars in the box offices. Critics say, “Parents will enjoy tracking the endless stream of movie and television sendups.” Underdog Prevails 8 “​
Big Hero 6​
, is a bright, visually sumptuous 3D computer­animated feature that gives you a bit of an emotional workout,” New York Times boasted of the 2014 film. Racking up almost 700 million dollars in box offices, this family fun movie is about a young boy, Hiro, voiced by actor Ryan potter, and he a prodigy in the field of robotics. After the death of his older brother, Hiro befriends his brother’s creation, BayMax, an inflated robot. Together, with the help of a few university students they all band together to take down an evil villain. With a run time of 108 minutes, this adventurous film was produced by ​
Roy Conli​
, and directed by ​
Don Hall​
and Chris Williams. This was the story of a nerdy young boy who defeated all odds and saved his entire town from an evil villain. Suitable for all ages, this a a great family film that everyone can enjoy. This film festival is suitable for audience members of all ages and has much to offer. This festival includes the following movies: ​
Big Hero Six​
, ​
Horton Hears A Who​
, ​
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs​
, ​
Catwomen​
, ​
Rocky I​
, ​
The Longest Yard​
, and ​
Heathers​
. The sequence of the movies are arranged in an order from movies more geared to the younger audience, leading up to the movies for the more mature audience. Theses movies demonstrate the true meaning of a underdog; no matter the circumstances, no matter the person. Underdog Prevails 9 Work Cited "Catwoman." Rotten Tomatoes. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/catwoman/>. Dargis, Manohla. "Happiness Is a Warm Robot." ​
The New York Times​
6 Nov. 2014. The New York Times. Web. 16 Dec. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/movies/big­hero­6­an­animated­film­based­on­a­
marvel­comic­book.html?_r=0> Deane, Michael. "From Poverty To Power: Celebrities Who Started With Nothing." Investopedia​
. N.p., 22 Mar. 2010. Web. 16 Dec. 2015. <http://www.investopedia.com/financial­edge/0310/from­poverty­to­power­celebrities­w
ho­started­with­nothing.aspx>. Ebert, Roger. "Heathers." ​
Roger Ebert​
. Ebert Digital LLC, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/heathers­1989> Ebert, Robert. "The Longest Yard." ​
Robert Ebert​
. Ebert Digital LLC, 26 May 2005. Web. 16 Dec. 2015. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the­longest­yard­2005> Gold, Daniel M. "A Yummy Forecast." ​
The New York Times​
. The New York Times, 17 Sept. 2009. Web. 16 Dec. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/movies/18cloudy.html?_r=0>. "Heathers." Rotten Tomatoes. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heathers/?search=heathers>. "Rocky(1976)." ​
MRQE​
. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2015. <http://www.mrqe.com/movie_reviews/rocky­m100023246>. Underdog Prevails 10 Scott, A. O. "Saving Who­Ville Is A Big." ​
The New York Times​
14 Mar. 2014. The New York Times. Web. 15 Dec. 2015. < http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/movies/14hort.html?_r=0>