Tag: adorable
Netflix’s ‘Chupa’: Bloodthirsty mythical beast gets the adorable Spielberg treatment
Creature features have a long, lucrative history in cinema, usually erring on the bloodier side of things. But Netflix’s Chupa takes a vampiric mythical beast and makes it the cutest little chirping koala-cat-griffin around, with a sprinkling of Spielberg on top.
Director Jonás Cuarón hinges his family-friendly fantasy film around the terrifying Latin-American legend of the chupacabra — the literal translation for the Spanish word “chupacabra” is “goat sucker.” But instead of a horror film in which many a caprine soul is vanquished, Chupa is a sweet, thoughtful adventure about family, celebrating heritage, and flipping the bird to bad guys who’d pursue magical creatures for money.
What is Chupa about?
Set in 1996, Chupa centers around Alex (Evan Whitten), a 13-year-old kid from Kansas City who finds himself embroiled in a wild adventure while visiting family in Mexico. Alex stumbles upon a strangely adorable (and thankfully not too bloodthirsty) winged creature hiding in the barn of his abuelo Chava, a delightfully melodramatic former luchador played by Demián Bichir. The young chupacabra is all alone, afraid and separated from its family.
Alex and his cousins Memo (Nickolas Verdugo) and Luna (Ashley Ciarra) must keep Chupa safe from a conniving scientist who’s working for some ambiguously no-good investors. As Richard Quinn, Christian Slater is middlingly evil, with some serious Alan Grant vibes; he’s curious about Chupa as a scientist, but his employers have much more nefarious reasons for snagging the little critter.
Chupa takes a vampiric mythical beast and makes it adorable.
Of course, the real star of the show is Chupa itself. Cuarón and the visual effects team have created a very cute interpretation of the legendary being, rumors of which made an impression on the director as a child. “The chupacabras [were] first seen in the early ’90s in Puerto Rico. After this, there were sightings of the creature all over Latin America… It was believed this creature fed on the blood of goats,” Cuarón told Netflix’s Tudum.
Instead of a hairless, blood-sucking monster, Chupa is a furry, chirping, chittering, cooing cub that’s like a cat-meets-koala-meets-griffin, pouncing all over the joint before letting out deep, mournful howls for its mum.
Credit: Netflix
Surprisingly for a creature feature, the film reveals the teeny tiny chupacabra almost immediately, with the first glimpse of the little feathered friend quivering and whimpering under the flashlights of the evil scientists. The film’s opening scenes, in which the chupacabras are pursued by the bad guys, are reminiscent of monster movie expeditions like The Mummy, or the Sea Whip sequence in Shadow and Bone Season 2 — a group of bumbling intruders disturb a wild animal’s lair intending to dominate or kill it. Right at the top, Chupa reminds us humans would inevitably treat magical creatures like absolute shite.
Slater is fittingly PG evil as the antagonist. Chupa keeps it pretty vague as to who these bad guys are, exactly — just impatient investors wanting their valuable beastie caught and delivered. Slater leans into the whole moustache-twisting villain of it all as Quinn but keeps it clean for younger viewers. “Son of a…” is as curse-filled as this script gets.
Chupa delves into the power of family and embracing your heritage
One of the core themes running through Chupa is the disconnect between Alex’s life and identity in America and his family heritage in Mexico. Cuarón establishes early in the film that Alex is being bullied at school and made to feel shame for his Mexican heritage in Kansas City, suffering racist taunts and harassment over things as everyday as his lunch. Alex brings this frustration home, taking his anger out on his mother and resenting the trip to San Javier, declaring, “I don’t care about Mexico, OK? I don’t care about the music. I don’t care about the food.”
Alex’s renouncing of his Mexican heritage is steeped in social shame, as he laments, “No one speaks Spanish in Kansas City.” He reactively plunges into seemingly all-American interests like Goosebumps, Beavis and Butthead, McDonalds, Jurassic Park, Ninja Turtles, Looney Tunes, and video games — only to realise his young cousins in Mexico like the same things too. Luna chastises Alex when he’s surprised she’s obsessed with the Beastie Boys: “What? You think Mexicans only listen to mariachi?”
Throughout Chupa, Alex’s trip to San Javier sees him slowly appreciating, then celebrating his Mexican heritage — including his abuelo Chava’s fame as a famed lucha libre wresting legend. When Alex lands, Chava instantly speaks to him in Spanish and is disappointed to find his grandson doesn’t speak it, despite his father’s teaching attempts.
“He tried, I just didn’t see the point,” Alex says.
“What?” responds Chava. “That’s your heritage, something to be proud of.”
Credit: Tony Rivetti Jr./Netflix
Chupa includes more than a few nods to Spielberg.
Chupa is undeniably drenched in what Mashable’s Caitlin Welsh describes as “Amblincore” and the cinematic hallmarks of Steven Spielberg; if you’re not thinking about E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial while you’re watching this, then you might want to revisit the director’s 1982 classic. Alex’s connection with Chupa in the barn, learning to sing and howl together, shares undeniable parallels with Elliott (Henry Thomas) and E.T., and Memo teaching the baby chupacabra to fly feels akin to Gertie (Drew Barrymore) teaching E.T. how to talk.
Director Cuarón acknowledges Spielberg’s influence on Chupra, too. “I’ve always been a huge fan of E.T. and believe that stories like that are so powerful because they play on the idea of kids being misunderstood by adults,” Cuarón told Netflix’s Tudum. “Chupa might be a monster but he’s the only one that truly understands what Alex is going through. The bond between a boy and a creature is so pure, like with a pet, it transcends language.”
Credit: Netflix
Cuarón directly references the Hollywood director’s work through props: Alex’s room is stacked with action figures and posters from Jurassic Park, as well as a plush mogwai from Gremlins. Moments of Carlos Rafael Rivera’s whimsical score sound almost identical to “Across the Stars,” Anakin and Padme’s theme from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones by John Williams, Spielberg’s longtime favourite composer. Plus, thanks to director of photography Nico Aguilar, Chupa is filled with both windshield shots and moments showing the cast in realisation, awe, or wonder, all of which could be considered nods to “The Spielberg Face”:
As the evil scientist, Slater gets multiple little Spielberg moments: When pursuing the mama chupacabra and her pup in the film’s opening, he picks up a claw in a moment that reeks of Dr. Alan Grant’s (Sam Neill) velociraptor monologue in Jurassic Park. Later, when the clients helicopter in to check in on their investment, throwing Quinn’s paperwork everywhere, it feels like a direct nod to John Hammond’s (Richard Attenborough) dust-conjuring entry into the dig site.
Credit: Netflix
One of Spielberg’s signatures is also themes around absent fatherhood and loss (see: E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Hook), and you’d better believe Chupa ticks that one off. Alex is mourning the loss of his father, which fuels his character’s arc through the story to find support through his family.
Is Chupa worth watching?
Chupa is a very cute fantasy adventure and Spielberg-like creature feature that touches upon deeper themes of grief, heritage, and family. While it doesn’t reinvent the genre, the film keeps it simple and effective, letting its cast create genuine connection with a CGI mythical beastie. Come for the sweet goat-sucker, stay for the genuinely heart-warming family moments.
HyperX’s new adorable gamer gear-themed pet toys are kind of paw-some
The adorable, easy-to-build-in CM NR200P PC case is down to £50
It’s happening again! One of my favourite small form factor PC cases, the phenomenal Cooler Master NR200P, is down to a crazy-low price at Ebay thanks to that now-familiar CATCH20 code.
Henry Halfhead is an adorable puzzler that lets you possess literally everything
What’s the ultimate video game fantasy? I’m guessing playing as a bald half-head that’s been separated from every body part is pretty low on the list, but after seeing the trailer for Henry Halfhead, you’ll probably change your mind. Announced as part of the weekend’s MIX Showcase, Henry Halfhead is an upcoming indie where you take control of the titular half-head (the top half) and possess everyday items to solve puzzles. It’s aiming for a PC release next year, and it just looks delightful.
Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 Review: An Adorable Instant Camera for Anyone
Next-generation Zipline P2 Zip drone comes with an adorable ‘droid’ sidekick
In 2013, former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicted Prime Air, the company’s then newly announced drone delivery unit, would be flying within four to five years. A decade later, the service appears to be no closer to reality than it was in 2018. However, some drone startups have had more success. Among those is Zipline, which says it’s on track to complete about 1 million deliveries by the end of the year. By 2025, the company expects to operate more flights than most airlines, a feat it intends to accomplish thanks to its next-generation drone, the Platform 2 or P2 Zip.
Zipline’s latest drone consists of two autonomous vehicles that will work in unison with one another to deliver packages that weigh up to 8 pounds. The first is a UAV that can complete a 10-mile flight in about 10 minutes. When it arrives at its destination, P2 Zip will hover about 300 feet off the ground and deploy its sidekick, an adorable “fully autonomous delivery droid.” The latter descends from its counterpart using a tether – the company is called Zipline for a reason – and gently drops off your package. According to Zipline, P2 Zip is nearly silent in flight, producing a sound the company claims is similar to rustling leaves in the wind, and precise enough, thanks to its droid companion, to deliver packages to areas as small as patio tables and front steps. Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton told CNBC P2 Zip may even put an end to porch pirates since the drone is fast enough to enable on-demand delivery.
For more distant deliveries, the P2 Zip can fly up to 24 miles one way from dock to dock, charging at each docking station before completing the next leg of its journey and picking up new cargo. The drone’s charging station looks like something from science fiction. It features a chute for the delivery droid to enter the building the station is attached to, and what looks like a net to catch one of the drones if they fall. The company told CNBC setting up a P2 Zip dock takes about as much time as installing an electric vehicle charger. It envisions restaurants and hospitals installing the dock to enable the fast delivery of food and prescriptions.
Zipline already has a few customers eager to test the P2 Zip, including restaurant chain Sweetgreen, Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, Michigan Medicine and Multicare Healthcare in Washington State. Before those companies gain access to the drone sometime next year, the startup plans to conduct more than 10,000 test flights with about 100 aircraft.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/next-generation-zipline-p2-zip-drone-comes-with-an-adorable-droid-sidekick-183238257.html?src=rss
Netflix’s ‘Chupa’ trailer takes a vampiric mythical beast and makes it adorable
If you know what a chupacabra is, chances are you’re confused as to how it could possibly be “cute.”
The mythical creature is the star of Netflix’s upcoming fantasy family movie, with Chupa director Jonás Cuarón making his own adorable interpretation of the vampiric legendary being — the literal translation for the Spanish word “chupacabra” is “goat sucker.”
“Our goal was to create an incredibly cute creature based on a terrifying legend,” Cuarón told Netflix’s blog Tudum. “The mythical creature was described as a hairless dog with wings and sharp teeth. Chupa is furry and incredibly cute.”
“The chupacabras [were] first seen in the early ’90s in Puerto Rico. After this, there were sightings of the creature all over Latin America,” Cuarón added. “It was believed this creature fed on the blood of goats.”
In Chupa, the now-adorable, seemingly less-bloodsucking winged creature makes pals with a kid from Kansas City, Alex (Evan Whitten), who’s visiting family in Mexico where he finds the young chupacabra hiding in his grandfather Chava’s (Demián Bichir) shed. Suddenly, Alex and his cousins (Nickolas Verdugo and Ashley Ciarra) have to keep Chupa safe from an evil Christian Slater as conniving scientist Richard Quinn.
The cast also includes Ashley Ciarra, Nickolas Verdugo, Adriana Paz, Gerardo Taracena, and Julio Cesar Cedillo.
Chupa is streaming on Netflix April 7.
Valorant reveals new Agent, Gekko, and his adorable abilities
Valorant has revealed its latest Agent to grace the roster of heroes, and that’s Gekko. From Los Angeles, Gekko is the tactical shooter’s latest Initiator, and he has a whole host of adorable abilities to show off during a match.
Much like Skye’s animal-infused abilities which see her using a Tasmanian tiger and a hawk to get the advantage in-game, Gekko’s abilities also feature some unique creatures that I can’t wait to see running around.
Gekko’s abilities faced a unique challenge during development, given that there was an “additional criteria in the mix” for them; “each ability was also one of Gekko’s buddies, characters unto themselves,” says Valorant’s narrative writer, Joe Killeen.
New Valorant agent Gekko uses adorable slimy buddies to take down foes
Hailing from the sunny streets of Los Angeles, new Valorant agent Gekko is an initiator akin to the FPS game‘s resident environmentalist Skye, but instead of totemic animals he uses slimy little creatures known as ‘buddies’ to break through enemy ranks and cause absolute chaos.
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Valorant Night Market dates, Valorant ranks order, distribution, and ranking system explained, Valorant crosshair codes