Hi All..
I have come across a new website www.minijobz.com which pays for taking small tasks like
- Forum posting
- Article Writing
- Bookmarking
- Sign up
- Blog commenting
- Following on Twitter
- Digg and so on
Very low payout of just $5 through paypal ,alertpay or moneybookers..
Signup today and get $1 bonus..
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
cognitive behavior and stimulate creativity. They aid in the development of physical and mental skills which are necessary in later life.
One of the simplest toys, a set of simple wooden blocks is also one of the best toys for developing minds. Andrew Witkin, director of marketing for Mega Brands told Investor's Business Daily that, "They help develop hand-eye coordination, math and science skills and also let kids be creative."[8] Other toys like Marbles, jackstones, and balls serve similar functions in child development, allowing children to use their minds and bodies to learn about spatial relationships, cause and effect, and a wide range of other skills as well as those mentioned by Mr. Witkin.
One example of the dramatic ways that toys can influence child development involves clay sculpting toys such as Play-Doh and Silly Putty and their home-made counterparts. Mary Ucci, Educational Director of the Child Study Center of Wellesley College, demonstrates how such toys positively impact the physical development, cognitive development, emotional development, and social development of children.[9]
Toys for infants often make use of distinctive sounds, bright colors, and unique textures. Through play with toys infants begin to recognize shapes and colors. Repetition reinforces memory. Play-Doh, Silly Putty and other hands-on materials allow the child to make toys of their own.
Educational toys for school age children of often contain a puzzle, problem-solving technique, or mathematical proposition. Often toys designed for older audiences, such as teenagers or adults demonstrate advanced concepts. Newton's cradle, a desk toy designed by Simon Prebble, demonstrates the conservation of momentum and energy.
Not all toys are appropriate for all ages of children. Some toys which are marketed for a specific age range can even harm the development of children in that range.History
Most young mammals have been observed to play with whatever they can find, turning such things as pinecones, rocks, and food into toys. Toys and games have been unearthed from the sites of ancient civilizations. They have been written about in some of our oldest literature. Toys excavated from the Indus valley civilization (3000-1500 BCE) include small carts, whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys which could slide down a string.[2]
The earliest toys were made from materials found in nature, such as rocks, sticks, and clay. Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls that had wigs and movable limbs which were made from stone, pottery, and wood.[3] In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, children played with dolls made of wax or terracotta, sticks, bows and arrows, and yo-yos. When Greek children, especially girls, came of age it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the gods. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood.[4][5]
As technology changed and civilization progressed, toys also changed. Whereas ancient toys were made from materials found in nature like stone, wood, and grass modern toys are often made from plastic, cloth, and synthetic materials. Ancient toys were often made by the parents and family of the children who used them, or by the children themselves. Modern toys, in contrast, are often mass-produced and sold in stores.
This change in the nature of toys is exemplified by the changes that have taken place in one of the oldest and most universal of human toys; dolls. The earliest and most primitive dolls were simple wooden carvings and bundles of grass. Egyptian dolls were sometimes jointed so that their limbs could move realistically. By the early 1800s there were dolls that could say "mama".[6] Today there are dolls that can recognize and identify objects, the voice of their owner, and choose among hundreds of pre-programmed phrases with which to respond.[7] The materials that toys are made from have changed, what toys can do has changed, but the fact that children play with toys has not changed.
Box office performance
Toy Story's first five days of domestic release (on Thanksgiving weekend), earned the film $39,071,176.[55] The film placed first in the weekend's box office with $29,140,617.[3] The film maintained its number one position at the domestic box office for the following two weekends. Toy Story was the highest grossing domestic film in 1995, beating Batman Forever and Apollo 13 (also starring Tom Hanks).[56] At the time of its release, it was the third highest grossing animated film after The Lion King (1994) and Aladdin (1992).[11] When not considering inflation, Toy Story is 96th on the list of the highest grossing domestic films of all time.[57] The film had gross receipts of $191,796,233 in the U.S. and Canada and $170,162,503 in international markets for a total of $361,958,736 worldwide.[3]
Reception
Toy Story has received universal acclaim since its release in 1995. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 73 reviews, with an average score of 9/10. The critical consensus is: As entertaining as it is innovative, Toy Story kicked off Pixar's unprecedented run of quality pictures, reinvigorating animated film in the process. The film is Certified Fresh.[5] At the website Metacritic, which utilizes a normalized rating system, the film earned a "universal acclaim" level rating of 92/100 based on 16 reviews by mainstream critics.[4] Reviewers hailed the film for its computer animation, voice cast, and ability to appeal to numerous age groups.
Leonard Klady of Variety commended the animation's "... razzle-dazzle technique and unusual look. The camera loops and zooms in a dizzying fashion that fairly takes one's breath away."[40] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times compared the film's innovative animation to Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit saying "Both movies take apart the universe of cinematic visuals, and put it back together again, allowing us to see in a new way."[41] Due to the film's animation, Richard Corliss of Time claimed that it was "... the year's most inventive comedy."[42]
The voice cast was also praised by various critics. Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today approved of the selection of Hanks and Allen for the lead roles.[43] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times stated that "Starting with Tom Hanks, who brings an invaluable heft and believability to Woody, Toy Story is one of the best voiced animated features in memory, with all the actors ... making their presences strongly felt."[44] Several critics also recognized the film's ability to appeal to various age groups, specifically children and adults.[41][45] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "It has the purity, the ecstatic freedom of imagination, that's the hallmark of the greatest children's films. It also has the kind of spring-loaded allusive prankishness that, at times, will tickle adults even more than it does kids."[46]
In 1995, Time named the film 8th in their list of the best ten films of 1995.[47] In 2003, the Online Film Critics Society ranked the film as the greatest animated film of all time.[48] In 2007, the Visual Effects Society named the film 22nd in its list of the "Top 50 Most Influential Visual Effects Films of All Time".[49] In 2005 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, one of five films to be selected in its first year of eligibility.[50] The film is ranked ninety-ninth on the AFI's list of the hundred greatest American films of all time.[51][52][53] It was one of only two animated films on the list, the other being Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was also sixth best in the animation genre on AFI's 10 Top 10.
Director Terry Gilliam would praise the film as "a work of genius. It got people to understand what toys are about. They're true to their own character. And that's just brilliant. It's got a shot that's always stuck with me, when Buzz Lightyear discovers he's a toy. He's sitting on this landing at the top of the staircase and the camera pulls back and he's this tiny little figure. He was this guy with a massive ego two seconds before... and it's stunning. I'd put that as one of my top ten films, period."[54]
3-D re-release
On October 2, 2009, the film was re-released in Disney Digital 3-D.[31] The film was also released with Toy Story 2 as a double feature for a two-week run[32] which was extended due to its success.[33][34] In addition, the film's second sequel, Toy Story 3, was also released in the 3-D format.[31] Lasseter commented on the new 3-D re-release:
"The Toy Story films and characters will always hold a very special place in our hearts and we're so excited to be bringing this landmark film back for audiences to enjoy in a whole new way thanks to the latest in 3-D technology. With Toy Story 3 shaping up to be another great adventure for Buzz, Woody and the gang from Andy's room, we thought it would be great to let audiences experience the first two films all over again and in a brand new way."[35]
Translating the film into 3-D involved revisiting the original computer data and virtually placing a second camera into each scene, creating left-eye and right-eye views needed to achieve the perception of depth.[36] Unique to computer animation, Lasseter referred to this process as "digital archaeology."[36] The process took four months, as well as an additional six months for the two films to add the 3-D. The lead stereographer Bob Whitehill oversaw this process and sought to achieve an effect that impacted the emotional storytelling of the film:
"When I would look at the films as a whole, I would search for story reasons to use 3-D in different ways. In 'Toy Story, for instance, when the toys were alone in their world, I wanted it to feel consistent to a safer world. And when they went out to the human world, that's when I really blew out the 3-D to make it feel dangerous and deep and overwhelming."[36]
Unlike other countries, the UK received the films in 3-D as separate releases. Toy Story was released on October 2, 2009. Toy Story 2 was instead released January 22, 2010.[37] The re-release performed well at the box office, opening with $12,500,000 in its opening weekend, placing at the third position after Zombieland and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.[38] The double feature grossed $30,714,027 in its five-week release.[38]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)