Pirates of the Caribbean

Reaction to the work seen?
The ride looked amazing. It made me want to go there and experience it very much. A long, long time ago I had been on the Pirates Ride here and they were indeed very different. I was surprised to see so much from the Pirates moves, not expecting at all to see specific characters portrayed even after the scene in the beginning with the pirates trying to call the dog with the bone. I was surprised multiple times over at how smooth the transitions were from digital effects and practical ones, sometimes not entirely sure sometimes which were which. The ride told a story and it was easy to tell locations apart from the underwater areas and the fight scenes. The music was as recognizable as the characters and all the sounds fit with everything that was going on.
Thematically, it all felt very unified in a kind of semi-spooky maritime adventure and nothing stuck out as strange or out of place to me in what I've seen here world they built.

What connections did you make with the work you just viewed? 
Knowing the movie now, one of the first connections I could make was to character, I knew already who the protagonist and antagonist were and it was clear even just with the tones of music that played. Tone and storylines were overall connections I felt in general, it had clear moments of peril during the fight, wonder underwater, and calm after the fight where you see Jack for the final time. Every character had their own personality that came through during the ride which I enjoyed a lot and is something I try to get across in characters I illustrate to the best of my ability.

What changes would you make to adapt this work into another medium? 
This is a work that was somewhat adapted already from a movie format and was pulled off quite well. I would say no matter what medium is used it just needs to keep the core of adventure and character. Translating a full sensory experience to something like a book would be difficult but do-able I feel. It would have to keep the full detail of the world in the park, encourage people to look closer at the page for details they might miss to keep the spirit of adventure and searching for treasures there while the plot of it goes on. There wouldn't be sound to support the images but the immersion could still be felt with a strong mood on the images.

Map Wraparound of Invented Planet

A Largely Tropical planet with a strong covering of thick Rainforest Foliage over the majority of it. Near the northern and southern edges of the main landmasses are more arid areas. Overall, the climate of this planet is hot and wet with long, mild seasons lasting up to several years on earth. The main landmasses are broken up into two major continents that are close by each other with a few islands off of the coast. It is not volcanically active currently. 

The dominant species in this region are a widespread species of large bugs. They are a generally intelligent species shown to be able to solve puzzles, produce simple tools, and form organized societies. They use the thick foliage and large leaves of the jungle trees as shelter, often cutting into them and re-assembling them into structures for living space. They drop their dead in piles away from the main group and while they don't seem to communicate verbally, they have a variety of scents and pheromones that are able to communicate a wide range of signals and emotions.

Greater Ikhsc live in the densely populated rainforest areas tend to grow much larger than Lesser Ikhsc (3-5 feet from head to rear). These variants often have much more saturated shades of color. These rarely have to go far and so they do not develop wings like the lesser variety of their species.

Lesser Ikhsc are identifiable by their wings, smaller stature (1.5 - 3 feet), and generally warm, dusty color palettes that match up more with the drier, less abundant areas they grow up in. Any Ikhsc has the potential to be greater or lesser when they are born, it all depends on the environment they are raised in. These are a migratory species, always on the lookout for more food to sustain them, it's not as easy to find outside of the rainforest.

In the Panorama, we can see a trail of Greater's carrying large chunks of jungle leaf back home to their nest where they will rearrange it to suit their needs. While it is sometimes used as shelter, it could also be used to cultivate a variety of other plants and mushrooms that they feed on - a kind of farming technique. During the long winter, they go into an extended hibernation until the warm weather brings them back.

The Oxygen-Rich air allows the bugs to grow to massive size, they are omnivorous and reproduce extremely quickly. These things plus their general intelligence has allowed them to stomp out several competitors though their population is kept somewhat under control by the large birds of prey that will try and pick weaker ones off when their trails lead above the trees.

1st Draft Planet Ideas

Initial Planet Ideas -

Rainforest?
Populated mainly by bugs - big ones with their own kind of civilization. Maybe build structures and grow food off of harvested foliage like leafcutter ants, probably don't talk but communicate with smells. High Carbon Dioxide levels fuel a planet filled with heavy vegetation and the bugs are living. Maybe not super advanced but sheer numbers overwhelm other species and make them, for the most part, the dominant species on the planet. Maybe they still get prayed on but developing tools and structures have separated them out from the other animals.

Why have these insects thrive over other animals?
- Out-breeding others? Excess of plant life keeping their population fed for a long time, they've begun to farm and expand on resources as their population skyrocketed
- Very, very warm atmosphere, lots of Oxygen with the excess of plant life
- Short lifespans, very fast turnover of life let them adapt very fast
- Maybe they took their initial advantage against little mammals and bird type species and ran with it so they never got the chance to evolve as much as they did here
- They could be growing too fast, maybe out-eating all their resources - vast farms, pests that eat them
- More complex society developed amongst them

Seasons are about the tilt of a planet - high tilt is extreme seasons, no tilt is none
What made the planet tilt? What knocked into it and how hard?
Stabilizing - or de-stabilizing the planet with moons and things

- No seasons? - Insects dominate without seasons, they don't die in the winter and it's always hot - steady stream of reproduction, not waves or seasons - may push overpopulation issue - is there something on the other side of the planet thriving? Maybe something slams into the planet and forces seasons onto it, no one is happy, everyone is scrambling to adapt - it could be a recent event threatening their population and their planet that historically didn't have much change

- Heavy seasons? Insects forced to make large migrations across the planet every time seasons shift OR they die out every season, laying their eggs and letting them hatch in spring - less dominant presence probably

Pre-Class Assignment - Map of Oz

     Finnvile is a small, jungle town in Winkie Country on the border of the Emerald City. It is on the river feeding into Lake Quad and has many water mills that power it. Tourism is not uncommon with people often stopping to stay the night or visit between travelling to and from between Winkie Country and the Emerald City. Their most popular attractions include riverboat tours and home cooked fish meals. It is more quiet than the city, most of its residents make their living off of trade. They have a high munchkin and animal population, mostly living in small huts made from wood and leaves that blend in with the environment. The Cowardly Lion has his own hut within the village that he enjoys to lounge in while listening to the sounds of the jungle. Rain is frequent here but the thick canopy of trees helps to protect from it.

Class 1 - Character

Lazy Sloth

Dominant Trait: very lazy, spacing out in its own world
- always yawning and sluggish
- keeps talking about how it wants to go back to sleep a lot

Opposite Trait: Actually shows to be extremely perceptive and observant of its surroundings
- points out little details and makes clever observations
- holds onto scraps of information that it hears and doesn't forget; shows that it's listening very closely even to the passing comments

Complimentary Trait: Perfectionist, gets irked when things are unfinished or missing from where they should be.
- Always keeps fur orderly, has to fix it when there are hairs out of line

Lives in the jungle near a small town in Winkie Country, in the treetops. It has a set of branches that it very much likes and hangs around. It doesn't move much, just eats and listens and observes everyone and everything happening in its part of the jungle.

East: Inspired to see the supposed perfection of the pristine Emerald City. It wants to be somewhere that orderly and well put together.

South: Gathers a fine collection of exotic bugs that pass it by. It is very picky about its selection and only keeps one of each kind of bug. It will turnover the collection often, carefully inspecting each new bug that walks by and replacing the one it has based on its condition. It seems to prefer shiny bugs, missing parts like legs and antene are not appealing to it. It gathers information, it gathers everything it hears and does not give it up.

West: The Sloth views the world with a high level of objectivity, it sees a mess or a messy looking person and is quick to judge at least internally though it doesn't voice its opinion unless asked specifically. It judges the organization skills of a place and its people, it is irritated by inconsistency and impressed by efficency.

North: The sloth sees the hustle and bustle of the city, of everyone going about their lives and their ways. The city is filled with voices and information, too much for it to take in all at once. It wants to know what everyone is doing and it is frustrating when it can't.