Curse of the Blogging Pearl & Nintendo Announces the New 2DS XL!

All hands cast the sails! We’re setting out to look for precious treasure in the Caribbean! Now.. Bring me some Rum!

What’s that? What do you mean the rums gone? Where's the rum gone?!

Hey there everybody! Today on ZAK Entertainment we’re getting suited up, weapons at our sides ready to set sail on this pirate blog! Pirates have been a common theme in media for eons now, whether it’s in long time favorite books such as Treasure Island and On Stranger Tides or popular movies… Such as the one we’ll be discussing today. Even shows, books and movies that aren’t directly based on pirates have been known to incorporate elements into its show. (Spongebob Squarepants does this often.) Piracy has also been known to take a more futuristic touch with the introduction of Space Pirates (Which is even cooler, by the way.) in media such as Cowboy Bebop the anime, which might I add is a long time favorite series of mine.

While you wouldn’t want to mess with real life Pirates, as they’re dangerous and nothing like the fantasy characters. (Captain Phillips is a movie starring Tom Hanks that is based on a real life piracy incident that happened in 2009.) Pirates are one of my favorite themes that have a wide spread across many forms of entertainment. Even Video Games have dabbled in the pirate theme in games such as Shantae and the Pirates Curse, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and The Monkey Island Series… Wait does Star Fox count? It had space pirates in it… Yeah let’s put Star Fox on that list, because why not.

Once again I must warn you of possible spoilers for this movie if you’ve never seen it before, I know its beyond a decade old at this point but who knows.

Anyway back on track today I’m discussing a movie that took the pirate theme and skyrocketed it back into fame after a bit of a dry period… I’m talking about the 2003 released Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Instantly got your attention, huh? 

Provided by IMDB.com

Yeah there’s probably not a single movie watcher in the world who doesn’t know about this series. It stars Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, a Swashbuckling Pirate Captain with a peculiar compass and a love for rum, treasure and adventure, Jack himself can be a bit peculiar. Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swan, daughter of Governor Swan the Royal Governor of the British Port Royal of the Caribbean. Orlando Bloom as William Turner, a young blacksmith who was found as a child washed up in the ocean. Finally Geoffrey Rush as Captain Hector Barbossa the main antagonist of the movie and alleged “Captain” of the Black Pearl, oh yeah and he may be cursed to live forever and turn into a skeleton at night… That’s something to write home about. Captain Barbossa is probably my favorite Antagonist the series has had to date.

Provided by IMDB.com

Series you say? Yeah Pirates of the Caribbean was so popular it spawned an entire franchise of movies that’s still out plundering to this day with the brand new 2017 release of Dead Men Tell No Tales which is releasing May 26^th..(Hey that’s not far away.) While I’m not so keen on the 4^th movie the first three moves are long time favorites of mine. My family and I have owned the first movie Curse of the Black Pearl since it released and as you can tell by this blog I recently rewatched the movie in anticipation for this upcoming new release.

Provided by IMDB.com

Curse of the Black Pearl takes place in the early 18^th century (The Golden Age of Piracy… Or towards the end of it more so.) starts off in the open seas (Where else?) where the Royal Navy including Lieutenant Norrington (Played by  Jack Davenport.) accompanied by the Governor and his daughter Elizabeth Swan as they come across a boy lost at sea on an wood plank, rescuing the boy they discover a destroyed pirate ship across from them. Elizabeth takes to the boy and notices a odd round piece of gold hanging from the boy, Aztec Gold to be more precise. Elizabeth notices a strange ghost ship slightly before it disappears, the ship responsible for the carnage, The Black Pearl. After an awesome build up Jack Sparrow takes center stage… And sinks. Yeah Jack Sparrow, our protagonist rides in to Port Royal on a pretty dinky boat, that sinks as soon as it berths, in attempt to commandeer a much larger ship, The Interceptor. His attempts fall short as he grabs the attention of the now Commodore Norrington and after a chase accompanied with a sword clash with William Turner, Jack is captured and put in a cell. Later that night Port Royal is attacked by Barbossa and his crew, who also just so happen to be cursed undead Pirates like their captain, in search of the one with the blood of the one who cursed them and the last piece of Aztec gold to free themselves from said curse.

This movie is a thrilling fantasy, action and adventure from star t to finish and it’s made even better by Johnny Depp’s awesome performance as Jack Sparrow, adding a lot of wit and humor and being able to pull off that drunken pirate that we all love. 

Provided by IMDB.com

This movie also tends to stand on it’s own. While the movies following this feature the same characters the storyline for this movie is for the most part wrapped up in itself. (It seems Dead Men Tell No Tales may be going more into the backstory of Jack and the Pearl though.) Jack Sparrow isn’t the only great character in this movie he’s accompanied by a whole cast of awesome Pirate characters. This movie takes the typical Pirate story and twists it into an awesome tale of action, adventure and romance of Jack and his band of Pirates. Funnily enough this movie is actually based on the Disneyland attraction of the same name. (Johnny Depp actually recently made a surprise appearance as Jack Sparrow there… It was pretty cool, bummer I missed out.)

If you don’t own this movie already or owned it on VHS and wanted to get a up to date version you can buy it on iTunes for $17.99 USD HD /$9.99 SD!

Speaking of Pirates… No I’m kidding this really has nothing to do with Pirates. Nintendo’s dropped another big announcement out of the blue, just as I’m writing this blog actually, which was last night. (Thursday night.) I discussed quite heavily about the 3DS and NEW 3DS XL in a blog last Christmas season and mentioned slightly that the 2DS falls short in ways, which sucks because parents have always been concerned about the 3DS’s 3D mode. While the New 3DS XL has improved the 3D tremendously it’s still not good to stare at the screen for too long and for kids and people with eye conditions it’s probably best to never use it. The 2DS was also great for being cheaper then the normal 3DS despite the flaws of the system, like it’s inability to protect the screens and its odd shape and chunkiness. Well Nintendo’s big announcement is the New 2DS XL! Take a look below.

The New 2DS XL is so much more sleeker then it’s original counterpart and is coming out cheaper then the normal New 3DS XL at $149.99 USD. I have to say while it does look great, how secure is the top screen to the bottom screen? It looks like a mini laptop, which is pretty nice, this is also a much more rounded machine then the New 3DS XL. The 2DS is mostly aimed at younger children and while it’s great that you can finally close the machine up as well as the machine having the same power as it’s 3DS sibling I’m concerned how this machine will hold up in the hands of young kids with it’s clam shelled design. Other then those concerns this may even be a good choice for teens and the rest of the 3DS demographic due to this sleekness. I was almost concerned that this machine was download only as I couldn’t see a cartridge slot but on closer inspection it seems this machine’s game slot has a cover on it… Wow Nintendo, better late then never, huh? The New 2DS XL will be releasing on June 28^th of this year for $149.99 in a Black and Blue color scheme. (Japan is receiving a hot white and gold version but I have no confirmation if this is releasing in America or not.)

You can read more about this New 2DS XL by following this link: http://www.nintendo.com/2ds/new-nintendo-2ds.

It seems the 3DS isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, despite worries that the Switch would replace it. As much as the Switch is great and all, why on earth would it replace it? The Switch is 300 dollars and you only get one switch per dock. (or vice versa.) Even with the machine’s pretty sweet portability there’s no way it could replace the 3DS’s market.

With that all said and done… Back to pirates! Yes I have one more thing to do before we wrap for the day, feature a free knitting pattern! I’ve mentioned it before as being a pattern loved by Mum (Though she’s been a bit nervous to attempt it.) this is the Shipwreck Shawl (There’s your pirate connection.) by Bethany Kok aka Knitting Harpy!

Photo Provided by Bethany Kok!

Right off the bat you can tell this is a beautifully designed round shaped shawl with an incredible lace floral pattern in the center edged by leaves leading into standard lace until it reaches the utmost edge of the shawl looking similar to a fishermen’s net, except more majestic. 

Photo Provided by Bethany Kok!

You can also notice that this is a very difficult looking shawl. I would love to attempt this myself but oh boy this looks tough. I’ve only had minimalistic lace experience in the form of my own shawl I’m working on so I’m not sure if I could attempt this just yet. I’m not backing down, I will knit this one day but it may be a while. Like it’s namesake I’ve realized how this looks like ocean waves when worn, with the floral and leaves looking like seaweed. It’s absolutely majestic and if you’re brave enough to give it a go or just want to look at it you can check out this pattern on Ravelry but also Knitty.com!

Well I’m off to find some more treasure, see you guys on Monday!

That’s a wrap folks!

Blog Free or Die Hard

Hey everyone! Going into this blog I’m going to be discussing a movie I recently watched but this movie is actually from a Rated R franchise so if you’re a kid or a parent looking for a new movie to watched please have some discretion. I love this movie so as that’s one of the points of this blog is to talk about what I love I rather not skip discussing this movie because it's from a Rated R franchise because this specific movie is actually rated PG-13. Also be warned of possible spoilers! I try to keep spoilers to a minimum but sometimes it can’t be helped.

What happens when you stick a veteran New York Detective in with a young computer hacker in a plot to save America from complete shutdown? On July 4^th no less? You get the 2007 released movie Live Free and Die Hard. Anyone familiar with the Die Hard franchise will know it’s based around a New York Detective named John McClane (Played by Bruce Willis, nobody could pull this role off better then him.) who tends to be in the wrong place at the wrong time resulting in getting wrapped up in some plot which usually ends in John yelling “Yippi-kay-ay” (There’s more too this quote but you get the picture.) as he lends the finishing blow to the villain of the movie. (You know, with guns.)

I know I’m jumping ahead a bit here as I haven’t talked about the previous 3 movies but I recently watched Die Hard 4 followed by Die Hard 5 (A Good Day to Die Hard) with the family. (We’re all adults.) 

We own all the Die Hard movies to date but Live Free and Die Hard is my all time favorite. I’m going to be discussing both movies in this blog. I’m not always into every action movie to hit the screens but Die Hard is one of those action movies that standout for me, yes it’s an action movie but Bruce Willis adds a lot to the John McClane character with the kind of wit that makes me laugh. Live Free and Die Hard is a thrilling ride from beginning to finish and has a lot of computer technology incorporated into it’s story, which is probably why I love it so much, I’m a computer nerd. This was the first Die Hard Movie to release since 1995’s Die Hard With a Vengeance and John McClane has gone through some changes since his last outing in said movie, to be more exact all his hair is gone though I think he looks better without the hair. 

Photo Provided by IMDB.com

John is still a New York Detective but seems to have hit hard times, his Wife Holly McClane (Who was prominent in the first two movies, played by Bonnie Bedelia) has divorced him and his kids pretend he doesn’t exist anymore. Pretty tough for someone who’s saved lives countless times.

Photo Provided by IMDB.com

He still keeps track of his kids though and after a dispute with his daughter Lucy (Played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) John McClane gets called up by the NYPD to escort a young hacker named Matthew Farrell (Played by Justin Long, you know the Hi I’m a Mac guy.) to Washington DC after the FBI’s Cyber Crime Division is hacked into. The FBI has been rounding up any hacker who could be responsible but to their surprise these top computer hackers have been found killed with Matt being the next target. 

Photo Provided by IMDB.com

At this point in the movie we’re already familiar with Matthew Farrell before John McClane even shows up on screen with Matt accidentally assisting the Cyber Terrorists, led by Thomas Gabriel in creating the system to shut down America and send it back to the dark ages.

Along the way the duo gets assistance from a friend of Matt who goes by the name of “The Warlock”. Surprisingly this Warlock just so happens to be played by Kevin Smith. Funny story short I never realized it was Kevin Smith until a couple of years ago, go figure. The Warlock (A legendary computer hacker.) has this pretty awesome underground Command Center (It’s a basement.)

John McClane has dealt with his share of terrorists in the past but these Cyber Terrorists are his toughest challenge yet. Like I said previously the technology aspects of this movie really makes this my favorite Die Hard movie with the action complimenting the movie without over powering it. (I know it’s an ACTION movie but sometimes it’s a little over done.) 10 years haven’t slowed the man down yet.

This movie is rated PG-13 unlike the previous Rated R movies but the first Die Hard movies weren’t really rated R for it’s blood and guts, barely any blood is shown in this franchise actually and it mostly comes down to John McClane’s bad mouth that’s placed the previous movies in the R rating. There is an unrated version of Live Free and Die Hard out there jam packed with John’s bad mouth but I realize that my copy of this movie is the normal PG-13 version. I really enjoy this movie and if you don’t own it, and wish to own it you can buy it on iTunes for $14.99 HD and $14.99 SD… Surprisingly HD and SD costs the same, odd. Oh yeah you can also get the unrated version as well, which includes John McClane’s bad mouth in all it’s glory, for the same price on iTunes.

Check out Live Free or Die Hard on iTunes!

I did also watch A Good Day to Die Hard which takes place 5 years after Die Hard 4 and introduces John’s Son Jack but that’ll be a discussion for a future blog. I have quite a few favorite movies that include Bruce Willis such as Red (This’ll be a fun blog to write.) and The Fifth Element that deserve their own blogs too so stay tuned for them!

Disney Releases New Upcoming Movie Release Dates!

Disney is going to be pretty busy in the next 5 years, from Star Wars: The Last Jedi to Avengers: Infinity War a lot of Disney goodness is coming soon. Recently, as in yesterday as I was writing this blog, they’ve actually announced some new dates for some of their already announced films as well as announcing a new animated film sequel.  These dates could possibly change again but let’s dive in. (Special thanks to Adam B. Vary from BuzzFeed for providing these dates.)

For starters Wreck-It Ralph 2 now dubbed Ralph Breaks The Internet has no moved from March the 9^th of 2018 to November 21^st. Sucks that now it’ll not be on DVD or download until 2019 now but it’ll be a great Christmas theater trip that year.

The Lion King live action movie, which I’ve mentioned very slightly in a previous blog finally has a release date of July 19^th of 2019. I’m assuming this movie will look similar to the Jungle Book movie I watched and discussed earlier on just without any humans in it. It’ll probably look even better considering the fast improvement on CGI animation. (That fur detail though, can’t wait.)

Star Wars: Episode IX is now releasing on May 25^th 2019. A summer release, huh? Wonder if this will actually stay or will it get pushed back? So far all the new Star Wars movies have released for the Winter/Christmas season. This does mean we’ll have to wait two more years for the sequel to The Last Jedi but we do have the currently untitled Han Solo… Solo movie (I had to I’m sorry.) releasing next year which should keep us happy until then.

Indiana Jones is back! Yes they announced Indiana Jones 5 a while back and had a release date of July 19^th of 2019 but has been pushed back a whole year to July 20^th 2020. I’m a fan of Indie and have seen all the movies so far (Gonna have to rewatch them soon so I can blog about them.) but man how old is Jones going to be in this movie? 2020 seems so far away.

Oh boy I knew this was coming, I don’t think anyone doubted this would be coming but one of the untitled Disney animation movies have now gotten it’s name… Frozen 2! Yup it’s time to let go of your doubts of this movie happening, because it’s happening. Go check out my discussion of thefirst Frozen movie from last Christmas, that was actually my first viewing of the movie after it being released for two years.

A Wrinkle in Time has moved from April 6^th 2018 to March 9^th 2018… Hey that’s actually a closer date. This will be a pretty nostalgic remake for me; I read A Wrinkle in Time years ago as a kid and watched the original Disney movie that released in 2003 so it’ll be fun to see how they take this story. (Hopefully not twisting it to the point I don’t even recognize it.)

There’s a whole bunch of new dates and Adam B. Vary has the entire upcoming Disney list on this twitter post of his: . So go check that out! Lot’s of good Disney movies but also a lot of currently untitled movies… The suspense is killing me, what are these movies?

This actually is related to Disney still but another release date has finally been announced. Remember when I mentioned how the English dub of the Pokemon Sun and Moon anime had yet to be announced? Sun and Moon have been out for months now and no sign of the TV show to compliment it… Well they’ve FINALLY announced the airing date of this new season! May 12^th will mark the beginning of Sun and Moon’s American airing date on Disney XD. I’m still not sure how I feel about Pokemon airing on Disney XD, a hard to get Satellite channel compared to Disney Channel a much easier to get cable channel but these Episodes will probably turn up on the Pokemon TV app soon enough as well as Netflix.

To make up for this long wait it Disney XD will be airing a new Sun and Moon episode every day for 9 days straight! That means we’ll be getting 10 episodes (They’re airing the first two episodes on the same day.) within a week and a half! That’ll catch us up a little bit to the Japanese airings. From then on it seems Pokemon will be going back to it’s usual weekly basis. It’s a relief to know we’ll be getting that soon, it was getting hard to avoid spoilers from the Japanese episodes.

Oh boy we got a lot of awesome movies and TV shows coming out within the next 4 years and what I’ve talked about today is only a scraping of what’s to come. I’ll try my hardest to talk about everything I possibly can and keep you guys updated on upcoming releases and new trailers. Before we wrap for the day, as I don’t have any knitting progress worth showing off at the moment (Check out Monday’s blog for that.) I have an awesome free knitting pattern to show off real quick! This is a pattern I’ve had on my Ravelry library for a while now and while it’s not related at all to any of the previous topics of this blog today I’m featuring the “Antler Hat” beanie pattern designed by tincanknits!

Photo Provided by tincanknits

This is no unknown pattern by any means, with over 4000 projects on Ravelry everyone seems to love knitting this hat and it’s slated on my future knits list. I was going to attempt this last year but I felt it was a bit advanced for me at the time, since completing my first knitted cable beanie though I’m sure this hat will be a breeze. This pattern calls for some worsted yarn, Size US #6 / 4 mm circular needles and US #8 / 5mm circular needles and double pointed needles. Why the two different size needles? Because you’ll be casting on this hat on smaller needles then jumping up two sizes to an US 8 / 5 mm pair of needles, which you’ll use up until the top then switch to your DPNs. It’s a standard beanie structure wise but has an awesome repeated cable pattern running itself all the way up the beanie. It actually looks like Antlers too which is rally awesome. Reading into this pattern it definitely isn’t for beginners, as it actually as you doing decreases FROM the cable needle at some point. It’s not boggling my mind but it will be a bit of a challenge. If you’ve already done a bit of cabling in the past like I have so far this should be doable.

You can check out this awesome pattern and the rest of tincanknit’s patterns on Ravelry!

With that all said and done… Keep on knitting and I’ll see you next time!

That’s a wrap folks!

10 Years of Pokemon Diamond & Pearl and Alfie's PetSmart Adventure

What's the first subject that comes to your mind when you think of Diamonds and Pearls? The actual gems? Steven Universe? Well to me, this will probably make me sound like a nerd (I am one.), the most iconic use of Diamonds and Pearls (Other then Knits and purls) would probably be Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl would be the first games in the fourth generation of the Pokemon franchise releasing back in 2007 making this the 10th anniversary of those very games! To be more exact this game actually originally released in Japan back on September 28th 2006 (Funny enough the Japanese 10th anniversary was on the day I launched ZAK Entertainment... probably should've made that my first blog.) but us in America got to experience this game when it released on April the 22nd 2007. Due to this anniversary I've dug this old gem back out!

At the time of this release I was a pre-teen about to jump into his life of being a teenager, it was coming towards the end of Generation 3 of Pokemon and that time specifically was a huge Pokemon craze for me. Most people will tell you that PokeMania happened during Generation 1 go through to generation 2 and while I've been an ever loving fan of the franchise since that time but  the last year or two of Generation 3 leading into the release of Diamond and Pearl was probably the most impactful. Pokemon had been teasing Diamond and Pearl a lot earlier then they teased other generations so games like Pokemon XD: Gales of Darkness had hints and they even based the 3rd Generation 3 movie on a Diamond and Pearl Pokemon, Lucario. Closing more in on the release date Pokemon Ranger had released with its Generation 4 Manaphy teases as well as the "Pokemon Ranger and The Temple of the Sea" movie which introduced more Generation 4 Pokemon such as Buizel. The hype was definitely real coming into the release and I, being the Pokemon nerd I was (Am) was grasping at the bits of any information I could find. Yeah I guess I had a journalism streak in me even back then, see another reason why I should of blogged years ago. Luckily for me the end of 2006 leading into 2007 was actually my first steps into the World Wide Web so information wasn't so scarce. I could go so much more in depth on my experience before the release but that will have to wait until later on this year for my My Life as a Pokemon Trainer: Generation 4 (I have to do 2 and 3 first.)

Does anyone remember this? Right on the release of Diamond and Pearl here in America Nintendo and Pokemon hosted a launch party to celebrate the release and hosted it on pokemon.com for the world to see. It seems this webcast has been buried in time and I can't find anything about it anymore but I clearly remember sitting on my bed using my very first Laptop watching the launch party for hours. They had a special presentation of the new Diamond and Pearl anime series as well as some gameplay such as live battles. While I was already dead set on getting the game this presentation sold me and I remember bugging my parents to get me the game for my birthday a month later.

I went with Pokemon Diamond simply because of Dialga, I'm not sure why but Dialga's design has always been one of my favorites. I've put hundreds almost a thousand hours (I'm pretty sure I maxed out the clock at 999.99 hours) into this game over the past 10 years and while all my Pokemon from this game are now in my newer games such as XY and Omega Ruby I'm still getting hours out of this game by doing a restart. I figured hey it's the 10th anniversary why not relive the game and dive back into the snowy region of Sinnoh. It's crazy to think it's been 10 years as we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Pokemon as a whole last year.

Pokemon Diamond introduced 100 new Pokemon as well as bringing back some old favorites and even added evolutions to old favorites such as Eevee, Electabuzz and Magmar. Out of these new Pokemon came the traditional new starter Pokemon, Turtwig, Chimchar and Piplup. I was always sold on one specific starter Pokemon way before I ever got ahold of this game, Turtwig. Yeah I'm not sure what it was about that turtle but I fell in love instantly and I can say he's my second favorite starter Pokemon next to Cyndaquil. (And Pikachu... If he counts, he does right?)

You start your journey in the town of Twinleaf watching a television broadcast of some explorers in the nearby Lake Variety as they search for the mysterious Red Gyradose. (Was this a reference to Heart Gold and Soul Silver which came out two years later? I always thought it was, Game Freak is pretty good at hinting towards the next game.) Inspired by this newscast you crave to get out into the world and search for this rare Pokemon yourself. Your eagerness is interrupted by a boy who equals in eagerness, Barry your rival. Well I mean you can name him whatever you want but regardless you both set out to Lake Variety yourselves in search for this Red Gyradose. To your surprise at the lake you find nothing, other then a flock of Starleys who aren't so happy. Finding a suitcase lying around you discover three Pokeballs and decide to grab one to defend yourselves. Yeah apparently Professor Rowan left this suitcase behind... Is he related to Professor Birch? Because they both have a tendency to leave their luggage behind. After apologizing to the Professor you get to keep your Pokemon of choice, with Pokedex in hand you set out on a wonderful journey that involves Space and Time itself. (And bad dudes with really bad haircuts.)

On my new playthrough I decided to actually pick Piplup instead of Turtwig, I've never used Piplup on either Diamond or my Platinum version so I figured let's give Piplup some love on this playthrough, I mean i've always loved Piplup just never used him much except for the one my sister, who had Pearl version alongside me, gave me. For those interested here's my current team!

I currently have two badges and I'm in Team Galactic's first hideout in Eterna City... Oh yeah Team Galactic. These are the enemies you'll face in this game. 

Complete weirdos from head to toe but despite this they have some pretty awesome music. 

Speaking of music I always thought that this game had some of the best music, mostly the route and city music. I mean I love Pokemon's music as a whole but Diamond and Pearl is one of my favorites.

These two games also go pretty deep into the lore of the Pokemon world, introducing how the world was created (That's just an in Game Theory though.) and while all Pokemon games have had stories this game has some of my favorite and the Legendaries that accompany these stories such as Dialga are favorites.

The visuals of this game are similar to previous Gameboy Advance games in the sense of having 2D sprites but the entire environment was 3D. This was a pretty awesome step forward and Game Freak would continue improving the 3D environments until the series went full 3D with Pokemon X and Y.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl have turned 10 years old but are to this day some of my favorite Pokemon games, though listing my favorites tends to be a hard choice for me. I actually think these games have aged quite well but I have noticed the battles tend to move a bit slowly, the responses times in between picking moves seems to lag? I never noticed this at all as a kid, it's no big deal (Though I hear a lot of people complaining about it.) but it's still odd how I never noticed or maybe never payed attention. 

The battles otherwise are pretty intense at times and the champion of this game (Spoilers... it's Cynthia.) worked me over countless times back then. At least she had some sick music to listen to while she beat my ass. Pokemon Platinum would fix these speed issues but also change story elements (Not in a bad way.) to where I can't just replace it with Diamond, Platinum really is it's own game.

Oh yeah this game brought back from Generation 3 the Pokemon Contests, redubbed as Super Contests as well as bringing Poke Blocks back as Poffins, which are a type of bread, kind makes more sense then PokeBlocks. This along with the return of the Safari Zone gives this game more to do once you've had enough battling.

Finally the most major part of this game? The Wifi. Yes these games were the first Pokemon Games to take advantage of the Nintendo DS's wifi capabilities. Finally we could battle trainers from all over the world simply by adding each other to the in game pal pad. I mean at that point we all had friends online, through Pokemon communities and it was great to finally battle them. I enjoyed battling people online for a while but like I mentioned in my Nintendo DS recollection blog I actually lost the ability to play on Wifi. Not because I lost internet access but because my DS suddenly just wouldn't allow the connection. Funnily enough it started working again in 2014 after all these years... Then Nintendo shuts down the DS Wifi Connection servers.

One last detail I want to add that made this game awesome was the Poketch. See with the Nintendo DS being dual screened GameFreak took full advantage of this and added helpful apps to the touchscreen such as a clock, a calculator (Which would of been really helpful if I did EV training back then.) and more. Every so often you'll be able to receive new apps from the Poketch building in Jubilife City. It's a shame these apps never made their return in future games I really enjoyed them, they were more useful then one might think.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were and still are great games in my opinion, setting standards gameplay and graphic wise that would be reused in the three Generations that came after it. Diamond and Pearl's gameplay mechanics really felt more like polished versions of previous games despite the slowness. Who knows what the future of Pokemon holds p though, with this 10th anniversary and the trend of remaking games... Perhaps we have a Diamond and Pearl remake on the way? The games still feel slightly fresh in my head but with the recent hints in Sun and Moon I think we may be seeing some more Diamonds and Pearls in our future. Sinnoh in the same graphics as Sun and Moon? Sign me up.

Well with that topic out the way and oh boy did I write to much again? I'm still not sure how much I should be writing and how much I should be excluding. I guess I'm still learning the ways of writing.

Anyway other then replaying Diamond and Pearl for old times sake we recently took our recently turned one years old Chihuahua Alfie on his first trip to a pet store! PetSmart to be more exact. 

This little blonde dog seemed to be full of excitement to take his first trip inside of a store like this. Strutting his way inside the store like the high class Chihuahua he is Alfie was immediately taken away by his surroundings. Sniffing the air full of scents from fellow dogs he seemed curious about every little detail. Of course the humans inside the store seemed curious too and Alfie suddenly became center of attention, kinda makes you jealous in a way.

I neglected to take any photos of Alfie in the store so here's a recent selfie of me and a sleeping variation of Alfie.

The store had quite a few animals for sale as well which caught our Chihuahua's attention. He seems to have taken a liken to the local turtles but a certain animal gave Alfie the chills... Guinea Pigs. Don't ask I can't really explain the situation myself but Alfie just did not like the looks of those Guinea Pigs. Maybe it was the fact they were the same size as himself. A Golden Retriever much larger then the golden Chihuahua grabbed his attention as well. All in all Alfie really seems to enjoy social interaction, which is a good thing as we travel often. We'll be taken him around to more public places in the future because of this. Though if he steals anymore attention away from me I might be concerned. (I'm kidding I'm not that egotistical.)

Well that brings us to the end of the blog for the day but before that I'm going to bring you guys an unexpected knitting update (Yeah I'm shoving a lot into this blog, I rather not split this stuff off for another day.)

Remember my Shawl? It's been so long I doubt you do but after taking a break from it to work on other projects I'm breaking it back out and in the past two days, despite it getting quite long I've gotten thirteen rows done on it.

Check out the project on Ravelry!

Yeah I'm on a knitting roll again, getting more rows completed then I thought I could. I'm finally running out of yarn on my first ball (I'm using two yarn balls on this shawl.) so I'll be switching that out soon. Really loving how this shawl is coming out so far. Don't have a free pattern to feature today because of this being a really long blog, don't want to keep you guys too long. I wanted to include more stuff from our day out.

That's a wrap folks!

Discovering The Upcoming RPG Maker Fes for the Nintendo 3DS!

You know maybe in a parallel timeline I would have somehow become a Video Game developer but alas in this timeline I took the path of a writer/filmmaker though I used to mess around with Gamemaker a bit back then. I mean I can always still teach myself now and I may tinker around a bit in my spare time, because everyone can benefit from coding but game development isn’t my goal for my career. (Though it would be pretty awesome to work with a game development team in some shape or form… I mean I can write stories and I’m sure I got some skills to lend so hey hit me up, haha.) Regardless of this I’ve always wanted to be able to create my own Mario levels or my own Pokemon games or just my own RPGs in general and seemly those prayers have been answered, two years ago with Super Mario Maker... Well I had no idea this game existed until a few days ago but coming out later on this year is a new kind of maker game called RPG Maker Fes!

RPG Maker isn’t an unknown name by any means, this series of game maker programs have been around since 1988 for some old Japanese PCs with one of the most popular in the series being RPG Maker XP. I’ve seen some pretty awesome RPGs (You know, those role playing turn based games, Final Fantasy being an example of this genre.) come out of this program and it’s even more awesome to hear it’s coming to America on the 3DS not unlike Super Mario Maker. As the name suggests RPG Maker allows you to make your own Role Playing Games, similar to Final Fantasy 1-6, Dragon Quest 1-7 and the old Phantasy Star games in the sense of being 2D traditional RPGs. (Though certain RPG Makers have allowed for some pretty awesome combat systems.) I’ve always been a massive fan of RPGs with some of my favorites being of course Pokemon, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. RPG Maker Fes, developed by Kadokawa Games (Kadokawa Corp’s subsdiaries such as ASCII and Enterbrain have been responsible for developing the previous versions of RPG Maker for PC.) seems to be a dream come true coupled with the fact it’s releasing on the 3DS.

Until recently I did not know this game actually existed or that it was on it’s way out to the American market on June 27^th, 2017. Surprisingly it’s been released in Japan since November 24^th of 2016 but I’ve been unable to find any information regarding the original Japanese release. The upcoming American release however, published by NIS America (You know, the Prinny Doods.) has some videos released regarding the gameplay so let’s take a look and see.

It seems like the possibilities are endless with this game (Or should we call It program?) with thousands of world objects, ability to string together maps, and create what seems like pretty expansive events this game looks incredible. I’m not sure what the full extent of the character customization is, whether or not you can create your own sprites or whether it’s just preset characters but even so it looks like a lot of character options are available. You can give your characters their own custom abilities and starting stats as well as their own custom back-story. Of course it’s not going to have as many options or freedom as the PC versions, it’s a 3DS game but it seems to have a lot of options. This is no toy by any means it really does seem like you can create expansive RPGs all on your 3DS.

According to the RPG Maker Fes website you can make up to 16 RPG games  (Per SD Card) which may not seem like much but looking back at that video you can see RPG games that last up to 5 hours, whether or not that is the limit for how long your RPG can last I’m not sure.

The battle mechanics are a simple turn based system, I’m not sure how or if you can customize this but it seems you can customize the monster’s attributes in just as much of a detailed fashion as the player’s. Choosing a Monster’s stats, element, resistance and appearance rate as well.

Of course the biggest detail about this game and it’s an incredible plus for this game… You can upload all of your stories online for others to play in similar fashion to Super Mario Maker for Wii U, I kid you not. This isn’t all, if you don’t wish to be the one making the games and just want to play other people’s levels you can download the RPG Maker Player app from the 3DS eShop and play other people’s RPGs for FREE! Yes this RPG Maker Player app will be absolutely free which is incredible news and will give players countless hours of expansive and engaging RPG fun.

As you can see I’m pretty excited to get a hold of this game. One of the main reasons behind me discussing this game today has to do with the fact I don’t see many If any people discussing this game anywhere. With no news regarding the original Japanese release and only a few trailers and a mention during Nintendo’s previous Nintendo Direct livestream this game doesn’t seem to be getting the attention it deserves.

Keep an eye out on this game when it releases on June 27^th here in America and I’ll be keeping an eye out myself to see if any more details regarding the game surface. I’m eager to get my hands on this game and spend some hours creating some awesome RPG stories. Who knows maybe I can incorporate this into the blog in some shape or form. This won’t be the last time you hear of this game that’s for sure. You can check out more information regarding this game yourself at the official website: http://nisamerica.com/games/rpg-maker-fes/index.html.

I had to wrack my brain a bit on what knitting pattern I was going to feature on today’s blog. Obviously I wanted it to be RPG related but that’s pretty vague. As Final Fantasy is my favorite RPG series aside from Pokemon let’s go with that! Going into this I’m not sure what the selection of knitting patterns is regarding Final Fantasy but after a bit of a search I found something really cool…

I found… Cactuar!

Photo Provided by Ashley Solley

Yes this is “Cactuar!” by Ashley Solley! Everyone who’s played Final Fantasy know who Cactuar is, right? He’s that quirky, peculiar and speedy cactus who appears as a very rare enemy (Who drops some nice goodies) and a summon monster in the Final Fantasy games, 6 and beyond. (Though he wasn’t actually a summon in Final Fantasy 7.) Now you can have your own plush version of him by knitting up this pattern! I’ve never attempted to knit a plushie before but this looks pretty fun. Materials you will need are a pair of US Size 7 (4.5 mm) circular needles or some DPNs of the same size, a Size F Crochet Hook (Though it seems this is optional.) Some Worsted yarn of choice, preferably green, a darning needle and finally some stuffing of some kind. This Cactuar is knitted in 5 pieces and then sewed together.

I have to admit I’ve never experienced knitting one stitch, then knitting into the left leg of the stitch of the row below it before or vice versa on the right but I’m sure it’s not too difficult, here’s my thinking I knew all the knitting techniques already. Other then this, the pattern involves k2togs and making stitches which I’m very familiar with and you probably are too at this point. Wouldn’t say this would be good for beginners but with some basic knitting knowledge it should be easy enough to be doable. You can check out this pattern by following this link: http://fibrously.blogspot.com/2011/12/free-pattern-cactaur.html. Don’t forget to check out Ashley’s other patterns on her ravelry!

I know I don’t know how to crochet to save my life but I also found this really cool Dragon Quest crochet pattern that I have to share for those out there who do crochet. This is the “Slime amigurumi” by Marte Fagervik.

Photo provided by Marte Fagervik

Now you can have that all famous cute little slime from the Dragon Quest video game series all to yourself! Looks like this slime is hooked in a round all the way up using some worsted weight yarn and a size 3.5mm E Hook. Check out this pattern at: and don’t forget to go checkout Marte’s other patterns on her Ravelry as well! Sorry I couldn’t provide more insight on this pattern.. I will learn how to properly Crochet… One day.

Well that’s the end of the blog pretty much today. 101 blogs and still counting! Like 101 Dalmatians… Haven’t watched that in forever.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!

That’s a wrap folks!

Knitting the 100th Blog!

Well here we are, we’ve made it everyone. This is blog post number 100! Its mind boggling to believe I’ve written 100 blog posts since launching ZAK Entertainment back on September 28^th of last year. From Knitting to Video Games I’ve already discussed quite a spectrum of topics over the past 6 months and I have many much more to talk about, whether its new events of nostalgic memories I haven’t run dry on ideas. If you’re reading this and are a previous reader of ZAK Entertainment I’m so grateful for you coming along this journey with me.

If you’re new to ZAK Entertainment now might be a better time then ever to introduce myself.

My name is Zachary Kuhn, I’ve for the longest time had an ever growing passion for writing. Along this crazy ride called life I’ve accumulated other passions and interests such as Film, Video Games and quite recently Knitting. I started knitting back in September last year a couple of weeks before I launched this blog and that has weaved its way into my life as an everlasting passion. With all these interests I, after being pushed just a little, took a dive along with my writing passion and started up ZAK Entertainment.

On this blog I hope to express my interests, learn new interests and in doing so allow you all to express and learn new passions for yourself. Knitting, Video Games and Film are the big three topics on this blog with writing being the backbone but over the past 6 months I’ve introduced other topics of interest such as Travel (Which actually was the topic of my first blog post… Go figure.), Antique, Vintage and Modern Cars, Comic Books, Art (Which is a recent thing.) Novels and I’ve been splicing in (Editing term… I’ll get to that in a minute.) some TV discussions alongside the film. With all these topics I’ve tried to make it more down to earth and add some tidbits from my life in general in, make it more like I’m a friend taking you along the journey with me.

You’re probably thinking, how am I able to juggle all these topics? Well I can definitely say this blog has been a learning experience and in such I’ve been learning quite a lot of ways of meshing my topics together. For example Knitting seems to have become a blanket overtop (Pun may or may not be intended there.) everything. See knitting is one of those activities that can overlap other interests as well, want to knit a Pokemon? That’s possible! Want to knit a fake movie camera? Is… Wait is that possible? I’m going to have to look up a knitting pattern for that.

My Very First Knitting Project, Started this last September! You can read the very first blog about this project here: https://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2016/09/zak-knits-sep-30th-2016-on-beginners.html

Anyway I’ve actually recently came up with this pretty creative idea. Basically on each blog day, whether the main topic is film, video games or even Knitting itself I’m searching the internet for free knitting patterns related to said topics. These act as sort of a bonus to the blog post and I’ve really enjoyed including them all.

Living alongside this blog is another big passion of mine, filmmaking, video making and editing in general. Yes if you don’t know ZAK Entertainment has a youtube channel! While I don’t make as many videos as I really should (Working on that, don’t worry I got more videos coming soon.) I love editing and producing videos for you guys. I don’t have big budget cameras or supercomputers but I put my full effort into my videos regardless. What do I post on youtube? Well it’s not that much different from this blog. So far it’s been travel montages, video game related videos such as gameplay and of course knitting. (Got more ideas for the future.)

My favorite videos I’ve been doing on this channel though actually have to be my ZAK Knits video series where I knit and discuss knitting on video. I really have enjoyed making them and I currently have three episodes (With a mini episode.) up on youtube which you can check out through this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiAcQAX8vtXr3SUFzkEkKFdyGP4yxJY-4 I actually have plans for three more episodes coming up within the next few months so keep an eye out for them!

As you can see knitting is a pretty prominent topic on this blog, I really have my Mum to thank as she gave me that much needed push into this awesome activity. This blog post is no different… Yes I’ve made you wait long enough but I’ve actually finished a project just for this 100^th blog. Remember the Princess Peach dishcloth I started up a couple of weeks ago? Take a look at it now!

This came out perfectly in the end and I love how the pattern itself looks. This pattern is composed of just knits and purls and was designed by Carolyn Lislie. Carolyn actually has an entire series of Mario washcloths from Mario to Luigi and even Bowser. Mum had knitted her Mario cloth for me a couple of years ago so I guess you can say I’ve added to the collection. I have plans on knitting more of these in the future so eventually I’ll have knitted the whole Mario Dishcloth collection.

Stick around because ZAK Entertainment is going nowhere, I have new blogs and ideas for throughout the year and I would love it if you were to join me. Building a community has been one of my goals for this blog so perhaps that’ll be something to come into fruition in the future. Until then though I think I’ll call it wraps for today. Did I ramble too much? I’m not sure if this was the best way to celebrate the 100^th post but a finished knitting project seems fitting enough. Here’s to another 100 posts!

See you on the next blog! (Haven’t said that in ages.) 

The Forces Awakens in The Last Jedi Movie Trailer

Hey what’s happening everyone? Did you enjoy your Easter weekend? For the most part when I wasn’t busy I’ve been working on a specific watercolor piece over the weekend. It started off as my usual character sketch but instead of using color pencil for the whole piece I put aside my fears and finally started up my first official, not practice (Actually it technically still is practice.) watercolor art piece. You all have to wait to see the finished result but what I've got done so far! (I already revealed It on Instagram so why not?)

New character Incoming! Yes this isn’t a character I’ve shown off before but she is related to Aeris Eclipse, Cole Bradshaw and Luna in the sense she’s from the same story. (To see their designs check out this blog: http://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/03/an-artist-arsenal-and-some-dream.html) I’m not revealing her name just yet (Her initials are RS, start racking your brains.) but I’m pretty happy with how this sketch looks. I’m even more surprised how I’m improving on my drawings; I’m actually starting to learn how to draw clothing correctly with creases and such. I need to do proper descriptions of each character (I don’t think I’ve described Aeris very well either.) so look forward to that in the future! As far as the art piece itself this is my first time using watercolor to color a character but I don't think I'm doing that bad. Still got a lot to learn but I like how the colors are coming out. This wasn't the initial hair color I had in mind for this character but this has officially become her hair color regardless, I mean fate was probably telling me something. Though I do need to improve on my color mixing despite this. Keep an eye out on my Instagram (zakmank for those who can't click the link.) for updates! I've started posting there a lot more.

Now this should have been the first topic I discussed but last Friday marked the 40^th anniversary of the Star Wars movie franchise, an absolutely classic franchise beyond any kind of cult. I’ve always been a major fan of space related flicks, books and while for the most part I lean more towards Star Trek when it comes to space in media I’ve been known to trek into Star Wars. I’ve seen all 7 movies at some point or another in my life with the 7^th movie being the much awaited continuation of the franchise The Force Awakens. What better way to celebrate the 40^th anniversary (At the Orlando, Florida Anniversary Event that happened over the weekend) then a brand new trailer for the next movie in the franchise? Check out Star Wars Episode 8, now dubbed The Last Jedi!

THIS IS A SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN THE FORCE AWAKENS… GO WATCH THAT FIRST.

This trailer is definitely leaving a lot of food for thought on this trailer. While I’m not an expert on Star Wars lore (I have seen all the movies though… So I guess that counts.) but I do know in the previous movie Rey, who’s the central protagonist and a pretty awesome one at that, was an orphan living on the desert planet of Jakku who ends up getting wrapped up into the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance. The First Order are basically a reincarnation of the fallen Galactic Empire, which was led by Sith (The Guys who wield the red beam swo… light sabers.) Lord Darth Sideous and his apprentice and nicely voiced by James Earl Jones, Darth Vader. (Spoilers… It’s Anakin Skywalker.)

This is a pretty sick shot to be honest.

Photo provided by IMDB.com

This First Order, Led by Supreme Leader Snoke and HIS apprentice Kylo Ren. So basically these guys don’t learn their lesson and tend to repeat themselves.

Anyway Rey meets up with Finn, (A Renegade Storm Trooper from the First Order) Han Solo and Chewbaca and end up face up to face with Kylo Ren. I won’t spoil anything else but at the end of the movie Rey ends up finding Luke Skywalker, the supposedly last Jedi and protagonist from the first three Star Wars films. (Which are actually named Episode 4-6… Don’t ask… Talk to George Lucas about that.) Seems like this movie takes place right after the events of the previous movie and whats even cooler it seems Luke is actually going to be training Rey in the force.

Luke Skywalker (Played by the awesome Mark Hamill) lends his awesome not so joker-fied voice to this trailer as he seems to be teaching Rey about Balance. Yes normally the Jedi are all about the Light and the Sith all about the Dark but Luke seems to want to break down all that and create a balance. Hence why he says at the end “It’s time for the Jedi to end.”. If It wasn’t for this talk of balance I would almost assume Luke was turning to the dark side (They have cookies, of course.) but it appears he wants to create a new order, an order where Light and Dark are hand in hand.

Photo provided by IMDB.com

We didn’t get to see all that much in this trailer but it looks pretty damn awesome and comes out this Christmas.

This poster is ten times better then The Force Awakens honestly.

Photo provided by IMDB.com

Will there be as much Star Wars craze as there was when Force Awakens released? Rogue One seemed good but didn’t cause much hype. Maybe I should do a Star Wars movie rewatch across the upcoming months until the release of this movie. Regardless the force is strong within this movie.

Well it’s that time again, time for a knitting pattern feature and boy I never realized until today how crazy knitters are about Star Wars. There are a LOT of knitting patterns regarding Star Wars and it was actually kind of hard to pick one out of all of these but I think this one will do just fine… This is The Force Awakens Hat by Mrs Luedeke!

Photo Provied by Mrs Luedeke

I haven’t shared a Fair Isle beanie pattern in a while and while winter is over you can easily knit this hat up for the upcoming Christmas season for when Star Wars Episode 8 releases! Love the colorworks in this hat and it doesn’t seem all that tough. I’ve never attempted actual words into a hat like this before but I’m sure with some basic colorworks knowledge which I have and some of you must have it should be a fun knit. Who doesn’t like a good challenge anyway? You can check out this pattern on Ravelry and her website: http://www.mrsluedeke.com/patterns/the-force-awakens-hat/. It seems like Mrs Luedeke created a hat for Star Wars Rogue One in similar fashion too so go check that out! Maybe she’ll be doing a new hat for The Last Jedi? That’ll be awesome.

Oh yeah she has a Pokemon Fair Isle Hat as well… That automatically gets  a thumbs up from me. Go check out all her patterns here on Ravelry!

So that brings us to the end of the blog for today but before that I have gotten a little bit farther on my Afterthought Heel Socks!

I took this photo yesterday for Easter and I’ve just about gotten to the part of this sock where I goofed it all up and had to redo it. Fingers crossed that does NOT happen again… I could keep knitting this sock forever though. (ACTUALLY I PROBABLY SHOULDN’T SAY THAT… JINXS AND SUCH.)

Also I baked some not so knitted homemade chocolate chip cookies yesterday for Easter! Homemade meaning I made everything In these cookies spare for the flour, sugar and other related ingredients. I’ve made these so many times that maybe I should consider opening up my own cookie baking shop, I’m getting pretty good at this. Any ideas on how to open up an internet based cookie shop? No? Well anyway…

That’s a wrap folks!

Practicing New Artist Mediums and The 20th Pokemon Movie Trailer

You know there’s a question that’s been popping up in my head lately… Never thought much on it as a kid but now I gotta ask… Where do those Easter Eggs even come from?

Welcome to the blog before Easter everyone! Easter isn’t an actual blog posting day so today will serve as the main blog for that. This weekend serves as Easter weekend and Easter egg hunts are already happening all over. I would get you guys in on an Easter Egg hunt but I’m not exactly sure how to go about that through the internet.

Before I dive in i'm going to put this out there that I actually recently got a new smartphone, it's larger and has a much better camera on it so I should be more active on Instagram now. This phone will actually help the blog and Youtube channel out quite a bit as the photos and videos are pretty damn good. The photos you'll be seeing in today's blog were all taken on my new phone so here's to a step in the journey of ZAK Entertainment!

I’ve been in quite the artsy mood lately and I’ve been doing quite a bit related to that. For the most part I’ve been creating digital art (With my Wacom tablet.) and colored pencils but I’ve been diving into some other mediums such as Watercolor and Acrylic paints. (Though I only have a Watercolor piece to show today.) Basically this blog is going to be an art dump of sorts, though a warning 90% of what you’re about to see is just practice so let’s dive in!

As its Easter I’m going to go ahead and show you guys this.

Yes that is indeed a drawing of a rabbit and while it may seem shocking that a newbie like me drew this I assure you, I did not trace this. I did this using circles and ovals and adding all the fine details afterwards. Sadly I didn’t get to color this before showing you all, actually I don’t even know how I’m going to go about coloring this yet, I’ve already inked the outline in black so maybe I’ve limited myself in that regards. Rabbits are some of my favorite animals so being able to draw them is a plus for me. I'll be sure to let you guys see the finished product!

I’ve wanted to dive into this for a while and while I wasn’t very successful I’ve been attempting some watercolor and acrylic paint practice.

Be surprised I’m even showing you all this, because it’s not great by any means. No real art pieces have come out of this but I’ve been getting the feel for how Watercolor work. I really need to persist with these mediums, I’m sure I can get at least decent. I need to work on actually blending colors when it comes to watercolor…

Another medium I decided to try out is a medium I didn’t know much about as well as one I don’t see used quite often, Oil Pastels. These look similar to chalks and might even feel like chalks but they create art in a much different way. You use them similarly to chalks but these oil pastels have, well, oil in them. I’m no expert but this medium is like if Oil Paints and Chalk had a lovechild. I’ve been testing these out and to my surprise I actually like the way these pastels work. You’re able to blend colors quite easily and what was simply color practice turned into something quite pretty.

Yeah this was just practice but I love how I managed to blend the colors. There are a couple of ways of blending, I tried q-tips and paper towels but for the most part I found my finger works the best. I was able to create, using four different colors, this awesome sky like color mixture and some cool green and blue mixtures but I have learned that certain colors do not mix what so ever. Which colors you ask? Well apparently Oranges and Yellows mixed with Greens creates a messy unappealing brown, luckily adding some normal brown seems to have made it look better.

Anyway yeah this turned out really good for just being a tester. Now let’s dive into some much needed Pokemon!

Pokemon since July 18^th, 1998 has had 20 total movies made, all including awesome adventures of Ash, Pikachu and Company as they encounter awesome legendary Pokemon. I have to admit I’m so much of a Pokemon nerd that these movies are actually on my top favorite movies list. The Pokemon movies have made just as much of an impact on my life as the TV show and Games and this year, after the recent Volcanion movie release marks the 20^th Pokemon movie. Yeah 20 movies, it’s crazy to think 20 years has gone right by, I myself am in my 20s so it’s crazy to think how many Pokemon movies I lived through. I swear it was only yesterday I was sitting in front of the TV watching Pokemon The First Movie, 2000 or Pokemon the movie 3. Eventually Cartoon Network would start airing the movies as they released so once again I would be glued to my TV screen whenever they played them.

In celebration of the 20^th movie and the 20^th anniversary of the Anime itself Pokemon seems to be going backwards, to Ash’s first adventure in the form of the reboot of sorts. Pokemon Movie 20: I Choose You seems to be a recreation of Ash’s very first Indigo League journey with some twists and turns adding in. Can’t really explain these twists without you watching the first official trailer so let’s take a look inside! This is completely in Japanese and I apologize at not being fluent in Japanese but it’s worth watching visually.

When I said twist I really meant twist. The base plot is still there it seems but the rest of it seems to be an original story. Three new characters seem to be making their appearance and also appear to be replacing Brock, Misty and Gary as Ash’s Traveling Companions and Rival. I wasn’t exactly sure and still am not really sure how to feel about this but then I think, these movies have never been canon with the main series. This is supposed to be a retelling, a celebration of the original series without copy and pasting the original show, which to be honest is better anyway. I just feel like the lack of Brock, Misty and Gary is disappointing considering they were major parts of the original series and should be celebrated just as much as Ash and Pikachu… Oh yeah Team Rocket is in it! Replacing Jessie and James would have been too much change so thank goodness those goofballs are still In it. Who knows maybe Brock and Misty will be making an appearance, at least as Gym Leaders. As this is only a trailer they could be holding out surprises on us. I can already see Gym Leaders are going to be in it considering Pikachu seems to be fighting in a Grass Type gym in one scene. (Hello Erika.)

Is this finally the HO-OH movie we’ve been waiting for? It sure seems like it! HO-OH has always been shirked in regards to movies with Lugia getting the most attention so I think now is a great time to finally give my favorite Gold and Silver Pokemon his own movie. (I like HO-OH better then Lugia… Don’t kill me I love Lugia.) It also seems like they’re including elements from generations other then 1 and 2 into this movie as one of Ash’s Companions has a Piplup… Hmmm… Why Piplup though? Is this perhaps, a hint towards a Diamond and Pearl remake? Maybe? Maybe I’m just spinning my wheels on that one. Marshadow, a yet to be released Pokemon Sun and Moon Pokemon seems to be following Ash around and his, what I’m assuming to be Ash’s new rival has an Incineroar so Sun and Moon is getting represented quite well despite this being a reboot of the first series. (Though I do hope we get an actual Sun and Moon based movie next year.)

One last big detail that’s wracking my brain is that old man… He has Red’s hat from the first Red and Blue games (Who Ash was based on.) and he has similar hair to be Ash and Red. At first I was thinking that this was obviously Ash’s Dad but wouldn’t he be a bit too old for that? Maybe Ash’s Grand Dad? Or perhaps this is Ash as an old man retelling this story.

Despite the lack of Brock, Misty and Gary I’m really looking forward to how this movie plays out. Just don’t view it as a retcon of the original series because it’s really not anything of the sort. These movies, except for the first few were never canon to the show anyway. This is simply a celebratory retelling twisted in a way that finally gives HO-OH his time to shine. Man I feel like replaying Pokemon Gold just because of this now. The movie releases later this summer in Japan and I only assume later on this year on Cart… I mean Disney XD. Yeah how is Disney and America going to distribute this movie? Has anyone noticed how the anime hasn’t aired at all over here in America yet? I’ve attempted to find an explanation why but with no luck.

I’ve had this pattern in my library for a while but now I finally get to feature this awesome knitting pattern. Today’s knitting pattern feature is the “Pokemon Poke Ball Knit Hat” by Vicki Mann!

Photos Provided by Vicki Mann on Ravelry

This is a normal beanie, with Red, Black and White coloring but it’s stylized with the added knitted Pokeball button to make it look, well like a Pokeball. Knitting it seems easy enough, it’s a simple beanie as long as you got the right colors. Though I can see It possible to use any color, I mean Pokeballs come in quite a few different colors.

Photos Provided by Vicki Mann on Ravelry

The Pokeball button is done completely separate using short rows (I’m familiar with them.) and then sewn on. This seems like a great hat for any Pokemon fan, which probably means you’ll be knitting this for yourself as I will be. I mean come on all knitters are Pokemon Trainers, right? You can check out this pattern on Ravelry but also don’t forget to check out Vicki on Ravelry and her Etsy store! She has a very yummy looking Cupcake hat pattern there…

That’s a wrap folks!