{"id":1111,"date":"2021-05-29T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T19:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2021-05-29T13:43:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T20:43:31","slug":"launchpad-emotional-and-uplifting-collection-great-for-teens-and-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/2021\/launchpad-emotional-and-uplifting-collection-great-for-teens-and-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Launchpad * Emotional And Uplifting Collection  &#8211; Great For Teens And Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/launchpad.poster.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1112\" width=\"137\" height=\"201\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Launchpad is a collection of six short films. Six filmmakers from underrepresented backgrounds were selected and provided with the opportunity to share their perspectives and creative visions that will show audiences what it means to be seen. KIDS FIRST! Film Critic Kyla C. comments, \u201c<em>Launchpad<\/em> is an emotional and uplifting collection of Disney short films that are great for teens and adults. Every one of the six movies features excellent acting, impressive cinematography, great special effects and storylines with meaningful themes.\u201d See her full review below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Launchpad<br>By Kyla C, KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, Age 11<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Launchpad<\/em> is an emotional and uplifting collection of Disney short films that are great for teens and<br>adults. Every one of the six movies features excellent acting, impressive cinematography, great special effects and storylines with meaningful themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Enjoy Kyla C.&#039;s review of Launchpad\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EgEjFj6sUG8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/launchpad.a.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1114\" width=\"225\" height=\"126\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Launchpad<\/em> includes six different shorts, each with its own unique plot. <em>American Eid<\/em> and <em>The Last of the Chupacabras<\/em> are both centered around religion; <em>American Eid <\/em>is about a young girl finding out she has to go to school on the Muslim holiday, Eid. <em>The Last of the Chupacabras \u00a0<\/em>is about a lone Mexican-American trying to keep her culture alive. <em>Growing Fangs<\/em> is a fantasy about a half-human\/half-vampire trying to hide her identity from both worlds. <em>Let&#8217;s Be Tigers <\/em>is about a young girl, Avalon (Otmara Marrero) trying to process the loss of her mother while she is babysitting for a 4-year-old. <em>Dinner Is Served <\/em>follows a Chinese student trying out for the top position at a fancy restaurant. <em>The Little Prince(ss)<\/em> is a story about a young boy who loves ballet and whose best friend\u2019s dad comes to talk to his parents about his \u201cgirlish behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/launchpad.b.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1113\" width=\"224\" height=\"126\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>With emotional and deep storylines, these short films need great acting to convey the strong messages of the films. These actors deliver. Every character is portrayed by a passionate actor that deeply understands their character and performs with passion. Even for films with no dialogue, you can understand what they are thinking and feeling. Otmara Marrero who plays Avalon in <em>Let\u2019s Be Tigers<\/em>, delivers an unforgettable performance as such a sorrowful character. The change as she plays with Noah (Dash McCloud) is visible as the film develops. In <em>American Eid<\/em>, Jenna Qureshi, who plays Ameena\u2019s older sister, Zainab, also delivers a stunning performance, making her teenage, trying-to-be-cool character relatable in every way. The cinematography is equally excellent. The special effects in the fantasy films are wonderful, particularly in <em>Growing Fangs<\/em> with its vampire effects. Magic is the main component in this one, but there are other effects as well. The stories are all well-written. Some of the shorts are heart-breaking and emotional, while others are more uplifting and creative. There\u2019s a variety of wonderful ideas spread throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These shorts have many themes, some overlapping others. A central point for all of them, is to recognize other people for what they are, not for how they appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I give <em>Launchpad<\/em> 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 12 to 18 plus adults. <em>Launchpad<\/em> can be viewed on Disney Plus beginning May 28, 2021.<br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Launchpad is a collection of six short films. Six filmmakers from underrepresented backgrounds were selected and provided with the opportunity to share their perspectives and creative visions that will show audiences what it means to be seen. KIDS FIRST! Film Critic Kyla C. comments, \u201cLaunchpad is an emotional and uplifting collection of Disney short films that are great for teens and adults. Every one of the six movies features excellent acting, impressive cinematography, great special effects and storylines with meaningful themes.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[544,278,543,67,420,327,538,326,541,542,550,546,549,534,547,540,537,533,548,220,545,535,536,539],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-critics-blog","tag-american-eid","tag-by-kids-for-kids","tag-dash-mccloud","tag-disney","tag-disney-channel","tag-disney-plus","tag-disney-xd","tag-disney-2","tag-duck-tales","tag-ducktales","tag-emotional","tag-growing-fangs","tag-heart-breaking","tag-huey","tag-jenna-qureshi","tag-launchpad","tag-lets-be-tigers","tag-louie","tag-magic","tag-movie-reviews","tag-otmara-marrero","tag-scrooge-mcduck","tag-short-film","tag-star-vs-the-forces-of-evil"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1115,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}