TWO WOLF MEDIA REVIEWS

Here are two reviews of Wolf Media.

One is of the book Wolf! Wolf! and the other is
the classic film Ringing Bell. Enjoy the reviews.

NEW REVIEWS OF WOLF MEDIA

1) WOLF! WOLF! REVIEW



Wolf! Wolf! is a children's novel by the author John
Rocco.

It is a retelling of the old story The Boy Who Cried
Wolf from Aesop's fables.

It was released February of 2007.

SYNOPSIS

An elder Wolf who is too old to hunt
animals like Birds and Rabbits, decides
to make a garden, which wasn't exactly
successful.

Hearing the cries of Wolf! Wolf!,
he decides to check it out.
He has no friends at all. But he
thinks who is calling his
name may be up to sharing food.

Following the voice he finds
a boy with a Goat. He thinks
the boy might actually share
the Goat.

Hearing villagers not far behind
he stays hidden among the bamboo and watches them
all.

The villagers are annoyed the
boy was faking the boy saw a Wolf
and wanted to have him only
call for help if he really sees a Wolf.

The Wolf wasn't really happy
with villagers brandishing
weapons and boys who play
terrible pranks. So he decides
to leave.

But he soon returns upon hearing
the boy cry Wolf again, just
in case if competition may be
arriving for food.

The villagers arrive and leave
after the boy says there is
no Wolf.

The Wolf wonders if he could
steal a Goat somehow from the
boy.

Sleeping the Wolf thinks about
Mu Shu Goat and Double-Goat
Dumplings.

Woken up by the boy's crying
Wolf again, he heads
back to the meadow, annoyed.

Since no villagers were there,
he comes out to confront the
boy. And he asks about being
invited for lunch.

The boy scared seeing a real
Wolf tries to escape by climbing
a tree and starts yelling
again for the villagers.

Knowing the villagers would
not come this time, the Wolf
told him to be quiet. He tells
the boy that the villagers wouldn't be
back.

The boy actually thought the Wolf
was going to take the goats but
the Wolf knew better since he
was old and would have a hard
time catching them.

The Wolf tries to make a deal
with the boy by telling him
to leave him a Goat that is plump.
That way the Wolf tells him
that the villagers would believe
him that a Wolf was there.

As an added incentive
the Wolf makes a false threat that
he would take all the Goats
if he didn't do what he said.

He instructs the boy to tie
the Goat on a post.

The Wolf returns back to
his home and finds the goat
there. And then he sees
many plump vegetables.

The Wolf then decides to free
the Goat and be friends with
him since he wants a friend
and is satisfied with his new
garden.

END SYNOPSIS

Wolf! Wolf! is a great new
interpretation of the terrible
tale The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

The tale was originally about
a sheepherder boy who would
cry Wolf! Wolf! to amuse himself.

And his fellow
villagers would come by and
see there was no Wolf.

When the villagers didn't
believe him and they
cease to arrive, a Wolf coincidentally
does show up.

In some tales the Wolf eats
the boy, and in some, the Wolf
eats the flock of Sheep.

The tale, although portrays
the boy as being irresponsible,
the Wolf for many centuries would
be regarded as a villain for eating
the boy and or the flock of Sheep in the story.

Of course many fairy tales like
this and Little Red Riding Hood
would demonize Wolves. These
fairy tales are still believed by
those who fear and hate the Wolf,
and want them dead in real life.

That is why great reinterpretations
of terrible fairy tales can be
very constructive. For example,
the Big Bad Wolf who is called
Bigby in the series Fables,
is a sheriff of the town
Fabletown. He later becomes in
charge of coordinating military
operations to fight the forces
of the evil Adversary.

The show Family Guy follows this
trend by this season having
two episodes where Wolf
fairy tales are turned on their
heads. One clip humorously deals with
The Three Little Pigs where
a Pig ancestor of Peter Griffin,
one of the main characters,
tells the Wolf to not blow over
the houses because of his flatulence.

Another clip this season had
to do with the Griffin's creepy
neighbor Herbert reads the
fairy tale Peter and the Wolf
to Chris Griffin (Peter's
son who is in high school).
Chris is creeped out by the man
especially for reading such a
terrible tale.

This unlike last month's issue
of the terrible comic series
Grimm Fairy Tales (issue 20),
where a boy is 'inspired' by
the tale The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
However the version of the tale
The Boy Who Cried Wolf, that
the boy is inspired by an even more twisted (if you
can get that more twisted) version
of that tale.

The boy claims a man is terrorizing
him and cons the people to kill
the innocent man. And then he blames
another man and eventually the boy
fakes being stunned and shocked beyond
words of the whole incident.

The boy then escapes town and plans to
go with his aunt to another town to
cause even more mayhem.

The more twisted version of The Boy
Who Cried Wolf deals with a man called The
Wild Man, who steals livestock in
front of the boy. And he reports this
to the whole village. He convinces
the village the Wild Man is a threat.
And the Wolf in this version is a Werewolf who
is happy the Wild Man is murdered.
This is since the Wolf views
the Wild Man as competition
for her lunch. The glow in the
Wolf's eyes was like the boy in
the comic at times.

Wolf! Wolf! also follows the great
track record of children's books
on Wolves like Wolves by Emily
Gravett.

The Wolf at the end of the story has a fictional
but great element where the
Wolf, much like in Wolf! Wolf!,
chooses to eat with a Rabbit as
a friend. And the Wolf eats vegetables
as well. Wolves has lots of facts
on Wolves as well.

The art is also very colorful, beautiful,
and captures the story and the the
culture infusion it was designed for.

The book Wolf! Wolf! is also fascinating
because it tries to add some
Human culture to it as well.

The style of Mu Shu food is
Chinese and consists of among many things: beef and pork. And dumplings are an
ethnic food in China as well
as Korea and Japan.

The boy and the villagers
are Asian.

The Wolf as you can see is wearing
an Asian outfit, which in real-life
is called a tangzhuang.
It's traditional Chinese clothing that was at the end of the
Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty lasted from 1644 to 1911.

And the Wolf is carrying an Asian
umbrella which in Chinese is called San
and in Japan is called Wagasa

As a result, this book mixes a great
reinterpretation of a terrible fairy
tale with culture and makes the usual
maligned Wolf a great figure. I
recommend this for all ages to read
and especially for children.

Rating: 5/5

Here below is also where you can buy
the book and the official website
for the book as well.

Wolf! Wolf! for purchase
Official Website for Wolf! Wolf!

2) RINGING BELL REVIEW



Ringing Bell was recommended
to us by Dre.

Thanks to Dre, we saw
this great motion picture.

Ringing Bell is a film that
came out in 1978 in Japan.
The original title is,
Chirin no Suzu.

It was made by the company
Sanrio, which made the films
Unico and The Sea Prince
and the Fire. They also are
the creators of the Hello Kitty
Franchise.

SYNOPSIS:

The film begins with the main
character, a baby Lamb by the
name of Chirin who lives
on a farm with other Lambs.

He spends time with his mother
and is curious about other
animals in the world.

One night a Wolf appears
at the farm and is intent
on getting an easy meal.

Chirin's mother sacrifices
herself so Chirin may live.
Chirin devastated follows
the trail of the Wolf and finds
him.

Chirin angrily chastises the
Wolf for what he did and follows
the Wolf.

The Wolf after awhile decides
to teach Chirin the life that
he lives, and the challenges
of it.

He shows him how he hunts Elk
and fights of rival predators
like Bears.

The Wolf even teaches Chirin
how to fight and to use his
abilities, like his horns.

Chirin's final test is to
attack the livestock at his
former home.

Chirin seeing a little Lamb
being protected by it's mother
like what happened to him.

Seeing this, Chirin snaps
and decides to attack his
friend and mentor, the Wolf.

Chirin murders the Wolf by
impaling him.

The Wolf wasn't too surprised
that this might happened.

The other Lamb see this with
horror. Although they weren't
happy about being predated
occasionally by a Wolf, they
knew that Chirin killed out
of misguided personal vengeance
and revenge. The Wolf killed
because living in Nature is
hard and sometimes meals are
hard to get as a result.

Shocked that Chirin became
a murderer, they are scared of
him.

He travels to the
mountains where he encountered
the Wolf. Looking into the
body of water, he sees his reflection
and then one of the Wolf
materializes. Thinking the Wolf
is back he looks up and is
devastated that the Wolf isn't
there.

Crying out into the night,
he knows he has lost everything.

END SYNOPSIS

This story is based on a story
book made by Yanase Takashi. The
storybook has beautiful artwork,
which has alot of watercolors used.

As far as the film, the animation
is still beautiful even today.

The animation style isn't used
this modern day, but is very
fascinating.

When the characters talk not
all of their mouths move.
Like Chirin's mother, and the
Wolf. The Wolf's eyes look
alot like Guyver III's eyes
from The Guyver.

The music is also beautiful.
It's orchestral and gets really
vibrant when many of the dramatic
moments of the film occur. Chirin's
mother's death, Chririn getting horns
and the tragic death of the Wolf.

This film was great then and now.
Believe it or not is heavily
based on fact.

A) Wolves prey on livestock
periodically, not because they
are monsters or evil, but
sometimes it's because a meal
can easily be obtained that way
rather than in Nature. However
as we all know in this era, livestock
issues can be prevented without
violence thanks to Non-Lethal
Methods and PF Ranching.

B) Wolves hunt Elk which is
true as well. And it is very
hard, which is why they hunt
in packs. Hunts aren't always
successful, and getting critically
injured is always a possibility.

C) Wolves do have Bears as rivals.
As the film shows, Bears aren't evil
like Wolves, but they do occasionally
battle over food and other issues.

D) Thus the life of a Wolf in Nature
is not easy and the Wolf being rather
skeptical and cynical at first around
Chirin would make sense, if a Wolf
had Human attributes.

Thus it is very accurate.

This film we are sure inspired the
later book series and film, Stormy
Night.

Much like Ringing Bell, the
story truly begins in a barn
where the Goat named Mei meets
the Wolf Gabu for the first time.

Mei's mother too was killed by
Wolves.

Mei and Gabu would become friends
and learn how their races live.

And Stormy Night showed Wolves
predating on Goats as one part
of how they live.

The Wolves live a more rougher
life than the Goats as the film
shows. Despite what both sides
are like, Goats and the Wolves
really both aren't portrayed
as villains as such.

This series had differences but
they enriched it as well.

1) Mei didn't want to seek in
the end revenge against Wolves
for the death of his mother.

He just wanted to live his life
like a Goat until his friendship with Gabu
the Wolf happened and that
became his life.

2) Goats not Lambs, were one side
of the coin in Stormy Night. So
in both series you had livestock
being one side in the story.

3) Mei and Gabu's friendship
would endure despite challenges.
Though the friendship in Ringing
would disintegrate because of
Chirin's selfish desire for revenge,
Mei would stick with Gabu, despite
knowing that Gabu has to eat
other animals for food. This allowed
them both to have a strong and
continued friendship over the
course of many adventures.

4) There were more Wolves in
Stormy Night than in Ringing Bell,
and it showed continued
dynamics of their society.

As you can see the film Ringing
Bell is still classic and still
has a big influence on films and
literature today, such as Stormy Night.
And there are more films and shows
from Japan that have had Wolves
prominently. Like Mononoke Hime (Eng. Princess Mononoke)
and Wolf's Rain.

The film was re-printed in recent years in Japan on DVD.

It is in Japanese and is region-encoded,
so you have to have a Japanese DVD
Player or Region Free DVD Player to watch
it.

Here is a few websites you can
purchase it. As well as the book.

Ringing Bell as YesAsia.com
Ringing Bell Book at YesAsia.com
Ringing Bell at cd japan

And here is another take on it.

Definitely don't miss out on this
classic.

Rating: 5/5

Mike Wagner -- Director and Founder of Heart of the
Wolf Organization, Honor Fallen and Oppressed Wolves
-- and Co-Host of KWF Wolf Conservation, Webb of Life

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Copyright 2008 Heart of the Wolf Organization