Year 2019

WHAT A YEAR IT HAS BEEN!
I have to be honest, this year I have felt, it went by so fast. One minute I was organizing a birthday party, the next I was already getting ready for Easter, then next was Christmas.

So now you ask, what happened during this year?
Well...I shall be typing out what I have seen that happened this year. We will be covering music, movies, deaths and what i have felt I have achieved this year.

First off, here a few highlights of the year:

Disney:

• Disney + was launched on 12 November 2019. This is a video on-demand streaming service that features Disney movies and new Disney TV shows.
• On May 1st, Walt Disney World celebrated the 30th anniversary of Disney's Hollywood Studios.
• Avengers: Endgame took over Avatar and has become the highest-grossing film of all time, and is also the second-highest-grossing film of all time in the US and Canada. This film currently has the highest weekend gross of 2019.
• An estimate budget of $356 million, Avengers: Endgame is one of the most expensive films to ever be made.
• The Original Six Avengers Cast members placed their handprints in cement at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
• 2019 marked the 25th anniversary of Walt Disney Pictures' movie "The Lion King.".
• The themed attraction Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge was officially in Disneyland on Mat 31 and in Walt Disney World on 29 August (On my birthday!).
• The IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth came to an end on September 30th, but there will be an all-new nighttime spectacular taking place in 2020.
• The Walt Disney Company's purchase of 21st Century Fox was made.
• Walt Disney Pictures become the first studio in history to pass $10 billion worldwide in box office.
• Disney is the first to have most of their films reach $1 billion for a single year at the worldwide box office.

Other Highlights:

• On April 6, the Gringotts bank opens to the public, and is included in the Studio Tour. This was a new expansion which included: A new lobby and cafe. The Studio Tour Hub now contains the Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon. There is a Chocolate Frog Cafe, and the Studio Cafe has been redesigned, complete with floating candles.
• Apple TV + was released on 1 November 2019.
• Conan O'Brien and TBS announced that the Conan TV show would be reformatted with a new setting that features a looser structure. The show has reformatted to a 30 minute show, instead of an hour.
• The American animated TV show, The Simpsons, was renewed for its 31 and 32 seasons, which totals the series episodes to 713. This makes this the 1st American primetime scripted series to pass 700 episodes.
• For the first time, the 91st Academy Awards had no host since the 1989 ceremony. 
• Netflix had 15 nominations at the 91st Academy Awards which made it the most ever for a studio owned by a streaming service.
• The 2019 Rugby World Cup was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 02 November, ending with South Africa winning the World Cup.
• The role-playing video game Pokemon Sword and Shield was released on November 15th. 
• For the 4th time in its history, the 71 Primetime Emmy Awards which aired on Fox, did not have a host for the show.
• Spider-Man: Far From Home became Sony Picture's highest-grossing film.
• The Pussycat Dolls announce a 2020 Reunion Tour.
• A dolphin by the name of PJ has become a permanent resident at Clearwater Marine Aquarium due to PJ having hearing loss and vision loss and she will need long term resident care.
• SPUR Steak Ranches releases a vegan/vegetarian option on their menu.
• The Duchess of Sussex gave birth to her first child with prince Harry. This is the couple's first child and the name of the child is Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

2019 Deaths:
This year, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to the following celebrities:
Allee Willis; Cameron Boyce; Luke Perry; Robert Forster; Linda Porter; Jo Andres; Pegi Young; Julie Adams; Lisa Sheridan; Elly Mayday plus many more.
I am terribly sorry for everyone's loss during this year. I know it is not easy to cope with the loss of someone, but hang in there. I know it is tough. I can tell you at least you have the memories of that person who passed away. The memories will stay forever.

A few people who sadly passed away in 2019...

Here are a few movies which were released this year:

Avengers: Endgame; The Lion King; Frozen 1; Aladdin; Spider-Man: Far From Home; Captain Marvel; Toy Story; Joker; Hobbs and Shaw; Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker; Knives Out; Glass; Isn't it Romantic; How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World; Dumbo; Shazam!; Pet Sematary; Hellboy; After; Pokemon Detective Pikachu; John Wick Chapter 3 - Parabellum; A Dog's Journey; Godzilla: King of Monsters; Dark Phoenix; The Secret Life of Pets 2; Men in Black; Murder Mystery; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; The Red Sea Diving Resort; The Angry Birds Movie 2; Angel Has Fallen; Hustlers; Downton Abbey; Rambo: Last Blood; The Addams Family; maleficent: Mistress of Evil; Doctor Sleep; Last Christmas; Charlie's Angels; Playmobi: The Movie; Jumanji: The Next Level; Bombshell; Cats; Little Women; Jojo Rabbit; IT Chapter Two; Abominable and The Aeronauts.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The film has grossed $362.2 million in the US and Canada, and $363 million in other countries, and for a worldwide total of $725.2 million.
Detective Pikachu: The film went to debut to $54.4 million, finishing 2nd at the weekend box office behind Avengers: Endgame.
Frozen 2: This film grossed $1. 220 billion worldwide and had the highest all-time worldwide opening for an animated film.This film is the 4th highest-grossing animated film o fall time and is the 3rd highest-grossing film for 2019.
Knives Out: As of December 31st in 2019, this film had grossed R110.3 million in the US and Canada and $104.6 million in other countries and for a worldwide of $214.9 million.  This film received a rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 402 reviews. This film recieved critical acclaim for its screenplay, acting and direction. This film also received 3 nominations at the 77th Golden Glove Awards. This was also one of the most anticipated movies of the year.
John Wick Chapter 3 - Parabellum: The film made R57 million which then became the 1st film to dethrone Avengers: Endgame at the box office. This film was the best opening of the series.
This film I am going to write about was really the film of the year:
Avengers: Endgame: This film surpassed Avatar's record of 47 days, for the fastest film to reach $2 billion worldwide int he course of 11 days. This film broke the Infinity War's record for the highest weekend debut in April,a superhero film and a 3D film of all time. This film was a worldwide opening of $1.2 billion which is now the biggest of all time.

A few movies released in 2019.

Here are a few music albums that were released this year:

New Year's Day-Unbreakable; Backstreet Boys-DNA; Bring Me the Horizon-Amo; American Authors-Seasons; Within Temptation-Resist; Ariana Grande-Thank U, Next; Avril Lavigne-Head Above Water; Meghan Trainor-The Love Train; BTS-Map of the Soul: Persona; Andy Black-The Ghost of Ohio; Norah Jones-Begin Again; Aly and AJ-Sanctuary; Miley Cyrus-She is Coming; Motionless in White-Disguise; Avicii-Tim; Ed Sherran-No. 6 Collaborations Project; Sum 41-Order in Decline; Slipknot-We are Not Your End; Taylor Swift-Love; Lana Del Rey-Norman Fucking Rockwell; Lindsey Stirling-Artemis; Sleeping with Sirens-How It Feels to Be Lost; Korn-The Nothing; Lacuna Coil-Black Anima; Liam Payne-LP1; Harry Styles-Fine Line and Iggy Azalea. Plus many more albums released this year.

A few music albums released in 2019.

New Year's Day released 3 new music videos from their new album "Unbreakable" this year. Here is the music video for "Come for Me":

Lindsey Stirling released a music video off the album "Artemis":
Artemis:


Lacuna Coil released about 2 music videos off their new album, here is one of the music videos, "Reckless":


Avril Lavigne released a new album this year, along with a new music video:
Head Above Water:


Within Temptation released w new music titled "Supernova" off their album "Resist":

On a more personal note:
This year, I decided that there was a project I have been wanting to do for a very long time, but I kept on putting it off. So this year, I decided to go ahead with this project and I really hope you will be happy to see what the outcome is.

Thinking back to the beginning of this year, I decided to take a different approach to fitness. This year, I have been walking a lot more than what I used to. I aim to get 10K steps each day. I have also reduced my HIIT training and have adapted to more low impact exercises.

The fitness program I am following is Rachael Attard. I have found that her workouts work for me. Her program is low impact, with a few HIIT training workouts. Since I started my fitness journey I have been struggling with my body. Even though the other fitness programs work, they didn't seem to work for me. Hence why I decided this year I am taking a new approach to fitness. The result? I am seeing that this type of exercising seems to work for me. I do not perform any exercises which are heavy on my legs - such as squat jumps, box jumps and lunge jumps. I am also trying to eat healthier than what I was before. I haven't been making smoothie bowls this year because I did bloat after a while whenever I had smoothie bowls. So I needed to cut down on that. What I have been trying to do is find quick and easy healthy recipes as I would like to still share my journey with you all.
You can take a test to see which body type you are on her website. It's free and it will not take long to fill out.
Here is Rachael Attard's website:
https://www.rachaelattard.com/

I still do follow Lucy Wyndham-Reed's exercises and she is still a huge inspirations for me. I still follow Cara Collective as well as she inspires me too. A new fitness trainer I have started to follow this year is Dana Landgren. Her workouts she posts on her Instagram page are all pelvic-floor friendly and are low impact. Plus there is a workout for everyone.
Here is the link to her Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/danalandgren/


I am still a vegetarian. This would be the 5th year I am a vegetarian. Back when I became vegetarian I thought it would take a while to say to everyone "I have been a vegetarian for XX amounts of years.", now it has been 5 years and I do feel great that I am helping animals. Honestly, it is a choice I have made and no one has forced me to choose what I can and cannot eat. I have also reduced my use of plastic as this year more and more people are aware that plastic is not a good thing to have. Single use plastic is not what we need and many restaurants have swapped their single use plastic with plastic free alternatives.

This year I had the opportunity to run my own competition and it was a success. I personally must thank Eat naked Super Nude Foods for the absolutely amazing opportunity to let me run a competition. I am forever grateful. If you'd like to know more about Eat naked, here is their website:
https://www.eatnaked.co.za/
Here is the post:

View this post on Instagram

🍯 GIVEAWAY TIME 🍯 Hello to all you absolutely lovely people!! 🙋🏼‍♀️ It has finally come, my very first competition I am holding! 🙌🏻🙌🏻 To celebrate 🎊 I have teamed up with @eatnakednudefood and I will be giving away not one, but THREE lunchboxes filled with Eat Naked goodies 😋 So we will be having 3 winners. You may have seen my recent posts about lunchbox ideas which feature Eat Naked’s lunchbox. Now you have a chance of winning one too ☀️. . What do you win? ⭐️ Eat Naked Peanut Butter Cups. ⭐️ Roasted and Salted Macadamia nuts & Cranberries. ⭐️ Raw Honey 🍯. ⭐️ Two little travel size natural peanut butter. . Here is how to enter: 🍯 Like this post. 🍯 Follow both me @andriamackinnon and @eatnakednudefood - Will be checking. 🍯 Comment below which Eat Naked product you would add to your lunchbox. 🍯 Tag two friends who love this product. That’s it! BONUS points if you add this post to your Insta Story. Don’t forget to tag Eat Naked and I in the story. . Competition ends next week Tuesday, so happy entering! I cannot wait to see what you all have to say! 😁 . Rules: Three winners will be randomly selected. You must be based in South Africa. Winners need to be able to collect their prize from PostNet. This giveaway is not endorsed by Instagram or any of its affiliates. . . #competition #giveaway #giveawaycontest #eatnaked #nudefood #nomnom #delicious #superfood #healthylifestyle #rawfood #rawhoney #lunchbox #competitontime #southafrica #naturalpeanutbutter #peanutbuttercups #yummy #yumminess #healthygiveaway #healthysnacks #healthyeating #happytuesday

A post shared by Andria 🍒🌸🐾🤸🏼‍♀️ (@andriamackinnon) on Mar 27, 2019 at 4:00am PDT

This year, I finally posted more blogs than I have in the previous years. I know it is not a lot of blog posts, but it is a start. I have been posting motivation for the week and motivation I have found inspiring. I will try and write more blogs next year. If you have any suggestions please let me know.


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!
HAPPY 2020!!

Finding Dory Movie Review:

©Disney/DisneyPixar

Before Finding Dory came onto the movie screen, we first see a Disney Pixar short film titled Piper, which is based on a baby sandpiper. We first see a flock of sandpipers go near the sea to peck at the sand to find food. A mother sandpiper encourages her baby to go with her to find the food, but the baby refuses at first. When the baby sandpiper joins the flock, she fails to retreat from the sand and is then drenched in water from the sea water. This leaves the baby sandpiper scared of going back into the water, but then she soon discovers she is standing on 3 hermit crabs that are walking toward the sea. The baby sandpiper then notices how the hermit crabs dig deep into the sand to prevent them from being buffeted by the tide. The baby sandpiper copies what the hermit crabs do and discovers the beauty of the underwater world and also discovers the food. She then becomes skilled at discovering food for the flock of sandpipers. The short film ends with the mother sandpiper looking at her baby foraging food into one pile by the sea.

©Disney/DisneyPixar

We then see the movie Finding Dory. The movie starts off with Dory as a baby who suffers from short-term memory loss. Her mother and father try to help Dory remember things, but Dory's mind seems to wander elsewhere. Dory then somehow ends up lost in the ocean. We then discover, over a few years, how Dory ends up knocking into Marlin, the clownfish who at the time was chasing after the boat that captured his son Nemo.

It then changes to the present day which shows it is 1 years later after the incident from the first film. We see Dory start to remember that she has a family –a mother and a father – as she says that they lived at “the Jewel of Morro Bay, California”. After hearing about a speech on migration from the eagle ray Mr. Ray, Dory’s memories start to come back to her about her family and she suddenly starts to swim super fast and says that she needs to find her family. Marlin at first is reluctant to go across the ocean to help Dory find her family, but with encouragement from Nemo, he then agrees to help Dory. We then see the trio with the sea turtles with help from Crush, riding the ocean current to California. After saying their goodbyes to the sea turtles, the trio then swim near a shipwreck. As they are swimming, Dory starts to call her parents out loud, but crabs then tell her to keep quiet. We find out there is a giant squid there that attacks the trio and nearly kills Nemo. Marlin is then angry at Dory and tells her that she must wait at a spot as forgetting things is all that she is good at. Hurt at these words, Dory wanders off only to hear a noise above the surface, and she swims to the top of the surface. She is then taken by volunteers who work at a nearby place called Marine Life Institute. As Marlin and Nemo get help from 2 sea lions, Fluke and Rudder, Dory is then put under Quarantine in the Institute, and is also tagged on her one fin. She then meets an octopus by the name of Hank, who escaped from his own tank. Hank lost a tentacle in the past, which causes Dory to refer to him as a “septopus”. He notices Dory’s tag and asks her for the tag as he wants to go to an aquarium in Cleveland. They both then make a deal that if Hank helps Dory find her parents, he can take her tag so he can go to Cleveland. Hank explains that due to a past traumatic experience, he would rather live in an aquarium where he can be in a safe enclosure. Hank takes Dory to a map of the Marine Life Institute and asks where her family are situated, and Dory remembers that her family was in the Open Ocean section of the Institute. Along the way, Dory sees a bucket with the name “Destiny” on it. Dory thinks she knows the word, so she jumps into the bucket and sees fish in this bucket – but is unaware that they are all dead fish. The human lady that is taking the bucket throws Dory into a tank and it is here that Dory is reunited with her childhood friend Destiny, who is a short-sighted whale shark. We find out that Destiny and Dory used to speak “whale” to each other through the pipe system back when Dory was a baby. Dory also meets a beluga whale named Bailey, who believes he cannot echolocate due to a concussion. Dory does eventually get to the Open Ocean section, but before she does, her and Hank end up at the “Kid Zone” where fish and starfish are in a tank and children can pick up the fish and touch them – this does show that fish in real life actually are stressed out from being handled vigorously. During this time, Dory remembers her parents singing to her the song "Just Keep Swimming", and the song is how Dory and Hank manage to stop the children from touching them - one child puts his finger on Hank, and Hank releases ink into the water, which ends up making the water black and scaring off the children.

©Disney/DisneyPixar

When Hank and Dory make it to the Open Ocean section, Dory says goodbye to Hank, who receives the tag from Dory. Dory finds her home by following the shells on the ground as Dory remembers when she was a baby, her parents told her to always follow the shells if she ever got lost. Dory discovers that her parents are not at the home she grew up in, and she also remembers how she left her parents: She overheard her parents talking about her, and she saw a purple shell and wanted to give it to her mother as she knew her mother loved the purple shells. As Dory tried to get the shell, she was pulled into the current in the water and was pulled into the ocean.
After speaking to a crab, Dory finds out that all the blue tangs are all being moved to Cleveland, which means her parents should be by the Quarantine section.

©Disney/DisneyPixar

During this time, Marlin and Nemo ask the sea lions to help them get into the Marine Life Institute. The sea lions then call on Becky, a common loon who is dimwitted, and the sea lions tell Marlin to imprint with Becky so that Becky would recognise him in the future. As Becky flies into the Institute, she is sidetracked by popcorn which was on the ground and drops Marlin and Nemo – who are in a bucket of water – into a tree. Marlin tries to call Becky, but then pushes the bucket to the end of the branch, which leads him and Nemo flying in the air and the two end up in a small tank with a toy windup fish. Dory on the other hand, is stuck in the pipes as she swam through the pipe system and has forgotten the directions which was given to her by the crab, and is then heard by Destiny, who asks Bailey to echolocate and find Dory.

©Disney/DisneyPixar

At first, Bailey cannot echolocate, but then he starts to echolocate and finds Dory and also helps her to try and escape out of the pipes. Marline, Nemo and Dory are then reunited in the pipe system. The trio then head for the Quarantine section and they manage to find the tank where the blue tang fish are. Before the trio reach the tank of blue tang fish, they fall into a bucket of cleaning water, but are then saved by Hank who puts them into the tank of blue tang fish. The blue tang fish explain to Dory that her parents went to the Quarantine when Dory was sucked through the pipe system to look for her, but are not there anymore as this was years ago, which could mean that Dory’s parents are gone. While Dory is shocked by this information, Hank attempts to help Marlin, Dory and Nemo escape, but in the haste, Hank couldn’t retrieve Marlin and Nemo, and also the Marine Life staff capture Hank, who drops Dory into a drain, which leads her back into the ocean. Dory then forgets who she is looking for in the ocean, but then comes across shells. Dory then remembers to follow the shells, which leads to another home – home to where her parents have been staying since Dory was sucked through the pipe system. After reuniting with her parents, Dory’s mother Jenny explains that she and Charlie – Dory’s father – have been placing a trail of shells everyday in the hope’s that Dory would find them one day. Jenny also explained that since she and Charlie couldn’t find Dory in the Quarantine section, they both escaped the Institute because they knew Dory must be in the ocean. After hearing this and happy to be with her family, Dory remembers that she needs to rescue her other family – Marlin and Nemo. Dory asks Destiny and Bailey to help them rescue Marlin and Nemo. Both Destiny and Bailey escape from their tanks and jump into the big wide ocean. At first though, Destiny is scared of the ocean as there are walls everywhere, but Bailey tells Destiny that “there are no walls in the ocean” – which is a clever way of showing the cruelty behind captivity. Dory has a plan to stop the truck which Marlin and Nemo are in, with the help from the cute and adorable sea otter’s who sit on the highway to distract the traffic.

©Disney/DisneyPixar

Destiny then throws Dory into the hands of an otter who then takes her to the truck. Once inside the truck, Dory helps Marlin and Nemo escape into the ocean, but during this, Dory is left behind. She then asks Hank to help her, who was also in the truck after being captured by the Marine Life staff. Dory then convinces Hank that the ocean is not so bad, which Hank then agrees to help Dory escape. Dory and Hank work together to hijack the truck and to drive the truck into the ocean, which also releases the other fish who were inside the truck. After being reunited with everyone, Dory, Marlin, Nemo, Hank, Bailey, Destiny and her parents swim back to the Great Barrier Reef. The movie ends off with Hank being a substitute teacher for the school as Mr. Ray is migrating. Bailey and Destiny also help the class with Hank. Dory then swims just to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef to look out at the view, as Marlin also joins Dory to look at the view as Marlin said earlier in the film why can't they - Nemo, Marlin and Dory - just swim to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef and just look at the view.

During the post-credits scene, we see the fish from the dentist’s tank from the first movie still trapped in the bags they were in. They all manage to make their way to California, where they are supposedly “rescued” by the volunteers from the Marine Life Institute.

Before I end off, there is something I noticed in this movie: There was a focus point on captivity. When Destiny was scared that there are walls in the ocean, Bailey says that "there are no walls in the ocean". This is true as animals can swim for miles and miles in the ocean as the ocean is huge. In captivity however, animals only have the limited space available in their tanks.It could feel like a cage to an animal.

Another focus point in the movie was when the children picked up marine life in the one tank. Fish do in fact get stressed when so many hands are in the water, and sometimes unfortunately, children do tend to not care too much for handling animals. In the movie, children stuck their hands in the water and grabbed fish they found. Dory and Hank had to try and hide away from all the hands in the water. Fish and star fish were terrified being grabbed on and being taken out of the water.

What impressed me was that what you see in the film, does indeed happen in the real world, and some of it is sad. Animals just want to be free. Some animals however,do need to be rehabilitated and some animals who cannot survive in the wild, are then put into an aquarium or rehabilitation center.

A drawing of Dory as a baby and as an adult. The drawing is done by the blogger.

I retrieved most of my images from searching on Google.

Thank you to everyone who read this review,

I hope you enjoyed reading this movie review.