Night #76 - Magic, Monsters, and Museums

One of my personal projects recently has been to make my way through the entire original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, the one that 4Kids dubbed and aired during my childhood. And recently, I've been picking up on a lot of subtle similarities between this franchise and NATM, which can be grouped into three categories: use of magic, use of Egyptian themes, and character journey. I will discuss each f these as the time comes, but tonight, I'd like to discuss the use of magic in the two franchises. And yes, the series which focuses nearly squarely on a children's card game does, in fact, feature magic.

When it comes to the magic in the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe, the basic idea is that there are seven ancient Egyptian artifacts with varying magical properties: a necklace which reveals the future, an eye which reads minds, a rod which controls minds, a ring that looks like a dream catcher which can help you find whatever you're looking for, a key which lets you into another person's mind, a set of scales which can judge a person in life the way they will be judged in death, and a puzzle which can (I gather) alter fate. Each of these items also shares the ability to create Shadow Games, which are so high-stakes that the loser/cheater faces the possibility of a fate worse than death more often than not, and which may be normal games or may be something made up on the spot to challenge someone on a character level.

Magic in Night at the Museum is considerably more nebulous: we have a tablet but we don't know the extent of its power: clearly, as Kahmunrah was so kind as to demonstrate in the middle of his plot to take over the world, it does a lot more than bring exhibits to life every night, even though that is its primary (and possibly only inert) feature.

However, in both of these franchises, magic is an element of the setting, relevant only insofar as it influences the main plot of the series (exhibits coming to life and creating a less-than-ordinary job for Larry or being used as a weapon by crazy people in order to make children's card games considerably more interesting, which is pretty much Yami and Yugi's problem), but otherwise background. The story instead is concerned with how this element contributes to the character's journey, discussed a couple of nights from now. Though the magical systems are entirely different and only share the similarity of their origins, they do serve the same function: they affect the lives of the characters and contribute to their decisions.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": The second criterion: use of Egyptian themes.

Countdown: 296 Days to NATM 3

Night #75 - Kahmunrah and World Domination Revisited

This post was inspired in part by further reflection on a statement one of my friends made, to the effect of
"[Kahmunrah's] role would just be a farce. We couldn't get past his lisp." It made me recall what some friends and I have been discussing about Night at the Museum 2, chiefly that the whole point behind Kahmunrah's plot is to make people respect him, or at least fear him, by gaining complete control over everyone on the planet. It stems from his speech impediment making listening to him too amusing to fully take him seriously, and also from a variety of circumstances during his youth, among them potential illegitimacy and abuse in such a formalized situation where he had no power that quite frankly he convinced himself that the only way to do anything about it was to take matters into his own hands, which clearly he is capable of doing, if given enough of a reason to.

But so far as Kahmunrah's success and the aftermath of it are concerned, I think my friend has a point. Kahmunrah's battle for fear would be far from over, simply because listening to him talk is so damned funny. Sure, we take him a bit more seriously at first, but as the movie progresses, he starts to lose all composure and exposes himself as a spoiled six-year-old on the inside, and at this point, his lisp becomes the icing on the cake in terms of comedy. If one man is enough to make him crack this way, imagine what it'll be like against a whole bunch of people opposed to being ruled period. Not only will he crack big time if things don't go his way, and not only does he rely on the somewhat sketchy status of his birdmen warriors, there is next to zero likelihood that anyone hearing him rant with that lisp will do anything but bust up laughing.

Kahmunrah therefore cannot reasonably expect to pursue world domination in and of itself, and we cannot expect that of him if we were to give it any consideration at all. To Kahmunrah, the world seems like just recompense (plus interest) for the loss of the title of "crown prince" to his younger brother, when he has no reason to suspect that there is a good reason for this, for example, his illegitimacy. The real goal, then, is justice, in whatever odd sense that happens to be. He is trying to gain something which will make up for the way his parents and the rest of the world treated him while he was alive, and it has warped into an obsession, and possibly an impossible quest. Supposing he seized the throne of Egypt after his brother's death (natural or otherwise), he is still trying to rule the rest of the world, when all he really had any conceivable claim to was Egypt. This suggests that he won't be satisfied with anything, always searching for that elusive "something" to make him feel better about his life.

But that "something" might not be so elusive after all, if the film makers could contrive to have the Brothers Egypt reunite and level with each other again as brothers first, royal second.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": I compare Night at the Museum to the well-known anime franchise Yu-Gi-Oh! on the first of three criteria: the use of magic.

Countdown: 297 Days to NATM 3

Night #74 - Dark Horse

As Isis, Cleopatra, or both, Katy Perry rocks the Egyptian look in her latest music video for the song "Dark Horse". And if her caprice reminds you at all of Kahmunrah, then you're definitely reading the right blog.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": I return to two subjects which fascinate me: Kahmunrah's inner workings and the consequences of his crazy plan.

Countdown: 298 Days to NATM 3

Night #73 - "Hey, you like Night at the Museum?"

Because we are still in the month of love and though this is a bit dated, it was actually inspired before Valentine's Day itself, because of the quirky habit my friends have of swapping terrible pick up lines in order to enjoy the holiday properly. Here's my small but hopefully growing list of Night at the Museum themed ones. Feel free to add your own in the comments! Much appreciated.

1. Can I put my magic tablet into your magic door?
2. Wanna see me come alive after dark?
3. Did someone open the Gate to the Underworld, or are you just the most beautiful woman alive?
4. I'm planning on a looong retirement tonight. Care to join me?
5. Of all the people in history, you're the most fascinating.
6. (after a rejection) Very well. I shall wait a thousand more years if I must, to win your heart. (works best while lisping like Kahmunrah)
7. You pulled a Dexter; you stole my heart, and I didn't even notice until I needed it.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": Something you may or may not have heard of, Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" music video!

Countdown: 299 Days to NATM 3 (We broke through the first hundred mark! Woohoo!)

Night #72 - 1000+ Pageviews Party!

This is my way of showing my appreciation to all of you for helping this blog reach 1000+ pageviews; a party! Actually it's just a pic spam containing every Ahkmenrah-Kahmunrah-both pic I have, below the cut.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": A small list of Night at the Museum pick up lines which, with your help, will be able to grow into something truly special, because the world can't have too much Museum fun! :)

Countdown: 300 Days to NATM 3

Night #71 - Posters, Foreign and Domestic

A collection of cool, interesting, interesting-to-the-hardcore-nerd, and generally appealing posters from the US and around the world (mostly the US, but the Thai one has the coolest front cover ever (it's the first one, and I say it's Thai because I found it on a Thai blog, even though the text is in English. It's still awesome, though)).

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": Happy 1000+ Pageviews, everybody! I'm throwing all you guys a party!

Countdown: 301 Days to NATM 3

Night #70 - NATM Stamps!

The installment of fanart which is specifically dedicated to NATM stamps, because really, there are a crap ton out there. Same format as last night, so if you're confused, refer to Night 69 for the explanation as to why I use it, and as always, enjoy!

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": NATM posters from here and around the world

Countdown: 302 Days to NATM 3

Night #69 - A Night at the Art Museum

...of sorts. A collection of half-decent and mildly amusing fanart, most of it from, of course, Deviantart. Beware of a little soapboxing, and I'll set it up so that if you click on the image, you'll be redirected to the page where it comes from. You can comment and it's my way of saying this isn't my original work, but I can point you in the right direction.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": The Art Museum gallery directly devoted to NATM stamps!

Countdown: 303 Days to NATM 3

NATM 3 Update: The recent news is all about Rebel Wilson, as she finally hops on to filming NATM 3 in the delivery entrance to the British Museum (set behind the CHEM building of the University of Cambridge), of which it is their last day there (they're there from the 19th to the 21st, and sadly this is the first I'm hearing of this). The strong hint is that this is the filming of the scene where the magic tablet is delivered to the British Museum, and apparently Larry gets to go with them this time. No plot details as of yet, so the question remains: why?

See this link for more information. And see this link for images of the set construction. Let the speculation continue!

Night #68 - The Quest for the Wiki

I judge wikis based largely on quality of information, lack of spelling mistakes, etc. Quality and quantity are not the same thing, mind you, because your site can have tons of pages, but the comma machine gun went awry, or the spellchecker malfunctioned, or you were Freud for the day, and as a result all those pages come out like a gigantic mass of weird.

I wasn't looking for pages relating to NATM characters on more general wikis, like Heroes or Villains, but rather a wiki specific to Night at the Museum alone. And it only seems like there's only the one: natm.wikia.com. There are a ton of pages, on literally everything, but apparently the spellchecker went out the window along with the butter dish, courtesy of the idiot who wanted to see a butterfly, because you're more likely to find a spelling error (minor or otherwise) than not. It especially doesn't speak well when there's a spelling error in a page title, as an aside to the people who make and edit these things. Add to that the fact that specifically their page on Larry Daley is incomplete, and he's the main character. We're talking about someone who's been going through character development for two movies now, and you can't be bothered to flesh out the sections on those movies? And who "ends up" kicking ass like that, even in the first movie?

But overall, it's better than some other endeavors I've seen. The Little Vampire wiki, for example, is such a shoddy effort that I'm almost afraid of it. This is a good start, but please, learn to love your spellchecker and learn to love your NATM.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": Taking another break from all my seriousness and posting some of the better/cooler fanarts for NATM, fo

Countdown: 304 Days to NATM 3

Night #67 - Mummypocalypse! Part 7

Here's something else some in the fandom wonder about, and it's something I find a bit curious as well: Rexy is a dead living thing being reanimated by the tablet, but he's a skeleton who's magically able to walk around, growl, roar, etc. Ahkmenrah is also a dead living thing. However, when he comes alive, he looks like a normal human being. The process of mummification should have left him about as bad off as Rexy, but he seems fine.

There are a number of possibilities for this, the chief two of which are that Ahkmenrah magically has his organs each night, or is able to function like he does, the way Rexy is able to function like he has muscles, vocal chords, and organs even though it's obvious he does not, or Ahkmenrah was simply placed as he was, a dead body, into his sarcophagus and buried with the tablet before going through the funeral procession seventy days later (it's not likely the government would have it get around that he's being magically kept alive by a slab of pure gold, lest thieves (or Kahmunrah) should try to take it, resulting in Ahkmenrah rotting just like a normal dead person and defeating the entire purpose of the enterprise). Of course, if thieves (or Kahmunrah) did get wind of this, chances are the priests would know, or want to know, as quickly as possible and arrange both to stop them and to ensure their lately-dead king is properly cared for in case of such an emergency. The fallback, therefore, is the mummification process.

But mummification was expensive and time consuming, not to mention the immense amount of ritual involved, and people are lazy by nature (this I know from personal experience), so chances are the priests wouldn't go through with a process which A) they didn't need and B) would've been too much effort to begin with if they didn't need it in a case like this.

And there is another element to consider: Rexy is a skeleton and looks the part. If Ahkmenrah were also badly desiccated for whatever reason, he would also look the part. The easiest and most logical assumption to make, therefore, is that his tablet has been with him from the start, and if it was reanimating him night after night and preserving him that way, he would therefore not need to be mummified.

But there are also the considerations of the tablet's safety, thieves and Kahmunrah chief among them. The priests, if they were worth their salt as such, knew this, and therefore they would have had contingency plans in place for this.

Much of Ahkmenrah's past is still shrouded in mystery, so the answer to the question could be either of these possibilities, and again, only time will tell.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": A considerably more pressing question: Is there, anywhere on the internet, a decent NATM wiki?

Countdown: 305 Days to NATM 3

Night #66 - Mummypocalypse! Part 6

There appears to be some confusion, founded or otherwise, on the exact state of Kahmunrah the exhibit, and that's the subject I'd like to address tonight.

When we first see Kahmunrah, which is when he's frozen just moments before sunrise and the tablet's activation for the night, he looks like a wax statue, which is enough to settle most people that he is, in fact, a wax statue (and at the moment an extremely pissed off one). However, perhaps because we never see Ahkmenrah's state in the day, whether he's decomposed or not when the tablet isn't active (he likely isn't, since Rexy's body is seriously decomposed and he's a skeleton, but that's something else entirely), some people have started to wonder if Kahmunrah is a mummy as well (someone said it was because of how he was torn apart as he was thrown into the Underworld, but that's most likely the effect of the Underworld on people entering it; the reverse happens when people leave it). Let me address this on the basis of Rexy. Kahmunrah has been inanimate and for all intents and purposes dead for three thousand years, as long as his brother has been reanimated time and time again by the tablet, and if he were, in fact, a badly dried out/decomposing corpse, he would look the part. He instead looks like a normal middle-aged (ripped) crazy bird-obsessed nutcase.

Therefore, in my opinion, the Kahmunrah in question is a waxwork, which means there is, in fact, hope of there being another statue (same medium or otherwise) of him somewhere in the far-flung world, and there is some hope for a Brothers Egypt family reunion. Unless his soul has been destroyed forever, but given the deep link Egyptians had between the soul's survival and the images of the deceased, and given Kahmunrah's pride and vanity, this isn't likely.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": What does Rexy's condition as a collection of fossils tell us about Ahkmenrah's as a complete human being? And what does magic have to do with it?

Countdown: 306 Days to NATM 3

Night #65 - Mummypocalypse! Part 5

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": Now that we've returned to the topic at hand, I turn to the other Brother Egypt and discuss why some people wonder if he's a dead body while the rest of the world is convinced he's just a waxwork come to life, just like most of the other exhibits.

Countdown: 307 Days to NATM 3.

Night #64 - Mummypocalypse! Part 4

I've been spending the past few nights discussing mummies in various aspects, but I haven't actually discussed the process. Now let me preface. When I say process, I mean artificial process, by which Egyptians (specifically Egyptians because of the relevance to Night at the Museum, but other cultures made mummies, as well) mummified their dead. The Egyptians started by burying their dead in pits in the desert, and the heat and dryness of the environment would naturally preserve them. However, once they started to place the dead in coffins to protect them from desert-living scavengers, they found that the bodies rotted. Then someone got the bright idea to combine the best of the two methods, and the actual process of mummification was born.

"True mummification" is a process where a body is gutted and soaked in embalming salts for a set period. The corpse is tended by priests trained in the art. After the body is dried out, it is coated in resin, minerals, and oils and wrapped in yards and yards and yards and yards of linen. Each body part was wrapped individually, culminating in the whole thing being wrapped. Charms and other items would be placed in the wrappings for the protection of the corpse and the soul during its journey to the underworld, and finally the body was placed in a sarcophagus. Originally this was the pharaoh's burial because it was so expensive, but once the priests got good at it, anyone could be mummified and placed in an ornately decorated box covered with hieroglyphs. (Factoid #3: one of the steps in the process of gutting the body was to turn the brain to mush and drain it out through the nose. However, the heart was left intact because it was believed that was where the soul resided, and the heart was thus the object to be weighed in the judgement of the dead.)

The idea of preserving the body had chiefly religious purposes, rather than ones relating to pathology and microbes. They knew a body was desiccated after some time in a coffin or left to animals to scavenge, but they believed that the body was necessary to the soul's survival in the underworld (some versions go that one part of the soul, called the ba, needed to recharge nightly and resided in the body to do so, which may have helped inspire the method by which the tablet works) and therefore it needed to be preserved. Thus, mummification. The soul also needed protection against the various dangers of the underworld, everything from terrifying knife-headed demons to the snake creature of chaos himself, so charms were not only wrapped up with the body, they were written all over the tomb and later buried with the body in the world-famous Book of the Dead. A lot of effort went into protecting the body, and it is correlated to the ancient Egyptians' also-world-famous, exceedingly elaborate conception of the underworld and life after death.

I could write a book about this subject, and enjoy myself immensely, but the long and the short of it is there was an elaborate (sometimes 70-day) process which went into preserving a dead person in ancient Egypt, and it was done for religious reasons more often than not (or that's what they want you to think, but we can talk conspiracy theories another time).

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": Getting back to the matter at hand: Ahkmenrah.

Countdown: 308 Days to NATM 3.

Night #63 - Mummypocalypse! Part 3

Mummypocalypse rolls off the tongue a little better, yes?

Anyways, to move on to more substantive matters, The Smithsonian's Museum of Asian Art has a collection of ancient Egyptian artworks. First thing, how does this qualify as Asian? Second thing, you can actually click on a link and pull up pages and pages of thumbnails of things like busts, jars, plates, figurines, and a bunch of little things which look like amulets for various causes (protection against evil, mostly). And it isn't just thumbnails, either: click on a thumbnail and you get a useful page of information about the object in question. For example:

Amulet of Bes:

"ca. 1075-656 B.C.E or later

Unidentified, Egyptian 
Third Intermediate Period or later 

Faience (glazed composition)
H: 4.1 W: 2.2 D: 1.9 cm 
Egypt 

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1907.386"

"Small amulets made of faience, stone, ceramic, metal, or glass were common personal possessions in ancient Egypt. They were most frequently fashioned in the form of gods and goddesses or of animals sacred to them. Amulets were believed to give their owners magical protection from a wide variety of ills and evil forces, including sickness, infertility, and death in childbirth. They were often provided with loops so they could be strung and worn as a necklace. Some amulets were made to place on the body of the deceased to protect the soul in the hereafter.
Deities and animals represented in the group displayed here are among the subjects most favored for amulets. Taweret, the hippopotamus-headed goddess, and Bes, the dwarf god wearing tall plumes, protected women during childbirth. Cats often symbolized Bastet, a goddess of fertility. Other deities include Sakhmet, the lioness-headed goddess; the ram-headed Khnum, god of creation; and Thoth, god of wisdom, appearing as an ape or vervet monkey. Amulets specifically intended to protect the soul after death often depict Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the underworld, or Duamutef, the jackal-headed son of Horus, who protected the stomach."

For the actual stat page on the Amulet of Bes, see here. For the home page of the art collection, go here. To start in on the thumbnails, go here. Seriously, any of those places is perfect for nerding out.

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": The Mummypocalypse continues to overtake my blog as I discuss the ancient Egyptian art of mummification and why they did it.

Countdown: 309 Days to NATM 3

Night #62 - Mummy Apocalypse! Part 2

Wherein I read and discuss the British Museum's article on a group of eight mummies that they have in their collection and have been studying.

The article is actually an advertisement for an exhibition (which does still sound cool, by the way). It promises to allow you to see how each of the eight mummies was embalmed, each state of health, and help you learn about the actual process of mummification, natural or deliberate. About ten pounds per adult ticket (roughly $16.65 for my American readers), and you can book online. Members get in free, it seems. For more information and clarification, see here.

In the words of the mission control guy, "Damn, that was disappointing." I was hoping for an actual, informative article on the subject, giving a brief summary of each mummy, their process of mummification, etc. The exhibition includes mummies from Christian Sudan, prehistoric Egypt, and everything in between, and damn, it would've been cool to armchair archaeologist those suckers. But if you've got seventeen bucks (and a plane ticket, or access to a cab), go for it. If you learn anything cool, post in the comments for people less fortunate than yourself, please. Thank you, and we at Love NATM will consider this your charitable donation. :)

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": Mummypocalypse continues!

Countdown: 310 Days to NATM 3

Night #61 - Mummy Apocalypse

So a couple years ago I took this trip to Washington, D.C., and the funnest part was getting to go to one of the Smithsonian museums and check out their Egyptian exhibit, which is tucked way in a corner somewhere. So I did the usual tourist thing: got some souvenirs, nerded out on my Night at the Museum kick, which is what the experience kind of induced in me, admired the mummies, and I (somehow) managed to get some pretty sweet shots without anyone around me seeming to care what I was doing.

Here's a sample of that experience:

Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": Assuming I don't get arrested in the near future, let the Mummy Apocalypse continue! The British Museum, as I said last night, has an article on mummies, which I will discuss tomorrow.

Countdown: 311 Days to NATM 3