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Monsters vs Aliens: Movie Review for Parents & Children

Monsters vs Aliens Movie Logo
Monsters vs Aliens Movie Logo

Monsters vs Aliens (2009)

Primary Audience: Kids, Family, Teens, Adults
Genre: Animation, Sci-Fi, Family, Kids, Comedy
Length: 1 Hour 34 Minutes
Rated: PG

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, Hugh Laurie, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd, Renee Zellweger
Director: Rob Letterman (Shark Tale), Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2)
Producer: DreamWorks Animation

Dreamworks vs Pixar

Finding Nemo. Toy Story. Cars. What do these films have in common? They were considered excellent, well made films great for the family and safe for children. Each were produced by Pixar who now holds both the benefit as well as the burden of increasingly high expectations. Every year, we expect a clean and great blockbuster to come out of Pixar Studios.

Then there is Dreamworks Animation, film studio of “Monsters vs Aliens”. Dreamwork films have always been a mixed bag. They’ve had great, safe animated films such as Shrek, Antz, Prince of Egypt and Kungfu Panda. But they’ve also had shockers such as Shrek 2, full of really inappropriate adult themed content which unfortunately went on to be their biggest grosser to date. Money talks and the success they’ve found catering to the adult audience will only further more such films. Unfortunately many people were caught off guard as many of these films are presented as family friendly movies.

How about Monsters vs Aliens? It continues Dreamwork’s long tradition of movies. Good fun movie but with occasional potty humor and inappropriate scenes.

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Clean Cut Media – Growing Media Blog

Clean Cut Media – Growing Media Blog

Last month we had a tremendous jump in pageviews taking Clean Cut Media over the 10,000 pageview mark. We were very excited, yet we wondered, could we possibly keep up this visiting rate? Last month we had some exceptional days and some good breaks. Would this be the month where we see growth stagnate or heaven forbid, regress?

Mar: 12,651
Apr: 15,952

Maybe next time, for it is not this month.

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Top 10 Articles & Posts in April

In Order of Online Activity [Previous Rank]

(1) Creativity: 3D Chalk Art in the Streets Part I [1]

One day this post will no longer bring in the traffic that it does, but as long as it does, we’ll take it!

(2) Creativity: Amazing 3D Building Art [2]

(3) Creativity: 3D Chalk Art in the Streets Part II [5]

Highest Riser of the Month!

(4) Movie Review: Watchmen Morality Review [3]

Movie Reviews continued to draw in many visitors. I’ve hoped to find some time to discuss some recent movies I’ve seen such as Monsters vs Aliens and Knowing. If you want to contribute a Movie Review please email us.
info [at] cleancutmedia.com.

(5) irl Self-Esteem, Image Issues & Parents [NR]

NR means Not Ranked. A new post rose up the charts! If you haven’t read it please take a look!

(6) Teens Sharing Nude Photos Online – Impact in Real Life Behavior [6]

Check out the shocking statistics in this post! Very disturbing trend.

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Influence of Media & Advertising in Our View of Life

Growth of the Information Age

The proliferation of the Internet and the ease of sharing information online has greatly enhanced the power of media and advertising. It shapes are attitudes, behaviors and our values in regards to how we view everything and everyone. Everyone speaks about how media affects our society but the power of advertising also comes from the ideas and messages that get portrayed as an underlying reality in media.

Advertising Providing Solutions to our Deepest Longings

Luxury Acura Advertisement Lifestyle
Luxury Acura Advertisement Lifestyle

Everyday we are exposed to a particular lifestyle portrayed in movies, tv shows, billboards and commercials. We see people dressed a certain way, living life “to the fullest” – in a particular way. Unfortunately, these characters are created to sell products or raise ratings. Often what is portrayed may not be aligned with reality and yet we may feel that…

  • We long to have the kind of life they live.
  • We wish our lives were just as exciting.
  • We wish we had such close relationships and friends.
  • We wish we would run into that kind of luck we see on TV.
  • We wish we can live just as recklessly, perhaps promiscuously without consequences.
  • We wish we could be as happy as the people we see.
  • We wish to look the way they look, have the body shape as they do.
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Clean Cut Media – Rapid Rise

Clean Cut Media Climbing the Ranks

Dumbfounded again. Pageviews (Growth). I am a very strong optimist but each month I still wonder how it could possibly grow anymore.

Jan: 2,504 Pageviews
Feb: 4,705 (88%)
Mar: 12,651 (169%)

Clean Cut Media Statistics Weekly
Clean Cut Media Statistics Weekly

I expected some growth this month, but the incredible jump was unexpected. Clean Cut Media is starting to draw some attention by fellow bloggers and websites as we occasionally get emailed notes from similar sites. It’s also a good sign when other blogs link to your articles!

We were even approached for an acquisition! If you haven’t figured out, that was on April 1st. I was sent some personal startled notes from the regulars.

Top 10 Articles & Posts in March

In Order of Online Activity

(1) Creativity: 3D Chalk Art in the Streets Part I

Continues to dominate this top spot. Driver of the most new visitors looking for beautiful artwork.

(2) Creativity: Amazing 3D Building Art

(3) Movie Review: Watchmen Morality Review

Attracted the most discussion considering Watchmen was one of the bigger movies in the past few months. Contribute your thoughts!

(4) Teen Kills for Halo 3

Huge lift after being linked from a Halo 3 Gaming Forum. The Gaming community are clearly upset that Halo is being linked to this death, quickly to question at the youth involved.

(5) Creativity: 3D Chalk Art in the Streets Part II

(6) Teens Sharing Nude Photos Online – Impact in Real Life Behavior

Still one of the more shocking statistics posted on Clean Cut Media.

(7) Israel Palestinians Media War on the Gaza Strip

(8) Facebook vs MySpace Statistics

(9) Youtube Statistics – The Ultimate Time Suck

(10) Social networks in Asia – China, Korea, Japan, India

[poll id=”4″]

Contribute Your Own Content
If you would like to contribute your own articles media influence, social issues, movie reviews, or anything else, please feel free to submit to clean cut media and maybe it’ll appear as a post! Other websites can can contribute their content, I’ll happily give link reference at the end of the post.Email Here

Fun Clean Cut Media Statistics Below

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Clean Cut Media – Feb Recap – Love for this Media Blog

Clean Cut Media Getting Some Love

I’ll be frank. Every month I wonder, how in the world will the traffic grow over the previous month. January was pretty solid, how am I going to attract new users? Well despite the short month, internet users showed Clean Cut Media some love this past February. Recorded record day, record week, record month. Clean Cut Media continues to grow at a rapid pace. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Media Statistics - Clean Cut Media
Media Statistics - Clean Cut Media

For the 88% of you who are new visitors to the site, during the first few days of the month I review the site growth and review the top postings. This is a way of allowing the community members to share in the growing community.

Feb Growth: Up 88% from Jan
Feb Pageviews: 4,705 Pageviews

Top 5 Articles & Posts in Feb

In Order of Pageview Activity

There was a clear winner. The Creativity 3D Chalk Art post drew a lot of visitors this month as our images were picked up by Google Image and is now officially showing as the #1 picture on the page #1 for both web searches and image searches. It is my hope that many come in, enjoy the beautiful artwork but also browse around and find the rest of the media centric entries informative and useful.

Note that the data is for Feb, so postings earlier in the month have a clear advantage in these rankings versus ones posted few days ago.

(1) Creativity: 3D Chalk Art in the Streets Part I
(2) Creativity: Distorted Typography
(3) Israel & Palestinian’s Media War on the Gaza Strip
(4) Facebook vs MySpace Statistics
(5) Creativity: 3D Chalk Art in the Streets Part II

Just out of the top 5 were social issue articles such as Teen Kills for Halo 3, Sex Trafficking, Media Impact on Children, and Teen Media Depression

[poll id=”4″]

As noted last month, if you want to write your own articles on social issues, movie reviews, or anything else, please feel free to submit to clean cut media and maybe it’ll appear as a post! Email Here

Fun Clean Cut Media Statistics Below

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Israel & Palestinian’s Media War on the Gaza Strip

Israel Palestinian Gaza Media
Israel Palestinian Gaza Media

There has been a lot of talk on the Media Wars in Gaza between the Palestinians and Israel. Both sides have kept a careful lip on what gets transmitted out to the public. Below I’ve tried to give a snapshot of the “media war” and how Israel and Palestinians go about controlling their message to the world.

Israel claims that opening their borders for journalist would put those in the terminals in danger. The government has long banned Israeli journalist from entering Gaza because of the concerns for their safety. However they had allowed foreign reporters to enter. Thus without access, the media has no reliable source or information.

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Clean Cut Media: December Media Recap

Happy New Year!
Whether you are a regular visitor or landed on this blog for the first time, we are glad you are here as we transition into 2009! December saw records high and the launch of the Viewpoint Series. Don’t forget to bookmark this page and come back!

Month after Month – Clean Cut Traffic
Despite the holiday season where vacations and traveling leads to a drop in overall traffic volume, Clean Cut Media continues to buck the trends and break all kinds of records. A strong start of the month helped balance out the slow holiday season.

Dec Growth: Up 27% from Nov
Dec Pageviews: Pageviews came to about 2,200, meaning the traffic more than doubled since October.

Top Articles & Posts in Dec
Movie Review: Twilight – Love Conquers All
Powerful Impact of Media on Children
Influence of TV Satire on Political Identities – Sarah Palin SNL
Teen Kills Self on JustinTV with 185 Witnesses
Creativity: Leave Nothing Nike Commercials
Movie Review: High School Musical 3

Past Week Top Post: Movie Review: Seven Pounds – Will Smith
This post is more than just a review, but a discussion about a very important moral topic. Can’t note the topic here because it would be a spoiler! Visit the link to read about it!

Fun Clean Cut Media Information & Statistics Below

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Clean Cut Media: November Media Recap

Another Month in Clean Cut Media. Another record in terms of traffic. As always I want everyone to share in this communities growth! I appreciate all the old contributing members as well as the new. Please keep returning here, posting comments and promoting discussion. Even the smallest of comments are greatly appreciated.

Record Month
November just like October was a record month in terms of pageviews at about 1750 pageviews. That is about an 80% growth from October and 150% more then September. “Influence of TV SNL Satire on Political Identity – Sarah Palin 2008″ continues to draw the most traffic while new November Posts “Movie Review: High School Musical 3 – The Message”, “Creativity: Toshiba Timesculpture Advertisement Video”, and “Movie Review: Twilight, Love Conquers All?” rose up the charts following not too far behind.

The hope is that old posts continue to attract visitors while new posts dominate the new traffic. So far so good.

Searching for Clean Cut Media in Nov
As someone who works in the online marketing fields, these numbers are fun to follow. Hope you find it interesting too. How do people find Clean Cut Media anyway?

Searches: 65%
Referrering Websites: 20%
Direct (typing the URL): 15%

81% of visitors were brand new visitors! Awesome.

Example Top Searches
“media influence”
“media influence statistics”
“influence of media on culture”
“media influence on children”
“influence of the media on children”
“media vs movie influence”
“why is the media influence so powerful”
“online video teen culture media”
“don’t vote campaign”

It is my hope to continue to draw people who type in such important topics.

November Media Post Recap
Nov 1: Clean Cut Media: October Recap – Watch us Grow
Nov 4: 5.3 Billion Spend on Federal Political Candidiates
Nov 7: Movie Review: High School Musical 3 – The Message
** Most Pageviews
Nov 11: Powerful Impact of Media on Children
Nov 17: Creativity: Toshiba Timesculpture Advertisement Video
Nov 21: Black Hole Short Film – Underestimating the Subtle Power of Desire
Nov 23: Teen Kills Self on Justin.tv with 185 Witnesses
Nov 29: Movie Review: Twilight, Love Conquers All?

RSS Feed
If you haven’t signed up for the RSS Feed please do!
You can sign up for RSS Feed Here or if you are not familiar with what RSS feeds are check out this post on RSS Feeds

If you’d like to see a particular posting, topic or anything else on this site, please leave a comment.

Thanks

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Clean Cut Media: October Recap – Watch us Grow

At the beginning of every month, I’ll be posting links to all the articles from the previous month in case you’d miss them. I really appreciate everyone who are following this blog and want to keep everyone in the loop as this blog gains traction. I really encourage everyone to engage the community by commenting on the posts and stating your opinions!

Record Month
October was a record month in terms of pageviews at about 1000 pageviews. That is nearly a 39% growth in views since September. The entry on “Influence of TV SNL Satire on Political Identity – Sarah Palin 2008” had the most pageviews followed by an older entry on Latest 3D Holographic News posted back in Sept 30.

How do people find clean cut media anyway?
Many of you may think that the only people who view this blog are people I know personally especially as this blog is really young, however this isn’t the case. The majority of the traffic to clean cut media comes from search engines (56% of all traffic).

Searches: 56%
Referrering Websites: 30%
Direct (typing the URL): 14%

Example Searches
“influence of media on culture”
“how media impacts our life”
“movies inappropriate on children”
“don’t vote campaign”
“influence of media teens”

Very happy to see the blog pick up traction on finding viewers searching on such important topics.

October Post Recap
Oct 2: Surveillance of Skype Messages in China
Oct 8: Creativity – Classic Honda TV Commercial
Oct 9: Surveillance of Skype Messages in China Part II
Oct 13: Don’t Vote Print Campaign
Oct 16
: Creativity: Leave Nothing Nike Commercial
Oct 19: Influence of TV SNL Satire on Political Identity – Sarah Palin 2008
** Most Pageviews
Oct 22: Apple vs. Microsoft. Mac vs PC Marketing
** Most Comment Activity
Oct 25: Social Network – Facebook – Friends Forever
Oct 28: Creativity – American Airlines & Holiday Inn TV Commercial Spots
Oct 30: Are Election Media Polls Trustworthy?

If you haven’t signed up for the RSS Feed please do!
You can sign up for RSS Feed Here or if you are not familiar with what RSS feeds are check out this post on RSS Feeds

As mentioned above please engage the community and comment when you have something to say!

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China’s 2008 Beijing Olympics Media Part II : Beauty is King

As everyone has heard by now, it was later found that the cute little girl, Lin Miaoke, was lip syncing while the original girl, Yang Peiyi, was yanked from the program last minute told to sing from backstage because she wasn’t “flawless in image” according to the musical director of the olympics. The musical director said the reasons were for national interest and that the child on camera should be “flawless in image, internal feelings and expression. Lin Miaoke is excellent in these aspects”. “The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation,” said Chen Qigang. The interview appeared briefly on the Chinese news website Sina before it disappeared.

“What was best for the nation”. Do you believe what they did was best for the nation?

My first thought when I heard this news was thinking about what kind of message this sent to the two little girls involved as well as to the rest of the viewers. Yang Peiyi was basically told that if you aren’t pretty you can’t be on stage or in other words there is a limit to how far you can go if you don’t have the looks. Despite her incredible voice, it was her physical appearance that held her back. In an interview the General Music Designer slipped in saying she wasn’t attractive enough and had crooked teeth. This was indeed tragic as she is so young. What do you say to her when she asks why she isn’t being allowed to go stage but has to sing in a mic as another girl pretends to be singing?

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Role of Media in Promoting Smoking & Tobacco Use

A new 685 page report from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) backs the claim that smoking in movies influences children to smoke. The report is called “The role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tabacco Use”.

The NCI found that tabacco advertising and marketing is causally linked to increased tobacco use. It also states that smoking depicted in films and movies are causally related to smoking initiation among youth. There are very few movies out there where smoking isn’t shown as a normal part of life. Smoking is done so casually on TV and movie programs that it simply seems like something anyone would normally do. This is most likely old news for most people, but the rate in which smoking scenes are appearing in movies may catch you slightly off guard.

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Who Regulates Online Advertising & Marketing to Children?

A new report by Berkeley Media Studies Group, part of the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, California focuses on the different methods companies use to advertise food to kids. It focuses on methods that have become popularized in the last two years such as the utilization of social networks. The main concern is that though mediums such as TV are somewhat regulated, but the online world still has no true regulations. Junk food advertising has been a huge concern and lawmakers have started to move to present a proposal to Congress to restrict junk food advertising. One author of the report says “With social networking, marketers are getting the kids to create the ads and share them with their friends. It is incredibly sticky and it is viral. Regulators need to understand that.”

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