Animal Face-Off is Back!!!

Yes, you read the title of this blog post right: my very first stop-motion series, Animal Face-Off is back! But that's far from the only news I have to share (more on Animal Face-Off later)! In other news, our Easter drama, “The King on a Cross” is this weekend! I can't believe it! It seemed like just yesterday that we began memorizing our lines and the such. There will be two dramas held: one on April 18, which is today, at 6:00 p.m. and one on April 19, which is tomorrow, at 2:00 p.m. The cast and I can't wait to once again portray the end of Jesus' life, death and eventual resurrection and its far reaching implications. I'm also so excited that we'll be celebrating Christ's resurrection this Sunday! Easter's almost here!

Days Till

It is: the Friday night performance of “The King on a Cross” today!

It is: 1 day till the Saturday performance of “The King on a Cross”

It is: 2 days till Easter Sunday

It is: 4 days till Earth Day

In the Spotlight

As many of you already know, Jurassic World (formally called Jurassic Park 4) is in the filming process; they are filming in Hawaii. Some photographs from the first day of shooting can be viewed below:

I do not own any of these images, they are from this link.

I don't know what scenes they shot for the film, but based on the images, it appears that the theme park in the film will be quite busy! Let's hope the T. rex doesn't get too hungry if she breaks out . . . again!

In other news, while Jurassic World is still filming, another sequel to a popular movie has just released its first trailer! The movie I'm talking about it Dolphin Tale 2, which will be coming out on September 19th! You can view the trailer to the upcoming film below:

I for one really like this trailer; it appears that it will have the same story qualities that we loved from the first one. But hey, so long as its family friendly, has a good story, Nathan Gambles, Cozi Zuehlsdorff and Winter in it (which we know it does), I'm good to go!

Topic of the Week by Christian Ryan

This week, our topic isn't going to consist around an article. I had an article in mind of course, but I decided that I'd bring my latest stop-motion video to everyone's attention since it's been almost a year since I published my last one! As you've already guessed based on this post's title, I have officially started season 2 of my Animal Face-Off series! I'm really impressed by how the first series turned out. As you might recall, there were nine episodes in the first season: Lion vs. Tiger, Hippo vs. Bull Shark, Elephant vs. Rhino, Velociraptor vs. Protoceratops, Velociraptor vs. Ankylosaur, Tyrannosaurus vs. Ankylosaurus, Tarantula vs. Scorpion, Tyrannosaurus vs. Spinosaurus and The Battle at Kruger. I'm not exactly sure how many episodes this season will have, but probably close to 11 episodes. I can't wait for them to be completed!

Here are many of the creatures planned for Animal Face-Off season 2!

Last year, you probably remember that I was working on a series called Planet of the Dinosaurs. Why did I not do episodes 3-6 and skip to Animal Face-Off season 2? Well, frankly, for several months I didn't have the time or space to set up to create the stop-motion videos. But now that I do, I wasn't really “into” doing Planet of the Dinosaurs, so I figured I'd start with something short and relatively easy to do before mounting the huge Planet of the Dinosaurs project.

So with all that out of the way, what's in this first episode of Animal Face-Off? Well episode number one is called Cougar vs. Gray Wolf. These two creatures are natural enemies. I would now like to take some time to actually talk about each of the creatures before I show you my face-off.

The cougar is also known as the catamount, the mountain lion, the puma, the Florida panther and the painter.

The cougar is known by many different names: the catamount, the Florida panther, the puma, the mountain lion and the painter. It can grow almost three feet tall at the shoulders, nine feet in length and average a weight of 220 pounds. These cats are also very adaptable and can be found in a variety of different habitats. Some are found in the high, rocky mountains of the Rockies – where today's face-off takes place – others live in desert canyons and lowlands, and still others can be found in tropical jungles, swamps and everywhere in between. They can be found in both North and South America. Cougar's used to have a much wider range than they do today and used to live pretty much all the way to the eastern seaboard of the United States; today they're restricted mostly to the western side of the country (though there are some in Florida's Everglades). Did you know that the cougar also has a wide dinner menu? They have been known to eat anything from small mammals to deer and elk! The cougar likes to use the element of surprise to attack its dinner and when it attacks, it rarely misses and uses a swift neck bite to kill the prey quickly. Cougars are fascinating leapers, jumping 45 feet straight into the air!

The gray wolf uses numbers, speed, endurance, craftiness and teamwork to bring down prey larger than itself.

The gray wolf is also quite adaptable and is found through much of North America. It grows around five feet in length, 32 inches tall at the shoulders and weighs around 79 pounds. Unlike the cougar, wolves hunt in packs to bring down their prey, which usually consists of small birds and mammals to large elk, moose and bison. Wolves don't usually try to muscle prey larger than themselves to the ground. Instead, they use teamwork to chase the prey over long distances until they either tire the prey out, or bite particular parts of the leg that cause the animal to stumble and fall. The wolf's howl is one of the most iconic of animal sounds; contrary to popular belief, they don't really howl at the moon. Instead, the wolf howls to communicate with other wolves – often times a whole pack will howl at a rivaling wolf pack in the distance to keep them off their turf! Wolves can run up to 40 miles per hour when chasing after prey.

Now that we know a little bit about each animal in today's face-off, let's watch the video! Here it is:

Well, how did you all like the face-off? Please be sure to let me know in the comments below. Have a very, very Happy Easter everyone!

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