Direct-to-video (also known as direct-to-DVD, direct-to-iTunes, direct-to-digital, made-for-video, straight-to-video, and straight-to-DVD) is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats (historically VHS) without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television. The term is also at times used as a derogatory term for films or sequels of films that are of inferior quality or are not expected to find financial success. Direct-to-video releases have become something of a lifeline for independent filmmakers and smaller companies. Direct-to-iTunes has revolutionized the short film industry.

Reasons for releasing direct-to-video

A production studio may decide not to generally release a TV show or film for several possible reasons: poor quality, lack of support from a TV network, negative reviews, controversial nature, or a simple lack of general public interest. Studios, limited in the annual number of films to which they grant cinematic releases, may choose to pull the completed film from the theaters, or never exhibit it in theaters at all. Studios then generate additional revenue through video sales and rentals.

Direct-to-video releases have historically carried a stigma of lower technical or artistic quality than theatrical releases. Some studio films released direct-to-video are films which have been completed but were never released. This delay often occurs when a studio doubts a film's commercial prospects would justify a full cinema release, or because its "release window" has closed. A release window refers to a timely trend or personality, and missing that window of opportunity means a film, possibly rushed into production, failed to release before the trend faded. In film industry slang such films are referred to as having been "vaulted."

Direct-to-video releases can be done for films which cannot be shown theatrically due to controversial content, or because the cost involved in a theatrical release is beyond the releasing company. Almost all pornographic films are currently released direct-to-video.

Animated sequels and film-length episodes of animated series are also often released in this fashion. The Walt Disney Company began making sequels of most of its animated films for video release beginning with ''The Return of Jafar'' (the sequel to ''Aladdin'') in 1994. Universal Studios also began their long line of ''The Land Before Time'' sequels that same year. In 2005, Fox released ''Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story'' for DVD and Universal Media Disc.

Studios may also release sequels or spin-offs to a successful live action film straight to DVD. These are commonly referred to as "cheapquels" due to the lack of quality and budget in comparison to the original. Examples are the ''Behind Enemy Lines'' series of films.

In the case of a TV show, low ratings may cause a network to cancel the show, possibly after having filmed an entire season and aired some episodes. If the show has a considerable fanbase, the studio may release un-aired episodes on video. ''Firefly'' is an example of a canceled show which became a successful cult hit on DVD. Occasionally outstanding DVD sales may revive a canceled show, as in the case of ''Family Guy''. Originally canceled in 2002, the series was revived in 2005 due partly to its excellent DVD sales. ''Futurama'' is another example of a successful DVD run (along with strong fan support) that causes a network comeback.

Family films

The family film segment is a major part of direct-to-video sales. According to the ''LA Times'',

"Often, the downfall of live-action family films at the box office is their strength on video. Their appeal is to families with young children, who may go to only a couple of movies per year but who will watch many videos multiple times. The teens and young adults who drive blockbuster box-office statistics stay away from family movies."

Direct-to-video films screened theatrically

Once in a while, a studio that makes a film that was prepared as a direct-to-video film will release it theatrically at the last minute due to the success of another film with a similar subject matter or an ultimate studio decision. The animated film ''Batman: Mask of the Phantasm'' is an example of this. However, despite the film's critically acclaimed success, its box-office performance was very poor, which has been blamed on its last minute decision to be released theatrically. The film had much better commercial success in its subsequent home video releases. Another example which garnered a large cult following is the 2001 psychological thriller ''Donnie Darko'', which was originally slated for a direct-to-video release. ''Doug's 1st Movie'' was also intended as a direct-to-video release, but due to the success of ''The Rugrats Movie'', it went into the theaters in Spring 1999. While the film did poorly with critics, it was a moderate box-office success.

Other times, a direct-to-video film may get a limited theatrical screening in order to build excitement for the actual release of the video such as was done for 2010's ''Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths'' and ''Planet Hulk''.

Television spin-offs

Television spin-offs are animated or live action television series or made for television films which contain either characters or theme elements from an older series or film (''Clerks: The Animated Series''). While the most common examples of a television spin off are animated series there are also live action examples (''Stargate: The Ark of Truth'', ''Stargate: Continuum'', and ''Babylon 5: The Lost Tales'').

Some ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' DVD volumes contain episodes not yet aired in the United States. Certain special episodes of Pokémon were released directly on video such as ''Pikachu’s Winter Vacation''. Some Disney Channel shows, such as ''That's So Raven'', ''The Suite Life of Zack and Cody'', ''Phil of the Future'', and ''Lilo & Stitch: The Series'' have also had direct-to-video episodes. Some DVD volumes of ''The Land Before Time'' also contain episodes not yet aired in the United States or Canada.

"DVD Premiere"

As DVDs gradually replaced videocassettes, the term "direct-to-DVD" replaced "direct-to-video" in some instances. However, the word "video" does not necessarily refer to VHS cassettes. Many publications continue to use the term direct-to video for DVDs or Blu-ray Discs. The new term sometimes used is DVDP ("DVD Premiere"). Such films can cost as much as $20 million (about a third of the average cost of a Hollywood release) and feature actors like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Wesley Snipes and Cuba Gooding Jr.. Salaries for such actors range from $2 to $4 million (Van Damme) to $4.5 to $10 million (Seagal). According to ''Variety'', ''American Pie: Band Camp'' sold a million copies in one week, despite retaining only two actors from the original trilogy.

In recent years, DVD Premieres have become a substantial source of revenue for film studios. DVDPs have collectively grossed over $3 billion over the last few years, and have matured enough that DVDP divisions of studios now option their own films. Studios realized that DVDP films can be shot on a smaller budget, thus allowing studios larger profits with the combined revenues of home video sales and rentals, in addition to licensing films for television and for distribution abroad (where some DVDP films do see theatrical releases).

Distributing DVDPs is not a practice reserved solely for larger Hollywood studios. Several companies, such as The Asylum, MTI Home Video, and York Entertainment distribute DVDPs almost exclusively. The budgets for films distributed by these companies are even smaller than those of ones distributed by a larger studio, but these companies are still able to profit off their sales.

Direct-to-iTunes

Direct-to-iTunes is a online distribution method that avoids all upfront DVD production, marketing and distribution costs as well as upfront cinema distribution and marketing costs. It has revolutionized short film distribution and on occasion has been used for feature length films. Apple distributes the film for 30% of the revenue, while an additional 10-15% may go to the person who formats the film for iTunes compatibility. The first independently produced feature length motion picture to pursue the direct-to-iTunes marketing scheme was Ed Burns' ''Purple Violets'', which debuted on iTunes on November 20, 2007. It was the first feature length film to "premiere exclusively on iTunes". It was distributed exclusively on iTunes at a price of for a month before being made available through other distribution channels. The movie, which was produced at a cost of $4 million, had premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, where it was reviewed positively, but only received modest distribution offers. At the time of the ''Purple Violets'' release, most studios were not distributing via iTunes early in the process and only Walt Disney Studios, which was the first movie studio to distribute via iTunes, was distributing at iTunes simultaneously with DVD distribution. It was not very common for consumers to make digital movie purchases at the time. The Polish brothers' 2011 ''For Lovers Only'', which had virtually no production costs and was released to iTunes on July 12, is regarded as the first profitable feature length direct-to-iTunes product. The direct-to-iTunes method is also becoming common with both books and music.

When ''Purple Violets'' was released, several short films had already been distributed through iTunes. Previously, marketing of short films had been prohibitive. However, Apple distributed the February 25, 2007 79th Academy Awards nominees for the Animated Shorts, Live Action Shorts and Documentary Shorts as well as half of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival shorts, beginning a new era.

The V-Cinema and OVA markets in Japan

In Japan, direct-to-video titles referred to as "Original Video" (オリジナルビデオ) carry different connotations, being a niche product rather than a fallback. Despite having lower budgets than features intended for theater release, Japanese direct-to-video productions are rarely marred by the poor storyline and lower quality production often associated with the DTV market in the US. So-called V-Cinema has more respect from the public, and affection from film directors for the greater creative freedoms the medium allows. DTV releases are subject to fewer content restrictions and less creative dictates than other formats.

In the case of anime, this is called Original Video Animation (OVA or OAV), and their production values usually fall between those of television series and films. They are often used to tell stories too short to fill a full TV season, and were particularly common in the early 1990s. Sometimes OVAs garner enough interest to justify commissioning a full television series, such as ''Tenchi Muyo!'', ''El Hazard'', and ''Read or Die''.

With the advent of the 13 episode season format, OVAs are less common now. This is not to say that they are non-existent: for example, the Japanese anime series Elfen Lied features 13 episodes and an OVA. The majority of OVAs released in today's market are usually continuations or reworkings of recently completed TV series. For instance, the DVD release of a TV series might include a bonus episode that was never broadcast as a sales hook.

See also

B film

Home video

List of Disney direct-to-video films

Television film

V-Cinema

:Category:Direct-to-video films for a list of Direct-to-video productions.

References

Further reading

External links

Movie critic on the future of Direct-to-DVD

9 Movies Too Awful for the Theater by The Daily Beast Video

Category:Home video Category:Television terminology

da:Direkte-til-video de:Direct-to-Video es:Directamente para vídeo fr:Vidéofilm it:Direct-to-video nl:Direct-naar-video ja:オリジナルビデオ no:Rett på video pl:Direct-to-video pt:Diretamente em vídeo ru:Direct-to-video simple:Direct-to-video fi:Suoraan videolle julkaisu sv:Direkt till video th:หนังแผ่น uk:Direct-to-video zh:录影带首映

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Sheryfa Luna
origin	Algeria
background	solo_singer
real name	Chérifa Babouché
born	January 25, 1989Evreux, Eure, France
Origin	France, Algeria
genre	R&B;, pop, hip hop
years active	2007–present
occupation	SingerDancer
label	Universal
associated acts	Popstars
website	Official website }}

Sheryfa Luna (born Chérifa Babouche; January 25, 1989) is a French R&B; singer born to an Algerian father and a French mother.

She won the fourth series of the French edition of popular ''Popstars'' in October 2007. Her self titled debut album peaked at #3 in France and was certified Gold there.

She has released three singles: "Quelque part" (Somewhere) and "Il avait les mots" (He Had the Words), which both went to #1 in France, and "D'ici et D'Ailleurs" (From Here and Elsewhere) which was released in March 2008.

Luna gave birth to a son named Vénus Junior on February 14, 2008.

Discography

Album

Year	Album	Charts	Certification / French Sales
!width="25"		!width="25"	!width="25"
2007							align="center"
2008							align="center"
2010

Singles

Year	Single	Charts	Certification / French Sales	Album
!width="25"	[[France	!width="25"	!width="25"	!width="25"
2007
width="280"

External links

Official website

Official blog

Sheryfa Luna • Fan Site

Persian-English Fan blog

Persian forum

References

[[Category:1989 births">France !width="25" !width="25" !width="25" 2007 align="center" 2008 align="center" 2010

Singles

Year	Single	Charts	Certification / French Sales	Album
!width="25"	[[France	!width="25"	!width="25"	!width="25"
2007
width="280"

External links

Official website

Official blog

Sheryfa Luna • Fan Site

Persian-English Fan blog

Persian forum

References

[[Category:1989 births Category:Living people Category:People from Évreux Category:French female singers Category:Reality show winners Category:Kabyle people Category:French people of Algerian descent

ar:شريفة لونا ca:Sheryfa Luna de:Sheryfa Luna eo:Sheryfa Luna fa:شریفه لونا fr:Sheryfa Luna it:Sheryfa Luna he:שריפה לונה lt:Sheryfa Luna ru:Шерифа Луна

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Rube Goldberg
birth name	Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg
birth date	July 04, 1883
birth place	San Francisco, California, United States
death date	December 07, 1970
resting place	Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Hawthorne in Hawthorne, New York
known for	Rube Goldberg machines
occupation	Cartoonist, inventor }}

Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970) was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor.

He is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. These devices, now known as Rube Goldberg machines, are similar to those drawn by W. Heath Robinson in the UK and Storm P in Denmark. Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime, including a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning in 1948 and the Banshees' Silver Lady Award 1959.

Goldberg was a founding member and the first president of the National Cartoonists Society, and he is the namesake of the Reuben Award, which the organization awards to the Cartoonist of the Year. He is the inspiration for various international competitions, known as Rube Goldberg Machine Contests, which challenge participants to make a complex machine to perform a simple task.

Life

Goldberg was born July 4, 1883, in San Francisco, California, to Jewish parents Max and Hannah Goldberg. He was the second of four children (older brother Garrett, younger brother Walter, and younger sister Lillian). Rube married Irma Seeman in 1916. They lived at 88 Central Park West in New York City and had two sons named Thomas and George. Goldberg did not share a surname with his children because of the amount of hate mail he received during World War II from the political nature of his cartoons. He ordered his sons to change their names from Goldberg for safety reasons. Both of his sons chose the last name of George, wanting to keep a sense of family cohesiveness. Thomas and George's children now run a company called RGI (Rube Goldberg Incorporated) to maintain the Goldberg name. John George (Thomas's son) is assisted by his cousin Jennifer George (George's daughter) and John's son Joshua George to keep the family name alive. Reuben died in 1970 at the age of 87, while his widow, Irma, died 20 years later on April 26, 1990 at the age of 95.

Career

Goldberg's father was a San Francisco police and fire commissioner, who encouraged the young Reuben to pursue a career in engineering. Rube graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1904 with a College of Mining degree and was hired by the city of San Francisco as an engineer for the Water and Sewers Department. After six months he resigned his position with the city to join the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' where he became a sports cartoonist. The following year, he took a job with the ''San Francisco Bulletin'', where he remained until he moved to New York City in 1907.

Goldberg drew cartoons for five newspapers, including the ''New York Evening Journal'' and the ''New York Evening Mail''. His work entered syndication in 1915, beginning his nationwide popularity. He was syndicated by the McNaught Syndicate from 1922 until 1934.

A prolific artist, Goldberg produced several cartoon series simultaneously, including ''Mike and Ike (They Look Alike)'', ''Boob McNutt'', ''Foolish Questions'', ''Lala Palooza'' and ''The Weekly Meeting of the Tuesday Women's Club''. The cartoons that brought him lasting fame involved a character named Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts. In that series, Goldberg drew labeled schematics of the comical "inventions" that would later bear his name.

Cultural legacy

right|thumb|450px|This postcard book, ''Rube Goldberg's Inventions!'', was compiled by Maynard Frank Wolfe from the Rube Goldberg Archives. The cover illustration shows Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin. The "Self-Operating Napkin" is activated when the soup spoon (A) is raised to mouth, pulling string (B) and thereby jerking ladle (C), which throws cracker (D) past parrot (E). Parrot jumps after cracker and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and lights automatic lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K), which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M) and allow the pendulum with the attached napkin to swing back and forth, thereby wiping chin.

In 1931 the Merriam-Webster dictionary adopted the word "Rube Goldberg" as an adjective defined as accomplishing something simple through complex means.

Predating Goldberg, the corresponding term in the U.K. was, and still is, "Heath Robinson", after the English illustrator with an equal devotion to odd machinery (although Heath Robinson's creations did not have the same emphasis on the sequential or chain reaction element).

Goldberg's work was commemorated posthumously in 1995 with the inclusion of ''Rube Goldberg's Inventions'', depicting Professor Butts' "Self-Operating Napkin" in the Comic Strip Classics series of U.S. postage stamps.

Film and television

Rube Goldberg wrote a feature film featuring his machines and sculptures called ''Soup to Nuts'', which was released in 1930 and starred Ted Healy and The Three Stooges.

In the 1962 John Wayne movie ''Hatari!,'' an invention to catch monkeys by character Pockets, played by Red Buttons, is described as a "Rube Goldberg."

Various other films and cartoons have included highly complex machines that perform simple tasks. Among these are ''Flåklypa Grand Prix'', ''Looney Tunes'', ''Tom and Jerry'', ''Wallace and Gromit'', ''Pee-wee's Big Adventure'', ''The Way Things Go'', ''Edward Scissorhands'', ''Back to the Future'', ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'', ''The Goonies'', ''Gremlins'', the ''Saw'' film series, ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'', ''The Cat from Outer Space'', ''Malcolm'', ''Family Guy'', and ''Waiting...''

Also in the ''Final Destination'' film series the characters often die in Rube Goldberg-esque ways. In the film ''The Great Mouse Detective'', the villain Ratigan attempts to kill the film's heroes, Basil of Baker Street and David Q. Dawson, with a Rube Goldberg style device. The classic video in this genre was done by the artist duo Peter Fischli & David Weiss in 1987 with their 30 minute video "Der Lauf der Dinge" or "The Way Things Go".

Honda produced a video in 2003 called "The Cog" using many of the same principles that Fischli and Weiss had done in 1987.

In 2005, the American indie/alternative rock band The Bravery released a video for their debut single, "An Honest Mistake," which features the band performing the song in the middle of a Rube Goldberg machine.

In 1999, an episode of ''The X-Files'' was titled "The Goldberg Variation". The episode intertwined characters FBI agents Mulder and Scully, a simple apartment super, Henry Weems (Willie Garson) and an ailing young boy, Ritchie Lupone (Shia LaBeouf) in a real-life Goldberg device.

The 2010 music video "This Too Shall Pass - RGM Version" by the rock band OK Go features a machine that, after four minutes of kinetic activity, shoots the band members in the face with paint. "RGM" presumably stands for Rube Goldberg Machine.

In 2011, Toronto based photography studio 2D Photography created a machine for taking two portraits.

Games

The popular 1963 board game ''Mouse Trap'', as well as its sequels ''Crazy Clock'' (1964), and ''Fish Bait'' (1965) are based on Rube Goldberg machines. Some examples of Goldberg-inspired videogames are ''Incredibots'', ''LittleBigPlanet 2'', the 1990s-era series of ''The Incredible Machine'' games, and ''Crazy Machines''. It is also possible to construct a Rube Goldberg Machine by using Garrys Mod, a game mod for Half Life 2 and other computer video games that use the Source game engine by Valve.

See also

Chindōgu

Deathtrap (plot device)

Domino effect

Frederick Roland Emett

Jean Tinguely, Swiss artist who created Rube Goldberg-like sculptures

''Mickey One''

PythagoraSwitch

Robert Storm Petersen (Storm P.), a Danish contemporary artist who drew "inventions" similar to Rube Goldberg's

Steampunk

William Heath Robinson, English cartoonist and illustrator best known for drawings of eccentric machines.

References

External links

Toonopedia entry

Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Oral History Interview, 1970

Annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest

NCS Awards

Rube Goldberg in 'Creative Contraptions'

IMDB biography

Rube Goldberg Honda Commercial, "Cog", at Snopes.com

Guide to the Rube Goldberg Papers at The Bancroft Library

10 Viral Rube Goldberg clips at Salon.com

Category:1883 births Category:1970 deaths Category:American cartoonists Category:American comic strip cartoonists Category:American engineers Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:American humorists Category:American journalists Category:People from New York City Category:People from San Francisco, California Category:Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners Category:Reuben Award winners Category:American Jews Category:Archives of American Art related

de:Rube Goldberg es:Rube Goldberg fa:روب گلدبرگ fr:Rube Goldberg ko:루브 골드버그 id:Rube Goldberg it:Rube Goldberg la:Machina Rube Goldberg nl:Rube Goldberg (cartoonist) no:Rube Goldberg pt:Rube Goldberg ru:Голдберг, Руб sv:Rube Goldberg zh:魯布·戈德堡

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
Name	Samus Aran
Series	''Metroid''
Firstgame	''Metroid'' (1986)
Creator	Makoto Kano
Artist	Hiroji Kiyotake
Voiceactor	Jennifer Hale (2002–2007)Alésia Glidewell (2008)Jessica Martin (2010)
Japanactor	Ai Kobayashi (Metroid: Other M)
Liveactor	Chisato Morishita (Metroid: Zero Mission commercial)
Inuniverse	}}

is the protagonist of the ''Metroid'' video game series. Introduced in the 1986 video game ''Metroid'', Samus is a female ex-army soldier bounty hunter usually fitted with a powered armor suit with weapons that include beams and missiles. Throughout the series, she executes missions given to her by the Galactic Federation while hunting the antagonistic Space Pirates and their leader, Ridley, along with the energy-draining extraterrestrial parasites called Metroids. Orphaned at a young age, Samus was brought up by the extraterrestrial avianoid Chozo race, who trained her as a warrior. The Chozo also gave her the Power Suit, and infused her with their blood in order to create a perfect warrior. The suit gives Samus the ability to transform herself into a sphere called the Morph Ball in order to roll through tight areas such as tunnels.

Samus has appeared in all eleven ''Metroid'' video games as of 2010. She has also been featured in media outside of the series, including the comic book version of ''Captain N: The Game Master'', all three games in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series of multiplayer fighting games, and the video games ''Super Mario RPG'' (1996), ''Kirby Super Star'' (1996), and ''Kirby's Dream Land 3'' (1997), in which she makes cameo appearances. Makoto Kano created the characters for the original ''Metroid'', while Hiroji Kiyotake designed the main protagonist Samus. The idea for the character to be female came up partway through the development of ''Metroid'', when the developers determined that it would be an interesting twist to reveal her as female at the end of the game. Samus is one of the first major female protagonists in a video game, and her popularity among fans has helped her top several lists of the best video game heroines.

Development

The style for the original ''Metroid'' game was designed to be a cross between the side-scrolling gameplay of the ''Super Mario'' games and the exploration and puzzle-solving aspects of ''The Legend of Zelda'' series, with inspiration from science fiction. The game's characters were conceived by Makoto Kano, while Hiroji Kiyotake designed main protagonist Samus Aran. Samus is able to collapse into a ball to travel through tight areas. The ability, called the Maru Mari in the original Metroid (1986), and later the more popular title of Morph Ball in Super Metroid, was conceived by the developers because it required less effort to animate than "a cyborg crawling on all fours", and the producer for ''Metroid'', Gunpei Yokoi, took advantage of this shortcut.

The game's atmosphere was influenced by Ridley Scott's film, ''Alien'' (1979). Series co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto recalls, "We were partway through the development process when one of the staff members said 'Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?'" The developers voted on the concept, and it passed. The game's instruction manual refers to Samus as if she were male to keep her true gender a secret until the end of the game. Samus was one of the first major female protagonists in a video game. Sakamoto noted that during the course of the ''Metroid'' series, developers constantly try to express Samus's femininity without turning her into a sex object. Samus's image was based on actress Kim Basinger from ''9 Weeks'' and ''My Stepmother Is an Alien''.Sakamoto and Kiyotake said that the character's last name "Aran" was taken from Edison ''Aran''tes do Nascimento, the birth name of famous soccer player Pelé.

Biography

Samus was born a normal human, and she spent her childhood with her family on the mining planet K-2L. The planet was raided by space pirates, who were looking for bounty and other useful items and treasures. The leader of the space pirates, Ridley, killed most of the people in Samus's colony, including her mother, and then destroyed the planet. Her father died when he overloaded a malfunctioning weapon destroying most of the cargo the space pirates were after. Orphaned, Samus was found by a bird-like alien race known as the Chozo, who brought her to their home planet Zebes. Samus was infused with Chozo DNA to give her a strong resistance to foreign environments, then trained as a warrior and given one of the alien race's artifacts, a powered exoskeleton called the Power Suit that biologically entwines itself with Samus's mind and body.

She enlisted in the Galactic Federation Police, but later left because her commanding officer Adam Malkovich sacrificed his little brother to save the team and some three-hundred refugees when a large fusion drive was about to explode. Samus, who is tall and weighs while in armor, now works as a freelance bounty hunter, and is called on by the Galactic Federation to execute missions "because of her superior skills and sense of justice". Samus is motivated at least in part by wrath as well as an accompanying sense of duty, since her "bounty hunting" helps the galaxy get rid of unsavory elements such as the mysterious lifeforms known as Metroids, who can drain life energy and are frequently used as biological weapons. She also takes the opportunity to exact revenge on the pirates who murdered her family. Typically, one of her suit's arms carries a cannon, which can be charged to shoot an extra-powerful blast, a limited number of missiles, and various beams. Samus's suit can collapse into a sphere, a mode called the Morph Ball, allowing her to roll through tight areas such as tunnels. The suit can scan objects to learn more about them, and has a grapple beam used to cross large distances, such as chasms.

Since ''Metroid II: Return of Samus'', Samus has been accompanied by her Gunship, which is used in the games to save progress and restore health and ammunition. The Gunship was destroyed in Metroid Fusion when she crashed it into an asteroid belt. Afterwards, the Galactic Federation provided her with a new ship.

Samus's suit can be enhanced by power-ups, the first introduced being the Varia Suit. In the original ''Metroid'', it gives a pinkish color to the Power Suit, but in ''Metroid II: Return of Samus'', because of the limited monochrome graphics on the Game Boy, the Varia Suit has giant shoulder pads to differentiate it from her other suits. The design has remained with the suit ever since. The difference between suits was explained in ''Metroid: Zero Mission'', in which after completing her first mission on Zebes, Samus is shot down and her Power Suit is rendered useless. There, she re-visits a Chozo shrine that she first visited as a child, and receives upgraded armor, with the larger shoulder pads. When the Varia Suit is destroyed, Samus dons the less protective Zero Suit. She wears a unique suit in ''Metroid Fusion'' called the Fusion Suit, a weakened version of the Power Suit. Other suit upgrades in the series include the Gravity Suit, P.E.D. Suit, Phazon Suit, Hazard Suit, and Light and Dark Suits. As of Super Metroid, the suits have gained distinctive colors: the Power Suit (and variants) are yellow, the Varia Suit is red/orange and the Gravity Suit is purple. These colors are seen again in ''Metroid Prime'' and ''Metroid Fusion''. Also in the ''Metroid Prime'' series, the eponymous Metroid Prime creature fuses with the remnants of Samus's Phazon Suit to become Dark Samus, an evil doppelgänger of Samus.

Samus typically works alone. Before ''Metroid: Other M'' (2010), she had never spoken in any of the games in the ''Metroid'' series other than ''Metroid Fusion'', ''Metroid Zero Mission'' and the opening cutscene of ''Super Metroid'', conversing mostly through text dialogue. In the first ''Metroid'', her gender was kept a secret until the end of the game—the instruction booklet for the game referred to her character as male. If the player completes the game quickly enough, she is first revealed as female at the end of ''Metroid''. Typically emotionless, Samus reveals occasional feelings for ongoing situations in ''Metroid Fusion''. Without her suit, other emotions were also revealed while dealing with her artificially intelligent computer. In ''Metroid II: Return of Samus'', Samus bonds with a Metroid, which later sacrifices itself to save her from Mother Brain in ''Super Metroid''. Seeking revenge, Samus destroys Mother Brain in a scene that is "more than a little emotionally charged". In the Chozo's scrolls, Samus is recorded as The Newborn, an "orphaned warrior filled with vengeance". Thanks in part to her Chozo heritage, the Chozo consider her the hope of their race. The Galactic Federation sees her as the protector of the galaxy, and the Space Pirates refer to her as the Hunter.

Appearances

In the series

In ''Metroid'' (1986), Samus is tasked by the Galactic Federation to track down Space Pirates on their home planet of Zebes. At the end of the game, she battles Mother Brain, the organism that controls the defenses in the Space Pirate base, and escapes in time to avoid the base's self-destruction. In ''Metroid II: Return of Samus'' (1992), the Galactic Federation once again commissions Samus, this time to exterminate all Metroid creatures on the planet SR388. She travels deep into the planet's caverns, where she encounters a Metroid Queen. After dispatching the creature, Samus discovers a small Metroid hatchling, which she spares. The baby Metroid follows Samus to her gunship, after it imprints on her. In ''Super Metroid'' (1994), the baby Metroid is stolen by Ridley. She travels back to the Space Pirates' rebuilt base on the planet Zebes. Locating the now fully grown Metroid, Samus discovers a new and more powerful Mother Brain. She defeats it with the help of the Metroid, which sacrifices itself to save Samus. In ''Metroid Fusion'' (2002), Samus returns to the planet SR388, where a parasitic infection nearly kills her. Galactic Federation scientists surgically remove large sections of her corrupted Varia Suit and inject her with the baby Metroid's DNA to save her, which alters her suit's appearance dramatically. To prevent the parasites from spreading beyond SR388 and the space station orbiting above it, Samus sets the station to crash into SR388 and barely escapes before both the planet and station are vaporized. ''Metroid: Other M'' (2010), which takes place between ''Super Metroid'' and ''Fusion'', provides more information about Samus's backstory and emotional connection to both the baby and her former commander, Adam Malkovich, as well as her relation to all four Mother Brain designs, namely Zebes' Mother Brains, Aurora Unit 313 and MB.

In ''Metroid Prime'' (2002), Samus travels to the planet Tallon IV, which contains a Chozo colony in ruins and a Space Pirate base. There she learns of Phazon, a mysterious mutagen that can alter the genetic material of an organism. Samus is eventually able to access the source of the planet's Phazon contamination, a meteor impact crater, where she defeats the Phazon-infused creature Metroid Prime. In ''Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' (2004), Samus is sent to the planet Aether, a Phazon meteor-ravaged planet split into light and dark dimensions. There she battles the Ing, creatures that are able to possess other organisms, and Dark Samus, an evil doppelgänger of herself formed from the remains of Metroid Prime. In ''Metroid Prime Hunters'' (2006), Samus competes against six rival bounty hunters in a race to recover an alien ultimate weapon. In ''Metroid Prime 3: Corruption'' (2007), Samus is infected by Phazon and is slowly corrupted by the mutagen while she works to prevent it from spreading to other planets. By the end of the game, she renders all Phazon inert by destroying its original source, the planet Phaaze, and defeats Dark Samus.

In other media

Samus was featured in a series of comic books called ''Captain N: The Game Master'', published by Valiant Comics in 1990, based on the animated series of the same name, despite Samus never appearing in the cartoon version. In the comics, Samus is depicted as brash, money-hungry, and fiercely independent. An article at 1UP.com describes Samus in the ''Captain N'' comics as "rambunctious, reckless, and gets into pissing contests with Lana over Kevin's affections, which makes for some of the most entertaining situations in the series". The reviewer added, "Not to say that the deadly quiet, contemplative Samus who fights for truth and justice in the more recent Metroid games isn't awesome, but there's something compelling about a Samus who's greedy and conniving—and is proud to admit it."

Comic book and manga adaptations of ''Metroid'' games were also developed. Samus is a playable character in all three games in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series of multiplayer fighting games, where she can use her array of weapons in combat against characters from other video games. ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' (2008) also features an alternate form of Samus called Zero Suit Samus, in which the heroine loses her Power Suit and has a different set of movements and attacks. She also stars in the Subspace Emissary fighting R.O.B. with Pikachu. Samus also cameos in the ''Galactic Pinball'' (1995), ''Super Mario RPG'' (1996), ''Kirby Super Star'' (1996), and ''Kirby's Dream Land 3'' (1997) video games. Samus also makes a non-playable appearance in the Nintendo 3DS game ''Dead or Alive: Dimensions'' (created by ''Metroid: Other M'' co-developers Team Ninja).

Samus also appeared in an episode of ''MAD''.

Reception

Samus has been generally well-received by video gamers. Paul O'Connor, the lead game designer for Sammy Studios and a fan of the ''Metroid'' series, described Samus as a "quiet and mysterious presence in ''Metroid Prime''". While playing ''Metroid Prime'', he felt a connection with Samus after sharing her exploration of an alien world and the catastrophe it experienced. O'Connor commented that curiosity about the unknown is a human trait, remarking that players empathize and identify with Samus because she is often rewarded for indulging in her curiosity. IGN remarked that Samus has a cult following greater than most other female video game characters. In the book ''Videogames and art'', Andy Clarke notes that in the original game, ''Metroid'', the player is not briefed on Samus's past or future; the only interaction that they have with the character is by being her through gameplay, while bits of information can be gleaned from the handbook and through concept art. Clarke remarks, "Samus is very rare for the character intimacy gained solely through game play and for her stasis and then drastic change," referring to the revelation that she is female.

On IGN, Samus was chosen as the most requested character who should have her own movie franchise by the website's users. The website remarked that her tragic past makes her a perfect candidate for a movie, especially the loss of both her parents to the Space Pirates. Among their list of voted characters, IGN considered Samus to be the video game character that "could lead the pack of video game adaptations that actually manage to live up to the source material". The website believed that Samus's theme song should be "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" by Aerosmith because she "spends her time running around in a manly battle suit blasting first and taking names later". Samus's popularity led to a toy line; First 4 Figures, a United Kingdom-based toy company, built 2,500 Varia Suit Samus figures, selling all of them. Nintendo Power listed Samus as their third favourite hero, citing her bravery in the face of dangerous situations. Samus ranked fifth on GameDaily's Top 10 Smash Bros. Characters list. In his review of ''Super Smash Bros.'' for the Nintendo 64, Former GameSpot editor Jeff Gerstmann called Samus one of the characters that made Nintendo "what it is today". IGN ranked Samus as the third-best character for ''Super Smash Bros.'' Samus appeared in multiple GameFAQs "Character Battle" contests, winning the "Character Battle V" in 2006. GameSpot featured her in their poll "All Time Greatest Game Hero".

Samus's portrayal in ''Metroid: Other M'' was heavily criticized by many. Unlike other ''Metroid'' games, where Samus took full advantage of weapons and abilities available, she deactivated most of them until Commander Adam Malkovich authorized their use, despite obvious uses for them. For example, she did not turn on her heat-resistant Varia Suit, which would have let her avoid taking damage from high-temperature rooms, until Adam approved it after she had gone through multiple such rooms. The justification given was a fear of the destructive power of her weapons, particularly her Power Bombs, but this did not explain the disabling of purely defensive parts such as the Varia Suit. This degree of subservience by a woman to a man was taken by some as a "sexist" portrayal. Samus's implied feelings for Adam, combined with her looking to him as "a father figure", made for the perception of an Electra complex. Abbie Heppe wrote that Samus "cannot possibly wield the amount of power she possesses unless directed to by a man", though she also went as far to criticize people who liked the game stating she would never talk to a person who liked the game ever again. She later retracted her statement after heavy criticism. The Onion's David Wolinsky echoes the misgivings about Samus's immaturity, petulant behavior, and misguided loyalty. Game Informer listed her 1st on their list of the "Top 10 Dorks of 2010", citing her "lame backstory" in ''Other M''.

Not all opinions on Samus' portrayal in Other M were negative. An article on Koku Gamer titled "The Psychology of Samus and the Roles of Adam and Ridley" defended Other M Samus.

Gender

As a female in a male-dominated role, Samus has been considered a breakthrough for female characters in video games. GameDaily considers Samus the video game industry's "first dominant female, a femme de force that didn't rely on a man to save her". They also listed the discovery of her gender as the greatest moment in Nintendo history. ''The Irish Times'' found it refreshing to learn that the series' protagonist, who is "well disguised under the suit of heavy armour", is female. In the book ''Gaming Lives in the Twenty-First Century: Literate Connections'' by Gail Hawisher, Cynthia Selfe, and James Paul Gee, they wrote that Samus is perhaps the most nonsexualized female video-game character ever, a belief shared by Steve Rabin, who in ''Introduction to Game Development'' also considers Samus as one of Nintendo's most popular video game mascots. Justin Hoeger wrote in ''The Sacramento Bee'': "Unlike most other female video game characters, Samus isn't some husky-voiced bimbo in tight leather included only for sex appeal. Samus is tough, silent, heavily armed and spends most of her time in a bulky suit of high-tech Power Armor." She was listed on GameDaily's list of hottest blondes in video games, described as both one of Nintendo's most famous protagonists as well as a "curvaceous, drop-dead-gorgeous woman".

The ''Toronto Star'' argued that the sexual politics surrounding Samus and the ''Metroid'' series needed to stop, as they considered it unwarranted. They remarked that although Samus is female, it is not a significant characteristic after considering the fact that she spends most of her time in a suit of armor that "precludes creepy ogling". The newspaper believed that the "big crazy shock to the gaming public" that followed after ''Metroid'' revealed that Samus is female was "some seriously misspent energy [...] ''Metroid Prime''s heroine is not a woman for the benefit of the sweaty/excited crowd, and neither is she a standard-bearer nor a courageous leader in the struggle for video game civil rights. She is a supremely talented action figure, and in the closeups on her helmet you can kind of see that she wears mascara, but that is all." Rupert Goodwins of ''The Independent'' wrote, "Samus Aran [...] is apparently female, although the Transformer-like suit she wears could just as easily contain a large centipede; it's hardly a breakthrough for feminism."

GameDaily ranked Samus seventh on a list of the Top 50 Hottest Game Babes, describing her as "a refreshing change of pace, a tough, no nonsense warrior that isn't afraid to remove her famous orange and yellow power suit and let her hair down, especially to reveal her skin tight clothing". The website also ranked her number one on a list of the Top 25 Nintendo Characters of All Time. In another article, they listed the "smart and sexy heroine" archetype as one of their Top 25 Video Game Archetypes, using Samus as an example. UGO.com ranked Samus 11th on a list of the Top 11 Girls of Gaming, eighth on a list of the Top 50 Hottest Sci-Fi Girls, and twentieth in a list of Top 100 Heroes of All-Time. The website noted that the original "jaw-dropping moment" was when Samus was revealed to be a woman in the original ''Metroid'', a moment which ''Game Informer'' considers to be the greatest twist in video games. GameTrailers named Samus number one on a list of the Top Ten Women of Gaming, and number three among Axe's Top Ten Gamer Babes.

References

External links

Samus Aran at IGN

Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1986 Category:Intelligent Systems characters Category:Metroid Category:Nintendo protagonists Category:Super Smash Bros. fighters Category:Female video game characters Category:Fictional adoptees Category:Fictional bodyguards Category:Fictional bounty hunters Category:Fictional cyborgs Category:Fictional explorers Category:Fictional orphans Category:Fictional women soldiers and warriors Category:Fictional police officers Category:Fictional government agents Category:Fictional extraterrestrial-human hybrids Category:Fictional genetically engineered characters Category:Fictional characters who can move at superhuman speeds

ca:Samus Aran es:Samus Aran fr:Samus Aran is:Samus Aran it:Samus Aran la:Samus Aran nl:Samus Aran ja:サムス・アラン no:Samus Aran pt:Samus Aran simple:Samus Aran fi:Samus Aran sv:Samus Aran

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
Name	Kina Grannis
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Kina Kasuya Grannis
Birth date	August 04, 1985
Instrument	GuitarVocalsUkuleleGlockenspielPiano
Genre	AcousticPop
Occupation	GuitaristSinger-songwriter
Years active	2001 – present
Label	One Haven (2010–present)Independent (2009–2010)Interscope Records (2008)
Notable instruments	Taylor 814ceTaylor K22ceCordoba 45-RKamaka HF-2 Concert
Associated acts	David Choi
Website	www.kinagrannis.com }}

Kina Kasuya Grannis (born August 4, 1985) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter.

Grannis was the winner of the Doritos ''Crash the Super Bowl'' contest. As a result of winning, she earned a recording contract with Interscope Records and had her music video played during the commercials of Super Bowl XLII.

Her progress in the competition was covered in ''The Orange County Register'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''. Grannis has also been featured on ''FOX News Los Angeles'', ''Good Day L.A.'' and ''Yahoo!.''

Biography

Early life and career beginnings

Grannis is of Japanese, English, Irish, French, Dutch, Welsh and Scottish descent. She grew up in Mission Viejo, California, where her love in music rooted. In elementary school she composed and submitted piano compositions to district art competitions, and soon afterward she began playing the violin, an instrument she played throughout high school. At 15 years old she taught herself the guitar, now her primary instrument.

She attended Viejo Elementary School, Newhart Middle School and from 1999 to 2003 Capistrano Valley High School.

Grannis enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles in 2003. Two years later staff members of the University's Thornton School of Music asked her to produce an album in its music and music industry departments. That album, ''Sincerely, Me,'' which is on CD, was released the same year. In 2007 she graduated Summa Cum Laude in social science with an emphasis on psychology. While attending USC, she was inducted into academic societies Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi.

Solo career

In 2006, Kina recorded and self-released two more albums, ''One More in the Attic'' and ''In Memory of the Singing Bridge.'' In early 2007 she recorded "Ours to Keep" written by Rachael Lawrence and Deborah Ellen. This song would be featured regularly on ''General Hospital'' and was in an episode of the ABC Family's mini-series ''Samurai Girl'' in September 2008.

On November 14, 2007 she created her YouTube account and began posting videos of her songs online. Her first video, "Message From Your Heart," was her entry into the Crash the Super Bowl contest, which landed her a contract with Interscope Records. Since then, her YouTube videos have received more than 55 million views and has propelled her to become one of YouTube's most popular personalities. Grannis planned to work with Interscope Records to produce a new album, but in January 2009 she announced she left the label to be an independent artist.

On February 24, 2008, Kina sang the national anthem for the Auto Club 500 NASCAR race in Fontana, California. In June 2009 her songs "Never Never" and "People" were used in episodes of MTV's reality series ''College Life''. On January 13, 2010 Grannis was the headliner at a sold-out show at The Troubadour club in Los Angeles.

''Stairwells'' was released on February 23, 2010 and included many original songs already appearing on YouTube, as well as three previously unreleased songs: "World in Front of Me," "In Your Arms" and "Mr. Sun." ''Stairwells'' debuted at No. 139 on the Billboard 200, No. 5 on the Billboard Top Internet Albums chart, No. 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, and No. 18 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart. The location of her release party for ''Stairwells,'' the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica, was the subject of an article in the ''Orange Country Register'' because the venue enabled her to show her gratitude to her fans.

On March 13, 2010, her single "Valentine" was played by Paul Gambaccini on BBC Radio 2, the most popular radio station in the UK. The music video for "Valentine" directed by a young and talented viral video director Ross Ching has been viewed well over 9 million times on Youtube.

Grannis' ''Stairwells'' Springtime Tour began in San Francisco on May 24, 2010 and concluded in late June after several stints on the East Coast and in Canada. Her Fall Tour began on September 17, 2010 and concluded on November 17, 2010. On July 10, 2010 she played at Lilith Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 2010, Kina was featured as Judy in a miniseries by Wong Fu Productions entitled "Funemployed".

In early 2011, Kina was awarded the title of Sirius/XM CoffeeHouse's 2010 Singer-Songwriter Discovery of the Year after a months-long online voting period. Her song "Heart and Mind" was used for the German TV series Anna und die Liebe.

World in Front of Me Tour

In 2011, Kina has her first world tour. Starting in April, she performed in the eastern regions of Canada, continuing down the eastern and southern regions of the United States. She continued in May, through the northwest region of North America back up to British Columbia, and ending in Los Angeles. Shows in Europe and southeast Asia as well as Australia have been planned for later in the year, with official dates and locations for the former announced as set in October.

Personal life, Charity work

Grannis has two sisters, Misa and Emi, both of whom have occasionally been featured in her video blogs, as well as accompanied her at certain concerts, often while on tour. Her father, Gordon, is a chiropractor. and her mother Trish a graphic designer. An avid supporter of cancer research, Grannis has performed at several Southern California Relay For Life functions over the years. In late 2007 she contributed her music to the Band Together: To Fight Measles benefit album. In October 2008 she participated in the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco to support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, raising $6,000 for the organization. In 2009 for that year philanthropic organization Sister to Sister adopted her song "Message From Your Heart."

Discography

Albums

''Sincerely, Me.'' (2005) #"Blindly" #"Highlighted in Green" #"Next Time" #"Try" #"Another Day" #"People"

''One More In the Attic'' (2006)

#"Living In Dreams" #"Why Can't I?" #"Never Never" #"Some Days" #"What Is Said" #"In Theory" #"Wandering and Wondering" #"Running Away" #"Missing You" #"Alone Together" (CD Bonus Track)

''In Memory of the Singing Bridge'' (2006)

#"Walk On" #"Down and Gone (the Blue Song)" #"Too Soon" #"Breathe Honestly" #"Don't Cry" #"Night" #"!" #"Memory" #"Untitled"

''Stairwells'' (2010)

#"World in Front of Me" #"In Your Arms" #"Valentine" #"Strong Enough" #"Together" #"The Goldfish Song" #"Heart And Mind" #"Cambridge" #"Stars Falling Down" #"Delicate" #"Message From Your Heart" #"Stay Just A Little" #"Back To Us" #"Mr. Sun"

''Stairwells'' (Re-Release 2011)

#"World in Front of Me" #"Message From Your Heart" #"Gone" #"Valentine" #"In Your Arms" #"It's Love" #"The One You Say Goodnight To" #"Stars Falling Down" #"Heart And Mind" #"Without Me" #"Delicate" #"The Goldfish Song" #"Mr. Sun"

''Stairwells Deluxe'' (2011) also includes:

#"Together" #"Strong Enough" #"Cambridge" #"Stay Just A Little" #"Back To Us" #"Sounds of Silence" (Simon & Garfunkel cover) #"Disturbia" (Rihanna cover) #"White Winter Hymnal" (Fleet Foxes cover)

Singles

"Message From Your Heart"

"Valentine"

Songs in other media

2007 rowspan="3" rowspan="2" ''Agents of Secret Stuff'' ''Pretty Little Liars (TV series)

Year !! Title !! Type !! Song
	|	''General Hospital''	TV series episode	"Ours to Keep"
rowspan="6"	2008	''Glass City'' ||	Feature film	"Down and Gone (The Blue Song)"
"Strong Enough"
"Try"
''J.C. Penney''	Web Ad: "Back-to-School Interactive Initiative"
''Samurai Girl''	TV mini-series
''Super Bowl XLII''	TV sports program
rowspan="4"	2009	''College Life''||	TV series episode: "Spring Break"	"People"
TV series episode: "Year's End"	"Never Never"
''General Hospital''	TV series episode
''Sister to Sister''	Nonprofit: Theme song
	2010	|	Web Film	"My Time with You"
rowspan="2"	2011	Pretty Little Liars'' ||	TV Episode	"In Your Arms"
''The Protector (TV series)	The Protector''	TV Episode

Television Appearances

Good Day, LA (KTTV, Los Angeles) – February 5, 2008

NASCAR California 500 (Fox, National) – February 24, 2008

The Early Show (CBS, National) – June 19, 2010

San Diego Living (XETV, San Diego) – September 14, 2010

The Morning Show (WJXT, Jacksonville) – October 6, 2010

Good Day (WOFL, Orlando) – October 8, 2010

Awards and nominations

! Year	! Award	! Nominated Work	! Result
2008		"Message From Your Heart"
2010		Self

References

External links

Official site

Category:American pop singers Category:Musicians from California Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American female singers Category:American people of Japanese descent Category:American musicians of Japanese descent Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:Interscope Records artists Category:American female guitarists Category:University of Southern California alumni

de:Kina Grannis fr:Kina Grannis it:Kina Grannis nl:Kina Grannis pl:Kina Grannis sv:Kina Grannis