It is presumably an Autistic element that when it comes to interests of mine, I cannot think of one without the other. There is nothing eerie or cruel about what comes to mind all of a sudden when it comes to this, but it is a fascinating mystery in a tone of not working up the mind, let alone my own for that matter
Not being able to think of Lions without Tigers – Though both are my favourite animal
Not being able to think of S Club without Katy Perry
Not being able to think of Disney without Anime
Not being able to think of The Jungle Book without Tarzan
Not being able to think of Robin Hood without the Hindu Epic Ramayana
Not being able to think of bears without wild cattle (in a nod to prehistory as well as Central India)
Not being able to think of the Anime Zoids without BBC’s Prehistoric Life series (this is an extended element since in addition to this would also be the Jurassic Park franchise and the book The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle which is thought to have inspired Jurassic Park)
Not being able to think of The Call of the Wild without White Fang
Not being able to think of Ninja Turtles without the novel detective Alex Cross
Not being able to think of Jaws without Deep Blue Sea
Not being able to think of Vengaboys without Aishwarya Rai (Bachchan)
Not being able to think of The Lion King without Star Wars
Not being able to think of Pizza without Japanese cuisine (though mainly those related to shrimp, rice and curry)
A recent surprise in all this is how the numbers 3 and 7 I cannot think of without each other. A dear friend of mine once asked me why that is, and I had only one answer at the time. But now I have many and I will share that with everyone (including her what my answer to her question was)
- The 1990 book Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton was made into a movie in 1993 by Steven Spielberg. Its sequel The Lost World (which took its name from a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle and was an inspiration for the first book and film) was also authored by Crichton and made into a film by Spielberg in 1997. The second film however did not culminate with where the first story began unlike the book that it came from and only with the release of the recent three Jurassic Park films (collectively titled Jurassic World), Jurassic World, Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion (as well as a short film Battle at Big Rock set between the second and third films) saw the culmination of what was meant to be in the second film.
- The 1997 film Donnie Brasco starring Johnny Depp (and Al Pacino) which released in 1997 followed the true story of Joseph Pistone, an FBI agent who infiltrated the American mafia in the 1970s. The movie won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Pirates of the Caribbean which boosted Depp’s career (as well as that of his co-stars Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and Geoffery Rush) was released in 2003 and earned him an Oscar Nomination.
- From a personal perspective, there have been two moments relating to safari in my childhood regarding my favourite animals. When I was three years old, I saw a wild Tiger for the first time in Kanha national park, the very jungle that inspired that of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling about the wolf-raised boy Mowgli (an interesting reversal that in Kanha the Tiger who was Mowgli’s enemy is the star of the park not the wolf who was one of the novels’ protagonists). When I was seven, I visited Kenya for the first time and saw a wild Lion for the first time as well (in the Masai Mara)
- Walt Disney’s first animated feature film was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs released in 1937 was based on the fairy tale of the same name. Before that only Mickey Mouse films had been produced as feature films. The final film to have Walt’s involvement was contrary to popular belief not Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (which unlike the original story was unfaithful to Kipling’s work) but The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1977 based on A.A Milne’s books of the same name about the titular bear and his animal friends as well as his owner Christopher Robin.
- From another personal perspective, a year after I settled in New Zealand at the age of 12, in 2003 when I was 13, I took my first holiday to India which was great. I had another in 2004 which I thought was not good unlike the 2003 holiday. It would be another four years before I visited India again after the 2003 holiday although along the way, when I transited in Singapore as I had done the previous two times, I realized that I prefer SG (as Singapore is known) over India as a travel destination. I first visited Singapore in 1999 when I was 9 although despite transits through there on the way to and back from India, in 2003 and 2005 I did not realize up until that year how much I love it. This realization I believe made the trip I took at the age of 17 another great one and it seemed to take away the disappointment of the previous trip and reestablish the success of the 2003 trip Other trips to India after that came in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022 of which only the 2017 trip in my opinion I found at the same gratifying level as the trips in 2003 and 2007.
- The original Star Wars films were released between 1977 and 1983 beginning with the film we all know so well (released on May 25th 1977 which would be subtitled A New Hope when its sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi which also reached theatres on May 25th of their respective years in 1980 and 1983 forming a trilogy. Why they were titled as Episodes 4, 5 and 6 was answered later with a backstory known as The Phantom Menace which was Episode 1 in 1999)
- Growing up, Hollywood star Morgan Freeman’s strongest goal in life was to act although in the late 1950s he did get into the Air Force but realized he favoured acting, so he left almost immediately. He was born in (June 1st) 1937 in the Mississippi at the time when (as is known) African-Americans were treated differently since they had separate schools, separate seats on busses as well as separate seats in cinemas. When Morgan was six, the first film he saw in the cinema was a re-release of the 1933 film King Kong. It seemed to have frightened him as he spent most of the movie under his seat and seemed to have bad dreams for days after seeing the movie although (while the movie cannot be put under the horror genre) it did not stop his love for acting which was the foundation for him being the star that he is today.