The Purrfect Villain

By: Derek Smith

On December 21st, 2022 the newest Puss and Boots movie came out, and although it is a kids movie, the movie was very good. One of the main reasons why this movie stands out when compared to many other animated films is the main villain of the movie.

The title of the movie is  “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” and it is produced by Dreamworks. One of the biggest reasons for this movie being good is the main villain, Death. In this movie we witness Puss In Boots descend from a confident hero to a “scaredy-cat.” Puss has used up eight of his nine lives, and now that he is down to the last one, he has become scared of death.

In the movie, death is depicted as a hooded wolf that carries two sickles. The wolf believes that Puss should die as he is too arrogant and just threw his lives away like they meant nothing. Throughout the whole movie we see Puss lose his arrogance and start to look around and find things that are worth not dying for, things that are worth living for. Everyone is scared of death, even a fictional cat in a fancy hat and boots, but being scared of death can make life a lot more meaningful. Puss in Boots realized this and he duels Death.

In his duel with Death, Puss says that he knows he cannot win against Death but he will continue fighting to defend his final life. After hearing this, Death lets Puss go and live out his last life, but tells him that he will return. This movie was surprisingly good, and also surprisingly real. Death as a main villain is very relatable, and fearing death is such a common fear. The message of this movie is also great.

The main message is that it is okay to be afraid, and that we may not be everything that we really think we are, and that is okay. In the beginning of this story Puss believes he is a superhero, who is fearless and untouchable, but throughout the movie we see that he does feel fear and that he is not untouchable. Overall, this movie turned out to be one of the best animated movies I have ever seen, because of its very adult themed topics along with looking beautiful as well.

Picture credits #1,  (https://www.awn.com/animationworld/puss-boots-last-wish-returns-its-fairy-tale-illustration-roots) Picture credits #2, (https://news.yahoo.com/puss-boots-last-wish-secures)

Midnights: The Record Shattering Album

By: Liv Foley

Taylor Swift’s newest album, Midnights, is argued to be her best album yet. As she said in the promos, the songs in the album are “A collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.” 

The album contains 13 songs, some about heartbreak, some about love, some about being just plain happy, some about self-insecurities, and even one about karma. This album covers everything. The 3 most popular songs in the album are “Anti-Hero”, “Lavender Haze”, and “Maroon”, which also happens to be the first 3 songs on the album.

“Anti-Hero” is a song about always feeling like the bad guy, and feeling like everyone around you only sees you as some sort of villain. It’s a song about self-hatred and insecurities, which everyone can relate to.  “Lavender Haze” is about all the pressures of a relationship and choosing to ignore the pressure and only focus on the two of you in the relationship. Choosing to ignore everything else around you and only focus on the love between the two of you. Choosing to stay in a “haze” with the other person. “Maroon” is a song about going back and forth between one person, an on-and-off-again relationship, and everything that comes with it. 

All of the songs on the album became the entire top 10 on the Billboard charts in less than a week. 10 songs from the Midnights album covered and smashed down all the other songs on the chart to take all the spots in the top 10 chart. The only person to come close to this was Drake with his Certified Loverboy album, with 8 songs from the album charting in the top 10. 

The songs from Midnights taking all the top 10 marked the first time that no male artist was ever on the top 10 billboard chart in billboard history. 

The billboard top 10 chart started in 1940, and for the first time in 82 years, no male was on the top 10.

Swift became the first artist ever to get all songs on an album in the top 10 of billboard charts. Swift now has 188 chart hits, passing Lil Wayne for third, and trailing the “Glee” cast at 207 hits, and Drake with 278 hits. 

 She has now had 40 songs to get into the top 100, beating Madonna and coming to a close second to Drake. Swift holds the record for the female artist with the most top 10 hits in the history of billboard charts. 

Midnights also became the best-selling album in 2022. The album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 with the equivalent of 1.578 million album units earned in the United States. The biggest since her own album Reputation in 2017. 

Swift is also the only artist in history to have five albums that sold over a million copies in a single week.

 All together, Midnights is the most recent, Speak Now (2010), Red (2012 and 2021), 1989 (2014), and Reputation (2017) follow. 

Swift is also now tied for the most number 1 albums among women. Midnights is Swift’s 11th number-one album, meaning all of her albums except her debut album, Taylor Swift, have been hit albums. These albums include both her re-recordings. 

Swift is only the 6th act in Billboard history to have more than 10 number-one albums. 

She joins the Beatles with 19 number-one albums, Jay-Z with 14, Drake, Bruce Springsteen, and Streisand with 11. 

Midnights broke the modern-era record for single-week vinyl record sales in the United States.  The album sold over 575,000 vinyl copies in the first week of its release, absolutely smashing the previous record of 182,000 copies, which was held by Harry Styles. 

Swift broke the record for the most streamed artist in a single day in all of Spotify history. The album racked up 184.6 million streams in the first 24 hours of being released. The previous record was 153 million streams in a day. 

Swift became the most-streamed female artist in Spotify history and the first to have 35 billion streams. Swift has gained over 35 billion streams on Spotify and now holds the title of the most streamed female artist, and the first to ever cross 35 billion streams. 

The song, “Snow on the Beach” featuring Lana Del Ray, broke the record for most single-day streams for an all-female collaboration in Spotify history. “Snow on the Beach” gained over 15 million Spotify streams within the first day of its release. Surpassing the previous record that Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande held with their song “Rain on Me”. 

Midnights earned the biggest-ever streaming week for any album ever recorded by a woman. 

Midnights earned an astonishing 549.26 million official streams in its debut week. The only other album ahead of midnights is Drake’s “Scorpion” album at 745.92 million streams. 

On Spotify, the album broke the record for the most streamed album in a single day. The album accumulated 184.7 million streams in a single day on Spotify. 

In the end, Taylor Swift broke over 14 records with the release of this new album. It’s been out for exactly two months now and is definitely still breaking records. Swift still has many more albums to come, including re-recordings of old albums and new surprise albums. At 33, Taylor has set many standards and exceeded them greatly, and her career isn’t even close to being over. 
For more information, more records not included in this article, and the biggest records she broke, visit this website: https://www.insider.com/taylor-swift-midnights-broken-records-2022-10#swift-is-the-only-artist-in-history-to-debut-a-song-at-no-1-and-an-album-at-no-1-simultaneously-on-four-separate-occasions-8