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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Japanese: ファイナルファンタジーVII アドベントチルドレン? Hepburn: Fainaru Fantajī Sebun Adobento Chirudoren) is a 2005 Japanese computer-animated science fantasy film directed by Tetsuya Nomura, written by Kazushige Nojima, and produced by Yoshinori Kitase and Shinji Hashimoto. Developed by Visual Works and Square Enix, Advent Children is part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series of media, which is based in the world and continuity of the highly successful 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was released on DVD and Universal Media Discs with Japanese voice acting in Japan on September 14, 2005, and on April 25, 2006, with English voice acting in North America and Europe.
|Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Japanese film poster
|Directed by
|Tetsuya Nomura
|Produced by
|Written by
|Kazushige Nojima
|Music by
|Nobuo Uematsu
|Yasuharu Yoshizawa
|Edited by
|Keiichi Kojima
|Distributed by
|Square Enix
Release date
Running time
|101 minutes
Advent Children takes place two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII and focuses on the appearance of a trio that kidnaps children infected with an unexplained disease. Former Final Fantasy VII hero Cloud Strife, suffering from the same disease, goes to rescue the children. He discovers that the trio plan to resurrect the villain Sephiroth using the remains of the extraterrestrial villain Jenova, and he and his compatriots from the game fight to stop them. The film's voice acting cast includes Takahiro Sakurai, Ayumi Ito, and Toshiyuki Morikawa in Japanese, and Steve Burton, Rachael Leigh Cook, and George Newbern in English.
The film has been released in multiple versions; Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, released on Blu-ray Disc in 2009, is the last version and adds 25 minutes of new and expanded scenes to the 101-minute original. The film has received mixed reviews. Critics have praised its animation and CGI work, but the plot has been criticized as both incomprehensible to viewers who did not play Final Fantasy VII and as a thin connection between action scenes. It received the "Maria Award" at the Sitges Film Festival in 2005 and the "Best Anime Feature" at the 2007 American Anime Awards. The original release was one of the best-selling animated movies in its release year in both Japan and the United States, and the Complete release was noted as driving a large increase in sales of the PlayStation 3 console in its release week. By May 2009, the DVD and Universal Media Disc releases had sold over 4.1 million copies worldwide.
Advent Children takes place two years following the events of the 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII, during which the antagonist Sephiroth attempted to absorb the Lifestream (the lifeblood and soul of the planet) and be reborn as a god.[1] He was defeated by Cloud Strife and his companions but Sephiroth's final spell, Meteor, destroyed the city of Midgar.
Since the end of the game, the survivors of Midgar founded the new city of Edge where Cloud and his childhood friend Tifa Lockhart now run a courier service and are the caretakers of orphans Denzel and Marlene. Cloud is still haunted by his role in the death of Aerith Gainsborough, who was killed by Sephiroth. In addition, both he and Denzel are infected with a mysterious new ailment known as "Geostigma", which has no known cure. When the film opens, Cloud has recently moved out and isolated himself from his friends.
Cloud is contacted through Tifa and summoned to a meeting with the Shinra Company's former president Rufus Shinra, who was presumed killed in Final Fantasy VII.[2] Rufus asks for Cloud's help to stop Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. The trio are physical manifestations of Sephiroth's surviving spirit, and are seeking to resurrect him using the remains of the extraterrestrial villain Jenova.[3] Cloud refuses to help and leaves.
Meanwhile, Kadaj and his colleagues are recruiting children infected with Geostigma. Denzel falls in with the group, attracted by their promises of a cure for the disease. Loz follows Tifa and Marlene to Aerith's church, where they had gone looking for Cloud, and attacks them. Tifa is knocked unconscious in the fight and Loz kidnapped Marlene. All the kidnapped children are taken to the ruins of the mystical Forgotten City, where Kadaj embraces them as brethren and announces his intention for them all to be reunited with Jenova. When Cloud arrives to rescue them, he is overpowered by Kadaj's gang, but is rescued by his old comrade Vincent Valentine. Demoralized by his failure, Cloud asks if sin can ever be truly forgiven, to which Vincent nonchalantly replies that he has never tried to forgive. Cloud decides to keep fighting and returns to the city, where Kadaj has summoned Bahamut SIN and other monsters to terrorize the population.[4] With the help of his companions from Final Fantasy VII, Cloud engages and defeats the monsters.
Kadaj confronts Rufus Shinra, who reveals he possesses the box containing Jenova's remains. He attempts to destroy it, but Kadaj manages to save it and flees the city with his companions. Yazoo and Loz are apparently destroyed along the way by an explosive planted by Shinra's agents. Cloud chases Kadaj down and engages him in battle, ultimately subduing him. Outmatched, Kadaj opens Jenova's box and fuses with its contents, transforming into Sephiroth. He then tells Cloud that he will be able to use the life essences of Geostigma sufferers to achieve complete domination over the planet.[5] He and Cloud then fight, and throughout the whole encounter, Sephiroth appears to have the upper hand, flinging Cloud repeatedly into walls and finally impaling him through the shoulder. He asks Cloud to tell him what he most cherishes so that he can have the pleasure of taking it away. To this, Cloud replies that he cherishes everything, then pulls out Sephiroth's sword and deals him a hail of devastating blows. Sephiroth's spirit departs, leaving behind the mortally wounded Kadaj. As he lies dying in Cloud's arms, a healing rain starts falling across the land, curing the people of their Geostigma. Yazoo and Loz appear and confront Cloud; he charges at them, and they set off a massive explosion engulfing the three.
Cloud has a vision of his deceased friends Aerith and Zack Fair, who say that his time to join them has not yet come. He then awakens in the church, healed of his injuries and surrounded by his friends. Behind them, he sees Aerith and Zack leaving the church and hears Aerith's voice say, "You see, everything's all right." He agrees: "I know. I'm not alone... not anymore."
Voice CastEdit
Advent Children was released with a Japanese voice track in Japan, and an English voice track elsewhere.[6]
- Takahiro Sakurai/Steve Burton as Cloud Strife. Sakurai and Burton had already performed the role in the video game Kingdom Hearts.[4]
- Ayumi Ito/Rachael Leigh Cook as Tifa Lockhart.[6][7]:22 Nomura felt that Ito's "husky" voice would offer a good contrast with Maaya Sakamoto.[7]:22
- Maaya Sakamoto/Mena Suvari as Aerith Gainsborough.[6][7]:22
- Shōgo Suzuki/Steve Blum as Vincent Valentine.[6][7]:49 Nomura wanted Cloud and Vincent to have noticeably different voices because the characters were otherwise quite similar. Since Vincent was older and more mature than Cloud, his role was given to Suzuki, who has a very low voice.[7]:49
- Shotaro Morikubo/Steve Staley as Kadaj.[6][7]:26–31 Morikubo had difficulties voicing him because of the character's unstable personality and needed time to adjust to the role.[7]:26–31
- Kenji Nomura/Fred Tatasciore as Loz.[6][7]:54–57 Nomura was told by the staff to voice Loz as an "idiot" character.[7]:54–57
- Yūji Kishi/Dave Wittenberg as Yazoo.[6][7]:54–57
- Toshiyuki Morikawa/George Newbern as Sephiroth.[6][7]:22 Morikawa was instructed to pronounce Sephiroth's lines in such a way that his words would convey his feelings of superiority. In tandem with this, the voice director and Morikawa agreed to make Sephiroth's voice sound always calm, as if he never fears the slightest possibility of defeat.[7]:22
- Yumi Kakazu/Christy Carlson Romano as Yuffie Kisaragi.[6][7]:52
- Masahiro Kobayashi/Beau Billingslea as Barret Wallace.[6][7]:46
- Keiji Fujiwara/Quinton Flynn as Reno.[6][7]:38
- Taiten Kusunoki/Crispin Freeman as Rude.[6][7]:40
- Tōru Ōkawa/Wally Wingert as Rufus Shinra.[6][7]:37
- Kenichi Suzumura/Rick Gomez as Zack Fair.[6][7]:56
- Hideo Ishikawa/Greg Ellis as Cait Sith[6][7]:55
- Masachika Ichimura/Liam O'Brien as Red XIII / Nanaki[6][7]:55
- Kazuhiro Yamaji/Chris Edgerly as Cid Highwind[8]
Advent Children began as a short film by Visual Works, a company used by Square to develop CGI scenes for their video games, based on Final Fantasy VII. Kazushige Nojima, who had written the script for the game, was brought on to write a 20-minute script, and he decided to write "a story about Cloud and Tifa and the kids".[9] The film was developed as a part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, a set of different media content intended to expand upon the world of Final Fantasy VII.[10] Square's research and development department worked with Visual Works on the piece, and VII's director Tetsuya Nomura joined the crew after VII's producer Yoshinori Kitase called him. Early in pre-production, the team thought about making Advent Children into a game, but Nomura decided against it, partially because Visual Works had no experience with making a full game. The creators had no prior experience working on films, so they fell back on their knowledge of in-game movies.[11]
The film was planned to focus on the characters of Cloud and Tifa in a similar way to how other titles from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII centered on certain characters; for example, Before Crisis focuses on the Turks, Crisis Core on Zack Fair, and Dirge of Cerberus on Vincent.[10] Nomura says the film was, in its first manifestation, only going to be 20 minutes long. The original story featured someone requesting a message to be sent to Cloud; the message is then relayed to Cloud through several children, and, when the message finally reaches Cloud, it is revealed who the messenger is. Nomura very much liked the original script, and it became the foundation of the final version. He decided to make the project longer and more grand in scope when early word of the film generated great interest amongst Final Fantasy VII fans, the majority of whom wanted something feature length. The film's length was expanded to 100 minutes.[12]
Takeshi Nozue and Nomura, who had first worked together on the video game Kingdom Hearts, split the role of directing, as Nomura felt this would add depth to the film. In designing the battle scenes they first discussed the setting and layout, and then went to the staff with their ideas, deciding which were the best and developing them further. The battle between Cloud's group and Bahamut was the most difficult to design due to the size of the area and the number of objects the staff had to add to the scene to keep it realistic. The alternating positions of the characters, including Bahamut itself, took the staff a long time to complete in order to give the scene a sense of flow.[13] Nomura stated that the team decided not to worry about making the fight sequences realistic, as they felt this would restrict their ability to give the film a "cool look". Therefore, they worked by creating their "own rules". Motion capture was used for many of the film's battle scenes; maneuvers that were not physically possible for live actors to perform were constructed digitally.[14]
While designing the characters, the staff discovered that it was impossible to directly translate the Final Fantasy VII designs into the film, and thus some identifying characteristics had to be discarded.[15] Cloud's redesign was a combination of eight different designs, from his super deformed appearance in the game to his more realistic appearance in the film. The difficulties in making Sephiroth led the staff to reduce his appearances in the film, as it took them two years to develop and refine his look.[13] Nozue also had difficulty developing a framework for Tifa's body that was "balanced, yet showed off her feminine qualities".[7]:24 In April 2003, it was decided that Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo would be manifestations of Sephiroth's spirit—his cruelty, strength, and allure respectively.[7]:26–31 In contrast to Sephiroth, the trio was meant to be younger than Cloud, so as to focus on the "next generation" theme.[14] By October 2003, Nomura said that the film was 10% complete, stating that while the script was written, not all the characters were designed.[15]
Nomura felt that Advent Children differed from Hollywood films where the meaning of most scenes tends to be explained. With Advent Children, however, the staff wanted viewers to be able to interpret scenes themselves, allowing them to come to different conclusions.[13] Nojima described the theme of the film as "survival".[15] Other themes with which Nomura and Nojima were concerned include Cloud's feelings of guilt and regret for not being able to save his friends Zack and Aerith. These feelings are symbolized by a grey wolf that appears whenever Cloud thinks about them. The wolf disappears at the end of the film as Cloud comes to terms with his feelings.[7]:86 The word "children" was used in the title to refer to the film's children, as they represent the "next generation".[14]
The music of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Keiji Kawamori, Kenichiro Fukui, and Tsuyoshi Sekito, and arranged by Fukui, Sekito, Kawamori, Shirō Hamaguchi, and Kazuhiko Toyama. Upon hearing each track, Nomura would make some changes, and have the composers re-record the piece.[7]:88–90 The end theme, "Calling", was written and performed by former Boøwy vocalist Kyosuke Himuro. The soundtrack includes both pieces original to the film and arrangements of works from Final Fantasy VII, originally composed by Uematsu. Some of the arrangements, including "Advent: One-Winged Angel", are performed by The Black Mages, a rock band formed by Uematsu, Fukui, and Sekito.[16] Both the pieces original to the film and the film arrangements cover a variety of musical styles, including orchestral, choral, classical piano, and rock music; Variety noted that the styles vary between "sparse piano noodlings, pop metal thrashings and cloying power ballads".[17] The 2005 soundtrack album Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Original Soundtrack collects 26 tracks of music from the film on two discs. It was published by Square Enix on September 28, 2005. In addition to the regular release, a limited edition was produced containing alternative cover art and a booklet of credits and lyrics.[16] The soundtrack album reached position #15 on the Japanese Oricon music charts, and stayed on the charts for 10 weeks.[18]
A mini-album entitled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete Mini Album was released on April 10, 2009, to coincide with the release of the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete version of the film.[19] This version of the film included a new ending theme, "Safe and Sound", by Kyosuke Himuro and My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way.[20] "Water" was replaced with a new song, "Anxious Heart".[19] Tracks on the album included new versions of "The Chase of Highway", "Those Who Fight Further", "Sign", "Advent: One-Winged Angel", and "On the Way to a Smile".[21] A larger album, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete: Reunion Tracks, was released with 21 tracks on September 16, 2009. This album contains the tracks from the mini-album, as well as several pieces that were lengthened for the Complete film version but not rearranged.[22] Reunion Tracks appeared on the Oricon charts for a single week at position #108.[23]
Promotion and releaseEdit
Advent Children and the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series were first announced at the 2003 Tokyo Game Show in September 2003. The movie was announced as a direct-to-DVD film.[7]:74[24] The first trailer for the movie was featured in the international version of the video game Final Fantasy X-2, released in February 2004.[25] The trailer used a motion capture that was altered in the final film.[15] Advent Children was initially scheduled for a September 13, 2005 release in North America and a September 14, 2005 release in Japan,[26][27] but the North American release date was pushed back several times. It was first moved to November 2005,[28] then to January 2006,[29] and finally scheduled for April 25, 2006 for release on DVD and Universal Media Discs for the PlayStation Portable.[30]
Prior to the film's release in Japan, Panasonic produced a cell phone identical to the one Cloud uses in the film; the phone contained several features related to Advent Children such as wallpapers and ringtones.[25] Alongside the film's release, Shueisha published a 118-page book about the film's story titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Prologue Book.[31] In 2006, SoftBank Creative published a guidebook entitled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Reunion Files, which contains interviews with the film's staff and information regarding development of the film.[7]
A limited edition of the film titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Pieces was released in Japan at the same time as Advent Children; only 77,777 sets were produced. The edition contains various pieces of merchandising, a copy of the script, the original Final Fantasy VII game, a strategy guidebook for the game, and a disc containing the original video animation (OVA) Last Order: Final Fantasy VII.[25] Nomura stated that meaning of the name Advent Pieces was that "advent" means "the recognition and commemoration of something", while "pieces" was added in order to bring special meaning to the release.[7]:101 A special one-time-only theatrical screening of the English version of the film took place on April 3, 2006, at the Arclight Theatre in Los Angeles. The event was promoted via email to those who subscribed to the Square Enix mailing list.[32] The screening included trailers of the video games Kingdom Hearts II and Dirge of Cerberus, and featured appearances from the English language cast and the Japanese developers.[33]
The DVD release of the film is a 2-disc set that contains several bonus features, including Last Order. Sony later announced Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (Limited Edition Collector's Set) for release in North America on February 20, 2007.[34] The set included more bonus material than the previous DVD releases, including a copy of the script, several postcards with imagery from the film, and the first three stories from the On the Way to a Smile short story series.[35]
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children CompleteEdit
At the 2006 Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix showed a trailer of a director's cut of the film, entitled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete, for release on the Blu-ray format sometime in 2007.[36] No more specific release date was announced until the 2008 Square Enix DKΣ3713 Party, where a release date for Advent Children Complete in Japan was given as March 2009.[37] The new edition of the film was released in Japan on April 16, 2009.[38] A separate version was sold that included a demo of Final Fantasy XIII. Both editions included the first HD trailers of Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII, though a third edition without the extra videos or demos was also released.[39] On April 11 and 12, 2009, days before Advent Children Complete's release, Square Enix held four special screenings of Advent Children Complete at the Ginza Sony Building in Tokyo. There were 800 seats, available to those who reserved the Blu-ray or the PlayStation 3 bundle at the Square Enix e-store, and were members of Square Enix's online website.[40]
Advent Children Complete has a higher visual quality than the original release, is 25 minutes longer than the original cut of the film, and also contains roughly one thousand revised scenes.[41][42] Themes expanded in Advent Children Complete include Cloud's development, Denzel's background, and a more in-depth view of the Turks and Rufus Shinra. The film's staff wanted to add links to the other titles in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII that had been released since the original film. There is more violence in this version, specifically more blood during the fights, as the staff wanted to bring a "dirtier" look to the film, with characters' faces and clothes getting darker and dirtier throughout the battles.[42] Additionally, the fight between Cloud and Sephiroth was expanded by several minutes, and includes a scene in which Sephiroth impales Cloud on his sword and holds him in the air, mirroring the scene in the game where he performs the same action.[43]
Advent Children Complete was released in North America on June 2, 2009,[31] and in Europe on July 27, 2009.[44] The North American and European versions come with a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII rather than a demo.[45] The releases in all regions also feature an animated piece entitled "On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel", as well as the story digests "Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII" and "Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII Compilation". The Japanese and English voice actors had to return to record additional dialogue for the new and expanded scenes. Nomura stated there were no major problems with this process, noting that Sakurai and Morikawa were already used to their characters from voicing them in other media. However, some of the child characters, most notably Denzel and Marlene, had to be recast and have all their lines re-recorded, as the original performers' voices now sounded too old in both languages.[43][46] Nomura has stated that while Advent Children Complete did not represent the end of Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, as the staff still had more ideas, it marked "the end of the Advent Children saga" as there would be no more re-releases or extended versions.[47]
Last Order: Final Fantasy VIIEdit
Last Order: Final Fantasy VII is an original video animation directed by Morio Asaka, written by Kazuhiko Inukai, and animated by Madhouse.[7]:94–95[48] It depicts an alternate rendition of two flashbacks found within Final Fantasy VII. It was originally released in Japan on the Advent Pieces DVD, on September 14, 2005.[49][50] It was released in North America in the Limited Edition Collector's Set on February 20, 2007.[51] Thus far, it has not been released on any DVD editions of the film outside Japan or North America. There is currently no English dub for the film, and the North America version is subtitled.[52]
On the Way to a SmileEdit
On the Way to a Smile is a series of short stories that take place between the time of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. Written by Kazushige Nojima, the first story, "Case of Denzel", was released in episodic form on the official Japanese Advent Children website. "Case of Denzel" is told indirectly from the perspective of Denzel, who has requested an interview with Reeve Tuesti in the hopes that he may become part of Reeve's newly formed World Regenesis Organization, an army devoted to rebuilding the planet. Denzel tells his life story, including how he became an orphan, the events leading up to his becoming afflicted with Geostigma, and how he came under the care of Tifa and Cloud.[53] "Case of Denzel" was adapted into On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel, a short OVA animated by A-1 Pictures that was released with Advent Children Complete.[31][54]
The second short story, "Case of Tifa", is Tifa's account of the events following Meteor's destruction and her life with Cloud, overlapping in part with Denzel's story. A third On the Way to a Smile story, "Case of Barrett", involves Barret and his struggles to try to find a new energy source for the people of the world. To coincide with the release of Advent Children Complete in 2009, four more stories were written: "Case of Yuffie", "Case of Red XIII", "Case of Shinra", and "Case of Lifestream - Black & White". All the stories were released together as a book titled On the Way to a Smile at the same time that Advent Children Complete was released.[53]
The DVD releases of Advent Children sold over 410,000 copies in Japan during their first week on sale, with roughly half of the sales coming from the limited edition.[55] The DVD and UMD releases combined sold over 700,000 units in Japan in the first three weeks, and over one million copies by January 2006.[56] In a 2005 Oricon Japanese sales report, the regular edition of the DVD ranked twelfth on the best seller list in Japan for the entire year after one week of sales, and the limited edition ranked fifteenth. The two editions ranked third and fourth on the animated feature sublist.[55] The English language DVD sold over 960,000 units, which translated to almost $15 million in revenue, by the fifth week of release.[57] The DVD ranked a "surprise" #2 during its first week on the American Nielsen VideoScan sales charts after being released in North America.[58] Nielsen's "Top Selling Anime Releases of 2006" report had Advent Children ranked first,[59] and the 2006 report by the Japan External Trade Organization also ranked the film as the best-selling Japanese anime DVD in the United States. In the 2007 list, the DVD was at the tenth spot.[60] In June 2006, Square Enix and Sony announced that the DVD and UMD releases combined had sold over 2.4 million units worldwide, with 1 million units sold in Japan, 1.3 million in North America, and 100,000 in Europe.[61] By May 2009, just prior to the release of Advent Children Complete, the film had sold over 4.1 million copies across all versions.[62]
On its first day of release, over 100,000 Blu-ray copies of Advent Children Complete were sold in Japan across all three versions.[63] During its initial week, the Blu-ray was #2 on the American Nielsen VideoScan Blu-ray bestseller list,[64] with 274,774 units sold.[65] During 2009, the regular version of Advent Children Complete sold 49,000 units in Japan according to Oricon, ranking second in their category "Animation/Special Effects Blu-ray Discs".[66] It ranked eighth in the category "Overall Blu-ray Discs, by Yen" with 310 million yen (US$3.4 million) sold in 2009.[67] Gaming sites Gamasutra and Kotaku cited Advent Children Complete as one of the main reasons why sales of the PlayStation 3 video game console radically increased during the film's first week of release.[38][65]
Critical responseEdit
Advent Children has received mixed reviews. The computer-animated graphics were generally praised; 1UP.com's James Mielke, who awarded the film an "A-", said the quality and clarity of the CG visuals was "genuinely amazing".[68] Anime News Network writer Carlo Santos praised the animation while awarding the film a "B", calling it "outstanding", and About.com's Roger Altizer, while giving the film overall 2 and a half stars out of 5, cited the visuals as one of its few positive points.[69][70] The film's plot was generally criticized as confusing; Leslie Felperin of Variety, in a sharply negative review, described the plot as "soulless" and "utterly impenetrable" to anyone who had not played the game, and Anime News Network's Santos agreed that people who had not played Final Fantasy VII would not understand the story.[17][69] Mania Entertainment's John Eriani also found the plot confusing to non-players, though they liked how the characters were further explored in the film.[71] Todd Douglass Jr. from DVD Talk, while "highly recommending" the film, praised Cloud's character development in particular.[72] About.com's Altizer summarized the plot and dialogue as "weak", and IGN's Chris Carle, in their 9 out of 10 review, felt that the plot was just as excuse to get to the next action sequence.[70][73] The story digest "Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII", included with the DVD to explain the plot of Final Fantasy VII, was described by Anime News Network's Santos as "just as confusing as the movie", and of no help in explaining the plot to anyone who had not already played the game, though Carle of IGN felt it was helpful to those who had not played the game in a while.[69][73]
The action scenes were generally praised. RPGamer's Michael Beckett, while giving the film a 4 out of 5, lauded the film's fighting scenes, calling them "mesmerizing" and the primary focus of the movie.[74] Anime News Network's Santos also heavily praised the action sequences, and Felperin of Variety felt they were the only point to the movie, which they felt focused entirely on the technical aspects of the action.[17][69] The music received mixed reviews; Eriani of Mania Entertainment heavily praised it, as did Santos of Anime News Network, but 1UP.com's Mielke called it "a bit sappy".[68][69][71] Douglass Jr. from DVD Talk concluded that Advent Children "is pretty much the film that fans all over the world have been waiting for", RPGamer's Beckett said that "the film feels very much like a love letter to the fans of Final Fantasy VII", and IGN's Carle summed up the film as "glorious, beautiful, well-executed fan service."[72][73][74]
The director's cut, Advent Children Complete, was generally praised over the original version. Joystiq's Andrew Yoon found Advent Children Complete a better film, feeling it was more accessible to people who had not played Final Fantasy VII.[75] Blu-ray.com's Dustin Somner called it "a nice improvement on an entertaining film", and DVD Talk's Todd Douglass Jr. said it was "the best version of the film" due to its audio quality, the new scenes, and the expansion of Cloud's battle against Sephiroth.[76][77] Douglass also found the addition of On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel to be a welcome edition, though he felt that the bonus features as a whole were underwhelming, belying the "Complete" title.[77] Yoon of Joystiq felt that the new scenes helped give more depth to Cloud's development, to the point of "humanizing" him, though he felt the change in pacing for some scenes made the plot hard to follow.[75] Kotaku writer AJ Glasser, however, summed up the director's cut as "26 extra minutes and it still doesn't make any sense", saying that the new scenes did little to improve the plot of the film itself.[78]
Advent Children received the Honorary Maria Award at the Sitges Film Festival on October 15, 2005.[79] The film was also awarded "best anime feature" at the 2007 American Anime Awards.[80] IGN placed it second in their "Top 10 Straight-to-DVD Animated Movies" list.[81] In 2007, the music video for the song "유혹의 소나타" ("Sonata of Temptation") by Korean singer Ivy recreated the fight between Tifa and Loz. The director of the video stated that it was just a parody of the film but was unable to get in contact with Square Enix to get official permission.[82] The video was subsequently banned from airing on Korean television after a copyright lawsuit by Square Enix.[83] OverClocked ReMix's four disc Final Fantasy VII unofficial tribute album, Voices of the Lifestream, contains one disc remixing music from the film.[84] Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama has stated that he felt the film showed "battles that have not been achievable in FF so far", and so tried to design the battle system for Final Fantasy XIII to create cinematic battles like the film's.[85] In addition, Cloud's outfit from the movie was added to Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in December 2015.[86]
- ^ Square (September 7, 1997). Final Fantasy VII. PlayStation. SCE America.
Aeris: How do you intend to become one with the Planet? / Sephiroth: It's simple. Once the Planet is hurt, it gathers Spirit Energy to heal the injury. The amount of energy gathered depends on the size of the injury. ...What would happen if there was an injury that threatened the very life of the Planet? Think how much energy would be gathered! Ha ha ha. And at the center of that injury, will be me. All that boundless energy will be mine. By merging with all the energy of the Planet, I will become a new life form, a new existence. Melding with the Planet... I will cease to exist as I am now. Only to be reborn as a 'God' to rule over every soul. / Aeris: An injury powerful enough to destroy the Planet? Injure... the Planet? / Sephiroth: Behold that mural. The Ultimate Destructive Magic... Meteor.
- ^ Square (June 24, 1998). Final Fantasy VII. Microsoft Windows. Eidos Interactive. Scene: Diamond Weapon attack. Level/area: Disc 3.
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- ^ a b Studio BentStuff, ed. (April 16, 2009). Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania (in Japanese) (Revised ed.). Square Enix. ISBN 978-4-7575-2560-3.
- ^ Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Motion picture). Square Enix. April 25, 2006.
Sephiroth: What I want, Cloud, is to sail the darkness of the cosmos with this planet as my vessel. Just as my Mother did long ago. Then one day we'll find a new planet, and on its soil we'll create a shining future.
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- ^ Ashcraft, Brian (March 3, 2007). "Clip: Korean Video Rips-Off FF VII". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved August 4, 2009.
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External linksEdit
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
- Advent Children website (Japanese)
- Advent Children Complete website (Japanese)
- Advent Children Complete website (English)
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children at the Internet Movie Database
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children at Rotten Tomatoes
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children at AllMovie
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia


text:
" Brand: Mc Vitie's / Type: Biscuit "
* Prices may differ from that shown
McVitie's Ginger Nuts
I love ginger nuts and McVities ginger nuts are one of the best. They are a robust biscuit with plenty of flavour and as with most McVities biscuits, they are great for dunking in tea as they don't fall apart as you lift them to your eager mouth.
I am a great fan of cinnamon and nutmeg based puddings and I also like ginger from its root in soups or casseroles. So that is probably why I find McVitie's Ginger Nuts so appealing as they contain all the above. Let's take a look at the ingredients before we look at a little background and the history of the biscuit.
Shape, texture and Ingredients
McVitie's Ginger Nuts are round in shape and measure about three millimetres in thickness, which is about an eighth of an inch.
What makes the McVities version stand out for me is the fact that they taste primarily of ginger. 'Surely all ginger biscuits taste of ginger?' I hear you ask. Well you would be surprised. A lot of countries bang so many spices into the biscuit that the ginger becomes over-powered. McVities use cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and the ginger shines through; whereas some countries overload the biscuits with cardamom and cloves. More often than not, these two ingredients knock the ginger taste out of the biscuit and you end up with a more spicy biscuit.
Saying that, the McVities version does taste really spicy but that is due to the correct ratio of cinnamon and ginger and, of course, McVities own secret spices which they add to the recipe. Whatever they do end up adding does not take away anything from the ginger and what you end up with is a strong finished product.
The biscuit is circular in shape, which means that they will easily fit into most tea cups and mugs and I would go as far as saying all cups and mugs unless you drink from a cup which you have borrowed from your daughters doll house.
A lot of people go to visit Scandinavian countries and eat what they often confuse with ginger nuts. There is a variation called a 'Gingerbread' biscuit but it is made with pepper nuts and not ginger. The pepper nut variation is a lot stronger than ginger and is loaded with spices. Some countries do add ginger as well, which is why people sometimes get confused between the two. The pepper nut biscuits are smaller than ginger nuts and paler in colour.
The McVities Ginger Nut also has lemon added in to give it that extra zing and also a refreshing taste after the initial explosion of ginger on your tongue.
Eaten on their own they are quite hard and robust and can stand up to quite a dunking in hot tea.
They contain no hydronated vegetable oil and are made with only the best ingredients that McVities strive to seek out around the world in order to make their ginger nuts the best.
They contain gluten and wheat but no artificial colourings or preservatives are used. They are also suitable for vegetarians.
Ingredients are as follows:
Wheat Flour, Sugar, Vegetable Oil (Palm), Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Molasses, Raising Agents (Sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Bicarbonate), Salt, Natural Lemon and Ginger Flavouring.
The secret ingredients are rumoured to be cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices.
Nutritional information
Typical values per 100g PER BISCUIT
Energy 1915kj 224kj
Energy 455kcal 53kcal
Protein 5.5g 0.6g
Carbohydrate 71.1g 8.3g
of which sugars 31g 3.6g
Fat 16.6g 1.9g
of which saturates 7.9g 0.9g
Fibre 2.2g 0.3g
Sodium 0.4g <0.1g
McVities History
In 1890 after numerous tries, a Scottish man by the name of John Montgomerie was granted a patent for the manufacture of digestive biscuits. By the nineteen thirties McVitie & Price went onto manufacture some of the best loved biscuits in the UK and around the world from their base in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The original factory in Scotland was burned to the ground in a fire but rebuilt and operated until nineteen ten, when it moved to Harlsden in England. Another factory was built in nineteen seventeen in Manchester. The company still had strong Scottish links with Edinburgh bakery giants Simon Henderson and sons working with them from the nineteen twenties. In nineteen forty-eight they joined forces with MacFarlane Lang and Company, once again keeping their Scottish roots, and became known as the United Biscuits Group.
The digestive was the first biscuit produced by McVities and the first ever digestive to go full scale on the market. It was actually created by a relative nobody in terms of the trade and the company; a young lad, just finished his apprenticeship in eighteen ninety-two, who was named Alexander Grant. It became famous because of the rumour of its healing properties against indigestion.
The Ginger nut came much later on with 'Rich Tea' and many of the other famous biscuits under the brand.
McVities are also renowned for trying to make their biscuits as healthy as is practically possible with this kind of food. They reduced the sodium in their biscuits by ten per cent in two thousand and four and have since lowered them even more.
My Thoughts
As I have already alluded to, the ginger nut is perfect for dunking as it can stand up to the hot liquid.
Ginger nuts can also be blended or crumbled to make a base for cheesecake. I have tried this and it is absolutely yummy to say the least. I absolutely love ginger nuts and will buy the McVities brand if available every time over any of the others.
The packets are heat sealed to keep them as fresh as possible and I like to keep them in a tin or an air-tight plastic container to keep them fresh for as long as possible.
There is nothing like the satisfying crunch of a ginger nut and when you dunk one for the first time the taste of the tea with them is sublime. As a youngster I used to dunk them and suck the tea out and dunk them again; heaven!
In my opinion McVities Ginger Nuts are by far the best ginger nut on the market.
©Lee Billingham
I've got an empty packet of McVitie's Ginger Nut biscuits here to help me write this review and the smell from within the wrapper is absolutely fantastic. The packet is empty because once they have been opened they don't last long if I have anything to do with it. Currently a 250g packet of these is around one pound and nine pence on the Tesco website and although this is more expensive than some of the own label brands the difference in quality is definitely discernible although I have eaten many cheaper versions and have enjoyed them thoroughly also.
If you don't like the gingery taste then these are not for you as the flavour is really strong but in my opinion as a fan these are great and wonderfully fantastic. They are quite possibly some of the hardest crunchiest biscuits you can eat so you need to be a little careful with your teeth, don't surprise yourself with their consistency. They do of course soften with a nice cup of tea which I think is one of the best ways to enjoy biscuits but not to the extent of something like a digestive or a rich tea.
Each biscuit contains roughly 47 calories and 1.7g of fat so one or two would be a nice treat for someone who is trying to be more healthy in their lifestyle or a person who is on a diet could reward themselves with one of these. You can pay more and buy fanciful versions of ginger biscuits but I think these are great and one of my favourites to really make your mouth stand up and take notice.
I love sweet things, cakes and biscuits with Ginger in them and I have always liked Mcvities Ginger Nuts. For some reason, I don't actually buy them all that often, about once every couple of months or so. The reason is that there are so many lovely biscuity snacks to choose from that I cant buy them all in one go; much as part of me would like to. So every now and them I change the biscuits I buy. I was browsing around the biscuit aisle at Tesco recently and I spotted my old favourites; these lovely Ginger Nuts.
I like them best dunked in Tea, but sometimes just eat them on their own. I have bought some of the cheaper brand Ginger nuts, biut sometimes they can be a bit too hard, especially if you eat them on their own...you can be in danger of breaking your teeth! I like to buy the well known brands sometimes as a little treat and in my view, Mcvities Ginger Nut biscuits are the best ones around. My children are not all that keen on them, but occasionally my son will eat them.
These Ginger Nuts have a sort of crackled pattern to them and it would be interesting to know how they actually make them in order to get the sort of appearance and texture that they have. They are the sort of biscuit that you either love or hate really and I am a lover!
Wheat flour; Sugar; Vegetable oil (Palm); Gluctose Fructose Syrup; Molasses; Raising Agents ( Sodium bicarbonate, Ammonium bicarbonate); Salt; Natural lemon; Ginger; Flavouring
One Ginger nut biscuit contains 47 Kcals
You can buy a 250g packet of Ginger Nuts for only a £1.00 at Tesco.
These Ginger nuts are very crunchy; the Ginger taste is lovely and once I start eating them I find it hard to stop!
This is a Classic Biscuit from Mcvities which in my view is deserving of 4 stars.
One day, I was buying my usual packet of oh-so-addictive McVities Fruit Shortcake when something else caught my eye - McVities Ginger Nuts. I had never tried any ginger nuts before, but something made me buy them.
I was not disappointed. The intense burst of flavour when you bite into them is just amazing! They taste great, but not too sweet like some other biscuits do, they are flavoursome, the packaging is quite attractive and they are (thankfully) not quite as ridiculously addictive as McVities Fruit Shortcake. As biscuits go, they are pretty healthy, and they are great with a cup of tea.
The only issue I have with these is that they can be quite hard to bite into as they are really very solid. After a few biscuits, eating them becomes a bit of a chore and I have to stop. However, they really do taste great.
All in all, I would recommend these, especially if you are a fan of ginger - there really is a strong, authentic ginger flavour off these lovely biscuits, and also they are quite a decent size - I hate when biscuits are too small!
Nicely presented in attractive packaging. I have never tried any other brands of ginger nuts, so can't compare them to others, but as biscuits in general go, they're pretty good! Four stars from me.
Thanks for reading. This review is also published on ciao.co.uk under the same username.
Mcvities are one of the biggest makers of biscuits and when you buy mcvities you know your getting a good quality biscuit and this is no different for their ginger nuts either.
Mcvities ginger nuts are basically small but fair sized circular flat shaped biscuits that have a ginger taste to it. If you haven't tried these, they taste similar to the ginger bread man taste however are a much harder biscuit than these and a lot crunchier because of this.
They are great for dipping though as they are so hard, when dipped they still stay together fairly well and instead of turning to much straight away they go a bit chewy which is a really good texture for a dipped biscuit.
They go with cups of tea really well as the two flavours balance out very well however there also nice eaten on their own as well.
The only problem I see with these is the price, there about 80p for a pack which I guess isn't too bad however when you can get the same thing in supermarkets home brands for half the price then its just no competition really. Good product but there are cheaper alternatives out there so I don't tend to get these ones all that often.
McVitie's bake biscuits like they ought to be. McVitie's have been making biscuits since 1830. They are now owned by the company United Biscuits. According to an article I read, the name derives from the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie & Price, Ltd. on Rose Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. McVitie's say, "We are passionate about baking. It is no wonder generations have loved the great taste of McVitie's Biscuits."
Ginger is a type of plant which is consumed whole as a delicacy, medicine or used as spice for cooking or tea. Ginger has been found effective in multiple studies for treating nausea caused by seasickness, morning sickness and chemotherapy. Even though I'm pregnant I fortunately do not have any morning sickness at all but this still does not stop me using it as an excuse to buy McVitie's Ginger Nuts. Ginger Nuts are basically just biscuits flavoured with powdered ginger, anise, nuts and other spices.
What I love about these biscuits is that they have a wonderfully crunchy consistency to them. They are quite hard are tough to break in two but when you bite into them they have such a lovely crunch. They have a sort of nobbled texture to them as well which gives them a bit more of a crunchy kick. They have a sort of dark orangey, brown colour to them.
The flavour is second to none. They have a very strong, sweet taste to them. I find them extremely spicy and they do leave a spicy after taste in your mouth. It's funny because I actually don't like ginger in it's natural form, ie when accompanied with sushi but I do like it in these biscuits.
They are not the healthiest biscuits around. Per biscuit there are 53 calories and I don't know about you I can't stop at one. A 300g pack of these biscuits at Sainsburys will cost you £0.90, a bargain in my opinion!
I first started buying McVitie's Ginger Nuts in an effort to stop myself buying the ridiculously expensive ginger biscuits at work to go with my coffee every morning. I started keeping a tube of these yummy biscuits at my desk, but the trouble is I would eat half a packet at a time - it really wasn't saving me any money at all, and I was eating an obscene amount of ginger nuts!
Each tube is 300g and retails for about 75p usually, although obviously this varies depending on the retailer. The packet design has changed slightly from the one currently shown on Dooyoo - there is now much more dark blue on the main part of the tube, and the whole design just looks a bit more modern.
The ginger nut biscuits themselves are approximately two inches in diameter and very smooth looking. They are a lovely orangey-brown colour with some small sugar crystals visible, and are nice and crunchy when you bite into them. They taste fantastic - really gingery, just how I like them! Perfect for dunking in your tea or coffee to wake you up in the morning!
The only problem I have with them is that they are so more-ish and I have a complete lack of self-control when it comes to biscuits! The packet states they have 53 calories per biscuit, and considering I've eaten about 20 whilst 'researching' this review, that soon adds up to a very unhealthy snack. I'm not going to stop buying them though - I will simply have to hide them from myself!
McVities Ginger Nuts come in 2 sizes, 200g or 300g. We usually buy the 300g packet and it is easily gone in a week! Currently in Tesco, the 300g packet retails at 90p and the 200g pack retails at 89p, however the 200g packets are on buy one get one free offer until 25th August.
The packet is sort of similar to the one in the picture but has changed a little. The pack now also has a sort of blue band round it however it is still orange and has a picture of a biscuit on the front. The pack is now also more easy open and can easily be twisted round to keep the biscuits fresh once a few have been eaten.
So onto the biscuit itself. Each biscuit is round and of a deep brown colour. As you bite into the biscuit you may find them to be quite hard as I often do so therefore I find them better dunked in a cup of tea. The taste of the ginger nuts is much stronger than the cheaper versions and is very rich. The ginger taste often leaves my tongue tingling for a few moments after I have finished the biscuit as the gingery taste is quite strong. Each biscuit contains 53 calories, 3.6g sugar, 1.9g fat (0.9g saturates) and less than 0.1g of salt.
I would recommend these biscuits to anyone and believe that although cheaper alternatives are nice, these have a defined taste and no others are quite as strong. All of my family like these and I believe they are very good value for such a versatile biscuit.
Tip: Try them crumbled in vanilla yoghurt
Mcvites Ginger nuts are a regular on my weekly shopping list. I have tried other brands but I always go back to McVites, as I think they stand head and shoulders above any of its competitors.
Ginger of course has a variety of uses. It is a tropical plant grown in India, China and Jamaica. and apart from using it in cooking savoury dishes, there are many old wives' tales of using it in tea as a remedy for colds or drinking ginger ale/beer for an upset stomach.
However, these biscuits can easily be spotted on the supermarket shelf in a bright orange tubular packet. They are foil wrapped for freshness and a 300g packet costs between 70p - 75p, however, they are usually on offer at some point in each supermarket. The packet is opened by just pulling apart the wrapper at one end. Not like some brands that have a tag you can pull to open all round the biscuits. This makes them easy to seal and keep fresh. However, I would recommend that once opened they are stored in an airtight container to ensure freshness at a later date, as I have known the biscuits left in an half eaten packet to go soft and chewy.
On opening the packet you immediately get the aroma of a sweet mild ginger and syrupy smell.
The biscuits are golden brown and circular with a diameter of about 5 -6 centimetres. They are a hard crunchy biscuit, which is why my husband, who wears dentures, likes to dunk his in tea to soften them a bit first. Personally, I like to munch mine and drink my tea afterwards.
On eating the biscuit you get the taste of ginger with a slight syrupy taste, the biscuit is sweet but not overpowering or sickly. I always seem to get a slight after taste in the mouth, which is why I drink my tea afterwards.
Nutritional Information per biscuit.
Energy 53kcal
Protein 0.6g
Carbohydrate 8.3g of which 3.6g are sugars
Fat 1.9g of which 0.9g is saturates
Fibre 0.3g
Sodium <0.1g.
As with most of McVites products there are no artificial flavours or colours used and also, no hydrogenated vegetable oil.
As I have said they are regularly on my shopping list as I have also used the biscuits in other ways. First I crush some buy putting the biscuits into a sandwich bag and using a rolling pin to break the biscuits into crumbly bits. I have then used them as a base for cheesecake or used as a topping on banana splits or even ice cream.
The only down side to these biscuits is that they are so moreish one is never enough.
49p in my pocket and standing in the biscuit section at Sainsburys. I could of bought 2 packets of Sainsburys own brand of ginger nuts for 23p but instead I opted for McVities. For 47p and a smaller amount of biscuits I should maybe of gone for the cheaper variety but hey, I felt like going a bit up market (!)
There can't be many people who haven't heard of the ginger nut. It's basically a golden brown biscuit which is slightly thicker in height but smaller in width than your usual digestives or tea biscuits. In most cases they should have a strong taste of ginger but not so that you want to spit it out afterwards. I'm actually pleased to say that McVities have managed this combination well. Spicey yet not too overpowering.
They are also very hard to break into. Somehow I worry that I'm going to break my teeth eating one of these. I tend to crunch on them using my side teeth if that makes sense. Once you've actually gotten the first bite out of the way you're fine to munch away. You could also dunk these into your tea to make them a bit softer as well.
I find that these are very morish and when it's my money that I'm using to buy them you're more than likely going to find them hidden away in my bedroom than lurking in a kitchen cuboard. Such as why it doesn't take long for me to consume them. Especially when I'm reading.
For a 300g pack you do get a decent amount, whilst there being 56 calories and 2.0g per biscuit they aren't exactly the healthiest of snacks.
Now then, a bit of maths. I got mine for 47p however, this was as part of a deal and it had a 1/3 of the price cut off. So...I think that in Sainsburys at least they should cost about 70-75p
There is a downside to these. They taste lovely when eating but when you've finished they leave a funny aftertaste. A bit like orange juice when it's not been put in the fridge with another underlying flavour which I can't work out.
I would recommend these to anybody who likes a ginger nut, they are especially good when having a hot drink and they don't crumble or fall apart when you're eating them. Very nice!
I suffer from IBS and have days where I need something to eat that's got fat/calories in it, is easy to eat (i.e small) and will hopefully help to keep the sickness I get at bay and I find ginger nuts to be perfect for this.
McVities Ginger Nuts come in a thick plastic wrapper which has perforated edges at both ends for ease of opening and there are around 30 biscuits per packet.
A ginger nut biscuit is made from wheat flour, ginger extracts, molasses, sugar & vegetable oil and whilst the individual ingredients don't sound very nice when these have been mixed together and shaped in to a round ginger coloured biscuit it's absolutely delicious. There is just enough ginger flavouring for the entire biscuit to have the flavouring without being too overpowering for your mouth or your stomach. The biscuits are very crunchy and quite hard to break up but if you want something a little easier then these can be sucked to give them a softer bite.
Each biscuit contains 53 calories & 1.9g of fat so I think that these are great for the delicious flavour that you get and the crunchiness of the biscuit. I usually have a couple of these in the morning if I am feeling unwell and find that this always works a treat and helps me face up to food in the day ahead and I find on the days when I have nothing that I just don't feel like breakfast or lunch and then I end up so hungry that I actually feel worse.
A 300g packet of McVities Ginger Nuts is available from Tesco stores or www.tesco.co.uk for just 90p and these are current on BOGOF (until 23/06/2009) and although these are more expensive than the value Tesco biscuits I think it's worth paying a little extra for the delicious taste and there is slightly less calories in these than the similar sized Tesco Value Ginger Nuts.
I am rating these biscuits 5/5 and would definitely recommend them if you want something full of flavour for your tea break and these dunk very well without breaking up and the tea gives the ginger nuts an even more delicious flavour.
Having munched my way through a few too many of these tonight, I thought a review would only be polite!
I normally buy the cheap and cheerful version of gingernuts. They are my favourite biscuit but I am a Tesco Value girl out of necessity and lack of cash! I was making a fridge cake (evil thing - chocolate, nuts, fruit ginger nuts and condensed milk!!!) for a friends birthday and as it was a birthday, decided to use decent quality biscuits. The Mcvities were on BOGOF so against my better judgement in view of my waistline I picked up tow packets. The second has been residing in the cupboard. Tonight I remembered it was there...bad move!
I did find that that I feel more satisfied with less of these biscuits. The flavour is quite intense and this was also noticed in my cake. The calorie content is about the same as cheaper ones at around 56 calories a biscuit. As I ate less of these I would say that they are probably better for the waistline that the lower calorie ones out there that you can eat and eat and not feel like you've tasted anything.
The important test - dunking into tea! I found that they held a lot of liquid and I could leave them in for longer without them disintigrating. The taste was very nice and they didn't drop off in my tea which was a massive bonus!
I would buy these again over the value ones. I think I eat less, get more taste and just a nicer experience. And they make my cooking better! Worth the extra money even when they're not on special offer.
Basically, I'm a serial dunker - If it will fit into a cup of tea (whatever 'it' may be), then into the tea it shalt boldly go.
It's only been in recent years that I have come to accept 'ginger' biscuits; I used to avoid them like the plague due to their strong flavour and devious ways - yet now, I'm willing to dunk them like all the rest.
McVities Ginger Nuts can be purchased from all major supermarkets, and cost 93p from Tesco and Asda for the 300g packet. Sainsbury's sell the biscuits for a slightly inflated 98p, and you can also buy the product from the majority of newsagents.
Taste wise, the little orange biscuits are pleasant; not too strong in their gingery-ness, and at the same time, containing just the right level of sweetness. Ginger Nuts are certainly crunchy biscuits... teeth-breakingly crunchy on occasion, which is even more reason to dip them into your tea! In fact, Ginger Nuts are one of the only biscuits I can eat when they have gone slightly soggy; in this situation (where the packet has been left open for a day or so), they actually taste quite nice, and slightly chewy - but i'll let you conduct your own experiments.
McVitie's Ginger Nuts contain; Wheat Flour, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup, Molasses, Raising Agents (sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Bicarbonate), Salt, Ginger Extract, and Lemon Oil.
Each biscuit contains 53 calories, whereas eating the whole pack would add 1500 calories to your daily intake.
To be honest, in terms of the taste, I can't really say I prefer McVitie's Ginger Nuts over the common-or-garden Tesco variety (54p for 200g), as to me, they have a very similar flavour. Therefore, generally I will go for the Tesco option if I'm out shopping - unless the McVitie's version is on sale, in which case I will go for those instead.
Overall, the biscuits make a nice change from the somewhat boring Rich Tea and Digestive, and are probably the spiciest biscuits you can get.
McVities are owned by a company called United Biscuits, who also own Jacobs, Twiglets, Penguin, KP, McCoys and Mini Cheddars! Mcvities first made the "Chocolate digestive" in 1925 and have since put together plain digestives, mini cookies and hobnobs. Infact they claim that over 71 million packets of just chocolate digestives are eaten each year in the UK!
Ginger Nuts have always been my favourite type of biscuits. The flavour of ginger is just right, not too overpowering or spicy as to make your mouth burn. I cant eat fairtrade ginger biscuits as they put actual pieces of stem ginger in the biscuits and this is too much for my sensitive palatte ;)
The reason I have decided to review them is because I have recently been feeling very nauseous after suffering from the winter bug over New Years and having M.E for many years. Ginger is a natural remedy for nausea. It has been proven to be effective for morning sickenss, seasickness and even to help with nausea associated with chemotherapy. Of course there are ginger tablets available from places such as Holland and Barratts for a whopping £6.87 for 100 tablets. Or you could make yourself a cup of ginger tea, but once again the spiciness of this is too much for me. So I go for the less healthy option of McVities ginger nuts.
McVities aernt the only ones to do gingernuts, when looking at tescoes I noticed tesco did their own brand, they were cheaper but when looking at nutritional values I noticed that McVities were suprisingly less calories.
I bought a 300g packet for £0.93 which I thought was quite a good price. We've eaten quite a few but I think there was around 28 biscuits in the packet to begin with. So it works out at around 3.3p per biscuit. The biscuits are an average size, their diameter being around 5cm. They are nice and thick too, around 0.5cm.
The packaging is disctinctively orange with the blue and white mcVities logo. There is also a picture of the biscuit on the front so you know what to expect on the inside. They are keen to point out that there is no hyrdogenated vegetable oil and no artificial flavours or colours. The packaging contains the nutritional information aswell as the usual "Eat Healthy, Keep Active" advice which is sensible, but its quite small and the kids aernt going to read it!
One biscuit sadly contains 55Kcal. If only it had none as they are so yummy and moreish! This includes 1.9g of fat, 0.9g of which saturates. It also contains 0.4g of salt which is alot considering a adults RDA is only 2.4g and a childs is 1.4g!!! So if you need to watch salt intake I suggest you stay away from gingernuts. They are suitable for vegetarians but not for people with gluten intolerance as it contains wheat flour.
You must store these in a cool and dry place, preferably a sealed tin or canister once they have been opened as they will go soggy! :( which will ruin their beautiful crunchy texture.
The biscuits are a wonderful ginger colour and they smell lovely and gingery. They look like an earthquake might have occurred on them as there are cracks along the top of them, and they will leave crumbs as they are crunchy. They taste of ginger and unsuprisingly a bit salty. As I said before the ginger isnt overpowering but its not subtle either.
Do they work for the nausea??
I find that they do. You might think that a sugary and salty biscuit is not something you should eat when you feel sick but I have to say they do help me to stop feeling nauseous. I have used ginger for many years for this purpose and from what I gather it has been used in this way for a long time, although not many people really know it!
Mcvities Ginger nuts are the only ginger nuts allowed in our house. My husband doesn't like any imitation biscuits (i.e. Tesco own) and I have to say I agree with him. These are a classic biscuit that will stand the test of time . If you haven't had one in a while I would urge you to go and get a pack and try one. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Available in nearly all food shops they cost about 90p a packet so they are more pricey than the supermarket own brand. They come in 300g packets and I reckon you get about 25 in pack (never counted just a guess!). You get about 53 calories in a biscuit so they aren't as bad for you as a digestive but you are more likely to eat 2. They are a good size for dunking in a cup of tea and hold together well.
The biscuits are quite crunchy but not so hard you would break your teeth. They have a good ginger taste and can leave a little tingle after your first bite
My main complaint about them is they can get a bit boring after a while (unlike jaffa cakes or shortbread which I could eat and eat) and they make all other biscuits in the tin taste of ginger nuts.

subset: commoncrawl


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Oregon Zoo
Nestled on 64 acres in the forested hills of Washington Park, the Oregon Zoo is just five minutes west of downtown Portland, easily accessible by public transit and just off Highway 26. Parking charges apply.
The Oregon Zoo is home to more than 2,000 animals from around the world. The Great Northwest area welcomes visitors to the zoo and includes the Eagle Canyon exhibit, which surrounds visitors with the splendors of a natural watershed. Visitors have a fish-eye view of salmon, sturgeon and other native fish. Farther up the trail, magnificent bald eagles appear. Visitors discover the importance of rivers and streams and the interconnectedness of animals and the ecosystem. The Great Northwest also features Condors of the Columbia—the home of an Oregon native brought back from near-extinction: the California condor. The Family Farm—a re-creation of an Oregon Century Farm—is complete with farmhouse and barn, allowing visitors of all ages a chance to interact with sheep, goats and chickens.
The zoo is also the perfect place to learn about animals and explore their habitats around the world. Red Ape Reserve showcases orangutans and white-cheeked gibbons. Predators of the Serengeti houses lions and cheetahs, while the Africa Savanna is home to rhinos, hippos, giraffes and more. The Africa Rainforest features fruit bats, monkeys, crocodiles, and many bright and colorful birds, including flamingos. The Amazon Flooded Forest gives visitors a peek at some of the many animals living in the most diverse ecosystem in the world. At the Asian elephant habitat, visitors can connect with Portland's elephant family and learn about their care—the Oregon Zoo is recognized worldwide for its Asian elephant program, which has spanned more than 60 years. Other zoo residents include black bears, cougars, polar bears, penguins, Amur tigers and leopards, all living in lush exhibits recreating their natural habitats.
Visitors can hop aboard the Washington Park and Zoo Railway for a ride through the forested hillsides surrounding the zoo. During the summer, visitors may enjoy the four-mile loop or get off at the International Rose Test Garden and take a stroll, enjoying a view of the city, and catch a later train back to the zoo.
The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currently working to save endangered California condors, Oregon silverspot and Taylor's checkerspot butterflies, western pond turtles and Oregon spotted frogs. Other projects focused on saving animals from extinction include studies on Asian elephants, polar bears, orangutans and cheetahs.
Don Moore, PhD, Director
Address: 4001 SW Canyon Rd., Portland 97221
Phone: 503-220-2540
Fax: 503-226-6836
Web: www.oregonzoo.org


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Julia Louis-Dreyfus won an Emmy last fall for her role as self-absorbed Vice President Selina Meyer, and now she'll get even more help in Season 2 of Veep with cast additions Kevin Dunn and Gary Cole. The second-season premiere of HBO's White House satire is April 14.
Hot TV Teaser: HBO's 'Veep'
5 Comments
good f*ckin' show
Her insults are the best! Few things are funnier than watching Julia Louis-Dreyfus swear.
Julia is still spectacular! Love her!
seriously f'in LOVE this show. the writing and entire cast is ridiculous – the wittiest, smartest TV in years. hope it gets a big ratings bump in season 2.
I rewatched this show and it was even better upon a second viewing.


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It's Not Just Disruption: More Management Wisdom You Should DoubtYves Morieux and Peter Tollman
Some of what you learn in business school may be wrong!
We're sorry to be such downers to those of you who just received your MBA (congratulations, by the way), and those of you getting ready to start business school (congrats to you, too). But the truth is, there are some "best practices" taken as gospel at many business schools that may actually do your company—and, by extension, your career—more harm than good. Here are some bits of management gospel you should question:
Structure follows strategy
This may be true up to a point, but like many B-school truisms, it breaks down in the face of complexity. If your organization has to meet many conflicting requirements, and you create many structures to address them—compliance departments, quality assurance departments, safety czars, logistics czars, units in charge of standardization, and units in charge of customization—then you wind up with burdensome rules, contradictory demands, and breakdowns in work processes.
When you have too many structures, you deter teamwork and cooperation, which causes people to disengage. Then performance suffers. Especially when requirements conflict with each other (you need both standardization and customization), that's when you need to harness people's judgment. That demands engagement and cooperation—not new strategies and structures.
Effectiveness and change start with tackling mindset
That's a top-down management view if there ever was one. Ask frontline workers what turns their attitude black and you're likely to hear how frustrated they are by their inability to influence a situation or opportunity. Forget workers' mindsets and give them more power. That's how you inspire effectiveness and positive change.
Size makes organizations complicated
We've seen plenty of small companies twisted in knots by unnecessarily complicated organizations. At any size, when you try to meet performance goals by creating too many structures or conflicting structures, you get complicated and performance takes a hit. We've also seen that it's possible for a big organization to stay simple and nimble. Bristol-Myers Squibb is an example of a large organization that has avoided getting complicated, and reaped the benefits.
The harder it is to get people to do something, the stronger the incentives need to be
Most people think of incentives in terms of title or money. But in many situations, these have a limited impact. One of the results of complexity is that it's hard to provide incentives to meet conflicting demands. In a vehicle maker we worked with, the incentive to make products easier to repair (as opposed to easier to build, or more customizable) was less than 1 percent of total compensation. And incentives won't have an impact if it's against someone's interests to do what you need done.
Here's a different view: Strengthen incentives by removing things that stand in the way. People won't do something like reporting safety problems in a timely manner, if they believe the behavior would put them at risk of punishment for delays if equipment goes out of service to address the problem. To create the behavior you want, remove the risk of blowback.
More rules give managers control over those to whom the rules apply
More control isn't what organizations need. They need to be agile and responsive, and that requires workers who can act and cooperate on their own. Rules take power away from leaders, whose job it is to make people do what they wouldn't do spontaneously. The more rules, the smaller the role of leadership. Instead, find ways to give line managers and employees the confidence and encouragement to do more on their own and cooperate with other teams.
Successful transformation requires that people realize change is in their common interest
The thing about common interest is that before you can get to the common good, people have to believe their own interests are being met. To transform an organization or culture, change the goals, resources, and constraints so that it's personally beneficial and rational for people to do what you need them to do.
Enhancing individual skills equals better results for the organization
You'll hear a lot about training and expanding the skills of employees. But individual skills matter little if cooperation does not happen. The performance of an organization truly improves only when people cooperate.
Measure individual behaviors to make things happen
Individual behaviors don't account for everything that happens in a workplace. Cooperation means coming together to produce a single result. What percentage of the result did each individual produce? You can measure individual inputs and overall output, but not the effect of teamwork in producing the outcome. Thus, the more you measure individuals, the more you may wind up deterring cooperation. To promote cooperation, rely on the judgment of good managers, not pseudo-precise metrics.
Teams have to get along
Not all work conflicts are bad. What matters is not whether people work smoothly with each other, but what results they produce. When people cooperate, there is often conflict and even anger. This can be a good thing—a sign that people are working through any issues. Conflict is often the proof that real cooperation is happening.


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As the train burst out of the darkness of a tunnel on to the raging beauty of the Kaikoura coast I spied a fur seal perched like a statue high on a rock above the raging sea.
"Look, there's a seal," I said nudging my wife, and then we saw another, and another, and another.
In fact it quickly became apparent that the whole of that stretch of coast is lined not just with pounding waves, great clusters of bull kelp, bleached white driftwood and stony beaches but also with hundreds of seals. We quickly gave up any pretence of reading our books and watched the passing parade outside.
The first part of our journey from Picton on the TranzCoastal had been intermittently interesting with its mix of denuded hills, valleys glowing with yellow broom, endless acres of grapes and the odd paddock of sheep or cattle.
On one hillside someone had created a giant picture of a leaping frog, a Kiwi version of the Stone Age Long Man of Wilmington, by the look of it made of white stones.
Why? Is it the symbol of some ancient god... or a new winery?
The salt works at Lake Grassmere, with its great piles of salt and those evaporating white-rimmed ponds in blue, pink (due, apparently, to some algae) and grey, is a remarkable sight.
Lake Elterwater was also interesting, not only for its pretty scenery and teeming wildlife, but also because a few years ago following a period of dry weather it disappeared. Now, thanks to a few years of higher rainfall it has re-appeared better than ever.
And I was intrigued by the presence of towns named after prime ministers - Seddon, commemorating King Dick Seddon, and Ward, after Sir Joseph Ward - and couldn't help thinking, if it was good enough for those old scoundrels why don't we also have towns called Lange and Muldoon, Fraser and Holland?
But it's not for nothing this route is called the TranzCoastal because the obvious highlight is the magnificent stretch that runs along he coastal strip between the mountains and the sea.
Unfortunately, the day we travelled the clouds were concealing the snow-capped majesty of the Seaward Kaikoura Range on the one side. But the coastline on the other side was worth the price of admission on its own and the stormy conditions seemed entirely appropriate for such a rugged part of the country.
The track runs along the shoreline for many kilometres; apart from making regular dives into tunnels through headlands, giving us views of a endless series of magnificent bays.
These are wild places with pounding surf sending a thick white foam up on to the dark stony beaches, piles of driftwood and kelp, patches of coastal scrub and sometimes a few weatherbeaten cattle grazing the patches of grass.
As well as seals - once harvested for their fur almost to the point of extinction but now making a powerful comeback - this coast is also famous for its crayfish and there were plenty of indications that they are still present too.
At Waipoua Bay, for instance, a mountain of cray pots rose alongside the track; nearby a chunky crayboat was parked on a trailer hooked up to a bulldozer and a little further along a sign advertised fresh crayfish.
At Rakautara a few mad surfers were riding the raging waves while a warning sign asked motorists to watch out for seals. The TranzCoastal stopped alongside a layby on the coast road, the train manager explaining that it was a convenient spot for a road-rail interchange of crew. But I noticed that it was also very close to Nin's Bin where crayfish was for sale.
Geoffrey Churchman's booklet On the TranzCoastal Route, which I had brought along to read, had a photo of this very spot with the comment, "Rakautara still sees trains stop occasionally as their engine drivers buy crayfish..." Hmm.
Unsurprisingly this coast is focused on kai moana. The next settlement we went through was Mangamaunu which, according to Churchman, refers to the bait used for catching fish. Then followed Hapuku, the South Island spelling of the name for the groper.
We were actually going to stay here, at the fabulous Hapuku Lodge, but the train doesn't stop at the tiny station, though I was told that a friendly word with the engine driver has been known to result in the train slowing enough for passengers to jump out.
Forgoing that option we carried on to Kaikoura - whose name means a place to eat crayfish - and where, sure enough, there are lots of restaurants offering them, including one which emphasises the point with a statue of a giant red cooked crustacean outside.
A car took us back to Hapuku and the lodge, where we were staying in one of their amazing tree houses, perched high up in a grove of kanuka trees, with all home comforts and stunning views of the snow-capped mountains which were just emerging from behind the clouds.
But the highlight, for me, came at dinner that night where the speciality main was "oven roasted whole local crayfish, roasted potato and glazed carrots." How could I resist? It was superb, the crayfish served with a wine and butter sauce which perfectly complemented the taste, as did a glass of excellent Gibson Bay pinot gris from just down the coast.
The meal was so lip-smackingly perfect that I briefly felt guilty about my gluttony. But, as the maitre de said, "What else would you do in Kaikoura but eat crayfish?"
Next week: Spotting whales, remembering Charles Upham, VC and bar, and on to Christchurch.


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Zero Dark Thirty - Final Trailer
Reported by Outsiders - 2012.12.13
Interest has never been greater for Kathryn Bigelow's military thriller "Zero Dark Thirty." The movie has won a ton of rave reviews, and just today earned four Golden Globe Nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Jessica Chastain. However, if that's not enough to grab your attention, well this just might: It's a newly-released final trailer, which seems to focus more of Chastain's real-life CIA agent (who in the movie goes by the fictitious name, "Maya"). According to screenwriter Mark Boal's extensive research, this tenacious female analyst was the leading force behind the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden.
We might know how it ended, but in Bigelow's dramatization of these events, we will have a clearer picture of this seemingly tight-lipped military mission. "Zero Dark Thirty" opens in limited release on December 19th, followed with a wider release on January 11th.
For a decade, an elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark Thirty reunites the Oscar(R) winning team of director-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) for the story of history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man.
Zero Dark Thirty stars Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Ehle, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, Mark Strong, Edgar Ramirez, James Gandolfini, Kyle Chandler, Chris Pratt, Harold Perrineau, Mark Duplass, Stephen Dillane, Ricky Sekhon
Release: December 19th, 2012
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Jamie Oliver Jamie's Great Britain cookbook
Item No.3111005378
Item No.3111005378
This Jamie's Great Britain book from Penguin explores the culture and heritage of British food with recipes alongside chirpy commentary.
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Fifth International Conference on Pediatric Mechanical Circulatory Support Systems and Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Perfusion
Thursday, May 28, 2009 -
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Location: Hilton Anatole, Dallas, TX
Description: The main objective of this conference was to focus on the current problems associated with pediatric cardiac patients during and after acute or chronic cardiac support. At this conference, we brought together many distinguished physicians and scientists to define precisely the current problems and to suggest solutions with novel approaches.
Contact: Dr. Frank Evans, NHLBI301-402-2647
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Set in Toulouse in the Midi-Pyrénées Region, 1.9 miles from Toulouse Expo, and a 15-minute walk from Matabiau Train Station; Hors-Scène boasts a sun terrace and views of the garden. Certain units have a seating area where you can relax. You will find a coffee machine and a kettle in the kitchen. Extras include free toiletries and a hair dryer. Hors-Scène features free WiFi throughout the property. Zénith de Toulouse is 1.9 miles from Hors-Scène, while Toulouse Stadium is 2.2 miles from the property. The nearest airport is Blagnac Airport, 3.7 miles from the property.