Top 5 Sundays #40 - Favorite Female Movie Characters

Did I miss a week? Yes? No? I don't even know, having been the busiest of busy beavers lately. But, hey, I'm here now and, really, does anything else matter?

...You're right - it does. So how about we get his bad boy on the road?

This week's theme is my Top 5 Favorite Female Movie Characters and, as anyone who knows me can tell you, I have a wealth of resources to draw from so, if it's all the same, I think I'll skip my usual introductory babel and get straight to the good stuff.

So, without further ado, I present my Top 5 Favorite Female Movie Characters!

#5 - Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Belle is my hero and has been since I first saw the movie when I was just three years old. She looks like me with brown hair and brown eyes. She loves to read and, what's more, she loves to talk about what she reads. She a bit of an odd duck who doesn't quite fit in among the townsfolk. And then she goes on to have an adventure in an enchanted castle with talking furniture and an amazing library and saves the Beast from a potentially eternal curse. As Lumiere says, "Don't you see? She's the one! The girl we have been waiting for! She has come to break the spell!"

#4 - Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) from Batman Returns

She starts off a mousey, mild mannered assistant whose boss tosses her out the window when she uncovers records of his dirty dealings. Cue a bunch of cats, some chugged milk, a little smashed neon and a reincarnated leather jacket and - presto! - Catwoman was born. She flirted with Batman, toyed with Penguin, and  messed with her aforementioned murdering boss. To quote Penguin, "You're Beauty and the Beast in one luscious Christmas gift pack"

#3 - Alice from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Alice tries to escape the pressures and monotony of her life by following a rabbit down its hole and into "a place like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter." It's a place of impossible things and, in due course, Alice is shrunk, stretched, scratched and stuffed into a teapot! Fast forward, and she's told she needs to be the champion and slay the Jabberwocky. What I love most? Not once does Alice break down in tears or bemoan her fate or close her eyes and wish for home. Sure, she thinks it's all a dream at first and, okay, she balks at first but ultimately she finds her muchness and saves the day. "I try to believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Count them, Alice," she says, "One, there are drinks that make you shrink. Two, there are foods that make you grow. Three, animals can talk. Four, cats can disappear. Five, there is a place called Underland. Six, I can slay the Jabberwocky."

#2 - Evelyn O'Connell from The Mummy and The Mummy Returns

She starts off something of an uber-geek, showing up the Cambridge scholars who'd refused to admit a woman into their midst by deciphering the location of the lost Book of the Dead. She sets off to put together her own little expedition team to head out and retrieve it and, somewhere between there and becoming a best-selling adventure writer, she encounters mummies, curses, gods, magic and past lives and becomes quite the bad ass thank you very much. And that's in addition to being a wife, mother, and sister to some very taxing males. In her own words, "I-I may not be an explorer, or-or an adventurer, or-or a treasure seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am...I...am a librarian..."

#1 - The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz and Oz, the Great and Powerful

The Wicked Witch gets a raw deal. I mean, heck, in The Wizard of Oz she shows up in Munchkinland to find the Munchkins celebrating the fact a house had just fallen out of the sky and crushed her sister to death. When she then asks to have the only remaining piece of her sister - her shoes - she gets told nope, sorry, they clearly must be powerful little beauties for you to want them so badly so we'll just keep them. And if you've seen Oz, the Great and Powerful you know her lot hasn't improved much. To say nothing of Wicked. Got to love a character that so dynamic, managing to stir feelings of pity while still leaving no doubt to her evilness. And she only gets better with time!

Top 5 Sundays #23 - Favorite Male TV Characters!

There are a lot of men out there in TV Land of all different types and appearances and personalities. It's a virtual man zoo out there and, like any kid at zoo, I've got my favourite must-see specimens. Here, for this week's installment of Calliope's Domain Top 5, are my top male TV characters.

Charlie Eppes (Numb3rs, CBS)

A mathematical genius, Charlie Eppes is a university professor with a sweet and decidedly geeky personality. What makes him one of my favourite male characters, however, is the fact that despite his genius, despite all his accomplishments in his field and all of the recognition his work affords him, at the end of the day Charlie is just an awkward kid trying to get the approval of his big brother.  It's something younger siblings the world over can relate to, and it doesn't hurt that in this case the big brother is an FBI agent who isn't afraid of telling the NSA (or anyone else, for that matter) to back off his little brother.

Bo Duke (Dukes of Hazzard, CBS)

Bo was a blonde haired, blue eyed good old boy who drove around the rural counties of Georgia in a Chevy Charger with his older cousin, Luke. He was impulsive and quick to anger, with the mean left hook to match. More often than not, he and Luke would land themselves in one sort of trouble or another, usually on account of Boss Hogg. He was a charmer, a definite ladies' man, who would have just as much fun turning a no into a yes as getting a yes straight off. His main point of appeal? Man, could that boy drive a car. I am willing to forgive a great many faults for a man who can drive as well as Bo Duke. Oh! And he totally do the bow and arrow thing. He was a modern day Robin Hood, complete with loyal steed!

Derek Morgan (Criminal Minds, CBS)

What can you say about a man whose best friend is the overly flamboyant  computer technician who, on top of being heavy set and in need of glasses, is definitely firmly set on the geeky side of life? Penelope Garcia's the type of girl whose really very sweet, friendly and loyal but, drop her into any high school the world over, and she'd be mercilessly bullied and then some. Morgan, meanwhile, is the heart throb who, once upon a time, played high school AND college football as, you guessed it, the quarterback. And despite these two coming from totally opposite ends of the high school social spectrum, they're best friends. Despite Garcia being the analystist to the team as a whole, more often than not it is Morgan who serves as her primary contact, calling her from the field for info and updates. He's also dubbed Garcia with several nicknames, including "Baby Girl," "Doll Face," "Sweetness," and "Mama." His loyalty and sweetness towards Garcia more than anything else makes him a favourite in my books.

Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock, BBC)

I think it goes without saying that Sherlock - in all of his incarnations - is an ass. His ego is like the universe - ever expanding - and he uses his rather intimidating intellect as both a blunt instrument and a shield. His manic, exciteable personality has him jumping about like a five year old on a sugar rush one moment and sunk into a bored depression the next, all depending on whether or not he has a case to work. And then, in the middle of it all, will come a sweet and touching moment; he'll apologize to Molly for not appreciating her or drop a villain out a window for roughing up Mrs. Hudson. He's a complex and many layered character that can't help but entrance.

Dean Winchester (Supernatural, The CW)

Dean, Dean, Dean, what can I say? He's got a smart mouth and a cocky attitude. He's a monster hunter whose main concern isn't so much slaying the monsters as it is making sure his family makes it through the monsters okay. And the going hasn't been easy. He pretty much died at the end of season one, had to sell his soul to bring his little brother back from the dead at the end of season two, went to hell at the end of season three, got to watch his brother unleash Satan had the end of season four, lost his brother to seal away Satan at the end of season five - the list goes on. He's gotten a little broken, a little beat up - he's certainly not the same man who showed up in his brother's appartment at the beginning of the series premiere. He's darker, grittier, wilder...but at his core he's still the big brother wanting to do the right thing to get his brother through whatever evil machinations the bad guys might concoct in one piece. Hands down, my hero.

 ***BONUS*** Batman

So, he's been in a couple of shows - Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Young Justice...the list goes on. He's always the hero who's going to stay true to his ideals no matter what, always the hero who's going to make the hard choice, always the hero who'll know the most, have deduced the most, have the most background information going in. On the flip-side, he also the hero most likely to take in the vengeful preteen and train them so that they learn a code, learn to defend themselves so that when they go for their vengeance they do it within the legal system in such a way that guarantees their own survival. How can anyone not love Bats?