I had the pleasure of chairing the opening panel with a really switched on bunch of bloggers, they were

Super Kat Girl of Destiny
Natalie Lue of Baggage Reclaim
Jess Markwood of Agua Media
Poppy from What I Wore Today
Cat from social media agency Rabbit

Hot topics were anti splog (I kid you not!), making money, what makes a good blog and how to raise your game when it comes to creating good content.

Well, maybe not always.

I’m not one to spend time swearing at my phone for giggles but it turns out that it’s all my new iPhone 4S understands.  I kid you not.

If you have been watching the Apple ads which show people having the most amazing lives using iPhones and iPad 3s, like me you may have found these gadgets are not living up to their promise.  Here’s what using the virtual assistant Siri is meant to be like:

I’ve been giving the phone a test run to find out if Siri is any good. It isn’t. In fact it’s left me positively red faced and cringing with embarrassment and here’s how.

All set for an amazing and new experience, I asked it to call my daughter. I got an answer, but not the one I wanted.

‘Blah is not here’

Blah? Well that certainly isn’t her name. I enunciated the second phrase more animatedly and I asked Siri to email me and this was the response:

‘I do not know you, you do not exist’

At this point, unperturbed, I went through quite a few questions – none of which was answered with anything other than gobblydegook, and worse still , the little rogue of a phone kept ringing people up randomly. First it rang a former client, and then an old friend I’d not spoken to in years and it didn’t stop there, two former colleagues were dragged into the dial-a-thon. I spent the best part of an hour wrestling with the phone until I finally lost my rag and I swore. It answered. It said:

‘No need for profanity’

I swore again, it said:

‘Now, now’

It looks like the developers have had a lot of fun teaching Siri how to swear and little else.

It’s a bit of a shame because I had a proper reason for trying it out – not just to test out the brand promise of the advertising but also because I want to know whether I can get one for my brother one who would really benefit from being able to have a virtual assistant like Siri to help him communicate. 

He’s blind and can’t type so on paper, the iPhone 4S looks good.   He feels really left behind with technology and while he enjoys an iPod and uses electronic drum kit, he wants to be able to email people and use the internet.  He hears so much advertising on the TV that he feels he should be doing these things and eveyrone is talking about it the whole time.  I get that.  I don’t want him to feel like he’s excluded from a world where everyone appears to be living now – even though we aren’t really living virtually, he should at least be able to participate in that somehow.

The lovely people in the Apple store in Westfield have even offered a free training session for him so he could get some top advice on how to get the phone working…but I’m not sure this technology is ready.

So my next question to Siri is…

‘Give me a call when you can actually be bothered to work will ya?’

Here’s what’s going on on the day, add a #cybher column to your twitterfeed to follow the live action, and see you there ladies!  Oh, and don’t forget to give Sian a big hug for getting this all together, ab fab she totally is.

For those of you who are coming to the Future of Blogging session, I’m chairing so will be playing devil’s advocate and pushing a few buttons to get some inspiring and thoughtful answers.  Please drop me a comment if you have a burning issue you want to raise.

But where do you start?

We’re spoiled for choice in London and the prospect of taking a group of eight or so 12 year olds around town can be daunting.

London kids have a great choice when it comes to places to go for a birthday treat, it’s difficult to find somewhere that is queue-free, not choc full of tourists or too scary. (So no pressure then in the party organising department.) This rules out London Dungeons and Madame Tussauds and quite a few other places too but surprisingly Ripley’s Believe It Or Not ticks more than a few boxes.

At first glance, this place would never be my first choice because I imagined a few gimmicks got people in the door and that what followed would be a little bit light and have no depth. But I’m not a kid, and I hadn’t had any recommendations from friends…

Funnily enough, that’s what makes for a novel and unique birthday.

At her behest (and a few groans from me) I booked a party package at Ripleys Believe It or Not which includes a tour guide, party hats and a book for the birthday kid. If you want party bags, they’re £5 extra each and there’s also a discount in the restaurant.

I was initially skeptical about going but the team that run it are chaotic, fun, very theatrical and enthusiastic. We were treated to a knife throwing act in the entrance and then took the lift up to the 5th floor to have a walk around the eclectic mix of weird and wonderful items collected from around the world. We had a latecomer and the management ensured our late guest was accompanied up in the lift and joined our party without a hitch.

This eclectic collection of the quirky, bold, brave and downright crazy stuff from around the world and the subsequent global franchise comes courtesy of Ripley himself, a sometime child prodigy who created a global phenomenon in his cartoons entitled Believe It Or Not. It’s very reminiscent of the Victorian freak show and as it is smack bang in the middle of Trocadero in Piccadilly, it’s also quite comforting to think we still love a bit of quirky eccentricity in London. It’s undeniably fun, especially with an engaging guide to bring the tour to life.

We were told on good authority that Seva from The Wanted used to work there so it seems to be a training ground for Brit boy bands too.

We did have a believe it or not moment, David Thewlis was ahead of us in the queue and no one believed he was in Harry Potter…you can’t win them all.

I wept with laughter watching the brilliantly cast In The Loop – James Gandolfini and Peter Capaldi are two brilliant actors and to put them on screen together is pure genius – and expect to see more unpolitically correct drama  as HBO is about to screen its latest offering with Iannucci, Veep.

Here are some clips – it looks pretty funny, and a tad glossier than The Thick of It.  Here’s hoping Sky Atlantic snaps this up and stops showing dodgy reruns…

And let’s not forget how good In the Loop was…

And of course, the blasphemous-potty mouthed Malcolm and co in The Thick of It

The plot is brutal, every year two teenagers from 12 district of a futuristic America are chosen to compete in survival game over a two week period which all citizens must be watch by law. This is not really a contest, it’s a fight to the death which will end with only one of them alive. So while The Hunger Games has taken the combatants of the Roman amphitheatre as its theme, a grotesque pastiche of reality TV is at its heart. While it ticks all the right ‘youth boxes’ – it has a female protagonist who is not short of magnamity, looks, admirers and personal angst – for older viewers (like me) the opening scenes draw a stark comparison with the deathcamps of World War II and there’s more than a nod or two to Lord of the Flies and 1984.

Have a look at the clip here for a taster and more on the film at imdb.  More about the film, the glossary of the jargon and the cast list are below the trailer.

INTRO

War. Terrible war. Widows… Orphans… A motherless child… This was the uprising that rocked our land.

13 Districts rebelled against the country that fed them… loved them… protected them…

Brother turned on brother until nothing remained.

And then came the peace… Hard fought… Sorely won. A people rose up from the ashes. And a new era was born.

But freedom has a cost… When the traitors were defeated, we swore as a nation we would never know this treason again…

And so it was decreed that each year, the various districts of Panem would offer up in tribute one young man and woman, to fight to the death in a pageant of honor, courage, and sacrifice.

The lone victor, bathed in riches, would serve as a reminder of our generosity and our forgiveness.

 This is how we remember our past.

This is how we safeguard our future.

SYNOPSIS

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games.  A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen volunteers in her younger sister’s place to enter the games, and is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy when she’s pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives.  If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

THE HUNGER GAMES is directed by Gary Ross, with a screenplay by Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray, and produced by Nina Jacobson’s Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik.  Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel, the first in a trilogy published by Scholastic that has over 26 million copies in print in the United States alone, has developed a massive global following. It has spent more than 180 consecutive weeks/more than three consecutive years to date on The New York Times bestseller list since its publication in September 2008, and has also appeared consistently on USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

“The only thing stronger than fear is hope.”

– President Coriolanus Snow, THE HUNGER GAMES

In the ruins of the land formerly known as North America, the annual Hunger Games are about to get under way – and 16-year-old contender Katniss Everdeen has only the remotest chance of beating the fearsome odds.  Like most of the nation of Panem, Katniss lives in one of twelve enslaved districts, ruled over by a mystery-shrouded Capitol, which after decades of chaos and war, now suppresses the people under the thumb of a harsh yet decadent dictatorship.  Every year, on Reaping Day, each of the districts must choose, by lottery or volunteer, one boy and one girl to represent them in the Capitol’s twisted idea of grand entertainment that proves its total control, while also giving the famished populace the faintest ray of hope to hang onto.  These are the Hunger Games — an intense gladiatorial competition between 24 adolescent warriors known as Tributes, broadcast live on TV until only one survivor remains . . . and once Katniss is entered there is no turning back.

On this day, in District 12, the unthinkable happens – Katniss’ little sister, Primrose, whom Katniss has helped to feed and care for much of her life, is chosen for the Games.  In a brave, self-sacrificing move that she knows might seal her fate, Katniss volunteers to take her sister’s place. Instantly, she and her new co-Tribute, the baker’s son Peeta Mellark, are taken into custody, whisked to the Capitol, thrown into glamorous makeovers and grueling training, readying themselves to be pitted against the ruthless “Career Tributes,” who hail from the wealthier districts and have prepared for these Games their entire lives.  In the days to come, under the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss will sharpen her instincts, hone her archery skills and focus her growing strength and will on what seems to be the task at hand:  stay alive at all costs.

THE HUNGER GAMES is directed by Gary Ross, with a screenplay by Ross and Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray, and produced by Nina Jacobson’s Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik.  The executive producers are Robin Bissell, Collins and Louise Rosner-Meyer.  The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Wes Bentley, Toby Jones, Alexander Ludwig, Isabelle Fuhrman, Amandla Sternberg, with Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland.

THE HUNGER GAMES PHENOMENON

Welcome to the intense reality of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who must try to survive – by sheer wits and will alone – a future world that is at once high-tech and apocalyptic, glitzy and primal, unsettlingly dangerous and a telltale mirror to our own.  Unfolding entirely through Katniss’ intimately personal POV, THE HUNGER GAMES reveals how this miner’s daughter from a dark future transforms from a mere pawn in a lethal televised contest to a soulful, sacrificing heroine who comes to realize that she has even more to protect and fight for than her own family.

Author Collins was not afraid to take Katniss into risky terrain, because she knew teens were already grappling with these questions in the world around them.  In her book proposal for the series, Collins wrote:  “Although set in the future, THE HUNGER GAMES explores disturbing issues of modern warfare such as who fights our wars, how they are orchestrated, and the ever-increasing opportunities to observe them being played out.” Yet she also balanced that with Katniss’ growth and evolution into someone as courageous and principled as she is stubbornly tenacious.  She noted that Katniss, though initially “distrustful,” takes from this adventure “a deep capacity to love and sacrifice for those few people she cares for.”

PANEM THROUGH KATNISS’ EYES

Gary Ross first witnessed the impact of THE HUNGER GAMES and Katniss Everdeen on his own children. “I’d heard people raving about THE HUNGER GAMES and when I asked my kids about it, they kind of exploded and started going on and on until I had to stop them from telling me the whole story,” he recalls.  “Their enthusiasm was so infectious, I went upstairs, started reading, and by 1:30 a.m., I said ‘I have to make this movie.’  It was that impulsive.”

Right away, Ross had an unwavering vision of what lay at the heart of THE HUNGER GAMES’ appeal.  “My mind was clear from the beginning,” he says.  “I saw there was something really beautiful happening underneath the story.  It’s obviously a viscerally exciting tale of survival within a lurid spectacle of the future.  But I think what really compels people to pass the book from one person to the next is that it is at bottom about one girl, Katniss Everdeen, finding her own humanity.  She begins as someone who only wants to fight for herself, for her personal survival – yet what she finds in the course of the Games is something more important than even staying alive.  Her heart opens and she becomes someone who’s willing to sacrifice for something bigger. “

WHO’S WHO IN PANEM

In District 12:

Katniss:  The Tribute who becomes a heroine when she volunteers to take her sister’s place in the Hunger Games

Gale:  Katniss’ fellow hunter, rebel and best friend, who is heartbroken when she volunteers and departs for the Games

Peeta:  The male Tribute from District 12, who has long harbored secret feelings for Katniss

Katniss’ Hunger Games Team:

Haymitch: Victor of the 50^th Hunger Games, now the rarely sober mentor for Katniss and Peeta

Effie:  Katniss’ elaborately-coiffed escort and PR handler for the Games

Cinna:  Katniss’ personal Stylist for the Games who becomes her unexpected confidante and supporter

Portia:  Peeta’s Stylist for the Games

Venia, Flavius and Octavia:  Katniss’ Prep Team for the Games

Key Tributes:

Marvel and Glimmer:  The ruthless, dangerously skilled Career Tributes from District 1

Cato and Clove:  Hailing from District 2, the two most fearsome Career Tributes in the Games

Foxface:  The female Tribute from District 5, whose smarts lead her to favor strategy over force

Rue:  The Games’ youngest Tribute from District 11, who becomes Katniss’ closest ally

Thresh:  The male Tribute from District 11

 The Capitol Powers:

President Snow:  The dictator of Panem who rules with his own brand of laid-back brutality

Seneca Crane:  The head Gamemaker, who created the 74^th Hunger Games

Caesar Flickerman:  The official television interviewer for the Games

Claudius Templesmith: The infamous TV announcer of the Hunger Games

DESIGNING THE GAMES

 Visual Design

As the cast began to prepare for their adventure in Panem, Gary Ross and his crew dove into bringing Suzanne Collin’s vision of the futuristic world they inhabit fully alive on screen. It all started with Ross’ photographic concept – to navigates Panem through the subjective experience of Katniss Everdeen, just as Collins had done on the page – which came to life in a collaboration with Oscar®-nominated director of photography Tom Stern (who recently shot Clint Eastwood’s J. EDGAR).

“One of the most important things to me and to Tom was to convey the immediacy and first person point-of-view that makes the book so irresistible,” says Ross.  “This meant shooting in an urgent, intensely personal way that I’ve always wanted to use, but has never suited the subject matter of films I’ve done before.”

This first-person POV would imbue every detail of the film and also become the cornerstone for the bold set pieces created by production designer Philip Messina, who found himself in the position of turning portions of modern-day North Carolina into futuristic District 12, the Capitol and the arena where the Games unfold.

Messina calls the look he and Ross established for the film “retro-futuristic.”   One of Messina’s first tasks was creating the Seam, the poorest area of impoverished, mining-focused District 12, where Katniss and her family live.  Shooting in an abandoned mill town in Henry River, North Carolina, he found a grouping of 1920s homes that closely matched the environment described by Collins in the book.

For Reaping Day in the town square of District 12, the production shot at an old cotton gin in Shelby, North Carolina, bringing in 400 extras for the shoot, as well as building the tracks for a train system that carries the district’s precious coal to the Capitol.

Another intensive project was creating The Hob, the derelict but teeming black market of District 12. “The Hob is the marketplace and souk of District 12,” describes Ross, “where Peacekeepers turn a blind eye. Phil brought to life an incredible marketplace where people sell all kinds of junk and things they’ve found on the way.  It really evokes the deprivation of the District.”

All of this contrasted in the extreme with Messina’s designs for the Capitol, which were primarily built in a former Phillip Morris factory.   The colors in the Capitol are a mix of icy and acid tones.  Shifting gears again, Messina designed the Games’ Training Center as a bastion of raw sweat and anxiety.  For the lush, perilous woods of the arena itself, Ross had something very specific in mind and he found it in a pristine conservation area in North Carolina.

The arena also contains one of the most challenging of all of Philip Messina’s designs:  the Cornucopia, a giant gold horn containing a cache of Panem’s hybrid weapons and valuable supplies that the Tributes must battle for as the Games kick off.  “I was a bit scared of how the Cornucopia was going to look, but in the end it is one of my favorite pieces in the whole movie – a huge, nasty sculptural horn in the middle of a field,” says Messina.  “We looked at Frank Gehry designs and a lot of modern architecture with folded planes and fractalized surfaces and kind of riffed on all of that.  It looks like it fell from the sky onto this field.”

# # #

A BRIEF GUIDE TO PANEM

AND THE 74^th ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES

History:   The nation of Panem arose from the ashes after apocalyptic events and a global war nearly destroyed life as it was known in North America.  Over time, 13 districts came under the rule of a despotic Capitol hanging on to the last vestiges of civilization.  Approximately 74 years before these Hunger Games, Panem experienced the so-called “Dark Days,” when the districts unleashed a deadly rebel war on the Capitol.  The Capitol regained control, obliterating the 13^th district completely, and instituted the Hunger Games as a means of intimidating its citizens, lulling them with its unforgiving form of entertainment, and keeping the youth in line.

The Capitol:  Located in the area formerly known as the Rocky Mountains, the Capitol is both Panem’s central seat of government and a decadent realm of style, fashion and indulgence.  Those who live in the Capitol have their own lifestyle and are largely unaware of the suffering of those who live in the outlying districts.  The Capitol is also the home of Panem’s dictator, President Coriolanus Snow.

The Districts:   The twelve outer Districts of Panem are industrial centers serving the interests of the Capitol.  They vary in wealth and culture, but the iron fist of the dictatorship controls all.  No District citizen can visit the Capitol except to play in the Hunger Games.  District 1 manufactures luxury goods; District 2 is a gem mining and defense center; District 3 produces electronics; District 4 is dedicated to fisheries; District 5 is involved in science and research; District 6 develops transportation; District 7’s specialty is lumber; District 8 is the textile center; District 9 grows the nation’s grain; District 10 raises livestock; District 11 is focused on agriculture including vegetables and herbs; and District 12, located in the Appalachian Mountains, is the coal mining district that fuels the Capitol.

The Hunger Games:   An annual contest for the last 74 years, in which 24 Tributes ages 12 through 18 – one boy and one girl from each of Panem’s 12 districts – are forced to enter a themed arena contest in which they are forced to fight, until only one person remains.  The entire event is broadcast live and is mandatory viewing for the entire nation of Panem.

Tributes:   Tributes are aged twelve to eighteen years and chosen for the Hunger Games via lottery.  Tributes can also volunteer for the Games or volunteer in place of another person, as Katniss does for her younger sister Primrose.

Career Tributes:   Volunteers for the Games from the richer districts, who have been training their whole lives, entering the Games with incredible advantages in strength and skill.  They have been taught to believe there is no greater glory than winning the Games.

Peacekeepers:  Panem’s version of police, who work exclusively for the Capitol and patrol 24-7.

Escorts:   Often flamboyant Capitol citizens who accompany the Tributes to the Games and serve as their advocates, advisers and PR strategists.

Prep Team:   A group of stylists and make-up artists charged with making the Tributes glamorous celebrities for their public appearances and the televised Games.

Tracker Jackers:  Genetically altered wasps created in the Capitol and known for their vicious sting.

Victors:   Victors are those few who have won the Hunger Games, after which they attain riches for life, though at a terrible price.  Some Victors, such as Haymitch Abernathy, become Mentors, training Tributes from their districts.

Nightlock Berries:  A poisonous fruit that factors into Katniss’ ultimate strategy to beat the rules of the Hunger Games.

Much as this is all inspired by the iPad and the new range of tablets which are launching by the day, I still have a soft spot for the Marc Jacobs laptop bag, so here it is, a little larger…

And I’m still waiting to see who’s going to take on the prickly design topic of DSLRs so we don’t all have to look like tourists…

Stockists

mywardrobe.com
selfridges

The interesting thing is that while all of this is new and there are many lessons to be learned for brands trying to do PR in the new digital landscape and also handle customer service and reputation in social, there are no hard and fast rules.

We’ve been discussing this for some time now, and our first foray into the discussion as part of the #futurecomms panel debate, was during Social Media Week London in February earlier this year, you can see more here.

Here are some of my co-panellists from this evening, and their thoughts on the challenges facing us all and some of the topics which were up for discussion.

Jon Bernstein
@jon_bernstein

Jon been a journalist for 20 years and is currently Deputy Editor of the New Statesman. Prior to joining the NS he worked for Channel 4 News at ITN as the programme’s first Multimedia Editor; and before that, for the eGovernment Unit within the Cabinet Office as part of the project team that created Direct.gov. In 1997 he joined online start-up Silicon.com and led the editorial launch of the service in London, Munich and Paris. Last November he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for NewStatesman.com.

What are the most important challenges facing communicators today?

“Information overload.”

Charlotte Beckett
@londoncharlotte

Charlotte heads up the digital team at The Good Agency, working on fundraising and communications campaigns for their charity and CSR clients. With over 11 years’ digital experience, Charlotte has worked both client and agency side in the private, public and third sectors. A believer in integration but not matching luggage, and putting people before technology,Charlotte is the one at the agency most likely to get caught using words like “transmedia storytelling”, “heuristics” and “gamification”. Most importantly, Charlotte believes in “make, measure, learn” and in turning that data into actionable insight.

What are the most important challenges facing communicators today?

“For me the biggest comms challenge is the behaviour that the social web amplifies. How do we become truly social organisations, allowing our audiences to really participate, not just engage, with us?”

Neville Hobson
@jangles

Neville is an accredited business communicator, and a blogger and podcaster, one of the leading European opinion-leaders and influencers in digital communication for business. He’s an early adopter (and leaver) and experimenter with digital technologies including social media, risk-assessing their impacts, roles and potential in organisational communication. He’s also an occasional test pilot of shiny new objects.

What are the most important challenges facing communicators today?

“The role of the communicator is evolving where the barriers to anyone acting as a communicator are literally zero. You need to recognise this change, see a new way of looking at your organisation and the people it comprises, and take a leading role to help create the environment that lets them get things done effectively and with confidence where you earn the recognition of being a trusted advisor and counsellor.

“It’s about calculated risk where the stakes are high and the potential rewards for all – including the communicator – are eminently measurable. The biggest challenge for communicators, though, is recognising and embracing such change in the first place.”

Dominic Cook
@cookdominic

Dominic is the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russian PR lead for Cisco’s role in London 2012, service providers, data centre virtualisation and social media, based in Cisco’s UK office. Dominic has worked for Cisco for two years and for more than twenty years in technology PR and communications, working for and with some of the world’s biggest brands including: Orange, Cable and Wireless, Symantec and HP. He is a social media champion who delights in the opportunity to blog as it allows him to return to his early career as a journalist before he went to the dark side in corporate communications.

What are the most important challenges facing communicators today?

“Balancing the needs of the new digital media to be responsive, immediate and conversational while meeting the corporate desire to control and manage the message.
Managing crisis comms and reputation in the digital world.
Wrestling the control of social media from marketing who see it as just another channel.
Managing the local language requirements via a global social media network.
Managing the sheer size and scope of social media channels without dedicated resources.”
Katie McLean
@katiemclean16

Currently European Digital Manager at Spectrum Brands, Katie has over 7 years’ experience in the world of digital (“not including the many, many hours of social media ‘experience’ totted up when Facebook launched during my final year of Uni!”). Katie specialises in developing scalable pan-European strategy, planning and implementation, working on integrated marketing campaigns and ecommerce solutions for global brands such as Remington, Russell Hobbs and Random House. She also runs a boutique digital agency, Babushka Digital, facilitating the use of digital marketing for small businesses by helping them get off the ground with anything from websites and email to social media and SEO.

What are the most important challenges facing communicators today?

“From a brand perspective, the most important challenges are not too dissimilar to challenges which have always existed. Achieving a consistent global voice while maintaining local relevancy has always been tricky, but the emergence of digital and its importance to the marketing mix makes global consistency even more important. Brand content is now so much more visible and accessible, regardless of which part of the world you’re in.”

Thanks to mynewsdesk for hosting the evening and inviting such an interesting group along.

For the first time in Pixar film, there is a girl (Merida) as the heroine and protagonist. This new but not unexpected development appears to be part of a growing trend. Over the last few months, there’s been some debate about Hollywood becoming more feminist, or female-friendly at the very least as this new production is hot on the heels of Tangled and the Twilight franchise. It’s hard not to notice the irony when we’ve had the ageism and TV furore kick off again in the UK this week with Rowan Atkinson, the BBC and Miriam O’Reilly.

So sexual politics aside, this looks like it will be very entertaining. The flame-haired Merida is voiced by one of my favourite actresses Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting, Boardwalk Empire) and the cast is mostly British, well Scottish actually. Enjoy the clip, it’s pretty funny – no points for spotting who Billy Connolly is though.

Here’s more about the movie for you film and animation buffs

Rating: TBC UK Release Date: 17 August 2012
Scotland Release Date: 3 August 2012

Directors: Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman

Producer: Katherine Sarafian

Voice talent: Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters, Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane

Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. From Disney and Pixar, a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition and challenges destiny to change her fate.

“Brave” follows the heroic journey of Merida, a skilled archer and headstrong daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the unruly and uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric Witch for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to harness all of her skills and resources – including her clever and mischievous triplet brothers – to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late, discovering the meaning of true bravery.

Directed by Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman, and produced by Katherine Sarafian, “Brave” is a grand adventure full of heart, memorable characters and signature Pixar humour that audiences of all ages around the world have come to eagerly expect. Brave will open in Scottish cinemas on August 3, and UK cinemas on August 17, 2012.

A grand adventure full of heart, memorable characters and signature Pixar humor, “Brave” uncovers a new tale in the mysterious Highlands of Scotland where the impetuous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) defies an age-old custom and inadvertently unleashes chaos, forcing her to discover the meaning of true bravery before it’s too late.

Which brings me back to this story of a tweet, the wrong email address, a bunch of ramblers and a magnet.

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a PR congratulating me for being on the short list for the Marie Claire Blog and Twitter Awards. Hmmmm, funny that I don’t really write about Beauty or Fashion, even funnier that the PR had addressed the email to Polkadotsandpinfores. It’s not the first time this has happened, PRs often cut and past emails and make mistakes, we’re only human after all, but it did amuse me so I posted a tweet about it. True to twitterland, I had a reply or two but roll on a week or two and I received a few more emails from PRs and also Marie Claire about the award. So I googled the blogger and found she had my email address on her blog, I left a comment to ask her to remove it. My sense of humour was wearing thin. I began to wonder what would happen if I went to the awards and my name was read out as the winner (for those of you that know me, you also know this would be quite likely to happen).

The Marie Claire awards came and went, I had two invites, one for me and one for the other blogger; I didn’t go. Instead I had a great present delivered to me out of the ether…

And here it is…

Lovely isn’t it? @smartwalks the Social Media Rambling Art Collective turned my tweet into a miniature piece of art which will be posted on a London walk in early March. Check out their site here if you want to find out more – it appeals to my love of all things English and eccentric. They have even sent me the art work to I have my own copy – it’s got a touch of Beatrix Potter about it hasn’t it?

After a second comment on Polkadotsandpinafores, the case of the mistaken identity among bloggers is now resolved too, my email address has been removed.

And there you have it. This is why I blog because you definitely could not make it up!