Top 10 New Year’s Eve Party Destinations 2012 – [US]

10. Austin, Texas

If you are the type of person that loves to have some good, clean evening fun without the need of getting drunk, then Austin’s New Year will never get you disappointed. It’s family friendly; it’s loaded with lots of performances and food from locals, minus the wine, liquor, and booze. Yep, you won’t be worrying about bringing your kids and teens in this particular location.

9. Denver, Colorado

Aside from Orlando, this place is also catered for the kids and adults alike. Young boys and girls can enjoy various activities the Noon Year’s Eve at the Children’s Museum where they can be entertained with educational tours, traditions on the New Year and other fun stuff. For the regulars and the adventure seekers, the Mile High City and the Grand Hyatt are venues where you can spend the New Year with a bang with foods and drinks that will stuff you with loads of fun.

8. Phoenix, Arizona

You have the chance of holding the party at the Fiesta Bowl Block Party while waiting for the year to end and a new year to begin. You get to experience events here that includes the standard fireworks, Xtreme sport shows with BMX bikes, magic shows, and even booze bonanzas at any of the four beer gardens found in the city.

7. San Francisco, California

You may picture the ever-majestic Golden Gate Bridge being showered with spectacular explosions of color from the fireworks being popped by different groups. However, San Francisco is the New Year venue for the culturally inclined and the conservative because the Asian Art Museum will hold its 26th annual Japanese Bell Ringing. The ancient bell will be rung 108 times and cleanse the spirits of those who will celebrate the New Year at nighttime.

6. Los Angeles, California

This place goes for the clubbers, the partygoers, and for those who like to experience the pumping and thumping even before the clock strikes twelve. Yes, you can already see the wide array of lights moving along with the pulsating beats of the music in different party venues all over the metro. It even comes with themes that you can find quite strange and inviting at the same time.

5. Miami, Florida

Celebrating the New Year on the beach is a very special moment, as you will enjoy the sights of fireworks uninterrupted with the wide evening sky. Away from the disruption of buildings and skyscrapers, Miami presents one of the best places to spend the night. If you are able to endure the long night of dancing, disco, and all the fun, you can be lucky in facing the new day with the first morning’s sunrise!

4. San Diego, California

You may visit this place to spend some time on the beach for the New Year, but there is more than just the basic event. People who come to celebrate New Year here are more comfortable partying on yachts and mini-cruises as they enjoy the sights of fireworks while being drowned with party beats all over the mid-sea escape.

3. Las Vegas, Nevada

If you love the evening lights and the glitzy entertainment, then Las Vegas is the best place for you to go. This is the place for this upcoming New Year where you get to celebrate the countdown with stars like Kim Kardashian, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO, Stevie Wonder, and more. What about the fireworks? Well, you can see the skies flaring with color as over eight hotels all over the city will light things up all at the same time!

2. Orlando, Florida

This destination is perfect for those who have kids, especially because there are nearby theme parks, resorts, and other spots that can give a swell of a time for families. Think of Disneyland, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld and just imagine cartoon characters, different creatures, and the party mood in celebrating the year with a bang. Smashmouth and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy are expected to perform live concerts this coming New Year.

1. New York City, New York

Even if you are not the usual party goer, you may be very familiar with Times Square, as it has been featured in many TV shows during the New Year as the countdown there is well celebrated. Aside from spending time with other people, you get to experience the dazzling lights and visuals on the huge screen. Also, the ball drop is again anticipated with the upcoming beginning of 2012.

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10 Most Anticipated Gadgets of 2012

10. Apple HDTV

With the launch of the iOS 5, along with the successful iPhone 4S launch within 2011, it is expected that the “next year” for the Apple HDTV would finally come to light in mid 2012, according to most sources. Upon release, it would be operated via a voice command system called Siri, same as what is found in iPhone 4S, and may also compete with technologies such as the Kinect.

9. Amazon Blaze Mobile Phone

Amazon has been making its own set of apps, its own Appstore, and even a Cloud Player for audiophile streamers out there. Who could have known that these steps are only a preparation for a mobile phone? The famous online shop will be creating an Android-based phone with some specs worth noting such as a 4.3-inch Mirasol display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM, 32GB ROM, a 5MP rear-faced camera, and even a 1.3MP front-faced cam. It also has other fun stuff like an NFC chip, HSPA+ connectivity, and even a solar panel on the battery cover.

8. Windows Kinect

The Kinect has been an outstanding success for the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 where gamers are enjoying the new experience of playing with their body movement. Whether it may be dancing or pointing to items, it can be done with the wave of their hands or the shake of their hips. Currently, the Kinect SDK is available on the Kinect for Windows website, where developers can complete it soon for quicker market release.

7. Canon EOS 5D Mark III

There have been spreading rumors about a full range camera from Canon will replace the EOS 5D Mark II. The EOS 5D Mark III will have a full 35mm sensor, a mighty 32 megapixels, and an ISO range from the basic 100 to the clear and crisp 25600. Autofocus is expanded into 19 major points and viewing images on the camera can be easier with a bigger LCD. There are no dates yet so digital photographers are nothing but excited.

6. XBox 720

When you look at the name, it simply implies an XBox 360 with a full round of updates, technology developments, and the latest innovations all crammed up with one new console. The XBox 720 may still be rumors, unlike its Nintendo competitor. However, there are cooked news mentioning that this new device may be seen sometime in the CES or E3 event next year.

5. Wii U

Even though the date of release was never informed, the Wii U is at least sure to be out in 2012, thanks to the device preview and demo made in the 2011 E3 event in June 7 to June 9, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It even has a game expected to come out at the time of release, which is Zelda: Skyward Sword. It serves as the Wii remote control, which has an LCD of its own…

4. PlayStation 4

When one part of the competition is moving, others are also finding a way to get into the lead. As Nintendo is planning to have the new Wii, Sony is also planning of bringing out the PS4 sometime in 2012. Although Kazuo Hirai, Representative CEO and Executive Deputy President of Sony states otherwise, there are many hopefuls that would want to experience another next-gen gaming.

3. Dell Peju Windows 8 Tablet

When the Developer Preview of Windows 8 came out in the public, many are hoping that the creation of compatible devices would be hastened. Among the many who heeded to the call, Dell is creating the “Peju” tablet, which should perfectly run on the Windows 8 OS Engine. The rumors of the October 2011 did not go through so it may be expected to come out sometime in January 2012.

2. iPhone 5

All the rumors of the iPhone 5 died when the iPhone 4S was out to the market. In fact, almost 100% of the rumors attributed to the latest Apple smartphone was for something else. Nevertheless, it does not end the possibility that after a few months, with the fast development of technologies in mobile phones, the iPhone 5 may come out in the market, likely to be on the last quarter of 2012.

1. iPad 3

Right after the release of the iPad 2 for quite some time now, many techies are anticipating the release of the iPad 3 especially that the iPhone 4S is already out in the field. So far, rumors have mentioned that it will be having a 4G LTE connection, aside from WiFi and 3G in the cellular network. It may also have Siri with it, as prompted on the iOS 5 support, plus a retina display that can be a threat with other competitors.

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Top 10 Mysterious World Landmarks

10. The Cahokia Mounds

Cahokia is the name given to an Indian settlement that exists outside of Collinsville, Illinois. Archeologists estimate that the city was founded sometime around 650 AD, and its complex network of burial grounds and sophisticated landscaping prove that it was once a thriving community. It has been estimated that at its peak the city was home to as many as 40,000 people, which would have made it the most populous settlement in America prior to the arrival of the Europeans. The most notable aspect of Cahokia today are the 80 mounds of earth, some as high as 100 feet, which dot the 2,200-acre site. These helped create a network of plazas throughout the city, and it is believed that important buildings, like the home of the settlement’s chief, were built on top of them. The site also features a series of wooden posts that archeologists have dubbed “woodhenge.” The posts are said to mark the solstices and equinoxes, and supposedly figured prominently in the community’s astronomical mythology.
The Mystery
Although scientists are constantly discovering new information about the Cohokia community, the biggest mystery that remains is which modern Indian tribe is descended from the residents of the ancient city, as well as just what it was that caused them to abandon their settlement.

9. Newgrange

Considered to be the oldest and most famous prehistoric site in all of Ireland, Newgrange is a tomb that was built from earth, wood, clay, and stone around 3100 BC, some 1000 years before the construction of the pyramids in Egypt. It consists of a long passage that leads to a cross-shaped chamber that was apparently used as a tomb, as it contains stone basins filled with cremated remains. The most unique feature of Newgrange is its careful and sturdy design, which has helped the structure remain completely waterproof to this day. Most amazing of all, the entrance to the tomb was positioned relative to the sun in such a way that on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the rays from the sun are channeled through the opening and down the nearly 60 foot passageway, where they illuminate the floor of the monument’s central room.
The Mystery
Archeologists know Newgrange was used as a tomb, but why and for who still remains a mystery. The painstaking design needed to guarantee that the yearly solstice event occurs suggests that the site was held in high regard, but other than the obvious hypothesis that the sun featured prominently in the mythology of the builders, scientists are at a loss to describe the true reason for Newgrange’s construction.

8. The Yonaguni Monument

Of all the famous monuments in Japan, perhaps none is more perplexing than Yonaguni, an underwater rock formation that lies off the coast of the Ryuku Islands. It was discovered in 1987 by a group of divers who were there to observe Hammerhead sharks, and it immediately sparked a huge amount of debate in the Japanese scientific community. The monument is made up of a series of striking rock formations including massive platforms, carved steps, and huge stone pillars that lie at depths of 5-40 meters. There is a triangular formation that has become known as “the turtle” for its unique shape, as well as a long, straight wall that borders one of the larger platforms. The currents in the area are known for being particularly treacherous, but this has not stopped the Yonaguni monument from becoming one of the most popular diving locations in all of Japan.
The Mystery
The ongoing debate surrounding Yonaguni centers on one key subject: is the monument a natural phenomenon, or is it man-made? Scientists have long argued that millennia of strong currents and erosion have carved the formations out of the ocean floor, and they point to the fact that the monument is all one piece of solid rock as proof that it was not assembled by a builder. Others, though, point to the many straight edges, square corners and 90-degree angles of the formation as proof that it’s artificial. They often cite one formation in particular, a section of rock that resembles a crude carving of a human face, as evidence. If they are right, then an even more interesting mystery presents itself: who constructed the Yonaguni Monument, and for what purpose?

7. The Nazca Lines

The Nazca lines are a series of designs and pictographs carved into the ground in the Nazca Desert, a dry plateau located in Peru. They cover an area of some 50 miles, and were supposedly created between 200 BC and 700 AD by the Nazca Indians, who designed them by scraping away the copper colored rocks of the desert floor to expose the lighter-colored earth beneath. The lines have managed to remain intact for hundreds of years thanks to the region’s arid climate, which sees it receive little rain or wind throughout the year. Some of the lines span distances of 600 feet, and they depict everything from simple designs and shapes to characterizations of plants, insects, and animals.
The Mystery
Scientists know who made the Nazca Lines and how they did it, but they still don’t know why. The most popular and reasonable hypothesis is that the lines must have figured in the Nazca people’s religious beliefs, and that they made the designs as offerings to the gods, who would’ve been able to see them from the heavens. Still, other scientists argue that the lines are evidence of massive looms that the Nazcas used to make textiles, and one investigator has even made the preposterous claim that they are the remnants of ancient airfields used by a vanished, technologically advanced society.

6. Goseck Circle

One of the most mysterious landmarks in Germany is the Goseck Circle, a monument made out of earth, gravel, and wooden palisades that is regarded as the earliest example of a primitive “solar observatory.” The circle consists of a series of circular ditches surrounded by palisade walls (which have since been reconstructed) that house a raised mound of dirt in the center. The palisades have three openings, or gates, that point southeast, southwest, and north. It is believed that the monument was built around 4900 BC by Neolithic peoples, and that the three openings correspond to the direction from which the sun rises on the winter solstice.
The Mystery
The monument’s careful construction has led many scientists to believe that the Goseck Circle was built to serve as some kind of primitive solar or lunar calendar, but its exact use is still a source of debate. Evidence has shown that a so-called “solar cult” was widespread in ancient Europe. This has led to speculation that the Circle was used in some kind of ritual, perhaps even in conjunction with human sacrifice. This hypothesis has yet to be proven, but archeologists have uncovered several human bones, including a headless skeleton, just outside the palisade walls.

5. Sacsayhuaman

Not far from the famous Inca city of Machu Picchu lies Sacsayhuaman, a strange embankment of stone walls located just outside of Cuzco. The series of three walls was assembled from massive 200-ton blocks of rock and limestone, and they are arranged in a zigzag pattern along the hillside. The longest is roughly 1000 feet in length and each stands some fifteen feet tall. The monument is in astonishingly good condition for its age, especially considering the region’s propensity for earthquakes, but the tops of the walls are somewhat demolished, as the monument was plundered by the Spanish to build churches in Cuzco. The area surrounding the monument has been found to be the source of several underground catacombs called chincanas, which were supposedly used as connecting passageways to other Inca structures in the area.
The Mystery
Most scientists agree that Sacsayhuaman served as a kind of fortress of barrier wall, but this has been disputed. The strange shape and angles of the wall have led some speculate that it may have had a more symbolic function, one example being that the wall, when seen next to Cuzco from above, forms the shape of the head of a Cougar. Even more mysterious than the monument’s use, though, are the methods that were used in its construction. Like most Inca stone works, Sacsayhuaman was built with large stones that fit together so perfectly that not even a sheet of paper can be placed in the gaps between them. Just how the Incas managed such expert placements, or, for that matter, how they managed to transport and lift the heavy hunks of stone, is still not fully known.

4. The Easter Island Moai

One of the most iconic series of monuments in the Pacific islands is the Moai, a group of huge statues of exaggerated human figures that are found only on the small, isolated island of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island. The Moai were carved sometime between 1250 and 1500 AD by the island’s earliest inhabitants, and are believed to depict the people’s ancestors, who in their culture were held in the same regard as deities. The Moai were chiseled and carved from tuff, a volcanic rock that is prevalent on the island, and they all feature the same characteristics of an oversized head, broad nose, and a mysterious, indecipherable facial expression. Scientists have determined that as many as 887 of the statues were originally carved, but years of infighting among the island’s clans led to many being destroyed. Today, only 394 are still standing, the largest of which is 30 feet tall and weighs over 70 tons.
The Mystery
While there is a fairly solid consensus on why the Moai were erected, how the islanders did it is still up for debate. The average Moai weighs several tons, and for years scientists were at a loss to describe how the monuments were transported from Rano Raraku, where most of them were constructed, to their various locations around the island. In recent years, the most popular theory is that the builders used wooden sleds and log rollers to move the Moai, an answer that would also explain how the once verdant island became almost totally barren due to deforestation.

3. The Georgia Guidestones

While most of the mysterious monuments on this list only became that way as centuries passed, the Georgia Guidestones, also known as American Stonehenge, are one landmark that was always intended to be an enigma. The monument, which consists of four monolithic slabs of granite that support a single capstone, was commissioned in 1979 by a man who went by the pseudonym of R.C. Christian. A local mason carefully crafted it so that one slot in the stones is aligned with the sun on the solstices and equinoxes, and one small hole is always pointed in the direction of the North Star. Most interesting, though, are the inscriptions on the slabs, which an accompanying plaque describes as “the guidestones to an Age of Reason.” In eight different languages, the slabs offer a strange ten-point plan to ensure peace on Earth that includes vague proclamations like “prize truth–beauty–love–seeking harmony with the infinite,” to very specific commands like “maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.” Comments like this one have made the Guidestones one of the most controversial landmarks in the United States, and they have long been protested and even vandalized by groups that would like to see them demolished.

The Mystery
For all their controversy, very little is known about who built the Guidestones or what their true purpose is. R.C. Christian claimed he represented an independent organization when he commissioned the landmark, but neither he nor his group has spoken up since its construction. Since the monument was built during the height of the Cold War, one popular theory about the group’s intentions is that the Guidestones were to serve as a primer for how to rebuild society in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.

2. The Great Sphinx of Giza

Sphinxes are massive stone statues that depict the body of a reclining lion with the head and face of a human. The figures are found all over the world in different forms, but they are most commonly linked with Egypt, which features the most famous example in the form of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Incredibly, the statue is carved out of one monolithic piece of rock, and at 240 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 66 feet tall, it is considered to be the biggest monument of its kind in the world. Historians largely accept the function of the Sphinx to have been that of a symbolic guardian, since the statues were strategically placed around important structures like temples, tombs, and pyramids. The Great Sphinx of Giza appears to be no different. It stands adjacent to the pyramid of the pharaoh Khafra, and most archeologists believe that it is his face that is depicted on that of the statue.
The Mystery
Despite its reputation as one of the most famous monuments of antiquity, there is still very little known about the Great Sphinx of Giza. Egyptologists might have a small understanding of why the statue was built, but when, how, and by who is still shrouded in mystery. The pharaoh Khafra is the main suspect, which would date the structure back to around 2500 BC, but other scientists have argued that evidence of water erosion of the statue suggests that it is much older and perhaps even predated the dynastic era of the Egyptians. This theory has few modern adherents, but if true it would mean the Great Sphinx of Giza is even more mysterious than previously believed.

1. Stonehenge

Of all the world’s famous monuments, none has gained as much of a reputation for pure, simple mystery as Stonehenge. Stonehenge has been inspiring debate among scholars, scientists, and historians since the Middle Ages. Located in the English countryside, the landmark is believed to date back to 2500 BC, and consists of several mammoth pieces of rock arranged and piled on top of one another in what appears at first to be a random design. The site is surrounded by a small, circular ditch, and is flanked by burial mounds on all sides. Although the rock formations that still remain are undoubtedly impressive, it is thought that the modern version of Stonehenge is only a small remnant of a much larger monument that was damaged with the passing of time, and it is largely believed that the building process was so extensive that it could have lasted on and off for anywhere from 1500 to 7000 years

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Top 10 Most Loved Deformed Movie Characters

10.  Sloth from The Goonies

For every sentimental diatribe about how handicapped characters can change us for the better, some are just around to add a little strangeness and comedy to a scene. Because really, how changed can a person be from a movie called, The Goonies, and from a character named Sloth. Well, in this case, don’t expect much because with every rule there is an exception, okay, maybe a few. The film was released in 1985 and was written by Steven Spielberg, a ‘Stand by Me’ kind of coming-of-age film, comic-slapstick intermixed with just good, ole’ plain goofiness. Sloth, the deformed child kept alone, chained to a wall in a basement room doesn’t play a leading role, but for many of us who remember him, did leave a bit of a lump in your throat because of the special friendship he struck up with the little oversized boy named Chunk. One of the Goonies, Chunk, coerces Sloth out of his dungeon with a Baby Ruth candy bar. Sloth is a severely deformed gentle giant who rescues the boys from their captors and as the cave is falling down Chunk says: “Sloth! Come on!” then Sloth yells out, “Sloth love Chunk!” Chunk replies: “I love you too!” It was a touching moment. The two biggest misfits of the film later embrace on the shore and share a candy bar once they’ve been rescued. Sure, it isn’t Hamlet, but, for a fun and quirky deformed goof ball, Sloth comes in at number 10.

9.  Gwynplaine from The Man Who Laughs

A film released in 1928 called, The Man Who Laughs, was a novel written by Victor Hugo, published in 1869. The film starred Conrad Veidy and Mary Philbin and it has a similar storyline popular with The Joker from DC Comics, Batman. The Joker, however, was not a loved deformed character like Gwynplaine. Like the Joker, Gwynplaine was maimed when the king carved a permanent smile on his face for his father’s transgressions. Gwynplaine redeems himself with sensitivity and sweetness toward Dea, a blind girl he falls in love with. In the film, Gwynplaine is adopted by a travelling showman and becomes a popular act in the circus. Even after the king dies his evil jester continues to work on ruining Gwynplaine’s life. Dea falls in love with Gwynplaine because she is witness to his kindly nature without seeing his hideous face. After she reveals her love for Gwynplaine the film ends with another character looking down into the ocean in reaction to the fact that Gwynplaine has vanished as if to imply he drowned himself over her death.  Like many stories with a deformed character like Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog, sadly, deformed characters don’t find love unless they get transformed. Tragically for Gwynplaine his story was more real than fairytale and ultimately resulted in his tragic fate. One of the first deformed characters to make an impression on the screen, Gwynplaine comes in at number 9.
Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands, a cult film starring Johnny Depp turned Tim Burton’s misfit character into a living legend. A movie that was released in 1990, also starring Winona Ryder as Kim Edward’s love interest, reached popular acclaim in no time with a new kind of deformed and loved character coming to the screen. Edward is an inventor’s greatest creation, the first near-complete replication of a person but the creator dies before Edward’s hands have been completed and Edward is left with metal scissors for hands. Although not a great deal to relate to on any realistic level, obviously, the movie conveys the isolation and aggravation any person with an unusual trait experiences (like having scissors for hands, let’s say). It takes a while for Edward Scissorhands to find his perfect place in the universe, but after her learns that his deformed hands are good for something, like cutting hair and hedges, he wins everyone’s affections. A comical twist to a dark and deeper element of what it means to be a freak in society’s eyes, Edward Scissorhands, one of the best loved deformed characters in movie fiction, cuts up the list as number 8.

7.  Rocky Dennis from Mask

On a much more sobering note, Mask, a film that came out in 1985, based on the real life of Rocky Dennis, is one of those films that came out in the ’80s that exhausted a considerable number of tissues from the audience. The film, a story about a 16-year old boy with a massive facial skull deformity takes our compassion to new heights. His biker gang mother is played by Cher whose performance was exceptional. Despite Rocky’s horrendous appearance his intelligence and sweetness convinces the world that he’s deserving of all the best things in a normal boy’s life. Rocky shares a poem in the film saying:  “These things are good: ice cream and cake, a ride on a Harley, seeing monkeys in the trees, the rain on my tongue, and the sun shining on my face. These things are a drag: dust in my hair, holes in my shoes, no money in my pocket, and the sun shining on my face.” The movie ends tragically with the inevitability of Rocky’s death and the loss we feel at his passing is felt most acutely by the audience through his mother which brings Rocky in as number 7.

6.  Benjamin Button in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was released in 2008; the film won 3 Oscars and stars Brad Pit as Benjamin Button and Cate Blanchett as Daisy. Although the disease that Benjamin Button has is fictional, it does resemble a rare genetic disorder called Progeria in which young people appear old. People affected with this disorder generally have oversized heads and are crippled with severe rheumatoid arthritis. When Benjamin is born he looks so hideous that his own father contemplates throwing him into the river. Benjamin also suffers from arthritis and is nearly blind from cataracts and has osteoporosis, other symptoms of Progeria. Benjamin Button deserves a place on the list as a newly recognized handicapped character that the audience is able to live vicariously through with the topsy-turvy notion that not all youth is wasted on the young. The idea of old age disappearing over time rather than taking away a person’s humanity at the end of life gives Benjamin’s character a redeeming magic against human mortality at number 6.

5.  Seth Brundle from The Fly

Seth Brundle from the film The Fly released in 1986 earns credit in the list of the top-ten most loved physically challenged characters. Okay, a mutation to be exact, a story about a man who becomes a fly, a preposterous idea, quite “Kafkaesque” in its core where Seth’s transformation into the mutant creature known as the “Brudlefly” was truly painful for all involved. Our pity over his plight comes by seeing him through the eyes of his heroine who tries to find a way to stop the transformation. Parts of Seth’s body start to fall off and it’s a fierce battle for Seth’s body as the mutation slowly strips him of every last bit of his humanity. The anguish we feel for poor Seth Brundle was enough to last through childhood and into adulthood for most of us, and because of that, Seth Brundle flies in at number 5.

4.  Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Who when they think of physically challenged characters does The Hunchback of Notre Dame not come to mind? Another character created by Victor Hugo like Hugo’s Gwynplaine from The Man Who Laughs, Quasimodo is perhaps one of the most memorable and well-known. In the 1939 film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton as Quasimodo and Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda. The gypsy girl Esmeralda shows pity on the poor Quasimodo who is the bell ringer of the famed Notre Dame church; the film is a classic and was nominated for 2 Oscars. When Esmeralda is convicted of murdering a man and is sentenced to hang, Quasimodo does everything he can to save her life. Quasimodo, half-laughing, half-weeping, says the popular line, “I’m about as shapeless as the man in the moon!” Mostly, because The Hunchback of Notre Dame is notorious with a physically afflicted character, and the first one that people generally name, brings Quasimodo in at number 4.

3.  The Phantom of the Opera

The renowned story of The Phantom of the Opera has been a long-standing Broadway show with various cinematic reproductions, and rightly so. The story, the music, the characters are all unforgettable, poetic and enchanting. The 2004 film, directed by Joel Schumacher, and starring Gerald Butler as The Phantom of The Opera carries the mood and the genius of the story. The Phantom of the Opera is not a simple character; he is not a passive person humbled below the weight of a crippling condition but a complex and darker counterpart to deformity and its components. The Phantom is so memorable because of all his ambiguities, he is loving yet revengeful, feared but generous. Due to his facial disfigurement that keeps him hiding behind a mask in the catacombs beneath Paris’s Opera Populaire constitutes a kind of poetic sense to it all. He falls in love with Christine, a chorus singer who the Phantom takes under his wing to mentor and teach. Christine falls in love with someone else and the Phantom of the Opera’s love quickly turns into heated, jealous rage. He tries everything to win Christine’s affections including threatening her love’s life. Although Christine chooses her real love interest in the end, the mysterious attraction between the Phantom and Christine makes the unrequited love between them strong and our affections for The Phantom’s lonely life more acute.  During the Phantom’s plea for Christine’s love he says: “That fate which condemns me to wallow in blood has also denied me the joys of the flesh this face-the infection which poisons our love. This face which earned a mother’s fear and loathing, a mask my first unfeeling scrap of clothing,” for all the impossibility of The Phantom of the Opera finding love, for that our hearts swoon. The Phantom of the Opera comes in at number 3.

2.  The Elephant Man

Coming in at number 2, The Elephant Man is the second most influential and most-loved physically marred character that neither time nor era can erase the magnitude of such a plight. The 1980’s film version, directed by David Lynch is a true story of Joseph Merrick, a 19^th century Englishman afflicted with a disfiguring congenital disease. Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Frederick Treves who comes across Merrick at a freak show in a carnival. Treves learns about Merrick’s strange disease that began when Merrick was 14 years old and tumors began to grow all over his body. Because of this affliction Merrick sleeps sitting up, propped up by pillows in his bed or he will die from suffocation. In the film people mock and scorn Merrick as a freak, calling him, The Elephant Man. Local newspapers run articles on him and although he finds Mrs. Kendal and Dr. Treves as caring friends, the rest of the world shows him no compassion. He is taken one night by force to France to another freak show. He returns later nearing death and goes to the theatre to see Treves and Mrs. Kendal again. Mrs. Kendal dedicates her theatre performance to Merrick. Later that evening, back at the hospital, Merrick takes his pillows from the bed and decides to lie down on his bed like everyone else and dies. This film reveals the truer ugliness of people devoid of compassion making The Elephant Man one of the most attractive physically challenged characters of all time at number 2.

1.  Christy Brown from My Left Foot:  The Story of Christy Brown

Released in 1989, My Left Foot is an amazing, miraculous story about the struggle for one man’s voice weighted under the oppression of a spastic quadriplegic body where all but his left foot is affected. If you have the courage to stick with the film, it will blow your mind. The part of Christy Brown is played most memorably by Daniel Day-Lewis and is one of the most moving and transforming films to date. It follows the life of an absolutely heroic life, the life of Christy Brown. The film is based on his true story, about a man with severe cerebral palsy whose mind is strong, intelligent and witty and who overcomes the prison of his own body. He learns to write poems and stories and paint, all with his left foot, and thus is able to break out of his isolated world stricken by his physical affliction. A life changing film due to the bravery and persistence of Christy Brown, both a real and a movie character wins top place for the most-loved handicapped character of all.  The film won 2 Oscars.
Many people’s imagination has been captured by both the real and the fictitious elements of human physical affliction over the years. The famous writer and poet Lord Byron, for instance, was born with a club foot. The foot caused him great psychological stress because at that time in history it was thought that Satan had a lame foot because he fell on it after his fall from heaven. In many cultures and times human deformities and disease was a mark of a person who was cursed or evil, perceptions grounded in myth and superstition. As a society we have become more sensitive to disabled people and one way this has happened has been inside the safe, transformative experience of movies. Of those physically challenged and most adored movie characters, these top the list.

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