I like to find as much cuteness in my life as possible through all forms of media. I am always especially on the lookout for kawaii films. I’ve seen a number of Japanese films that qualify but also many others that you may or may not have heard of. This is my own method of judging the kawaii-ness of a film so you may end up watching the same film and thinking – uh…no.  But this is my closet, my blog and my list. This list is by no means complete – look for updates.

Here are some of my fave kawaii films:

The Wizard of Oz: first thing – cute little dog in a basket. Girl with braids. Sparkly shoes. Music. Dancing scarecrow, crying metal guy and silly lion. Rainbows. Munchkins. The Lollipop Guild. Extreme cuteness or too much opium. I vote cuteness.

Toy Story (all): A flying space-guy toy and an vintage cowboy toy, plus all the other toys come to life what kid (or grown-up kid) wouldn’t love this? Incredible animation and voice-acting. One of the best. Way, way cute.

ET: Adorable alien, adorable kids, extra adorable Drew Barrymore – the wonder of childhood as it gives way to the new understanding of growing up. All at once cute, sweet and bittersweet.

Wall-E: a love story with robots who don’t even speak but adore the musical Hello Dolly. One of my personal faves of all time. So cute I can barely control myself. Just talking about it makes me want to watch it. In fact, I may have to leave this list and come back.

The Fifth Element: Ok I am back. This is far-out but still incredibly cute. How can a film with a character named Leeloo NOT be cute? Even the bad guys are silly and cute in this. It is almost a French space farce. How about Corben Dallas’s cross-eyed kitteh named Sweetie?

Coraline: this falls under goth-cute (like gothic lolita) but the stop animation is to die for. It is a little creepy but so is stop animation if you really think about it (except for those Rudolph Christmas Specials – don’t even say a word about those being creepy or I will open up a can of whup-ass on you!). Coraline is sweet and funny and quirky and dresses kawaii.

Dr. Doolittle: any dude who can talk to animals, has a push me pull you llama, rides around in a giant pink snail, flies on a lunar moth AND is a vegetarian is all right with me. Plus goofy songs and Rex Harrison make this beyond lovely.

Kamikaze Girls: one of my favorite Japanese films ever – this is about friendship, girlhood, kawaii-ness and fighting for what you believe in (even if it is sort of shallow and meaningless). Any film that includes the legendary Japanese store Baby the Stars Shine Bright as a central part of the story is uber-kawaii. There is also a girl gang fight, manga and drinking tea.

Dear Frankie: a serious story but done cute. Cute boy, cute Mom, cute Scottish accents and one of my fave cuties ever Gerard Butler, being cute, sexy and sweet. It is a lovely little film and one that you can watch repeatedly and pick up something new each time. It’s about a mother’s love, friendship, learning to move on.

Ice Age (all): adorable woolly mammoth and a lisping three-toed sloth melt perfectly with a cagey saber-toothed tiger who is afraid of water. I have seen the newest one yet but the other two were so freakin’ cute that I know the third one will put me over the edge. Oh, the squirrel. Need I say more?

Madagascar (all): I love all the characters but for me the greatest love of all belongs to the cutest character ( you actually need to watch the films a couple of times each to catch everything he says) voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen; Julien. Worth the price of admission. David Schwimmer as a hypochondriac giraffe in love with Jada Pinkett-Smith as a huge hippo is beyond cute too.

When I find something that begs to be here in my closet of kawaii, I just have to buy things and share!

Shanalogic.com is an indie art place kind of like a Etsy Collective. They have cool, cute, adorable, unique things that will want to get your hands on fast. You’ve probably seen them advertising on icanhascheezburger.com and wondered what they were about. I finally clicked through one day and was impressed. Seriously impressed and said so with my hard-earned buckarooni’s which I coughed up for the following tasty goods:

I have loved and adored the new Hello Kitty Tokidoki items very much (I will discuss in a later post soon) but recently I just purchased a couple of Tokidoki purses sans Kitty and found them equally (well maybe not equally since the addition of Hello Kitty always makes anything better) kawaii and desirable. These are photos of the two purses I just got. If you are interested in Tokidoki purses be aware that there are tons of fakes. I found this article very helpful on finding legitimate sellers on ebay and how to spot a fake.

Concerto Punk Sorriso handbag

Geometric Girl Serena handbag

Tokidoki (which in Japanese means “sometimes”)  is the creation of Italian illustrator Simone Legno (he says his name this way: See-moneh Len-nyo with his Italian accent). The 32-year old illustrator (and cutie) now lives in LA and has built the Tokidoki brand into something quite formidable in only a few years. He had a personal website in 2003 with his illustrations that was discovered by the folks at Hard Candy Cosmetics who flew him to LA and said – hey let’s turn Tokidoki into a world-wide phenom! Simone said – sure – I’d love to get paid for my art!

In 2004 they started making vinyl toys and cute accessories (stickers, letter sets, etc.) and in 2006 they joined up with LeSportSac to make kawaii handbags and accessories. Hello Kitty soon followed and then a deal with Target to design school supplies and t-shirts for kids and now Simone and Tokidoki (click this link for a cool little interview with Simone) are big, big business. Yay for kawaii art!

Hiya Cutie illustrator guy! Ciao bello!

Tokidoki artwork

I am a fool for anything Tokidoki and wish I had enough money to buy one of everything! Simone keeps it fresh and I love the new directions he goes in. I just ordered some toy characters of his and I will let you know when I get them.

Tokidoki is my newest obsession so you will see lots more about it!

First photo shows the fragrance collection ( I wear G, just so you know), then Gwen Stefani with the Harajuku Girls, the snowbunny purse (one of my favorites in my collection with the koosh ball), a close-up of the adorable make-up bags (also in my collection) and the Harajuku Lovers gift box with purse and box that sings when you open it. Too kawaii!

Gwen Stefani is my homie! She is my age and still keeps her outer child on the prowl. I respect that. I love all the Harajuku Lovers stuff she offers -wallets, watches, sneaks, jewelry, hair clippies, totes, purses, diaper bags and now fragrances too (when will there be cosmetics please oh please – just imagine the packaging).

While I admit that co-opting the Harajuku “look” which is distinctively Japanese and using it for her own marketing purposes may not reflect well ( a little “Ugly American” if you ask me)I still cannot help but love the results. For most Americans they don’t even know what the heck Harajuku means so it really doesn’t besmirch the Japanese. They probably think it is word Gwen made up.

We know the real story though: (from Wikipedia)

Harajuku is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan. Every Sunday, young people dressed in a variety of styles including gothic lolita, visual kei, and decora, as well as cosplayers spend the day in Harajuku socializing. The fashion styles of these youths rarely conform to one particular style and are usually a mesh of many. Most young people gather on Jingu Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge that connects Harajuku to the neighboring Meiji Shrine area. The term “Harajuku Girls” has been used by English-language media to describe teenagers dressed in any fashion style who are in the area of Harajuku. This fashion infuses multiple looks and styles to create a unique form of dress. One of these styles, Kawaii, came to fame in the 1990’s. Kawaii became a popular phrase that meant something was cute or pretty. Kawaii was a form of resistance in that the style and culture associated with it were not seen as attractive by an older generation.  This idea of Kawaii was a distinct youth culture separate from the traditional one in existence.

These are the real deal Harajuku Girls (who are not Gwen’s backup dancers) right on the bridge in Harajuku Station.

Although I am too old to dress like this (but don’t tell Gwen that – I guess she can because she is a pop star), I adore it. I had my time too with punk rock back in the ’80′s. We used to do cute things back then with Smurf’s, Hello Kitty, Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake. I’m not sure if the Olivia Newton-John headband from “Let’s Get Physical” could be considered kawaii but I will admit that I did have one and leg warmers that I used to wear with a pair of ripped-up jeans with a torn Flashdance sweatshirt and Chuck Taylor All-Stars.I wonder if these girls will one day look back at photos of themselves and think – oh my heavens – did I actually dress like that in public?

If you are looking for the newest Harajuku Lovers handbags you can find them at Trendy Stars and also at ebay (usually pretty good prices) and if you get lucky like I have, right at your local TJ Maxx for super cheapo prices.

I love trading cards and have since I was a kid. This will probably date me but I began collecting trading cards with baseball cards (huge Boston Red Sox fan) then Star Wars cards and Superman cards. Those would be the original versions of the films from 1977 and 1978 respectively. In other words I am an old-timey trading card collector.

I collected many different cards over the years, never losing my fascination with them. I started to play Magic: The Gathering some time ago and that got me collecting cards again. From there I collected Neopets trading cards, then Webkinz, got into the trading cards (and game) for World of Warcraft (many cool series with incredible art) and finally my favorite, the Free Realms card game, which I got into last spring and have been playing non-stop.

Except for Neopets and Webkinz most trading cards are made with males (boys, guys, whateveh) in mind. Neopets and Webkinz cards are probably purchased by more girls but they are in general for kids and tweens, non-gender specific.

When I found out about Bella Sara, trading cards for girls – the first ever made for a female demographic – I couldn’t wait to check it out.

Hidden City Games, run by Peter Adkison, the founder of Wizards of the Coast (a company that made trading card games popular again through Magic: The Gathering and the kawaii little Pokémon cards) got together with Danish social worker and avid horse fan Gitte Braendgaard and Poul Villadsen,who had created a series of trading cards called Bella Sara. Gitte was inspired to create Bella Sara during her tenure as a social worker, caring for the disabled. In line with the focus of her former career, Bella Sara features socially conscious, positive messages and imagination-building game play, designed to uplift girls. The trading cards for girls depict beautiful, mystical and magical horses. Gitte named the series after her daughter, a horse lover named Sara, who became the Goddess of Horses in the magical land called North of North (sounds a bit like Denmark, to me).

I found out all about the cards through their interactive website bellasara.com that has online mini-games, horses to play with (groom, feed, love), a cottage to decorate and now soon to be unveiled online adventures with avatars and quests. It is an entire world of delights aimed at girls but enjoyed by females of all ages.

The cards are a marvel. They also have plushies. board games, novels, card folios, special tins with cards and stickers, an awesome huge sticker book and sweet little fuzzy miniature horses that you can collect too.

The artwork is spectacular ranging from high fantasy to magical faerie to kawaii. The mini-games are fun and easy to play – you can zen out on them.The games are similar to sites like Neopets and Webkinz. Everything online is free, there are no ads and it is a safe and secure environment for young girls to play in.

You can purchase the card packs (they are $2.99 per pack and you get 5 random trading cards plus temporary tattoos and a sticker and a Bella Sara horseshoe card which unlocks all kinds of goodies online) at stores like Walmart, as well as online through Bella Sara and on ebay too.

I’ve been enjoying the beta-testing of the new online adventures that Bella Sara will be offering soon. These new trading cards have already inspired other cards geared toward girls with The Littlest Pet Shop trading cards and new online destination. I hope to see this continue to be a boon for cards because they promote friendships, community, collecting and spark intelligent game-play too.

Plus I am a sucker for trading cards, stickers and goofy online mini-games.