title: Hidetaka Miyazaki

text: After the release of "Bloodborne" in March 2015, Miyazaki returned to the "Dark Souls" series as the lead director on "Dark Souls III", which released early the following year. After its release, he announced his intentions to personally stop development on the "Dark Souls" series. Miyazaki has a son who was born in the late 2010s. His next two projects were the 2018 virtual reality game "Déraciné" and the 2019 action-adventure game "", with the latter winning several awards. It was also around this time that he had his first child. Miyazaki also directed 2022's "Elden Ring", written in collaboration with "A Song of Ice and Fire" series author George R. R. Martin. The game received critical acclaim, winning several year-end awards, and sold over copies by October 2022. Miyazaki served as the initial director of "" (2023) before Masaru Yamamura assumed the role later in development.


title: Hidetaka Miyazaki

text: Miyazaki was an avid reader as a child despite his parents being unable to afford him many books. He frequently borrowed from his local library, including English language fantasy and science fiction that he did not fully understand, allowing his imagination to fill in the blanks by using the accompanying illustrations. He would later cite that as a major influence on his design philosophy. Miyazaki also played gamebooks and tabletop games such as "Steve Jackson's Sorcery!", "Dungeons & Dragons", and "RuneQuest" as his parents restricted him from playing video games until he was old enough to attend university.


title: Hidetaka Miyazaki

text: Once exposed to video games, Miyazaki became a fan of "Ico", the early "Dragon Quest" games, and "The Legend of Zelda" and "King's Field" video game series, all of which he later cited were direct influences on his games. He was also a fan of manga such as "Berserk", "Saint Seiya", "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", and "Devilman", as well as the literature of H. P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, and George R. R. Martin. Miyazaki is also inspired by architecture, especially of European origin, and often uses it in his games as a way of environmental storytelling. Psychology, anthropology, and sociology have also influenced his design choices.


title: Hidetaka Miyazaki

text: As the lead creative director on a project, Miyazaki usually writes the majority of the story, dialogue, and text, while having the final say on character, monster, and level designs. The multiplayer mechanics of the "Souls" series were inspired by his own personal experience of driving up a snowy road as cars ahead began slipping back and were pushed uphill by other people in the area. As Miyazaki was unable to give his thanks before they left the area, he wondered whether the last person in the line had made it to their destination as he was unlikely to ever meet them again. This gave birth to the series' multiplayer systems, with it attempting to emulate that same sense of silent cooperation.


title: Hidetaka Miyazaki

text: Miyazaki stated that the difficulty of his games have no intention of being that way compared to others. Rather, the difficulty was a part of the process that gives players a sense of accomplishment by "overcoming tremendous odds", while also incentivizing players to experiment more with character builds and weapons. He stated that death in his games is used as a trial and error learning tool, adding that the idea became accepted by the public following the success of "Demon's Souls". Miyazaki stated that he does not dislike direct storytelling but prefers players to interpret it for themselves, as they get more value from it when they find out hints of plot from items or side-characters. Many journalists and critics have cited him an auteur of video games, noting his influential work in "Dark Souls" and its related games.


title: Hidetaka Miyazaki

text: At the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards, Miyazaki was awarded the show's Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the video game industry. The award was presented to him by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, two of his inspirations. He received a similar honor at the 2022 CEDEC Awards.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Finding Nemo is a 2003 American computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Andrew Stanton with co-direction by Lee Unkrich, the screenplay was written by Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds from a story by Stanton. The film stars the voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, and Geoffrey Rush. It tells the story of an overprotective clownfish named Marlin who, along with a regal blue tang named Dory, searches for his missing son Nemo. Along the way, Marlin learns to take risks and comes to terms with Nemo taking care of himself.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Pre-production of the film began in early 1997. The inspiration for "Finding Nemo" sprang from multiple experiences, going back to Stanton's childhood, when he loved going to the dentist to see the fish tank, assuming that the fish were from the ocean and wanted to go home. To ensure that the movements of the fish in the film were believable, the animators took a crash course in fish biology and oceanography. Thomas Newman composed the score for the film.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Premiering in Los Angeles on May 18, "Finding Nemo" was released on May 30, 2003. It received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the visual elements, screenplay and characters that has been cited as funny to both young moviegoers and their parents. It also became the highest-grossing animated film at the time of its release, and was the second-highest-grossing film of 2003, earning a total of $871 million worldwide by the end of its initial theatrical run. The film was also nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one for Best Animated Feature, becoming the first Pixar film to do so.


title: Finding Nemo

text: "Finding Nemo" is the best-selling DVD title of all time, with over 40 million copies sold , and was the highest-grossing G-rated film of all time before Pixar's own "Toy Story 3" overtook it. The film was re-released in 3D in 2012. In 2008, the American Film Institute named it as the 10th greatest American animated film as part of their 10 Top 10 lists. A sequel, "Finding Dory", was released in June 2016.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Clownfish Marlin lives in an anemone in the Great Barrier Reef with his mate, Coral, and their eggs. After Coral and nearly all the eggs are eaten by a barracuda, Marlin becomes overprotective of his son Nemo, born of one remaining egg. While Marlin talks to Nemo's teacher on the latter's first day of school, Nemo approaches a speedboat, where a pair of scuba divers capture him. Marlin pursues the boat in vain and meets Dory, a blue tang with acute short-term memory loss, who offers her help. The two encounter Bruce, Anchor, and Chum, three sharks who have sworn to abstain from eating fish. Marlin finds a diver's mask that fell from the boat, accidentally hitting Dory and giving her a nosebleed. The scent of her blood sends Bruce into a feeding frenzy, but the sharks flee after accidentally setting off old naval mines, which knock Marlin and Dory unconscious.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Nemo is placed in an aquarium in the office of dentist Philip Sherman in Sydney. He meets the "Tank Gang" led by Gill, a Moorish idol. The Tank Gang tell Nemo that he is to be given to Sherman's niece Darla, who killed her previous fish. Gill decides to help Nemo and devises an escape plan: Nemo can fit inside the aquarium's filter tube and must block it with a pebble, obliging Sherman to put the fish into plastic bags while he cleans the tank, and allow them to roll out the window and into the harbor. Nemo attempts to place the pebble, but fails and is almost killed.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Marlin and Dory awaken, but the mask falls into a deep trench. Descending after mask, they are soon pursued by an anglerfish. Dory memorizes the address on the goggles and they escape. The two disregard directions from a school of moonfish, taking what Marlin believes is a safer route. After being stung by a forest of jellyfish, they are knocked unconscious and awaken in the East Australian Current with a group of sea turtles, including Crush and his son, Squirt. The story of Marlin's quest is relayed across the ocean to Sydney, where a pelican named Nigel tells the Tank Gang. Nemo then succeeds in blocking the filter and soon the aquarium is covered in green algae.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Marlin and Dory exit the East Australian Current and are consumed by a blue whale which expels them through its blowhole in Sydney Harbour. Nigel helps them escape a flock of seagulls and takes them to the dentist's office. Sherman has foiled the Tank Gang with a new high-tech filter. When Darla arrives, Nemo plays dead and Nigel terrifies Darla, throwing the office into chaos. Sherman throws out Nigel along with Marlin and Dory, with the former believing that Nemo is dead. Gill helps Nemo escape through a drain leading to the ocean.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Marlin bids farewell to Nigel and Dory and begins his journey home. Nemo meets Dory but she does not remember him until her memory returns when she reads the word "Sydney" on a drainpipe. Dory reunites Nemo with Marlin, but a fishing trawler captures her in a net along with a school of groupers. With his father's blessing, Nemo enters the net, and he and Marlin instruct all of the fish to swim down. Their combined force breaks the net. Returning home to the reef, Marlin is more confident, while Dory has remained friends with Bruce, Anchor, and Chum. Marlin and Dory watch Nemo off as he goes to school.


title: Finding Nemo

text: The inspiration for "Finding Nemo" sprang from multiple experiences, going back to director Andrew Stanton's childhood, when he loved going to the dentist to see the fish tank, assuming that the fish were from the ocean and wanted to go home. In 1992, shortly after his son was born, he and his family took a trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (which was called Marine World at the time). There, after seeing the shark tube and various exhibits, he felt that the underwater world could be done beautifully in computer animation. Later, in 1997, he took his son for a walk in the park but realized that he was overprotecting him and lost an opportunity to have a father-son experience that day.


title: Finding Nemo

text: In an interview with "National Geographic" magazine, Stanton said that the idea for the characters of Marlin and Nemo came from a photograph of two clownfish peeking out of an anemone:


title: Finding Nemo

text: In addition, clownfish are colorful, but do not tend to come out of an anemone often. For a character who has to go on a dangerous journey, Stanton felt a clownfish was the perfect type of fish for the character. Pre-production of the film began in early 1997. Stanton began writing the screenplay during the post-production of "A Bug's Life". As a result, "Finding Nemo" began production with a complete screenplay, something that co-director Lee Unkrich called "very unusual for an animated film". The artists took scuba diving lessons to study the coral reef.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Stanton originally planned to use flashbacks to reveal how Coral died but realized that by the end of the film there would be nothing to reveal, deciding to show how she died at the beginning of the movie. The character of Gill also was different from the character seen in the final film. In a scene that was eventually deleted, Gill tells Nemo that he's from a place called Bad Luck Bay and that he has brothers and sisters in order to impress the young clownfish, only for the latter to find out that he was lying by listening to a patient reading a children's storybook that shares exactly the same details.


title: Finding Nemo

text: William H. Macy was the first actor cast as Marlin. Although Macy had recorded most of the dialogue, Stanton felt that the character needed a lighter touch. Stanton then cast Albert Brooks in the role, and in his opinion, it "saved" the film. Brooks liked the idea of Marlin being this clownfish who isn't funny and recorded outtakes of telling very bad jokes.


title: Finding Nemo

text: The idea for the initiation sequence came from a story conference between Stanton and Bob Peterson while they were driving to record the actors. Although he originally envisioned the character of Dory as male, Stanton was inspired to cast Ellen DeGeneres when he watched an episode of "Ellen" in which he saw her "change the subject five times before finishing one sentence". The pelican character named Gerald (who in the final film ends up swallowing and choking on Marlin and Dory) was originally a friend of Nigel. They were going to play against each other with Nigel being neat and fastidious and Gerald being scruffy and sloppy. The filmmakers could not find an appropriate scene for them that did not slow the pace of the picture, so Gerald's character was minimized.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Stanton himself provided the voice of Crush the sea turtle. He originally did the voice for the film's story reel and assumed they would find an actor later. When Stanton's performance became popular in test screenings, he decided to keep his performance in the film. He recorded all his dialogue while lying on a sofa in Unkrich's office. Crush's son Squirt was voiced by Nicholas Bird, the young son of fellow Pixar director Brad Bird. According to Stanton, the elder Bird was playing a tape recording of his young son around the Pixar studios one day. Stanton felt the voice was "this generation's Thumper" and immediately cast Nicholas.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Megan Mullally was originally going to provide a voice in the film. According to Mullally, the producers were stunned to learn that the voice of her character Karen Walker on the television show "Will & Grace" was not her natural speaking voice. The producers hired her anyway, and then strongly encouraged her to use her Karen Walker voice for the role. When Mullally refused, she was dismissed.


title: Finding Nemo

text: To ensure that the movements of the fish in the film were believable, the animators took a crash course in fish biology and oceanography. They visited aquariums, went diving in Hawaii, and received in-house lectures from an ichthyologist. As a result, Pixar's animator for Dory, Gini Cruz Santos, integrated "the fish movement, human movement, and facial expressions to make them look and feel like real characters." Production designer Ralph Eggleston created pastel drawings to give the lighting crew led by Sharon Calahan ideas of how every scene in the film should be lit.


title: Finding Nemo

text: The Great white shark, Bruce, is in reference to the animatronic shark used in the Universal film "Jaws". The shark they had used on set was nicknamed "Bruce" after Bruce Raiman, who was Steven Spielberg's divorce lawyer. The line "Here's Brucey!" is a reference to the Jack Nicholson line from the 1980 horror film, "The Shining". Additionally, the music that the dentist's niece Darla plays is the theme music from the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film, "Psycho".


title: Finding Nemo

text: The film was dedicated to Glenn McQueen, a Pixar animator who died of melanoma in October 2002. "Finding Nemo" shares many plot elements with "Pierrot the Clownfish", a children's book published in 2002, but allegedly conceived in 1995. The author, Franck Le Calvez, sued Disney for infringement of his intellectual rights and to bar "Finding Nemo" merchandise in France. The judge ruled against him, citing the color differences between Pierrot and Nemo.


title: Finding Nemo

text: In 2016, Disney Character Voices International's senior vice president Rick Dempsey, in collaboration with the Navajo Nation Museum, created a Navajo dubbing of the movie titled "Nemo Há’déést’íí" which was released in theaters March 18–24 of the same year. The project was thought as a means to preserve Navajo language, teaching the language to kids through a Disney movie. The studio held auditions on the reservation, but finding an age-appropriate native speaker to voice Nemo was hard, Dempsey said, as the majority of native Navajo speakers are over 40 years old. The end credits version of the song "Beyond the Sea", covered in the English version by Robbie Williams, was also adapted into Navajo, with Fall Out Boy's lead singer Patrick Stump performing it. "Finding Nemo" was the second movie to receive a Navajo dubbing: in 2013, a Navajo version of "Star Wars" was created.


title: Finding Nemo

text: "Finding Nemo" was the first Pixar film not to be scored by Randy Newman. The original soundtrack album was instead scored by Thomas Newman, his cousin, and released on May 20, 2003. The score was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Score, losing to "".


title: Finding Nemo

text: Disney released a teaser trailer of "Finding Nemo" in September 2002 on the "Monsters, Inc." home video releases. The teaser was later released online, and was attached to theatrical screenings of "The Santa Clause 2". Trailers for the film were later attached to the home video releases of "Treasure Planet", "Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World" and other Disney films. There were also TV spots that shared “Fishy Facts” about sharks, turtles and pelicans. One of these ads, particularly the one about sharks, can be found on the second disc of the Collector's Edition DVD release of "A Bug's Life", which was released three days before the film's release on May 27, 2003.


title: Finding Nemo

text: McDonald's restaurants began to sell eight Happy Meal toys based on the film. At the 100th North American International Toy Fair event in New York City, Hasbro unveiled a variety of "Finding Nemo" toys. A cereal themed to the film was released by Kellogg's, consisting of naturally sweetened oats with fish-shaped marshmallows. "Finding Nemo" was advertised as promotional partners on other companies, like Frito-Lay, Keebler, Pepsi, Ralphs, Dreyer's, Jel Sert, Airheads, Orville Redenbacher's and THQ. Before May 26, 2003, stickers on over 50 million bags of potato chips alerted consumers to a sweepstakes dangling a trip for four to Sydney, Australia with a visit to the Great Barrier Reef. On May 17, 2003, Frito-Lay hosted an event at each of the Walmart stores, where kids could use 3D goggles to find hidden images of Nemo. Kellogg's packed eight different water toys depicting film characters inside Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies, Honey Smacks and Cocoa Rice Krispies cereal boxes. The Honey Smacks, Frosted Flakes, Cinnamon Crunch Crispix and Froot Loops boxes also carried a Nemo memory card game on back panels. Plus, a Nemo-themed Marshmallow Froot Loops cereal featured four of the film's characters. Consumers could mail in two UPCs from the three Kellogg's cereals to receive a large beach towel. Besides this, the company unveiled a new type of Pop-Tarts inspired by "Finding Nemo". Known as the Great Berry Reef Pop-Tarts, they had a wild berry filling and fish sprinkles. A pool raft was available with two Pop-Tart UPCs and shipping, handled by Draft Worldwide of Chicago. Eggo waffles would offer holographic swimming goggles with the purchase of two of its products with shipping and handling. For their snacks division, Kellogg's offered consumers who purchased two packages of select products and two gallons of milk with a giant inflatable shark. The company advertised the film on Vanilla Wafers, Chips Deluxe, Mini Fudge Shoppe Fudge Stripes, Soft Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies, Rice Krispies Treats and limited edition Nemo-themed cookies.


title: Finding Nemo

text: On May 20, 2003, Kellogg's recalled Frosted Flakes cereal boxes due to their extremely close resemblance of a Hasbro memory card game. A lawsuit was filed against the company, which included a full-page reproduction of the front of a Frosted Flakes box with the cereal's familiar Tony the Tiger mascot grinning next to Nemo, Dory & Crush from the film. Disney had licensed the characters to use on the game cards. Hasbro had filed the suit to protect its trademark against blatant infringement.


title: Finding Nemo

text: "Finding Nemo" was not only the fifth Pixar film, but was also the first one to be released during the summer instead of November, much like its four predecessors. The film opened in theaters with "The Italian Job" and "Wrong Turn" on May 30, 2003.


title: Finding Nemo

text: "Finding Nemo" was released on VHS and DVD on November 4, 2003. The DVD release sold more than 8 million copies on the first day of release, taking "Spider-Man"s record for having the highest single-day DVD sales. It also surpassed "Monsters, Inc." for having the highest single-day record for an animated movie. Within two weeks, it went on to become the best-selling DVD of its time, selling over 15 million copies and beating "". With over 40 million copies sold, "Finding Nemo" currently holds the record for the best-selling DVD release of all time. This DVD consists of two separate discs direct from the digital source. The first disc features a widescreen version (1.78:1 aspect ratio) and the second disc features a fullscreen version (family-friendly 1.33:1 aspect ratio without pan and scan). Both discs feature an introduction in the main menu, fish icons in the corner of the menus that transform the screen into a virtual aquarium and are THX certified. On the first disc, the menus take place in the ocean and bonus features include the in-depth documentary Making Nemo, visual commentary with deleted scenes and design galleries. As for the second disc, the menus take place at the dentist office. There are sneak peeks for "The Incredibles", "Home on the Range", "The Lion King 1½" and other upcoming film releases. Bonus features on this disc include "Knick Knack", an original 1989 short film, "Exploring the Reef", Mr. Ray's Encyclopedia, a guessing game called Fisharades, Storytime and behind-the-scenes with character interviews, studio tour and publicity. Both "Exploring the Reef" and "Knick Knack" can also be selected in the main menu.


title: Finding Nemo

text: The film was then released on both Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray on December 4, 2012, with both a 3-disc and a 5-disc set. In 2019, "Finding Nemo" was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.


title: Finding Nemo

text: During its original theatrical run, "Finding Nemo" grossed $339.7 million in the United States and Canada and $531.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $871.0 million. It was the second-highest-grossing film of 2003. "Finding Nemo" also defeated "The Matrix Reloaded" to become the highest-grossing film of the 2003 summer season. The film sold an estimated 56.4 million tickets in the United States during its initial theatrical run.


title: Finding Nemo

text: On its opening weekend, "Finding Nemo" earned $70.6 million in the United States and Canada. When the film opened, it was ranked number one at the box office, dethroning "Bruce Almighty". Additionally, it surpassed its predecessor "Monsters, Inc." for having the highest domestic opening weekend for an animated film. It would hold this record until "Shrek 2" took it the following year. During its second weekend, the film dropped to second place behind "2 Fast 2 Furious". Nevertheless, the film returned to the number one spot the following week. At that point, it earned $29.2 million, bringing the total domestic gross to $192.3 million. "Finding Nemo" was the first film to reclaim the number one spot since "Die Another Day" and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" in 2002. It would also outgross the weaker openings of "Rugrats Go Wild", "Hollywood Homicide" and "". By the film's 20th day of release, "Finding Nemo" had earned over $200 million. During the film's fourth weekend, it was overtaken by "Hulk".


title: Finding Nemo

text: By July 2003, "Finding Nemo" had earned $274.9 million, beating "The Matrix Reloaded" and becoming the top-grossing movie of the year. The film even surpassed "Shrek" to become the second highest-grossing animated film. Later that month, the film had earned over $300 million becoming the highest-grossing animated film in the United States and Canada, surpassing "The Lion King". By the end of the summer season, "Finding Nemo" was one of five films to reach $200 million at the box office in a single summer season, with the others being "X2", "The Matrix Reloaded", "Bruce Almighty" and "". At the end of its theatrical run, "Finding Nemo" grossed $339.7 million in the United States and Canada and $531.3 million in international territories, totaling $871.0 million worldwide. In all three occasions, it had outgrossed "The Lion King" to become the highest-grossing animated film. It stayed in the Top 10 until August 14 (11 weeks total). In North America, it was surpassed by both "Shrek 2" in 2004 and "Toy Story 3" in 2010. "Finding Nemo" would hold the record for having the highest international gross for an animated film until 2009 when it was taken by "". Outside North America, it stands as the fifth highest-grossing animated film. Worldwide, it currently ranks as the ninth highest-grossing animated film. Moreover, it was the highest-grossing Disney film for three years before "" surpassed it.


title: Finding Nemo

text: The film had impressive box office runs in many international markets. In Japan, its highest-grossing market after North America, it grossed ¥11.2 billion ($102.4 million), becoming the highest-grossing foreign animated film in local currency (yen). It has only been surpassed by "Frozen" (¥25.5 billion). Following in biggest grosses are the U.K., Ireland and Malta, where it grossed £37.2 million ($67.1 million), France and the Maghreb region ($64.8 million), Germany ($53.9 million), and Spain ($29.5 million).


title: Finding Nemo

text: After the success of the 3D re-release of "The Lion King", Disney re-released "Finding Nemo" in 3D on September 14, 2012, with a conversion cost estimated to be below $5 million. For the opening weekend of its 3D re-release in North America, "Finding Nemo" grossed $16.7 million, debuting at the No. 2 spot behind "". The film earned $41.1 million in North America and $28.2 million internationally, for a combined total of $69.3 million, and a cumulative worldwide total of $940.3 million.


title: Finding Nemo

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, of critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of . The website's consensus reads, "Breathtakingly lovely and grounded by the stellar efforts of a well-chosen cast, Finding Nemo adds another beautifully crafted gem to Pixar's crown." Metacritic (which uses a weighted average) assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100 based on 38 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Finding Nemo

text: Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, calling it "one of those rare movies where I wanted to sit in the front row and let the images wash out to the edges of my field of vision". Ed Park of "The Village Voice" gave the film a positive review, saying "It's an ocean of eye candy that tastes fresh even in this ADD-addled era of "SpongeBob SquarePants"." Mark Caro of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film four out of four stars, saying "You connect to these sea creatures as you rarely do with humans in big-screen adventures. The result: a true sunken treasure." Hazel-Dawn Dumpert of "LA Weekly" gave the film a positive review, saying "As gorgeous a film as Disney's ever put out, with astonishing qualities of light, movement, surface and color at the service of the best professional imaginations money can buy." Jeff Strickler of the "Star Tribune" gave the film a positive review, saying it "proves that even when Pixar is not at the top of its game, it still produces better animation than some of its competitors on their best days." Gene Seymour of "Newsday" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "The underwater backdrops take your breath away. No, really. They're so lifelike, you almost feel like holding your breath while watching." Rene Rodriguez of the "Miami Herald" gave the film four out of four stars, saying "Parental anxiety may not be the kind of stuff children's films are usually made of, but this perfectly enchanting movie knows how to cater to its kiddie audience without condescending to them."


title: Finding Nemo

text: Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the film three-and-a-half out of five, saying "The best break of all is that Pixar's traditionally untethered imagination can't be kept under wraps forever, and "Nemo" erupts with sea creatures that showcase Stanton and company's gift for character and peerless eye for skewering contemporary culture." Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Visual imagination and sophisticated wit raise "Finding Nemo" to a level just below the peaks of Pixar's "Toy Story" movies and "Monsters, Inc."." Terry Lawson of the "Detroit Free Press" gave the film three out of four, saying "As we now expect from Pixar, even the supporting fish in ""Finding Nemo"" are more developed as characters than any human in the "" movies." Claudia Puig of "USA Today" gave the film three and half out of four, saying ""Finding Nemo" is an undersea treasure. The most gorgeous of all the Pixar films—which include "Toy Story" 1 and 2, "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters, Inc."—Nemo treats family audiences to a sweet, resonant story and breathtaking visuals. It may lack "Monsters, Inc."s clever humor, but kids will identify with the spunky sea fish Nemo, and adults will relate to Marlin, Nemo's devoted dad." Bruce Westbrook of the "Houston Chronicle" gave the film an A−, saying ""Finding Nemo" lives up to Pixar's high standards for wildly creative visuals, clever comedy, solid characters and an involving story." Tom Long of "The Detroit News" gave the film an A−, saying "A simple test of humanity: If you don't laugh aloud while watching it, you've got a battery not a heart."


title: Finding Nemo

text: Lou Lumenick of the "New York Post" gave the film four out of four, saying "A dazzling, computer-animated fish tale with a funny, touching script and wonderful voice performances that make it an unqualified treat for all ages." Moira MacDonald of "The Seattle Times" gave the film four out of four, saying "Enchanting; written with an effortless blend of sweetness and silliness, and animated with such rainbow-hued beauty, you may find yourself wanting to freeze-frame it." Daphne Gordon of the "Toronto Star" gave the film four out of five, saying "One of the strongest releases from Disney in years, thanks to the work of Andrew Stanton, possibly one of the most successful directors you've never heard of." Ty Burr of "The Boston Globe" gave the film three and a half out of four, saying ""Finding Nemo" isn't quite up there with the company's finest work—there's finally a sense of formula setting in—but it's hands down the best family film since "Monsters, Inc."" C.W. Nevius of "The San Francisco Chronicle" gave the film four out of four, saying "The visuals pop, the fish emote and the ocean comes alive. That's in the first two minutes. After that, they do some really cool stuff." Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" gave the film a positive review, saying ""Finding Nemo" will engross kids with its absorbing story, brightly drawn characters and lively action, and grown-ups will be equally entertained by the film's subtle humor and the sophistication of its visuals." David Ansen of "Newsweek" gave the film a positive review, saying "A visual marvel, every frame packed to the gills with clever details, "Finding Nemo" is the best big-studio release so far this year."


title: Finding Nemo

text: Richard Corliss of "Time" gave the film a positive review, saying "Nemo, with its ravishing underwater fantasia, manages to trump the design glamour of earlier Pixar films." Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film an A, saying "In this seamless blending of technical brilliance and storytelling verve, the Pixar team has made something as marvelously soulful and innately, fluidly American as jazz." Carrie Rickey of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" gave the film three out of four, saying "As eye-popping as Nemo's peepers and as eccentric as this little fish with asymmetrical fins." David Germain of the Associated Press gave the film a positive review, saying ""Finding Nemo" is laced with smart humor and clever gags, and buoyed by another cheery story of mismatched buddies: a pair of fish voiced by Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres." Anthony Lane of "The New Yorker" gave the film a positive review, saying "The latest flood of wizardry from Pixar, whose productions, from "Toy Story" onward, have lent an indispensable vigor and wit to the sagging art of mainstream animation." The 3D re-release prompted a retrospective on the film nine years after its initial release. Stephen Whitty of "The Star-Ledger" described it as "a genuinely funny and touching film that, in less than a decade, has established itself as a timeless classic." On the 3D re-release, Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that its emotional power was deepened by "the dimensionality of the oceanic deep" where "the spatial mysteries of watery currents and floating worlds are exactly where 3D explorers were born to boldly go".


title: Finding Nemo

text: "Finding Nemo" was included on a number of best-of lists. The film appeared on professional rankings from BBC and "The Independent" based on retrospective appraisal, as one of the greatest films of the twenty-first century. Several publications have listed it as one of the best animated films, including: "IGN" (2010), "Insider", "USA Today", "Elle" (all 2018), "Parade", "Complex", and "Time Out New York" (all 2021). In December 2021, the film's screenplay was listed number 60 on the Writers Guild of America's "101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (So Far)".


title: Finding Nemo

text: "Finding Nemo" won the Academy Award and Saturn Award for Best Animated Film. It also won the award for Best Animated Film at the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards, the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards, the National Board of Review Awards, the Online Film Critics Society Awards, and the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. The film received many other awards, including: Kids Choice Awards for Favorite Movie and Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie (Ellen DeGeneres), and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress (Ellen DeGeneres).


title: Finding Nemo

text: The film was also nominated for two Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress (Ellen DeGeneres), a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and two MTV Movie Awards, for Best Movie and Best Comedic Performance (Ellen DeGeneres).


title: Finding Nemo

text: In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten", the best 10 films in 10 "classic" American film genres, after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. "Finding Nemo" was acknowledged as the 10th best film in the animation genre. It was the most recently released film among all 10 lists, and one of only three movies made after the year 2000 (the others being "" and "Shrek").


title: Finding Nemo

text: The film's use of clownfish prompted mass purchase of the fish breed as pets in the United States, even though the story portrayed the use of fish as pets negatively and suggested that saltwater aquariums are notably tricky and expensive to maintain. The demand for clownfish was supplied by large-scale harvesting of tropical fish in regions like Vanuatu. The Australian Tourism Commission (ATC) launched several marketing campaigns in China and the United States to improve tourism in Australia, many of them utilizing "Finding Nemo" clips. Queensland used "Finding Nemo" to draw tourists to promote itself to vacationers. According to "National Geographic", "Ironically, "Finding Nemo", a movie about the anguish of a captured clownfish, caused home-aquarium demand for them to triple."


title: Finding Nemo

text: The reaction to the film by the general public has led to environmental devastation for the clownfish, and has provoked an outcry from several environmental protection agencies, including the Marine Aquarium Council, Australia. The demand for tropical fish skyrocketed after the film's release, causing reef species decimation in Vanuatu and several other reef areas. After seeing the film, some aquarium owners released their pet fish into the ocean, but failed to release them into the correct oceanic habitat, which introduced species that are harmful to the indigenous environment, a practice that is harming reefs worldwide.


title: Finding Nemo

text: A spin-off sequel to this film was released in June 2016, titled "Finding Dory". It focuses on Dory having a journey to reunite with her parents (Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy). Like the previous film, "Finding Dory" was a financial success and fared well with critics.


title: Finding Nemo

text: A video game based on the film was released in 2003, for PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. The goal of the game is to complete different levels under the roles of Nemo, Marlin or Dory. It includes cut scenes from the movie, and each clip is based on a level. It was also the last Pixar game developed by Traveller's Tales. Upon release, the game received mixed reviews. A Game Boy Advance sequel, titled "Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventures", was released in 2004.


title: Finding Nemo

text: "Finding Nemo" has inspired numerous attractions and properties at Disney Parks around the world, including: Turtle Talk with Crush, which opened in 2004 at Epcot, 2005 in Disney California Adventure Park, 2008 in Hong Kong Disneyland, and 2009 in Tokyo DisneySea; Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, which opened in 2007 in Disneyland Park; The Seas with Nemo & Friends, which opened in 2007 at Epcot; "Finding Nemo – The Musical", which opened in 2007 in Disney's Animal Kingdom; and Crush's Coaster, which opened in 2007 at Walt Disney Studios Park.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: Demi Bennett (born 11 October 1996) is an Australian professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Rhea Ripley and is a member of The Judgment Day. She was also the inaugural NXT UK Women's Champion as well as a former NXT Women's Champion, a former Raw Women's Champion and a former WWE Women's Tag Team Champion, making her the only person to have held all four titles, as well as the first female Australian champion in WWE history.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: After competing on the independent circuit under her real name since 2013, Ripley joined WWE as part of the inaugural Mae Young Classic in 2017. After reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 edition of the tournament, she was part of the original roster of "NXT UK", becoming its inaugural women's champion in August 2018. After a run on the NXT brand from 2019 to 2021 which saw her win the NXT Women's Championship and become the brand's first member to defend their title at WrestleMania, WWE's flagship event, she moved to Raw, quickly going on to win the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 37.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: Bennett began to work in Riot City Wrestling in 2013. She spent several years in the promotion, where she became a two-time RCW Women's Champion. Bennett's New Horizon Pro Wrestling debut was made on 24 May 2014 during the opening night of the NHPW Global Conflict where she joined the Global Conflict Tournament. She was eliminated during the first round of the tournament by Mercedes Martinez. She returned for the second night of the NHPW Global Conflict event, competing in a four way mixed tag team match paired with Garry Schmidt. Six months later, Bennett returned and was part of the opening night of the NHPW Final Chapter event, wrestling a Four Way Match against Madison Eagles, Evie and Saraya Knight with the vacant IndyGurlz Australia Championship at stake. However, Bennett did not win the title.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: Bennett made her Melbourne City Wrestling debut on 14 June 2014 at MCW New Horizons where she defended the RCW Women's title in a Three Way match against Savannah Summers and Toni Storm. On 9 August at MCW Clash Of The Titans, Bennett defeated Miami to retain her Women's Championship. Bennett continued her winning streak with a third consecutive victory, defeating Savannah Summers at MCW Fight For A Cause.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: On 22 April 2017, Bennett wrestled her last RCW match at RCW Strength where she successfully defended the Women's title against Kellyanne.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: In 2017, Bennett signed with WWE, and it was announced that she would compete in the inaugural Mae Young Classic under the new name Rhea Ripley. She defeated Miranda Salinas in the first round but lost to Dakota Kai in the second round.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: Ripley made her NXT television debut on 25 October 2017 episode of "NXT", participating in a battle royal to determine one of the contenders for the vacant NXT Women's Championship at on 18 November, which was won by Nikki Cross. Eventually sporting a new look, Ripley competed in the 2018 Mae Young Classic in 2018, showing a new aggressive and disrespectful attitude and establishing herself as a heel in the process; she defeated MJ Jenkins, Kacy Catanzaro, and Tegan Nox in her first three matches but lost to Io Shirai in the semi-finals.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: Shortly after the 2018 Mae Young Classic, Ripley became part of the NXT UK brand as part of the premiere of the newly created "NXT UK" show.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: During the television tapings of the show in August (that aired throughout November), Ripley took part in an eight woman tournament to determine the inaugural NXT UK Women's Champion. She defeated Xia Brookside in the first round, Dakota Kai in the semi-finals, and Toni Storm in the finals to become the inaugural champion. With the win, Ripley became the first female Australian champion in WWE history, and the second Australian champion altogether after Buddy Murphy. Ripley also competed in a dark match before the first ever all women's pay–per–view, Evolution, on 28 October, where she successfully retained her title against Dakota Kai (due to the tournament having yet to air at the time, she was not yet recognized on-screen as champion). Throughout her championship reign, Ripley went on to fend off title contenders such as Isla Dawn and Deonna Purrazzo.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: On 12 January 2019 at , Ripley lost her title to Toni Storm, ending her reign at 139 days and marking her first defeat in the brand. At the Royal Rumble event on 27 January, Ripley made her first appearance on a main roster pay-per-view by entering the women's Royal Rumble match at #24, eliminating Kacy Catanzaro, Dana Brooke, and Zelina Vega before being eliminated by Bayley. Afterwards, Ripley feuded with the debuting Piper Niven for most of 2019 over which one was the most dominant woman in the NXT UK roster. The two faced off in a match on 15 June (aired 3 July), where Niven defeated Ripley. Ripley defeated Niven in a rematch on 31 August (aired 4 September); the two would eventually team up after Ripley saved Niven from an attack by Jazzy Gabert and Jinny, whom they defeated in a tag team match on 4 October. Ripley wrestled her last match in the brand on 5 October 2019 tapings of "NXT UK", defeating Nina Samuels.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: On 28 August 2019 episode of "NXT", Ripley made her surprise return to the brand when she interrupted NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler, stating that Baszler may have beaten everyone on NXT, but not her, turning face and beginning a feud between the two in the process.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: In parallel to her feud against Baszler, on 1 November episode of "SmackDown", Ripley and Tegan Nox were one of the many "NXT" wrestlers to invade the show, challenging Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville to a tag team match, from which Ripley and Nox emerged victorious. Later that night, Ripley joined Triple H and the rest of the "NXT" roster as they declared war on both Raw and SmackDown, and vowed to win the 2019 Survivor Series brand warfare. As part of the ongoing storyline, she defeated both Raw's Charlotte Flair and SmackDown's Sasha Banks in a triple threat match on 22 November episode of "SmackDown".<ref name="RawDrops02/03/20"></ref>


title: Rhea Ripley

text: At on 23 November, Ripley led Team Ripley in the first ever women's WarGames match against Team Baszler (Baszler, Io Shirai, Bianca Belair, and NXT UK Women's Champion Kay Lee Ray); despite teammate Dakota Kai turning heel and attacking Tegan Nox before the two even entered the match, leaving Ripley and Candice LeRae in a "de facto" two-on-four handicap match, Ripley gave her team the victory by pinning Baszler. The following night at Survivor Series, Ripley was part of Team NXT, who defeated Team Raw and Team SmackDown, and the leader of her team in the 5-on-5-on-5 women's elimination match, which her team won after she last eliminated SmackDown captain Sasha Banks, with she, LeRae and Shirai as the survivors.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: On 18 December episode of "NXT", Ripley defeated Baszler to win the NXT Women's Championship, making her the first person to have won both the NXT Women's and NXT UK Women's Championships. She then successfully defended the title against Toni Storm on 25 January 2020 at Worlds Collide.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: Ripley made an appearance on 3 February 2020 episode of "Raw", confronting Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair and suggesting that Flair should use her Royal Rumble title opportunity to challenge Ripley for the NXT Women's Championship at WrestleMania 36. Flair appeared in the following episode of "NXT" to give her answer, but was interrupted by both Bianca Belair, Ripley's future title contender at , and Ripley herself, with the two eventually teaming up and attacking Flair. At the aforementioned event on 16 February, Ripley successfully defended the championship against Belair, and was attacked by Flair, who accepted Ripley's challenge. Ripley then lost the title to Flair on the second night of WrestleMania 36 on 5 April. The day after WrestleMania, WWE announced that Ripley took a hiatus from WWE and returned to Australia due to her visa issues. Ripley returned on 6 May episode of "NXT" after Flair got herself disqualified in an NXT Women's Championship match against Io Shirai by attacking Flair. A backstage interview with Ripley and Shirai was shown afterward where they began arguing and eventually brawling to be separated by officials. On 7 June at , Ripley and Flair both lost to Io Shirai in a triple threat match for the NXT Women's Championship. On 18 November episode of "NXT", Ripley challenged Shirai for the NXT Women's Championship, but was unsuccessful. On 2 December episode of "NXT", Ripley was announced as a member of Shotzi Blackheart's team for the second ever women's WarGames match.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: At on 6 January 2021, Ripley failed to defeat Raquel González in a Last Woman Standing match, which was her final match in NXT. At the Royal Rumble on 31 January, Ripley entered at #14, scoring 7 eliminations and becoming one of the final two competitors in the match before she was eliminated by eventual winner Bianca Belair.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: On 22 February 2021 episode of "Raw", a video package aired hyping up Ripley's arrival to the brand. Ripley made her main roster debut on 22 March episode of "Raw", challenging Asuka to a match for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 37. Asuka accepted Ripley's challenge and the match was scheduled to take place on the second night of WrestleMania on 11 April. At WrestleMania 37, Ripley defeated Asuka to win the Raw Women's Championship. On the "Raw" after WrestleMania, Ripley defended the title in a rematch against Asuka, but it ended in a no-contest after interference from Charlotte Flair, who attacked both Asuka and Ripley. On 3 May episode of "Raw", a rematch between Ripley and Asuka for the Raw Women's Championship was scheduled for WrestleMania Backlash, but WWE official Sonya Deville added Flair to the match to make it a triple threat match. At the event on 16 May, Ripley successfully retained her title by pinning Asuka. At Hell in a Cell on 20 June, Flair defeated Ripley by disqualification, thus Ripley retained her title. At Money in the Bank on 18 July, Ripley dropped the title to Flair, ending her reign at 98 days. She failed to regain the title in a triple threat match against the champion Nikki A. S. H. and Flair at SummerSlam on 21 August.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: Over the following weeks, Ripley allied with Nikki A. S. H. as a tag team, and on 20 September episode of "Raw", they won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship by defeating Natalya and Tamina. On 22 November episode of "Raw", Ripley and A. S. H. lost the titles to Carmella and Queen Zelina, ending their reign at 63 days. Their partnership ended on 10 January 2022 episode of "Raw" when A. S. H. attacked Ripley. On 7 March episode of "Raw", she teamed with Liv Morgan to defeat Zelina and Carmella, adding them to the Women's Tag Team Championship triple threat match at WrestleMania 38 and making it a fatal four-way match. On the second night of the event on 3 April, they failed to win the titles. On 18 April episode of "Raw", Ripley and Morgan faced the champions Sasha Banks and Naomi for the titles, but lost. After the match, Ripley attacked Morgan, ending their partnership and turning heel for the first time on the main roster.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: At WrestleMania Backlash on 8 May, Ripley cost AJ Styles his match against Edge and was revealed as a member of The Judgment Day. At Hell in a Cell on 5 June, The Judgment Day (Edge, Damian Priest, and Ripley) defeated Styles, Finn Bálor, and Liv Morgan in a six-person mixed tag team match. The next night on "Raw", Edge introduced Bálor as the newest member of The Judgment Day; Bálor, Priest, and Ripley suddenly attacked Edge, kicking him out of the stable. Later that night, Ripley won a fatal four-way match to become the #1 contender for Bianca Belair's Raw Women's Championship. She was scheduled to face Belair at Money in the Bank on 2 July, but was pulled out of the match after being not medically cleared to compete; she was replaced by Carmella.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: On the 25 July episode of "Raw," Ripley returned from injury, helping Bálor and Priest attack the Mysterios (Rey and Dominik) in a backstage segment. Ripley accompanied Bálor and Priest to the ring for their match against The Mysterios at SummerSlam on 30 July, which they lost after interference from a returning Edge. Despite interference from Ripley, Bálor and Priest lost to Edge and Rey in a tag team match at Clash at the Castle on 3 September. After the match, Dominik attacked Edge and Rey, turning heel and joining The Judgment Day. On 8 October at Extreme Rules, Dominik, Priest, and Ripley helped Bálor defeat Edge in an "I Quit" match. After the match, Ripley attacked Edge’s wife, Beth Phoenix, with a con-chair-to. At Crown Jewel, Bálor, Priest, and Dominik defeated The O.C. (Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson) in a six-man tag team match after interference from Ripley. On the 5 December episode of "Raw," The Judgment Day defeated The O.C. in an eight-person mixed tag team match to end their feud. On the 19 December episode of "Raw", Ripley challenged Akira Tozawa to a match after Tozawa splashed a beverage in Dominik's face during a tag team match between Bálor and Priest against the Street Profits. Ripley went on to win her first intergender match against Tozawa.


title: Rhea Ripley

text: Bennett made her video game debut as a playable character in "WWE 2K20" and subsequently in "WWE 2K Battlegrounds", and "WWE 2K22".


title: Rhea Ripley

text: Bennett cites watching The Miz as an inspiration growing up. In addition to wrestling, Bennett is also trained in or practices swimming, karate, rugby, netball and soccer. She is a fan of the Adelaide Football Club.


title: Coolio

text: Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (August 1, 1963 – September 28, 2022), known professionally as Coolio, was an American rapper. First rising to fame as a member of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle, Coolio achieved mainstream success as a solo artist in the mid-to-late 1990s with his albums "It Takes a Thief" (1994), "Gangsta's Paradise" (1995), and "My Soul" (1997).


title: Coolio

text: He is best known for his 1995 Grammy Award–winning hit single "Gangsta's Paradise", as well as other singles "Fantastic Voyage" (1994), "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" (1996), and "C U When U Get There" (1997).


title: Coolio

text: From 1996 on, Coolio released albums independently, and provided the opening track "Aw, Here It Goes!" for the 1996 Nickelodeon television series "Kenan & Kel". He created the web series "Cookin' with Coolio" and released a cookbook.


title: Coolio

text: Artis Leon Ivey Jr. was born on August 1, 1963, in Los Angeles, California, and was raised mostly in Compton. His mother was a factory worker who divorced his carpenter father and moved to Compton when Ivey was eight years old. Severely asthmatic, Ivey was a regular visitor to his local library as a boy. He started rapping as a teenager, earning the nickname Coolio Iglesias, after Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, which was later shortened to Coolio. He was arrested for bringing a weapon to school and served prison time for larceny. As Compton declined in the 1980s, he became addicted to crack cocaine, but quit drugs after spending time living with his father in San Jose. After attending Compton Community College, he worked in jobs such as volunteer firefighting and security at Los Angeles International Airport, before becoming a rapper.


title: Coolio

text: Coolio recorded his first single in 1987, titled "Whatcha Gonna Do?". He also recorded "What Makes You Dance (Force Groove)" with Nu-Skool in 1988. Coolio made connections in the L.A. rap scene, and in 1991, ended up joining the group WC and the Maad Circle, led by rapper WC. He is a credited co-contributor on the group's debut album "Ain't a Damn Thang Changed", including on the single "Dress Code".


title: Coolio

text: In 1994, Coolio signed to Tommy Boy Records and released his debut solo album "It Takes a Thief". The lead single "Fantastic Voyage" received heavy rotation on MTV and peaked at No. 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Fantastic Voyage" would become one of the biggest rap singles of the year. Other minor hits from the album include "County Line" and "I Remember". "It Takes a Thief" peaked at No. 8 on the "Billboard" 200, becoming certified Platinum. The album received praise for bringing a humorous and lighthearted perspective to the often violent and profane themes of typical gangsta rap.


title: Coolio

text: In 1995, Coolio released "Gangsta's Paradise", featuring R&B singer L.V., for the film "Dangerous Minds". It became one of the most successful rap songs of all time, topping on the "Billboard" Hot 100 for three weeks. It was the No. 1 single of 1995 in the United States for all genres and was a global hit topping the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand charts. "Gangsta's Paradise" was the second-best-selling single of 1995 in the U.K. The song also created a controversy when Coolio claimed that comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic had not asked for permission to make his parody of "Gangsta's Paradise", titled "Amish Paradise". At the 1996 Grammy Awards, the song won Coolio a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance.


title: Coolio

text: Originally "Gangsta's Paradise" was not meant to be included in one of Coolio's studio albums, but its success led to Coolio not only putting it on his next album but also making it the title track. The title track interpolates the chorus and music of the song "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder, which was recorded nearly 20 years earlier on Wonder's album "Songs in the Key of Life". The album "Gangsta's Paradise" was released in 1995 and was certified two times Platinum by the RIAA and sold more than two million copies in US alone.


title: Coolio

text: The album contains two other major hits in "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" and "Too Hot" with J. T. Taylor of Kool & the Gang doing the chorus. Despite no longer being an official member of the group, Coolio appears on the second WC and the Maad Circle album "Curb Servin'" on the song "In a Twist". In 1996, Coolio had another top 40 hit with the song "It's All the Way Live (Now)" from the soundtrack to the movie "Eddie". He is also featured on the song "Hit 'em High" from the soundtrack to the 1996 film "Space Jam" with B-Real, Method Man, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes.


title: Coolio

text: In 2014, the band Falling in Reverse did a cover of "Gangsta's Paradise" for "Punk Goes 90s Vol. 2", with Coolio making a cameo in the music video.


title: Coolio

text: In 1996, Coolio appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD "America Is Dying Slowly", alongside Biz Markie, Wu-Tang Clan, and Fat Joe, among many other prominent hip-hop artists. The CD meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African-American men. That same year, he recorded the music video "Aw, Here It Goes!" for the opening sequence of the Nickelodeon television series "Kenan & Kel", which ran for four seasons.


title: Coolio

text: Coolio's third solo album, "My Soul", came out in 1997. Although it contains the major hit "C U When U Get There" and the album went platinum, it failed to reach the success of his previous two albums. Coolio was subsequently dropped from the Tommy Boy Records label. Since then, 2001's "Coolio.com", 2003's "El Cool Magnifico", 2006's "The Return of the Gangsta", and 2008's "Steal Hear", 2009's From the Bottom 2 the Top, and 2017's "Long Live the Thief" have not charted on any "Billboard" chart. He did have a minor hit in the UK in 2006 with "Gangsta Walk" (featuring Snoop Dogg).


title: Coolio

text: While touring with hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse, Coolio received a tattoo as a homage to the group's fanbase, reading "Jugalo Cool" . He stated that the misspelling was intentional. Coolio performed at the Gathering of the Juggalos.


title: Coolio

text: Coolio is featured on an international collaboration track called "Fuck the DJ" by UK rapper Blacklisted MC, also featuring Bizarre of D12, Adil Omar (from Pakistan), and Uzimon (from Bermuda). The song premiered on music website Noisey from "Vice" in October 2014.


title: Coolio

text: Coolio appeared as a contestant on "Comeback – Die große Chance" in 2004 (translated in English as "Comeback: The Big Chance"), a German talent show featuring artists looking for a comeback.


title: Coolio

text: In the television series Futurama, Coolio made two appearances on the TV series and one appearance in , a straight-to-video movie for the show. He played Kwanzaa-bot, a rapping robot who spreads awareness about Kwanzaa.


title: Coolio

text: In 2009, Coolio appeared as a housemate on the sixth season of the UK version of "Celebrity Big Brother". He later went to appear on the UK's "Ultimate Big Brother" in 2010, where he decided it was best to leave the house after numerous confrontations with Nadia Almada and others there. In January 2012, he was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality television series "", where he represented the Music Saves Lives Organization. He also guest starred as himself on "Sabrina the Teenage Witch".


title: Coolio

text: Coolio is featured on the March 5, 2013, episode of the ABC reality program "Wife Swap", but his then-girlfriend left him after the program was taped. On June 30, 2013, he appeared alongside comedian Jenny Eclair and "Emmerdale" actor Matthew Wolfenden on the UK game show "Tipping Point: Lucky Stars", where he came in second. On June 30, 2012, Coolio voiced a wax figure of himself on "Gravity Falls". He also appears on "Homie-Work", a 1998 episode of "The Nanny", in which he portrays a nerdy man, a "gift wrapper", transformed by the Jewish nanny into a "Rapper" for Maxwell Sheffield's new rap musical.


title: Coolio

text: Coolio guest starred on a 2014 episode of the Adult Swim show "Black Jesus" titled "Gangsta's Paradise". In July 2016, Coolio performed on ABC's "Greatest Hits".


title: Coolio

text: In 2019, Coolio appeared on the Irish rap group Versatile's track "Escape Wagon". He later featured on their 2021 album, "Fuck Versatile", on the track "Coolio Interlude".


title: Coolio

text: Coolio and jazz saxophonist Jarez were enlisted in July 2008 as spokespersons by the group Environmental Justice and Climate Change to educate students at historically black colleges and universities about global warming. Coolio was a spokesperson for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. He said that he and his children are asthma sufferers. As a child, he was taken to the hospital several times due to asthma complications.


title: Coolio

text: In 1998, a court in Böblingen near Stuttgart sentenced Coolio to six months probation and fined him $17,000 after convicting him of being an accessory to robbery and causing bodily injury.


title: Coolio

text: In 2016, Coolio and members of his crew were arrested for having a loaded firearm inside of a bookbag at Los Angeles International Airport. The bag was flagged by the Transportation Security Administration as the group attempted to pass through a security checkpoint. One of his bodyguards claimed ownership of the bag, but witnesses stated that it belonged to Coolio himself. Coolio was sentenced to three years of probation and 45 days of community service.


title: Coolio

text: In 2017, Coolio was denied entry into Singapore upon landing at Changi International Airport. Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority declined to comment on the reason for the denial, citing reasons of confidentiality. Coolio had been traveling from Beijing to Singapore to perform at a Formula One concert event.


title: Coolio

text: Coolio had ten children, four of whom were born to his wife, Josefa Salinas, whom he married in 1996 and divorced in 2000. In March 2022, he told Australia's "Today Extra" that he had five grandchildren.


title: Coolio

text: Coolio was the running mate for pornographic actress Cherie DeVille's Democratic presidential run in 2020.


title: Coolio

text: On September 28, 2022, while at a friend's house in Los Angeles, California, Coolio was discovered unresponsive on a bathroom floor. He was pronounced dead by first responders. He was 59 years old at the time of his death. Police have opened an investigation into his death, though foul play is not suspected, and Coolio's manager stated he appeared to have suffered cardiac arrest.


title: Coolio

text: Coolio was cremated in a private ceremony with no funeral service. His ashes were then encased in jewelry for his family, with the rest of his ashes going into an urn.


title: Coolio

text: Coolio's 1995 song "Gangsta's Paradise", a remake of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" received several awards, including Best Rap Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards and Best Rap Video and Best Video from a Film at the MTV Video Music Awards. Coolio himself received several awards, including Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist at the American Music Awards in 1996. At the Grammy Awards in 1997, Coolio received three nominations: Best Rap Album for "Gangsta's Paradise", Best Rap Solo Performance for "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)", and Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Stomp". Overall, Coolio received five awards from fourteen nominations.


title: Coolio

text: The American Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony created by Dick Clark in 1973. Coolio received one award from two nominations.


title: Coolio

text: The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States. Coolio received one award from six nominations.


title: Coolio

text: The MTV Video Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony established in 1984 by MTV. Coolio received three awards from six nominations.


title: Starfield (video game)

text: Starfield is an upcoming action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game was formally announced during Bethesda's E3 Press Conference in 2018. The game is set in a space-themed world, and will be the first new intellectual property developed by Bethesda in over twenty-five years. The game is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2023 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S.


title: Starfield (video game)

text: "Starfield" is set in an area that extends outward from the Solar System for approximately 50 light-years called The Settled Systems. Around the year 2310, the two largest factions in the game, the United Colonies and Freestar Collective, engaged in a conflict called the Colony War. The game takes place 20 years after the war, with the major factions enjoying an uneasy peace. The player assumes the role of a customizable character who is a member of Constellation, an organization of space explorers. The game can be played in either first- or third-person perspectives.


title: Starfield (video game)

text: "Starfield" represents the first new intellectual property (IP) by Bethesda Game Studios in over twenty-five years, and has been described by director Todd Howard as ""Skyrim" in space." The studio had been delving into space-themed games since as early as 1994, according to Howard: they had gotten the rights to make a game based on the "Traveller" role-playing system, but shortly lost those; their "Delta V" game in 1994 had been part of this "Traveller" license but had not been fully realized. Their "The 10th Planet" was a cancelled space combat game to be published in October 1997 from which the atmosphere of "Starfield" was derived. Howard stated they had rights to "Star Trek" in the 2000s and he pitched an idea for a role-playing game in that setting, but this failed to go forward.


title: Starfield (video game)

text: While Bethesda had wanted to do a science fiction game for some time and had strong ideas for its gameplay style, it took a while to cement the ideas behind what "Starfield" would be about as to distinguish the game from other science fiction games already released. They came onto a theme which lead artist Istvan Pely dubbed as "NASA punk," that although set in humanity's future, the technology can be traced to origins in various NASA space missions. Bethesda's team began crafting a fictional narrative of events by decade of the 300 years to the game's present, in order to ask "And now man is living amongst the stars: what does that mean?", according to Howard.


title: Starfield (video game)

text: "Starfield’s" concept had been in the studio's mind for some time prior to the trademarking of the name in 2013, according to Howard. "There were no other names [we considered]. It had to be ‘Starfield'." Howard said active development of the game had been ongoing since the release of "Fallout 4" in late 2015. By mid-2018, the game had moved out of pre-production, and was in a playable state.


title: Starfield (video game)

text: At Bethesda's E3 2018 press conference, Howard presented a short teaser trailer for the game. An in-game teaser trailer was presented at the E3 2021 conference during the combined Microsoft-Bethesda press event, and a release date of November 11, 2022 on Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S as a console exclusive was announced. In May 2022, Bethesda announced that the game's release would be delayed until the first half of 2023.


title: Southern United States

text: The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the Western United States, with the Midwestern and Northeastern United States to its north and the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico to its south.


title: Southern United States

text: Historically, the South was defined as all states south of the 18th century Mason–Dixon line, the Ohio River, and 36°30′ parallel. Within the South are different subregions, such as the Southeast, South Central, Upper South and Deep South. Due to an influx of Northern transplants since the mid-to-late 20th century, Maryland, Delaware, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C. have become more culturally, economically, and politically aligned in certain aspects with that of the Northeastern United States, and are often identified as part of the Mid-Atlantic subregion or Northeast by many residents, businesses, public institutions, and private organizations. However, the United States Census Bureau continues to define them as in the South with regard to Census regions. Due to cultural variations across the region, some scholars have proposed definitions of the South that do not coincide neatly with state boundaries. The South does not precisely correspond to the entire geographic south of the United States, but primarily includes the south-central and southeastern states. For example, California, which is geographically in the southwestern part of the country, is not considered part of the South. However, the geographically southeastern state of Georgia is.


title: Southern United States

text: The South, being home to some of the most racially diverse areas in the United States, is known for having developed its own distinct culture, with different customs, fashion, architecture, musical styles, and cuisines, which have distinguished it in many ways from other areas of the United States. During 1860 and 1861, eleven Southern states seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. Following the American Civil War, these states were subsequently added back to the Union. Sociological research indicates that Southern collective identity stems from political, historical, demographic, and cultural distinctiveness from the rest of the United States, however this has declined since around the late 20th century with many Southern areas becoming a melting pot of cultures and people. Ethnic groups in the South were the most diverse among American regions, and include strong European (especially English, Scots-Irish, Scottish, Irish, French, and Spanish), African, and Native American components.


title: Southern United States

text: Aspects of the historical and cultural development of the South were influenced by the institution of slave labor, especially in the Deep South and coastal plain areas, from the early 1600s to mid-1800s. This includes the presence of a large proportion of African Americans within the population, support for the doctrine of states' rights, and legacy of racism magnified by the Civil War and Reconstruction era (1865–1877). Following effects included thousands of lynchings (mostly from 1880 to 1930), a segregated system of separate schools and public facilities established from Jim Crow laws that remained until the 1960s, and the widespread use of poll taxes and other methods to deny black and poor people the ability to vote or hold office until the 1960s. Scholars have characterized pockets of the Southern United States as being authoritarian enclaves from Reconstruction until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since the 1970s, with improved racial relations, a growing economic base and job opportunities in the region, the South has seen increases of African Americans moving back from other U.S. regions in a New Great Migration.


title: Southern United States

text: When looked at broadly, studies have shown that Southerners tend to be more conservative than most non-Southerners, with liberalism being mostly predominant in places with a Black majority or urban areas in the South. The South usually elects Republicans in most states, but both the Republican and Democratic Party are competitive in certain Southern swing states. The region contains almost all of the Bible Belt, an area of high Protestant church attendance, especially evangelical churches such as the Southern Baptist Convention. Historically, the South relied heavily on agriculture for its main economic base, and was highly rural until after World War II. Since the 1940s, the region would become more economically diversified and metropolitan, helping attract both national and international migrants. In the 21st century, it is the fastest-growing region in the United States, with Houston being the region's largest city.


title: Southern United States

text: The South is a diverse meteorological region with numerous climatic zones, including temperate, sub-tropical, tropical and arid though the South generally has a reputation as hot and humid, with long summers and short, mild winters. Most of the South except for the areas of higher elevations and areas near the western, southern and some northern fringes fall in the humid subtropical climate zone. Crops grow readily in the South due to its climate consistently providing growing seasons of at least six months before the first frost. Some common environments include bayous and swamplands, the southern pine forests, the warm temperate montane forest of the Appalachians, the savannas of the southern Great Plains, and the subtropical jungle and maritime forests along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Unique flora include various species of magnolia, rhododendron, cane, palm, and oak, among others. Fauna of the region is also diverse, encompassing a plethora of amphibian species, reptiles such as the green anole, the venomous cottonmouth snake, and the American alligator, mammals like the American black bear, the swamp rabbit and the nine-banded armadillo, and birds such as the roseate spoonbill and the extinct but symbolic carolina parakeet.


title: Southern United States

text: The question of how to define the boundaries and subregions in the South has been the focus of research and debate for centuries. As defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states. As of 2010, an estimated 114,555,744 people, or thirty seven percent of all U.S. residents, lived in the South, the nation's most populous region. The Census Bureau defined three smaller divisions:


title: Southern United States

text: The Council of State Governments, an organization for communication and coordination between states, includes in its South regional office the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.


title: Southern United States

text: Historically, the South was defined as all states south of the 18th century Mason–Dixon line, the Ohio River, and 36°30′ parallel. Newer definitions of the South today are harder to define, due to cultural and sub-regional differences throughout the region, however definitions usually refer to states that are in the southeastern and south central geographic region of the United States.


title: Southern United States

text: Although not included in the Census definition, two U.S. territories located southeast of Florida (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) are sometimes included as part of the Southern United States. The Federal Aviation Administration includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of the South, as does the Agricultural Research Service and the U.S. National Park Service.


title: Southern United States

text: The first well-dated evidence of human occupation in the south United States occurs around 9500 BC with the appearance of the earliest documented Americans, who are now referred to as Paleo-Indians. Paleoindians were hunter-gatherers that roamed in bands and frequently hunted megafauna. Several cultural stages, such as Archaic (–1000 BC) and the Woodland ( – AD 1000), preceded what the Europeans found at the end of the 15th century the Mississippian culture.


title: Southern United States

text: The Mississippian culture was a complex, mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Southeastern United States from approximately 800 AD to 1500 AD. Natives had elaborate and lengthy trading routes connecting their main residential and ceremonial centers extending through the river valleys and from the East Coast to the Great Lakes. Some noted explorers who encountered and described the Mississippian culture, by then in decline, included Pánfilo de Narváez (1528), Hernando de Soto (1540), and Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville (1699).


title: Southern United States

text: Native American descendants of the mound-builders include Alabama, Apalachee, Caddo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Guale, Hitchiti, Houma, and Seminole peoples, all of whom still reside in the South.


title: Southern United States

text: Other peoples whose ancestral links to the Mississippian culture are less clear but were clearly in the region before the European incursion include the Catawba and the Powhatan.


title: Southern United States

text: European immigration caused a die-off of Native Americans, whose immune systems could not protect them from the diseases the Europeans unwittingly introduced.


title: Southern United States

text: The predominant culture of the original Southern states was English. In the 17th century, most voluntary immigrants were of English origin, and settled chiefly along the eastern coast but had pushed as far inland as the Appalachian Mountains by the 18th century. The majority of early English settlers were indentured servants, who gained freedom after working off their passage. The wealthier men who paid their way received land grants known as headrights, to encourage settlement.


title: Southern United States

text: The Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. The Spanish settled Florida in the 16th century, reaching a peak in the late 17th century, but the population was small because the Spaniards were relatively uninterested in agriculture, and Florida had no mineral resources.


title: Southern United States

text: In the British colonies, immigration began in 1607 and continued until the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775. Settlers cleared land, built houses and outbuildings, and on their own farms. The Southern rich owned large plantations that dominated export agriculture and used slaves. Many were involved in the labor-intensive cultivation of tobacco, the first cash crop of Virginia. Tobacco exhausted the soil quickly, requiring that farmers regularly clear new fields. They used old fields as pasture, and for crops such as corn wheat, or allowed them to grow into woodlots.


title: Southern United States

text: In the mid-to-late-18th century, large groups of Ulster Scots (later called the Scotch-Irish) and people from the Anglo-Scottish border region immigrated and settled in the back country of Appalachia and the Piedmont. They were the largest group of non-English immigrants from the British Isles before the American Revolution. In the 1980 Census, 34% of Southerners reported that they were of English ancestry; English was the largest reported European ancestry in every Southern state by a large margin.


title: Southern United States

text: The early colonists engaged in warfare, trade, and cultural exchanges. Those living in the backcountry were more likely to encounter Creek Indians, Cherokee, and Choctaws and other regional native groups.


title: Southern United States

text: The oldest university in the South, the College of William & Mary, was founded in 1693 in Virginia; it pioneered in the teaching of political economy and educated future U.S. Presidents Jefferson, Monroe and Tyler, all from Virginia. Indeed, the entire region dominated politics in the First Party System era: for example, four of the first five presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe were from Virginia. The two oldest public universities are also in the South: the University of North Carolina (1789) and the University of Georgia (1785).


title: Southern United States

text: During the American Revolutionary War, the Southern colonies helped embrace the Patriot cause. Virginia would provide leaders such as commander-in-chief George Washington, and the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.


title: Southern United States

text: In 1780 and 1781, the British largely halted reconquest of the northern states, and concentrated on the south, where they were told there was a large Loyalist population ready to leap to arms once the royal forces arrived. The British took control of Savannah and Charleston, capturing a large American army in the process, and set up a network of bases inland. Although there were Loyalists within the Southern colonies, they were concentrated in larger coastal cities, and were not great enough in number to overcome the revolutionaries. The British forces at the Battle of Monck's Corner and the Battle of Lenud's Ferry consisted entirely of Loyalists with the exception of the commanding officer (Banastre Tarleton). Both white and black Loyalists fought for the British at the Battle of Kemp's Landing in Virginia. Led by Nathanael Greene and other generals, the Americans engaged in Fabian tactics designed to wear down the British invasion force, and to neutralize its strong points one by one. There were numerous battles large and small, with each side claiming some victories.


title: Southern United States

text: By 1781, however, British General Cornwallis moved north to Virginia, where an approaching army forced him to fortify and await rescue by the British Navy. The British Navy did arrive, but so did a stronger French fleet, and Cornwallis was trapped. American and French armies, led by George Washington, forced Cornwallis to surrender his entire army in Yorktown, Virginia in October 1781, effectively winning the North American part of the war.


title: Southern United States

text: The Revolution provided a shock to slavery in the South and other regions of the new country. Thousands of slaves took advantage of wartime disruption to find their own freedom, catalyzed by the British Governor Dunmore of Virginia's promise of freedom for service. Many others were removed by Loyalist owners and became slaves elsewhere in the British Empire. Between 1770 and 1790, there was a sharp decline in the percentage of blacks – from 61% to 44% in South Carolina and from 45% to 36% in Georgia. In addition, some slaveholders were inspired to free their slaves after the Revolution. They were moved by the principles of the Revolution, along with Quaker and Methodist preachers who worked to encourage slaveholders to free their slaves. Planters such as George Washington often freed slaves by their wills. In the Upper South, more than 10% of all blacks were free by 1810, a significant expansion from pre-war proportions of less than 1% free.


title: Southern United States

text: Cotton became dominant in the lower South after 1800. After the invention of the cotton gin, short staple cotton could be grown more widely. This led to an explosion of cotton cultivation, especially in the frontier uplands of Georgia, Alabama and other parts of the Deep South, as well as riverfront areas of the Mississippi Delta. Migrants poured into those areas in the early decades of the 19th century, when county population figures rose and fell as swells of people kept moving west. The expansion of cotton cultivation required more slave labor, and the institution became even more deeply an integral part of the South's economy.


title: Southern United States

text: With the opening up of frontier lands after the government forced most Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi, there was a major migration of both whites and blacks to those territories. From the 1820s through the 1850s, more than one million enslaved Africans were transported to the Deep South in forced migration, two-thirds of them by slave traders and the others by masters who moved there. Planters in the Upper South sold slaves excess to their needs as they shifted from tobacco to mixed agriculture. Many enslaved families were broken up, as planters preferred mostly strong males for field work.


title: Southern United States

text: Two major political issues that festered in the first half of the 19th century caused political alignment along sectional lines, strengthened the identities of North and South as distinct regions with certain strongly opposed interests, and fed the arguments over states' rights that culminated in secession and the Civil War. One of these issues concerned the protective tariffs enacted to assist the growth of the manufacturing sector, primarily in the North. In 1832, in resistance to federal legislation increasing tariffs, South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification, a procedure in which a state would, in effect, repeal a Federal law. Soon a naval flotilla was sent to Charleston harbor, and the threat of landing ground troops was used to compel the collection of tariffs. A compromise was reached by which the tariffs would be gradually reduced, but the underlying argument over states' rights continued to escalate in the following decades.


title: Southern United States

text: The second issue concerned slavery, primarily the question of whether slavery would be permitted in newly admitted states. The issue was initially finessed by political compromises designed to balance the number of "free" and "slave" states. The issue resurfaced in more virulent form, however, around the time of the Mexican–American War, which raised the stakes by adding new territories primarily on the Southern side of the imaginary geographic divide. Congress opposed allowing slavery in these territories.


title: Southern United States

text: Before the Civil War, the number of immigrants arriving at Southern ports began to increase, although the North continued to receive the most immigrants. Huguenots were among the first settlers in Charleston, along with the largest number of Orthodox Jews outside of New York City. Numerous Irish immigrants settled in New Orleans, establishing a distinct ethnic enclave now known as the Irish Channel. Germans also went to New Orleans and its environs, resulting in a large area north of the city (along the Mississippi) becoming known as the German Coast. Still greater numbers immigrated to Texas (especially after 1848), where many bought land and were farmers. Many more German immigrants arrived in Texas after the Civil War, where they created the brewing industry in Houston and elsewhere, became grocers in numerous cities, and also established wide areas of farming.


title: Southern United States

text: By 1840, New Orleans was the wealthiest city in the country and the third largest in population. The success of the city was based on the growth of international trade associated with products being shipped to and from the interior of the country down the Mississippi River. New Orleans also had the largest slave market in the country, as traders brought slaves by ship and overland to sell to planters across the Deep South. The city was a cosmopolitan port with a variety of jobs that attracted more immigrants than other areas of the South. Because of lack of investment, however, construction of railroads to span the region lagged behind the North. People relied most heavily on river traffic for getting their crops to market and for transportation.


title: Southern United States

text: By 1856, the South had lost control of Congress, and was no longer able to silence calls for an end to slavery which came mostly from the more populated, free states of the North. The Republican Party, founded in 1854, pledged to stop the spread of slavery beyond those states where it already existed. After Abraham Lincoln was elected the first Republican president in 1860, seven cotton states declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America before Lincoln was inaugurated. The United States government, both outgoing and incoming, refused to recognize the Confederacy, and when the new Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered his troops to open fire on Fort Sumter in April 1861, war broke out. Only the state of Kentucky attempted to remain neutral, and it could only do so briefly. When Lincoln called for troops to suppress what he referred to as "combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary" judicial or martial means, four more states decided to secede and join the Confederacy (which then moved its capital to Richmond, Virginia). Although the Confederacy had large supplies of captured munitions and many volunteers, it was slower than the Union in dealing with the border states. While the Upland border states of Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, as well as the District of Columbia, continued to permit slavery during the Civil War, they remained with the Union. By March 1862, the Union largely controlled all the border state areas, had shut down all commercial traffic from all Confederate ports, had prevented European recognition of the Confederate government, and was poised to seize New Orleans. The rugged mountainous East Tennessee region attempted to rejoin the Union as a new state, having opposed succession and slavery compared to most of Tennessee.


title: Southern United States

text: In the four years of war 1861–65 the South was the primary battleground, with all but two of the major battles taking place on Southern soil. Union forces led numerous campaigns into the western Confederacy, controlling the border states in 1861, the Tennessee River, the Cumberland River and New Orleans in 1862, and the Mississippi River in 1863. In the East, however, the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee beat off attack after attack in its defense of their capital at Richmond. But when Lee tried to move north, he was repulsed (and nearly captured) at Sharpsburg (1862) and Gettysburg (1863).


title: Southern United States

text: The Confederacy had the resources for a short war, but was unable to finance or supply a longer war. It reversed the traditional low-tariff policy of the South by imposing a new 15% tax on all imports from the Union. The Union blockade stopped most commerce from entering the South, and smugglers avoided the tax, so the Confederate tariff produced too little revenue to finance the war. Inflated currency was the solution, but that created distrust of the Richmond government. Because of low investment in railroads, the Southern transportation system depended primarily on river and coastal traffic by boat; both were shut down by the Union Navy. The small railroad system virtually collapsed, so that by 1864 internal travel was so difficult that the Confederate economy was crippled.


title: Southern United States

text: The Confederate cause was hopeless by the time Atlanta fell and William T. Sherman marched through Georgia in late 1864, but the rebels fought on until Lee's army surrendered in April 1865. Once the Confederate forces surrendered, the region moved into the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877), in a partially successful attempt to rebuild the destroyed region and grant civil rights to freed slaves.


title: Southern United States

text: Southerners who were against the Confederate cause during the Civil War were known as Southern Unionists. They were also known as Union Loyalists or Lincoln's Loyalists. Within the eleven Confederate states, states such as Tennessee (especially East Tennessee), Virginia (which included West Virginia at the time), and North Carolina were home to the largest populations of Unionists. Many areas of Southern Appalachia harbored pro-Union sentiment as well. As many as 100,000 men living in states under Confederate control would serve in the Union Army or pro-Union guerilla groups. Although Southern Unionists came from all classes, most differed socially, culturally, and economically from the regions dominant pre-war planter class.


title: Southern United States

text: The South suffered more than the North overall, as the Union strategy of attrition warfare meant that Lee could not replace his casualties, and the total war waged by Sherman, Sheridan and other Union armies devastated the infrastructure and caused widespread poverty and distress. The Confederacy suffered military losses of 95,000 soldiers killed in action and 165,000 who died of disease, for a total of 260,000, out of a total white Southern population at the time of around 5.5 million. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6% in the North and about 18% in the South. Northern military deaths were greater than Southern military deaths in absolute numbers, but were two-thirds smaller in terms of proportion of the population affected.


title: Southern United States

text: After the Civil War, the South was devastated in terms of infrastructure and economy. Because of states' reluctance to grant voting rights to freedmen, Congress instituted Reconstruction governments. It established military districts and governors to rule over the South until new governments could be established. Many white Southerners who had actively supported the Confederacy were temporarily disenfranchised. Rebuilding was difficult as people grappled with the effects of a new labor economy of a free market in the midst of a widespread agricultural depression. In addition, limited infrastructure the South had was mostly destroyed by the war. At the same time, the North was rapidly industrializing. To avoid the social effects of the war, most of the Southern states initially passed black codes. During Reconstruction, these were mostly legally nullified by federal law and anti-Confederate legislatures, which existed for a short time during Reconstruction.


title: Southern United States

text: There were thousands of people on the move, as African Americans tried to reunite families separated by slave sales, and sometimes migrated for better opportunities in towns or other states. Other freed people moved from plantation areas to cities or towns for a chance to get different jobs. At the same time, whites returned from refuges to reclaim plantations or town dwellings. In some areas, many whites returned to the land to farm for a while. Some freedpeople left the South altogether for states such as Ohio and Indiana, and later, Kansas. Thousands of others joined the migration to new opportunities in the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta bottomlands, and Texas.


title: Southern United States

text: With passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (which outlawed slavery), the 14th Amendment (which granted full U.S. citizenship to African Americans) and the 15th amendment (which extended the right to vote to African American males), African Americans in the South were made free citizens and were given the right to vote. Under Federal protection, white and black Republicans formed constitutional conventions and state governments. Among their accomplishments were creating the first public education systems in Southern states, and providing for welfare through orphanages, hospitals and similar institutions.


title: Southern United States

text: Northerners came south to participate in politics and business. Some were representatives of the Freedmen's Bureau and other agencies of Reconstruction; some were humanitarians with the intent to help black people. Some were adventurers who hoped to benefit themselves by questionable methods. They were all condemned with the pejorative term of carpetbagger. Some Southerners would also take advantage of the disrupted environment and made money off various schemes, including bonds and financing for railroads. White southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts became known as scalawag's.


title: Southern United States

text: Secret vigilante organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan an organization sworn to perpetuate white supremacy had arisen quickly after the war's end in the 1860s, and used lynching, physical attacks, house burnings and other forms of intimidation to keep African Americans from exercising their political rights. Although the first Klan was disrupted by prosecution by the Federal government in the early 1870s, other groups persisted. By the mid-to-late-1870s, some upper class Southerners created increasing resistance to the altered social structure. Paramilitary organizations such as the White League in Louisiana (1874), the Red Shirts in Mississippi (1875) and rifle clubs, all "White Line" organizations, used organized violence against Republicans, both black and white, to remove Republicans from political office, repress and bar black voting, and restore the Democratic Party to power. In 1876 white Democrats regained power in most of the state legislatures. They began to pass laws designed to strip African Americans and Poor Whites from the voter registration rolls. The success of late-19th century interracial coalitions in several states inspired a reaction among some white Democrats, who worked harder to prevent both groups from voting.


title: Southern United States

text: Despite discrimination, many blacks became property owners in areas that were still developing. For instance, 90% of the Mississippi's bottomlands were still frontier and undeveloped after the war. By the end of the century, two-thirds of the farmers in Mississippi's Delta bottomlands were black. They had cleared the land themselves and often made money in early years by selling off timber. Tens of thousands of migrants went to the Delta, both to work as laborers to clear timber for lumber companies, and many to develop their own farms. Nonetheless, the long agricultural depression, along with disenfranchisement and lack of access to credit, led to many blacks in the Delta losing their property by 1910 and becoming sharecroppers or landless workers over the following decade. More than two generations of free African Americans lost their stake in property.