You Got a Friend in Me

There’s not a lot of times lately where I go to a movie theater, see a movie and then immediately want to watch said movie again.  I’ll be honest, when it does happen it usually happens when the name Disney is attached to the film and even more so when the name PIXAR is there.  Tonight, I got to see a sneak preview of Toy Story 3 in IMAX 3D and I can say right now I cannot wait to see this movie again.

It’s really funny to me because the Toy Story movies were never my favorites of the Pixar stable (the top spot, for me, has always been Monsters Inc w/ Incredibles and now Up trailing close behind) but sometime last year something changed.  I think, I blame the Toy Story Double Feature they did back in October.  It’s not to say they suddenly became my all time favorites but I’ve gained a new respect for the movies.  Part of this is the technological advances, another part is the amazing character, but the heart of it is really the emotion and the phenomenal storytelling within the films.  They’re buddy comedies but they’re really so much more than that and I think the third installment really showcases that.

It’s hard right now for me not to give anything way in a review.  I want to talk to everyone about everything I saw but I’ll try to give no more away here than trailers & sneak clips have.  The story of course centers around the toys of Andy’s room as they deal with the sad but inevitable fact that Andy is 17 now and ready to head to college.  Through a series of misunderstandings they end up being donated to Sunnyside Day Care; a place that seems too good to be true (and really is).  Leading the toys of Sunnyside is Lotso Huggin’ Bear and his gang of minions.  It’s up to Woody to help bust the toys out of Sunnyside, defeat Lotso and make it back to Andy before he leaves for college.

Again, without spoilers, I can tell you that the first 10 minutes of the film are fantastic!  They’re hilarious and a great callback to the first two movies (speaking of callbacks there’s a really good one that I’m sure only nerds will get involving the fate of a character from the first film.  It makes up for the other character that gets mentioned that actually had me really upset. I’ve said too much).  Spanish!Buzz is amazing but we all knew he was going to be from the trailers.  There is also some really great fluffiness between Buzz and Jessie (but I’m a hardcore fan of them so I’m partial).  The new toys are all pretty good additions, but I still feel like there are just too many of them and most of them we don’t get to spend enough time with in order to form the bond we have with Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the others.

The film is about an hour and 45 minutes and the pacing great.  There was no one second where I was looking at my watch to see how much longer we had (I do that in every movie so not doing that is a big deal).   I heard the kids behind me get a little restless at one point but they were kind of bratty through the whole movie so they’re probably not a good indicator.

As for the story itself, it’s about growing up and moving on.  It’s about friendship and family and doing anything for those you love (even letting them go).  I don’t know how Pixar does it every time but one minute I’m laughing hysterically and the next I’m crying like a baby.  There’s one scene near the end especially where, had I not been surrounded by people I would have just lost it (I mean I cried silently but I would have been blubbering if I was alone).  The end; it was everything one could hope for and though a little bittersweet was mostly heartwarming.  The scenes after the credits went back to the funny and gave me enough time to sniffle and wipe away tears so I could go back into the real world.

So Toy Story 3 is really the perfect ending to the whole Toy Story franchise.  It’s the same amazing storytelling, the same characters we know and love and more importantly it has the same level of heart.  I know I, for one, can’t wait for it to be Friday so I can jump back in line and see it again :D

You’re Standing on my Neck

(Note: I need to work on this whole bligging thing… I mean I pretty much wrote this incoherent babble 2 weeks ago and I keep not going back and fixing it. I apologize to the no one that reads this :P)

So my birthday was the 24th and apparently I’m hard to please (that’s not the point of this blog but I just wanted to put it out there).  See, there were only three things that I definitely wanted as presents for said birthday: an external hard drive, a computer mouse and the complete series of Daria on DVD.  I received the last of those gifts a week early from my parents (much to the chagrin of my brother and a friend who were planning to get me the same thing.  Honestly, it’s probably a good thing I got it early so I didn’t end up with 3 copies) and then proceeded to watch the entirety of the series in the week leading up to and following said birthday.

I guess before I really get into the things I’ve been learning in this retrospective television phase, I should kind of explain what the show meant to me.  I warn you here that if you haven’t seen the show, don’t remember it at all, or just don’t care, this probably isn’t the entry for you.  I’m doing one of those things where I count on my reader having previous knowledge so I can be lazy and not completely explain myself, so I guess I apologize in advance. 
Daria started in 1997 and I probably didn’t get into it until 98 or 99.  At the time, I was probably far too young to be watching.  I was just starting middle school (actually I was probably in 6th grade) and, I assume, fairly impressionable.  When it gets down to it, it’s my parents fault. 
I live in a house hold where a large part of our time together has always been spent watching cartoons.  Even to this day, if we’re all hanging out watching tv it’s more likely Spongebob than anything live action.  Both my parents enjoyed the show and it wasn’t vulgar or stupid so they had no problem with us watching (and the jokes that were “bad” went over my brother and my heads at that age so no harm no foul).  The show lasted for 5 seasons and ended about the middle of my high school career.  [/end back-story]

In re-watching the show, I realizing just how much the it did impact my life.  Not just because I remember almost every episode and can quote major sections of dialogue or the other trivial things like always wanting combat boots and red hair (her and Ariel, I swear!) or having a thing for scrawny guys with dark hair (oh Trent) or wanting to be a writer.  In a weird way I blame the episode “Pierce Me” for why I wanted a belly button piercing (way to miss the point) and the episode “Through a Lens Darkly” for helping me decide I wanted get contacts.
It’s bigger than all that superficial stuff though; it honestly helped shape my outlook on life

I’m sitting here trying to figure out exactly how to explain this.  Daria is sarcastic and has a bleak outlook on life.  She’s witty, unpopular and able to see the worst in a situation.  Then again, she’s not heartless, no matter how much she tries to make it look that way.
As I said, this is what prepared me for high school.  I was ready for everything to suck.  I was ready to feel out of place and smarter than everyone. 
In my high school’s defense, the world wasn’t as black and white as it is on television.  There were cliques but they weren’t socially mandated and mingling was allowed.  And I wasn’t the unpopular brain, I was somewhere in between (honestly my GPA was closer to Jane’s skating by than Daria’s 4.0).  But that being said, there’s a level of understanding that I took from the show (and from my upbringing really) that High School doesn’t really matter in the scheme of things.  You make the most of it, but there’s only so much you can do.  And people are just inherently stupid.  Not to sound elitist, but they are and you’ll have to deal with them but you can get through it.  If anything, Daria is the reason that when I’m actually mad at someone I’ll tell them I don’t like them to their face and they’ll never be the wiser (they usually think I’m just joking)

I’m sure there’s more that can be said for all of it, but I’ll leave it there.  The way I look at it, if people try to say that cartoons cause kids to be violent, they really should look into studying how cartoons cause kids to be cynical and to hate stupid people.

How do you get to Wonderland?

Apparently you plop down 13 bucks and grab some 3D glasses… or that’s how I did it Thursday night at Midnight.  Seems fairly easy when you get down to it—much simpler than following rabbits or falling down through a hole in the Earth.

The film in question, however, is slightly more complicated and I felt as though I needed to blog about it.  I reasoned thusly: I haven’t updated my blog in a while & I really do enjoy Alice in Wonderland.  It’s strange that I’ve gotten to this point really (I’m telling you now this is bound to contain some SPOILERS because I’ve never been good at hiding them so consider yourself warned).  When I was little, Alice was my favorite.  I never dressed as a Disney Princess (mind you back then Disney consumer products wasn’t forcing them all down our throats like they do now) but one of my very first costumes was Alice.  It’s always been kind of personal to me.  As I grew up it turned into more of a fascination with Alice related things (products, clothing, spin offs, etc) than the actual Disney film.  Recently, I reread both Alice novels and found myself both elated and worried that I seemed to understand all the “nonsense” found within the text.  But in ways I’ve always related to Alice—I am perpetually living in a world of my own.  
At the prospect of the new Tim Burton imagined version of the film coming our way, I was both excited and apprehensive.  I know he gets flack, but I tend to enjoy Burton’s “reimagining” of classic source material (i.e.. Willy Wonka, Sweeny Todd, Sleepy Hollow… pretty much anything that doesn’t involve Marky Mark running around with apes).

So with trepidation, I headed to the multiplex to partake in Burton’s spin of Alice in Wonderland and honestly, I really liked it for several reasons.  The story takes place about 13 yrs after Alice originally visited Wonderland (which she thinks was just a nightmare from her childhood).  She’s now 19 and trying to find her place in a society she doesn’t feel comfortable.  At a garden party held by such society Alice is proposed to by a young man who personifies everything she takes issue with.  And so, as most heroines are wont to do, she runs away.  Only, this is Alice in Wonderland, so the girl chases a white rabbit and falls down a hole and eventually we end up in that land o’ Wonder… only it’s actually called Underland (that part and the fairly lame excuse that at 7 Alice just heard it wrong kind of bugged me).

From here the plot… well it kind of mirror’s the regular Alice story, but with characters pointing out this has already happened and they need to move on.  Turns out, the White Rabbit was sent to get Alice from her world so she could fulfill a prophecy set forth by the Oraculum (an ancient scroll with moving pictures that’s watched over by the Caterpillar) to save Underland from the tyranny of the Red Queen.  This is where the movie finds it’s purpose—if Alice is to do what is foretold, she must first make herself into the Alice that is needed (I’m sure that made sense).

This was the point in the film where I sighed in relief.  You see from the trailers and ads that had been presented thus far I was sure this film was going to be all about The Mad Hatter.  It seemed Johnny Depp’s name and face were the only things associated with any marketing for this film.  While I don’t mind this because Johnny does have a lovely face, it did have me a bit worried.  At this point I was 15-20 minutes into the film and there was still no hatter sighting.

The story really is about Alice and her journey from a girl who wants change but doesn’t know how to go about it to a girl who is fearless and ready to take on even the most fearsome of beasts.  We can ignore the anachronism since it is a fairy tale of sorts and see her as an innovator and a feminist.  I’ll say my only issue with the character was that she seemed more bemused than curious throughout.  Much of it was like going through the motions and I wish she had had some bigger epiphanies as to the whole saving the world thing.
Hatter ends up playing second fiddle to her.  A yin for her yang—all be it a crazy mother f-er of a Yin.  He wants order back so much and he knows Alice is the only one who can create it.  He knows she much believe in herself.  Johnny plays the character in typical Johnny fashion (read: bizarre).  Part of the time he’s channeling Jack Sparrow, then it’s Ed Wynn (the original Disney Hatter), then he’s like random Scottish.  The character exudes emotion from his clothing to his face and beyond and it’s actually a very fun, frightening and interesting idea.
The Knave of Hearts is Crispin Glover… Crispin Glover kind of scares me and I cannot explain why.  He was easily the creepiest character in the film.  He’s weasly and conniving and just weird
There are also the two queens vying for leadership.  Originally I was worried the Red Queen, with her bulbous CGI head would weird me out.  In the film, though, it didn’t bother me at all or take me out of the movie.  She’s misunderstood but still very easy not to like.  You feel sympathy for her but you also want to see her fall.
The White Queen on the other hand is fair and kind.  I liked seeing the side of her that was all lofty high affairs and the other side that was just dedicated to saving everyone from her sister.
As for the side characters, again the CGI kind of blew me away.  I was terrified it was going to look terrible and green screen-y but for the most part it blended seamlessly.  The characters I didn’t think would look good (the Tweedles, Cheshire Cat, etc) actually looks amazing once they were moving.  I do have to laugh at the army of Card Soldiers (they look a lot like the one’s created for Frank Beddor’s Looking Glass Wars… and I’m sure [since he’s actually the one that knows Alice’s really story] he’ll freak over that).  My favorite of all though was the March Hare.  He was probably the most insane of the lot and balancing on at the precipice of wits end and it was done remarkably well.  Oh and having the Jabberwocky voiced by Christopher Lee made the creature even more amazing.

Oh lord, I’m babbling, I knew this would happen.  All right, lets try to wrap this up a bit.  My issues with the film were not many, but I did feel the pacing was off (too much Red Queen’s palace, not enough Alice finding her strength).  There wasn’t enough Curiosity (which is what makes Alice Alice).  Oh and the poem is called the Jabberwocky but the actual beast is called the Jabberwock (that was also a little thing but really annoyed me because it always has) And… well this isn’t an issue, but Hatter’s dance at the end (the Futterwacken) was one of the more insane things I’ve ever seen and reminded me of Captain Eo for some reason.  I’m off subject again.

I felt the film was really well done and I’m excited to watch it again.  It was a lot of what I expected by it also managed to surprise me and I hope that everyone takes a peek and gives it a chance.  Wonderland or Underland or whatever you feel like calling it is alive and well it’s just gotten a slight update.

Mary Poppins Reflection

Last night a friend and I headed to a theater in Tempe, AZ for a one night only showing of Mary Poppins.  The prospect of seeing the Disney Classic on the big screen was an exciting one.  The actual presentation ended up being a DVD projector on an old screen that utilized the theaters surround sound system but that’s not really important to the story.

What is important is that it had been so long since I had watched to original film in its entirety that last night was like watching it again for the first time.  More important that that was that I finally (after how many years?) get it!  I finally think I understand why almost all of my friends who love Disney love this movie so much.

There are of course easy things to focus on.  At it’s heart, Poppins is just a great musical.  There are memorable songs and exciting dance numbers.  The visuals are stunning, not just in the cartoonified world of the sidewalk drawings where live action blends fantastically with 2D, but in the portrayal of the city.  The rooftops, the streets, the alleyways almost look like the characters have walked into a picture book and they are perfect.  The cast is, of course, stellar.  I mean it’s Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, what’s not to like?

But watching it this time there were a couple things I picked up on that I would never have understood as a child and reasons why I think this film resonates with so many people as they grow up.  It’s the story of thinking you have everything figured out in your life and then realizing that you’ve had it all wrong, realizing that you’re missing out on what’s really important.  It’s all right there in Mr. Banks.  He’s a put together man who demands perfection, punctuality and propriety.  Once Mary Poppins enters the picture his world is thrown for a loop and finally sees what he’s been missing. (we’ll also forgive his male superiority complex right now because I could probably do a completely different piece on all that)

For the first time too I found myself really focusing on and connecting with Mary, herself.  I think I gained a new reverence for the woman.  She is at once caring and commanding; she is absolutely magical in both a figurative and literal sense but she is completely down to earth.  By that token, though she’s “practically perfect” she’s still human and easy to relate to.  I think this is showcased the best near the end of the film where she claims she won’t miss the children and doesn’t love them but it’s clear as day that she’s torn having to leave them.  Mary is really one of the more real Disney characters ever created (and a lot of that does have to do with the fabulous Julie Andrews)

I spent the film smiling pretty much the whole time.  I felt every emotion I was suppose to.  I laughed at the contagious giggles of Uncle Albert, Bert & the Children, I yawned during Stay Awake I was in awe of the rooftops of London, and I felt for Mary when the winds changed.  I walked away from the film feeling a need to sing and dance and talk in a horrid cockney accent.  I haven’t felt that good watching a film in a long time.

So to my Disney friends: I understand why you all love this movie so much.  I’m sorry for ever doubting you.  I will take it upon myself to watch it much more often!

Surrender But Don’t Give Yourself Away

We’ll see if I ever actually publish this blog entry or, like the 2 others taking up my hard drive space right now, this one never sees the light of the internet.  In this case, I’ve realized I have to post it tonight or else it’ll be like the other two and not be relevant to goings on anymore.

So I don’t know if anyone has heard, but there’s this big crazy disaster going on at NBC right now.  Seems Leno didn’t pull the ratings the network wanted and neither did Conan, so rather than just say “buh-bye Jay” (like they should have instead of giving him his stupid hour long show in the first place) the bigwigs decided to bump the Tonight Show and give Leno a half hour show during its time.  O’Brien wasn’t happy with the idea and in a very classy way said he wouldn’t be part of the destruction of the Tonight show.

In what is sure to be seen as far too melodramatic a tone, it feels like we’re losing an old friend.  It’s as if that goofy guy who was always there to make you laugh is suddenly being told he has to go.  It’s the lose of a simple pleasure at the end of the night.  It’s a testament to how great a guy Conan is that he can inspire such feelings in his viewers.  The rallies, the twitter trends, the facebook groups, it’s all there because of one guy, one guy we’re sorely going to miss when he’s gone.

From all of this, however, I’ve learned two things.  The first is that amazing comedy can come from upsetting times. Now before anyone goes off, I know there are much bigger things going on in the world right now.  I know Haiti is a disaster area and I know that the weather’s playing havoc with us here in the states.  I’m aware all of this is trivial but as many other bloggers have said, it’s much easier to talk about something trivial than real tragedy. 

Anyway, back to comedy (worst segue ever):  The best thing about Conan and his staff at the Tonight Show is that instead of being angry and bitter (like they have every right to be) they’re taking it upon themselves to crank out the best shows they possibly can.  The comedy has never been funnier, the guest have never been more fun, everything is done with tongue firmly planted in cheek and I haven’t seen much else that’s been so bittersweet.  It’s a lesson though, it’s a way of staying classy and still turning out a quality product even when times are tough.

The second thing I learned, well I actually thought up last night and then Bley (the official Tonight Show blogger) actually beat me to the punch with it (ignoring the fact that he has hundreds more followers and readers than I’ll ever have).  In a weird way, this whole ordeal did was inspire a backwards sort of hope.  I say backwards because the death of someone’s dream isn’t really something that should instill any kind of feeling besides sadness in someone.  I guess, I try to look at it the same way the show looked at humor.  One could be sad or outraged but instead you look at it from the brighter side of things.  Conan dreamed of hosting the Tonight Show and he got to live that dream!  It may have only been for 7 months but for that time it was his; his name was all over it and people will always remember this time from mid 2009 to early 2010 as the time he hosted the tonight show.  The idea of living your dream for even that short amount of time is so appealing to me that I can’t help but be inspired.  To be someone that a large section of the population loves, trusts and roots for.  That’s why the end of his recap segment said “To Be Continued…” not “The End”.  There is so much more to be done in life and you can’t let the trivial things done by idiots (sorry, for the editorializing) get you down or stop you from being the best you can be.

With that said: Good luck Coco!  Thanks for the being awesome, thanks for the laughs, and thanks for being an inspiration!  We’ll miss you for the next 7 months, but when you come back, you’re sure to be better than ever.

TEAM CONAN FOR LIFE!

Not yet dead...

Hello one follower, hope you are well.

My blog is not dead

It's simply taking a backseat for a bit to work and school and trips and all that.

I'm trying to get back on track and I hope to be up to the weekly basis I had hoped for in a short while.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

~S

On A Jet Plane

Your initial warning here is that this was written a few weeks ago while sitting on an airplane.  I had been on said flight for about 3 hrs and was starting to feel stir crazy and a little air sick and so decided to write:

I’m so unreasonably bored right now.  We’ve been in the air for over three hours now and I’ve run out of places for my mind to wander.  The Primary topic has been air travel in general.

I realized that last time I made this very same flight, I left normal life for five months.  This time it’s not nearly so dramatic.  A week of vacationing seems like nothing compared to then.

The plane is shaking now and my handwriting is getting worse.  I realized this will not translate well to a word processed blog bit it should be noted for posterities sake.

Until now, things have been relatively uneventful.  I had my normal take off jitters that luckily don’t manifest as much more than a thick lump in my throat and queasiness in my stomach.

My mind went thru chaos theories a plenty and strangely I’m materialistic enough that the majority of them involved faulty hatches opening and all the checked baggage spewing across Northern Texas.  I’m not sure if we even flew over Northern Texas, but all the same I saw my blue rolling luggage hurtling through the sky and touching down in a giant self made crater on someone’s farm.  Do the have farms in Northern Texas?  I really need to find a fact checker for my disillusioned daydreams.  Say, “Disillusioned Daydreams” would make and awesome band name.

But with regards to flying, it really doesn’t bug me all that much after take off.  This time we’re in first class because, I don’t know, my dad had some super duper “you spend more time in the sky than on the ground” points and could upgrade us.  They’re so attentive and actually friendly up here, though they still look at me like I’m twelve and ignore me more than others. Or I’m paranoid. Or maybe I just don’t notice the hospitality because I’m lost in my fantasies of Northern Texas.

The clouds outside the window are the stuff of clichés.  Sporadic and popcorn like growing into colossal albino cityscapes.  Being up here, I always want to jump from the plane and touch them.  I think this is unwise, however, as falling to my doom does not sound like an enjoyable experience.  I do wonder, when I landed, besides getting brains and bodily organs all over the scenery, if I would leave a cartoon like crater the shape of my body in the ground.  That same Northern Texas farmer who found my fallen luggage would say “Why is there a girl shaped crater in my corn field.” Do they have corn fields in my made up farms of Northern Texas?

Anyway, sadly, I cannot touch the clouds as I cannot fly.  As the saying goes “If we were meant to fly, we would have been born with tiny bags of nuts.” Words to live by.

I think the most confusing thing on a plane has to be the bathrooms.  A place so small, I don’t want to know how the mile high club was even conceived.  And why is there and electric outlet in there?  Will I need to dry my hair while the plane jostles through turbulence or will some guy need to use an electric razor?  I think the latter would be more dangerous.  I’m barely allowed to use electronic devices in the cabin.  Wouldn’t these bathroom devices knock the plane right out of the sky.  I’m also confused by the hanger hook in there.  Is it so I can stow my cloths for a quick change later in a super small room.  My knees are up to my chest when I sit down… Apparently this is now a stand up routine.

We’re nearly in Florida and I’m fairly excited though baggage claim promises to be a bitch.  At least this time I don’t have an eighty pound bag to pick up (true story).  Hopefully, my bags on the belt and not in a crater in a cornfield somewhere in Northern Texas.

 

And Scene
~S