Movie Project - Day 31: Helaman's Stripling Warriors - Animated Stories from The Book of Mormon

If anyone had their doubts, today's movie will make it clear what my religious affiliations are. As it was Sunday, I figured it was high time to break out one of the discs in the vast collection of the Living Scriptures Stories my in-laws received for Christmas. It was a gift given to them by my brother-in-law so that the grandchildren would have something to watch on Sundays. I had seen some of these video shorts before, but the memory of them was quite vague.

The story of Helaman and the two thousand sixty Stripling Warriors was not new to me, being a Primary, Seminary, and Institute Graduate. Still, it was interesting watching this with Erini, because to my knowledge, this was the first time she had been told the story beginning to end, and I learned something new as well.

During the expository montage at the beginning, which gave the background story as to how these two thousand young men volunteered to fight for the Nephites, there was a recap of the slaughter of the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's. While I knew one thousand and five people were killed, it never occurred to me that the men killed were survived by their wives and children. With this upsurge of single mothers, they still kept their faith and taught their children the gospel.

The fact that these men were raised without fathers struck a chord. I tried to stress this point with Erini, as I had never thought of this idea before, and I wanted her to remember it. She was rather docile for the whole twenty-eight minutes of the production. Whether she was taking it all in, or still waking up, it didn't matter to me. I was just happy that she was learning some sort of scripture story with her father.

When the two thousand sons are faced with the idea of going to battle, they were fearless because of their mother's testimonies. This faith is what preserved them all, as not one was killed in the battle. That's not to say they were not injured, many were, but everyone was alive and accounted for. In the end, all the Stripling Warriors returned home alive.

On a side note, the cartoon seemed like it was done by animators from He-Man, She-Ra, or some other production featuring muscle bound characters. Wouldn't you know, I was right.

As a war film, this is very, very tame, but I was slightly surprised with the amount of blood that was shown on screen. There weren't any body parts flying around, or shrapnel embedded in bodies, but there was a fair share of dead bodies and bloody swords.

War is an ugly thing, but necessary under some circumstances, such as fighting for freedom. Whenever the Nephites fought in defense of their country, they always were victorious. If they were the instigating party, they would lose.

Politics has always been a subject I try to avoid, mostly because it's simple, yet complicated. Knowing right from wrong is a simple thing, but knowing when your rights start on others is what I need to teach to my daughter, and by so doing relearn myself.

Finding war movies that are appropriate for children is quite the task, but I've selected a few that I think might work: The Sound of Music (Nazi occupation of Austria), Remember the Titans (Battle of Gettysburg/Racism), The Iron Giant (Cold War/Xenophobia), Newsies (Capitalist Oppression), Wargames (Nuclear Threat), and Joyeux Noel (Have to screen that one first). To those reading this, if you have any suggestions to add, please let me know.

The common theme in these movies is how wars are fought. It's not necessarily done by killing your fellow man, but by overcoming your own fears and prejudices that dictate who your enemy is and helping others to do the same.

Conflict is inevitable; violence is not. Let's hope my daughter can learn that through these movies.

Movie Project - Day 30: Hello, Dolly!

Rounding out Musical Week with something more recent than the 1950's, yet still had Gene Kelly involved, is the most loved musical in the Pixar universe, Hello, Dolly! The movie was considered a flop in its initial release, as it made only half of the $25 million budget (approx. $175 million today) at the box office. But that didn't deter the Oscar Committee from giving it seven nominations, of which three were awarded: Best Art Direction, Best Score, and Best Sound. The four awards that were missed were Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Picture.

Gene Kelly in the director's seat, this film was bound to be a singing and dancing extravaganza, which it is, and there were not many moments when the movie lagged. Everyone is always moving, whether it be their bodies, their mouths or both. The dialogue was snappy and the lines were coming out right on top of the other. It was a bit of a challenge to keep up with it all, and I was grateful I had the captions running while watching. I was slightly annoyed that the captions were only for the speaking parts. None of the songs had captioned lyrics. A minor problem since the musical numbers were done very well.

Except maybe, "It Takes A Woman." I knew that Walter Matthau was not in many musicals, but I didn't fully realize this was the ONLY musical he was in. Not to say he's worse than Pierce Brosnan, but his singing talent was at the bottom of the cast.

There were times when Erini was contented to watch, such as the 14th Street Parade scene, which was quite the ordeal with hundreds of people on screen for the final shot, not to mention the vast array of horses. The various dance scenes had held her borderline-four-year-old attention span for more than a few microseconds as well. I'm sure that if my daughter had a better understanding of the English language, she might have been able to follow Dolly Levi's (Barbra Streisand) flow of woman talk that was almost fast enough to put this Latina to shame.



That said, the only reason I was able to control my urge to plug my ears with steel wool was that Barbra Streisand charming and conniving performance always seemed to stop right at the line of downright annoying. A toe went over now and then, but then she went right back to her moderate degree of cute and coy. The elaborate outfits also kept my mind distracted from the annoyances that cropped up, ie. during "So Long, Dearie," I was focusing more on the impressive headpiece, hair style, and fabulous dress she was sporting rather than the song itself. I will admit, Streisand can act, she can sing, it's just puts me off when she appears to be realigning her jaw while singing.

Above all else, Michael Crawford's ham of a performance was Erini's favourite part of the feature. This is probably due to the fact that he was in every one of the parts when she was very actively engaged: 1) Put On Your Sunday Clothes, 2) It Only Takes a Moment, and 3) The closing number which had a reprisal of both songs. To give you a hint as to why, throughout the songs she kept saying, "It's just like the one in Wall-E!"

Yes, my daughter is a Pixar fan at heart, but she has humoured me enough to sit through all these musicals, and enjoyed herself a number of times as well.

Movie Project - Day 29: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

My daughter was being rather stubborn at supper, so we had to forego viewing a movie tonight. Parenting is a tough job at the best of times, and downright painful at the worst of times. I don't think I have yet hit the worst of times, or maybe I have and I've involuntarily set up a memory block. Getting Erini to bed tonight could be compared to eating 90% Cacao Chocolate, properly done it's a rather down out process, but very enjoyable once it's down.

Then again, I enjoy every moment of eating chocolate, whereas I was ready to do something that I would have immediately regretted while putting Erini to bed. Multiple times.

Hence today's movie is taken from my memory archives, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. We had seen it back in October, and with my memory recall, this could be short.

While a popular musical, especially amoung the LDS crowd, the songs have not penetrated popular culture quite like other musicals such as Singing in the Rain, Hello Dolly!, or The Sound of Music.

Curious to note that Howard Keel played the lead role as Adam, the eldest brother, who comes across as a proud man that doesn't take no for an answer, while four years earlier he appeared in Annie Get Your Gun as the "pompous, big-headed stiff." He has a very powerful baritone voice, but perhaps a bit type cast, especially with his role in Dallas as Clayton Farlow.

Erini had a bit of a time watching this movie, simply because we saw it outdoors, and it was also quite late. Plus, there is a lot of exposition about how to behave properly in public. People taking about a subject that her parents have stressed to her a number of times would be enough to bore any child.

The songs didn't really hold her attention either, partly because Caitlin wasn't there to sing with me and I was trying to keep quiet for the other people who were watching the movie with us. 1950's musicals are an interesting snapshot of the times, especially in regards to marriage. Whereas today, some movies seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum.

That's not to say this film is the poster child for an ideal relationship. Adam comes to town at the beginning of the movies looking for a bride like she's an item on his supply list, and then goes on to make no excuses or changes to his lifestyle. This quote sums it up:

Milly: Well, it wouldn't hurt you to learn some manners, too.
Adam: What do I need manners for? I already got me a wife.

My wife would punch me in the crotch if I ever said that to her. Then she'd probably break down in tears. Or the other way around.

Another thing that sparks a bit of disgust is the fact that after Millie kicks all the men out of the house for kidnapping the women, Adam heads off to a trapping cabin where he spends the winter. Even when he hears about the birth of his daughter, he stays there until the spring thaw, because he swore he would. Nevermind that Millie is running a household with six young women and six young men, carried a baby to term, then was caring for the infant without the support of her husband, whom she had only known for a few hours or less before being wed. But he humbles himself, and resolves to return the women to their homes.

However Stockholm Syndrome has run its course, and the women would prefer to stay in the middle of nowhere with these brothers. Once the townsfolk come up to the farm to take the women back, they find the brothers chasing down the womenfolk in compliance with Adam's edict to return the women. First, they don't want to get captured by them to get taken up to the farm, and now they don't want to get captured to be taken back.

The scene makes me wonder if there is such a thing as "Cornball Irony."

People see what they want to, and assume they must be right, but some facts can't be denied, like a crying baby. Heaven forbid you have a child out of wedlock in the 50's, even moreso in 1889! As a way to get even, the women all admit to the baby being their own, and thus the movie ends with a wedding. A shotgun wedding, but hey, that's backwoods Hollywood!

Yet the musical is a fun piece of cinema, with some of the most insane choreography I've seen. Especially during the Barn Dance.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers-Barn Dance - Free videos are just a click away

Movie Project - Day 28: Annie Get Your Gun

Back to the Golden Age Classics with today's movie, Annie Get Your Gun is one of Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstien's many great achievements in musical cinema, but was a Broadway hit before gracing the silver screen. I imagined that Erini would have been captivated with all the different costumes, horses, cows, Indians, and countless other bits in the film. Yet, by the end of the movie, I was still the only person who had seen the entire movie beginning to end. That's not to say Erini didn't like Annie Oakley, she was quite transfixed during the shoot off at the beginning, one of my favourite scenes in which Annie bests Frank Butler, the reportedly best marksman in the world.

It's a bit of the classy, pretty/ugly girl who wins the guy in the end once the guy realizes he's a pompous jerk, but the story focuses more on the titular character, Annie. Also, there's a generous amount of a rags to riches story with Annie's talented shot being plucked from obscurity and put on the world stage. The greatest thing about the story is that it is based on real events.

Whether Annie Oakley was as quirky as Betty Hutton is a question that cannot be answered by history books, but it would have been interesting to see what the movie would have been like had Judy Garland been able to fill the role of Annie Oakley. True, she had the voice to carry the songs, but Betty Hutton's comic presence made it extremely entertaining to watch, most especially in the song, Anything You Can Do. While I could imagine Julie Garland singing, "There's No Business Like Show Business," Betty Hutton does a great job while not stealing the thunder from Ethel Merman trademark song.



My daughter, like most any child, has a funny way of paying attention to the movie while playing with five toys at the same time. After the song, "Anything You Can Do," which Caitlin and I sang along to, Erini started singing it! I didn't think she was paying attention at all, yet I've noticed if it's a song that my wife and I sing, she'll pay much closer attention.

Hence, I thought it best to have a week devoted to musicals. My mother-in-law credits Erini's early ambulatory motor skills due to her participation with me when I would play Dance Dance Revolution or just dance to whatever CD we had playing at the time. Yet I've also heard that girls usually develop gross motor skills before their fine motor skills. Either way, my daughter enjoys dancing, but singing not so much. She likes to sing with either myself or my wife just fine, but that's mostly because we already know the songs. Once she's built up a comfortable library of songs in her head, I'm sure I'll hear tunes streaming out of her.

Perhaps even the Aerosmith parody that plays in my head when I hear the title of this movie.

Movie Project - Day 27: Mamma Mia!

Going from one side of the musical movie spectrum to the other, today my daughter and I watched Mamma Mia!: The Movie. Based on the Broadway Musical of the same name, sans "The Movie" of course, this feature has the classic tunes of disco sensation ABBA to fuel the campy flame of this feature.

A simple pebble of a plot starts an avalanche of trouble when the main character Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) sends out letters to three men that might be her father. Why she didn't ask them to get DNA testing done is beyond me, but for someone that's lived on a Greek island most her life, the option might not now have occurred to her. Of course, doing musical numbers at a medical lab would not have the same effect as a beach, boat, or old hotel.

With the arrival of the three men, Donna (Meryl Streep) and her daughter Sophie start a game of cat and mouse to keep their knowledge of the three potential fathers from each other, thinking that if one tells the other, it would be a great emotional blow to the other. It's rather funny to watch, yet after some time you start to wonder just how long they can keep this up.

Yet, that mother-daughter conflict is not the most painful part of the production. No, that would be reserved for Pierce Brosnan. His roles as Remmington Steele and James Bond established his place in Hollywood as a model of masculinity, but the was a reason he earned a Razzie nomination for his role as Sam. That reason was his singing. When he's singing with other people, he doesn't sound so bad, possibly because you can tune him out over the tone of the people that sound good. He can hit the notes, but they sound strained, almost like someone singing ABBA at a karaoke bar.

Another element that strikes at my adoration of this movie is the ending. Who's the dad? Who cares? You know what else? I don't need to get married? Let's just travel around the world and forget about legal unions! But not all is lost, for they still have a wedding, only it's Donna and Sam! It's only been 20 years since they last saw each other, but it's all well and good!

Some may ask, if I suffered through that before, why did I watch it again? Simply being, it's a fun show, and my daughter loves to dance to the music. The song that impacted me the most, and it's a stretch to say that ABBA leaves an impact on you, was "Slipping Through My Fingers."



I had to hug my daughter as I watched this song, and it was one of the songs I couldn't sing along to, especially with the phrase, "Try to capture every moment." I know my daughter is growing up, and knowing me, I'm going to blink and she'll be going to school, then graduating, then moving away from home. Will I record everything? Probably not.

That does not mean I should give up trying, nor will I.

Musical week is winding down to a close, but I'm going to try to squeeze in a few good ones. Tomorrow, I'm thinking "Annie Get Your Gun" since it has comedy, horses, and lots of guns. I did reserve "Hello Dolly!" from EPL, and if that comes in tomorrow, we might watch that one instead.

Movie Project - Day 26: Singin' in the Rain

With a run time of an hour and two thirds, Erini was awake and active during the entire movie. Then again, it's rather difficult to get bored with Singing in the Rain. Donald O'Conner won a Golden Globe for his role as Cosmo, and that man has talent! His acting, singing, and dancing was something that rivaled his co-star Gene Kelly, if not outdid him. Erini, my wife, and myself were all watching in amazement, when we weren't laughing, during his number Make Them Laugh.

The plot is interesting since it's a bit of modern historical fiction. While Monumental Pictures was a fictitious company, they accurately inserted Warner Brothers production, "The Jazz Singer." When that 'talkie' hit the screens, it truly was the death knell for the silent film. All studios did change over to audio synced films, just as they all switched to colour a few years later, and just as Hollywood is now making the leap to digital filming.

I did enjoy the chaos that surrounded the pre-screening of "The Dueling Cavalier." As someone that has worked on the technical side of productions, I know what can go wrong, and that pre-screening followed Murphy's Law with exactness. The microphones picking up ambient sounds, actors forgetting their lines and going along with whatever they feel is good, and of course, sound cue mix ups.

An ironic bit of the movie was the foreshadowing for Debbie Reynold's career. In the movie, her character thinks it would be folly to do a voice over for the movie, since she couldn't possibly see any future in it. While we don't know what happened to Kathy Selden, Debbie Reynolds went on to have success on screen such as in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Yet, she has also had a great success with voice work as well. Some of her roles include Charlotte from Charlotte's Web (1973), Lulu Pickels (Grandma) from Nickelodeon's Rugrats, and even Nana Possible from Disney's Kim Possible.

From beginning to end, Singing in the Rain is a joy to watch, simply because of the fact that you can see these people were enjoying themselves. I would have to watch the commentary track to confirm that statement, yet every song, every dance, and even the costumes showed concerted effort on most everyone involved in the production.

Maybe I'm taking it a bit far, but the fact that my daughter found this musical enjoyable, and that it has been referenced or parodied in numerous films and television shows as early as Alfred Hitchcock's 'North by Northwest' and as recent as Glee.



I wonder if Erini will have a new appreciation for the scene in Robots when Bender is "Singing in the Oil."

Movie Project - Day 25: Brigadoon

What better way to celebrate the winter days than taking in a fantasy musical set in Scotland. As to how my girls enjoyed the movie, I would say that Erini would have enjoyed the entire movie had she not gotten tired.

According to my knowledge, this was the first Gene Kelly movie that my daughter has seen, and every time he was on screen, she didn't much care for his dancing. She was more enamoured with the women, and the flourishing dancing dresses they wore. I will admit the corseting and flounces were quite flattering, but if those costumes were accurate, there's no wonder as to why there was such widespread tuberculosis in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Erini also commented that Bronwyn liked the music, and I would like to think that she did. The Gaelic melodies backed the rustic 18th century village beautifully, and the wedding scene is phenomenal. Not as powerful as Tattoo but still very striking.

Watching this musical almost ten years later, a few things came to my attention. Though there is heavy emotion laden throughout the musical and dance numbers, none have any kind of eroticism blatantly displayed. You can tell the characters are in love, but the most daring things are the necklines and the kisses.

While the main characters are from New York City, you only see New York for a few minutes at the end. I can't speak from experience, but the portrayal of the busy restaurant and bar has quite the effect in contrasting the two worlds of modern day and the perpetually medieval Brigadoon.

One of the great things I love about this production is the question it raises: "What do you really need to be happy?" True, we have modern day amenities such as indoor plumbing and electricity that make our life easier, and much less disgusting, but there are things that are overlooked entirely with the digital age. Enjoying a bit of a walk, admiring the nature we have around us, and living for the moment.

That's not to say we should all liquidate our assets and make communes, but it takes to heart the old adage to "Stop and smell the roses." If life seems like it's getting too crazy, think about what you really need, and focus on that. In the case of the village of Brigadoon, it was the pastor that loved his parish such that we asked for them to be spared from the evil influences of the time. Letting the entire village sleep for 100 years every night seems a little much, but it's an interesting concept which works for the picture.

Some plot holes I noticed were how the town knew 100 years had passed the first time they awoke after the miracle occurred. In the story told to Tommy (Gene Kelly) the schoolteacher merely says, "When I awoke the next day, it was 100 years later." Was there another couple of gents who strolled by ridiculously lost and tried to buy milk, only they were shunned because it wasn't Charlie's wedding day? My guess is the money Tommy gives one of the merchants was recently printed and they all saw the printing date, and then drew the conclusion they had been asleep for two nights, and this note was printed in the 1950's, therefore they had been asleep for 200 years.

If they knew the story of Rip Van Winkle, I'm sure they would have chuckled and thought him an amateur.

Musical week continues tomorrow!

Movie Project - Day 24: Abbott and Costello - Jack and the Beanstalk

Whether Bronwyn was happy to be watching a movie with me and her big sister, or whether she was just happy to not be cooped up in her bassinet, I can't really say. What I do know is both my girls enjoyed watching this Abbott and Costello flick. The change from sepia to colour didn't phase either of them, and they didn't really make any kind of comment about it. Bronwyn was happy with me bouncing her on my knee while Erini was taking in the whole picture on her usual stool in front of me.

We started watching it in the early evening, and we were all starting to drift at one point. I was tempted for a moment to turn it off, and call it a night, but after a brief pause and a drink of water, we were all good to the end. Older movies don't bore me, it's just a matter of staying awake after this hectic winter day. Pushing people out of snowdrifts is tough work.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Abbott and Costello are quite the pair on screen, and I was quite impressed with the physical humour of Lou Costello. He just took everything that came at him and kept going for more! After awhile, I started to wonder if he was acting, or just hurting himself. Either way, it was absurdly funny.

The story is simple enough, loosely following the fable of Jack and the Beanstalk. Costello plays Jack while Abbott plays the swindling Butcher who buys Jack's cow for five magic beans. Jack's mother who must be a very loving mother because she doesn't berate him at all for getting mere beans for their last valuable possession. An overnight growth, spurred by a fairly decent animation sequence, prods the production onward and upwards to the sky where the giant who has been terrorizing the town and stealing all sorts of produce, cattle (ie. Jack's cow, Henry), and the betrothed Prince and Princess.

The Prince and Princess are quite the pair, since they haven't met each other, but are both acquainted with Jack. The marriage has been arranged in a motion to save the failing economic state of Jack's village due to the constant pillaging of the giant. Jack helps with some matchmaking, and everything goes well. The reveal was a bit of a jolt for me, but everything works out in the end. It is a 50's comedy after all!

Erini had two favourite parts, or she's very in tune with her sister. This because when I asked Erini what her favourite part was, she told me, "When everyone is running around and chasing each other," then immediately following she added, "Bronwyn's favourite part was all the horses!"

There were a couple special features on the disc: A few Scene-It? style questions, and a biography section. I didn't bother with them as it was time to get Erini off to bed, and I didn't find the quiz questions until I put the DVD back in it's case.

Upon review of the list that I posted last week, I see that the only production I have not yet watched with my daughter is Brigadoon. I'm not sure if I should commit myself to a daily schedule of movies, but I can say this much, I'm going to focus on musicals for the next week. Also, I purchased a copy of 1001 Movies You Have to See Before You Die, so I'll be using that as a reference for movies to screen with my daughter.

I won't say which will appear on which day, but here's a list of the selections I have made for the coming week:
Brigadoon, The Sound of Music (with a run time of 174 min, that'll probably be next Saturday), The King and I, Meet Me In St. Louis, State Fair, Annie Get Your Gun, and maybe Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Although if I found Hello Dolly! I'm sure she's watch that, thanks to Pixar.

Movie Project - Day 23: Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! (2008)

For those who read yesterday's post and saw my note at the end indicating which movie would be next to review, please allow me to explain something. I have a three year old daughter. Usually I select the movie, but today being a weekend and one of the few days where she gets to be with daddy all day, I thought it best to indulge her and let her pick the movie.

This CGI animated version of the classic Dr. Seuss story is a favourite of my daughter's, and I'm not sure if it's due to the physical comedy, or the wonderful moral. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say both. The voices for the characters were delightfully funny, and the improvised moments by Jim Carrey and Steve Carell added some interesting elements to the film that the animators used to the hilt. Some bits like 'Vlad the Bunny that makes cookies' came from something that Jim Carrey added, and while Steve Carell's line was a simple, "No," the chuckling and guffawing was entirely his own. Oddly enough, that's one of my favourite funny moments in the movie! Which was featured in the trailer that I watched many a time before seeing the movie. Huh. What are the odds of that?

For the first half of the movie, Erini didn't pay much attention to the movie, but she did sit and watch most parts. However, her attention was divided with another three year old we were babysitting, and she has seen the movie before, so she knew what was going on. About halfway through, we had to take a break for lunch, and we didn't get back to the movie until the evening after we had done some sledding.

Side note: The temperature in Edmonton was near 0C today. It would have been disrespectful not to enjoy the outdoors today!

When we picked up the movie in the evening, she cuddled with me for the entire time, and even commented about what was going on. She must have been really tired, because she usually shrieks during scary parts, but it could have also been that I was there with her. Although there are some movies that scare her, she does better when I'm watching with her. Some psychologist could probably bubble over with all sorts of talk about how father figures provide a more stable mindset, but I didn't study the science of the soul. All I know is that she is attentive to details, such as when Horton was sorting through all the clovers to find the one with the Who-ville speck, she commented that he needed to find 'the stripy one' as the correct clover had yellow stripes on the stem. Another part that she talked about was when Rudy, the joey kangaroo, saved the flower from destruction. From the point the flower was taken from Horton, that's all she would talk about.

Did she realize why he grabbed the flower and gave it back to Horton? I'm not sure. She did note that it was an important part, since she talks about things that she finds important. Or funny. And that part wasn't funny so much as poignant.

Although the music is wonderful and uplifting, I myself wouldn't go out and get the soundtrack like I did with Tangled. The main reason is that the cast singing REO Speedwagon was not featured on the soundtrack album. Boo.

While this movie was rated Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes, the widespread critical acclaim was not ebullient with praise for it. Compared to previous Dr. Seuss productions done by Hollywood, it was a breath of fresh air. Compared to other movies, it was okay.

I must say that animation is the better format for Dr. Seuss material, as is evident by the scene where the Mayor stacks a precarious pile of particular pieces to purge a problematic pendulum of peril. If that was done live action, it would have looked like he was piling stuff up in order to remove a chandelier.

I really hope they produce another animated Dr. Seuss movie, but if they don't, I will be more than willing to read the books with my daughter, and insert my own funny voices and improvisations. But I won't read it this fast.

Movie Project - Day 22: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

What do swimming lessons, shoveling snow off a roof, and general tardiness have to do with today's review? They all prevented me from watching this movie with my daughter this week! But the weekend has come, and I have run out of excuses to put off this classic comedy further. I almost put it aside in favour of a movie that Erini had selected, and it wasn't a Disney movie. I almost relented, but decided to stick it out.

In the end, I'm not sure if it would have mattered because most of the movie she spent running around with my friend's son. Needless to say, Erini will be living up to her name tonight.

Released to theaters in 1966, this Tony Award winning Broadway show was adapted for the screen with a number of the original cast. Right from the start, it's portrayed as quite the zany and funny film with the song "Comedy Tonight." I had forgotten just how bawdy it was, although I did remember a large part of the film deals with a courtesan house, and there were a few moments that I wondered if this was a good idea after all.

Then came the ever important running plot element, the mare sweat sleeping draught. What's funny about mare sweat? Aside from raw sewage, it's one of the more disgusting things that came from the Roman Era, so you would think it wouldn't be all that funny. Yet Hero, the master of the main character, Pseudolous, continues around Rome looking for a sweating horse. How the writers thought of putting a horse in a sweat lodge, I'll never know. Quite frankly, I think I'm better off. Yet those horses kept my daughter's wavering attention through the course of the movie, up to her favourite part, the chariot chase.

Chariots of Fire
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at MOVIECLIPS.com

A memorable, albeit brief, chase scene that I'm sure she'll still think is funny when we watch with Bronwyn some years down the road.

Some staunchly conservative folk probably stopped reading this when they saw the DVD cover I have posted. I'm sure their thoughts are something along these lines: "How could this father fathom the thought of showing his impressionable daughter, who is not even four years old, a film featuring Romans, slaves, courtesans, and men posing as courtesans?" "This is lewd, crude, and anyone who thinking this is funny will most certainly be spending the course of eternity burning in the fire of their own condemnation."

Humour is one of the most difficult things to teach, since it involves a very broad spectrum of dramatic elements and requires a vast array of knowledge. Even with those two key characteristics in place, it requires the viewer to be in the proper mindset be receptive to the comedy presented. High brow, low brow, intelligent, slapstick, dark, practical, and the list goes on with the number of different types of comedy, all of which are weighted by personal taste. Some people can't get enough of Dane Cook and Larry the Cable Guy, while others will not stray from Reader's Digest.

Is this something I would put on for her to watch by herself? No. In a perfect world, my daughter and I would watch everything together. The world is not perfect and I am even further from it, so I do my best to allow my daughter to view a variety of comic situations as to allow her to develop her own sense of humour and appreciation for film.

Also, I'm not going to be around all the time to make her laugh.

Next up: Abbott and Costello - Jack and the Beanstalk

Evil Never Sounded So Good

I apologize to everyone expecting to see my write up about my daughter and I watching A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Tomorrow, I am going to stay up as late as necessary to watch the movie and write about it!

This may be going against my plan to steer away from Disney for a little while, but this is a compilation CD of Disney Villain songs, and it's quite the mix! The CD follows the villain songs in chronological order of the release of the films featuring the songs and when all these songs are put together, it makes you step back for a moment and almost admire the work that went into these villains.

Some of the songs I was a little curious as to why they were chosen for the album. For example, "I Wanna Be Like You" is the theme for King Louie in "The Jungle Book" but I questioned the degree of villainy in this character. He's a fun-loving, scat-singing, banana-eating orangutan, and the most villainous thing he was was tempt Mowgli to stay in the jungle. He didn't try to kill him like Shere Khan; he didn't try to eat him like Kaa attempted; he didn't even pick him up in a fit of indignation like Cornell Hathi. Then again, this is an orangutan, and they do have their nasty sides. Goes to show that villainy can also be categorized with mischievousness. Oddly enough, mischief is a misdemeanor that can have you placed under arrest. Not that I know from experience.

I'm sure Erini would have enjoyed the album a lot more if she wasn't adamant about having a story read to her, but she did join in the dancing, especially when Caitlin and I danced a little Samba to Yzma's song, "Snuff Out the Light" sung by Eartha Kitt, which was cut from the final film. Bit of shame because it's a fun tune that makes you want to get up and dance.

I found it fascinating that Oogie Boogie's song "You're Joking" was on this disc, and I found it further fascinating that it was right after "Gaston" from Beauty and the Beast. While accurate in chronology, it's quite the switch to have a burly bully singing a pub song, then have the jazzy Oogie Boogie man sing about how he wants to gamble away his victim's life.

My favourite song on the disc - and I would say Erini's favourite as well - is the song of Doctor Fascilier, "Friends on the Other Side." Perhaps it's because it's in my voice range, or just the fluidity of the jazz beat. It's a very inviting song, deceptively smooth, but in the final lines there's this marvelous phrase that has deep wisdom with it, "You got what you wanted, but you lost what you had." A bit of a twist on the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it," but just as strong.

The song that confused me the most as to why it was on the CD was the first track. "Pink Elephants on Parade." If the pink elephants are villains, then why aren't there more villains that can be defeated with a good sleep and coffee?

"What'll we do, Batman?"

"Fetch me an espresso, Robin, and I'll show you how to handle these Pink Elephants!"

That would be way too anticlimactic.

On with the SNOW

For those of you who have been following my Movie Project post, I want to say thank you for reading. This has been a bit of a challenge for me, and I plan to continue throughout the year.

Next, I would like to apologize, because today I will not be posting a project entry about my daughter's reaction to media, be it movie, television, or video game. Although I did pick up a CD at the library that had covers of Disney songs, and she liked the version of "Bare Necessities" by Bowling for Soup.



I felt this would be the perfect opportunity to relate the fact that I don't spend all my time indoors with my daughter sitting in front of the television. In fact this past weekend, I rented some snowshoes for everyone in my family who can walk, namely myself, my wife, and Erini. It would be rather pointless to get some for Bronwyn as she hasn't yet figured out crawling. Though she just recently figured out rolling over! She still working on perfecting it, but she's making progress.

My memories of snowshoeing with my dad were vastly different than how it went with my daughter. First, I rented some MSR snowshoes, which are much different than the regular snowshoes that are almost as wide as they are long. But there was less of a chance of catching your feet on the snowshoes and falling over. Though Erini did plenty of that. It got to the point that she would fall over on purpose just so I would come over and pick her up!

There was plenty of snow to walk in, even though we were only in the backyard. Edmonton and area has received the heaviest snowfall in thirty years, so the 45cm of snow in the past three weeks has caused havoc on the roads, and created pristine fields to go mucking around in. On Saturday, once Erini was down for the night and Bronwyn was resting, making it easier for Grandma and Grandpa to hold down the fort, my wife and I did a moonlight snowshoe. We had quite the fun, though we were only out for 45 minutes. When we got back, I could feel the perspiration beading on my forehead. No wonder traditional Inuit diet is mostly fat! If I was walking around all day, everyday wearing snowshoes, I would need to eat like that too!

Other winter activities my daughter enjoys is sledding. Our first run of the season back in December was rather lack-luster, since it was all powder on the hill. No base. Once I had packed down the hill a bit with a few failed attempts, things went along much better! By the time I had accomplished this, Erini had figured out that the slides are much fast when they're cold, and was zipping down the long slide quite quickly. Quite understandable since the coefficient of friction of cold metal on polyester is minimal.

Well, I have had my snow day, so tomorrow I hope that I'll finally be able to sit down and watch Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum!

Movie Project - Day 21: Red Skelton

Due to a very busy evening, I did not have the one hour forty three minutes required to view Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum. Therefore, that has been pushed to tomorrow night. In its place, I watched an episode of the Red Skelton Show with my daughter.

I'm starting to wonder if she likes watching these shows and movies with me simply because she gets to spend time with me, or because she get to eat popcorn while watching it. In any case, I'm not sure how much she understood in the episode since much of the jokes were quite clever, for example when Clem (Skelton) and his father are trying to figure out what exactly is the black, gooey stuff on their property, the father remarks, "It's kind of oily, isn't it?" Clem's response: "No, it's about noon." I had to think about that one for a moment, and I believe the only reason Erini laughed at the joke was because I was laughing.

The physical comedy cracked her up to no end. Whether it was falling down on his face, or ripping his pants, she found all the exaggerated actions very funny, as did I. How can you not find someone tripping over a carpet funny? If you're the one the tripped you find it funny in hindsight, but some visual gags appeal to all ages.

I'd like to say that it's a shame that Red Skelton died, but he lived a very full life, and had an extensive career in the entertainment industry. Of course the most well known thing he did was The Red Skelton Show, and I look forward to watching more episodes with my daughter. Although some of the jokes involve a knowledge of the current events of the times, I'm very pleased to say that I don't need to worry about my daughter repeating anything about the show. Not so with current television. I do love watching Castle and CSI:NY, but I can't sit down and watch that with her now. I used to, and the medical information for shows like House and Bones gave me a bit of motivation to teach my daughter the names of her bones, such as phalanges, metatarsals, metacarpals, tibia, fibula, patella, and femurs. Little did I know the bone knowledge came in handy when she saw Tangled. "Though I do like breaking femurs/ you can count me with dreamers/ 'cause way down deep inside I've got a dream."

Not sure if she quite understood the song, but we're working on that too.

Again, this entertainment is from a different time, when being edgy was kissing on screen. I know that my daughter is not going to be innocent forever, but if I can extend that window of time a little bit longer, then maybe she won't grow up so fast. Perhaps I'll be able to blink my eyes twice before she asks to drive the car, instead of just once.

Movie Project - Day 20:Race for you Life, Charlie Brown!

A few days ago, we broke out some new toothbrushes for Erini. Nothing unusual about the soft bristled and brightly coloured brushes featuring cartoon characters, save one small detail. Erini did not recognize the character, which made me question my parenting since it was a Snoopy toothbrush! My daughter did not know about Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown, or anyone else in the Peanuts gang.

I somewhat felt like I had failed as a parent and was in danger of losing my 'Daddy' status and be relegated to being a 'Father.' Perish the thought!

I resolved to remedy this and scoured my in-laws movie collection to find some sort of Peanuts feature. Lo and behold, I found 'Race for your Life, Charlie Brown!' If we had got those brushes out last month I would have looked through the TV listings and watched 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' with her. Unfortunately, that program will not be aired on TV for at least ten months, so I made do with what I had on hand.

Erini complained at first, but after she curled up on my lap with some popcorn, we were good to go. This was once again a venture into virgin territory for me, as I had again selected a film that I had not seen before. I am hoping this begins to produce better results, because the results were similar to Asterix Conquers America.

Peanuts characters have always had a special place for me, so this was a fresh taste of nostalgia, if that is such a thing. Every minute Snoopy and Woodstock were on the screen, it was sheer elation at the whimsy and silliness that emanated from those two ingenious, yet silent, characters.

My daughter must have an appetite for mayhem, because her favourite part was when, "Everyone crashed." It was rather comical watching the bullies constantly crash or get their boat stuck during the raft race, and it was all the better when Snoopy gave the bullies' cat what was coming to him at the end of the movie. She was also giggling at Snoopy and Woodstock's antics throughout the show, and she was very happy when Woodstock built his own little raft out of twigs and a leaf to sail across the finish line and win the race.

While this movie could be picked apart with all the inconsistencies and lack of explanations, I did my best to overlook them and enjoy it all. But what irked me was the snow. From what I could gauge, the camp was in the middle of nowhere, and at first it seemed it was a desert, but then they were in the mountains where the river rafting race took place. It would be logical to assume that the camp took place in the summer, and while I have heard of some summer camps experiencing snow, it's extremely rare, and the temperatures don't drop quite that far. Also, is the snow dropped to the point that people started thinking about getting a Christmas tree instead of the race which the entire show is about, you would think more about basic survival against the elements, which was not mentioned very little. When Charlie Brown exclaims his disgust that the girls are thinking about getting a Christmas tree instead of finishing the race they were in, I echoed his sentiments by saying, "Finally, someone said it!"

The plot hole cabin is not explained as to who owns it, or if it was abandoned. I kept expecting the proprietor to show up, but the only character to knock on the door aside from the Peanuts crew was a bear who ran away when Snoopy freaked out at him. Perhaps this cabin was inspiration for Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez. I was also a little annoyed by the lack on consistency with the layout of the cabin. When Snoopy first enters the dark cabin, his foot goes through a plank in the floor. This made a substantial hole in the floor, but later on during the dance scene, it is completely ignored. Although the hole is still in the background, Snoopy and Peppermint Patty dance right on it, but don't fall in. I was secretly hoping they would and had a chuckle at the top of my throat, but to no avail.

Sometimes I envy my daughter who can just watch the movie and not worry about the parts that make no sense.

I'm going back to something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: A Comedy To-(morrow)-night!
NOTE: Although I have both on hand, I'm putting on Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum, not the Muppet Show Season 1.

Movie Project - Day 19: Asterix Conquers America

This was quite the unique experience for me. Usually I watch a movie with my daughter that I've seen before, and that I've enjoyed immensely. Something that I know would be a good movie for her to see and contribute to her film education. Asterix Conquers America was a bit of a departure from those characteristics.

First, I had not seen this feature previously, but had read the book it was based on. This animated feature was on par with the book in terms of character representation and storyline then added to it rounding out the story a bit more, but that's not really a good thing. The book itself was alright, but not the best, with a paper thin plot and character depth to match. Asterix stories usually have a bit more weight and a lot more comedy.

Second, I wanted to like this movie, I really did, and I really tried. The DVD itself was hard to watch because the dialogue was rather difficult to understand and there were no subtitles. Not even French subtitles, which surprised me since it is a French film. Only with the volume cranked to a less than comfortable level did I finally convince myself that this really was an English track, since some of the characters had ridiculous accents, like-a thee Ita-li-ano Centurian who kept referring to his Legionnaires as various pastas and meats. *Wince* Even though the commander was one of the antagonists that you're supposed to hate, I just couldn't wait for his scenes to be finished, and when Obelix threw him across the forest I had a small desire to cheer.

Rini was quite happy to be watching the movie no matter how silly things got and how disjointed the characters seemed. Even the music, which I found to be rather disconnected to say the least, my daughter seemed to enjoy. When the credits rolled a steady techno song started playing to which she got up, started dancing, and encouraged me to join in.

I attest most of her good behaviour to the popcorn she ate during the movie. Food tends to help her calm down, especially since I vetoed her idea to watch "A Bug's Life." I was very happy that she wanted to watch a Pixar movie, but for the next little while I'm going to try to focus on movies that are not animated and/or not Disney.

The schedule I have right now is as follows:
Jan 18 - Race for your Life, Charlie Brown! (My daughter does not know Snoopy. If I do not correct this, I fear I will fail as a father.)
Jan 19 - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Jan 20 - Red Skelton
Jan 21 - Abbott and Costello: Jack and the Beanstalk
Jan 22 - Brigadoon (This was the first musical I saw, not counting Sound of Music or any Disney movies, and it got me hooked on them)

I look forward to your comments!

Movie Project - Day 18: STOMP Live

With my daughter's interest in music and general noisemaking, I figured she would appreciate STOMP Live. If you gauge appreciation by the amount of time that she sat still and watched, then she appreciated most of the production, and none of the special features.

One of the reasons she might have been a little bored with STOMP is due to the fact that it's not animated, but the outfits the cast sported were not all that glittery and glitzy. Granted the performers create their own characters, complete with outfits, so STOMP continues to change and evolve as the years progress.

I had seen some previous productions of STOMP and have always enjoyed their passion and energy. This DVD had a couple of new numbers, such as the sinks (Rini thought it was funny when they were draining them into the cans), the sand scraping (Rini exclaimed that they were making a mess), and the newspapers. (Rini thought they were being silly, and one guy was quite the screwball)

Whether Rini fully appreciated the mixture of rhythm, dance, and music that was produced from this organized chaos I'm not sure. On the other hand, I could see her enjoying this later on when her attention span is long enough to be measured in minutes rather than nanoseconds.

Yet STOMP is a very engaging production. You have people using all sorts of materials to create a musical production, like matchboxes, and every number uses something different. Then again, perhaps that's where the difficultly lies. So much change, and it's a bit of an overload on the senses.

I would love to watch this again with her, but I wouldn't bring this on a road trip. Then again, there would be no annoying songs to sing.

Movie Project - Day 17: The Day The Earth Stood Still (

This is probably the oldest movie that I sat down and watched with my daughter, and to my surprise, this was also Grandma and Grandpa's first time watching it too. Caitlin had only seen bits and pieces, and with all the fuss that Bronwyn was making, it was no different today. I was the sole person who had seen the 1951 version beginning to end.

I had to do my best to keep my mouth shut, even when my mother-in-law flat out asked for spoilers. If she had seen the movie before, I would have no problem reminding her what happened. I've had enough trouble with giving spoilers about the movie while watching it.

I'm not sure if Rini fully absorbed what was going on due to a few reasons: 1. The movie relied on exposition to move the plot, 2. The movie was completely done in black and white, yet she did pay attention to it for the more part, and 3. We started watching the movie about a third of the way into it.

One of the great things I love about this movie is how it portrays interplanetary beings. Klaatu was able to intermingle with the general population because he looked like s regular human being. That's one of the things I strongly believe. Meeting an alien from another planet would be much like meeting someone from outside your country, or from another side of the world. When I was in Greece, some things seemed rather alien to me. I can only imagine how people would have thought of me.

Even living in Quebec can seem a little alien to other Canadians. Different language, different traffic laws, different standards of courtesy, and different tax laws. One of the few places I have heard of where they actually have a tax on tax.

Though, Rini did see the end where Klaatu tells everyone that they need to get along or Earth will be annihilated, but I'm not sure if that's the thing that she'll remember. I know that I'll mark this day as the first time Rini heard the words "Klaatu barada nikto" in their proper context. Three of the most well known words is the history of science fiction, probably due to the fact that it's never mentioned what the phrase actually means.

Would I watch this again with Rini? Definitely. It's a great classic film and a masterpiece of science fiction. I've considered trying to find a copy of it, and came rather close to purchasing a copy of it. The only reason I didn't was because I didn't want to have a copy of the 2008 remake. Back in 2009, the original was bundled with the remake, and I saw it a waste of money. Perhaps I was callous in my decision, but time will tell.

What are you looking forward to?

Taking a break from the Movie Project, I'm going address one of the post a day topics, "What are you looking forward to?" A bit of an ambiguous question, because it doesn't specific the terms of how far forward we're talking about. At the same time, Cornelius Robinson's motto of "Keep Moving Forward" are wise words.

In the short term, I'm looking forward to the Meet, Tweet, and Greet this Saturday. This event is looking be a great gathering of writers throughout the city, and who knows, might give me some good job leads. At the very least, it will serve as inspiration to continue writing, even when I feel horribly tired and worn. Plus, I've wanted to meet Marty Chan for years now. I love his submissions to the Edmonton Journal!

Along the longer stretch, I'm looking forward to news from my boss regarding his old computer. He said he was upgrading and would no longer require his old computer, and said he'll let me know more details about letting me have the old rig once more details appear. One of those details would be the new computer. I haven't heard anything as of yet, but things have been a little crazy around the office.

Still, if I do get the old computer, I might donate it to my friends the Kerns. They got a Mac Mini for Christmas, an older one circa 2005, with a 1.25Ghz G4 processor with 512MB RAM. It's currently running OS 10.3.9 aka Panther, which is good. If it was 2005. In this day and age, the most current OS is Snow Leopard, OS 10.6.3, which is available for $35 at the Apple Store. Which I got for their computer, since their poor like churchmice. All you Mac champions are either snickering at my frustration or gasping at my stupidity, as I set the startup disk for a network connection amoung other silly things. I'm starting to think the easiest way to fix their computer problems would be with another computer! In order to get their Mac Mini in a better operating condition, it would require an upgrade to Tiger, which was released in 2005, and was replaced with Leopard in 2007. Snow Leopard has been released in the meantime, and Lion is going to be gracing us all soon. So where do you get Tiger legally? It's starting to look like you don't. I'm looking forward to when they'll have a computer that just works.

I can think of a number of movies that I'm looking forward to, along with Rini's fourth birthday, she'll be into the triple digits! (in Binary) And I'm also looking forward to swimming with her more and more, especially since she's taking lessons. Is she going to be a world class athlete? Eh, probably not, but she could. In any case, swimming is one of those things that's good to know, and could save your life one day.

With a little baby in the house, a couple of things I look forward to with her. Namely, I look forward to when she'll sleep somewhere other than our room, and I also look forward to when I don't have to worry about her waking in the middle of the night. Whenever that will happen.

In the very near future, Caitlin and I might be moving our family to a place of our own, something we've both been very much looking forward to! Leduc housing recent had an opening in Beaumont, and Caitlin went to see the apartment today. Yes, there are apartments in Beaumont, 2 bdrm, and it would be on par with the apartment we had when Rini was born. The main difference is there is a storage locker, which cuts down on the square footage of the actual apartment, but still makes for about the same amount of storage. Rent will be affordable, and when we have another child, we'll be able to apply for a larger unit. Assuming that child is a boy. And assuming we have another child.

Last but not least, I'm looking forward to sleep. Or a nap. Or just an extended blink.

Movie Project - Day 16: Kirby's Epic Yarn

This time I am REALLY bending the definition of Movie Project, since Kirby's Epic Yarn is not even a movie. It's a sidescrolling platformer for Nintendo Wii, and the reason I have put it in with this series, is because to my daughter it was a movie. She never played it, she just watched me play it. Plus all the cut scene cinematics are narrated with a children's story book voice. Hence, I thought it was the perfect game to play with Rini. All the characters are made of yarn, and they don't die, they just get unwound. And Kirby makes the cutest sounds.

Plus, since Kirby is made of yarn, he can transform himself into all sorts of things: a car; a heavy weight; and Rini's favourite, a parachute. With the aid of various power ups, you can also transform into a tank, train, snowboarding penguin, digger, spaceship (than can suck up enimies), and even a dolphin. It's a lot of fun, and quite challenging at times. It's not an impossible game, but there are some elements that can be very frustrating.

Rini didn't know this, but getting the car going was a bit of a pain. I'm used to the Mario side scrolling controls, but if you try pressing 1 in order to go faster, you're in trouble. What you do is tap the direction arrow either left or right twice. The parachute was easy, You just jump then press 2 once more and hold it. I think it was the 'pop' sound that Rini really enjoyed. She would always giggle when I did that!

The game does have it's replayability factors, such as the mini games that you can access once you furnish the apartments for the sprites that are looking for places to live. Yes, you can do interior design in this game. Change wallpaper, flooring, even do reupholstering with over one hundred types of fabric. I only got about half of them, but once I beat the final boss, I didn't really want to go back through all the levels and get the Gold Medal status for each one, and gather all the furniture items, and get through all the mini games just to have 100% completion on every element of the game! It would have been fun to do the bell ringing, but it was enough just to get all the cinematics. Once you achieve 100% in a certain category, a bell appears above the section counter. Once you have everything at 100% you have a full C scale of bells, which is fun to ring and play music. But it you want to play music on the Wii that bad, go get Wii Music. Or better yet, play an instrument!

The boss fights tended to frighten Rini somewhat, but she is a bit of a drama princess, but she always enjoyed watching the parts of Patch Land get sewn together with the magic yarn. My favourite cinematic was the cake eating contest. I didn't mind the children book narration, and it actually gave me the idea to record a reading of a children's book myself.

I can see some older people getting annoyed with the cinematics, but I can also see them enjoying the craziness of the levels. It is a bit of a challenge to get absolutely everything in this game, but to clear all the levels and see how the story plays out isn't quite as tough.

Rini wouldn't know either way, but she had a lot of fun, and if there was another game of similar epic nature that could also teach my daughter shape recognition like the furnishing jobs did, I would welcome that.

Besides, after Rini was watching me play Zelda:Twilight Princess, and she got caught up in the wolf attack action by shouting, "Kill him! Kill him!" I got a little worried. Mario Kart and Kirby are great staples now.

And Rabbids.

Movie Project - Day 15: Shaun the Sheep

Cheating a bit for this one, since the DVD set we have is a collection of the First Season episodes of the series. But it is a spin off of a character introduced in another famous Aardman production, A Close Shave. Shaun the Sheep is just that. A sheep in a farmer's herd in some place off in the in hinterlands of the British Isles. It's a fair bet that it's somewhere in England, but I have to watch all the episodes to be sure about that.

One of the big draws for my daughter in liking this series is the simple fact that the episodes are short. Every episode is about 5 minutes in length, and you might think they're trying to make a quick buck by recycling animation and just churning out dross. Not so. First off, I would imagine they have the average run time at 5 minutes because the entire production is done the same way as most all other Aardman productions (with the exception being Flushed Away) as they are done via Stop Motion. Making puppets and clay figures and having them animated one cell at a time. Really is quite a marvel, and Shaun tends to have quite the interesting adventures encased in the five minutes. Are they something that would make you rethink how the world works? Not really. Are they funny? Very much so! The episodes are riddled with gags which are quite easy to understand since only the title song has any words. Shaun and his flock all communicate via bleating, yet there is enough intonation that you can understand when they're happy, frustrated, angry, or sad. Even the farmer doesn't talk, but rather has his own method of mumbling. His loyal herding dog ensures the sheep tow the line, but sometimes he needs help from Shaun to make things work in the end.

It's a very interesting watching the forces of the barnyard play out amoung themselves, though it's curious to note the animals alternate between ambulating on four feet and two. Upon reflection, the two feet position is taken when they are trying to be more authoritative or be anthropomorphous. Such as when the dog is charged with bathing the sheep, yet there's no hot water. A duck lands in the water and freezes solid, but the dog persists to get the sheep in. Shaun takes command at this point and subtly shoos the sheep back from the water. The sheep then hatch a plan to drain the farmer's tub which is full of hot water. This ridiculous plan involves making a hose out of bits they find in the junk pile, and one sheep climbing a utility pole, in full technician's gear as well, and hooking into the phone line with a line testing phone. The sheep with the phone dials the farmer's house, and pulls the farmer away from the bath. In order to dupe the farmer to stay on the line long enough to drain the tub, the sheep holds the phone in front of a bird sitting on the wire, who then chirps incessantly until the farmer hangs up the phone in frustration and bewilderment. Meanwhile, the tub has been drained – or rather siphoned – dry leaving the farmer without a bath, and the sheep then have a pool party in the livestock washing basin.

Where they got the martini's, I do not know. Probably the same place they found the technician's helmet and belt that fit sheep. A show like this, you don't ask questions, you just take it in. It's silly, it's fun, and if you try to take it seriously, just watch something else.

Movie Project - Day 14: Tangled

I am cheating a little on this one, as Erini and I went and saw this 21 December 2010. My memory on everything that happened might be a bit fuzzy, but my daughter loves to talk about her favourite parts, characters, and just the movie in general. So, maybe not. All the same, SPOILER ALERT!

This poster was the best one I could find to feature in this entry because it features all of Erini's favourite characters. First, Maximus, the Captain's horse who later becomes the commander of law enforcement. Not sure what his rank was in the end, but he was saluted with frying pans, something that I'm sure he put into regulations. Exactly how a horse that cannot speak would put forward regulations, but we're also dealing with a time period where 99% of the population was illiterate. Also it's Disney and more importantly, Hollywood. Just forget it and enjoy the show.

Second, Pascal, Rapunzel's chameleon who is a good sport to all her antics and activities that she does to stave off boredom and make the time pass. Whenever we read her animal book, Erini makes it very important to point out the chameleon. She's starting to call it a chameleon instead of Pascal, but that's just how much she likes this character. I figured she would think he was funny, but when he poked Flynn in the face with his tail, she was sold. Poking is an inside joke for our family. Poke to the face, even funnier. So there you go Disney. You want another memorable character? Make sure they poke people.

I'm not sure how Erini felt about the villains/bad guys, but when Rapunzel and Flynn enter The Snuggly Duckling, she was a little scared and wanted to leave the theatre. Think quickly, since I had seen the movie before, I told her they were going to sing a song right away. To that she replied, "Okay," and sat down. I was relieved that she calmed down, because although we were at the 2D Tuesday screening, it was still a little pricey to go to South Edmonton Common. "I've Got a Dream" was a very fun number that Rini enjoyed as much as I did. But they were not the antagonists. The twins, who I think bear a very strong resemblance to Kay from Sword in the Stone, were kind of mean and wicked, and made for good contrast to Flynn's demeanor.

However, Donna Murphy's performance as Mother Gothel was the show stealer. Taking quite a departure from the roles I remember her from in Spider-Man 2 and Star Trek:Insurrection, she plays a very strong antagonist. The term villain seems a little strong, until you think about the fact that she has lied to Rapunzel all her life, just to keep the healing abilities of the flower to herself. And not just for a week or two, but eighteen years. You could wear out a thesaurus looking up all the words to describe a person like that, but here comeuppance was quite the surprise.

Most Disney Villains meet their demise by, what I like to refer to as, the "Disney Fall." First met by the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, lightning strikes the cliff she was standing on, and she falls to her death. Though we are not given any evidence of it. Oddly enough, this was brought to my attention in a promotional book for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which the villain, Judge Frollo, falls to his death into a lake of molten lead. Ouch. After that, I noted all the other villains that meet their fate through the "Disney Fall." Gaston from Beauty and the Beast; Clayton from Tarzan; Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (she does get hit with the sword first, but then falls over, then off the precipice they were fighting on); Rourke from Atlantis-The Lost Empire. The list goes on.

The very interesting thing about Mother Gothel's end is that it is handed by the animal sidekick. Usually the main character is involved, or the secondary characters. In this case, once Flynn/Eugene cuts Rapunzel's hair, Mother Gothel has met her end. Normal fare for Disney, but the character that seals her fate is Pascal. He take a bit of Rapunzel's cute and magic-less hair and trips Mother Gothel as she's stumbling around the room. This causes her to lose her balance and sends her falling to her doom, ending with an empty robe at the bottom of the tower. She had long wasted away, and the magic of the flower was her only anchor to the world. Though she put on a wonderful act to show that she cared for Rapunzel, she really only cared about the flower. She had nothing else to live for. Once that was gone, so was she. So was it truly a "Disney Fall?" The fall was not her end, but it was the final nail in the coffin, so I would say yes, but it was a very good version of the "fall."

Will this be going on the 'Must Own' list? Most definitely, but the question is which combo pack? Goodness knows that by the time it's released for home viewing, there will be the 3D Blu-ray combo pack with the 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD, AND the digital copy. If that's the only version available, then yes, I'll get that. If I can get a version without the 3D, and it's cheaper, then I'll go with that. Knowing me, I'll probably scour the internet to find a coupon for the 3D combo pack. But that's something that we'll address at length.

I was hoping to get through this without using a pun like that. Nuts.

Movie Project – Day 13: The Jungle Book (1967)

Not every movie is artful and inspiring like Fantasia, but Disney can convey some simple stories to the screen in a very intriguing and memorable way. The animated adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's collection of stories is one of my earliest purchases, if you could call it that. I received this movie free with my purchase of the Platinum Edition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I was considering getting 101 Dalmations instead, and I knew there were some people buying multiple copies of Snow White just to get all the movies they could. There were eight possible movies to choose from when you pre-ordered the Platinum Edition, Disney Store exclusive offer. I'm assuming they don't do the free movies anymore because of the demand they had for the first one. I could be wrong.

Regardless of what Disney decided to do, the disc is very limited in features. The special features are reduced to film recommendations, and the only other audio tracks are the French and Spanish versions. I was pleased that they did have the English subtitles, but that was all. It is a very bare bones disc, but I got what I paid for I suppose.

Not to say that Erini didn't like the movie, quite the contrary. She enjoyed it thoroughly, and even got up and danced during "I Wanna Be Like You." Go figure that my little monkey of a girl enjoyed the monkeys the most. Baloo was also one of her favourites, and who doesn't like "The Bare Necessities," I ask you? Most especially Baloo bore a strong resemblance to Grandpa Tolley, and this wasn't just my imagining. When we informed him later on that we watched this movie, he put on a short performance of petulance that we did not invite him to watch. He then told us that he and Baloo were kindred spirits, or something of that sort, and he did a bit of Baloo's back scratching dance that was spot on.

Will Rini ask to watch this movie again? Maybe. If we mention the monkeys, I can see her asking again, and if we leave the disc out, I'm sure she would remember it.

Though the disc does not have a lot of special features, I'm not that sore about it. The audio is Dolby 2.0, as opposed to the 5.1 remastered track for the 40th Anniversary Edition released in 2003, but the music and performance of the characters still rings true and was quite level for the entirety of the film.

I still find the vultures to be my favourite part of the film.

Movie Project – Day 12: The Sword in the Stone

On a snowy day, what better movie can you think of that teaches the importance of brain over brawn. However, it was also Sunday, and watching a movie that features sorcery and wizardry as the main elements of the plot would seen as a poor choice of film for today. I find solace in the fact that I'm educating my daughter in the history of animated film, and not forcing a perfect piano performance out of her. That'll be for next week. Maybe. Though Rini is starting swimming lessons this week, so that gives us something for her to excel in and a channel for my wife and I to push her extreme limits and heap our aspirations of her competing in the 2024 Olympics Games.

Oddly enough, that segues rather nicely into the movie we watched today. Here you have this little kid, 10 maybe 12 years old as Merlin puts it, and he goes through all sorts of rigors to get an education about how the world works. Wart has no idea what this is all about, and Merlin doesn't either. All Merlin knows is that educating this child is a very important thing, and he keeps pushing him to learn. It's done in a very entertaining and enjoyable way, but then again the movie is not even an hour and a half in its runtime. Not much time to show how rote repetition makes for an excellent education.

Rini's favourite part was the Wizard duel. I was quite pleased that she knew the names of most of the animals involved in the Merlin and Madame Mim's manic morphing. Ending the duel with a crazy illness had Rini giggling pretty hard too. Wait. I take that back. Rini's favourite part would have to be the squirrels. Aside from doing our Doug impersonations, she just loved how they played with each other, and you do have to admit they do look rather cute.

The animation style is very similar to other 1960's Disney films, and the you can see where some clips were recycled. Perhaps it was fixed for the remastered version that was released a few years ago in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the film. The version I have is a part of the Gold Collectio and it has some uneven audio in places, such as when Arthur (the fish) is being chased by the massive pike. But the story still carries just as well as the day it was released into theatres.

The special features bored Rini pretty solid, even though it was about the songs in the movie. But the two shorts included on the disc, A Knight for a Day and The Brave Little Tailor had her attention fixed for the entirety of fifteen minutes. That's the problem with shorts. They're short.

To think that Rini may not remember these movies when she's older has crossed my mind, but then it was just be a new experience for Bronwyn when she's about Rini's age. Then Rini can remember what it was like to watch a movie with her sister for the first time.

Truth be known, Bronwyn did watch the movie with us, and she was awake for the entire time, but if she is ever stretched out on a psychiatrist's couch someday, I doubt she's going to tell about how watching “The Sword in the Stone” ruined her chance for ever achieving happiness in her life. If anything, I would hope that she would have a subconscious adoration for the movie because she was able to watch it with her daddy.

Describe a recent Aha! moment

Continuing with the post a day challenge, it was pondering for some time just what was meant by an Aha! moment. A few came to mind, some sillier than the rest.

First: Wife's Christmas present.

A week before Dec 25, and like a typical husband, I had not got Caitlin her Christmas gift yet, because I simply didn't know what to get. Then I was watching a trailer for the upcoming Thor movie.

After showing the clip to my wife, she told me that she was very much looking forward to that movie since Thor was her favourite Marvel character. We have been married for seven and a half years, and that was the first time I heard that come out of her mouth.

She then went on to explain that it's part of her heritage, since she is part Swedish. Nothing mentioned about the the physique that would make Isaiah Mustafa look like a ninety pound teenager, but I'm sure she has some kind of reserve for that some where. Or the hair. Or maybe the beard? She has mentioned she likes me with a beard.

Now my mind is reeling. My wife has a favourite comic book hero. I must capitalize on this! I could get a compendium, or individual issues, or some kind of collectible figure or bust. Heroclix? Nothing seemed to work though. The only idea that held any ground was getting gift certificates to see the movie when it comes out later this year.

Then we went to my office Christmas party at Jubilations Dinner Theatre. After seeing what happened with the two people from my office who had birthdays within a week of the party, Caitlin and I had a conversation that was something like this:

Caitlin: "We need to come here for my birthday."
Me: "And my birthday?"
Caitlin: Nodding "And our anniversary."

It didn't come to me immediately, but soon enough, the Aha! moment finally hit me like a ton of bricks. Season Tickets! A little bit of investigation and I found that they indeed did have season tickets available, and they were reasonably priced. The only catch is that the cheaper tickets were only for tickets on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. That worked out well, since in 2011 Caitlin's birthday is a Wednesday, our anniversary is a Tuesday (dark day for Jubilations, so the closest day would be a Wednesday), and my birthday is a Sunday. Though we might go on a Wednesday or Thursday. This was an idea that sounded really, really good, and felt right. The only thing that was holding me back was the price. If we went ahead with this, it would be the third most expensive thing I would have ever purchased for my wife.

What were the other two? Well, not counting the car, as it is something that's used by the whole family, and not counting our daughters, because they're priceless (as in I can't count how much money we've spent on them because that number has not yet been determined. By science.) so that leaves the two most obvious things.

1. Her wedding and engagement rings
2. Her netbook (which I use quite a bit now...)

Hence this was a bit of a big step for me. But when she opened up her gift Christmas morning, and saw those tickets, I knew I had done right.

I don't have many of those moments, but my wife says otherwise.

I still try to make them count.