This movie was mediocre and forgettable. The original from the late 1970s was way better. Also, this movie is extremely short. The voices don't match with the originals very well and it is weird that there are clearly some moderately famous people doing classic characters voices. You can buy it to keep a 3 year old quiet but it doesn't have much value especially in comparison to the 1970s movie which is a Disney classic that launched a whole family of iconic characters.
Here is what I will remember about this movie:
It sat on my desk for a couple of days and I really needed to take it to the library so the day before I left for one of my trips I decided to run it to the library. I was hoping I could make it into an elevator without one of my coworkers seeing me because I really didn't want to have to talk about why I had it. Well, it turned out that one of the important high bosses got on the elevator with me and asked what I was returning. I told her what it was and she asked if it was good and I made a sarcastic joke and she said "Oh the things we do for our kids". Panic ensues because this lady is awesome and my bosses bosses bosses boss and I would love to work on her team so do I lie and then it is weird or do I tell her I am weird and about my quest to watch all of these movies. So I just kind of shrug it off but start talking about going back to get more and then she starts talking about how using the library is a good way to get these movie kids will get bored of and again I shrug it off. So now this high up lady thinks I have kids which is entirely not true and now I will never be successful at work because of Winnie the Pooh,
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Monday, October 20, 2014
Cross It Off: Opening a Savings Account
I started the year with two goals about money. First, was to save $300 for Christmas to lighten the burden of Christmas finance drain. Second, was to open a savings account and save a certain amount of money for the holidays. I knew early on that I should have just taken $300 from my tax refund and saved that for Christmas and called it good but I didn't and then it just got to be too late.
The second was just terrifying. I worked at a bank for years and I know all of the tips and tricks they would use to sell me things. I thought if I went to a credit union it would be easier. It wasn't. The lady who opened my account was just as slimy and saleswomanesque as they are at Chase. It was uncomfortable and she told me that I wouldn't get a fee from my bank for using a cash advance and I did.
What did I learn?
Financial stuff sucks. Banks suck. Credit unions suck. Next time, I will bring a chatty friend who will just talk to me so the banker can't ask me condescending questions. At least, I have $25 in a savings account where another $25 will go every two weeks.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
On Traveling
I got home a few days ago from my last trip of the year. This has been a jam packed year of travel so it feels a bit weird to sit in my house without a planned day for my next escape. I keep thinking about planning my next trip but then I realize I have three months of my favorite time of year ahead that I should really focus on. I also decided for many reasons to not go back home for Christmas this year and to spend the holiday here with Jake and possibly his family.
I've been to California twice, Las Vegas, Orlando, Canada and Chicago this year. I've been to both Disney parks this year (which almost made the goal list but I cut at the last minute), I've visited another country for the first time and added Illinois to my list of states I have seen. I have learned a lot about how I travel (I would rather sit in the back of the plane and on the aisle than in the front on the window.) I can also tell you that the Portland airport is the best airport in America and that O'hare is as bad as they say.
I came home from one trip filled with sadness and longing to be somewhere else. I came home from another trip missing Jake and Girlfriend so much. I loved Chicago but wouldn't want to live there. I enjoyed the people in Orlando but I resolved all my notions that maybe I should never have left (I made the right choice.) I learned that I didn't miss anything waiting to go to Vegas as an adult until now and that I need to take a break from visiting Disney parks until some new things open and the magic returns. I learned that time spent and mom and dad's house is always shorter than it seems and you can never fit it all in.
We are having one of those warm Fall days in Portland where it is sunny but I still will wear jeans and bring a sweatshirt but it is okay to just stay inside for most of the day and I can honestly say that I am okay to just be here with my little family of two plus a pup. Plus, there are a million Halloween crafts to be done, pumpkin things to bake and Christmas plans to be made.
Disney Movie Reflection: The Fox and The Hound
I went to Whole Food this morning after watching The Fox and The Hound this morning. We needed cheese and eggs so Jake could make breakfast sandwiches. The cashier asked what I had planned for the day and I said that I had just watched The Fox and The Hound and she asked if I cried. I said that I was fully prepared to but didn't and she told me about how she cried at Lion King 3D because Mufasa died so much closer to her.
As I walked the dog back home with groceries in tow, I thought a lot about the Disney moments that make us cry. Bambi's mom, the Beast on the top of the tower, Mufasa's plummet, Pinocchio face down in a puddle and of course the moment that the widow has to let Todd go in the forest. What is the purpose of the really sad Disney moments? The moments that reach out into you chest and just twist your heart? Catharsis instantly comes to mind but I think it goes beyond just having a good cry. In most instances it is causes you to intensely appreciate the important relationships in your life. To take your face and rub it in the lost of a love one and just make you sit in it for about 70 minutes. It really makes you remember what is important.
The Fox and The Hound is a layered story about found family. It is also about being lost and then found and lost and found. Maybe more importantly it is about being born into a role and having to live within it. The hound chases the fox. He doesn't befriend the fox.
I think this is why I like this movie so much for kids. It tells you that you don't have to be just what you are born to. That you can break your role. It also tells you that loss happens and shows how you can grow from it. It paints a perfect picture of the new family out of a group that doesn't fit together.
As I walked the dog back home with groceries in tow, I thought a lot about the Disney moments that make us cry. Bambi's mom, the Beast on the top of the tower, Mufasa's plummet, Pinocchio face down in a puddle and of course the moment that the widow has to let Todd go in the forest. What is the purpose of the really sad Disney moments? The moments that reach out into you chest and just twist your heart? Catharsis instantly comes to mind but I think it goes beyond just having a good cry. In most instances it is causes you to intensely appreciate the important relationships in your life. To take your face and rub it in the lost of a love one and just make you sit in it for about 70 minutes. It really makes you remember what is important.
The Fox and The Hound is a layered story about found family. It is also about being lost and then found and lost and found. Maybe more importantly it is about being born into a role and having to live within it. The hound chases the fox. He doesn't befriend the fox.
I think this is why I like this movie so much for kids. It tells you that you don't have to be just what you are born to. That you can break your role. It also tells you that loss happens and shows how you can grow from it. It paints a perfect picture of the new family out of a group that doesn't fit together.
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Disney Movie Reflection: Home on the Range
If you have been following along with my Disney reflections, you may have noticed a theme. I have a pretty specific form of animation that I really like. I like hand drawn with clean lines. I don't love the shaky hand style of the late 70s and I prefer the clean lines of the 1950s and 60s. The 80s were mediocre but I also really like the resurgence of my childhood. My least favorite this far is the bubbly computer animated form from the early 2000s.
"Home on the Range" is often cited as beginning of the modern downfall of Disney animation. "Home on the Range"was the last hand drawn film before the studio switched to fully computer animated for a time until the reverted back to hand drawn with "The Princess and The Frog". This is all to say I was expecting this movie to be a shit show. I was thinking I would walk away with another "Chicken Little".
"Home on the Range" is a pretty cute movie. It actually sticks to the classic Disney animal film roots. It has some famous people voicing animals that are trying to save their home and their human. They are funny and caring and resilient. They need to learn to work together in order to accomplish a goal. They do a great job of including a plot twist and double crossing. The humor is a little more crash than I really like (similar to "Meet the Robinsons") but it was still pretty funny.
I really loved the animation though. I have a particular fondness for the southwest and the cowboy. I love the art of the prairie and the plain and I think they did a great job of bringing it to life in an animated setting.
I think the downfall of this movie has less to do with the movie itself but more changing tastes. With everything, you can't always be on top and all 53 Disney films can't be the best but I would watch this with my niece and nephews and enjoy it. It isn't the best but it was funny and cute and touching. It just couldn't compete with the emerging love of "Shrek".
"Home on the Range" is often cited as beginning of the modern downfall of Disney animation. "Home on the Range"was the last hand drawn film before the studio switched to fully computer animated for a time until the reverted back to hand drawn with "The Princess and The Frog". This is all to say I was expecting this movie to be a shit show. I was thinking I would walk away with another "Chicken Little".
"Home on the Range" is a pretty cute movie. It actually sticks to the classic Disney animal film roots. It has some famous people voicing animals that are trying to save their home and their human. They are funny and caring and resilient. They need to learn to work together in order to accomplish a goal. They do a great job of including a plot twist and double crossing. The humor is a little more crash than I really like (similar to "Meet the Robinsons") but it was still pretty funny.
I really loved the animation though. I have a particular fondness for the southwest and the cowboy. I love the art of the prairie and the plain and I think they did a great job of bringing it to life in an animated setting.
I think the downfall of this movie has less to do with the movie itself but more changing tastes. With everything, you can't always be on top and all 53 Disney films can't be the best but I would watch this with my niece and nephews and enjoy it. It isn't the best but it was funny and cute and touching. It just couldn't compete with the emerging love of "Shrek".
Disney Movie Reflection: Meet the Robinsons
Full disclosure: I watched this movie over a month ago and haven't written about it because I didn't know what to say. Even further disclosure, I checked this movie out from the library 3 times before finally watching it.
I don't like the bubbly "Shrek" style of computer animation that this movie and a few others tried. It looks cheap and not very sophisticated. I liked the story and I liked the characters but it felt very similar to "The Incredibles" and the animation was no where near as good. In fact, the whole time I watched I couldn't escape thinking that I wish Pixar had got their hands on this script first.
There are also some issues with the humor. Disney's modern films have a learned a lot from Pixar in that their humor is tongue and cheek not over the top like Dreamworks (again looking at Shrek). "Meet the Robinsons" starts to veer into the more overt fart jokes versus hinting at something a little more adult being behind the joke and that is what makes watching "Tangled" or "Frozen" funny. If I want gross out humor, I am not going to watch a Disney movie. I will watch "We Are the Millers" or "Horrible Bosses".
"Meet the Robinsons" is a cute movie and I spent minimal time on my phone while watching it but I left feeling how I usually feel after watching a Dreamworks movie. It was good but not great. It couldn't sustain parade at Disney let alone a ride and no one would ever line up for a meet and greet with the characters from the movie.
I don't like the bubbly "Shrek" style of computer animation that this movie and a few others tried. It looks cheap and not very sophisticated. I liked the story and I liked the characters but it felt very similar to "The Incredibles" and the animation was no where near as good. In fact, the whole time I watched I couldn't escape thinking that I wish Pixar had got their hands on this script first.
There are also some issues with the humor. Disney's modern films have a learned a lot from Pixar in that their humor is tongue and cheek not over the top like Dreamworks (again looking at Shrek). "Meet the Robinsons" starts to veer into the more overt fart jokes versus hinting at something a little more adult being behind the joke and that is what makes watching "Tangled" or "Frozen" funny. If I want gross out humor, I am not going to watch a Disney movie. I will watch "We Are the Millers" or "Horrible Bosses".
"Meet the Robinsons" is a cute movie and I spent minimal time on my phone while watching it but I left feeling how I usually feel after watching a Dreamworks movie. It was good but not great. It couldn't sustain parade at Disney let alone a ride and no one would ever line up for a meet and greet with the characters from the movie.
Disney Movie Reflection: Dinosaur
I think this may be the first time I rode the Disney ride before I watched the Disney movie which is a little strange for me. Dinosaur is kind of an anomaly in the Disney catalog. It is heavy CGI animation that is really trying to look real. In fact, there are real filmed locations in this movie where they just animate the Dinosaurs into them.
Tribe Amanda told me about this thing in college called the "uncanny valley" which is a term that is required in modern society where we can get really close to replicating real life. The "uncanny valley" is the natural repulsion to something that looks like it could be real but you know is fake. It happens when CGI is of descent quality but not quite perfect enough to get us to suspend reality. It is also the same feeling you have when you see those creepy Japanese robots of women that are a little too real.
In my opinion, Dinosaur struggles because of the "uncanny valley". It is uncomfortable to see flyovers of Hawaii and then have animated Dinosaurs on top of it that are just a little too smooth. Jurassic Park has some of these same issues. When they used animatronics, it was scary and awesome but when Jurassic Park CGI animated the brontosaurus it felt weird. Dinosaur also has a good story about resilience and inclusion but it feels a little like "The Land Before Time".
Dinosaur movies are hard because there is a glut of them and it is hard to have a different story than the normal migration story. I liked this movie but it is forgettable. I have started using this the following test in regards to how good a Disney movie is; if Jake and I were babysitting his nieces and nephews or Maple would this be a movie I would be excited to show them. Dinosaur falls into "if they picked it out I would watch it again but I would never suggest it" category. On the other hand, I would definitely make them watch it if we were going to Disney World so the ride made more sense.
This entry is kind of gibberish.
Tribe Amanda told me about this thing in college called the "uncanny valley" which is a term that is required in modern society where we can get really close to replicating real life. The "uncanny valley" is the natural repulsion to something that looks like it could be real but you know is fake. It happens when CGI is of descent quality but not quite perfect enough to get us to suspend reality. It is also the same feeling you have when you see those creepy Japanese robots of women that are a little too real.
In my opinion, Dinosaur struggles because of the "uncanny valley". It is uncomfortable to see flyovers of Hawaii and then have animated Dinosaurs on top of it that are just a little too smooth. Jurassic Park has some of these same issues. When they used animatronics, it was scary and awesome but when Jurassic Park CGI animated the brontosaurus it felt weird. Dinosaur also has a good story about resilience and inclusion but it feels a little like "The Land Before Time".
Dinosaur movies are hard because there is a glut of them and it is hard to have a different story than the normal migration story. I liked this movie but it is forgettable. I have started using this the following test in regards to how good a Disney movie is; if Jake and I were babysitting his nieces and nephews or Maple would this be a movie I would be excited to show them. Dinosaur falls into "if they picked it out I would watch it again but I would never suggest it" category. On the other hand, I would definitely make them watch it if we were going to Disney World so the ride made more sense.
This entry is kind of gibberish.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)