Happy Feet & Night at the Museum

Image by koka_sexton via Flickr

SPOILERS AHEAD

Happy Feet, 2006
I didn’t recognize many of the songs and I felt

old.  The characters were all likable and it was easy to root for the tap dancing hero.

Some reviewers felt the movie was didactic but I thought the movie had done a good job of foreshadowing the humans intrusion on the penguin world.  It was emotional but not wrong.

Night at the Museum, 2006

I wonder if Ben Stiller is moving toward Serious Acting.  His character was pretty normal this time.  Owen Wilson stole every scene as the belligerent cowboy and the wimpy Octavius the Roman Centurion was great too.

It seems a shame that they dragged in Sacajawea and had her stand still for most of the movie.  I thought there were other love interests more suitable for her too.  Also, where was her baby?

Overall, it was not surprising or different but it was pleasant.

American Pop (1981)

This is the story of four generations of America reflected in the pop music of each one’s day.  Each one is a musician of some sort, although they were not that successful.

The rotoscoping really bothers people online and real people I talked to.  Surely, it’s just a primitive form of motion capture.   It didn’t bother me in American Pop as much as it did in Wizards.  It was annoying there. But in AP, everything was bright and the features of the characters didn’t blur together as much as usual.

Many people including Ms. H felt that the story was shallow and the characterization slight.  I can’t disagree with her on that.

 Nevertheless, I enjoyed this movie because it felt fresh.  There are not a lot of animated movies like it.  We’ve got Pixar movies for kids.  We have teen movies thanks to anime.  But not a lot of movies about grownup topics.  There are not many animated dramas on any level.

mystery, horror and romance books

I gave A Monstrous Regiment of Women to my mom. I thoroughly enjoyed it because of the scholarly heroine and the topic of female religious leader. My mother enjoys mysteries but she dislikes Sherlock Holmes and won’t even watch movies with his character. So, I wonder how she’ll react to it.

For Roz, I found Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I know she enjoys Meg Cabot and Blood and Chocolate and Tamora Pierce. I thought that this Buffy-esque character would appeal to her. Roz told me that the beginning seems unfocused to her.

Personally, I enjoyed it and hope there is a sequel but I thought the exposition was a bit clunky.

Aellura got Cat’s Fancy by Julie Kenner. It’s so lightweight you have to hold down the book while you are reading it. But it does have humor and fantasy, so I think it will suit her.

A New Life

Merry Christmas!  A new life, a new blog and a new year.