TGIF! Well… technically it is now Saturday, but who is keeping track? So this is what I love most about the 3-day weekend – the following weekend seems to come that much sooner, and this one didn’t disappoint. Even though I worked on less day this week I still seemed pretty tired by the end of the week! Many loose ends are work are getting tied up, and I’m managing to move through a lot of my smaller-scale projects with ease. Times are good right now at work!
A few randomized thoughts about what I’ve been doing for the last few days:
Madagascar – See This Movie! I got a chance to go see it on Thursday night, and it turned out to be a really hilarious, fun movie. Granted, it was no Shrek (or Sherk 2 for that matter), but as animated movies go this one rates right up there with the best of them. There wasn’t any specific character that stole the show – but rather the movie was relatively fast paced, the humor was light and fresh, and none of the voice-overs were too annoying (although David Schwimmer did start to get on my nerves a bit by the end of the movie – but I can’t stand that guy to begin with). But overall it was a good flick.
As I was watching this movie there was a question/thought that kept coming to mind: What is the target age demographic for DreamWorks animated movies? Throughout the movie I kept thinking to myself "Geez, if I had little kids I don’t think I would take them to this movie." Is the humor that occurs in (namely) DreamWorks animated movies understood by kids? Or does it go over their heads and provide the parents a chuckle during the movie. Let me give you an example that triggered this thought. At one point in the movie Alex the Lion built a giant sign out of palm trees that read "HELP", then a few seconds later the trees fell down on the "P" so that the word "HELL" was spelled.. As I was watching that I was thinking to myself – Would a 6-7 year old have caught that? Could they read that word? What about a 4-5 year old? When I was growing up I was taught that "HELL" was a bad word. Does a kid watching this movie comprehend what just happened on screen?
Now DreamWorks animated movies don’t pretend to be a kid friendly as some of the classic Disney animated films that we grew up with – which brings me back to my original question – How old is DreamWorks target audience for this movie? How about for Shrek? If you had kids/younger siblings, how old would they have to be to go see one of these movies?
I think that Disney/Pixar animated movies differ from the Dreamworks films. While there are questionable material in films from both companies, I get the indication that Disney/Pixar attempts to be toned down to accommodate the younger kids (Monster’s Inc is a good example). I’m not sure where’d I’d place the "Incredibles".
Personally I don’t think I would take my kids to go see a Dreamworks movie until they were around 8 or 9, and at a point where I can help them understand why some of this is humorous, but also how when taken out of context can be inappropriate.
Then there’s a part of me that gets nostalgic of the Classic animated Disney films and gets sad that Disney flushed their animation division down the toilet the way they did… Outside of the Pixar stuff (which recently cut ties with Disney last year) Disney hasn’t put out a decent animated film since Lion King.
Quick question – and I mean this in the most kind-hearted, sincere and just possibly ignorant manner – Since when did people start having engagement parties?
I check my mailbox and there I find that I’ve been invited to an engagement party for a friend of mine. Now maybe it’s because I’m a guy and really have no concept of sentiment, especially about weddings – but what is the point of an engagement party? I’m glad you’re engaged – way to go for finding that special someone, but why do you have to have a party around your engagement. If the intention is that you’re in love and want people to help you celebrate the fact that you’re going to spend the rest of your life with that special someone – isn’t that what the wedding is for? You’re engaged – great! I’m happy for you, but why are we having a party about it? In my friend’s case (and this is a bit of a personal rant, so excuse me) they’ve been engaged for almost 6 weeks, and before then we knew that they were planning it two months prior to that – the rest was just a formality. Also if the wedding is in October can’t you wait to have the wedding to bring people to celebrate? Maybe I’m being cynical here, but like I said I’m not trying to be negative – I’m probably just an ignorant guy. If there really is an answer please enlighten me!
Last (and probably least)… I scratched my rent check tonight for me to drop into my mailbox, only to realize that as I’m looking at the calendar I’m not going to be living in my apartment 20 out of the 30 days this month! This is lame! Beginning Sunday night I’ll be spending the week down at my parent’s in Loveland making sure my youngest sister stays out of trouble: 8 days. Then I’m going to be at home 3 days, then on June 15th my mom, aunt and youngest sister are going to New Mexico to clean out and pack up my Grandparents’ (God rest their souls) house. Which means 10 days that I’m going to be in Loveland house-sitting for the dog & cat. Then I’m going to DC/Virginia for the Dave Matthews Concert. So I am paying rent even though I won’t be there 2/3 of the time!
Ugh… I just needed to complain about that…