Wreck it Ralph

I'm a Disney nut. I would say I'm a huge, mega Disney nut but I have met my mother and comparatively, I am somewhat of a fan. My mom has a little shrine to that cheerful mouse in her home and she spends a large majority of her free time at Disneyland. She is a mega fan. For the most part, I really enjoy Disney movies but I have to admit that in the last few years, the movies that Disney has put out without Pixar have been somewhat sub-par. "Enchanted," and "Tangled" were pretty good but otherwise, a good deal of their movies have just been forgettable. It's really a shame. I recently watched a documentary about how the Walt Disney Studios kind of lost their way after acquiring Pixar because they saw how hugely successful the Pixar style was and wanted to get a piece of the action. they fired all of their regular animators, hired all digital animators and waited for the money to start rolling in... but it didn't. They had lost the Disney heart which is what people were really looking for when they went to the movies. Yes, the Pixar style was impressive because we had never seen anything like it before but in a couple years, everyone would be doing it and how is a studio supposed to stand out then? Substance.

I am glad to say that "Wreck it Ralph," is a beautiful Disney dream marriage between the digital style and the Disney heart. The graphics are visually stunning but at the same time, you find yourself getting lost in the story. I absolutely loved the attention to details in each of the video games. Everything within the various games was true to the time and style of that game. Characters from a 1980s game didn't move in the fluid motion that the brand-spanking new game characters did. I loved that everything in the 8-bit games, stayed 8-bit. If someone spilled a drink, there wasn't a big round splash, there was a square splash! It is obvious that a lot of thought went into this movie and also a lot of time spent in the arcade. For research of course!

The voice acting was spot on. Go figure that Jane Lynch could be intimidating, John C. Reilly could play the big doofy guy with the heart of gold, Sarah Silverman could be an annoying little kid and Jack McBrayer could be the simpleton good guy with a hard on for the scary lady in the combat game. I loved the unconventional (for Disney) love story with the lady sweeping the mister off his dainty little feet.

This movie was an absolute delight even if you've never played an arcade game in your life. Although it does help with some of the jokes and references to have a love for the games. Go see it!

Hot Nerd Friday: Harrison Ford

Nerd girls, nerd gay men, you have to admit that one of your very first inappropriate nerd crushes was on one of this man's characters. I was an Indy girl first because there was a "No SciFi" rule in my house and also a "All of the Action Movies" rule. I didn't see Star Wars for the first time until I was fourteen or fifteen. But at a young age, I definitely found myself drawn to the intelligent, nerdy adventurous bad boy who was Doctor Jones. Yes, time for love Dr. Jones! This man is a cultural icon and we should all take a moment out of our day to bow down to him. Thank you, Mr. Ford. Without you, I'm sure they would have found someone far smarmier and far less charismatic to play our favorite space outlaw.

Now I have to take a moment and acknowledge the fact that when I looked Mr. Ford up on IMDB to see what he's working on now, the most recent entry reads "Indiana Jones 5." There isn't a whole lot of information about this yet. Only that both George Lucas and Harrison Ford are connected to this. I kind of feel like if this was really a project that Lucas Films was serious about, there would have been some sort of announcement during the Disney deal press conferences. I am skeptical, I am dubious. Please, please, please don't let the the secret at the end of the movie be aliens. Please let there be some sort of historically significant link instead.

Regardless of potential projects, Harrison Ford is a man I hope children look up to for decades to come and the first roguish man little nerdlets have a crush on. 

Seeking a Friend at the End of the World

This is a movie I really wanted to see in the theaters but it came out in that week over the summer where everything else came out. You remember that week? That was a good week... Anyway, by the time I made my way down my list and got to this movie, it was out of theaters and I was bummed. When I saw this movie out on dvd (I am one of the last dinosaurs who still rents things from Blockbuster. ROAR!) I was super excited! I remembered the trailer and it being super silly and tongue-in-cheek and looking great. I mean, it's a movie with Steve Carell and Keira Knightly! They're both brilliant. How could this movie be anything but awesome?

Okay, before I talk about the movie more, I want you to take a second to watch the movie trailer. Don't remember it? That's fine, I'll wait.

Sure, there are people crying and freaking out in this trailer but it seems jovial, doesn't it? I think I've figured out that the music in this trailer is what makes this trailer seem so deceptively fun. Well, here's the reality of it: aside from that one scene in Friendly's where the waitstaff are all on ecstasy, it's a major downer of a movie. It isn't fun at all. I feel like the movie focuses on the wrong things and that while it is likely that in a time of terror, people will band together, I do not think that total strangers would join up let alone fall in love. Although, I have heard that people who experience traumatic events together tend to fall in love. I think this is a severely screwed up thing but I guess it is a real thing. I also didn't like the ending. I feel like the last decision on earth that Keira Knightly's character makes was absolutely the wrong thing to do. I won't say what it was because I know some people still may want to see this movie even though I say it sucks. I'm going to guess I'm not considered an authority. Rotten Tomato gave this movie a 55% rating. In my own household, Rotten Tomato usually has more authority over movie picking than I do.

While I did not enjoy this movie as a whole, there were a few things that I did enjoy. I really appreciate that at the end of the movie, the world actually did end. There are so many movies where the punch gets pulled and everyone is acting like a crazy person for no reason. Thank you for actually killing everyone like you said you would. The other thing I enjoyed was seeing the various reactions to the news that the world was going to end. I liked seeing the people who decided this was their time to try all the things they have never tried before out of fear, morality or whatever. Also, the people who allowed fear to rule the remaining bits of their lives as apposed to those who just tried to go about their day without noticing that doom is looking over their shoulder. All of the reactions were very human.

So all in all, I give this movie a "meh." If I were you, I'd avoid it entirely unless it is your goal to depress yourself.

The IT Crowd

There are a few things about me that aren't even a little bit of a secret. The fact that I am a nerd and that I love British television. If there were a way to combine these two things it would be beyond brilliant, right? Totally right! The IT Crowd combines the wonderful, sarcastic dry wit that I know and love from British comedies and is also about the sometimes painful life of the hired nerd. I feel the pain of the people who have jobs that no one understands. It is endlessly frustrating to spend ten minutes explaining to someone what it is you do to make money and pay your bills and they just look at you blankly and say, "So computers then?" Yes, computers. I do computers. The IT Crowd has a beautiful way of showing that relationship between the "computer people" and the "normals."

Moss (Richard Ayoabe) and Roy (Chris O'Dowd) are the basement-dwelling "Did you turn it on and off again," spouting, socially awkward, comic book reading members of the IT department of a very large company. It is never really clear what the company does but that doesn't really matter. Jenn (Kathrine Parkinson) is the IT department  "Relationship Manager" who thinks that IT stands for "Internet Things," is easily convinced that the internet is housed in the tower of London and looks like a smallish metal box with a blinking red light, and asks more questions about computers than she's ever able to answer. Watching Roy and Moss try to teach Jenn how a computer works and Jenn teaching them how human interactions work is beyond delightful. With every episode, they find new common ground and the boys convince Jenn that everyone else is an idiot.

This is absolutely one of the all-time funniest shows I have ever seen. This is a show I found on Netflix that I started watching on my own and very quickly turned from a "me" show to an "us" show in my house. We rationed our episodes so that we could make it last longer. We knew there was a finite number of episodes and we really just didn't want it to end. The jokes were so smart and sarcastic and the actors handled the characters brilliantly. I later discovered that Ayoabe is not quite but almost as awkward as Moss in real life. Even so, if you know anyone with a computer job or you yourself have a computer related job, you will love this show.

The only thing that makes me sad about this show is that it is such a short-running show. I know that Doctor Who aside, British shows are famously short-running. Usually the thing that happens after a successful British show has reached its end is that the American tv networks pick it up and the show lives on for far too many seasons until it doesn't resemble the original show at all. (*ahem* The Office) This is not the case with this show. In 2007 Universal filmed one episode of the show starring Joel McHale, Richard Ayoabe and Jessica St.Claire. That's as far as it got. While the casting is great, they couldn't match the original and it died before it could take off. Because of this failure, I'm sure that an American version will never get off the ground.

So again, please go watch The IT Crowd. Please. I can never watch it again for the first time so you have to for me.

The New Star Tours

There was a time years ago in which I would go to Disneyland two or more times in a month and often for no reason at all. Often, just the act of getting out of the house was incentive enough to trek from The Valley down to Anaheim for the day. I was never one of those people who would drive for two hours just to have lunch, but I was there a lot.

In 2007, I moved out of Los Angeles County to Humboldt County 700 miles away. Since then, I haven't had an Annual Pass and I've only been to Disneyland once in that time. Three years ago. Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure have made a lot of restorations in that time! The new Main Street in DCA is beautiful, their trolley cars are adorable, the "World of Color" show is fantastic and Cars Land is pretty damn awesome.

Despite all this, there was one specific thing I couldn't wait to see: the new Star Tours. Before it had even been announced that Disney was going to acquire Lucas Films, I was working on a Star Wars skirt to wear to Disneyland with my R2 in love shirt and my Yoda training backpack. All I wanted to do was show my excitement for the renovations to an already great ride. What this outfit allowed was for Disneyland cast members to strike up conversations with me about the acquisition and what this will mean for the future of Star Wars. Even Minnie Mouse wanted to chat about this! ...after we spun around a few times to make our skirts spin.

Star Tours used to be one of the rides in the park that you went on when you were tired of waiting in lines and you just wanted to walk onto something. For the most part, the only reason people go deep into the heart of Tomorrowland (if they don't have kids who like Autopia) is to ride Space Mountain. I was at Disneyland on a Monday in November and there was a twenty minute wait for Star Tours. No, this isn't a particularly long wait if you consider that It's A Small World usually has at least an hour wait. However, considering that no one has waited in line for Star Tours in years, this is significant.

The newly renovated Star Tours opened during the summer of 2011. The new version features eight distinctly different adventures, C3P0 as the pilot, a new queue entertainment sequence and 3D effects. If I had my way, the park would have been open until midnight while I was visiting and I would have gotten to see all eight adventures and 3D effects would not have nauseated us. But the reality is that the 3D effects, while making the ride much more realistic, did nothing to help with the motion sickness. On our journey, C3P0 accidentally took our crew to the ice planet of Hoth where we crashed around snow dunes, fell into deep caverns and narrowly avoided being stomped upon by AT-ATs! And then zoom! Off to face off with Darth Vader and thousands of Storm Troopers inside the Death Star! Oh it was so exciting!

While I will always miss the old Star Tours and long for the pre-3D days, I am very pleased with the way they renovated the ride. I'm now very curious to know how long the Disney/Lucas deal has been in negotiations and if the unannounced merger had anything to do with the decision to to give the ride a facelift. You know, it could just be a total coincidence but I like to think the two are related.

So if you're at Disneyland and wondering if it is worth the wait, I'll tell you that it absolutely is. Go see what new adventures Star Tours will take you on and then come tell me about it.

National Novel Writing Month

Happy National Novel Writing Month! And also, happy one year anniversary of this blog! I started this blog last year during National Novel Writing Month in order to challenge myself to meet the word count of the contest even if I do not meet the criteria in content. No, this isn't a novel, this is just a miss-mash of all the stupid things I care about and hope other people care about as well. One of my biggest fears early on was that half way through the year, I'd get bored with writing or run out of things to write about and quit all together. While it is true that I've had some lulls in my writing this year, I have never been at a loss for things to talk about and even in those times when I am not writing, I feel guilty about it. That's something at least, right? Writing takes a great deal of discipline which I am always striving for but I don't always have. I am also prone to following my whims more often than not. Some weeks, I'll do an hour of writing every day after work and feel very proud of myself. Other weeks, I'd rather focus on knitting, baking, yoga, reading or honestly, just staring blankly at the television. But writing is a life-long struggle that I feel is worth every bit of effort.

I actually have a game plan this year to make word count. I will be writing on the blog as always but I will also be working on a bit of fiction. This is the first time I have felt the desire to write any sort of long-form fiction since high school. This is very exciting for me! At this point, I don't care if it's good or if it sucks, I just want to get the writing done. I came pretty close to making word count last year and I'm really hoping this will be the one. The only problem I foresee is that I'm going to be out of town a lot. I'm going to be gone tonight through Tuesday and then again for Thanksgiving. It is my intention to bring my laptop in the car with me and write while we drive but there has been some doubt as to whether I will actually be able to accomplish anything that way. The plus side of taking the writing on the road like that, no internet. I'm not going to say nothing is going to distract me. I am a highly distractible human. What I'm saying is that I'm going to make the effort and that's what matters.

So for all of you participating in National Novel Writing Month, good luck and I'll see you at the finish line!

Star Wars: Episode 7?

We all already know that Disney holds some of the rights to Lucas Film movies and characters. This is apparent if you go to Disneyland. Star Tours and The Indiana Jones Adventure are two of the biggest rides in the park.

Another thing we know for sure is that we've collectively pissed George Lucas off so badly, that he doesn't want to make any more films ever. He knows he can't please us and he knows we don't want him to change our favorite movies anymore than he already has.

Disney is BUYING Lucas Film! For $4.05 billion, George Lucas is handing over the rights to all of his franchises, his production companies and everything that goes along with it. George has washed his hands clean of the whole thing and is going to live out his days rolling in his piles of money and thumbing his nose at all the nerdlet's whining and complaining.

The clincher? We're getting another Star Wars movie. Currently it's just called "Episode 7." This is a Disney produced film. I'm really scared but also somewhat excited. This could be the beginning of something either great or terrible. I'm just glad George has the foresight to sell off his assets while the getting's good.

Link to original article:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/disney-buying-lucasfilm-4-05-billion-200845002--finance.html