New Year's In the D
Jan. 1st, 2012 01:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelSo, the most excellent spouse and I decided to ring in the new year over at Ukrainian Grandma's, which meant going into Detroit for a drinking/gunfire holiday. Trust me, this is not common practice. Anyway, we brought over our normal New Year's Eve fare: Koyaanisqatsi and Dark Side of the Moon. No, we view/listen to them while cold sober, thanks for asking. No, I don't care if they're "better" under the influence.
So, we put the bottle of spumante in the freezer (it turned into a slushie) and made use of Grandma's ancient CRT TV set, the one I got sick of in the spring of '08. I bought a new TV that year expressly to enjoy SSB:Brawl with better visuals. But we took that one with us to Dearborn, and so all Grandma has is the crappy one, which does work. It's just... small. Grandma didn't know what to make of Koyaanisqatsi, but she did try. She'll be ninety-two in a couple of weeks, so the fact that she's even trying to care about the weird stuff we bring home is pretty touching.
So, we finished the film, and played "Time" as the clock struck, and then all the explosions started outside and we hit the deck. Carpet, rather.
"Street is very quiet this year," Grandma observed about ten minutes into the year, as gunfire thundered to the left, right, and beyond.
"Yeah, it's quiet compared to Tripoli this summer," muttered my husband from his position on the floor.
We turned on SNL to pass the time while we waited out the crazy; the host tonight was Jason Segel, which threw us because we'd gone to the matinee to see the new Muppet movie today. Then six of the Muppets turned up in the middle of Segel's opening monologue, which was kind of creepy and very funny. It closed out the night in a pretty good way.
-x-
Anyway, the Muppet movie. My husband wanted to see it, badly, and I believe it was his only first-run theater experience of 2011. (I saw Captain America this summer.) It's quite good-- I just about suffocated from laughter when the 80s Robot showed up with the tray of Tab and New Coke-- but we both agreed it was too G-rated. Yes, that is a valid complaint; Muppets were edgy back in the day. Gonzo had his name for a reason. He wasn't just "weird," he was gonzo, operating on a different, death-defying plane of reality. But it was a good film, despite the creep factor of the situation, involving a grown-up human (Jason Segel) and his perennially stunted Muppet brother. Also the best thing I've seen Jack Black in, since ever. Not a fan of Mr. Black, and he got tortured in this and I liked it.
We were also subjected to the following previews:
Something with Claymation pirates. Pass.
The Secret World of Arriety-- Studio Ghibli does The Borrowers? Yes please! Not convinced by the dub job, though; what I heard wasn't bad, but it didn't seem to fit.
Brave-- WTF. Did some refugees from Dreamworks descend on Pixar? This looks like shit. Grotesque shit. And didn't anyone tell Pixar yet that their humans are creepy as fuck? Animated toys, robots, critters-- all good. Humans? YECH. Yes, it worked for the Incredibles, but those were comic-booky superhero people. Not Dung Ages Scottishy types flashing their asses in a direct nod to Braveheart. Damn, that joke was old before I met my husband, and this is our tenth New Year's as a couple. I was pretty appalled, if you can't tell.
Oh, and then we got to watch a short featuring Toy Story characters, which restored my warm fuzzies for Pixar (at least until I get exposed to Brave or anything to do with the Cars franchise). Woody is probably my all-time favorite Tom Hanks character; I swear, it's like he's real or something. And Buzz Lightyear is about the only thingTim Allen's ever, EVER done that I've enjoyed. So that was a plus.
I guess I'll do the mandatory introspective post tomorrow.
So, we put the bottle of spumante in the freezer (it turned into a slushie) and made use of Grandma's ancient CRT TV set, the one I got sick of in the spring of '08. I bought a new TV that year expressly to enjoy SSB:Brawl with better visuals. But we took that one with us to Dearborn, and so all Grandma has is the crappy one, which does work. It's just... small. Grandma didn't know what to make of Koyaanisqatsi, but she did try. She'll be ninety-two in a couple of weeks, so the fact that she's even trying to care about the weird stuff we bring home is pretty touching.
So, we finished the film, and played "Time" as the clock struck, and then all the explosions started outside and we hit the deck. Carpet, rather.
"Street is very quiet this year," Grandma observed about ten minutes into the year, as gunfire thundered to the left, right, and beyond.
"Yeah, it's quiet compared to Tripoli this summer," muttered my husband from his position on the floor.
We turned on SNL to pass the time while we waited out the crazy; the host tonight was Jason Segel, which threw us because we'd gone to the matinee to see the new Muppet movie today. Then six of the Muppets turned up in the middle of Segel's opening monologue, which was kind of creepy and very funny. It closed out the night in a pretty good way.
-x-
Anyway, the Muppet movie. My husband wanted to see it, badly, and I believe it was his only first-run theater experience of 2011. (I saw Captain America this summer.) It's quite good-- I just about suffocated from laughter when the 80s Robot showed up with the tray of Tab and New Coke-- but we both agreed it was too G-rated. Yes, that is a valid complaint; Muppets were edgy back in the day. Gonzo had his name for a reason. He wasn't just "weird," he was gonzo, operating on a different, death-defying plane of reality. But it was a good film, despite the creep factor of the situation, involving a grown-up human (Jason Segel) and his perennially stunted Muppet brother. Also the best thing I've seen Jack Black in, since ever. Not a fan of Mr. Black, and he got tortured in this and I liked it.
We were also subjected to the following previews:
Something with Claymation pirates. Pass.
The Secret World of Arriety-- Studio Ghibli does The Borrowers? Yes please! Not convinced by the dub job, though; what I heard wasn't bad, but it didn't seem to fit.
Brave-- WTF. Did some refugees from Dreamworks descend on Pixar? This looks like shit. Grotesque shit. And didn't anyone tell Pixar yet that their humans are creepy as fuck? Animated toys, robots, critters-- all good. Humans? YECH. Yes, it worked for the Incredibles, but those were comic-booky superhero people. Not Dung Ages Scottishy types flashing their asses in a direct nod to Braveheart. Damn, that joke was old before I met my husband, and this is our tenth New Year's as a couple. I was pretty appalled, if you can't tell.
Oh, and then we got to watch a short featuring Toy Story characters, which restored my warm fuzzies for Pixar (at least until I get exposed to Brave or anything to do with the Cars franchise). Woody is probably my all-time favorite Tom Hanks character; I swear, it's like he's real or something. And Buzz Lightyear is about the only thingTim Allen's ever, EVER done that I've enjoyed. So that was a plus.
I guess I'll do the mandatory introspective post tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-02 02:18 am (UTC)I didn't like the newer trailer for Brave; I was really hyped when the teaser came out and the premise was more vague, but at this point it's looking a lot like Mulan meets... idk, Shrek maybe? People are going to doubtlessly compare it to How to Train Your Dragon, but based on this trailer it looks like Dreamworks will have ended up making the more Pixar-like film, ironically enough. Although looking back, Pixar has gone pretty shameless for trailer fuel before. The WALL-E trailer made sure to include the scene where he's examining the bra, and Up's trailer skewed a lot more kid-oriented than the movie ended up being. Someone made a post somewhere about the fact that Pixar's best moments just don't lend themselves to trailers. But considering their reputation, I don't see why their marketing team thinks they still have to go that direction for the trailers. Well, I'll still see it, which is more than I can say for Cars 2.
I think Pixar's stylized human characters (Carl, the Incredibles, a few of the characters from Ratatouille) look fine-- it's when they go for a more realistic effect that it starts looking weird. Thankfully their Uncanny Valley levels have improved drastically since Toy Story 2. Or Tin Toy. That baby is the stuff of nightmares. ._.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-02 02:30 am (UTC)That's exactly what it looks like.
Up's trailer skewed a lot more kid-oriented than the movie ended up being
That's true. But there wasn't a single aspect to the Brave trailer that would make me want to pay money to see that film. Oh, a rebellious princess who doesn't want a marriage foisted upon her. How... ground-breaking. And low-brow humor. How... innovative. Oh, those wacky Celts...
no subject
Date: 2012-01-02 02:45 am (UTC)