Martha (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
magicalmartha) wrote2009-06-03 11:23 pm
magicalmartha) wrote2009-06-03 11:23 pm
Entry tags:
Stuff stuff stuff
First, a Cody update - I called the shelter today, and he has been adopted. This makes me sad, because I wanted to adopt him, but I am also happy that he has found a good home with people who love him. THEREFORE the dog search is officially on hold until I move out of my parents' house, because my mother told me irrevocably that she would Not Be Happy if we had three dogs running around again. Slap me if I talk about petfinder.com before that.
On the other hand, the apartment search is slowly kicking into overdrive. I have successfully convinced my two future roommates that our original price cap was more generous than it had to be, and indeed, we are now finding nice, dog-friendly places with on-site laundry for $200-$300 less than before. Three-bedroom places are tricky to find, though.
I went to see <I>Up</I> with my family tonight. On the one hand, I was thoroughly charmed by it. I liked the relationship between Carl and Russell, and how it evolved through the course of the movie. The animation was lovely, and the story was entertaining. I certainly loved every moment that Dug and the other dogs were on the screen - Pixar gets major points for preserving the dog-ness of them. I was pleased that, even though they could talk, they were still DOGS. It is utterly believable to me that a dog would hide under the porch to follow his master, and still manage to feel that he needed to explain that in terms of how much he loved them.
The biggest problem I had with the film was that a lot of it felt...spoonfed to me. Like Pixar didn't quite trust me to feel what they wanted me to, so they made it REALLY OBVIOUS. I don't usually feel manipulated by Pixar, and I didn't really appreciate it now - this may seem like a silly thing to say, because on one hand the point of film is to get you to feel a certain way, but what I love about Pixar films is that I feel like they trust their audience enough to react as they will to their films. <I>Up</I> felt, to me, like a step back from that.
On a slightly different level, I wasn't too fond of how predictable the trailer made the story. The story itself wasn't predictable, and was actually quite engaging, but because I had seen certain things in the trailer I had a pretty complete map of how everything would turn out in the end. There wasn't any uncertainty for me about how it would play out; I was never afraid that Carl and Russell WOULDN'T save everything in the end. That said, the ending scene with them on the curb counting cars may have been the best scene in the entire movie. I thought that was just fantastic; it was touching, and poignant without being too saccharine. It was really a lovely note to end things on.
I also didn't think it benefited very much from the 3D element, and I kinda resented having to pay the $2 extra for it. Pixar doesn't need the extra pony tricks to keep up with the competition, because they don't HAVE any - they're pretty damn fantastic and successful without it.
But like I said, Dug was phenomenal, and I loved the weird bird-thing. And its weird bird-thing babies.
Tomorrow is spinning class number two. I hope that this turns out to be as beneficial as people have told me it can be. It certainly FEELS like it's busting my ass while I'm doing it.
On the other hand, the apartment search is slowly kicking into overdrive. I have successfully convinced my two future roommates that our original price cap was more generous than it had to be, and indeed, we are now finding nice, dog-friendly places with on-site laundry for $200-$300 less than before. Three-bedroom places are tricky to find, though.
I went to see <I>Up</I> with my family tonight. On the one hand, I was thoroughly charmed by it. I liked the relationship between Carl and Russell, and how it evolved through the course of the movie. The animation was lovely, and the story was entertaining. I certainly loved every moment that Dug and the other dogs were on the screen - Pixar gets major points for preserving the dog-ness of them. I was pleased that, even though they could talk, they were still DOGS. It is utterly believable to me that a dog would hide under the porch to follow his master, and still manage to feel that he needed to explain that in terms of how much he loved them.
The biggest problem I had with the film was that a lot of it felt...spoonfed to me. Like Pixar didn't quite trust me to feel what they wanted me to, so they made it REALLY OBVIOUS. I don't usually feel manipulated by Pixar, and I didn't really appreciate it now - this may seem like a silly thing to say, because on one hand the point of film is to get you to feel a certain way, but what I love about Pixar films is that I feel like they trust their audience enough to react as they will to their films. <I>Up</I> felt, to me, like a step back from that.
On a slightly different level, I wasn't too fond of how predictable the trailer made the story. The story itself wasn't predictable, and was actually quite engaging, but because I had seen certain things in the trailer I had a pretty complete map of how everything would turn out in the end. There wasn't any uncertainty for me about how it would play out; I was never afraid that Carl and Russell WOULDN'T save everything in the end. That said, the ending scene with them on the curb counting cars may have been the best scene in the entire movie. I thought that was just fantastic; it was touching, and poignant without being too saccharine. It was really a lovely note to end things on.
I also didn't think it benefited very much from the 3D element, and I kinda resented having to pay the $2 extra for it. Pixar doesn't need the extra pony tricks to keep up with the competition, because they don't HAVE any - they're pretty damn fantastic and successful without it.
But like I said, Dug was phenomenal, and I loved the weird bird-thing. And its weird bird-thing babies.
Tomorrow is spinning class number two. I hope that this turns out to be as beneficial as people have told me it can be. It certainly FEELS like it's busting my ass while I'm doing it.