Penguins Anyone?

My three year old boy has become fascinated by Penguins.

I know, he's a little behind in the penguin fad that started after "March of the Penguins."

So here's the deal - does anyone know of a penguin movie/cartoon for children that doesn't include an overwhelming didactic message or is completely boring? I just doubt that he would actually sit through "March of the Penguins." (and the boring reference wasn't for that one, I found it pretty interesting and wouldn't mind watching it a couple of times a week).

He totally wants to watch penguins and I just can't stomach "Happy Feet" or "Surf's Up" one more time.

"Happy Feet" is cute and funny and cool up to a certain point. Then it gets way too preachy and didactic. I'm all for didactic, don't get me wrong. But if you are going to go that route, it really needs to be more subtle and less in your face. My two little ones love it for the music, and I love the music too. That much is OK for the adult crowd, as well as the little ones who love to shake their booties while watching their cartoons. But when it turns? Lets just say it gets ugly. And I just can't stand the whiny nature of it. Can they just re-make it and cut out the second half?

And as far as "Surf's Up" goes? Boring. I stop watching within the first few seconds. I'll give it that it was trying to be original. Maybe kind of a borrowing of format from the successful "March of the Penguins." But to keep kids/adults interested, they really should have done something different. I mean sure, go for the documentary format (it is something original and unique for a cartoon), but make the cartoon action better or something. I don't know, I just didn't think it was all that great. And while my little boy wants to watch it all the time, it really only holds his interest for a few minutes. Neither of us can stick it out to the bitter end.

So Disappointed!

For the second straight season with the winner of "America's Got Talent." Boo America. OK, so Neal E Boyd was definitely not a bad opera singer, but still. Nuttin But Stringz so should have won! I was completely and utterly astounded that not only did they not win, but they came in 3rd place!! 3rd place?? C'mon America, where's your taste? Or were you just trying to be snobby and make everyone think you had some "class"?

If you didn't catch the show, check out these videos of Nuttin But Stringz. They are just so unique and super freaking talented. I would have paid to see these guys in Vegas a million times over. And, sorry, but you would have to pay me to go see Neal E Boyd in Vegas.

America's Got Talent...

My daughter and I wait anxiously for the summer return of America's Got Talent! (as we also do for Last Comic Standing). Last summer we were soooo disappointed that Terry Fater won. Ugh!! We both really loved Butterscotch! How unique and original her act was. When she didn't make it to the last two, we really liked the other guy, the singer with the wonderful voice and personality - horribly, I can't remember his name at the moment and I'm too damn lazy to go look it up.

We were both in complete shock when they announced that Terry Fater was the winner. We've seen him on commercials for the state or county fair this summer. Bummer. We're so not going to see him. How lame.

Anyway, this season has been pretty fun watching all the auditions. I'm anxiously awaiting the actual competition... it seems like they are doing more and more audition episodes. Of course that's half the fun - watching horrible acts... but it's starting to get a little old, and we've forgotten about the good acts from the first couple of shows.

What I'm really reeling about this time though is the amount of children showing up. And their ages! These children have no concept of what is going on. I think their parents should be ashamed. It's just awful that a parent would put a child up to something like that. A child should be fully aware of what is going on before they are allowed to do such a thing. Ugh. Some parents.

The other thing that I'm going to rant about here is the fact that everyone this season has some heartbreaking sob story for America about why they deserve to be the winner! It's like after the first couple of seasons they realized that more people would vote for them in the end if they felt sorry for them. It's horrible, and those people ought to be ashamed of themselves too! Sure, some stories are probably genuine, and I certainly don't mean to discount their experiences, but if they are just doing it for sympathy votes, (which I highly suspect) shame on them. It would feel so much better to win, and know that you've won purely because of your talent. Not because America felt sorry for you.

Rant on Last Comic Standing

I love watching Last Comic Standing! I look forward to it every summer when my regular season shows' finales are over.

Honestly, I enjoy watching the tryouts portion of the show, but don't get upset if I miss those episodes. After this past week's show, I will probably skip those next summer. I was quite disappointed. In the first city they were in there weren't a whole lot of comics they asked to come back that were all that great. I thought some that they chose to move on weren't that great. But when they got to Houston there were at least 7 people that were really good! I was horrified to see that they only had 2 people from that show move up! They really got that one backwards. And one of the two was one from last season that didn't make it too far. They really should have given more tickets to Houston and less to the first city (was it Hollywood? maybe it was Tuscon?). Sadly they really have no information on their website about the two shows they've had so far, so I can't fill in the blanks of what I don't remember...

I was disappointed that Ruby from Iowa City didn't make it - she was pretty funny - and from my home state :) so I was rooting for her. There were several people from Houston that I was disappointed they didn't make it. They should almost just take everyone who is actually funny. A majority are just awful. Some of them you wonder why they are even bothering to wait in line to try out.
Hopefully next weeks show is better.

Alvin!!??!!

I am a huge Jason Lee fan. Before that I was/am a huge Kevin Smith fan! Of course I was led to becoming a Jason Lee fan by his appearance in Kevin Smith's "Mallrats" and "Chasing Amy." After those films I will watch, and have watched anything and everything with Jason Lee. I identified his voice right away in "The Incredibles" and was thrilled to death, especially since I end up having to watch that one at least a couple times a week with my toddler. And I almost forgot about his voice being in "Monster House" - that one is still just a tad too scary for the boy... but I throw it in every once in a while... He has a wonderful voice for animation.
Then came "My Name is Earl," which I absolutely adore! It was on my must not miss TV list for the first season and at least half of the second. Is it just me or do most sitcoms start going downhill after the first season? Anyway, I still try to catch it if I can. I was really quite surprised to see him do a sitcom, but once I saw it understood how different and hilarious it was!
Then came "Underdog"... I just thought hmmm.... oh well. Never bothered to see it. I thought that at least it was just a voice-over deal. But I kind of thought he may be slumming it a tad. Then came "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and I thought writers strike he is absolutely slumming it. What was he thinking?? Of course I must admit that the Chipmunk Christmas song was my favorite as a kid... but still.
Then last week I actually bought it for my kids. My just turned 11-year old daughter was really wanting to see it, and I thought it may keep my toddler occupied for a few minutes.
I was genuinely surprised. I actually liked it. And Jason Lee was great in it. He was hilarious! I forgive him. My daughter laughed her butt off and asked to watch it again the next day. And I let her. My toddler sat through the whole movie mystified. And I will admit that my husband and myself laughed quite a bit too.
And one of the great surprises was to see David Cross in the film. He is hilarious too. One of the most memorable roles for us was the stint he played as the fraudulently mentally challenged Donnie on "Just Shoot Me." Neither my husband nor myself can refrain from singing the chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pieeeee song anytime we even think of Chicken pot pies or see David Cross.
All this is to say that "Alvin and the Chipmunks" was absolutely worth a gander :) especially if you are a Jason Lee or David Cross fan!

"Quarterlife"

What a disappointment. I had really high hopes for this show, and it was quite a let down.

I have been blogging for a while now, and have worked myself up to authroing 5 blogs. Blogging seems to be all the rage these days with people of every age, race, gender group joining in. There are blogs on just about every topic imaginable. Some really great blogs out there and some really awful ones. I just hope mine fall somewhere in between - slightly towards the good side ;)
I spend just as much time, if not more, reading blogs as I do writing them.

I was really looking for "Quarterlife" to speak to me, to speak to the blogging community at large. And I must say that "My So Called Life" was one of my absolute favorite shows. And so was "thirtysomething" for that matter. Nevermind that when I was addicted to "thirtysomething" I was still quite far from twentysomething... Those were really decent shows. I expected something close in creativity, writing and acting. Instead, it felt more like an extremely boring, non-funny episode of "Friends." The main character even looked a little like Courtney Cox-Arquette. Planned?

I watched it for as long as I could possibly stand it, hoping it would get better, but no such luck. All the characters were just so completely whiney and self-important. Do twentysomethings really act this awful? It wasn't even up to the high school maturity level. I remember people in Jr. High being that sort of dramatic...

And please tell me - if the main character was a writer, why was she doing a video blog? That just made little sense to me.

Anyway, after about 20 minutes I went back to blogging.

The Oscars

Sadly, I could not watch them this year. We don't have cable, we live in an area where there is none! I just haven't been committed enough to television to get sattellite. So we deal with an antique antenna. Which works OK for NBC. We do get close to perfect reception for PBS, which is great for my son. But any other channells? Sometimes if we're lucky we can get in a CBS. But what usually happens is that the signal craps out at the very end of a show. So it's just not even worth it. We have very very rarely been able to get anywhere near decent reception for ABC or Fox... I think this is the first year that I haven't been able to watch the Oscars! :( So disappointed.
But I am so glad that the Coen brothers won big! I'm such a huge fan of their work!! Yay!! :) It's so hard to say what my favorite Coen brothers movie is, but I thought "No Country for Old Men" was great. So I'm satisfied.