Sunday, December 12, 2010

One of life's lessons

Sometimes, knowing the truth can make one sad...

But it's always so encouraging to know that humans have a remarkable ability to recover very quickly.

It won't be long before one is on his feet again.

:-)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Don't be a dummy, come with mummy!

Last Sunday, we (Gail and myself) went to watch Tangled with Boss and WMWMWM. It was so cute, and so happy... something expected from Disney!

Actually, I have to thank my MNO1001 lecturer and teaching team for such a rewarding experience. We had to make a video, and our video will be screened ala the oscar awards thing. And both nominees and winners get a prize.

My group's video was nominated, and the gift was very pleasant indeed. That was already more than a year ago...

Fast-forward to last Sunday, we decided to realize the value of the voucher with Disney's 50th animation. With so much hype about it, and being the biggest budget animation to date, plus the cute characters, we were all quite excited.

Actually, the voucher was valued at $7.50, but the show on Sunday was supposed to be $9.50. Nevertheless, when I claimed the vouchers, I managed to get 4 tickets without needing to pay a single cent! Guess the vouchers actually have some protection against inflation too; each voucher guaranteeing that you'll get a FREE movie as long as it's within the expiry date and it's not a special screening. A very nice touch from Shaw theatres, definitely an extra reason for me to go back.

So much about my vouchers... Tangled is actually a very nice little animation. With lots of songs with cute lyrics that rhyme so well they don't feel lame (they actually are quite a bit lame, refer to blog title for example, but you don't feel it when watching the film).

The amount of effort they put into the animation is definitely commendable, but then again, with pretty good plot, and nice graphics, the soundtrack somehow pales in comparison to that of "How to Train Your Dragon". Quite disappointing, though I must say the latter offers a bigger room for composition, with its Irish or Norse setting and having so much legends and mythology behind vikings and all...

Maybe it's just not easy to make music for a world that's purely imagined, like what Disney always strive to achieve, the imaginary Disneyland. Music comes with culture, history, and civilisations, and it's not easy to make good, deep music for something that lacks so much depth. It's quite commendable that the music is at least pretty good, and the lyrics are entertaining.

Ultimately, good animation, makes one feel rather happy, though if you are in for the depth, and the keep-wanting-to-rewind-and-play-just-to-look-at-it-and-hear-it-again "feeling" that I can't describe, I'll still say "How to Train Your Dragon" left much more impact in me.