Surf's up again - The online computery journal thingy of a turtle

Jun. 26th, 2007

07:34 pm - Surf's up again

Started making preparations for Anthrocon. Bought a document tray, a pencil holder, and a plunger. (Those aren't for Anthrocon.)

Saw Surf's Up again today. Still fun! Other studios are learning from Pixar. This one is by Sony, and it does for surfing what Pixar has done for the deep sea and auto racing: present it in realistic detail to please enthusiasts, while using it as the backdrop for a fun story featuring fanciful characters. Since seeing the movie the first time, I learned that two of the characters, Kelly Slater and Rob Machado, are real-life pro surfers playing themselves (as penguins), and Sal Masekela, the announcer on SPEN (Sports Penguin Entertainment Network), is a real-life surfer and sports announcer (as well as the son of jazz musician Hugh Masekela). He is not seen in the movie, but presumably he's a penguin too. :}

There are three disgusting things in the movie: the main character (Cody)'s mom regurgitates a meal for Cody and his brother, another penguin pees on Cody's foot (the pee itself is not shown), and Cody and another penguin land in glowing jellylike stuff identified as glowworm poop.

Some idiot in the theater had a laser pointer. Fortunately, he only pointed it at the screen a couple times at the very beginning and end of the movie. Are they gonna have to ban those?!

Bought an advance ticket for Ratatouille on Friday. I'm gonna see it the day it comes out! I think this'll really be a good movie. Y'know how all the kids in the entire world wanted pet clownfish after seeing Finding Nemo? Well, this movie will make them all want to learn to be French chefs! It'll be great!

Went to Olive Garden to pick up dinner. Chicken Marsala for me, mixed grill for Dad, lasagna for Mom. Buon appetito!

Current Mood: full

full

Current Music: Barenaked Ladies - Half a Heart

(15 comments | Leave a comment)

Comments:

From:	ronald_mack
Date:	June 26th, 2007 09:59 pm (UTC)

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Kind of off topic, but speaking of penguins... prehistoric giant penguins hooray!

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From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	June 26th, 2007 10:36 pm (UTC)

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Ooo, it's Tank Evans' great-great-great-great-greatgreatgreatgreatgretgretgretgrtgrtgrtgrtgtgtgtgtgtggggggranddaddy!

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From:	penh
Date:	June 26th, 2007 11:13 pm (UTC)

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Yay penguins! One my favorite little bits in the movie was Cody's Board-Cam, which if you'll notice not only shows the proper perspective of a camera mounted on the board, but even has an appropriately lower picture quality. The sequence with the monster wave shown entirely from the Board-Cam's POV -- the way the camera plunged into the churning surf and you didn't know what had happened until the froth cleared and you saw that he was still ridin' the wave -- was flat-out goose-bumpular.

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From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	June 26th, 2007 11:31 pm (UTC)

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Yeah, that was great! I'll definitely be buying this on DVD.

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From:	deckardcanine
Date:	June 27th, 2007 10:03 am (UTC)

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Ratatouille is the animation to which I've most looked forward this year. It'll probably be formulaic, but at least it doesn't look like another Chicken Little. Besides, with my webcomic, it might serve as research.

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From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	June 27th, 2007 05:13 pm (UTC)

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Heh, some people make a big deal about formulas. Heck, Surf's Up was kinda "formulaic", but I didn't mind, because it was so well done. You know who the least formulaic filmmaker ever was? Luis Buñuel! :}

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From:	doodlesthegreat
Date:	June 27th, 2007 03:50 pm (UTC)

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1. "Surf's Up" is probably the best thing out of Sony so far, and a great deal of that hs to do with the lack of mo-cap in the film. Instead of using it to control the characters, it was used to control the camera, which gave the documentary feel most shots have.

2. Yes, ban all laser pointers.

3. Got to see "Ratatouille" during the sneak preview a couple weeks ago. It's an amazing movie, and rats are about to become favorite pets for a LOT of kidlets.

4. Did I ever e-mail you the scan of that picture you did for me at MFF last year?

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From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	June 27th, 2007 05:11 pm (UTC)

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1. Nothing wrong with mocap if it's done right. (In fact, you can replace "mocap" in that sentence with pretty much any technique ever used in animation.) And yes, I loved the documentary style of it.

2. I even had a laser pointer in my bag at the time. And I'd like to point out I left it in there the whole time. Also that if they ban laser pointers in theatres, I'd be happy to leave it in the trunk of my car, along with my camera. (It's a still camera, which apparently they don't mind, but leaving it behind saves time when they want to search my bag.)

3. I've been reading articles about Ratatouille in which the writer wonders whether the "squeamish factor" will hurt the movie. Are there people out there who are seriously so afraid of rats that they'd avoid this movie? If it were roaches, I could understand, but c'mon, Remy and Emile are cute!

4. No, I don't think you did.

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From:	vakkotaur
Date:	June 27th, 2007 06:11 pm (UTC)

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The first preview I saw for Ratatouille with just the rats had me wanting to see the film. The second preview I saw which showed the human chef being something of, well, a sad goof turned me off enough that I am debating whether to see the picture or not.

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From:	doodlesthegreat
Date:	June 29th, 2007 11:14 am (UTC)

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Trust me on this. It works.

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From:	doodlesthegreat
Date:	June 29th, 2007 11:17 am (UTC)

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3. I bet this movie will do for rats what "101 Dalmatians" did fot that breed.

4. You'll find it here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/380001/ It's general audience, so you don't need an FA account to see it.

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From:	kinkyturtle
Date:	June 29th, 2007 09:56 pm (UTC)

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Thanks! I remember drawing that now.

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From:	keeper1st
Date:	June 28th, 2007 05:34 am (UTC)

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"Bought an advance ticket for Ratatouille on Friday. I'm gonna see it the day it comes out! I think this'll really be a good movie. Y'know how all the kids in the entire world wanted pet clownfish after seeing Finding Nemo? Well, this movie will make them all want to learn to be French chefs! It'll be great!"

No, no... It will make kids want to have pet French chefs.

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