I just saw Hoodwinked. I almost didn’t go but I’m sure glad I did. Not because it’s a great movie but precisely because it’s an OK movie. It was better than expected partly because my expectations were low but also because they managed to make an entertaining movie. Not ground-breaking. Not moving. Not inspiring or thought-provoking. I didn’t think it was super funny either but it was funny enough.

The story had some interesting stuff (I liked the Rashomon-like multiple versions of the same events thing) but it lacked focus. I guess Red is supposed to be the main character but I didn’t really care much about her and her "arc" is pretty tired. The story seemed to be there to support the situations and gags which by themselves were reasonably original even though they were pop culture based.

There’s plenty to criticize from a production quality perspective, if you compare it to one our films or Pixar. Wooden animation, dead characters, some crazy camera work, inconsistent lighting, ridiculous FX (floating in the river was the worst), etc. But then there’s some shots with reasonable animation, lighting and FX. I’m really curious if mainstream America cares. It’s a cartoon, after all.

It did seem to me, but this may be my personal bias, that the animation flaws were the most glaring and feels like the animation "corner" should be the one to cut last. The rigs had issues but basically worked. The lighting didn’t stand out so must have basically worked. But some of the animation was very distracting. This is the primary lesson for me from this film. For Robots it was the how important cinematography is.

And it grossed $50mil domestically with a $15mil budget.

Posted by bruce as animation at 9:10 PM UTC

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Unfortunately, Zeke didn’t go to preschool today because we think he has the stomach bug I had last week. He said "I have a bad guy bug inside me." He tossed it twice yesterday and didn’t want ice cream so you know something is really wrong.

Fortunately it didn’t make me miserable, just nauseous for a few days and I was able to get back to work in a few days.

When I left, he was watching Spirit which has, I think, a very beautiful opening sequence. The flying camera work is superb — it’s dynamic but doesn’t feel like a rollercoaster — a common pitfall of many 3D CG camera moves. It interesting to see how they accomplish this, too. At one point, for example, the camera zooms in a little so we only see the bird and the river. This gives us a visual break from a big swoop that preceded it since the water is relatively simple background.

Posted by bruce as animation, kids at 10:54 AM UTC

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In a discussion about how Ikea picture frames don’t work with movie posters because they are a little too small, supposedly due to being metric focussed, someone says "That’s how the US will eventually end up on the metric system…IKEA
will force us to.  Curse You Crafry Swedish Conquerers!"

I kilo-love it!

Posted by bruce as (un)happy consumer at 3:48 PM UTC

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Miles found a Sharpie and "expressed himself" on the table before I noticed. Being a permanent marker, I thought I was going to catch some grief about the table so I tried cleaning it off. Water? Of course not. Soap? Nope. WD40? A little and it was a lot of work. Then I remembered my triathlon days and tried a "gel" sports sunscreen (original is Bullfrog but Coppertone has one easily found in most drugstores). My number marked on my legs and arms would come right off if I put sunscreen on after. Worked like a charm!

Sorry Miles. I should’ve at least taken a picture of your artwork.

Posted by bruce as kids, vitality at 3:45 PM UTC

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This article suggests scientific evidence for one of the potentially challenging premises of Non-violent Communication.

Altruism ‘in-built’ in humans from BBC News.

Posted by bruce as kids at 8:58 PM UTC

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