Everyone should have a Pen' Pal

Flushed about Aardman

I went to see Flushed Away on Sunday evening and I have to say it's the best animated film I have seen all year.
Finally a movie with a solid storyline, good acting and writing.
And funny jokes for everyone; parents and kiddies alike.
Not mindless pop-culture references and dance routines that add nothing to the story.
Animation was top-notch as was the rest of the art production. Lighting, textures, FX, rigging, character and set design...it was all there.
The only thing that was mildly distracting was the facial expressions and lip sync which was animated in a very "stop motion" sort of way. I believe this was done to keep the Aardman feel that the studio has with it's other stop mo films. I'm not sure it translated 100% convincingly in this computer rendered film though.
But all in all, it's most definitely worth going to and it's enjoyable for families or adults only. My wife and I were laughing consistantly through the entire show.
Congrats to the folks at Dreamworks and Aardman for creting a great animated film.
Now, the next film on my list is Borat. Can you believe it's playing on only one screen in the whole province?
Crazy!

A quandary...

Oh, how I do love those ellipsis...
Well, I am waxing philosophic at the moment so I thought I'd share a bit of what's crossed my mind. Funny what a couple pints will do when you are out of drinking shape. Fleeting thoughts like dust motes in the wind. They come and go. This one stuck as particularly poignant so I mused to share it with the masses of internet-dom.
Masses?
Who am I kidding. There may be three people who will ever read it.
But, a pretty verbose opening paragraph, no? My, aren't I the little wordsmith?

Anyway, on to the topic of my ruminations...

It has recently come to my attention that I am a hopeless idealist. Well, an idealist for certain. Hopefully not hopeless. Um, sure...ok.
The thought that graced my grey matter by zipping whimsically through my cerebral cognition, an apparent redundancy that appears unbounded, was that I am indeed an idealist. To my own detriment at times.
I sleep quite peacfully, knowing that I hold true to my ideals despite that they sometimes work against my benefit. I refuse to play the game. I will bend lip to no posterior. I expect others to live and act with integrity and respect for others. Crazy, huh?
So often however, people will brown-nose, kiss ass, backstab, manipulate and politically undermine those around them in order to advance themselves in given situations.
The quandary then, is how do I stop being an idealist, yet still keep my ideals.
I think it's possible but difficult to achieve this. To maintain the ideals and values that I hold dear without giving too much weight and consequence to those who throw them aside.
It may be a life long journey.
I think I'll read up on buddhism.

Life is Crazy Sometimes

Well, I plan on starting a new job soon. I am saying goodbye to Lunenburg. I met some great people here and my time in this little village was enjoyable.
I plan on moving into the HRM (Halifax) area by the end of the month unless I get an offer from a certain studio on the west coast. I'll elaborate more on that later.
In other news, I have been working on Yellow Boat and I have a few layouts to share. If you want to have a peek, you can see them here. The pic from this post is a little taste.
I'm not sure, you may have to be a member of my production forum to see that link, but it's free and easy to sign up. Leave a comment or two if you feel like it. The more the merrier!
That's all for now - I'll update in a little while once the moving details are more firm.
Chow!