We have a splendid double feature weekend of liberal extremism here at the Morris Theater: Borat and Happy Feet. This is going to be one of those events where I’ll see all these people I know from the university lining up for the show, and the only community people will be the fervent DFL contingent…oh, and swarms of kids for the early penguin cartoon, whose parents don’t realize it’s going to brainwash them into being tap-dancing gay godless communists.
(Yes, I know, everyone has already seen these movies ages ago, but this is Morris. At least I’ll get to see it in a real old-fashioned art-deco single screen theater for less than $6.)
Even without the enviro-hippie-commie message at the end, I think for CGI it has graphics that are amazing. Especially thriling are the orcas playing with their food, the leopard sharks and the music arrangements.
Enjoyment is making in your future today.
I envy you on the price. Last weekend I paid $9.50 to see Copying Beethoven – and that was the cheap show!
Just a note Mike- leopard seals, not sharks. For a good look at them “playing” with their food check out the November National Geographic. In any case, Robin Williams’ voice acting was the only thing that made the movie worthwhile. Otherwise, it was too muddled with crossing storylines, as if the filmmakers wasn’t quite sure what movie they wanted to create.
You forgot tree-hugging, environmentalist, earth-worshipping, terrorist-coddling, vegetarian weenie anti-hunting namby-pamby.
I mean, come on.
Saw Borat. Was crazy funny. Will eventually buy Happy Feet. Got kids.
I’m perplexed. How is “Borat” related to “liberal extremism”?
I just thought it was aggressively low-brow. Did I miss the sub-text? the sub-sub-text? the sub(n)-text for some higher value of n?
Saw “Borat” here in Florida. They were laughing and hooting at the jew jokes, at the khazak jokes, and got deathly silent when the pentecostals were being made to look insane.
“Just a note Mike- leopard seals, not sharks.”
Dammit Brian, I am a banker, not a zoologist. I can’t perform miracles like getting the names of animals right!
Robin Williams was the only part of the movie that annoyed me, you see how individual results may vary.
I’ve heard that there was a beautiful, old, single-screen, art-deco theatre down in Bala Cynwd, PA … fifteen or twenty years ago. I wonder if it is still there.
“Борат” – безумен!
I’ve heard that there was a beautiful, old, single-screen, art-deco theatre down in Bala Cynwd, PA … fifteen or twenty years ago. I wonder if it is still there.
“Борат” – безумен!
For me, Borat was funny as in “let’s laugh at the American fascists.” Couldn’t get any less subtle about that, as far as I’m concerned.
Then again, I had seen Da Ali G Show before, so maybe I already knew what to laugh at.
I liked Ali G a lot, but Borat is trash. Here you have a convinced godophile making fun of people who don’t share his particular religious convictions.
I wonder why he didn’t go into the occupied Palestinian territories and send up the illegal settlers there. They are not any more enlightened than the clueless Americans he portrays.
I got a kick out of the conniptions they were having at FOX News over Happy Feet. But since I don’t actually watch the network – their complaints came to my attention through Countdown and the Daily Show – I’m not sure if they even got the anti-religious subtext. The comments I heard seemed to be mainly about the eco-friendly message and the assumption that Mumbles being “different” from all the other penguins constituted a gay-acceptance agenda.
PZ, if you should go to see Borat, try to count how many times you say out loud “Oh my god” (or similar expression of disbelief), and maybe how many times you just think it.
It’s very funny.
(I’ve just noted all the fun that could be had on this particular blog with the snippet: “”Oh my god” (or similar expression of disbelief)”)
Well, duh, because he’s marketing his show to the West. We’re terribly self-absorbed over here, so it has to focus on us or nobody cares.
Hence, Darfur. Iraq. Afghanistan. See? Nobody cares.
MWAHAHAHAHAHA!
The Evil Atheist Conspiracy’s latest campaign to turn children and college kids into godless sodomites through subconscious psychological programming will soon come to fruition.
After next weekend, all we need to is turn on the “Penguin Signal” spotlight, shining its tap dancing silhouette across the sky, and armies of underage, snot-nosed children will blitzkrieg across the continent, high-fiving each other for every city conquered!
Coming from George Miller, I was surprised that Happy Feet turned out to be such a derivative bore.
Even more, I found myself discomfited by the level of choreographed sexual suggestiveness which accompanied the songs which children could…and I stress could…model after. My thoughts kept returning to that creepy climax of Little Miss Sunshine which showcased a line-up of prepubescent girls flaunting themselves like sexual objects for a judging crowd ala Jon Benet Ramsey, primping and pouting like any stripper might.
Not that Happy Feet descended to that level of odiousness, but adult songs of a provocative nature, provocatively choreographed, don’t belong in a children’s cartoon.
Perhaps some find it ‘cute’ to see characters in children’s entertainment act out adult sexual behavior… Me? Ugh, it just makes my skin crawl.
As for Borat, well it bored me as well.
Perhaps some find it ‘cute’ to see characters in children’s entertainment act out adult sexual behavior… Me? Ugh, it just makes my skin crawl.
Hear, hear! I despise it. It’s not cute or clever, it’s inappropriate and (please note, gentle reader) UNNECESSARY. The very best children/family movies not only don’t rely on that sort of thing to provide enaging material for the adults in the audience (note my implication of insulting assumptions made about the adults in the audience) they don’t include it at all.
Two examples the spring immediately to mind are both by Miyazaki: My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Beautiful movies and, fun for the whole family. Really.
IMHO.
I’m no prude (not even close) but – boundaries, people, boundaries. Respecting boundaries means a lot more than simply refraining from inappropriate or unwanted physical contact, or from revealing (or demanding) TMI in a conversation. There’s such a thing as statuatory rape of the mind, in a sense…
IMHO.
The word you’re looking for isn’t “boundaries”, it’s “mores”.
And your mores have no business telling anyone else what to do.
Saw Borat and found it terrible. I spent the whole movie being embarrased for the poor schmuks he hoodwinks (and I don’t even like most of them.) And the scene with the sweet old couple running the B&B? Cohen should be embarrased himself for that one. If that had been all it would have been enough, but the worst part is that almost all the jokes just aren’t funny. They’re the worst kind of recycled humor and very badly done. No timing, everything is carried on to ten minutes past the overkill point. Only two moments actually worked because for Cohen they were throw-aways; when he drops his bag walking down the road and the chicken inside (that we’ve all forgotten about by then) squawks once, and the moment when he and his “producer” are naked in the elevator and the guy with them is studiously trying to ignore them. Other than that, there’s not a single thing to recommend this clunker.
As for Happy Feet I probably won’t see it as I have no kids of my own. I’ll second Kseniya on Miyazaki though (but not necessarily for the same reason) as he’s an artist of the first order. For kids, not only the two Kseniya recommended but also Spirited Away are wonderful fables. For older kids I’d even recommend Howl’s Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke, though they’re both a bit violent for the younger set (both involve wars, though Miyazaki does not portray war favorably at all.) Better to expose kids to the best of what animation can do; bring to life the wonderful realms of the imagination as a guide to what we all would like to be.
Actually, the B&B couple thought it was hilarious.
Also, dipfucks need to be mocked more, not less. Nothing like sunshine to disinfect.
Speaking of morals, the Canadian Parliament has just voted NOT to re-open the question of same-sex marriages. They will continue to be legal: I do’s without further ado.
Ah, Borat! Is make uncomfortable many persons of great America nation!
I like. Is funny.
Happy Feet… now that’s a bit more in the “meh” category.
Heh. You Americans are a funny lot
Aaron! Ixnay on the enguinpay ignalsay!
Where does he tell someone what to do, Caledonian? Who is it who is lecturing people, and who is it who is just giving an (admittedly strongly-felt) opinion, here?
It’s bias on my part, of course, but I happen to agree with Kseniya. Our (US) culture tends to push children into sexual adolescence early, and then try to keep them there for a lifetime — the better to make consumers out of them. It’s hard to imagine a culture more obsessed with sex, yet so squeamish about it, as the US is today. I don’t believe in shielding kids from it (and I have a child of my own, so I’ve a stake in this), but popular culture often seems to propagandize for a puerile view of sex that merely titillates rather than forms a foundation for relationships with others, with oneself, and with the flow of life.
as the only folks in the theatre (this is northern VT on a Wednesday at noon) my 2 youngest -6 and 8yo – were mildly amused by Happy Feet.
At one point however the 8yo couldn’t contain himself “Mom,” he exclaimed loudly “This is biological fiction.”
Both boys preferred the March of the Penguins and the 8yo’s favorite is still Winged Migration.
Nothing like a reality based education.
THAT’S where he told people what to do – what extra behaviors they had to manifest in order to “respect boundaries”.
Qualifies like “in a sense” do not disguise accusations like “statuatory rape of the mind”.
I’ve heard that there was a beautiful, old, single-screen, art-deco theatre down in Bala Cynwd, PA … fifteen or twenty years ago. I wonder if it is still there.
That would be the Bala. Built in 1927, it was an example of the “movie palace” theater popular in those days.
I remember going there in the late ’80s; it was still frickin’ gorgeous inside.
The sound wasn’t so good, though. Even with a full house and a modern sound system, the decay time of that huge space was too long for good reproduction. That’s probably because it was designed when silent films reigned, theater acoustics were unimportant compared to visuals and the rush of progress in audio engineering that sound films produced in the ’30s was still in the future.
Apparently it’s still there, but it’s owned by a chain and has been “triplexed”.
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/9064/
I saw Happy Feet with the extended family on Thanksgiving vacation. Many members of this family are hardcore rightwing fundies, and I remember wondering if they were catching some of the anti-woo content of the movie. Apparently it all went whoosh over their heads. Confirmation bias.
I was pleasantly surprised that it ended up not being the drudgerous viewing event I anticipated. I have mixed feelings about sexual innuendo in family movies. I didn’t think anything was over the top in this film, although the Robin Williams penguin character might have come too close for comfort for the most sensitive viewers. I also think the movie could have done without what was there without any detriment.
There was plenty of blasphemous material to offend everyone’s sensibilities. The realists won’t like the biological fiction. The fundies won’t like the allusions to evolution, the enviro message, and the anti-woo message. The sexual innuendo is sure to worry, as well as the homosexual innuendo, the ethnic stereotyping, and the fact that all the human actors in the movie are white!