Friendship Among Rogues, Muppets, and Platypuses

I slept in until quarter of 10 this morning and didn't get to the laundromat until nearly 12:30! That might not have been a bad thing. Unlike last week, it was pretty quiet. Other than a few Hispanic guys doing washing their boxers, I more-or-less had the place to myself. Once again, I managed to leave as it was getting busier.

When I got home, I put the laundry away and finished The Muppets, which I started during my late breakfast. This was Disney's revival of everyone's favorite nutty puppets last November, and I thought it was pretty cute and surprisingly thoughtful. Walter (voice of Peter Linz) is a Muppet living in a human world. His brother and best friend (Jason Segal) and his girlfriend (Amy Adams) are on vacation in LA; he joins them to see the Muppet Studio, where The Muppet Show and films were made. Walter is obsessed with the Muppets...and is shocked when he discovers that the Studio is abandoned and the Muppets have scattered. Even worse, a nasty oil baron (an appropriately over-the-top Chris Cooper) wants to tear down the complex and drill under it! It takes hard work, dedication, and a lot of musical numbers, but Walter finally teaches the Muppets the meaning of family and believing in yourself.

I really enjoyed this wacky ode to nostalgia and the importance of friendship and remembering the past. Jason Segal was apparently the driving force behind this project. He co-wrote it and convinced Disney to give the Muppets a shot after sitting on the franchise for years with little besides DVD releases to show for it. He was very right; this was so well-written, I found myself tearing up during the number where Kermit looks at pictures of his friends and recalls the fun they had making shows. Cute music, too - "Man or Muppet?" was nominated for an Oscar. An absolute must for Muppet fans, nostalgia nuts, and families with older kids who are looking for silly yet appropriate entertainment.

I didn't get to the Haddon Township Library until past 3PM today. The weather remained gorgeous, sunny and breezy without being humid, probably in the mid-80s. Newton River Park reflected this; it was far busier than usual, with lots of dog walkers and parents pushing kids in strollers. I rode on the street for part of the way to dodge the foot traffic.

Haddon Township Library was busy, too. Once again, they also had plenty of help. I did organize the kids' DVDs and return a few adult titles and children's picture books. Pulled foreign and children's titles from the adult ones. Do people really think the Land Before Time series DVDs are for adults (besides the first one)? The library really needs to dig up more pink labels for the kids' stuff. I did end up taking out the classic drama The Long Hot Summer with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, the ensemble comedy Dazed and Confused, and a set for the popular Disney cartoon series Phineas and Ferb, The Perry Files.

It was so nice, I rode around a little in Haddon Township and Oaklyn after leaving the library. I stopped for an Icee and a pretzel at WaWa on the way home. It was 4:30 by then; I had a hard time riding across the White Horse Pike, which was busy with rush-hour travelers.

Headed home with my Icee to make a meringue. Ran The Road to El Dorado while I worked. Tuilio and Miguel (Keven Kline and Kevin Branagh) are con men in 1500s Spain who get their hands on a map to the fabled golden South American city of El Dorado. With the help of a hungry horse, they escape gold-hungry explorer Cortez (Jim Cummings) and find themselves in South America. The map does, indeed, take them to the city, where they're treated like gods by the local population. Ever-worried Tullio is sure that trouble is just around the corner, but meanwhile, he'll enjoy smart-mouthed Chel (Rosie Perez), a female thief who wants out. Miguel, on the other hand, really comes to appreciate the people of El Dorado and their culture. Will the four do the right thing when Cortez and a jealous high priest (Armand Assante) attack the new "gods" and the people?

Dreamworks' third animated film is a hilarious animated variation on the formula of the Road To...movies of the 40s and 50s - two wisecracking con-artists look for treasure, picking up a sexy and equally wisecracking girl on the way. This was a particular favorite of little boys in the early 2000s; my brother went around saying Tulio and Miguel's "You da God!" for ages. Awesome Elton John score, too; "Someday Out of the Blue" is my favorite recent John song. Great for fans of Indiana Jones-style action, animated films that think a bit outside the box, or parents looking for a fun animated movie for older boys (some sexual suggestiveness and fantasy violence pushes this out of the realm of the really little guys).

Switched to Phineas and Ferb while making salmon, sauteed Chinese beans, and corn on the cob for dinner. This funny and inventive series has become to the Disney Channel what Spongebob Squarepants is to Nickelodeon - their number one animated, frequently re-run cash cow franchise. Unlike Spongebob, which can get annoying when seen in succession, this one deserves the hype and the accolades.

The title characters are imaginative upper-grade-school boys who constantly invent wild machines to make their summer cooler. Their obnoxious teenage sister Candace would love to tattle on their adventures, if she could ever catch them in the act! Running concurrently with this is the tale of the boys' pet platypus Perry, who in reality is a spy named Agent P who is constantly after the mad scientist Dr. Doofenshmirtz, inventor of useless-yet-destructive objects, and his punk teenage daughter Vanessa. Somehow, all of this manages to combine to help Agent P save the day, the boys have another crazy afternoon, and Candace get the guy.

When even your mother praises a cartoon, you know it's something special. Mom likes that the parents are portrayed as fairly competent and that the boys and Candace use their heads and their creativity to get out of jams. I like that everyone, from silly Doofenshmirtz to the boys and even Candace, are portrayed as relatively three-dimensional for a cartoon, and how they manage to weave together plot strands from what seems to be three different shows someone just threw together. It's seen pretty much every day on the Disney Channel, especially in afternoons; well worth checking out, for adults and kids.