Saturday, September 23, 2017

"Just Sing, Sing a Song..."

Started off a glorious blue and gold morning with breakfast and The Backyardigans. "Front Page News" is another Backyardigans tale of interpret journalists. Tasha is a photographer with a secret identity - she's also Super Snap, a Flash-like quick-running heroine. There's a giant robot loose in Bigopolis, and her boss Pablo wants her to get the front page photo. Trouble is, she's too busy helping Bubble Man (Tyrone) and Bug Girl (Uniqua) save the day to get the shot...but when the robot starts demanding "cheese," she's the only one who knows what he really wants.

Headed out to run errands around quarter of 10. Ran into Richard, who was getting ready to go on a trip. He was nice enough to fix the chain on my bike and pump up the tires further. I'm going to have to wait for a little while longer to get my other bike fixed. I'll probably order a tire this week, but he won't be back until next week, and the bike is in his garage to save room.

At least I was able to get to the Collingswood Farm Market and back. The lovely day brought people out of the woodwork, and so did the debuting fall produce. Watermelon's gone, replaced by hard winter squash and pumpkins. I bought apples, peaches (the pears I got last week never ripened), two small green and red peppers, mushrooms, a tomato, a zucchini, and an eggplant, along with this year's pumpkin for the house. (I never carve my pumpkin. I'd probably end up carving me along with it! I keep it on display in my living room until Thanksgiving or it goes bad, whichever comes first.)

Checked out a couple of yard sales, but they didn't have anything interesting. Headed home to change, put everything away, and have a quick lunch before riding back out to Audubon for their town-wide yard sale. It was kind of late by then, and I didn't have much chance to look around. Didn't see anything before I had to move on to work. I lingered a little too long and was almost late again, though I just made it under the gun this time.

Work was a bit of a pain in the first half. The manager kept dumping me in the registers every time there was even just one person waiting on the end of the line. I'm surprised I managed to get the baskets or the inside trash done. (Also did the bathrooms, but they really just needed to be swept.) I was late getting on my break because they were worried about that one person standing on the end of the line. It wasn't even really that busy.

Was happier spending most of the second half of my shift outside after I finally got my break. It was too nice to be inside the entire day anyway. While it was still hot, the humidity from earlier in the week had dissipated overnight, leaving a soft breeze and a sky so brilliantly blue, it hurt my eyes to look at it.

Grabbed some Turkey Hill Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream after work, then headed right home. Went right into writing as soon as I put the carton away. Luke arrives at the Oasis Bar and Grill, an exclusive restaurant on the beach that's popular with beachgoers and the rich and powerful alike. It takes the invitation - and a few carefully-placed bribes - for Luke to get in. He sits down with Jasper, reminding him of how Ahsoka and his brother Adam once helped him. Jasper considers the Jedi Knights to be dead and him to be a nonentity. Leia sits next to him, trying to look demure and like she drank the drugs Jasper gave her, but really getting angrier by the minute.

Made a tasty swordfish steak with Chinese beans cooked in a lemon wine sauce and very sweet corn on the cob for dinner. Watched Sing while I ate, and later while I worked on crocheting. Buster Moon (Matthew MacConaughey) loves show business with every fiber of his koala being, but his beloved theater, the Moon, is in such dire shape, he's stealing electricity from others and avoiding his bank creditors. Desperate, he holds a singing contest. Half the city lines up after his doddering secretary Ms. Crowley (Garth Jennings) accidentally adds a few zeroes to the $1,000 prize, making it into $100, 000. Among those auditioning are Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), a housewife pig who wants to get away from the drudgery of caring for 25 piglets, Ash (Scarlet Johanssen), a porcupine who wants to get out from the shadow of her obnoxious boyfriend and perform her own punk-rock composition, Gunter (Nick Kroll), a free-wheeling pig dancer, obnoxious-but-talented Sinatra-loving mouse Mike (Seth MacFarlane), and Johnny (Taron Egerton), a gentle gorilla who doesn't want to follow his father into the bank robbing business. Although Buster can be insensitive, he's also encouraging, especially to a very shy elephant named Meena (Tori Kelly) with an amazing voice. When disaster strikes the theater, this disparate group learns that one should never let fear or overwhelming odds stop you from doing what you love most.

This was a pleasant surprise. I really loved it. It reminded me a bit of Zootopia, to the point where I half-expected Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde to show up when someone threatened to call the police near the end. Sensational animation, too. Very colorful and fun. Wish there had been more details on some of the animals, but the effects animation was incredible, and the details on the theater itself were really nice

I didn't mind that the story wasn't the most original. I love stories like this. I did wish we'd spent more time with characters other than Buster Moon. Frankly, I found everyone but him to be interesting. Buster, for all his charm and encouragement, was a bit of a jerk who was lucky his theater hadn't been repossessed well before this. Ash and her boyfriend problems, Johnny and his father, Meena and her encouraging family, and Rosita's brilliant method of keeping her family going in her absence were far more compelling. I also wish we'd dived a little further into this animal world. You learn very little about the actual city or universe itself.

Some of the performances were surprises, too. Egerton in particular was a revelation - who knew the kid from the Kingsman films could belt Elton John like a champ? Some people complained that Witherspoon's big number was inappropriate for her voice, but I thought it was a riot. And MacFarlane's Sinatra number in the finale would have made the Chairman of the Board himself proud.

If you're as passionate about the theater as Buster and me or are a big fan of the cast or musicals, you may find yourself cheering along with this one, too.

No comments: