Beauty and the Peanuts

It was cloudy and cool when I rolled out of bed this morning. I decided it was the perfect day to make Chocolate Chip Cookies after breakfast. Decided to try the "Perfectly Chocolate" recipe from the Hershey's cookie cookbook Lauren sent me a few years ago. Yum. Very chewy and just sweet enough.

Watched Beastly while I worked. Kyle Kingston (Alex Pettyfer) seems to have it all. He's the class president, incredibly wealthy, and most handsome and popular boy in his school. He's also a vain and selfish jerk who stands up an odd young woman named Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen) because he can. As it turns out, she's a witch who doesn't appreciate being treated like a joke. She turns him into an ugly, tattooed creature whose own equally vain TV reporter father (Peter Krause) can't stand to look at him. Kyle has a year to get a girl to love him as he is, or he'll remain a freak. His father hires Will, a good-natured blind man (Neil-Patrick Harris) to be his tutor and companion. Kyle's horrified at first, avoiding school and all his old friends, until he rescues Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) and her druggie father from two dealers who were attacking them. When he offers his home to Lindy for protection, he thinks it's the perfect way to get to know her. Lindy resents being almost a prisoner at first, and Kyle is still angry over his transformation and afraid to let her see him as he is now. It takes his gift of a rose garden and a few trips into New York to make Lindy see her new friend in a different light...and for Kyle to understand that real love means more than what you are on the surface.

I was pleasantly surprised here. This was a very sweet little fantasy-romance. Yes, it's cliched as hell, but it works. Harris and LisaGay Hamilton as Zola, the Kingston's kindly housekeeper, are especially fun. Olsen is appropriately eerie as the witch, too.

Too corny for older teens, but if you have young teenagers or tweens with a romantic streak who love fairy tale retellings, they may enjoyed swooning over this one as much as I did.

The movie ended and the cookies came out of the oven with just ten minutes to spare before I dashed off to work. We were busy when I came in, to the point where I once again spent most of  the first half of my shift outside. This wasn't as much fun as it has been the past few days. It was cloudy, windy, and incredibly humid all day. It showered briefly about a half-hour after I got to work, but the rain subsided after about 20 minutes and hasn't been seen since. Gathered trash and baskets and cleaned the bathrooms during the second half of the day.

Headed home and went straight on the computer to do some writing. King Han stops the group at a lake near an old mansion to let their horses drink. Finn's nervous, and has been since they arrived. He can sense a dark presence in the woods. He turns out to be right. The five are attacked by the First Order Clan's mindless demon army. King Snoke himself, an evil wizard and the head of the First Order, is right on their furry heels.

Broke at 7 for dinner. Made Cincinatti Chili while watching The Peanuts Movie. Poor Charlie Brown can't catch a break. From kites that won't fly to the dubious "advice" he gets from obnoxious Lucy Van Pelt, the entire world always seems to conspire against him. The arrival of a Little Red Haired Girl gives Charlie Brown his first crush...and what he sees as the perfect chance to redeem himself. Even when everything seems to be going wrong, Chuck comes to realize that the important thing is to just keep trying, no matter what. Meanwhile, his eccentric beagle Snoopy and his yellow bird buddy Woodstock are writing a novel with Snoopy as a World War I flying ace who is rescuing his poodle girlfriend from the Red Baron.

Other franchises, especially animated ones, with an eye for a revival or reboot should take a few notes from this. This is exactly how you revive a series. The animation is colorful and cute, mixing 2-D and 3-D animation (and animated "dream bubbles" from Charlie Brown that resemble the comics). While slightly faster-paced than the specials, the movie is otherwise a perfect reflection of Charlie Brown's never-say-die universe. In fact, this is probably truer to the source material than the last two Peanuts films made in the 70's and early 80's.

If you or your family are Peanuts fans, you've probably already seen this. If you're hedging because it's a more recent project, or are new to the Peanuts franchise, come on over anyway. This is actually a pretty good introduction to the series.

Finished out the night listening to the Eagles-Redskins Monday night game. The Eagles started out badly, with the Redskins scoring within the first five minutes of the game. That changed quickly. The Eagles took control during the second quarter and never let go, even when they lost one of their top stars, Jason Peters, to a nasty injury. They ultimately won for the second time this year against Washington, 34-24.