The rain had been stopping even as I posted last night's entry. By the time I opened my eyes this morning, it was coming down hard again. I cheered myself up with breakfast and Rick Steves' Europe. Since the culture and folklore of Scandinavia is providing much of the inspiration for my current fanfic, I opted for the episode about Norway. As lovely as the cities Oslo and Bergen are, nothing matches the majesty of it's fjords and lush green forests and shining waters.
Dressed the dolls for the winter weather for the next few hours. While the weather hasn't been as bad as it was at this time last year (when the lows were in single digits), it's not exactly warm, either. Felicity's snuggled into her green Riding Habit with the tri-corn hat. Samantha wears her gray Buster Brown School Dress with black tights and the black boots from Rebecca's School Outfit. Josefina is in a blue striped Regency dress I picked up on eBay a while back. Molly's ready for fun in her Play Outfit - the navy corduroys with the plaid flannel shirt and the oxfords from Kit's School Outfit. Ariel keeps things toasty in a thick navy turtleneck and white corduroys, both from yard sales. Whitney got Molly's Skating Outfit (she fits into it better than Molly does) and wishes there was ice on Peter Creek this year to skate on. Jessa wears most of her original "meet" outfit, black corduroys with a striped short-sleeved turtleneck shirt, a colorful yellow fleece sweater with magenta, purple, and turquoise trim, and black high-tops from another mid-90's modern outfit.
Headed out for a short walk after I finished with the dolls. The rain was still coming down, but my legs were cramped from sitting for so long, and I was tired of hanging around inside. I grabbed my umbrella to avoid the heavy showers.
The Oaklyn Library wasn't busy when I arrived. They're in the midst of rearranging the DVDs again. The adult titles are being reorganized now. (They did the kids' titles last week.) While there wasn't much for me to do, I did pick up some books from their book sale. The librarian there said they got so many donations over the holidays, I could take whatever I wanted for free. I ended up with ex-library copies of Kidnapped and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and other Washington Irving short stories, a vintage Betty Crocker Cook book, and Daily Candy A to Z, a self-help book based on posts from the now-defunct e-mail newsletter website.
I also grabbed a Princess Pets-based picture book to give to my niece Lilah for her birthday in two weeks. It'll go nicely with the other book I already sent to her mother. It's missing the stickers that originally came with it, but I'm hoping she'll still like it.
It was still raining pretty heavily when I headed out around quarter of 2. Ended up at Common Ground Coffee House on West Clinton for lunch. So did a lot of people. I'd no sooner ordered my sausage breakfast bake, white chocolate chip-macadamia nut cookie, and hot chocolate than a long line formed behind me. I was joined by a grandmother and her older granddaughter, a mother and her younger daughter, and a trio of chattering college students. I sat at a table by the window and ate and looked over my new books while the rain continued to patter on West Clinton.
(Incidentally, the "sausage breakfast bake" consisted of hot crumbled sausage, chopped orange and green pepper, and shredded frozen hash brown potatoes. It was only ok. They could have heated it up a little more, the potatoes were flavorless, and the sausage was too spicy for me. Think I'll stick to their muffins and quiche from now on. The hot chocolate was amazing, though. It was thick and rich and very chocolate-y; was probably made from real melted chocolate.)
Strolled home under the umbrella. The rain was slowing down, even as I jumped around huge puddles, but the wind had begun to pick up, and it was getting colder. It was no day to be running around.
Worked on writing for the next couple of hours. Leia has a dream about Luke in the Snow Queen's palace. He's turned blue and is currently working on a puzzle made from colorful tiles. Queen Frostra tells him he'll be his own man when he finishes it. While she wishes she could keep Luke, unlike her sister, she understands why she can't. She fears Luke will freeze to death if he stays much longer, but the still-peckish boy refuses to leave her side.
When Leia awakes, she steals the vibro-knife from the sleeping thief and gets her to tell them where the Snow Queen is. Turns out her tauntaun has been to the Frozen North and knows where the Queen lives. Leia and Chewie tie up Diefa and release her animals, including the tauntaun. Han has already escaped Diefa's drunk mother and dodged her even more inebriated brothers. They hitch the tauntun to their repulsor-sleigh and take off.
Broke for dinner at 6:30. Had the rest of the pizza for dinner while watching The Angry Birds Movie. Hoo boy, is this a weird one. Red (Jason Sudeikis) is not popular among his fellow flightless birds on Bird Island. His anger has caused numerous problems, including accidentally hatching another bird's egg. He's sentenced to an anger management class with other birds, including super-fast, hyperactive Chuck (Josh Gad) and laid-back Bomb (Danny McBride), who explodes when he gets angry or scared. Pink bird Matilda (Maya Rudolph) tries to get sarcastic Red to calm down, but he remains aloof from the others. He's even more fed up when a boat lands on their island, destroying his home. It's driven by green pigs, including bearded Leonard (Bill Hader). The pigs seem friendly at first, but Red doesn't trust them...and it turns out that he has good reason not to. The pigs are really after the birds' eggs. Red and his friends try to recruit Mighty Eagle (Peter Dinklage), the only bird on the island who can fly, to help them. When that doesn't work, they have to convince their fellow Island residents to unleash their own anger if they want to save their unborn children.
Um...yeah. Seriously, is the game half this strange? I've never played it. It's not really bad, per se. There's actually some fairly interesting discussions on the importance of anger and not holding it back, along with some nice animation, especially when they're launching the birds in the second half.
The padding is more obvious in the first half. They feel like they're desperately trying to be hip, referencing everything and anything that was hot in 2016. The first half also feels a little too hip for little kids, with quite a few jokes that'll fly way over their heads (pun intended). The score of classic rock and country mostly covered by other artists is also more than a little strange, especially in the dance-party finale.
While I don't regret having seen it, it's definitely not something I'm going to actively seek out again. There's a second movie coming out this summer...and yeah, I may wait another two and a half years before I check that one out, too. If you've ever played the game or are more into the kind of humor on display here, you might find a lot more in this one than I did.
Finished the night with the Disney animated version of Peter Pan. I go more into this one at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Peter Pan (Disney animated)
2 comments:
The game isn't anything. You launch the birds like missles to knock stuff down on the pigs to keep them from getting the eggs. That's it.
That's what I thought. Someone at Sony Animation has a really, really strange imagination. ;)
Post a Comment