Stayed at Disney Plus for Zootopia 2. Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) have only been partners on the Zootopia Police Force for a week, but they're already showing signs of fracturing. Judy finds a snake skin during a smuggling raid and is convinced snakes are involved somehow, but reptiles haven't been seen in Zootopia for a hundred years.
Infiltrating a gala ball celebrating Zootopia's 100th anniversary, they encounter white lynx Pawbert Lynxley (Andy Samberg), the nerdy runt of Zootopia's mafia-like founding family, and pit viper Gary De'Snake (Ke Hu Quan), who uses Pawbert's father Milton (David Straitham) to steal the journal with the notes on the creation of the walls that regular Zootopia's climate zones. Milton threatens to kill Gary to protect the journals, and when Judy won't destroy them, he frames her and Nick. Now Judy and Nick are on the run, searching through the lowest reaches of Zootopia for evidence that the Lynxleys aren't the big founders they claim to be, and that reptiles are more important to Zootopia than anyone wants to believe.
I can see why this was a huge hit last November. For one thing, this corrected some of my problems with the original. The villains are more menacing and not quite so obvious, the characters have more to do, and the story is more interesting and less obvious. Goodwin and Bateman may be even funnier and more touching here, and Quan's Gary is touching and hilarious. The real winner here is Samberg, who manages to make Pawbert both adorably awkward and almost terrifying, especially towards the end. Violence and some surprisingly dark themes make this for older elementary school mystery lovers and those who were huge fans of the first film.
Spent most of the morning doing more research on agencies that might be able to help me get a home. The big one is the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. There's also New Jersey Citizen Action and the Camden County First Time Homebuyer's Program. I'm way, way under the financial limit for all three, I have good credit, and I have two jobs, one of which I've been doing for 27 years. I'll start checking further into these and making phone calls next week.
Went for a short walk to briefly test my knee and enjoy the gorgeous weather. It was sunny, breezy, and ridiculously warm for March, probably in the mid-70's at 1 PM. I got a cheesesteak-filled pretzel, two soft pretzels, and a can of Diet Pepsi from A&A Pretzels for lunch, then headed back on home.
Had lunch while watching two fruit-based episodes of Good Eats. In "Apple Family Values" (the very first episode to cover fruit back in 2000), Alton shows how to make yummy baked apples, crisp Waldorf Salad, and how to use the microwave to make perfect applesauce. "Strawberry Sky" gives us a look at one of my favorite fruits, with macerated strawberries, strawberry pudding (which is really more of a strawberry bread pudding), and strawberries and cream.
Called Uber after the strawberry episode ended. Alas, I couldn't get a ride for 13 minutes, which meant I was slightly late to the Thomas Sharp School. I got in almost 8 minutes late.
That was the worst thing that happened all day. We had 24 kids all together, 8 at my table. They cleaned up pretty fast and weren't too bad in the bathrooms...because they wanted to go outside and enjoy this gorgeous weather, too. In fact, we weren't inside for more than 20 minutes after snack time ended. The kids spent the entire rest of the afternoon outside on the playground and had a marvelous time doing so. They chased bubbles and each other, dancing to "Pup Pup Boogie" from Paw Patrol, "Try Everything" from Zootopia, "Zoo" from Zootopia 2, the themes from PJ Masks and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the kid dance songs "Swab the Decks" and "The Checkout Song," and songs from Moana, Moana 2, and KPop Demon Hunters.
Once we were down to 6 kids, they were allowed on the swings. I even got to push them, which they loved. I got some good out of hauling all those carts around! The remaining five older kids had just joined the four younger kids that were left when I finished my shift. I even walked home, so I could keep enjoying that lovely weather.
Put on The Unsinkable Molly Brown when I got home. I go further into this 1964 biography of the pioneering Colorado high society lady played by a game Debbie Reynolds at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Finished the night at YouTube with The Bernstein Bears Play Ball in honor of baseball season starting today. I went further into this and the Easter special Peter and the Magic Egg at my musical blog back in late March 2024.
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