Animation

I'd like to take a moment to extend my sincere thanks to Dreamworks, Pixar, and Disney for all the great movies they've made over the past decade.

Now, I'm an adult male, and some would say that as an adult male I am perhaps not necessarily the intended audience of these films, and yet I find certain aspects of them to be incredibly fascinating - of course it's true that the plots generally have a moral hidden (not so subtly, you might even say blatantly - though I'm not sure if it's possible to 'blatantly' hide something) within the layers of a comedic story-line, and though I am generally one to appreciate such messages, they're not my real reason for watching these movies.

I watch them for the life they give our world, and for that reason it's the characters that matter to me, making the moral a secondary point - after all, anybody can think up a moral, it's the characters that make the film.

For example, I'm interrupting the beginning of 'Bee Movie' to sit and write this, and since I'm only at the beginning, I have no idea what the moral will bee (it was irresistible - I promise to only do that once) I have a suspicion that it will have something to do with not following the crowd, exploring new worlds, and showing ultimately that being different is not a bad thing - but that's just a guess, maybe it's about dental hygiene and the dangers of living around copious amounts of honey.  It could happen.

 the reason I know I'll like it is the characters and the intro - the movie starts off with narration and text saying:

"According to all known laws of aviation, there's no way a bee should be able to fly. 
Its wing are too small to lift its fat little body off the ground. 
The bee, of course, flies anyway - 
because bees don't care what humans think is impossible."


I love that.  I think it sets the whole tone - weather or not it has anything to do with the plot of the movie is immaterial to me - I think it's great.  It tells me "Hey, heres a funny little joke - we're not going to take things too seriously here, so have fun"  Now, being somewhat strange, I looked it up - and it's not true.  The whole urban myth started because some scientist stated that a plane with wings the size of a bee, moving at the same speed as a bee, would not be able to achieve lift - after that the whole thing became kind of a running joke.  So technically according to laws of aviation, a bee wouldn't be able to fly if it's wings didn't move, but they do, so that's that.


So, back to the movies - the general thing I love so much about movies like 'Bee Movie", "Bugs", and one of my favorites "Ants" is that they give human characteristics to creatures we generally see as emotionless - it humanizes them into lovable characters, presumably so we can identify with them.  


For me that makes everyday life a little more fun - turning a family of honey bees into a stereotypical Jewish family is something that would never occur to me, nor would Danny Glover as a soldier ant, or stoner beetles, but it sure makes the tiny world beneath our feet a helluva lot more amusing.


Now some of this could be my own creative boredom; I've always given personality to creatures without, or stationary objects, and as a child all my toys had personalities and histories to back them up - but to see the same concept brought to life (and really, animation these days is almost as good as) makes me grin like a moron.  Which unfortunately is what some people would think I am from reading this  - but you see, I'm not simple, of stupid, or immature; I'm just a guy who prefers to add a little make believe to a world that says facts are facts.


I believe the folks at Dreamworks, Pixar and Disney would agree - just because we grow up, doesn't mean we can't have a little fun in our heads.  Just try to keep it in there when you're in public.