in which I appreciate digital animation

Took the Fake Niece and Fake Nephew to some cineplex to see Over the Hedge. I thought we were going to have a private screening, but at the last minute, one lone guy, and a family of much more poorly behaved kids than my little angels arrived. The movie engaged us all in loud prolonged laughter from the very beginning. I appreciated that it was an anti-consumption, anti-sprawl sort of movie, (the only product placement in the movie, rife with opportunity for it, is for THX sound), but I suspect that these characters are being used to hawk all kinds of appalling stuff in the real world: thankfully, I'm unaware of it if they do, because I haven't watched any kids tv in ages, nor have I checked out the Happy Meals on offer. From my few encounters with the comic strip, I get the feeling that this movie is far less dark--kind of like the Peanuts television specials, where, other than A Charlie Brown Christmas, the undercurrents of depression are left out. The character animation was wonderful, which pains me to say, as I try to go on record as often as possible saying that all digital animation is rubbish. I don't like the way the people looked, but the animals were very expressive. (Also, it pains me even more to say that I'm incredibly excited about a trailer for a movie that is not only computer animation, but also stars Robin Williams: it features him voicing a penguin singing "My Way" in Spanish. I was practically levitating in ecstasy after seeing it, in spite of everything. It was a trailer I could live in happily. The movie is Happy Feet, and perhaps it won't suck...I just looked it up online and it turns out to be a George Miller movie! Oh my god! Now I really can't wait!) I do wish animation would get back to using actual voice artists for characters. It's not that Avril Lavigne did a bad job, but she didn't do anything that Yeardley Smith or Carolyn Lawrence couldn't have done better, and, really, who's she supposed to pull into the theater? And what's up with the Ben Folds soundtrack? The songs fit the movie less well than the Jack Johnson songs in Curious George, where the songs were, Jack Johnson-style, quiet and inoffensive, just like the movie. Whereas Ben Folds slightly whiny, mildly sardonic stuff seems entirely wrong--the lyrics are more captivating than Johnson's, so they call more attention to themselves, so consequently one realizes that the songs have no place at all in the movie. Then, at the end of the credits, he does a cover of "Lost in the Supermarket", which, while appropriate, is neutered by his tepid delivery. It did make me think that maybe some pop-punk group could have given the movie the right sort of juice--I don't know who, really, as I haven't listened to any pop-punk groups in a while. Are Fall Out Boy any good? Everybody slams them in the press, but they did reiterate the Incesticide liner notes (next to last paragraph) at a concert in the South, and that seemed pretty respectible...
As soon as the credits started, my Fake Niece turned to me and said, "Miyazaki is a good artist." "This wasn't by Miyazaki," I said. "I know that", she said, "but he's a good artist." I thought that meant that she hadn't liked the movie, but apparently it was just an observation, made relevent by the presence of animation, even of lesser quality. My Fake Nephew observed that it was much better than Madagascar. I am willing to believe that.
Possibly due to the movie, last night I dreamed that there were two dead black bears in my yard, one being eaten by a coyote and a kangaroo. One of the bears had two orphaned cubs, and a brown bear was trying to adopt them.
Final shot: comic close up as the manic squirrel bangs into a glass screen--confusing. Was this originally intended as a straight-to-DVD feature? There are also many television viewing jokes during the closing credits, which seemed quite out of place in a feature.

When I got home, I listened to Phrenology, by The Roots. Amiri Baraka had some things to say about Stepin Fetchit that I hadn't noticed when I'd listened to the album before--of course I don't know that I'd ever played it to the last track since I got it.