DadCentric

These Aren't The Droids You're Looking For

A couple of weeks ago, the boy and got the Geek Trip of a lifetime: the good people at 20th Century Fox invited us to spend the weekend in San Francisco on their dime, there to get a behind-the-scenes look at Skywalker Ranch and Lucasfilm Headquarters, topped off with an advance screening of Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace 3D (which opens in theaters today - my review of the flick can be found over at MamaPop).

Some of us were never bitten by the Star Wars bug, and some of us have outgrown it over the years. My enthusiasm for the prequels is lukewarm at best; they have their moments, but ultimately fell a bit short of everyone's expectations. My enthusiasm for the folks at Lucasfilm, however, remains steadfast. These guys are perhaps the biggest Star Wars fans of any of us, and when sound editing supervisor Matthew Wood (also the voice of General Grievous) let Lucas add his voice to a key scene in Episode I, well, it was pretty geektastic. 

 

Jaws Was Never My Scene, and I Don't Like Star Wars

"Dude."

It was Simmons.

"What's goin' on, man?"

"I've got some Donald Duck, dude.  Wanna go see Star Wars for a buck at Leohman's ?"

"Go see...wait...Donald Duck?" I said.

"It's blotter, dude.  I got some..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know what it is," I said.  I had never done acid before, but I knew the lexicon.  Just needed some context.  "Umm...Star Wars?  I thought they were showing 2001: A Space Oddysey." 

"No, dude, Star fuckin' Wars! Huh huh huh. C'mon, let's go!  My mom'll drive."  Star Wars had come out three years prior.

"Nah, dude," I demurred, "I gotta wash the fuckin' van today.  I can't get out of it."

"All right, loser.  Have fun," he said.  Later."

"Later." 

I walked the yellow receiver back to the kitchen, untangling fifteen feet of boinging spiral cord from the basement stairs, and clacked it onto the wall, averting my eyes from Mom's scrutiny.

Step Into The Wampa Cave

My youngest son made up a game and taught it to me. The instructions are below. This game is called Wampa Cave.

To play Wampa Cave, you need the following:

• 1 lightsaber
• 1 floor, or if a floor is not available, a ground will work

Wampa Cave is a 2-player game, one child and one adult.

Step 1: Clip the lightsaber to the child’s belt.

Step 2: Mount the child on your back. Assume a tauntaun-like posture and run around in a tauntaun-like manner making tauntaunish noises. Let out a worried tauntaun grumble.

Friday Fun: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Tauntaun

This makes perfect, glorious sense.

(via the also glorious fuckyeahlucasfilm)

Wordless Wednesday: Twilight Moms

Bears, Cars, Dinosaurs And Punks: Four Movies For Your Consideration

FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm totally lagging on reviewing the following four flicks that were sent to me for such purposes by powerful people who expect that they'll receive timely coverage in return. However, since three of the four movies were already in theaters, I don't feel too bad.

Hey! Tomorrow's Friday! Weekend! Whoop! And since many of you will apparently be housebound with your kids, here are three recent Blu-ray releases and one new theatrical release that may or may not be worth your or your kids' precious time.

Two of this summer's big kiddie flicks, Cars 2 and Winnie The Pooh, are now out on glorious Blu-ray. I managed to miss both when they were in the theaters, and for my sins I'm sure the kids will force me to watch them until my eyes burn out. Both are surprising, in opposite ways. Winnie The Pooh is simply lovely, a true movie for children: coming in at about 60 minutes, it's the perfect length, the hand-drawn animation is warm and comforting, and the way the A.A. Milne story literally comes to life on the screen, with words serving as part of the background, is clever and endearing. Disney proves that there is still a place for traditional animation, and Winnie The Pooh is a classic that can stand proudly next to the studio's most famous offerings.

What To Get For That Special Carter Burke In Your Life: The Alien Facehugger Plush

What's better than that Tauntaun Sleeping Bag?

You can order it here. Just don't let it get off of the ship. Because if just one of those things makes it back to Earth, THEN THAT WILL BE ALL. (Not recommended for kids under the age of 8, Colonial Marines suffering from PTSD, or guys named Kane.)

Real Steel: Father, Son, and Holy Robots!

  
I was sitting about two feet from Hugh Jackman. It was like looking in a mirror. One of those funhouse mirrors that make you appear stronger and better-looking. It was fantastic. We were laughing. Turns out that it's hard not to laugh when you're with Hugh Jackman.

The topic was his new film Real Steel (PG-13), which opens today. I had just seen it the night before and I was unsure as to whether or not it was really as family-friendly as his coworkers had claimed.

For instance, just minutes before Hugh had entered the room his seat was occupied by Mr. Sugar Ray Leonard. Yes, that Sugar Ray Leonard. He helped with the training and boxing-related scenes in Real Steel, of which there are many. He was asked if his kids had seen the movie.

"Oh yeah. Thanks. I’m glad you brought that up. I took my kids --  I have two young kids, my son Daniel… and my daughter Camille.

"I took my wife and my mother-in-law. So we went to see a part of the screening and at some point I turned around and I saw my kids screaming. Jumping up and down because it was action. It was, you know, all this kind of --  this entertainment. The robot! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 

"It was really cool. It was satisfying. It really was. And they talked about it the whole time on the way home. So I knew we did okay."

Then he told a great story about playing golf with Bill Clinton.

My Kids Review 'The Lion King' Blu-ray

As I'm wont to do when I have a ton of stuff on my plate, I turned over the job of reviewing the new Blu-ray release of The Lion King (disclosure: review copy provided by the good folks at Disney) over to my kids; this was done in one take, in compliance with Federal and state child labor laws. Regarding technical quality: the picture is, of course, fantastic, and I highly recommend cranking your 7.1 channel surround system to window-shaking levels for the opening "Circle of Life" sunrise sequence. Hakuna matata.

 

Steve Jobs: A Friend To The New

My favorite Pixar movie? Easy. Ratatouille. You can argue that Wall-E was their most daring, Up their most emotional, the Toy Story pictures their most iconic. But what I love the most about Ratatouille, apart from Patton Oswalt and Peter O'Toole's tremendous voice work, was the mere fact that it's a movie about a rat who wants to be a chef.

Think about that for a second. A movie about a rat who wants to be a chef actually got made. 

My favorite scene in Ratatouille? Again: easy. Food critic Anton Ego, the bane of Parisian restauranteurs, comes to Gusteau's to pass judgment. Remy, our rodent hero, serves him what is on the surface a simple dish. Peasant food. Ratatouille. Ego takes a bite...and in a scene that lasts all of ten seconds, you the viewer are treated to one of cinema's most indelible flashbacks, that of young Anton being served a dish from his youth, a scene that's funny, technically amazing, poignant, magical, beautiful. It's an utterly perfect moment, one that still gets me all misty just because it's just so goddamned great.

In 1986, Steve Jobs bought a small, underfunded division of Lucasfilm, the Graphics Group, for $10 million. He sunk $5 million back into the company. After struggling for a bit, Jobs' Graphics Group landed a contract with Disney; they were tasked to explore the new realm of computer-animated films. The company changed its name to Pixar and the rest, as they say, is history.

It's safe to say that Pixar wouldn't have been Pixar without Steve Jobs' foresight, passion, and attitude. Of course, Jobs had his share of detractors. To them, a reminder from Anton Ego himself:

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends...Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere."

Steve Jobs was an artist. A father of four, he brought wonder to kids of all ages. He will be missed.