With Kathleen in the city for the next three days attending a doll-making workshop being given by Wendy Froud, I’m on kid patrol.
Took Ariel to her morning bowling league while our house keeper (who comes every Saturday, so how’s that for timing) kept an eye on Caroline. Then, as rain poured down, I packed the kids off to go see “Ice Age” at the local multiplex. We had lunch there and then saw the film. Caroline was fairly well behaved after we made it clear to her that she couldn’t go running around in the theater. The film itself was technically superior to the previous one, although once again the story itself was no great shakes (actually the preceding one was better.) But there were enough action set pieces to rivet Caroline’s attention, as well as most of the kids in the fairly packed theater. And, hey, how can you resist a film where Queen Latifah voices a mammoth who’s convinced she’s actually a possum.
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“Ariel was fairly well behaved after we made it clear to her that she couldn’t go running around in the theater.”
I’m relieved you finally broke her of that annoying habbit. It was really quite embarassing when she did that during Schindler’s List.
Just came back from Ice Age myself. We enjoyed it for what it was, though the first one had a much better story. Diego didn’t have a whole lot to do in this one (I wonder what he’s been eating while he has been living with the herbivores). Scrat is still the best thing in the movie.
With a 70 million dollar opening weekend you can pencil in another sequel when Ariel gets a bit older.
Peter David: With Kathleen in the city for the next three days attending a doll-making workshop being given by Wendy Froud…
Luigi Novi: Any relation to Brian Froud?
What exactly is a “set piece”? People like to use that term, but I’ve never understood precisely what it means (especially in the context of an animated film).
Luigi — Wendy Froud is Brian’s wife. (I’m pretty sure Kath has mentioned this over on her own blog, since I’m not sure how else I’d know that…)
Ariel was fairly well behaved after we made it clear to her that she couldn’t go running around in the theater.
Hey, as long as she doesn’t use it for bowling practice…
TWL
Housekeeper?!
Good Lord, the comic industry is churning out millionaires by the second…! Can’t you all just fund the CBLDF by yourselves? I’m poor!
🙂
We just came in from Ice Age ourselves.
I loved that the squirrel had more time. One of the most disappointing things the makers of Ice Age has not acted on is that they have not donated a feature length film to this little guy.
Hope Kathy’s having fun. I know she’s been looking forward to this workshop.
Luigi, Wendy has a couple books featuring her dolls if you’re interesting in checking the stuff out. And every once in a while you may actually find a Wendy doll being auctioned on Ebay under “OOAK polysculpted fairies”. Exceptional quality, she’s outstanding.
I saw Ice Age 2 last night, it was an amusing distraction. But it felt less like a movie and more like a series of entertaining episodes, haphazardly stitched together like the old Bugs Bunny movies. The best moments were the diversions, the anecdotal sidenotes which had no real impact on the main story. All of the moments which related to the main story itself were generally dry and predictable.
Posted by Robert Fuller at April 8, 2006 08:09 PM
What exactly is a “set piece”? People like to use that term, but I’ve never understood precisely what it means (especially in the context of an animated film)
the relevant defcinitions found in the”American Heritage” online dictionary are:
3. (a) A carefully planned and executed military operation.
(b) A situation, activity, or speech planned beforehand and carried out according to a prescribed pattern or formula.
The meanings in 2(a) and 3(b) are applicable here.
In older times, a “set piece” was more or less the equivalent of a “master piece” (an example of work undertaken by a journeyman to prove his readiness for Master status in his craft): difficult pieces “set” for the student to perform or to duplicate. (Samplers, fo instance, were “set Pieces” set top yung ladies to demonstrate their mastery of embroiderey.)
Huh, and I thought it was just something people applied to movies. It honestly didn’t occur to me to look it up in the dictionary (and there’s one sitting right next to me, with a very comprehensive, and comprehensible, definition of the term).
Thanks for clearing it up.
1 I always understood set piece to be basically a scene, usually involving just one location (a warehouse where the fight will be)or one event (like a chase down the streets of San Fran) that usually can be lifted from the plot and has a beginning, middle and end in and of itself. That’s the context I usually hear it in, anyway.
Like most of the industry terms (and like in most industries) it probably means whatever the speaker WANTS it to mean.
As far as IA2 goes, I liked it better than the first one insite of the weak story. I thought the story for IA1 was really dull and boring and this one was more exciting if less, well, logical. More character bits. And yes Diego had less to do but like someone said, if you focus on the meat eater TOO much, you’re going to have to address what he eats at some point. I imagine he’s eating fish since those were the only critters in the flick that DIDN’T have any human-like attributes. Even the 2 bad guy fish have personality, unlike the “pirahna” (?).
Skrat is the best thing in it but a whole movie might be difficult to pull off. More screen time that WASN’T shown in the trailers would’ve been GREAT!!
My wife and I took my three-year-old to see it a week ago, and all three of us were bored silly. Sure, there were some really funny parts, but they were too few and too far between. (Actually, they weren’t that far between, they were just lumped together at the beginning.) Most of the kids at that screening were antsy during the film, too.
I’m glad that you guys had a good time, but I can’t say that I understand how you did it.
Ha! I was riding herd of my sister’s three beasties (all under the age of 9) last week and took them to go see Ice Age 2 also. The four year old one wasn’t all that thrilled with Diego till she realized he was a good saber tooth tiger, and yes she and the 7 yr old got kinda antsy too.
I liked the first one way better I think, but this one made me laugh at times too. (The scene where Queen La’s Mammoth actually plays possum and shakes the earth, for some reason cracked me up. I think it’s the fact you don’t actually “see” her landing on the ground but only see and hear the effects of a giant wooly mammoth doing such a thing. It’s the subtly that gets me sometimes.)
Hope your days with the kidlets continue to be as sweet!
I’m glad you’re a responsible parent that explains to your child that she can’t run around in a theatre. This summer, I went to see Episode III again as a matinee and this grandmother brought 4 kids in. They ran around and talked and carried on. After giving them 2 of my best librarian shushes, I finally leaned forward at the beginning of the Mustafar scene and said, “Sit down!” It was then that the grandmother took them out and let me watch the rest of the movie in peace.