by Jennifer AlLee
It's Friday. If you're like me, it's been a long week. So today, I want to chat about something total fun: Animated movies.
I've been a fan of animated films for a long time. There was the Golden Age of Disney animation which included gems like Sleeping Beauty. And then the Renaissance of hand drawn animation, beginning with the amazing The Little Mermaid. Then computer animation came into its own, and starting with Toy Story, Pixar blew my socks off with film after film. Then DreamWorks joined the party and gave us Shrek and Chicken Run.
What makes those movies so wonderfully watchable are the layers: humor, drama, suspense, angst, happy endings, and characters with emotions that run deeper than two dimensions. As Shrek would say, they're like onions (to which Donkey would say, no, they're like parfait, cuz everybody loves parfait). Every parent knows that when your child falls in love with a movie, you will watch it again and again and again... until you're quoting lines without realizing it. Here are some oft quoted lines at my house. How many can you place in the movie they came from? Warning: a couple are pretty tricky.
"I'm Woody. Howdy, howdy, howdy!"
"Pull yourself together. You are Elastigirl!"
"There goes Bill. Poor Bill."
"It's so fluffy!"
"That's right, he can be taught!"
"Me whole life flashed before me eyes. It was really boring."
Lately, we've been quoting the Minions from Despicable Me. My son (who is 20, by the way) and I will look at each other and burst out, "POTATO!" If you don't know why, there's only one way to explain it. Please enjoy the following video. And the next time you need a pick me up, consider treating your inner child to some animated fun.
JENNIFER ALLEE believes the most important thing a woman can do is find her identity in God – a theme that carries throughout her novels. A professional writer for over twenty years, she's done extensive freelance work for Concordia Publishing House, including skits, Bible activity pages, and over 100 contributions to their popular My Devotions series. Her novels include The Love of His Brother (Five Star, 11/07), The Pastor’s Wife (Abingdon Press, 2/10), The Mother Road (Abingdon Press, 4/12) and A Wild Goose Chase Christmas (Abingdon Press, 11/12). She's thrilled to be working on her first historical series with the amazing Lisa Karon Richardson. Diamond in the Rough and Vanishing Act (Whitaker House) are the first two books in the Charm and Deceit series, available now. And... as if that's not enough, her novella Comfort and Joy will appear in the Christmas anthology, Mistletoe Memories (Barbour, 9/13) She's a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, Christian Authors Network, and the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance.
My kids have been doing the movie lines since they were obsessed with Field of Dreams... so I know what you're talking about. Sadly, more lines have come from Will Ferrell movies lately :)
ReplyDeleteI think I might relate to this more if we go to things like quoting the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey.
All in all, the same fun stuff. Animated movies are so amazing now. (I did go and see Brave last year -so beautifully created)
thanks Jen!
Ever since Disney became SO PC, I've turned to Pixar. They are amazing!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love the minions (they remind me of Tuck and Roll from "A Bug's Life").
I haven't seen "Brave" yet, but I'd like to. :)
I love, I love, I LOVE animated films. In fact, we're planning to go to the drive-in to see Planes tonight! I can't wait.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was very young, my dad ran the movies in a movie theater. He used to take me to work with him because my mother was quite sick, and I'd beg him - BEG HIM - to, "please show Cinderella one more time, Daddy. Please!" Which he would. And one day his boss came to him and told him the sailors were getting tired of watching Cinderella.
Morning, Ladies! When my son was born, Aladdin had just come out, so the nurses in the hospital nursery were calling him "Prince AlLee" We still call him that LOL
ReplyDeleteI love cartoons and I'm not ashamed. Even the horribly bad ones. I like Scooby doo and Disney and Pixar and pretty much all of them. Shew, I feel better. I've been holding that in for awhile!
ReplyDeleteMinions? Is that why people get a strange light in their eye when I mention the word minions now?
ReplyDeleteThat video was a blast. Nelson heard it and asked what I was watching. I read him the post, then when it got to the POTATO! part, he came running to see it for himself. Ha!
Thanks, Jen.