Christmas Marathon Double: Veggie Tales & The Cat in the Hat

Its so typical of me to start Christmas marathon (finally!) with animation.

I have a whole rundown of movies and since I’m starting a week later, I’m trying my best to crank out what I can. My goal is to beat last year and thats not going to be too hard since I did 5 reviews. Pathetic, yes, I know! I won’t let that happen again this year 😉

I’m focusing on what I can find on Netflix so if it turns out to be weird movies, I apologize in advance.

VEGGIETALES

SAINT NICHOLAS: A STORY OF JOYFUL GIVING! (2009)

Director: Brian Roberts

Laura the Carrot’s dad might lose his job for not completing his deliveries because of a breakdown that he can’t afford to pay for. Without the truck, he won’t even be able to get a Christmas tree to celebrate the holidays.  Bob the Tomato tries to lighten the mood by telling the story of a little boy call Nicholas who lived in Greece and discovered the joy of giving in Bethlehem and comes home to Greece hoping to be able to continue what his parents did. It shows the story of how Saint Nicholas came to be while using it to reflect on the current situation with Laura the Carrot and the importance of joyful giving 😉

 I’m personally not too familiar with Veggie Tales.  I think the concept is cool but I’m not huge on the whole religious thing since I’m pretty much agnostic.  However, I never shrug away any animation.  Veggie Tales is very much for younger kids.  Its very musical and adds a little cute jokes here and there.  It uses vegetables and simple names to remember the characters. What works is that it really doesn’t matter what background you have, it shares good values to the younger generation and that works for me.

I fully acknowledged that it was geared for younger kids but it still has its fun moments.  Plus, I’m not sure how accurate any of these stories are but if Saint Nicholas’s story comes from this, well, I’d say, I learned something new.  There’s a good amount of fun to be had with this one 🙂

THE CAT IN THE HATE KNOWS A LOT ABOUT CHRISTMAS (2012)

Director: Tony Collingwood, Steve Neilson

Cat hosts a Christmas Eve party and invites Sally and Nick along with Thing 1 and Thing 2 and all his friends.  When the party ends, he drops them off at home, only to find that Ralph the young reindeer got off at Sally and Nick’s.  Cat appears again to help take Ralph back home to Freeze Your Knees to be back in time for Christmas with his family. On the way, the Thingamajigger has a problem and they get stranded. Will they find a way to get everyone home in time for Christmas with their families?

I’m a HUGE Dr. Seuss fan. Like if I could live by Dr. Seuss, I would. I read his stories when I’m having a crappy day before bed and it makes me feel better.  There is so much good about his stories.  Only because of Netflix did I hear about this The Cat In the Hat Knows A Lot thing, so I gave the Christmas one a shot.  I’m going to admit that it wasn’t quite what I expected but it wasn’t all that bad.  A little long and its really only geared for kids but the colors and the animation are really nice to see, especially since its a step up from the old versions, right? This one takes the characters of The Cat in the Hat so it adds some fun.

If you have young kids, this one might be entertaining to watch.  I mean, kids under 8 would probably be the demographic for this.  Regardless, it also has a few lessons to be learned about friends and keeping promises.  There’s something valuable to be taken away from this one (just like Veggie Tales).

Now that we have Christmas marathon finally started, I’m sure I’ll be able to catch up with a few other entries.

Any Dr. Seuss fans? How about Veggie Tales? Have you seen these before? 

Daily Prompt: Pick Me Up

Daily Prompt (May 6, 2014): What is the one word or phrase that immediately cheers you up when you hear it?

Its been a tough week at work with  my coworker and my boss both on vacation with a lot of loose ends to tie up at my office and then problems always float in during these times.

My go-to pick me up , other than chick flicks and TV are always in the form of Dr. Seuss.

As silly as that sounds, Dr. Seuss has brought on an immense amount of joy in my life 🙂 I can sit down and read myself one (or more) of his stories out loud and it’ll just soothe my mind.

Life just gets so much better and more positive.

Here’s a few:

Maybe its the childhood innocence and maybe its better to be simple and know the value of yourself and the people that matter to you or its just the immense positive vibes that emit from the work of Dr. Seuss.  Whatever the reason, this always works for me. 🙂

What word or phrase picks you up?

 

Tagged AGAIN!

I always love to play TAG! Last week, I got tagged by Rarasaur and I went on and tagged a few others of my own who participated in the game.  A few days ago, I got tagged again.  This time, its by the absolutely awesome ruler of the Matticus Kingdom, DJ Matticus.

Now he didn’t just tag me that day.  Please allow me to go off on a tangent now.  On the same day, he gave me an award also, The Versatile Blogger Award.  I’m not going to write extensively on it.  However I’d like to give a huge THANKS to him! This is the 3rd time I’ve gotten this award and he’s helped me believe that I’ve achieved some sort of versatility thats being enjoyed by all of you! I’m super happy about that because if its anything I’m good at, its being versatile.  You know, jack of all trades, master of none 😉  Thats me! However, as much as its about me, its also about him.  If you haven’t stopped by his awesome blog and kingdom, that has just started a new segment of Tug of War blogging style, you need head on over and show him some love right HERE!  And if you already know him, then still head over and check out his blog, maybe he’ll have something new for you to explore.  Once I figure out how to rearrange the awards on the side bar to give everyone their acknowledgement for the awards that I’ve got, it’ll be right there for you to see.

Now back to business, I’m sure a lot of you have already seen this blogging TAG going around but still, here are the rules:

1. Post these rules.  
2. Post a photo of yourself and eleven random facts about you.
3. Answer the questions given to you in the tagger’s post.
4. Create eleven new questions and tag new people to answer them.
5. Go to their blog/twitter and let them know they have been tagged.

I’ve had so many pictures of me lately so I’ll just re-use a recent one.

11 Facts about me:

1. I love daffodils!

2. Les Miserables is my favorite musical but Wicked is very close behind.

3. I love exotic fruits.  My favorite is starfruits.

4. I will exit the house if I smell a durian anywhere near me.

5. I love finishing things by myself and I’m obsessed with puzzles.

6. I’m totally into the Resident Evil movies and can’t wait for the next one to come out.

7. I hate movies that end where everyone dies and the purpose all backfired because it makes me feel like I’ve wasted my time.  The most recent example I have is The International.

8. I’d like to see a reboot of Hercules Poirot some time.  Sherlock gets his shot in movies and TV series but we should show some love to Agatha Christie

9. As much as I love Dr. Seuss, the best story book to me Love Me Forever by Robert Munsch.

10. I just started having this immense addiction to peanut butter.  President Choice style made from just 100% peanuts.

11. You probably already know this but I’m mega chickenshit when it comes to horror movies, but I love to watch it for the adrenaline rush.

There you have it.  Some more facts about me! Now for my turn to answer some questions

DJ Matticus asked probably the hardest questions to answer *glares at him*…but I will try to answer them.  I’m always up for a challenge!

1) What is the funniest movie you’ve ever seen that wasn’t supposed to be a comedy?  (MST3K movies don’t count.)

I don’t know what MST3K.  Am I supposed to? Clash of the Titans (the one from a few years back with Sam Worthington) definitely ruled in the “so bad its good” (maybe) area.  I still think its a crappy movie but I can tell you me and my friend had a blast just making fun of it and laughing AT it.  I’m sure it wasn’t with it.

2) What is the least funny movie you’ve ever seen that was supposed to be a comedy?

This one is no-brainer.  Austin Powers! Man, that movie put me in some serious REM sleep.  I don’t think I ever passed out faster.  My cousin woke me up in disbelief and then I really tried to watch it and 30 seconds later, ZZZZzzzz!!

3) Is there a line, for you, where one side the comedy is genius, and the other side is “too far?”

Jokes about race is probably in that area.  Like I wouldn’t sit down and watch The Dictator because I’ve seen some of the jokes and some of it seems a bit overboard.  However, I’d gladly sit down and watch a stand up comedy show of Russell Peters as he mocks them but it doesn’t seem to be as ill-mannered, especially if most of the people have experienced it and find some joy in it.  I don’t know if I even make sense.  Did I even answer this question?

4) If you ever said, “Hey boys, lookie what I got here,” what would you have?

Umm…a car…magazine…Top Gear preferably

5) Can you ever see yourself crushing on Mongo?

I’m gonna go ahead and say no because one, I had to research who this Mongo is. And the results came to Blazing Saddles movie which I haven’t seen.  So in the sense of total and complete lack of knowledge, thats the only answer I could have.  Unless there’s always the “maybe” option.

6) Why are you SO tired?

Nightmares about being late for work deadlines *shutters* Work, please leave me alone!

7) Where are all the *ahem* women at?

At home? I can’t help you with that.  All my girl friends are at home and they are the only women I can refer to…or wait..Montreal is known for something else but thats inappropriate for this blog space or else the search results are going to be even more absurd than they already are.

8) If you could send a telegram, who would you send one to and what would it say?

Thats a tough choice and I’ll choose to pass on this question.  So many people I would send a telegram to that my brain is currently overloading…

9) Who would you want to choreograph your dance routine?

No one.  I can do those myself 🙂 Used to do that with my friends for a few Chinese cultural fairs.

10) If you could ride off into the sunset, would you pick a limo to do it in? Or…?

Nah no limo for me..so bulky.  I’d pick a Toyota Supra, my dream car 🙂 or a Nissan Skyline works also.

11) Would you ever ride a horse on a blazing saddle?

No…I love adventure but not into that blazing part 😉

Here are my eleven questions:

1. Whats your favorite flower?

2. Whats your favorite musical? Broadway, movie, whatever you’d like?

3. How do you feel about durian? (If you don’t know what it is, I included the link)

4. Do you like to eat exotic fruits? Whats your fave?

5. If you were asked to put together a 3000 piece puzzle, would you do it by yourself or ask for help?

6. Do you have a favorite “so bad its good” movie? Which one is it?

7. What movie do you absolutely loathe watching and had the feeling that you wanted to burn or break it for wasting your time?

8. What book would you like to see adapted into a movie?

9. If you had a shelf of children’s storybooks, which would you choose?

10. Whats the one place you dream of seeing or thing you want to do in your lifetime?

11. What is the scariest supernatural being?

If you’re still reading this, I’m tagging YOU and I hope that you join in.  Write up a post to tag other people  and remember to link back to this post or put it in my comments to just answer the questions.  I do own a versatile blog *wink* so there are people who drop by from photography, food, writing, book reviews, movie reviews, etc blogs. I know sometimes its sounds awkward to post up one of these random posts about being tagged.  I don’t want to make it like I’m forcing you to do it.  If you think you’ll have fun with this one, then do it. I hope to hear all your awesome answers! I know I’m slightly breaking the rules but hey, just once in a while is acceptable, right? 😉

Weekly Writing Challenge: A Splash of Colour (and more…)

I missed THREE challenges already.  I’m shaking my head at myself now.  This is the fourth week and I will be doing it.

I really want to do last week’s writing challenge, I just never got around to finishing it up.  I have to start budgeting in time to do these.  They require a bit more thinking than the normal post I do usually.  So this week, it will be a double feature with last week’s And Now For Something Completely Different and this week’s A Splash of Colour.

WEEKLY WRITING CHALLENGE: A SPLASH OF COLOUR

How do you choose one colour to splash? My brain is processing thoughts in different colours (especially after the two photo challenges the last two weeks).  So let me give you a few snippets of my palette of colours!

PURPLE

The shades of purple are the significance of my youth.  It reminds me of the times when my mom did my shopping when I was a little girl.  It was the days when I dressed in puffy little princess dresses and was young, innocent and naive.  The days when life hadn’t taken away so much of my energy and passion for living (something this blog and reading everyone else’s blog has helped bring back).  I broke out of that phase pretty much in purple and my palette after that was dark shades of blue and black all the time.

I don’t know what happened in between but life has brought me back to the love for purple.  Although it is a darker shade of purple, my room (as of 2007) is not a nice shade of lavender purple.  My clothes and accessories are preferred when in the shade of light purple, violet, dark purple.  This happened before I even acknowledged that maybe the things you loved when you were a child never really leave you.  Or is it simple a wave of nostalgia?

YELLOW ORANGE & RED

Man, that font was painful for me in test run.  So I just decided to spare you all painful eyes.  Yellow was for walking into my front yard before work and noticing that despite frost a few days, the yellow chrysanthemums are still alive and brightening up my almost hibernating garden.

In regards to the garden, other than the chrysanthemums, orange and red are around as the leaves are changing colors as fall comes in.  I just noticed that I had fall colours just in my front yard and around my neighborhood, the maple trees were looking really pretty that I wanted to double back on my way to the bus stop to get my camera and snap a shot (but I didn’t have time).  Fall colors are in my mind right now! Red for all the leaves, Orange for the leaves and pumpkins, and yellow for the beautiful strong chrysanthemum’s.

GREEN

GREEN EGGS AND HAM! Who has read that book and enjoyed it immensely? My boyfriend bought me Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker’s Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss two years ago for Christmas.  Silly as it may be. Green is grass and moss and all these natural beauties, but thinking about Green Eggs and Ham makes me happy.  Its about trying new things pretty much and to not pass judgement until you’d tried it on your own.  Such a simple story with such a meaningful moral behind it.  Maybe its also to just encourage us to be adventurous. Actually, there is brunch chain around here called Ben and Florentine’s (not sure where it originated) but it even has Green Eggs and Ham on its menu.  I’ve never tried it, but I’m definitely curious.

“You do not like them.  So you say.  Try them! Try them! And you may.  Try them and you may, I say”- Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham

WEEKLY WRITING CHALLENGE: AND FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

This was incomplete last week so I didn’t end up posting it up but I made changes this time around.  The point was that I had wanted to add a thing or two to this blog.  I have been thinking about it for a while and wondering how to make a few changes so that I can have more content for all of you.  Another passion I don’t share with everyone is my love for reading.  I have recently linked my Goodreads account here and it was my first step in starting to do something different–Book Reviews.

What made last week so hard to finish was the fact that I had coincidentally finished The Phantom of the Opera.  That book is hard to review because there was a lot of aspects to reviewing classics.  I wasn’t exactly sure how to form it.  I will work on that though.  For this time though, I’d like to bring your attention to a review of the book mentioned above: Your Favorite Dr. Seuss: A Baker’s Dozen by the one and only Dr. Seuss.

Book Review: Your Favorite Dr. Seuss: A Baker’s Dozen by the one and only Dr. Seuss

This book is a hardcover compilation of 12 favorites of Dr. Seuss.  I like the majority of Dr. Seuss but these ones are quite good. There is Green Eggs and Ham (mentioned above), How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Horton Hears a Who and my all-time favorite, The Lorax just for starters.  It also had Mulberry Street, If I Ran a Zoo, McElligot’s Pool,  The Cat in the Hat, Yertle the Turtle, Happy Birthday to you!, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! and The Sneetches. If none of these works as bedtime stories, here’s another one included: Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book.

If this book is for children, it has fantastic collection for bedtime stories.  I can tell you nostalgia affects me here because I may not have kids but I read the stories out loud to myself before bed sometimes.  Its quite soothing and enjoyable.  The world of adventure and make believe words and creativity is what envelopes you.  That is the magic of Dr. Seuss!

The value of Dr. Seuss to me is equivalent to the Hayao Miyazaki of children’s book.  Hayao Miyazaki’s movies always have a message behind what he write and its his inspiration and creativity.  It has positive traits to grab from any situation. Dr. Seuss does the same thing in his children’s books.  He gives us positive stories.

Other than the stories that are in this, it also has little write ups from people who knew Dr. Seuss and talked about the particular views and interpretations of each of the stories after each one.  Its an interesting read.

So how was that? Just an idea of a book review until I figure out how to make it better.  It should come in effect by next year! Challenging and fun to do something different!

So what do you think about my additional segment in my blog? The occasional book review sounds like a decent idea? I’m actually thinking of maybe tying it in with the other parts.  I still have a bit of time before the new year arrives.

Another thing! BIG THANK YOU to you all for reading this whole writing challenge.  I will strive really hard to do this on time from now on.  I’ll leave you with a few quotes a la Dr. Seuss! Enjoy!

“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”-The Lorax

“Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!”-Happy Birthday to You!

“So be sure where you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.  And never mix up your right foot with your left. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.) KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!”-Oh, The Places You’ll Go!