20 Years of Animation – Pixar Singapore

i visited the exhibition when it was held in melbourne in 2007. the exhibition is now in singapore, showing at the singapore science centre. i am glad that the exhibition panels and sections i saw in melbourne are all on display with the addition of Up.

unfortunately however, the larger than life installations of luxo jr and his toy ball are not here.

the delicious pixar merchandise are also not sold here. good thing i bought a few pixar memorabilia in melbourne when i had the chance.

still, it is worth the visit. the heart, soul & mind, blood, sweat & tears is amazing curated. the artscape animation alone is worth the admission fee.

go down the rabbit hole & slay your jabberwocky!

today i caught tim burton’s take on alice in wonderland in 3d. i loved it! and i also love the fact that classics are kept popular in contemporary cognizance by remakes on the big screen. hopefully kids (and adults) will find the impetus to pick up the original by lewis carroll and be as awed by the enduring themes.

it was not simply about good versus evil. the red queen represented excess and the hollow facade of excesses. her rhetoric that “its better to be feared than to be loved” eventually proves ineffective when ruling hearts and minds.

be it more sophisticated special effects or the casting of endearing artistes, none of the fancy modern sensibilities add to the original tale of independence, courage, faith and self-realisation.

i’ve been introduced to the poem about the battle with the jabberwocky in literature classes used as a lesson in inference and reading in context. now it wields a more dramatic dimension for me.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought —
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

500 days of summer

she only loved two things. the first was her long dark hair. the second was how easily she could cut it off, and feel nothing.

i loved love love the movie. its quirky, funny, sincere, cute, light, witty and comes a lovely soundtrack which i bought promptly after the show. its playing on itunes as i post.

i had already found joseph gordon-levitt endearing as tommy solomon in 3rd rock from the sun and that was the last time i saw him as a teen. i did some cursory search on joseph gordon-levitt and found out that he is in fact my age and share the exact same birth date as i. another thing we have in common is the lack of spatial intelligence and direction sense. in an interview he says, “I get lost all the time. My sense of direction sucks. I remember time real well. I think everybody’s mind works really differently. I remember time real well and remember space pretty poorly.”

zooey deschanel looked really familiar but i couldn’t put a finger to it. imdb enlightens – she was trillian in hitch hiker’s guide to the galaxy (2005). also starred in many other mainstream movies like yes man and failure to launch but i didn’t see those. zooey deschanel also sings and composes, often her music is used in the films she is cast and its ost. she is the “she” is “she & him“. she recently married ben gibbard of death cab for a cutie.

i loved how the movie has a relationship with the city in which it is set. joseph gordon-levitt’s character is an architect by training but not by profession. but he still loves the craft and often sketches architectural designs. ooh, i love sketching, i don’t sketch enough. i loved the scene where he explains to zooey deschanel’s character how space can be better utilised in congested nyc by drawing the skyline on her arm and also tells her how long each building has been here.

i wish i could nurture that kind of relationship with the city of singapore where a structure can grow with me and chart my journey. i wish the creative industry in singapore can devote more time to ponder on that and produce works along those lines, not in a documentary but something more fictional and wistful.

mumm-ra’s she got you high is my favourite track of the ost.

reading for catharsis

in a bid to read the novel before the movie adaptation, i completed reading my sister’s keeper by jodi picoult within a week. its rather readable, easy to follow and i particularly like how the story is told from multiple points of views of the various characters, each struggle to respond to the crisis before them and their own demons.

books will always occupy a place in my heart and mind where movies are a poor substitute. i find myself having had journey more with characters in a book than in a movie, possibly because of a motion film’s technical constrains such as script writing, cost, marketability and attention span of the movie goer, etc. as a result, characters in book have the advantage to develop more thoroughly and endear themselves to the reader closer than a movie can since reading can take place anytime, anywhere and over a longer period of time.

even after i’ve finished reading the book, the characters continue to live inside my head as i speculate how they would deal with the next phrase of their lives after the closure of the said crisis. every now and then, i check back with the para-social relationships i’ve cultivated and find out how they are – with is a constant state of unadulterated clarity and happiness. they’ve achieved closure, arrived the wiser and accomplished some enlightenment, so maybe so can i.

i think revelation from literature occurs only when what the book offers is engaged with what we bring into it. the result is catharsis.

the fitzgerald family taught me how to love and let go of loved ones. good people in our lives are a gift, sometimes they enter in passing, sometimes they stay longer, but eventually everyone dies. i’ve come to treasure extremely dearly certain relationships in my life, so much so that i fear the resulting end of it when death comes a knocking and takes one of us away. i’ve planned for hypothetical succession so that legacy of love once found can continue. but that too isn’t a bulwark against what will claim us all. so this is what i can finally say: no matter what the circumstances turn out to be of mortal separation, i’ll say proudly – it was an honor to have met you, the privilege to suffer loss is mine to bear and i wouldn’t have it any other way.

my sister’s keeper

in my less then extensive width of reading, i seem to have come across more analysis and celebration of sisterly relationship then brotherly ones.

my sister’s keeper is of course about the relationship between a sick sister and a life-giving one, but other than that, there are two other pairs of sister relationships that are painted so vividly in the novel that it could reflect any one of us.

the other book i’ve read about the love-hate, bitter-sweet relationship between sisters is a short history of tractors in ukrainian by marina lewycka.

within the same family, the dynamics of misunderstandings, idiosyncrasies and pms are rife in sister-sister relationships in a way that does not exist between brothers or brother-sister relationships.

on a macro scale, there is a solidarity between women that cuts across cultures, religion and age. i believe that it partially stems from the history – and in some cases, reality – of marginalized womenfolk in many societies. and partially from the common painful and binding experience of menstruation and childbirth, and of course the much debated role of the woman at home, in the workforce and in her dealings with man.

capable of both sensitivity and brutality, when push comes to shove, women will come through for each other.

i only see my sister suzanne once or twice a year. she lives less than an hour and several thousand philosophical convictions away.

– my sister’s keeper