When Are You Gonna Stop? When I Catch Them All

I'm a few years too old to have gotten into the Pokemon craze. I'll admit that at one time I owned a copy of Pokemon Blue for the GameBoy. My brothers-in-law, however, were completely caught up in Pokemon fever for a while, and I picked up a lot of it from them. So, when I saw this on io9 yesterday, I could help but smirk.



Gotta catch 'em all! Gotta catch 'em all!

The Dude Enters the Matrix

Saw this on boingboing today. Too good not to share.



fuckin' a man.

Werewolves yay!

Just saw this on Yahoo! I'm excited.

What’s the Deal, Pixar’s Cars?

I’ve done this once before, and I’m starting to think that maybe I’m looking into these movies a bit too much.

Lightning McQueen, the red-hot hot rod with a lot of talent and a lot to learn.

If you haven’t seen it, the Pixar movie Cars is the story of a race car, Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), who is more than a little full of himself and has a lot to learn about racing. The overall theme would imply that no man is an island unto himself and with the help and support with others, anything can be achieved.

At first I was skeptical of the movie, but then once I saw it, I found that it was a really enjoyable movie with genuine funny bits and sad bits and everything else that one would come to expect from a Pixar movie. One of the things that I really like about Pixar is that if the story isn’t there, they won’t make the movie.

Anyway, all of that is well and good, but there are certain things that I noticed in teh movie that beg the question, What’s the deal?

First off, there’s the matter of technology and how the cars interact with the world around them. The cars can only manipulate their world through their tires, antennae, and their tongues. Some more specialized vehicles, such as McQueen’s pit crew, have forklift-style “appendages” that allow them to manipulate some tools. With such a limited means of manipulating the world around them, how do the cars build the structures in which they live? How do they fix, let alone manufacture something like a radio? They can’t possibly use their tires to piece together a circuit board. Do they have special robots that are used to manufacture these items? If they do use robots, seeing as how the cars are machines, would the robots be some kind of slave? How would the cars make these robots or anything else in the first place? It doesn’t make any sense.

The cars appear to have combustion engines, that take fuel, yet they give off no apparent exhaust (aside from the tractors in the “tractor tipping” scene, but I’ll get to the tractors in a minute). This is awfully convenient, seeing as how a world populated by machines would surely be a nightmare landscape, the by-product of so many greenhouse gasses.

Some of that could be helped by the type of fuel. I would assume by the flashes of crops going by as McQueen makes his journey to California that the cars consume some form of ethanol. Otherwise, what would the purpose of such extensive field crops be? Then there’s the matter of the tractors, which are the cows of the Cars world. What is the purpose of the tractor? We never see the cars consuming any solid matter. Are the tractors used for scrap metal to make parts and/or repairs on the cars? Otherwise, the tractors’ only purpose is for comedic effect.

And the last point that I wanted to touch on is how do the Cars reproduce? There are clearly male and female cars, and they are able to fall in love with one another, which one would assume means they would be able to reproduce. Sadly, though, I think the answer to that question is as mysterious as how Transformers reproduce. The cars appear to get old, and one would therefore presume that they die, so there must be some means of bringing new cars into the world. Is there some kind of car assembly line where they produce car bodies and then somehow recycle old car souls? What if a car is created/born/whatever as a sports car, but it’s really more of a monster truck? Is the soul put into some kind of Car blank that is formed by the spirit that is put in it?

Sadly, these questions are not answered during a viewing of Pixar’s Cars. Luckily, I’m here to ask those kinds of questions so that hopefully these things will be more completely thought out in the future.

Yay Trailers!

After seeing Eric's post yesterday with the movie trailers, this has led me to a whole world of reimagined movie trailers. Some good, some not so good. Here's one that I like. I've discussed this movie here before, and it makes me see things in a whole new light.

What’s the Deal, Toy Story?

We’ve all seen that loveable Disney/Pixar movie Toy Story. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and others lend their voices to one of my favorite Pixar movies, which has now become my son’s favorite movie. I don’t know what it is about that movie to his 21-month-old brain, but he enjoys both Toy Story movies more than anything else he’s seen yet. Of course, he hasn’t been introduced to Star Wars yet, but that will come eventually. But I’m getting off topic.

What bothers me about Toy Story and Toy Story 2 when I watch it is one question: Where’s Andy’s father?

Where's your father, Andy?

In both movies, the mother is present with a supporting role and has a definite influence on Andy’s life. Not once in the movie do we see Andy’s father, no reference to him is made, there are no photos that I’ve seen with the happy family. One would have to figure that Andy knew his dad for at least a few years of his life since he has a baby sister that is a few years younger than him. Unless, of course, Andy’s sister is the offspring of another man, but then where is the second father if that is the case. And what does this say about Andy’s mom and the values she is teaching her children.

So why the oversight Pixar? Do you not value the role of a father in the raising of a child? Research shows that a father’s role is very important in the life of a child. Did you not have healthy relationships or any relationships with your fathers? If so, I am sorry that was the life you grew up with.

I know they’re just children’s movies, but I would like some kind of an explanation. I think this leaves a gaping hole in the lives of these two fictitious children. To try and fill in the story, I have come up with some possible explanations as to what may or may not have happened to Andy’s dad:

Sheriff Woody, simple toy or substitue father figure?

~Andy’s parents got divorced (for whatever reason, fill in the blank) and Andy’s father does not have any custody or visitation rights.

~Andy’s father was a police officer that was killed in the line of duty. This may explain Andy’s attachment to Sheriff Woody, and later Buzz Lightyear, possibly as a replacement father figure.

~Andy’s father “ran out for a pack of smokes” and never came back. Woody was a cherished toy that Andy had been given by his father and clings to it like he clings to the hope of his father’s return.

~Andy and his sister are the products of immaculate conception.

~In a Hand That Rocks the Cradle kind of scenario, Andy’s mom stole Andy away from his real family and made up some bogus story about his father’s whereabouts. The same would apply to Andy’s sister.

~Andy’s father is a Willy Wonka-esque toy maker who is too career focused to have time for a family and he sends toys out to the two children.

~The spirit of Andy’s father was trapped inside the Sheriff Woody doll and that is why the two are so attached.

Or maybe, I’m just thinking about all of this too much.