Ice Age

I was purusing the ads yesterday in the Sunday paper and discovered Best Buy had a deal where if you bought two movies you only paid $20.  Of course, they were older movies.  I saw Ice Age as one of the selections.  So, I thought, why not get it.  Then, I realized I needed to find one more movie.  And that’s when I spotted Madagascar.  The kid in me decided that both of these might be fun–I needed something light for a change.

Ice Age was first (I’ve yet to watch Madagascar).  I popped it in and, of course, since it’s a Fox release, there was a ton of advertisements for different upcoming releases–but, I beat you Fox, I used “skip” to get directly to the menu (like disabling the “menu” button is going to do anything) :P  Anyway.

I wasn’t expecting much.  I mean, most of these computer animated movies always seem fairly predictable to me.  Ice Age starts out with a small, squirrel-like animal trying to hide his acorn in a field of ice.  At first, I couldn’t figure out what was the point.  Then, in one of his attempts the squirrel cracks the ice, which turns out to be a glacier.  The glacier separates and slides down to cover a huge portion of land, thus initiating the “ice age”.  I’ll admit, I got a little chuckle from this crazy squirrel, but I was still skeptical.

The next scene showed a huge migration of animals.  They were on their way from the north to the south.  I had to laugh as two of the animals argued over why it was called an “ice age”.  “Why call it an ice age?  Why not the nippy age?”  “It’s an ice age because of all the ice!”

Then, we get to meet Manfred, a down on his luck Wooly Mammoth, voiced by Ray Romano.  Manfred ends up getting involved with a crazy sloth named Sid.  Meanwhile, a pack of sabertooth tigers is plotting their revenge on a community of human hunters.  The leader wants the human leader’s baby, but the child’s mother runs off with him.  So, the sabers go in pursuit.  Though, the child is lost to a river.  The tiger’s leader sends a tiger named Diego to retrieve the baby.

Manfred and Sid get mixed up with Diego’s plot–for they ended up finding the baby.  It’s truly your classic story of mistrust, friendship, and betrayal.  And, along with a few laughs, it has more than a few twists and turns.

Ice Age, while not perfect, is definitely one of the better computer animated cartoons that I’ve seen.  Now, I’ll have to get the sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown, when it comes out on DVD.

Favorites Added

I’ve made some updates to the site. There is now a links section that contains links to all of my favorite websites. Well, at least, the ones I could think of, anyway. They’re definitely ones, however, that I visited a lot. Now I just need to skin the gallery, which I think I’ll be doing something simple with, and I also need to add my interests section. Oh, and you’ll probably notice that under “The Lair” I’ve added the “Writing” link. This just simply links to the short story pages.

Sparks and Morsels

The webmonster’s back in his lair, once again cooking up some more tasty morsels…

Yesterday was…interesting. At work, I have to do the collecting and sorting of mail now–and since I work at a newspaper, there’s a lot of mail–because our mailroom person decided to quit. Thankfully, it’s only temporary until they find some other sucker. Anyway. So, there I am, running the mail through the sorting machine and–BAM!–I suddenly hear this electric-sparking sound followed by a loud bang. Then, the lights went out. It scared the crap out of me. Apparently, a fuse had blown in the fusebox in the other room. Yeah! The building has a fusebox! Well, at least, for that section. Only the mailroom and part of the newsroom were dark. LOL I think the Ogre nearly peed his pants when that thing blew, too.

Then, on his way back from lunch, this idiot, who wasn’t paying attention, nearly blindsided me as he pulled out nearly right into my car door! Good thing the road had a shoulder, because most don’t around here. Also, it’s a good thing there weren’t any pedestrians in the way. And, the sad fact is, the guy was probably either drunk or high. The paper isn’t in a very good section of town, if you know what I mean. Heck, there’s hookers and drug-dealers hanging around all the time.

Well, then I came home and tried to relax for a little bit. I watched some TV, specifically America’s Got Talent. Why, I don’t know, but I’ve been watching it. I can’t stand American Idol, and they’re by the same producers. Then, after that was off, I went upstairs and played some SWAT. Ogre (Webmonster) and Railwolf (BigBadWolf) got their butts kicked on the subway mission., too The best part was when I said, “Let’s do that one again”, after we had failed it four times already. Then I go and shoot him in the head right off the start by accident. I couldn’t stop laughing It was also fun shooting him in the foot too and killing him. How could getting shot in the foot, by a hand gun, kill somebody? Well, it did, and it was fun to warm up the ol’ cookpot for a midnight snack, too

I know, it was a really exciting night for the Webmonster. He’ll try to cook up some better morsels next time. Oh, yeah, maybe he should go work on the gallery for the Lair–it still hasn’t been templated yet. Is templated a word?

Captain Blood

The other night I saw that Captain Blood was going to be on TCM (Turner Classic Movies), so I thought I would maybe watch it.  I had heard so much about this movie, how good it is and how it changed the movie industry for its time.  And how it introduced Errol Flynn, who had been an unknown at the time of the film’s casting in 1935.  So, I set the DVD-R up to record Captain Blood, since it was going to run until 12 o’clock.  The only problem was that I forgot to format the disc in EP mode, so all I got were the first two hours of the film.  Oops.

Last night I began watching what had been recorded and was somewhat pleased and surprised.  For being a movie done back in 1935, Captain Blood is more than decent.  The storyline is quite cohesive and the acting is adequate.  Errol Flynn knew how to play the dashing rogue.  And, Olivia de Haviland, who played the govenor’s daughter, was definitely a beautiful woman for her time–and she could act, too, which is more than you can say about some actresses today.

The story opens up with Peter Blood, a doctor and surgeon working in England during the time of the upheavel against King James.  However, as the creed of his practice dictates, he would help anyone, whether loyalist of the king or rebel against his rein.  One night as the rebels advance Peter is needed to fix up the wounded.  So, he goes out, but is caught by soldiers loyal to the King.  He’s put on trial, like many of the other rebels, for high treason against the crown.  His sentence is to be shipped to Port Royal as a slave.

On the slave block, Peter Blood is saved by the beautiful govenor’s daughter, Arabella Bishop, from the cruel hands of some other harsher master.  Also, while in Port Royal he helps the govenor rid himself of a case of gout.  The govenor, thankful for the doctor’s healing hand, gives Peter certain priviledges that other slaves couldn’t possibly dream of having, which allows him to move freely about the island.

During his time in the colony, the good doctor thinks up a plan to escape and bring his fellow prisoners along with him.  Things start off as they were meant to go, but then the evil Colonel Bishop senses that something is amiss.  He has one man lashed and tries to do the same to Peter Blood, but a Spanish ship, turned to piracy, attacks the city.  Amidst the confusion and chaos, Peter and his gang escape the stockade.  However, they find the boat they had planned on taking is at the bottom of the harbor.  Yet, the Spanish have left their ship unguarded, so the men take it over instead.

This is where the story truly begins.  Peter, now the ship’s captain, becomes known as Captain Blood.  Him and his crew turn to piracy to support themselves.

The mood and feel of Captain Blood fits into the time period when it was filmed.  However, the production value was quite high, so the special effects are fairly adequate for what was trying to be done.  Also, the music and sound is equally on par with anything else done during the 1930’s.  In fact, the only fault I see in the film is that at times it’s a bit corny.  Well, Pirates of the Carribean is too, but not to the level in this film at times.  Anyway.  If you want to see a classic that’s worth watching, Captain Blood is your movie.