Animation

Like every red-blooded boy, I grew up watching animated cartoons on Saturday mornings. I loved them. Even today, I can't help but smile every time I hear Rossini's work, especially the Barber of Seville, because I flash on the Rabbit of Seveille, where Bugs massages lotion into Elmer Fudds head, and they have a race with the ascending barber chairs. You know. Sheer brilliance.

Then along came Jessica Rabbit. No, sorry, I mean Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Taking animation to a new high, even if it doesn't particularly hold up well now. Then came Pixar's lamp short. I saw that at the Plaza theatre, and knew the world was changing when the audience applauded. I remembered the name, and was ready when Red's Dream came. I loved it. I'd never seen animation like it, and neither had anyone else.

Animation well done can make people feel things they never would otherwise. Pixar has gone on to make some of the most memorable films ever. A few minutes into the movie Up, and without any words, most adults can feel the joys and pain of the protagonist. The ones that can't need to be investigated for being a psychopath. Do we even need to talk about "When she loved me?"

 Ok, I'm back now. I had to take a little break. We can invest our emotions into something that we know isn't real. Wall-e doesn't exist, yet everybody was cheering for him during his adventures. There was almost no dialogue in that movie, and there didn't need to be any.

In contrast, I find that too much animation or CGI in a movie that has real people in it makes me care less about the people. When we were watching Salt, there is a scene where the Jolie character is going out a window, walking on a narrow ledge, dodging around an air conditioner. There are many other improbable scenes where you know it had to be fake. There is no way the movie industry is going to risk a million dollar actress. It was well done for what it was, but I didn't care a hoot about any of the characters.

Which animation do you prefer? Old school Looney Tunes? Pixar? What's the animation film you love the most, and why?

It was only after I had finished yesterday's blog that I realized what huge change had happened, and I didn't really even notice at the time. Tree. It felt solid and stable. Meditative even. It was like the lower part of my body was planted in the earth. Fiona has been saying that all along but I thought it was a figure of speech. Now I understand how meditative it could be. In yoga class tonight we did tree. Totally relaxing, and I didn't want to stop at all. I used to really not like tree at all. No balance. The rest of the yoga class tonight was excellent, especially working stiff shoulders.

The swim was the first start on the stiff shoulders. I was trying to get a faster swim stroke going, pushing the pace a bit. Naturally I got a bit out of breath. Warmed up. Tried the faster stroke and messed up my kick and sucked water a few times. Did dolphin kick, and pull, trying the faster stroke. That worked a bit better. Tried 100 m intervals on 2 m, each time 1:35. Backstroke cool down. In the water about 35 minutes.