moving pictures

Last night I went to see "WALL-E," the newest Pixar movie. I love Pixar movies in general; they are always so cleverly thought through and executed. This one was absolutely no exception to the rule.

First of all, the movie opened with a view of the Earth from space. The voice of a young Michael Crawford floats through the studio: "Out there, there's a world outside of Yonkers, way beyond this hick-town, Barnaby...there's a slick town, Barnaby...Out there, full of shine and full of sparkle, close your eyes and see it glisten Barnaby...listen, Barnaby! Put on your Sunday clothes, there's lots of world out there..." I love the musical movie "Hello, Dolly!" so naturally this beginning made me gasp in recognition and then bounce up and down in my seat, singing along as softly as I could.

We zoom in on the world and find that Wall-e is a little robot left on Earth to clean up after humans, who are living large (literally) on a cruise spaceship far out in the galaxy. Wall-e spends his work day alone and then comes home and watches "Hello Dolly!" and tries to imitate the dance moves until it's time to sleep. Which is just about exactly what I do. So...that's my life. Anyway, the song "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" comes back to be a sort of theme song for Wall-e and a rallying anthem for the protagonists in the film. And the other "Hello, Dolly" song used in the movie was "It Only Takes a Moment," which was the love theme for Wall-e and his love interest, Eve. I won't give away anything else, since the movie just came out. But I will give anyone who goes to see the movie this tip: Stay and watch the credits--they do a really cool thing with the progression of art and animation.

And speaking of progression and movies, and musicals...I just saw "Singing in the Rain." WHY has it taken me 23 years to see this movie? It is a masterpiece, a landmark...it's a movie about movies, a musical about musicals! How could I NOT love it?! But anyway, it's amazing. And the really cool thing is how it follows the history of movies and how going from silent film to talking pictures changed Hollywood and the people who worked there. And the DVD has a special feature that shows you clips of some of those actual landmark movies, like "The Jazz Singer" and "Broadway Melody." And by the way, watching the clip from "Broadway Melody" convinced me of something I have always suspected, and that is that if I had been around back in the 1920s and 30s, I could have made it into a few movies. The dancing in the clip from "Broadway Melody" was like watching a high school theatre production, except for this unreal dancer who tap-danced on toe shoes...I just don't get how she did it!!! That was amazing. But the rest of the girls were really mediocre...lol...I think I could've given them a run for their money. I don't mean to sound conceited...I just think it really was a lot easier back then to get into the movies!

Well, I'm not living back in the 20s and 30s, and I'm not in Hollywood, but thanks to the fact that I am living in the 21st century, I can make my own little movies. That brings me to my last little bit...a video I made after a group of us from the HSM cast spent last Saturday at the Taste of Tippecanoe, a really neat downtown event where you get to walk around and try all kinds of food from different restuarants and listen to local bands.



And that's all I got! More later on...

Lis