What I'm watching:

Pictureok 090, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Bee Movie and Ratatouille: Yes, I've seen the Pixar movie before, but we caught it on one of the Hi-def channels right after the Bee stuff. It helped me understand why I thought the Bee stuff blew. Ratatouille's story is character-driven. I mean the characters drive the story! Remy the rat has a mad passion for good food and wants nothing more to be a chef. The movie not only says this, it shows it. What happens during the story is driven by Remy's (and to a lesser extent the other characters) desires and actions.

Whereas the B movie just rambles. Jerry Seinfeld's bee character doesn't want to just pick a bee job and work it until he dies. But from that point he just rambles around, makes friend with a florist, and eventually sues humans for stealing honey from hardworking bees. It's just stupid.

Oh, yes: the animation was no where near Pixar's greatness. Crap, it didn't even come close to Toy Story, which was released over 10 years ago! Upon a second viewing, I've come to think Ratatouille is a darn good movie.

Beowulf: Speaking of bad animation... That poem we were all forced to read in high school is made into a bad movie by the same people who made The Polar Express. It's completely CGI and the characters seem lifeless. Again, Pixar kicks ass compared to blah blah blah... Either make cartoon characters CARTOONS or use the techniques that Sin City and 300 used for the animation.

The Kingdom This one is about a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia that kills many Americans, including plenty of women and children. A group of FBI agents manage to trick their way in to investigate. This movie is actually a pretty good thriller, with Jamie Fox, Jennifer Garner, and Chris Cooper. It allows the terrorists to be bad guys, but not in the stock movie character sense. What I mean is I don't think you could replace them with Eurotrash Nazis and have the same movie. It's worth a watch but brutally violent.

The Pixar Story I caught this documentary while channel surfing. This movie illustrates how the little guy perservered in the face of great odds. I did not know that Pixar was originally a subdivision of Lucasfilm! Basically George Lucas told them "A full-length comuter animated movie is a nifty idea, but we don't have the money for that". Suuuuuure, George, I believe you. But anyway Steve Jobs kept Pixar afloat until the company made a deal with Disney and Toy Story was born. And I hope Lucas spent a few weeks kicking himself in the butt when he saw that movie's box office receipts.

It almost didn't get born because Disney kept trying to interfere. Hooray for John Lassiter for sticking to his guns! Pixar's worst film is A Bug's Life and I adore that movie! After 8 films, I think there is plenty of proof that Pixar is good, not just lucky.

Lost and Battlestar Galactica OMFG! HS!HS!HS!HS! And I have to wait 2 weeks for both shows. That just blows.

For the record my order of preference:

Toy Story
Toy Story 2
The Incredibles
Cars
Monsters, Inc
Ratatouille
Finding Nemo
A Bug's Life