| Ching Chong Nip Nong Panda + PHB2 Sandwich~ |
[Mar. 25th, 2009|08:43 pm] |
I did promise to say something about this movie, so let me just get it out of the way, and then we can move on with all our lives. Also, I have no credentials for cinematic criticism, so pay no attention to moi, but here is how my thoughts on it boil down: Kung Fu Panda never let me forget it was a movie made for children. It succeeded sometimes, which was probably what was most surprising, so it gets points for that at the very least. However, this is as opposed to, say, a Pixar film, where you look around sometimes and wonder what are children doing in this audience? Then again, I remember Dreamworks' earlier efforts, where you wonder what am I doing in this audience?? Oh, heaven, help me, get me out of here, oh, lord. In conclusion: great effort from Dreamworks, almost all in the right directions, and I just hope they don't blow it on Monsters Versus Aliens.
Bonus review: Secrets of the Furious Five. Wonderful supplement, but a complete ripoff when they make it so that the only way to purchase it is to buy the Action Pack, meaning that the original movie clings to it like some unwelcome cordyceps fungus. At a mere thirty minutes in length (not including the fairly anemic extras), the cartoon feature's life is all but sucked out by the feature length film piggybacking with it in the plastic wrap, the bewildering addition singlehandedly jacking the price up to triple what it might have been reasonable to ask. Unless of course you don't actually have the movie yet. In which case, it's a good buy, and you won't be a sucker like me (I gave the extra DVD to my little sister lul).
The cartoon itself proved almost reverse-climactic, by which I mean they put all the best parts first, leaving me first amused, then awesomed, then underwhelmed, and then downright bored towards the end. I'd be snittier, but two of the stories were cute enough to make me forget that this was a universe written by people who couldn't be bothered to name a tiger, snake, monkey, mantis and crane other than Tigress, Snake, Monkey, Mantis, and Crane.
The weekend saw the advent of some kind of Dungeons and Dragons Day, which ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) demota was kind enough to inform me of, but I was involved in an advent of a different sort elsewhere, in the Light of the World retreat at my local parish. It wasn't that I was uninterested in D&D Day-- it would have been the perfect chance I'd been looking for to finally get some real, hands-on experience doing tabletop with real people-- but it came at a time in my life when I'm seriously reevaluating my priorities.
No contest, really. Allie was also pretty excited about the retreat, and markedly less excited about D&D, so that helped my decision along quite a bit. The irony is that I'd held off at first mentioning anything about the RCIA to her when we first went out, fearing that I'd scare her away if I looked like I was proselytizing poor, innocent young women. Now she's helping drag me to some very Catholic activities in my very own parish (did I mention that she volunteered at a Knights of Columbus event completely on her own? She's awesome (even if she did drag me to that one too, after a twelve-hour workday)).
Anyhoo, still not playing, but I got the Player's Handbook 2 regardless. Personal opinion: I'm actually kind of glad that pretty much everything I need is in the first one, aside from some pretty jaw-dropping new feats. The races seem to include a nod to Hindu-Buddhist spirituality (Deva), a concession to furries (lol Shifters), and the Goliaths, the only one I was interested enough in to make a character for. Thinking of a female Goliath barbarian and a male Human Warden. Got a male Dwarf Paladin lying around I want to develop too, so I guess all that can be saved for another post.
Allie just reminded me that ACen has a tabletop gaming room, so I'll see if something can't be scared up from that. Looks like she'll be dragging me to the ACen forums for this.
In the meantime, robust character generation in a game I never actually play remains worth my money.
Godspeed!
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