THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Well, not much to report for this week.  Just working on finishing up the show on paper.  It’s good to be back drawing on paper but I miss the ability to  time my own scene and look at how it will work with the dialogue.  Still, it’s fine.  I’m having fun.  Hope this job lasts a bit longer ’cause I don’t want to be laid off anytime soon.

FAMILY

Dante has started walking now. He’s very proud of himself.  On Monday, he mostly did it between spaces that he could see a definite end point.  Such as, from the couch to the living room table, or from the living room table to  one of us.  If he would take a few steps and see everything  he might be able to walk to was more than ten steps away, he immediately would go back on his hands and knees and begins to crawl.

By mid week, he was confidently walking toward nothing, then he would look around, stop and walk in another direction. He would then crawl if he lost his balance. It’s great to  see him get more and more confident. It’s also darn funny to watch him walk too.  I’m sure  by Friday of next week, he won’t be crawling at all.

FAMILY

Munchkin has gotten into wanting to watch Superman and Justice League Cartoons.  I don’t know why.  She suddenly decided she wanted to watch them.  She went over to the DVD shelf, pointed to the Superman and Justice League cartoons, looked up at me an said, “Supaman, Supaman?”

I think her favorite heroes so far are Superman and Batman. She likes Superman because he can fly and Batman because…well…I have no idea why she likes Batman.  Maybe because she’s played with a Batman action figure before. I’m not exactly sure what she finds so entertaining about the cartoons either. This weekend she watched two seasons worth of Superman Cartoons and one DVD worth of Justice League cartoons. By “watched”, I mean, she had them playing in the background while she played with her toys. She would occasionally look up and watch for about five minutes before going back and playing.  Although, when she grew tired of playing with me or her toys, she would sit down and watch an entire episode. Even though she wasn’t watching them all the time, the moment one of the DVDs ended, she insisted on putting on another.

The cartoons are not anywhere near the kind of thing she’s used to watching.  They are very action oriented cartoons.  Lots of superhero fights in them.  Lots of life or death situations with many things at stake and very serious themes. Very complicated stories that would just go ever her head.  I think she has gotten used to watching action oriented cartoons from watching Disney cartoons like, Tarzan, Treasure Planet and Lilo & Stitch. Little by little, she’s learning the names of all the Superheroes in the show.  She now knows that Hawkgirl’s name is Hawkgirl. Although, every hero that talks with a gruff voice, she insists on calling Batman.  I find it funny and strange, yet I can’t help but feel a bit proud of her for being such a geek.  That’s my daughter.

COMIC BOOKS

Speaking of Superheroes, I was thinking of maybe buying Munchkin some Superhero comics because she likes the cartoons so much.  Lucky for me, both DC and Marvel have started coming out with kids comics.

Now you maybe saying to yourself, “Hey Luis, aren’t ALL comic books for kids? DC and Marvel ONLY do kids comics”.  To which I would reply, “You haven’t read any modern comic, have you?”  By no means are modern comic for kids.  In fact, if most comic would be given a movie rating, they would mostly be PG13 and up. Comics are full of sex and violence, and in many of them, the superheroes are about as immoral as the villains they fight. There are very few comics that I would say are “kid appropriate” and even those would be dealing with themes that would go over a little kid’s head.

DC and Marvel have come to realize that they no longer have comics that would appeal to young readers (and therefore are not getting new readers), which is the reason why they have developed a line of comics especially for them. This is great news for me, since now I have some comics I could get my kids.  So I was thinking maybe I’d get her a Superfriends comic and see how it goes.  Maybe I’ll take her to the comic shop next week and pick one up.

Guess I’m raising a geek.

MOVIES

(The following, is a spoiler free review of the Watchmen movie)

Alesha really wanted to go watch Watchmen last weekend, so we did.  I didn’t own the Watchmen comic until a few weeks ago.  I had read Watchmen in high school when a friend of mine had lent me his copy. I remembered the book, so I knew what it was all about.  At the time I read it though, I didn’t really truly “get it”. The book is very deep and brings up a lot of philosophical questions about human nature and the problem of evil.  It’s also one of those comics I was talking about above that are in no way meant to be read by kids.  It’s a very “Adult” book.

Alesha wanted to see it because she had heard so much about the comic.  Which in turn, made her bug me to go buy the comic so she could read it, which she did, after I bought it.  She enjoyed the book and then got even more excited about going to see the movie.  I began re-reading the comic myself but only got half way through the 200 or so pages before we went to see the movie.  As of the time of this writing, I’m still making my way through the rest of it.  Taking my time, in order to “soak it in”.

So what do I think about the movie? Well, I thought it was an incredibly faithful rendition of this epic comic book. I’ve read many reviews of the movie that say, they didn’t like the protagonists.  They where all unlikeable.  Well, that’s because the protagonist in the book where not very likable either.  In fact, the protagonist in the movie where far more likable than their book counterparts.  Watchmen is not a movie about good, superheroes. It’s a movie about messed up superheroes that are really screwed up in the head.  Many people hate what they call the “juvenile view on humanity” the movie has. I saw one person say it was a “hippie movie”. I think it’s great that it pushes people’s buttons.  That’s why the book is so interesting to begin with. I also read a review of a guy who took his son to go see it. He left the theater very upset and even told the theater owner that he should be ashamed at playing the movie.  Which I think is ridiculous.  The movie is rated R for a reason.  Why blame the theater owner? It was the father’s responsibility to find out what the movie was about before taking his son to go see it. Especially if it’s rated R. He shouldn’t blame anyone else.  I think he thought it would be okay to watch because it was a “superhero movie”.  Well, wake up.  Comics aren’t for kids anymore dude.  Watchmen (which was written in 1985) was one of the comics that where responsible for making the comic medium grow up.

Do I agree with the world view the book and movie puts forth?  Not completely, but I will say that part of the view point put forth, is no different than what Blaise Pascal puts forth in his book Pensées.  Of course, Pascal‘s solution to the problems is much different and much wiser than it is in Watchmen. The solution to the problem put forth in the movie is quite evil and would be, at best, temporary.    I think that perhaps most people just don’t want to be told that there is a problem at all, or at least, be reminded there is.

So what’s the movie about? It’s a murder mystery. In an alternate 1985, where Nixon is president and America won the Vietnam war (thanks to one of the superheroes in the movie), someone has killed a superhero (the Comedian) and another hero (named Rorschach) is trying to figure out why.

There is a lot to this movie and I recommend it.  BUT it’s by no means perfect.  If I have one real complaint about the movie it’s that the violence and sex in the movie is gratuitous.  The comic was pretty violent, so I expected to see the atrocities in the book, but I didn’t expect them to be enhanced. Nor did I expect them to add more violence when there was no need to. The stuff in the book was bad enough without adding more.  Also, the book had sex in it but the movie seemed to relish in making the sex scenes go on forever. Both these things where unnecessary and just plain took you out of the movie.

Oh, and one more thing…having read the book, I expected this, but if you haven’t, this might take you aback.  There is a character in the book named Dr. Manhattan, who is a super being. He stopped being human a long time ago and therefore no longer feels shame, or embarrassment,  nor does he feel heat or cold. This means that, whenever he’s not out in public, he’s naked and, just like in the comic, he is shown in “all his glory”.  Most people I talked to at work said that the audience they saw the movie with, didn’t react at all to this, but the audience I saw the movie with, had some giggling girls/women in it and I heard a friend of mine say he heard some guys giggle in his theater.

You’ve been warned.  Remember, this movie is rated R.  You want to know what you’re getting into before watch the movie? Read the comic.

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