Penguin Day
For no good reason, yesterday I celebrated the waning of my bout with the flu by declaring it to be Penguin Day... that being me sitting on my butt watching Penguin stuff all day. I decided to do it when I began to download Farce of the Penguins, while also having a screener of Happy Feet handy and March of the Penguins from way back when still to watch. I also threw in the Futurama episode "Birdbot of Ice-catraz" featuring penguins (watching it a second time for the commentary, too). I didn't have the stamina to also throw in Batman Returns, alas, as it would have been an ideal way to round out Penguin Day.
So, all in all it was... well, worthless. Happy Feet was first up, and I really had no desire to watch it. I wasn't disappointed, as it was really not a good show. The 80s tunes were nice to hear, the animation was wonderful, and the technical aspects of penguins were covered correctly (as I later learned from March of the Penguins), but Robin Williams generally bothers me in his comedic roles and this was no different (as he had three roles including the narrator). Plus, the story was meh. Next time, I might have to just judge that book by its cover since I'm right far more than I'm wrong with such gut instincts.
While I waited for Farce of the Penguins to burn, I watched the Futurama episode and loved every minute of it. The show is still among my favourite animated series ever, and while the commentary for this particular episode wasn't anything fantastic it was still wonderful overall.
March of the Penguins was up next and by far the most enjoyable of the feature-length selections. It was beautifully photographed and well-narrated by Morgan Freeman, and most importantly (as a documentary) very informative. That being said, it was far from exciting and I fell asleep about 25 minutes into the show. I picked up where i left off after napping for a couple hours and ultimately decided the show was worthwhile.
Lastly, we have Farce of the Penguins. I hadn't even heard about this until my friend Tom mentioned it to me when we got to talking of penguins the other day. I sort of wish I'd not heard of it as it was simply terrible. It's basically 80 minutes of dick and fart jokes (and not of the Kevin Smith calibre, either) dubbed over stock footage of penguins. It was unoriginal, uninspired and plain unfunny. It was written and "directed" by Bob Saget (yep, *that* Bob Saget) and I'm still not sold on his standup-era humour.
Overall, I wish I had the drive to also watch Batman Returns, especially since (like each of the other feature-length items chosen) I've never seen it completely, just bits and pieces. It's not supposed to be fantastic, and I'm really no fan of Tim Burton, but I have a feeling it would have been a good palate cleanser.
Or, maybe I just need to not come up with silly theme days.
So, all in all it was... well, worthless. Happy Feet was first up, and I really had no desire to watch it. I wasn't disappointed, as it was really not a good show. The 80s tunes were nice to hear, the animation was wonderful, and the technical aspects of penguins were covered correctly (as I later learned from March of the Penguins), but Robin Williams generally bothers me in his comedic roles and this was no different (as he had three roles including the narrator). Plus, the story was meh. Next time, I might have to just judge that book by its cover since I'm right far more than I'm wrong with such gut instincts.
While I waited for Farce of the Penguins to burn, I watched the Futurama episode and loved every minute of it. The show is still among my favourite animated series ever, and while the commentary for this particular episode wasn't anything fantastic it was still wonderful overall.
March of the Penguins was up next and by far the most enjoyable of the feature-length selections. It was beautifully photographed and well-narrated by Morgan Freeman, and most importantly (as a documentary) very informative. That being said, it was far from exciting and I fell asleep about 25 minutes into the show. I picked up where i left off after napping for a couple hours and ultimately decided the show was worthwhile.
Lastly, we have Farce of the Penguins. I hadn't even heard about this until my friend Tom mentioned it to me when we got to talking of penguins the other day. I sort of wish I'd not heard of it as it was simply terrible. It's basically 80 minutes of dick and fart jokes (and not of the Kevin Smith calibre, either) dubbed over stock footage of penguins. It was unoriginal, uninspired and plain unfunny. It was written and "directed" by Bob Saget (yep, *that* Bob Saget) and I'm still not sold on his standup-era humour.
Overall, I wish I had the drive to also watch Batman Returns, especially since (like each of the other feature-length items chosen) I've never seen it completely, just bits and pieces. It's not supposed to be fantastic, and I'm really no fan of Tim Burton, but I have a feeling it would have been a good palate cleanser.
Or, maybe I just need to not come up with silly theme days.
posted by chris burgess at 23:20
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home