A day with the Queen of Tweens and some cinematic matters

Kendra:
She works a lot, worries too much and just for being my sister's eldest child, she deserves a holiday.

As it happens this day off comes at least once a semester and it's generally known as Titi's Day - in honor of she who pays the tab :p

Nah, seriously, it is Titi's Day because it is mine as much as it is hers. It is the day I look forward to, sharing X amount of hours, unbound of parental restrains with the heir to all my lunacy.

Ken is going through that rough and complicated stretch of life in which you are abandoning childhood and yet you still believe in a whole bunch of stuff many adults will find ridiculous.

I smiled and nodded when she told me that her plans are now shifting ( I miss the simple times in which she wanted to be a Police Officer). As it turns out my almost 12 year old niece plans to study Graphic Design and Animation, live for a couple of years in Canada and the move to Japan and become a full time Ninjitsu Trainer. To what will be the general relief of her mother, she added she plans to eventually get married- in her late 20's-to a Canadian Skateboarder who of course will be both fearful of God and faithful to Martial Arts Discipline.

It is not my job to roll eyes or build emotional fences. God knows there's enough people in my clan who'd do that unaware and with the best intentions. The funny thing is that when I tell her it can be done, I really mean it. There is something about her eyes, big brown and sparkly that I hope she'd never loose.

The theme dujour was Neil Gaiman, properly discussed over California Rolls, as Ken tried to convince me that it is time for her to move into my comic book collection, having read Coraline, Stardust and Dream Hunters. I told her I'd think about it.

As I mentioned before, Kendra worries too much as the next subject proves... I never thought I would end my Strawberry Lemonade over the upcoming doom scenario of 2012. I promised on my honor and all my commulative knowledge of Thelogy that the world will not end, and reminded her kindly that we were running late if she wanted to go to the arcade before the movie.

It's been a while since I've had the pleasure of throwing away quarters for no other purpose than to be able to spell my name out in the top ten player's list. I did a victorious round of Time Crisis, a not so excellent Fast and Furious course and quite a humilliating episode of Dance Dance Revolution after which I not so gracefully threw myself into the iron bench of oblivion - the arcade's waiting room-while Kendra kept jumping and shuffling her feet like there's no tomorrow.

Finally we got to CORALINE. I made the point of seeing it in 3D as it should be. What can I say? This is set to be the most succesfull Gaiman adaptation so far. Stop motion animation was the wisest course of action and a live action flick would have scared the parents shitless.

I found it funny that grown ups where a little disgruntled with the film as I could hear distinctive YUCKS and AWWW NO SHE DIDN'T and a couple of IS THIS FOR KIDS? coming from the responsible parties. Children, at least the ones over 7 years old seemed to be in heaven.

Kids saw it for what it seemed to be, an adventure, a journey to self discovery. I guess adults saw the more horrific aspects to it. You know, about how strange elements can make your children feel at home when you are not there, doing what it is that you need to do besides bringing home the bacon... I dunno, to me CORALINE is a hard book to classify, and I guess is the same with the movie. It is the type of book that I wish I could have read as a child, so I could see it through Coraline's eyes. Reading it as an adult, even if I indulge in the fantastic element, there is always a part of me that finds Coraline parents a little repulsive. I cannot understand how some people just dont enjoy their kids, how easy it is for them to ignore and dishearten and plain loose them. As a parent, Neil Gaiman coudn't have given a better advise than that written in those pages...that is is up to both children in their mind's eye and parents in real life to have the wisdom to discern good and evil and make the right choices at the right price.

As far as the animation goes, the scene that will be worth your admission is no doubt the "Other Garden", as it blooms under moonlight. And of course, the Mouse Circus.

The purists will argue about the introduction of an unecessary character -Wybie- but as I explained to Kendra, some one just has to cover the narrative, fill in the gaps that the author's omniscience provides for the book.

After all is said, done and jumping off the screen, CORALINE is an instant classic, worthy of the title that inspired it.

We got home, tired, broke and happy and the big hug and kiss that I got out of it was worth nursing a sore DDR ankle. As I walked Kendra home Ms. Chinkis came out to greet us with a HIIIIIIIIIIIIII TENDA, HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII TITI and all of a sudden I saw myself some three years in the future dragging this one about on a Pink Ribbons and Unicorns Titi Day and a chill ran down my spine.... it might have been the weather.

the quote
"I see a strange hand in your future... I also see a giraffe. Coraline you are in great danger."- that's wacky enough

the video comes courtesy of you tube and it's called THE HUMBLE BUTTON