Right now everyone is focused on only one part of what’s going on in Lost and it all revolves around the “Man in Black” (a.k.a. “Man in Locke”, “Milty”, “Black Smoke”, etc.).  They’re so caught up in what’s going on in this battle between Milty and Jacob, that they’ve forgotten about the other major mystery introduced in the final season of Lost.

Note up front, I’m not going to be spoiler free here about anything that has already shown on Television.  There will be no hidden text, and I will not hold back on things we know, now, today – based on the regular Lost United States programming schedule.  I will presume you have seen every episode to date at least once.  So read on at your own risk.

For the first few seasons of Lost we were provided back story for characters in the form of “Flashbacks”.  Little snippets of their past interspersed with the main story and often tied heavily to it so we could understand the motivations of the characters in their current predicament of being stranded on the Island.  These flashes presented a fantastic story telling mechanism, and one of the best selling points of the show overall at the time.

Then things changed and we learn that somewhere along the line the Flashes changed to “Flash Forwards”.  Suddenly the roles of the Flashes and the on Island parts of the show are reversed, and what we’re seeing on the Island is suddenly driving the goings on in the Flashes.  It was one of the most clever mechanical twists on a television show ever.  It kept the show fresh at a time when many were giving up on Lost.

And now the mechanic has changed again.  We’re now presented with a series of Flashes that look like the presentation of an alternate reality for our Losties.  Jack has a son and is divorced.  Miles and Sawyer are cops.  Charlotte works for Miles’s dad at a museum.  The island is under water. etc.  The big question is this,  ”What’s going on here?”

One key theme on the show has always been that of redemption.  Once a character finds it, they seem to get their release and reward through death.  Charlie, Eko, etc.  There are many examples of this.  Many seem to think these new Flashes are the Losties receiving their just rewards for their time served.  After all the entire purpose of many religions is to seek redemption – this is why they tend to focus in a large part on repentance.  You must be absolved of sin to receive redemption, at least according to scripture.

And I am not going to deny that theme of the show.  It’s there, it’s strong, and it’s obvious.  But I am going to say flat out that what we’re seeing in these new Flashes is not the redemption of the Losties.  It’s not alternate reality.

I’m going to tell you that the “Flash Sideways” are what happened to the Losties who were at the site of “The Incident” between the time the nuclear bomb went off and the time we saw them wake up on the Island near the destroyed hatch at the beginning of this season.

Why do I think this?  Well there is some very  information that has been presented to us in prior seasons.

For starters, lets look to Miles and Hurley.  Both characters have been written in a way where they seem to both relate more to the viewers then any other characters on the show.  They think what we think, and react how we react.  And most important, they very often ask the same questions we’re asking.

Last season they had a conversation about time travel.  And while there was a lot of humor in the conversation, one thing rang true.  They producers gave us, in a small, neat, little package their theory of time travel for the Losties, by presenting for us the basic rules.  Time is linear in terms of perception.  Most of the time you move forward through time, but sometimes you don’t.  And when you don’t, what you perceive is still your “present”.  Little Ben can’t die because Big Ben gives them all hell in the future.  They can all die because despite that they come from the future, 1977 was their present.

This is proven true by the deaths of Charlotte, Faraday, and Juliet.  And well the death and resurrection of Sayid.  Each of them was bouncing through time, and each of them died somewhere along the way.  It did not change all that they’d already experienced, even though it happened in the future.  Their lives all ended in their current time, their present.

Now lets look at Desmond’s own brand of time travel.  His very much resembles that of Billy Pligrim in Slaughterhouse-Five.  Like Billy, Desmond is, or rather was, unstuck in time.  During his travels we learn that his consciousness is bouncing through time at different points in his life.  He is able to experience things over again, but we also learn that despite the chance to “put right what once went wrong”, we learn from Ms. Hawking  that “the universe has a way of course correcting“.  So this is not Quantum Leap.  What Desmond has already done once, will happen again, despite his attempts to change things.

Here’s the thing.  What caused Desmond to travel through time was the implosion of the electromagnetic anomaly at the heart of the Swan hatch.  We had already learned from the show that this anomaly was caused by “The Incident”.  Of course, we learned that our very Losties who were stuck in 1977 were the once who caused “The Incident” by trying to follow a plan laid out by Daniel Faraday to use the nuclear warhead from a bomb named Jughead to destroy the electromagnetic anomaly that brought down flight 815 in the first place.

Yes that’s right folks…the failsafe key when turned by Desmond let loose the explosion of Jughead that caused the implosion of the Swan hatch.  And that propelled him through time.  At the heart of that same explosion, though separated by 27 years, were the Losties that were stuck in 1977.  And I propose that the same explosion also threw them forward through time as well, with a brief stop in 2004.

But the universe was course correcting 2004 as per Ms. Hawking.  So we find the Island was under water.  Flight 815 landed, etc.  Jack has a scar from his appendix which we know was removed on the Island, but his mom says was removed when he was a kid, but he doesn’t remember it.  Sawyer who in 1977 was “the sheriff” of Dhamaville along with his deputy Miles both became cops in the course corrected world.  A dying on the outside Sayid, died on the inside to save his brother’s life.  Jin who still hadn’t found Sun, is separated from Sun at the airport.  Kate gets to do what she went back to the island to do, reunite Claire and Aaron – in a fashion.

What we’re going to see in the “Flash Sideways” going forward is that the universe is still trying to course correct.  Because the Losties did go to the Island, and the Universe has to figure out how to get them back there.  And somehow it will, and they’ll all end up right where we saw them in beginning of the season – all lying somewhere around the Swan hatch.

Ode to Jay and Jack, that’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it.

First let me say, “Whew!”

I simply can’t believe I’m running.  I’m 41 years old, and while I’ve done a lot of walking (30-60 mins almost every day since 2004) and hiking in that time, I’ve done very little running.  Even when I played sports, I was defense and there was still little running.  However, this is the first time I’m sitting down and doing running for the sake of running.  Had you asked me if I’d be running a year ago, I’d have said, “No way!”  But here I am doing it.

Simply put, I’ve been inspired to do this back in January when I watched friends run the Disney Half Marathon, but I really didn’t realize it until more recently.  On that very neat, and very emotional day, I caught a bug, only it took a few months to settle in and take hold.

And with discussion, some coaxing, and a recommendation by my good friend Katie, I downloaded the C25K app for my iPhone. And here I am, running.

My first observation is that running isn’t as easy as it looks.  I sort of figured that mind you.

My second observation is that running sucks.  Not in a bad way, mind you.  But there’s really no other word I have to apply to it yet.  It makes you feel really good, but not until after it’s over and you’ve come down from doing the actual running.  I figure this will shift and change as time goes on.  But right now, to me, running is an evil beastie.

My third observation is that the C25K app is brilliant.  It’s based on the Couch-to-5K running plan, and it’s designed completely with human psychology in mind.  And it trains you in a way similar to how you train a dog – release & reward.  The walks, at least right now, are rewards for completing the runs.  The bells are Pavlovian in nature.  It’s genius, there should be some sort of reward for that cunning a design, seriously.  I completely know that the program is playing me like a fiddle, but I buy into it and just push myself to complete it.

I’m in the middle of week 2 right now.  That’s a 5 minute walk, followed by 6 90 second runs separated by 5 2 minute walks, then a 5 minute cool down walk.

When you reach that cool down you feel so good.  The walks in between are a mixed bag.  Right now for me runs 1 & 2 are great.  3 blows completely.  4 is when the adrenaline starts to kick in.  I completely forget the 5th run.  And the final run my mind is simply going “Gedderdun!”

I will stick to this plan as some day I’d really like to be in a Disney race even if it’s only a 5K.  That is my plan.

And for you doubters out there, if this 41 year old, overweight, desk jockey can do it, you can too.

This past Friday I feel like an era ended as Scott Johnson, creator of the ExtraLife webcomic, announced that the ExtraLife Radio podcast (ELR) would be shutting its doors.  Ordinarily, there’s not much cause to write about a podcast that was or has gone away (a.k.a. podfading), but that’s not what happened here.  The show was still, even in its more recent highly irregular schedule, as entertaining as it ever was.  However, I really felt the need to mention that this podcast was not just one of my all time favorites, it was one of the ones that carried me through so much change in my life.

In 2004, my wife and I moved from Massachusetts to Orlando, Florida.  A cross state move can be a harrowing, stressful, thing, and on top of that I’m a very obsessed individual who stresses constantly about everything especially change.  And with packing, moving, and all the things that came with it – including the 2004 hurricane season in Florida, I needed something to calm me down.  On top of that, I had decided that with my move that I wanted to start doing better by myself physically.  At this time I weighed close to 290 pounds.

During  a brief trip back up to Massachusetts at the end of the summer to visit our old Temple for High H0ly Days, we stopped at a store in New Hampshire and I got my first iPod – I was convinced that this was to be a key factor toward my starting to loose weight.  I’m an infonaut, so I was instantly drawn to podcasts, and ExtraLife Radio was one of the very first I’d come across – yes I was probably one of the first listeners.  And with that I started walking.

Now, I’m still walking (5K+ at least 5 times a week), I’m 50+ pounds lighter than I was then, and I was still listening to ELR whenever a new episode appeared in iTunes.  However, when I pushed play on ELR this past week, I had no idea that it was to be the final episode – I didn’t learn that until Scott tweeted a link to a blog post about it from his @extralife Twitter account.  Checking iTunes, I found a recorded reading of the blog post (it also included an extended dance remix version of the ELR theme song). Reading and listening, it surprised me, but I completely understand where Scott is coming from in his farewell – a full moon is always more exciting than a waning one.  Going out on top is the right choice.

So I just wanted to write this post to thank Scott Johnson, Brian Dunaway, and Obsidian for all the time I’ve spent with them these past years.  Every minute was worth it.  Dean Cain forever.

For those that don’t know, TouringPlans.com is the website for the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (*ding*).  ”The Guide” is a favorite among travelers to Walt Disney World, and the Disney online community, especially fans of the WDW Today Podcast.  The greatest asset of the book and the site is the sheer amount of data that sits behind them.  This is not stagnant data taken years ago that is only somewhat correct, or worse, mostly incorrect.  Instead this is a very up to date set of data that is constantly being tweaked, finely tuned, and analyzed by their team to bring to us, the consumer, as accurate an experience as possible.

Back in November of 2009, TouringPlans.com  announced a new web based application for the iPhone called Lines.  Since that time it has grown to include versions for Android, Palm, and Blackberry devices.  At it’s core, it is a means by which, from your smartphone, you can access what is generally the most coveted of all Disney Theme Park knowledge, “How long am I going to have to stand in this line?”

Having been contacted via Twitter asking if I’d be interested to do so, I’ve been using Lines on my iPhone since August of 2009.  When I first got hooked up with the app, I started playing around with it at home, being very careful not to enter any data.  It looked very interesting, but I was skeptical, and I wasn’t sure of it’s value.  However, I scheduled a day, August 22, 2009, to head to the park on a solo trip to test out the app.

Back then the app was slow, not very responsive, and a bit clunky with its dialog action, and was only working for Magic Kingdom – so I was restricted to testing in that park.  However, with all that said, some realizations came to me that day:

• the data for the guide is as accurate as they claim
• it’s much more useful to have this data sitting on my phone then on printouts
• the app was perfectly designed for use on an iPhone as it only needs one thumb for use

For eight solid hours I bashed on the app, noting bugs and suggestions in the notes app on my iPhone.  That day, I made about 80 entries.  I was not cheating, there are several places in the Magic Kingdom where you can stand and see multiple wait times, and I can also hold a few numbers in my head and enter as I walk along.  And at the end of the day I was sold on this app.

I remember going home and writing up my experiences and suggestions for the day and sending them off to Henry, Len, and Fred.  Henry and I have talked about it many times since, though we only first met in person during Reunion’09.  Keeping quiet about Lines and secretly using it in the parks for the next few months was a very difficult thing for me.  I wanted to tell everyone about it, stand on rooftops and shout about it, that sort of thing.

Since that time the app has made amazing strides.  For starters, its speed has tremendously increased.  The dialogs are no longer clunky as they’ve moved to a smoother Ajax “popup” model (apologies to non-tech readers, just read this as “good thing”).  But, more than anything else, the user experience has grown leaps and bounds.

There are, as the title of this post indicates, three key user experiences to Lines: Consumption, Contribution, and Gaming.  Everyone who uses Lines experiences all three of these, but their use can be tailored through how the app is being used. (note: this review is done from an iPhone perspective)

Consumption

As I mentioned above, TouringPlans.com and the Unofficial Guide team is all about the data.  It’s their lifeblood, and the key thing that puts them well beyond their competitors.  When you look at Lines, it’s very clear that their main goal was presenting a large amount of complex data to you in as simple a manner as possible.  To do this they break down the data into three levels: location, park, and ride.

The location screen contains some basic information about where you are. Right now there is only one location, Walt Disney World, but I’ve seen an older version of Lines that has more, so I’m sure you can expect them soonish.

Location

That screen looks pretty simplistic right?  Now think about all the information it’s telling you about your location:

• Location Name (e.g., Walt Disney World)
• Time and Date
• Available Parks
• Park Hours
• Park Status (OPEN / CLOSED)
• Extra Magic Hours (EMH) status on a per park basis
• Crowd Estimate for the day – this metric comes from the ever popularWalt Disney World Crowd Calendar
• Best / Worst Park for the day
• A way to reach your personal stats (see below)

From the location screen you can select the park you’re interested in for the day.  Doing this will take you to the park screen.

Park Top

Park Bottom

Fastpass Info

The park screen is a bit busier, because it lists out all the park attractions, but it similarly presents the information in a manner that is easy to consume:

• Park Name (e.g., Magic Kingdom)
• Date and Time
• List of attractions for the park
• Attraction wait times in minutes
• Attraction Fastpass status (Gone / Closed / Distribution Time)
• Park Hours
• EMH Status
• Crowd Level
• Viewing (Sorting) Mode (Alpha / Time / Land)
• Access to recently posted times (see below)
• The ability to add wait times (see below)
• A way to refresh the page (reload the web page)

The Viewing Mode can be used to your advantage.  It allows you to sort the list of park attractions either alphabetically (Alpha),  by wait time (Time), or by Land (i.e., all the Tomorrowland rides would be grouped together). This feature can be extremely helpful in picking your next attraction.

Sorting Style

The Recent Times screen allows you to review the times that have been entered for a park earlier in the day.  Using it you can see what other Lines users are up to that day.  And who knows, you might discover a friend is in the park with you for a meetup.

Recent Times

Each ride can then be selected for a more detailed look at the ride:

• Ride Name
• Actual Standby Time
• Posted Standby Time
• Fastpass Status
• Forecasts for Standby, Peak, and Fastpass depletion
• Submission information (see below)
• The ability to add a wait time (see below)

Ride Top

Ride Bottom

A user could simply stick to using just these core portions of Lines.  Contained in just these three levels of data: location, park, and ride is all one needs to successfully circumnavigate the desired theme park in lieu of having a Personalized Touring Plan from TouringPlans.com.  All it takes is a few thumb presses and the app can help you decide which attraction to hit next.  But what if you could help out others who were in the park doing the same?

Contribution

One of the largest growing portions of the online world today is social media.  That is the idea of people interacting, not directly, but rather through another medium.  Whether this is Facebook, Twitter, or a comment on a Blog or an online news article doesn’t matter – the points is that there is a medium through which to interact.

Lines does that for us through the ability to submit wait times.  We’re not chatting (the most common form of social media interaction), but we are using the app to interact in a new way. We’re conversing in numbers, not words – taking the data we see before us, and feeding it back into the application.  In doing so we have the instant gratification of everyone else who’s using Lines to see our name, however briefly, listed on the attraction.

This might not appeal to everyone, but to the “Dis Crazed” like myself, to have our names associated with a ride at Disney World is something that we all dream about, even if for only a few minutes or seconds.

Henry Rocks

You can enter wait times from one of two locations in the app.  Either from the individual ride, or from the park screen.  The two methods are essentially the same, with one difference, from the park screen you’ll need to select the ride, whereas from the ride screen your ride is already selected.

Add Wait Time

Choose Attraction

Time entry is very straightforward, there are just two values to enter.  Posted Time is the time you see above the Standby queue for the ride for which you’re entering time.  Fastpass Distribution is either the time increment for the current Fastpass distribution, or either Gone or Closed.  Gone indicates that Fastpass was opened, and there are now no longer any left.  Closed indicates that Fastpass has been shutdown early or was never opened to begin with for the attraction.

Enter Wait Time

Enter Fastpass Time

Rides that do not have Fastpass will not offer the option to enter Fastpass information.  All times are in 5 minute increments.  Once you’ve selected your times you just press Submit and your data is entered into the system.

Gaming

Built into Lines is a very simple game. The more you post wait times, the more you play.  The more you play the more badges you get.  What are badges?  They are a recent addition to the social media world that was taken directly from the concept of video game achievements.  There are all sorts of badges, and I’ve noticed some come, and some disappear off my status.  I imagine that’s part of this being a beta – things will change.

Badges

Here’s a list of some that I’ve received:

• Early Bird (Wait time during first hour of park operation!)
• Park Hopper (Wat times from two parks in one day!)
• No Song Phases Me (5 wait times for it’s a small world!)
• Don’t go losing your head (5 wait times for Haunted Mansion!)
• Hurling Through (5 wait times for Space Mountain!)
• Star Tunnel (Wait times for every attraction in Tomorrowland!)

There are also levels (some that I’ve caught):

• Unofficial Researcher-In-Training (1 wait time submitted!)
• Unofficial Data Collector (5 wait times submitted!)
• Unofficial Honorary Researcher (10 wait times submitted!)
• Unofficial Scholdar! (50 wait times submitted!)

The level names were originally the badge names, but things were shifted around to allow for both.  Levels also come directly from gaming, the more you do, the higher your level.  The original source being traditional pen & paper role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.  Please note that the exclamation points are all transcribed and not added by me.

Final Thoughts

In the future, I’m hoping to see still more features for the app.  Perhaps Twitter and/or Facebook integration.  Geolocation (not sure if this is possible in a web app… yet) or a “Where am I?” type functionality.  Maps.  Pathing.  Etc.

Lines is a very simple, easy to use application that is presenting a large amount of data that has been achieved through a complex means (trust me I’ve had Len explain the process to me) to the user in a way that they don’t get inundated with too much at once.  The TouringPlans.com team’s dedication to Unofficial Guide readers and TouringPlans.com users is reflected in the user experience of the app.

If you visit Walt Disney World and have a smartphone you should consider using Lines.  Keep in mind that right now Lines access is essentially free due to it’s beta status.  It is likely that in the future you will need a Premium account at TouringPlans.com to access Lines, and users should keep that in mind.

Additional Reviews

Sarah’s Review (@medgirl2001) “Review of Lines, a Disney Wait Time app from TouringPlans.com“

Disclosure: Due to Disney online community involvement, relationships, and my extensive suggestions and bug reporting while testing the TouringPlans.com application, I have been provided with a Premium subscription to TouringPlans.com for 2010.  My wife has her own account which existed prior to this exchange.

Recently Walt Disney World held it’s 2010 Marathon Weekend – a 4 day event consisting of Mickey’s Marathon Kids’ Fest, Disney Family Fun Run 5K, Half Marathon, Marathon, and Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge (Marathon + Half Marathon yields 3 medals).  I’d chosen not to attend as a runner, but rather to go and cheer on two of my newest Disney friends Katie (kidanikatie) and Ed (superedo) as they ran in the Half Marathon.  To do this I signed up to be a member of the ChEAR Squad which earned me some swag that I have previously posted about.  And I just wanted to take some time to tell you about my adventures on the day of the 2009 Half Marathon.

My goal was to do as much cheering for Katie & Ed as I could manage (you can read about their journey at Katie’s blog), with some cheering thrown in for many other runners along the way.  In addition to a booklet giving me a rough idea of where I could view runners from, there was an online tool that really helped me gauge how to do it.  After talking with another Disney friend, Bonnie, I decided that I would be at the start of the race in Epcot, then head on over to Main Street in the Magic Kingdom (Bonnie had promised to hold me a space for viewing), and then back to Epcot for the finish.

Disney and CIGNA provide a way to track runners via text messaging and/or email alerts.  They look like this:

Skippy McRunner @ 5K in 00:40:04 (NET). Pace: 12:53. Predicted: 2:49:03. presented by CIGNA, Disney Destinations LLC

Thinking that this would be an invaluable tool to me throughout the day I had chosen both, but I’m really glad that I didn’t rely on it for a two reasons:

1. The alerts were not working quite right until the race was more than half over.  What’s supposed to happen is that when the runner passes certain checkpoints their shoe tag will trigger the alert.  Texts did not happen until the 10k mark.  Emails did happen at 5k.  Neither happened at the start of the race.
2. The alerts should be occurring far more often than every 5k to be truly useful. Marathon information tells a spectator (or runner) that Main Street was roughly the 8k mark on the trail, and that the TTC (Transportation and Ticket Center) was roughly where the 5k mark was.  That leaves a huge gap in time as to when your runners might be upon you while standing on Main Street.  And while the texts mention distance, they don’t mention where the runner is.  For example, I’d rather have been told Katie & Ed were “Entering TTC at 5k” then “Reached 5k”.  And then right as they enter Magic Kingdom a message of “Entering Magic Kingdom” would indicate that it’s time to get your camera out.  Context would make the alerts much more useful.

Overall, it’s a system that Disney and CIGNA need to work on to make better in the future.

Other than the cold, snow, sleet, and rain that runners and spectators had to endure there was nothing else that I would claim as wrong with the event (except that I should have worn two pairs of socks).  Being a spectator was a lot of fun, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to experience a Disney Marathon without actually being a runner in the marathon itself.  Keep in mind that you don’t have to go as crazy with this as I did, you can simply be at one spot, cheer, and then go about your day.  There are no stipulations, the amount of cheering you do is completely up to you.  Now let me tell you about my day.

While spending the prior week enduring insanely cold weather for Central Florida, I managed to adjust my body clock so that I could go to bed early enough Friday night to be able to get up on Saturday January 9, 2009 – the day of the Half Marathon at 2:15am.  You really have to get up early because you need to be at Epcot before they start closing off the roads for the Marathon, which usually happens around 4am, but they start closing around 3am.

At the Start

To make sure I didn’t delay myself in the morning I did some important prep things the night before: shave, dig out my scarf and gloves (not worn in 6 years!!!) and pack my park bag.  Knowing that  it’d be a cold wet day, so I made sure that the things inside my bag were all separated out into ziplocs.  The contents of my bag included a Disney poncho (never had to use it), a few hats to swap out as they got wet throughout the day, a bagel pre-smeared, some snacks, my ChEAR Squad swag, and my Zagg Sparq so I could charge my iPhone as needed throughout the day.  I also laid out my clothes.

After waking up (2:15am), I showered right away and got dressed.  It was very cold, but I was prepared, wearing 3 shirts with my ChEAR Squad shirt being on top, and the middle layer being thermal.  I actually ate a bowl of cereal and I think this helped a lot during the day.  Afterwards I synced my iPhone one last time, threw on two jackets (Floridians don’t really have winter coats), and I headed out the door.

Epcot Parking

The drive over was uneventful as I listened to Trust Agents, at least until I hit Disney World.  Taking my normal exit for Epcot, I discovered that Epcot Center Road was already closed.  Freaking a little I got off on to Buena Vista Drive, past Epcot, to World Drive and came in from the other side.  Eventually parking in the Explore lot.  As I always suggest I took a picture of the Row as the first shot of the day so I could find it easily later.

Spaceship Earth

There I am at 3:30am, standing in the parking lot at Epcot, and before me there is one of my favorite sights: Spaceship Earth all lit up. Unable to resist, I went over to take some photos.  There was a throng of people arriving in Epcot, that it was impossible to cross for a closer shot than the ones I took.

Who's Inside?

On my way back to my car, I spotted a vehicle that based on it’s markings could only contain one person as sprawled across it was “We wants the Redhead!”, “WDW Radio Racing”, and “Disney or Bust!”.  Inside was none other than Lori, someone who I first met at MagicMeets in 2007, and have seen many times since.  We chatted briefly, and then I wished her luck knowing that she had a grueling day ahead of her with a leg that was massively taped up with kinesio tape as evidenced by a picture she had posted on Facebook from the night before.

Race Entrance

Costumed Runners

After a quick stop back at my car, I headed into the “Family Reunion Area” as it is where the runners were all gathering before they headed off to their corrals.  Inside there were a lot people milling about, clearly dreading the cold – at the time it was about 30 degrees.  But there were many runners dressed up in costume, which is a common occurrence for Disney Marathons.  In addition to the pictured Mr. Incredible, “Petra” Pan, Green Army Man, and Wonder Woman, I also saw a few Elvises, a bride & groom, Stitch, several Jack Sparrows.  In addition those running the Goofy Challenge tend to have Goofy incorporated into their costume, and there was one fellow who had apparently stolen Goofy’s clothes.

Ed & Katie

Somehow, in the large group of people, I managed to find Katie & Ed, and along with Mike from the Be Our Guest Podcast.  I don’t honestly remember everything that was said, but I do remember trying to be both light hearted and encouraging – after all I was there to support them.  And despite the cold they were positive, excited, and ready to go.  It was about this time that it started to snow.  Seriously, snow right here in Central Florida.  And let me tell you it was weird, as a Florida resident, I’d not seen snow in about 6 years.  The only thing I could really think to mention at that point was that if it was snowing, then it’d warmed up a few degrees.

Snow!!!

I escorted Katie, Ed, and Mike to the entry way as far as a non-runner was allowed to go to the starting point of the race.  I said good-bye, wished them all luck, gave them all hugs, and told them I’d see them at the finish.  From there I really had no idea what to do or where to go.  I’d never done this before.  And somehow the DJ must have known this because he made an announcement about a sign that would lead me to the start of the race at the edge of the parking lot.

Path to the Start

Making my way to the starting spectator area, I got to do something really cool… well okay really cool to me anyway… walk through some Disney woods and get to stand on a Disney road (Epcot Center Drive).  By this time the snow was changing over to sleet, so I threw my hood up and prayed I wouldn’t catch pneumonia.

Epcot Center Drive

Standing there, waiting, I did what I generally do when standing in a crowd with a bunch of strangers: make friends.  We were taking pictures of each other, chatting, and telling stories about “our” runners.  I helped the couple to my left cheer on their brother, the lady next to me cheer on her husband, and made some room so a little girl could see her mother.  It was cold, bitter, and nasty outside as we were getting pelted with sleet, but we made it fun and had a great time.

Fireworks!

Before we knew it the race had begun.  The first wave of runners are actually those in wheelchairs.  After the first round of fireworks, they sped by us in these fabulous contraptions that were a cross between a wheelchair and a bicycle.  You wouldn’t think they could go as fast as they were, and it was glorious.  I screamed.  I cheered.  I used my ChEAR Squad clapper – which came in very useful that day considering I had on gloves and was trying my best to take my usual array of both terrible and surprisingly good pictures.

Runners at the Start

After that there were four waves of runners.  It was explained to me that the first 2 waves of runners contained people who were placed based on their times from prior Marathons, and that the 3rd and 4th waves were everyone else.  I was also told that there were supposed to be 5 waves of runners that day, but they dropped one due to people not showing up – due to the weather I imagine.  And then it struck me, while I knew Katie & Ed’s numbers and their corral, I had no idea which wave they were in. And I had a sinking feeling that I’d never spot them as we’re standing on the opposite side of Epcot Center Drive from the runners who are effectively 4 lanes away from us.

In order to spot Katie & Ed, my plan was to scan the crowd looking for a runner with an orange hat (Ed) paired with another runner with pigtails (Katie).  It was dark, I was cold, and it was a crazy idea.  That day was for them, and I was determined to find them in that crowed.  As time drew on, I became concerned that maybe they had already passed me or that I’d just never spot them.  Then, suddenly, there they were.  Side by side, and probably equally cold and miserable.  I screamed their names as loud as I could.  And a miraculous thing happened: they heard me.  I saw them slow down, and look around.  I waved.  I jumped up and down.  I clapped my clapper. And I shouted again, “Go Katie and Ed!” And they did.

For me, the start of the race was over, so I said my good-byes to the people I had met, and headed for the monorail – it was time to go over to Magic Kingdom.  On the way over I got to see the first of the wheelchair marathoners cross the finish.  The monorail queue was not nearly as crowded as I’d have expected, but it was 6am.  Now, I’d been on the monorail hundreds of times before, but this time it was different.  Special.  A whole new sort of magic.  Below me, the still dark World Drive was full of people.  Not in cars like they normally are, but running.  Ordinary people performing this great feat together.

As directed, I met up with Bonnie and some others in front of the watch shop on Main Street.  I can’t thank her enough for doing that for me.  I’m a short guy, so being able to walk right up to the rope like that and see the runners was amazing.  On the sidewalk opposite us were Disney castmembers dressed for life on Main Street, posing with runners, cheering them on, etc.  I knew there special moments along the marathon route for the runners, but I didn’t think I’d get to experience them and I really appreciated it.

Sunrise on Main Street

Getting to experience a sunrise on Main Street was very cool, and something I’d not gotten to do before. It was really hard to get good pictures with everyone so close, so I took to scanning the crowd for Ed & Katie.  I was also watching the runners as they stopped for pictures, etc.  And then, all of the sudden, in a really dense group of runners, this face with an orange hat comes flying at mine shouting “Todd!!!” I remember screaming back “Ed!!!” And then running along with them for a short bit cheering them on.  It was for me one of the most memorable moments of the day.

I turned around to thank Bonnie again for the spot and behind me is standing Lou Mongello (@loumongello), but he wason the phone.  Wanting to head back to to Epcot for the finish, I briefly said hi, shook his hand, and then said my good-byes – figuring I’d see Bonnie and Lou at his meet later.  I took a quick pit stop, then headed off to the monorail, while noshing on a bagel I had brought with me.

Monorail Green Broken Down

What I found was that the express monorail was not opened, and that meant taking the resort monorail.  This meant sitting through an extra stop at the Contemporary before getting back to the TTC.  While heading up that ramp I got to see the monorail tow car in the process of hooking up with a broken down Monorail Green.

Once I was seated on the monorail, I texted Matt Hochberg (@studioscentral) as we had been planning to meet up at the finish line to watch Katie & Ed finish – he is after all Katie’s BFF.  Conveniently, Matt was just parking at Magic Kingdom and we agreed to meet at the top of the ramp to board the monorail to Epcot.  Despite a crowded monorail, we got seats.  We talked a bit about iPhones, chargers, how the marathon was going, and that I’d actually seen Ed & Katie at both view points so far.  From the monorail we could see the runners heading back down World Drive toward Epcot.

One thing about standing on Main Street vs standing out in the parking lot at Epcot is that on a cold day its a lot colder in the parking lot.  The reason is because the buildings on Main Street block the wind.  You’re a lot more exposed in the open space of the parking lot, and being wet and cold wasn’t helping any.  Unlike Matt I had gloves and a hat, so I was a bit warmer – I did offer both to him, but he stuck it out without.

We got off the monorail, and found a nice viewing location at the 13 mile marker to watch for Katie & Ed at the end of the race.  This was a real win because again, I was right up at the rail.  My grand plan had been to earlier, on Main Street, take note of other easily identifiable runners that came before them in order to try to judge when they were coming at the finish.  That was an epic fail moment really, because they had really shifted we were back to frantically looking for them in the packs of runners.

While waiting, I took to cheering for any and all runners as they passed by.  There was “Team Purple”, “Team Diabetes”, “Brazil Guy” who had run the race carrying the Brazilian flag, and many more.  There were people walking in to the finish, and others sprinting.  Some were looking up, and others were looking down still watching their footing.  Many stopped for a photo opp at the 13 mile marker sign.

Standing there, at the end of the marathon, I learned something watching the runners go by.  For so many, the finish of the marathon was an incredibly emotional experience.  Some were so excited they were working the crowd for cheers.  Others broke down crying right there as we cheered, and the spectators coached them on, told them they were “okay” and that that they were “almost done”.  Many smiled and laughed, letting their accomplishment run over them.  And, while I can’t speak for the other spectators, these emotions washed over me, and I gained a respect for runners and running that I did not have before.  Even now, thinking about it, writing this, I well up thinking about it.  The emotions and memories I have tied to this moment is are strong, beautiful, and pure – I hope to carry them with me always.

Katie & Ed Arrive

Katie & Ed at the Finish

After about 30 minutes or so of freezing in ways that I had not felt in six years, there they were, Katie & Ed.  Ed was very calm and collected, and Katie was all smiles.  They passed us by and I cheered, and shouted their names, congratulations, and that they were winners.  My pictures of this are them could be better, but I’ve got them and the memory to hold on to.

Ed's Medal (taken by Ed)

And once they were past Matt and I regrouped, and had the same thought – move and get warm.  So we headed back over to the reunion area to meet Katie & Ed.  We spotted them in the crowd, and waited a short bit while Mike interviewed them for his podcast.  Then all three headed out of the post finish line area, and out to meet us in the reunion area.  We spent some time finding Katie’s parents who fortunately had a backpack with some Gatorade that Katie was craving.  Katie told us all that they never stopped, and they showed off their medals.  It was a very happy moment for them both, and I was honored to be sharing it with them.

Sadly, my time as a marathon spectator was over.  I said some quick good-byes to Katie, Ed, and Matt – I knew I’d see them soon as there was a WDW Today meet in Magic Kingdom later that day.  I was still cold and needed to warm up, so I quickly ducked into Spaceship Earth.  Afterwards, I took the monorail back to Magic Kingdom, arriving there a short bit after 10am, and it occurred to me that this was my third monorail trip between Epcot and Magic Kingdom that day.  Which was scary because my day wasn’t even close to over as I was planning on staying it until after dinner that same evening, and my car was still parked at Epcot which meant one more trip back.

Next year I’m going to have even more friends running, and I plan to cheer them all on – though this time I think I’ll be staying on property.  If you’re planning on running the Half Marathon in 2011, and are looking for people to talk with and maybe run with, there is a Facebook group that has been started by my good friend Kelly (@kchristine).  Kelly is also looking for team and/or charity suggestions as she wants to be able to turn her run into a giving moment as well.

Also, some of the “box people” from Lou Mongello’s WDW Radio podcast may have seen me talk about being part of the ChEAR Squad briefly on his live streaming event later in the day.  And I remember that there was some interest shown in the chat room about the ChEAR Squad.  If you’d like to ask me any questions, please do so and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Tomorrow I’m going to do something that I’ve never done before, and it sounds like a ton of crazy fun.  I’m going to go cheer on some friends who are running in the Disney Half Marathon: Katie (kidanikatie) and Ed (superedo).  It’s always nice to have a new Disney experience after close to 40 years of Disney in my life.  As such I signed up to be a part of the Disney Marathon ChEAR Squad.  This comes with a simple swag bag that I picked up last night at the Milk House at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.  And I just wanted to present for you a few shots I took of the swag.

But before I do, a little motivational announcement for Ed & Katie.  They’ve already seen this last night on Twitter, but here’s the shot of the message Cheryl and I wrote for them on the Marathon sign in board last night:

Message for Katie & Ed

And now on to the swag…

ChEAR Squad Swag Bag

ChEAR Squad Swag

ChEAR Squad T-Shirt & Clapper

ChEAR Squad Clapper

ChEAR Squad Seat Cushion & Keychain Fob

Just in case you missed the fob in your pack, it’s the piece that pops out of the seat cushion that has a hole in it.  Just thread the little chain found in your swag bag through the hole and viola a keychain fob is all yours.

ChEAR Squad Swag Bag Headphone Port

Note: iPhone barely fits into the carrier pouch inside, certainly not good positioning for the headphones.  Made for a smaller device like a nano.

For my last movie of 2009 I opted to see Avatar.  It is the latest in line of what are considered to be some of the best cinematic experiences of all time by Writer/Producer/Director James Cameron.  And Avatar succeeds in continuing that line.

It’s not because this movie has a great story, because it doesn’t.  No this story is one you’ve seen many times before.  It’s a comfortable story, one you know, one with few surprises.  And that’s because if this movie had a complex story that you actually had to focus on, you would not be able to appreciate the splendor and beauty of what you’re seeing before you on the screen.  And that is the entire point of this movie: eye candy.

It is very hard to accept that 90% of this movie is CGI.  Because there, before you, are the Na’vi, 9 foot tall blue creatures that look every bit as real as you or I.  They are amazing to behold, and not because of their scantily clad nature.  No it’s because the move and breath like no computer animation ever has on screen before.  But it’s not just them, it’s the world they live in, Pandora.

The creatures of Pandora are as rich, diverse, and exotic as those we read about being found in the Brazilian rain forest here on Earth.  And as such, they, and the world they live in, are a wonder to behold.  I was so riveted by the animation in this movie that the only times I looked away from the screen were when the characters outside their avatar forms.

This is where the movie gets its name from.  The humans have, for many years, been trying to gain favor with the Na’vi so they can negotiate for land rights to mine an ore from Pandora called “unobtainium” – something not found on earth.  To do this Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) has created the “Avatar Program”.  A program where human and Na’vi DNA are combined to create Na’vi bodies that can be driven by the minds of human beings connected to them through cybernetic means.

This program is failing.  And the big corporate types, in this movie personified by Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), are at the end of their line of patience.  The largest deposit of unobtainium rests firmly under the “Home Tree” of the Na’vi people, and they intend one of two solutions to get at it: either the Na’vi move, or they get moved.

This is where our hero Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) comes in.  He is a paraplegic marine grunt who’s dead brother was set to enter the Avatar program.  The catch was is that they were identical twins, which means they have the same DNA.  This means that Jake could “drive” his brother’s Avatar.  So he accepts an offer and spends six years in cryogenic sleep on his way to Pandora.

Jake quickly meets Norm Spellman (Joel Moore) who is also an Avatar driver and his partner in the program.  Unlike the other Avatar drivers who are civilians, Jake, who is a marine, answers Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) who is the marine commander.  He tells Jake that if he is able to gather intel on the Na’vi of a nature that allows for a resolution to the problem that he will make sure Jake gets his legs repaired.  It is very clear that Quaritch is not interested in a peaceful solution.

The three drivers, and Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez), a marine pilot who is set as the escort for the Jake, Norm, and Grace both in and out of their Avatar forms, head out on their first mission together.  During this, Jake wanders off from the rest of the group and gets attacked by one of the more deadly of the forest creatures.  This leads to him loosing track of both his location, and the others, and he is forced to spend a night in the woods alone.  Something apparently no human or Avatar has done before.

Fortunately for Jake, he is rescued by one of the Na’vi, a female named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana).  After rescuing him, she is about to abandon him in the woods, when there is a quite interesting a beautiful moment that she takes to be an omen.  So she brings him home to her tribe and the “Home Tree“.  There he manages to convince the tribe to let him learn their ways.

From there the movie goes pretty much where you expect it to.  As I said above, the story itself holds few surprises, and is really the only reason I couldn’t give this movie a higher rating.  It did however earn its rating in both the acting, and the sheer stunning beauty of what is presented before you on the screen.  No CGI movie that follows will be successful without looking this good.  There were points where I could feel myself tearing up at how beautiful it all was.

If you are considering to taking your kids to this movie, be aware of a few things.  The Na’vi don’t wear much of anything in the way of clothing, and there is a high degree of violence in the movie, but nothing too graphic.  If you feel your kids can handle this, then you’re good to go.  Otherwise, I’d not take them.

Of course, if you are going, you’ll have to decide how you want to see this movie.  You can go view it in one of 5 different manners: standard 2D, RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, IMAX-lite (regular movie theaters that have been converted to IMAX), and standard IMAX.  I can only recommend that you not bother with seeing this movie in 2D, you will loose so much of the experience it’d be a waste of money.

My choice in the end was IMAX-lite.  I did a bit of research before this, and concluded that despite that you can’t tilt your head while viewing and don’t get to keep the 3D glasses, that this would be the best choice for me.  I’ve seen standard IMAX movies before, and while I don’t suffer from the motion sickness that some do in thestandard IMAX theaters, I do feel that I can’t keep my focus on the entire screen at once.  My second choice would have been RealD 3D.

If you are a science fiction sort, you probably either already have seen this movie or are planning to.  If you are the romantic sort, this movie has plenty of that as we see the evolution of the relationship between Jake and Neytiri.  If you are attracted to this movie for it’s beauty or simply like the “boy meets girl and saves the world” story that it presents then you should see this movie.

Jackie Chan's House

I have to be honest with you up front, I’m a huge Jackie Chan fan.  I’m not just talking the modern day “American” movie star Jackie Chan that has come about with movies like Rush Hour, Around the World in 80 Days, and The Tuxedo.  No, I’m talking about classic, pirate fighting, Project A Jackie Chan.  I’ve even included the picture on the left to show that I’ve whizzed past the man’s house at 30 mph on a Hollywood tour bus just to catch a glimpse.  And I confess all this to you because while the cinema student in me says that this movie was only 3 stars, my appreciation for all things Jackie Chan has required me to give it an extra half star – just on principle.

So did I mention this is a Jackie Chan movie?

The Spy Next Door is Jackie Chan’s latest movie venture that is due to be released in 2010.  Tonight however at the Regal Cinemas in Winter Park, FL I was able to see a sneak preview of this movie thanks to a offer caught by my wife on Twitter – she already knew it was a movie I had to see.  Per usual for these sneak peaks, cell phones are not allowed and there was security ready to eject anyone trying to use them.  So I merely tweeted before the movie that I was in line, and after the movie I had tweeted this basic quick review:

The Spy Next Door Tweet

Overall I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie.  Was it the best movie ever?  No.  Was it Jackie Chan’s best movie ever?  Certainly not.  But it was a very entertaining movie, full of the the core humor style that Jackie Chan is famous for.  And this is primarily why I liked it – I could see Jackie Chan as a part of this movie, not just the star of the movie.  A quality that I feel has followed him throughout his career.

The first few minutes of this movie start with a title sequence that is a video montage of scenes from many of Jackie Chan’s Spy and Police movies while the song Secret Agent Man plays.  This alone is sure to keep a fan like myself in their seat for the duration.

We learn about Jackie Chan’s character, Bob Ho, right away discovering that he is a man suffering from the same sorts of duality issues as Clark Kent.  By day Bob is a mild-mannered pen salesman, but by night he’s a secret agent on loan to the CIA from Chinese Intelligence.  We discover that as Bob the pen salesman he lives next door to a woman, Gillian (Amber Valletta), who he is dating, and her three children.  In typical American movie fashion, the children hate him.

What we learn is that Bob is ready to retire from being a spy – he wants to settle down.  In fact, he wants to marry Gillian.  During a date between the two, he excuses himself to capture his nemesis Poldark (Magnús Scheving), and once he’s done so, he says his good-byes to his two CIA friends, Colton (Billy Ray Cyrus) & Glaze (George Lopez), and retires from the spy biz.  End of movie.  Roll credits.  Yeah right.

We’re back in suburban life, Bob is apologizing to Gillian for leaving in the middle of their date, and they’re talking about marriage and really bad art.  And the kids begin plotting to break them up.  Gillian gets a phone call, and has to rush off to be with her father who’s in the hospital.  Bob steps up and offers to watch the kids.  All of this happens in the first 15 minutes of the movie.

From there, we are sent travelling through a winding road containing a secret formula, Russian bad guys with bad Russian accents, spy gadgetry, and the “kung-fu” that Jackie Chan is most famous for.  And somehow, we get to a cohesive family unit that finds true love and happiness.  Oh sure, there’s bumps along the way as a pissed off Gillian sticks it to Bob for putting her kids in harms way while he plays his spy games.  Of course, that it all happened is not his fault – the Russians aren’t actually after him, he’s just collateral damage, as are the kids.

The movie is funny, especially the moments with the youngest child.  She and Jackie Chan work well together on the screen, and their bond seemed genuine.  Their interactions are, at times, very slapstick, and there are moments with her and him that are clearly designed for a laugh, and those moments succeed.  The geekiness of the middle child is also funny, but in a different sort of way.  There is no humor in the character of the oldest child – she is the tragedian of the story.

The roles played by Billy Ray Cyrus and George Lopez are small.  Of the two, George Lopez’s role could have been played by anyone – he did almost no acting, and his entire purpose in the movie seemed to be getting hit over the head with large objects and falling unconscious much like a character out of an old Bugs Bunny cartoon might.  Billy Ray Cyrus also didn’t have much screen time, but seeing him in a duster with a gun made me actually like his character.  He looked interesting, and cool – I often feel this way about the characters he plays.

One thing I noticed is that it seems Jackie Chan is finally starting to show his age some.  He’s not quite as young looking as he once was when the camera is in close.  And I’m pretty convinced that in one scene, with a bicycle, he wasn’t doing his own stunts.  This won’t dissuade me from Jackie Chan movies in the future.  In fact, I’m really looking forward to Karate Kid.  It just bears mentioning as Jackie Chan is well known for doing his own stunts.

The movie closes with the standard Jackie Chan style blooper reel, so don’t walk out once the credits start rolling or you might miss them.  They’re not as funny as the ones in some of his older movies, but rather center around his continuing challenges with the English language.

If you have kids you will enjoy taking them to this movie.  It won’t bore you, and it will keep them occupied.  If you are a Jackie Chan fan, you’ll get your fix from this movie.  For everyone else, it will all come down to taste and what you do or don’t like.  I know this, my wife and I enjoyed this movie, and we’ll probably see it again when its released to DVD/Blu-ray.

I’ve owned domains for a long time now.  My first domain net-marks.com comes from a time when there was only one domain registrar, and the yearly cost for a domain was more than three times what it is now.  For almost as long as I’ve had a site where software that I’ve written was readily available. In the pre-CMS days, I used to do all pages by hand, because that’s all we had – and we liked it.  Later, on a suggestion from Cheryl, I started using FrontPage – also known as “the land of an insane amount of garbage tags in your code“.

And then a friend introduced me to Drupal – he suggested we use it as the backbone for our City of Heroes supergroup website.  For those that don’t know, Drupal is a CMS that is both amazingly powerful and amazingly complex – sometimes too much for its own good.  So I set about learning Drupal, and getting our site up and running under it.  It went pretty well, and for the few years that we were active it served us well.

At the same time I also converted the content for my old FrontPage software site to Drupal.  Thus embracing it as much as possible.  The idea was that the more I used it the more I learned.  And what I learned is that as great as Drupal is, it is also not without it’s fair share of problems.  Most of these extend from it’s tendency towards complexity.

For one, it’s extremely difficult to update the core software.  Or more to the point to update all your content tied up in Drupal to the latest version of Drupal.  I always found this to be a chore.  It was definitely a one step forward, two steps back ordeal.  Sometimes you had to completely abandon an update, restore what you had, and walk away.  It always took several days to do.  But I toughed through it all.  Over time, I discovered and figured out how to do multi-site Drupal, thus moving to a single codebase install.

Drupal: 2; WordPress: 0

Over the years, the supergroup faded and I got a bit frustrated with MMO gaming (long story, though many know it – you need only look for the gamer tag Circeus).  As such I’ve not coded for games in a bit now.  I want the areas of my expertise to be elsewhere now (note: I do still game).

More recently, Cheryl decided she wanted a blog.  We discussed it, and concluded that WordPress would best suit her needs. So we made a folder for her at our site, and I installed WordPress into it, and she was off and running in her space.

Drupal: 2; WordPress: 1

Not long after, some friends and relatives decided they wanted websites.  I’ve already got hosting, and can host unlimited domains,  I offered that if they purchased domains I’d host the domains for them.  They registered their sites, and I installed WordPress for them.  And they too are off running in their own spaces.

Drupal: 2; WordPress: 3

At this point I discovered WordPress-Mu (a.k.a. Multi-Site WordPress). This allows for a single code-base for multiple blogs across multiple domains.  This makes everything incredibly easy; one source for themes and plugins, and one codebase.  This is exactly what I needed to move forward.

And that brings me to the present.  I’ve finally started my own WordPress blog here at perlmutter.me, and while it’s still in its infancy, to me it feels right.  It’s much easier to get through, find what I need to manage, upgrade, etc.  It’s in PHP - I know PHP.  It relies heavily on CSS - I’m learning CSS.  It’s hooked based, so I can easily extend and write my own themes.  Upgrading is not a chore.  I’ve been through a few versions now, and each has been on the order of minutes, not days.  In general, I’m happier using WordPress, and my Drupal sites have stagnated.

Drupal: 2; WordPress: 4

So here I am.  I have two basically dead Drupal sites, and 4 WordPress blogs, where do I go from there?  I’ve come to a decision.  Over time, I plan to phase out my use of Drupal.  It’s served me well enough, but I’m not in sync with it anymore.  As with gaming, I’m elsewhere now.  The goal will be:

Drupal: 0; WordPress: 6

But for now, for transition, it’s:

Drupal: 2; WordPress: 6

The transition, etc. and my plans surrounding it will be discussed in my next post.  In there I’ll talk about what it takes to host Drupal and WordPress side-by-side and how to do it.  I’ll talk about moving hosting providers.  Backing up and restoring both Drupal and WordPress.  And relocating Drupal sites to new homes.  And some simple things you can do to make two WordPress Blogs seem like one.  I hope you’ll come back to read about it.

This past Sunday I went with my wife Cheryl to go see Disney‘s new animated feature The Princess and the Frog.  To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  While I had seen the trailers for the movie, I really tried to stay mostly spoiler free.  After all, this was a big event for Disney as it marks a return to traditional 2D animation after a 5 year hiatus from it in favor of a more modern computer animated approach.  Personally I’m not one who’s particularly for one style of animation over the other, as I feel they both have a place in this world.  I’m also far more story oriented anyway.

For the most part I’ll try to keep this review spoiler free as I realize that with the holidays and the recent “Snurricane of ’09″ that many might not have seen it yet.  For me, if it hadn’t have been for the WDW Today Podcast ’09 Reunion on the movie’s opening weekend, I probably would have seen it a week earlier than I did.

The movie is set in the early pre-Depression era 20th century, and begins right around the time when Woodrow Wilson first became President of the United States.  There is one shot to establish this time period early on in the movie as we see a headline declaring that Wilson was elected President.  And from that moment I was immediately hooked.  From the previews I had just naturally assumed it was going to be set in modern times, and was happy to find it was not.  I don’t think the story would have otherwise worked.

Cinematically there were some very clever things done with the animation, and, to me, two of them stood out.  The first was the consideration made by the artists in providing a sort of depth of field focus to the frames as they were presented to us.  The characters and elements that were the focus of the “shot” were always in focus, and those things around, in front, and behind it were not.  It lent an air of almost realism to the movie.  This is in stark contrast to the crisp, clean large scale computer animated scenes mixed in with the traditional animation of Beauty and the Beast.

The second was the use of a second style of animation that we saw during Tiana’s “Almost There” number.  Granted this has been done in a number of other Disney films, including Hercules (one of my favorites).  But this time there is a moment toward the end of the movie where they bring the style back, but only partially as it is mixed with the animation style of the rest of the movie.  It is a clever play, and it works well to cement that moment.

This takes me to want to discuss one more aspect of the movie that won me over:  the music.  When Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), a singing and Jazz playing alligator who reminds one of his namesake Louis Armstrong, starts belting ot the song “When We’re Human” I was immediately flooded with the sorts of warm and happy feelings I get from my all time favorite Disney animated movie song “I Wan’na Be Like You” from The Jungle Book.

Now with that said, not all things with this film are perfect to me.  For example, I feel that much of the story lacks the impact that so many of the great Disney animated features have.  The story is highly telegraphed throughout, and it has no great surprises, save one which would be a spoiler to speak specifically about.  You could tell that Disney was playing it safe.

But this story redeems all that with one simple number, “Dig a Little Deeper” sung by Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis).  This moment in the film isn’t just one of the most visually stunning and fun moments.  It’s also the entire message of the movie summed up in one great song, and that message is this:

Life isn’t about what you want, it’s about what you need and appreciating what you have.

And if every kid who sees this movie walked away with that message they and the world would be better for it.

So many are likely wondering then if this movie is kid friendly, and I’ll say this.  It does have what could be construed as scary moments and some very poignant ones also.  But they are things that are no more scary than Hercules battling a Hydra, Ursula, or Jafar turning into a giant snake.  And they are no more poignant than what happens to Bambi’s mother, or Simba’s father.  So if you think your kids can grok though those things, then they can absolutely handle everything Doctor Facilier (a.k.a. “The Shadow Man“) can throw at them.

One last thing is this, before I saw this movie I never would have thought that the most touching, and heartstrings pulling moments of any movie would involve a lovesick Cajun firefly named Ray.  Thank you Jim Cummings for that.