News is a couple days old, but...

Hey guys, did you know that Scheherazade, who managed to be a heroine and save her country (particularly the women) By being clever is really a damsel in distress who needs Aladdin and Sinbad to come rescue her?  Except Aladdin and Sinbad aren't good enough heroes on their own, so they need a white guy to help them.  Hollywood says so.  Betcha it includes the True Love of Scheherazade and White Guy.

Know what Hollywoodization of 1001 Nights I want?  The one where 13-year-old Scheherazade runs away from home and has adventures for years, and then comes home to marry Shahryar and he learns she was actually the heroine of all the stories when she saves him from a bunch of assassins.  If hollywood must rewrite and update the story, I vote they go that route.

movie: Up

Disclaimer: I watched this on a portable DVD player, sandwiched between my two nephews, with the three year old alternately sleeping on my arm and fussing for his Mommy. It is possible that I missed fascinating bits.

In short, my impression from the previews was on the mark for me: it looked dull, and I found it dull. Maybe if I’d ever been a little boy who wanted to have adventures, instead of having been a little girl who wondered why boys had almost all the adventures in TV and movies, it would have been different. And boy, does the movie play up “adventures are only for boys.” Actually, the first 2-3 minutes, before the montage of some of the most blatant emotional manipulation I’ve ever seen? I would have enjoyed that movie. The rest? Meh. I do want to give Pixar credit for making one of the leads an Asian kid (if his ethnicity was ever established, it was a part I missed) and for making a lot of the extras POC, but I can’t help but notice that it still came down to a pair of white guys duking it out.

Also, I spent way too much time pondering helium and the scientific feasibility of it all.

( annoying parts are spoilery )