Otis needs a Manzier

So, we went to see Barnyard this weekend. Being an Disney animation geek, I am always willing to give a new animation project a chance, but I have a pretty low tolerance for poorly executed animation. Like, you know, easy research items that seem to escape the people making the movie. Below you see Otis, the Kevin James-voiced lead character. See anything screwy about this "cow?"
Would it have been that hard for someone to figure out that cows are female, and male bulls have no udders?!? I was distracted from moment one by this, and couldn't really get past it. Even my seven-year old picked up on it. Much like I said in my diatribe on the script shortcoming of the new Star Wars trilogy, couldn't they have hired someone to read through the script and check the character models for accuracy? You know, like maybe a real farmer or something? Do you think that maybe mid-way through production they realized their error, but decided that people wouldn't notice and/or it would cost too much to fix?

Beyond this unbelievable lack of knowledge of the anatomy of cows/bulls that apparently hundreds of people possessed, the movie was just a not-well-executed clone of the Lion King. [Warning: Spoilers] Simb... err... Otis, the young lio... ehh... cow who is heir to the throne as king of the jung... ahh.. barnyard would rather sing and play with friends. When Mufa... umm... Ben is killed by the evil lion and hye... ohh... coyotes, Simb... err... Otis is thrown into the position of authority that he is not ready for and decides to run away. Words from the wise old Rafik... ohh... Miles convince Simb... err... Otis to come back and defend the jung... ahh.. barnyard against the evil lion and hye... ohh... coyotes. Simb... err... Otis then gets the girl, Nal... oohh... Daisy, they have a child and they all live happily ever after.

You would think that this was a Disney Cheapquel Mad-Lib...

OK... so we have anatomically incorrect cows and a recycled plot line, so at least the animation is good, correct? Think rubber... Squishy rubber animals... Kinda like rubber duckies. No... not so good.

I know it's just an animated comedy geared to kids, and the kids enjoyed the movie, so I guess that's what they were going for. But the sudden glut in computer animated films on the market is going to make people tired of this medium, much like it tired of the glut of traditionally animated films.

photo via IMDB

It's almost Football Time in err... Indiana...

OK... so there's not as much tradition as "Football Time in Tennessee..." So, sue me. It looks like the Cards will have a good team this year, leading to a better team next year. And the basketball team may be on the upswing. Bonus!

A very winnable game against IU, a favorable conference slate, and three total Big1Ten games (including a trip to the Big House) highlight the schedule. Can't wait until 8/31 (although to be quite honest, I really can't wait until 11/11)...

The Zebras get new stripes

When watching the Titans this weekend, I couldn't help but notice the new uniforms for the officials. According to NFL News, they were going for "a more modern, updated, distinctly NFL look." I hate to tell them, but they will never get a cool looking referee outfit. And to be quite honest, I don't think anyone watching the game really cares what the official looks like anyway... Sorry guys, but a big yawn from me...

Aargh!

The ever-funny pirate is back with YouTube - Things that make ye say "ARGH".... Message in a Bottle 05. Be sure to watch through to the end (although it may make you say 'Aargh').



Check out the first four episodes, or submit a question at Yargh.com. The goofy things that people YouTube...

Update: Guess I should point out that this guy is a Nashville guy. He also plays a mean Batman...

Green Helmet Guy's blog

Green Helmet Guy has a blog. So does White T-Shirt Guy. These guys are getting to be as famous as Baghdad Bob. Funny stuff... If only is wasn't so morbid...

No wonder I couldn't ever get any Fire sauce...

The Star Press reports on an odd story that includes masked men, 400 lbs. of sauce packets, and chalupas. Intrigued?

When a group of 10 to 15 people wearing masks enter a fast-food joint in the late evening, the first thing many people would think is that a holdup was about to begin.

But at about 10:46 p.m. Tuesday, when such a group entered a local Taco Bell, they weren't there to take - they were there to return.

The masked men were toting six 40-gallon trash bags filled with individual packets of taco sauce - about 25,000 in all, police guess.

A note left with the sauce - which likely weighed more than 400 pounds, based on data available on Taco Bell's Web site - said the group had been accumulating them for the past three years, storing them in the trunk of a car. They'd thought about using them for a practical joke or selling them on eBay, but conscience dictated their return to the 3244 S. Western Ave. store.

25,000 packets... 400 lbs of sauce. That could top a lot of chalupas...

Oh, Ms. Carroll? Green Helmet will see you now...

Again, the quote from Kathleen Carroll, AP's senior vice president and executive editor on August 1st, referred to in a previous post...

"It's hard to imagine how someone sitting in an air-conditioned office or broadcast studio many thousands of miles from the scene can decide what occurred on the ground with any degree of accuracy"

Carroll said in addition to personally speaking with photo editors, "I also know from 30 years of experience in this business that you can't get competitive journalists to participate in the kind of (staging) experience that is being described."

Hmm... any response from Ms. Carroll?

The strangest thing I have seen in my life... (part 2)

double uhh...

The strangest thing I have seen in my life... (part 1)

Uhhh....

AlGore and friends on the environment: Do as I say, not as I do...

Al Gore: An Inconvenient Story

This is kinda old, but I find it amusing nonetheless. It amazes me when the people preaching how we should change our lives and "go green" or "carbon-neutral" or whatever the current buzzword is totally go against what they are preaching to spread the word for their cau... err... to get their faces on TV.

Other fun links on the subject here, here, here, here, here, here... Plenty more, but you get the idea...

That's quite a large mistake there fellas...

via breitbart.com:

The Lebanese prime minister says only one person died in an Israeli air raid on the southern village of Houla, lowering the death toll from 40.

Please believe me that I don't take lightly the death of one or forty persons, but wow... Originally reported as forty deaths, but it was actually one?!? I can understand being off one or two, but off by 39? And the actual number is one?!? Even my 3-year old can count to one!

Photoshop and 1984

On August 1st...

"It's hard to imagine how someone sitting in an air-conditioned office or broadcast studio many thousands of miles from the scene can decide what occurred on the ground with any degree of accuracy," said Kathleen Carroll, AP's senior vice president and executive editor.

Carroll said in addition to personally speaking with photo editors, "I also know from 30 years of experience in this business that you can't get competitive journalists to participate in the kind of (staging) experience that is being described."

Six days later...

Reuters has withdrawn a second photograph and admitted that the image was doctored, following the emergence of new suspicions against images provided by the news organization. On Sunday, Reuters admitted that one of its photographers, Adnan Hajj, used software to distort an image of smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut in order to create the effect of more smoke and damage.

Hmm... wonder if Ms. Carroll has made any new comments on the veracity of their photographers and photo editors after the events that unfolded this weekend?

It's scary how easy it is to manipulate the photos that document the news and events these days. For instance, I can easily Photoshop anything I don't like in my family vacation photos. In fact, I've gotten very good at it. Don't like that pimple on your face in the last family photo? Erase it. Fat, smoking guy hanging out in the background of the photo of the kids riding a ride? Wham... Gone. It's so commonplace to do this now that the word "Photoshop" has gone the way of Kleenex, Google, or Coke and has transcended it's use as a brand name and has become a part of the common vernacular.

I watched the movie 1984 recently... Instead of the paper chutes and furnaces in that Orwell masterpiece, we have computer screens, mice, and digital cameras. Or, in the case of the Rather documents, Microsoft Word and fax machines. Same stuff though.

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
...

Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.
...

This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs -- to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place.

Oh, wait... maybe we aren't living in the world of 1984. In both of these cases, the falsifications were proven. Then again, that's only two cases. How many of these "alterations" have slipped by unnoticed?