Laughs, hugs, smiles and contented sighs: February 2010

Sunday, February 21, 2010

"Hope you like pancakes, Norway"

Some of the best Olympic commercials.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e54EpbcK97o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGUnZsXW9Sw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOevTBSmC4o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HPjlMIpnbo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBpgASKC8kE

I also just saw an AMAZING Tim Hortons commercial that brought me to tears but I couldn't find it on youtube.

It is a man buying winter coats for his family who are just immigrating to Canada.

He meets them at the airport with two Tim Hortons coffees in hand, says "Welcome to Canada", gives them their coats and takes them out into snow for the first time.

So touching.

If you can find it on youtube, post it in the comment box.

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."

I'm famous!

http://www.contrariwise.org/2010/02/15/we-start-and-end-with-family/

But, before the sun sets on her 16th birthday, she shall prick her finger, on the spindle of a spinning wheel - AND DIE!

Would you like to meet the people who saved Disney? If so then you should check out this film.

Waking Sleeping Beauty

"By the mid-eighties, Walt Disney's fabled animation studios had fallen on hard times. The staff was polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old-timers who wouldn't relinquish control. These conditions had produced a series of box office flops and led to pessimistic forecasts. Maybe the best days of animation were over. Maybe the public didn't care. If you expected the situation to improve, you probably believed in fairy tales.

Waking Sleeping Beauty isn't a fairy tale but rather the true story of how Disney regained its magic with a staggering output of hits – Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and more – over a ten-year period.

Director Don Hahn and producer Peter Schneider bring an insider's knowledge to this comeback. They were among the young Turks at Disney who produced some of its biggest sensations. Hahn's documentary offers a fascinating perspective on what took place within the creative ranks as well as among the leadership team of Michael D. Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney (the nephew of Walt). The process wasn't always pretty. Hahn (who still works for Disney) brings a refreshing candour to describing ego battles, cost overruns and failed experiments that others might prefer to forget. During times of tension, the animators' favourite form of attack was to draw nasty caricatures of their bosses. Hahn puts several memorable ones on display and marshals a vast array of interviews, home movies, internal memos and unseen footage. Anyone with an appetite for Hollywood gossip will relish this dish.

Animation lovers, in turn, will savour the rich history that gives credit where it's due to the many writers, artists and composers who created the Disney phenomenon. The documentary even includes key figures who famously left the company, such as Don Bluth, John Lasseter and Tim Burton. At one time, children imagined that Walt Disney's signature meant a film was the creation of one man. This is a more grown-up portrayal that reveals the collaborative experience in all its complexity."

-http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/wakingsleepingbeauty

Check out the trailer here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUKELKkOuYk

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

"somehow it didn't seem like war at all, at all, at all..."

Eric Peterson as Billy Bishop

I am of the opinion that all theatre should tell a story, especially Canadian theatre. Having had the privilege of working and living with people from all over this great country I know that Canadians are, above all, story tellers. (Specifically Canadians from the East Coast-they have truly been given the gift of gab, even if sometimes you can't understand them). We regale friends and family with tales of drinking, hardships and adventures, big and small.

It is clear that the Canadian play "Billy Bishop Goes to War" follows in this grand tradition of story telling. The play, written in the 1970's by John Gray and Eric Peterson, has been remounted all over Canada both by Gray and Peterson and by theatre companies across Canada. A re-telling of Bishop's heroic exploits during WWI left me both moved and ashamed that I did not already know the story of this great Canadian.

Afterwards I had the honour of meeting Eric Peterson. A touchstone of Canadian theatre and a story teller through and through. He spoke candidly with my Grandfather (who had his "wings" pinned on by the real Billy Bishop before WWII) and received my compliments graciously (as I held back tears, because I have a soft spot for old men). It was an experience that was both uniquely Canadian and deeply moving and one I will not soon forget.

If you get the chance, I highly recommend seeing "Billy Bishop Goes to War" with Eric Peterson and John Gray.