What’s my thoughts?
1. It is not as innocent as the original CARS movie – the movie was laden with the themes of spies, gangsterism, “killing” other cars, sinister motives etc

2. The sub-theme seems like an afterthought
- In the first movie, there was a strong theme centering around how a selfish and boastful car was transformed into a humble, selfless and well-loved car.
- In this sequel, the sub-theme about accepting “accepting your friend as they were” didn’t fit too well into the story

3. The number of new characters seems overwhelmingly large
- is this a ploy to get kids hooked into buying all the characters?

At the end of the day, I can safely say most children under the age of 6 wouldn’t understand what the story was about. The only thing that kept them going was probably the idea of how many of the new toys they could buy!

There is something good about cartoon movie sequels…… the old toys enjoy a revival!

My son absolutely adored the characters (and toys) from the Disney Pixar movie CARS when I first introduced the movie to him about 3 years ago. Needless to say, within a short time we built up a rather huge collection of the characters (above photo probably makes up only a quarter of that collection). He would play with the toys almost everyday.

Alas, and naturally as time passed, new toys and distractions in the form of Beyblades and iPad took over. These car toys were then stored …and forgotten…until the launch of CARS 2!

We then excitedly watched the trailers on Youtube and naturally again, the pleas to get the new characters began. In a few hours time, we will be heading to watch the GALA premiere in Singapore. I can imagine the pleas will become louder and louder after that!

In front of my son, I frowned upon such desires to get all these toys. But privately, I can’t wait to get my hands on the whole new collection!

Shamelessly,  I have slipped in quite a few pictures of our son Jadon in there as well

2 things I need your help on:
1) Do give me your honest feedback on how I could improve the montage. I do take my “creative work” very seriously.
2) I am looking to do more of these montages. For the first 3 person to respond to me, I’ll create your very own montage for free!

Awaiting your responses!

He absolutely adores the character and has been asking my wife for her. No, not the toy Ming Ming. Nor the books on Ming Ming, but “I want Ming Ming“!

It seems like there are times when he cannot tell the difference between an animated characters and real characters. I have even shown him how the program was made (thanks to youtube) but he still wants his Ming Ming.

Worse, there was once he asked me to be Ming Ming! (Well I must admit I like to animate characters to him myself, holding a toy etc, and making it talk to him)

Well I hope the infatuation goes away soon….or else I have to be Ming Ming in the coming days…

(This is written by Footywife)

We went to a Christmas party the other day and my little son brought along his most prized car collection, from the Walt Disney movie “Cars”.

He was playing with them when our friend’s teenage daughter, Geraldine, came along to chat with him.

“What is the name of this car?” Geraldine asked.

“Art-sen” my little son replied instantly.

“Art-sen?” Geraldine repeated.

“Hudson” I chipped in, helping my little son to pronounce the letter “h”.

“Oh, Hudson” said Geraldine. “How about this one?” she asked again.

“Pilmore” my little son replied, somewhat a bit more hesitant.

“Pilmore?” Geraldine asked, looking a little confused.

“Filmore” I chipped in again, helping my little son to pronounce the letter “f” this time.

“Oh, you mean Filmore. How come I don’t understand what you say” Geraldine commented.

Then she pointed to another car and asked the same question.

“I don’t know” came the reply from my little son.

Filmore (2nd from left) ; Hudson (2nd from right)

But I’m sure he knew because he knows all the cars’ names by heart. My interference probably made him feel lousy about his diction as Geraldine could understand me but couldn’t understand him. So he chose to feign ignorance than risk Geraldine not understanding his diction again.

Maybe next time I should shut my big mouth and let my little son carry on the conversation in his own way and see what comes out of it.

After 65 million years, they are BACK!

I saw this on TV News one day and was immediately drawn by it. It’s a live theatrical experience where 15 “live” dinosaurs, including the terror T-rex, walk, roar and fight for supremacy in front of your very eyes!

The show is touring North America now. How I wish they will come to Asia, am sure a lot of children (and adults) here would like catching a glimpse.

I stumbled onto this blog HOT THINGS DEAR today and was overjoyed to find an article describing the little animals.

So they are called Pygmy Tarsiers!

Now I can’t wait for my little son to wake up tomorrow to show off my new-found knowledge!

You see, the previous trip to the cinema was partially a failure because my son simply did not want to go into the cinema hall. I think the darkness and loud sound kind of traumatized him. Good thing the cinema was pretty empty then and we could sit at the last row near the exit, moving in and out during the show depending on whether there were “loud” moments.

Today, we knew it would turn out better because he has been looking forward to the trip. For the past week he has seen the trailer of “Madagascar : Escape to Africa” on TV and proclaiming he wanted to watch it in the cinema, while eating popcorn!

True enough, apart for a moment of early hesitation, he was enjoying himself in the cinema so much that  from halfway in the show, he started showing boredom and wanted to climb between row of seats!

He has definitely grown in the last few months…at least in the area of fear of the dark and loud sound.

On the work front, I have been quite stretched as I worked in the financial industry. Needless to say, the current financial turmoil is the reason for the increased workload. Thank you sub-prime, thank you Lehman, thank you investment bankers, thank you FED, thank you structurers for coming up with “wonderful” products that no one fully understood the risks until now…or maybe not even now.

On another front, for the past week after l returned from work, I have poured myself hard working on this wedding montage for a good friend of mine. I had always wanted to do this for him, so understandably there was a very strong desire to make sure I did an excellent job.

You tell me if I can make a career out of this and dump my job! Oops…I forgot recession is coming….

If you find them interesting, you can view some of my other works here.

I really enjoy doing these things despite the hours I spent on them.  The above montage took me about 20hours (!!!) to do, but I really do love working my socks off. The satisfaction I get from the appreciative couples is indescribable.

Oh by the way, for those reading the previous post and wondering who “Mack” is….he is the big truck that “ferries” race cars in the DISNEY PIXAR movie “CARS”.

And I just found out that the name “Mack” came from “Mack Trucks”, one of the world’s leading truck manufacturing companies.