Eric Herman - Travelblogue: 2008 Spring/Summer Tour

We left the RV park and headed to Round Rock, where we went to see Horton Hears a Who. This was Evee's first time seeing a movie in a big theater (Becca saw Ratatouille last year as her first) and it was a great choice. Horton Hears a Who is one of my all-time favorite stories, and I include a reference to that in the bridge of the song "How Big", which will be on my next album. It was an excellent adaptation, I thought. Very colorful and full of character, in every respect. Clearly, Dr. Seuss was meant for 2D animation and now CGI, but not so much the live action versions they've attempted in between those mediums. My only quibble was that they changed the character of the kangaroo in the pouch to be contrary to his mother (voiced by one of my favorite comedians, Carol Burnett). In the book, one of the recurring motifs is that every time the kangaroo says "Humpf", the kangaroo in her pouch says, "Humpf", too. I think that brilliantly illustrates how prejudices and attitudes are often passed on from generation to generation. They decided to go against that for this film and I was a little disappointed by that. I also thought the end song sequence, though amusing, was kind of out of character with the rest of the film, and was more of a Shrek kind of thing to do. But overall, it was very entertaining and we'll definitely be picking up the DVD to watch again.

After the movie, we met up with Karen, who had been shopping nearby with the family. They had just adopted a new dog, a boxer who is currently named Daisy (and will probably continue to be named Daisy). We took Karen along with us in the bus and did some shopping for a while, then went back to her house for dinner. She had to chaperone for a church dance, so she left for that during dinner. Roseann and I played a game of Pandemic with Lance (he was appropriately dealt the role of the Medic, as that is essentially what he is in real life) while the girls played. Aidan was using the Flip Boom animation program that Becca used to make the "Dance Like an Animal" video to make his own version, featuring an animation of his brother Brennan. It was bizarre, but strangely amusing, and of course Becca was enthralled and had to help with instructions... nevermind that she's 5 and Aidan is 11 and already knew what he was doing pretty well... Becca can be extra helpful that way (wink). Tiggy came into the house and was not amused that in addition to the two cats who he still wasn't really comfortable with, now he also had a big dog to deal with. Was there hissing? Oh yes, there was hissing.

We left there at about 8:30 and drove out to an RV park in Georgetown and went to bed.

The girls stopping to meet some puppies for sale...