Spotted at Ashford International station while waiting for a train.

Continuing the food theme, when I popped to London a couple of weeks ago and bought my Daiou and Home Pie, I also picked up a packet of Bourbon Lumonde for my colleagues in the office. If I had to describe them, I'd say they're like thin biscuit rolls covered in caramel-flavoured chocolate.

According to the manufacturer though, they're not biscuit rolls but "crêpe cookies". The packet goes out of its way to use the word "crêpe" as often as possible. Note the quaintly Japanese "Excellent crêpe" label in the lower left corner. The Japan Centre staff helpfully added an ingredients sticker to the rear of the packet, but their translation was probably not what they intended.

I was hoping for a new NCG soup of the month to satisfy my desire for culinary experimentation, but NCG seem to have run out of new ideas this month. Tesco came to my rescue.

I was in a bit of a rush one morning earlier in the week and didn't have time to make sandwiches, which meant a trip to Tesco's sandwich shelf. Usually there's something tasty with an "expires today - reduced" sticker on it, but this newcomer to the sandwich shelf drew my attention. Tesco have been adding "limited edition" sandwiches to their range recently, each having a run of a week or two (at least in my small Tesco store). This week saw the introduction of the lasagne sandwich. It was a little pricey, but then scientific research often is.

Having munched through both triangles, I'm still undecided about this sandwich. The tangy tomato sauce complemented the bread nicely, but I wasn't sure about the rest. Probably not one I would buy again.

My main monitor at home, a 17" CRT rescued from an office clear out a year or two ago, lasted until the middle of June this year before deciding it had had enough. I powered it off one evening and the next morning it was as lifeless as a pining parrot. Its replacement, another rescue monitor of the same make and model, lasted a mere two months, expiring on Friday in the same manner as its predecessor.

Sadly I am now out of spare rescue monitors, so I have made what was my secondary monitor (primarily used for IRC, email and comms things) my primary monitor for the time being. Again, it's the same make and model as the other two so I expect it's on borrowed time. There is a reason its role has been "secondary monitor" until now though; it is a bit "special"...
 

 
It's never been able to degauss itself properly, leading to some interesting colours. I'd been able to improve the image to a degree by degaussing the monitor that was sitting next to it, but now that its siblings have passed on, that's no longer an option. The colours were not much of a problem when viewing my white-on-black IRC window, but I can see them rapidly becoming distracting when viewing other things.

I have a small 15" monitor that I had retired that I may press back into service, but its capabilities are somewhat limited. I was hoping to delay a monitor purchase until my PC upgrade/replacement, tentatively scheduled for sometime next year, but it looks as though I may have to replace some bits sooner than others.

I was summoned at short notice to a work-related meeting in London today. It meant getting up at a stupidly early hour and the meeting itself wasn't particularly interesting, but quite handily the offices of the company we went to were located just off Piccadilly Circus. So after the meeting was over, I made up a random excuse for not taking the train back with the rest of the group and ran off towards Japan Centre for a little browsing and snacking.

The Japan spirit must be working its magic as I quickly grabbed the copy of Dengeki Daiou I had resisted purchasing not two weeks ago. The 150% mark-up was an acceptable price to sate the craving. I shall enjoy it this weekend.

Also, Home Pie.

Yesterday saw the only cultural event of note in Maidstone's calendar - the annual River Festival. Each year, a couple of hundred boats gather along a stretch of the Medway and the local populace joins them for a day of food, music, fireworks and other frivolities.

On the surface, it's a day of family fun (if you find this sort of thing fun). Live music and the smell of barbecues fills the air. Children play by the river and pester their parents for a candy apple from the man walking past with the cart. It's all quite wholesome.

Look a little deeper though and the more unsavoury elements become apparent. All of those posh river cruisers seem to be owned by well-off entrepreneur types who boast loudly of their latest dealings and those they have bullied to get where they are. People like my boss. The gathering resembles one of those managerial seminars that company directors go to not to learn new things but to remind themselves/each other of how awesome they are.

Being Maidstone, for every reasonably functional family having a fun day out, there are twenty pushchair-wielding single mothers, arranged in a footpath-blocking configuration (allegedly to better facilitate conversation between themselves), who cuss like sailors whenever their offspring have the gall to speak to them. The event also attracts the local area's dominant species, the hooded youth. They have a field day intimidating passers-by and taunting the police.

Despite these faults (which may be exaggerated by my cynicism), it's not a bad event. The festival atmosphere is interesting in small doses, and I can't fault the evening firework display - although I didn't watch this year's as I'm still not feeling 100% after a brief bout of something unpleasant at the end of last week. The illuminated boat carnival is also quite a spectacle.

I took a short stroll alongside the river yesterday as I hadn't left my flat for a couple of days and snapped the following photos. It was quite early in the afternoon so the organisers of various events were still setting up and the crowds had yet to arrive. I'm afraid the weather at the time was a bit grim so everything looks a little more grey than usual.
 

I spotted this extended family of geese beside the river this morning. Sadly their distance, the light and the chain link fence I was aiming my lens through prevented me from capturing a better photo. They were very cute though.

I don't usually make political comments, largely because it's normally a terribly boring thing to talk about. However, the situation of Japan's "revolving door Prime Ministers", as they have become known, is farcical enough to be more interesting.
 

Summer arrived last week, briefly. Then went into hiding again when the long weekend brought with it rain, hail and overcast skies. I actually walked to work without my coat for a couple of days last week - the first time this year. I'm wrapped back up in it today though. I'm not keen on heat, so a short delay before summer kicks off properly is not unwelcome.

During the short sunny spell, I found a clump of dandelions that had erupted into seed quite early. I managed to capture this one before it released its progeny into the wind.

The various news agencies are making it difficult to forget that the UK general election is just around the corner. A further reminder came in the form of this sight that greeted me when I arrived home this evening...

It's the tarmac beneath the mailboxes for the complex of flats in which I reside (the mailboxes themselves are on a wall just to the left of the picture). Every other political party has managed to deliver their bits and pieces properly. Even the parties that individually addressed their campaign material (which therefore required sorting on delivery) put each letter into the correct mailbox. It's not as if the UKIP representatives placed one in each mailbox and then accidentally dropped a few. The mailboxes were all empty; they couldn't be bothered to make the effort and just dumped a pile on the floor. If a party doesn't care enough to accomplish even this simple task, I don't really see how they expect me to believe that they are capable of running a country. Of course, some UKIP critics may argue that the leaflets have indeed been delivered correctly and that they're where they belong... Only a few more days and then the country will become a little less crazy again.

Well, perhaps. But we seem to be off to a good start. These two moved in with my family last week and I was introduced at the weekend. Although both around two years of age, this is the first time in their lives they have had full contact with humans, so I'm sure there will be interesting times ahead.

Completely unrelated random link: Naoko Yamazaki and Soichi Noguchi perform Sakura Sakura onboard the ISS. Perhaps not an award-winning performance, nor an activity likely to lead to amazing scientific breakthroughs, but fun nonetheless. Sadly I couldn't find a good, full-length video of the occasion (NHK's clip was shorter and the reporter was talking over the top), so the BBC video will have to do.

I think I'll begin clearing out the post backlog with a review of a film I watched a couple of months ago.

I first stumbled across Moon while hopping between videos on YouTube, where I encountered this trailer. My interest piqued, I did a little research and uncovered a film that soon found its way onto my list of things to see.

Although the attention received by Moon fell short of the level lavished on most Hollywood blockbusters, it was noticed by the film industry press and did well in the festival circuit, earning it more publicity than a British independent film would normally expect to receive. Part of that was down to the list of people involved in the project. Made on a budget that probably wouldn't even cover the catering expenses of the average motion picture in California, Moon was the brainchild of Duncan Jones, perhaps better known as Zowie Bowie, son of a moderately famous musician called David. Sam Rockwell starred as the film's protagonist; although a relative unknown, I have seen him in a couple of films before - Galaxy Quest, where he played "Crewman Number 6", the redshirt who was convinced he was fated to die, and THHGTTG, in which he played Zaphod Beeblebrox. Kevin Spacey, one of those famous people I can identify by name but couldn't tell you a single thing he's been in, lent his voice to a character; I imagine his talents don't normally come cheap, so I would hazard a guess that the director used some family influence there.

Rounding out the group of notable names is Clint Mansell, composer of the soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream, a soundtrack I lusted after for a while and even considered watching the film to see it in its natural setting before someone with more sense kindly pointed out that the film really wasn't the kind of material I would enjoy. The opportunity to listen to a Clint Mansell soundtrack in a film that stood a chance of being something I might like was a pleasing prospect.

So, an independent science fiction film with an encouraging trailer, a promising soundtrack and many nods from independent film festivals. It sounds like the recipe for a fantastic evening of movie viewing.

And it wasn't bad. It wasn't perfect either, but it delivered enough for me to come away from it feeling quite positive.

I'll start with what I felt was the weakest element of the film - the script - while trying not to give too much away. The "twist" in the film will be apparent to most viewers about half an hour in, leaving the rest of the film feeling quite predictable and rather less suspenseful than the trailer might imply. I appreciate that was the intention, and that the film is supposed to engage the viewer through the protagonist's reactions to the revelations in the film rather than through the revelations directly. However, Sam Rockwell's dialogue and behaviour felt a little unnatural at times; I'm probably not a good judge of human behaviour and have little experience with people who have been isolated in a strange environment for three years, but given the events happening around him, I sometimes found myself surprised by the behaviour of the main character, breaking the illusion of the fantasy momentarily.

The above issues are the fault of the script rather than the actor, who put in a generally good performance. Rockwell doesn't escape criticism entirely though. While he was great on his own, his interaction with props, particularly computers, left a lot to be desired. Watching the protagonist type by slapping his open palm against the keyboard repeatedly just looked amateurish and again broke the illusion of the lovingly crafted fictional world. Perhaps I'm just picking up on this because it's something that, given my interests, I would be more conscious of. But I can't believe that no one reviewing the takes in question spotted the glaring flaws.

Other than the few occasions my attention was drawn to these detractions, I found myself slipping into and enjoying the experience. The overall premise of the film is rather far fetched, but no more so than the classic science fiction short stories I used to read, so I was able to comfortably suspend disbelief for the full 93 minute running time.

The sets and production values warrant a mention. The whole film, except for the small number of exterior shots, was filmed in a single, fully enclosed set. The production crew assembled the interior as one unit, allowing for some nice shots following the main character around. The fact that the camera had to be located in the set with the actor rather than shooting through the "fourth wall" amplified the feeling of being confined and helped the whole thing feel more real. The lack of any real budget meant that the sets were filled with junk which had been spray-painted silver, while the exterior and special effects shots used models instead of comparatively expensive CGI whenever possible, completing the vaguely retro, pulp-sci-fi feel.

The soundtrack was not "epic" in the same way that other recent Mansell productions have been, but the subdued, atmospheric music suited the tone of the film perfectly. Perhaps not one I would pick up to listen to on its own, but that shouldn't be seen as a negative thing. I just don't feel it would work as well on its own. But as a soundtrack in combination with the film, in its natural environment, it really couldn't have been better.

I have a feeling that this is a film that will appeal most to those who enjoy stories that blend science fiction with an analysis of human nature. This is Silent Running, not Star Wars, so the sci-fi action crowd should look elsewhere. Similarly, if you have little interest in the science fiction elements, the flawed character development might feel empty and a little boring. But for those who appreciate both aspects and who are willing to overlook a few rough patches, Moon should prove quite satisfying.

Three point five stars out of five on the arbitrary score-o-meter.

A little while ago, in the middle of my recent hectic period, I came up with an idea for a fun (to me >_>) project to busy myself with. I don't really know why, but for some reason I always seem to come up with all kinds of ideas for mini projects when I'm at my busiest and have no time to devote to them. I pushed this one to the back of my mind and thought little of it until last week when, during a period of extreme stress, I snapped and treated myself to the parts I needed in order to try to cheer myself up.

My project idea called for a device with a small display, a network interface and some way to program a lightweight application, either in native code or (preferably, to speed development) something web-based running in an on-device browser. As long as the required elements were all there and working, I didn't really care what state the rest of the device was in. So I set about trawling eBay for Windows CE tablets and other portable devices with damaged cases, faulty components, etc, that I could harvest the bits I needed from. Eventually I came across a PSP with unspecified faults, but which was shown booting into the XMB interface - with a good screen, wireless networking (hopefully still working) and a built-in browser, it was just what I was after. I could scrap the case and the faulty bits and save the remainder from ending up as landfill by turning it into something useful. Mine for £26.99.
 

 
Yesterday I received the little fellow pictured above. A quick poke around revealed a PlayStation Portable 1000-series in surprisingly good condition. Aside from a few scratches and a barely noticeable chip (I think it suffered a fall), the case is presentable. The UMD drive is present but non-functional (this seems to be the most common failure on eBayed PSPs, so I was expecting this). But the rest of the unit works perfectly. Even the battery can hold a charge for several hours. Essentially I've ended up with a PSP Go with "retro" styling for a fraction of the cost.

Not really wanting to tear it apart and harvest its innards, I have decided to adapt my project somewhat so that I can leave the PSP intact. This will give me the opportunity to play around with a current generation portable gaming system, which I suspect will be a little more advanced than my venerable GBA SP.

It is rather grubby though, particularly around the buttons. I gave it a thorough wipe with disinfectant as soon as it arrived in the office as I'm rather fastidious about these things, but I think I'm going to need to dismantle it and give it a more intensive clean. That will allow me to clean off the smeared fingerprints on the inside of the plastic covering the screen too. I think this unit has probably been through quite a bit. >_>

A quick summary of my initial PSP impressions then for those who have owned them for years to giggle at. This is the first time I've had a proper look at the device; I was given the opportunity to play with a PSP once before, but my attention was focused on the game so I didn't spend very long examining the hardware. It all seems quite well designed and put together. The screen is enormous when compared to the GBA and is quite a treat for the eyes. Although I have not used the device at length, the buttons appear to be located sensibly and comfortably, with the exception of the Start and Select buttons that are quite fiddly but hopefully rarely used. I have always thought that the PSP would be an awkward device to pick up and hold due to buttons sprouting from every surface, and to an extent this has proven to be true (in my admittedly very brief round of testing). Although the buttons on the front face of the device are mostly immune to knocks, I have found myself depressing the left and right triggers when picking the PSP up or adjusting its position in my hands, leading to various unwanted things happening.

I'm looking forward to poking around a bit more when I have more time to see what the device can do. In the meantime though, I'd have to say that the short-term goal of cheering myself up has been met most successfully.

Poor, neglected blog. Well over a month has passed since I last posted anything here. I should probably attack the cobwebs before I start on anything else.

I think I've finally begun to move out of the dark hole that work and family have conspired to suck me into for the past few months. Things are still some way from being back to normal; although I am starting to find myself with a little free time once again, I am incredibly tired and have spent most of it sleeping. It will probably take a little while for life to settle down again, but the signs of progress are reassuring.

I still don't know quite what's been happening. Since my last post, the tag-teaming of work and family has continued. Whenever I am released by one, the other takes its place. A work lull has practically become a guarantee of an impending intensive family event. And while I'm recovering from that, like clockwork, an essential server in the office will roll onto its back. If I hadn't been caught up in the middle of it all, the timing would almost have been comical.

This is probably the lowest I've felt since the Dark Times. A personal upset contributed greatly to the dark clouds, although that was sadly unavoidable. Over recent months, I've noticed the resurgence of certain familiar feelings that I had hoped were behind me. I've managed to mostly banish them whence they came, but it's unsettling to see how little pressure is required for cracks to form. Thanks to some supportive and understanding people, I think I escaped the worst of it this time.

I'd prefer to avoid a repeat of this period if at all possible though, so I have created a few rules for myself that I intend to abide by until I feel that they are no longer necessary. For example, I will stop doing any office-related work at home that isn't absolutely essential. If Boss starts pleading with me that he needs X done by date Y because he promised it to client Z, tough. I will stop being affected by the "I am disappointed in your apparent unwillingness to meet the random and obviously stupid project requirements I just set" glare too. It's a crappy job and not worth my sanity. Family gets off a little lighter, but I will say "no" more firmly from now on when declining an invitation and will not capitulate just to get the coaxing to stop. That's the plan at least. I'll have to see how I get on over the next month or two.

My blog backlog has obviously grown a little; I'll do my best to attack it over the coming weeks. I think a lot of the posts will be reviewish in nature, but I'll try to sprinkle a couple of different things in there too to add some variety. One thing I will mention quickly now is this site in general. It's been over a year now since I resurrected my dormant blog. Apart from adding comments, I haven't tweaked much since then, so I'll probably change a couple of things over the next few months that I've been meaning to poke for a while.

One site-related question I'd like to put to anyone dropping by concerns the layout of these pages. I've always liked dynamic layouts for their flexibility and wrote BBI to stretch across the full width of displays 800 pixels across or wider. However, while this practice may have worked well on Ye Olde Web, that's no longer the case. The purchase of a new, wide screen monitor of a reasonably high resolution in the office gave me the chance to experience an issue that a number of people have been mentioning to me for a while - that dynamic layouts on large monitors result in extremely long lines of text that render paragraphs virtually unreadable. Since larger displays are rapidly becoming the norm, I should probably do as many other sites have done and switch to a wide but fixed layout.

Thoughts on whether you think this would be a good idea would be most welcome.

I don't think I've quite developed a longing for human flesh yet, but the blank gaze and absent mental functions are part of my day-to-day life at the moment. It's been a while since I last made an emo post, so here's one to add a little variety to the site.

The past... three months now (!?) have been pretty hellish. This all started around the middle of November last year when management changes at work resulted in a huge amount of (largely unnecessary) work for the lower minions. That spilled into December, and with the arrival of the festive period, time lost to work evolved into time lost to family. Somehow January was even worse, with both family and work vying for any free time I had left.

There was a brief period earlier this month when I felt things were easing up a little, but that didn't seem to last long. As soon as I had caught up and begun to feel on top of things, the chaos began again. This coming weekend will hopefully be another respite from the storm (which I'm going to have to write off for catching up on sleep), after which I think I'll have two more "family weekends". And then, perhaps, I will win my freedom.

I really am beyond tired at the moment and so fed up with all that's going on. I want it all to be over, to have a nice quiet life back with time to myself and time for friends. I feel very guilty about not having spent more of my time with friends lately. I also have a huge pile of things I want to do that grows every day. It's all immensely frustrating.

Other things have happened this month to make things harder. Some nice things too, which I'll write about in due course, but sometimes it can be easy to forget about them in the midst of despair. I don't think I can live like this for much longer before something snaps.

Armed with a quarter of a loaf of bread that was past its best, SoZ's Mobile Avian Catering Services set off again this morning in search of hungry ducks (and their friends). Despite the freezing weather, turnout was much better than last time. Two Canada Geese, two swans and a score of ducks came to enjoy the feast today. There were also a few dozen gulls that swooped down noisily to grab the first handful of bread, but they vanished as quickly as they arrived.

I liked the fearless Canada Geese the most. They boldly walked up to me and began pecking at my bag of bread while I was feeding the other hungry mouths.

I'm currently sitting on one of the new, high speed trains running on the HS1 line through Kent. Normally there's an extra charge for this service, but due to some train shuffling this weekend, I was allowed to use it for part of my journey.

It's quite smart inside, as you would expect for a train that's only been running for about 6 months. The best thing about it is that it cuts a good 20 minutes off my journey today.

The icy weather doesn't seem to be letting up. The BBC released an interesting satellite photo of Britain showing the extent of the current freeze. Brrrr.

Sadly I had to venture outside today as my food supplies were getting a bit low due to not going past Tesco much over the past week. I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of snowy Maidstone.
 

My new work PC arrived in the office today. /o/ It is new and fast and shiny. I feel sad for people who do not have new PCs. I wonder how they cope, surviving on inferior technology?

Time marched on while I was away doing other things and we've advanced another year. Another decade too, depending on how you like to group your years. Despite some time off over the Christmas/New Year period, I really don't feel rested at all. Once I'm caught up on work, I might take some random days off to do nothing except sleep.

I thought about doing a 2009 summary post as I did at the end of a year once before, but I haven't had the time. It wouldn't have been particularly interesting either. 2009 wasn't a bad year as years go though. I'm slowly finding my feet again, with the aid of a few kind and generous people. I don't know what 2010 has in store, but I choose to be optimistic.

Anyway, instead, I thought I'd do a quick round up of a few things I've watched over the past month or two.

 
Avatar

I went to see Avatar in its 3D incarnation a week or so ago. Avatar was a film that succeeded in confusing me for a good part of 2009 as I had (quite understandably, I think) confused it with M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender movie, believing them both to be the same film. Once I realised my mistake a couple of months ago, I began to investigate the production that had nothing to do with the TV series a little more.

Avatar is director James Cameron's first film since Titanic, 12 years ago. Supposedly it is a film he conceived 15 years ago but postponed because he felt that CGI technology at the time wasn't up to the job. Set 150 years in the future, Avatar tells the story of a Terran mining operation on a distant moon and the conflict that ensues between the alien miners and the indigenous population.

The story itself is not a particularly new one; many people have likened it to Dances with Wolves, a film I have not seen but, having read the synopsis, one with a story that does sound very familiar. As I was watching the film, Disney's not particularly faithful interpretation of the story of Pocahontas came to mind. The concepts within the film are all very down-to-earth and easy to follow too. Even the technology is recognisable to and understandable by a non-sci-fi/fantasy-loving audience.

This is apparently all deliberate though. In pre-release interviews that I have watched since seeing the movie, James Cameron stated that he wanted to hand people a story with which they were familiar and not confuse them with difficult concepts or technology that attempts to push the boundaries of the believable. Instead, he wanted to create a spectacle (a word that sums up the film quite well) - something that would in his words "bring people back to the cinema". It's a show you've seen before, but the tightrope is longer, the trapeze is higher and the jugglers can keep 20 sharp implements in the air at a time.

The spectacle is aided by a 3D release. Most of the 3D features to have been released in the last couple of years - since the start of this, the most recent chapter of the 3D cinema craze - have been digitally animated, a form of filmmaking that lends itself well to the creation of 3D images without significantly adding to production costs. Although Avatar is very CGI-heavy, it is also among the first of the current crop of films to use stereoscopic cameras with live actors.

Avatar is very much Cameron's pet project. He described it as a film he was making for the 14-year-old boy he once was - something that he would have loved to have watched at the time and, as someone who never really grew up, would still enjoy. The trouble with directors' pet projects is that quite often other people don't find them as fantastically amazing as the directors themselves (see: Waterworld).

So, did James Cameron succeed in his goals? I suppose he did. I found the film to be "average", but pleasing. It is very much a "popcorn" movie; you won't find anything fresh, edgy or even remotely mentally taxing in it, thanks largely to the aforementioned predictable and familiar elements. The spectacle aspect was also rather over-hyped. But the whole package was quite... satisfying. On a visual level - and it is a very visual film - I found it quite stimulating. The fantasy elements - dragons, floating islands and the vaguely feline, azure-hued natives - were lapped up eagerly.

Costing something in the region of $400m to create and promote, it certainly wasn't a cheap production to make. However, ticket sales currently stand at over $1 billion after less than three weeks, so it's fair to say that the film has been a commercial success, even if some of the critics have been less than enthusiastic about it. Cameron apparently wants to make a further two films continuing the Avatar story. While I usually have my doubts when it comes to sequels, Cameron has been involved in two of the most successful films with a "2" at the end ever created, so there is a slim chance it won't be a dire, money-grabbing mess. Maybe... Perhaps... Admittedly not very likely. >_> His other project in the works is a Gunnm trilogy.

I'm glad I got to see this film at the cinema in 3D though; the DVD will carry the same story and visuals, but it won't feel the same. The "spectacle" will be lacking, which is what this film really needs to work its magic.

One last thing - I loved James Horner's soundtrack for the film and will probably be picking it up quite soon.

 
Up

Somehow I've seen Pixar's latest offering four times since its release. >_> Once at the cinema, once with friends, and then on two more occasions over the holiday period when relatives remarked, "Oh, you have Up! Let's watch that."

I'm sure it's been established that I am a fan of Pixar films. While Disney animation tends to be very... well, Disneyfied and Dreamworks features are often crude and Americanised, Pixar is unique among Western CG animation studios in that I can sit through a Pixar film without feeling the urge to leave the room. Up was a bit of an unknown to me though. I had only seen the first trailer (which reveals absolutely nothing - something I'm quite glad about now) before seeing the film, so I had no idea what it was supposed to be about - only that it had a flying house in it. Pixar + flying house ticks enough boxes though, so that was reason enough to give it a go when it was released.

The somewhat unlikely protagonist is not a toy or a robot or an anthropomorphic animal, but a retired widower, passively angry at the world, which makes for a refreshing change. Although Pixar makes family films, and this one isn't short on sight gags to keep younger viewers entertained, Up seems to talk to its mature audience more directly than in previous Pixar titles, particularly when it comes to examining the protagonist.

The compulsory talking animals are well done in that they retain natural traits and even have a reasonable excuse for being able to speak. I liked the character of Dug. :) One of his first lines, "I have just met you, and I love you," is so very dog.

All told, it was an enjoyable film, from the unexpectedly moving opening 10 minutes to the adventure romp that followed. I did find some of the sight gags a little annoying, and the scene with the dogs in planes was just plain silly, but if you can stomach those and can suspend disbelief at the notion of a house suspended by helium balloons, I think it's worth a watch.

 
Ōban Star-Racers

My interest in Ōban Star-Racers was first piqued when the Molly, Star Racer promotional video was released, a short teaser for Ōban Star-Racers. This Franco-Japanese animated TV series was released in 2006 but went largely unnoticed - which is a pity as it's really not all that bad.

I'd actually completely forgotten about Ōban until I stumbled across it again a couple of months ago. (The large gap between announcing the series and its release was apparently down to funding issues; Savin Yeatman-Eiffel, the series' creator, supposedly had great difficulty trying to secure funding from a group that didn't insist, as part of the contract, that the protagonist be male.) I think the fact that I didn't even know the TV series had been made (I had long ago assumed the project had been dropped) highlights the lack of attention the series received. And perhaps a lack of time to dedicate to research on my part. >_> But that's a grumble for another day. Anyway, I had a quick look around to see if the series had managed to get a DVD release and was rather surprised to find it on Amazon for the ridiculously low price of £4.99. That's a 26 episode, 4 disc set for under £5. I managed to fight off the feelings of guilt at paying barely enough to cover the manufacturing cost (it just doesn't feel right paying so little for all of the effort that has gone into the series) and ordered a copy, which arrived a few days later.

For a rather low-key series, Ōban does have a few recognisable names associated with it, particularly in the music department. The opening and ending songs were composed by Yoko Kanno, while the rest of the score was written by Taku Iwasaki, whose music I have adored since the original Rurouni Kenshin OVA. Production of the series was also quite unusual with part of the series produced in France (primarily the 3D elements, I believe) and the remainder in Japan. The project was French-managed which seems to give it a slightly different feel to a purely Japanese TV series.

The UK DVDs are a little odd. I bought the "complete box" rather than the two seasons individually. The first point of note, and a rather annoying one, is that there are no audio or subtitle options. While the Japanese and French audio tracks were recorded as part of the series' production and are both considered to be quite well done, the English dub was created by Jetix to usual English dub standard. That is to say, it's not very good. I considered watching it muted with subtitles, but sadly there aren't any. Accessibility fail. I did (for the most part) grow used to the English dub and stopped cringing about halfway through the series, but not everyone may be as forgiving as I am - so be warned.

On the other hand, musically, the DVDs were a pleasant surprise. The international (English) release replaced the Kanno opening with some garage band's demo tape (which I reluctantly admit isn't as bad as some EN OPs I have heard) and combined the karaoke version of Kanno's ED with a mediocre karaoke singer to create a bastardised version of the original ending theme, presumably because the TV networks didn't want to infect innocent children with anything foreign. Supposedly (I've never seen it on TV) some networks then started mixing things around to create strange hybrid versions of songs, confusing the situation even more. But the UK DVD release appears to have shipped with the original Japanese OP/EDs on each episode. It all seems a little odd, but I'm certainly not going to complain.

The series itself is best described as "just okay". After a little bit of scene setting, Ōban gets into a short enemy-of-the-day routine before becoming a bit more advanced. It's aimed squarely at children around 8-12, so it's about as deep as a puddle (there seems to be a worrying trend emerging in the things I have been watching lately). Even so, there was enough of a story to keep me wanting to watch the next episode to see where it went. It was certainly more than worth what I paid for it.