hit and miss

we hit horton hears a who, and missed the spiderwick chronicles.

what am i talking about? =) The Wife and I had a buy 1 free 1 coupon for GSC movie tics. we wanted to watch spiderwick, but sadly it was no longer showing in seremban's famous Terminal One. [well, it's famous in seremban anyway. if you're not from seremban, don't be worried about never having heard of it before.]

so, last sunday, after sharing with the youth of Cornerstone Baptist Church about Complacency from Amos 6:1-7, we traipsed off to midvalley hoping to catch spiderwick.

oh, before that some of the Church uncles treated us to a Delicious Lunch: Yam Noodles, Ulu Yam Lor Mee, Fried Mee Hoon, Taugeh, and Salad Yau Char Guai. nyum nyum! =)

ok, back to the topic. to our horror, the line for buying tics at midvalley reached to the moon! [warning: slight exaggeration here] but undaunted in our purpose, we proceeded to join the line. however, as we slo-o-o-o-o-owly approached the tic counter, we were aghast to observe that the only remaining times for spiderwick were 9.20pm and 11.00pm! no way we could watch it unless we planned to sleep in midvalley.

so, we ended up watching horton, at 4.30pm. now, i was abit apprehensive at first. my impression of the trailer had been, "hmm, a talking elephant. doesn't look very interesting." i'm glad to say that the movie was much, much better than its trailer.

for one thing, horton is based on a book by Dr. Seuss, and some parts of the dialogue and narration are taken directly from the book. this was great, because i really enjoyed the clever rhymes and word-play. for example, the movie opens delightfully with:

On the fifteenth of May, in the Jungle of Nool,
in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool,
he was splashing... enjoying the Jungle's great joys...
when Horton the Elephant heard a small noise.

Besides that, the movie was hilarious! to me at least. i laughed until there were tears in my eyes. =D those of you who've watched comedies with me before can imagine my hearty laughter ringing throughout the cinema. hope i didn't spoil the experience for any of the other patrons. =P

and finally, horton was really good because it has certain values and ideas behind it that make it really interesting to think about, even if it is "just a cartoon". for example, the Kangaroo refuses to believe in the Whos because, "if you can't see it, or hear it, or smell it, or touch it, it doesn't exist." very scientific empiricist isn't it? i think that the way she's proved wrong in the end, paves the way for people to believe in abstract constructs like love, beauty, truth, and yes - God.

also, there's the catchphrase: "a person's a person, no matter how small." to me, this speaks against discrimination. children are often overlooked in an adult's world. one could also take the idea and apply it to other factors. one's personhood doesn't depend on one's size, colour, race, or creed.

of course, there are also questionable values. for example, in the end the joey (that's a baby kangaroo) Rudy stands up to his mother and disobeys her. does this mean that it's alright for children to rebel against their parents? are there higher values which makes it legitimate for a child to go against his parents? is it possible to honor one's parents without obeying them?

There's alot more that can be picked up from this seemingly simple little cartoon. catch it if you can! =)

Work:
- i (and other SU staff) will be going to malacca tomorrow to check out the campsite for the IG Camp which will happen next month. this will take a whole day and will mean a night away from the wife.
- i'm preparing for a session at an SCF in Subang this friday. it's easter-based and meant to be evangelistic. i plan to explore the question of what happened to Jesus' body.
- the Camp Chit Chat outline session has been pushed back to this saturday and next monday. i have to prepare a session on 'exams and stress' for that.
- i will be in STM 16-19 April taking a module, 'Introduction to Religions'. should be interesting! =)
- i appreciate your continued prayer support! =)