Happy Birthday Adam!

To celebrate, we had a big traditional "Levy family" birthday-breakfast: watermelon, homemade ice-cream, a box of croissants, and a giant stack of pancakes.
After eating, Adam was presented with 3 very special hand-crafted birthday cards: 1 from me, 1 from Bettina, and 1 from both Shira and Benny, our mom and dad. Personally, I worked really hard on my card; I stayed up until almost 2:00 in the morning putting on the finishing touches. Here are pictures of the different sides of my card for Adam.

Later, after Adam finished reading all his cards, our Aunt Lisa arrived for a visit. This always means a swell time. After catching up with each-other and chatting for awhile, Lisa took Adam, Bettina and me to the theater to see "The Tourist", which was released on the very day we saw it. The movie, as a whole, was pretty awesome. The lead actors (Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie) were great, the locations that were filmed (Paris, France and Venice, Italy) were beautiful, and the story (female secret-agent pretends to be married to a tourist she just met to throw the bad guys off the scent of her criminal husband) was suspenseful and fast-paced.

After the entertaining cinema experience, we met up with Benny and Shira at the Weston Library multi-purpose room, where Adam's Bar-Mitzvah service and party would take place the next day. We all helped prep the room, arranged tables, chairs, and instruments, tested the sound equipment and projector (which we would use for a photo slideshow we created), and transported an abundant amount of party food to the kitchen area for storing.

It was so fun and exciting to be a part of making this long-anticipated event finally happen. The last time I've written anything about my brother's Bar-Mitzvah was October 10th, but since then my family and I have learned and accomplished so much in honor of this special occasion. In a matter of hours we would finally show our invited friends and family what we have been working on all this time. I remember thinking, "I can hardly believe it, tomorrow it'll all happen and then it'll be over".

We came back home after we did all we can do, and said "see ya tomorrow" to Lisa as she went off to her temporary accommodations. Then we all washed up, blow-dried our hair for the next day, relaxed with some televised entertainment, and went to bed at a decent hour.

The Thief and the Cobbler: A History

Do the names "Tack", "Zigzag", and "Yum-Yum" ring any bells for you? If not, then you haven't seen Richard Williams' magnum opus, "The Thief and the Cobbler". This animated film has a very interesting history behind it, which I was not aware of before watching the review that the Nostalgia Critic went and did.

At first I thought he'd verbally beat this movie to a pulp like he does in his other videos, but Doug Walker has actually taught me something about my old childhood favorite (the term "favorite" is used very loosely here, btw).

The movie was conceived in 1964 by Canadian animator Richard Williams, who would later go on to be the Director of Animation for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" among other things.

Due to its independent funding and complex animation, "The Thief and the Cobbler" was in and out of production for over two decades. In 1990 Richard Williams went and secured a deal to have Warner Bros. finance and distribute the film.

Warner Bros. backed out in 1992, however, after the project went past deadline and Disney's "Aladdin" gave them all a run for their money. Still the movie had to be finished, so producer Fred Calvert took over the whole operation. Whole scenes were removed and replaced. Unnecessary musical numbers and voice-overs were inserted. To make a long story short, Richard Williams creation was changed beyond recognition.

2 different versions of the movie was released: one issued in Australia and South Africa in 1993 as "The Princess and the Cobbler" and the other in the U.S.A. in 1995 as "Arabian Knight" (which was later re-released on home-video with the original title, "The Thief and the Cobbler"). Talk about confusing!

Neither version received much financial success or positive reception, but the film has earned cult-status among animation-circles for it's rich history and creator's original intent.

Personally, I remember watching it with my sister when we were both little. It mustn't have made much sense to us at the time, but it was a piece of both our childhoods. "The Thief and the Cobbler" was just one of those movies that stay with you long after you outgrow it. I am glad that Nostalgia Critic decided to do this review.

Now I have more animated-movie trivia than I know what to do with. What now?

I know! *publish post*

There, now the rest of you know what I know. Thanks for reading!

*~Information courtesy of the "Thief and the Cobbler" and "Richard Williams" Wikipedia articles.~*

Do you LOVE Animation?

I have recently discovered Cartoon Brew.com, an incredibly awesome news website dedicated to animation. It is absolutely and totally amazing! I stumbled onto it on my Google-Reader account, and after exploring around for a bit I am hooked! All the articles and videos on this site are excellent and informative, and a few videos and articles really made me grin like a Cheshire Cat.

For example, here is a review for the new Disney movie Tangled (which I haven't seen yet by the way) that does not reveal any spoilers, but still gives me a balanced opinion of what I can expect from this movie. Personally, just from watching the trailers, I don't hold out much hope for a story of Rapunzel retold in "dazzling, modern" CGI animation, but I'll at least give the film a chance after reading the review.

If you are like me, you appreciate fine animation, the kind that makes you see things in a new, different way, pulls you into the world of the story that it's telling without making you feel self-conscious, and gives you something memorable to take away from it. Here is a short video that illustrates what I'm talking about. It's called "Howdy Doody and His Magic Hat", and despite the title or the time period it came from (1953), it's a short that'll have you giddy and smiling from beginning to end.

I've also seen a couple "silent-squeal-inducing" teaser-trailers for some upcoming animated movies (namely "Cars 2" and a brand new "Winnie the Pooh" movie).

(Wait, Pooh's getting a new movie?)

(Yeah, I was pretty surprised too.)

I am not going to give you the links to these sneak-peeks; you're just going to have to find them for yourself at Cartoon Brew.com: All animation, All the time!