Dr. Seuss

Jack and Daddy went to see The Lorax this morning.

Jack's school loosely organized an outing that invited all of the kids to go see The Lorax. On a Saturday morning. At 10am. Daddy was less than thrilled about the scheduled time.

Classmates and teachers from the school filled the lobby and theater. Walking into the theater with Jack was like being the unknown person that tags along with the celebrity on the red carpet. Jack was smiling and waving as throngs of people shouted his name and waved hello. That guy with Jack? Oh, he's just "Jack's Dad".

As we seated ourselves comfortably in the fifth row (Jack chose the seats), the manager calls for our attention and informs the crowd that the 2D movie system in our theater is not working. And that we will be watching the 3D version for no extra charge. Alright. This ought to be interesting - neither Jack nor Daddy have ever watched a movie in 3D.

After the glasses were handed out and the theater dimmed, the movie previews started. With no sound. Picture if you will a theater full of 5-8 year old children and their parents, with images playing across the screen and no sound. Approximately 3.7 milliseconds passed before the comments started. "There's no sound! Mommy I can't hear! Why isn't there noise?"

Right before the riot reached full bore the theater filled with the soundtrack to the show and the crowd let loose a mighty cheer. At least Daddy could now abandon his hastily made plans of grabbing Jack and diving under the seats to avoid bodily harm.

Now, Daddy has never seen a 3D movie and despite having no first hand knowledge of the subject, he had dismissed the technology as a gimmick. Something that would distort the movie watching experience with poor attempts at re-creating 'real-life' points of view.

Daddy was wrong.

The 3D experience with an animated film is quite cool. Daddy was amazed how neat it really is to see the movie pop into a great vision complete with depth. Jack had to be settled down a couple of times after leaping out of his seat to grab for things that were right in front of us!

-Time for a quick movie review-

The story of The Lorax followed the Dr. Seuss book faithfully and made the point of caring for the environment while not being cheesy or condescending. The Lorax was voiced by Danny DeVito - a great casting choice. The boy's grandma is a scene stealer. The Once-ler is a bit frightening to the kids at first. The real stars of the show though, are the animals. The film has singing and dancing fish. And a bear that loves to eat (go watch the movie, you'll laugh at the bears alot!)

-review over. Roger Ebert or Gene Siskel I'm not!-

So despite being surrounding by lots of young children at a really early hour on a Saturday morning and paying $15 for two drinks and a tiny package of Skittles, Jack and Daddy had a great time watching The Lorax!