Vicarious Cartoon Fun

I've always been a fan of all things cartoon/animation, but the addition of a pair of two-year-olds into the mix has become the perfect excuse to get back into the stuff in a big way.

As i've stated earlier, Pixar's 'Cars' (Logan's favorite) has received so many viewings in our household...I can almost recite it line by line. A close runner-up is the surprisingly clever DreamWorks flick 'Madagascar' (Owen's favorite) and it really does geek me out that my kids can sing along to Paul Westerberg tunes via repeated screenings of Sony Animation's 'Open Season' (he did the soundtrack). Round that out w/'Finding Nemo', 'The Incredibles' and (their first non-Pixar Disney flick) 'Jungle Book'...we get a lot of animated fun in the Famous hacienda.

Granted, there are plenty of those of similar fare that are stinkers ('Over the Hedge' anybody?), but as a whole I really have a blast watching these things (reserving judgment until I actually see 'Horton Hears a Who'). I wasn't overwhelmed by the trailer for the upcoming Pixar joint 'WALL-E', but as good as most of their stuff ends up being...i'm still intrigued.

Even more intriguing to me, is the concept of what USA Today called a 'throwback to those B-movie glory days of the '50s when Martians invaded our backyards and rubber monsters stalked the Earth' in 'Monsters vs. Aliens' coming from DreamWorks in 2009 (see photo above).

The synopsis entails a normal everyday chick being turned into a 49 foot, 11½ inch (wink, wink) tall 'monster' after being hit be a meteor. She's then taken into captivity by the military at a secret government compound where they have quietly been rounding up other 'monsters' over the years. However, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country...said 'monsters' are called into action to save it.

Sounds pretty fun to me and w/ voice work being done by Will Arnett, Seth Rogen and Stephen Colbert (!) to name a few...i'm hoping for good things. Supposedly, as CGI animated flicks are already technically 3-D, they'll also up the ante by this one being in 'Ultimate 3-D'...whatever the hell that means. Sounds like glasses will still be required, but w/ the promise 'this isn't our father's 3-D.'

No clips floating online anywhere, but they supposedly gave a preview to ShoWest exhibitors in Las Vegas earlier this week. Well, at least Owen will be tied over by the sequel 'Madagascar: The Crate Escape' in November...poor Logan will have to wait until at least 2009 to see if the rumoured 'Cars 2' sees the light of day. KA-CHOW!