Why I thought Tangled was a great movie

Yes, Tangled is a Disney musical...and yes, I thought it was awesome. There are several reasons for this. One of the first reasons is that Tangled essentially made Han Solo the main guy. I have a theory that the Han Solo character makes any movie better. Nobody likes a weak guy. Han Solo isn't a weak guy. He is a guy that is a little bit bad but deep down is good and he is a manly guy. Lately, some of the movies I have seen have guys that are not all that manly. No guy wants to be like those guys. That is why chick flicks are generally unpopular with guys. This is all my theory of course. I just thought it was nice to see a Disney prince that was, well, Han Solo.

The other thing I really liked about Tangled was the fact that the animal side kicks didn't talk. That always bugged me a little. The dragon in Mulan was an exception but that was only because Eddie Murphy was funny and because he was supposed the be a sort of spirit thing. All those talking animals are really just annoying...like Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars episode 1.

The other reason I liked it was that the princess wasn't a self absorbed jerk. Ariel...total jerk and rotten daughter. Jasmine...spoiled jerk. Snow White...more or less brainless. Belle...well, I guess she was mostly OK. The princess in Tangled seemed a genuinely nice, albeit a little sheltered, girl. She was just likable.

The other thing I really liked about it was that it didn't rely on potty humor. It just didn't need to go there and that was actually pretty impressive. Dreamworks tends to put a lot more of that in their movies. Not that I don't laugh at some of the potty humor in other movies. I am a guy after all. However, I am always much more impressed when they can manage to make a good movie that doesn't rely on it so much.

Aside from those things the music was good although not as memorable as some of the other movies. It didn't really have that signature song that sticks with you like "Beauty and the Beast" but the music was comparable to other Disney movies. In the end, it was just simply a very good movie and you should go see it.

A video with our photographer friend

I shot a video last weekend for a friend of ours, Kristen Duke. It was fun to go do. Kristen is a mostly self-taught photographer here in the area that has a good eye and can really make people look good. She also does a good job of snapping off photos when you aren't looking. These candid photos are often my favorite because they show something different that the smiling at the camera photos. I honestly get a little tired of the smiling at the camera photos because after a while, they all look about the same and they lack real personality. Anyway, here is the video I made for her.

Kristen Duke Photography Session from Jayson Wilkinson on Vimeo.

Riley's controversial Reflections contest video

If you have seen Rachelle's post, then you know that Riley and Kaiya recently participated in the school Reflections contest. They won in their categories (photography for Kaiya and video for Riley) which isn't totally surprising because they were the only ones to enter those categories. They have got a lot better though and I think this year they have a chance to go a little further. Anyway, the thing I wanted to mention was that it turns out that Riley's video is a little bit controversial. See if you can spot the controversial part (hint: it's near the end)



Did you spot it? It was the part where Riley took the plastic bags and threw them in the trash. The controversy was in the fact that he didn't appear to throw them in the recycling bin. Now, just so you know, we usually save the plastic bags for use with other things. However, I have to admit that we don't do this 100 percent of the time and I also have to admit that we often save the plastic bags because they make great trash bags for throwing away disposable diapers. I suppose that this makes us fairly rotten people in the eyes of some. That is actually fine with me. I'll admit that I don't feel like I have a moral obligation to recycle (even though I think it is a good idea). To me, being a good person has very little to do with whether you recycle or not but much more to do with how you treat your fellow human beings. If you had to choose, would you rather have a kid that tries to do nice things to others or one that always remembers to recycle? I would take the nice kid every time...even if he does throw away a few plastic bags every now and then.