How did I manage to miss this?? #Disney’s “Paperman”

All thanks to our buddy Tom over at “Quiner’s Diner” for bringing this to our attention.

I have two sons, and so generally I’ve watched (or I’m at least passively aware of) most animated offerings. Which is why having this one slip under my radar is a touch disconcerting.

Apparently, this was the warm-up act for Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, back in 2012. I’d at least heard of Wreck-It Ralph, but was inexplicably ignorant of the sweet and touching Paperman… until now.

The best hockey commercials EVER, …and how we MIGHT be seeing more of ’em, sooner than we think

The commercials are at the bottom of this post. But if you’ll allow me just a moment, I’ll explain what got me thinking about ’em in the first place.

As a lifelong fan of all things hockey, I’m well aware that it’s the black sheep of the United States professional sports “family”, viewership-wise. To illustrate, the NBA’s playoffs ratings are destroying the NHL’s right now; it’s not even close. Even the NFL draft (the freakin’ draft?!?!?) crushed the Boston/Montreal Game 6 Semifinal in the ratings by a 5-to-1 margin.

And this has been the trend, unfortunately. Heck, the first two games of the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals (both nationally broadcast on NBC, by the way) got soundly thrashed by RERUNS of the following programs: ‘Dogs In The City’, ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’, ‘Secret Millionaire’, ‘America’s Got Talent’, ‘Grimm’, ‘2 Broke Girls’, …and a rerun of the rerun of ‘America’s Got Talent’.

Yikes.

That’s the difference between getting beat …and getting a beat-down.

And yet, both the league and the sport are positioned for success, perhaps now more than ever before.

60 years later: Raymond Burr in ‘Rear Window’ (1954)

Rear Window has been one of my all-time favorite movies from the very first time I saw it.

To me, it’s Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece: memorable, endlessly watchable, and nerve-wracking. For one thing, I wanted to live on that gigantic set: it was spectacular. Didn’t hurt that the film starred not only Jimmy Stewart, who oozed sincerity from every pore, but also Grace Kelly, who vied for my teenage heart with Maureen O’Hara (Maureen usually won that one, though: I had a weakness for redheads back then).

The movie’s premise is simple enough: Jeff (Stewart), a photographer with a broken leg who’s recuperating in his New York City apartment, spends his time spying on his neighbors from his window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

‘The Masters’ as …Mini-Golf (VIDEO)

I normally watch at least the last two rounds of The Masters most years, but was otherwise engaged last weekend and ended up missing it completely.

However, if you either (A) missed it, too, or (B) somehow couldn’t care less, the folks over at Mashable.com highlighted a gentleman named Simon Connor giving The Masters a mini-golf makeover which is, by any standard, funny and wonderfully clever.

All credit goes to Simon and Mashable for this, as well as Adam Baldwin for making us aware of it in the first place:

I hope ‘Incredibles: 2’ is at least pretty good, because the original WAS ‘Incredible’…

In case you (somehow) hadn’t heard, one of the best family films in recent memory will finally get its sequel:

(via Total Film) – “…Yep, The Incredibles 2 is a reality, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Officially announced by Disney Chairman and CEO Robert A. Iger at today’s shareholder’s meeting, that sound you can probably hear is Pixar fans’ brains exploding.

The project is in the very early stages – Brad Bird has only just put pen to paper – but just the fact that Disney / Pixar will be continuing the adventures of Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and their children Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack is reason enough to celebrate…”

And the official “Tweet” is below:

On Trust, Belief and Hope

Our theater company is preparing to perform a stage adaptation of George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin. It is that intense and exhausting period known as “tech week”–today was the day we loaded our massive set into the theater we rent four times a year for our productions. I spent the day painting portable flooring.

The Princess and the Goblin is a delightful fantasy for children. It is also a beautiful story about faith and trust. Believing precedes seeing. Indeed, as one character wisely says, “Seeing is not believing. It is only seeing.”  Irene and her great-great-grandmother embody something of the relationship that Christians have with the Holy Spirit. We are led by an invisible hand, and we trust that we will be led to safety–but we are surprised along the way by some of the places it takes us!

Carol Burnett: TV humor today sounds like it was “written by teenage boys in a locker room”

Can’t argue with anything Carol and Tim say here:

First, let me give credit to Piers Morgan, of whom I’m usually highly critical. He conducted a solid interview, and let his guests respond without arguing with them, in and of itself an exceedingly rare occurrence.

But the primary takeaway I had after watching the entire interview was how far modern television has fallen from my youth. As a member of the generation which grew up watching Dick Van Dyke, Carol Burnett, Bob Newhart, et al on TV with my entire family, those shows not only were clever then, they are still clever now.

The Three Little Pigs, Shakespeare-style

art by M. Engelbreit

In case you missed this when it went viral on YouTube, John Branyan, a Christian comedian, does this wonderful routine which is probably á propos of nothing whatsoever in the news this week.

However, I’d like to point out three very important factors which make it immensely apt for inclusion on our blog today:

1.  It is highbrow humor, and we here at Thabto like to give a nod to culture, from time to time.

2.  It is patriotic.  But you won’t know that unless you actually click on the link and watch the entire video. Go do your duty!

3.  Today is my brother JTR’s birthday, and I wanted to do something to make him laugh.  ‘Cause he’s so good at doing that for me.

Enjoy, folks!  Plenty of time to be serious again tomorrow…