Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Over The Hedge In Chinatown
Yesterday, my good friend Laura and I found ourselves in a sea of media/creative types attending an advanced showing of the new DreamWorks movie, Over the Hedge (think popular comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis) at the Regal Cinemas in Chinatown. Now usually Laura has to force me to go places and this outing was no different, but when I stepped into the pre-screening reception, I felt so at home! I watched all the writers, photographers, etc. wondering how they made it "here" and what could I/Soulful Synergy do to stay constantly in the know. As we waited around eating our continental breakfast, I silently seethed for not bringing my camera to the screening-UGH, but thank goodness for the camera phone that Laura had. I made good use of it as we sat in our top-row-right-in-the-middle movie seats listening to the Director of the film, Tim Johnson, tell us about the great effort that went into making Hedge. Tim turned it over to the CEO of DreamWorks, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who presented us with two snippets of upcoming films, Flushed Away and First Flight. Both looked very promising! At that moment, who should then step in front of the audience? None other than Wanda Sykes, who plays a feisty skunk, named Stella in the film! As I fumble to take a far away/grainy cell phone photo of her, she proceeds to tell us about the fun she had making the film and if she had just a bit more time she would share her views on immigration-LOL! It was a real treat for Wanda to give us all a few laughs before we watched the feature film...The Synopsis reads:
Just whose backyard is it, anyway? Spring has sprung, and Verne and his woodland friends awaken from their long winters nap to discover that a tall, green thing has mysteriously cropped up right through the middle of their home. Enter RJ, an opportunistic raccoon, who explains that the world beyond the hedge is the gateway to the good life where peculiar creatures called humans live to eat, rather than eat to live. Suspicious and even a little jealous of RJ, the ever-cautious Verne wants to keep his blended family safely on their side of the hedge. But, proving the adage that one man's garbage is another man's or rather animal's treasure, the manipulative RJ tries to convince the woodland band that there is little to fear and everything to gain from their over-indulgent new neighbors. Eventually, RJ and Verne form an unlikely friendship as they learn to co-exist with and even exploit this strange new world called suburbia.
Although Jeffrey joked that it would be Wanda's role that would steal the show, I tend to believe that a certain overactive squirrel named Hammy will be the true delight for kids and adults alike (RJ is a close second)! Hammy has the cutest eyes that seem to give me flashbacks to a little cat named Puss-N-Boots, but there's no comparison to his personality. Hammy is a riot or more appropriately, NUTTY! LOL! In fact, one moment in the film that sticks out in my mind is his funny impression of a hungry, rabid squirrel! OMG! HILARIOUS! Being the mom and kid at heart that I am, I took a likening to this film and I'll definitely see it again with my kiddies! We "humans" can be quite funny when viewed from the eyes of our outdoor neighbors!! :)
Leaving the theater, we laughed our way across the street to Legal Sea Foods. I've never been to Legal before, but I promptly got an in-service from Laura on the best thing on the menu- Fried Popcorn Shrimp. YUM! I snacked on a few of her shrimp as I enjoyed my Thai-style Fried Calamari, which was a bit on the mushy side, yet the sauce made it DELICIOUS! While previewing the photos I took with her camera phone, I quickly found myself hating my ancient artifact of a cell phone. I wanted something new, I wanted to upgrade, and I want that upgrade to be a SIDEKICK! I've been loyal to Nextel for five years now due to their direct-connect feature, but I really need a phone that packs everything inside - a cell phone, a camera, internet, email, THE WORKS! I just can't decide and watching the ease of which Hammer updates his blog using his Sidekick makes my decision lean in favor of T-Mobile. Yet that pesky direct connect feature lingers in my head! I need to be able to reach my hubby at a moments notice and regular "connections" just don't seem to cut the mustard! But I told myself that I wouldn't buy a new phone until I made a few sells from the Soulful Synergy t-shirts so I can practice discpline with my business exspenses... I'll just hold my cards (literally!) for now.
Over The Hedge Regal Cinemas Wanda Sykes Chinatown Sidekick Legal Sea Foods Soulful Synergy DreamWorks DreamWorks CEO A DreamWorks Director Nextel I90c Flushed Away First Flight
posted by Soulfull @ 3/29/2006 , 
