Day 4 of Educating Grimmy and I'll be honest, I'm flagging. Last night, in the name of fantasy, we watched sexy and quirky sci-fi, The Fifth Elementat the recommendation of the listeners and Daniel Radcliffe. It wasn't quite the roaring success I hoped it might be after the first two movie nights. Grimmy's concentration was split about seven different ways although to be fair, Chris Starkwas being made up to look like Milla Jovovich’scharacter Leeloo for most of the film.
Chris Stark
Uncanny.
Thank god the costumes were made by Jean-Paul Gaultier, otherwise all might have been lost. At least Grimmy liked the neon, see-through skirts. It's bloody hard sitting through one of your favourite films when everyone's talking over it, missing all the not-so-subtle humour of Ruby Rhodand being underwhelmed by Luc Besson's genius cameo inserts. I thought tonight might be different. Animation. Kids films. Surely someone with the attention span of an 8 year old can sit through a Disney and/or Pixar film? Apparently not; Grimmy told me this morning that animation is his worst idea of a movie, he haaaates them. So we've decided to make him sit through the 2009 Disney-Pixar animation, Up, about a man, a boy and a talking dog.
Whenever I review animated films on Gregand Trevor's show, I always feel like I should apologise for unashamedly loving pretty much any cartoon that comes my way. I've always said that cinema should, on the whole, be pure escapism and what is a better way of avoiding real life than immersing yourself in a world invented for children? I think nostalgia is the key to why animation is so popular with adults. Films like Shrekare great for innuendo and smutty jokes that only adults can appreciate but I think the inundation of Minions in the recent Despicable Me 2 showcased the popularity of regressing to being 10 years old and laughing hysterically at 90 minutes of slapstick. Not a huge amount of physical comedy in Up but I'm hoping the talking dog, Dug, will swing it for Grimmy. If not, I’m sure the pretty balloons will.
Does anyone have any legitimate suggestions for making Grimmy sit still(ish) and focussing on the film? Short of tying him to a chair, propping his eyelids open with matches and holding his head straight as someone suggested on twitteryesterday. Thanks for that.
I hope you'll join us tonight for some animated fun from 6pm and as per usual, Grimmy will be tweeting from @BBCR1Breakfast and I'll be on @BBCR1Rhianna, using #EducatingGrimmy! We'd love to hear your thoughts.
