Captain Simian, and the Spaaaaaaaaace Monkeys

My post isn't really related to Captain Simian, or any kind of space primate. It's just that I've had the intro song stuck in my head for the last 3 hours and I have NO idea why, I haven't seen that show since I was like 12. But I DID go to the zoo today and I did some gesture drawings of a monkey, that's probably what planted the seed.

Anyway, I went to see How to Train Your Dragon today and thought it was a very good movie. Unfortunately, my friends and I were taken out of the illusion by a messed up audio track and a loud, ignorant dude shouting on the phone and yelling to his kids as he came in and out of the movie. Needless to say, we all want to watch the movie again, properly.

Still though, I admired all the visuals and I enjoyed the story a lot, though it didn't tread too far from what you'd expect of it. There were a few lines that jumped out at me as corny and/or ill-delivered, but I was more than willing to overlook that. The designs were gorgeous and some of the compositions really inspired me to do some art. All of the flying sequences were amazing and overall, it was just a beautiful movie to watch. I definitely want that "Art of" book. I still need to get the Art of Up, and the Art of Kung Fu Panda too.

Also, on a completely seperate note, I'm reading the 4th book from the "A Song of Fire and Ice" series by George R.R. Martin (two Rs?!), and I don't understand what's wrong with this man. Though I'm enjoying the books, I'm really irritated by the fact that he seems to arbitrarily kill off characters that I've spent 3 books getting to know, and their deaths do VERY little to move the story forward. He keeps tacking on new characters and getting rid of old ones, and the whole time I'm left wondering why he had me invest in them for so long if he was just going to toss them out for no apparent reason (shock value?). I'm very excited about the HBO series being developed based on the books.