The more I think about it, the more going back to the two days a week updates really doesn’t appeal to me. In fact, I think I’d really regret it if I did that at this point. That being said, I am not going to stop the Saturday updates now. I’m trying to increase my productivity and keep things running as professionally as possible. And I’d like to get the word out about the comic and really start promoting Filtered Fuzz. It would really be several steps back to limit myself to two days a week updates at this point.

However, I will be taking off around the week of the 19th. Don’t worry though. There will hopefully be some sort of new, interesting content up.

Sometimes in life, things happen. Sad things. Let it be known that I am not here to be depressing. Far from it, I want this Web-comic, blog,  and entire experience to be a celebration, even if times are rough. Freckles, my first cat and best friend for fifteen years passed on yesterday. Here’s a picture of her from last year when I was experimenting with FilteredFuzz (Then called Two For the Show) in a comic strip format. I think she was nearly blind by that time, but she looked like she enjoyed it! If there’s one thing I could ask you to take away from this blog post, it would be this:

Life is short. But that’s no reason it can’t be great.

I was blessed to have Freckles for so many wonderful years. And I believe that yesterday, an angel just recieved the best cat ever.

I am a fan of family entertainment. I don’t think it’s possible that I’ll ever “outgrow” it. I grew up with the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon back in the days they actually showed interesting cartoons and programs. I’m not saying everything is bad on TV today, but everything seems to be pushing kids to grow up faster and faster. There really isn’t much of anything between the preschool shows that really talk down to kids and the live action shows directed at young teenagers. What happened to Peter Pan and Neverland and growing up being the furthest thing from kids’ minds? Is it a sign of the different times we live in? Is being a kid and truly enjoying it a thing of the past? Being a kid no longer seems to have that appeal that it used to. Now kids seem to be focused on growing up and being as “mature” as they can be. To any kids that may be reading this: Don’t fall for it. Being a kid is a time for amazing opportunity and fun. And you shouldn’t let anyone, the twelve year olds wearing makeup on TV or your friends force you to grow up. Take your time and take it all in. You only live once, and you will have plenty of time later to worry about joining “the real world”.

I’ve been reflecting on recent animated movies and upcoming movies that have interested me. I must say, Wall-E was truly the best film I had seen in 2008. I adore the minimal dialogue. Sometimes, less really is more. Wall-E and Eve are both appealing characters and really connected real human emotion without being depicted as cartoony robots. The nod to classic musicals, namely Hello Dolly! was amazingly done, I believe. All to often, animated movies tend to throw in random classic rock or older music to appeal to the parents in the audience without any significant relevance to the plot.  This was not the case for Wall-E. Believe it or not, I actually had chills running down my spine to see the images of space coupled with Put On Your Sunday Clothes. I don’t consider myself a fan of romance, but that was the heart of this movie and it was incredibly done. Wall-E is indeed one of those rare movies that I could literally watch over and over, but it’s also something that needs to be seen to be appreciated. Just reading a review about it doesn’t give it justice. So if you haven’t seen Wall-E, I recommend it.

The other animated movie I saw this year was Bolt. I admit, I still have hard feelings over the fact that Chris Sanders (writer/director of Lilo and Stitch) was taken off this project and I wish I could see the movie he had planned. Bolt wasn’t a bad movie, and I wound up liking the characters more than I thought I would. (Rhino, the hamster and his fanboy ways irked me from the commercial.) But there were some snarky elements that really took me out of the film. I wanted to enjoy it, and for the most part, I did… But the way the agent acted and how the mom put up with it throughout most of the film, I just wanted to yell at the screen! I’m not a mother, but if that were my child, I would have stuck up for the kid from page one! But she just sort of… stood there. Anyway, it was a sweet little movie and I do recommend it. But not with the same enthusiasm as I recommend Wall-E.

Currently, I am really looking forward to seeing Pixar’s Up and Disney’s latest traditionally animated film, The Princess and the Frog.