May your days be merry and bright
Dec. 25th, 2007 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatMerry Christmas, everybody! Why this is the one holiday that's supposed to be "merry" and not merely "happy" (well, in the States, anyway; the British apparently don't want any truck with that "merry" rubbish) is something I don't pretend to know. I do know that it's unusually warm for Christmas, and there's certainly no chance of a white one. Not that that's a problem, as you all know I'm not a fan of cold weather, but it doesn't really seem appropriate for the season.
I haven't opened most of my gifts yet, but I did get what my dad sent me, which is the Pets expansion pack for The Sims 2. I haven't played that game in some time, and I know that if I start again, I most likely won't be getting anything else accomplished for a while. The Pets expansion was probably the one I wanted the most, though, so it's cool that I got it. The Seasons one sounds kind of cool (no pun intended), but the reviews say that one opens up a whole host of new ways for Sims to die. I kind of prefer my Sims to remain alive long enough to actually get something accomplished, you know? I think they could have found more of a happy medium between the functional immortality of Sims in the first game (well, as long as you keep them away from fire, anyway), and their two-month lifespan in the sequel. Sure, I can keep them alive through Elixir of Life, but still.
Last night, I watched the Rankin-Bass Jack Frost, which I'd taped last week. I actually saw this in elementary school (literally in the school, that is, not just when I was that age), and then occasionally tried to remember what stop-motion special it was where poor people made coins out of icicles. Well, this is it. It's really not that Christmas-related, in that the holiday only features in one scene where they establish that everyone in January Junction is so poor that they have to give imaginary presents. Groundhog's Day is a more significant part of the story, but I don't know if they show it on TV around then. They really should, because Christmas already has a whole bunch of seasonal entertainments, while Groundhog's Day just has a Bill Murray film (which I liked, for what it's worth). Anyway, although Jack Frost does have good triumph over evil, it's still kind of a downer, with the title character failing in his quest. They pretty much establish at the beginning that this will be the case, though. I liked Kubla Kraus's robots, and found it odd that the knight character was said to have served King Arthur. I didn't think he was a contemporary of the Cossacks (not to mention steam power), but it's not like the Arthurian legends aren't fraught with anachronisms anyway.
And this last item isn't holiday-related, but I thought this Dragon Quest retrospective was pretty cool. I think the author has a good point on the first page when he mentions the recurring monsters being a significant part of the games' appeal. You can generally count on seeing Goombas in the Mario games, Moblins in Zelda, and Slimes in Dragon Quest. The Final Fantasy series, on the other hand, doesn't really have all that many memorable types of wandering monsters. I really hope they end up bringing DQ 5 and 6 to the States at some point. The retrospective mentions the games' shortcomings, including the not very involved plots, but I think the earlier games actually did a decent job at creating a world, even with all of their limitations. I never finished playing Dragon Warrior VII, which included some interesting ideas, but also had all that tedious shard-finding.
I haven't opened most of my gifts yet, but I did get what my dad sent me, which is the Pets expansion pack for The Sims 2. I haven't played that game in some time, and I know that if I start again, I most likely won't be getting anything else accomplished for a while. The Pets expansion was probably the one I wanted the most, though, so it's cool that I got it. The Seasons one sounds kind of cool (no pun intended), but the reviews say that one opens up a whole host of new ways for Sims to die. I kind of prefer my Sims to remain alive long enough to actually get something accomplished, you know? I think they could have found more of a happy medium between the functional immortality of Sims in the first game (well, as long as you keep them away from fire, anyway), and their two-month lifespan in the sequel. Sure, I can keep them alive through Elixir of Life, but still.
Last night, I watched the Rankin-Bass Jack Frost, which I'd taped last week. I actually saw this in elementary school (literally in the school, that is, not just when I was that age), and then occasionally tried to remember what stop-motion special it was where poor people made coins out of icicles. Well, this is it. It's really not that Christmas-related, in that the holiday only features in one scene where they establish that everyone in January Junction is so poor that they have to give imaginary presents. Groundhog's Day is a more significant part of the story, but I don't know if they show it on TV around then. They really should, because Christmas already has a whole bunch of seasonal entertainments, while Groundhog's Day just has a Bill Murray film (which I liked, for what it's worth). Anyway, although Jack Frost does have good triumph over evil, it's still kind of a downer, with the title character failing in his quest. They pretty much establish at the beginning that this will be the case, though. I liked Kubla Kraus's robots, and found it odd that the knight character was said to have served King Arthur. I didn't think he was a contemporary of the Cossacks (not to mention steam power), but it's not like the Arthurian legends aren't fraught with anachronisms anyway.
And this last item isn't holiday-related, but I thought this Dragon Quest retrospective was pretty cool. I think the author has a good point on the first page when he mentions the recurring monsters being a significant part of the games' appeal. You can generally count on seeing Goombas in the Mario games, Moblins in Zelda, and Slimes in Dragon Quest. The Final Fantasy series, on the other hand, doesn't really have all that many memorable types of wandering monsters. I really hope they end up bringing DQ 5 and 6 to the States at some point. The retrospective mentions the games' shortcomings, including the not very involved plots, but I think the earlier games actually did a decent job at creating a world, even with all of their limitations. I never finished playing Dragon Warrior VII, which included some interesting ideas, but also had all that tedious shard-finding.
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Date: 2007-12-25 09:47 pm (UTC)Kubla Kraus is an amusing villain (love the puppet), but it is sad that Jack Frost doesn't have a happy ending- though if he did, who would nip at your nose? Kubla also has the same voice as my favorite Rankin/Bass villain, the Burgermeister Meisterburger (makes sense, since they're both Paul Frees).
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Date: 2007-12-26 01:16 am (UTC)Maybe there would have been a replacement? It doesn't seem like Father Winter would have even considered Jack's request without a backup plan, unless he just assumed Jack was going to fail. I suppose they also could have had Jack get the girl and Father Winter magically adapt her for life in the clouds. But I think it's kind of cool that there's one of these specials where they DIDN'T go for the happy ending, which makes it stand out from the crowd.
Kubla also has the same voice as my favorite Rankin/Bass villain, the Burgermeister Meisterburger (makes sense, since they're both Paul Frees).
I read that Kubla is pretty much the same puppet as Meisterburger, but with a beard so as to make him Russian instead of German. The Burgermeister didn't appear to have Kubla's mechanical skill, though.