So, I happen to be looking over Laura’s shoulder as she digs into the paper Saturday morning, and we both see the ad proclaiming a sneak preview Saturday night for Ratatouille, Pixar’s new pic. Jon has been anticipating this for quite some time, and has been almost literally counting down the days ’til June 29.
So we rush to the computer and book some tickets, and we decide that we’ll surprise Jon with it later in the day. We already had an exciting day planned, attending the market at the Brickworks and swimming at Grandma and Grandpa’s pool (and as Jon points out, Wii and computer too).
We had a early dinner—oddly organized and suspicious behaviour for us—so Jon had his guard up a bit. When we got to the theatre, he overheard the key word from some others talking, and he went into denial. “We can’t see Ratatouille. Ratatouille comes out on June 29th” We crouched by him. Yes, yes it’s true, we’re going to see it tonight. It’s called a sneak preview. Overwhelmed, Jon welled up with tears. “I don’t want to see it!”
Part of the emotion was a kneejerk sudden panic not to see the THX tag at the beginning, something that still bothers Jon. But that was just a convenient scapegoat: it was the shock of having all of his careful plans scrubbed and replaced by this. As he was going into shock, I had my own emotional moment, realizing with shame how profoundly unfair we had been to our boy in not telling him earlier. Still, having just paid forty bucks on tickets, there was no going back. (I’m such a dad! 🙂 )
Jon sat beside me in the theatre (because he’s in a wheelchair space, he can only sit beside one person), tray filled with snacks, nervous and jumpy. When the ads came on fifteen minutes before he calmed a little, and he wanted a full schedule of how it would go—ads, trailers, followed by Disney trailers (they tack those on to the feature), then the short Lifted (Pixar always has a short, I happened to know the title, good thing) then the feature. If the THX (which, when discussed, has to be named obliquely, the letters alone cause panic) shows up, it will be after Lifted. Second surprise of the evening: there were just a couple of Disney trailers, one being for Pixar’s next one: Wall-E, and then on to Lifted. There were no THX trailers. Jon lightened a little.
To the movie (no spoilers, but this is from Jon’s perspective): This a hard movie for a visually-impaired viewer without descriptive commentary. It was directed by Brad Bird, the same guy who did The Incredibles, so it has a mature visual sense: a lot of rich vistas with fancy, fast camera work. The character uses a lot of body language to communicate, wonderfully animated: so subtle; in other words, a lot is communicated in silence. It was tough for Jon to get a grasp on. (They released nine minutes of the movie about a month ago: if you care to spoil a bit—see what I mean?)
About a quarter of the way in, Jon suddenly brightens up. He realizes he’s seeing what he wanted to see, he’s at a sneak preview and everyone’s having fun. His own body posture brightens immeasurably. About halfway through, the delighted hugging begins. I personally didn’t get to see the whole movie, between getting hugged and having to try to keep Jon fairly quiet from delighted general discussion (“I’m going write a journal about Ratatouille tomorrow!!”). He often laughed with the crowd (how’d he catch that?), sometimes on his own (that happens—he delights in clever sound effects more than most), occasionally glancing around when he missed a moment that the audience is reacting to (the best moment of the film was one of these, but I imagine a lot of kids won’t fully get that one). Even when he can’t parse what’s happening, he absorbed the film-making: at one point he whispers “New scene”, at another “We’re near the ending”.
In retrospect, despite the fear and shame, I think the surprise did what it was supposed to do. He was high as a kite ’til nearly eleven, when he feel asleep.
Oh ya, Jon says we’re still going the opening weekend. 🙂 And Laura says she’ll sit beside Jon next time, so I can see the movie. 😀
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Tami says:
June 18, 2007 at 10:07 pm (UTC 0)
So glad Jon was able to enjoy the film! I’m going to ask him about it tomorrow at school and get him to tell me his favourite parts!
I just got caught up on your blog entries and am very pleased to see Jon’s writing coming along so well. Great journal, spelling sentences and Creative writing about Florida! Did he really get tickets to Florida out of that? Way to go Jon! Maybe you can write something for me! Ha, ha!
Tami
Richard says:
June 19, 2007 at 2:11 pm (UTC 0)
There is a Tiny Toons cartoon (unfortunately not available on DVD at present)in which there is a parody of the THX logo and sound.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Toon_Adventures:_How_I_Spent_My_Vacation
After the incredibly loud note sounds, the message states “The Audience is Now Deaf”. So Jon is not the only one who is bothered by this. He’s in good company!
Peter says:
June 19, 2007 at 3:11 pm (UTC 0)
Here we go. Ah, YouTube.
Richard says:
June 19, 2007 at 4:33 pm (UTC 0)
Brilliant!
What is Jon’s reaction to the Tiny Toons version of his nemesis? Maybe watching it a bunch of times could desensitize him to the real thing?
Luisa says:
June 28, 2007 at 9:09 pm (UTC 0)
We actually own How I Spent My Summer Vacation… on laser disk. (Yes, laser disk). Haven’t watched it in a while. Perhaps it’s time to pull it out and watch it again. Let us know if you’d like to come over for a screening. (I love Tiny Toons!)