Les Mis: A Fangirl's Review

(Spoilers abound, but we all know the story by now, right?)

Oh, Les Miserables.  I wanted to love you.  I was one of those girls who fell in love with you at a fairly young age, and it happened completely through my cassette tape of the original Broadway cast album.  (I didn't see the show until at least three years of obsessive soundtrack listening.) Like so many other girls (not that I realized it at the time), I knew that Eponine was not just the role I was born to play but my sister in unrequited love.  No one could understand her like me!  When I finally saw the show, it was bliss.  Oh, how I cried--beginning, middle, end.  Les Mis rocked my world.

Christmas WTFery: The Polar Express

I took Charlotte to a special showing of The Polar Express this morning.  I figured it would be a fun, Christmas-y thing to do since we won't be decorating or making crafts (see last year's Christmas entry for more on that).  I've never read the book, nor had I seen the movie, so I was a blank slate.  What follows is not a review; it's more like a Festivus-style airing of grievances.

Beauty and the Beast revisited

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite of the great animated movies Disney made in the '90s.  I first saw it at the dollar theater with my best friend and her mom (along with The Cutting Edge--if you were 16 in 1993, you know how awesome this was).  I love the gorgeous visuals (the ballroom scene!) and the over-the-top Broadway-style musical numbers.  Plus, Belle is a reader--she is clearly my homegirl.  So of course I was excited to see it on the big screen again, and in 3-D, no less.