Because we blog, too.
By day, Jonathan Decker is a marriage and family therapist in St. George, Utah. By night, he can be frequently found at the local cineplex. Jonathan writes reviews of Hollywood films from an LDS perspective, with overviews of potentially offensive content as well as gospel parallels to discuss.
He is no newcomer to the medium, having written, directed and starred in several independent films.
You can find his blog at MormonMovieGuy.com.
Mormon Daddy Reviews
Guest Contributor: Josh Tenney
Last year around Thanksgiving, I was new Dad with a five-month-old daughter named Anna. Together as a family, we ventured out to the movie theater for what would be our daughter’s first movie: Disney’s Tangled. Being only 5, Anna couldn’t quite grasp the plot, but she behaved herself fairly well.
Now that she’s a bit older and we have the Blu-ray at home, she’s become completely obsessed with the movie. This year, again in late November, we headed out for Anna’s second movie theater experience with Disney’s new movie, “The Muppets.” And while she still couldn’t follow the simple plot, she was enthralled with the music, laughter, and familiar puppetry (thanks to Sesame Street).
Could “The Muppets” do what “Tangled” did before it?
Over the last several years, Disney has been on a shopping spree. Recently, Pixar was purchased by the mouse and now Marvel is owned by Disney. But back in 2004, Disney acquired Kermit and the gang. Since then, the attempts to bring the Muppets back to mainstream have fizzled with duds like “A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa” and the awful “Muppet’s Wizard of Oz.”
Jason Segel, who also co-wrote “The Muppets,” stars as Gary, a happy, simple small town guy. Literally. He’s from Smalltown, USA, population 102. Gary’s brother, Walter, is a very manly muppet (he’s three feet tall and made of felt) and Gary’s best friend.
Their adventure begins when Gary takes his long-time girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) on a trip to Los Angeles. Walter, the world’s biggest Muppets fan, is ecstatic to join them – only because the Muppet Studios is located in LA. Amy Adams brings the same charisma and charm she brought to “Enchanted.’ And like in Enchanted, musical numbers seem to pop up around her like a flash mob.
The giddy, joyful opening number “Life’s a Happy Song” lets you know right away that this movie is not for cynics. It’s for the happy-go-lucky Muppet inside each of us. While visiting the Muppet Studios, Walter is traumatized when he overhears plans of the evil Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to bulldoze the studios and drill for oil.
Walter finds and warns Kermit the Frog of the impending disaster, and after Kermit’s moving song “Pictures in My Head,” about how he misses his friends and their good ol’ days, Kermit agrees to try to do something about it. Together with Kermit, the Smalltown trio set out to get the old Muppet Gang back together again and save the studio the only way they know how – by putting on a show, this time, as a telethon.
This is when the movie gains the wackiness, heart, and humor in the tradition of the classic Muppet movies. In keeping with that tradition, a road trip ensues as they find Gonzo, Fozzie, Animal, several star cameos and eventually Miss Piggy. Not only do they find the most popular Muppets, but it seems by the end of the movie every Muppet that ever existed finds its way to the telethon.
Die-hard Muppet fans will enjoy seeing long-lost characters. I did miss seeing more of my favorite two Muppets, Pepe the King Prawn and Rizzo the Rat, but I understand why these wisecracking, more edgy characters were given background roles. This Muppet movie aimed to share a feeling of warmth, nostalgia, and unbridled optimism, with just a touch of the edginess the Muppets are known to exhibit.
“The Muppets” indeed captures the feeling of the original “The Muppet Movie.” With winning music, laugh-out-loud moments and the heart of our favorite fuzzy friends in the right place, Disney may just get the new franchise they’ve been shopping for.
On a personal level, only time will tell if Anna will become as obsessed with the Muppets at home on blu-ray as she did with her first movie. But if she does, I won’t mind. I’ll be singing along and enjoying life’s third-greatest gift: laughter.
Grade: A
“The Muppets”
Rated PG for some mild rude humor
Opening Nov. 23, 2011
I started Mormon Daddy Blogs in February of this year. It grew out of a feeling that perhaps the Mormon dads who blog from time to time could benefit from a greater sense of community enjoyed by our fairer counterparts in the blogosphere.
And judging by the response MDB received right out of the gate, it became clear that I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. In the early days, I had to work hard to find enough MDBers to follow and feature on these pages. But steadily the list grew from a fledgling couple of handfuls to more than 100. And the frequency of postings on blogs likewise seemed to grow. As we discovered and began to follow one another, there seemed to be a greater sense of community. Bloggers let me know that the number of hits on their sites after being featured on MDB grew. And though we are still seriously outnumbered by our better halves in the blogging world, our own community doesn’t seem as fledgling anymore.
I like to think MDB has played at least some part in that.
I still believe there is value in nurturing our once-fledgling MDB community that has graduated maybe to adolescence. That said, you may have noticed in recent weeks a decline in activity on these pages. That is not due to a decline in my interest in keeping these pages current. However, two large projects arose in my day-job life that have consumed many of my waking hours (and even quite a few of my dreaming hours). These are good projects for which I am grateful. But I’m sad about what their impact has been on these pages.
I had never envisioned MDB as a solo project. I believe that a broader pool of editors would not only lighten the workload of each, but would make for a healthier, more diverse site. But I haven’t quite figured out how to find them.
Hence, this letter.
I’m hopeful there are other souls out there who have some writing experience, who likewise see the benefit of nurturing the MDB community, and could find an hour or so a week to put toward this project.
You should know up front that the MDB project at this stage is solely a labor of love. But if you find value in MDB and feel you could participate, I invite you to drop me a line at mormondaddyblogs@gmail.com and tell me a little bit about you. I’ll give you some more specifics of what’s involved, and you can tell me if you think that sounds like it would work, and we can take it from there.
One of the great spin-off benefits of the MDB journey has been to get to know (in an ethernet sort of way, at least) so many of you as I follow your blogs looking for items to include. You’re a decent bunch of fellows, and it’s reassuring to know that with all the junk that’s out there on the internet, there are those from our community who are seeking to offer some engaging counter programming that is worth reading.
I look forward to seeing that connection between this network of bloggers continue.
Sincerely,
Dennis A.
Ben Crowder admits that he takes a lot of things for granted.
“Take the sun, for instance. It’s 93 million miles away. Ninety-three million miles. Let’s say you hop in a car and start driving towards the sun at 60 mph (okay, we’ll make it a spacecar) — it’d take you 177 years to get there. And that’s if there aren’t any red lights along the way.
“So the sun is far, but the thing that blows my mind is this: it’s so bright to us here on earth that if we look straight at it, it temporarily blinds us. And it’s hot. You can burn ants with it (and a magnifying glass). That’s crazy. I mean, I understand the physics of it (the basics, anyway), but isn’t it bonkers that the whole thing actually works? Not to mention its huge role in life on earth and all of that.”
In his post, Many Miracles, Ben pauses to marvel at how we are surrounded by evidence of a loving God.
Ben is a bookworm, writer, designer, illustrator, typographer, and coder. He is senior web designer at the BYU Harold B. Lee Library. He loves books and dead languages and Vim. He’s married and has a baby girl.
MDBer Braden Bell has strong political opinions.
“I noticed, several years ago, that my political feelings were leading me to be angry, sarcastic, and suspicious of people. As I thought about this, I realized I wasn’t the only one. It’s a pandemic, and let’s be honest: it’s on both the left and right.”
Braden decided he would try to do something about it, starting with himself.
“I wanted to live the old cliché and find a way to disagree without being disagreeable. So, I took several small steps. Baby steps, you might say. But I found that they were helpful and they had a cumulative effect on me.”
In a 3-part blog post, Braden outlines the steps he took to personally return to civility. As we MDBers face what is shaping up to potentially be one of the most potentially divisive political seasons of our lifetimes, Braden’s posts should be required reading.
“I haven’t changed my opinions or views. But I have changed the way I view others, and that has had a positive effect on me. I think I am more civil to others. But, just as importantly, I am different. I feel more temperate, more balanced. I’m more confident expressing my views because they are thoughtful conclusions that don’t rely on invective, sarcasm or bombast. In other words, civility has essentially polished and refined my views–burning away the dross. So, I’m not advocating being mushy and checking your opinions at the door. To the contrary, I’m suggesting ways to engage in dialogue and debate without being destructive.”
Braden’s steps:
Dallas Lauchner‘s blog, Miracle and Oddities, features psychology-related topics as well as how to be a better man in the gospel (his Manly Man Trainings come out on Sundays).
He’s a mental health counselor in his community who has served in many church leadership positions.
Dallas and his wife have four daughters. He lives in Virginia.
That may be me in the picture, learning with my little brother the fine art of hammering stuff, though it’s the kind of scene that plays itself out every day all across the world: a dad patiently coaching his boys when clearly it would be easier to do the thing himself. But such dads aren’t as interested in the things they’re building as much as the future dads they’re building.
In the aftermath of the day of celebrating dads, a flurry of posts have emerged that demonstrate how much dads have made a big impact on our own dadness in the MDB community. Here are some highlights about how we feel not only about our dads, but our own responsibilities of being dads.
“Me: I can’t believe I have a patch of gray hair.
Anna: You have gray hair, Daddy? That means you’re old. (starts getting upset) I don’t want you to get old!
Me: I’m not that old, sweetie. I’m just a little bit old.
Wife: (pointing at my head in the mirror) See? It’s a patch.
Anna: You’re going to die soon.
Me and wife: ….?
Anna: (Starts singing) You’re going to die soon, you’re going to die soon…
I don’t think there’s any better way to celebrate father’s day than to have your eldest daughter sing a song about how ‘you’re going to die soon’ upon hearing about your first patch of gray hair.” Josh Weed, The Weed (read Father’s Day Song)
“My sweet wife must be just a wee bit disturbed that I have resurrected what she views as a seemingly superficial appreciation for the Three Stooges after at least a decade of dormancy. She overlooked my mania for the three kings of slapstick comedy when we started our lives together back in ’84. As I have grown in the Gospel and in life, she probably assumed that I had matured out of that immature phase, and graduated to more settled, approved entertainment options such as soap operas and grisly crime dramas. However, I never really abandoned the Three Stooges; I just emotionally buried them for awhile, waiting for the right moment. Father’s Day 2011 is that right moment.” Richard Tait, Mormon Third Eye (read I See… A Mormon Third Eye Father’s Day Special! Serious Silliness: How the Three Stooges Blesses the Lives of Men of the Church
“Alas, my kids are stuck with me for their father. I don’t do sports and I’m no superhero. But I do try to be a good father. On occasion I actually succeed.” Scott Hinrichs, Reach Upward (read A Dad, Not a Superhero)
“Fathers, remember back in high school when we were on a sports team and we had to do two, and some times even three-a-day practices? They were hard. But in the end, after the buzzer sounded, the whistle blew and the game was over, all that roughness paid off.
“Having Macey home is a three-a-day (actually its more like an all-day) practice. But she is here. She is healthy. She the prettiest thing, next to her mom, that I have ever seen. She is 8 pounds and 10 ounces of pure joy. She is the light of our home. Its a good rough.” Scott Bagley, Macey n’ Me (read Best Father’s Day Gift Ever)
“Is that really so much to ask? One day a year when we don’t look at deadbeats or abusers and instead look at the good guys and say, ‘You rock!’ Not, ‘You need to do better,’ or make nudge-nudge-wink-wink jokes about how goofily sweet and clueless dads are. I think dads deserve better than that.” Braden Bell (read Happy Father’s Day, With No Qualifications or Guilt Trips)
“My dad always kept his ties tied. ‘Tie ‘em once and you’re done,’ was his motto. At the end of the day he’d loosen his tie, slip it over his head and hang it on his tie rack. Now I see a couple of my boys doing the same thing.” Kevin Beckstrom, Beckstrom Buzz (read Family Ties, or Thanks, Dad!)
Abel Keogh posted a link to maybe the best father-son scene in all of moviedom. Be sure to visit Father’s and Sons.
“Harry Potter’s parents are dead and his aunt and uncle are horrible. Luke Skywalker’s dad became a Sith Lord. Katniss’ mom was a vegetable for a while.
“The litany of media that portrays families as dysfunctional and broken and populated by selfish jerks is long and irritating, because I don’t think it’s fair. I think there are far more families that are trying hard to stay together and be a loving family than there are these other types.” Jared Garrett (read A Celebration of Fathers)
“In the hundreds of Sunday School lessons and Seminary classes that he will attend but rarely pay attention to, may there be something that sticks. May there be enough seeds planted that faith eventually fills his being.
“Give him strength to never accept the offered beer or cigarette, or myriad other substances that he is taught to avoid. May the Ginger Ale or the 2-liter Mountain Dew be the extent of his binge drinking.
“During his teen years when he likes me about as much as anyone likes BO, help me, Lord, to be patient and compassionate that I not give up. He needs his father.” Bitner, Modern Mormon Men (read A Mormon Father’s Prayer For His Son)
And last, but not least: In The Art of Manliness, Brett McKay shares with us his take on the 12 Best Movies About Fatherhood.
Sure, we’re noted for being “nice,” but it doesn’t mean we Mormons can’t at least share how we feel about how our faith is being portrayed on Broadway, where The Book of Mormon (the musical, not the book) has just won 9 Tony awards, including Best Musical.
“Dealing with parody and satire is always a tricky thing for churches,” wrote Michael Otterson, head of public affairs for the Church in the Washington Post. “We can easily appear thin-skinned or defensive, and churches sometimes are.”
But he goes on to share exactly how he feels about the show.
“Specifically, I’m not willing to spend $200 for a ticket to be sold the idea that religion moves along oblivious to real-world problems in a kind of blissful naiveté.” Read Michael’s full article, Why I Won’t Be Seeing the Book of Mormon Musical.
►Braden Bell, who has three degrees and a job in theatre, notably musical theater, blogged about what a musical theater guy is supposed to make of this show that everyone loves and has officially taken Broadway by storm.
“I don’t think it’s productive to get upset or boycott or things like that, either. The Church’s official statement is a one sentence thing that basicaly amounts to: ‘Meh.’ Personally, I think we all just need to grow a thicker skin and stop being offended at everything. Freedom of Speech is an incomparable gift and the cost is that we might hear things that offend us.
“I just wish this were practiced more equitably. Why is it ok to mock Mormon beliefs and things we hold sacred, but jokes about other more favored minorities are immediately off-limits?”
Read Braden’s full post, A Musical Theatre Mormon’s Thoughts on The Book of Mormon Musical.
►Davison Cheney is a “poor Idaho boy living in Utah,” who has not seen The Book of Mormon musical. But the former BYU musical theater major has followed the rise of the show with interest.
“What bugs me is not that this stereotype is poorly researched or shallow or incomplete. On the contrary. Nor is the problem that others will look at the stereotype and go no further in their pursuit to understand Mormons and Mormon beliefs. I know that, having been trivialized, there will be many who won’t be able to get past the caricature of rose-colored-glasses-wearing, naive and unsophisticated Latter-day Saint trying to save the world. That kind-a describes me.
“Mormons are not the first group of people to be lampooned. But Mormons are the ones who won’t fight viciously in retaliation. There will be no picket lines. And other than folks like me commenting, the response will be decent and faith affirming (http://newsroom.lds.org/). Mormons will weather that storm with a smile — not unlike the stereotype.”
Read Davison’s post, About Mormons and Broadway.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
An ongoing instant message exchange between Scott Taylor and his co-worker Steven frequently results in exchanges that bring a smile.
For example, recently the duo discussed what Steven learned from his Old Testament study. Namely how, no matter what moniker your parents laid on you (even if your parents were Hollywood stars who named you after a celestial object and, for your middle name, a piece of fruit), you could have done worse. (Exhibit A: Hosea’s wife, Gomer.)
You don’t want to miss More Old Testament According To Steven.
When today’s high schoolers reach middle age, it seems unlikely that they’ll stumble across a box of old mp3s when cleaning out their garage. There’s something to be said for the days of tangible media.
Middle-aged Mormon Man recently came across a box of record albums that is sure to bring a flood of memories, fond and otherwise, for those of us anywhere near middle-age. (How long has it been since you thought about Jonathan Livingston Seagull?)
The post is a charming walk down memory lane, although MMM does get at least one fact wrong: when Olivia was singing “I Honestly Love You,” she wasn’t secretly singing it to him; she was singing it to me.
Visit A Box of Memories: High School Vinyl and ‘fess up how many of these albums you had in your collection.
Seti Matua loves this journey called life. Indeed, he’s chronicling his in a blog called Le Folauga, Samoan for The Journey.
In addition to being a rugby coach, Seti is a former editor for a number of publications and is now a free-lance writer. He writes frequently on sports as well as the Pacific Islander/Polynesian community. He especially loves to write about when those two worlds combine to produce the likes of NFL stars Troy Polamalu, Haloti Ngata, Jonathan Fanene, Ray Feinga, Rey Maualuga and Aaron Francisco.
Seti and his wife, Jennifer, live in Utah, where they are raising their five sons.
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