Just came back from IOI Mall after watching this particular movie with Kit Yan. The movie was good, but the adventure with Yan Yan to IOI Mall Puchong was even greater! Anyone with a very hyperactive 3-year-olds can testify to that!

Yan Yan woke up quite early today morning. Therefore when I was driving to IOI Mall at about 10:30 am, she fell asleep on the car! I was thinking to myself, how can she hold herself until the movie? Luckily as soon as the car parks, she immediately woke up.

Lucky thing, I got her sweater. It was quite cold in the morning air-conditioned mall. Went up the GSC, but what do you know, it’s still closed! We couldn’t do anything. I dare not risk Yan Yan throwing a fit, so I just followed whatever her heart desires. She tried all the rides in the mall (without putting the coins in of course! ).

She kept insisting that I buy her popcorn, something that I had to reluctantly promise earlier. Hmmmm ….. she must be hungry, I thought. Beside GSC, just outside the Popular bookstore, there is a Kemaman Kopitiam. The price seems reasonable, so I thought I’d check it out. Just before I managed to find a place to sit down, GSC’s door opened. It was about 11:30 am. About time! Yan Yan was beginning to get grouchy! So we went in to buy myself the ticket to UP, the afore-mentioned title of this post. Lucky I asked the lady, Yan Yan don’t need to pay for an extra seat. She always sit on my lap anyway. This is not the first time I bring her to the movies.

As soon as I bought the ticket, we went to the same kopitiam for some food. Yan Yan goobled up the portion of mee that I gave to her. Yes, she WAS hungry. I went to buy a pack of large caramel popcorn for her as promised. She remembers promises, better not challenge her memory.

So while waiting for the show to start, we went to the area overlooking the merry-go-round and sat there, eating the popcorn. I had to force her to drink a few gulps of water, else she’s gonna get sick.

12:30 pm. Off to the movies. At first Yan Yan insisted that she does not want to go to see the movie. She has never acted this way before, she has always shown interest to watch cartoons, especially this particular movie. Perhaps it was the experience watching the frightening trailers before every start of a movie. I remembered she got so freaked out when watching “Alien vs Monster” where they showed the dark and scary part of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Maybe that got to her.

Anyway the sight of very colourful cartoon characters upon entering Cinema 3 put her fear to rest. She was so engrossed with the PIXAR short cartoons, even I almost forgot that we were there for another movie!

WARNING! The following contains snippets of the content of the movie. DO NOT READ ON if you intend to watch this movie later.

The movie centres around Carl Fredrickson, a social recluse who does not mix around much. He obviously got it from his family, whom we can see in his wedding with Ellie, sitting in the church, observing the entire ceremony quietly.

The earlier part of the movie explains how the young Carl got interested in the adventure in Paradise Falls. And how he inadvertently fell for his future wife, Ellie.

Despite the relatively silent (they rarely speak) and mild (there were no indication of the coming adventure), the earlier part speaks volumes about this movie. It builds the entire momentum up, from the reason why Carl partake the adventure, to the origin of the nemesis that Carl would face in Paradise Falls. We also see the that Carl and Ellie could not have a child together (at least that’s how I interprete it as), and that Ellie died before achieving their dreams of building a home on top of the Paradise Falls, and both these scenes were really heart-breaking. Central to the story is also the house and a book that was kept earlier by Ellie, called My Adventure Book. In the book, there was a section left blank under “Stuff I’m Going To Do” that is reserved for their things to be done after arriving in Paradise Falls. After Carl has successfully maneuvered his house to sit on top of the Paradise Falls, he accidentally found the book again. And when he flips to the “Stuffs I’m Going To Do”, he suddenly saw that the pages are no longer empty. It seems that Ellie has actually filled it with pictures of Ellie and Carl in their happier times. And in the end of the book she signed “Thank you for the adventure. Now go have one of your own!”. It seems to me that Ellie spoke from the graves, and told Carl that she was already in Paradise Falls the moment she got married to him. That is so sweet!

This being an adventure movie, one can always expect a lot of seat-gripping moments, and it doesn’t disappoint. Those who are afraid of heights, beware, because there are a lot of rope hanging and high-flying adventure in this movie, and true to Disney-Pixar’s tradition, you will end feeling good in your tummy.

All is not perfect. I can immediately identify some bloopers that were quite obvious. First was of course the balloons. When the boys from Shady Oaks arrived, Mr Fredricksen obviously has the balloons already tied to the house, ready to be deployed. If the balloons were already tied to the house, it would have floated immediately away before it was released from under the large canvas. Which comes the next blooper. The entire movie obviously showed the balloons tied to the fireplace, and jutting out from the chimney. How could the chimney store so many thousands of balloons waiting to be released on signal?

Another discontinuity that I noticed afterwards was the first few sentences Mr Fredricksen uttered when he was air-borne. In the movie he said “So long boys, I’ll send you a postcard from Paradise Falls”. However in the trailers that was shown months before the movie debuted, Mr Fredricksen instead said “So long boys!” and give them the tongue, “PHHHHTTTTT!!!”

END OF SPOILER

All in all, a must watch movie this year. Go catch it in 3-D if possible, I only watch it in 2D this time, because Yan Yan always takes off her glasses (previous experience with Ice Age 3 before, waste of my money! >:( )

Read also, my experience watching the same movie in 3D!

Just dug out some old photos I’d like to share. It was August 2007, we were looking for a place to celebrate my birthday. Yan Yan was 13 months old.

Lemon Garden Cafe

The place was Lemon Garden Cafe, in Shangri-la Hotel. I have just got my battery grip from a guy in Seri Hartamas. The BG-E3 came without the AA battery adapter. I would later returned the battery grip because of that reason.

Anyway the grip with the BG-E3 on my 350D is excellent. It now looks and feel like a professional DSLR camera. All throughout my dinner I had on the 50 mm lens. Else I wouldn’t have been able to take such clear photos in such a dark place.

Yan Yan was a very noisy girl, in fact the noisiest around!

Enough talk. Head on over to the entire album.

Remember Kit Lau? I had a portfolio shot of her almost exactly one year ago. When Wei Ching called for a second shot of her with a friend, I jumped at the chance to take her pictures again. Initially I could not confirm my availability due to the fact that I might be in Singapore at that time. Fortunately at that time it was a low peak season at the office, so I was able to meet them. It was in the garden in front of HUKM.

Ms Yeoh, Kit’s friend was quite awkward in front of my camera initially. However she has this set of great looking eyes, that gave idea to the eyes in my photo album theme.

Great eyes

Head on down to my gallery to view all the pictures!

I hate to admit it, but I have a very naughty little girl. And I’m proud of it!

I’m talking about Yan Yan, the elder mischievous monkey. She started terrorizing the house the moment she is mobile. One of the earliest things she destroyed was the calendar that was hung very low.

She has an affinity towards things soft and cuddly. To be more specific, she likes cottons. Maybe this is inherent in all babies, I don’t know. My mom told me that I loved cottons too when I was small. But one thing I know, my dad always gives her cottons just to quiet her down. It is the one thing that can settle her down more effectively than can Barney.

As the months grow, she grows more and more confident of her legs. She starts jumping around. In fact she starts jumping as early as 12 months, barely after she has just learned to walk! See how confident she was at 18 months, jumping from the bed!

Jumping is not the only use of her sturdy little legs. See how well she climbs now!

I took all these pictures without her mom’s knowledge. If she’s knew, she’d stop her there and then. But I’d not stop her. I wouldn’t say that I’m encouraging her. It’s just that I’d like to see how far she can go. Sort of like taking pictures for National Geographic! That’s daddy’s little girl!

Head on down to my gallery to see more of her naughty deeds!

Yan Yan and the cottonbuds

Yan Yan the Climber

Yan Yan the Jumper