I wasn’t alive to see Goofy’s shorts in the theaters, but I have always loved them when I’ve seen them on TV. Humphrey the Bear will always remain my favorite Disney shorts star, but the Goofy “How to” cartoons are a close second.

When I first read that John Lassetter was bringing back Disney shorts, I was really excited. Pixar has been making short cartoons to give talented artists, musicians, and the like at Pixar a shot at directing their own cartoons. The Pixar shorts have become as exciting to me as Pixar’s full length features.

I wanted to see this short in front of National Treasure 2 in the theaters, but I didn’t get a chance to go before the movie was no longer available in our area. So, I scoured the internet for months afterward looking for the short, only coming up with a 30 second preview. That preview was great, showing Goofy being enamored with a big screen TV only to have his shopping cart bump into an impossibly huge TV bigger than my living room.

iTunes now has How to Hook Up Your Home Theater on their service, so I purchased it as soon as I found out. The wait was well worth it. The 30 second preview really was just a teaser. While it was humorous, the rest of the short was laugh out loud funny. It was also so amazingly faithful to the 50’s shorts I loved to watch on the Disney Channel as a little girl.

Sometimes short cartoons end on a weird note, as if the writers had lost steam by the end and just didn’t know how to end it. That was not the case at all here. The ending was perfect, and pure Goofy craziness. After this, I’m excited to what the new Pixar-led Disney will do with new shorts starring other classic characters. How about a Humphrey cartoon next? :)

Wow, was this a jam-packed movie. There is so much here that it took me several viewings before I was able to absorb it all. The plot is fantastic. I’ve always been a huge fan of time travel stories (I loved the Futurama episode Roswell that Ends Well). But, Bender’s Big Score made my head spin the first few times I watched it trying to figure out the twists and turns in the plot. After it all sank in, I enjoyed it much more.

I have always liked the songs in Futurama, so I was glad to see their return here. I loved the first song where they broke out into song on a whim (as a matter of fact I have that song stuck in my head right now). The second song, a rap at Santa’s workshop, wasn’t bad but it wasn’t particularly my cup of tea.

It was great that they managed to squeeze in so many characters here. Some of the characters, in my opinion, work better in moderation (the robot mafia, Zapp Brannigan and Kif Kroker), so I was glad that the movie mainly focused on the Planet Express crew even though the entire Earth was involved in the plot.

I have always loved Futurama because it has so much depth. Despite being an animated comedy, some episodes of Futurama really tugged on my heart strings. Bender’s Big Score doesn’t quite reach the emotional level of episodes such as The Sting or The Luck of the Fryrish, but the conclusion of the love triangle that was one of the main story threads was really touching.

I enjoyed Escape from Monkey Island quite a bit. It had it’s share of flaws, but it is still a wonderful game. This game uses an updated version of the interface LucasArts first used in Grim Fandango. I still miss the point and click interface found in the classic LucasArts adventures, but thankfully Escape from Monkey Island has some enhancements that make the game more enjoyable. An addition I enjoyed is the welcome return of combining items in inventory. This has always been a staple of the puzzles in the Monkey Island series, so I was very glad to see that the new interface allowed this.

The storyline in Escape from Monkey Island is one of the things that turned many fans off from the game. There are a lot of contradictions here from the story set forth in the previous games, but I wasn’t concerned at all about these. When you are dealing with a series that is heavily based in voodoo magic and evil curses, it’s not hard to imagine how these plot holes could be realistically resolved in a future installment. The storyline was enthralling, the jokes were funny, and the cutscenes were entertaining. It was great to see LeChuck doing something other than blindly chasing Elaine, and seeing LeChuck’s transformation abilities back in action for the first time since The Secret of Monkey Island was a real treat. It was also nice to see a different villain at center stage for once, with LeChuck playing second fiddle throughout most of the game.

There were only two things that bothered me about this game. First was that it included a few puzzles with strange logic. This was the same hang-up that plagued Grim Fandango. The first time I played through the game, I got through the file sorting puzzle by luck. The swamp time puzzle is the most puzzling of all. I don’t think I would have ever figured it out without consulting a walk-through. The other thing that bugged me was the monkey kombat stages at the end of the game. Unlike the odd puzzles, this was cause for me to almost give up the game in frustration. The sword fighting mini-games in the first and third games were fun, but this game was not fun at all. Having to write down monkey noise combinations to do martial arts moves was tedious, and in the end it didn’t seem rewarding. Thankfully, the monkey kombat parts were short and the final scenes of the game were very cinematic and entertaining, so it didn’t stop my enjoyment of the game too much.

I love LeChuck’s Revenge as much as The Secret of Monkey Island, and it is one of my favorite LucasArts games. From the moment the credits started with a darker rendition of the Monkey Island theme, it was clear that this game was going to be darker than the original game (although I’d have to say I almost like this theme better than the one in the original). Even Guybrush seemed a bit edgier than before (especially the creepy parts in the cemetary), but even with the darker elements none of the game seemed like it would be out of place in the game world that was introduced in The Secret of Monkey Island.

I usually don’t like sequels, as I prefer off-shoots that use the same setting and some of the same characters but are otherwise mostly story-independent (Day of the Tentacle for example). But, here, the advancement of the storyline seemed to work. The original had slight voodoo overtones, with the Voodoo priestess and the Monkey Island cannabals, but in LeChuck’s revenge it was brought to a whole new level. Voodoo is heavily involved in LeChuck’s revenge, and it all makes sense within the Monkey Island game world.

About the only thing that I wish Monkey Island 2 had was a proper sequel. The Curse of Monkey Island was a wonderful game, but I can’t help but feel bummed that the ending of LeChuck’s Revenge was never really resolved in either of the subsequent Monkey Island sequels.

Grim Fandango is so cinematic, with such a beautiful score and a wonderful script, it could easily be made into a movie. Almost everything else in this game is exceptional, as the voice acting, artwork, and sound effects are all top notch.

Grim Fandango is the first three dimensional adventure game that LucasArts made, and the Grim Fandango team decided to use the limits in the technology at the time to their advantage. The characters in video games were blocky with limited expression, so the calavera masks from the Mexican Day of the Dead festival fit the available 3D capabilities perfectly. It let Tim Schafer tell a compelling story without the audience feeling like they were pulled out of the experience by the limited technology.

There are a few problems though. Grim Fandango is the first three dimensional adventure game that LucasArts made, so unfortunately with the change of art direction came a change of control as well. Grim Fandango gives you complete control of the main character, Manny Calavera, rather using than the traditional point and click interface that previous LucasArts adventure games employed. The problem with this is that it didn’t work too well.

Rather than having Manny walk in the direction that you press on the joystick or keyboard, for some reason it was decided to give him a control method similar to those used in racing games. Forward makes Manny move forward and Backward makes him walk backward. Pressing left or right makes him spin around in a circle, but he doesn’t move in that direction unless you are also pressing up or down. The problem is that Manny often enters rooms on the top of the screen, so pressing up makes him go down. I got so frustrated in Rubacava when I kept going down that elevator when I didn’t want to.

Another problem that Grim Fandango has that many other adventure games sadly suffer is odd or frustrating puzzles. Some of the puzzles are borderline evil, such as the infamous tumbler puzzle, since the game gives you no hint on how to line things up properly. Then there are puzzles that are just bizarre. A lot of adventure games have a strange logic about their puzzles, but usually you can get an idea of out of the ordinary puzzles just by applying the game world’s rules to your logic rather than real life logic. Here though, I would never have figured out some of the puzzles without a walkthough, as the solutions of the puzzles are so out-of-left-field. The solution to disarm a bomb is the biggest example of this. I never would have thought of that solution in a million years, and after I completed the puzzle I’m still scratching my head over it.

As long as you can get used to the controls though, the rest of the problems are easily off-set by the game’s amazing length. The game comes on two CD-ROMs and encompasses four game years. The game deals with Mexican folklore, specifically the Day of the Dead and the traditional belief that a person must journey four long years through the Land of the Dead to get to her final resting place, unless she led a very good life. The story weaved through this tradition is fantastic. It evokes a film noir feel, with some similaries to Casablanca, especially in year two. Peter McConnell’s score is one of LucasArts’ best, which is saying something, as most of their games have had exceptional music. Some games I enjoyed had an excellent storyline but had fiddly controls and weird puzzles, so I probably would most likely never play them again (such as AdventureSoft’s Feeble Files). Grim Fandango is not this way for me. I can endure the weird interface to experience Grim Fandango’s great story, and the odd and frustrating puzzles are very few-and-far-between considering the game’s length.

Much like my other favorite movie trilogy, Back to the Future, the Last chapter of the Indy trilogy takes the movie back to its roots after a dark second chapter.

In The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones is once again hired to search after an artifact with holy powers that is described in the Hebrew bible. This time however, Indiana Jones does not search for the artifact for fortune and glory, but rather because the last man who was in charge with finding it has disappeared: Indy’s father.

A film wouldn’t be an Indy film without great stunts, and The Last Crusade features my favorites of the trilogy: the boat chase scene and the tank scene. The boat chase sequence in particular had me on the edge of my seat, with Indy going head to head (literally) against an outboard motor on a cargo ship.

But it is the chemistry between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford as father and son that makes me love this movie so much. Sean Connery is just adorable in this movie as a professor who is more academic than adventurous. His reactions to the violence going on around him are wonderful. I love the scene when Henry Jones Sr. uses his knowledge of book passages to defeat a Nazi airplane using just an umbrella and a flock of seagulls. After that point, Harrison Ford’s uncanny ability to convey words using just his face are used to great affect here, as you can see a great deal of affection towards his father in Indy’s eyes.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is different than the rest of the movies in the series, but I still find it to be very enjoyable and worthy of it’s place alongside the other excellent Indiana Jones adventures.

The movie begins with Indiana Jones traveling to Shanghai to acquire a large diamond from a man named Lao Che. He narrowly escapes, only to fly off on an airplane owned by Lao. The pilots empty the gas, parachute off the plane and leave Indy, his love interest, and sidekick to die. As the plane is about to crash, Indy and crew make a miraculous escape down a mountain, across a raging river, and straight into a poor Indian village.

It is here that the tone of the story diverges from the other Indy films. Temple of Doom is much darker in tone than the other movies in the series. The story, which deals with human sacrifice, kidnapping, and child slavery, was conceived by George Lucas during a dark period in his life.

That said, Temple of Doom is still a very enjoyable movie. The music is great as always, Harrison Ford is still wonderful as Indiana Jones, and there are some great stuntwork such as a mine cart chase that has become a movie staple in much the same way as the truck chase in Raiders. Even with the dark story, it is still very much classic Indiana Jones.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a great action movie, and though I feel The Last Crusade was the ultimate Indiana Jones adventure, Raiders is still a definite classic.

The beginning scene with Indiana Jones searching for an idol in a temple full of traps sets the movie off to a great start. The scene with the giant boulder has become a classic. The other stunts in this movie are not quite as over-the-top nerve-wrenchers, but scenes such as the truck chase have become movie staples in their own right.

The score to this movie is one of my favorites of all time. This is John Williams at his best, as the music fits the characters and situations perfectly.

The cast is strong. Harrison Ford is the perfect man to play Indiana Jones since he has such a natural charisma about him. I loved Marion Ravenwood. It was wonderful to see a love interest portrayed as a strong woman, rather than the typical damsel-in-distress mold. From the moment she was introduced out-drinking men in a bar in Nepal, I knew she was going to be a great character. Karen Allen is perfect in the part. Even when she is scared out of her mind, Karen still exudes a true sense of confidence and self-empowerment.

The story here is what sets this movie apart from other action movies. The nazis are after the Ark of the Covenant, which supposedly has great power from God which would make any army that is in possession of the ark virtually indestructible. The Hebrew bible contains many of the greatest stories of all time, so it’s great to see one of those stories used so well as a story element in a Hollywood blockbuster.

I’m always up for trying new things, so when I was invited to two social networking sites, I figured it would be fun to try them out. There’s a lot of these out there now, and as of this moment, I’m only on two.

One of those sites I signed up for was MySpace. My mom ran into my cousin, and she gave my mom her MySpace name and asked that she and I contact her through MySpace. My mom already had a MySpace account, but I hadn’t yet set one up for myself, so I did it. MySpace isn’t as easy to use as Tagged, but it isn’t as chuck full of ads, which is a big plus in my book. It also has a lot of really cute features, such as the music player that can be themed to display a girl moving her head along with the music that you choose for your page. I’m a sucker for cute little things like that. :)

Both Tagged and MySpace offer blogging abilities, but I doubt that I’ll use them much, as I really enjoy blogging at Wordpress.

I have been a fan of LucasArts’ adventure games since I was a little girl. They are timeless classics that I can play again and again and enjoy them just as much as I did the first time I played them. However, all old DOS programs are becoming less and less likely to play correctly on newer computers with each new version of Windows that comes out.

That’s where ScummVM comes in. A group of programmers have worked very hard over the years to get all 12 of the classic LucasArts adventure games written in the language created for Maniac Mansion, SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion), to play from their program. Each of these games play very close to the original DOS programs, and now they can be run from modern versions of Windows with no fuss!

The programmers have also been working very hard over the years to add in new games that weren’t created by LucasArts. Three of these games have even been released by their original copyright holders for free! Without ScummVM, I would have never known about these other classic games. I was always stuck in a bubble playing only LucasArts adventures with a Sierra game thrown in occasionally. Now, thanks to the fact that I was introduced to great games such as Beneath a Steel Sky and the Broken Sword series thanks to ScummVM, I hold Revolution Software in great esteem right alongside LucasArts and Telltale Games as one of my favorite adventure game developers.