Queue Tips: As wonderful as the sun.

"Phoebe in Wonderland" was a wonderful film.  Elle Fanning's performance was touching.  It is a well done film by fairly new director Daniel Barnz.

I recently saw a DVD of "My Neighbor Totoro" with Elle and Dakota Fanning doing the voices of the girls.  I wasn't too crazy about it.  I had gotten so used to the previous version.  Also, a few words were changed here and there.  Maybe someday, I'll give it another shot, but for now I'll stick to the original English dub.  Or, I might just stick to the even more original Japanese soundtrack.

That's actually how I saw "Ponyo".  I've never watched it with the English audio version.  I can't do it.  I just love the cadence of the language.  It's not the same otherwise.

There's this other cartoon by Studio Ghibili that I like called "Pom Poko".  I think the title means "racoon" but I'm not sure.  It's a very interesting film.  For some reason -- and I'm sorry to ruin the surprise -- they drew them with really big balls that you see whenever they would jump or something.  It was just a little odd because you'd figure the animators' jobs would be so much easier if they had decided to leave out those details.  Instead, they seemed to go out of their way to draw those bouncing testicles.

Speaking of balls, I thought it was very bold of Dakota to star in "Hounddog".  This film received some attention because of the young girl appearing in some somewhat controversial scenes.  Apart from that, this film was really nothing special.  I guess it's worth watching if you're curious about all the hoopla surrounding it.  Yes, hoopla.

A better option might be "The Secret Life of Bees".  Tristan Wilds is in it also, if you became a fan of him on "The Wire".  Last I checked, he was on some teen series on the CW Network, but I guess I'm not that big a fan.  I don't remember what that show was, but I don't think I'll be seeing it on my queue.