Your skills are complete

I have created a monster. A Star Wars fanboy monster.

Thanks to the Webmaster’s ability to rip the audio from DVDs and put them on mp3 CDs for the car, we have been listening often to our favorite movies as we drive around, to and from school. Our current selection includes:
Cars (yeah, that was a no-brainer)
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Finding Nemo
Lilo & Stitch
The Incredibles
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi

Now, on long trips (the 2 and a half hour drive to Nana and Papa’s house, for example), we have, in the past, hooked up the portable DVD player in the car and let the kids watch movies or videos on the way down. Our 2000 Honda Odyssey does not have a DVD player – which is probably a good thing, because if it did, the kids would be begging to watch stuff all the time. And they watch too much TV as it is.

But with the audio discs, they can hear the movies and let their imaginations run wild. They now have these movies memorized so well that even Tad – TAD! – can recite lines and catch audio cues and say lines perfectly in sync with the movie.

This is something that my Dad did when I was growing up. Back in ye olden days of the 80’s, he would tape off our favorite movies onto cassette tapes, which we would then get to listen to on our trips to visit family in Portland, Oregon – and we went quite frequently when my Great Obachan was still alive.

So, here I am, with the 21st century version of my own childhood.

And it has paid off in great hilarity. The best example is Tad, when listening to the end of Star Wars. He has the whole sequence so perfectly memorized that even if we’re just listening to the soundtrack, with no additional audio, he beeps and whistles with R2-D2, claps and cheers when the Rebel troops do, and then as the music builds to its final crescendo, with the tableau of our heroes looking out at the crowd right before the credits roll, Tad starts waving and calling, “Bye!”

And then he sings along with the music. I have got to get it on video sometime.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 1:15 am and is filed under Children, Media.
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