Flushed Away
March 12th, 2007
Most of the recent computer-animated movies feel like endless remakes of Toy Story. This one, about the adventures of a bunch of mice in the London sewers, is produced by Aardman of Wallace & Gromit, and it’s more inventive and, for my money, funnier than your regular Pixar flick. We’ve all come to expect the winking references that are supposed to fly over the kids’ heads (like the cockroach reading Kafka) — but Flushed Away also has visual quotes from Akira. Voices by Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Bill Nighy, and Jean Reno as “Le Frog.” Fun.
Flushed Away. David Bowers and Sam Fell, 2006. ***
Project Logic
December 4th, 2005
It wasn’t easy getting out of the house after 11 on a freezing December night, but the Project Logic late set at Blue Note was worth the effort. DJ Logic had a bunch of swingin’ cats sit in who gave the groove a distinctly New Orleanean flavor. The beats chugged on till 3:30am, and by then the tables covered in overpriced drinks had been pushed aside for some seriously illegal dancing (Blue Note doesn’t have a cabaret license.) When we left, the village was covered in the first snow of the season, and in Washington Square Park, giddy NYU kids were running around with the rats.
