Evans Above

It’s pretty weird. It’s only the beginning of December, but I’m pretty sure I heard Santa’s sleigh landing on our mailbox. Looking inside this week I noticed that Christmas came early in the form of three new Blu-Ray/DVD combo sets from Disney: the Up 3D 5-Disc Combo Pack, the Finding Nemo 3D: Ultimate Collector’s Edition 5-Disc Combo Pack and The Odd Life of Timothy Green 2-Disc Combo Pack.

Up tells the story of Carl Fredericksen (Ed Asner) a curmudgeonly 78-year-old balloon seller and widower who straps thousands of helium balloons to avoid getting sent off to the Shady Oaks Retirement Home. As he floats off to South America he discovers a surprise passenger, a young Wilderness Explorer Scout named Russell (Jordan Nagai). They end up in an adventure that has them crossing paths with a crazy explorer (Christipher Plummer), an exotic bird named Kevin and Dug (Bob Peterson), a golden retriever fitted with a voice box. As per Pixar standards, there’s laughs and heartfelt moments galore.

The Up 3D 5-Disc Combo Pack contains the Blu-Ray 3D version (requires a 3D-compatible TV and Blu-Ray player), the regular Blu-Ray version, Blu-Ray bonus features disc, a DVD version and a digital copy for your computer or portable device. The 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is stunning and the 3D immerses into the world that Carl and Russell set off to explore. You’re further brought into the action by the 5.1 surround sound. The 2D Blu-Ray is just as stunning. Extras include Cine-Explore Commentary with picture-in-picture commentary and storyboards, animated shorts and several documentaries.

Finding Nemo won our hearts in 2D back in 2003 and came back with a 3D version in 2012. When a young clownfish named Nemo gets captured, it’s up to his father Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) to find him. He’s aided by a blue tang fish named Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) who’s eager to help but has short-term memory issues. Toss in pelicans and seagulls, sea turtles and sharks and you’ve got an underwater adventure for the whole family. Again the 1080p transfer is amazing and the 3D version immerses us (excuse the pun) in their underwater world. A TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack will have you feeling like you need scuba gear. Extras include a Cine-Explore Documentary and a whole seafood platter of featurettes , deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes looks.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green 2-Disc Combo Pack brings us the story of a married couple (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton) who dream what their child would be like only to have a young boy (CJ Adams) appear on their doorstep. No 3D here and the sound isn’t as immersive as the magical worlds above. Some may find the story a little too sweet and sentimental. Extra include a music video and director commentary.

People who love these films and want to add them to their collections, can’t go wrong with these versions.

If you haven’t seen the video “Wilder” by a singer named Gnesa, then you can count yourself among the lucky ones. In days, or perhaps hours, you won’t be able to escape the onslaught of news outlets that will play clips and ponder whether this is better or worse than Rebecca Black’s ode to awful, “Friday”.

Gnesa’s video does not come off as an ad for Auto-Tune, which appears to have either been turned off or incapable of containing the ear-bleeding insanity that Gnesa uses as vocal stylings.

The video, which features poor singing, bland direction, bad outfits and trowel-applied makeup, must surely be the first wave of the “cyber Pearl Harbor” that U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has warned us about.

Listen at your own risk. I had to stop about 58 seconds in.

Batman’s ride from The Dark Knight Rises has hit the road across Canada and made a couple of stops in Toronto today. The Tumbler, along with the two-wheeled Bat-Pod, are spending a week in Canada. It’s at Yonge & Eglinton until 7pm today.

Here are the remaining stops on the tour:

• Friday, June 8 – Sick Kids Hospital – Herbie Day 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. (Yonge-Dundas Square, 1 Dundas St. E., Toronto, On)
• Saturday, June 9 – La Coupole Restaurant 4 p.m. – 1 a.m. (1325 Boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest, Montreal, Qc – Inside Hotel Le Crystal)
• Saturday, June 10 – Crescent Street Grand Prix Festival – 9 a.m. – 6 p.m MINI Grand Showcase (Crescent St. between Ste. Catherine & Maisonneuve, Montreal, Qc)

It’s great to see these vehicles up close. The Dark Knight Rises opens July 20th, 2012.

Did you buy a ticket in the Mega Millions lottery in the U.S.? If your ticket has the following numbers, we’re guessing Monday morning is going to be quite different for you:

2, 4, 23, 38, 46 with a mega number of 23.

Got all the winning numbers? You’re looking at a $640 million jackpot. Even after taxes…well, you’re still our best friend. Wow, you really look great tonight.

Saturday March 31st is 2012’s Earth Hour, an hour to reflect on how small gestures can begin to make a world of change.

If you really don’t know how to participate in Earth Hour, this hilarious video from actress/singer Jax can give you a head start:

To all my fellow Welshmen I’d like to wish a Happy St. David’s Day or Dydd Gŵyl Dewi.

Who is St. David, you ask? Well, he’s the patron saint of Wales and the poor guy apparently didn’t have as good a PR guy as that Patrick fellow.

On St. Patrick’s Day, people in Toronto of all backgrounds line up for hours to get into bars to buy overpriced green beer and puke all while pretending they’re Irish.

On St. David’s Day, well, no one lines up in Toronto to wear daffodils or leeks. People don’t put on a Tom Jones CD, watch a Richard Burton movie, or read Dylan Thomas poems. It’s a shame really.

I saw this in my Twitter feed earlier today and man, Papa John’s Pizza’s PR people are going to have to dance pretty fast to fix this one.

Customer Minhee Cho went to an NYC location Friday night to make an in-store purchase. On of the sales staff typed a note on the receipt so they could identify who the order was for. What did they type? “lady chinky eyes”

Really? On what planet is that an acceptable way to label a customer? How stupid, insensitive and racist is this employee? When the Huffington Post contacted the assistant manager, she said, “I apologize. I’m sure they didn’t mean any harm but some people will take it offensive.”

Some people? You mean the intelligent ones, right? It’ll be a real exercise in corporate spin to see how head office handles this one.

Maybe you haven’t heard of Angie Varona. Maybe you didn’t know that when she was 14, the now 18-year-old Miami teen put some photos of herself in bikinis and bras and panties up on her Photobucket account which was subsequently hacked, turning her into one of the most Googled 14-year-olds out there.

Fast forward four years and now she’s talking to ABC News Nightline and getting interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America. The teen cries in the Nightline piece. She wishes the photos had never made it out on to the internet. The parents lament that her life has changed.

But why, oh why, did ABC think it was appropriate to show the photos? During the GMA piece I saw this morning, the photos slowly scrolled across the screen like some Ken Burns Civil War documentary. They’re not nude photos, they’re probably not much more than you’d see on the beach, but if the piece is about the devastating effects they’ve had on Angie Varona’s life, what’s the point of showing them again? I mean it’s not like it’s November sweeps…oh, never mind.

Dear twenty-something walking ahead of me in black leggings and a bomber jacket,

It’s Tuesday morning. On a busy street.

I really don’t think I should know this much about the shape of your ass unless I’m slapping into it.

Just sayin’

I was just looking at this photo of Lindsay Lohan on The Superficial. She was a guest at Kim Kardashian’s product placement episode wedding on the weekend. A few things come to mind:

Nice picture of Dina Lohan and her grandmother daughter.

Hooray for open bars. I mean the probation order didn’t say she couldn’t drink, right?

Lindsay is 25. Twenty-five. If this is what she looks like now, I’m terrified to see next year week.

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