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I recently re-watched one of my favorite Wes Anderson movies, Moonrise Kingdom, which prompted me to dive down a deep, dark hole of image searches on the internet. During my frivolous search of hipster GIFs & Tumblr posts, I stumbled upon an old website posting that dissects the various meanings, interpretations, innuendos, & subtle nods behind Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola‘s popular film. After reading that old post, I started thinking about my own interpretations of this film.
I have seen this movie countless times, & each time I watch this movie, it makes me think of the storyline in a weird way. Over time, I have gathered some rather strange thoughts regarding this movie, but it still has not deterred me from watching it again. Here, I will try to gather all of my crazy thoughts in the movie’s chronological order…
SAM SHAKUSKY’S GRAPHIC WATERCOLOR PORTRAITS
Just like Bill Murray‘s character Walt Bishop asks, I also ask the same question: “What the hell am I looking at?!” No, seriously. Why is a 12-year old boy painting nude portraits of a girl/woman getting into a bath tub??? Also, just like Walt Bishop, I also wonder if Suzy sat for this portrait. (Probably not, but it looks suspiciously realistic to her image.) I love Sam‘s watercolor paintings of landscapes & city buildings, but What-The-Face is he doing sending Suzy a portrait of a bathing naked lady?! That’s both sweet & weird.
SUZY BISHOP’S CAT
GIF not accurate to the timeline of the movie, but it was the best MK cat image I could find.
What’s up with Suzy‘s cat? I mean, why’d she have to bring along her cat when she’s trying to run away from home…& then she only brought one box worth of kitten chow tins? That’s not going to sustain the cat for any period of time. Plus, the cat’s going to slow those kids down with all of its extra weight (& baggage). This cat serves no purpose on this adventure. Not to mention, the cat totally gave away the whereabouts of the runaway kids with its discarded kitten chow tin.
THE SCOUT & HIS CANOE
How does a 12-year old kid steal a miniature canoe & load it up with some fishing tackle, 10 pounds of sundries, 2 bedrolls, & an air rifle all by himself in the middle of a full boy scout camp at night, without being detected? I’ll admit the kid’s got real determination to run away with the love of his life. Let me tell you… I was in a girl scout troop for 3 years, & we never accomplished nearly as much outdoor achievements as field mate Sam Shakusky. This kid has some cajones to quit his troop, & serious skills to sneak off with a boat load of camping supplies. (No pun intended.)
KIDS WITH GUNS (NOT LITERALLY)
Look at these deadly scouts with homemade weapons! Isn’t that a tad bit excessive just to recover an escaped scout member? I mean, who says “If we find him, I’m not going to be the one who forgot to bring a weapon?”? Sam is harmless. He’s only carrying a pellet gun fer chrissake! The worst he could do would be to shoot his eye out (right, Ralphie?). Why are the other kids bringing hatchets, hunting knives, hammers, & a crudely made mace? Also, what kind of scout master allows 12-year old boys to randomly carry such sharp & dangerous objects? (Aren’t these kids still supposed to be using safety scissors? Haha!)
THE KIDS AREN’T ALRIGHT
Why are these young (unsupervised) kids playing a game of chicken, with real weapons no less, in the field of a deserted forest? This is the kind of stand-off that could rival any John Wayne shoot-em-up cowboy western. Then again, things get even more intense when all of the “Lord of The Flies-y” boys decend in mad chaos toward the young lovers on the hill. The stand-off comes to a head & there are a few unfortunate casualties. Please be warned that things get graphic & gorey at this point. It has been reported by multiple sources that when this movie was released, many movie goers got really uncomfortable by the next occuring events. For one, a dog gets shot in the neck by a stray arrow & dies. Then, one of the scouts gets stabbed in the lower back with a pair of lefty scissors. Although those scenes in a PG-13 rated movie are horrific in their own right, that’s not what got audience members cringing in their seats. No. It was the graphic scene when Sam, looming over the poor scout dog Snoopy, unceremoniously pulls & removes the very bloody arrow from the dog’s neck. If you ask me, that’s kind of being too specific in detail for a PG-13 rated movie.
TIDAL INLETS ARE THE NEW MAKE-OUT SPOTS
Does nobody care, or even notice, that these barely pubescent, adolescent teens are running around on a secluded beach in their underwear? Well, it’s not the Blue Lagoon, & Brooke Shields isn’t lying on the beach with her hair not-so-subtly covering her tits, but still. It’s super weird that these tweens are hanging out in their underwear with absolutely zero eff’s given. That’s not all…
Sam makes Suzy a pair of earrings using sharp fish hooks & some fishing tackle. Then he proceeds to pierce her ear without even disinfecting/cleaning the hooks. That sounds like a recipe for an infection if you ask me. Then…
Suzy has visions of grandeur…believing that kids with no parents lead more interesting lives. Sam immediately sets her straight about the lonliness of not having any familial structure. They may be adolescent youths, but they sure get real deep & somewhat philosophical when they chat. They even profess their love for each other.
SAM & SUZY SITTING IN A TREE…K-I-S-S-I-N-G…
When I was 12, I had barely gotten out of the “boys have cooties” phase. I was just starting to learn about kissing on the lips & holding hands. I had no real experience with kissing boys. Yet here these two love birds are, discussing the ins-&-outs of French kissing! (No pun intended, again.) According to Suzy, the tongues touch each other. These kids are becoming way too mature at such a young age, & they are weirdly too good at first-time French kissing. But wait, there’s more!
Sam pulls Suzy closer while they’re slow dancing on the beach, but lo & behold…Sam’s got a boner. Wait, this IS supposed to be a PG-13 rated movie, right? So, why are we talking about pre-teen boners? Well, naturally that’s what happens when you’re going through puberty & you’re in love. But, does she mind? No. She likes it. (Ew, gross.) Don’t worry though, this isn’t a one-sided deal here. Sam gets to cop a feel too. (Double gross.)
NIGHTY, NIGHTIE
The young lovers are asleep in their cozy bed chamber, wearing nothing but the skivvies they they danced in the day before, only to be awoken by very concerned parents, scout troop, & lone police captain. Here comes dear ol’ dad, ripping the tent right off like a nasty band-aid.
And so, we’ve reached the end. The two little love birds have tied the knot. (Not legally) All is right in the world, except for the biggest storm New Pensance has ever encountered, along with severe lightning strikes, & some harrowing rescues atop a church tower. Yet, after all that excitement, like all other Wes Anderson movies, this too must come to a happy ending.
Today’s song of the day:
Since one of my all-time favorite bands, WEEZER, recently released their new cover songs album (the TEAL ALBUM), I’ve been loving their rendition of ELO‘s famous song “Mr. Blue Sky“. I’ve kind of been listening to the entire TEAL ALBUM on repeat for the past couple of days now, & after listening to their track “Mr. Blue Sky” (which has quickly become one of my favorite tracks on the new album), it prompted me to listen to the original song as well. Then after that, I was inspired to watch a clip of this song being performed at the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
I also looked up the lyrics to this song & sought out the meaning behind band member Jeff Lynne writing this song. He originally wrote this song while hiding himself away at a Swiss ski lodge for 2 weeks. The weather was rather gloomy & uninspiring during his stay, but then one day of his stay, the skies opened up to beautiful blue skies & sunshine. That inspired Jeff Lynne to write this exact song (as well as the other songs on the band’s album “Out of The Blue”).
This particular song has been really lifting my mood lately, & I just wanted to share this with everyone. So, please enjoy this song along with me.
One thing I remember very vividly from my childhood was playing board games with my siblings & cousins. We were all pretty close in age, so we enjoyed spending time together. We loved playing games & making home movies (which would be a good topic for a separate post).
I look back now & realize that I sucked at playing games. I never read the instructions. I never wanted to follow the game rules. My older brother was super patient & nice, always offering to teach me how to play one of his more grown-up board games (like Risk, Monopoly, & Stratego). I never realized back then that he would cheat a little by not teaching me all the rules, but I also just plain sucked at playing games. I never had a sharp mind for strategy & was easily impulsive when it was my turn.
Even though I wasn’t very good at playing games (board games, card games, puzzle games, & video games especially), I enjoyed playing them. There were a few that I really liked to play, & it took me quite a while to think far back in my old memories to come up with this shortened list.
One of the very first board games that I learned to play & really liked was the iconic game Candyland. Even though I didn’t eat a lot of candy when I was a little kid, I still loved to play this sugary, candy-coated, confectionery themed board game. I think one of the reasons why I liked to play this game so much was: 1. it reminded me a lot of my favorite cartoon character of the 1980s Strawberry Shortcake, & 2. the game was easy to play due to the simple instructions.
I thought the illustrations on the board game were cute, & I’d examine all the candies & sweets. My mom wouldn’t really let me eat sugary treats that often when I was a kid. Well, I never really was interested in eating candies & sweets anyway, but I still enjoyed playing a colorful game centered around them.
I remember there was a girl who lived on my street, & we were in the same grade together. We became fast friends, & I would spend nearly every day at her house after school, listening to her mom’s classic vinyl records from the 1960s & playing tons of board games. This girl had a really fun geography game called Where In The World?, & when we played the game, we would never really follow the instructions.
When we played this game together, we’d just take the geography cards & use them to guess each country the other person was describing. There were of course many other pieces & game boards that came along with the game, along with 2 variations on how to play the game, but my school friend & I would just make up our own guessing game with the geography cards. We just had so much childish fun making up our own games & playing together after school.
Another board game I like to play when I was a little kid was Clue. It wasn’t until I became a teenager when I finally saw the Clue movie starring actor Tim Curry, but I still had fun playing this mystery, who-done-it game. I had hours of fun playing this board game, & of course every kid loved to use the secret passages on the board to move from room to room on their turns.
My school friend once let me borrow her Clue board game, which had the original packaging from 1963 (the pea green box with the big fingerprint & characters lined up on the box top), but after borrowing the game, she had moved away without giving her new address, & we both had totally forgotten that I had borrowed the board game from her. It wasn’t until a long time later, when my parents were cleaning out a storage closet, when they stumbled upon it & asked me if I still wanted to keep it. I had no way to return this board game back to this schoolmate, as we had not only lost contact, but also had grown apart & our friendship was broken up (to a point of unsalvageable, but I’ll save that for another post). I think playing this board game played a part in my future interest in solving logic puzzles (you know the ones from those cheap $1.99 magazines at the grocery store).
Ok, so I didn’t learn about this murder-myster party game until I was a much older teenager, but when I first saw this game at the toy store, I knew it would be so much fun to play. I loved dressing up in costumes back then, & I thought it would be fun to play a role-playing mystery game with all of my high school friends.
I even planned my sweet 16th birthday around one of these party games. I tried to decorate my house in the theme of the game, & sent out invitations to all my friends asking them to dress up in costume (but none of them decided to dress up, which I didn’t mind). We had a great time guessing the mystery of the game’s story & having fun snacks. It made my birthday quite fun & memorable.
As I’m writing this blog post I’m also simultaneously watching the movie Pirate Radio again for the umpteenth time. I think I’ve already watched this movie three times in the past month or so. This movie is one of my favorites, & I’ll never get tired of watching it. It’s gotten to the point where I can practically recite parts of the movie’s dialogue right along with the movie.
Jian, of course, finds my movie watching habits boring (& sometimes predictable), but I don’t mind one bit. I like rewatching my favorite movies over & over & over…without any shame or embarassment. As a matter of fact, I’m going to end this post & finish watching the end of this movie (which is one of my favorite scenes). Until next time, cheers, mates!
Rabbits & Foxes 
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