I just had a moment of melting childhood softspot when I saw this link to Le roi et l’oiseau on DVD Times on Spyhunter’s blog. It was apparently renamed The King and the Mockingbird in English, but was never subtitled (Good! I hate subtitles - but not half as much as I despise dubbing! Just don’t get me started on that one!)

I’m sure my sisters remember as well as I do watching this movie around Christmas, with the giant robot who sits on the pile of rubble, thinking about his lost friends. While the story is a bit fuzzy in my mind, I clearly remember the slow-moving story and the scarce dialog. In a way, it was a great way to get some quiet time amidst the crazy (and very noisy) French-Canadian family get togethers.

On the note of family get togethers and Christmas parties, I was thinking a few days ago how glad I am that neither my Canadian family or British relatives here have smoking houses. I couldn’t imagine how oppressive a dozen smokers getting together at Christmas would feel, on top of the heavy feeling brought on by too much eating and drinking, by the general noise of having so many people together. Thank Dog for non-smoking houses!