Toy Story 3 Outing

I have three kids with birthdays within a month of each other in June and July. I wanted to take them to see Toy Story 3 as sort of a day with Dad thing. I took half a day off from work to take them. I decided to include Henry, my four year old son, too, since I thought he could sit without making it too difficult and he would enjoy the movie. I considered taking Sophia, my two year old daughter, who absolutely loves Toy Story 2... but really had some fears about her ability to sit still through the movie or maybe having one of those two year old freak-out fits that she has sometimes and that I would have to change a diaper away from home (which I really hate) and we were seeing it in 3D and I had doubts about her ability to deal with the glasses for the whole movie and how she could generally really make the whole experience a drag if things went badly.

Now, I really thought all those things and I talked myself into not taking her. My wife said she didn't want to be the one to tell her because she would be heart-broken. I just thought we wouldn't tell her and it would be all good. But Becca, my wife, brought up the fact that the other kids would be talking about it when they got home and Sophia is no stooge, she's gonna know she missed it. So I thought just turn on Toy Story 2 for her here at home while we are at the movies and she'll be happy as can be. Becca would not even consider that because she said if she was at home with Sophia and most of us were gone she would not sit Sophia in front of the TV. She just couldn't do it. That's my wife... always thinking of the kids.

In the end... If you go back and re-read the last two paragraphs with the perspective of how selfish they really are (i.e. how selfish I am), you will see why I ended up thinking about it and realizing that it's not about me. Yes, I took her with us. She did great. She sat still and quiet and watched the movie all the way through. She did not like the 3D glasses much, but who can blame her? They were HUGE on her. I did have to change a diaper, but look... I am still alive and didn't suffer any permanent damage. Apparently the cutoff age for having to pay for a movie ticket is ONE so her ticket cost the same $8 matinée price as all the rest of us. Ouch. Yes, a matinée with me and five kids was $48 and I didn't buy a single kernel of popcorn or a bottle of water. No wonder movies make millions.

So, we had a good time... all of us. We made memories and it was actually my initiative to put the outing together which is something I am historically bad at. I worried it from my selfish perspective thinking how miserable I could be if the little ones acted badly and almost made a decision that would have come back on me later like bad tacos. I would've regretted it and would not have been able to take it back. I thank God that He softened my heart for my daughter and allowed me to give up the worry and enjoy the time. Consider that if you start to worry yourself into something like that.

Quality Entertainment

My dad and I used to call movies "Quality Entertainment." It was just kind of a joke we had for whatever reason. I don't remember how it started or even when. When it comes to movies, "quality" is a word that doesn't apply in some cases.

I am a big movie lover. I own a bunch and we rent some and guys at work trade movies to view. Some are good, entertaining... Some are not so much. Some are violent, profane... ah, there's issue. Langauge.

My wife and I have always been very picky about what we let our kids watch. We get the usual comments and looks when people hear that Brother Bear has never been watched at our house. Neither have many other titles, Disney or not. We also pre-watch anything the kids are going to watch. In some cases, the movies are excellent movies with great stories but the only real problem is the language. I am not exactly sure why they feel the need to put so much profanity into movies these days. Maybe that's how they talk, but I don't and most of the people I know don't, either. But my kids have missed out on some fun movies due to language issues with them.

Well... here enters the geek in me. I knew there were companies out there that edited movies for content and sold "clean" copies of them. I kind of checked into it and they do exist and seem to have a limited selection of things. There is also the "ClearPlay" DVD player that edits movies as you watch. It's relatively cheap and the monthly subscription fee is only about $7 I think. It looks to be a very cool deal. BUT, being on the short end of the cash machine right now and being a total geek that loves a good challenge, I decided to try and edit them myself.

This whole thing started with my wife and I saying that our 13 year old son, Ben, would probably enjoy Jurassic Park without being too scared of it now that he is a "big boy." So, I watched it again to make sure it was alright for him and was surprised at the langauge used in it. It's funny how you see things differently when looking through the eyes of your children. There were about 15 places in the movie that had language I considered offensive, minor or otherwise. A few were what I would consider pretty harsh. Well, my kids aren't going to watch that.

At that point I got to wondering if I could edit a movie and how I would go about it. I took Jurassic Park, which I own on DVD, and ripped the video and audio of the movie into files and imported those files into a video editing software. That one sentence does not exactly express the trouble I went through to get this done. I tried several different software packages for video ripping and audio ripping and finally found the ones I liked and tried many ways to get the quality I wanted and finally got the settings for all parts. The actual editing is just a matter of watching through the movie in the editor and marking each place I want to edit in the timeline of the editor. Then I go back to each marked place and take the audio volume down on the center channel for the offensive words. (Note: while editing Apollo 13, I had to edit the front surround channels for some of the words as the voices came through on those channels, too).

After editing it all, I just use a DVD authoring software to put it back onto a DVD. It really sounds like it could be a total pain to do, and I won't say it's easy, but it's not that bad, really. And I enjoy doing it. My wife calls it my new hobby. Maybe, but the kids got to watch Jurassic Park, which scared my 8 and 10 year olds to death. Neither of them made it through. The 13 year old loved it.

After Jurassic Park, I did the next two Jurrasic Park movies, The Lost World and Jurassic Park III. Right now I am working on Apollo 13 and The Incredibles. What's that you say? What could I be editing out of The Incredibles? Ya, I know this is super picky, but that scene where Mr. Incredible and Mirage sit at a table and chit chat with a little harmless flirting. I know, it's a ticky-tack thing to have a problem with but we felt uncomfortable enough when we saw it that it kept us from showing the kids the movie. But I cut it out and now it's watchable.

I am not sure what will hit the editor next, but we'll see when we get there. As a note for anyone wondering about copyright and piracy... I own the actual, real DVDs of all the movies I have edited. And I don't sell the clean copies of the movies to anyone else.