Ben’s away for a couple of days, and promises to see straighter when he returns from laser surgery. However, if you wish to see how he saw things before his peepers went under the light knife, be sure to read his latest reviews. He examined Ratatouille at the end of last week, where he did the predictable thing and sided with all the other critics in loving the Rat. I haven’t seen the film yet myself, having been out of action much of the past few months while having a baby (well, my wife did that, really, but you know what I mean), and now I’m waiting on getting a Blu-ray player so that I can catch it in hi-def. (I have about a dozen Blu-ray discs now, but no player!) I also picked up the Pixar shorts Blu-ray, because despite Ben’s lukewarm take on it due to its questionable value on DVD, I was pleased to have the chance to have all those shorts in HD. In his latest review, posted over the weekend, Ben offers his thoughts on Shrek The Third, a movie that he says is the latest in DreamWorks’ “increasingly tired fairytale spoof.” (Apparently, he wasn’t swayed by the quote on the DVD’s cover!) With him commenting that the film has “script issues (that) are all too evident,” I certainly find myself on the fence about risking a blind buy, despite my pathological compulsion to purchase every animated film on HD (in this case HD DVD). Maybe I’ll wait for a sale.

In theatres this past weekend, Disney had the first place finisher over the weekend, as Enchanted brought in 35 million dollars. The hybrid, which contains hand-drawn animation as well as live action, marks a partial return to traditional animation by the Disney studio, and has gotten decent reviews, so it looks to be a good one to check out. Beowulf fell to third place at the box office, though still did a reasonable 16 million dollars domestically and has already made over 100 million dollars worldwide.

Anyhoo, toon in tomorrow for my review on the last Super Friends series, a review that would have been up tonight if I didn’t have to write this blurb! But that’s okay; at least you get one review to enjoy for today, with more on the way soon. True, I could have had the review up earlier, but my screener was scratched and had to be replaced, and this weekend I had to go in to work (yes, I have a “real job”) on Saturday, and on Sunday I had the pleasure of watching my team win the Canadian football championship. (“Go Riders!!”) So, well… it made for a pretty short weekend. I hope that all our American readers enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday, which I’m sure for many of you also involved watching lots of football. It’s back to work again this week, but hang in there, folks— just one month ‘til Christmas!