Monday, 24 September 2007

Begging For A Pixar Show Bag at ACMI


I had Thursday off thus creating an extra long weekend for myself because I am getting Monday off as well, because grandma Ettie is here to visit Bree. Stella had an appointment at the dentist and was also invited to celebrate her friend’s birthday party. It was kind of weird to have the party on a weekday afternoon and Stella’s mum wasn’t looking forward to it because it was based on the Disney Princess theme.

After reading for 6 hours, I decided to take a break by going out for a walk. I was meant to just go down to the Ferris wheel by the Yarra to take a few pictures and ended up paying $15.00 to check out this popular exhibition at ACMI called “Pixar: 20 Years of Animation”.

I enjoyed the exhibition more than expected. It was interesting to see how much effort the artists put in to create the movies or short features that we enjoy at the cinemas. They actually made 3D models, to show everyone involved in the production the size of each character in relation to the rest of the characters. The whole process seemed pretty time consuming. I used to think that they used only computers to create this form of animation but it turned out that they still use traditional techniques in the process. I was of course delighted to see the magical Toy Story Zoetrope. Although I knew what it was, I refused to believe that I was still looking at the same figurines for a little while. I kept telling myself that when they started to spin real fast, someone must have removed the figurines discretely and replaced them with a screen to show the same characters doing their stuff. LOL. The Zoetrope is not suitable for people with certain medical conditions because they use Strobe lights, but I actually found the Artscape experience dizzying for some reason.

To me, the service was pretty good at first. The lady who sold me my ticket was friendly. The guy who checked in my backpack was friendly. The lady who checked my ticket was also friendly. At the entrance of the exhibition, I was welcomed by another lady, who gave me the leaflet as pictured here. She too was friendly. The attendants at the Zoetrope and the Artscape were friendly and cheerful. I almost gave the whole experience a thumbs-up until I witnessed what I would consider as pretty ugly on the way out. What I think is ugly may not have been necessarily ugly to other people, especially among those who are totally desensitized in the rat race of life.

I was on my way out. Immediately in front of me was a casually dressed young couple in their late 20’s. In front of them were 4 tall men (3 in power suits), chatting to the two attendants there while blocking the rest of us from exiting. After they stepped onto the escalators, the couple in front of me moved forward. They asked for a show bag. The attendant asked them bluntly if they had any children. Her body language was clear that they were not entitled to the show bag. The couple did answer yes to the question but the attendant only reluctantly gave them one after a long pause. There was another attendant but he didn’t speak the whole time. I didn’t bother to ask for one. As much as I enjoy the movies made by Pixar, I can live without too many products linked to licensed characters. Super sensitive me didn’t like the way the couple was treated, especially because the attendants were super friendly to the 4 men in black before the couple. When I did finally get up to the next level, I did see the men again. They were just men (probably from offices nearby) without their wives and kids. This is what I noted. One man had five show bags, the second man had 3, the third man had one and the youngest of the 4 didn’t have any. So, is it that expensive to give the young couple one show bag? Is giving away one show bag to a paying couple who didn’t take with them their kid/s going to cause serious constraints to the budget of the people who brought this exhibition to Melbourne?

The men left the building looking very happy, stepping out to Flinders Street. Where did the couple go? I went to the Gift Shop and they were there too. Poor me bought 4 postcards to give to the Good Samaritan. As I stepped out of the shop, the couple was getting served. Judging from what I could see, they were paying for a number of items. Now, suited up men do look like they have the power to spend big but that is not always the case. This young couple spent more at this exhibition to deserve that one show bag than those men. Jokingly, I am suggesting that parents who visit this exhibition without their children should take with them their children’s birth certificates and family portraits to show when requesting for the show bag/s. Maybe the show bags should be made available for a small fee of a few dollars for those who do not qualify for some reason. Nothing is Free in life these days. Gee, I really wonder what is in it anyway to make it so precious!

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