A Trip to the City

This past weekend we decided it was high time we headed out of the burbs and into the city (talk about house move/packing avoidance behaviour!).

After a quick pit stop on the banks of the Yarra river (it was a hasty sandwhich, as it's still pretty chilly here), we headed to Federation Square where The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is hosting an exhibition celebrating PIXAR's 20 of animation. I thought it would be 'one for the kids', but it turned out to be really interesting with a behind-the-scenes look at how Nemo, Buzz Lightyear and other such characters were conceived of & finally brought to 'life'. Anna & Jack were mesmerised by the multiple visual displays. "Wow, so many TV's Mommy," Anna whispered, shaking her head in disbelief before reverently dropping to her knees in front of the closest plasma screen. Admittedly, only minutes later, it was I who was gawping in uneducated awe at the next installation - the Toy Story Zoetrope. 'Using over 150 modelled characters from Toy Story 2 including Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Bullseye and the Aliens, this magical technical achievement employs early cinematic devices to achieve the perception of motion through the illusion of continuous activity. Rapidly rotating a sequence of objects, the zoetrope demonstrates the basic principles of animation before the invention of film' (explanation curteousy of the ACMI website). Fascinating.

Once we'd managed to drag Anna away from the attendants handing out freebies to promote 'Ratatouille' (the next big release) and cousin Dylan from the Wii consoles, it was nearing the 'tea hour' and the heavens looked ready to open. So we made our way back down St Kilda Rd to the National Gallery and headed for the members area in the hopes of finding a corner in which to enjoy a pot of tea and where the kids could stretch their legs. The members area turned out to be 'not one of those places' (more like a quiet 5 star hotel library), so we beat a hasty retreat to the gardens out back where the kids could romp & scoff chocolate cake impolitely. Perfect!