Anyways… I am now officially the father of four beautiful little people who really make my life complete.

Does this sound exaggerated? Its not! We spent some serious time discussing this film with our kids to try and add some semblance of context to the story of the film and try to reduce its shocking impact. Firstly, the entire plot revolves around an animal (raccoon?) which is going to be killed by a bear if he doesn’t get back the food rations which he was trying to steal and accidentally destroyed. Memories, dreams and discussion about this violent bear haunt the protagonist throughout the film. Needless to say the scene where the raccoon is asleep and has a graphic nightmare of being eaten by the bear did not go down well with small children.

The second issue I had with the film was the graphic maiming and violence against animals by the human characters in the film. Again – its a horrid depiction of adult behavior for a small child and only early teens would start to understand the parody
which it is attempting to portray. Again, my children were SHOCKED at the behavior of the characters and disturbed by the violence.

This film is clearly a tongue in cheek critique of modern society and its impact on creatures trapped in the fringe of that expansion. But this humor and this message is lost completely on a younger audience. Its like letting small children watch South Park or a Manga comic. Just because its animated doesn’t mean its for children!

I would HIGHLY recommend parents with younger children DO NOT bring them to see this film even though all the marketing information and shorts for the film look to be cute and funny – its just not appropriate.

I went to the pier and waited for the dude to pick us up and he didn’t turn up for over 45 minutes and the tide was going out! So I was waiting there and I met another guy from NZ called Tom.

Ton and I grabbed the son of a local that ran the boats for the ManoloLaiLai backpackers who surfed. We took his boat out to Namotu island and signed the form and off we went.

The waves were awesome, but the tide was unbelievable. I had to paddle like a maniac to just get to the break as the tide was washing out over the reef against us.

Anyhow, here’s some pics.

I finally went for a reef dive at Sunflower Reef yesterday and it was stunning. Should be taking on some waves tomorrow (just next to Cloud Break) with the locals… See how that goes. I have not surfed 12ft waves for a long time!

Been spending a lot of time about what Pixolüt is doing and how I want to update the brand and our product line once I get back. Of course it will always be a little at the mercy of the big projects like iTOK and iVisual but its something to look forward to.

Its been an interesting journey the ast few weeks and I am sure the next week will be big too. Better publish before time runs out!

Merry Christmas from all of us!