Soapbox - Brainy Connections

Welcome back readers, and yet some sincere apologies as I have literally been brain drained due to external influences, that have gotten in the way of maintaining the blog.

( - "Melbourne?")

DRAT!

It's not being easy when reporting from a city as interesting and ever changing every year. But as this is a Wonders of Life centric blog, I'll try to refocus my mind back onto the things that literally matter, so let's consider this as a "welcome back", and just in time for the holiday season. So for anyone demanding an apology for the delay, then in this case, I'm sorry, and will hopefully try to regain some energy into the project. Actually, in the event that I too run into another blank, ring me up again in the comments or on social media.

On a better note, let's keep on dusting the blankets of dust that has covered the blog since the mid year, to reduce any chance of sneezing. And for this reason, there is some mind boggling news of interest for this blog, but it'll take forever for me to compact it into a nutshell, so hence this is how I'm going to summarise it...

Some of you may have known when the news of Disney•Pixar's "Inside Out" trailer broke out, and the commentary it generated amongst circles after circles of the social networking world. Even some of us has also noticed the uncanny similarities to one of Wonders of Life's main attractions, Cranium Command, especially with the film's main setting of exploring the inner workings of the mind. Interestingly, according to a social networking "ask me anything" session with director Pete Docter, some interesting facts have been published, as seen in the embedded tweets, immortalised in image form below for further perusing:

What is interesting, with regards to the embedded tweets in this post, the notable contrast between Cranium Command and Inside Out is the setting. While Cranium Command dominantly focuses on the brain-body relationship, Inside Out is more focused on the psychological, right brained aspect of emotions and thought. It's quite fascinating to notice just how broad the concept of the human mind has been thought about, even for both attraction and film especially. I'm not here to thumb their decision to undertake the squeaky clean route to fully ignore the bodily aspect (well, much like Cranium Command almost brushed itself against), but I guess the mind is far more complex and fascinating to focus.

Another uncanny similarity, as far as I have checked, is the age gap between hosts (but with the sexes being broadly opposites). The primary protagonist host of Inside Out is a pre-pubescent girl, Riley, who is faced with the challenges of growing up and change, while in Cranium Command, an adolescent boy faced with the hour-to-hour challenges in high school. Respectively, each of the challenges are faced through the perspective of the five personified emotions - Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness - all fighting for dominance and control; whereas our brain pilot, Buzzy, has to seek advice and also direct the various organs and areas of the brain in reaction to those areas. The remarkable difference is that it's almost two separate jobs and concepts, come to think of it.

While I have also previously mentioned Jerry Rees as the primary director behind Cranium Command, as well as his previous interviews from external sources (as well as some information I have managed to compile on the informational website, to be viewable as soon as it returns online), one thing I didn't literally know is Pete Docter's involvement in animating Cranium Command - one takes a good knowledge of spotting Docter's head in the preshow, so I recommend anyone with quick eyes, do so.

With the little things out of the way, the final question relates to one thing in particular. If Inside Out becomes  a phenomenal success, will this mean a revival of the Wonders of Life will finally be possible?  Some people may predict that Cranium Command could be totally be given either a replacement or a refit to bring the show up to par. In my humble opinion, I think the quintuo of emotions would definitely be a reasonable panel of right brain  managers for Buzzy to keep in touch with - considering all that Cranium Command would need is the slight update of the footage (I recommend you check under previous blog posts such as Buzzy himself, and the Cortex Development), it would be easy to consider, but only time will tell.

Should the five emotions take control of the new attraction? Should Buzzy retain the seat? Should they cooperate? Feel free to decide in the comments _BELOW.

Until next time, readers!