The Clairvoyant Zoopraxiscope

I think I may be one of the only people who left who appreciates the sincerity of the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie, narrated by Burl Ives. There are some wonderful things here, from Yukon Cornelius to the Island of Misfit Toys to the Aslan-esque lion who rules over the Island. What I guess struck me (I was a captive audience, besieged by heavy and largely dehydrating Chinese food) was the complexity of it. A strange thing to say, possibly, in reference to a cheaply made TV show about a reindeer, but the complexity and profound difficulty of communicating to children is frequently underrated. The disappointing thing about the Lemony Snicket books is that they get the high threshold for morbidity that most children possess, but they miscommunicate at every turn, and almost end up sounding patronizing. But of course, it's difficult to communicate in the Age of Low Sarcasm...