Blogocentric Formulations

Baby Got Back by Optimus Prime & 10 Things I Hate About You

PROMPT: Which animated character would you like to hear sing your favorite song?


Okay, whenever a prompt like this comes up, I don't immediately think of my favorite animated character and my favorite song; instead my brain starts thinking of bizarre combinations of elements that would be amusing to watch or hear. So for today's purposes, I'd like to hear Peter Cullen, voice of Transformers' Optimus Prime, sing the Sir Mix-A-Lot classic, "Baby Got Back." And just in case you're unfamiliar with either marvel of the modern world, here's Optimus Prime's voice:

And here's the song I'd want to hear him sing:

Admit it, you're totally picturing it now, aren't you? If I were trying to be clever, I would have picked a character like Elsa from FROZEN or Rapunzel from TANGLED because I know the actresses lending their vocals to the characters (Idina Menzel and Mandy Moore, respectively) would do a great rendition of whatever song I wanted to hear. But this seems like such an incredible opportunity, I don't just want a great singer who will sing something well... I want a memorable singer to do a version of a song that I'll never forget. And dragging Peter Cullen to a karaoke night somewhere would produce a pretty memorable result, I think, if I could get him to sing about liking big butts.

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PROMPT: What show or movie will you always watch when it comes on, no matter how many times you've seen it before?

10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147800/

This also happens to be the movie I saw the most times in a theater (tied at three with THE MATRIX). I've probably seen this movie fifty or a hundred times at this point, and my wife and I still sit down to watch it anytime we flip past it when channel surfing, or see it come up on a list of Netflix or Amazon recommendations. At this point we've both pretty much memorized almost all the lines - at least the good ones - from the movie and say them in sync with the actors on the screen.

Here's the trailer:

For anyone who's unfamiliar with this movie, it's a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. Perhaps more importantly, though, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Larisa Oleynik were billed as the stars of the movie (Gordon-Levitt had just been a regular on 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN, and Oleynik was the star of THE SECRET WORLD OF ALEX MACK), but the two characters who really stole the show were the bitchy sister and the miscreant bad boy love interest... two actors who were relative unknowns at the time but became incredibly famous afterward: Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. Those two stole every scene they were in, and it's tough to steal scenes from the likes of Larry Miller, Gabrielle Union, David Krumholtz, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Allison Janney! Although Janney was delightfully off-putting as the bizarre school guidance counselor, and Miller was exceptionally funny as Oleynik and Stiles' overprotective father.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, you really, really need to check it out. It's a very smart, very funny update of one of Shakespeare's most famous plays.