McDull is anything but

Last night, I watched an animated movie called My Life as McDull. Set in an alternate-universe Hong Kong where animated people live happily with adorable animated animals, My Life as McDull is about a little pig, named McDull, who grows up in a poor single-mother home. At first glance, McDull looks like Hong Kong's answer to Japan's Hello Kitty, an observation supported by the popularity of McDull merchandise in Hong Kong (so I'm told). But unlike his pathetic Japanese feline counterpart, McDull is more than just a cute cell-phone accessory or a pretty face on the cover of a notebook; Hello Kitty was never into existentialism like this little piggy. I loved the combination of highly detailed CG backgrounds with simple hand-drawn animated characters and I laughed pretty hard during most of the movie. I think there was something deep about this movie that I was supposed to get, but I don't think I really picked it up. Instead I was smitten with the little pig and his crazy over-bearing mother. If you see only one movie (about an animated existentialist pig in Hong Kong) this summer, make it this one. But if you just wanna watch something blow up (and who can blame you), go see Spiderman II instead.


Your Favorite Jerk