I Missed the Walrus
Monday, February 25th, 2008 
Of the 10 Canadian nominations at this year’s Academy Awards, there was one in particular that piqued my curiosity. “I Met the Walrus” is an animated short film that features Torontonian Jerry Levitan’s interview with John Lennon when Levitan was just 14 years old. The story in and of itself is fascinating - Levitan, a Beatlemaniac, heard on the radio that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were in T.O., so he grabbed his recording equipment and snuck into their hotel hoping to meet them - but when the animation is set to the audio, it’s like candy for your brain. Directed by Josh Raskin, you can check out the trailer HERE.
I had seen the trailer and was delighted to learn that Bravo! would be broadcasting the entire short film at 9:30 p.m. last Thursday. I wrote it down… and forgot all about it. Then during the Oscars last night, I heard that CTV would be showing the short right after the awards show. Great! Except that I was watching some U.S. affiliate and when I realized it (the Buffalo news was a dead giveaway), I didn’t know the channel for CTV off the top of my head. I found it just as the credits were rolling. After all, it’s only 4 minutes long. Sigh. I missed the “Walrus” - again!
I did manage to see “In Bruges” this past weekend, though. It’s the new Colin Farrell movie, kind of a dark comedy about hitmen - very politically incorrect. I didn’t really know anything about it beforehand - I mainly went for the popcorn - but it was laugh outloud funny. I would definitely recommend it if you like irreverence or, you know, if you’re in love with Colin Farrell (hands off, that womanizing drunk is mine!).
Have you seen “I Met the Walrus”? Is there a movie that seems to have escaped under the radar, maybe it went straight to DVD, yet you really enjoyed it? Share your thoughts by clicking on the No Comments/Comments link below. Today’s Jack Nation bonus code is WALRUS. It’s good until Feb. 27th. And don’t forget to vote for Toronto to be included in the worldwide edition of Monopoly. Go back to Thursday’s blog posting for the link if you missed it.