What I Learned From "How I Met Your Mother"

Tonight, what is undoubtedly one of my favorite television shows will go off the air, and Ted Mosby will finally finish telling the story of how he met the mother of his children.

I find myself getting emotional over the fact that How I Met Your Mother will no longer make my Mondays significantly better...probably more emotional than anyone should be over a television. This isn't the first time I've said goodbye to a television show. I've watched old favorites like Chuck, The Office, and 30 Rock go off the air in recent years, but none of them had me holding back tears a week before the finale aired.

Then I think…How I Met Your Mother is more than a show to me. It's been a guide, a teacher. While the writers have jumped rope with the suspension of disbelief from time to time (This whole season took place over the course of one weekend), so much of the themes and stories are rooted in truth. Truth about life, about love, and about friendship. I think that's what makes the connection between How I Met Your Mother and its fan base so deep. You're able to draw parallels between the lives of the characters and your own.

Things that you didn't think were things, like The Mermaid Theory, The International Date Line, and Graduation Goggles, suddenly become….well, things. Now society knows what it means to "suit up" or be "lawyered". Friends now wish each other a Happy Slapsgiving, or  Happy Desperation Day, and everyone abides by some form of The Bro Code. Thanks to all these clever little gags and stories, we now have a sort of "guide to life". How I Met Your Mother has become so synonymous with pop culture, it's practically just culture at this point.

But through all that, every chapter of the story of Ted and his friends have the central theme of friendship, love, and life at its core.

As crazy as it sounds, I think I've learned quite a bit from How I Met Your Mother. Just what have I learned from How I Met Your Mother? Well…

               There's a lot of power in the words "I love you", and that's both a good thing....

and a bad thing...

                       Things always work out in the end, it just takes some time to get to the end.

When you love someone, you never stop loving them. A part of your heart, no matter how small, will always belong to them.

Every moment you have with a person you love is a gift…

…so precious, it can be taken away in the blink of an eye,

and keeping the people you love a part of your life takes sincere effort.

Live every moment to the fullest, because every moment will soon be a memory.

Our stories, our memories, hold us back as much as they push us forward.

Every person you meet in this life, plays a part in your story.

Whatever you do in this life, it isn't legendary unless your friends are there to see it.

and everyone has a girl with a yellow umbrella (or a guy with red cowboy boots), somewhere out there waiting for them.

How I Met Your Mother is a major part of my life. I've had my actions often classified as "Classic Schmosby", and I've been "lawyered" more times than I can count. When friends need me, they often call upon me with the words, "Bar. Now." 

Most of my best friends watch How I Met Your Mother. Over 60 of my friends on Facebook like the show's Facebook page. Since I started becoming a regular viewer back in Season 5, I don't think there's been one episode where I haven't talked, texted, instant messaged, or tweeted with someone about an episode either while it was airing or the morning after it aired. While we may lose touch for a few days, or even a week, we always manage to remember to talk How I Met Your Mother.

I think that just goes to show the true power a television show can have on people. It keeps people together. It strengthens the bonds between them. People become equally captivated in a world of fiction, and together we become emotionally invested in the characters that we see every week on our television screens, so much that when an episode airs, it's like welcoming an old friend into our home.

How I Met Your Mother has done so much for its fan base through its story, and through its very existence. I will miss the slap bets, the ducky ties, and the red cowboys boots of it all dearly. Thank you  How I Met Your Mother, for all you've done. It's been legendary. 

Film Review Throwback- "Horton Hears A Who"

Horton Hears A Who
Directed By Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino
Starring Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, and Will Arnett

As I briefly touched on long ago, with my review of The Lorax, films adapted from Dr. Seuss's works have had a mixed response from the public. The Grinch, while I love and I know many others do, I've read were not in love with. The Cat In The Hat is…terrible, and I only need to watch a Nostalgia Critic review of it to fully understand that. The Lorax I deemed "okay, but not good". It's a little too preachy and the story choices made to reach that 90 minute runtime weren't the best. Then there was Horton Hears A Who back in 2008.

It's arguably the best adaptation of the four Suess films, staying very true and close to the source material. Is it really a great film though? On the weekend of Dr. Seuss's birthday, I decided to watch it for the first time in years. I have to say, I didn't enjoy it as much as I once did. While it is a good film, it definitely has some flaws.

The story is the same as the book. Horton (Carrey) is an elephant, who with his large ears, is the only one able to hear a scream from a small speck of dust. He soon discovers an entire civilization is on the speck, the city of Whoville (The same one from The Grinch I assume). He soon makes contact with the Mayor of Whoville (Carell), who asks Horton to get the speck carrying Whoville to someplace safe in the jungle, before the city is destroyed.

Because Horton's the only one who can hear The Who's, the other animals in the jungle think he's lost in mind. A particular kangaroo (Burnett) isn't fond of Horton's actions at all, and sets out to stop him and destroy the speck, recruiting an army of monkeys and a manic vulture (Arnett). Meanwhile, as Horton tries to convince his peers of the world on the speck, the Mayor in turn is trying to convince Whoville they are a world on a speck.

The story in the film is as good as it is in the book. What I do like that the film does that the book doesn't, is it makes the dilemma of saving Whoville both Horton's and the Mayor's. It gives more purpose to the second most-important character, and it raises the stakes in an otherwise very tame story.

The animation is stunning, and captures the illustrations and imagination of Suess that the live action Cat and Grinch could not. The music by Jon Powell is grand. But to get to those flaws I was talking about, and sadly the root of these flaws lie in our lead, Jim Carrey.

From the book we can tell Horton is eccentric, but he's not Jim Carrey eccentric. Some of the jokes, gags, that come out of the script, probably as a result from Carrey being cast, fall flat and just don't mesh well into this Suessian world. An anime dream sequence? Horton tweaking? What? Carrey as Horton isn't totally unlikable. There are times when he's reserved and compelling, but other times he just comes off as annoying. Why does Carrey work for The Grinch and not for Horton? I don't know, maybe it's the live action Carrey opposed to the animated Carrey. But when the script sticks to the story and strays away from the modern humor, it really shines.

Carrey aside, this is one well-put together voice cast. Carol Burnett as Kangaroo is great, though doesn't provide much humor you'd expect from a character played by such a comical legend. Steve Carell is charming and goofy as The Mayor. Will Arnett as Vlad the vulture is probably one of my favorite animated characters of all time. Then you have the likes of Seth Rogen, Amy Poehler, and Jonah Hill in small but delightful supporting roles.

Hollywood probably won't stop adapting the work of Dr. Seuss for some time. In the next few years, Illumination Entertainment will release new, animated adaptations of The Grinch and The Cat In The Hat. For now, Horton Hears A Who, despite its off-beat humor and underwhelming protagonist, stands as the best Suess adaptation in my mind. Will it stand the test of time? Well this is the first time I've watched it in years so, draw your own conclusions. Like most book to film adaptations, it's fair to say time will show the book is superior, as it already has.