Hannah vs. Alice

Last year, I realized I missed how awesome Saturday morning cartoons were. The only flaw is that I now never get up early on Saturday mornings, thus missing all the cartoons. But because of this effort to recapture childhood, I started watching That's So Raven, Hannah Montana and the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Admitting this does make me a little ashamed. But the upside was that I get to see all the commercials for cool toys that are available these days.

Having said goodbye to these shows, I had to find something to watch. Now sometimes I throw on The Littlest Hobo or Valerie Pringle Has Left the Building. But I am pleased to say that I have replaced Hannah Montana with a new show: Alice, I Think. I never really cared for it before but I have to say, I'm really enjoying it. I always enjoy watching weird families.

And on the surface, it would seem to be impossible to find two shows as different as Alice and Hannah. A young girl trying to hide the secret that she is also a pop star vs. a young girl being raised by uber new age hippies. The bizarre thing however, seems to be the emphasis placed on being normal. Alice is continually trying shrug off the albatross of her family in order to fit in more. Miley hides her pop star identity in order that she can lead a normal life (and apparently the movie is extremely sad as she learns to deal with this...according to one of my friends). Of course, the theme always becomes that fitting in is overrated and you should be yourself and blah blah blah. At first I found it odd that the theme still always seemed to be that you should want to be normal but then, isn't that what high school is all about anyway? I mean, one of the truest songs about high school I've ever heard is "Stick to the Status Quo" from High School Musical. The true difference between these songs is just that we don't have flashy Canadian pop tarts. We just have werid hippies. But don't we all just need to belong???

(ps I was watching an animated version of Anne of Green Gables this morning and everything was going fine until this bizarre green alien/fairy appeared and suddenly it was like an acid trip. I've read the books and I'm pretty sure that never actually happened).