Takeaways from seeing The Wild Robot in Singapore

As you know, I like to get to a movie when I'm on vacation, particularly if it doesn't inconvenience anyone I'm travelling with.

That was easy on this trip to Singapore, as my wife was spending the first two days at a convention all day, and we passed a theater on the taxi ride in from the airport, meaning I didn't even have to do any research. 

But because I'm on vacation and there's, like, seeing the country to do, I will keep this short and organized by numeric bullet points. The items will also be listed in no particular order.

1) Although some things in Singapore are quite expensive, movies are not. My ticket was $11.50, which is only a little more than that in Australian dollars.

2) Sweet popcorn is a standard movie concession in addition to salty popcorn. For the novelty of it, I was going to get just sweet, but the man at the counter helpfully offered to blend them. It was yummy. I also got some lemon icing encrusted sticks.

3) Village is a chain here, just as it is in Australia.

4) I was actually going to see Smile 2 on the first day of its release rather than The Wild Robot, but I got the time wrong and the next show wasn't until 2:50. Given that it's also 127 minutes, I opted for the 12:45 Wild Robot, which also had the benefit of getting me out in time to go on the Singapore Flyer, this city's version of the giant ferris wheel that has become a status symbol for big international cities the world over.

5) Ticket takers, the longevity of your jobs is finite. I got my ticket from the kiosk and as far as I could tell, the man who sold me the popcorn and lemon icing encrusted sticks was the only person working there. That's because when you are actually going to your auditorium, you are granted admission by scanning a QR code on your ticket like you were entering a train station. If you have a valid code, the doors part for you. Never seen that before.

6) Before the ads started, this was on the screen for several minutes:

Seemed a bit not quite ready for primetime, but otherwise the projection was flawless.

7) I was interested to see that all the ad copy readers clearly spoke in an American accent. I'd have thought British, but maybe the Singaporeans have had enough of British rule, even 60 years after getting their independence.

8) There were Chinese subtitles.

9) I thought the movie was okay. Still a bit too Dreamworksy for me. I wish the animals had not talked, and had run into each other a little less often.