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Ship Ablaze:The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum
Ship Ablaze:The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum
Edward T. O'Donnell | 2003 | History & Politics
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A Timely Tale
This was a good book about a little known tragedy. The General Slocum was a steamer that traveled on the rivers that surrounded New York City. Often these ships were used by groups for excursions to the shore or picnic areas up river. On June 15, 1904 a German church group had booked passage. It was mainly women and children.

As the book title suggest the worst thing that could happen on a ship did when it caught on fire. The early 1900's were still a time of corruption and profit over safety. This helped lead to the deaths of over 1,000 people.

The story in this book is a timely warning to us as safety laws are rolled back for profits. It was a well written and researched tale. We need to heed the warnings of our past so as not to repeat them with larger tragedies.
  
Titan A.E. (2000)
Titan A.E. (2000)
2000 | Animation, Family, Sci-Fi
Stellar story (2 more)
Excellent vocal cast
Early Joss Whedon writing credit
The contrast between the 2D character animation and the 3D environments is incredibly jarring (1 more)
The music is hailed as "groundbreaking" by the DVD case, but is just kinda meh for me.
Very fun, but visually dated
I remember loving this movie when I was younger, and on rewatching it today I still do, but I have to admit that the visuals haven't aged well. The story is great, if occasionally predictable, and most of the characters are quirky and unique (Gune is a personal favorite!) If they'd restrained themselves to using the early CGI to animate the villainous Drej, a race of aliens made of pure energy, that would have probably aged okay. Those scenes still work. But the fact that all the mechanical elements, ships and such, even spacesuited characters are animated in decidedly dated CGI pulls you out of the narrative pretty fast.