You know, I love a good quote. The best of those can offer you a taste of humor along with a little wise elbow to your brain. My mother’s favorite—”Don’t touch that, it could be infected!”—had the wisdom part down, but was never very funny when she yelled it out in public. Another of my favorites has always been the great Will Rogers’ suggestion that, “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” I’ve always taken that one to heart.
Where am I leading with this? Well, it’s to tell you about my past week. I’m not just a reviewer and opiner of movies, games and other media what-have-yous. That’s my great pleasure and passion, but like my fellow writers I’ve also had the good fortune to dive into other creative pursuits. And one of my favorites in that department is a little something called Adventures in Odyssey.
I spent the last week in Los Angeles directing a handful of Adventures in Odyssey episodes, working with a cavalcade of incredibly talented, eminently quotable voice-over actors who make this 30-minute radio show the gem of smile-inducing entertainment that it is. We had Jess Harnell (whose voice you’ve heard in this year’s Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University), Andre Stojka (Owl from lots of Winnie the Pooh projects) and Katie Leigh (Rowlf from The Muppet Babies) in this week’s session, among others that you might recognize if you’ve ever perused the closing credits on your favorite animated pic. This bunch is so talented that they could read a phonebook and still inspire a chortle or a tear. (Some of my scripts have actually read much like a phonebook before these guys got their hands on them. But don’t spread that around.)
Just in case you’ve never heard of Adventures in Odyssey, let me give you a little info. It’s a kids’ show that’s being broadcast by about 2,100 radio stations around the world―from the U.S. to New Zealand and Britain to Zimbabwe. In fact, young King Oyo of Uganda (yes, he’s the actual king) has claimed that AIO is his favorite form of entertainment! And that makes sense since he was raised on the stuff―stories packed with rollicking kid adventures, faith-focused insights and a little chuckle-worthy wisdom as well. Why, we try to make sure that every episode has a few quotes that you can smile about, think about and maybe even pack way in your noggin for future reference.
Am I gushing? OK, sorry. It’s just that I come back from a short time away working with these guys and I get that way. And that’s why my Plugged In cohorts told me to write something down this time and stop leaning over the cubical wall to bother them.
On that topic, though, let me close with this: We here at Plugged In talk all the time about how influential media and entertainment is in our lives―not just for ill, but for good. And I’ve gotta say, Adventures in Odyssey is proof of the good part. I’m proud to be a part of that segment of Focus on the Family’s outreach and encourage you, young and old, to give it a listen.
Alright, I’m starting to sound like an advertisement now, so I’ll shut up and leave you with one more of my favorite quotes from Will Rogers: “Live in a way that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.”
See? A word of wisdom and a ba-dump-chunk, too.
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