Okay, that was the most stunning opening ceremony for an Olympic Games ever, and the only one that ever made me want to watch it a second time to catch all the touches I missed the first time. But I'm still having trouble getting my head around the coincidence of the Mary Poppins Squad flying in to defeat the giant Voldemort in the ceremony, when the climax of Century 2009 is much the same. The last volume of LOEG was only published last month but the script had to have been completed something like a year ago. Danny Boyle's opening ceremonies may have been worked out even earlier, considering the sheer logistics involved.
I'm sure everyone else has already asked themselves: could there have been some kind of communication between Moore and Boyle and this was a prank they cooked up between them (with many others in on it, of course) or was this just some kind of wild coincidence? Or is the idea of Mary Poppins and Voldemort in battle simply a much more obvious idea than I think it is, and it was inevitable two people would come to it independently? The idea of secret collusion seems the most likely, but I just can't tell. I suppose we'll find out soon enough.
But I tell you, when all the rumors this would be in the ceremonies started up a few days ago, I was utterly convinced it was a hoax perpetrated by someone who'd read the comic. One hundred percent certain. When I saw it actually happening, I honestly couldn't believe my own eyes. Now that's showmanship!
And as I said on Twitter, presumably the closing ceremonies will involve a giant telepathic squid materializing inside the stadium, followed by the announcement "we ended the Olympics 35 minutes ago."
I thought the Mary Poppins & Voldemort thing was a joke. They really did it? Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteI generally avoid the Olympics like the plague. The utter hype and commercialization of every damn molecule of the event weary me beyond belief.
I know it's naive to imagine it otherwise, but the myth of actual amateurs matching their skills in competition has some real attraction, and sadly pros bargaining for the chance to huckster some breakfast cereal has much less.
I'm a prude on this I know.
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I totally understand what you mean, Rip, and I'm somewhat jaded about the Olympic competitions myself. But the opening and closing ceremonies have always been of interest from a cultural standpoint, at minimum for what they can tell us about a host nation's taste in pageantry and celebration. There are also moments which go far beyond anthropological interest: for example, remembering Ali lighting the torch in Atlanta in 1996 always gets me choked up. And sometimes the spectacle has been artistic and well-composed. This one, though, had all three virtues.
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