I know we just finished marking a milestone a few weeks back, but I couldn’t let this one go by: we just reached 5,000 comments on the OWL blog! The famous 5,000th comment was posted to Kendra’s great review of Alice in Wonderland by (drumroll please)… blog reader Marissa! Take a bow, Marissa!

In celebration of this momentous occasion, I give you this awesome YouTube clip. Enjoy:

Wow! I don’t even know what I like best — the fantastic song, the fantastic singing, or the fantastic part at the beginning where the teacher barks and all the students jump in their seats. Um… let’s call it a tie!

What do you guys think? Leave a comment below so we can soon be celebrating a new milestone!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

Editor’s note: we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for a word from OWL’s assistant editor, Kendra Brown. (Craig will be back next week.) Enjoy!

Hey, OWL readers! I don’t know about you folks, but I’ve been counting down to this movie for months. Alice in Wonderland finally opens in theatres today, and I caught a sneak preview earlier this week!

Most of us know the story of Alice, a girl who falls down a rabbit hole, and finds herself in a fantasy world of talking animals, tea parties, and one very Mad Hatter. Lewis Carroll wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass way back in the 1800s, and since then, there have been many film and television adaptations of the books — including the 1951 Disney animated movie (and my personal favourite), Alice in Wonderland.

Tim Burton (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas) has taken on Carroll’s books to create a whole new fantasy adventure set in a very different Wonderland. In this version, Alice is 19 years old, returning to Wonderland for the first time in over 10 years. When she arrives, she finds out that it is her destiny to defeat the Red Queen by slaying an evil creature called the Jabberwock. But Alice is not convinced, and has no idea how she can be that Alice, who Wonderland has been waiting for.

Here are a few observations about the movie:

1) It’s dark. The Wonderland that most of us know is bright, cheery, and colourful. This is not that wonderland. First of all, the name of this world is Underland. And all of the characters — both good and evil — are dark, gloomy, and even a bit scary. The Cheshire Cat is a perfect example. That grin gives me the creeps!

2) It’s magical. The mood may be dark, but it’s still full of magic, largely due to the amazing costumes, makeup, and 3-D effects. You actually get to fall down the rabbit hole with Alice in a scene that will make your head spin and stomach flip! And when she first opens the door to Underland, and meets the White Rabbit, you’re right there with her. Plus, what’s more magical than potions that can shrink you to the size of a mouse, and cakes that can make you grow to the size of a house?

3) It’s a Tim Burton movie. Obviously. Yet, it’s worth pointing out. It’s got his style, humour — and actors. Almost no Tim Burton movie is complete without the acting talents of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. In fact, the biggest surprise is that he didn’t take on this story sooner. The whimsical tale of Alice may not have been written for Burton — but it may as well have been!

That’s it for me! If you decide to take your own trip down the rabbit hole this weekend and go see this movie, come back and tell us what you think!

Kendra, owlblog@owlkids.com

Hey all. Just so you know, I really wrestled with the title of this blog post. I wanted to call it, “Best! Max! Finder! Panel! Ever!” I think Ramón Pérez, the illustrious illustrator of OWL’s “Max Finder Mystery” comic, knocked this one out of the park. Suspense, detail, humour: it’s all there. (Nice one, Ramón!)

Anyway, as you know from past posts of this kind, this post is at least two kinds of fun:

1) It’s a sneak peek at the April edition of the super-popular “Max” comic; and

2) It’s a fill-in-the-blank type thing à la the monthly “Photo Fun” feature in OWL.

So, what do you think Zoe is saying? As we all know, Zoe is a forensics expert — so what’s up with that deck of cards?

Cool! When I said on Monday that we were back to normal here on the OWL blog, I meant it. Later this week: a movie review! Next week: a mailbag! I’ve got lots of stuff saved up, but keep sending me your questions, and I’ll try to work ’em in.

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

Whoa. I mean, I thought the Olympics would be fun — I just didn’t know they’d be so engrossing, you know? From the ceremonies to the events, and the ups and downs of winning and losing in lots of cases by mere milliseconds, I feel like I haven’t taken a breath in two weeks!

One thing’s for sure: we haven’t taken a breath to talk about much other than the Olympics here at the OWL blog, and it’s going to be good to get back to normal. For instance, how about the recent changes to our beloved blog? As you may have noticed, we added a few things — including the ability to write polls.

So, here’s what I’m thinking: why not cap off the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games using our brand-new poll functionality?

Look to the right to vote on your fave moment of the Olympics. If you have a different favourite than the ones listed, no worries! Just tell me all about it in the comments below. As usual, I can’t wait to hear what you have to say.

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

Earlier this week, we recapped the performance of Maëlle Ricker, one of the Olympic athletes we interviewed for OWL’s recent “What’s It Like…” feature. Let’s keep it going by taking a look at Canadian skeleton athlete Jon Montgomery (pictured above)!

Now, if you’ve seen any skeleton at the Games, you know that athletes race super-fast down the bobsleigh run — only they do it headfirst… on a sled. In the feature, we asked Jon what it’s like to ride headfirst. Here’s what he said:

“Going headfirst down the skeleton run with your chin just above the ice surface as it passes underneath your sled at 140 km/h (87 mph) is like nothing else on Earth. We are not always aware of how fast we are travelling because of the level of concentration required to navigate each corner successfully. What you do feel is pressure. It pushes you into your sled and your face into the ice when you are rising up into a corner, and as the sled begins to fall back down, the pressure dissipates. We can pull as much as five times the gravitational force of the Earth — so my head feels five times as heavy!”

Click here to see how Jon raced to skeleton gold at the Vancouver 2010 Games. I like watching that video (and looking at the picture at the top of the page) knowing how hard he’s pushing just to keep his head up. That takes serious skill and determination!

Talk to you tomorrow next week, OWL readers!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com