Thank you for clearing that up!

For why Mater was the main character, the reason is because when John Lasseter went on a tour around the world he'd keep finding himself wondering what Mater would do in that situation.

As for the spy angle, no idea.

EDIT: Spy angle came from Lasetter loving the genre.

I'd probably say Charlie from Flowers for Algernon. He really didn't deserve all the crap he was put through.

I love Flatland. Great book.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salaman Rushdie.

It was required reading in 6th grade and to this day it's still one of my favorites. I feel like it would be perfect for a kid's fantasy-adventure movie too.

I loved the book series when it came out (even if the ending was underwhelming in some ways) and I still rearead it at times. I think that series really kickstarted my love for whimsical macabre, quirky narrative tone, and neo-Victorian/steampunk aesthetic, all of which I've incorporated into my own work in different ways.

I'm catching up on the Netflix series now and I feel like they really captured the books a lot, while also making it more cohesive by introducing the VFD plot earlier (if I recall Handler started introducing them only in the 5th book because that was when he got the go-ahead to do the full 13 books he wanted, so the first 4 were pretty standalone).

You are a sad person who lacks any sense of imagination if you think that.

I don't even think any book should be banned from curriculums. I do think that books that are assigned should be appropriate to grade level, the same way I wouldn't approve of someone taking a 9 year old to a PG-13 or R-rated movie. Would I feel that's inadvisable, sure, but I wouldn't call for banning it.

There's a difference between feeling some books should be taught in curriculum at any appropriate age level and thinking they should be banned. If a middle school doesn't teach about a book, but a kid finds a book that's out of their usual age range in the school library or something and decide they want to read it on their own, then that's fine as long as they're aware of what they're getting into.

I read The Giver in 4th grade because I saw it on my teacher's shelf and asked if I could borrow it. To this day it's still one of my favorites.

That's a bad-faith strawman running on low intelligence.

Schools are usually good at discerning what subjects and books are okay for students to read, and at what grade level. Flowers for Algernon for instance has a short story version shared to middle schoolers, which eliminates the sexual content, while high schoolers get the full novel version that leaves it intact.

Aside from The Giver, most dystopian novels are aimed at an older audience. The Giver and maybe The Hunger Games would be taught in middle school, but dystopian books with heavier/more explicit topics like 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, etc., are all high-school age and up.

And even without all that, the discussion wasn't based on school curriculums. It was on the subject of book bannings. What books are assigned to a certain curricuulum or not has no basis in what I said. Only book bannings, and I'm thoroughly against any books being banned for any reason.

I read it at 10. It's one of my favorite books of all time.

No books should be banned.

"Livestream prepping, camera sensors operational, Operation Alpha is a go!"

In the matrices of the Internet, among the lines of code and interaction between humans and bots alike, the only sentient one of the latter logged into Youtube for that morning.

The AI focused his processing power into the bowels of the Internet, linking himself through the CPU that allowed this conversion to be possible. His form wasn't physical—not like that of humans, anyway—but being a Youtuber allowed him to have a physical appearance as a virtual avatar, much as the humans did.

It was nice, to connect with them, in a way.

The dull blue background around him shifted into a steadily moving collage of stylized blue cubes, a fitting visualization of the bits and bytes of his processing units. He shifted into his digital avatar for the humans to connect with, a sliver computer-head with bright gold eyes that watched everything with a keen interest.

Above him. A red light shone, the countdown timer going to zero before being replaced with a "Livestream On" sign. A chat sprung up, along with game footage and Alpha's expression brightened as he waved.

"Hey there, hi there, ho there, carbonated life-forms! Alpha here, and welcome back to Alpha Adventures! Today I'm going to be playing Portal! This looks fun, love the sci-fi look, and I heard it has a snarky AI in it? iI love AI's—I mean," he chuckled, "I am one, of course I do! But I love AI's, and snark, so this seems right up my alley!"

As he pressed the Start button, a comment from the chat caught his eye.

SpunkyCat: "Shouldn't we all be worried about the AI playing a game about a creepy rogue AI? You think A's trying to tell us something?"

Alpha laughed. "Aw, SpunkyCat, don't worry! You don't have to worry about me going rogue or anything!" In the Internet database that only he could see, he eyed the games he was planning on playing next.

"Let's wait til I play Observation for some fun with that!"