TimeOut

Flying High yet Flying Low...

 

Hello all!

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend, out here it's been great!  Up in the Hollywood Hills it's common to hear the news helicopters hovering around.   It also was a great vantage point in watching the space shuttle Endeavor (  timeout.watchprosite.com ) arriving.  There used to be those airplanes that do the writing in the sky but I don't see those anymore.  But in the early afternoon there was a different sound that was heard in the sky.  It was the DespicaBlimp from the upcoming computer animated movie Despicable Me 2!  Surprisingly it was flying really low so I ran and got my Nikon camera to take some pictures to share:

We occasionally see the famous Goodyear blimp but this was certainly different!  The first thing you notice is the giant eyeball staring back at you...... it's the one eyeball character and one of Gru's minions. 

Coming in at 150,000 cubic feet, the DespicaBlimp is 125 feet long and 50 feet high with a max speed of 45mph and can reach 10,000 feet high.  I did a little googling and discovered that the image is actually a vinyl covering similar to the type of material used in automotive wraps.  Maybe we should do a PuristSPro logo wrap and fly it over Switzerland during Basel and SIHH! 

Fortunately for us, we've been having some great weather.  The sky was clear so if you looked closely you can see the long cables that were hanging from the front of the dirigible.  They are there to help anchor the airship when it is landing back at the airport.  A while back we were near the Van Nuys airport ( I believe home base is usually down in Carson) at night and happen to catch the Goodyear blimp come in for a landing.  It was really cool to see it float in to the runway.  A trademark o of the Goodyear is the giant display screen on the side aka Eaglevision.  The Dispicablimp didn't have the LED screen, probably because they were only promoting during and flying during the daytime.

For the past 6 months the Despicablimp has been traveling across the United States and expected to hit 20,000 miles stopping in various cities to promote the movie.  The voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Russel Brand are returning.  The biggest news was that Al Pacino was supposed to voice a new character named Eduardo but has dropped out and is now replaced by Benjamin Pratt. 

Found out that there are only 15 of these airships in the world so it's pretty unique.

It made several passes over the Hollywood area and then they headed into the Valley/Studio City/North Hollywood area.  Bye bye Despicablimp!

The world premier of the movie is set to be launching here in Los Angeles on the 22nd.  I enjoyed the first one released in 2010, it was funny, entertaining, and had an interesting plot.  Guess I will go see the movie when it comes out.  Any fellow PuristS spotted the Despicablimp in the skies above your home town?  Any fans of the Despicable Me movie?

-MW