Damn You Hollywood: Hoppers (2026)

0:00The following may contain offensive language, adult humor, and or content that some viewers may find offensive. The views and opinions expressed by any one speaker does not explicitly or necessarily reflect or represent those of Mark Raddleage or W2M Network. Please listen with caution or don't listen at all. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, you are listening to a

1:17Raddleage and Broadcasting, Premier Podcast, damn you Hollywood, and here's your host, Robert Winfrey! Thank you for that introduction, Mark. I've been told you wear your sunglasses at night. That's indeed true. And joining us again, what a cutie, what a pal, what a fruity. Ladies and gentlemen, Alexis Hena! It wasn't the booze, so we'll, you know what, we'll, uh, just one sec. Wow. I wanted to say a trombone, but I'll take like... What's the slide whistle? Yeah, no, I understand that. It says slide long on there, and I was like, this is pretty long for a slide whistle. That really was. You'd think that'd be a lot shorter like the gunshot one, right?

2:18Like, it's like half a second there. Hello, Alexis. You're such a asshole. Well, what are we talking about tonight? Uh, well, the economy doesn't seem to be doing all that great. The housing market. So, Rock won't give anyone their money. Yeah. Um, the Trump DOJ just forced a settlement with live events and ticket master for their, uh, they'd been preparing to bring a, uh, a anti-trust case against them. And testimony wasn't going very well, but, uh, live nation and whatnot went up getting a settlement because... Who knows why? Still gonna get gouged. And, you know, we've got, uh, ships blowing up in the street of our moves. So, oil's about to go to a million dollars a barrel. Life is just grand. So, what better time to talk about a Pixar movie, huh, Alexis? Let's go see. Can we get to the topic already? I've got Chinese food waiting for me. Oh, why don't you just eat it on the air?

3:18Like, everybody else does. I was tempted. Problem is, if you noticed, I am not recording in my usual spot. We're, we're, we're putting in new vinyl plank floors. So, uh, living room where I usually record. We can't put the table back in yet. So, I moved everything to the bedroom. Hence why I've got a mascot here in the corner who will no doubt be bothering me before two longs. I forgot to feed her. So, I thought, um, it was that Andre after successive shows where we picked on him for making too much noise or just live in his life. He finally exiled you to the bedroom. He was like, I have shit to do and I have a house to sell in a market that doesn't, you know, that isn't working very well right now for selling how it isn't. So, for, for the record, do you really think I would let him exile me? I don't think this is a matter of let. I think if Andre and, you know, enforced his will that you would be, you'd be like Rapunzel in the high tower. Yeah, he wishes he had that kind of pole. No, I, this is why I was a little late coming on after you sent the, uh,

4:23the street address. It took me a while to kind of organize like, okay, now I can move the computer here. And I can move, oh, wait, I got to go get the light here. And then my food got delivered right before I was like, Jesus Christ. So, I, I currently have some sesame chicken and egg drops of going cold in the kitchen, which like said, I would eat except someone would be climbing all over me while I was trying to eat it. Well, speaking of being climbed all over while being eaten, Robert, what are we talking about tonight? Well, we are talking about Pixar's latest offering hoppers. Hoppers is a 2026 American animated science fiction comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures directed by Daniel Chong, and written by Jesse Andrews from a story by Chong and Andrews. The film features non-Somber voice cathlet by Piper Certa, Bobby Moynihan, John Ham, Cassie Nijimi, and Dave Franco. It's plot follows Lebel Tanaka, an animal lover whose mind just transferred into the life like robotic beaver,

5:25to communicate with animals and save their habitat from destruction, hinted vertically as one is want to do, starting up an uprising in doing so, and dastic. I'm saying to Robert that I thought this was the best film that Pixar's put out since Soul. He said, um, he disagreed a little bit. He said, it's not better than Inside Out 2, and we've been kind of haggling over that. Just in soul, what are your thoughts Alexis, where does this ring for you? Um, we did confirm Coco came up. Yeah, Coco came up before Soul. It goes, um, Soul, Luca, Inside Out, turning, turning, turning, red, Jesus, light year, and then Elemental, and then Inside Out 2. I think I preferred Elemental to this. This was good. It was good. I'm not going to say like, oh God, no, this was terrible,

6:26but I do think I preferred Elemental, and for personal reasons, I think I may have preferred Inside Out 2. But again, not shitting on hoppers. This was a genuinely good movie. Yeah, not to give away my entire craft review, but I absolutely loved this movie. I was on the edge of my seat. I was smiling. I was telling Robert. There were so many places I thought this was going to fall into the modern movie pitfalls, and then it steered clear of them and, you know, expertly so. And I was like, holy crap, this is so good. The artificial elevation of the past baseline based on present failures is a real thing. I was going to say, I've made multiple jokes before I was so convinced this movie was going to fail just from the trailers. The trailers instilled no hope in me whatsoever, especially since, and I'll get to this a little bit more in a craft review. But Hollywood does not write animal rights activists well. It can make them extremely one note.

7:26It's just the animals are right. The animals have souls. They've all been like, for some reason, they're all still chasing Brad Pitt in 12 monkeys. Let's back that up a second. Part of the problem is there's an element, not the entirety of animal rights activists, not the entire majority of earth's first activists. But there is an element that their solution to things is go back to the cave. And they get the most, they get the most fucking press unfortunately. They make the most noise and they generate the most clickbait in the attention economy. So everyone thinks that, you know, an animal rights activist, somebody who is, I want to get ahead of ourselves, but the last bit of the movie where, you know, where her and John Ham are like, let's figure out a compromise is more often than not what, you know, at least what animal rights activists will focus on that are okay with.

8:30Like, what are your demands? How can we accommodate you that that's not going to up end the progress that we have to make? And then they figure it out and we move on. If that wasn't the case for anyone starts yelling at me, we wouldn't have nature preserves. We wouldn't have, we wouldn't have entirety, entirety of landmass is dedicated or what do you call it as like natural. If you want to know something, yes. Like the entire like wilderness, both reclamation and sustaining project is kind of a uniquely American thing. We kind of created that on an institutional level. Like, hey, this is a wilderness area, leave it alone. Yeah, that's us. So to represent an environmentalist or a animal rights activist as somebody who is so far to the left, they're not worth taking seriously. I think would have been a huge mistake with this movie. And not when I don't think the capable of making.

9:32Again, this last couple years of Pixar have been, have not been great, but I don't know. There are some, there are places, there are parts of Disney that seem to be learning and other parts that are a little slow. Pixar seems to be one of the studios that has figured out the tenor of the American movie going. Well, they are working with them accordingly. Well, they did, there was a pretty famous sound quote that floated around in the, as hoppers was coming out from the, I think the current head of the studio, Jim Doctor, I want to say, I remember. Who said, yeah, we cut like eight minutes out of LEO, because we're not making $100 million therapy sessions here. Yeah, well, LEO was a complete disaster. It was, it would have been worse is kind of the, is kind of the sentiment he's expressing there. Like this could have been so much worse, like it's not great.

10:32LEO is a pretty bad movie overall, but imagine it with like another eight minutes of just like pandering LGBTQ stuff, because that's what they cut out. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreaker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it.

11:33Well, my argument about Elliott was that it was originally a very personal story that the writer director was basing off of his own, grow his own life, growing up, feeling out of place, wanting to find your, your click, your people. By removing that, yes, they feel that they're not pandering, but it also removes so much of the actual soul of the film so that the film becomes basically about nothing. I'm not saying, I'm not saying you're wrong, you know, maybe it would have bombed more, but I'm saying, removing it and just trying to play it safe just gave us an unbelievably forgettable film in place. Let me take a different tack, but they don't totally disagree with you, but then write a better movie. Yeah, I'm not going to, I don't accept any argument that begins with if you don't let me put all of my personal shit in this movie, it's going to be bad. No, no, no, no, you can write a perfectly great movie without all your personal shit in there. Yeah, I'm not accepting the line of a chowski argument.

12:33No, I'm saying they cut everything out to try to play it safe and then they didn't put anything else back in to supplement that so you ended up with a blase. No, no, I got what you were saying, but I wanted to make sure that everybody else understands that cutting something, you know, that from an already more or less finished movie and then you kind of take the heart out of it. That's unfortunate, but having put it in there in the first place is the problem. Robert, you were about to say something. Okay, you're exactly right, like write a better, there's a real problem when it comes to this is a generalized modern writing critique here. It used to be that if you were going to write a movie that was supposed to appeal to people and was going to cost $100 million or more. The goal was, okay, this is going to be personal to me because I want to write something personal, but what kind of angle can I take about my emotional understanding to appeal to everyone.

13:35The entire first like all the great Pixar movies under Brad Bird are just that it's Brad Bird's sort of like processing boy I got hired as a savantid Disney when I was a kid and then was never allowed to do anything. And boy, that's frustrating and how do I process that and he just processed it in part in a way that was universally accessible. Most modern writing unfortunately takes the trope of it takes the idea of write something emotional write something that you know. And instead of going, okay, how do I make it appeal to everyone makes it, how do I make it as much my story as possible and it becomes specific to the point of exclusionary and then when you're the studio burning hundreds of millions of dollars more on that next week. Because who the hell thought the bride needed a 90 million dollar budget I thought it was 80 million 90 that's not counting marketing anyway.

14:36Point being, if you want to write something personal cool, but if you want to write an autobiography, you don't get a you don't get this budget. How am I going to and move on and this point with this how much was do you think the budget for your favorite film there Wallace and grommet vengeance most foul I think the budget on that one was. I genuinely don't know. Not $200 million I can tell you that. Oh, sure. Yeah. Clearly. So my point is, I mean, it was your number one movie of the year. You know, you guys praised it up and down. I haven't even seen it yet, but I take I'll take your word bird on this one that it's an outstanding movie. And they still 100% on run tomatoes. That's an example of you wrote a good movie. Yeah, has all the stuff we're talking about in there presumably, you know, probably has some elements of, you know, the writers personal stuff, but. There's vomiting and, you know, therapy speaking on to a page and then there's writing a good movie with your learned life experience.

15:37They are not the same thing. They're being confused for the same thing and that's a big problem we have in Hollywood. One million percent. Anyway, as a movie that avoids most of that, let's talk hoppers. Yeah, all right. Let's get into the plot. So hoppers follows the character of Mabel Tanaka. She, we first see her as a kindergarten as a grade school kid stealing pets from the classrooms of her school to release them into the wild. Thus sentencing the guinea pig and the parakeets to immediate death. I was going to say is like the turtle, the snakes and all that's like, I get it, but sweetie. Uh, guinea pigs are naturally white. We're going to forgive the child her transgressions. She's an elementary school kid who just thought all the animals being free would be okay. I'm, I'm, again, I'm aware it just made me laugh like. Okay. You love animals and, you know, we all went through that phase when. I started off rescuing the turtle every other one of the animals was making sad faces better.

16:39The guinea pig wasn't. The guinea pig was happily chewing on a leaf and she went, oh, you're in a cage. You must be free in the guinea pigs like, but I have food here. It all fairness growing up in a school and going to school where we had classroom pets. And remembering just how horribly we treated those poor animals. Okay, so keep going Robert. So she tries to escape with all the pets. Doesn't go well. Wines are triggering a fire alarm and the school. Apparently this is not the first time this has happened. Calls her mom and goes, lady, get a hold of your kid. But like most especially young girls who grow up without fathers, maybe it's not interested in listening to authority or following structure. So her mom takes her to her mothers, so her grandma's and her grandma's like, all right, I can reach the poor troubled little kid. I will connect them with nature, show them a better way to interact with wildlife than trying to release the poor domesticated creatures into the wild where they will die.

17:41Horribly. And it works. And then we fast forward to maybe as a high school graduate starting college. The grandmother has since passed on. And the mayor of Beaverton, which is where we are. Clever, right? Beaverton. Yeah. It's trying to do that all. Is trying to build a new highway extension, beltway. Over this very particular glade where that used to be her happy place and she's not happy about this anymore. And she fights with them over that. She tries to stop them blowing detonating the beaver dam. And they're like, but lady, there's no more beaver here. It's just an obstruction. There's no animals. She goes, wait, there's no animals. What happened? This place used to be full of life. And they went, we don't know, but we're doing construction here. So get out of the way. Or go go dance on dynamite. See how that works out for you. What she then does.

18:41And it doesn't work out well. But she's told by the mayor in a somewhat glib fashion like, look, we're finishing this in two days. If you can come up with some serious complication for us between now and then we'll stop. But there's no animals here. We're not doing anything. Animals move. Don't know what to tell you. She then sees a beaver behaving weirdly. And she gets told by Peggy Hill in her second life. Very specific reference there. That if a beaver comes back, other creatures will come back as beavers alter the ecosystem in a fairly specific way. She tries to lure a beaver. She then follows it when it starts behaving badly. It goes to college like all good beavers do. Presumably on scholarship because. Who could afford otherwise. And only to find out that this is a robotic beaver and that. The science department here has developed a way to.

19:42Project or hop if you will your brain profile and consciousness into this robotic body. Wonderful technology that we're using for the dumbest possible reason. And she then jumps into the beaver body and goes, I will find the beaver. And bring it back to the location and all will be well. And the scientists go, you don't know what you're doing. Please stop. This is expensive equipment. What are you doing? And she runs away. She gets scooped up by an owl that goes. Yeah, lunch. Did you actually say stop squirming my kids are hungry? Yes. Yeah. Which is weird because I'm not entirely sure that. The American eagle owl or the great horned owl does feeds its children beavers, but anyway. She thinks it's dropped into the forest where no one knows where she is and she wanders around. She finds a few other animals. She stops a bear from eating another beaver.

20:42And the bear goes, you broke the rules. Yeah. Now we got to appeal to a higher authority because what we do. She goes, wait, what do you mean? The other beavers like, yeah, you broke the rules. Like, you were going to get eaten. Like, it's a bear. It's got to eat something. So they grabbed the fake beaver, which is maple. And they go to see the king, the king of the mammals, the king beaver. In a big old beaver pond. And he goes, well, why did you break the rules? I'm like, I don't know the rules. So the maple gets shown around the way things go. The humans get a look at this for a brief moment in time and go, why does the beaver have a crown? Just a fair question. I was going to say the subtitle of this movie is be careful with that layup shade. Indeed. So, maple tries to talk them into sending someone back to the glade to repopulate it. And all the animals go, no.

21:44That place is way too loud. We don't want to be there. This episode is brought to you by speaker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives. And saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is, speaker makes the whole process simple. You record your shell, upload it once, and speaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better, speaker helps you monetize your show with ads. Meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreeker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. What do you mean? So they all go, at a certain point all the animals stop and go, yep, that's about as close as we want to get to that obnoxious noise. She goes, but I can't hear anything.

22:46She can't admit that she's a human in a robot suit, though. And she figures out that, oh, there's a fake tree over here with speakers at the top of it blasting out noise at a frequency, undetectable to humans that will drive out the wildlife. She knocks it over, they rebuild the damn. It's all good, but the mayor gets wind of this and goes, oh, that's not good. So while Mabel and George King of the beaver, not just King of the beavers, he is King of the mammals. While they're getting more acquainted and we get a little bit of emotional connection, they blow up the newly constructed beaver dam. And everyone goes, boy, that sucks. That Jerry sure is a sure isn't no good fellow. And Mabel's like, yeah, he's the worst elected officials. Am I right? Especially if they're white, older men, because this is the demographic we're allowed to hate. Convene the council, and we'll figure out what to do, because George has made reference to there being a council. And he goes, all right, we can convene the council.

23:49He goes, but just so you know, these are other like royalty. I'm only King of the mammals, and I'm sure all the orangutans are just happy taking orders from a beaver in North America. But arriving are the King of the avians, a goose, which tracks more or less. I can see it. A trio of snakes, because we couldn't quite get a rat king reference in here. So the snakes being kind of like three and one works. A fish. A species I didn't quite recognize. A bullfrog, which tracks for the amphibians. And a monarch butterfly, get it? Monarch. And Mabel being stupid. Tries to argue that the humans are just the worst, and everyone looks at the beaver and goes, you know, they're mammals, milk, sucker. You should be taking care of this. And George goes, I would like to work on this. You've all made some very good points and Mabel runs over him and goes,

24:49no, no, humanity is just the worst, don't you understand? A cancer on the face of our fair planet. We'd be so much better off if they were wiped out. And everyone goes, you know what, not a bad idea. Let's kill Jerry. And she goes, wait a minute. I only meant it metaphorically, rhetorically. I'm an academic spewing nonsense. Don't take me literally, Alfred Hitchcock warned us about this with rope, by the way. And the king of the insects, this monarch butterfly gets in Mabel's face and is like, what the hell, man? You come in here and you preach all this stuff, and that we're trying to act on it. And you freak out and she then squishes the bug, because it's a bug. But this is, you know, regicide witnessed by her son, a fat caterpillar. And she, the everyone else goes, okay, you've done a bad thing. You're going to get squished and George, you are going to be deposed. And the, her son takes up the crown to be the new king of the insects.

25:49She's scooped up by one of the other researchers. They rescue George about this time. She's turned back into her human form. And George has to realize that he was tricked by a human in a fake. You have missed a complete, which one? They don't, they get out. George said, Mabel and George say, okay, let's see if we could. Yeah, because yeah, it's like I'd like to remind you, you know, cell phone, beaver, beaver, chop block potato potato. Yeah, yeah. So they try to save Jerry and their big plan for saving Jerry is, we'll let him know. And so there's a few people from the pond that are still loyal to George. There's the loaf. There's a gecko. There's the bear. They go abduct Jerry from his house, basically. And Mabel tries to communicate with him via text to speech, which goes sideways a little bit. But there's been a hit put out on the mayor.

26:49And the hit is carried out by an apex predator. A bunch of seagulls then lift jaws out of the ocean. You think I'm joking about this? I am not. I assure you. And George is like, let's say, a jaws is incredibly friendly. There's no reason to be a jerk about it, I guess. It's dark out of this guy and they try to drop it on Jerry go. Yeah, they attack his car with this. It doesn't work. Jerry becomes convinced he's dreaming at one point because what other possible conclusion could you arrive at? Other than I may have just had an aneurysm. I was going to say this one he's pretty sure dreaming or I've had a stroke. Yeah, he crashes the car. Again, Mabel gets taken out of the robot beaver body. Jerry George realizes he has been betrayed and he sadly walks away. But all the animals are kind of. He's been duped more than the trade.

27:50Duped. Sure. You did miss another plot point, though, which one? Mabel manages to get an earpiece into Jerry. So he can actually understand because that's the only way the human to the animals can talk. And she says, OK, look, if you just stop the beltway, the threats going to go away, you know, they'll call off the squish. And Jerry actually says, no, I'm not calling off the beltway. And Mabel just briefly loses her mind and actually calls out to the shark. You know, it's screw you. He's out here. Chop chop. Yeah, there is that moment. Ultimately, what happens is the animals kind of figure out what's going on. So they get snakes, which are dangerous to blackmail the scientists into creating a new body that looks like Jerry, because he's the king of the humans. He's the mayor of a small town, but close enough. And they then put Titus, the maniacal butterfly, because the Simpsons taught us no one suspects the butterfly.

28:58He then hops from his butterfly body into this robot human body and goes off to now weaponize the returned fake trees with amplifier with, you know, loudspeakers in them to, I don't know, hit the brown note on all the people that are gathered or resonates so hard that their heads explode. It's left vague. I think it's the same thing that they were doing in the second X-Men movie. I'd assume something to that effect. And Mabel's like, no, all the people that I think are cancer on the face of the planet anyway, whatever will I do with my morality actually being enacted out, but she and Jerry kind of come to an understanding like, look. We can talk about we can in fact work some of our differences out, but let's deal with the immediate threat of homicidal robot seems like a bigger problem. So they do that Jerry goes into the beaver body. There you go confront Jerry. There's a bit of a fight, a big fire starts Titus gets kicked out of the robot body and then eaten by the toad because.

30:04They had to by that point they had enough. They really had like the other monarchs have started to see that he's crazy. Yeah, actually crazy. There is a bit where Titus essentially goes all they all the kingdom shall bow to the yet six. We will never be the bottom of the food chain again. So we will we will kill all of them. We will we will do the stupid and the stupid amphibians that are barely sapient. I the the bull frog is my spirit animal out of this movie just good meeting short. I do love the way just like grab those and that slow smile on the end of the pots and ups is here. That a big fire starts and starts heading towards the town which is unprepared for a wildfire despite being very close in proximity to. Apparently unregulated wilderness. Good civic planning. And Mabel kind of reconnects with George. She's had her own epiphany that George was good-hearted and right about a few things.

31:04And they go to the big beaver dam because if they can dislodge that it will just it will throw enough water downhill into the path of the fire to extinguish it. And all the animals come together and they destroy the beaver dam the water flows down puts out the fire. And presumably whatever residual damage was done was handled by firefighters back home. Jerry shows up and it's like all right there's been a big fire. We need to clean the place up rather than just you know try to do construction over this. So they clean it up they reroute the beltway. Mabel maintains friendship with George even though they can only communicate now via text to speech on an iPhone. The project is shut down by the dean because in academic turning down what would obviously be a lucrative military contract is a real thing I guess. And the professor says look I got other ideas like a talking dog collar wait didn't even see up.

32:08And Mabel's like can I stay here in academia and work for you because the real world scares me. And everyone goes okay that's not a bad idea. The Glade is now in nature preserve Jerry probably wins reelection because of course he does. And at the end we see a bunch of the animals playing with the removed Jerry mask for comedy before it is stolen by a passing bird. And that's kind of hoppers this episode is brought to you by speaker the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives and saying things like sorry I can't talk right now I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is speaker makes the whole process simple you record your show uploaded once and speaker distributes it everywhere people listen Apple podcasts Spotify and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing.

33:08Even better speaker helps you monetize your show with ads meaning your podcast might someday pay for well more microphones. Start your show today at speaker dot com speaker because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour you might as well publish it what did you think of the movie. Alexis what did you I didn't hear a name I just heard one time Alexis what did you think of the movie. So like I said before I went in wanting to hate this movie the trailer did not give me any incentive that it was going to be any good. The trailers for what it's worth only show me will as a crazy animal lover they do not show the complications of her trying to save the blade. So I mean the fact that they actually do put the line is like oh so it's like avatar this is nothing like avatars like they knew what people were going to say. And the good part of the first half of the film I was kind of rolling my eyes at some points the moment and I looked back and I realized the moment that I actually realized this was a good movie.

34:17Was when maple squish is the insect queen yeah I have a lot to say about that but I'll wait. Because it really does forget they sensibly make the new king of the insects and ants. At the end and thank you don't go with the hereditary monarchs go with the people who understand logistics and processing and building some day when the Chinese take over America you'll be very useful Robert. That's not true when you know it. The core element of the film the message that really resented with me and again this is not seen in the trailers but it is really well preached is about mavels anger she feels like she's the only one who gives a crap that she's the old one who's trying and she has all this anger because what she in her mind she's trying to do the right thing and she doesn't understand why no one's got her back. That's why I brought up the scene where she goes to Jerry's in the B performances just canceled the beltway and he says no and she's just had it she's like oh my god I gave you an out I gave you an option that could solve all of this and you're still being an asshole I'm furious.

35:30What about this close at the entire movie she's about this close to turning into the unabomber. Yeah pretty much and it's that scene actually good chunks of that actually did speak to me because I I was an activist in college and I got a behind a lot of protests and causes and there were more than a few of them that I fought my heart and soul into. And I had to watch them basically just get you know shredded I remember I can't even remember what this was but I did a petition and I got all these signatures and I turned it over to the representative and he actually said oh we haven't gotten any petitions you know no one's you know there's no problem with this and I lost my damn mind I was like what do you mean because it's like all that hard work and I couldn't believe that it was ignored. So I get a lot where Mabel is coming from with her anger but it does show that it really does show that the anger is not going to solve anything if anything it's going to create new problems Mabel's anger and her fights with Jerry just mean she is not taken seriously she is constant I mean she's frustrated she's upset.

36:47She costs him outside his house at least at one point and if you're doing that I'm sorry it's not you can't be taken seriously as a like you can't reason with someone who's like you you're in your bathroom outside your house where you take care of your elderly mother which he's shown to do and he's like what are you doing I have an office. I think it's like you know a guy walks up to you shows a camera in your face and asks you some sort of your question and then like I don't want to like I'm not going to answer you I'm not going to dignify this. I mean Michael Moore turns you into a piece of his terrible document or any well you know I was thinking more about the Nick Shirley stuff but yeah if you want to go for a 20 year old reference sure Michael Moore there's a lot of this going around with somebody shows a camera in your face and then you don't want to engage with the animal behavior and then you're the problem you're the one question so it's ridiculous. One of the things I like about this movie is how fair it is to both sides. Yeah I do like that I love that they do show that Jerry while probably misguided is a good person you know he's and again that was what I was worried about I was worried that they were just going to make Jerry just the complete antichrist and the first half of this movie they really don't do a good job showing that he is a good person.

38:00I'm going to push back on you use the word misguided there and I'll do briefly because I don't want to spend 20 minutes on this. Misguided if you're one of the animals or the animal activist he's looking at the great he's looking at the greater good. And he's trying to the greater good greater good okay and he's like okay what what do we have to do you know what's best for the vast majority of towns people I'm sorry. Do you think politicians that are spending an awful lot of time thinking about you know animal habitats and the needs of the beaver they're not the movie makes it a big deal because they're the stars of this thing but generally speaking and I kind of like the way they did this he was like I'm you know they. They gave him the moniker king of the humans because this is what the animals are doing but taken to its next step yeah he's the leader of a group of humans he's going to do what's best for them this is not out this is not out of bounds behavior for you know for any species to you know to do what's best for its own kind.

39:06The the art is in the compromise when you when you meet resistance if it gets to that point but I think looking at it as well he's just miss cut no no no he was doing when he thought was the best thing for his people and they loved him for that was the other thing they they don't spend too long on this because it's not it's not doing very the movie. There's a reference huh yeah it's it's not a political mood it's not that kind of political movie so what what little you saw the humans was he was blocked he was doing what was best for the talents people and they were voting him in with a plum. He's the kind of mayor that you would probably like to have like he actually knows his constituents and right I mean he never like to that point like I actually do think they do a decent job of foreshadowing in the first half that he's not just some like. Like he may be like opposed to our protagonist but he's not a caricature like he knows mabel if he's a caricature every time he sees her despite it being the fourth time he goes and who are you yeah. There's a show that I like I'm not going to tell you which one it is because I don't want Robert to yell at me but I remember when there was a new yell at you I promise there was a newly elected mayor and they were like what's the first thing in the guys asking for you know for consultation from a previous mayor.

40:20Because the first thing you should do is go build something put your name on it. Like this beltway thing is right out of the mayor's the mayor's playbook so what else you got Alexis. I will say I really enjoyed the voice acting Dave Franco kind of blew me away as as tight as I just have this image of him still with that crappy haircut from together just chewing the hell out of the scenery and having a blast screaming. These lines into the microphone. Kind of surprised Meryl Streep was only in for a few minutes but she was good. Bobby Manohan a big fan of his actually he's a really good voice actor. He's previously been on Daniel Chong's a Daniel Chong actually gave us the show We Bear Bears which Manohan is one of the stars of and kind of funny it was reading about a little bit more about the production of this movie. Apparently Chong wrote the script but it was in a deli penguin because you know that's another animal we have to see you have their have a tats drastically altered to which picks are said oh we like it.

41:32Why a penguin have you not seen any animated movie in the last 20 years they're all penguins yeah exactly so that's what we need this to be mistaken for another happy feet movie or. Penguins of Madagascar spinoff exactly with and it's actually fascinating that they chose a beaver because I don't think a lot of people realize just how much bevers are responsible for the development of ecosystems they are actually called the ecological engineers when they build dams they are actually responsible for creating have a tats for marsh dwelling animals and more drinking water for those they really are just crazy important. To local wildlife so you know I kind of like that they win that direction instead. So I really like this movie again I've to me it's the best picks one picks are done since. Soul and I'm going to stand by that and I'm okay if you disagree.

42:34I said it before everywhere where this script could have made the mistakes that so many other movies have made in the last six years it doesn't do that it gives me when even when Mabel's having a breakdown it gives her an appropriate amount of verbalization of those feelings and then stops before it becomes to to be a to thank you for that earlier Robert. I like the even hand in this I like how I as I've been saying I'll show that the humans have their side the animals have their side is interpreted by Mabel and. It does the best it does the thing that good movies do best and that is a presents both sides let's the audience kind of figure it out for themselves so I like all of that. You made me think of dawn blue. Specifically the comment that we've talked about before with Dom I believe it was on blue who said you pretty much show a kid anything so long as you get a happy ending you know the kid will bounce back.

43:36Yeah that is that is the substance of that blue quote yes. I was thinking about how Pixar movies have been kind of many sandwiches as of late like when it comes to sort of sappy feelings there that you know like elemental they're all over that but when was the last time you saw something as grim and as frightening as the end of toy story three we're all that you know we're all the toys and we had her all staring into the mouth of hell yeah. And when I was growing up as a kid I grew up with the with the the Rankin and Bass animated movies where everyone looks like a disgusting pile of laundry. You know see of last unicorn the hobbit the return of the king gross raggedy and an Andy movie where there's some really fucking frightening imagery in that cartoon. Never get high while watching that fellow I would not recommend it no you know this this stuff so like I'm in a almost 50 the stuff so like to this day like blah I don't like to think about it for too long.

44:46To secretive name land time they literally kill the mother right there was a lot of bravery in the animated features of our youth and that has been absent for the last number of years and this brought it back. It's not quite as overwhelming as the stuff I just named but when there's been nothing for so long you know I am a thirsty man and I finally got I finally got a cool drink of water here. Now let's brackish water but it's water when she kills the monarch butterfly. There wasn't I had a there was a fairly full theater and there was an audible gasp people like you know which tells you people are not used to seeing that sort of thing. And you can go off on a tangent when it's your time about how people are pussy but I am I am meeting the audience where they are and where they where they are is. Leagues away from where Don Bluth was. The secret of niminal of that so. I you know was like home and I had to scream psycho killer fucking you know just nothing but horror movies lately and then here I'm watching this and I'm watching her kill the butterfly the queen.

45:56And just one of those like oh god like every I was in I was with the audience in all the gasping it's a moment. And it was a really brave moment of the film because I think six years ago or two years ago or three years ago something she swat it in the thing you know and the thing kills itself somehow explodes. She doesn't actively kill the goddamn thing. Some of the stuff with Titus as shrill as that carrot got in the way that they would like angle the camera on the animation was really unsettling the stuff with the stakes was snakes was really unsettling imagery. And I'm thinking to myself like this is a this is an animated movie for children with a two hundred million dollar budget with it in a studio with a recent shaky fucking reputation they took some chances with this and this is why I'm elevating it above. Inside out to this is my reasoning because other than the fact that I as I said to Robert this was a full-throated production and inside out to was a television show that was compressed into a movie.

47:04Like they took a lot of chances there's some really for this kind of a thing graphic imagery. Even handed writing on the like wow everywhere where this movie could have fallen it hit it out of the park this was like this was the LA recent LA Dodgers just knocking every ball over the fence I was impressed. Mabel could have been a shrill unlikeable character as most lead characters have been in these movies of late she wasn't I saw where she was coming from she was a prop she was appropriately humbled she tried to save the day in the end you know I've certainly been where Mabel is when we're just trying to keep a bunch of lids on pots you know before everything fucking explodes it's it's rough and I got it you know Jerry John hands character I saw where he was coming from too and I like the way that they handled that. This episode is brought to you by speaker the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain symptoms include buying microphones you don't need explaining our ss feeds to confused relatives and saying things like sorry I can't talk right now I'm editing audio.

48:11If this sounds familiar you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is speaker makes the whole process simple you record your show uploaded once and speaker distributes it everywhere people listen Apple podcasts Spotify and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing even better speaker helps you monetize your show with ads meaning your podcast might someday pay for well more microphones start your show today at speaker dot com speaker because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour you might as well publish it. I would say like I think the probably the Pixar is especially since or both Disney and Pixar since like Moana and the good dinosaur photo realistic scenes have been their stock entry to the point where they don't wow me anymore and this one it didn't either this this seemed like a very nicely animated cartoon but I but I was never not watching a cartoon.

49:13Can I tell you that in the wake of the success of the opening weekend Daniel Chong released a bit of the what they did like proof of concept footage and it's not 3d animated it's like Ghibli inspired 2d animation of George and Mabel swimming. He got the crown and everything and he put this out there like we're not going to immediately go wait the whole thing could have looked like this and instead it looks like generic Pixar film number 5. Oh man what a missed opportunity. I think that was the other reason I had no face going in because the scene that they use all the time in the trailer of Mabel running through the grass with her arms like oh my god I understand you. I cannot see that and not think of turning red it looks I literally I mean I'm sorry the trailer I walked literally walked in and be thinking okay so we're going to see an avatar rip off using leftover assets from turning red and big hero 6 got it.

50:15Yeah I wasn't impressed with the animation it's a perfectly fine cartoon but I was missing the photo realism of like a Moana or like I said the good dinosaur or the best thing about it. I'd accept something that actually invited you into the world. You're commenting this is more on the onward level I only agree with that in terms of production quality. I did like the idea that I caught him off I wanted to let him finish the sentence. Sorry. Well there's two ways to go about this kind of thing either you do something so realistic that the audience is like wow I'm there which these days is a shaky bet because when everything kind of looks like that nothing works like that. Or you do something a little bit outside of the box and you invite the audience in this is what Ghibli does like nobody's going to confuse Ghibli style animation for the real world but it creates something that invites you into it it makes you want to be there and we've lost a little bit of this movie wants to be the wild robot but it isn't as animated as well it isn't written as well.

51:19Yeah it's not really as good on any level it's written almost as good as the as the wild robot but it's animated as well as immigration. The elimination movie with the ducks migration thank you migration whatever migration very different things mark. Show me a passport um so overall I'm I'm happy with the direction Pixar is going in I have I have higher hopes now that I did before for toy story um I won't get into the argument I got to do it Rob before the show started about. Why that series needs to stop um but yeah that should have stopped at three that is again I'll I will happily fight with you on that hill. Robert I 100% I'm just I'm talking about the thing with the toys being out of date but I don't worry about that in over the summer um yeah I I absolutely think hoppers is Pixar returning to what made them great. I hope it's rewarded by the audience it may not be I mean had a good weekend we'll talk about that soon you thought Robert.

52:26Again I think this is good I think what it's lacking and why it winds up a little bit below inside out to for me personally is. This should have hit me emotionally. I literally lost my grandma like. I want to be on three. Like six months ago give her into that yeah I did cry during this at some points go ahead I I can't imagine why this is kind of my problem with it okay like this. There's a lot about where I am emotionally right now where this should have hit me and none of it did. And that's kind of why so that's one of the things that I kind of do have a little bit of a knock against it that's a small one purely craft wise I agree with you like watching this avoid every major pitfall. That most not only Pixar but a lot of movies have run into lately was nice. But I don't grade on a sliding scale of boy it sure is nice to see something that isn't a D I'm going to make it an A.

53:30This is not a D or an F it's a pretty solid C plus. A B minus if you want to be generous and that's fine real quick the van going over the over the falls set to a wonderful world finding Nemo or finding Dory finding Dory. The bit with the shark and when they crashed the car I was getting that vibe I needed to make sure I said that okay. I think my if I had like a couple of major I think kind of gripes with this. I don't care much about Mabel. And I I agree that she's not a shrill and likable character let me just start there and the fact that she's not any of those things is really really nice. I think I kind of just never really I needed more out of the performance and the animation if this is a character that is avoiding their grief and is putting it off onto I must save this thing because this means that I don't have to deal with my grief.

54:45And I didn't get that out of it if that's what we're kind of going for. I don't think the movie put as much emphasis on that as they should have either now that you mention it. I think it's like we just got to get the kids to the mall and so well how are we going to get the kids to the mall fast I don't know kill grandma. Yeah and especially when that's when like our big emotional moment is supposed to be her fighting the fire and deciding I'm going to put saving what I've got here instead of trying to preserve what I used to have. You need more to make that cathartic and then the fact that the ending is well you get to preserve it anyway kind of cuts the legs out from under the character growth anyway. So those things kind of bothered me. From a writing perspective her relationship with George I kind of wanted a little more out of it's weird because this movies what 100 and 10 minutes double check for me real fast if you would please. 100 and 5 minutes 100 I could have used another 8 minutes of this movies runtime like I genuinely could have used a few things being more fleshed out spend a little more bit more time with some of the some of the elements of this film.

55:56And much as you know I'm happy with a leaner movie by and large. And there's stuff that like I kind of if you can introduce a few of these things I need a little more time spent here to make it make sense. Like the animal like the different you know phylum of animals all having different rulers. I'm okay with but. One you limit you do kind of limit it a little bit with just like amphibians reptiles insects and avians and then mammals. You you do kind of limit it and like I'm supposed to believe that the rulers of all the animal kingdom are all in proximity to beverton because that's where the beaver king is. I kind of assumed it was the rulers of the animals in just that particular. I would have I would assume with the lecture here I'm pretty sure this was a 20 square mile thing.

56:57I and I would have been okay with that if that had been like made a little bit more clear but the fish is able to like. Scrounge up the world's largest shark. From the from the coastline of Oregon. It would be a bull shark and this was a great white anyway. I do have a theory though so at the end we do have doctor Sam put pulls out the board with all of her future projects and yes the dog collar from up the robot cat from light ear and one of the robots from wallie or on it. I think we're going to get a Disney plus animated series out of this. I think we're going to get essentially kind of a wild thorn berries meets dexter's lab with mabel probably regaining her ability to talk to King George through a special headset or something trying out doctor Sam's invention. You were still you were still talking about your thing and you got stuck on why a shark and what why why the animals operate the way they do keep going well.

58:08I'm sorry look just seagulls pulling a shark out of the ocean at that point we have jumped the shark quite literally because the shark did was pulled out and jumped over a thing. So we're to where to point out a Pixar movie go you get in silly go to bed. Bear in mind I don't think I've done that with almost any other Pixar film I've been like okay. That's why that more than anything else is why I was getting that finding Dory vibe of if you'll remember it's the animals driving the fucking way and then they drive it off a cliff. Sometimes Pixar kind of stays within the world that they built and other times they get so silly and this is one of those really and I think that's why I didn't. This episode is brought to you by speaker the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain symptoms include buying microphones you don't need explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives and saying things like sorry I can't talk right now I'm editing audio.

59:12If this sounds familiar you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is speaker makes the whole process simple you record your show uploaded once and speaker distributes it everywhere people listen Apple podcasts Spotify and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better speaker helps you monetize your show with ads meaning your podcast might someday pay for well more microphones. Start your show today at speaker dot com speaker because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour you might as well publish it. It's not a moment that lost me because in another world in another mood. I'm watching the watching the birds carry the shark and I'm like this is gay this is so stupid. And but I happen to not be in the world's worst place of the time and I thought well occasionally Pixar gets silly. Yeah and I suppose just because it's so out of left field that it kind of just took me out a little bit.

1:00:13I think my other gripe and this is a I'm trying not to be animals wearing crowned you are okay with. Years where we get silly. Believe it or not yes like okay the. I'm not. I think that's the movie like you know what's the word not grooming but like getting you to a like understand this is not reality this is a silly world. Yeah and even in the silly world we just went too far again for me and that line is different for everyone else I get it. I think if I have another kind of gripe and this is a large gripe I have with people who do these kinds of stories. Please have a little bit of creativity other than making the animals just like people. I have complained about this for a while and I'm going to just read or I'm going to bang this drum until I get what I want. And it may never happen but I'm going to keep doing it when the when we're taking a look into the magical world of animals of nature and being able to communicate.

1:01:21Everything that they do into just something humans do I think is just cheap and lazy and uninteresting wild robot at least did a little bit of. Let's keep the predators predators let's keep the prey prey and the only time they decide we can we'll be okay together is. Oh boy we all have to share this one space otherwise we die in the blizzard right as soon as we're outside of this didn't you get what you wanted with the wild robot you're saying it's not enough. When no it's not enough I need more of this like wild robot or water ship down like these are quasi alien worlds and groups of individual groups of creatures and characters. If we reduce them to it's a human but it's a beaver I think you do it a disservice. Like we actually should get a wildly almost alien perspective on everything that's going on from the frogs who don't think about any of this stuff the same way that a beaver would or a bird would.

1:02:25And we don't get that they're all kind of just there doing the same thing saying the same things. And that homogenation that lack of imagination I do find like as a sad missed opportunity from all of us. He's up called he said get over it. Well well he's not wrong. I can't what you're saying I think what you're saying is valid and if it took you out of the movie that's that's fine it involved in me I didn't think about it that hard. It's funny because I. I've in bulk been doing my TikTok essays with chat GPT but I but it's more than just compress this make it an essay and then I'm going to read it. I ask it for feedback I say you know I actually you know more specifically I had it do all of the screen reviews that we did and I had to tell it six times one of these it's Alexis hosting tell me how much better it is with me doing it and with her doing it and it doesn't matter. But you're welcome but it's funny that the chat GPT is just like you know you pick out Alexis but Alexis speaks for the trees and then and you know and here's what you do well and then here's what Robert does well.

1:03:36So you're sort of picking you and attacking of certain structures and details is very consistent across everything that we do that the chat GPT picked it off because I've fed it now so many of these transcripts. No by the way the chat GPT shut up the chat GPT likes you just fine well Lexus see he sees your value I haven't sent him the Thanksgiving one him I haven't said it the Thanksgiving one yet I'm going to do that just just approve my point. You are so bringing about the robot apocalypse you would Jesse are just speed ready guys to oblivion I am team sky net all the way speaking of sky net anything else Robert. Not really again this is a you and I can kind of squabble about whether or not this is better than inside out to but ultimately that's a matter of degrees they're of the same kind. This is definitely picks are definitely like after light year blew up and boy did it blow up.

1:04:37They've really been trying to like again like you mentioned Alexis like you took a lot of a heart out of leo. And I understand that in fact one of the things we complained about when we reviewed the movie that you did I understand why you stripped elements of its identity out I really do because if you're managing Pixar as a studio. Are we going to sacrifice it so this movie becomes a little bit more bland or are we going to take another giant hit from the people who actually buy the damn thing. And the them coming down on well I couldn't we couldn't take this hit again we need to try and get these the studio back to a point where it's financially viable and makes money. I get it and this is another kind of step in that direction I do think again this is you know around like inside out to onward and this are all kind of about somewhere in the same vicinity.

1:05:44Incidentally inside onward is the only Pixar movie I think I've told my mom not to watch because. Obviously reasons well it's about brothers and I've got you know there's she has four sons and I think it would just be like maker disconsolid and certain point. But yeah this is this is fine this is a perfectly acceptable C plus B minus movie and God bless not looking forward to toy story five very much at this point but. And looking forward to cocoa to even less like what in the world are we doing here I am not looking for to cocoa to but I yeah i'm not looking forward to toy story five that's not going to happen but I am at least. Confident that if this is the direction Pixar is going in or on the right track for toy story five not to make me want to do in a terrorist organization so. Speaking of wanting to join a terrorist organization in Disney.

1:06:47I assume you saw you saw the bit where the former showrunner of the accolade was like yeah season two Yoda was going to help cover up the Jedi's war crimes. I can't wait for Lucas film to go out of business alright speaking speaking of which. I wish I was joking I know you're not here comes the money. This episode is brought to you by speaker the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives and saying things like sorry I can't talk right now I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is speaker makes the whole process simple you record your show uploaded once and speaker distributed everywhere people listen Apple podcasts Spotify and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better speaker helps you monetize your show with ads meaning your podcast might someday pay for well more microphones start your show today at speaker dot com speaker because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour you might as well publish it.

1:08:03Yes now already. There it is okay on a budget of 150 million this thing made 88 million. As of March 8th 2026 hoppers grows 46 million in the US and Canada 42 million in other territories for a worldwide of 88 million in the US and Canada hoppers was released alongside the bride which nobody saw and was projected to gross 40 million from 4,000 theaters during its opening weekend. The film was projected to reverse the pictures low opening street for originals overtaking the lukewarm openings of elemental which became a sleeper hit in ilio which became a box office failure. The film collected 13.2 million on its opening day including 3.2 from Thursday previous was seen as a head of expectations. The film proceeded to open 46 million in the US and Canada and 42 million overseas for a worldwide total of 88 taking first place at the box office in doing so hoppers became the highest opening for an original Pixar film since cocoa in 2017 and the highest opening for an original animated film in the post pandemic era.

1:09:19The better the average performance was attributed to positive word of mouth and the films released during a slow market for family films. Yes, if you don't want to take your children to the giant stabby stabby films or the monster films of which there are resilient here is hoppers a perfectly lovely film. And that is the only way we're placed where I kind of agree with you where you know like stop rewarding regression. It's like there's this so such worth those movies in the you know in films in the movie theater right now for families like hoppers gets elevated which I you know whatever it's what happens with these movies. Look, I'm not denying the reality of the situation for the reason I'm like when you said that's kind of where you were with that I didn't try to argue that point or attack you about it because you're right. I'm just saying like I'm not going to grade on a curve because of it, but that's just me. Hoppers was the number one movie of the weekend.

1:10:19It knocked scream seven from one to two the bride debuted at number three. Well, Magdalene Hall you tried. Goat drop from two to four withering vaginas drop from three to five crime one of one stayed at number six. Epic Elvis Presley and concert drop from five to seven cent help stayed at number eight. I can only imagine two electric burglar drop from seven to nine and demon slayer ketchup of no mustard. It debuted at 10 no it's been released at number 10. Okay, yeah, oh my god. I take that back. It's just somehow jumped up from where the hello ever it was because it's 26 weeks in the in theaters. The protector debuted at 12 dolly 16 youngblood at 21 and bomb pay below the clubs to 35. Heal 52.

1:11:19Oh my god. Heal 52. And that was the weekend that was worldwide. Something called Pegasus three is currently worldwide of three hundred and seven million. We did this last week. Mark, this is a track. This is a Chinese racing movie. Okay. Don't expect me to remember things from a week ago. Weathering Heights is. I kind of do. I'm not going to. I don't expect you to remember things from like eight months ago, but last week. Weathering Heights is number two at 213 million blades of the guardians 168 scare out is 160. Scream seven, currently the number five movie in the world of 149 million goat, but. 146 Boone Bay is 139. And not even breaking 100 million sent help hoppers and the man who lives with the gang. Hoppers is debuting on the charts at number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine. Yeah, hoppers is going to struggle a little bit here.

1:12:19Again, it's got an okay opening. And it's got a pretty clear field as far as family movies. Yeah. I was about to ask. It's not a month. It's got a month is Mario. Sorry. Super Mario comes out the first week of April. I was about to ask if that was the next. Yes. Yeah. Super Mario Galaxy is the next like family movie. So it's got until then. But on a, you know, 190 million dollar budget, you said, give her take. Yeah. So coming up this weekend is reminders of him. That's the big one from Universal. That's for all the women's. And we have a bleaker street. But Mark, all the women's we're going to go see the feminist masterpiece that is the bride shrill insanity. Yes, sir. And we have. We get to get my shots in. I have to sit through the darn thing. We're reviewing it next week. Speaking of shots slanted by Amy Wang. The gates of. From Lionsgate by trucker by John Burr.

1:13:20Body cam from shutter and it does not have a hyperlink. So yeah, this weekend is free and clear. Nothing is going to matter until the weekend of the 20th when project. How Mary comes out, which is getting absolutely rave reviews. Yeah. And then the end of the month. Yeah, there's nothing that's really going to. So. Hoppers has the entire month of March to kick ass and take names and two bubble gum. So. You're at a spot where you got to get to like 500 million. Not impossible, but. It's going to need a stronghold. Yeah. I would imagine. Super Mario. What the last one do you remember off top of your head? Right around a billion. Yeah. What was the opening weekend? 100 million. 150. I'll look it up. Hang on.

1:14:20Alexa's a look it up then. Okay. Probably something around that. And this one will probably do about the same. Maybe a little better. But they've only released the one trailer. I think that's to their benefit at the moment because the one trailer they have released has largely been positively received. So I haven't paid much. Wait, you're talking about the trailers for the Mario Brothers movie. Yeah. Yeah. They just released a third one today. I've only seen the one. So. Yeah. Well, it's in celebration because tomorrow is Mario day. Mario. Tomorrow is Mario day. Tomorrow was more. Yeah. Actually fans are kind of going berserk because they confer. You know, Robert, you're not the same age. You'll appreciate this. They confirmed that. Wart from Super Mario 2 is going to be there. Luis Guzman is voicing him. And. I am already predicting the eye rolls from both of you. They confirmed who's voicing Yoshi. It's Donald Glover.

1:15:23Yeah, I roll that a little bit. My question about the super Mario movie. Mark, no one here is going to make fun of you for that. If you're worried, if you need help in your domestic situation, blink three times. It's a lot more than three. Is it that I will send in a tactical air strike? No, um, she's wonderful. Listen, um, my question is not behind you. Culturally. Okay. How are we doing with Mario these days? Go ahead and answer the question there, Alexis. Well, for the record, I finally found it. The opening weekend for the first Super Mario movie in 2023 was 377 million plus global openings. 204.6 million domestically. Biggest worldwide opening for an animated film ever. Highest grossing video game adaptation ever. So do we think it does? I'm thinking about like wicked.

1:16:23You know, there was a lot of pop and circumstance for. No, no. This is the year two we had died. Wicked had it later. Wicked had a thing where it was half a story. This is just a sequel to a movie that people liked. It'll probably do fine. Oh, I think it's going to do really well because what God people excited about the first Mario movie was that it was a love letter to gamers. And most of us have grown up with a Mario game in our lives. This one is expanding that again. They're including a whole scene with villains from Mario 2. We've got Yoshi coming in who has been. Easily the most popular Mario character since he first debuted in Super Mario world. We're getting also a lot of peaks. We got Rosalina Bowser Jr. Apparently they're doing a love war with Mario Galaxy because they also confirmed. Esa Ray is playing a character from the Mario Galaxy game. So I think this is really showcasing the love of growing up with the Mario games.

1:17:27I mean, hell, the second Mario trailer featured Yoshi holding a super scope. And the fans with ape shit over that. So it's all lined up with the splash pack at some point and Luigi needs a vacuum this time. So plus or minus 300 million opening weekend in Lexus. What do you think? I say plus. I say plus. I think it is going to kick butt. You think it crosses a billion again? Oh, yeah, easily. You think it makes more than the first one. Yes. All right. A decent chance. A decent chance on all fronts for that. The big question on this one is going to be. You know, what gets through the Chinese sensors? Because the first one. You and I both know this mark like you can't make a billion dollars if China doesn't like you. Yep. At this point, if the Chinese market doesn't like your movie, you ain't hitting that number. Just full stop. I think this one will probably be fine. So it probably again about the same thing that the first one did.

1:18:28I imagine it'll do a look. I imagine it will do better when it's all said and done it. The first one didn't burn any bridges. It's not like there's been a lot of movies in this genre since then anyway. Like we haven't been burned with like, well, between Super Mario and Super Mario Galaxy. There was Link. There was Metroid. There was everything else to set up a Smash Brothers movie like that. We haven't done that. We haven't gone down that road yet. The only the only other video game adaptation that has had any way to write among besides my brothers is the Sonic films and they've done incredibly well. Well, I'll hold the phone on that. They've made money, but they're making less money with each success of one. Like they've all been hits and they've all been profitable. But I want to say and correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think two made as much as one. I don't think three made as much as two. I know three didn't make as much as two. But I think what, look, with Sonic 4, I think the big selling point for that is it's going to be like.

1:19:29They're going to get off of Earth for that one. They have to at this point. Yeah, we talked about our theories when we reviewed it. Well, that is why I am going to be the Debbie Downer of this discussion that we can move on to the final part. I don't think it has the opening weekend that it's predecessor had. I think super mario galaxy makes less money opening weekend and less money overall. Will it crack a billion? Did Minecraft crack a billion last year? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I remember I joked because it must have been because they charged extra seats for the chickens. This chicken jocky mark. I'm trying to take it like there was something that came awfully close that we thought would crack a billion and didn't in that area. One sec. And I feel like it might have been Minecraft. I'm willing to be wrong about that and there's a misremembering but I feel like Minecraft got close but it didn't get over a billion.

1:20:34I know you're right. Minecraft came at 961. This is why I don't think there's the appetite for going to see these movies that they're once was. That's kind of my whole argument here is I'm not saying they won't be good and I'm not saying they won't make money. I'm saying that the movie going populous is shrinking. So there's going to have to shave off because this isn't new. People aren't clamoring for it. There's going to be a slice that's going to be willing to wait for this to come on streaming. Let's do the other component of this argument then. What's the schedule? How long have a how much room does galaxy have before it has any real competition in the family market? That's a great question. So Super Mario Galaxy comes out April 1st and then if we're just talking strictly family movies, what kids walk into a bank?

1:21:39No, just kidding. You're making me do that for a comic strip and I am. Stop. More and more attempted to just stab you in the throat. Oh, speaking of being stabbed in the throat. The episode is brought to you by speaker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need. Explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now. I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is, speaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, uploaded once and speaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better, speaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for well more microphones. Start your show today at speaker.com speaker because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it.

1:22:39I saw the trailer for Animal Farm and I almost walked out of hoppers. Yeah, I am a George Orwell has always been my favorite author. I say we bring Andy circus up on war crimes. That's how bad I think that movie looks. Yeah, I can't. I genuinely am shocked that Angel Studios decided to distribute that. I love Andy circus and I have enjoyed so many of his movies. But my God, Mr. Why would you disservice Orwell's memory like that? The decision to turn 90 to turn animal farm from a commentary on communism to a commentary on capitalism is just wrong. You want to retreat capitalism? It's right for it. Go ahead. This ain't the way. Well, kidding. Either way, regardless, the whole I may feel otherwise. The answer to your question is that's the next kids movie that's coming out of the Mario and it's a month later. And you know, one is going to see it. I don't know, man.

1:23:39The Christians like that studio. They were like this. Um, so you have animal. The Christian here. Animal Farm is May 1st. No, remember when that used to belong to Marvel. I do, but then Marvel, you know, blew itself up. And then June 19th is toy story. So it's got until June basically followed by minions and monsters on July 1st. Yes, that's when the real other family movies come out animal. Animal Farm is not a kids story to begin. It can be told to kids, but. No, like that movie is going to bomb. Pretty badly. So this has like two months to just do its thing. If it finds an audience, it'll be fine. Like that's also, you know, kids starting to get out of school around then like it's. Yeah, it's got a chance. Our church is still bossing people to go to the movies when they want something to be successful.

1:24:43Uh, depends on the denomination, but look. Angel built a decent reputation. David was fairly well received this last earlier this year. Solo me. It seems to have been a modest success for the, you know, romantic, dramedy kind of crowd, which is what it was. A lot of these move the thing about angel studios that assert it's with some of these things. They're not producing them. They're distributing. Because like they didn't like they were not involved in financing animal animal farm. But no one else. Stop. But no one like as soon as everyone like saw the trailer for animal farm every other distributor went. No. And a smaller studio kind of like how I will take a flyer on it is that's kind of how that's going with that. Nobody's going out of their way to try and like make that movie a success.

1:25:45Seth Rogan is terrible and has negative cash. Andy Circus. God bless him. Missed the mark on this. That trailer got killed by everyone left right and center. For the record, it's fun to clear that angel really puts out a lot of money on its marketing. Remember I mentioned in a previous video about how I was getting inundated with. Uh, take trailers for David. You joke while you it's probably you accidentally trip something in your algorithm. Uh, I'm getting inundated with animal farm trailers now. Just crazy amount. Angel is spending a fortune on their marketing. Terrible decision. I mean, angel studios used to be, um, I forget the title of what it used to be. But I know the I know the studio it used to be. Um, and I don't they're making a. I think they're making an error with this one. I agree. But.

1:26:46It's their error to make. And. Really unfortunate again, they've, they've did a, they did a decent job trying to build up goodwill with some of the last stuff they've released. I mean, they did, um. What do they call their helmet, human or story? I might have been treason or something to that effect. Um, it's a good story. Um, and it was, and it was a good movie. Um, again, solo me. It's a Kevin James romantic. Dramaty. Like he gets left at the altar but goes on the vacation solo anyway and meets other couples that were on the same package and redisco, and like kind of like as an older guy like boy, I kind of thought this was it for me. Sort of rediscover some. It's a fairly standard movie like, you know, the mid budget thing that, you know, we've lamented the death of. Admittedly, I saw the trailer for solo me. It, it's not something I'm going out of my way to see, but it doesn't look terrible. It looks like one of those.

1:27:46If it was on TV, I wouldn't be able to turn it off. I mean, you know, stuff like, you know, returned to me was in that same vein, which was David the Covenant. He's one of, one of his first starring roles on film. I got drug to see that in theaters. Hey. Since I won't be here next week, we're going to talk about what happened to the bride. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is, Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreaker.com.

1:28:48Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. We're going to have to talk about it next week, so hang on, I mark for you and me for just a second. Yeah, when I'm talking craft here, this is this is money. This is news related. The news was this was like the biggest bomb of the year so far. Here's, we're going to talk more about this next week. Okay, just for everybody who wants to know that, but because Mark's not going to be here and is not going to have to suffer, like I'm going to have to suffer through that movie. No, you don't worry, Kat and I will make sure your paint your paint is quick. That doesn't make that no, you can't make the movie shorter. No, that was more of a youth in Asia joke, but that's either here or there. I'm not Canadian anyway. Look, here's my two cents on this from where we stand right now, because we're not talking craft. We're just talking, you know, box office.

1:29:50And Maggie Gyllenhaal is a shit writer. And she wrote and directed this hang on her direction and I'm lost Alexis for a second here. Her actual direction seems to be at least moderate. Okay, let me, let me say this very clearly. Her direction seems to be at least moderately interesting in a car crash kind of way. The writing is terrible. I've not seen anyone say anything good about the writing. Terrible writer. It seems like an artifact from 2016. It's kind of the vibe. And it opened to $7 million. And I saw enough people do the, you know, if this was a 20, if this had a budget of $20 million, $7 million opening actually isn't bad. You know, it might actually be okay. There's hope. What was the budget for the bride? Let me just take a big swig of water before I look at the number so I can do the spit take.

1:30:51When you decide to burn almost $100 million on Maggie Gyllenhaal's shrill feminism, you deserve every bad thing that's coming your way. Here's the thing. It had a huge media personally debating you. I'm just kind of looking at this from another angle. I didn't hear much negative press going into opening weekend everything. The embargoes on those reviews were as long as possible. Right. That's my point. They did, they did a successful job of keeping the critics reviews away from people for as long as possible. This had a huge marketing push. I'm actually kind of shocked no one gave a shit. Just so you will understand where I'm coming from and maybe where it looks to participate in the discussion.

1:31:54I'm surprised it did as bad as it did. I'm not surprised it is as bad as it is. I'm surprised opening weekend. Like there's, you know, send help did okay. Crime 101 did okay. A lot of movie bone temple did okay. I figured it would do okay. A lot of shit's doing just okay now. Like nothing's doing great. The, you know, something that's getting as much marketing as the bride, generally isn't doing the worst movie ever, numbers. So I'm a little shocked that this one did now. Obviously it's not going to recover from as much negative presence getting. I'm just like really there's no, no one was it like monster people weren't interested in this. Maggie Gill at all people not, not interested in this. You know, there's no Maggie Gill, there's no Maggie Gill and all people mark. You know, if you're kind of, if you're again,

1:32:56weathering heights did perfectly fine. So women go see moving. Wuthering height was nothing about the bride that interested women, you know, at all. Wuthering heights, as you have mentioned, was like what passes for a salacious movie these days. Yes, it was a book. Pretty number. Never mind that it actually downplays the scandalous transgressive elements of the novel. In favor of, oh no, he grabbed her by the neck. So let me see something I don't normally say. I want to hear from Alexis. Any idea why. What would have been pockets of fans for this thing? And it does have built in pockets of fan bases. Why everyone's summarily ignored it before anyone knew it was bad. Okay, number one, I have not seen the movie yet. I am going to see it this coming weekend with. I asked you to do a craft review. I'm asking you. I'm not. Let me get to the point, Mr. Raddleich. Well, I don't understand why you started there, but go on. Okay, haven't seen the movie yet. So I don't really have much to say about why I don't think it works because I don't know what is in the movie yet.

1:33:57And number two, can we please just get on to the critical review? I believe I mentioned at the top of the show. I have Chinese food getting cold. I'm going to have to talk about the bride again next week. Okay, I'm sorry I went to you. Robert, so your thoughts on why pockets of fans that just has built in. Ignored the movie entirely. I think the marketing missed a lot of people. I'm not saying it didn't exist. I'm saying the way that marketing works these days, it just missed a lot of people. I think again, this movie feels like an artifact from 2016. And I think culturally we've moved on from that. I mean, it's the same. I mean, it's less than I'll say. I don't know how else you do a brighter Frankenstein movie other than just make it some monster flock than to do it as a feminist piece. Like, that's why you would greenlight it. That's why you let whoever was working on this do this.

1:35:00You kind of go into it going off. You're going to do a brighter Frankenstein movie. Yeah, man. Allow me to allow me to express to you. And from other critics say about the movie when you talk about like you have to do it as a feminist piece. I'm not opposed to that idea for the right. Not anti feminism here. When your framing device is this is the story that Mary Shelley really wanted to tell, but she was oppressed into telling Frankenstein because the patriarchy. When Jesse Buckley at one point begins randomly shrieking and increasingly higher octaves me to me to me to me to while firing a gun into a crowd. Are you serious? And Alexander Scars guard literally says at one point, I'm a bad guy. I'm a dirty cop. I do what they tell me her direction was described as making bas lerman look freaking subtle for the record. You're thinking Peter Sars guard. Peter so related to the scars guard. My apologies. Peter Sars guard. Yes. Yeah, that's what this movie is.

1:36:03Lab shading the movie. Look, again, you want to do a feminist tack on the bride of Frankenstein? Okay. When your introductory bit is the ghost of Mary Shelley and from black and white possesses the body of a 30s gangster wife who has been a knock down the stairs by your abusive husband and breaks your neck. We're off the reservation 10 miles back. Like, you want to, again, you want to do a feminist take? Okay, there's feminism that makes people think it makes things interesting. And then there's shrill screeching. Like somebody looked at the finale of the 2020, the 2020 candy man and went, but what if that was the whole movie? All right. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout at you, but it's like I literally. I haven't even been paying attention to the reviews of this because I want to go in with a blank slate.

1:37:06What I was going to say was you're both kind of missed my point that I mean, Robert kind of got it. That was you asked about specifics. So I gave you the specific that I was aware of. Up until this weekend, this past weekend, that's what I was really wondering about. No, this is before anyone knows within the movie. I'm just, I'll say it again. I'm shocked. Nothing about this movie was appealing to enough people to get it to just okay. It's look, no one knows whether or not Maggie. Let's back up to before the movie comes out. That's where I was trying to focus. No one knows if Maggie Jill and Hulk and direct. We just had a very good Frankenstein movie. We are kind of culturally past the sort of shrill feminism that is indicated in the trailers. And God bless Jesse Buckley and for her making sure this movie came out after the Oscar voting was done.

1:38:10Because this could have been her Eddie Murphy moment where he didn't win an Oscar because his Oscar worthy performance came out the same year as the Asam Norbert. And they were like, we can't give an Oscar to this guy. Wondering if this might have done better had they pushed into the summer. No, it was never going to this would have done better if they'd again would have done better in the death Nell of January. Alright. Enjoy your review next week. Hi, that critical review. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now. I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing.

1:39:18Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreaker.com. Because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Are you ready? No! I said! Are you ready? No, God! No, God, please, no! No! No! No! Alrighty, there it is. 93% of the tomato meter, 94% of the fan meter, no surprises. That's about right. Again, like my gripes with this are big zest, but nothing that would take this down out of fresh from on that. All audiences, 92, verified all audiences, 94, and there is no subdividing among tomato meter.

1:40:18The AI writes, and eager beaver. I give up. Yeah, sorry. No, I have to chuck whistle over that. An eager beaver for an deer mint that was charmed to back it up. Hoppers is a sprightly riot that might just be the funniest entry into the Pixar. Oh, kid. What the fuck, yo? In no way, shapeformer fashion, is this anywhere close to the funniest movie in the Pixar canon? Not a chance. And once you get past the first 10 minutes, up's pretty goddamn funny. Oh, funny. All the toy story movies, I have laugh out loud moments, apart from four. Well, four had a couple of laugh out loud moments. A lot of that due to the voice acting work of Keanu Reeves and Kim Peel, in my opinion. Both the Finding Nemo and Finding Dory movies are hilarious. Oh, yeah. Finding Dory has like them bullying the seal off the rock.

1:41:18Suck it by pets from Edo Neal as the octopus. So much further record. I did should see will Mr. Friend of the show William B. Vianne's review posted on another website. So if you see it, I'm curious to see if the quote that they highlighted shows up here, because what he said that got highlighted is pretty damn hilarious. Odie Henderson of the Boston Globe, 2.5 out of 4. Visually, Hoppers is a step down from what we expect from Pixar. It's best movies. They really is in and set this film apart for many other animations company, for many other animation companies work. This guy was going solely off of a visual standpoint. He really didn't care about the actual content. I'm gonna say I don't wholly disagree with that. Like, if you were to told me that illumination made Hoppers, I would believe you. You could say it looked just like a migration. Not just visually, I mean like everything. This is, there's nothing here that has like. Pardon the expression the Pixar magic.

1:42:20It's a good movie. But it's a generically good movie. The future X misses Winfrey Sarah Vincent of Sarah V G Vincent views. Hoppers often can feel as if it is running the clock with exciting beats while giving short shrift to storylines that may have advanced the story's emotional center and still appeal to kids. Again, that's kind of what I said about. That was one of my gripes with it. So she stole from me. How dare she? It's okay. It's okay to love your wives. The future X misses Robert Winfrey, Sarah Nicole of Riotus. A very satisfying Pixar movie. Great messages that don't hit you over the head. Like my jokes. Instead, you can kind of snuggle into it. Like a big old blanket. I hate vibes based reviewing. Speaking of vibes, Jeffrey Harris of 401mini.com. It's an incredibly cute and fun movie that still nails the emotional relationships and character arcs and provides wholesome family entertainment. Very good. No. You get it. It's not bad, but it's not nine out of ten. Adam Olinger of Adam does movies.

1:43:21I can't believe Hoppers is from the same studio that gave us Toy Story, Wally, and Ratatouille. This felt like a rip off of an illumination film done poorly. Okay. Not done poorly. It's not that bad. That, that's a slam. Again, if you want to, if you asked me like, if you told me illumination did this and it's a better end illumination movie, I'd agree. But no, this is not done badly. Colin Garberino of World Hoppers is thematically one of the most original stories Pixar's ever made. If we're, I don't think this is enough to get it to a negative review personally. But if we're just talking like again, thematic originality. Yeah, this is very, very well-worn territory thematically. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Cars. You ever seen Doc Hollywood? Sit on. Look. Cars isn't super original either. I wouldn't give a point for that. Sit on. At Lanka. Joyce.com. Brushed.

1:44:21I got food. I got food. Occasionally taps into the very real fur and. Fure. Fure and fewer. And paralysis that stem from simply being aware of the world. But rather than channeling those raw emotions, if it trades them with a merely mouth tail of. Renegging on one's core beliefs. Okay. This is the person who wanted like the eco terrorism. Yeah. This is the person who was really mad that they. That our protagonist and our antagonist actually reached a compromise. This person does not view movies and storytelling. Is anything other than a means for emotional validation? You're not to be taken seriously. Please be fired. Speaking of which, Rachel Wagner of Rachel reviews YouTube. Both bizarre and derivative with confusing message. Nothing confusing about the messaging here. A immature, emotionally unstable girl. Learned the value of restraint, maturity and empathy. Well, that right there is why she's confused by it because.

1:45:21That's the kind of person who thinks restraint is fascism. You know how I say you know how I mentioned at the beginning about the problem that most animal rights activists aren't written well. And they're very one dimensional. You could tell that that reviewer wants that kind of a character. Yeah. Yeah. Surprise her hair isn't blue in that picture. It isn't real life. And insulting those of us who die our hair. No, this is not about dying hair in particular. It's about blue hair specifically. Hey, I took my hair blue all the time. The color looks awesome on me. No, no, no. I like how I like her hair. Like as she's going into the hole, she just keeps digging faster. Scott Mendelssohn, the outside scoop. The lively and hilarious office is an example of what they're sorry and Disney should be doing. Keep moving forward. Yes. How do we get to hilarious here? I mean, in general, he's correct. But like was anyone rolling in the frickin' aisles here? I wouldn't say rolling in the aisles. I left pretty good. How are you? I left pretty hard when Mae will wipe the dead queen off of her paws on the wall behind her.

1:46:23Again, I'm not saying there's not humor to be had, but like... I've seen genuinely hilarious movies in the theater, the kind that like... The guy behind you falls out of his chair and bumps into the back of yours. Linda Cabulli of Escobiando Sine. 5 out of 10. The access of ideas and the idealistic approach clash with the realism of its director. Daniel Chong intends to convey. Resulting in a dense and unbalanced film that is unlikely to achieve transcendence it aspires to. I get what they're going for there, but again, I disagree that it was enough to knock it that far down. Are these people just upset that the real villain of the film ended up being the butterfly? Because no inspects the butterfly. They're not in on the joke. Travis Hobbson of Punch Drunk Critics. Hoppers is unabashedly goofy, but like the best Pixar movies. It manages to blend humor with real world concerns and a heaping dose of humanity. Thank you, Travis. Again, not entirely. The future exorcist Robert Winfrey Carl, a hay of culture mix.

1:47:25Hoppers has all the makings of a classic Pixar franchise. Somehow this fantastic movie doesn't get cluttered with its themes about human animal body swapping. That's not a theme, it's a device. Wow. Environmental activism and emotional connections with nature. This woman does not understand film princess at all. She doesn't understand English. This is what happens when you do everything for the culture. For the culture. You're just trying to sound like Snoop Dogg and eating a translator. Movies for all the people. Ah, yes, the future ex misses Lexus Haina, Grace Randolph of Beyond the Trailer. Pixar continues to think small these days and the first act is pretty repetitive for them. But the rest of the film is so funny and inventive that ends up being a good time anyway. Am Franco and Moynihan do some great boys work. Not entirely wrong. For once you will not be beating your future ex-wife Lexus after her job.

1:48:26I love that whatever Mark wills it so apparently I'm gay. It's how it works. Speaking of which, Rachel Leishman of the Mary Sue, the Mary Sue Erika Poe. Hoppers is for all those kids who see an animal and instantly want to pet it. Wow. How is that? The Mary Sue. Oh, say that sounds more like a review for the secret of lives of pets than hoppers. Like there's a bunch of the animals in here that you shouldn't touch. Yeah. You really should be touching beavers in the first let alone bears. Beavers are iffy. You can. They're a little bit skittish and they're not always their social creature but they're always the friendliest. Well, it's my argument. Don't touch wild animals that they don't want to be touched. Yeah, that's true. William Viviani of the rap. Hoppers isn't just James Cameron's avatar if it had feelings. It's also James Cameron's avatar if it was good.

1:49:26That's the quote I saw and I loved it. That is a good line. That is a very good line. As someone who's never been in love with the avatar franchise, I understand. Well, we're going to end with Serbia Viviani. Folks, that is our review of Hoppers. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreaker.com.

1:50:28Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. I will be in New Orleans, I'll be coming home from New Orleans next Monday. So I will leave the bar to, to Curse the alley over there. Hopefully it will not be burned down. It's a cheers reference for those of you who are under the age of 40. I'm old. Yeah, you legit says that he was just like, I'll leave the keys to, I can't remember Curse the alley is character. I am. No, that was really long. Yeah. And then I'll sell Rebecca. I will leave the bar to Rebecca and then sell what's left for Gendling. I assume the restaurant upstairs took issue with that. There was a restaurant above cheers, I recall. What was above cheers? Because they were, they were the base. Oh, that's right. You know what? Now that you think about, they was, there was a restaurant above cheers. I knew there was something. I wasn't sure if there was a restaurant or something else, but.

1:51:28Yeah. Chill, cheers was taped for a live studio audience. Remember when they used to do that? I remember when there used to be live audiences. Anyway, Alexis will be here along with Kat along with Robert and they will discuss the bride. Good luck. I'll be back the following week to do project. Hail Mary. And then I will see if I survive. And then I will ending the month with ready or not to here I come. So that's going on here. I was going to show yesterday because I got, I was supposed to be at an MMA gig and then got, then got. It's all they wasn't needed. So tomorrow, Alexis, I think they wasn't needed the Mark Radler story. That's right. That's right. You may just whistle and dixie. Alexis is going to review a night of the seven kingdoms all by her loans. I won't be here to trample her. However, Robert and I will be doing a role in emerald focus.

1:52:30The day at the tomorrow 2012 and the Patriot I showed Jonas and Lily 2012 and the day at the tomorrow. And I fear I'm losing my son. He did not love those movies. He was bored. He was on his phone half the time and he keeps yelling at me to watch Whiplash. That's a good movie. Yeah, it's like favorite movie. It's his favorite movie currently and he's mad. I haven't watched it yet. But you haven't seen Whiplash. I have not. You should watch Whiplash. Miles Taylor still needs to be dragged behind a truck. But J.K. Simmons won an Oscar for that and deserved it. Yeah, I've seen the clips on TikTok. Yeah, it's great. Anyway, yeah, he did not understand the cultural icon that was Roland Emmerick at the time. Those were films were made. You know, one of the things one of the reasons I want to talk about Roland Emmerick and I when we get to those movies. He also, his career is a chronicle of the slow decline of spectacle as part of the entertainment landscapes. I was just trying to get across to him, but like it's like he's impossible to talk to these days.

1:53:32It's like within the last two to three months, this has happened where I'm like. I put my little buddy here. You know, he used to sit at my, sit at my ankles and you know, and I would bestow wisdom upon him. And now, you know, he's like a sister but worse. There's everything's a goddamn fight. Like he's not going to yell free Palestine. He's going to enslave Palestine, but still I like him. So I'm so sick of how to fight with my children. Well, if he's worried, if he actually wants the enslavement part, we got a problem. If he's for the, you know. It's a combination of land under the, for the consolidation of land under the Israeli government. I think there's an argument to be made. Oh God. I said, I said there's an argument. That's all I said. I was saying actual enslavement. No, it was slavery. We're trying to move forward. Trying to move on to your son potentially being a pro slavery. Yeah. Robert, I have low blood sugar. Please go on before I face for once. I'm going to agree with Alexis. And then a week from Thursday.

1:54:32I want to hear the 12 year old's thought on geopolitics in the Middle East. Sweet Christ. So we'll be in the studio for sessions a week from Thursday. And we will be taking our review of Planet Hulk and compressing it into a Duran Duran song. Fantastic. Because you don't follow Mark's adventures with AI music. He got depressed yesterday and sent me. A psychedelic prog rock song in the style of Pink Floyd in the doors about Reese Weatherspoon turning into Roman lettuce because taking our review of. It's a great record time. First of all, that's the only memorable thing about that movie and only because we made it memorable. Yeah, we've been saying it since the movie came out. Yeah. And he turned it into this weird piece. It's like welcome to the machine meets the chain by Fleetwood Mac. It's great. Go listen to it if you're curious. It'll be out in a couple of weeks.

1:55:32Yeah, I was in a mood last night and I was like, I'm going to make a song. I decided I need to make a song out of Reese Weatherspoon turns into Roman lettuce. And I've been listening to it nonstop. All right, speaking of nonstop. What did it upon me because he knows I hate Pink Floyd. Alexis, I hear you have Chinese food you'd like to eat. Yes, I do. No, sorry. The restaurant delayed it. I should have had it to eat at least some of it before. So it's like, now it's like, I am literally running on fumes. But yes, you wasted like five, ten seconds with that. You could your ten seconds further away from eating Chinese food than you would have been. Buying honeysuckle rose creations were fashion meets fan of the intersection of geek and chic. We're getting ready for planning. Comic Con at the end of the month. It's our first convention of the season really looking forward to it. We're fully stocked on our Etsy and handmade at Amazon shops. For those of you who are tuning in tomorrow for nine seven kingdoms. If you are a fan of the Westeros universe, go ahead and check out our shop.

1:56:33We do have some really fun Game of Thrones themed jewelry that does not evoke the disappointment at the eighth season. As always, you can follow us on Facebook. Or towards Martin's writing career lately. Please, George Martin, please write and write faster. He's never going to finish it because the show did the ending. He was going to write and everyone hated it. So now he's like, well, I've got I've bought into the conspiracy theory that he hasn't written. It's all done. He just has it that it's not going to be published until after his death. So he doesn't have to deal with the blowback. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, blue sky screw you Twitter and of course TikTok. That's honeysuckle rose creations, the intersection of geek and chic. Robert, please take the next 20 minutes to do your blogs. I will take significantly less than that. I cover mixed martial arts and professional wrestling over at 411mania.com. So you smack down on Fridays, UFC events on Saturdays. This last Saturday was UFC 326, a disappointment on pretty much every level.

1:57:34They announced the UFC White House card at that event, which was also a disappointment. And the fandom is not even my fandom seems to be in revolt a little bit at the moment. It's a weird thing to observe. The fighters are not happy for a number of reasons. But if you want details on any and all of that, listen to the 411 Grand Apprentice May podcast. That went live at 2 a.m. Eastern on technically Monday morning, because that's the most convenient time for me to do it. So the key weaser up with me is basically how that kind of goes. It's a review of that. It's a preview of this week's event and talk about news. Again, the White House card being announced. Tom Aspen all signing with Eddie Herne. Not only being a free agent, all that good stuff. And yeah, Thursday, Mark and I will talk Roland Demerick, the decline of spectacle as part of the larger entertainment landscape. And the career trajectory of Roland Demerick, because it is one of the most interesting director trajectories I've observed.

1:58:39This site of Joel Schumacher, who is up and down more than the stock market. Is that it? That would in fact be the end of my plugs. Like next week we're talking the bride come watch me spontaneously combust. Oh, say come watch. Come watch me in resident Chaos Goblin, Kat Scott, torture poor Robert it to a quickly approaching insanity. Look, I've not Robert. Have you heard her and Dorian do Thanksgiving? Oh, it is not that going to be that bad, okay? Hush, I have not heard bad first of all before before Monday. I'm going to need you to listen to that review. And I'm going to need you to make sure it doesn't happen. Do you hear? I have no control over any of this, Mark. You have control over Alexis. You have no control over Kat. But Kat will follow Kat will follow in line.

1:59:39It'll be fine. Look, Alexis has control of the board and the controls. I had I have nothing here, man. I got nothing. She respects you and you. You have the power. Don't let this become Thanksgiving. I'm never going to live. No, it won't become Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is what happens when you lock just be a Dorian and a Roob together. We've. Dorian and I have a tendency that when we start talking we branch out into a million different topics. Yeah, I don't know if you noticed it about her that she can't stay on topic. Yeah. So it's basically a mere image of that. So it is the 80 HD levels of a goldfish talking. You fell into a feedback loop. I understand. I was doing Uber. Uber at the time. I was driving. Uber. And I'm listening to this. And I've never wanted to drive into oncoming traffic so many times. Like it was a. Like I was in different areas of Tampa. And I would get frustrated and be like,

2:00:39like, fuck it. There's no reason to live. Like it was over and over and over again. That review is five hours long and is five hours of rambling in set. Do you know like the bit and I think it's. What is it? Billy Madison, where he gives a non-sensical answer. I'm very familiar with the response to that. Yeah, rambling by Adam Sandler. Yes. That podcast between Alexis and Dorian is his answer times a hundred. Okay. Robert. So you remember when you and I used to do reviews with Jesse and repeatedly. Jesse would have to reemose back in and talked about how he had to edit. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's two hours of that. Okay. It is two hours. And you don't have. And you don't have David. They're going so low. You know, this was before. All the adult. All the adults have left the room and left. And let the two. You know, sugar riddled. Okay. Okay. Robert. Robert. Robert. Okay.

2:01:39If it makes you feel better, Mark, if you can then travel with peace of mind and clarity. Yes. I will do whatever minimal things are within my power to try and keep that show on track. You're here. By comparison. So that Alexis is like, he hates me. Another guy. He was good. The one show that I think is really, really good. Was. Late night with the devil. Thank you. Yeah. It meandered a bit in places, but all of our discussions me and your in places ask me why I know that. So, but like, that was. We're sitting here trying to close this podcast and you just went back to a Thanksgiving review to try and warn us about the upcoming one. Well also because the chance. One of the chat TVG's constant remarks about our podcast is. It's a little meandering in places. It's good for a podcast, but it's awful for. You know, a thoughtful discussion, enough like that is about right. Yeah. I was driving home, I think, from somewhere up north in Florida, and I remember listening to the late night with the devil, and I'm like, this is surprisingly, like, on point, and, like, thoughtful, and I actually got a sense of what the movie is.

2:02:41The other one was Showgun. Showgun, I think, is like your best review you've ever done. Actually, I think personally, I think the best review we've ever done of Robert Ruz, when we did a cabinet of curiosities. You're wrong. It's Showgun, and late night with the devil. Well, Showgun, I'm also going to credit David Wright for a lot of that. He was able to, yeah, I mean, you know, David actually does understand Japanese culture a hell of a lot better than I do. So it was great to have him, you know, we actually had an expert in the field. Yeah. Yes, it showed. So Robert, I'm trusting you with the keys, cheers. I will. I'll never make a burn the place down. I was going to say, I don't smoke, so you don't have to worry about me throwing a cigarette in the trash can. I saw that episode. Look, I will do what I can, but what I can do is limited. And I can't vouch for my mental health after seeing that movie. I may be helping burn the thing to the ground. Okay. Well, for Fire Marshal Bell in his accomplice, I'm Mr. Bell, Mark.

2:03:41Mr. Bell. Okey dokey. Be well. For the reference only you will get. Oh, no, Mr. Bell. There we go.