Transcript
Speaker: I'm Haley.
Speaker: And I'm Riley.
Speaker: And this is Movies Better, Yeah Right.
Speaker: A podcast where we see how our favorite YA reads and their adaptations stack up against each other.
Speaker: I'm a full-time writer, reader, and proud owner of four library cards.
Speaker: And I'm a never writer, sometimes reader, and avid movie watcher.
Speaker: We've been friends for six years and bond best over books and movies based off them.
Speaker: But instead of watching together and annoying everyone around us with our nonstop commentary, we've brought our hot takes here for you.
Speaker: So whether you read along, watch along, both or neither, join us as we work our way through the YA genre.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: It is Wrinkle in Time week.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So do we want to start with our hot takes, Riley?
Speaker: You should go first because I still don't remember what the hot take was.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: So my hot take is kind of a broad one, but I was reading this book and then I watched the movie and I thought, for some reason, the book made perfect sense in my brain.
Speaker: I was like, yes, this is all very accurate and I am here for it.
Speaker: And then I watched the movie and I was like, this is absolutely absurd.
Speaker: I don't know why anyone would think this was realistic.
Speaker: So that's...
Speaker: my very odd hot take where book makes sense I'm totally here for it movie I was like this is wacky and I don't get it if we had watched the like 90s movie or the early 2000s movie you would have had that feeling on steroids because it is even more ridiculous my hot take is kind of lukewarm it's just that
Speaker: I love this book so much as a kid that I cannot form any sort of critical negative opinion about it because it makes me feel so, I don't even know if the book is good or the movie, whatever, but it, the like certain images of like the bouncy ball kids on the driveway and like, um, aunt beast just like make me feel so like I'm seven, like this nostalgic way.
Speaker: So I don't even think I could have a hot take if I tried.
Speaker: This is going to be a really fun conversation.
Speaker: So I never read this book and I never saw the movie.
Speaker: I don't know how I keep just missing these childhood classics.
Speaker: I think I just didn't like to read.
Speaker: So I was probably like, that's not for me.
Speaker: What was your favorite book as a kid?
Speaker: As a kid, I, when I was really little, I liked utterly me, Clarice Bean.
Speaker: Do you remember that book?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: It was so cute.
Speaker: It was pink.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Maybe she was like a cartoon on the cover.
Speaker: I wonder if they ever made a show about it.
Speaker: I really liked that.
Speaker: And then I barely read anything ever until like eighth grade.
Speaker: I read Twilight and Twilight.
Speaker: Your girl's been hooked ever since.
Speaker: I just needed YA.
Speaker: I think I don't like younger kids books.
Speaker: I like was the kid who checked out 40 books at the library and would walk out with a stack like this and they would tell my mom like she's not going to read these and my mom would be like okay just wait till three weeks from now when we come back and this was like one my favorite book always was Heidi consistently but it would change like the second book underneath that would change and A Wrinkle in Time was up there for a while I love it
Speaker: I definitely did like it, but I have some thoughts.
Speaker: First, I'm going to keep a short and sweet summary brought to you by Sparknotes.
Speaker: So A Wrinkle in Time is a story of Meg Murray, a high school age girl, which I don't think that's very accurate.
Speaker: Isn't she like 12?
Speaker: Yeah, I don't think she's in high school.
Speaker: Okay, a middle school age girl who was transported on an adventure through time and space with her younger brother, Charles Wallace, and her friend, Calvin O'Keefe, to rescue her father, a gifted scientist, from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet.
Speaker: So I would say that's very short and sweet, but a lot more happens.
Speaker: We kind of open up in the first few chapters meeting our three main otherworldly women.
Speaker: We have Miss What's It, Miss Who, and Miss Which.
Speaker: And they meet Charles Wallace and then the other two children and kind of introduce them into the idea that the world is not fully what it seems and that their dad, who has been missing for a few years, didn't run out on them.
Speaker: So apparently he is missing in space.
Speaker: So these three women take the children and tesser them or like...
Speaker: portal transport i guess we can get more into the science of it later but take them to a whole new planet i'll find the skirt picture which won't help any podcast listeners but maybe help us describe it perfect yeah we can tell you what it looks like so they take them to a whole new planet and basically explain that there's a darkness attacking the universe and
Speaker: And that this darkness is after the father and has him right now and is also surrounding Earth.
Speaker: And for whatever reason, these three kids are to save the entire universe and their family.
Speaker: And all the universe beings.
Speaker: So they go through this adventure and do pretty well.
Speaker: They make it to a whole planet where Riley was saying the darkness has fully taken over Kamazot.
Speaker: And on that planet, everyone does the same things and follows the same patterns.
Speaker: And if you step out of line, you get like reprocessed.
Speaker: That's like the darkness's goal is to make everybody the same and take away any individuality.
Speaker: And that's where the father is.
Speaker: The darkness ends up getting Charles Wallace because he's a cocky little brat.
Speaker: Meg is able to set free the father and the father is able to help Calvin and Meg Tesser, but they leave behind Charles Wallace.
Speaker: And Meg is pissed.
Speaker: She's like, I came here.
Speaker: I got you.
Speaker: You're supposed to fix things now, dude.
Speaker: I'm 12.
Speaker: I've had enough.
Speaker: And of course, the dad still can't do anything.
Speaker: And the three otherworldly women are like, this is on you now, Meg.
Speaker: I don't really know.
Speaker: She goes back to the planet, Kamazat, and has to battle the darkness, otherwise known as It.
Speaker: I thought it was IT almost the entire time.
Speaker: But I'm pretty sure it's It.
Speaker: It's It.
Speaker: She battles It.
Speaker: And is able to win back Charles Wallace.
Speaker: And then they happily end up at home.
Speaker: And the whole family is reunited.
Speaker: And everything is fine and dandy.
Speaker: Very suddenly.
Speaker: Very suddenly.
Speaker: I did have a note.
Speaker: Everything is finished and wrapped up within six pages.
Speaker: Which was kind of shocking considering how long they take years.
Speaker: to get things there's a lot of like auxiliary detail but i think that's the main gist of it what do you think riley any missing points like weird other planets that they went to that we can maybe talk about later but i liked the 2d one i thought it was very funny that the ladies were like oh we vacation there
Speaker: Yeah, they're like, we forgot.
Speaker: We almost could have killed you.
Speaker: Yeah, so on that planet, they like took... The three women took like a pit stop when they were tessering the kids around the universe, and they stopped on a planet that apparently is two-dimensional.
Speaker: So these like other beings were fine, I guess.
Speaker: But the kids were like flattened out and couldn't breathe.
Speaker: Their like lungs couldn't get air into them.
Speaker: And their thoughts...
Speaker: where Meg describes their thoughts as if they're written on paper, which I really liked.
Speaker: I thought that was cool.
Speaker: And they go see a medium.
Speaker: It's a woman in the book, yeah.
Speaker: It's a man in both movies, the old one and the new one.
Speaker: Oh, weird.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I think my note on that whole thing was like, I don't really know why this is important.
Speaker: A lot of the pre-Kamazot stuff is just like...
Speaker: They're doing a lot of tessering for not a lot of great reasons.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they tesser very initially from the house to the planet Uriel, which is really beautiful.
Speaker: There's colors and flowers and I think it smells good.
Speaker: Everything is nice there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then Miss What's It, which I guess we should introduce our ladies.
Speaker: There's Miss What's It, Miss Who, and Miss Which.
Speaker: And Miss What's It is like a normal lady, but she dresses funky and just seems like something is weird with her.
Speaker: And she transforms into a Pegasus type.
Speaker: Which is just like a centaur pegasus, right?
Speaker: Let me show you a picture because she's written other books.
Speaker: Again, not great for a podcast medium, but she's written other books.
Speaker: And one of the covers has Mrs. What's- I see her like, she's like a little baby version on mine.
Speaker: Oh, what do you have?
Speaker: I've got- I have this.
Speaker: Oh, there we go.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, we have the same book.
Speaker: Oh, she's like teeny tiny there.
Speaker: But in the book, like they make it seem like there's no way to describe what she turns into.
Speaker: But it really is just a centaur pegasus.
Speaker: So Miss What's It can transform.
Speaker: Miss Who only speaks in quotes, which I personally found very annoying.
Speaker: I loved it in the in the book.
Speaker: She speaks in quotes and then extra words.
Speaker: But in the movie, she's like quotes only.
Speaker: And I liked that.
Speaker: No, she starts talking normal at the end of the movie.
Speaker: And I have a whole note of like, this was your whole thing for so long.
Speaker: Why are you giving it up now?
Speaker: Oh, I missed that.
Speaker: We'll talk about it later, but she does not.
Speaker: You are wrong.
Speaker: But in the book, she'll like speak in other languages and then like translate herself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I just like cannot be bothered.
Speaker: And then Miss Witch, who I think was kind of my favorite.
Speaker: I pictured her like as an iridescent, like shimmer.
Speaker: She like never has a human form, really.
Speaker: And she talks in like the writing.
Speaker: There's a lot of extra letters.
Speaker: So only Riley will understand this, but I just picture her as Nana Wendy.
Speaker: Like sing-songy words.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes, which I won't do an impression.
Speaker: Riley could do an impression.
Speaker: Next time.
Speaker: I only have a little coffee here.
Speaker: You'll have to pay for our Patreon to hear what Nana Wendy sounds like.
Speaker: We could get Colton to guest star.
Speaker: I wonder what her favorite book from childhood is.
Speaker: Maybe this one that came out.
Speaker: Well, no, nevermind.
Speaker: 1962.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: I guess she'd be like a teen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Could have been my mom's favorite book.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: Do you want me speaking of when it came out to do some book facts?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I would love book facts.
Speaker: My first book fact is actually just a fact about me, which is that I went to.
Speaker: So Madeline L. Engel.
Speaker: the author whose name i maybe i'm saying correctly maybe not she died at age 88 in 2007. i went to her 100th birthday party possibly by accident because um her granddaughters like released a book about her when i was in college and i lived by this bookstore called books of wonder in new york that's all kids books
Speaker: and they did events and it was like my second home because I didn't have a social life and I loved it there.
Speaker: So I was like, oh, I'm going to go to this event.
Speaker: And it turns out it was on her 100th birthday.
Speaker: So they brought a cake that was all decorated and I got a piece of the cake.
Speaker: So I helped celebrate her 100th birthday.
Speaker: Congratulations.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: So when she passed in 2007,
Speaker: This book was in its 69th printing and it sold 8 million copies.
Speaker: So I don't know the number.
Speaker: Since like this new movie came out, I'm sure that's just even bigger.
Speaker: It's already crazy.
Speaker: That is crazy.
Speaker: She wrote the book in her 40s.
Speaker: She'd been like writing forever and she's got a lot of other books, some like religious, spiritual books and adult books.
Speaker: But she was writing this in her 40s.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: She was living on a dairy farm with her three kids in Connecticut, and she was reading about Einstein, and she wanted to use his principles to make a believable universe.
Speaker: Her book was rejected 26 times, and she had given up and shelved it, and she was at a tea party for her mom one Christmas, and a guest knew an editor who did not publish kids' books.
Speaker: His company didn't even have a kid's imprint, but he liked the book so much
Speaker: when they met that he published it was like the first kids book that they published.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: It's like real life younger.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Go to dinner parties and just end up published the next week.
Speaker: Whoever wrote that show, like knew this story and nothing else.
Speaker: This man, whose name is J.C.
Speaker: Farrar, had a good eye because the book won the Newbery Medal.
Speaker: The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was a runner up for the Anderson Award.
Speaker: It won the Sequoia Book Award.
Speaker: It just goes on and on and on.
Speaker: And then she kept the series up.
Speaker: So it gets a little confusing, but she wrote.
Speaker: That's crazy to me.
Speaker: There's like a time quintet, which is this book, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, An Acceptable Time.
Speaker: They're not like all about Meg.
Speaker: There's Charles Wallace.
Speaker: There's like the twins for one of them.
Speaker: There's that one's great.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Really in the book.
Speaker: There's one with like Meg's ancestors, like her, I think, granddaughter.
Speaker: And then there's.
Speaker: those five are a part of like a greater series called kai rose that has a lot of calvin's family and i've never read those i've read the time quintet but the other ones are arm of the starfish dragons in the water and house like a lotus so there is so it was a cash cow i believe so i don't often meet people that have read more than this one
Speaker: It doesn't end.
Speaker: There's nothing more that is needed.
Speaker: I guess technically they like jet off really quick.
Speaker: Each of them could be like their own story.
Speaker: They're not like.
Speaker: You could pick one up at any point.
Speaker: in the middle and just read it.
Speaker: Okay, a couple other facts.
Speaker: One is that there was a lot of speculation that this was like an anti-communism book because of what you said about like the main villain really being like conformity and everyone being the same.
Speaker: Yeah, that adds up.
Speaker: At some point, her granddaughters released some like unpublished pages to prove that she was writing not
Speaker: anti-communist book but an anti-totalitarian government in general book so there's some pages where Meg's father is like warning her
Speaker: about totalitarianism and he's like name checking like she asks him like what about countries like ours ones that are under dictatorships what about democracies and he picks her up and he says it's an equally logical outcome of too much prosperity or you could put it that it's the result of too strong a desire for security and that's kind of where that part stops my other fact is
Speaker: Oh, there's a lot of speculation.
Speaker: She never makes this explicit, but a lot of, I read a lot of people on the spectrum or people that have kids on the spectrum really like love this book and have found a lot of themselves in it.
Speaker: And there's a lot of mentions of like Charles Wallace not speaking for many years.
Speaker: And like, he's like really smart for his age and has like a lot of like facts that he knows about these like very specific
Speaker: science things and meg is like good at math i'm trying to find i wrote down some quotes where she's like asking her dad about herself and charles wallace because their twin brothers are like oh yeah she was like remembering that like her and charles got a lot of iq tests when they were little and the twins didn't really he says something about like you guys are you're going to develop differently but like you're normal you're fine and so the reason a lot of people
Speaker: even though she didn't like ever say so, find this as like good, possibly autistic representation is because the parents are like, yeah, you're like totally perfect.
Speaker: We're not trying to like make you different or do what you think.
Speaker: They also pointed out like one quote.
Speaker: Oh, you did?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I see it here.
Speaker: Like Meg had realized that some of the games her parents played with her were tests of some kind.
Speaker: And there had been more for her and Charles Wallace than for the twins.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they were like kind of hiding that they were trying to see if they were different.
Speaker: So I feel like they didn't want to call it out too much.
Speaker: This is technically about the movie, but I read.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: I read that the movie seemed to like play this up even more by having Mrs. Who like only, only speak in quotes of other people.
Speaker: And Mrs. What's it being really, really blunt.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I had a note about that.
Speaker: She was.
Speaker: super blunt tell it like it is if she had a thought she said it so there was some like thought that maybe Ava DuVernay was trying to like emphasize those parts of the book and put that on screen but it's not really a book fact as like a book speculation I would like you to just stick to the facts in the future please this is a factual podcast I'm out no opinions allowed
Speaker: I am out of opinions and facts.
Speaker: Oh, my goodness.
Speaker: I have a different topic.
Speaker: More of a question for you.
Speaker: Do it.
Speaker: Are the three spectral beings married?
Speaker: Because it's all, well, no, married to other people.
Speaker: Like, it's all MRS. Oh.
Speaker: Doesn't that mean you're married?
Speaker: Maybe they're married to the cause.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Ah, yes.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Isn't that weird?
Speaker: I never really thought about it.
Speaker: I didn't until I was reviewing my notes and it really was confusing to me.
Speaker: It's like there is an option to not make it look like they were married.
Speaker: Unless they were trying to blend in with humans, but like you're literally an iridescent fog.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: I did not pick up on that.
Speaker: I'm very astute.
Speaker: Oh, here are my notes.
Speaker: Still make page numbers.
Speaker: Where did I write those page numbers?
Speaker: Man.
Speaker: I just highlighted and then hoped I could find them later.
Speaker: That's brave.
Speaker: I honestly should have done that.
Speaker: So what did you think of this book?
Speaker: Big picture.
Speaker: I need to give you one more thought first.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I have my own book, Fun Fact.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: I just like wanted to make sure we had them covered.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My fun fact is that the book is dedicated to a man named Charles Wadsworth Camp and then a man named Wallace Colin Franklin.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: The book's dedicated to Charles Wallace.
Speaker: That's funny.
Speaker: All of my reads and I never noticed that.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Aren't you thankful you have me?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I really was slacking on the book facts.
Speaker: I missed that.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: That's my only one.
Speaker: I have a question about this book.
Speaker: Really about a character we haven't talked about too much, which is Calvin, which is the, like, love interest.
Speaker: Yes, they are flirty.
Speaker: They kissed at the end in front of her dad.
Speaker: I know, but I mean, like, the dad was never even around.
Speaker: But do you think, am I alone in thinking that Calvin is so mean in this book?
Speaker: He's such an asshole.
Speaker: Everything he says to her is...
Speaker: mean he's so nice and sweet in the movie in the book i'm trying to find some lines he is really it's a word a little abrasive very critical of her tells her to shut up really yeah i liked him maybe that says something about me well he called i guess this isn't about her he called charles wallace a moron like over and over again in the beginning he was like oh you're stupid you're a moron and i was
Speaker: But he was saying like he was wrong.
Speaker: He literally says lead on, moron, when they're going to the house.
Speaker: I missed that part.
Speaker: I wonder if I even highlighted it.
Speaker: He is a little mean.
Speaker: I've got to find, I'll be flipping and when I get to a May quote, I'll let you know.
Speaker: I know he was like kind of harsh to her about like the dad, but I thought it was kind of valid.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't think I loved Meg and Charles Wallace as much as I was supposed to.
Speaker: So maybe that's why I was like, yeah, Calvin.
Speaker: He is a moron.
Speaker: I thought the teachers were really mean.
Speaker: Yes, they were unnecessarily harsh with her.
Speaker: She's not great at school.
Speaker: She's like acting out.
Speaker: She's upset as she should be.
Speaker: And they basically are like, get your shit together.
Speaker: Your dad's not coming back.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: And they're like also trying to get information from her for like gossip.
Speaker: They're saying like his face had surface level concern.
Speaker: But then there was a gleam of avid curiosity, which is a little shady.
Speaker: And also, who cares if Meg doesn't want to do well in school?
Speaker: Yeah, she's great at math.
Speaker: Just let her do that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What did you think of... So when I read this book as a kid, I didn't pick up on how religious it was.
Speaker: I had so many notes.
Speaker: I loved The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Speaker: I also loved Heidi, which until I read it again a couple years ago, I didn't realize that she is as sweet and positive as she is because she is praying to God the whole time and asking for those feelings.
Speaker: And I was like, I don't remember reading this at all.
Speaker: But I apparently was very attracted to books of that nature.
Speaker: Or maybe that's just all that was around.
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: It was like unexpected each time it happened where I was like, oh, this is like weirdly religious.
Speaker: The planet Israel is named after I read.
Speaker: That's like an angel's name.
Speaker: Oh, I missed that.
Speaker: So I'm not religious.
Speaker: So I feel like only the very clear things hit me.
Speaker: I had to Google that.
Speaker: I just I didn't.
Speaker: I was tickled by the idea that the kids like need to fight this darkness.
Speaker: And then Jesus was also another fighter.
Speaker: It was like Jesus couldn't do it.
Speaker: But three children can.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Which people was like, I don't remember the list, but it was like Buddha.
Speaker: Einstein.
Speaker: Frida Kahlo.
Speaker: Maybe I made that up, but I felt like she was in there.
Speaker: I feel like it was low on the women.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: Maybe she's in there, but I remember mostly the men.
Speaker: And then kids who have barely hit puberty.
Speaker: The book is weird in terms of like, it's fun to read it and like follow on their adventure.
Speaker: But if you stop at any point for a second and are like, why is this happening?
Speaker: Why is it happening to them?
Speaker: Why is the dad being held?
Speaker: in this by this evil darkness it's no explanation you know what I would love let it go what I would love you know how they've been taking like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Archie and that and like making CW dramas
Speaker: this is a huge trauma okay yes and no i would like a show that focuses on the dad and his work with like the government that's classified like an x-filesy show but about mr murray's work so they're really vague on what's there's a point in the later books where the president calls their house like whatever he's doing is that
Speaker: High up.
Speaker: The president of the U.S. phone number.
Speaker: He's literally trapped on a different planet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You would think the government would have done a little more to help out this family.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: They don't tell them anything.
Speaker: I also thought they were in England for like a lot of it.
Speaker: Oh, I think they're probably in Connecticut, like where she wrote it, if I had to guess.
Speaker: That doesn't make more sense.
Speaker: I feel like the only reason I thought that is because it was cold and rainy.
Speaker: And I was like, yeah, that's right.
Speaker: And the Tech Everlasting that we read last time was the hottest, sunniest book ever.
Speaker: Yeah, this one was chilly.
Speaker: Big change of pace.
Speaker: I'm trying.
Speaker: I feel like we're jumping around a lot.
Speaker: But I also think to anyone listening, it doesn't matter.
Speaker: Like, I think you could read this book out of order and still get the idea.
Speaker: I'm just over here trying to find evidence of Calvin being a dick.
Speaker: And I know it's in here.
Speaker: Oh, and you can't find any because he's great.
Speaker: He holds her hand all the time and protects her.
Speaker: He's like a boy that they, you know, the kind of boy they told us about when we were kids that was like, if they're mean to you and tease you, it means they like you.
Speaker: He's doing that the whole time.
Speaker: He's meaner.
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: It's stuck, Riley.
Speaker: The teachings are still there.
Speaker: I don't like it.
Speaker: He was better in the movie.
Speaker: I feel like I don't really remember him from the movie.
Speaker: Because he was kind.
Speaker: There was nothing to be.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: He wasn't my type.
Speaker: And there's barely any romance.
Speaker: They kind of like.
Speaker: They still kiss at the very end.
Speaker: No, not on the lips.
Speaker: Not on the lips.
Speaker: Yeah, that's one of my notes.
Speaker: If you want me to summarize the movie, I can jump in.
Speaker: I'm wondering, should we get in there?
Speaker: Yeah, their romance is slow burn in the movie.
Speaker: It's really slow.
Speaker: It was hot and heavy in the book.
Speaker: It was.
Speaker: Immediately, she was like, I really like this guy.
Speaker: And they were just holding hands.
Speaker: Yeah, the minute they meet, it's flirty.
Speaker: Okay, so the book, that's really one of the only differences.
Speaker: There's some that I wrote down, but it's pretty similar.
Speaker: So to summarize it is a lot like the book.
Speaker: Wait, that's funny that you say that.
Speaker: Well, the differences that there are are huge, but there's just not a ton of them.
Speaker: I have a whole column of differences.
Speaker: I'll start by saying they just remove Aunt Beast.
Speaker: Just as for Aunt Beast, I was pissed that she wasn't in the movie.
Speaker: But they don't.
Speaker: They talk about her.
Speaker: They show her for a brief second when they're describing other planets.
Speaker: Okay, yeah.
Speaker: And then she's nowhere.
Speaker: She doesn't have a name.
Speaker: She doesn't have...
Speaker: We missed out on book talk.
Speaker: We'll do a full talk about Aunt Beast.
Speaker: Should we do it?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I keep interrupting you.
Speaker: I barely started.
Speaker: All I was going to say, Aunt Beast is gone and so are the twins.
Speaker: There's just no Dennis and Sandy.
Speaker: I think if you do love Aunt Beast so much, we deserve to acknowledge her existence.
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: I'm going to start by sending you a photo of her in the
Speaker: 2000s 90s whenever it came out please do because I could not for the life of me picture her oh I don't know the book very well oh should I read I have the description of her in the book somewhere I'm realizing I don't even know where to find it so stand by okay I'm finding this picture of you I'll say while you're doing that that this is the planet where Meg is going to recover from her
Speaker: fight her very unsuccessful fight with it and she like has a very hard time testering everyone else can do it really easy and she's always like on the brink of death every time so she's in a bad way when she testers back and then she is like nursed back to health by this alien creature who her dad and calvin are like yeah take her go fix her oh yeah they don't mind and this person doesn't have um eyes i have it here do you want to hear it yeah
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'll send you the picture.
Speaker: So they were the same dull gray color as the flowers.
Speaker: As if they hadn't walked upright, they would have seemed like animals.
Speaker: They moved directly towards the three humans.
Speaker: They had four arms and far more than five fingers to each hand.
Speaker: And the fingers were not fingers, but long waving tentacles.
Speaker: Ew.
Speaker: They had heads and they had faces, but they weren't human faces.
Speaker: They seemed like there were just indentations in places where the ears and the hair were and more tentacles.
Speaker: And they were tall.
Speaker: And they had no eyes, just like soft holes.
Speaker: So horrifying.
Speaker: And they rub their tentacles all over her.
Speaker: They do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But look at this picture I sent you, which if we had show notes in a real show, I would include.
Speaker: They took tentacles and went firm.
Speaker: Oh, she's cute.
Speaker: She's like, she looks like Chewbacca with no eyes.
Speaker: Yes, exactly.
Speaker: She's all warm and fuzzy.
Speaker: And she has little indentations where her eyes would be, but there's no tentacles.
Speaker: Okay, yes, I like her there, but the tentacles are just disturbing.
Speaker: So in the movie, they just decided that Meg didn't need to heal anywhere.
Speaker: She was just going to immediately go back to the planet with no nursing and just go beat it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Do they even take her?
Speaker: I can't even remember where she goes after.
Speaker: I don't think it looks like anything.
Speaker: I feel like it's...
Speaker: either on camisatz still just somewhere else on the planet or somewhere close by that just is like nondescript and not memorable maybe that makes sense yeah so do you want to go through the summary yeah so it follows the book really closely except we get a little bit more in the beginning of like a backstory of like meg's relationship with her dad
Speaker: They're like doing little experiments together and you see the parents like working on their science together and he's sort of like making waves and being embarrassing because the things he like believes in and studies aren't respected.
Speaker: So they give a little more context so that when he disappears, I felt a little more emotion when he was gone than I did in the book.
Speaker: He's just kind of gone.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Yeah, I was like, Chris Pine, you had such a sweet little bond with your family.
Speaker: He had all these little nicknames for her.
Speaker: She meets Mrs. Who, Mrs. What's It, Mrs. Witch, pretty much the same way.
Speaker: Calvin comes with them to all the other planets.
Speaker: This is where the differences come in, which is that they insert, Ava DuVernay, who directed this, inserted a ton of action.
Speaker: It was not in the books.
Speaker: We have Calvin falling off of Mrs. What's It's flying body and would have died if Mrs. Who hadn't
Speaker: laid out a bunch of flowers softly for him to land on.
Speaker: So he flies through the air for a while in a very scary scene.
Speaker: There's another scene on Camazotz where he and Meg find themselves... Charles Wallace is gone.
Speaker: I don't know where he was when this happened, but they find themselves in the
Speaker: And things are being flung over a rock wall and they need to be flung over the wall.
Speaker: So Meg does some physics and she's like, we have to get into this tree trunk and then the tree trunk will be flung.
Speaker: And so that happens.
Speaker: It's a little scary.
Speaker: Not in the book at all.
Speaker: Just wanted to get into hearts racing a couple times.
Speaker: Meg was a lot smarter in the movie.
Speaker: She was.
Speaker: They really upped the math skills in the movie.
Speaker: They changed a little bit how...
Speaker: Big and scary.
Speaker: It is not like something that's taking over every planet.
Speaker: They don't even call... They don't point out some big darkness that's all over the place.
Speaker: It's just like Camazots is bad.
Speaker: And it is there.
Speaker: So they kind of shrink down the villain.
Speaker: And then everyone's the same on Camazots.
Speaker: But then there's other scenes where they're not the same.
Speaker: And it seems at the end when Meg is trying to beat it...
Speaker: she's being tempted not to like be like everyone else, but to be this like perfect version of herself who like has straight hair and has makeup on.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Looks like what I think she thinks in her head is like this perfect version.
Speaker: And Charles Wallace is like, if you stay here, like this is what you can have.
Speaker: So I felt like they turned a little bit away from the anti communism or anti sameness and made it more like about Meg,
Speaker: like liking the version of herself that she was because much more about self-love.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: They like stress.
Speaker: They said that the reason she couldn't test her was because she hated to be in her own body and she didn't want to return to it.
Speaker: So she was like bad at testering in the movie because she didn't love herself.
Speaker: And they like talked a lot about her.
Speaker: She clearly had like rejection and abandonment stuff from her dad leaving.
Speaker: So it was a lot more emotional.
Speaker: And so her her fight at the end,
Speaker: I thought was more interesting because it was more about like not just loving Charles Wallace, but like she loved herself.
Speaker: And it was sweet.
Speaker: It was sweet.
Speaker: It is a bonkers movie, though.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm only going to say that a little summary of Mrs. What's It, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: In the movie, we've got Reese Witherspoon as Mrs. What's It.
Speaker: Crazy.
Speaker: She is wearing a lot of clothes.
Speaker: Mrs. Who is Mindy Kaling, only speaking, I guess, 99% of the time, in quotes.
Speaker: They make Mrs. Who...
Speaker: Well, it's Oprah, but Oprah is like only a head and shoulders.
Speaker: And she's just like huge.
Speaker: She's like this big being every like character in this movie.
Speaker: I felt like the actor was a jump scare.
Speaker: Like the biggest names ever were just in this movie.
Speaker: And for some reason I had no idea.
Speaker: So every time someone popped up, I was like, oh, my God, I was utterly shocked.
Speaker: It was crazy.
Speaker: I loved the costumes on them.
Speaker: And I wanted Reese Witherspoon's hair.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They looked amazing.
Speaker: They even had Zach Alfinakis was the medium.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So many people.
Speaker: Some sexual tension with Mrs. What's It?
Speaker: Very cute.
Speaker: Miss What's It was a bitch to Meg.
Speaker: She was very... Yeah, no filter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She was not impressed.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um...
Speaker: I have one note.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Well, I have a few that I jotted down while we were thinking about all that stuff.
Speaker: First of all, Charles Wallace in the movie is adopted.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I feel like they changed things just for the sake of changing things in the movie.
Speaker: And then I will say, so you said getting to know the family a little more made it like sadder when the dad left.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I thought the way the dad leaves in the book, he's like sent away.
Speaker: He's like doing work and then kind of goes missing.
Speaker: It's like an accident.
Speaker: In the movie, he literally just ups and leaves.
Speaker: He's like doing experiments in the garage and opens a portal, looks out the window, sees his like children and mother of his children and is like, all righty, peace and hops through the portal.
Speaker: It was no accident.
Speaker: He just straight up left.
Speaker: But for science, I
Speaker: He could have told somebody.
Speaker: Well, maybe.
Speaker: We don't know anything about that portal.
Speaker: I just assumed that he- He didn't know anything about that portal.
Speaker: I think he was like, I'll be right back.
Speaker: I just have to go check this out.
Speaker: How could you think that?
Speaker: He was a little- I was angry at him.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: I was sad.
Speaker: Well, so while we're talking about him, my second photo of the day is a picture of him in the original movie.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: You can see not Chris Pine, but this very hairy man.
Speaker: Because, you know, he's trapped for a long time.
Speaker: Does he also look like Ant Beast?
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: Yeah, there's not.
Speaker: There's not a lot different between these two.
Speaker: It is just you're just going to send me a photo of Chewbacca.
Speaker: Like he has eyes this time and that's the only difference.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: He is hairy.
Speaker: Ew, but it looks like he was able to cut bangs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: strange yeah he's not quite they made chris pine like handsomely rugged and oh yeah he was a smoke show when he came out of the trap which i guess we never have talked about at all how he was stuck on the planet i don't even know if it matters i don't even know the whole gifs we forgot about the gifs you guys should just read the book and watch the movie like stop asking so much of us
Speaker: I feel like Tuck Everlasting was so much easier to summarize because it was sort of like a fable-y type story.
Speaker: It was very simple.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This gave me a run for my money.
Speaker: I wouldn't even know how to describe.
Speaker: He's like somewhere where Meg can see him, but he can't see her until she like...
Speaker: And there's some sort of force field and she can't get in there.
Speaker: And then she puts on these glasses and she can get in and he can't see her, but they can hug.
Speaker: And then she gives him the glasses and he like jumps out with her.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Picture like Luna Lovegood glasses.
Speaker: That's what I did.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And the, so what did you think of in the book, the way that it was described when I read it as a kid, I pictured like, yes, IT.
Speaker: I pictured a brain, like, like one,
Speaker: singular brain that was just on a table.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which was not what we got.
Speaker: We got, it was like more like the inside of the brain, like the synapses.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And in the, one more photo for you.
Speaker: The other movie was sort of the same where they made it like, it kind of looked like intestines.
Speaker: Like, like as if you stuck a huge brain in a swimming pool and just like let all the pieces fly.
Speaker: Very disturbing.
Speaker: Yeah, I kind of like that, though.
Speaker: Because in the book, like, it's such a big part is like how utilitarian almost like the world is.
Speaker: So I thought that was like lost in the movie.
Speaker: Like, it seemed much more like nature heavy.
Speaker: Like they were at the beach.
Speaker: The world did not seem that bad to me.
Speaker: No, they took out the scenes of like, in the book, there's scenes with them in like an office building and you see someone getting like reprocessed, which they do in the other movie.
Speaker: The movie was like, here's a beach scene, which was why it kind of felt like...
Speaker: I was confused about what the problem was because in the book it was clearly like these people are all brainwashed and they're all doing the same things.
Speaker: And in the movie I was like, what's happening on this planet?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, like in the book, it's like, I don't know if you've seen this, but there's a horror movie called Vivarium.
Speaker: Vivarium, I think.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's where like everything is the same and they like can't escape it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so that's what I was like picturing.
Speaker: In the book.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: In the movie that gets lost, but I guess it had to because of like the entirely new plot concept of like self-love.
Speaker: But with that self-love note, I had forgotten she like has a prettier quote unquote version of herself.
Speaker: Um, that really annoyed me because I'm so tired of, like, the narrative that curly hair is, like, not pretty.
Speaker: Like, can we just be done with that?
Speaker: Why do we keep bringing it up?
Speaker: Like, the only reason I feel a thing is because it's dumb shit like this.
Speaker: They balanced it at least with Calvin saying, like, 12 times in that movie, your hair is so beautiful.
Speaker: Okay, but that's, like...
Speaker: Like, is that not just a microaggression?
Speaker: He kept trying to like touch her hair and leave her alone.
Speaker: He does.
Speaker: So I didn't like movie Calvin.
Speaker: You'd rather him just be telling them they're idiots.
Speaker: Yeah, I liked that.
Speaker: I liked it.
Speaker: But yeah, that really annoyed me that that was like, yeah, like it wasn't like, I feel like the more perfect version of herself is maybe she's a tad more sociable because she was like kind of rude to people.
Speaker: I feel like she pictured her school bully, but... And, like, turned herself into her.
Speaker: Yeah, it was, like, the makeup and the hair.
Speaker: Back to, like, where the dad is trapped.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In the movie, I have a note here that the dad is trapped in an NYC trendy pop-up art exhibition.
Speaker: Because that is exactly what it looked like.
Speaker: Like, I would go there and take Instagram photos for $25.
Speaker: Yeah, it's pretty... It was way more beautiful than the... The book just... It was just darkness.
Speaker: There was nothing to it.
Speaker: It was so, like... I was like, in the book, I was like, I don't know how you held out.
Speaker: And in the movie, I was like, oh, some hipster has been giving you, like, espresso.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, you're fine in there.
Speaker: When he says in the...
Speaker: when he's in there, he's like, I don't know how long I've been in here.
Speaker: And I don't know how long I can like last, like staving off it.
Speaker: I was like, I would last five minutes in there before I would be like, my hair couldn't grow that much.
Speaker: I would be like, I'm done.
Speaker: Get me out of here.
Speaker: I'll do whatever you want.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't even think like, especially like in the movie version, I would be like, this seems fine.
Speaker: But in the book, it was like a little scarier, but at the same time you wouldn't even know.
Speaker: And like, I wouldn't even be strong enough.
Speaker: They're like,
Speaker: reciting the declaration of independence to like fight off it like i would walk in and immediately be like step one two one plus one equals two one times two yeah equals two oh yeah i know that much i cannot find calvin's evidence of meanness i promise you i'm gonna be like this is embarrassing for you
Speaker: No one can trust Riley's opinion.
Speaker: How about when the mom is like, yeah, Meg's not good at English or like other subjects.
Speaker: And he starts asking her questions and he groans and says, yeah, I see what you mean.
Speaker: I wouldn't want to teach her.
Speaker: He's just kind of mean.
Speaker: That's really not the meanest.
Speaker: That's funny.
Speaker: Just more.
Speaker: He's got jokes.
Speaker: No, he's got sass.
Speaker: Oh, in the movie, Calvin's not smart.
Speaker: Is Calvin ever smart?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: In the book, he's 14 and in 11th grade.
Speaker: And he's therefore smart?
Speaker: You don't think skipping two years of school makes you smart?
Speaker: I feel like what did he do that was smart?
Speaker: The whole time he's just like.
Speaker: It's because he like knows words.
Speaker: He had the Shakespeare stuff and he recited all those things and the four score and seven years ago.
Speaker: I thought that was Meg.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: He's smart.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He hides it better though.
Speaker: Like he has like the outward appearance of the twins, but he's actually super smart.
Speaker: But in the movie, there's like a flash of Calvin's dad yelling at him for like not getting good enough grades.
Speaker: And he didn't have his dad and not his mom, by the way, who was mean.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what I mean.
Speaker: Like the movie just changes weird stuff.
Speaker: I'm looking at the rest of my movie notes.
Speaker: Did you tear up at all?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: I read a lot.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: In the book or the movie?
Speaker: The movie.
Speaker: Her...
Speaker: The way that she – her feelings about her dad leaving and how much it made her hate herself and their, like, reunion and her complicated feelings toward him made me very emotional.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I thought it was very sad.
Speaker: I did not tear up at all.
Speaker: Maybe, like – okay, maybe at the very end when they're all reunited in the movie, like, because the idea of, like, the mom getting to see him again –
Speaker: But it was for a very split second because if I was that mom, I would be pissed the fuck off.
Speaker: You would first be thrilled.
Speaker: Maybe you'd be pissed off later.
Speaker: I had like two seconds of like, oh, that's really special.
Speaker: And then I remembered how he left them.
Speaker: That he stepped into a portal he thought he could just come back from.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: I have a note.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: So when they're like getting tossed around this planet.
Speaker: for who knows what reason.
Speaker: They like finally get a quiet minute and they do laundry in the river.
Speaker: Was that necessary?
Speaker: I don't think so.
Speaker: And then she like just did her hair like it was nothing.
Speaker: She suddenly had it like perfect, all licked back.
Speaker: It's weird that the book is so go, go, go and intense.
Speaker: And then it's like, I'm just going to take a little pause.
Speaker: You know what it reminds me of?
Speaker: In most Nancy Drew books, she stops to do dishes, like, all the time.
Speaker: She's, like, cleaning up lunch.
Speaker: And I'm like, aren't we in the middle of a mystery that is life or death?
Speaker: Why are we being murdered?
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: So, you had said, like, Charles Wallace in the movie is not part of that, like, tornado or, like, world flipping upside down thing at all.
Speaker: And I have a note of, like, when he reappears, it reminded me of Twilight, where Jacob Black is like, where the hell have you been, Loka?
Speaker: He just like reappears and is like, what have you guys been up to?
Speaker: Like, where were you that whole time, Charles?
Speaker: It's never explained.
Speaker: I don't understand why he would just be gone.
Speaker: Because you know why, actually.
Speaker: It's because they needed the like romantic tension of those two alone in a tree trunk.
Speaker: And to put her little brother in there would have been not romantic.
Speaker: Sure, that would have spoiled the mood big time.
Speaker: I can't believe they don't kiss in the movie.
Speaker: I just wrote a hug and a promise to call.
Speaker: That's all it is.
Speaker: A little hug.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: I am like that lady.
Speaker: The bully sees them through the window.
Speaker: That was really a weird side plot.
Speaker: They were neighbors.
Speaker: I feel like it would have made more sense if there had been hints that they were friends when they were little.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One got cool and the other didn't.
Speaker: Maybe we were supposed to assume that, but I really didn't.
Speaker: I was just like, what's happening with this?
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: I think I figure out why they go to the beach.
Speaker: In the movie.
Speaker: I think the whole reason they created that is because in the book, they, the like red eyed man serves them food and it tastes like sand.
Speaker: And I think the movie was like, that sounds like a great idea.
Speaker: Let's stick them on the beach.
Speaker: It would have been so creepy if everyone on the beach was doing this sort of bouncy ball thing, not with a ball, but like doing the same thing.
Speaker: Like the towel towels look the same.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They were all like living their own lives.
Speaker: Because, yeah, anytime I think about this book, you know, my memory is bad.
Speaker: Before I reread it, all I remembered was that scene.
Speaker: It's only like a page.
Speaker: But to my childhood brain, that was like the craziest, most scary image.
Speaker: Very like the giver kind of feeling.
Speaker: where I had never read something like that sort of like conformity before.
Speaker: And I was like, that's so scary.
Speaker: I can't think of anything scarier.
Speaker: Actually, the author said in an interview once that she made the villain.
Speaker: Wait, hold on my note.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: She was explaining why the villain wasn't conformity, but the brain specifically, why she made it look that way.
Speaker: And she said that because when the brain is not informed by the heart, it's evil.
Speaker: which I thought was pretty epic.
Speaker: So all those people, their brains are uninformed by their hearts.
Speaker: They're just nothing.
Speaker: I feel like that's a stretch.
Speaker: I humbly disagree with the author of this book on her concept.
Speaker: She's not even alive to argue back with you.
Speaker: Well, maybe I'll go to her next birthday party and whisper something into the cake.
Speaker: I was going to ask whether you liked the book or the movie better, but I think I know.
Speaker: Yeah, I liked the book better.
Speaker: I have one more note about this man in the movie.
Speaker: I am looking through my notes and keep finding new things.
Speaker: The man with the eyes?
Speaker: No, the father.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: The real villain in your book.
Speaker: Your book.
Speaker: Yes, the real villain.
Speaker: He gets there after the movie.
Speaker: They all get back home.
Speaker: And he has the balls to look this woman in the eyes, the, like, mother, and says, I'm sorry I'm late.
Speaker: Who the fuck are you?
Speaker: That's the first thing he says to her.
Speaker: I use the word insufferable.
Speaker: Dream universe, what would he say instead?
Speaker: He would, like, hug her and maybe not say anything and apologize immediately.
Speaker: He apologized for being late.
Speaker: He's super late.
Speaker: He should have just fallen to his knees and said sorry.
Speaker: I think so.
Speaker: That's what I would have wanted.
Speaker: What did you think?
Speaker: Were you a movie or a book girl?
Speaker: Oh, no, no.
Speaker: I'm a book girl.
Speaker: The movies are never... I think the problem with reading a book when you're little and then they're not being a movie until way later is you've already like completely... I spent like a decade picturing this a certain way.
Speaker: So then when I see it on screen, it feels weird.
Speaker: Yeah, I was like so excited to see how they created the things that were being described only for them to like do entirely different stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, it looked cool.
Speaker: Like if I had never read it, I think I would think it looked cool.
Speaker: But I was like pretty.
Speaker: Yeah, but it wasn't the same.
Speaker: Like in the movie, she's not like a centaur pegasus.
Speaker: She turns into like a weird leaf dragon.
Speaker: Yeah, which like is cool.
Speaker: I feel like we like adaptation so much.
Speaker: Like the ones that really hit for me are the ones that are almost word for word exactly the same.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know why, but it's like so satisfying for my brain.
Speaker: So even when the smallest thing has changed, I'm like, why'd you do that?
Speaker: Why is she a big green monster?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Why is he adopted?
Speaker: I thought it was good.
Speaker: There was a lot of hype around it.
Speaker: And I mean, how could there not be?
Speaker: There's Oprah.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Someone pointed out in an article I read that in the book, Mrs. Witch.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: We have movie fun fact.
Speaker: I'll say my quick fact, which was that someone pointed out that in the book, Mrs. Witch is the blunt one who's a little bit rough around the edges, like Reese Witherspoon in the movie.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But someone said that they probably made that Reese's job because no one wants to make Oprah be mean anymore.
Speaker: Which I agree.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: She's very rarely mean.
Speaker: I'm so sorry about your facts.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Riley and I try to have like a whole system.
Speaker: And then we just completely forgot about it.
Speaker: That's why we're practicing.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So, okay.
Speaker: Movie fun facts.
Speaker: Last time we forgot the book facts and this time we forgot the movie facts.
Speaker: So next time we'll forget none.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So movie facts, it grossed.
Speaker: I am not Meg.
Speaker: So this is a very hard number for me to read.
Speaker: So bear with me.
Speaker: It grossed $133,214,549 worldwide.
Speaker: So no rounding numbers here.
Speaker: None.
Speaker: That does seem like a lot, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like enough to pay Oprah.
Speaker: That's just Oprah's salad.
Speaker: All the everything went to Oprah.
Speaker: My other fun fact, which Riley has brought up, that it's a female director, Ava DuVernay.
Speaker: And she described this film as a metaphor for what we all can do with our lives.
Speaker: And that like adds up that she would describe it that way because I found another just like general quote from her.
Speaker: And the quote was, be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal.
Speaker: And I thought that was maybe a little intense.
Speaker: You're wondering where sleep fits in there.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: But at the same time, if that's a quote from her, she did get to meet Oprah.
Speaker: So it's working.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: She's a big deal.
Speaker: So I thought with that in mind, that that's like her mindset, it makes sense that she thinks the movie is fully about what we can do with our lives and not about self-love or any of the other very clear things this movie is actually about.
Speaker: It's about going to space.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So another fun fact, even though the author L'Engle, how are you saying that?
Speaker: I say Nadelin L'Engle.
Speaker: As I was when I was seven and I never looked back.
Speaker: Yeah, you shouldn't.
Speaker: I'm sure that's perfect.
Speaker: So she passed away in 2007, like Riley talked about.
Speaker: But apparently she does make a small cameo in the movie in the form of a photograph, which I completely missed.
Speaker: And I didn't think to Google where that
Speaker: came up so I don't have any proof of it either okay next up is that this is Mindy Kaling's first live action Disney movie she's only ever done voice work for like Inside Out and Wreck-It Ralph I don't know who um was she Sadness in Inside Out maybe I don't know I have no idea who she is in Wreck-It Ralph I've never seen that and I'm glad proud of that that's kind of cute
Speaker: I've seen enough Disney movies, I think.
Speaker: Oh, that's a hard stance.
Speaker: I like the ones that I know I like don't need.
Speaker: Well, you know what?
Speaker: I should take that back.
Speaker: Moana is great.
Speaker: And I'd be sad if I missed it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Moana is the one, the one that slides.
Speaker: It's like, okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's a really sweet grandma in there and that movie gets me.
Speaker: That one is really cute.
Speaker: I don't think there's going to be that much in it for me.
Speaker: No, there's just like a really sassy little girl who I liked.
Speaker: But okay, next up is that the main girl, I think her name's like Storm Reed.
Speaker: So she had to read the book and had a test on it when she was in sixth grade.
Speaker: Oh, how cute.
Speaker: Yeah, so she was already familiar with the story, unlike me.
Speaker: Did you recognize her from Euphoria?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: She's a little sister.
Speaker: She's grown up.
Speaker: I did not at all.
Speaker: That's pretty crazy because this was 2018.
Speaker: So she's like really grown up in a quick amount of time.
Speaker: But they make her look purposely young and wrinkle in time.
Speaker: Clothes and stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They like very like any nerd stereotype.
Speaker: They were like, yes.
Speaker: Glasses.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So those are my very fun facts.
Speaker: Especially love the huge number.
Speaker: Which now, the more I look at it, the more I think that's not enough.
Speaker: Not that big of a deal.
Speaker: Let's see how much it costs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I guess it would be like a lot of CGI stuff.
Speaker: And at a $100 million budget.
Speaker: So it's kind of a flop.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They cannot pay Oprah with $33 million.
Speaker: Yeah, it's been called a failure.
Speaker: Underperformed.
Speaker: So I knew it.
Speaker: I am a movie genius.
Speaker: I knew that wasn't enough money.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Critical commercial flop.
Speaker: Noble failure.
Speaker: Jeez.
Speaker: So they must have not, like they barely profited anything.
Speaker: No, yeah.
Speaker: So if you were in the director's chair, you were Ava, how would you...
Speaker: How would you profit?
Speaker: What would you do differently?
Speaker: What would I do differently?
Speaker: I think maybe I would cast less big names because I think it was like bordering on overwhelming.
Speaker: All I could see was those people.
Speaker: They're like too well known.
Speaker: So then because these characters are so big that I feel like they need somebody smaller to like fully take over.
Speaker: Otherwise, I'm just staring at Reese Witherspoon.
Speaker: They were like competing with each other.
Speaker: I would have... I would lower the cost of my movie so my profit at $133 million would be higher because I'm a businesswoman.
Speaker: Just cast some nobodies.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: That was my answer.
Speaker: I would pick, which is sort of cheating and not the answer to this question, but I would pick a different book in the quintet because there are other ones that would be way cheaper but still really cool on screen and more fun to watch.
Speaker: Who's screaming?
Speaker: I was wondering if you could hear that.
Speaker: I live in Queens.
Speaker: Oh, it's outside.
Speaker: And somebody's upset.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Luckily, nobody's screaming at me.
Speaker: It's outside my window.
Speaker: That was in your hallway.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: I don't know who's screaming.
Speaker: It sounds like they're yelling at somebody, though.
Speaker: It's you.
Speaker: They heard you were taking Oprah out of this movie.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: I just don't think any of these big actors did it justice in a way other cheaper people couldn't.
Speaker: I did realize while watching this, I had it blurred together with Tomorrowland a bunch.
Speaker: I feel like they kind of came out similar times and are similar vibes.
Speaker: Tomorrowland is like another Disney movie with the future incorporated.
Speaker: I never saw this.
Speaker: George Clooney.
Speaker: I see.
Speaker: Yeah, I think he was worth the extra coin.
Speaker: I have nothing else to say about this book now.
Speaker: Yeah, I think I'm all set out.
Speaker: Yeah, it was a lot more confusing.
Speaker: Whatever we pick for our next book needs to be straightforward.
Speaker: This is hard to talk about.
Speaker: Yeah, this was a lot.
Speaker: Like, I feel like I would be surprised if anyone listening followed any of it.
Speaker: us listening back we're gonna be like we'll have people um what is it oh god it's nowhere to be found riley the word is gone critique no like the other thing i don't know like what's like a human version of troubleshoot give advice guinea pig
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: Be our guinea pig.
Speaker: I feel like that's not the one I wanted, but it's the same.
Speaker: Do you want to wrap up with what we are reading?
Speaker: No, I am still reading the same book that we talked about last time.
Speaker: Wait, what was it?
Speaker: It was GARDUS?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: No, it was the... It was... It's the one with the reoccurring, the past life.
Speaker: Wait, maybe it's on my phone.
Speaker: The name of it?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The physical book?
Speaker: The physical book, unfortunately, is on my bookcase far away from me.
Speaker: And the spine is turned inwards.
Speaker: So I can only see the pages.
Speaker: Chaotic.
Speaker: You know, I don't even know how to tell you.
Speaker: But it's a red cover.
Speaker: Yeah, listen to our other episode, please.
Speaker: My goal is going to be to be on a new book.
Speaker: It's hard because we're reading a book to do this.
Speaker: I read this book twice because I read it and then your health took it.
Speaker: My health.
Speaker: I had a health scare.
Speaker: We re-regaduled.
Speaker: I read this again on MLK Day because I had it off.
Speaker: And then you had another identical health scare.
Speaker: And then I was like, I'm going to do this for a third time.
Speaker: And I was like, no.
Speaker: So I feel like I was a little fuzzy.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: We're lucky you read it 700 times when you were 12.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Oh, and I watched the movie like two and a half weeks ago.
Speaker: So it's really considering my memory.
Speaker: Incredible that I was on here and able to.
Speaker: I'm very impressed.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm going to leave with one last note.
Speaker: Meg's name is Margaret.
Speaker: What the hell kind of nickname for Margaret is Meg?
Speaker: Where does it say Margaret?
Speaker: In the very first page.
Speaker: You should start calling Margaret Meg.
Speaker: Well, that's what I was saying.
Speaker: I would never.
Speaker: I think she would look at me like I was a crazy person.
Speaker: Ask her if she'd gotten that before.
Speaker: That was my final take.
Speaker: I'm reading a book called Mama Day that was published in the, like, I want to say, yeah, the 80s.
Speaker: by this woman named Gloria Naylor, who I was going to say discovered, but I didn't discover her.
Speaker: I like heard about her.
Speaker: Whoa.
Speaker: And I heard about her on a podcast and was like, oh, I want to read her.
Speaker: And then I found two of her books within like one day of each other for free in like a little free library and maybe for like a dollar at the other place.
Speaker: Weird.
Speaker: So then I read them.
Speaker: They were like the best books I read last year.
Speaker: And then every time I went to a bookstore, I was looking for the rest of them.
Speaker: And a couple weeks ago, I found her last... I found two more.
Speaker: I'm still missing one.
Speaker: I feel like the universe sends you books because when we needed to read this, I think my copy is from one you found in a free little library.
Speaker: It's Tuck Everlasting.
Speaker: Oh my god, yeah.
Speaker: Oh my gosh, you have to find me our next book.
Speaker: I did just find... Not that we're doing Serendezin next, but I just found this.
Speaker: Well, we could.
Speaker: Wait, do I have that one?
Speaker: Someone like you.
Speaker: But I can't highlight in a library book.
Speaker: I guess, honestly, I could.
Speaker: My cat ate through one of my library books pretty severely.
Speaker: So I brought it back to the librarian and was like, my cat chewed on this.
Speaker: I'm so sorry.
Speaker: I'm willing to buy it or give you guys money for it.
Speaker: And she looked at me like I was insane.
Speaker: Rudely, too.
Speaker: It wasn't like, oh, you're so funny.
Speaker: It was like, no, just put it over there.
Speaker: Like, oh, my bad.
Speaker: So I think I could highlight and I don't think I'd ever be yelled at.
Speaker: Try it.
Speaker: Well, see if you do it with a book you really like.
Speaker: Well, listeners, I think this is where we leave you.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Tune in in the next few weeks to see what we do next.
Speaker: We don't know yet.
Speaker: But maybe we will one day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's tough.
Speaker: You can't read with us if we don't know.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Oh, well, sucks for you.
Speaker: I'm going to say bye, but don't hang up.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: Bye, everyone.
