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We discuss and review the final 5 episodes of MODOK on Hulu!
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Discussion on Marvel's MODOK series begins

00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to Animation Deliberation, the podcast where we take action animation and cartoons seriously, but not too seriously. On today's episodes, your hosts, Jay Scottie St. Clair and Zuhair Ali, are joined by frequent collaborator, Brian V. Klein, to cover Marvel's MODOK, the stop motion animation series from Hulu, the final five episodes, all of that right after these ads they don't have any control over. You're invited to take a vacation.
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00:01:19
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Sing along if you know the words.

MODOK series on Hulu: Initial impressions and mixed reviews

00:01:21
Speaker
A one, two, three, it's time for animation deliberation. A conversation and a celebration of our favorite action animated series. Yeah.
00:01:35
Speaker
I gotta say, seeing Brian dance along with that kind of threw me off a little bit. I was going to try to do the, how they do it when they do the harmonizing with the hand to the ear. Yeah. All right. Yeah, you got really into that. Good times. Good times.
00:01:57
Speaker
That's right, folks. It's another episode of Animation Deliberation. We are back to cover Hulu's MODOK, the stop-motion animation series. These are the final five episodes, episodes 6 through 10. And it's just an exciting series to be covering. Before we dive right in, I want to introduce my co-host, Zuhair Ali, as well as our special guest who joined us last time, Brian V. Klein. What's going on, guys? How are we doing today?
00:02:24
Speaker
Fantastic. I am. I'm glad to be done with the show. We're going to bury the lead. A stamp of approval? Well, as we do here at the Animation Deliberation podcast, we like to highlight our listener feedback, and that includes the reviews that we get each week. Those five star reviews are definitely critical to us as a growing podcast here. And it looks like we did get a bevy of new reviews. So, Zuhair,
00:02:54
Speaker
I believe you had a one that you wanted to bring up here. What you got for me my friend? Yeah, we got a five-star review from app newbie saying it's been a delight to listen to J. Scott Ian's hair I didn't think I was gonna start watching the animated shows But suddenly I found myself watching enjoying the programming and then listening to these guys break it all down And I'm sure the theme song is now forever stuck in my head I appreciate that ringing endorsement
00:03:24
Speaker
And thank you for the five star review. That's very, very kind of you. So.

Comedic elements and storyline structure analysis of MODOK

00:03:29
Speaker
All right, gentlemen, well, let's let's let's talk some modoc. Given the nature of the show, we've already kind of pontificated on the fact that.
00:03:39
Speaker
as much as there is a through line in the sense that we've got this the story of AIM and the grumble takeover and the introduction of Hexis, the living corporation, as well as the fallout of Modok's family and his wife leaving him. It really is a show that lacks a lot of structure and a lot of sense. It takes a lot of roots from, you know, Stupid Monkey, Stupid Buddy is the animation studio here. So it's kind of open nature in
00:04:09
Speaker
flies by the seat of its pants is kind of what I'm trying to say. And I figure this conversation can kind of follow a similar format. So I just want to kind of open it up. Did you guys have, you know, favorite moments, favorite episodes, standout storylines? Let's just talk about it. How did you feel about these five episodes and how this season ended? Zuhair, you kind of already alluded to how you're feeling. So why don't you go ahead and open up and let us know how you're feeling.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, I'm kind of matching what I thought with the first five episodes in regards to, I feel like mid sequence, like as something storyline related is going on, whenever they drop comedic moments, it delivered. But as a whole, like a lot of the stuff just felt kind of forced. And it didn't really hold my attention as much as I would have liked it to.

Favorite moments and character highlights in MODOK

00:05:01
Speaker
And not to say that it wasn't entertaining or didn't have its entertaining points, but like if somebody were to say like, hey, what do you think of the show? It's like, I would tell them to watch it just to figure it out for themselves, but it doesn't have like, you gotta watch the show type of response. In regards to favorite moments, I think it's a mix of my emotions because when they had the trash cans that went to Asgard and the other one that went to his stomach,
00:05:28
Speaker
as he was pouring the milk down i was like if that's going to his stomach wouldn't he throw it up and i was like i was trying to put logic into it which like irritated me that they didn't think of that and then when he actually started throwing up milk i was like okay not bad but then gary goes over to like throw up in the same trash can that goes directly to his stomach and i just lost it with that i was like clever i like that i really like that
00:05:52
Speaker
I'm glad they chose not to show that. That was the perfect time to cut to the title sequence. He just went, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think all those criticisms are fair. As much as I've enjoyed the series, I am very much a fan of a lot of that crude and off-kilter adult swim humor. That being said,
00:06:14
Speaker
I do look forward to, you know, if the show gets a second season, some of my favorite moments and favorite parts of the show were when it did do things differently from from Robot Chicken. And definitely, definitely, I just want I won't bury the lead here in terms of like where we leave off in this season. I was kind of surprised given how, you know, tongue in cheek a lot of the series was.

Season one ending of MODOK and season two prospects

00:06:40
Speaker
how heavy a place it left off in terms of like we see this God Emperor version of Modoc be successful and essentially having sacrificed his family and killed off this other version of himself. So, I mean, what do you think about that? What do you think about the stakes and whatnot and where we left off there?
00:07:00
Speaker
I was actually, I was kind of surprised just because they left it open-ended like that. It leads you to believe that there could be a season two, but with this being, I think the only one of the Hulu shows that was commissioned through a year and a half ago, two years ago, was the only one that stayed around, that it was kind of interesting that they would do that. But yeah, I mean, it did, it left it, it left it in a way that was, it was interesting, but
00:07:29
Speaker
I fall sort of in between you guys as far as my I'd like to show I enjoyed it when it got done I was like that was good But I also didn't have the especially with how big of a modok fan I am sure that I wasn't like I'm gonna go rewatch it again Yeah, mainly because right now there's so many things I'm watching that it's just like I couldn't you know Take it some time and say I want to watch this again. Um, I
00:07:54
Speaker
I definitely did have two competing favorite moments from the second half of the season. One of them is more just a general to lose because Lou is my favorite character. And when they decided not to kill the robot version of him. But then that same note when him and Melissa used the drunk gun.
00:08:11
Speaker
oh yeah and uh to bond over how uh the bond i'd like to talk about the parents was just hysterical yeah like just some of the things some of the little and it was a little bit at the end of i think it was end of episode seven to make over one with wonder man but it was still just like i got done with that and then they hit me with it i'm like oh my god and i started laughing again so it didn't it was not lacking
00:08:34
Speaker
huge belly laughs and actual like laugh out loud moments and it did have a good storyline all the way through. At the end it wasn't like a show like Invincible or something where you want to go back and rewatch it again.

MODOK's release strategy and its impact on popularity

00:08:44
Speaker
I mean I will probably rewatch it like if down the line it's not gonna be one of those shows where I'm like I'm done with it so but with shows out there now like Invincible and Demon Slayer and stuff that basically begs you to rewatch it because it's so dense this was more like a
00:08:58
Speaker
I wouldn't call it a palate cleanser, but it was very, I mean, I think it was very well produced, very well written, very well, I mean, Patton Oswalt, holy cow, he just nailed it. Yeah. So I'll just tell people, yeah, watch it and, you know, think what you want to think about it.
00:09:13
Speaker
Sure, sure. I just kind of spoke about how I thought the show succeeded a little bit more where it did things to differentiate itself from Robot Chicken. Do you think, just for a point of conversation here, do you think it would have benefited the show in any way to maybe lean more into that just to kind of stand out from all the comic book content and superhero content?
00:09:34
Speaker
we've got because you talked about it not really being a palate cleanser, but maybe it had the opportunity to be a palate cleanser. It very much was like a family sitcom meets a workplace comedy. And we've seen those in the past. We talked about, you know, Harley Quinn as well as the ill-fated damage control.
00:09:53
Speaker
Right, right. On that note, like, OK, Robot Chicken is one of my favorite shows of all time. When that show, when it's coming back sometime soon, but when that show airs, I watch it like the next morning, the first thing. OK. But the thing about Robot Chicken is, is that later on, if I go, if a new episode comes on or I don't know if it's a new episode comes on,
00:10:13
Speaker
Most of the time I don't know if I watched it already because it's such a in your ear makes you laugh and then you forget about it. The earlier seasons had a lot more like memorable bits where I think MODOK succeeded in using the humor in a longer
00:10:29
Speaker
Form narrative like they did if they tried to do like like bit to bit to bit with a little bit of through line I think it would have been Worse for lack of a better word. Okay. Okay. I enjoyed the amount of storyline that was in it. I just don't I
00:10:47
Speaker
I can't tell. Maybe it was for the fact that all these other things we're watching right now are so gritty that this was more of... I wouldn't want to call this family friendly, but compared to Demon Slayer and Invincible, it's like basically PG-13. Yeah, for sure.
00:11:04
Speaker
I mean, animated stuff these days is getting way more, you know, adult content for

Praise for MODOK's humor and animation quality

00:11:11
Speaker
the ability to be able to do it. But for what it's worth, I did enjoy. I mean, I think that the stop motion animation combined with the CGI that they used in this was gorgeous.
00:11:20
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I'm very, very impressed with some of the action sequences. Even, you know, the first five episodes we discussed, I still think maybe the like either the mad scientist fight or the fight between the the two versions of MODOK might have been the highlight in terms of action. But, you know, as far as seeing those robot versions ripped in half and then the alternate version of MODOK and the big body suit and everything like that, those were all really, really well done as well.
00:11:51
Speaker
Yeah. Zuhar, it sounded like you had some thoughts on some of the action sequences. What you got? I mean, I think the peak of it was actually that fight between the scientists. I don't think anything topped that afterwards. Yeah, things were detailed and they were visually appealing for what was going on. But that fight scene actually made me go, ooh. And nothing action-wise really grabbed my attention after that episode. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair.
00:12:18
Speaker
But when when when BBK mentioned the the drunk gun, I just can't stop thinking the dialogue. It's like, I'm going to shoot those dogs that they have sex. Oh, no, I miss doing anyways. Yeah, yeah, that was a great moment. And as as much as, you know, we're talking about how certain aspects of the show didn't work.
00:12:39
Speaker
A lot of the humor does work, and I did find myself laughing out loud at least a couple, three or four times every episode. And I think where the show really did succeed outside of some of the storylines we've already talked about is it really does place you in a world
00:12:54
Speaker
and pitch you with characters that you actually want to spend more time with. We talked about how unlikable Modoc himself is, but he's surrounded by such wonderful characters. You guys talk about Lou, we get a whole nother Lou in the picture, which is pretty great. But for me, like...
00:13:11
Speaker
Gary was one that was just kind of like, he popped up here and there in the first part of the season, but we got so much more of Gary's backstory with Big Mike and the whole sequence of him working out to take out Austin. And then I bring up Austin. Austin, again, Austin is a super unlikable character, but ends up being like one of my favorite characters because he, I think my, the laugh, most, the most laugh out loud moment for me
00:13:36
Speaker
is when Austin brought out Sherlock, his little dog that helps him with his different management styles. And he has his exchange with Modok. But then right after, he's like, oh, is that Dillman? He's like, we found some questionable imagery on your hard drive. Looks like some rough, rough stuff. The police are on their way. I think my favorite thing about Gary was how much of a pyromaniac he is. Oh, yeah, that was great.
00:14:03
Speaker
Just like you can't even see any facial reactions, but it's like the camera's getting closer and closer to his face and his tone is changing by just how like seductive fire is. And then later on you just see him with the flight that I was like, what is going on with this dude? Yeah. And what it was like that. Yeah. Modox responses like, yeah, fire's great. Yeah. But then also, so bringing up Gary,
00:14:30
Speaker
And we talked about Austin. Gary is actually the one that takes out Austin. And Austin gets, you know, pretty unceremoniously replaced by, I keep saying Nexus, but it's Hexus, the living corporation. But then on the other side of things, Modoc sold his majority shares and Monica's to Ironman. So we've got AIM 2.0 with Monica, Modoc, and Gary. And for my purposes, it's nice to see
00:14:58
Speaker
modok and monica kind of repair that relationship because we saw where she came from in the in the first five episodes and found out that she was originally a modok fangirl so nice again we don't know if we're going to get a second season but as far as like leaving this season off on a nice end note for that character
00:15:17
Speaker
I don't know why, but when he started AIM2, it reminded me of the episode of The Office where Michael Scott decides to start a separate paper company in the basement of Dunder Mifflin with like, basically he was just buying the paper. I forgot where he was buying it from like Office Depot or something like that. It was him doing it just so he could do it, but in the end of it, it's just like, there's really no purpose for it. It's all a comedic aspect of it or comedic for like,
00:15:46
Speaker
the laugh actor so as soon as that hit I'm like like I said the movie I think Nate and Muzzy said it best where I wanted to love this show okay but I really liked it yeah so it's sort of like I think I maybe the expectations were kind of high just because I love the character and it started off strong it just like I said it wasn't bad it's just maybe it's one of those shows too that you know at a secondary watch you pick up more stuff and go like wow this was a lot better than I gave it credit for but
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah, time will tell. I wonder what the public opinion on this series will be. And with these streaming services, that's kind of been the thing to kind of talk about the behind the scenes stuff and what goes into whether or not
00:16:31
Speaker
a series actually gets renewed. I mean, to date this recording a little bit, we just got the news that Jupiter's legacy on Netflix, like, that only came out like three weeks ago and was fairly popular from what I could tell, but Netflix decided not to renew it, so...

Patton Oswalt's performance and show's strengths

00:16:44
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah, I mean, I don't mean to be negative here, but as much as I enjoyed MODOK, I do feel like the public opinion, just based on initial reactions, has been a little more lukewarm, at least from what I've seen.
00:16:56
Speaker
there's a difference here like with okay not to jump on the Jupiter's legacy thing they're actually making a spin-off series from it with the same author but a different set of books in the same universe okay but I think what the problem was with any of the shows that do the dump binge like this is that
00:17:17
Speaker
Mandalorian when that came out and they decided to do week by week it became a water cooler talk again it became what's happening next what's happening next yeah with this and with the next model it's just like you get it done with it and then like a week from now you get your you know there's no one talking about it you're not talking about the week by week so it's like
00:17:36
Speaker
Loki and WandaVision and Falcon and Winter Soldier, you constantly were talking about it for the whole run of the show for six weeks, for eight weeks, for 10 weeks. This came on May 21st, and I bet you the social media footprint of the show right now is...
00:17:52
Speaker
near the bottom because it peaked and then everyone watched it and then it sort of went away. That's what they look for. I guess the only difference with that being it was with Hulu being owned by Disney and Marvel being owned by Disney. It's sort of like a, it's a property that they don't have to pay to put any more into it. But this isn't a show that you can't just stop right in the middle of production on the second season because you got, you know, you have all the assets and stuff, but you can't just pop out 10 shows in six months and expect it to be done.
00:18:20
Speaker
Yeah, and people who watch, uh, people who know I podcast and don't know that I podcast are still asking me about Invincible. Have you seen the show? Have you heard of the show? What'd you think of the show? You gotta check out the show, but like, nobody's mentioned MODOK to me at all.
00:18:36
Speaker
Again, whether you're listening to this podcast or not, or if you know that I podcast or not, it's not being talked about from my understanding. I'm not seeing it on Facebook at all. It's not coming up in conversation at all. Netflix is the standard for streaming. Whether HBO and Disney Plus are arguably doing better things or not,
00:19:02
Speaker
Hulu isn't quite that high up there like it's not common to have a Hulu account So that on top of what you said all the episodes coming up at once like the opportunity for conversation hasn't even presented itself yet
00:19:17
Speaker
Right. And there's also other stuff, like you were saying, between Invincible being out there right now and even, I mean, Bad Batch is killing it, but that's another animated show that's week by week that you keep waiting for the storyline to continue. So, yeah, I didn't even think about it until you mentioned it, that the people I normally talk to Marvel stuff about, either inside or outside of the Stranded Panda group, MODOK is sort of like a, I mean, it's a non-entity right now.
00:19:44
Speaker
Well, to make a call back to the show itself, it's a bit of an anomaly, if you will. Where's the button that hits the... I've already kind of said, as much as I enjoyed the series, I do feel like there was room for improvement.
00:20:05
Speaker
It just does kind of go to show how great a job Amazon did with Invincible, the fact that it's still in the conversation.

Listener feedback and potential improvements for season two

00:20:13
Speaker
And I'm really glad that we covered that show. I'm still glad that we covered MODOK. I mean, it had a lot of interesting things going on in terms of just being more adult in terms of the
00:20:21
Speaker
the humor that we're covering, as well as just the animation style. You don't really see a lot of stop motion animation out there these days. And it's painstaking to do and it was beautifully done. So I do want to give it love there. And we talk about, you know, how endearing some of these characters are, but it's the voice actors that are bringing them to life. And I've said on every episode of coverage that we've done for Modok, like I really do feel like Patton Oswalt is doing a lot of the heavy lifting just in terms of the amount of dialogue that he has to fire off and the amount of jokes that he's
00:20:51
Speaker
He's firing off, and yeah, they don't all land, but...
00:20:54
Speaker
Man, he's killing it. He is a mechanism designed only for killing, so that's appropriate. It's so natural for him, too. Wasn't there a Parks and Rec episode where he was doing a filibuster? Oh, yes. He just had to talk and talk and talk, and it was just kind of like how he would have heard the Star Wars universe. That's just what he's good at. It's just natural to him. And he has a very... When he does voiceover, you know it's Patton Oswalt's voice. You can hear his voice, and you know it's him.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah, and bringing up Patton Oswalt, that does remind me in the episode with the Bar Mitzvah when Melissa shows that she bought a Stark phone and there's a filter to show everybody as a puppet and it shows Patton Oswalt's actual face and he's like, ugh, utterly macabre.
00:21:43
Speaker
Definitely the best. Yeah. As we're kind of winding down here, you know, it's a pretty basic show in nature, so it doesn't require a super lengthy conversation. But I did want to include some of the feedback that we did get. And Brian, you mentioned Muzzy's feedback there. So I put out the question into the, you know, we are part of the Stranded Panda Network, and one of the benefits of that is the community.
00:22:08
Speaker
and we've got the stranded panda chat, you know, facebook.com slash groups slash spchat. And in that group, I put out the question, I put out the prompt, I said, now that the dust has settled a bit, for those who watched, what are we thinking about MODOK? Worth the time, yay nay, do we wanna see a season two? And of course, Muzzy, a collaborator on this show, friend of the show, he replied that he liked it, didn't love it, was worth the time. Hope we get another season and that it leans into the parts that worked, so.
00:22:39
Speaker
I obviously agree with that, but then we also got Ian Anderson. He was a little more positive, so it was nice to see this. He says he really liked it, but he has a really bizarre amount of love for Modok specifically, so there was no way he wasn't going to like it.
00:22:53
Speaker
Sounds like he loves Modok as much as you love Fin Fang Foom or Silver Surfer. And that's the funny thing is is that if you could take someone that loves the character outside of this because this is basically a caricature of what Modok usually is. Modok is a villain but this is sort of like the characterization of him being more
00:23:18
Speaker
Silly, I guess and um, like I said, it works. So and it has a lot to do with Pat townswald like we said Yeah, I mean he is a villain at the end of the day So we talked about him being unlikable and whatnot. But that also brings up another line when Jody was dating wonder man and he kind of had that line when he said I was questioning whether or not why you how you could your ex-husband could be a supervillain but now I'm starting to understand when he realizes that she was just dating him for the fame and
00:23:47
Speaker
And I appreciated that little bit of character development there, where as likable of a character Jodie was, she had a little bit more depth there, and not everything was Modoc's fault entirely.
00:23:59
Speaker
Right, right, and now that you bring that up, that's probably something we've completely glossed over was the fact that Nathan Fillion is Wonder Man. Yes, yeah, that was too good. And that was the whole thing that was teased in Guardians 2 with him on the poster in the movie theater marquee and that he's gonna be Wonder Man and he's supposed to show up in this and it's almost, I mean, he's not on the Mephisto level, but it's like Wonder Man's gonna show up sometime because during the
00:24:26
Speaker
When they were doing the

MODOK's place in Marvel's media strategy

00:24:28
Speaker
things for the promo and like behind the scenes stuff for WandaVision, twice on screen they had a picture of a Wonder Man poster behind the people talking. It was a Simon Williams film festival as we learn. I think that in those scenes, and spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 here, but egos taking over and you flash to scenes on Earth that I believe are supposed to take place in Missouri.
00:24:53
Speaker
And it was like Simon Williams Film Festival. And Simon Williams is the actor that becomes Wonder Man in the comics. So yeah, definitely a nice callback. And it's Nathan Fillion. So for him to do the voice on this, it's sort of just like, OK, you guys got Nathan Fillion as Wonder Man? Yeah. Now you can shut up. Yeah. But you know they won't. I love that kind of stuff. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:25:15
Speaker
It makes you kind of wonder we talk about how Hulu is technically owned by Disney and everything like that but at what point did this was this series like first in development and whatnot and Patton Oswalt obviously has a long-standing relationship with with Disney he popped up I guess it's more on the TV side of things with agents of shield that I forgive me was it agent Koenig I want to say
00:25:38
Speaker
Yep. Okay. The LMD pretty much the LMD for the show. Yeah, it just makes me kind of wonder that the people on the other side of Disney kind of look at the people on the same side of Disney and be like, we see what you're doing and we can't technically admonish you for it, but we're not accepting it into the fold. The thing is with this is that
00:25:58
Speaker
Agents of shield was always under Marvel television, right now it's under Marvel Studios all the TV stuff and this is still under Marvel television because this this was developed by Jeff Lo that group did shield so they had worked so it basically was that he said this I think this is the last remaining property that's just falling under Marvel
00:26:22
Speaker
not Marvel Studios.

Standout characters and comedic highlights in MODOK

00:26:23
Speaker
Gotcha. Gotcha. So it makes me all the same way you see it. It's like it's not canon, but it's an animated thing that's sort of like this that I find it hard to believe that this would they would find ways to try to make this canonical. So yeah. Yeah, for sure. I do think we got a little sideline there. I want to kind of spin back and return to some of the feedback here. Jay Sisson, I want to point out he had a really well worded comment here that I thought
00:26:50
Speaker
really kind of summarized my feelings almost better than I can state to myself. But the other reason I want to bring him up is I do want to give him a little plug. He does this podcast called Commute the Podcast with his buddy Dave, and he's a friend of Stranded Panda. He's in the network. He participates quite a bit, and it's a really good show. I highly recommend it. It's about 15 to 20 minutes an episode. The whole concept of the show is that you listen to it on your commute.
00:27:15
Speaker
and they give you a few random factoids there, and you end up a little bit smarter by the end of your commute. And it's just really well done. I really like the quality. I was super impressed with their rapport and chemistry, so I just wanted to give them a little plug there. But with that out of the way, Jay says, he really wanted to love this series, but he has mixed feelings on it now that it's over. Some parts are really well done. He liked the voice acting. Some of the world building around MODOK was interesting and paid off. And he liked the sitcom aspect of it, for example.
00:27:44
Speaker
The backdrop of being a world-conquering supervillain while trying to balance a suburban life works on a lot of levels for the show. The humor was a mixed bag, but when it hit, it was very funny. Some episodes were more forgettable than others, but overall, I feel confident in the show to be able to improve in a second season and offer more of what makes it memorable and enjoyable. Like I said, I can't really say it better myself. Yeah, I sort of believe you don't basically echo that sentiment about it. Yeah.
00:28:14
Speaker
Well, yeah, I don't know if there's too much more that we can say on the subject of MODOK until we get, you know, some more news about the show's future, but I will not to steal the reins from another show too much. Shout out to Benjis Assemble, but I'll call this the last call. Any final things you guys want to say? Any standout moments? Any standout characters we didn't bring up? Any jokes or anything that just didn't flat out work for you? Now's your opportunity. Speak now or forever. Hold your peace.
00:28:44
Speaker
In regards to, like, little comic book references, I can't remember if it was Iron Man or Wonder Man that said this, but, like, to kind of end their scene, they were just like, well, I gotta go, Ultron's hacking Uber. That one took me a second. I was like, that's great. Well, because I'm not a comic book fan. So, like, I get all of my comic book information from shows and movies and whatnot. So just being able to make that little connection was like, oh, that was well done.
00:29:11
Speaker
Little things like that are just like clever funny not forced funny. Yeah Agree the one last thing I think I could think is I'd like them They just said this show was good with bringing in obscure characters and the one we didn't mention again was arcade Oh, yeah, the murder world and he's another one that showed up I think he popped up a couple times in the old X-Men animated series and he's just a crazy you know redheaded guy that
00:29:40
Speaker
wants to play games with everything and just has a murder fetish. So is he just the Riddler of Marvel? Because that's the vibe I was getting. Kind of. He's a little more, he's like playing games more than, you know, having people solve riddles. He's like the Riddler meets. I was thinking of like Arkham Knight Riddler. He's like the Riddler meets Chuck E. Cheese. Okay. Or almost like that guy from Saw.
00:30:06
Speaker
Like, you want to play a game? So, sorry to cut you out. Do you know who voiced Arcade? Um... Alan Tudyk. That's right. That's right. Everyone's favorite resident alien. Yep. And he does a good job because he is very good at disguising his voice. Oh, I had no idea until I looked it up. I was going to go Mark Hamill, actually.
00:30:35
Speaker
Hamill has a little bit more that he could tell he he tends to lean sometimes in the Joker Yeah, but Alan Tudyk was when I was just watching them Ralph breaks the internet again for probably the 15th time the other day Okay, I completely forget that he does the voice and knows more that little like the Google
00:30:52
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. I still need to say after after he played a chicken in Moana, it was just like I've I've accepted that there's just plenty of roles that I've missed because I don't look like that. Yeah. But that's you know, that that that that makes for a good voice actor where you could just sort of blend into it and it's memorable, but it's just sort of like, oh, you don't have to know

Final reflections on MODOK and call for season two

00:31:18
Speaker
who it is. It's just the character.
00:31:19
Speaker
Okay. While we're kind of wrapping up here, I thought I had said everything I wanted to say, but I did want to just shout out, you know, Super Adaptoid again. Didn't have the largest role. He did act as a bit of a betrayer there in most of these episodes, but I did love that moment when he apologized for betraying and Melissa just resets and he's like, oh, the modox, how are we? Are you ready to betray me now? I was like, why? I would never betray you. Can I have chicken nuggets? No. You're going to pay for that someday.
00:31:48
Speaker
I like when he pulled up in the van and just goes for eep beep beep heavy load in the driver's seat. Yeah. Little things like that make it memorable. Oh, definitely. Definitely. But yeah, whether it's one or two, the Loos definitely stole the show. They were highlight of it for me. Yeah, Ben Schwartz did kill it. He was great, especially when he started having to do double duty towards the end there. I said duty.
00:32:16
Speaker
When he was doing a speech for the Bar Mitzvah, that was pretty freakin' hilarious. He started harmonizing on the prayers. For this next prayer, I was going with this type of vibe. He's doing the scatting in the back. Even before there was two Luz and he was doing his whole magic bit in Asgard and the goblins were...
00:32:40
Speaker
the cobalt goblins were completely eating it up, and Modak was just like, what is, what? He had no understanding what the draw of this was. But yeah, Ben Schwartz just killed it.
00:32:55
Speaker
The goblets are like, we don't understand. No. But they were amazed by it, because it was just simple, you know, sleight of hand. Yeah. Oh, and those party turtles, whatever they were, when they were sitting next to Melissa, it's like, you're really bumming me out. The Seagramites, yeah. It was good to see the Seagramites come back, as well as the D-listers from, you know, Monox, Boys' Night Out.
00:33:18
Speaker
We got to see, uh, it was an angar, a sweet leg. Again, he was requesting sweet leg on the, uh, on the karaoke. On the karaoke. Yeah. He was like, you just scissored me. He did what now? Yeah. A little, uh, I wouldn't say double entendres, but a little bit of, uh, adult humor that's masked by being what it was.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to bring this episode of Animation to Liberation to a close. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining us for our coverage of MODOK episodes 6 through 10. I do want to plug the Stranded Panda Network again.

Promotion of the Stranded Panda Network and its shows

00:33:58
Speaker
We've mentioned that network a lot. It's where we get a lot of our feedback, where we get a lot of our support. And it's where you can find a bevy of wonderful shows. Go to strandedpanda.com or the Facebook group I mentioned earlier.
00:34:09
Speaker
I'll plug Benjers Assemble right here because I stole their little last call segment that they do. Another good reason to bring it up is because both of my co-hosts just recently appeared on episodes of Benjers Assemble for A Quiet Place. So definitely check that out. I just, that was one of my, having theaters just open up recently. This is my second trip back and no spoilers, but I thoroughly enjoyed A Quiet Place part two. So definitely give them a listen there.
00:34:39
Speaker
Brian, definitely appreciate you coming on and discussing MODOK with us here. Did you have anything you'd like to mention to the people? Yes, I did. We have a new show that's coming on the horizon shortly here on the Stranded Panda Network. It's called Source Pages, a reading collective, Spark for short. And what we'll do is we'll cover novels and comics that act as either source material or primers or even continuations of stories for geeky TV shows and movies we love.
00:35:08
Speaker
The first long-form one we're gonna do and Jay Scottie is gonna Help with it is recovering the 1965 Frank Herbert novel Dune before the movie comes out in October And so it's just a good way to discuss, you know, we're putting that out there because it is you can't just say Oh, here's a novel and then like three days later
00:35:28
Speaker
Catch the episode because it's a it's a it's a it's a heavy. It's a dense book. So it gives you some time So we'll probably record it within the next month or so, but there's other stuff coming too We're gonna do some comic book primers for some of the Marvel TV shows and movies and just whatnot So just keep keep a lookout on the stranded panda chat and it'll be coming shortly
00:35:47
Speaker
Yes, yeah. Keep an eye out for that one. It'll be great to have another show to join the family of shows on the Stranded Panda Network. And we've needed a show like that for a long time. So you're a great guy to lead the charge there. Thanks for doing it. Oh, no problem. It's going to be one of those shows that's going to fill in like the bingers and the panda vision where people want to cover something. We'll cover it and it'll be just like a big family affair like there's other shows. So it's great to be doing that and just
00:36:15
Speaker
Just looking forward to see what comes of it. Ask and you shall receive. Between the live watches, the live casts, and everything else, you will have no reason to ever leave stranded panda.
00:36:27
Speaker
Pretty much, yeah. That late night Loki thing we're doing is kind of insane, but it is still, you know, cause we're going to be, uh, Loki drops at two in the morning on Wednesdays now and we're going to do a live watch, then a live Twitch recording. So when people wake up in the morning, there'll already be a podcast out there, uh, talking about the first reactions to it. So, you know, in, in the podcast theme, it's almost like with new content, if you're not first, you know, you're falling behind pretty quickly. Okay, Ricky, Bobby.
00:36:54
Speaker
I wasn't going to say that if you're not first, you're last. That'll do it for me. So I will say, stay tuned. That's T-O-O-N-E-D. Stay well.
00:37:06
Speaker
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00:37:28
Speaker
Hey, just wanted to remind you of that time your kicker missed the extra point and lost the game. Even though he'd literally never missed an extra point, he chose this playoff game to miss. Yeah, I just noticed you hadn't thought about that in a bit. Wouldn't want you to miss, you know, thinking about it. Sorry, we can't save you from that memory. But we could save you money bundling your renters and auto insurance with Progressive. Coverage from Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, affiliates, and third-guardian sharers. Renters insurance and bundle discount not available in all states or situations.