Transcript
Speaker: Ah, the open road, the wind in your hair, and the world in your rearview mirror. And the best part, the free snacks. That's right, free snacks. Because right now, for a limited time at Pilot Flying J, you can get a free snack when you fill up. Just download the My Rewards Plus app, join the free snack challenge, and after you fill, the snack is yours. Just our way to make your journey a little sweeter or saltier, depending on the snack. See pilotflyingj .com for terms and conditions.
Speaker: On another exciting episode of the Animation Deliberation podcast, we have another episodic pirate adventure to islands to do things. We're gonna talk about it right after these ads, we have no control over. She prefers Liberator of Artifacts. That was my line! Leftovers. Or... The DMV. Or... House cleaning.
Speaker: Or...
Speaker: Sing along if you know the words. Animation, deliberation, a conversation, and a celebration of our favorite action animated series. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome back to another episode of Innovation, Deliberation, the podcast where we take action animation and cartoons seriously, but not too seriously. We are your hosts. I am Zuhar Ali. My name is Jay Scotty St. Clair. And I am Andrew Rogers.
Speaker: And we are going to give you a quick news breakdown before we get to this week's episode of Bad Batch. We got what, three left in the season? Correct. Can't come soon enough. What do we got on the docket? I'm going to miss singing my theme song. What are you talking about? Well, I missed you singing your theme song because last week it was up to me and it was a time. So welcome back. Thanks for stepping up. We'll have visions this year, right?
Speaker: May the 4th. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nice. Sweet. Yeah, you'll get something. Yay. OK. Yay. All right. Of course, the theme song. That's right. I love it. I love it. All right. Well, on to this news. We did have the 95th Academy Awards take place last Sunday, during which, in the best animated feature, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was the winner there.
Speaker: And coming off of that win, Guillermo del Toro has been kind of in the headlines as he has vowed to uplift animation. Quote, this is an art form that has been kept commercially and industrial at the kids table for so long. End quote.
Speaker: So I know in the article that I read from Variety, he also went on to say about how he's going to basically start two scholarships, one that focuses on stop animation, but it seems like he's going to take this win and just keep the momentum going and
Speaker: perhaps, you know, really dedicate his career to elevating this art form. We've said so many times on this podcast that animation is not just for kids. So to hear that come out of the mouth of an Academy Award winner, I just, I thought it was very newsworthy. Yeah. I mean, that's an, our entire shtick here is, you know, animation is not just for kids. It is beautiful. It is amazing. It'll, it will make you cry as we have all found out this week in My Hero Academia.
Speaker: Oh, man, I can't wait to talk about that. That's so a lot of works. But yeah, it is awesome the amount of attention that animation has been getting recently because it definitely is very underappreciated. And I get when some people just when they give the art form a chance and just it's not for them as opposed to the thought of like, it's only for kids.
Speaker: So there is a lot more content that is coming out that it is more like adult based and whatnot. So yeah, I'm just hoping that his steps to help the industry just really help out. It was awesome for him to say and do all that. In our next bit of news, apparently Viz Media announced that to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Naruto, we are getting four new episodes within the original series.
Speaker: I want to be excited, but I'm curious just where it's going to go, what it's going to be, and how important it is because the story is what it is. Is it just going to be a meaningful filler story? Is it, you know, are friends going on adventures together? Is it going to be a whole new mission? I don't want to set the bar too high. I'm intrigued. I like that they're still really invested.
Speaker: Within Naruto and want to give more content if they do something where it's expanding more of the character stories I'm not against it in any ways, but it did just kind of like raise an eyebrow and it's like We'll see We'll see. I'm curious to see if the animation gets any better in the 20 year anniversary
Speaker: I couldn't not do it. It was on the table. I know we joke, but it still makes my blood boil a little bit. You mad, bro? A little bit. You know what I'm not bad about, though, is this badass chair that came in. Oh, that is badass. Nice.
Speaker: For the ladies and gentlemen at home, he has a chair that has the cloud on the back of it and the cloud. I don't know who watched the show explain what it is. You had your back to the microphone. I was feeling dead air, sir. It is the Akatsuki edition of Secret Labs chair. It's got the Akatsuki main logo on the back. It came with a badass poster.
Speaker: Was it expensive? Yes. Did my shoulders and back thank me right away? Yes. I had been wanting one of these chairs for the longest time and the fact that they made an Arto edition, I could not hit pre -order fast enough. You guys should check it out. It is awesome. I wish we were sponsors for them. Maybe I'll reach out and see if we can get something going. But damn, this is chair cool. That's my personal news of the week.
Speaker: very newsworthy as well. As far as Nardu goes, I have only seen a handful of episodes here and there, but a lot of people in my life are big fans of it. But the kind of
Speaker: recurring takeaway that I'm getting from both of you is cautious optimism, but my ears perked when you said Viz Media. I'm curious if they're the same people that did the original series as well as maybe Boruto, but my ears perked up because when you said Viz, I was just like instantly taken back to Wanda, like referring to Vision as Viz. It took me a second to get...
Speaker: My head out of that space. I don't understand what's studio Piero and what's this media. I don't know if like one handles marketing and the other is doing animation or what's what. But they they come off as both. So and this media does a lot of the manga as well. So there's maybe like a producer in a way. Yeah. Maybe I'm not kind of parent company. Yeah, maybe. OK. In other news that regards, you know,
Speaker: fan beloved shows coming back. We've talked on the show before about this Futurama revival that's going to be on Hulu. And it was initially slated to be premiering around this time, like March, spring, 2023. Headlines are now saying that it's been pushed to the summer. Still no solid release date, but still something to look forward to. And I don't mind delays if that means they can give it that extra level of polish.
Speaker: I am perfectly okay with that. Hopefully we do get a specific date sooner rather than later, considering summer is not that far away. And just so we could plan for this show at the very least. I mean, it's more communication than Marvel's What If has given us. So I will take news of anything changing. Shut up and take my money. I wasn't a great fry.
Speaker: We're back, baby. No, the meat popped up in my head right away. It was good enough. OK, good. Yeah, I do like Futurama. It's one of those things I just kind of watch when it was a Friday, Saturday night, and I was up till two, three in the morning and it just happened to be airing on Toonami. I don't think I've ever sat and watched it beginning to end, assuming it ever has an end. Always an entertaining series, but not one that I necessarily went out of my way for, if that makes sense.
Speaker: It's fairly episodic for the most part, but especially towards the last few seasons, there starts to be kind of more connectivity in terms of the overarching story they're telling. And I will say, I don't have any tattoos, but if I ever do get a tattoo, I'm considering one from Futurama that won Philip J. Fry as that is very plot centric for those of you who know.
Speaker: You know what I'm referring to. Oh my god, I forgot about that. And there's J. Scottie's personal news of the week. Yeah. All right. Lots of fun news this week, but let's move on to the meat of the episode. Yes, and this week we are covering, as we mentioned at the top, Bad Batch season two, episode 13, Pabu.
Speaker: After informally cutting ties with Sid, the batch in Omega help Fi Genoa recover a lost artifact. Fi convinces the clones to accompany her to the peaceful island of Pabu. There, they are hosted by Mayor Shephazard and his daughter Liana, who befriends Omega.
Speaker: However, a sea surge threatens the lower levels of the city. Hunter manages to rescue Omega and Liana at sea while Tech and Wrecker help Fee and Shep to evacuate the population before the sea surge destroys the lower city. Hunter and Tech agree to stay on Pabu to help with rebuilding efforts.
Speaker: I don't care if she calls herself a liberator, she's a pirate because she's stealing my time and my ability to watch more meaningful storytelling. Whoa. Coming out of the gate. I've just lowered my standard for the show at this point. I enjoyed it as an episodic episode. I loved
Speaker: hunters entrance at the beginning when we were worried about the war. I mean, just do the knife up against the wall. It was the worm reminded me very attack of the clones, but his definitely awesome. He should have brought more muscle and record got up and I was like, Oh yeah, let's go. This is awesome. So I loved everything about the opening. Island and everything was beautiful. I was just waiting for Dwayne Johnson to pop up with just, you know, the Polynesian influence that they got for that.
Speaker: you know, him or Moana, whichever one, maybe they were doing their fight and that's what caused this sea surge. Yeah, it was an episode. It was fun. It was beautiful. Things happened on a next week. I think the like the kind of interesting thing with a synopsis is that it did not mention
Speaker: sit at all. And I think that's probably the biggest takeaway is that we got confirmation that the batch has severed ties
Speaker: with Sid and seemingly it seems like they're going to retire on this island of Pabu. So I'll give credit to the episode. It was extremely beautiful, as you mentioned, but it did subvert my expectations. My expectations were, oh, they come to this island. Sid's going to betray them. The empire's going to come and encroach on this peaceful society and it's going to be all their fault. So to have a natural disaster
Speaker: kind of be the source of conflict. It's not the most compelling thing from a storytelling perspective, but at least it was not what I was expecting. So in that sense, I was like, okay, at least it wasn't predictable. It didn't go down exactly how I thought it was going to go down.
Speaker: But they mentioned why the empire hadn't come to Pabu yet. And it was like, oh, we don't have any resources. Why would they come here? And I was just like, I could totally see the empire just coming here and making this place like a resort for their, like, you know, officers and family of the officers and whatnot. So I think the jury's still out. Maybe the empire could come to Pabu, but it was kind of nice, you know, and.
Speaker: Tech continues to get the best moments, I think. To see this budding romance with Fi actually start to take root a little bit was nice. Oh, he had a great one -liner today. What was it?
Speaker: Uh, when she was talking about the view, like take a look at the view and isn't it spectacular? And he's like, that's one, certainly one way to quantify it. Or was it something along those lines? There was that, that was a good one. There was when he was playing the game against himself as well. Yes. Okay. Yes. What was it? Yes. Gonkey. I'm playing against myself. This is the only way I can find this tiny game to be, uh, at all challenging. Yeah, that's what it was. Yeah.
Speaker: But I had a great time. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. I don't know what it was, whether it was the visuals, or the storytelling, I, I felt like it gave a little bit of everything, you know, you got that action at the beginning, wherein you had a super intriguing fight scene coming in the bar with all of them secretly being revealed. And then to this, you know, peaceful world of just continuing to expand on everything that is Star Wars. And
Speaker: I really liked what you said, Jay Scotty of, oh, it's a natural disaster, not the Empire. Because as soon as they were like, oh, the ground shaking, I'm like, Star Wars, let us have one happy place. Like, why does everything have to get totally destroyed? And like, yes, there was still a tragedy and the homes were destroyed. But like, the people were not, you know, put directly in harm's way by the Empire yet, they still mostly got out okay. So we still got to see this very peaceful side of it. And I feel like it
Speaker: Again, I might just be holding out hope for the show as a whole, but it feels like this is going to be a pivotal building block of, you know, perhaps the Bad Batch doesn't have to die, like I said last week, in the fact of, oh, we've never seen them in the future. This could just be where they retire to. This could be their, you know, little village that they go back to. Omega finally has a friend. We got part of what I didn't even realize I missed. In the first season, there was that very father -daughter relationship with Hunter and Omega.
Speaker: And I feel like this is the first episode this season where it's really come back full force of, you know, the good old Star Wars trope of man finds kid and now has to protect them. So I don't know. I really liked the emotional impact that this episode felt like it had without being super make me worry about the stakes because I feel like when they're under attack, it's like, oh, there's no stakes. But at least this time it was like, well, the stakes aren't even that high. It's just get out of the storm surge.
Speaker: okay how do we do that in an interesting way so i i don't know i got a lot out of it i super enjoyed it that's why i was like those are some harsh fighting words you had a great time and they paid off the city storyline that we said a couple weeks ago like hey when are they gonna remedy this they finally kinda gave us the oh it's not gonna go down simply there is more to this story.
Speaker: which is why I was surprised she wasn't involved a little more. And it's not even that I dislike the episode, it's that this episode needs to be the bar now for me and not the crosshair ones, if that makes sense. Like I just need to understand that like this is the standard and I'm just going to enjoy this for what it is instead of wondering why it's not the high caliber stuff that I know that they're capable of producing.
Speaker: And I think maybe that's it is the first season really lowered my bar. Like my bar was the crosshair in the first season. And then the episodic nature just really dropped it down. And then I feel like this season has stayed around the bar. They haven't really exceeded it, but they've just kind of sat at it. So I'm like, Oh, this is fine.
Speaker: Yeah, I think the show in both seasons has had a lot of highs and lows. And I think that's one of the struggles of trying to make Star Wars as family friendly as possible while wanting to draw in a more mature audience and keep the, again, animation is not for kids per se, but this is a very like four quadrants franchise. And the show in particular, I feel like they want to entertain the entire family from the young kids.
Speaker: to the seasoned Star Wars fans. Maybe it could smooth things out a little bit and hit those four quadrants with more accuracy and precision rather than so haphazardly.
Speaker: Go ahead. Sorry, real quick. You guys always tell me that rebellions are built on hope. I'm more Hawkeye right now. It's like, don't give me hope. I'll just take it for what it is now. Yeah. Yeah. I did appreciate this episode for a few things as well in terms of characters. You know, I mentioned my boy Tech already, but I did feel like Hunter while not given like
Speaker: a ton to do I felt like he had more agency and there was more of a character growth perspective there like Andrew you alluded to the fact that he was like pretty much called Omega's father again and he had this decision to make and the fact that he and tech kind of came to the same conclusion but
Speaker: Also with Omega, she keeps getting paired with these young side characters, other protagonists, and it just shows how her upbringing is so different, having this conversation with Liana, and that she's never even stopped to think that, oh, moving around from place to place to place, that's not normal. This is the first time she's really had a chance to consider that.
Speaker: And then even Wrecker, like I kind of got a little chuckle out of the fact that he told tech that it looks like, oh, you've got some competition when the mayor came on the scene. But then he and the mayor seemed like they had like a nice little like chemistry going there. And it had me like wondering, I was like, okay, never really. Yeah, I've never seen Wrecker in this light. So yeah, not a perfect episode by any means, but a lot to enjoy, I feel.
Speaker: You know, Andrew's been talking a lot about because of watching Rebels, like we have all the rebels and we've never seen the bad bash. So it's like, what's their fate? I would just love to know that they've retired and they're just lounging on this island for the rest of their lives. They're not participating in like future projects.
Speaker: Yeah, honestly, halfway through the episode, I was like, we could just end here at the dinner scene. I was like, this is it. They're just omega is gonna ride off into the sunset on this boat. And we're done here. This is our pun intended sun setting the bad batch. That's where we'll die on a science table and they'll enjoy beach life.
Speaker: I mean, he was the one that left them. I don't know what his problem is. I wasn't here for the conversation last week, but do we know, does Crosshair know whether or not his brothers are still alive? Did he see them escape? Because I think he did, right? That's when he got the jet burn on the face.
Speaker: as they were flying away from him, right? The jet burn was middle of the season. Oh, was it OK? He he knows they're alive because he specifically let them go. That's right. We're all on a platform. And he said, or they were like, hey, come with us. We're going to escape the empire. And that was when he he did the big reveal of, oh, my inhibitor chip's not broken. I actually like the empire. You guys get out of here. That's right. OK, OK. So, yeah, no, he he knows. And I. Good.
Speaker: I know the thread's going to come back together. It's just how. But I will say we're going to continue to talk about characters. I like Fi again. I feel like they did that like introductory, you know, teased her at the start of the season.
Speaker: then gave us a nothing episode with the Mecha Arceus in the middle. And now it's like, oh, this is what her character was actually supposed to be about this whole time was like introducing them to this greater world, getting them away from Sid. And it was like, I really liked that story. And I think that's another part of why I like this episode is because I wouldn't have been unhappy to get more of this.
Speaker: throughout the season of like, Oh, who is fee? How does she pull the batch in a different direction, things like that to have brought it together? And maybe that's how I pick the episodes I like is, Oh, would I have wanted to see this instead of x thing over there? Yeah, I, I don't know if I can add any more to that. It was it's definitely made me see fee in a different light. And it's definitely a more positive light.
Speaker: I have to imagine part of that is the fact that it's Wanda Sykes. Maybe it's a little more difficult to get her for as many episodes. I don't know. I don't know how busy she is these days. Doesn't seem that busy. Could be expensive though. Could be expensive, yes. Could be expensive.
Speaker: Yeah, also, I just want someone to throw tech off guard more because the look on his face when she reached over to punch in the coordinates and said, go this way, brown eyes, I thought he was going to lose it and pass out right there. I was like, dude, let's go. Yeah.
Speaker: I will say one character that did not work for me and just, I don't mean to be overly negative, but it's just like sometimes the comedy just doesn't work. There was that old man character who like when the mayor was walking around and he's like, oh, hey, hey, ship. It's like, how are blah and blah? And he's like, hey, why is that funny? He's just asking how these people are.
Speaker: Anyway, that was yeah, that was literally just there for the wrecker has to carry someone out exists. Exactly. Well, judging by the fact that zoo hair has his hands facing his hand right now. Do we have anything else to say about this one?
Speaker: Nothing productive. Okay. I can't wait to finish the episode of Mandalorian because I like the half of it that I've seen. Next week's another week. It's a deliberation buddy. We don't always have to be positive around here.
Speaker: Oh, I've made that very clear. I am no stranger to that logic one bit. All right. Well, at this point, I will acknowledge that as we've been doing this coverage of season two, I don't feel like we've gotten as much feedback. So I'm curious to our listeners, what are your impressions?
Speaker: season two lose you? Is that why we're not hearing from you? If you are sticking with it, what are your thoughts? What are your predictions? Be a part of this deliberation. Be a part of this conversation. Shoot us an email, a written email, or send a recording of yourself to animationdeliberationpodcastatgmail .com. And while you're at it, leave us a review. Five stars would be appreciated.
Speaker: I think we've earned it. I hope we've earned it in all of our deliberating throughout time. Give us five Death Stars. And then, as always, the other great way to support us is to follow us on all of our social medias. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at animationdeliberation and on Twitter at animationdelib1.
Speaker: And then I'm also just going to throw out there, I made a great joke of we don't always have to be positive because we're deliberating. If you want to hear me deliberate plenty more, check out this week's Source Pages podcast. We did a little bit of a comic run coverage to get ready for Shazam, which I am going to see this weekend and then be back on to talk about the movie. There's probably going to be plenty of thoughts around the movie and
Speaker: Yeah, I didn't take necessarily the most positive approach to the comics, but it was a really interesting conversation, to say the least, going into it. Oh, it was if you liked the zany energy that Zuhair Haley and myself had with Bad Batch last week, you will love the energy that we brought to these comics because there was nothing to talk about in the comics. So I think it was just like 40 minutes of like DC rant. And yeah, it was
Speaker: It was a great time. It was a fun time. So definitely go check that out. And besides that, always check out the other shows that we have at Strandepanda .com. Zuhair, anything you would like to let the listeners know about in terms of appearances?
Speaker: Just the usual 3 -2 -3 with Reed Murphy and if all off -season is going on, a lot of free agent signings, a lot of trades, a lot of drama, that group chat has been blowing up like there's no tomorrow so if you guys want to hear our thoughts on it, 3 -2 -3 with Reed Murphy, anywhere you find your podcasts.
Speaker: Cool. I will just reiterate, yes, check out all the wonderful shows on the Stranded Panda Network and just a slight little tease here, just a little morsel. There may be a new show joining the ranks that I may or may not have some significant involvement with. So keep listening to Animation Deliberation as well as all the other shows. I'm sure you'll be hearing something about that very, very soon. So thanks as always for listening and keep tuning in. That's T -W -O -N -I -N. May the force be with you and as always, stay well.
Speaker: and until we have deliberating opinions, muscle, muscle.
Speaker: Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email AnimationDeliberationPodcast at gmail .com or follow us on Twitter at AnimationDelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit Strandepanda .com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook .com slash groups slash spchat. Tune in next time and remember, stay well.
Speaker: Leftovers, or the DMV, or house cleaning.
Speaker: Chumba Casino always brings the fun. Play over a hundred different games online for free from anywhere. You could redeem some serious prizes. Chumbacasino .com Live the Chumba Life.
