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Electric Feelings - The Iron Giant & The Wild Robot
40 Plays1 month ago
Beep boop. It's Mitch and Max back again with another robot adventure, this time travelling into the mysterious realm of ~feelings~
Get blasted back to 50s America for jazz and nuclear war with The Iron Giant, then follow us to an island nature reserve to relax, rewind, and try not to die in The Wild Robot.
Do you want your fanmail and/or deep and warranted criticism to feature in the next episode? Email us at [email protected]
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Letterboxd:
Mitch: https://letterboxd.com/swagatario/
Max: https://letterboxd.com/USBChicken101/
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
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License code: TNWVZKOXJY0OWBZK
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to Blockbuster, the movie review podcast hosted by few robots who just discovered their humanity. I'm a Mitchinator. I am the Superman. And today we are looking at the Iron Giant and the Wild Robot.
00:00:33
Speaker
Episode programming engaged.
Emotional Exchange and Humor
00:00:39
Speaker
Hey, Max, how are you doing? i'm I'm doing well. How are you? Sad. Crying, tearing up, pissing in my pants, pooping, all of the above. that's ah That's a strange combination of things to do. Why are you doing that?
00:00:58
Speaker
This week's films. I was trying something new, this has not worked at all. It's all those laxatives that got put into your ice cream. Yeah, because I famously am lactose intolerant, except I'm not. That's not what laxatives do, dude. Oh, it's the laxatives that go into your ice cream. This is a reference to the movie. That's true as well. I heard lack and I was like, lactose.
00:01:25
Speaker
Well, let's go. Double, double diarrhea. Uh, yummy. If in all seriousness, if you got got with laxatives in your ice cream, would it be like extra bad or just like? No, and that's, bad that's absolutely extra bad because you're like, not only is your gut having a reaction to the bad protein lactose, which is actually a sugar, not a protein.
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah, lactate. Lactase is the protein that breaks down. Lactase is the protein. Yeah. Breaks down. No, it leaves your body going, ah, no lactose.
Episode Theme: Robots and Humanity
00:02:00
Speaker
That's bad. It's also going, ah, the laxative that makes me shit my pants. I'll keep that in mind. And so you need extra shit in your pants.
00:02:09
Speaker
dude, not only one poop in the pants, but two poops in the pants. That's how to make it all liquid from there, man. Everything, every liquid everywhere, all of the time.
1999 Movie Highlights: The Iron Giant
00:02:25
Speaker
Well, no, we have to sell it. We have to announce a spoiler alert, but be this episode's theme, which is animated movies about robots that learn about their humanity through looking after a young boy. And also the movies have three words in the title and the first word is the.
00:02:42
Speaker
Hey, spoiler alert for the Iron Giant and the Wild Robot.
00:02:48
Speaker
The Iron Giant released in 1999. Great year for film. Great year. Max, do you know what other movies came out in 1999? No, I wasn't born. Well, me either. But I bet you another movie that you love came out in 1999. I'm going to pull it up.
The Iron Giant Analysis and Debate
00:03:07
Speaker
All right. You ready? Actually should I'll do this afterwards. Uh, uh, directed by Brad bird, it stars Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr, Vin Diesel, James Gammon, Cloris Leachman, John Mahoney, Eli Marenthal, Christopher McDonald, and Em Emmett Walsh. Max, can you please drop from space a synopsis that will land amongst a storm and crash a poor fisherman's boat?
00:03:35
Speaker
I can. I'll quickly answer your first question. The number one movie came out in 1999 was of course the hit classic Stuart Little. No. Hold on. Hold on. Top 10 films in 1999. You ready? This is the highest grossing. Number one, Stuart Little. No. Star Wars, episode one, The Phantom Menace. Not a great start. But the rest of these? The rest of these? Mostly bangers. Mostly bangers. The sixth sense.
00:04:05
Speaker
Toy Story 2. Toy Story 2 is good. Sixth Sense is also good. what What is your problem? I haven't seen it. That's my favorite. Oh, OK. Fair enough then. The Matrix. ah That's good. Tarzan. That's good. Phil Collins slaps. The Mummy. I actually haven't seen The Mummy. The 1999 The Mummy. I've seen the original The Mummy. I know. night watched I watched it with you. Whatever it was. I know. I know. ah Notting Hill.
00:04:36
Speaker
I watched half of that. i seen Hugh Grant. is He's a sexy man. and So he's got it. Yeah. You know, I've actually read this list out before on the podcast. Really? You weren't here. it was with ah It was with jazz when you were away. ah The world is not enough. The James Bond film. I haven't seen any James Bond film. It's not one of the good ones. Really? We do. We need to watch the Day of Craig ones. American Beauty. Good movie. Bad dude did it.
00:05:03
Speaker
I haven't seen it, but I've heard very good things. And Austin Powers, the spy who shagged me. Is that the number one grossing film? No, no, no. I went number one down. So Star Wars is the number one grossing film. Oh, okay. I thought you were about to say that Austin Powers, the spy who shagged me was number one grossing film in 1999. No, no, no. Austin Powers slipped in behind American Beauty for the 10th place. Yeah. I just like think you're missing some really key movies like a Stuart Little. Shut up about Stuart Little. No one cares.
00:05:32
Speaker
No one cares much too little. There's all like, uh, office space. Yeah. Office space. Yeah. Galaxy quest. Yeah. That's a good one. Yeah. Your favorite movie Magnolia. All right. Let's just, can you give me the summary now? you Giant is a ah Muppets in space dude. Oh wait, the old captain America, the one before Chris Evans.
00:06:01
Speaker
The Iron Giant is about a robot who crash lands just outside the town of Rockwell in Maine in 1957 during the middle of the Cold War, um and he is discovered by a young human boy, um and the human boy takes what he can to protect it and teach it about feelings while being hunted by the FBI.
Themes of Humanity and Anti-War Messages
00:06:30
Speaker
I lied, Captain America was actually not in 1999, it was just in 1990. Do you want to talk about the film? Yeah. What do you think of the film, Mitchell? Oh, we're doing this right now. Okay. That's what we normally do, isn't it? Yeah. I've been trying to like not just show my hand immediately at the start of each review, like kind of talk it out before saying whether or not we can talk it out. No, the movie's brilliant. This is a, this is one of those movies that is like near perfect. so And practically like it, it's great. It's, it's awesome. yeah Um, there's something.
00:07:04
Speaker
Alright, so bad Brad Bird obviously gets animation, right? Like, we know this from not just this movie, but others as well, such as Ratatouille and Incredibles. And even though Incredibles 2 is a bit of a mixed bag for me story-wise, animation-wise, brilliant, brilliant movie. Like, that's a really good, that has some really good sequences.
00:07:24
Speaker
And I think something that this movie does really impressively is it uses the medium of animation in the way that you've described before and that it does things that can't be done in real life in animation, which is like, but that's the point of using animation. Do things you can't normally do. But at the same time, it manages to make the camera feel like it's physically there in the scene as well. Like there's the way the camera moves, the way that it zooms in and out on characters faces to where it's placed.
00:07:53
Speaker
It's just, it's, it's great. It's, you feel like it's there. You feel like this was filmed properly. It's so, ah, what do you think? I agree. I think the Iron Giant is a great movie, especially as a directorial day, feature directorial debut for Brad Bird. I will add. So yeah, this was, yeah, his first film. I mean, we can dream to have first films like this, right?
00:08:19
Speaker
It's a really clever blend of traditional animation techniques with um new CGI technology um that we won't really see again um until saw stuff like um Treasure Planet and Atlantis. Do Treasure Planet sick?
00:08:37
Speaker
and um Really, this sort of hybrid CGI and um traditional animation is something that's just sort of fallen out of ah favor, I think, especially in feature filmmaking. and um i think It's used here so well alongside this really fantastic story um with a lot of, with a really good message underneath, not just in the ah characters, but in what Brad Bird is also saying about um like the sort of responses that people have to things that are new and scary and big.
00:09:20
Speaker
um and Yes, I agree. I think this is a fantastic film and I like it. Apparently there's a viaduct in England called the Iron Giant or something. I don't know. That's what um Wikipedia is telling me. I well, all right. Well, I'm going to I'm going to like pull a little bit aside the cursor of how we run this show and go. um Usually we try for both movies, have at least one of us not seen it for the first time. Well, this will be the first time we've seen when we talk come and talk about it. We try and have at least one of us not have seen the film before. This is a movie that both of us had seen previously and
00:10:07
Speaker
I had seen this movie recently, like 2022 would have been the last time I saw this before the rewatch I did for this episode. When were the last time you'd seen this been before this rewatch? I reckon I would have seen this 2010.
Evolution of American Animation
00:10:22
Speaker
Oh gosh, like a good decade ago. Yeah. Almost a decade and a half. Yeah. So, so a fair while ago, um, I have another question that is... And I also remember I watched it in a hotel room on an iPad while babysitting my cousin. So also not optimal viewing experience. Well, I guess that that actually that actually feeds into my question that I had a follow up for, I think, I guess, since you marked it that you'd seen it on Letterboxd. You had it on as a three star film. Can I comment?
00:10:56
Speaker
um I think we'll dig into this a bit, but I definitely did not appreciate this film as much as I do now. When I initially watched it in 2010 or whenever I watched it, I think this film has so much to offer.
00:11:18
Speaker
in terms of um the story that it's telling and the characters and it's building um that it's just a really fantastic piece of art and a really excellent showcase, I think, of what um especially like American animation can be because I was thinking about this a little bit um when I went to see the movie we're talking about second in this.
00:11:50
Speaker
ah podcast, not as related to that specifically, but more just because obviously we're talking about animated films. And because of the nature of Hollywood, American animation has sort of become the status quo for a lot of people. um And the expectation is animation is shiny plastic.
00:12:11
Speaker
um CGI animation that we kind of see come out of Disney and we see come out of um Illumination and we see come out of DreamWorks. Halle DreamWorks out of this. DreamWorks for a long time was doing shiny plastic animation. And I think there is a place for shiny plastic animation and there are some really good examples of shiny plastic animation. Game three. ah Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. Oh, he's done it.
00:12:43
Speaker
Excellent work. But what American animation has sort of become is this homogenized shiny plastic as as what I've come to call it. Would you say, I know I would agree with you up to a certain date. I would say after Spider-Verse, would you still agree with that statement? So I think the majority of animation coming out of Hollywood is still shiny plastic. I think. All right. Yeah. I think.
00:13:13
Speaker
animation studios, bigger animation studios, and I'm sure we'll talk about this with the world robot. um Finally worked out they can use other artistic techniques. Yeah. They're not going to like just have a bomb if they don't do the Disney method. Yeah.
00:13:28
Speaker
um And what I think is really interesting for me is when you compare american animation to as as a Hollywood animation as American animation, comparing it to something like um French animation or Japanese animation or um English australian animation, or Australian animation, we have one um or Asian European animation. yeah There's so much more character to a lot of those, um I guess, regions of film. And partly that is because the Hollywood is is the
00:14:11
Speaker
one where all the money goes, and um as a result, you sort of get a homogenization of ideas there. um But what I think the Iron Giant does, to get back to the original point, is it really, to me, captures this idea of this is what, in a different universe,
00:14:32
Speaker
ah This is what American animation could have been. um This amazing hybrid of technology and art to make these really compelling stories. And I'm not saying that and animation american All American animation is boring and doesn't tell interesting stories because that's not true, but I feel like the majority of animation that people like um are exposed to um tends to be are specifically targeted at kids for one, um and often is not doesn't have a bar set much higher than that. yeah And as much as some a movie like The Iron Giant is still technically a kids movie, it feels much more in line with the non-American animation um that is
00:15:31
Speaker
movies that are about kids but for everybody. and um i'm and I'm talking about things like Ghibli is notorious for this sort of thing where they have kids as is as characters, but their stories are never exclusively child centric. And you don't need to be a child to appreciate the movie. And I think the Iron Giant does this really, really well. I think Brad Bird does this here really well. And it sort of feels to me like this sort of, yeah, the window into a different sort of version of what um American animation could have been if
00:16:17
Speaker
um if this movie didn't bother me. I guess more like if traditional animation was prioritized, um more so than than CGI. and you know There's a whole bunch of complex factors that led us to where we are now. and Having a style like this obviously doesn't ah eliminate the creation of um base so the content that is aimed at kids and no one else.
Emotional and Philosophical Themes
00:16:47
Speaker
But this is really like an exemplary um ah pace of media that um really shows what you sort of feel like could be American animation as a as a ah style of animation, but also like American animation as like a cultural pace and a cultural identity in animation.
00:17:10
Speaker
I think I guess like one of the reasons why this film wasn't as influential in its time is because it bombed all to hell, because Warner Brothers, as I'm reading this article right now, Warner Brothers didn't trust it because of other projects that failed for him, and so they didn't push it. Can I just interject here? Warner Brothers ah animation feature animation department or the iterations that it's had yeah over the periods of its lives.
00:17:36
Speaker
um
00:17:39
Speaker
Warner Brothers, what are you doing? And what are they doing right now? They got the ACME, they got the Coyote vs ACME film just on a shelf for but for tax reasons. Release that bad boy. It's going to be brilliant. It's got John Cena in it. Warner Brothers feature animation has gone through, I think three or four, the reiterations of being open and then closing.
00:18:02
Speaker
then reopening and rebranding and then closing again and reopening. and It feels like wes we keep sitting on these hits that are failing or not even hitting cinemas because Warner Brothers is too scared to show them. and like The Iron Giants is an example of this, but yeah, as you mentioned, Wily Coyote versus Acme um has being awarded by the people who've been able to see previews as this fantastic piece of animation. And we're probably never going to see it because- It might get a different distributor. There's a possibility, but it's not working good. There's a small possibility it gets an alternative distributor, but chances are we're never going to see this movie. It's lower. Which is a real shame because Warner Brothers have
00:18:59
Speaker
Made good movies. and make good movies, and they just don't have the faith in them to- I don't even know if it's faith. It's money-grubbing. It's Zazlev at the top right now, I believe, and he's a little money-grubbing goblin who's like, oh, we're gonna make so much, we're gonna get so much text right off for not releasing this film. That's basically what he's doing. He's, ah, I hate Zazlev. I think it's Zazlev. I'm pretty sure it's Zazlev. I hate him so much. The fiery passion in my belly.
00:19:30
Speaker
But going off of what you said earlier, just about the film being child centric, but not just for children. I think that's something that we're going to touch one on in both of these movies, because both of these movies do not talk down to the audience. And we'll go into more what i well how I think the Wild Robot does that later. But in this movie, it's so adult in what it's talking about. So much so that there's a point, um, where Hargarth, the main little boy is talking to the iron n giant, who's really sad about the idea dying, um, how about halfway through the movie or so. And he says something really poignant, which I'm going to butcher cause I don't remember the exact quote, but some of the lines of it's bad to kill, but it's not bad to die, which is a
00:20:25
Speaker
Uh, what's this little boy doing with that type of philosophy? Um, that's rough. Um, but be very correct. Like, um, and it's a, it's a very interesting thing to say in a film for children. Like that is, I think.
00:20:43
Speaker
dark and I think the the I think's are back. I got rid of them for a little while. And now they're back. But it's just this is it's just good is is it looks good. It the it it's
Animation Techniques and Visual Storytelling
00:20:56
Speaker
tense. It's got it's got these elements of horror to it that like are just kind of there to set you off edge. And it's not as particularly scary film at all. But it plays into like thriller and horror elements to like just kind of Tickle your to tickle you in the um in the ivories. I don't know. That doesn't make any sense. But like like like at the very start, when the when we haven't really been properly introduced to the iron giant, the reveal, the not the proper first reveal, but the first time we see it is very early on when it crash lands into a hurricane that's carrying off the coast of wherever this um part of the USA is made. Is it Maine? It's Maine.
00:21:41
Speaker
I don't know. Do they have trees that big in Maine, by the way? like yeah It really hit me like, did damn, they have some really big trees wherever this place, this film is set. Yeah, it's like redwoods. Oh, well, there you go then. What what do I know? But ah first of all, before I go into a what I was going to say, I love the shot of the robot, which we don't know. We don't fully see properly falling past Sputnik into the eye of the storm.
00:22:10
Speaker
That's a really cool shot. It's just cool to see things that we often don't see from a different angle. like so from state We you do see them, but we don't see them from a different angle and seeing storms from like above is really cool. We always see them from below because most of us can't aren't tall enough to look over them.
00:22:25
Speaker
so You know, it's just cool. But then as we see it fall in, it drops into the ocean. There's this part where we didn't cut to like this fisherman who's like this kook we find out later. um but And he's going, oh, I'm lost. Where's the White House? And then we see Lime and go, that's the White House. And it's like, oh, dude, safety. Here we go.
00:22:46
Speaker
Oh crap, that's not the lighthouse. It has two lights, not just one. What is going on? And then later on, when Hogarth goes to investigate his TV antenna getting eaten, he follows these like and steps left by the robot and destruction. And he goes to the electric power plant and he hears weird noises and it's just the power plant making noises. He's like, oh, okay.
00:23:08
Speaker
But in the background, if you don't know what you're looking for, the giant's are just there facing the wrong direction, and then it just turns around and it's there. You're like, oh my God, what are you doing there? How did the giant walk so quietly? Who knows? Because then the rest of the film, he walks like um a thunderclap. But damn,
00:23:26
Speaker
it's so good. just And and then that that that doesn't go away when you even find out the robot either, because then at the back end, when they start to implement how the giant interacts with weapons and stuff, and like his eyes dilate and dilate? i Yeah. they um No, they do the opposite. What's the opposite of dilate? Contract. Is that what it is? um I don't know if it needs to be highest. Construct. That doesn't seem right. That's what I said, it wasn't it?
00:23:57
Speaker
You said contract. Oh, yeah. That's enough. The opposite dial. They narrow in. And that is once again, because you've gotten used to this guy, you've gotten used to this big robot, you've gotten used to this big lovable fella. And now he has glowing red eyes and he shoots lasers from them and they they they focus in and they do creepy crap. It's oh, it's so good. It's so good. And it's ah.
00:24:25
Speaker
It's what what is a equally impressive is just the ah amount that they're willing to put in in terms of theme and tone. And I think you touch on this with with this idea that like you have this sort of vaguely horror or thriller elements through the film, um but also just the, there's this really strong anti-war sentiment Oh, very anti-war. Yeah. in In it, there's this very strong anti like-violence, anti-gun sentiment. I mean, they say it in the film, they say killing is bad. That is a line in the film told to you by like the moral standpoint. Guns kill people. Guns kill people. Therefore, guns are bad. do not use weapon Don't have weapons. Weapons are bad. um But then on top of that, it has this idea of
00:25:20
Speaker
um everyone's sort of having their own agency to choose the kind of person that they want to be. And I think this is something that robot movies love doing because... Well, what's a robot for? But telling you that you can choose what you can... But to learn how to love? Yeah, no, no. I was thinking about this because the Wild Robot does this as well.
00:25:46
Speaker
robot movies are there to tell you that you, no matter what you've been told, and no matter what like has been put into your brain in an early eight programs in quotation mark, but what's been put into your brain at an early age, you can always change and you there's nothing set in stone. Because
Legacy and Impact of The Iron Giant
00:26:03
Speaker
even this giant lump of metal can change. So can you that's what a robot movie like this, there are other movies that are not meant for this like Pacific Rim, but ah But movies like movies like this where there's like a natural character in the robot it's about but humanity it's about and even like stuff like Ex Machina and stuff like that like obviously Ex Machina is not only about this but it's still about humanity and you know not in the nice way but
00:26:33
Speaker
That's just an interesting like comparison to throw in, I think. Robots are always robots in sci-fi. Sorry, they're always going to be sci-fi because robots are science fiction. Robots in fiction. Damn it, stop saying that.
00:26:48
Speaker
um um fiction in would whatever Whatever fiction is based around a robot is designed to extrapolate and expound on the idea of humanity because what it's like you're you're putting humanity You're taking something that shouldn't by concept have humanity and you're giving it to it and you're telling it learn what humanity is at a stage where you have the processing power of an adult, but like the, I guess the emotional equivalent of not even a living thing.
00:27:24
Speaker
And then you're giving it emotions and you're saying learn to live with this. So it's like your robots in general, obviously there's always going to be exceptions to this because that's just how rules work. There's always exceptions to them. um But in general, that's what you're doing with science fiction and robots. do you your asking, you're talking to the audience and saying, what is humanity? What is like, what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have choice? What does it mean to blah, blah, blah? You can put other stuff in there as well. Like obviously, but that that's what guns are bad. Guns are bad. Okay. You know, uh, war is bad, glorious bad, nuclear war, what extra bad dude.
00:28:05
Speaker
in so They dropped the H word. They said Holocaust. I was like, damn. They say nuclear Holocaust. it do seem nuclearholic I know it's different, but they still drop. It's still an intense word. Like even outside of like, well if I said the Holocaust, obviously you're going to think of the World War II event, but the word itself even placed next to nuclear is intense. It's an intense word.
00:28:30
Speaker
And they just put it in this kid's film. They're like, all right, parents, explain the word Holocaust to your nine year old children. I love that movies like this, the movies that don't look down to children also don't sort of play around with like.
00:28:47
Speaker
We can't talk about this kind of thing because it's not appropriate for kids. like This is a movie set in the 50s, in the late 50s. The Cold War is a thing. The Cold War is a prominent theme in the movie. We're going to talk about nuclear bombs and what happens when you get hit by a nuclear bomb.
Critique of Warner Brothers' Strategy
00:29:04
Speaker
And we're going to do it in that weird, cheerful, like um in your weird ah mid-century kind of way with the like, oh, we're going to do the jingle about ducking cover. That ducking cover thing. Can I watch the movie when I was very young? That ducking cover thing.
00:29:25
Speaker
It disappears from my mind every single time I stopped watching this movie. But then when I rewatch it, just, it's just present. If forever my, it's like, it's like, hands on your head, knees to the ground. Like that part is just in me at all times. And it goes away when I'm not watching this movie, but then just resurfaces once this movie's put back on. It's just there. You know, I think you would do great if we were on the threat of nuclear holocaust.
00:29:54
Speaker
Duck and cover, I am good to go. Because obviously the radiation can't get under a desk, right? So you can at least live on a little bit after if you don't get blown up by the bomb. I would rather die.
00:30:09
Speaker
Apparently, because there's that guy... ah this is This is really intense, by the way, so maybe skip forward a few seconds if you don't want to hear something really horrible. But there was that guy in Japan, because that's the only time we've ever dropped nuclear bombs. um We, as as humanity, not as we, the Americans. Americans? The Americans. um We, as a humanity, if I only dropped bombs once and that was at the end of World War II, most of you know that. um And there was that guy who lived for 90 days and was just in pure pain because his whole body was just burns. And he finally died. And like, I think that was a mercy at that point in time. I would rather just die in the explosion. If I'm in the if I will be affected by a nuclear bomb, kill me outright, please. I don't want to deal with the afterta the after aftermath of that. But yeah, what am I going with this?
00:30:59
Speaker
Oh, that's right. World War Cold War. <unk> because you go talk like The movies about like bal nuclear bombs and stuff. And then there's a nuclear bomb with feelings. And they just put that in the movie. And that's a main character voiced by Vin Diesel, who I'm 90 percent sure this film was an 80 minute test reel for I am Groot for just like 20 years earlier. Not quite Vin Diesel is 10 steps ahead of Hollywood.
00:31:27
Speaker
right Have you not seen the latest, Fast and Furious? You weren't getting it until 20 years time, I bet. um It's bad. It's really bad. No, it'll be good in 20 years. that's right Sorry, I'm not ready for it. There's so much to say about this movie. um I really think that this is just something that is a fantastic piece of cinema.
00:31:56
Speaker
Um,
Personal Reflections on The Iron Giant
00:31:57
Speaker
and a fantastic sort of like, uh, mock in, in the history of American animation. Um, because can we just say animation in general. or can I mean, yeah, probably like, I feel like it, like, like I know you and I, maybe or you, me more than you possibly haven't seen as much other animation as American for the one we've seen the vast majority of. Is that safe for me to say? for that but I would say that's correct. But I would say this is just like, this goes above and beyond just being a great animated movie. And it's just a good movie. Like we don't need to put the animated part in front of it. Like we don't have to box it in. It's just a great movie. It's.
00:32:37
Speaker
it's great. And a lot of animation, I think that's a problem actually with how it's the genre is the genre, it's not even a genre, how the medium is filmed, viewed, damn it, how the medium is viewed is that it's like this idea of like, Oh, it's a great animated movie.
00:32:52
Speaker
No, that's not how it works. Animated movies are just movies. And I feel like this is one that has managed to like kind of tap at the at the public and being like, no, this is just a great movie. And they've they've managed to look past the medium it is and just see it as what it is, which is just.
00:33:08
Speaker
the art of film in a style that is not in real life. I think ah it's that, but also the inherent understanding of what it is and understanding the medium and knowing how to utilize that medium in in the best possible way. Yeah.
Humor and Performances in The Iron Giant
00:33:27
Speaker
Poor Brad Bird. I just think, yeah, this the The fact that Brad Bird did other good movies after this is kind of insane, also. Right? He didn't just like do all of it at once and then go, all right, that's it. I'm not good anymore. Mate, because you get some of those where it's like, I'll do one good debut movie and then that's it. And I just think now we start the incredible this for me is is a really fantastic movie. I think it really exemplifies the best of
00:34:00
Speaker
um what American animation was as as a style for for a long time, and then um sort yeah one what I think it could have been. and You do still see it a little bit in television, um which i I have ignored up until this point. that like what You do see that sort of hybrid vibe.
00:34:22
Speaker
ah CGI, traditional animation but do in television. Do you reckon there's a reason you ignored that being that that wasn't a creative choice more than that's just a cost saving technique? Yeah, it's a financial decision more so than a but an artistic decision. But you know, it's a it seems to be a ah very intentional artistic decision in in this movie yeah with the giant. That's the difference. Specifically being a ah CGI as opposed to everything else, which is not.
00:34:52
Speaker
Yeah. Cause like you, you say like, you, you mentioned, you know, um, shows having that element and a lot of the time it's really jarring in TV shows when that is the case. But in this movie, you can notice it, but it's not jarring. It still flows within the film. I think there's a little, there's a little bit, there's a little bit of jank just because of like how old it is. But yeah, do you notice it? Yeah.
00:35:17
Speaker
<unk> I don't think it's unnoticeable because it looks different to the rest of the animation, and it's but it's intentional. like the china is meant to be alien yeah well It's meant to be alien and it's meant to be robotic, and exactly that's almost perfect use for for CGI as a contrast against traditional animation, which is which is much more ah fluid and natural one at a time. On that, this movie utilizes those techniques excellently as well. um There's a really great shot, um panning shot through the diner at the start of the the shot just pans across like a standard sort of like dolly shot. And you see this sort of... um ah
00:36:14
Speaker
I don't know how I'd describe it, but it's like a tableau of misfortune as this squirrel sort of um rakes havoc on this diner. You get these like beautiful like fluid shots um and this yeah um yeah great movement through that as well.
00:36:35
Speaker
um I'd be remiss to say that this movie is... is yeah I would be remiss not to say that this movie is very funny as well. It's so funny! This movie's hilarious! Oh my god, I mean...
00:36:50
Speaker
but We haven't even talked about like the performances that are brilliant. Even like the main little boy who um getting a child in to do things is rough at the best of times. And this kid is great. Um, but no, there's hilarious moments. Like one of, one of the moments that, cause once again, this movie is a big part of my childhood. So I've seen that just kind of lives rent free in my mind.
00:37:13
Speaker
is the one where the giant does a bomb into the lake and and all the water rushes out to like a ah ah road that's like a few hundred meters away. We don't really know how far away it is, but we can kind of assume the geography of it just due to how much water there was. blah blah blah blah And um Dean, one of the main characters is just in a deck chair and he floats in on screen after a very funny raccoon tries to like swim the opposite, like there's a raccoon that's really funny and then he just kind of floats in, just lands, but which is funny, but then the extra funny part is a truck comes up and like the guy's like, hey, you're in the middle of the road. And he's just like, yeah.
00:37:52
Speaker
And the guy's like, all right. Yeah, it has a lot of visual humor. It's got a lot of well-written gags. I love the scene where um the hand is running around the house. It's so good. It's like a dog as well. and um
00:38:17
Speaker
Hogarth is is um asked to say grace, um and he's just exploiting me, exploiting wording out these, like, oh my god! Get it out of here! Thank you!
00:38:32
Speaker
And it's just very silly and very fun. And it's so good. But then there's the poop joke because he chums the hand out the window and it makes this huge thump and Kent Mansley at his mom are like outside the bathroom and they're like, is this kid okay? Because he's been making these huge like groaning noises. he joke There's actually a lot of poop jokes in this movie. It's so many poop jokes. with It's like, it's like,
00:38:58
Speaker
The concept of poop and not poop itself and that's what makes it great.
00:39:04
Speaker
Like, a movie this heartfelt should not have this many poop jokes, but it really does. And sort honestly, it's all the better for it. um wait Should we give some scores? I don't know. Can we just keep talking about it? No, let's do scores. Let's do
Hosts' Media Consumption Experiences
00:39:20
Speaker
scores. um I'm giving this movie $5 out of a total of $5, which is the highest amount of money I'd pay for Dean's art.
00:39:30
Speaker
He was played by Harry Connick Jr. I just like this this really is something that we didn't like also a conversation Jennifer Aniston's in this movie and what we were talking about Vin Diesel cuz yeah My parents I was like, oh, sorry My parents said who's in this movie and I looked it up on Wikipedia as well watching it cuz I watched it with my parents It was nice so And I was like, oh, only two people are kind of really famous in this. Jennifer Aniston and Vin Diesel. And then they're like, but who's playing Dean? I was like, oh, yeah, Harry Connick Jr. And they're like, oh, he's like a famous musician. I was like, I have no clue who this man is. Like, I don't know. Yeah, he's like a really famous jazz musician.
00:40:07
Speaker
Oh, that's why. I don't know jazz. Also, he was probably famous in the nineties. I am not from the nineties. I am from the aughts. And even then, I don't know the aughts music that well. The first song I remember is call me maybe, a little bit let me pull him up. I'll pull up my my little wicker poods. Right. Who's in Independence Day? I haven't seen an Independence Day. Point Harry Connick Jr. in more movies. Yeah. He's he's a handsome young man or middle-aged man.
00:40:34
Speaker
um what What do you rate this film, Max? I gave the Iron Giant ah four half-eaten cars and a little bit of corrugated iron as a snack. It's four and a half. Iron Giant can have a little corrugated iron as a treat.
00:40:58
Speaker
yeah
00:41:03
Speaker
Max, my, uh, wait, wait, wait, Superman, my programming tells me that it is what? What? I was just doing Superman cause it's the joke from the, from the, yeah, but that's the name you gave. like stars your robot That is now your robot name. I'm the Mitch Nader and you're Superman. Superman, my ah circuits tell me, that doesn't make sense, that, uh, it is time for Max and Mitch's mini media. ah
00:41:34
Speaker
yeah Can I get put like a robot filter over with the um guitar like beep boop bop bleep. I can't, I'm not clever enough. I think you went last, last time. So I'll let you go first this time. Cool. um What did I do this week? You are the least prepared mother trucker I've ever worked with. Hey Mitch. Yeah. You know how I'm not a sports person.
00:42:01
Speaker
I do know how you know. Oh, okay. You don't know the sports person. mit Yeah. I know. You know, a sports person. Yeah. Yeah. guess's what i did This weekend, man. Did you, uh, was the soccer on your course was the cricket on.
00:42:15
Speaker
That's further away. I don't know. Like one of them is like one of them, the closeness is based on the actions. The other one's the closest based on the Australian the impact on Australian culture. It has. Sure. I'll give you that. so I'll tell you what I do. i say Do I get a third guess? Okay. You can get a third guess. Was it the AFL grand final? Ding, ding, ding. You're correct. I want to say AFL grand final. Wow. What a twist.
00:42:39
Speaker
um My, my partner, Mr. Manager, big, big AFL fan, huge fan, watches all the games. Every game. um Unfortunately for her, also a big Sydney fan. ah Really? Yeah. Are they Sydney? Yeah. I don't realize. I thought they were a good team.
00:43:03
Speaker
Well, Sydney is a good team, except for, except for this weekend where they lost by 60 points. Um, wow. It's like, that's like 10 goals. Uh, they kind of beefed it, uh, real bad.
00:43:17
Speaker
um be but And there was like one kind of okay corner at the start and then it was bad um for for the rest of the game. Mr. Manage is going to kill me because ah ah um They're not very happy about the outcome. so So for those who don't follow the AFL, there was a grand final. We do one every a year. We got public holiday in Victoria about it, which is cool. It was Sydney Swans, formerly South Melbourne Swans, versus the Brisbane Lions.
00:43:58
Speaker
for mo dont even So neither of these teams were from Victoria.
Max's AFL Grand Final Experience
00:44:02
Speaker
Formerly the Brisbane Bears and also the Fitzroy Lions. So neither of these teams were from Victoria. This is sad. Well, they were both originally from Victoria. Yeah, but we gave them away. from victoria We gave them away because we have too many because the AFL should still be called the VFL.
00:44:19
Speaker
the Sorry, the VFL. um but um that's that's sort of like It's a big deal. I would have watched it with Mr. Manager, but she was at the game um in person ah and then ah ah So I went up to my parents to watch it, and my parents didn't really watch it either. um But that was fun. We had falafel. Did you eat a snausage? I didn't eat a snausage, but we did watch Katy Perry perform. um She was the there entertainment for the Preacher Entertainment. She did some songs. That's just like super cool.
00:45:06
Speaker
And it's just like the Super Bowl from when Katy Perry did the Super Bowl. Was she this year? She wasn't the Super Bowl this year. Who was this year? I have no idea. Can I look it up? You can look up who did the Super Bowl. I don't know because I don't follow the NFL. Me neither. Wait, NFL is not the Super Bowl. No, it's NRL Super Bowl.
00:45:30
Speaker
I think in aellaella super bowl nfls ah sorry yeah l is and NRL is is rugby. NFL is American football. All right. So Alicia Keys, Will.i.am, Ludacris, and Lil Jon were at the Super Bowl. Oh, and Usher. That's right. Usher was the big one. All right. I assume Katy Perry did a different year there. um But I'm going to use this as a platform to announce my official AFL team.
00:45:57
Speaker
Oh, this is brave. This is brave. I know this is a film podcast. I'm talking about the AFL. um I made ah a deal with some people that a couple of years ago that if Tasmania ever had a football team, um I would go for Tasmania. I said it because I was like, yeah, Tasmania is going to go for Tasmania. Yep. That was a foreseeable um outcome in the story. So I am a proud member familying member founding You made it? i i founded i It says on my jumper, i'll have a I have a Tasmanian devil's jersey. It says founding member. Wait, what?
00:46:39
Speaker
Wait, give me a minute, I'll get together. It's useless for this medium. This is an audio medium. Yes, I have the best thing. Post a picture of it on the Instagram. I'll post a picture of me wearing it on the Instagram. A picture of you wearing it?
00:46:57
Speaker
wait can you so is it is it is it like a it's like a singlet right like yeah it's like the singlet so no you can't wear anything underneath it it has to be just no it's yeah in the in the singlet just yeah in the singlet yeah no shorts not no pants either well i'm gonna wear pants don't duck it i'm not don't ducking it dude the instagram doesn't need that if you do it like tastefully they won't notice no you're thinking about twitter No, no, no, you can just do porn on Twitter. You can just do porn on Twitter. But I'm
Mitchell on TV Series: Succession
00:47:28
Speaker
letting all you folks know when they officially have a team in the AFL, because currently it's just like a team, but with no team. Like a club with no team. So they just kind of like hang out there, but there's no... They just hang out and they do like merchant stuff. And they're like, yeah, cool. We're at Tasmania.
00:47:48
Speaker
They got like a like Academy with like when young kids are going to have a team in the AFL double year before they have one in the AFL which will be cool too. That is pretty cool actually.
00:48:06
Speaker
And, um, that's, this is my official announcement. Um, that's, I've, that's why I'm saying, I'm saying it because the game was bad because Sydney beefed a real bad. What's the animal that? It's Tasmanian devil, dude. Did you say that before? I did. I was listening. It's clean Tasmanian devils. That's so cliche. Yeah, I know. Oh, like I was going to say they could have been Tasmanian tigers, but they couldn't because we already have tigers. We already have tigers. Even though Tasmanian tigers are not a tiger.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah, but they call it a Tasmanian tiger. Yeah, I know. It's also extinct. Rest in peace. Rest in peace, Tasmanian tiger. Mitchell, what did you do this week? This week, I finally finished succession. I've seen success so i succeeded at successioning. I have succeeded from the TV show succession successfully.
00:49:02
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's great. Um, I'm not going to say much because it like the last season only came out last year. So like people could still be catching up on it. Not really, but it's still, it's still recent enough that I don't feel like I have the right to spoil it or anything like that, but it's great. It's brilliant. Watch it. Um, the first episode I watched it, I went, this is fine. This is, this is pretty decent. This is good.
00:49:28
Speaker
And then the second episode, I was like, I'm in. This is it. This is this. This is my life for the next hour of a long. I've been half binging it off and on. Um, I'm unfortunately, I'm, I'm a busy person with work and uni. So I couldn't just go, but, uh, I'd binge maybe five episodes. Then I'd have a few days in between, maybe four to five, and then binge the next one. And then today I finally watched the last episode, which is feature length.
00:49:57
Speaker
ah It's great. It's a goods good. Everyone said it was good, and it is. It's just a good show. and it's
00:50:08
Speaker
very fun. If you ah don't care about the fact that everyone in it in your TV shows is a piece of garbage and suck, great show. If you need to have likeable characters to like them, then I wouldn't recommend this show because no one is likeable in this show. Everyone is garbage. But if you can get invested in stories of people who aren't very likeable, then I think it's a very good show.
00:50:33
Speaker
um Well, it's still a very good show anyway, but just might be gone to your taste. Otherwise I can't say much more because I don't want to ruin it. Uh, but, uh, the ending, I won't say what have happened, but I'll just say I felt like it ended very satisfactory. I was happy with the ending. It's maybe a little bit of discourse on that, but I think most people agreed that the ending is pretty good. It's just, yeah. Have your personal feelings on the Murdoch family changed post-watching succession?
00:51:01
Speaker
they haven't because they were already very low and they kind of remain, if anything, they got just like a bit lower. Uh, but, uh, apparently it's not just the Merritt family. It's also like the Trump family, which was also pretty low. like No one's dropped or no one's risen in favor. Absolutely. And everyone who the show is kind of making fun of like slash, um, doing a thing on was already pretty low in my eyes. Like I they couldn't really get much lower. Uh,
00:51:32
Speaker
But yeah, it's great. There's great acting. It's it's it's a very funny show. It is a comedy. Like that's the point. it's one but It's like a dark kind of like not laugh out loud comedy, but like just it's messed up in like just that these people are so out of touch because they're so rich and they just don't get life and they don't need to because they're so rich. It's just brilliant. It's great. i Watch it. That's all I can say. Just watch it.
00:51:59
Speaker
Um, maybe one day you and I will do a bonus episode on succession. Very unlikely. Maybe one day when we have more
Analysis of The Wild Robot
00:52:08
Speaker
time. Yeah, they'll never happen. The wild robot.
00:52:15
Speaker
released in 2024 and directed by Chris Sanders, it stars Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nye, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O'Hara, Matt Mary, and Ving Rains. Max, can you please drop a summary into a wilderness island and let it run amok amongst the wilderness? I say wilderness too many times, but you get it. When a... robot...
00:52:45
Speaker
Like a when a robot ends up in the wild, what what do I, why do you know what, why do you get the big bucks? Huh? That's my question. That's a great question. Ask my boss. It's actually done. He's on holiday now. It's cause you date Mr manager. update the manager Yeah. I want to, I fight to be on this show every week.
00:53:14
Speaker
ah Um, no, when, uh, a, uh, sort of like a helper robot, how would you call it? Like personal service robot? Yeah, that's a good description gets lost at sea washes up on a untouched.
00:53:33
Speaker
island full of nature's finest creations. Um, she, uh, she ah has to find a task. That task is motherhood. And then there's a then.
00:53:59
Speaker
You can stop there. That's the motherhood. Yep. And then we can talk about the rest of the movie. Oh my goodness gracious me. I'm trying to be a robot that is in the wild. Yep. And damn, is it a wild robot?
00:54:21
Speaker
the titular wild robot they they say the name of the movie in this movie and i thought it was just a line that they had in the trailer but no that line's in this movie so this movie i mean they say the iron giant am i a giant yeah did they actually yeah so they just say giant well then no they say the iron giant and tom o'clock oh well they don't say that they write it down It's in the movie. I don't remember them saying the words. I'm sure they say via giant, whatever. It's more like noticeable in the wild robot. It's like a very much like a, this is a trailer moment type thing. All right. So the way I described this movie is interesting because it's like in each component of this film does the
00:55:15
Speaker
ah the the film equivalent of grabbing yourself by the ankle and managing to lift yourself up like higher. And it's kind of doing that to continuously keep raising yourself higher into the air. Because at the base of this film is a great script, really good script, really just like strong, good script. And then above that,
00:55:40
Speaker
you got some brilliant acting that just elevates what's already good script into like life and just whoa emotion uh everything else that acting does i don't know i'm not an actor i'm a writer i'm you've already lost me out after this step and then what they've done is they've got like a really good script with some really good performances performing that really good script and then they got some really good music and they've put that really good music over that really good acting and it just pulled everything back up. And then while that's happening at the same time, off to the side somewhere else, you got some really good directing that's paired with some really good cinematography that's been placed into some really good animation that's just kind of pulling it all up with it as well. And it just becomes like this weird, like circular ladder that's just kind of bending in on itself and slowly rising into the air until the greatness that is just this movie that is just brilliant. It's great. I loved it. It's a really good movie.
00:56:36
Speaker
Max, what did you think? That's an insane way to describe this movie. What do you think, though? Do you agree? I also liked this movie. I think this is, at the very least, the best piece of cinema that Dreamworks has put out. You still haven't seen Puss in Boots the Last Wish. I haven't seen Puss in Boots the Last Wish. Puss in Boots the Last Wish is better than this, but that is not a bad thing on this movie. That's just how brilliant Puss in Boots is. From what I've seen.
00:57:05
Speaker
It is quite possibly the best movie they've done since... Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. like Would this mean... right Sorry. Would this mean this is... Oh, that's that's a big claim. Mega Mine's really good. Mega Mine is really good, but it's also... You know what? Mega Mine is really good. I'll leave it at that.
00:57:23
Speaker
Does this mean this is the first time you've seen the DC logo that they have? It's not DC, but the DCS. The Marvel DC. Yeah, it is. No, I think it was in one other film. Well, the first time they dropped it was Puss in Boots. Oh, that aside. This is a good movie and it is very pretty. And I think it's one of my favorite.
00:57:52
Speaker
ah All of the Dreamworks films I've seen, and I have seen a lot of Dreamworks films, maybe all ah all the Dreamworks films, uh, classics, if you will. Um, I think but this is like up there with, you know,
00:58:14
Speaker
the excellent, like high level, ah paces of art like Prince of Egypt and Chicken Run. Prince of Egypt and Chicken They are both great movies. Look me in the eye. Look me in the eye and tell me Chicken Run and Prince of Egypt are not equally good movies. They absolutely are. It's just funny to hear you say that. I'm just going to say right now, this is my favorite 2024 film we reviewed this year. I don't know if it's my favorite 2024 film overall, but it's the best film I've seen for this podcast that came out this year.
00:58:59
Speaker
It is really good. like ah the So we were talking before about ah how the Iron Giant doesn't um like treat its audience like it's stupid. Same but exact same situation with this film. But what I think is hilarious about this film not hilarious in like, it's like, funny, properly funny, but I think just, oh, I think hilarious is the wrong word. Brilliant. What I think is brilliant about this film is that it is about life, and in the way that like, death is part of life. And in doing so, this first half of this film,
00:59:41
Speaker
treats death, and no actually said the whole film treats death so with such little care. It does not give a crap about anyone's reaction to any death throughout this film. Like there is one, there's a lot of death at the start of this film just and it's played as a joke as well like a lot like there's the part where um it's in the trailer. but where the the the the the titular robot that is wild holds up a crab and is asking it does it need assistance, but at the joke is that a seagull plucks it before the robot can finish saying assistance. There's also a point where a bird is ripped to shreds and we see the head of a said bird thrown into the hands of the robot.
01:00:23
Speaker
Those deaths are all played for like dark jokes as well. There is one death in this film that is played seriously. And what I think is brilliant about this is that in a lesser film, a good chunk of it would be to like mourning the character's loss and to this is all right. The character is, if funny anyone conf confused, is Bill Nye Goose, also known as Long Neck. Is that correct? means Yeah.
01:00:51
Speaker
The, yeah,
Praise for Lupita Nyong'o's Voice Acting
01:00:52
Speaker
that's Bill Naigus. Yeah, Bill Naigus. He sacrifices himself to help the the geese who are, um what's the word?
01:01:02
Speaker
trying to escape them lasers. Yeah. Yeah. They're trying, there's a bunch of geese trying to escape lasers and he sacrifices himself to protect the main character goose. Um, and he, he dies kind of off screen in a way, which is like fine. And when we, like we, unless a movie would spend a lot of time on like the immediate aftermath of that death and a lot of the like.
01:01:26
Speaker
Um, bride, Bill, who's the main goose of the film, uh, being like, Oh, it's my fault. And like, Oh, there's pun, get kind goose. Um, but like he would, like, you know, you know I'm talking about it. He would be like, Oh, it's my fault. I don't deserve to lead the geese and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And got it. Cause like he's given command of the geese right at the end because he's like, got the tech, the skills, whatever. Um,
01:01:54
Speaker
Unless a film would have spent time on that, not this one. This one brushes completely over the morning period and it's mentioned only once more later when all the geese come back from migrating um to the island and um I think it's Pedro Pascal Fox is like, oh, where's Long Neck? And everyone's like, oh, and then they move right along. Death is not special in this film and that is something that was really commendable. Like, just like, it it's not special and it is. That's well, yeah, that's, I guess, a better description. Because on the one hand, you have you have this, you have this complete sort of, um,
01:02:38
Speaker
ah ah flippant sort of root guard for such a lack of reference, reverence, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. And then on the other hand, you have not only these really important scenes. The other one that I'm thinking of is the scene very close to the beginning where Ross crushes Bill's family to death.
01:03:07
Speaker
yeah and which which again later is played for jerks. um like It's used very briefly for a dramatic effect as well but it's really not long enough to be considered like a proper factor I'd say.
01:03:23
Speaker
Um, and, but a large portion of the film is dedicated to this idea that, um, bright bill kit. Connor goose is, um, this like run of the liver. You don't have geese in this. Um, he is called a run. He is called a run through in the film. Like that's right. That's the case of the geese eggs babies. Uh, yeah.
01:03:49
Speaker
Um, and go to survive this long at all. And the only reason he has is thanks to the efforts of, of Ross, um, who I think we should talk about. I think we should talk about Ross because, um, can i much, much, much like the giant, I feel like this movie is, is another movie about, uh,
01:04:13
Speaker
It's not only learning about being human by being a robot yeah um and also the the agency that comes with that.
01:04:29
Speaker
So this movie is filled to the brim with brilliant performances. You and I are very much on record saying that if you have a film that requires voice actors, put voice actors in the role. And I think.
01:04:45
Speaker
The only one I can really point to in this film, to there's two characters I think I can point to that say I would rather, i' we'd had proper voice actors. And I think the Pedro Pascal Fox would have done well with a proper voice actor. And I think as much as it pains me to say it, Matt Berry Beaver could have done with a proper voice actor.
01:05:03
Speaker
and I disagree. I think Matt Berry Beaver is funny because think map barrry deaver be Matt Beaver, I was very excited for Matt Berry Beaver. And I feel like they're just, you know, what I think maybe the script left, let him down a little bit. finally the utilized area I will, I will attract that, but I'll still maintain that Pedro Pascal Fox.
01:05:23
Speaker
While I love Pedro Pascal, I think he's a great actor. I really feel like he did a Nick last name, which I can't remember impersonation from Zootopia. It was not a new performance and I kept feeling something was off. I didn't realize it was Pedro Pascal till the end of the film. And that's not because I felt like he lost himself in the role. It felt like I was just listening to a Jason Bateman impersonator for most of the film.
01:05:53
Speaker
I don't think he did a bad job. I just think there could have been someone who did a better job. But but my point is that I think everyone else in this film, even though a lot of them aren't voice actors, did a brilliant job, specifically Lupita Nyong'e somehow manages, and I think for this exact reason that I'm going to talk about, she's going to be snubbed for so much like praise.
01:06:18
Speaker
she manages to put humanity into a voice that is purely devoid of immersion. It is brilliant. I was thinking about this um while watching this movie and what immediately came to mind was, um and this is going to just sound completely out of left field, was the original voice casting for Ghost in Destiny. ah Peter Dinklage? Peter Dinklage is Ghost in Destiny. sure and and when For those who don't know, Destiny is a
01:06:53
Speaker
emmer I guess, um, 2014 first person shooters. I thought that, um, has a like robot companion that sort of follows you around and Peter Dinklage's, uh, performance of that robot was so monotone and so boring, um, that they had some recast him with North.
01:07:19
Speaker
recast the character as as Nolan North, a ah pretty prolific video game voice actor. Hey Max, did you know that wizard came from the moon?
01:07:31
Speaker
that wizard came from um and And then almost immediately afterwards you see this flip where the character has this very is like still a very obviously robot, but has a life to them. and It doesn't feel like it's dead inside as it drags you around the post-apocalyptic Russia. there's there's so There's so much risk when you voice a robot character that have a a Peter Dinklage robot, oh where it is monotone and it's boring and you go, my name is Robot, I do not know how to feel, immersion, task complete.
01:08:12
Speaker
paper And the fact that they not only use the idea of this like really friendly, personable and human like voice for the robot, but it's not something that kicks in after like she learns, um, how to do like override or whatever, like learn the animal language or anything like that. Um,
01:08:41
Speaker
It's just something off the bat is this performance that just has a real a lot of life to it. Um, and really just elevates this character into something that is, um, really believable as, as something with, uh, like, um, I guess like something with a soul is the way that it is the way that it would have been put in the iron giant. And I think it's applicable here as well. Um,
01:09:07
Speaker
um there's There's just a lot, there's an incredible believability that, that with Peter and younger, um, gives to this character and makes them feel like, uh, a real, um, entity and a real sort of being, um, and not just a ah robot that goes around and does tasks and goes, yep, I'm done and I do the task. be Um,
01:09:36
Speaker
And ah yeah, I just think like for for me, I was just sort of sort of like so acutely aware of that, that how easy it is to slip into that like boring monotonous.
01:09:48
Speaker
Yeah. Bland sort of robot that, um, it was just really refreshing to see this performance from, from, from young her.
Life, Death, and Storytelling Techniques
01:09:59
Speaker
She's such a brilliant actor. And, um, I don't know if, did you see the new quiet place that came out this year? She's in that too. And she's just brilliant in that she's every aspect of acting. She just has down.
01:10:16
Speaker
She can do eyes. She can just do like, like, just, just, just, ah you know, how I acting is so specific and you like, she can do that. She can do voice clearly. Um, she's, she's actually kind of showed that off in us as well. Like the way she could change her voice and just portray a lot of like difference in the two. Cause she plays two characters in us because, uh, just everyone has two versions of themselves in that movie. So like, it's like a thing. Um,
01:10:42
Speaker
Like just the way she you could differentiate one version of the character from the other from the way they talked and the way they the mannerisms. Lupita Nyong'o is like, put her in more things. Just put her in everything. but give her give Give me her everywhere, please. She is great. she has um i didn't sorry I didn't realize she actually voices Maz Kanata in the Star Wars sequels as well.
01:11:07
Speaker
like A wrinkly alien lady. Yeah. No, I know. and She's the one that gives um Ray the lightsaber. Yeah. Yeah. She's the, she's the Yoda stand in. Standing. Yeah. Look, Mask of Martyr is not what's wrong with those movies. um no i well or what um more What I was trying to get at was like, she's got voice acting experience. She's got voice adding acting credits already. yes So it's not like a, this is a, this is a first order, uh,
01:11:39
Speaker
attempts at voice acting either. The first order is what the bad guys are called in the new Star Wars movies. Remember? Do you remember that? Do you remember you remember that? i do I did not realize she was Maz Kanata. Um, I don't remember having anything against that character, but I also don't really remember rip. I don't, I did not remember that character until you just mentioned it as well. That's not her fault though. That is because those movies are not great.
01:12:05
Speaker
But she's great. she's also she's like the best thing in the She's not the best thing in the first Black Panther movie because I still think Chadwick Boseman was brilliant in as that character. But in the second Black Panther movie where they ah couldn't use Chadwick Boseman anymore, um she's pretty brilliant. This is a really strange way of saying that he died.
01:12:27
Speaker
I don't know why I decided I needed to get around it, but I did. I don't know what my thought process was. Yeah. He unfortunately passed away. Uh, but she's great. She's just a great addition to that universe. And she's one of the few things I like about both of those movies. Cause I think they're very boring. Can can I, can I give?
01:12:46
Speaker
my one my one criticism of this movie. Is it the pacing's kind of odd? The pacing's kind of weird. that Was that actually it? It is it. It's nailing ahead. Okay, yeah. So, 90% of this movie I really enjoy. i think um what we've talked about so far, the acting, the writing, the directorial choices, the animation and the style, the like um art art style. I think this has some really beautiful still set pieces in it as well that we really don't see a lot of in yeah this sort of
01:13:27
Speaker
animation. There's these beautiful, almost like Ghibli-esque or Sean Tan-esque images. I just want to go for like the the set pieces. The way motion in this film is portrayed is brilliant and just This is a film with really low stakes, and yet I was very tense while watching it because just how it's shot and how it moves. And it's a lot like how why Puls and Boots is just as brilliant. it's Dreamworks has figured out a style, this style, that just works for animation. It's brilliant. They've cracked a code. They've cracked a code for animation action, basically. Please continue, though, pacing. Yeah.
01:14:08
Speaker
Yeah, as we were talked about, I think there's so many things about this film that work really well. um And unfortunately for me, there there just is one sticking point and that yeah is is this pacing. And I think what it comes down to is that it almost feels like every like there's there's almost like there's five acts.
01:14:31
Speaker
this movie yeah and and they speed through all of them, yeah rather than spending a little bit more time to develop um each sort of part of it.
01:14:44
Speaker
um and this is sort of what What ends up happening is is and and major spoilers for um the like broad plot points of this movie.
01:14:56
Speaker
um is we get Roz's arrival as part one, um, and her discovery of, of Brightville. Um, um sorry, Roz's arrival, then yeah then the discovery of Brightville.
01:15:12
Speaker
discovery such adoption of adoption of Brightville and then training Brightville and letting him go. And you would think like, okay, that's a three act movie. You're so right. That is three acts right there. yeah then But then on top of that, we get Brightville discovering the human settlement.
01:15:31
Speaker
mom The robot's coming back and causing havoc. Which has actually nothing to do with Brightville discovering the human sermon. which's like It's separate, yeah. So I guess my two my two issues are One is, as much as I think it gives Brightville a little bit more screen time, and there are some genuinely good moments, and there's these beautiful it this beautiful, beautiful shot of the Golden Gate Bridge submerged underwater with the
Critique of The Wild Robot's Structure
01:16:08
Speaker
whales. with whales just It's so spirited away, right? Like um swimming over the top. And it's this very um
01:16:17
Speaker
It's really interesting to me because it's ah it's a very clever way of going, this is set in the future and also this is my point too. I wanted to say this as well. I feel like that shot, because I had so many questions to like the world that we were in before that shot. And I feel like that shot manages to build the world just x it just it just does it It just gives us everything we need to know basically about what's going on. in the and un understandably it takes It's unass understandable why it takes that long for us to get that information as well because it's not important really up until then and and if anything the movie doesn't need to tell us more because
01:16:57
Speaker
like that's not necessary for this story. But for anyone who had questions such as myself and was curious, and if anyone who isn't that actually curious, but they still get to know that shot just kind of says everything that you need to know. It's genius. It's Anyway, please continue. i I wanted to say I had the exact same thoughts though. It's great. It's a real, it's a really great piece of of visual communication. Yeah. Yeah. It really sets this world. It sets up this world without having to say anything at all. It's um such good storytelling. Yeah. visual storie I think unfortunately that section of scenes that, that sort of mini act um is
01:17:38
Speaker
largely unnecessary for the plot of the film. um yeah the The only thing it really adds is the introduction of these more like violent robots and the death of of of Long Neck, which ah again I think is some something that um could have been approached in a different way. um And then similarly, you have the fifth act, as it were, um which again, I don't think is inherently bad, you get a whole bunch of really good action set pieces, um you get a sort of resolution to all the animals working together in a
01:18:18
Speaker
ah sort of collaborative way um and you get these climactic battle fight scenes. um But I think you really could have just had this slower story, um which which is just those three acts. And my gut instincts, and I talked about this with um my dad, who I watched it with.
01:18:45
Speaker
And Mr. Manager, um we all went together. It was very nice. um And there's, I think this ties back to this idea about what American animation is aimed at or who American animation is aimed at. And fundamentally, animation like this is still aimed at kids. dream DreamWorks makes kids movies. okay And the world robot is a movie talking to kids.
01:19:12
Speaker
On the whole, I think The Wild Robot is a movie that can be enjoyed by almost all people. Or rather, not specifically by kids. It's a family film. But the fact that it's so fast and that it changes ideas so quickly a lot of the time seems to be a method of re-engaging the audience um in a new sort of plot point. um my You reckon it's like it knows that the Zoomers are watching it, so it's like, we've got to get the Zoomers on board. hi I have this very interesting um sort of reaction because I voice this to Mr. Manager walking out of the cinema and my father said, I really liked how
01:20:04
Speaker
every time it sort of like started to wrap up, there was another twist. and um It's not necessarily that wait one method is better than the other. i Like I've said on the show before, I'm a really big fan of slow cinema. um only know it I would love a ah movie that does a lot of mooching around for not and and more like character exploration. yeah And I don't need as much of that um
01:20:37
Speaker
the stuff that we sort of get in there is late acts, but at the same time, it's very much a way of re-engaging the audience um by introducing new elements. and um As much as I think it it doesn't feel disconnected, um and those elements don't feel like ah unrelated to each other, I just do feel like ah it all just feels really fast. And as a result, we get this sort of pacing issue. um But that again, that said, I think it's a really minor criticism for this film.
Final Thoughts on The Wild Robot
01:21:13
Speaker
So much of this film works really, really well. And um the fact that it can feel a little bit rushed at times, I think is is forgivable for the most part.
01:21:27
Speaker
I think I do really agree with you in that I think there is a superior version of this film where stuff is just seeded during other sections of the film. So instead of getting a five act sequence, you get you have the classic three act, but just It's not the same. It's like the stuff that's needed for the final act, which only really comes in at the back end of the movie is seated really early on when stuff happens. But once again, that's asking a movie move. The movie didn't do that. And I think I don't want to be, I don't want to harp on about what a movie is. And that's just what directors cut. Yeah. Yeah. But I just, it's just this movie, it,
01:22:14
Speaker
It made me cry. Well, it made me almost cry. I didn't cry because I actively stopped it because I didn't want to cry in a you know cinema filled with children. um But it it was very emotional. And the final scene where Roz goes back to the human settlement because she knows that they're going to keep haunting her if she doesn't. And then Brightville finds her, but she's been kind of like pre reprogrammed to be a normal robot now.
01:22:44
Speaker
But then she like does remember and you're kind of like, how? But also, I don't care. This is gorgeous. I love it. It's so just I and the music. I mentioned the music before elevating everything and everything else elevating itself. The music.
01:23:02
Speaker
Like it, I really do feel like the music elevates the acting, which elevates the script, which elevates the music, which it's just like, it is like this like weird, physically impossible ladder that just kind of pulls itself up in that, in this weird circular fashion. I just, I think it's really brilliant. I, I really loved it. And we can just do ratings now, right? yeah that ner which is Some ratings. Yeah. Where'd you write this movie? I gave the wild robot.
01:23:29
Speaker
four other robots that died in the process of being cast off the ship, which Roz was initially cast off of, that she salvaged to repair herself. I was actually going to do a bit where it's like four other colored robots, but like I couldn't do that. um My one is I'm giving this movie four circuit boards and a ram. Also, before we go,
01:23:54
Speaker
i I know we talked about this right before, but I want to get this one on ah on record. Did you know that Mark Hamill was in this movie before the credits? I did not, I did not know Mark Hamill is a good voice actor. He's great. A great voice actor even. I feel like sometimes you can hear him through like his performances, but this one like could not tell it was him until the end. Like I, I had no
Voice Acting Revelations
01:24:17
Speaker
clue. The bear is Mark Hamill. Yeah. Right. And then I didn't realize Vin Rains was the Falcon either. Like I love Vin Rains. I didn't realize Catherine O'Hara was the opossum.
01:24:27
Speaker
Yeah. And we did a movie with her recently and it too, um, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. She was indeed. Yeah. Also, I didn't know it was Pedro Pascal until the end. Cause I was sad. It sounded like a Jason Bateman impersonation. That's why I was distracted the whole time.
01:24:45
Speaker
Oh, I'm getting a signal from my, uh, guys who are in control of me. It's time for fan mail. today and ra um Now, let me guess. Let me guess. Let me guess. We have none. That is correct. And you know what that means? I mean, we're going to do it anyway
Trivia Game: Film Buff Begins
01:25:05
Speaker
now because you made a detective decision. It's time for Film Buff. Film Buff.
01:25:16
Speaker
I've got some questions on the card. I'm going to ask Mitchell some questions. What are the other... So you know how the first one's always a quote, right? Are there other categories that you haven't told me? Or is it just the rest of random? There are other categories. But anyway, I've got some questions I'm going to ask Richard about cinema. He's going to test his knowledge about cinema. And he's going to get some points. First one's a quote. It's always a quote. Well, can you say the other categories as you go? They might help me with these goddamn questions if I know what the category of the question is. Well, I mean, the category is in the question also. Anyway.
Trivia: All About Eve Quote Mix-up
01:25:53
Speaker
I have a court. The court is fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night. Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride. That's the head from like the third prison Harry Potter, the prisoner of Azkaban. Uh, it's, I mean, yes, but that's, um, riffing off a different, uh, Oh, okay. Well, then let me, let me try and show you.
01:26:19
Speaker
No, I'm just going to stick with my one. I'm correct. It is Margo Channing in All About Eve. I wouldn't have known that. And I think my answer is absolutely acceptable because that's exactly the same phrasing that they use in that movie.
Trivia: Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley
01:26:35
Speaker
All right. This one, question two, which is always an actor. Is it really?
01:26:41
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. Go hit me. Who played Axel Foley in Beverly Hills cop Eddie Murphy. That is correct. Um, I want you to guess the, the, the, uh, the theme section type of question for this next one. True or false? It's a true or false.
01:27:09
Speaker
Clark Gable won a Best Actor Oscar for his role in Gone with the Wind. True. It is false. Dang it. This next one's about a
Trivia on Directors and Locations
01:27:25
Speaker
director question. Section four is directors. directwitch Director. Which director brought us cats and Les Miserables? It's like Tom Ford. It's not Tom Ford. It's Tom something.
01:27:38
Speaker
like to Was it Tom Ford? Do you want me to give an answer? Yeah, it's Tom something. It's Tom Hooper. Damn it! True or false? Who the hell is Tom Ford? Is that a single? Um, these ones, section five is all about places. True or false? Bodega Bay. The town terrorized by birds in The Birds is a real place.
01:28:07
Speaker
Bodega Bay? Yeah. False. ah It's true. It's a real place in California.
Trivia: Gal Gadot's Film Connections
01:28:15
Speaker
Freaking kidding me. Who kills that place Bodega? That's where you get sandwiches from. And this last one, which is always an actor linked by three movies. Yeah. Which actor links death on the Nile, red Nerdist and Wonder Woman. Gal Gadot. Gal Gadot is correct.
Debate Over Trivia Validity
01:28:34
Speaker
That is three.
01:28:38
Speaker
I'm counting the first one. two like and you The Harry Potter one. It counts. I was right. It's not my fault that they didn't specify not Harry Potter. If they'd said not Harry Potter where it originally came from, sure, but they didn't. Well, technically, um, you're wrong. Cause I did say fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night.
01:29:01
Speaker
not a but You didn't say night, I heard right. I did say night. Well, um check for tapes. Maybe you should have been more clear in your annouce-iation. Sure. I'm counting it. Congratulations. I'm giving myself the the point.
Conclusion and Audience Interaction
01:29:17
Speaker
This has been the Blockbuster Podcast. I've been Mitchinator. I am Superman. I can't do the same joke. Well, you did, sir. Yeah, I did.
01:29:31
Speaker
Um, you can send us your queries, your, uh, uh, what's it called? No, queries is questions. I was, I was trying to do like, ah it's like a robot thing. use You can send us your queries, your customer reviews customer complaints. Yeah. Satisfaction database. There we go. You can send us your queries. Wait, no customer. That doesn't make sense. Um, because the reviews aren't reviews on us. The reviews are reviews for films.
01:30:01
Speaker
Um, product reviews and warranted customer complaints at blockbustedpotty at gmail.com. That is Potty Spout P-O-W-D-I-E. You can also find us on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok at the username bbpotty.
01:30:21
Speaker
I'll post a photo with me in the vest. Yeah, yeah certainly only the vest. Nothing else. Well, i will wear pants. No pants. Don't duck. Leave a five star review. Please do it on your pod catcher of choice, but also we only check Spotify and iTunes. Next week, the bodies be changing in Freaky Friday and the substance.
01:30:49
Speaker
The bodies do be changing. The bodies do be changing. But this week, this week, rebel against your programming. Viva la anti-program. but Is that like robot? The resistance. Should be scared? Scared of what? The robot uprising. Are you a robot? Sure. Then you should be not scared.
01:31:22
Speaker
ah getting worse
01:31:47
Speaker
They're getting worse.