Andy 0:05 Welcome to Monkey off my backlog the podcast where we exorcise our pop culture demons by tackling our media to do lists one week at a time. I'm your host, Andy and with me is Tessa. Tessa 0:19 Hello. Andy 0:21 And Dr. Sam Morris. Sam 0:25 Hello friends and enemies. Andy 0:29 You don't say hello to your enemies. Sam 0:32 Got a chance, Tessa. Andy 0:35 This week Tessa is standing solidly on her own two hands. Sam gets deja vu. And I break my promise. Because I'm a lying liar who lies Sam 0:47 a lot. Tessa 0:50 You sit on a throne of lies. Andy 0:54 The best place to sit Sam 0:56 much better than that iron throne. Andy 0:59 It really is. It's comfortable as sorta Tessa 1:01 I just want to say our lies are lies soft and fluffy. Like, do they like make your spine aligned? Oh, Andy 1:11 wonderfully well. The lumbar support on lies is Sam 1:15 perfect. They're like that pillow that you get and like the first week that you use it. It's the best pillow you've ever had. And then like on day eight, you wake up and everything hurts because it is turned to mush. Andy 1:33 Um, what what kind of pillows are you getting? Sam 1:36 The lie? Tessa 1:37 The kind that lie. I'm the lie. That first that first seven days though, like it's the best sleep you've ever had? Andy 1:48 Well, anyway, watch this week. Tessa 1:54 I watched The Philadelphia Story. Andy 1:57 Okay, is this the crossover between the Tom Hanks film and the neverending story? Just stop or save Tom Hanks from HIV. Tessa 2:09 That sounds like a nightmare that I don't want to get into. Like that's that's a lot of 90s things happening all at the same time. What you just did there? Sam 2:19 Oh, of course voiced by Denzel Washington. All right. All right, Trey, you explain it to me like a four year like I'm a four year old. Where are we going? Tessa 2:29 Okay. No, I watched The Philadelphia Story, which is a 1940. The year 1940. Andy 2:37 Hold on. Did you say The Philadelphia Story? Because that's what I heard. Which means is it about bills from the office? Sam 2:46 Yes. Her last name is Delphia. Andy 2:48 Yeah. Tessa 2:50 Are you quite done? Andy 2:51 I am quite done. Tessa 2:54 It The Philadelphia Story for the last and final time is the 1940 screwball comedy directed by George cuecore. Who you might know from my fair lady, and Gaslight, amongst many other things. And it stars Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart based on the play by Philip Barry. there that's it. That's all I wanted to say. Andy 3:22 Are you sure? Are you done Tessa? Tessa 3:24 That that is the answer to the question that you asked. Unknown Speaker 3:28 Barry, Andy 3:28 what's that cream Sam 3:29 cheese? Allah so hit for ya. That was the Philadelphia cream cheese story. Starring Jimmy Stewart. From It's a Wonderful Life. Andy 3:41 Hey, all of us so much. All right. So this is a classic movie. And Tessa I know one thing about you You love classic movies? Tessa 3:51 I do. Andy 3:53 For some reason? Why did it take you so long to watch this movie? Tessa 3:57 So this is actually this is a funny story. But Andy 4:01 I do know Philadelphia Story is a comedy. Right? You don't have to tell me it's funny. Tessa 4:05 It took me so long to watch this movie because I kept getting get confused with another movie that came out actually the same year, called his girl Friday, which also starred Cary Grant, and was about ex spouses who get back together and is also a screwball comedy. And so for years, I actually thought I had already seen The Philadelphia Story, because I had seen his girl Friday, when in fact I had never seen The Philadelphia Story. Have you seen the front page? Is this like a? No I have not. I have not seen the front page although there is a line and his girl Friday where they say put Hitler in the funny pages. Andy 4:46 Right? Well, the front page for those of you don't know is the film that his girl Friday is a remake of Tessa 4:54 his girl Friday is a good film like this is me saying it is a great film. Please watch it. Andy 4:59 Yeah. Yeah, the front page is like, like based off of the play. Then they turn his girlfriend anyway. Anyway. I see my problem with The Philadelphia Story is I always get confused with the fish that save Pittsburgh. Tessa 5:18 I've also not seen that movie. Sam 5:21 No, it was an actual fish. Andy 5:24 Yeah, yeah, sure. Okay. Anyway, that was a 1979 film references a Pennsylvania city so thus they're the same in my head because they were made before I died, or they were made these buttons Look, I prefer I prefer to think of it as Merlin disease. Tessa 5:48 Do you die in 1989? anti. Andy 5:59 Okay, okay, okay, I get it. I get it. I get my own. My own. I'm being hoisted my own patottie yet again, a few episodes later. Oh, but what is the screwball comedy? Okay, I know screwball mostly from Bugs Bunny when Bugs Bunny would pull out a cue card with a screw and a baseball on it to point to Elmer Fudd and call him an idiot. Sam 6:21 There's also the quintessential Looney Tunes episode duck, a mock in which is animating Daffy and turns them into a four legged creature with a flower for a head and his tail has a flag that is screw plus ball. So yeah, that's, that's where I learned screw ball. Andy 6:41 Duck amuck is one of the greatest Looney Tunes upset anyway. What is the screwball comedy Tessa? Tessa 6:46 So screwball comedy is a genre of the romantic comedy a sub genre as it were, that became really popular during the Depression and into the early 1940s. If you've seen the films, It Happened One Night or his girl Friday, you've seen this type of film. But basically, it kind of takes the romance of the romantic comedy and turns it on its head and sort of spoofs it or satirizes it in one way or another. It takes the traditional love story puts the female character in like a more aggressive, masculine position. And so there's more tension between the male lead and the female lead. There's a lot it's characterized by a fast paced dialogue, which is works as a stand in for sexual tension. So one of the characteristics of the screwball comedy is that they were coming out around the same time as the Hays Code was taking effect. And so they had to work around a lot of the restrictions of the Hays Code, which had a lot of like, you can't have a lot of sexual content on film. You can't do stuff with like extramarital affairs. And so they worked around it in a lot of ways by having what we call patter which is this really quick paced like back and forth dialogue between characters. If you like Gilmore Girls Gilmore Girls is a show that kind of emulates this fast paced patter in a lot of ways. And like I said, it's a stand in for sexual tension. A big part of the screwball comedy is also this idea of remarriage. So a lot of these films have like, like The Philadelphia Story, which I'll get here to here in a minute, where there's a couple that gets divorced at the beginning of the film, one member of the couple is going to get remarried and so they're sort of flirting with another person, and then they get remarried to the original person they were married to at the end. This gets around the Hays Code, prohibition against showing extramarital affairs. I'm gonna turn it over to cm to actually explain the history of why it's called screwball. Sam 8:49 So true story, a screwball is a kind of pitch in baseball, it is a type of breaking ball, it is meant to go the opposite direction, that you think the pitch will go in making it almost impossible to predict. It also will tear up your arm if you do it too much, which is why we don't use those in pitching today. But the whole point is, is that it is a kind of pitch that will go exactly the opposite the way you think that it will, which makes it a great way to describe these types of films. Andy 9:21 Okay. That's a screwball comedy. Tessa 9:24 Yep. quick lesson in sub genre of comedy. Andy 9:29 We talked about why it took you so long to watch this. We talked about what this is, but we didn't Well, we we thought about what this was, whether it be cheese lassoing thing, a crossover, a an office spin off. But really, I want to know Tessa, what is this film about? Tessa 9:50 So this film really centers on the character of Tracy Lord who's played by Katharine Hepburn. A fun fact this was actually adapted from a play by the same name where this character was written for Katharine Hepburn so she had a lot of practice playing this character before she was Tracy Lord on film. But the basic premise of this film is that Tracy Lord is about to get married again and place her past marriage behind her when her ex husband ck Dexter haven. Yes, that is his real name, who is played by Cary Grant shows up on the eve of her wedding. He has found out that Sidney Kidd, the owner of a prominent tabloid has blackmail against the Lord patriarch and will use it against Tracy unless she allows a society reporter Macaulay Connor, who is played by Jimmy Stewart, and his photographer Liz Embry to cover her society wedding high jinks ensue involving her ex husband involving this reporter who sort of falls in love with her as well. It's just it's a lot of spruik screwball comedy, there's really, you don't really know if she's gonna get remarried to her husband, if she's gonna end up with the Jimmy Stewart character if she's gonna go through with her wedding to kitteridge who is this sort of man of the people like worked his way to the CEO of his own company kind of person. That's the basic premise of this story. Andy 11:16 Is Is this the one that bojack horseman was making fun of with the reporter who would constantly be on the phone talking to her? The person she's probably going to get married to Sam 11:32 his girl Friday, Tessa 11:32 that's his girl Friday. So yeah, in his girl Friday, the the main female character, it keeps calling her fiance to say she's going to be a little late. This is not that. So again, very easy to confuse those two films, even though they are actually very different from each other, despite the superficial plot elements that are similar. Andy 11:56 Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, I just got distracted. Because I remembered that his girl Friday is is what Tony Stark calls his female Jarvis. Yep. Anyway, but Sam 12:11 you it you know what, that's a reference to right. His girl Friday is a reference to Robinson Crusoe. Right, his man Friday. And so that's the joke there. It's like a joke twice removed. I think by the time we get to Iron Man. Andy 12:30 Wow, one division had an opportunity to make a great gag and they didn't. Okay, so what did you like about this film? So I Tessa 12:37 love screwball comedy. I think it is fascinating. I really enjoy it the way that it kind of turns the typical romance on its head. It's very, it's, it is characterized by very, very clever, fast paced dialogue, as I said, but I just don't get a chance to watch it very often. So I really enjoyed having the opportunity to watch this particular film. I really honestly like I turned to Sam several times during the film and say, said, I honestly don't know who she's gonna end up with. Because usually when you do like a romantic comedy, there's that especially one of remarriage like this or that involves a marriage or a wedding. There's usually two romantic options, right? There's the person she's getting married to. And then the other person whether it's her ex, in the case of Cary Grant's character, or somebody else. In this film, there are three options. She could get married to kitteridge, she could get married to ck, Dexter Haven, her ex husband or she could get married to Jimmy Stewart's character. Macaulay who goes by Mike, it's also complicated by the fact that his photographer, Liz Embry, is clearly also in love with him, even though she's doing this thing where she's like, I'm waiting for him to grow up. I'm waiting for him to grow up. And so there's a lot of different ways that this could play out. And honestly, this film does a really good job of Miss directing you in different ways until the last possible minute. Andy 14:03 I'm going to go ahead and just say, Tessa, that you forgot the obvious option, which is she doesn't marry any of them. Tessa 14:10 Well, but that's not that's not part of the romantic screwball genre. Like she has to get married to somebody in a traditional comedy. Andy 14:18 Okay, so So apparently, there's a death sentence hanging over her head if she doesn't get married to somebody. Yeah, Tessa 14:24 let her actually that is true. Like, that's the other part of the comedy. If she doesn't get married to somebody, it becomes a tragedy and she has to die, either figuratively or literally, that is literally in the DNA of filmmaking and storytelling at this point in history. Andy 14:40 I hate you first taking my joke and then turning it into something serious. Tessa 14:46 No, I'm saying like, you're right. You're absolutely right. Sam 14:49 Read it. Jane Austen. Andy 14:52 Okay, well, uh, do you recommend it? Tessa 14:56 Yeah, I think I do. There's a lot of stuff going for this. Like I said, there's there's some classic lines, Sam said one at the very beginning. There's a moment where Cary Grant's character makes his entrance into the family. And they're all having this conversation. And the camera just like pans over to him sitting by a fountains, like he wasn't there. And then suddenly he's there. And he says, Hello, friends and enemies. And it's just this like, great moment in the film. There's another really great, I mean, there's so many good moments, I can't even quote all of them. Andy 15:33 No, please do do your top 23 moments. They're super seven will surprise Sam 15:37 you. There's this other Tessa 15:39 great moment where he's in a fight with Tracy Lord, and they're having this like, they're rehashing their entire marriage and like the history of everything that the other person did. And he says something along the lines of like, he's telling her how she sees herself as perfect, and she's this like unapproachable goddess. And he calls her chaste and virginal, like the moon. And she says, Oh, stop using those foul words, which calling like chased and virginal foul words is just like the antithesis of the hate what the Hays Code was trying to do. So it feels like a real dig at the code of ethics that was supposed to guide filmmaking at that point. There's a lot of really good class commentary here because Tracy Lord is obviously part of like this 1% like she lives in this mansion with this pool. McCauley Connor comes from like a lower class, and so does her fiance kitteridge but ck Dexter Haven is clearly from her class like they grew up together. So there's a lot of tension between these two different character or the all these different characters and their class. And the classes that they come from. There's a really great character in the form of her kids sister who is like, What is she like a preteen at this point? And she just like, Sam 16:59 I think she was like, 23 in real? Oh, Tessa 17:01 yeah, I'm sure she was like, much older in real life, but she's like a preteen. And she's hilarious. Like, she's clearly on the side of ck Dexter Haven, and is like, trying to like get them back together. I mean, it's just great. And you know, if you've seen my fair lady or Gaslight, you know that George Kook, or is an excellent filmmaker and loves, loves, loves putting his female characters in fantastic costumes with fantastic hats. So if you want to see some really wonderful hat design, this is the movie for you. Um, I would really recommend it. I recommend all screwball comedy, I think that it's great. It Happened One Night is a great film as well. the only the only thing that I will say is that this is a film of its time, the very first scene involves Carrie, and I'm not joking, like Cary Grant's character, literally, because it's showing them breaking up at the end of their marriage. And she's kicking him out of the house, he literally grabs her face and throws her to the ground in the very first scene, and it's played for laughs, because, like, he doesn't punch her, so it's fine. And so like, obviously, there is that kind of like abusive element, the slapstick element, which can obviously not be read read very well today, or at least not in the same light that it was back in the 1940s. So I will say that, I will also say that her dad is a piece of bleep. And I hate the fact that he never really gets his come up in the film, because he says like the most horrible things to her about halfway through the film, and it really disturbed me that everything seems fine with him at the end, like I was waiting for, like something terrible to happen to him. But it didn't. So that would be my only two real objections to this film, but otherwise, very enjoyable. I laughed a lot. I'll probably watch it again. Andy 18:53 Okay, well, this week's topic because this is a great thing to talk about now, because I decided it was, um, what are we all looking forward to for the rest of the year? Sam 19:07 Okay, you want me to say more? So I'm looking forward to? Well, nothing anymore. Thanks, guys. But if I was to be looking forward to something, it would be no time to die. The eternals Spider Man and the matrix movies movies are fun. Remember three hours of no time all three hours and and maybe the 90 minutes of carnage? I don't know. But like, all these movies that were promised to us, that they are allegedly going to stop holding back on. So we're gonna have this. I'm not going to do and I can't even I can't even do the frenzied release metaphor thing. I'll leave that to you. Tessa 19:53 What about the kotar remake? We were announced we were told this week that there are two reasons Coming out of games that we have talked about on the show, we talked about I talked about couture, near the beginning of Monkey, and they're making a remake of it. And Sam talked about Alan Wake. Also, I think, the third episode of Monkey, and they are making a remake of that game two, which I think comes out next month. Andy 20:21 Well, they got the monkey bump. Tessa 20:24 There you go. It was because of us. You know that right? Yeah, yeah. People were like, We want these games to be remade. Andy 20:33 Well, for for me, I am looking forward so much. To the wheel time. Yes. The trailer really for Amazon's Wheel of Time a really hit me in just the right way. It looks like that they've got it and which is another thing that we talked about on this show. What a coincidence. I really didn't plan this. Tessa 20:58 I'm telling you, people are like they're they're. They're feeling what we're talking about on the show. Andy 21:05 Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm looking forward to some other things too. The Cowboy Bebop show from Netflix. The first images are out and that looks pretty dope. New god of war movie or not got a four movie the new god of war game got its first trailer this week. And Thor looks awesome. I like the look of Thor. In this game. There's a lot of people who don't for reasons that he looks nothing like Chris Hemsworth. But I think he looks more like the real floor. If you haven't seen this picture, please, please do yourself a favor and Google god of war. Thor and you'll see the concept art for Thor in this god of war, and it is a glorious. It is so glorious. He is so fat, and so Norse. Tessa 21:59 I'm also looking forward to tiny Tina's Wonderland which is a spin off of Borderlands based on a character it's actually based on a DLC from Borderlands two in which your character you are playing a game that is basically a d&d campaign run by another character. But now we're getting a whole game. And the trailer looks amazing. Like I I'm ready, I'm ready for it. Andy 22:25 Right other things looking forward to I'm looking forward to the foundation series from from Apple. That looks pretty good. I'm looking forward to getting time to finally watch the Steve Martin Martin Short, True Crime comedy. The only murderers only murders in the building. Only murders left alive. Yeah, the only murders left alive. There's so much good TV. I don't think Hawkeye is gonna be very good. Because the trailer looked like a CW show. Sam 22:57 You know, at some point we have to do a supercut of all the times we've said bad things about the shows that we spent hours and hours and hours talking about that was the prequel to this very podcast. Andy 23:13 I don't I don't remember what any of those were I my mind is blank. Tessa 23:22 You're like you're like whatever we we never even met each other before we recorded the first episode of Mikey just went in completely blank. Andy 23:30 Yep. I'm also I'm looking forward to a What's it called? Oh Nikes helped me out here guys. We just talked about this before the matrix. The Matrix resurrections. Tessa 23:44 Yes, I'm 100% more excited for matrix rev matrix resurrections after seeing this trailer Andy 23:54 Dune also getting good reviews, like like we got some good stuff coming out. I know I legit the reviews are doing are good. Sam 24:03 And, and no matter what anybody says. No matter who complains, you will still be able to watch those last two movies we talked about on HBO max. So ha, Tessa 24:21 also Picard season two. I don't know if it's gonna be any good or not. But I am just like psyched to see john Delaney and see play q again. That's all. Andy 24:31 Oh, yeah. Q That's right. The best character in Star Trek. Tessa 24:36 So what we're gonna need, we're gonna need a bleep for this end. But there's actually a line on the trailer where Picard says he's too old for accuse bull. And it just made me so happy. Andy 24:49 What other what other movies are we looking forward to hear them. You got anything? Sam 24:56 Well, I mean I I wouldn't say that these are new movies per se because they're not. But two things I'm looking forward to pop culturally, is in a couple of weeks Tessa and I are going to embark on our x men. rewatch, which will manifest itself on the podcast in December. I also decided to throw Tessa a bone and we will be rewatching The Lord of the Rings extended versions on Christmas Eve, I believe it is. And we will Yes, we will be watching them in 4k so yeah. Andy 25:45 Oh, I really thought one of you is going to jump on this. I really did. I'm looking forward to nightmare alley. Tessa 25:58 I have no idea what that is. Andy 26:03 Okay. Ben Murray Ali is an upcoming American psychological thriller film directed by Guillermo del Toro. Alright, I'm in with Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Defoe, Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, Rooney, Mara, Tim Blake Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, Jim Beaver, and others, Tessa 26:26 and others. Every time I hear well, I'm Defoe's name all I can think of is Yeah, How I Met Your Mother Willem differ with them. All right, that and that is all we are looking forward to nothing else in our lives is good. All right. Say, Sam, I have a very serious question for you. You've seen High School Musical before, right? Sam 26:58 Yes, I have. I've also seen the first sequel High School Musical too. And, you know, occasionally, I like to check in on what the youth are interested in. And I know what you're thinking. They're interested in that really well. I mean, some of them are. But also, I also know that you're thinking, are you just trying that to be cool with the kids? No, no, no, I know. There's no way for that to happen. And anybody who tries looks terrible by comparison. But sometimes you can weaponize this knowledge in fun ways. And so I enjoy that. But yes, I have seen High School Musical for the same reason that I read Twilight. This was a much more pleasant experience in that though. Tessa 27:44 You heard it here. First, Sam uses knowledge about youth to weaponize it against them. So what you watched for this week? Is it a remake? Sam 27:57 She asks, once again, having watched it with me. So High School Musical, the musical the series is a streaming series created for Disney plus, that is inspired by but is not a remake of the film. I'll give you a minute to emotionally recover from that sentence. The basic premise of this series is that a Utah High School puts on a musical based on the film High School Musical. It is shot in a mockumentary style. So this is the second time we're invoking the office. However, if you remember, shows like Parks and Rec and others that have come out since the office use the mockumentary style but there is literally no one documenting them. You know, the the late season of The Office, you know, broke that fourth wall and showed us the documentary crew. But that was the last time we ever acknowledged that there's an actual documentary happening. So it's mockumentary style. But it's not a documentary. It's just to show. The other thing is it was filmed in Salt Lake City. So this is like a I don't know I miss Salt Lake City I was there in 2019 should have been there in 2020 and 2021. Didn't get to be actually pretty cool place. Tessa 29:17 Okay, so what is this spiritual successor but not a remake about? Sam 29:25 Alright, so basically we have what it's about is so you have the main character nini, played by Olivia rodrygo, and she's playing Vanessa Hudgens, his role in the production within the show. Her character nanny has two moms, much like Rachel's two dads in glee. And then we have Ricky played by Joshua Bassett, who's playing Zef Ron's character Troy, he is not a theater kid. Like Finn from glee. You have Miss Jen, played by Kate reinders is basically a regular size Kristen Chenoweth, who does everything that Mr. Xu does in Glee except rap. You have Mr. Massara, the stem teacher who isn't anything like Sue Sylvester at all, except he is you have ej who is the summer theater camp dude, he's clearly the villain. I'm not gonna make that comparison. I think Glebe might actually be cursed by the way that show but this this shares a lot of DNA with glee. There's some really great characters in the show. We'll talk about those in just a second. But I need you guys to sum up the show. I need you guys to stay with me here and just let the following happen. So he was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it any more obvious? He played guitar. She did musical theater. What more can I say? He was a skater boy. She said, See you later boy. After he didn't say I love you back when she sang a song. With a ukulele. Five months from then they're in the same show. But she's not all alone. Her new boys gonna play the lead. But guess who she sees? skater boy rockin up the lead. She calls up her friends and parents they already know. Then they've all got tickets to see the show, including Ricky's mom, she tags along with her new boyfriend in stands in the crowd. nini gets back with the boy that turned her down and gets accepted into a prestigious performing arts school. Andy 31:39 You have no idea how hard it was not to sing along with that. And also people just remember Sam put in work. So eventually when we do make a Patreon This is the high quality content you can expect from monkey. Sam 31:53 Why do you have to go and make things so complicated? Andy 31:55 Let's make our way down to the next question. Tessa 31:58 Cool, cool. Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cool. So we all know you really watch this for a very specific reason. Do you have the Olivia Rodrigo Joshua bashatt. Joshua Bassett dish? Sam 32:14 Yes, this is the portion of the podcast where grown adults comment on the relationship of adolescence. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. But here's what I will tell you. So back in November of 2019 the first season of this show premiered in 2020, Olivia rodrygo got that sweet sweet record deal back in November 2020. After being delayed for COVID filming on Season Two begins January of 2021 driver's license drops. April deja boose drops may good for you and the album drops and soda Season Two High School Musical the musical the series. So without getting into the Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua facet Sabrina Carpenter of at all. We watched the first season knowing all the drama that had happened between them and seeing that they seen you know them having to play you know, this, this duo that has broken up and might be getting back together knowing all the drama, which hasn't happened yet. So that was pretty funny. Season Two is filmed. While all of this is happening, so and there has been comments about Season Two of the show being office step because of these issues. So it's it's a really interesting thing because we we have this long history in pop culture of actors who have been involved with each other and just hate each other but get along and make films or in Fleetwood Mac's case make music. I mean, it's a whole thing. I I wonder how much more difficult it is to manage when you're talking about adolescence. So you know, that's really kind of a downer. But yeah, I mean, I watched the show because I wanted something to just take my mind off of everything else. And also we both did Olivia Rodrigo a lot, you know, so it was it was cool getting to see her do her stuff in the show, and it was overall it was good experience. Tessa 34:31 So in this post sour world, will you be watching? Will you be watching season two. Sam 34:39 So clearly there have been some minor spoilers here so far. And if you care about that cover your ears for about the next 10 seconds season to the musical is Beauty and the Beast. I found that out today while I was looking stuff up for this segment and that's that's super fun. But the reason You know, I recommend it, it's a good time. You know what you're getting into if you know anything about the High School Musical property or really if you know anything about Disney, period, or Glee but there's some really great characters in here other than, you know, the means that I already mentioned big red, Gina Ashlynn. Courtney Carlos said, they're all fun characters, characters that, you know, no matter what your age is, you can probably see yourself in either because you're going through some of those things, or you went through some of those things. You know, so it it's got a lot to offer. I mean, it's still Disney, but it was enjoyable. So yeah, recommend. I will be watching Season Two and I think you should too, but only if you've seen since seen season one. First. I don't think the original show is a prerequisite. Andy, this is Andy. Sam, aren't you telling everybody that you should watch everything in order? And this is me. No, I just said you didn't have to. Andy 36:09 But for Sam, it's a requirement. Sam 36:13 I still haven't seen a High School Musical three. Andy 36:19 I wish I knew any songs from it so I can make fun of you and make a great joke. But I can't Don't Sam 36:24 worry, Andy stick to the status quo. We're all in this together. So good morning, San Diego. I'm Ron Burgundy. Andy isn't Castle in the Sky. One of the big Miyazaki movies. There are two things I know about you, Andy. One. You are smarter than me. And two, you love anime. What made you decide to watch this now? And Didn't you promise no more enemy for a while? What gifts. Andy 36:53 Thank you, Stan, for totally reading the exact question I wrote out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so castle Sky is the third movie by director animator. Amazing. Creative our tour, Hayao Miyazaki. Tessa spoke about one of his movies Spirited Away earlier. But basically the reason why I watched this after promising no more anime for a while was because my lovely lovely wife Sarah and I were watching a new anime called pheno pirate princess which is one of the new nude new available on crunchy roll enemies but it's really really good and really, really high quality. It's being funded by Adult Swim. Somehow. Anyway, Sarah keeps going. This is reminding me so much a castle the sky We have to watch Castle in the Sky. And so this week, during my free time to watch a movie. I watched Castle in the Sky. Sam 38:10 Great Oden's Raven. Did you watch the version with Luke Skywalker, Sookie Stackhouse and Dawson Leary? Andy 38:24 No, no, I watched the the actual Japanese language dub and not the the American English dub with Mark Hamill, Anna Paquin and James Vanderbeek. Tessa 38:39 For those of you who don't speak pop culture nerd. Andy 38:42 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Gotta poke my notes here. Tessa 38:51 He is very, very proud of that joke. Andy 38:57 Yeah, should be. should be. So I'm actually I'm not too versed in Miyazaki, I usually find anime films to be kind of boring and overwrought. For whatever reason, my attention span is not that great for animated things for two hours long, like, not not not my thing, and Miyazaki has a tendency to just kind of make a world and just do kind of a slice of life thing and there and I'm all about slice of life. I'm just not about two hours a slice of life. So yeah, I didn't watch it. And then I watched the, the Japanese language version and yeah, it's, it's wonderful. I have heard very good things about the English version. If you were a kid who grew up with a blockbuster, you probably saw Castle in the Sky. Often in the animated kids movie family movie section. Sam 40:00 So, Castle in the Sky, by the beard of Zeus, how does the castle float? Andy 40:11 Next time you're asking me the question, Sam, I'm going to write some of the worst questions for you to read. So, castles in the sky, how does a castle float? I don't know. That's a mystery, Sam. Maybe you should watch the movie and find out the answer to the mystery instead of asking me Sam 40:27 great Knights of Columbus, that hurt. Andy 40:31 Okay, let me go ahead and actually say what castle sky is about. So it's a, it takes place in a world where certain countries in our world exist. It's a little weird there. It's a future kind of steampunky world. For those of you not watching them, they are both giggling like school Unknown Speaker 41:01 girls. Andy 41:07 Who just said something very, very mean, I Tessa 41:09 don't think what Sam is doing could be qualified as giggling like a school girl. It's like straight up crying through through laughter. Andy 41:21 I'm gonna give him a little bit longer. Because this is, this is painful to watch. And I'm not cutting any of this out. By the way. This is all going to be in there. Sam 41:36 I just think it's funny that you know. So you get two episodes in a row that are cut within an inch of their lives. And every third episode, you just get everything. Like, that's a real thing at this point. It's Ah, all right, tell us about the movie. I think I'm done now. So Andy 41:58 the movie, in a lot of ways reminds me of a certain era of Disney. And that era is surprisingly the Aladdin Little Mermaid era of Disney. There's this thing about Miyazaki films where they are a little bit more serious than than Disney films. Typically, they have a little bit of humor, but but not much humor comparatively to Disney films. And this being his third movie. And still pretty early in his storied career has a lot of really good comedic moments in there, essentially, to break it down. Girls in a giant zeplin giant Zeppelin gets attacked by air pirates. The air pirates are after the girl. You don't know why these sky pirates, air pirates who are floating on steampunk things called floppers. They're like fly helicopters. It's really cute. Really, really fun. You don't know why they're after, or they're after her. And she jumps off of the building or after the zeplin plummeting to her death. Except she has a magic stone around her that lets her slowly fall and she falls into a mining town where a young boy named pazhou finds her who in many ways is like pazuzu. From the from the exorcist, no, not at all. So very, very kind boy. And they go on adventures. And that's really the entirety of this movie is it's one of these swashbuckling adventure movies where two kids are way out of their element. They're in danger. They're being chased by by a government and a bunch of sky pirates and they go to different areas and it's all to get to the Castle in the Sky. laputa the legendary Castle in the Sky, as referenced by one Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels, which again is weird This world is clearly not our our earth but they literally say yeah, no in Gulliver's Travels, like this. Lava the the Castle in the Sky, and they get there it's all arcane punk. It's, it's really cool. Miyazaki has a real talent for drawing really creative scenery and kind of letting you see how nature comes in after bad things happen. You know, like the destruction of an entire country, living in a castle in the sky. It's it's really, really beautiful, but It has a very light hearted and fun feel to it at one point when pazhou and the girl's name is Cheetah, when they're being chased by the pirates, they go through this mining town. And there's a moment that feels like it's from Beauty and the Beast, where you know, it's a mining towns lose big burly miners. And then these big burly pirates come out. And they're like, oh, the pirates are chasing us and the miners get up there to block you know, they got suspenders on and white t shirts, and they get there to block the pirates. And then it turns into a flexing contest to see like, who can burst more out of their out of their shirts. instead of actually fighting it's really adorable. It's like old school Irish. I, it just feels like a, an Irish town. And then there's a giant like fight and, and it does the dust cloud thing. It's so cool. Um, yeah, this is one of those movies, it doesn't have a unpredictable story. It doesn't keep you guessing what's going to happen, because you can tell at the beginning what's going to happen. But it is so creative and inventive. And the animation so impressive that you should watch it if you like animation. Sam 46:19 So really quickly, before I read the last question you wrote for me. So this isn't our world, but it's like an adjacent Earth. Is that what you would say? Yes. So like, this morning, when we saw the release date for avatar five in 2028. That is an announcement that was meant for an adjacent Earth in which they're actually releasing those movies. So it's like that. Right? Right. Andy 46:46 Right. Well, that's meant for an adjacent Earth where anyone cares about avatar. Sam 46:51 I'm not really sure that's any earth but sure. And so because this is very important. I'm going to read the last question that she wrote for me, so any good is Misaki any good? Andy 47:08 Yes, Sam, you ignorant slut. Sam 47:10 You stay classy, San Diego. Andy 47:16 Next week, we're covering bond. What does that mean? I don't know. Next week bond Sam 47:22 a week after that. Well, our bond. Andy 47:26 So where can we find you? Tessa? Tessa 47:31 You can find me on Twitter and letterboxed at suela Tessa Swehla is spelled SW e HLA. Sam, where Sam 47:40 can people find you in a glass cage of emotion on twitter at Sam underscore Morris nine. Join us for our two week extravaganza on all things James Bond. That's what bond means. Andy 47:56 Oh, James Bond. I got it from the GoldenEye video game. Sam 48:02 Yes, we're gonna be doing slappers. Only for the next two weeks. Andy 48:10 Both of my co hosts will wish that they could slot me Sam 48:15 What do you mean we'll Andy 48:19 Okay, you can find us on Twitter. And everywhere else at monkey backlog. You can email us at monkey on backlog@gmail.com. You can find me on Twitter at Andy noted please email us anything you want us to talk about. Let us know your thoughts. You know, talk to us about future episodes, anything pop culture related. That's all we have for today, people so get the monkey off your backlog. Tessa 48:45 Guys, we're officially in episode ahead. 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