July 18, 2025 • 54 mins
We’re gonna be, gonna be golden! It’s been one month since Netflix released KPop Demon Hunters and everyone is STILL talking about it (and singing along). We sit down to recap the surprise hit of the summer. Plus Aaron shares a playlist highlighting the real life voices of HUNTR/X and shares some of his favorite fictional boy bands and girl groups. Finally, Joelle gives us an Omnibus on the rise of Sony Animation Studios.
Aaron’s Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/12ed1Kw4sbm07uC10Sf8Js?si=b5ef98b92bcd4edd
Songs Mentioned In This Episode:
Golden - HUNTR/X
Your Idol - Saja Boys
Mine - Audrey Nuna
SNOWCONE - Rei Ami
Armageddon - aespa
LAST WALTZ - Twice
Show Me - Tea Party
MALO - Shax
Honest - Cotton Candy
We Rise - Cotton Candy
Coal Mine - Bob’s Burgers
Nobody Like U - 4*Town
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wanning. Today's episode contains spoilers for the smash hit animated
movie on Netflix, K Pop Demon Hunters, So if you
haven't watched it, go watch it because it's amazing, or
listen to this and then realize how amazing it is
and go watch it. Hello, my name is Rosie Knight,
(00:32):
and welcome back to X ray Vision, the podcast where
we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics and
pop culture. We are here at iHeart Podcast where we'll
be bringing you episodes every Tuesday Thursday, and the summer's
biggest movie news and talk on Friday, Popcorn pop Out,
and a little way of news on a Saturday. In
(00:53):
today's episode, I am joined by two of the most
super of our super producers, Joelle and our And to
discuss the surprise animated smash of the summer K Pop
Demon Hunters. We're gonna recap the movie quickly, then Aaron
is gonna take us through the voices behind K Pop
Demon Hunter's chart topping music, featuring a custom playlist of
(01:14):
some favorite fictional boy band and girl groups. Joel has
done an incredible investigation of Sony's animation projects and what
they've got coming up. So we'll dip into that in
the omnibus. And remember, guys, I just got some DMS
about this, so I guess the Rebirth episodes are just
coming out. People are listening to them. They've seen Jurassic Park.
We will be at SDCC San Diego Comic Con. Xtra
(01:36):
Vision is gonna be there Thursday at twelve thirty. Our
panel with the Roddenbury Does It Fly Podcast will be
in Room twenty four ABC. Me and Jason will be
there on that panel talking science, pop culture, all the
things we love. Then come join us at Petco Park
at four pm for the chance to bid on real
Superman comic book art. And on Saturday we'll be retured
(02:00):
learning to pet Coo for a Godzilla auction with IDW
super seven and of course Den of Geek. Then you
want to hang out with Jason Concepcion, I know you do,
I know I do, And guess what, I'll be there
too with Joel and Ian and you can join us
at the Mission Brewery for a meet and greet and
a live podcast recording. But first let's talk about K
(02:20):
pop Demon Hunters. Okay, Aaron and Joel, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Thank you very excited to go into some of the
best music to come out of film in a long time.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I feel like, yes, Aaron, let's talk. Let's start with you,
how did you hear about K pop Demon Hunters? Because
you were the early trendsetter for our pod on this one.
You were the one who saw it first.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I think, as someone who is Chinese, I am
subscribed to or following a lot of Asian American art
accounts and influencers, and this started showing up quite a
bit as like, hey, this film is coming out on Netflix,
it's animated, it's about K pop stars. No shortage of
K pop focused shows or movies, but this one seemed
(03:12):
a little different and was like, you know, there have
been some other things with kind of fighting demons as
K pop stars, et cetera, but this seemed a little interesting.
So I watched it that opening weekend, and I think
in the beginning I was like, Wow, music's pretty good.
I'm surprised, and there's like a point where when they
go through Golden I was like, this is this is
(03:34):
not just like a couple good things. This is a
very well put together thing. And then I think what
sealed it for me was the Cat and the Magpie,
The Tiger and the Magpie. That I was just like, Okay,
I need to like pay one hundred percent attention because
this is like credible.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I need to be in.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yeah. So the movie was released on June twentieth, twenty
twenty five, on Netflix, directed by Maggie Kang Chris Applehans
and starring Ardentchoa's Roomy, Mayhong's Mirror, and Jijong Zhou as Zoe.
And they are three K pop superstars who are part
(04:10):
of a traditional lineage of demon hunters, and their role
is essentially to stop demons feeding on humans by creating
a magical kind of gate called the hon Moon or
the Golden hom Moon. And we get to see the
(04:33):
in a really lovely opening scene that again, I think
was the moment where I sort of understood, like, oh,
this isn't a K pop movie because k pop is
popular right now and Netflix wants to make something this
is a gorgeously animated sony movie with people who love
Korean music and love the history of cre culture. Yes,
(04:53):
and Korean culture. We get this gorgeous kind of We
open with this gorgeous look back through history. We get
to see the Demons, which are really really cool and
nicely designed and very interesting. But then we also get
to see the different trio girl groups through the ages,
which I thought was so fantastic and so lovely, and
(05:15):
we eventually get to see Hunterricks which is our main group, Rumy,
Mirror and Zoe, and they are trained by the very sexy,
older but very evil coded with her gray hair Selene,
who basically was a Demon Hunter and is now ready
for the girls to release their big bad song Golden, which,
(05:40):
as Aaron mentions, you get into and you start to
realize like, oh, these are the kind of songs that
are going to be in your head for a long time,
and also, as we have seen, have gone on to
become incredible smash hits K pop. Demon Hunters is the
highest charting soundtrack of twenty twenty five, earning what they
(06:00):
would say is like the equivalent of seventy five thousand
album units. In its third week, Golden is in the
top ten of the Hot one hundred with eighteen point
eight million streams, nine hundred and fifty thousand airplay impressions.
Thanks Variety, and the entire Demon Hunter's soundtrack has logged
ninety six million on demand official streams, so they're in
(06:26):
the twenty twenties. They've only have There been three other
soundtracks that have reached the top two on Billboard two
hundred Wicked, which debuted and peaked at number two, Barbie
also number two debut, and Encanto, which spent nine weeks
at number one in twenty twenty two and was second
in twenty twenty three. All of those were nominated, so
this is kind of a big gonna be a big
(06:48):
push for Netflix, even though that might not have been
their original plan, seeing as this is being seen as
a huge surprise, Joelle, before we start getting into the
surprises in the twist of capop themeon Hunters, how did
you find out about it?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So? I messaged our good friend Laura a few weeks
before it came out because she had been promoting it
on her page, and I was like, so, I'm seeing
it the posters and everything. It looks cool. Tell me
about it. And Lara was like, girl, it's so good,
and I was like, but how good is it really?
She's like She's like, I'm gonna hedge my bats because
they don't want to overhype it because again, the movie
was not out yet, so she's just enjoying all the
(07:24):
goodness by herself. And she was like, but I really
liked it, and I was like, Okay, I'm gonna give
it a shot. So when it first came out, I said, no,
I'm not going to get into it's too early and
my heart is tender. I fall in love with things
too easily. I'm gonna wait a day where my dog
was a daycare and my brother was out of the house,
and I said, no one will judge me for watching
this movie. Okay, I won't be interrupted.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
In the cinephile household exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I'm gonna buckle in and get into this. And I
was hooked. Like the airplane fight scene, like parachuting down
the stadium was way cool.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
I agree, Like the tie you're in the bird the little.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Hat was always little and the tiger was little. I
just said, so cute. But then but then my favorite song,
this is what it sounds like? Yeah, I said this.
I will protect this movie with my life.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Who do I have to kill? This movie's everything to me,
that's all.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I baled so hard the first time they sound I
was like, this is so beautiful. What a great message.
Costumes are outstanding. I love the girls like.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And we get like a K drama. It's too many.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Good things and I really loved it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I was looked, Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the
aeroplane sequence, because that is where we really get to
see kind of the girls in action, not just as
demon hunters, though they are delayed from going to the
show by demons who take over their airplane and they
take them over. But one of the things I loved
about this was the way that it understood. And it's
(08:52):
obviously it's kind of almost like a parasite thing where
I know that they are trying to make a movie
about a very unique experience, which is being a K
pop star, something we can't really relate to. But one
of the biggest tropes about K pop stars is they
love to eat right because of all the training and stuff,
and then they'll do mook bangs and and but that
is so universally relatable as a woman who has to
(09:15):
do stuff is like, yeah, I want to sit with
my friends in our nice outfits and eat fucking ramen
from a cup like that to me is so wonderful
and cozy and relatable and also plays into you know
what we see of K pop stars on talent shows
and daily star shows and stuff. So I loved it
and I love how they use gag animation for the faces,
very anime influenced, very Sailor Moon. So we begin with
(09:38):
this incredible fight. They land, they land down, and they're
about to launch. They want to have a rest, which
relatable after the show. I love this scene too, where
we get to see two of the girls, but Roomy
just can't wait. She's like, we're gonna release it. We're
not gonna have a break. We're gonna press play on
it right now. But she probably should have thought about that.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Roomy is me and I am Roomy. She was like,
stop working.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
She was like I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
She's like, no, gross, now we have to keep working.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And I love that moment because I have been wrapped
up in my cardigan, in my little like robe, ready
to relax, and then had a friend come and be like,
so we're going out and I'm like, no, don't do.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
It to me.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
But this is this is the moment for me story wise,
I was just loving to be in the world. I
was loving the music, I loving the visuals. It's very
spider Us kind of style of bringing in new type
of animation. But it's the moment when we kind of
get this big reveal that Roomy is in fact losing
her voice. She goes up to the roof, she tries
(10:43):
to sing. We see the horm moon across the sky,
and that is when we learn, when she takes off
the jacket that she has the patterns that show that
you are a demon or at least part demon, and
they're kind of these purple tattoos. I just like screamed
at the TV and in that moment it worked for
me immediately as a massive twist, and I just couldn't
(11:06):
kind of believe how well it was done, how well
they set it up. It's such an obvious kind of
like from two worlds, can you save both? Set up?
But it works and they do such a great reveal
and then we start to really get into it. We
go to the demon realm, we see guem on his
nobody's demoning enough, everybody's getting failed by the Demon Hunt
(11:28):
as they're smashing them, and then done, we meet the
Saja boys.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Aaron first reaction to the Saga voice.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
To I mean, I think first reaction to Genu his
introduction coming out playing a like, you know, I actually
don't remember what instrument it is, not a guitar but something,
you know, acoustic instrument singing there that was very powerful
to me. And then conjuring up these four other characters
voiced by kind of like a great all star cast
(11:59):
of career and talent too. Joel Kin Booster is in there,
song one show is in there, and like that their
intro is these hooded or not hooded, but these cloaked
figures with these hats and everything beautiful. And I love
the idea of like creating this demonic boy band. And
I think their introduction is so nice in comparison to
(12:22):
Huntricks's introduction where we learn all their backstory, and I
think a really nice way of filmmaking with fans fan
girling or fanboying out over each.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Character showing, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Such a good lyricist and you know Owen and Roomy
is the diva, Oh my god, you know. So I
love the way they did that to intro each character
and keep it in like really quick succession and give
us just like more context for them as like K
pop idols are percent.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It also sets up a really great juxtaposition between Ginu,
who wants to like erase his human memories, who is
clearly like lonely and heartbroken, and this creation of the
Sager Boys, and like the comparison of how Huntrix gets
to live and how Huntrix is beloved and how Hundrix's
music is beloved. So the plan of the Saga Boys
(13:13):
is to essentially weaken the hormon drain all the energy
from the fans, and then in return, Genu wall have
his human memories gone, which means he won't be heartbroken anymore.
Very K drama set, they're are very very K drama sets.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Just the story of like stealing fans from another arrival
K pop group is also a very common K drama trope.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, I love how they have managed to manifest so
many of the brilliant feelings and emotions and tropes that
we get in K dramas, Like I watch a lot
of K dramas, and to see an animated show that
takes on the aesthetics and the intricacies and the romantic
(13:59):
relateationships is so pleasing and so enjoyable. So Ginu obviously
discovers Room is secret, because what else would happen and
then we learn that the demons are actually enslaved by
kind of the feelings of shame and sorrow. And it's
(14:20):
this I think there's this really interesting concept here of
the power of music and how music can be used. Aaron,
could you talk a little bit about that aspect of
the film.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
So this is one of my favorite conversation topics about
film literature, anything that's not music. When as a musician,
I remember growing up I always wanted there to be
cool musician characters in other mediums to follow, and that
never really happens. I think like Name of the Wind
is like the first time really that I felt like,
(14:51):
oh wow, this musician is cool. And here I love
the way they did it. And I think that using
music both as like something to strengthen and bring people together,
but also this sort of mystical ancestral thing that's passed
down through generations, whether or not the music is the
same genre. They're showing these I mean very almost sinners
(15:12):
coded and like, here's how the music has transcended each
generation to do the same thing of bringing people together
and protecting them.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And this is like maybe the third time in my
life when I've watched or read something and been like,
they made musicians seem cool. I'm very happy with that.
I like the idea of someone that can sing and
then conjure a glave out of thin air or a
sword and fight demons with it, and like also be
wrong at the site.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Okay, Aaron, you have to watch. There was this really
incredible animated movie that I was lucky enough. No, but
I love Kubo. There's a movie that I was lucky
enough to go and see with a friend who invited
me at the Arrow a few years ago. Now, wow,
it came out in twenty twenty one. It's called Inuo,
and it is set in like fourteenth century Pan but
(16:01):
it is about two guys who basically create like a
glam rock musical show in the fourteenth century of Japan.
It's honestly like a truly astounding movie. I immediately bought it.
It's directed by a Misaki Yuasa, who has made a
bunch of really famous stuff. I believe Ping Pong is
(16:21):
his most famous creation. He also actually did an episode
of Adventure Time because he's really cool. But Inuo is
one of the It was the first movie I thought
of when I watched this where I was like, oh,
this is a whole different way of showing how music
can influence people, how music can be brought to life
on screen, because I do as well love the visualization
(16:42):
of music. Here, Aaron, how did you feel as a musician,
do you ever have those kind of moments where you
can see your music as you play it? Or do
you feel like in this movement they managed to bring
something new to that because we don't get to see
that a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, that's a that's a really big question. I think God,
I would love selfishly if at some point I felt
like my music was having that sort of impact of
strengthening the hun moon and you know, binding things together.
But I think what this does really well is it
feels so natural in how it's delivered within Because they're singers,
(17:19):
then that's like a huge part of it. But like,
if you're watching it as much as I love the
Disney Robin Hood, there's no real reason these characters should
be singing. There's no real reason Disney symbol needs to sing.
He just can't wait to be king. I get the emotion,
but like, where is it coming from? Here? It makes
total sense, and that's a such a victory for everyone
(17:41):
on the music side of things, that these songs seamlessly
fit into this whole thing, whether it be Genu and
Roomy singing together this like forlorn love song, whether it
be them writing and performing Takedown, whether it's them you know,
on the plane like kicking there the demon's ass while
they're getting ready to drop into the show. I mean,
(18:03):
there's so many just points where this movie does it perfectly.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I think Soda Pop, I mean the introduction of that song,
literally seeing it catch up like these are fans as
extras in this movie is really well done because you see, like, Okay,
you're so much Yes, you're the old walking grannies, You're
the group of male friends who really dig K pop.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Here are your teeney boppers.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Who stands sort of like more the rapper, more folks
on the dancer, and like, you know, I love the
two crying guys.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Here's here's the kid who always rips the shirt off
to have the other band's shirt underneath.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, yeah, so conflicted. And I think like the introduction
of Sodapop botha is a like overly sweet, like hiding
the sort of like evilness. But then also this catchy
jam that everybody, even our girls like, can't stop shimmying
their shoulders too. Like it's just such a wonderful musical
introduction and it really shows like the threat to them
(19:02):
musically so quick when people boards start popping up right after.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Like this visual storytelling is like on another level here.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I also think that's a great point too, is this
isn't a movie that has one great band. This is
a movie that had to make two great bands. And
as kind of the Saga Boys grow in popularity. Obviously
they're beautiful, they're great dancers, they're great singers, they got abs,
they got cool costumes, and Hunterricks try to make this
(19:32):
new song take down, which I this is where I
thought the movie really showcases its emotional intelligence because they
essentially have this story and this song that's about like
it's an anti demon kind of song. It's We're gonna
take you out. And Rumy becomes conflicted and starts to
feel like shame and worry, and that's when she comes
(19:53):
up with this plan to work with Gino and together
maybe they can save the hon Moon, help them win
the award, and then he can stay on this side,
say he can stay here too, and.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Isn't that a boyfriend?
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Isn't that what four year old hot boyfriend? Boyfriend?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
The literature tells us. This is what the ladies are.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Hundred year old hot boyfriend who has been up with demons.
He's been fighting. Maybe he's killed a few people, but
you know what, he would never do. He would never
hurt us. That's the class Tigerie.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Yes, or reveal your secret? Can we talk?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Okay, wait, we'll we come back. We're going to talk
about the scene where he hides her demon mark because wow,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
Okay, we're back.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
We're back, Joel, talk about it. Gush, gush, gush.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
So my mom is really into CA dramas. She discovered
them on wearing Netflix. Thank you for introducing us to
global television as in your Americans. It's been really beautiful. Yeah,
she loves them. She gobbles them up. She came over,
created an entire channel on my Netflix so she could
watch her K dramas. And so I've learned a lot
about the K drama tropes and uh, I'll keep your
(21:20):
secret for you. Trope is easily one of my favorites.
It's so like, I mean, so easy to swoop into
romance that way, A lot of K dramas have a
lot of similarities with like Victorian romance literature, which is
a lot of we cannot touch and no one can.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Know we like each other.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
So they'll be yearning so much yearning longings here and
they effing nail it, like she can't tell her friends
that she's a demon or that she's like having this
crushed like flirty time with a demon. He knows all
of the secrets and possibly more because he's already on
the other side of the demon culture, so he alos
doing on there.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
He is keeping his own secret, which I love because
he has his own shame. I also think, and this
is something I would love. Maybe who knows the movie
keeps popping off. If it really becomes a FYC movie,
which I think it will becomes the astome movie for Netflix,
maybe we can have Laura on because I would also.
I feel like something that's quite deep about this movie
(22:12):
is it uses the context of the demons and the
kind of way that they make people feel shame, and
the fact that Ginu has this secret that he left
his family when he gained fame, and I think that
there has been a lot of complexity and exploitation in
the real world of kpop, and over the last ten
(22:33):
years there has been a shift to a more open,
transparent conversation around that kind of stuff. And I found
this to be quite profound in its way of talking
about fame through this kind of supernatural lens, but being
realistic about the choices people have to make, the people
they have to leave behind, the things that you have
(22:54):
to do, like lying to your friends. These three are
an ideal friendship. You love them, you want to root
for them, but she cannot tell them this deepest truth
about herself in case it impacts their fame as a
band and their role in life. I just think that
is really deep, and I think it's another reason that
people are finding this movie because it has so many layers.
(23:14):
Banging music, incredible animation, but also a story that I
think is is quite profound and real. Yeeah go for
Aaron No.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I was gonna say one hundred percent, I mean, and
that's I think. I'm excited. You know. In a little bit,
I'm going to talk more about the music. Joelle's going
to talk some more about the animation and some of
the things that we think really made this stand out
over any number of other animated movies that have come
out in the past, musical or otherwise. I mean, this,
this is up there. I think with Disney animated pieces
(23:46):
of question like this is this is very.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
High Ironically, I actually yeah, I think you make a
great point because I think that one of the biggest
struggles all animated movies have had is living up to
your say Beauty and the Beast or your Little Mermaid
or You're a Laddin, where you just have these absolute
banger songs that become part of the cultural lexicon. The
thing is, if you listen and I do as you
(24:10):
will know I listened to a lot of Disney music.
I listened to a lot of musicals. I listened to
a lot of Wicked. If you put that on the
car in the Orcs with the wrong person, someone's gonna
be like, oh, not musical music. It's not Disney song.
You want to listen to a whole new world. But
you know what, if you want to listen to any
song from this, people are going to be like, that's
a banger. And I think that has set a new
(24:33):
stage because spite of us didn't have original songs, we
haven't dream works. Basically just was like, we're not going
to do that and did needle drops with Shrek and stuff.
So in that way, Aaron, you bring up a great point.
This is a true competitor and maybe a new kind
of watermark for what people are going to expect from
(24:53):
animated musical films. And we get, you know, this big
performance of Golden to kind of perfor to promote this
idea of everyone coming together at the awards. When the
Sogat Boys don't turn up obviously, we get this big,
big imposter demon fight they split roomy up, and then
(25:15):
you know, we get that performance of Takedown, which is
so incredible, and we see the reveal and it feels like,
you know, that ultimate heartbreak moment that you can't come
back from, and I think it's kind of incredible again
to be able to bring that to life in an
(25:38):
animated movie. This is not like your minor conflict, Like
this is a heartbreaking thing like Gino Trickter he lied
about his past. She has to go up there and
reveal who she truly is. Like it's so so well done,
and again, as you say, you're all so k drama.
One of my favorite rewatch K dramas is Cinderella and
(25:58):
Four Nights, which is one of my favorite tropes, which
is a broke girl who meets a billionaire and then
has to move in with him and his four billionaire car,
you know, and she does date basically all of them,
but then in that final watch is one you know,
and then you have to choose at the end. But
(26:20):
I remember when the conflict of that show happened, it
hit me so deeply because I was just rooting for
her and rooting for this other guy who is also poor,
who had found out he's a cousin by his you know,
illicit dad, and he wasn't used to being rich. But
that was the thought. I was like, Oh, these shows
managed to hit in a way emotionally that a lot
(26:41):
of like American prestige TV doesn't even interested in exploring,
you know, they want to make you feel bummed out,
but they don't want you to.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
About your set pieces, which I think American prestige TV
is either extremely dialogue theater focused or big flashy set
piece is on like a cinematic scale focus that sort
of has been if you think about our broadcast TV. Yeah,
broadcast TV days like in order to be good TV.
(27:10):
You just had to have good dialogue writing. When we
got to our streaming and our big you know, our
hbos H spaces, then yes, then we could we could
move into the cinematic giant action pieces, and so that
became a thing. And so with I think K dramas specifically,
because these studios are churning out so many at such
a fast rate, what you really have to do is
(27:31):
like sink into the characters because also you're doing many,
many episodes, and.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
The cost is often much lower than an American dege.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
We don't have time, gotta go.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Also, something they don't really talk you know, that hasn't
really been talked about, but I talk about a lot
is like so many K dramas are adapted from comic books,
online webtoons by women. So I also think it is
like a completely different perspective on what entertainment can and
should be. And I think they translate that here really
(28:03):
well by adding relationships that you root for, characters that
you care about, and also allowing characters who have secrets
to redeem themselves and to be honest and to find happiness.
And that is essentially like we we get there's the
demon Gemar, he comes back, he puts everyone in an
(28:24):
evil trance. We have to see the Serja Boys final performance,
which is gonna you know, destroy the horn Moon, but
of course that doesn't happen because Rumy interrupts the performance
and does this song about like it's about like shame
and fear and honesty and pain and what it feels
(28:47):
like to keep a secret. And I also loved the
show the kind of confrontation between Rumy and Selene, because
early on I had assumed that Selene was like part
of the villainous story just because of the way they
were playing out cool and so she's so cool, and
also the fact that she wanted me to keep it
a secret her demon marks rather than just embracing her.
(29:09):
And I thought that there was something very real about
the writing and that scene where they have the showdown
between the two of them and really like Selena is
still trying to protect Rumy and be like, I can
cover this up for you, but she doesn't understand that
that is not what Rumy wants. So you know, that
just feels like a novel.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Which is so excited for the sequel to be, like
who is the father?
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Please, let's mort demon daddy.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I need to know the demon daddy.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And I love the idea of like, hey, I understand
that you love me, but if you don't love all
of me, this does not work for us.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
I thought that was.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Really beautiful and for her to immediately go from that
to like, this is the sound of my truth to
her friend.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
This is my favorite part of any musical. It's like
all the.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Voices are joining yes, yes, yes, you're going like that incredible.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I talk a lot about in my opinion because of
how great the music is and because of the story
the very underrated Disney movie Wish, but I would also say,
like visually compared to this, that it makes Wish look
really awful. They made some interesting choices with like rotoscoping,
but it does have one of my all time favorites.
(30:21):
And I thought about this at the end where it's
there's a great song, it's Ariana debos is that play
is the main character, and she has this great song
about the wish, which is the big kind of like
oh I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna go on my
own way, and it's about this idea that she makes
this wish for her community to be able to have
control over their own dreams. And it's so great, It's
(30:42):
so brilliantly written. I love it. And the final song
is the entire village comes together and sings the song,
and like, just thinking about it is giving me goosebumps.
But I have often found that in recent years it
is a compromise if you get great songs or you
get you know, Frozen two, a movie that loads of
(31:03):
people love that had really great songs, but you had
the storyline is very complicated and honestly pretty problematic, And
there's always seems to be this kind of trade off
in modern animation because they have to make the audiences
like they think it's for young kids, but they want
to have songs that people like. And this feels like
somehow they manage to create something where the quality of
(31:26):
the storytelling and animation is as high as the quality
of the stories, and that all of those pieces work together.
And I think that also as well. Something you know,
I'm guessing that this is the people who made this
movie obviously read a lot of fanfic and watch a
lot of movies, and the way that Ginu like sacrifices
(31:47):
himself ultimately and then basically becomes one with Rumy and
that's how she is saved. Is like so ultimately romantic
and just like yeah, a total kind of incredible situation.
And also I like that it also gives us kind
(32:09):
of like a romance doesn't save the day kind of
ending to where at the end she is just chilling
her marked with her friends and the boy is gone,
Like that was great love that put you're a stored
soul in me. But now it's just me and my
crew and we're gonna go see our fans. And yeah,
I mean that is a K Pop Demon Hunter as
the recap, and it is such a fantastic movie. It's
(32:31):
hard to tell you, guys even how great it is
by our conversation, but make sure that you go watch
it on Netflix. And then when we've come back, Aaron
is going to talk to us about the music of
K Pop Demon Hunters. And we're back. Am we ready
(33:01):
to unleash Aaron the talented musician and super producer onto
your airwaves to tell you everything you need to know
about this incredible soundtrack.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So I thought it was important to talk about some
of the backgrounds of the music as well as the
voices because the singing voices were very intentionally chosen for
each of the three leads, as well as for the
Saga boys. But I think, you know, we talked, we
mentioned some other musicals, whether they be sort of stage
musicals like Wicked, whether it be something like Disney movie.
A lot of times those kind of musicals, the music
(33:32):
is written by one or two people. It's someone doing
the libretto. You know, it's a small group. One of
the things that I thought was amazing about this they
treated this like a Rayana album. So this has been
in production for three years. And Ian Eisendraft, who was
the executive music producer. He conducted, arranged, he was a
vocal producer. He worked closely with the Black Label, which
(33:53):
is a South Korean record label. So they had teams
of people working on each song.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
For each scene that.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Had a they would create five, six, seven different tracks
and try to figure out which one fit the story best.
So there are multiple interviews with the cast or the
writers talking about like, oh yeah, Golden, this was the
fifth thing that we came up with here and one
this happened to be perfect, and so this worked. And
then as we were recording it, you would do a verse,
(34:21):
write the verse, record the verse, send it to the team,
the producers and director. They would okay, like, yes, this
verse hits the story beat what we want?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Okay, cool, do.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
The next verse and then do the bridge separately. And
so it was a very much like collaborative thing across
different countries, different writers all around. And that's typically how
pop albums are written. So you'll have someone a producer
will make a track, someone else will do the top
line and they will which is the melody and the
(34:50):
lyrics typically, and then someone else may come in and
add to the top line. Someone else may come in
and change up the production of the track itself, keeping
the other top line. So that's exactly how they went
about writing this, and they got like real true K
pop writers and performers. The K pop band Twice came
into this and it was like, we love these songs.
(35:12):
They did their own version of Takedown that plays in
the credits, and then they also did Strategy, which plays
in the you know, I'm going to say iconic, maybe
a little bit dedation.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Panic already, I think it's okay to say that.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
But the iconic scene of her walking into her closet
and you see the rows and rose of outfits and
that's there. They're playing a twice song in there I have.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I was so just excited and happy to see like
somebody with lots of clothes. I have so many clothes, guys,
like it's it's it's my vice. I love charity shops,
I love thrift stores. I'm always putting together a look.
And I loved I love a good closet scene, very clueless,
Yeah where you go? And I thought that was so brilliant. Also, Aaron,
(35:54):
something I had read was that they actually knocked twice
off of the Spotify number one with Golden and with
the the girls from the from Hunt Trix, which I
thought was also like, that's kind of incredible.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I mean they they like surpassed bts. I mean they've
they've they're they're going through the K pop stars. And
so now for the playlist part, I'm gonna go through
different voices and give you a song recommendation to go
check them out. So the singing voices for Hunter Tricks.
For Mira, it was Audrey Nuda, who's an R and
B singer and rapper. She just recently put out a
(36:31):
song called too High, which feels very moody, drugged out,
R and B. I mean, this is, like I said,
this is like looking out the window from of a
neon city from a crowded party, potentially in Hunters's apartment
there they're loft.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Her.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
My favorite song of hers is Mine, which samples Brandy
and Monica's The Boy is Mine. So depending on whether
or not you are nostalgic for that nineties hit, the
song is incredible and it while I don't think it
would be a HUNTERX song, this is definitely something they
would play at a party going on in their own
So check out Audrey.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
I also recommend Damn Right by Audrey, which is a
jam that's been on my playlist for years and when
I saw her name, I was like, no, no, it
was just like, it's very vindicated, it's so fun. It's
very like edgy and aggressive, and I like it a lot.
I think we're to listen to.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
And I'm also going to say I am gonna officially
take the duty of making an x ray Vision Spotify
account and making a playlist of this beau.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
I have this playlist.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Description. Okay, thank you. I don't even need to do it,
because I was going to say we have had people
when Arrows talked about music before asking us to make
playlists to set that up. And obviously, Joel, your very
viral superman in a views with Den of Geek. Have
been getting a lot of comments on our page asking
us to make the playlist that the cast gave us.
(37:53):
So I think this is a wonderful first start, and Aaron,
I appreciate you doing that. What's your next recommendation? So next?
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Always singing and rapping voice is by Ray Ami and
Ray is another R and B singer rapper. She is
known for having an incredibly aggressive rap style and then
very melodic singing hooks, and she does them within the
same song. It will alternate from one to the other.
She'll start off the first half is heavy rapping and
then it goes to this like soft singing section. My
(38:24):
favorite song of hers is her breakout single snow Cone.
Check out the song, check out the video which she
recorded like on her phone for one hundred dollars. But
I would say, if you are a parent and your
little children love K pop demon hunters, just test these
songs ahead of time. They do it.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
This is a parental approval first, yes, check check on
them first.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
But ray Amy's Spotify bio is Hello Kitty with a Knife,
which is honestly perfect for her sound.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I'm about to go get a tattoo and now I'm like,
maybe that's why I'm gonna gaes. I'm like, you're killing me.
That's a great, great line.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
RuMIS vocal performer was EJ and EJ is a songwriter
and producer, but she herself was a former K pop
trainey so K pop has just like so many training
programs for people to be K pop stars. EJ has
gone through that. She was at SNSM Entertainment for ten
years the biggest YEP was unable to break out and
(39:21):
she met with another producer who got her writing on something.
He just wanted her to like test something a track
for her. Through that, she met Andrew Choi, who is
the voice of Genu, and he started to teach her
and they were writing together and he got her writing
with Red Velvet kpop group and she wrote the song
(39:41):
Psycho as well as a number of others. She wound
up getting on the writing team for K Pop Demon
Hunters and wrote a number of the demos and sang
on the demos and Maggie Kane the director was praising
her demo vocals and said, like, this is the reason
this movie got Greenlitz, because your demo vocals were so good.
And then they eventually came back to her and we're like,
we want you to be the official voice. Yeah, just
(40:03):
for one of the characters, but the lead character. So
she wound up being the being Rumy's voice. And she
has written a bunch of stuff for other artists, including Twice,
who we talked about earlier. But the two songs for
the playlist that I want to suggest for her are
Armageddon by Espa, which features like this really grimy grinding
(40:25):
verse and then like a huge bubblegum pre chorus that
goes right back into this like grimy chorus. And then
the second one is Last Waltz by Twice, which it
feels like it would fit right at home on a
Hunterricks album, and it is incredibly catchy and has these
really dramatic, like theatrical builds. You can tell like this
is her writing evolving from those songs from a couple
(40:46):
of years ago into the Huntrix songs. And now the
next set of things for the playlist, I'm not giving
like basic K pop things. I think there are much
people who are much better at Fantastic. If you are
unfamiliar with K pop, this movie is a great intro.
There are plenty of things you can go out there.
Listen to bts, listen to new genes, listen to you know,
(41:08):
like XG, whatever band hits you. But now I want
to go through some of my favorite fictional boy group,
boy bands and girl groups. So first of all, obviously
we have Huntricks doing Golden. I think that's the perfect number.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
One million streams on Spotify.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Second, Saja Boys, your idol. I think soda pop is good.
I think your idol is great. So we're gonna have
that there, and the charts agree. The charts agree. Next,
we're going to go to a twenty twenty one Korean
series called Imitation, which is about Korean idols, and this
has a young girl group named Tea Party, a little
unfortunate given in America, but outside outside and this there's
(41:49):
a the lead in Tea Party falls in love with
a member of the boy band Shacks, and two songs
from that show. One is shown Me by Tea Party,
which is like hyper pop, chibby act Sense and everything
like very very K pop and then Mallow by Shacks
is like a super slick, well produced pop song, very upbeat.
(42:10):
The next one I want to focus on is Idle
the Coup, another Korean show following K pop groups. This
is following Cotton Candy, who's a failed K pop group
who are on the brink of disbanding. They're going to
try one last time to make it by you can
guess getting the number one slot on an idol show.
(42:31):
Just like in K pop Demon Hunters, they have a
bunch of like the cast members were also members of
established K pop groups like xID and so two of
the Cotton Candy songs that I really love first is Honest,
which has an enormous chorus. I love it. It's like
this straight eighths to a triplet feel on the chorus,
(42:51):
and it is such a good hit when that chorus
comes in. And then second is We Rise, which is
like quintessential twenty tens pop. You have big synth, stabby verses,
and then you have like this dirtiest fuck edm hook
in there. So it just it hits that kind of pop.
The next famous, maybe not famous, but favorite fictional boy
(43:13):
band from Bob's Burgers. We have Boys for Now singing
coal Mine my favorite of the Boys for Now songs.
They have many songs about a variety of things, coal
Mine is my favorite. Now, I will say Boys for
Now is deservedly so. The worst singers on this list
one hundred percent, as you can tell by the massive
(43:34):
amounts of auto tune that are just messily used, especially
on the young the young one I forget what his
name is, bo Bobo or whatever, and then the last
one boo boo, boo boo. And then lastly from Turning Red,
we have for Town singing Nobody Like You, No You,
(43:54):
a song that is incredible, and partly is incredible because
it was written by Phineas and Billie Eilish. So when
you get these like successful great songwriters to write you
great songs, I think that's awesome. And then an honorable
mention it doesn't fit because they play instruments and they
are not technically a boy band or a girl group.
But from Doug the Beats singing Killer Tofu, it's not
(44:16):
on the playlist because it doesn't really count, but I
just wanted to just wanted to call that out.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
And I know if we were not counting bands that
play instruments. But I just think Carolin Tuesday with the
Netflix you know, partnership here Loneliest Girls so good. It
does have sixteen point eight these dreams on Spotify. I
dig Carolyn Tuesday a lot, have rewatched multiple times.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Good and he is by you know, one of the
greatest anime directs of all time. You make Cowboy Bebop.
So yeah, we'll a joy.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
So we'll put all those songs and artists and titles
in the description, as well as a link to a
Spotify playlist if you want to listen, get a little
bit of you know, fictional boy band girl groups in
your life.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Love that all right?
Speaker 3 (44:59):
To take break and we're we come back. We're gonna
talk Sony Animation and I'll give you a little rundown
of its history and we're back.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Okay. So, guys, Joel has prepared an unbelievable history of
Sony Animation's first twenty years thanks to some really great
reporting from Drew Taylor at The Wrap, and Joelle is
gonna speed us through twenty years of Sony history.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
So here's what you really need to know, really early
on in the creation of Sony Animation, which is only
twenty years old, if you can believe it. Chris Miller
and Phil Lord, the geniuses are babies. They don't know
how to make a movie, and they don't know how
to navigate a studio space, which is fine because Sony
Pictures animation is new and they don't have no rules here.
Speaker 4 (45:57):
They don't know what they're looking for.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
They don't know what a Sony animated picture looks like.
It's never been done before, and so it kind of
works for them. So they're coming off of Clone High
with a friend of the pod, Bill Lawrence's show that
was on MTV really successful, and they come in for
a pitch meeting and they they're throwing things at them.
They're like, what about this? So what about this? We
don't really know about any of these things. And then
they're like, we do have Cloudy with the Chance Meatballs,
(46:20):
And these two guys who did not spend their childhoods
together both loved this book in their youth, and they
were like, we could maybe do something with like that. Possibly.
They're like, come in tomorrow and pitch us. They said, what,
I came in the day after tomorrow, which is smart.
So they they pulled an all nighter they come back
in and they pitch it. Now, here's something really funny
to me. They get greenlit three separate times, no cancelations
(46:44):
in between, so you could tell things are very chaotic
in the background. They almost get the boot a couple
of times. No one's really They're like muppets and animation.
Everybody's doing hyperrealism in animation at this time, and so
the studio was confused by their messaging. But eventually they
spend so much money on this film, studio is like,
it is actually going to be more expensive to cancel
(47:06):
you than to just let you finish, And unlike some
spaces where they might you know, hover over you and
be really uptight about, they were like, just do it
your own way, because again we are trying to figure
out what we should look like. So they finish and voila.
It's a huge success. And part of that huge success
is because we're also coming off of the first two
animated films that Sony Animation did.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Which was Open Season, Thank You.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
Surfs Up Yes, So those have two very different distinct looks.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
So the studio was like.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Okay, fine, do you It's great.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (47:38):
So a few years pass and they're really not sure
like what direction they're going. And they're working on Hotel Transylvania,
which is another one of the.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
First scripts they got.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Early five directors have come and gone. It's a hot mess.
And then Jenny Tartakovski walks in. Okay, Now Jendy is
coming off of Dexter's lab, his dozmer Jack. People really
of him, but his stuff is edgy. He pitches a
movie called Fixed. It's an R rated romance that is animated.
(48:08):
They're like, we don't really know what to do with that,
but and it's.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
A dog romance.
Speaker 4 (48:12):
It's a dog they are dogs.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
They're definitely sure what to do with that. But they
have this project and they need a new director. And
so Jendy looks at the art and he's like, I
could probably make that work because Bay the next day
he said he had so many ideas he's popped it off. Okay, wow,
six director locked in. That movie comes out makes billions.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Million. They got four feature films. An animated was actually
written and produced by Tatowski, who returned. I know from
having many nieces and nephews. Boy, those movies they love them.
They had video games, theme Bark Attractions, and yeah, it's
a one point three billion dollar franchise now, so.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
It's another huge hit. But then of course we come
to Spider Man into the Spider Verse. Lord and Miller
are back. That movie breaks a bunch, and really what
breaks that movie open is so there's Sony Pictures Animation
and then there's Sony Interactive Pictures, I think, and that's
their like a visual effects team.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
They started a long.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
Time ago on a forgotten project that Bruce Wilson was
working on where he was like a cop who works
on a boat, don't ask. And so then when Sony
Pictures Animated Pictures comes along, they're like, hey, you should
work with our visual effects guys. And that is not
worlds that typically overlap. It is very controversial, both in
house and out of house, but it kind of works
because if you think about the very distinct imaging and
(49:38):
Spider Man, particularly the brushstrokes on the background, which again
if you're not into animation you might miss almost but
it's really intricate, difficult work to make a painted brushstroke
look like part of a background as a camera is
moving across it. It's a lot, but they do it successfully,
and that is why we have a lot of very
distinct looking sony animation pictures right now because they partnered
with their in house visual effects team, and because it's
(49:59):
all in house, they don't have to like go outside
and get approval for things somebody's worried about image. It's
all one team working in the same direction, which we love.
So then we have the Mitchell's Versus Machines comes out
not long after into the Spider Verse in.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Netflicker Netflix smash. Also, I will say very much that
first movie where we all went, oh, it looks like
Spider of Us. Yeah, Spider of Us set up that thing.
And then with Mitchell's The Machines, you're getting the experiments,
you're getting those different kind of looks. Another massive smash
for Netflix that I don't necessarily know was expected.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
It's kind of a mix of two D three D
animation that really hits.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Yeah, absolutely yeah, and it'll be interesting going forward.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
This article was written in twenty twenty three, and a
thing that keeps coming up is all the executives saying like,
we don't have a distinct look and that's what makes
us special. But if you look at into Spider Verse
and then the teenage Mutant in Eternals movie and then
K Pop Demon Hunters. You're starting to see strong similarities,
like your style has developed. Now that's not a negative
thing necessary, but it is going to sort of challenge
(51:02):
him and put them into a space of like defined
rules where they haven't operated before. I think the hope
is that they'll continue to focus and work with like
independent great storytellers, which they say is still at the forefront,
and there's a lot of good ones. We have Matthew A.
Cherry who did the hair Love short that was nominated
for an Oscar. He's got a movie called Tuck coming out.
(51:23):
Then there's Agent King, which is like an adult animated
series about Elvis as a CIA agent. He has a
monkey that does cocaine. What's that about, don't really know.
And then Goat which looks really good. Kayleb McLaughlin is
in it. He plays the lead of an actual goat
who's trying to like become dominant at a sport, which
is really exciting. And then they're working on Spider Verse.
(51:46):
A lot of folks were nervous when K Pop Demon
Hunters came out because they were like, oh no, that's the.
Speaker 4 (51:51):
Big animation project.
Speaker 3 (51:52):
You should be working on. Please redirect your attention to
Spider Man. We need a finale. I say we've gotten
to cozy with these quick turnarounds on movie and TV shows.
Hold your horses, let them make it good, let them
get it right. We've been blown away every time. I'm
happy to wait, and I'm excited that we're getting great
shows like K Pop Demon Hunter in between.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
You know, I hate to have a hot take, as
I never do on this show.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
Spicy, spicy take, we love it.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
I think Spider Verse needs to have better costumes after
seeing this, Like just seeing the outfits of K Pop
Demon Hunters, I'm just like.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
I like that Spider Man outfit is so boring.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
Now give me something better.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
I love Spider Man. I love Spider Man and as.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Much as you love Hunt Tans, Gwen Stacy, I am
the Spider Man costume and Spider Punk in his dope jacket.
Speaker 4 (52:48):
Listen. Costs are hitting.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
But I would I got my little Spider Punk a figure,
but I would like him to have a little bit
more of a k But yes, Sony animation, that kill it.
Baby Disney's got to be keeping up, I think is
the feeling right now? Now?
Speaker 3 (53:05):
I think everybody's nervous and with the Netflix deal and
their ability to reach so many households instantly, yeah, they're dominating.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
Coming up on X ray Vision this weekend, we have
two episodes, one focusing on all the exciting trailers that
came out this week there are a ton and Sunday
we'll have news and an interview with Ari Esta, the
director of Eddington, and that is the episode. Aaron and Joel,
thank you for joining me. This was a joy And guys,
listen to that playlist. How often do you get a
(53:33):
beautifully curated playlist by a fantastic musician who's also a podcast.
It's so so rare, and yeah, enjoy it and let
us know your favorite songs.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Bane x ray Vision is hosted by Jason Sepsion and
Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Korfman. Our
supervising producer is Abuzafar. Our producers are Common Laurent, Dean
Johnson and Babe.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord Kenny Goodman and Heidi,
our discord moderator
Wanning. Today's episode contains spoilers for the smash hit animated
movie on Netflix, K Pop Demon Hunters, So if you
haven't watched it, go watch it because it's amazing, or
listen to this and then realize how amazing it is
and go watch it. Hello, my name is Rosie Knight,
(00:32):
and welcome back to X ray Vision, the podcast where
we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics and
pop culture. We are here at iHeart Podcast where we'll
be bringing you episodes every Tuesday Thursday, and the summer's
biggest movie news and talk on Friday, Popcorn pop Out,
and a little way of news on a Saturday. In
(00:53):
today's episode, I am joined by two of the most
super of our super producers, Joelle and our And to
discuss the surprise animated smash of the summer K Pop
Demon Hunters. We're gonna recap the movie quickly, then Aaron
is gonna take us through the voices behind K Pop
Demon Hunter's chart topping music, featuring a custom playlist of
(01:14):
some favorite fictional boy band and girl groups. Joel has
done an incredible investigation of Sony's animation projects and what
they've got coming up. So we'll dip into that in
the omnibus. And remember, guys, I just got some DMS
about this, so I guess the Rebirth episodes are just
coming out. People are listening to them. They've seen Jurassic Park.
We will be at SDCC San Diego Comic Con. Xtra
(01:36):
Vision is gonna be there Thursday at twelve thirty. Our
panel with the Roddenbury Does It Fly Podcast will be
in Room twenty four ABC. Me and Jason will be
there on that panel talking science, pop culture, all the
things we love. Then come join us at Petco Park
at four pm for the chance to bid on real
Superman comic book art. And on Saturday we'll be retured
(02:00):
learning to pet Coo for a Godzilla auction with IDW
super seven and of course Den of Geek. Then you
want to hang out with Jason Concepcion, I know you do,
I know I do, And guess what, I'll be there
too with Joel and Ian and you can join us
at the Mission Brewery for a meet and greet and
a live podcast recording. But first let's talk about K
(02:20):
pop Demon Hunters. Okay, Aaron and Joel, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Thank you very excited to go into some of the
best music to come out of film in a long time.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I feel like, yes, Aaron, let's talk. Let's start with you,
how did you hear about K pop Demon Hunters? Because
you were the early trendsetter for our pod on this one.
You were the one who saw it first.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I think, as someone who is Chinese, I am
subscribed to or following a lot of Asian American art
accounts and influencers, and this started showing up quite a
bit as like, hey, this film is coming out on Netflix,
it's animated, it's about K pop stars. No shortage of
K pop focused shows or movies, but this one seemed
(03:12):
a little different and was like, you know, there have
been some other things with kind of fighting demons as
K pop stars, et cetera, but this seemed a little interesting.
So I watched it that opening weekend, and I think
in the beginning I was like, Wow, music's pretty good.
I'm surprised, and there's like a point where when they
go through Golden I was like, this is this is
(03:34):
not just like a couple good things. This is a
very well put together thing. And then I think what
sealed it for me was the Cat and the Magpie,
The Tiger and the Magpie. That I was just like, Okay,
I need to like pay one hundred percent attention because
this is like credible.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I need to be in.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yeah. So the movie was released on June twentieth, twenty
twenty five, on Netflix, directed by Maggie Kang Chris Applehans
and starring Ardentchoa's Roomy, Mayhong's Mirror, and Jijong Zhou as Zoe.
And they are three K pop superstars who are part
(04:10):
of a traditional lineage of demon hunters, and their role
is essentially to stop demons feeding on humans by creating
a magical kind of gate called the hon Moon or
the Golden hom Moon. And we get to see the
(04:33):
in a really lovely opening scene that again, I think
was the moment where I sort of understood, like, oh,
this isn't a K pop movie because k pop is
popular right now and Netflix wants to make something this
is a gorgeously animated sony movie with people who love
Korean music and love the history of cre culture. Yes,
(04:53):
and Korean culture. We get this gorgeous kind of We
open with this gorgeous look back through history. We get
to see the Demons, which are really really cool and
nicely designed and very interesting. But then we also get
to see the different trio girl groups through the ages,
which I thought was so fantastic and so lovely, and
(05:15):
we eventually get to see Hunterricks which is our main group, Rumy,
Mirror and Zoe, and they are trained by the very sexy,
older but very evil coded with her gray hair Selene,
who basically was a Demon Hunter and is now ready
for the girls to release their big bad song Golden, which,
(05:40):
as Aaron mentions, you get into and you start to
realize like, oh, these are the kind of songs that
are going to be in your head for a long time,
and also, as we have seen, have gone on to
become incredible smash hits K pop. Demon Hunters is the
highest charting soundtrack of twenty twenty five, earning what they
(06:00):
would say is like the equivalent of seventy five thousand
album units. In its third week, Golden is in the
top ten of the Hot one hundred with eighteen point
eight million streams, nine hundred and fifty thousand airplay impressions.
Thanks Variety, and the entire Demon Hunter's soundtrack has logged
ninety six million on demand official streams, so they're in
(06:26):
the twenty twenties. They've only have There been three other
soundtracks that have reached the top two on Billboard two
hundred Wicked, which debuted and peaked at number two, Barbie
also number two debut, and Encanto, which spent nine weeks
at number one in twenty twenty two and was second
in twenty twenty three. All of those were nominated, so
this is kind of a big gonna be a big
(06:48):
push for Netflix, even though that might not have been
their original plan, seeing as this is being seen as
a huge surprise, Joelle, before we start getting into the
surprises in the twist of capop themeon Hunters, how did
you find out about it?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So? I messaged our good friend Laura a few weeks
before it came out because she had been promoting it
on her page, and I was like, so, I'm seeing
it the posters and everything. It looks cool. Tell me
about it. And Lara was like, girl, it's so good,
and I was like, but how good is it really?
She's like She's like, I'm gonna hedge my bats because
they don't want to overhype it because again, the movie
was not out yet, so she's just enjoying all the
(07:24):
goodness by herself. And she was like, but I really
liked it, and I was like, Okay, I'm gonna give
it a shot. So when it first came out, I said, no,
I'm not going to get into it's too early and
my heart is tender. I fall in love with things
too easily. I'm gonna wait a day where my dog
was a daycare and my brother was out of the house,
and I said, no one will judge me for watching
this movie. Okay, I won't be interrupted.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
In the cinephile household exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I'm gonna buckle in and get into this. And I
was hooked. Like the airplane fight scene, like parachuting down
the stadium was way cool.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
I agree, Like the tie you're in the bird the little.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Hat was always little and the tiger was little. I
just said, so cute. But then but then my favorite song,
this is what it sounds like? Yeah, I said this.
I will protect this movie with my life.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Who do I have to kill? This movie's everything to me,
that's all.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I baled so hard the first time they sound I
was like, this is so beautiful. What a great message.
Costumes are outstanding. I love the girls like.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And we get like a K drama. It's too many.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Good things and I really loved it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I was looked, Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the
aeroplane sequence, because that is where we really get to
see kind of the girls in action, not just as
demon hunters, though they are delayed from going to the
show by demons who take over their airplane and they
take them over. But one of the things I loved
about this was the way that it understood. And it's
(08:52):
obviously it's kind of almost like a parasite thing where
I know that they are trying to make a movie
about a very unique experience, which is being a K
pop star, something we can't really relate to. But one
of the biggest tropes about K pop stars is they
love to eat right because of all the training and stuff,
and then they'll do mook bangs and and but that
is so universally relatable as a woman who has to
(09:15):
do stuff is like, yeah, I want to sit with
my friends in our nice outfits and eat fucking ramen
from a cup like that to me is so wonderful
and cozy and relatable and also plays into you know
what we see of K pop stars on talent shows
and daily star shows and stuff. So I loved it
and I love how they use gag animation for the faces,
very anime influenced, very Sailor Moon. So we begin with
(09:38):
this incredible fight. They land, they land down, and they're
about to launch. They want to have a rest, which
relatable after the show. I love this scene too, where
we get to see two of the girls, but Roomy
just can't wait. She's like, we're gonna release it. We're
not gonna have a break. We're gonna press play on
it right now. But she probably should have thought about that.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Roomy is me and I am Roomy. She was like,
stop working.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
She was like I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
She's like, no, gross, now we have to keep working.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And I love that moment because I have been wrapped
up in my cardigan, in my little like robe, ready
to relax, and then had a friend come and be like,
so we're going out and I'm like, no, don't do.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
It to me.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
But this is this is the moment for me story wise,
I was just loving to be in the world. I
was loving the music, I loving the visuals. It's very
spider Us kind of style of bringing in new type
of animation. But it's the moment when we kind of
get this big reveal that Roomy is in fact losing
her voice. She goes up to the roof, she tries
(10:43):
to sing. We see the horm moon across the sky,
and that is when we learn, when she takes off
the jacket that she has the patterns that show that
you are a demon or at least part demon, and
they're kind of these purple tattoos. I just like screamed
at the TV and in that moment it worked for
me immediately as a massive twist, and I just couldn't
(11:06):
kind of believe how well it was done, how well
they set it up. It's such an obvious kind of
like from two worlds, can you save both? Set up?
But it works and they do such a great reveal
and then we start to really get into it. We
go to the demon realm, we see guem on his
nobody's demoning enough, everybody's getting failed by the Demon Hunt
(11:28):
as they're smashing them, and then done, we meet the
Saja boys.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Aaron first reaction to the Saga voice.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
To I mean, I think first reaction to Genu his
introduction coming out playing a like, you know, I actually
don't remember what instrument it is, not a guitar but something,
you know, acoustic instrument singing there that was very powerful
to me. And then conjuring up these four other characters
voiced by kind of like a great all star cast
(11:59):
of career and talent too. Joel Kin Booster is in there,
song one show is in there, and like that their
intro is these hooded or not hooded, but these cloaked
figures with these hats and everything beautiful. And I love
the idea of like creating this demonic boy band. And
I think their introduction is so nice in comparison to
(12:22):
Huntricks's introduction where we learn all their backstory, and I
think a really nice way of filmmaking with fans fan
girling or fanboying out over each.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Character showing, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Such a good lyricist and you know Owen and Roomy
is the diva, Oh my god, you know. So I
love the way they did that to intro each character
and keep it in like really quick succession and give
us just like more context for them as like K
pop idols are percent.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It also sets up a really great juxtaposition between Ginu,
who wants to like erase his human memories, who is
clearly like lonely and heartbroken, and this creation of the
Sager Boys, and like the comparison of how Huntrix gets
to live and how Huntrix is beloved and how Hundrix's
music is beloved. So the plan of the Saga Boys
(13:13):
is to essentially weaken the hormon drain all the energy
from the fans, and then in return, Genu wall have
his human memories gone, which means he won't be heartbroken anymore.
Very K drama set, they're are very very K drama sets.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Just the story of like stealing fans from another arrival
K pop group is also a very common K drama trope.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, I love how they have managed to manifest so
many of the brilliant feelings and emotions and tropes that
we get in K dramas, Like I watch a lot
of K dramas, and to see an animated show that
takes on the aesthetics and the intricacies and the romantic
(13:59):
relateationships is so pleasing and so enjoyable. So Ginu obviously
discovers Room is secret, because what else would happen and
then we learn that the demons are actually enslaved by
kind of the feelings of shame and sorrow. And it's
(14:20):
this I think there's this really interesting concept here of
the power of music and how music can be used. Aaron,
could you talk a little bit about that aspect of
the film.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
So this is one of my favorite conversation topics about
film literature, anything that's not music. When as a musician,
I remember growing up I always wanted there to be
cool musician characters in other mediums to follow, and that
never really happens. I think like Name of the Wind
is like the first time really that I felt like,
(14:51):
oh wow, this musician is cool. And here I love
the way they did it. And I think that using
music both as like something to strengthen and bring people together,
but also this sort of mystical ancestral thing that's passed
down through generations, whether or not the music is the
same genre. They're showing these I mean very almost sinners
(15:12):
coded and like, here's how the music has transcended each
generation to do the same thing of bringing people together
and protecting them.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And this is like maybe the third time in my
life when I've watched or read something and been like,
they made musicians seem cool. I'm very happy with that.
I like the idea of someone that can sing and
then conjure a glave out of thin air or a
sword and fight demons with it, and like also be
wrong at the site.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Okay, Aaron, you have to watch. There was this really
incredible animated movie that I was lucky enough. No, but
I love Kubo. There's a movie that I was lucky
enough to go and see with a friend who invited
me at the Arrow a few years ago. Now, wow,
it came out in twenty twenty one. It's called Inuo,
and it is set in like fourteenth century Pan but
(16:01):
it is about two guys who basically create like a
glam rock musical show in the fourteenth century of Japan.
It's honestly like a truly astounding movie. I immediately bought it.
It's directed by a Misaki Yuasa, who has made a
bunch of really famous stuff. I believe Ping Pong is
(16:21):
his most famous creation. He also actually did an episode
of Adventure Time because he's really cool. But Inuo is
one of the It was the first movie I thought
of when I watched this where I was like, oh,
this is a whole different way of showing how music
can influence people, how music can be brought to life
on screen, because I do as well love the visualization
(16:42):
of music. Here, Aaron, how did you feel as a musician,
do you ever have those kind of moments where you
can see your music as you play it? Or do
you feel like in this movement they managed to bring
something new to that because we don't get to see
that a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, that's a that's a really big question. I think God,
I would love selfishly if at some point I felt
like my music was having that sort of impact of
strengthening the hun moon and you know, binding things together.
But I think what this does really well is it
feels so natural in how it's delivered within Because they're singers,
(17:19):
then that's like a huge part of it. But like,
if you're watching it as much as I love the
Disney Robin Hood, there's no real reason these characters should
be singing. There's no real reason Disney symbol needs to sing.
He just can't wait to be king. I get the emotion,
but like, where is it coming from? Here? It makes
total sense, and that's a such a victory for everyone
(17:41):
on the music side of things, that these songs seamlessly
fit into this whole thing, whether it be Genu and
Roomy singing together this like forlorn love song, whether it
be them writing and performing Takedown, whether it's them you know,
on the plane like kicking there the demon's ass while
they're getting ready to drop into the show. I mean,
(18:03):
there's so many just points where this movie does it perfectly.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I think Soda Pop, I mean the introduction of that song,
literally seeing it catch up like these are fans as
extras in this movie is really well done because you see, like, Okay,
you're so much Yes, you're the old walking grannies, You're
the group of male friends who really dig K pop.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Here are your teeney boppers.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Who stands sort of like more the rapper, more folks
on the dancer, and like, you know, I love the
two crying guys.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Here's here's the kid who always rips the shirt off
to have the other band's shirt underneath.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, yeah, so conflicted. And I think like the introduction
of Sodapop botha is a like overly sweet, like hiding
the sort of like evilness. But then also this catchy
jam that everybody, even our girls like, can't stop shimmying
their shoulders too. Like it's just such a wonderful musical
introduction and it really shows like the threat to them
(19:02):
musically so quick when people boards start popping up right after.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Like this visual storytelling is like on another level here.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I also think that's a great point too, is this
isn't a movie that has one great band. This is
a movie that had to make two great bands. And
as kind of the Saga Boys grow in popularity. Obviously
they're beautiful, they're great dancers, they're great singers, they got abs,
they got cool costumes, and Hunterricks try to make this
(19:32):
new song take down, which I this is where I
thought the movie really showcases its emotional intelligence because they
essentially have this story and this song that's about like
it's an anti demon kind of song. It's We're gonna
take you out. And Rumy becomes conflicted and starts to
feel like shame and worry, and that's when she comes
(19:53):
up with this plan to work with Gino and together
maybe they can save the hon Moon, help them win
the award, and then he can stay on this side,
say he can stay here too, and.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Isn't that a boyfriend?
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Isn't that what four year old hot boyfriend? Boyfriend?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
The literature tells us. This is what the ladies are.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Hundred year old hot boyfriend who has been up with demons.
He's been fighting. Maybe he's killed a few people, but
you know what, he would never do. He would never
hurt us. That's the class Tigerie.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Yes, or reveal your secret? Can we talk?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Okay, wait, we'll we come back. We're going to talk
about the scene where he hides her demon mark because wow,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
Okay, we're back.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
We're back, Joel, talk about it. Gush, gush, gush.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
So my mom is really into CA dramas. She discovered
them on wearing Netflix. Thank you for introducing us to
global television as in your Americans. It's been really beautiful. Yeah,
she loves them. She gobbles them up. She came over,
created an entire channel on my Netflix so she could
watch her K dramas. And so I've learned a lot
about the K drama tropes and uh, I'll keep your
(21:20):
secret for you. Trope is easily one of my favorites.
It's so like, I mean, so easy to swoop into
romance that way, A lot of K dramas have a
lot of similarities with like Victorian romance literature, which is
a lot of we cannot touch and no one can.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Know we like each other.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
So they'll be yearning so much yearning longings here and
they effing nail it, like she can't tell her friends
that she's a demon or that she's like having this
crushed like flirty time with a demon. He knows all
of the secrets and possibly more because he's already on
the other side of the demon culture, so he alos
doing on there.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
He is keeping his own secret, which I love because
he has his own shame. I also think, and this
is something I would love. Maybe who knows the movie
keeps popping off. If it really becomes a FYC movie,
which I think it will becomes the astome movie for Netflix,
maybe we can have Laura on because I would also.
I feel like something that's quite deep about this movie
(22:12):
is it uses the context of the demons and the
kind of way that they make people feel shame, and
the fact that Ginu has this secret that he left
his family when he gained fame, and I think that
there has been a lot of complexity and exploitation in
the real world of kpop, and over the last ten
(22:33):
years there has been a shift to a more open,
transparent conversation around that kind of stuff. And I found
this to be quite profound in its way of talking
about fame through this kind of supernatural lens, but being
realistic about the choices people have to make, the people
they have to leave behind, the things that you have
(22:54):
to do, like lying to your friends. These three are
an ideal friendship. You love them, you want to root
for them, but she cannot tell them this deepest truth
about herself in case it impacts their fame as a
band and their role in life. I just think that
is really deep, and I think it's another reason that
people are finding this movie because it has so many layers.
(23:14):
Banging music, incredible animation, but also a story that I
think is is quite profound and real. Yeeah go for
Aaron No.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I was gonna say one hundred percent, I mean, and
that's I think. I'm excited. You know. In a little bit,
I'm going to talk more about the music. Joelle's going
to talk some more about the animation and some of
the things that we think really made this stand out
over any number of other animated movies that have come
out in the past, musical or otherwise. I mean, this,
this is up there. I think with Disney animated pieces
(23:46):
of question like this is this is very.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
High Ironically, I actually yeah, I think you make a
great point because I think that one of the biggest
struggles all animated movies have had is living up to
your say Beauty and the Beast or your Little Mermaid
or You're a Laddin, where you just have these absolute
banger songs that become part of the cultural lexicon. The
thing is, if you listen and I do as you
(24:10):
will know I listened to a lot of Disney music.
I listened to a lot of musicals. I listened to
a lot of Wicked. If you put that on the
car in the Orcs with the wrong person, someone's gonna
be like, oh, not musical music. It's not Disney song.
You want to listen to a whole new world. But
you know what, if you want to listen to any
song from this, people are going to be like, that's
a banger. And I think that has set a new
(24:33):
stage because spite of us didn't have original songs, we
haven't dream works. Basically just was like, we're not going
to do that and did needle drops with Shrek and stuff.
So in that way, Aaron, you bring up a great point.
This is a true competitor and maybe a new kind
of watermark for what people are going to expect from
(24:53):
animated musical films. And we get, you know, this big
performance of Golden to kind of perfor to promote this
idea of everyone coming together at the awards. When the
Sogat Boys don't turn up obviously, we get this big,
big imposter demon fight they split roomy up, and then
(25:15):
you know, we get that performance of Takedown, which is
so incredible, and we see the reveal and it feels like,
you know, that ultimate heartbreak moment that you can't come
back from, and I think it's kind of incredible again
to be able to bring that to life in an
(25:38):
animated movie. This is not like your minor conflict, Like
this is a heartbreaking thing like Gino Trickter he lied
about his past. She has to go up there and
reveal who she truly is. Like it's so so well done,
and again, as you say, you're all so k drama.
One of my favorite rewatch K dramas is Cinderella and
(25:58):
Four Nights, which is one of my favorite tropes, which
is a broke girl who meets a billionaire and then
has to move in with him and his four billionaire car,
you know, and she does date basically all of them,
but then in that final watch is one you know,
and then you have to choose at the end. But
(26:20):
I remember when the conflict of that show happened, it
hit me so deeply because I was just rooting for
her and rooting for this other guy who is also poor,
who had found out he's a cousin by his you know,
illicit dad, and he wasn't used to being rich. But
that was the thought. I was like, Oh, these shows
managed to hit in a way emotionally that a lot
(26:41):
of like American prestige TV doesn't even interested in exploring,
you know, they want to make you feel bummed out,
but they don't want you to.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
About your set pieces, which I think American prestige TV
is either extremely dialogue theater focused or big flashy set
piece is on like a cinematic scale focus that sort
of has been if you think about our broadcast TV. Yeah,
broadcast TV days like in order to be good TV.
(27:10):
You just had to have good dialogue writing. When we
got to our streaming and our big you know, our
hbos H spaces, then yes, then we could we could
move into the cinematic giant action pieces, and so that
became a thing. And so with I think K dramas specifically,
because these studios are churning out so many at such
a fast rate, what you really have to do is
(27:31):
like sink into the characters because also you're doing many,
many episodes, and.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
The cost is often much lower than an American dege.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
We don't have time, gotta go.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Also, something they don't really talk you know, that hasn't
really been talked about, but I talk about a lot
is like so many K dramas are adapted from comic books,
online webtoons by women. So I also think it is
like a completely different perspective on what entertainment can and
should be. And I think they translate that here really
(28:03):
well by adding relationships that you root for, characters that
you care about, and also allowing characters who have secrets
to redeem themselves and to be honest and to find happiness.
And that is essentially like we we get there's the
demon Gemar, he comes back, he puts everyone in an
(28:24):
evil trance. We have to see the Serja Boys final performance,
which is gonna you know, destroy the horn Moon, but
of course that doesn't happen because Rumy interrupts the performance
and does this song about like it's about like shame
and fear and honesty and pain and what it feels
(28:47):
like to keep a secret. And I also loved the
show the kind of confrontation between Rumy and Selene, because
early on I had assumed that Selene was like part
of the villainous story just because of the way they
were playing out cool and so she's so cool, and
also the fact that she wanted me to keep it
a secret her demon marks rather than just embracing her.
(29:09):
And I thought that there was something very real about
the writing and that scene where they have the showdown
between the two of them and really like Selena is
still trying to protect Rumy and be like, I can
cover this up for you, but she doesn't understand that
that is not what Rumy wants. So you know, that
just feels like a novel.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Which is so excited for the sequel to be, like
who is the father?
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Please, let's mort demon daddy.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I need to know the demon daddy.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And I love the idea of like, hey, I understand
that you love me, but if you don't love all
of me, this does not work for us.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
I thought that was.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Really beautiful and for her to immediately go from that
to like, this is the sound of my truth to
her friend.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
This is my favorite part of any musical. It's like
all the.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Voices are joining yes, yes, yes, you're going like that incredible.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I talk a lot about in my opinion because of
how great the music is and because of the story
the very underrated Disney movie Wish, but I would also say,
like visually compared to this, that it makes Wish look
really awful. They made some interesting choices with like rotoscoping,
but it does have one of my all time favorites.
(30:21):
And I thought about this at the end where it's
there's a great song, it's Ariana debos is that play
is the main character, and she has this great song
about the wish, which is the big kind of like
oh I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna go on my
own way, and it's about this idea that she makes
this wish for her community to be able to have
control over their own dreams. And it's so great, It's
(30:42):
so brilliantly written. I love it. And the final song
is the entire village comes together and sings the song,
and like, just thinking about it is giving me goosebumps.
But I have often found that in recent years it
is a compromise if you get great songs or you
get you know, Frozen two, a movie that loads of
(31:03):
people love that had really great songs, but you had
the storyline is very complicated and honestly pretty problematic, And
there's always seems to be this kind of trade off
in modern animation because they have to make the audiences
like they think it's for young kids, but they want
to have songs that people like. And this feels like
somehow they manage to create something where the quality of
(31:26):
the storytelling and animation is as high as the quality
of the stories, and that all of those pieces work together.
And I think that also as well. Something you know,
I'm guessing that this is the people who made this
movie obviously read a lot of fanfic and watch a
lot of movies, and the way that Ginu like sacrifices
(31:47):
himself ultimately and then basically becomes one with Rumy and
that's how she is saved. Is like so ultimately romantic
and just like yeah, a total kind of incredible situation.
And also I like that it also gives us kind
(32:09):
of like a romance doesn't save the day kind of
ending to where at the end she is just chilling
her marked with her friends and the boy is gone,
Like that was great love that put you're a stored
soul in me. But now it's just me and my
crew and we're gonna go see our fans. And yeah,
I mean that is a K Pop Demon Hunter as
the recap, and it is such a fantastic movie. It's
(32:31):
hard to tell you, guys even how great it is
by our conversation, but make sure that you go watch
it on Netflix. And then when we've come back, Aaron
is going to talk to us about the music of
K Pop Demon Hunters. And we're back. Am we ready
(33:01):
to unleash Aaron the talented musician and super producer onto
your airwaves to tell you everything you need to know
about this incredible soundtrack.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So I thought it was important to talk about some
of the backgrounds of the music as well as the
voices because the singing voices were very intentionally chosen for
each of the three leads, as well as for the
Saga boys. But I think, you know, we talked, we
mentioned some other musicals, whether they be sort of stage
musicals like Wicked, whether it be something like Disney movie.
A lot of times those kind of musicals, the music
(33:32):
is written by one or two people. It's someone doing
the libretto. You know, it's a small group. One of
the things that I thought was amazing about this they
treated this like a Rayana album. So this has been
in production for three years. And Ian Eisendraft, who was
the executive music producer. He conducted, arranged, he was a
vocal producer. He worked closely with the Black Label, which
(33:53):
is a South Korean record label. So they had teams
of people working on each song.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
For each scene that.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Had a they would create five, six, seven different tracks
and try to figure out which one fit the story best.
So there are multiple interviews with the cast or the
writers talking about like, oh yeah, Golden, this was the
fifth thing that we came up with here and one
this happened to be perfect, and so this worked. And
then as we were recording it, you would do a verse,
(34:21):
write the verse, record the verse, send it to the team,
the producers and director. They would okay, like, yes, this
verse hits the story beat what we want?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Okay, cool, do.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
The next verse and then do the bridge separately. And
so it was a very much like collaborative thing across
different countries, different writers all around. And that's typically how
pop albums are written. So you'll have someone a producer
will make a track, someone else will do the top
line and they will which is the melody and the
(34:50):
lyrics typically, and then someone else may come in and
add to the top line. Someone else may come in
and change up the production of the track itself, keeping
the other top line. So that's exactly how they went
about writing this, and they got like real true K
pop writers and performers. The K pop band Twice came
into this and it was like, we love these songs.
(35:12):
They did their own version of Takedown that plays in
the credits, and then they also did Strategy, which plays
in the you know, I'm going to say iconic, maybe
a little bit dedation.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Panic already, I think it's okay to say that.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
But the iconic scene of her walking into her closet
and you see the rows and rose of outfits and
that's there. They're playing a twice song in there I have.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I was so just excited and happy to see like
somebody with lots of clothes. I have so many clothes, guys,
like it's it's it's my vice. I love charity shops,
I love thrift stores. I'm always putting together a look.
And I loved I love a good closet scene, very clueless,
Yeah where you go? And I thought that was so brilliant. Also, Aaron,
(35:54):
something I had read was that they actually knocked twice
off of the Spotify number one with Golden and with
the the girls from the from Hunt Trix, which I
thought was also like, that's kind of incredible.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I mean they they like surpassed bts. I mean they've
they've they're they're going through the K pop stars. And
so now for the playlist part, I'm gonna go through
different voices and give you a song recommendation to go
check them out. So the singing voices for Hunter Tricks.
For Mira, it was Audrey Nuda, who's an R and
B singer and rapper. She just recently put out a
(36:31):
song called too High, which feels very moody, drugged out,
R and B. I mean, this is, like I said,
this is like looking out the window from of a
neon city from a crowded party, potentially in Hunters's apartment
there they're loft.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Her.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
My favorite song of hers is Mine, which samples Brandy
and Monica's The Boy is Mine. So depending on whether
or not you are nostalgic for that nineties hit, the
song is incredible and it while I don't think it
would be a HUNTERX song, this is definitely something they
would play at a party going on in their own
So check out Audrey.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
I also recommend Damn Right by Audrey, which is a
jam that's been on my playlist for years and when
I saw her name, I was like, no, no, it
was just like, it's very vindicated, it's so fun. It's
very like edgy and aggressive, and I like it a lot.
I think we're to listen to.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
And I'm also going to say I am gonna officially
take the duty of making an x ray Vision Spotify
account and making a playlist of this beau.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
I have this playlist.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Description. Okay, thank you. I don't even need to do it,
because I was going to say we have had people
when Arrows talked about music before asking us to make
playlists to set that up. And obviously, Joel, your very
viral superman in a views with Den of Geek. Have
been getting a lot of comments on our page asking
us to make the playlist that the cast gave us.
(37:53):
So I think this is a wonderful first start, and Aaron,
I appreciate you doing that. What's your next recommendation? So next?
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Always singing and rapping voice is by Ray Ami and
Ray is another R and B singer rapper. She is
known for having an incredibly aggressive rap style and then
very melodic singing hooks, and she does them within the
same song. It will alternate from one to the other.
She'll start off the first half is heavy rapping and
then it goes to this like soft singing section. My
(38:24):
favorite song of hers is her breakout single snow Cone.
Check out the song, check out the video which she
recorded like on her phone for one hundred dollars. But
I would say, if you are a parent and your
little children love K pop demon hunters, just test these
songs ahead of time. They do it.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
This is a parental approval first, yes, check check on
them first.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
But ray Amy's Spotify bio is Hello Kitty with a Knife,
which is honestly perfect for her sound.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I'm about to go get a tattoo and now I'm like,
maybe that's why I'm gonna gaes. I'm like, you're killing me.
That's a great, great line.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
RuMIS vocal performer was EJ and EJ is a songwriter
and producer, but she herself was a former K pop
trainey so K pop has just like so many training
programs for people to be K pop stars. EJ has
gone through that. She was at SNSM Entertainment for ten
years the biggest YEP was unable to break out and
(39:21):
she met with another producer who got her writing on something.
He just wanted her to like test something a track
for her. Through that, she met Andrew Choi, who is
the voice of Genu, and he started to teach her
and they were writing together and he got her writing
with Red Velvet kpop group and she wrote the song
(39:41):
Psycho as well as a number of others. She wound
up getting on the writing team for K Pop Demon
Hunters and wrote a number of the demos and sang
on the demos and Maggie Kane the director was praising
her demo vocals and said, like, this is the reason
this movie got Greenlitz, because your demo vocals were so good.
And then they eventually came back to her and we're like,
we want you to be the official voice. Yeah, just
(40:03):
for one of the characters, but the lead character. So
she wound up being the being Rumy's voice. And she
has written a bunch of stuff for other artists, including Twice,
who we talked about earlier. But the two songs for
the playlist that I want to suggest for her are
Armageddon by Espa, which features like this really grimy grinding
(40:25):
verse and then like a huge bubblegum pre chorus that
goes right back into this like grimy chorus. And then
the second one is Last Waltz by Twice, which it
feels like it would fit right at home on a
Hunterricks album, and it is incredibly catchy and has these
really dramatic, like theatrical builds. You can tell like this
is her writing evolving from those songs from a couple
(40:46):
of years ago into the Huntrix songs. And now the
next set of things for the playlist, I'm not giving
like basic K pop things. I think there are much
people who are much better at Fantastic. If you are
unfamiliar with K pop, this movie is a great intro.
There are plenty of things you can go out there.
Listen to bts, listen to new genes, listen to you know,
(41:08):
like XG, whatever band hits you. But now I want
to go through some of my favorite fictional boy group,
boy bands and girl groups. So first of all, obviously
we have Huntricks doing Golden. I think that's the perfect number.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
One million streams on Spotify.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Second, Saja Boys, your idol. I think soda pop is good.
I think your idol is great. So we're gonna have
that there, and the charts agree. The charts agree. Next,
we're going to go to a twenty twenty one Korean
series called Imitation, which is about Korean idols, and this
has a young girl group named Tea Party, a little
unfortunate given in America, but outside outside and this there's
(41:49):
a the lead in Tea Party falls in love with
a member of the boy band Shacks, and two songs
from that show. One is shown Me by Tea Party,
which is like hyper pop, chibby act Sense and everything
like very very K pop and then Mallow by Shacks
is like a super slick, well produced pop song, very upbeat.
(42:10):
The next one I want to focus on is Idle
the Coup, another Korean show following K pop groups. This
is following Cotton Candy, who's a failed K pop group
who are on the brink of disbanding. They're going to
try one last time to make it by you can
guess getting the number one slot on an idol show.
(42:31):
Just like in K pop Demon Hunters, they have a
bunch of like the cast members were also members of
established K pop groups like xID and so two of
the Cotton Candy songs that I really love first is Honest,
which has an enormous chorus. I love it. It's like
this straight eighths to a triplet feel on the chorus,
(42:51):
and it is such a good hit when that chorus
comes in. And then second is We Rise, which is
like quintessential twenty tens pop. You have big synth, stabby verses,
and then you have like this dirtiest fuck edm hook
in there. So it just it hits that kind of pop.
The next famous, maybe not famous, but favorite fictional boy
(43:13):
band from Bob's Burgers. We have Boys for Now singing
coal Mine my favorite of the Boys for Now songs.
They have many songs about a variety of things, coal
Mine is my favorite. Now, I will say Boys for
Now is deservedly so. The worst singers on this list
one hundred percent, as you can tell by the massive
(43:34):
amounts of auto tune that are just messily used, especially
on the young the young one I forget what his
name is, bo Bobo or whatever, and then the last
one boo boo, boo boo. And then lastly from Turning Red,
we have for Town singing Nobody Like You, No You,
(43:54):
a song that is incredible, and partly is incredible because
it was written by Phineas and Billie Eilish. So when
you get these like successful great songwriters to write you
great songs, I think that's awesome. And then an honorable
mention it doesn't fit because they play instruments and they
are not technically a boy band or a girl group.
But from Doug the Beats singing Killer Tofu, it's not
(44:16):
on the playlist because it doesn't really count, but I
just wanted to just wanted to call that out.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
And I know if we were not counting bands that
play instruments. But I just think Carolin Tuesday with the
Netflix you know, partnership here Loneliest Girls so good. It
does have sixteen point eight these dreams on Spotify. I
dig Carolyn Tuesday a lot, have rewatched multiple times.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Good and he is by you know, one of the
greatest anime directs of all time. You make Cowboy Bebop.
So yeah, we'll a joy.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
So we'll put all those songs and artists and titles
in the description, as well as a link to a
Spotify playlist if you want to listen, get a little
bit of you know, fictional boy band girl groups in
your life.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Love that all right?
Speaker 3 (44:59):
To take break and we're we come back. We're gonna
talk Sony Animation and I'll give you a little rundown
of its history and we're back.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Okay. So, guys, Joel has prepared an unbelievable history of
Sony Animation's first twenty years thanks to some really great
reporting from Drew Taylor at The Wrap, and Joelle is
gonna speed us through twenty years of Sony history.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
So here's what you really need to know, really early
on in the creation of Sony Animation, which is only
twenty years old, if you can believe it. Chris Miller
and Phil Lord, the geniuses are babies. They don't know
how to make a movie, and they don't know how
to navigate a studio space, which is fine because Sony
Pictures animation is new and they don't have no rules here.
Speaker 4 (45:57):
They don't know what they're looking for.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
They don't know what a Sony animated picture looks like.
It's never been done before, and so it kind of
works for them. So they're coming off of Clone High
with a friend of the pod, Bill Lawrence's show that
was on MTV really successful, and they come in for
a pitch meeting and they they're throwing things at them.
They're like, what about this? So what about this? We
don't really know about any of these things. And then
they're like, we do have Cloudy with the Chance Meatballs,
(46:20):
And these two guys who did not spend their childhoods
together both loved this book in their youth, and they
were like, we could maybe do something with like that. Possibly.
They're like, come in tomorrow and pitch us. They said, what,
I came in the day after tomorrow, which is smart.
So they they pulled an all nighter they come back
in and they pitch it. Now, here's something really funny
to me. They get greenlit three separate times, no cancelations
(46:44):
in between, so you could tell things are very chaotic
in the background. They almost get the boot a couple
of times. No one's really They're like muppets and animation.
Everybody's doing hyperrealism in animation at this time, and so
the studio was confused by their messaging. But eventually they
spend so much money on this film, studio is like,
it is actually going to be more expensive to cancel
(47:06):
you than to just let you finish, And unlike some
spaces where they might you know, hover over you and
be really uptight about, they were like, just do it
your own way, because again we are trying to figure
out what we should look like. So they finish and voila.
It's a huge success. And part of that huge success
is because we're also coming off of the first two
animated films that Sony Animation did.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Which was Open Season, Thank You.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
Surfs Up Yes, So those have two very different distinct looks.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
So the studio was like.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Okay, fine, do you It's great.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (47:38):
So a few years pass and they're really not sure
like what direction they're going. And they're working on Hotel Transylvania,
which is another one of the.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
First scripts they got.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Early five directors have come and gone. It's a hot mess.
And then Jenny Tartakovski walks in. Okay, Now Jendy is
coming off of Dexter's lab, his dozmer Jack. People really
of him, but his stuff is edgy. He pitches a
movie called Fixed. It's an R rated romance that is animated.
(48:08):
They're like, we don't really know what to do with that,
but and it's.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
A dog romance.
Speaker 4 (48:12):
It's a dog they are dogs.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
They're definitely sure what to do with that. But they
have this project and they need a new director. And
so Jendy looks at the art and he's like, I
could probably make that work because Bay the next day
he said he had so many ideas he's popped it off. Okay, wow,
six director locked in. That movie comes out makes billions.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Million. They got four feature films. An animated was actually
written and produced by Tatowski, who returned. I know from
having many nieces and nephews. Boy, those movies they love them.
They had video games, theme Bark Attractions, and yeah, it's
a one point three billion dollar franchise now, so.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
It's another huge hit. But then of course we come
to Spider Man into the Spider Verse. Lord and Miller
are back. That movie breaks a bunch, and really what
breaks that movie open is so there's Sony Pictures Animation
and then there's Sony Interactive Pictures, I think, and that's
their like a visual effects team.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
They started a long.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
Time ago on a forgotten project that Bruce Wilson was
working on where he was like a cop who works
on a boat, don't ask. And so then when Sony
Pictures Animated Pictures comes along, they're like, hey, you should
work with our visual effects guys. And that is not
worlds that typically overlap. It is very controversial, both in
house and out of house, but it kind of works
because if you think about the very distinct imaging and
(49:38):
Spider Man, particularly the brushstrokes on the background, which again
if you're not into animation you might miss almost but
it's really intricate, difficult work to make a painted brushstroke
look like part of a background as a camera is
moving across it. It's a lot, but they do it successfully,
and that is why we have a lot of very
distinct looking sony animation pictures right now because they partnered
with their in house visual effects team, and because it's
(49:59):
all in house, they don't have to like go outside
and get approval for things somebody's worried about image. It's
all one team working in the same direction, which we love.
So then we have the Mitchell's Versus Machines comes out
not long after into the Spider Verse in.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Netflicker Netflix smash. Also, I will say very much that
first movie where we all went, oh, it looks like
Spider of Us. Yeah, Spider of Us set up that thing.
And then with Mitchell's The Machines, you're getting the experiments,
you're getting those different kind of looks. Another massive smash
for Netflix that I don't necessarily know was expected.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
It's kind of a mix of two D three D
animation that really hits.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Yeah, absolutely yeah, and it'll be interesting going forward.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
This article was written in twenty twenty three, and a
thing that keeps coming up is all the executives saying like,
we don't have a distinct look and that's what makes
us special. But if you look at into Spider Verse
and then the teenage Mutant in Eternals movie and then
K Pop Demon Hunters. You're starting to see strong similarities,
like your style has developed. Now that's not a negative
thing necessary, but it is going to sort of challenge
(51:02):
him and put them into a space of like defined
rules where they haven't operated before. I think the hope
is that they'll continue to focus and work with like
independent great storytellers, which they say is still at the forefront,
and there's a lot of good ones. We have Matthew A.
Cherry who did the hair Love short that was nominated
for an Oscar. He's got a movie called Tuck coming out.
(51:23):
Then there's Agent King, which is like an adult animated
series about Elvis as a CIA agent. He has a
monkey that does cocaine. What's that about, don't really know.
And then Goat which looks really good. Kayleb McLaughlin is
in it. He plays the lead of an actual goat
who's trying to like become dominant at a sport, which
is really exciting. And then they're working on Spider Verse.
(51:46):
A lot of folks were nervous when K Pop Demon
Hunters came out because they were like, oh no, that's the.
Speaker 4 (51:51):
Big animation project.
Speaker 3 (51:52):
You should be working on. Please redirect your attention to
Spider Man. We need a finale. I say we've gotten
to cozy with these quick turnarounds on movie and TV shows.
Hold your horses, let them make it good, let them
get it right. We've been blown away every time. I'm
happy to wait, and I'm excited that we're getting great
shows like K Pop Demon Hunter in between.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
You know, I hate to have a hot take, as
I never do on this show.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
Spicy, spicy take, we love it.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
I think Spider Verse needs to have better costumes after
seeing this, Like just seeing the outfits of K Pop
Demon Hunters, I'm just like.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
I like that Spider Man outfit is so boring.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
Now give me something better.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
I love Spider Man. I love Spider Man and as.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Much as you love Hunt Tans, Gwen Stacy, I am
the Spider Man costume and Spider Punk in his dope jacket.
Speaker 4 (52:48):
Listen. Costs are hitting.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
But I would I got my little Spider Punk a figure,
but I would like him to have a little bit
more of a k But yes, Sony animation, that kill it.
Baby Disney's got to be keeping up, I think is
the feeling right now? Now?
Speaker 3 (53:05):
I think everybody's nervous and with the Netflix deal and
their ability to reach so many households instantly, yeah, they're dominating.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
Coming up on X ray Vision this weekend, we have
two episodes, one focusing on all the exciting trailers that
came out this week there are a ton and Sunday
we'll have news and an interview with Ari Esta, the
director of Eddington, and that is the episode. Aaron and Joel,
thank you for joining me. This was a joy And guys,
listen to that playlist. How often do you get a
(53:33):
beautifully curated playlist by a fantastic musician who's also a podcast.
It's so so rare, and yeah, enjoy it and let
us know your favorite songs.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Bane x ray Vision is hosted by Jason Sepsion and
Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Korfman. Our
supervising producer is Abuzafar. Our producers are Common Laurent, Dean
Johnson and Babe.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord Kenny Goodman and Heidi,
our discord moderator
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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