August 13, 2025 • 50 mins
Join us for a wild ride under the bed!
The Most Excellent 80s Movies Podcast dives into the bizarre world of Little Monsters (1989), starring Fred Savage and Howie Mandel. Hosts Krissy Lenz and Nathan Blackwell are joined by comedy all-star Jenna Jacobsen from Mesa's Neighborhood Comedy Theater to dissect this attempt at creating "Beetlejuice for kids."Was this monster movie a trick or treat?
Our panel discovers that Little Monsters is equal parts gross-out humor and confusing world-building. While the film tries to capture every kid's dream of causing mischief without consequences, it struggles with unclear rules about its monster underworld and features an unlikable protagonist who goes from indignant victim to gleeful prankster. The hosts debate whether Fred Savage's Brian learns any real lessons or just perpetuates cycles of bullying behavior.Production struggles show on screen
The podcast explores how ambitious creature design and elaborate set pieces were hampered by obvious budget constraints and poor lighting. Howie Mandel's manic performance as Maurice the monster feels more cocaine-fueled 80s punk than kid-friendly guide, while the film's gross-out gags land with a thud rather than laughs. Even Mandel reportedly hated making the movie due to the uncomfortable makeup and warehouse filming conditions.The verdict: Creative concept, flawed execution
Despite mixed reactions from the panel (ratings ranged from 4 to 6 out of 10 horns), the hosts appreciate the film's swing-for-the-fences mentality and Ben Savage's surprisingly strong child acting performance.Other Topics Covered:
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Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.
The Most Excellent 80s Movies Podcast dives into the bizarre world of Little Monsters (1989), starring Fred Savage and Howie Mandel. Hosts Krissy Lenz and Nathan Blackwell are joined by comedy all-star Jenna Jacobsen from Mesa's Neighborhood Comedy Theater to dissect this attempt at creating "Beetlejuice for kids."Was this monster movie a trick or treat?
Our panel discovers that Little Monsters is equal parts gross-out humor and confusing world-building. While the film tries to capture every kid's dream of causing mischief without consequences, it struggles with unclear rules about its monster underworld and features an unlikable protagonist who goes from indignant victim to gleeful prankster. The hosts debate whether Fred Savage's Brian learns any real lessons or just perpetuates cycles of bullying behavior.Production struggles show on screen
The podcast explores how ambitious creature design and elaborate set pieces were hampered by obvious budget constraints and poor lighting. Howie Mandel's manic performance as Maurice the monster feels more cocaine-fueled 80s punk than kid-friendly guide, while the film's gross-out gags land with a thud rather than laughs. Even Mandel reportedly hated making the movie due to the uncomfortable makeup and warehouse filming conditions.The verdict: Creative concept, flawed execution
Despite mixed reactions from the panel (ratings ranged from 4 to 6 out of 10 horns), the hosts appreciate the film's swing-for-the-fences mentality and Ben Savage's surprisingly strong child acting performance.Other Topics Covered:
- Peanut butter and onion sandwiches—Fred Savage's questionable food choice
- Comparison to Beetlejuice and Monsters, Inc. influences
- The film's excessive use of profanity for a kids' movie
- Dream Warriors-style climax with monster-fighting kids
- Cross-country chase scene logistics and plot holes
- Deep cut recommendations: Spirited Away, Clifford, The Wizard
- Bringing back "over the shoulder boulder holder" terminology
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Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Most
Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast. Want to skip those ads and
get early access, become a member at true story dot
fm slash join and discover all the other great parks
that come with it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello and welcome to the Most Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast.
It's a podcast where a filmmaker, a comedian and their
fabulous guests escape into the world of the movies from
the nineteen eighties that we love or might have missed
with these our modern, grown up eyes. And today we're
talking about Little Monsters, a movie selection from nineteen eighty nine,
(00:53):
about which the Google overview says, Brian, played by Fred Savage,
isn't scared of the monster living on under the bed.
On the contrary, when he gets to know the wild
eyed boogeyman Maurice played by Howie Mandel, the pair become
fast friends. During the night, Maurice takes his young charge
(01:13):
into the nether world of monsters, where they have a
great time making mischief in the lives of sleeping children.
But Brian's opinion of Maurice and his freewheeling lifestyle changes
when he discovers that he himself is being turned into
a monster, and here comes the trailer.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I ever wonder why kids get blamed for everything just
because their parents can't explain it.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
You did the reason right under your pens. The names
Maurice at all cancel later. What goes on down there
is every kid's fantasy. It's no Wols, no horse, and
the best party has me. You don't see any parents
telling the kids when they can't eat?
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Where are the reason kids get locked in the rooms?
Where are the reason brothers hate their sisters? Were also
the reason parents send their kids.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
They ACKed up when.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
The fun goes down.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I don't understand why the voice is supposed to sound
like the Monster Mash guy. The voice on the trailer
is like they did the Monster Moost.
Speaker 7 (02:35):
It's what kids could really connect to.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yes, kids love the Monster.
Speaker 6 (02:39):
Mash nineteen thirties Bela Legosi.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Because that's one they love. WHOA. I'm Christy Linz, one
of the directors at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater in downtown Masa, Arizona,
and with me as always.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Is Nathan Blackwell, an independent filmmaker with Squishy.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Studios and joining us today. Is a performer, a teacher,
a sketch artist, a sketch comedy artist, not a sketch
visual artist, but an all around all star of the
Neighborhood Comedy Theater.
Speaker 8 (03:17):
Jenna Jacobson, Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I'm excited. Yeah. So of the three of us, I'm
the only one who has seen this movie before, which
was a shock to me.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I've been seeing the VHS cover art for decades, or
at least I did when there were video stores like
this was one of those boxes that I would always like,
I was aware of, but never like you know, I
was never into the slightly scary, even though I loved Beetlejuice.
I don't know there was I'm sure there were reasons.
(03:55):
Political reasons.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, I missed it.
Speaker 8 (04:01):
What's funny is uh, Nathan, I know that phenomenon you're
talking about, like seeing the VHS and Blockbuster like making Yeah. Yeah,
for me, the big one that always stands out is
Gummo uh seeing the bubble Box. But anyway, this one
never uh never got play in my house, and I
(04:22):
think it might be. I think I know why. It
might be because it was, as my mom would call,
a little fresh, a little fresh for kids.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I think so it's all about kids misbehaving and getting
into trouble and being little Hellians, and you really have
no sympathy for the kids in this movie. They are
little shits.
Speaker 7 (04:49):
Yeah, it turned out. I mean seeing the trailer, it
looks like one of.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
These like movies like Beetlejuice or you know, one of
these kind of like scary kids movies.
Speaker 7 (05:02):
But yeah, it's kind of gross.
Speaker 8 (05:05):
It is.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
It's full of gross out humor. But I think it
is trying so hard to be Beetlejuice.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yeah, and that was just like a year ago. So
it's and I don't remember Beatles just being a like
a big box office success. But I think a lot
of people, the people who dug it really dug it.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, and I think they were just like, what if
we did Beetlejuice for kids, what would be like?
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Kids like Beetlejuice more.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, it turns out, let me look it up.
Speaker 8 (05:40):
I think that's actually that's another one I've never seen.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Oh that one not gonna recommend.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, Yeah, nineteen eighty eight is Beetlejuice. Yeah. So this
movie starts in a very sad place. The parents and
the kids have just moved to a new town and
while the parents are up at night having a terrible argument.
(06:09):
Fred Savage, who is the oldest of the two Savage brothers,
who are the sons of Daniel Stern who is the dad,
and the mom makes himself a pe peanut butter and
onion sandwich which raw onion.
Speaker 8 (06:30):
Not even just like a few like loose ringlets. It
was like layer of the layer of a full Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, like they gotta keep white onions in the house
so that he can have his peanut butter and onion sandwiches.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
It's probably one of those things that, you know, what
they should have done is that you know that like
his dad does something similar, and he's just trying to
be like a man. You know, there are things that
like little little boys will do, is like, oh, this
is what a man does. He drinks V eight in
the morning or something like that. It's like, oh, I'm
gonna wear my my my suit are walking around all
(07:07):
weekend or whatever, like something that they wouldn't feel like
they're grown up.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, that would make a lot more sense, but no,
the mom even says, you're the only person in the
house that eats peanut butter and onion sandwiches, which who
introduced him to that? Then parents like, what where did
he get that idea?
Speaker 8 (07:27):
And how many kids do you think tried that after
seeing this movie?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh? Hopefully millions, Yeah, just some less.
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Maybe less than millions, but I hope whoever tried it
felt like instantly betrayed by Fred Savage.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, he let me die.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
I felt instantly betrayed by Fred Savage.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
Is trange enough.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, And when I say that this movie is gross,
it's not like there's movies like, you know, you think
about like gross out movies. It's kind of you don't
get the fun and the punch from the gross out,
you know, like you you might in some other movies.
Speaker 7 (08:14):
It's kind of like secondhand gross you know.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It's like the kind of gross where when little kids
get together and they try and make the grossest drink
and try and make somebody drink it. Did you guys
ever do that when you were kids? Yeah, Nathan is
just a looking bewildered. Yeah, that's the kind of gross
out humor that it is. So the little brother, who
(08:41):
is Fred Savage's real little brother, Ben Savage, is crying
out that there's monsters in his room, and of course,
the parents come to soothe him, and the mom says,
once you realize that they don't exist, poof, they disappear.
That's real power. And I was like, yeah, that's true.
That's a really good less in mom. That's the best
(09:02):
parenting in the whole moment, right there does come back.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (09:10):
She also says they're probably more afraid of you than
you are of them, which feels like a like, is
that kind of where Monsters Inc. Came from?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I mean there's some people who accuse monsters because Monsters Inc.
Is very similar at least it deals with like the
monsters under the bed and them having their own world.
Speaker 7 (09:34):
But I don't.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
I don't feel like there. I mean, it's still it's
like a common it's like low.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
Hanging fruit in terms of concepts, like you.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Know, it's it's something that's very much in you know,
it's like making another Bigfoot story. It's like it's it's
already in the popular consciousness. If you had monsters under
the bed, where would it naturally go?
Speaker 8 (09:56):
You know?
Speaker 7 (09:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I guess my only complaint is that I never for
really got a good grasp of the of the rules,
like they were always they were they were giving us rules.
But I never got like a really firm grasp on
why the creatures were doing what they did with the
why the monsters were always doing what they did, you know, we.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Like, why were they trying to lure and capture children?
Because it seemed at first that Maurice was like bummed
out to be captured and got punished for being captured
by growing the horns, so they grow more monstrous. Uh,
and they don't want to be monstrous, so they grow
more monstrous. The worse they do as monsters.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
Oh okay, I thought that that was there, Like the
light did that to him.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I think I think it was partially the light, but
it seemed like the hunch on the hunchback guy was
also a punishment. Mmm.
Speaker 8 (10:58):
Oh okay.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I will I will fully admit that this is that
some of my comprehension of this movie is a little checkered,
because this is one of those classic movies that you
go into the kitchen to get something to eat, but
you don't pause the movie. If there are gaps in
(11:22):
our understand In my perhaps I don't want to speak
for everyone else, in my understanding of the film, it's
it's maybe because of that.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
Well, No, Nathan, I'm I'm okay. I'm glad that you
said that you weren't you go into the kitchen? Yes,
although I so, I actually watched it twice because I
was like, how do I not fully understand this movie?
After not after watching it once, I felt a little
ashamed of myself. Was like, is it really that complicated?
And I No, I do think that they didn't. I
(11:51):
think they didn't quite flesh it out really, and yeah,
and there were definitely a couple of times where I
was like, yeah, I probably like looked at my phone
for a second and then I looked up and I'm like, wait,
what just happened?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, and and and I think some of the problem
is is that you can tell like they're they are
totally going for big swings, like they're trying to create
a lot of interesting creatures and characters and environments, and
and they're really doing it on a shoestring budget, you know,
(12:25):
like it's tough how much they try to do and
you can just see how fast they probably had to
shoot because of how poorly lit.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
So many scenes.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Are like it like I'm I'm struggling to see people's
faces and to kind of get the punch of a
certain moment. Also because like Howie Mandel is is like
he's like playing it like theater. He's running the whole room.
He's bouncing all over the place rather than standing at
any particular place that we could really you know that
(12:56):
he lands on his lighting like he like him.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Carrie would say, not.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
Literally, this is not made up, but like you went
to Big Man, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (13:08):
Yeah, yeah, Howie Mandel in this movie he felt like me,
I don't want to accuse him of anything, but he
felt like he was playing someone that was on a
lot of cocaine, just a coked out eighties punk from
(13:29):
like the East Village in New York, like just like
settle down man, Like all right, it's three in the morning,
we're all like, we're all getting ready to go to bed,
and he's like freaking out.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah but for kids, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (13:44):
But for kids.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, it's his humor is all for kids. It's it's
a gross out kid humor. So, uh, there's a bully
and there's a cute girl. The bully is Devin rat Trey,
who plays Buzz and Home Alone. Just to give you
a mental example.
Speaker 8 (14:05):
That was very exciting when Buzz came on screen.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah he Buzz Buzz. But Buzz is a very mean bully. Uh,
but the brother is also a bully, like Fred Savage
is a bully. He's a little shit. At no point
did I ever like sympathize with him. And when I
was a kid and I watched this, because I watched
this a bunch as a kid, unlike the pair of you,
I was like, yeah, I'm on his side. Parents suck.
(14:33):
I hate my little brother. I get it. And now
that I'm an adult, I'm like, oh god, you are
a little monster. I would hope that you go under
your bed and don't come back out. My god, he's irredeemable.
Speaker 8 (14:48):
Well that was what was so interesting to me, like
about it. His character was he so the beginning of
the movie is he's getting accused of things that he
didn't do right like he's and so like you're kind
of on his I was like, well, he didn't do them,
Like I would be frustrating being accused of those things.
He doesn't. He just seems to be like he's confident
(15:10):
and he'll he'll talk back, but he doesn't seem to
be a prankster himself right then. But then when he
goes down with the monsters and he's like then he's
like coming up under other people's beds and he's fully
on board with the pranks. But previous to that, he
was indignant that anyone would ever think that he would
do that or anything like that. So I didn't quite understand, like,
(15:33):
does he want to do pranks?
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I felt like either I felt like he's in a
middle He's kind of in this middle road, you know,
Like I felt it would have been a lot more
satisfying if he was a problem kid, and and he's
just encouraged even more. But you know, but then basically
then he's seeing how people are getting hurt and he
(15:57):
is effectively learning the lesson.
Speaker 7 (15:59):
To kind of grow up and not be a jerk, you.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Know, or you could have gone the other way where
he is afraid of doing anything to get in trouble.
And then he's brought along kind of like Pinocchio and
you know, with the tough the rough kids, and he's
having a lot of fun breaking things, but then again
the regrets and the learning lesson, you know, But instead
(16:24):
he's kind of in this middle ground where is a
bit of a shit and he kind of learned some things,
but there's not like a huge arc, you know, and
then who knows what got changed in terms of the
story and things like that.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
You know.
Speaker 7 (16:47):
But I do kind of feel like.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Like I would have liked to had seen because the
parents are going eventually they separate in the middle of
the movie.
Speaker 7 (16:59):
I would have.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Liked to see that all of this was a little
more of a I mean, maybe that's to et it
was a little more of a reaction of the parents
divorce or breaking up, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Uh, that would have made it too meaningful. Yeah, there's
no meaning huh. Here he doesn't and he doesn't ever
really learn a lesson. He just goes from indignant that
his life is being ruined to thrill to ruin other
(17:34):
people's lives.
Speaker 8 (17:35):
Yeah. I mean it's like even with the bike, even
before the monster thing, he gets accused of leaving his
bike out and he's all upset, and then he immediately
runs onto the bus and accuses his brother of leaving
his bike out. It's like, dude, you're perpetuating the cycle
of abuse. Man.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
No, he throws his little brother's lunch out the window.
Speaker 7 (18:00):
Uh, and then he gets upset.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, and he hits the bully and then he gets
upset that he gets bullied.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, that bully was justified in his first Uh he
deserves Yeah he does. He hit that kid in the
face with his gross mustardy bologney. It was terrible. But
the pranks they play. So he traps Maurice. Basically, he
(18:26):
dares his brother that he could sleep in his room,
and the first night he gets freaked out and chickens out.
The second night he sets all these traps. He saws
the legs off the bed, which like he's allowed to
use saws. He's grounded and everything, but he has access
to hand saws Mom and dad a different time. It
was nineteen eighty nine. Uh, And so he traps Maurice
(18:50):
the monster and they go into the underworld together where
that's mostly what we see in the trailer. Not only
do they go up under other kids' beds and like
put chocolate all over their houses and peanut butter on
the headsets of their phones, and paint all over the place,
(19:13):
like you know, sort of gross things.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Then they also put like a roller skate on the
stairs like that is murder.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, yeah, I'd cover it with a shirt, yep. Uh huh.
They do all these bad things, but they also like
they play baseball, like it's a rage room with people's
fine china and crystal and stuff like that, and they
eat morgas boards of unhealthy food like cheeseburgers and twinkies
(19:47):
and stuff like that. So it's supposed to be like
every kid's dream come true. So that was my question,
which is, like, are they are they supposed to be
enticing these kids to come onto the bed and become
monsters with them, because it didn't seem like that was
the case. It seemed like Maurice was sort of going
rogue by bringing the kid underneath. But if all the
(20:09):
monsters were at one time children.
Speaker 8 (20:13):
Well okay, So my thought is I didn't get the
idea that they were supposed to or not supposed to
be one way or the other. I think it was
just like, yeah, if you meet a cool kid, you
can show them our world, which is why I was
confused about what started happening at the So yeah, because
all the monsters were themselves once kids that got trapped
(20:34):
under there, right, so right, And then it seems like
Maurice was being punished at the end by like Snick
and boy were like getting mad. They're like, we almost
had him and you let them go. So it's like, yeah,
do I don't know that my impression, it's only to
think about it then maybe they do. There was nothing
that really seemed like they did.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
It feels like something that changed in the script or
cut out of the editing room, you know. It feels
like there was more explanation that all the monsters used
to be kids, and like the main monster, who we
don't meet until like the last fifteen minutes of the movie,
(21:16):
is you know, trying to recruit more monsters or something
like that. Like that, just a little more clarity of
it being kind of like like Peter Pan and the
Lost Boys. You know, it's like this like the meaning
behind it, like we can just be kids and we
can do what we want, like the Hellian aspect.
Speaker 7 (21:37):
Of it, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
But that doesn't make sense either, because when they introduce
the character of Boy, who's played by Frank Way, they're like,
Boy wants Fred Savage to play with and it's like, well,
you've never mentioned that before? Yeah, never did it seem
like you were trying to lure purposely lure a child
(22:04):
down in when they kidnap the little brother, which is
what happens at the very end of the movie. In
order to try and get Fred Savage, they kidnap Ben Savage.
And it seems more like that's what monsters would do,
kidnap little kids and have them turn into little monsters.
Speaker 8 (22:24):
Right right, Yeah, that's the easiest way to do it.
Just don't let them leave.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Snatch them. Yeah, just snatch them from under from under
the bed. Uh. But that's not the case either.
Speaker 8 (22:39):
Well, did boy want fred Savage because Fred Savage seemed
like uniquely in tune with the world, like he was
a kid that got it, like like he was able
to like get himself down there without the help of monsters. Right,
So it's like maybe it's like, hey, this guy gets it,
like he's part of that's why he wanted him.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yes, he ate was kind of like offering it's like
one day, perhaps you will also gain power too, maybe
you'll replace me or something along those lines, like he
saw promise in him. But yeah, and it's tough because
we really had his minion, what's.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
His name, you know, the guy with the lunchback.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Yeah, Nick really, who we thought was the main bag
up until kind of the end, right, and then oh,
oh you've got a pass.
Speaker 7 (23:31):
Okay, let's suck to your manager, you know.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
Yeah, yeah, And so that was a little weird, Like
it's like, who is this new dude.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
And what do they have quotas that they need to fill?
You know? In Monsters Eke, at least we know that
they need to bottle the screams to run Monster Monstropolis,
you know. In this it's like, what is the point
of getting the kids in trouble? Just it's just for
the sake of it, And it's only when they go
to scare a time baby who won't remember this by
(24:03):
the way, that Fred Savage is like this is bad
and wrong, and he's like, what do you mean we're
scaring this baby And he's like, no, you can't scare
a baby. And it's like that should be the mischief
that you're allowed to do because a baby will not remember.
There's no consequences for the baby.
Speaker 6 (24:24):
And also the redheaded girl that he likes.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
That's when things started. That's when things got too real.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, things got a little too real when they he
had Maurice ate her report that she'd been working on
for weeks and weeks about photographing a night blooming cactus,
which is something that's stuck in my mind. And when
she flips the polaroids and stuff, I'm like, that's such
a good science project. She's so smart. I really admired her.
(24:54):
And then he destroys her report and Fred Savage is like,
oh my gosh. But also no one reacts. He acts
like he's hungover because he spends all night down in
the in the monster world with Maurice, and so he's
right sunglasses, dark sunglasses the whole next day at elementary school.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
Yeah, and the teacher's just like, oh, so nice of
you to finally join us, Like they're not worried. They're
not looking for the missing child at all. He can
come and go as he pleases.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, it's in the nineteen eighties, like there should be
in the middle of Satanic panic, like immediately looking at
this kid with dark sunglasses and being like, he's unto
Satan's rule. We gotta we gotta get the devil out
of him, you know, or something. But they're just like
very blase about it. And the parents don't notice anything's
(25:49):
off with him at all. They're so wrapped up in
their own shit. They don't care. But you're right, it's
not really a commentary on divorce either because their divorce
has no impact whatsoever on the story or either kid.
There is a part which is I think the peak gross.
You tell me if you think this was the peak gross.
(26:10):
But the peak gross is where they go to the
bully's house and they replace replace his tuna fish sandwich
with cat food, and they piss into his apple.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
Juice and it's the foamiest piss that's ever been.
Speaker 7 (26:30):
Again, this isn't like fun gross, No gross.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, we're not having We're not having any fun with
this grossness. I'm up for fun gross, I'm up for
fun gross.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah. Well I'm glad you are, Nathan, because I was
beginning to wonder is Nathan up for fun gross? I'm
not sure anymore. But he spits it all over the
teacher too, and it's like, okay, wow, okay, wow, this
is really you've gone too far. Don't make someone drink
your piss.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
That's just not that's rule number three.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Well, it's number three.
Speaker 8 (27:09):
Especially because we haven't had enough evidence of why this
bully is so terrible. He's just big and goonish looking,
and he got mad that someone threw something at his head.
That's really the extent of the bullying that's happened. So, yeah,
it hasn't been earned. It hasn't been like, oh yeah,
finally this guy's getting what's coming to him. It's just
(27:30):
more like he just looks oafish.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, he's just a bigger kid than everyone else. Yeah,
poor guy.
Speaker 8 (27:39):
Yeah, poor buzz.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
It's a stereotype, poor Buzz. So they say shit a
whole bunch in this movie too, which like, they say
shit a lot more in this movie than they do
in the Goonies.
Speaker 8 (27:50):
Oh, that is so funny that you said that, because
I was I literally was thinking today, I wonder if
they say shit more than they do in the Goonies,
and like the kid, because I was allowed to watch
the Goonies, but I was like, I think, if Gooties
had this many shits in it, my parents would not
have let me watch it. So I almost looked up
number of shits in Goonies today, all right, exctly two
(28:13):
shits and one fucking goodies. There were so many.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
There were so many shits in this I wrote down
all of them. So the other thing that happens besides
them kidnapping the little brother, which comes later is that
Fred Savage starts turning into a monster. So what happens
to the monsters when they get exposed to bright light
is that they evaporate and turn into clothes. They just
(28:40):
become clothes on the ground, which I always had a
real kinship for because that's what it's like to live
with my husband Dorian and my son Rocket. They just
walk out of their clothes and leave them as they
as if they had just been little monstered. The whole
outfit is just laid out on the ground as if
(29:02):
they have disappeared and become nothing. So I've always had
a kinship for the monsters in this movie disappearing into clothes.
But Brian, who is Fred Savage, starts turning into clothes
and so he realizes he's becoming a monster. That's the
(29:24):
only time that we really learn about the kids becoming
monsters thing. And then they kidnapped the little brother to
get him, and he immediately has a plan, which is
that what we're gonna do is I'm gonna go get
the bully and the cute girl. We're gonna strap a
bunch of lights to ourselves and We're gonna go down
(29:48):
and just kill as many monsters as it takes until
we get the little monster, until we get the little brother.
And that's what they do.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
They go, they go full dream warrior.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
They do, they really do, and they take out Boy
and Snick. But at first, oh, I have to say, like,
one way he does try and smart outsmart them is
that he saws all the legs off the bed and
the mom doesn't react to it at all. She's talking
to her friend and her friend is like, how's Brian
(30:22):
taking it, And she's like, oh, he's fine. He stayed
home from school today. He's sawing all the legs off
the bed. She thinks nothing of this, but that's very
clever of him. But the bad monster Snick gets the
little brother Ben Savage by coming out of the couch bed,
So you gotta beware of your couch beds.
Speaker 8 (30:46):
That's another thing I didn't It doesn't quite make sense.
It's like, Okay, he saws the legs off the bed
so that they're not elevated on the ground anymore. But
the ease with which everyone just lifts up the beds
to go into the monster world, like beds don't seem
heavy in their world.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Like, yeah, yeah, my bed is definitely heavy. You couldn't
lift it up with one hand. You couldn't have a
seven year old in here lifting up the bed. That's
a great point. Beds are heavy, yeah, especially if they're
flat on the ground. So they they go shine all
(31:24):
the lights on. Boy, they get attacked by toys. That
part's really creepy where they're getting attacked by the toys
and they get dropped into a pit of dolls and stuff.
What do you guys think of all that? Did you
think it was imaginative or were you just like over it?
Speaker 7 (31:41):
It was kind of like the stuffed animal.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
Junk pit in Star Wars. I kind of liked.
Speaker 7 (31:48):
The all this, the the stuffed animal like exile prison
like that was kind of fun.
Speaker 8 (31:56):
Yeah, that was good. Yeah, I liked it. And it
also reminded me of like those like sponge pits that
like they would have a gymnastics places when you were
a kid that looked like it would be fun to
jump in. But uh, the like when they had the
little tanks coming to life and like all the like
the toys that were activated stuff. It reminded me of
the movie Toys.
Speaker 7 (32:16):
Yeah, but what does it mean.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Does it mean that they you know, doesn't mean anything,
Like does it mean that it's like, oh, we here's
where we put like here's here's where we put the
stuff we steal, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
That's what it seemed like.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Like do they have vaults of stolen stuff? Like it
would have been nice to lean into that more, you know,
like kid's favorite toys things like that.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, that they stole. That's what it seemed like they
were implying in boys little warehouse. But so at the
end of all the shenanigans, Maurice gets a flame thrower
and h burns boy and sneak to death and then
everyone's happy that they're dead. But it seemed like they
(33:05):
were doing a good job of running the Monster Underworld.
It seemed like things ran smoothly, like.
Speaker 7 (33:13):
The transportation was on time, like the lights were on.
It seemed like people were being fed. Yeah, so are
you really are you gonna really find like a like
a totally normal.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
Monster to run the place?
Speaker 7 (33:30):
Like everyone's gonna be a little weird, right.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
You're monsters, and whoever's been down there the longest just
gotta be the most.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, I mean, so what if he like has a
little brain sticking out of the back of his head,
and he dresses like a pedophile, Like I mean, you
should have seen the guy he was running up against.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
He's dressed like the painting blue boy, which is I
have a whole bunch of in my house. So I
kind of resent that, Nathan. But uh, yes, the infrastructure
was working in the Monster Underworld. They were giving out
assignments like it seemed fair.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Who's gonna be doing it now, Maurice, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
He can't be in charge. He's he's not.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
He's not like putting Jack Sparrow in charge, Like you know,
it's you might like them the most, but it's it's
not gonna work out. Strangely, is I think I met
so these writers wrote the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
That makes sense to me. Put that together, that makes
sense to me. I think I like this movie a
lot more than you did. So the very end of
the movie, the kids can't get up onto under their
beds because the sun has come up in where they
live in like Philadelphia or something, so they have to
run through the Monster Underworld, uh, to from the east
(34:58):
coast to the West coast, trying to chase the sun and.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
There Jesus again, sorry I went to the kitchen. Was
there a reason why they couldn't just wait a day
because they'd get in trouble or would they permanently turn
into monsters if they were there?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
They if they stayed there for one full night, they
would permanently turn into monsters.
Speaker 7 (35:19):
Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yeah, they did reveal that. So they run all the
way to California and they come up The only bed
they can come up with to get out from under
is a homeless man sleeping on the beach. So they
they pop out from under a homeless man sleeping on
the beach, and they're like, we did it. We escaped
(35:42):
the monster world and we're not monsters, and Maurice and
they haven't like tearful goodbye, and he's like, I won't
visit you anymore. And it's like okay, great, And then
they call the parents and they're like, we're in California.
How are they gonna explain that they got from Philadelphia
to California in one night?
Speaker 8 (36:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I know.
Speaker 8 (36:04):
And then the end of the movie is just like
it's a long story. Okay, yeah to me, like the
rest of this story is the wildly fascinating parts, like
how do you get out of this without your parents
thinking you're insane? Without thinking like an adults kidnapped you
and somehow brought you across the country. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, an adults somehow kidnapped four children from their beds.
Speaker 8 (36:33):
You took a red Eye to Malamo, and the.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Parents don't seem all that like freaked out about it either.
They're just like, you're in California. Oh okay, Well that's
more mischief. You're gonna be grounded again. That's more mischief
for you, Brian. I still really like this movie. You guys,
I don't know why you're to it in the same
positive way.
Speaker 7 (37:00):
I'm glad you're happy.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I am happy. Aside from the grossness, I think it's
like a cute, fun clever idea. It's just not executed
very well. And I don't like Fred Savage.
Speaker 8 (37:14):
It's just not done well, and I don't like the
main character. But otherwise.
Speaker 6 (37:20):
I think we all agree.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, okay, So on a scale of one uh horn
that erupts out of your head because you got exposed
to sunlight, to ten horns that are rupped out of
your head because you got exposed to sunlight. How many
horns on the head do you give the movie Little Monsters?
Speaker 7 (37:51):
I think I'm gonna go for I just I don't know.
Speaker 6 (37:55):
I don't you know.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
I have to go with my gut. In comparison to
what I've given other movies. I feel like this is
a four out of ten. I mean, I could be
convinced to do a four point five, but yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
So that means under a five for you and Nathan
means there's active hate.
Speaker 6 (38:18):
It's true, It's true.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
I feel like there was a there were there were
fun moments. It was fun for for Fred Savage and
what's his name he played the day. It was fun
to see them together because you could say that this
is like a metaphoric like dream sequence of from like
(38:43):
the Wonder Years. Daniel Stern played Fred Savage's future.
Speaker 7 (38:49):
Self anyway, that was the eighties. But yeah, it would
just and.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
And I'm glad they were swinging hard. It just couldn't
quite like honestly, like, I couldn't even if the grossness
was still there, even if the lighting or if they
had a little more time to do everything, if it
was a little shorter. I just felt like the world
building didn't and like why this kid, why this story?
Speaker 7 (39:19):
What's his arc? Could have been chilled together better?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, I agree with all those things, but I still
think I will read it higher than you.
Speaker 8 (39:32):
I think I'm okay, I'll give it four and a
half horn, like the half horn that Maurice has at
the end of it.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (39:42):
It just like I like the idea of having like
a world that kids feel like, Oh, let's be kids
in this world. I like that concept in general. I
think it's fun. But I don't think anything that they
did in the kid world would have appealed to me
even as a shot, like as a kid. Had I
seen this as a kid, I still would have been.
Speaker 7 (40:01):
Like adding on like Peter Pan on top of it.
Speaker 8 (40:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Yeah, I felt like the like we didn't get the sense.
I didn't get the sense.
Speaker 7 (40:11):
That they were kids having fun in that world.
Speaker 8 (40:14):
Yeah, other than the pinball machine and being able to
tilt and get free lives, which would have been nice.
My parents had a pinball machine when I was growing up,
or like, we had one in our house, and it
was the tilting that that balance of being able to
tilt and get the like you're not tilts that was
something you that I identified with. But other than that,
(40:35):
none of that world seemed like a world I was
would be interested in. Like, it was all gross, I'm
not like a prankster. It was all dark and it
was very dilapidated too. Yeah, I don't know, Like I
think I would have been more like on Board if
it was like a technicolor type world and there was
more just like playing.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah, No, there was no color. It was all very black. Yeah,
little streamers of color that sort of spun around throughout,
But it was very very dark and dismal, and all
of the monsters looked like something that Tim Burton's sketchbook reading.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
I mean, I think the some of the same designers
who worked on Beatle just worked on this, you know,
And I think the designs of a lot of the
guys are really cool. But I feel like they just
didn't have enough time to really.
Speaker 7 (41:37):
Do it right. I'm sure they would agree to you know,
that they wish they had more time.
Speaker 6 (41:42):
It looked like.
Speaker 7 (41:43):
They were definitely aiming high with a with a low budget.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah. Howie Mendel did not like this movie either. He
did not enjoy the process of putting on the makeup
or sweating it up in the warehouse where they filmed,
and he did not enjoy his participation in this movie.
So he's with you, guys. But I'm going to give
this movie six horns h because I do think it
(42:15):
has some fun in there, and I think it's fun
to show people this movie to see how they react.
Speaker 6 (42:27):
Because you hate people, No.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I love people, and I loved you guys, and I
thought you would like it more. So I'm I'm sorry.
I apologize.
Speaker 8 (42:38):
No, no, no, I'm glad. I'm definitely glad that I
saw it. So don't get me wrong. I'm happy to
have seen it.
Speaker 6 (42:45):
I'm just support your happiness.
Speaker 8 (42:48):
Yeah, I actually think for me, the biggest takeaway from
this was Ben Savage. It's like this little kid, he's
a freaking great little actor. He did such a good job.
Like I was very impressed.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
I love him in Boy Meets World. That's one of
my favorite childhood shows, much more so than the Wonder Years.
You know. Yeah, I was a Boy Meets World girly,
not a Wonder Year's girly.
Speaker 8 (43:17):
So it was like kind of nice. It's one of
those things where it's like, oh, it wasn't just nepotism,
like you actually like did a great job, like you
were like a little six year old that actually like
seemed genuine like you played your role really well.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
So Savage agreed. What is your deep cut recommendation for
the movie Little Monsters.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Nathan, I feel like I've done this before, so this
movie before, I definitely have done this filmmaker before. But
I'm gonna go with the animated film Spirited Way.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Oh yes, of course, of course.
Speaker 6 (43:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Well, when you're talking about like the secret world of
monsters and little girls, like obviously there's a lot of
movies that are not that deep, like Beetlejuice is the
easy one to go to, like.
Speaker 7 (44:13):
You know, they they that's the perfect pairing.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
But yeah, Spirited Away is just so good and so
original and and.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
And yet fun and emotional.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
But just like the Secret Life of spirits who run
a bathhouse for other spirits, so they're basically like, you know,
just running a retreat, you know. But to see our
main character who is a little girl who's a little
fussy and needs to grow up and have to go
(44:46):
through this journey of becoming strong and learning to stand
up for herself and growing up through her experience in
this kind of like the Secret world, but it's also
scarier too in terms of like these spirits don't care
about her at all.
Speaker 6 (45:03):
But yeah, that's a great movie.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
It won't Oscar.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
It is a great movie. I love Spirited Away. I
haven't seen it in years and years and years, and
I don't think I've ever shown it to my kids.
Speaker 6 (45:15):
Yeah, it's a good one.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Yeah, I think I have to do that good one. Nathan.
You can recommend that as many times as you want.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
I'll eventually go through all of Hyomia Zaki's films at
some point and recommend them depending on the movies we see.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Okay, perfect. What's your deep cut recommendation, Jenna?
Speaker 8 (45:36):
Okay, Well, this is inspired by boys pedophile Outfit snakely
called it. My first thought was it reminded me of
the movie Clifford with Martin Short and Charles Croden. That's
like what Martin Short is dressed like. And Martin Short
plays a ten year old in that movie who's just like.
Speaker 6 (45:58):
Like a forty year old man.
Speaker 8 (45:59):
Yeah yeah, but he's just like a little piece of
shit kid in that movie, and he drives Charles Goodin crazy.
Granted I haven't seen this movie in a very long time,
So this is not like a hard recommend or anything,
but that's what it reminded me of when I saw
A Boy for the first time. I first like immediately thought,
oh Clifford, and then.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Wow, I I never even seen that movie or I've
never even heard of that movie. But it looks bananas.
Speaker 8 (46:25):
It is. It is nuts. I actually kind of want
to watch it again now and see if my memory
of it gels would be actual reality of the movie.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
But I but the pictures online seems unhinged.
Speaker 8 (46:42):
Yeah, okay, And I have like a sub recommendation as well,
not media related, but I would like to recommend bringing
back over the shoulder boulder holder as a way to
refer to bras, which uh I really appreciated. Maurice did
(47:03):
that in this movie. It's my favorite euphemism for a
bra and they said it in this movie. So I'd
like to bring that back as I recommend.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
That older boulder holder. You say that in Beaches. Yep,
I love it. Good catch, good catch on that one.
I didn't catch that. I love it. Uh So I
want to recommend My recommendation is actually not that deep,
but it was the movie I kept thinking of throughout
this whole thing, which is The Wizard, which we've also
covered on this podcast, especially because they end up in California, California. Yeah,
(47:40):
and like and the Wizard was basically their journey to California.
So that's what it made me think of. So that's
my deep cut recommendation for Little Monsters is the Wizard.
Not that deep, not that deep, but a recommendation nonetheless.
And I don't think I like Fred Savage very much
(48:01):
in The Wizard. M I don't think he's a very
likable character in that either. I think I like the
Little Brother more in that one too, So Dad, I
just don't like Fred Savage. Yeah, okay, all right, we
learned something about me today, Nathan. Where can people find
your films to support your filmmaking endeavors?
Speaker 3 (48:25):
Yeah, so as every episode the Squishy Studios dot com.
If you want to check out my short film's web
series or my feature film The Last Movie You Ever made.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Which you definitely should, Jenna, where can people find you
in the real world doing your comedy stylings?
Speaker 8 (48:43):
Oh, they can find me at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater
in downtown Mesa. Yeah, I'm there most of the times.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
True You're an all star, that's for sure, and you
can get dates and details on that on the inner
at NTT Phoenix dot com and for neighborhoods see for comedy,
t for Theater, and then Phoenix I'll spelled out dot com.
You can find all things most excellent Eighties Movies podcast
(49:13):
and my other podcast, Gank That Drank, a supernatural drinking
game podcast on true story dot fm, where you can
become a member. If you're at the end of this
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more time with Jenna and Nathan and Chrissy, well guess what.
You can just become a member and you can get
(49:35):
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(49:57):
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Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello and welcome to the Most Excellent Eighties Movies Podcast.
It's a podcast where a filmmaker, a comedian and their
fabulous guests escape into the world of the movies from
the nineteen eighties that we love or might have missed
with these our modern, grown up eyes. And today we're
talking about Little Monsters, a movie selection from nineteen eighty nine,
(00:53):
about which the Google overview says, Brian, played by Fred Savage,
isn't scared of the monster living on under the bed.
On the contrary, when he gets to know the wild
eyed boogeyman Maurice played by Howie Mandel, the pair become
fast friends. During the night, Maurice takes his young charge
(01:13):
into the nether world of monsters, where they have a
great time making mischief in the lives of sleeping children.
But Brian's opinion of Maurice and his freewheeling lifestyle changes
when he discovers that he himself is being turned into
a monster, and here comes the trailer.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I ever wonder why kids get blamed for everything just
because their parents can't explain it.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
You did the reason right under your pens. The names
Maurice at all cancel later. What goes on down there
is every kid's fantasy. It's no Wols, no horse, and
the best party has me. You don't see any parents
telling the kids when they can't eat?
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Where are the reason kids get locked in the rooms?
Where are the reason brothers hate their sisters? Were also
the reason parents send their kids.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
They ACKed up when.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
The fun goes down.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I don't understand why the voice is supposed to sound
like the Monster Mash guy. The voice on the trailer
is like they did the Monster Moost.
Speaker 7 (02:35):
It's what kids could really connect to.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yes, kids love the Monster.
Speaker 6 (02:39):
Mash nineteen thirties Bela Legosi.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Because that's one they love. WHOA. I'm Christy Linz, one
of the directors at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater in downtown Masa, Arizona,
and with me as always.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Is Nathan Blackwell, an independent filmmaker with Squishy.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Studios and joining us today. Is a performer, a teacher,
a sketch artist, a sketch comedy artist, not a sketch
visual artist, but an all around all star of the
Neighborhood Comedy Theater.
Speaker 8 (03:17):
Jenna Jacobson, Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I'm excited. Yeah. So of the three of us, I'm
the only one who has seen this movie before, which
was a shock to me.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I've been seeing the VHS cover art for decades, or
at least I did when there were video stores like
this was one of those boxes that I would always like,
I was aware of, but never like you know, I
was never into the slightly scary, even though I loved Beetlejuice.
I don't know there was I'm sure there were reasons.
(03:55):
Political reasons.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, I missed it.
Speaker 8 (04:01):
What's funny is uh, Nathan, I know that phenomenon you're
talking about, like seeing the VHS and Blockbuster like making Yeah. Yeah,
for me, the big one that always stands out is
Gummo uh seeing the bubble Box. But anyway, this one
never uh never got play in my house, and I
(04:22):
think it might be. I think I know why. It
might be because it was, as my mom would call,
a little fresh, a little fresh for kids.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I think so it's all about kids misbehaving and getting
into trouble and being little Hellians, and you really have
no sympathy for the kids in this movie. They are
little shits.
Speaker 7 (04:49):
Yeah, it turned out. I mean seeing the trailer, it
looks like one of.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
These like movies like Beetlejuice or you know, one of
these kind of like scary kids movies.
Speaker 7 (05:02):
But yeah, it's kind of gross.
Speaker 8 (05:05):
It is.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
It's full of gross out humor. But I think it
is trying so hard to be Beetlejuice.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yeah, and that was just like a year ago. So
it's and I don't remember Beatles just being a like
a big box office success. But I think a lot
of people, the people who dug it really dug it.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, and I think they were just like, what if
we did Beetlejuice for kids, what would be like?
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Kids like Beetlejuice more.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, it turns out, let me look it up.
Speaker 8 (05:40):
I think that's actually that's another one I've never seen.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Oh that one not gonna recommend.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, Yeah, nineteen eighty eight is Beetlejuice. Yeah. So this
movie starts in a very sad place. The parents and
the kids have just moved to a new town and
while the parents are up at night having a terrible argument.
(06:09):
Fred Savage, who is the oldest of the two Savage brothers,
who are the sons of Daniel Stern who is the dad,
and the mom makes himself a pe peanut butter and
onion sandwich which raw onion.
Speaker 8 (06:30):
Not even just like a few like loose ringlets. It
was like layer of the layer of a full Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, like they gotta keep white onions in the house
so that he can have his peanut butter and onion sandwiches.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
It's probably one of those things that, you know, what
they should have done is that you know that like
his dad does something similar, and he's just trying to
be like a man. You know, there are things that
like little little boys will do, is like, oh, this
is what a man does. He drinks V eight in
the morning or something like that. It's like, oh, I'm
gonna wear my my my suit are walking around all
(07:07):
weekend or whatever, like something that they wouldn't feel like
they're grown up.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, that would make a lot more sense, but no,
the mom even says, you're the only person in the
house that eats peanut butter and onion sandwiches, which who
introduced him to that? Then parents like, what where did
he get that idea?
Speaker 8 (07:27):
And how many kids do you think tried that after
seeing this movie?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh? Hopefully millions, Yeah, just some less.
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Maybe less than millions, but I hope whoever tried it
felt like instantly betrayed by Fred Savage.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, he let me die.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
I felt instantly betrayed by Fred Savage.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
Is trange enough.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, And when I say that this movie is gross,
it's not like there's movies like, you know, you think
about like gross out movies. It's kind of you don't
get the fun and the punch from the gross out,
you know, like you you might in some other movies.
Speaker 7 (08:14):
It's kind of like secondhand gross you know.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It's like the kind of gross where when little kids
get together and they try and make the grossest drink
and try and make somebody drink it. Did you guys
ever do that when you were kids? Yeah, Nathan is
just a looking bewildered. Yeah, that's the kind of gross
out humor that it is. So the little brother, who
(08:41):
is Fred Savage's real little brother, Ben Savage, is crying
out that there's monsters in his room, and of course,
the parents come to soothe him, and the mom says,
once you realize that they don't exist, poof, they disappear.
That's real power. And I was like, yeah, that's true.
That's a really good less in mom. That's the best
(09:02):
parenting in the whole moment, right there does come back.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (09:10):
She also says they're probably more afraid of you than
you are of them, which feels like a like, is
that kind of where Monsters Inc. Came from?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I mean there's some people who accuse monsters because Monsters Inc.
Is very similar at least it deals with like the
monsters under the bed and them having their own world.
Speaker 7 (09:34):
But I don't.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
I don't feel like there. I mean, it's still it's
like a common it's like low.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
Hanging fruit in terms of concepts, like you.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Know, it's it's something that's very much in you know,
it's like making another Bigfoot story. It's like it's it's
already in the popular consciousness. If you had monsters under
the bed, where would it naturally go?
Speaker 8 (09:56):
You know?
Speaker 7 (09:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I guess my only complaint is that I never for
really got a good grasp of the of the rules,
like they were always they were they were giving us rules.
But I never got like a really firm grasp on
why the creatures were doing what they did with the
why the monsters were always doing what they did, you know, we.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Like, why were they trying to lure and capture children?
Because it seemed at first that Maurice was like bummed
out to be captured and got punished for being captured
by growing the horns, so they grow more monstrous. Uh,
and they don't want to be monstrous, so they grow
more monstrous. The worse they do as monsters.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
Oh okay, I thought that that was there, Like the
light did that to him.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I think I think it was partially the light, but
it seemed like the hunch on the hunchback guy was
also a punishment. Mmm.
Speaker 8 (10:58):
Oh okay.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I will I will fully admit that this is that
some of my comprehension of this movie is a little checkered,
because this is one of those classic movies that you
go into the kitchen to get something to eat, but
you don't pause the movie. If there are gaps in
(11:22):
our understand In my perhaps I don't want to speak
for everyone else, in my understanding of the film, it's
it's maybe because of that.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
Well, No, Nathan, I'm I'm okay. I'm glad that you
said that you weren't you go into the kitchen? Yes,
although I so, I actually watched it twice because I
was like, how do I not fully understand this movie?
After not after watching it once, I felt a little
ashamed of myself. Was like, is it really that complicated?
And I No, I do think that they didn't. I
(11:51):
think they didn't quite flesh it out really, and yeah,
and there were definitely a couple of times where I
was like, yeah, I probably like looked at my phone
for a second and then I looked up and I'm like, wait,
what just happened?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, and and and I think some of the problem
is is that you can tell like they're they are
totally going for big swings, like they're trying to create
a lot of interesting creatures and characters and environments, and
and they're really doing it on a shoestring budget, you know,
(12:25):
like it's tough how much they try to do and
you can just see how fast they probably had to
shoot because of how poorly lit.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
So many scenes.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Are like it like I'm I'm struggling to see people's
faces and to kind of get the punch of a
certain moment. Also because like Howie Mandel is is like
he's like playing it like theater. He's running the whole room.
He's bouncing all over the place rather than standing at
any particular place that we could really you know that
(12:56):
he lands on his lighting like he like him.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Carrie would say, not.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
Literally, this is not made up, but like you went
to Big Man, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (13:08):
Yeah, yeah, Howie Mandel in this movie he felt like me,
I don't want to accuse him of anything, but he
felt like he was playing someone that was on a
lot of cocaine, just a coked out eighties punk from
(13:29):
like the East Village in New York, like just like
settle down man, Like all right, it's three in the morning,
we're all like, we're all getting ready to go to bed,
and he's like freaking out.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah but for kids, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (13:44):
But for kids.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, it's his humor is all for kids. It's it's
a gross out kid humor. So, uh, there's a bully
and there's a cute girl. The bully is Devin rat Trey,
who plays Buzz and Home Alone. Just to give you
a mental example.
Speaker 8 (14:05):
That was very exciting when Buzz came on screen.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah he Buzz Buzz. But Buzz is a very mean bully. Uh,
but the brother is also a bully, like Fred Savage
is a bully. He's a little shit. At no point
did I ever like sympathize with him. And when I
was a kid and I watched this, because I watched
this a bunch as a kid, unlike the pair of you,
I was like, yeah, I'm on his side. Parents suck.
(14:33):
I hate my little brother. I get it. And now
that I'm an adult, I'm like, oh god, you are
a little monster. I would hope that you go under
your bed and don't come back out. My god, he's irredeemable.
Speaker 8 (14:48):
Well that was what was so interesting to me, like
about it. His character was he so the beginning of
the movie is he's getting accused of things that he
didn't do right like he's and so like you're kind
of on his I was like, well, he didn't do them,
Like I would be frustrating being accused of those things.
He doesn't. He just seems to be like he's confident
(15:10):
and he'll he'll talk back, but he doesn't seem to
be a prankster himself right then. But then when he
goes down with the monsters and he's like then he's
like coming up under other people's beds and he's fully
on board with the pranks. But previous to that, he
was indignant that anyone would ever think that he would
do that or anything like that. So I didn't quite understand, like,
(15:33):
does he want to do pranks?
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I felt like either I felt like he's in a
middle He's kind of in this middle road, you know,
Like I felt it would have been a lot more
satisfying if he was a problem kid, and and he's
just encouraged even more. But you know, but then basically
then he's seeing how people are getting hurt and he
(15:57):
is effectively learning the lesson.
Speaker 7 (15:59):
To kind of grow up and not be a jerk, you.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Know, or you could have gone the other way where
he is afraid of doing anything to get in trouble.
And then he's brought along kind of like Pinocchio and
you know, with the tough the rough kids, and he's
having a lot of fun breaking things, but then again
the regrets and the learning lesson, you know, But instead
(16:24):
he's kind of in this middle ground where is a
bit of a shit and he kind of learned some things,
but there's not like a huge arc, you know, and
then who knows what got changed in terms of the
story and things like that.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
You know.
Speaker 7 (16:47):
But I do kind of feel like.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Like I would have liked to had seen because the
parents are going eventually they separate in the middle of
the movie.
Speaker 7 (16:59):
I would have.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Liked to see that all of this was a little
more of a I mean, maybe that's to et it
was a little more of a reaction of the parents
divorce or breaking up, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Uh, that would have made it too meaningful. Yeah, there's
no meaning huh. Here he doesn't and he doesn't ever
really learn a lesson. He just goes from indignant that
his life is being ruined to thrill to ruin other
(17:34):
people's lives.
Speaker 8 (17:35):
Yeah. I mean it's like even with the bike, even
before the monster thing, he gets accused of leaving his
bike out and he's all upset, and then he immediately
runs onto the bus and accuses his brother of leaving
his bike out. It's like, dude, you're perpetuating the cycle
of abuse. Man.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
No, he throws his little brother's lunch out the window.
Speaker 7 (18:00):
Uh, and then he gets upset.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, and he hits the bully and then he gets
upset that he gets bullied.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, that bully was justified in his first Uh he
deserves Yeah he does. He hit that kid in the
face with his gross mustardy bologney. It was terrible. But
the pranks they play. So he traps Maurice. Basically, he
(18:26):
dares his brother that he could sleep in his room,
and the first night he gets freaked out and chickens out.
The second night he sets all these traps. He saws
the legs off the bed, which like he's allowed to
use saws. He's grounded and everything, but he has access
to hand saws Mom and dad a different time. It
was nineteen eighty nine. Uh, And so he traps Maurice
(18:50):
the monster and they go into the underworld together where
that's mostly what we see in the trailer. Not only
do they go up under other kids' beds and like
put chocolate all over their houses and peanut butter on
the headsets of their phones, and paint all over the place,
(19:13):
like you know, sort of gross things.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Then they also put like a roller skate on the
stairs like that is murder.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, yeah, I'd cover it with a shirt, yep. Uh huh.
They do all these bad things, but they also like
they play baseball, like it's a rage room with people's
fine china and crystal and stuff like that, and they
eat morgas boards of unhealthy food like cheeseburgers and twinkies
(19:47):
and stuff like that. So it's supposed to be like
every kid's dream come true. So that was my question,
which is, like, are they are they supposed to be
enticing these kids to come onto the bed and become
monsters with them, because it didn't seem like that was
the case. It seemed like Maurice was sort of going
rogue by bringing the kid underneath. But if all the
(20:09):
monsters were at one time children.
Speaker 8 (20:13):
Well okay, So my thought is I didn't get the
idea that they were supposed to or not supposed to
be one way or the other. I think it was
just like, yeah, if you meet a cool kid, you
can show them our world, which is why I was
confused about what started happening at the So yeah, because
all the monsters were themselves once kids that got trapped
(20:34):
under there, right, so right, And then it seems like
Maurice was being punished at the end by like Snick
and boy were like getting mad. They're like, we almost
had him and you let them go. So it's like, yeah,
do I don't know that my impression, it's only to
think about it then maybe they do. There was nothing
that really seemed like they did.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
It feels like something that changed in the script or
cut out of the editing room, you know. It feels
like there was more explanation that all the monsters used
to be kids, and like the main monster, who we
don't meet until like the last fifteen minutes of the movie,
(21:16):
is you know, trying to recruit more monsters or something
like that. Like that, just a little more clarity of
it being kind of like like Peter Pan and the
Lost Boys. You know, it's like this like the meaning
behind it, like we can just be kids and we
can do what we want, like the Hellian aspect.
Speaker 7 (21:37):
Of it, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
But that doesn't make sense either, because when they introduce
the character of Boy, who's played by Frank Way, they're like,
Boy wants Fred Savage to play with and it's like, well,
you've never mentioned that before? Yeah, never did it seem
like you were trying to lure purposely lure a child
(22:04):
down in when they kidnap the little brother, which is
what happens at the very end of the movie. In
order to try and get Fred Savage, they kidnap Ben Savage.
And it seems more like that's what monsters would do,
kidnap little kids and have them turn into little monsters.
Speaker 8 (22:24):
Right right, Yeah, that's the easiest way to do it.
Just don't let them leave.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Snatch them. Yeah, just snatch them from under from under
the bed. Uh. But that's not the case either.
Speaker 8 (22:39):
Well, did boy want fred Savage because Fred Savage seemed
like uniquely in tune with the world, like he was
a kid that got it, like like he was able
to like get himself down there without the help of monsters. Right,
So it's like maybe it's like, hey, this guy gets it,
like he's part of that's why he wanted him.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yes, he ate was kind of like offering it's like
one day, perhaps you will also gain power too, maybe
you'll replace me or something along those lines, like he
saw promise in him. But yeah, and it's tough because
we really had his minion, what's.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
His name, you know, the guy with the lunchback.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Yeah, Nick really, who we thought was the main bag
up until kind of the end, right, and then oh,
oh you've got a pass.
Speaker 7 (23:31):
Okay, let's suck to your manager, you know.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
Yeah, yeah, And so that was a little weird, Like
it's like, who is this new dude.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
And what do they have quotas that they need to fill?
You know? In Monsters Eke, at least we know that
they need to bottle the screams to run Monster Monstropolis,
you know. In this it's like, what is the point
of getting the kids in trouble? Just it's just for
the sake of it, And it's only when they go
to scare a time baby who won't remember this by
(24:03):
the way, that Fred Savage is like this is bad
and wrong, and he's like, what do you mean we're
scaring this baby And he's like, no, you can't scare
a baby. And it's like that should be the mischief
that you're allowed to do because a baby will not remember.
There's no consequences for the baby.
Speaker 6 (24:24):
And also the redheaded girl that he likes.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
That's when things started. That's when things got too real.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, things got a little too real when they he
had Maurice ate her report that she'd been working on
for weeks and weeks about photographing a night blooming cactus,
which is something that's stuck in my mind. And when
she flips the polaroids and stuff, I'm like, that's such
a good science project. She's so smart. I really admired her.
(24:54):
And then he destroys her report and Fred Savage is like,
oh my gosh. But also no one reacts. He acts
like he's hungover because he spends all night down in
the in the monster world with Maurice, and so he's
right sunglasses, dark sunglasses the whole next day at elementary school.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
Yeah, and the teacher's just like, oh, so nice of
you to finally join us, Like they're not worried. They're
not looking for the missing child at all. He can
come and go as he pleases.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, it's in the nineteen eighties, like there should be
in the middle of Satanic panic, like immediately looking at
this kid with dark sunglasses and being like, he's unto
Satan's rule. We gotta we gotta get the devil out
of him, you know, or something. But they're just like
very blase about it. And the parents don't notice anything's
(25:49):
off with him at all. They're so wrapped up in
their own shit. They don't care. But you're right, it's
not really a commentary on divorce either because their divorce
has no impact whatsoever on the story or either kid.
There is a part which is I think the peak gross.
You tell me if you think this was the peak gross.
(26:10):
But the peak gross is where they go to the
bully's house and they replace replace his tuna fish sandwich
with cat food, and they piss into his apple.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
Juice and it's the foamiest piss that's ever been.
Speaker 7 (26:30):
Again, this isn't like fun gross, No gross.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, we're not having We're not having any fun with
this grossness. I'm up for fun gross, I'm up for
fun gross.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah. Well I'm glad you are, Nathan, because I was
beginning to wonder is Nathan up for fun gross? I'm
not sure anymore. But he spits it all over the
teacher too, and it's like, okay, wow, okay, wow, this
is really you've gone too far. Don't make someone drink
your piss.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
That's just not that's rule number three.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Well, it's number three.
Speaker 8 (27:09):
Especially because we haven't had enough evidence of why this
bully is so terrible. He's just big and goonish looking,
and he got mad that someone threw something at his head.
That's really the extent of the bullying that's happened. So, yeah,
it hasn't been earned. It hasn't been like, oh yeah,
finally this guy's getting what's coming to him. It's just
(27:30):
more like he just looks oafish.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, he's just a bigger kid than everyone else. Yeah,
poor guy.
Speaker 8 (27:39):
Yeah, poor buzz.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
It's a stereotype, poor Buzz. So they say shit a
whole bunch in this movie too, which like, they say
shit a lot more in this movie than they do
in the Goonies.
Speaker 8 (27:50):
Oh, that is so funny that you said that, because
I was I literally was thinking today, I wonder if
they say shit more than they do in the Goonies,
and like the kid, because I was allowed to watch
the Goonies, but I was like, I think, if Gooties
had this many shits in it, my parents would not
have let me watch it. So I almost looked up
number of shits in Goonies today, all right, exctly two
(28:13):
shits and one fucking goodies. There were so many.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
There were so many shits in this I wrote down
all of them. So the other thing that happens besides
them kidnapping the little brother, which comes later is that
Fred Savage starts turning into a monster. So what happens
to the monsters when they get exposed to bright light
is that they evaporate and turn into clothes. They just
(28:40):
become clothes on the ground, which I always had a
real kinship for because that's what it's like to live
with my husband Dorian and my son Rocket. They just
walk out of their clothes and leave them as they
as if they had just been little monstered. The whole
outfit is just laid out on the ground as if
(29:02):
they have disappeared and become nothing. So I've always had
a kinship for the monsters in this movie disappearing into clothes.
But Brian, who is Fred Savage, starts turning into clothes
and so he realizes he's becoming a monster. That's the
(29:24):
only time that we really learn about the kids becoming
monsters thing. And then they kidnapped the little brother to
get him, and he immediately has a plan, which is
that what we're gonna do is I'm gonna go get
the bully and the cute girl. We're gonna strap a
bunch of lights to ourselves and We're gonna go down
(29:48):
and just kill as many monsters as it takes until
we get the little monster, until we get the little brother.
And that's what they do.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
They go, they go full dream warrior.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
They do, they really do, and they take out Boy
and Snick. But at first, oh, I have to say, like,
one way he does try and smart outsmart them is
that he saws all the legs off the bed and
the mom doesn't react to it at all. She's talking
to her friend and her friend is like, how's Brian
(30:22):
taking it, And she's like, oh, he's fine. He stayed
home from school today. He's sawing all the legs off
the bed. She thinks nothing of this, but that's very
clever of him. But the bad monster Snick gets the
little brother Ben Savage by coming out of the couch bed,
So you gotta beware of your couch beds.
Speaker 8 (30:46):
That's another thing I didn't It doesn't quite make sense.
It's like, Okay, he saws the legs off the bed
so that they're not elevated on the ground anymore. But
the ease with which everyone just lifts up the beds
to go into the monster world, like beds don't seem
heavy in their world.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Like, yeah, yeah, my bed is definitely heavy. You couldn't
lift it up with one hand. You couldn't have a
seven year old in here lifting up the bed. That's
a great point. Beds are heavy, yeah, especially if they're
flat on the ground. So they they go shine all
(31:24):
the lights on. Boy, they get attacked by toys. That
part's really creepy where they're getting attacked by the toys
and they get dropped into a pit of dolls and stuff.
What do you guys think of all that? Did you
think it was imaginative or were you just like over it?
Speaker 7 (31:41):
It was kind of like the stuffed animal.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
Junk pit in Star Wars. I kind of liked.
Speaker 7 (31:48):
The all this, the the stuffed animal like exile prison
like that was kind of fun.
Speaker 8 (31:56):
Yeah, that was good. Yeah, I liked it. And it
also reminded me of like those like sponge pits that
like they would have a gymnastics places when you were
a kid that looked like it would be fun to
jump in. But uh, the like when they had the
little tanks coming to life and like all the like
the toys that were activated stuff. It reminded me of
the movie Toys.
Speaker 7 (32:16):
Yeah, but what does it mean.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Does it mean that they you know, doesn't mean anything,
Like does it mean that it's like, oh, we here's
where we put like here's here's where we put the
stuff we steal, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
That's what it seemed like.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Like do they have vaults of stolen stuff? Like it
would have been nice to lean into that more, you know,
like kid's favorite toys things like that.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, that they stole. That's what it seemed like they
were implying in boys little warehouse. But so at the
end of all the shenanigans, Maurice gets a flame thrower
and h burns boy and sneak to death and then
everyone's happy that they're dead. But it seemed like they
(33:05):
were doing a good job of running the Monster Underworld.
It seemed like things ran smoothly, like.
Speaker 7 (33:13):
The transportation was on time, like the lights were on.
It seemed like people were being fed. Yeah, so are
you really are you gonna really find like a like
a totally normal.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
Monster to run the place?
Speaker 7 (33:30):
Like everyone's gonna be a little weird, right.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
You're monsters, and whoever's been down there the longest just
gotta be the most.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, I mean, so what if he like has a
little brain sticking out of the back of his head,
and he dresses like a pedophile, Like I mean, you
should have seen the guy he was running up against.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
He's dressed like the painting blue boy, which is I
have a whole bunch of in my house. So I
kind of resent that, Nathan. But uh, yes, the infrastructure
was working in the Monster Underworld. They were giving out
assignments like it seemed fair.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Who's gonna be doing it now, Maurice, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
He can't be in charge. He's he's not.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
He's not like putting Jack Sparrow in charge, Like you know,
it's you might like them the most, but it's it's
not gonna work out. Strangely, is I think I met
so these writers wrote the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
That makes sense to me. Put that together, that makes
sense to me. I think I like this movie a
lot more than you did. So the very end of
the movie, the kids can't get up onto under their
beds because the sun has come up in where they
live in like Philadelphia or something, so they have to
run through the Monster Underworld, uh, to from the east
(34:58):
coast to the West coast, trying to chase the sun and.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
There Jesus again, sorry I went to the kitchen. Was
there a reason why they couldn't just wait a day
because they'd get in trouble or would they permanently turn
into monsters if they were there?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
They if they stayed there for one full night, they
would permanently turn into monsters.
Speaker 7 (35:19):
Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yeah, they did reveal that. So they run all the
way to California and they come up The only bed
they can come up with to get out from under
is a homeless man sleeping on the beach. So they
they pop out from under a homeless man sleeping on
the beach, and they're like, we did it. We escaped
(35:42):
the monster world and we're not monsters, and Maurice and
they haven't like tearful goodbye, and he's like, I won't
visit you anymore. And it's like okay, great, And then
they call the parents and they're like, we're in California.
How are they gonna explain that they got from Philadelphia
to California in one night?
Speaker 8 (36:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I know.
Speaker 8 (36:04):
And then the end of the movie is just like
it's a long story. Okay, yeah to me, like the
rest of this story is the wildly fascinating parts, like
how do you get out of this without your parents
thinking you're insane? Without thinking like an adults kidnapped you
and somehow brought you across the country. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, an adults somehow kidnapped four children from their beds.
Speaker 8 (36:33):
You took a red Eye to Malamo, and the.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Parents don't seem all that like freaked out about it either.
They're just like, you're in California. Oh okay, Well that's
more mischief. You're gonna be grounded again. That's more mischief
for you, Brian. I still really like this movie. You guys,
I don't know why you're to it in the same
positive way.
Speaker 7 (37:00):
I'm glad you're happy.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I am happy. Aside from the grossness, I think it's
like a cute, fun clever idea. It's just not executed
very well. And I don't like Fred Savage.
Speaker 8 (37:14):
It's just not done well, and I don't like the
main character. But otherwise.
Speaker 6 (37:20):
I think we all agree.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, okay, So on a scale of one uh horn
that erupts out of your head because you got exposed
to sunlight, to ten horns that are rupped out of
your head because you got exposed to sunlight. How many
horns on the head do you give the movie Little Monsters?
Speaker 7 (37:51):
I think I'm gonna go for I just I don't know.
Speaker 6 (37:55):
I don't you know.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
I have to go with my gut. In comparison to
what I've given other movies. I feel like this is
a four out of ten. I mean, I could be
convinced to do a four point five, but yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
So that means under a five for you and Nathan
means there's active hate.
Speaker 6 (38:18):
It's true, It's true.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
I feel like there was a there were there were
fun moments. It was fun for for Fred Savage and
what's his name he played the day. It was fun
to see them together because you could say that this
is like a metaphoric like dream sequence of from like
(38:43):
the Wonder Years. Daniel Stern played Fred Savage's future.
Speaker 7 (38:49):
Self anyway, that was the eighties. But yeah, it would
just and.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
And I'm glad they were swinging hard. It just couldn't
quite like honestly, like, I couldn't even if the grossness
was still there, even if the lighting or if they
had a little more time to do everything, if it
was a little shorter. I just felt like the world
building didn't and like why this kid, why this story?
Speaker 7 (39:19):
What's his arc? Could have been chilled together better?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, I agree with all those things, but I still
think I will read it higher than you.
Speaker 8 (39:32):
I think I'm okay, I'll give it four and a
half horn, like the half horn that Maurice has at
the end of it.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (39:42):
It just like I like the idea of having like
a world that kids feel like, Oh, let's be kids
in this world. I like that concept in general. I
think it's fun. But I don't think anything that they
did in the kid world would have appealed to me
even as a shot, like as a kid. Had I
seen this as a kid, I still would have been.
Speaker 7 (40:01):
Like adding on like Peter Pan on top of it.
Speaker 8 (40:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Yeah, I felt like the like we didn't get the sense.
I didn't get the sense.
Speaker 7 (40:11):
That they were kids having fun in that world.
Speaker 8 (40:14):
Yeah, other than the pinball machine and being able to
tilt and get free lives, which would have been nice.
My parents had a pinball machine when I was growing up,
or like, we had one in our house, and it
was the tilting that that balance of being able to
tilt and get the like you're not tilts that was
something you that I identified with. But other than that,
(40:35):
none of that world seemed like a world I was
would be interested in. Like, it was all gross, I'm
not like a prankster. It was all dark and it
was very dilapidated too. Yeah, I don't know, Like I
think I would have been more like on Board if
it was like a technicolor type world and there was
more just like playing.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah, No, there was no color. It was all very black. Yeah,
little streamers of color that sort of spun around throughout,
But it was very very dark and dismal, and all
of the monsters looked like something that Tim Burton's sketchbook reading.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
I mean, I think the some of the same designers
who worked on Beatle just worked on this, you know,
And I think the designs of a lot of the
guys are really cool. But I feel like they just
didn't have enough time to really.
Speaker 7 (41:37):
Do it right. I'm sure they would agree to you know,
that they wish they had more time.
Speaker 6 (41:42):
It looked like.
Speaker 7 (41:43):
They were definitely aiming high with a with a low budget.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah. Howie Mendel did not like this movie either. He
did not enjoy the process of putting on the makeup
or sweating it up in the warehouse where they filmed,
and he did not enjoy his participation in this movie.
So he's with you, guys. But I'm going to give
this movie six horns h because I do think it
(42:15):
has some fun in there, and I think it's fun
to show people this movie to see how they react.
Speaker 6 (42:27):
Because you hate people, No.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
I love people, and I loved you guys, and I
thought you would like it more. So I'm I'm sorry.
I apologize.
Speaker 8 (42:38):
No, no, no, I'm glad. I'm definitely glad that I
saw it. So don't get me wrong. I'm happy to
have seen it.
Speaker 6 (42:45):
I'm just support your happiness.
Speaker 8 (42:48):
Yeah, I actually think for me, the biggest takeaway from
this was Ben Savage. It's like this little kid, he's
a freaking great little actor. He did such a good job.
Like I was very impressed.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
I love him in Boy Meets World. That's one of
my favorite childhood shows, much more so than the Wonder Years.
You know. Yeah, I was a Boy Meets World girly,
not a Wonder Year's girly.
Speaker 8 (43:17):
So it was like kind of nice. It's one of
those things where it's like, oh, it wasn't just nepotism,
like you actually like did a great job, like you
were like a little six year old that actually like
seemed genuine like you played your role really well.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
So Savage agreed. What is your deep cut recommendation for
the movie Little Monsters.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Nathan, I feel like I've done this before, so this
movie before, I definitely have done this filmmaker before. But
I'm gonna go with the animated film Spirited Way.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Oh yes, of course, of course.
Speaker 6 (43:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Well, when you're talking about like the secret world of
monsters and little girls, like obviously there's a lot of
movies that are not that deep, like Beetlejuice is the
easy one to go to, like.
Speaker 7 (44:13):
You know, they they that's the perfect pairing.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
But yeah, Spirited Away is just so good and so
original and and.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
And yet fun and emotional.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
But just like the Secret Life of spirits who run
a bathhouse for other spirits, so they're basically like, you know,
just running a retreat, you know. But to see our
main character who is a little girl who's a little
fussy and needs to grow up and have to go
(44:46):
through this journey of becoming strong and learning to stand
up for herself and growing up through her experience in
this kind of like the Secret world, but it's also
scarier too in terms of like these spirits don't care
about her at all.
Speaker 6 (45:03):
But yeah, that's a great movie.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
It won't Oscar.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
It is a great movie. I love Spirited Away. I
haven't seen it in years and years and years, and
I don't think I've ever shown it to my kids.
Speaker 6 (45:15):
Yeah, it's a good one.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Yeah, I think I have to do that good one. Nathan.
You can recommend that as many times as you want.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
I'll eventually go through all of Hyomia Zaki's films at
some point and recommend them depending on the movies we see.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Okay, perfect. What's your deep cut recommendation, Jenna?
Speaker 8 (45:36):
Okay, Well, this is inspired by boys pedophile Outfit snakely
called it. My first thought was it reminded me of
the movie Clifford with Martin Short and Charles Croden. That's
like what Martin Short is dressed like. And Martin Short
plays a ten year old in that movie who's just like.
Speaker 6 (45:58):
Like a forty year old man.
Speaker 8 (45:59):
Yeah yeah, but he's just like a little piece of
shit kid in that movie, and he drives Charles Goodin crazy.
Granted I haven't seen this movie in a very long time,
So this is not like a hard recommend or anything,
but that's what it reminded me of when I saw
A Boy for the first time. I first like immediately thought,
oh Clifford, and then.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Wow, I I never even seen that movie or I've
never even heard of that movie. But it looks bananas.
Speaker 8 (46:25):
It is. It is nuts. I actually kind of want
to watch it again now and see if my memory
of it gels would be actual reality of the movie.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
But I but the pictures online seems unhinged.
Speaker 8 (46:42):
Yeah, okay, And I have like a sub recommendation as well,
not media related, but I would like to recommend bringing
back over the shoulder boulder holder as a way to
refer to bras, which uh I really appreciated. Maurice did
(47:03):
that in this movie. It's my favorite euphemism for a
bra and they said it in this movie. So I'd
like to bring that back as I recommend.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
That older boulder holder. You say that in Beaches. Yep,
I love it. Good catch, good catch on that one.
I didn't catch that. I love it. Uh So I
want to recommend My recommendation is actually not that deep,
but it was the movie I kept thinking of throughout
this whole thing, which is The Wizard, which we've also
covered on this podcast, especially because they end up in California, California. Yeah,
(47:40):
and like and the Wizard was basically their journey to California.
So that's what it made me think of. So that's
my deep cut recommendation for Little Monsters is the Wizard.
Not that deep, not that deep, but a recommendation nonetheless.
And I don't think I like Fred Savage very much
(48:01):
in The Wizard. M I don't think he's a very
likable character in that either. I think I like the
Little Brother more in that one too, So Dad, I
just don't like Fred Savage. Yeah, okay, all right, we
learned something about me today, Nathan. Where can people find
your films to support your filmmaking endeavors?
Speaker 3 (48:25):
Yeah, so as every episode the Squishy Studios dot com.
If you want to check out my short film's web
series or my feature film The Last Movie You Ever made.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Which you definitely should, Jenna, where can people find you
in the real world doing your comedy stylings?
Speaker 8 (48:43):
Oh, they can find me at the Neighborhood Comedy Theater
in downtown Mesa. Yeah, I'm there most of the times.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
True You're an all star, that's for sure, and you
can get dates and details on that on the inner
at NTT Phoenix dot com and for neighborhoods see for comedy,
t for Theater, and then Phoenix I'll spelled out dot com.
You can find all things most excellent Eighties Movies podcast
(49:13):
and my other podcast, Gank That Drank, a supernatural drinking
game podcast on true story dot fm, where you can
become a member. If you're at the end of this
podcast and you're like, boy, I wish I could spend
more time with Jenna and Nathan and Chrissy, well guess what.
You can just become a member and you can get
(49:35):
our special bonus content, which today is going to be
what urban legend or mysterious creature do you secretly believe exists?
Is the question I have for our panelists today. So
scoot on over to true story dot fm and become
a member today and support our podcast. We love you,
(49:57):
and if you don't feel like doing that, like rate review, subscribe,
do all the free things that help our podcast because
we really appreciate it, you know. And while you're out
there in the world, please keep the most excellent eighties
movies podcast model in mind, Be excellent to each other
and party ar
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