October 11, 2022 • 54 mins
We know you've heard of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - it's a monster of a franchise that's been around for decades! But this week, we're headed back to 1990 to discuss the original TMNT movie. How does it hold up in today's world? Joining us is Swanka Burnette from The Quick Critic - who happens to be a GIANT fan of this movie and is ready to defend why he thinks it's a must-watch for everyone! But will the ladies agree? Will we have our first STWI argument? Cowabunga, Dude!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kara Edwards (00:00):
The views and opinions expressed by the should
they watch it podcast are thoseof two moms who happen to be a
registered play therapist and avoice actor for cartoons. So
while they may feel theiropinions come from a
knowledgeable place, they arestill in fact just opinions.
Should they watch it? A podcastthat takes the task of reviewing
your kid's favorite shows upyour to do list? Hello, and
(00:22):
welcome to the should they watchit podcast. decongested edition.
I'm Kara Edwards
Laura Orr (00:28):
and I am Laura Orr the phlegm master. I am full of
phlegm today, and
Kara Edwards (00:34):
we are both we just both have a little thumb
something going on. Yep, tis theseason for some allergies and
colds. Yeah. So we didn't youknow, but we're not going to let
that stand in our way.
Laura Orr (00:46):
Not today. Not today, not even when it comes to
singing Kara. And I'll waituntil after we introduce our
guests because there is a lot ofmusical conversation that we
could have about this one,because we're discussing the
Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesTeenage
Kara Edwards (01:02):
Mutant Ninja Turtles button. I mean, there's
a lot to discuss when it comesto teenage mutant ninja Ninja
Turtles. But we are going backto 1990
Laura Orr (01:11):
Yes, we are at 92 right or is it handy? I don't
know. Maybe our guests don'tknow. Maybe I should introduce
them. Yes. swanky Burnett is thegenius behind the quick critic,
a website and social media pageproviding pop culture goodness
to the world and short form.
Long before it was cool. WelcomeSwanka. Hi
Kara Edwards (01:29):
Swanka.
Swanka Burnette (01:30):
Thank you so much. So I'm so happy to be here
with you guys today.
Kara Edwards (01:33):
We're so happy that you are here. And I am so
curious. First, I just have somany things to talk to you
about, about what you do abouthow your site works, and what
you bring to the world. But I'mmore than anything. I am so
curious what made you chooseTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Swanka Burnette (01:53):
So I love that movie. It's It's quite simple.
And it's really one of myfavorite films. And you know,
even though it's a kidsproperty, the movie really just
has a lot of meaning for me. Andthat both as a film that came
out when I was 10 years old, in1990. And that also speaks to a
lot of themes that I think areimportant and are just important
(02:17):
things like, you know, family,and the idea of loving one
another and dealing withisolation and feeling like, you
know, in the case of theseturtles, they feel isolated.
They're the only ones of theirtype, and they're trying to
protect the city, but alsopeople are scared of them. So,
you know, there's a lot ofinteresting themes in there. And
I think the movie just, it holdsup in 2022. And, ya know, people
(02:38):
ask my favorite movie a lot oftimes and I tell them that this
is it, or this is amongst thatgroup in a dark kind of looking
me with bewilderment. But, youknow, I feel like I can back up
my position.
Kara Edwards (02:49):
Because you like watch movies. This is like what
you do. This is you, you know,movies and you you have a lot of
movies you can choose from whenyou choose this one as your
favorite. Yeah, absolutely.
Swanka Burnette (03:01):
So I so I pulled up my review that I read
a bit and I'm just gonna readone sentence. I think it kind of
encapsulates encapsulates a lotof why I have a lot of affinity
for this film. Right. So inthere, I mentioned that the
target for the film is anyonewho has experienced loss dealt
with being an outsider waschallenged by family infighting,
(03:21):
felt neglected by their parentsor struggles with anger. And you
know, that covers a prettysizable swath of the human
condition. So for me that's abig part of it. Yeah. And anyone
Laura Orr (03:31):
who loves pizza watching crazy crazy martial
arts, by Turtles
Kara Edwards (03:41):
Turtles if you have a thing for sewers
Laura Orr (03:43):
on a more shallow and, and like surfer accents,
Kara Edwards (03:50):
but if you love the word cowabunga
Laura Orr (03:53):
for sure.
Swanka Burnette (03:54):
Got you got some romance in there with Casey
Jones and April O'Neil.
Laura Orr (03:57):
Oh my god. Yeah, I
Swanka Burnette (03:59):
think for everybody,
Kara Edwards (04:00):
I mean that we have a lot to dig into with this
movie. There's no question.
Laura Orr (04:05):
The turtle franchise is huge, too. And I feel like I
say this all the time. But whenbut it really has like so many
projects behind it. And it wasfunny, and there's also these
cultural moments that I really Iforgot about until I watched
this again, because growing up,I watched the Ninja Turtles,
(04:27):
religiously. The cartoon with myfriends and I was a girl who was
surrounded by boys it justhappened to be that way all my
friends were boys when I wasreally little. And so Ninja
Turtles was a game we played allthe time and I ended up falling
into the April O'Neil role. Andso we would watch this we would
play this this was huge. And sowhen the movie came out, it was
(04:52):
such a big deal for kids ourage. My husband told me that
this is how he spent his seventhbirthday was they waited Like an
a long time before the movieactually started so that they
could get in the front row. Andthey took up the first two front
rows so that they could watchthis movie for his birthday
party. And this movie doesn'teven have the Vanilla Ice song,
(05:16):
which was like, I don't havebillboard pulled up on my
computer right now, but I amgoing to say it was like a hit
song. Do you remember that?
Kara Edwards (05:24):
I did. Yeah,
Swanka Burnette (05:25):
I think it was called ninja rap. And it was on
the soundtrack of the sequel,
Laura Orr (05:29):
actually, the sequel?
I
Swanka Burnette (05:30):
know. And then so this hearing in my head right
now the song?
Laura Orr (05:35):
Absolutely. I'm seeing the dance as well. Can
you remember the dance? What didyou do? And so it was really fun
to go back and watch somethinglike this. That something that I
personally have not thoughtabout for 20 plus years. And
just remember pretty iconicscenes that we would recreate in
(05:57):
our little friend group. When Iwas a kid, so that was really
fun for me.
Kara Edwards (06:02):
I am really interested to see how this
podcast is about to go. But I'mgonna start with I know Laura
said you're excited about thesong. I don't even know what
song would be associated withthis other than the one at the
end that was like,
Laura Orr (06:17):
well, then when I think of the song again, I don't
think of this movie. This movieactually disappoints me with its
music. You think of Vanilla Ice,I think of an ice but I also
think of the show and I thinkthe show's song was rewritten
before Swan could correct me ifI'm wrong. But the the song
where I mean, Teenage MutantNinja Turtles?
Kara Edwards (06:38):
Do you need to be denied? Remember that it
Laura Orr (06:40):
was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Heroes in a half
shell.
Kara Edwards (06:44):
I do remember that. And
Laura Orr (06:45):
they do a description of each turtle in the song that
really does help you rememberwhich turtle euros? Yes.
Kara Edwards (06:55):
Okay, so then I'm gonna go ahead and just start
and I'm gonna ask you guysfirst. I feel like I know the
answer here. Sonka. Should theywatch it?
Swanka Burnette (07:05):
So this this movie, definitely, I think the
only thing that gives me anypause as far as children
watching this film, you know,there is a lot of violence. And
there is a lot of violence withweapons, which parents express a
lot of concerns with and it's areason why if you watch the
sequel, they almost never usetheir weapons at all. So that
being said, it's I see it aslike comic violence. You know,
(07:28):
it's not like nobody's gettinglike, there's no blood. It's not
graphic. Yeah, it's not graphicor anything. So as long as a
parent is okay with, you know,seeing people getting kicked in
the face and people resolvingissues with fisticuffs.
Laura Orr (07:42):
fisticuffs, you know,
Swanka Burnette (07:43):
Ninja is in the title of the movie, you know. So
as long as they're okay withthat. I think the film, the fact
that it addresses again, allthese themes that I talked about
that are, you know, maturethemes that are interesting
themes that are things that youwill make you think, I think
that definitely Trump's the factthat it does have that violent
content
Laura Orr (08:02):
to it. It does inspire conversation between
parent and child if the parentstake the opportunity. But before
we move forward, Tonka What isyour relationship to the turtle
franchise? Because I know youlove this movie, but does it
stop there?
Swanka Burnette (08:17):
No. So I grew up, I grew up watching the
cartoon as well. I mean,literally every day after school
for most of my childhood, youknow, we're watching the show.
And then at some point, it wentto Saturday mornings, I was
watching it there as well. Icollected the toys growing up,
you know, obviously, watch thismovie, watch the sequel, watch
the third one, although I wish Ihadn't. And then there, you
(08:38):
know, there's been a bunch ofother movies since that I've
enjoyed to to varying degrees,but, ya know, I mean, it's just
like, when you when you thinkabout pop culture, properties,
you know, in my lifetime, youknow, if you're gonna pick the
top five, I mean, you got to putthe turtles in there, you know,
it's like Power Rangers, NinjaTurtles, I guess for me, like
(08:59):
Street Fighter, I guess. But,um, but ya know, they're
definitely if you're gonna gotop five or top 10 all time, you
know, pop culture properties.
You can't you can't not includeTNT.
Kara Edwards (09:10):
Okay, so, Laura.
I'm gonna go to you next. Shouldthey watch it?
Laura Orr (09:14):
I'm going with uh, yes, I had a lot of fun watching
this. Of course, there's somethings that we can talk about
that are potentiallyproblematic, but I feel like
they're more like talking pointsthat parents can you know,
approach their kids with asopposed to a hard No. Kara?
Should they watch it?
Kara Edwards (09:32):
I have been so nervous. I kind of sitting here
feeling like I'm literally I'msitting on a couch by myself
looking at Laura and I honestlyfeel like I'm on an island. At
this point. I have been sonervous to do this podcast,
Laura with you and with swagbecause I'm like, clearly swonk
I knew you chose this becauseyou were gonna love it. Laura. I
(09:53):
just had a feeling you weregonna love it. Oh, you put some
stuff on Twitter that I saw thatI was like, Oh crap. Because I
did not like this movie did haveno history with the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles. Other thanI know some of their voice
actors and the voices have beendifferent depending on the
(10:16):
property. There hasn't been aconsistent voice for any of the
turtles. But I am friends withmany of the Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles and Karis friends at theturtle I am and so I wanted to
show up and be a net none of myfriends are in this movie. Okay.
But um, I think they came lateron but so I came at this like, I
(10:37):
this is gonna be my firstsitting down. I did not watch
this in 1990 I remember theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
being a really big deal. Theywere not a big deal in Live
World. Gotcha. So I was like,This is gonna be fun. And I had
my seven year old son sittingnext to me. We had to watch this
over the course of four nights,because we kept turning it off.
(10:59):
Michael was an endo. He kind ofstarted getting into it a little
bit more when they got into thefighting. Yeah, he laughed
through a lot of the fightinglike because it is there's a lot
of slapstick that goes on in themovie and so he he definitely
got all the jokes it'sdefinitely on his age level and
(11:20):
any got it but at the end Iasked him because again, we had
to split this up because I waslike, Oh my God, I need a break.
And at the end I asked him likeso overall Did you love it, did
you and he was like no man thoseturtles are super creepy. He
didn't but he's he's seven likeyeah world where he's used to
seeing CGI and things lookingvery realistic. And like this
(11:45):
was Jim Henson designed thecostumes for this movie and they
had puppeteers that were andpeople in the costumes which by
the way, each person in acostume did make a cameo in the
movie. Yeah, the each I made alist. I don't know if anyone
would find this interesting. I'mfinding but I'll find it in a
(12:05):
minute.
Swanka Burnette (12:06):
So actually know who they are. I can tell
you just off the top of my
Kara Edwards (12:09):
head. Yes, okay.
Swanka Burnette (12:12):
So the guy who delivers a pizza? Yep. Is
Michelangelo Yep.
Laura Orr (12:18):
Oh,
Swanka Burnette (12:20):
the guy played Rafa yell was the guy in the
taxi. Okay, right after RaphaelJones have their fight? Uh huh.
And those those who actuallydon't I don't remember the other
two. I those two I just
Kara Edwards (12:35):
down and it looks like I didn't.
Laura Orr (12:36):
But Corey Feldman one
Kara Edwards (12:38):
of the Bellman is one of the hotels. Yeah. Yeah,
there's I mean,
Laura Orr (12:43):
I wonder he's one of the riffraff teenagers or
something. No, but
Kara Edwards (12:47):
there are boys talk about some people skied.
Oh, riches in there. Scott Wolfis in there. Obviously. Sam
Rockwell is the hedgehog Well,Oh, yeah. So there's I mean, the
cameos it's that part was fun towatch for me on the movie, where
the different people would popup. And I'm like, is that Sam
Rockwell? Oh, my god. That's soand so. So it was fun to see
from 1990 and then know thattheir careers have flourished
(13:10):
from there. I'm sure from such adramatic Oscar winning movie I
did. I'm going to be a no, I amI and I tread lightly because I
know that fandom for TeenageMutant Ninja Turtles is
enormous. I go to conventions.
And I know that. I might get alot of flack for saying that.
But for me, there was a lot thatdidn't hold up today. Gotcha.
(13:33):
And I have some questions I wantto get into later about your
feelings on some things thatbothered me that maybe I don't
need to be bothered by. Butalso, I just felt Yeah, I just
felt like, as of today, this isa this is something that I see
being very nostalgic for a lotof people but I don't know that
(13:53):
I felt great. After letting myseven year old Watch
Laura Orr (13:58):
out. It translates.
Yeah, for me. fair. That's fair.
And that's a question I tend toask myself when I'm watching
these older movies is am Ibiased because of when I watched
this? And is this more than apiece for me? Also, when it
comes to Michael, thedifference, I think between he
and us when we were children iswe were primed for this movie.
(14:22):
We were watching no plus showevery at least once a week when
it would come out and also thereruns. I mean, it was playing
all the time. And so we wereready for this to come out. We
knew who the characters were, weknew their personalities. We
were we were psyched for thismovie to come out. And so when
it came out it delivered in away that you know, I think was
(14:46):
appropriate for the time and forthe people watching
Kara Edwards (14:49):
for the time. I mean 9090 Because then you can
kind of tell because there isthis cross between the 80s you
can see a little bit of the 80spunk rock going into the 90s
grunge you I can tell this is amovie that landed right in
between those two areas. There'sa part at the very beginning. I
think it's Raphael that there'stwo turtles sitting next to each
other. And one of them ischewing on a toothpick. It's
(15:12):
right in the beginning of themovie. And when the actor goes
to put the toothpick in hismouth, he misses his mouth. And
he hits the top of his mouth,and then he's like, Oh, crap,
and then he goes back and sticksit in his mouth. And that like I
watched it, like four times Ikept rewinding it to watch it
again. And I'm like, that's kindof how I felt about the movie is
(15:33):
I felt there was just like, forme, I felt there was minimal
effort put in what I do. I'msorry, is I felt like they were
gonna take something that'salready really popular. Turn it
into a movie and kind of hadlike, just kind of easily do a
movie and oh, yeah, Raphaeldefinitely just stabbed himself
(15:54):
in the nose with a toothpick.
It's fine, guys just leave itin.
Laura Orr (15:57):
Yeah, but like the human condition is not perfect.
They made it more realistic.
Kara Edwards (16:03):
No, it definitely looks like there's a man inside
of a costume that wasn't able tofind the mouth swanky. What
Laura Orr (16:08):
do you think of toothpicks?
Swanka Burnette (16:10):
So I it's funny I don't remember that secret.
You know that this is a thing tobrag about. But I feel like I
know everything with this film.
I don't remember that.
Kara Edwards (16:22):
It's right in the beginning and you're gonna have
to go back and watch it because
Laura Orr (16:27):
the thing about Kara is that she's in the industry
and so she noticed this crapthat it's like whatever Cara Oh
it
Kara Edwards (16:33):
does definitely that drives me nuts like I'm
Splinter i the whole time don'teven about splinter. No, I could
not figure out what microphonethey recorded him on. That's all
I could think the entire timewatching the movie. I'm like,
could you guys not find a bettermic for him? Because it was at
the processing did they put toomuch EQ on the voice? He sounded
so bizarre as from an audiostandpoint that it was driving
(16:57):
me bonkers and the ADR don'teven get me started on the ADR
in this movie. Oh my word youpeople can you not find a mouth
anyway? We're missing all of theflaps. Speaking of
Laura Orr (17:08):
speaking of Splinter Did you know that the voice
actor who plays him Kevin clashhe was also the voice of Elmo
prior to 2012
Kara Edwards (17:15):
Oh, that's fun.
Oh, see? Oh, had a greatmicrophone. I don't understand.
I think they just did cute it Ijust think they did weird EQ on
it while
Laura Orr (17:26):
the voice itself was great and is done by and Kevin
clash is also a puppeteer sohe's not just a voice actor. He
also super moves the puppetaround
Kara Edwards (17:36):
not saying anything about the acting not
saying anything about the voicetotally. From a technical
standpoint,
Laura Orr (17:41):
I get you I get you.
But I thought that that was funto to to see and hear. Because
those voices are so starklydifferent. And then I started
imagining like swapping thevoices with the characters like
can you imagine what Splinterwould sound like with Elmos
voice or what Oh, it sounds likewas splinters voice. These are
the things that were goingthrough my head while watching
(18:03):
this movie. I'm so weird, butit's because I it was so weird
to because I haven't seen thismovie and so long, but I once I
started watching it, everythingcame back to me. Does that
happen to you? Like, you haven'theard a song and 20 years? Yeah,
comes on the radio. And you knowevery word. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Kara Edwards (18:21):
I mean, and that's what I think you as WONCA have
so much nostalgia that I wascoming at this without that, and
watching this movie and avoidit. Yeah, I think I definitely
clearly saw something verydifferent than you guys did.
Laura Orr (18:36):
Yeah. So I think what you're saying is, should they
watch it? Maybe only if theparent has nostalgic
Kara Edwards (18:44):
value and can talk about like their connection to
the to Ninja Turtles? Andabsolutely, then that's
perfectly fine.
Laura Orr (18:51):
Or existing fans of the franchise because there's a
show out. I mean, I think it'srunning right now. I'm not sure
my nephew loves it. And he's ateenager and I think that if if
you are wrapped up in thisfranchise currently,
Kara Edwards (19:07):
then you might love it. Absolutely. And there
are a lot of themes swanky. Youdid such a good job and I know
you want to go into this morebut there there are themes in
here and I wrote some down aswell that are really good, you
know, showing teamwork andloyalty and various stuff that
yes, that I think you canabsolutely point out and again,
(19:29):
I think Michael and I were justwatching it with these eyes with
no context and it was like Whatare we watching?
Swanka Burnette (19:35):
Yeah, I think if you if you take away the
nostalgia element, then thattakes away a significant
significant piece so I canunderstand your position in that
way.
Kara Edwards (19:44):
Yeah, like the turtle disguise. I'm just gonna
go the turtles disguise was wasa hat and a Traco well
Swanka Burnette (19:58):
comic books into the cartoon So it's kind of
one of those things where it'slike, yeah, it's ridiculous.
Like he could walk in a movietheater dressed like that. No
notice, but it's like, you justkind of gotta go. You just kind
of have to go with it.
Laura Orr (20:10):
There is definitely a level of camp in this movie that
asks you to suspend yourdisbelief and certain things and
one of them is definitely theappearance of the turtles in
every way, shape and form.
Kara Edwards (20:24):
I just wish we had a camera on us right now. It's
one guy because if you couldhave seen the way Laura was like
her nananana booboo face, shewas just making me while you
were talking like, what do youknow? You don't know the
history. In your face,
Laura Orr (20:40):
I think this is the most looks I've given you. But
if you are interested inwatching this, you can stream it
on HBO, Max, Amazon Prime,YouTube, Google Play Apple TV,
it's all over the place. Who isthe audience? Guys? It's rated
PG.
Kara Edwards (20:55):
I'm gonna let you guys answer those one.
Laura Orr (20:57):
We've already cooked discussed it a little bit, but
what do you think sancha agewise?
Swanka Burnette (21:01):
So the audience for this movie in 2022? I think
I think the the nostalgia pieceis critically important, right?
So if you get a child, like toyour to your son, I think you
said he was seven, watching thisfilm and not having the affinity
for the turtles that somebody ofmy age has, yeah, they're
(21:22):
probably not going to have thesame enjoyable experience, not
to mention the fact that, youknow, this is practical effects
that, by and large are not beingdone or used anymore. So someone
who's seven this is like, it'slike a fever dream. You know,
it's like, there's nothing outthere like this. So it's
definitely as far as who's theaudience, the audience is adults
(21:44):
who grew up with this property,and also the children of those
adults, if those adults want tokind of use the word of
doctrine, it you know, what Imean, who wants to child into
this franchise that had so muchmeaning to them, throughout
their, you know, their theirlives? So, I think, again, a
(22:05):
seven year old probablywouldn't, wouldn't make the film
unless they're just kind ofliking it, because they're
trying to trying to kind of fitin with their parents or if
their parents does, theirparents do a good enough job of
saying, talking about thefranchise, getting them excited
about Yeah, so
Laura Orr (22:20):
we love a parent of a child, but also this this
franchise exists today. Soagain, if somebody watches,
newer cartoons, and like yousaid the comics reads the
comics, I think that if you areto categorize or lay out what
(22:41):
would be enjoyable to them, Idefinitely find this at the top
of the list.
Swanka Burnette (22:46):
One thing I was going to add the view which is
typically asked who's What ageis it for? My response to that
is the film is for all ages, butyour mileage, your mileage is
gonna vary depending on youknow, your closeness and
affinity for the Ninja Turtlesfranchise. So I think someone
who is, you know, in my agerange, or Yeah, it's going to
have more years of just beingbombarded with the turtles. So,
(23:11):
you know, the member berries arevery strong. Nostalgia is a very
strong thing.
Laura Orr (23:17):
Man, I love how you I love that reference. Quick
question. Have you introducedthis to your nieces and nephews?
Swanka Burnette (23:26):
So not really, because honestly, when I hang
out with them, I kind of letthem drive as far as what we
watch. Usually, although thisactually reminds me of I kind of
got in trouble recently becauseI've watched Austin Powers with
a seven year old niece. Oh, andhonestly, I wasn't really
thinking about it during themovie, because for me, I don't
(23:48):
think of Austin Powers as beinglike, even though he is kind of
very sexual being. I don't thinkof it as being like overt, but
like, after the fact that waslike, oh, yeah, I probably
shouldn't have done that. Thebest, the best. Judge should
they watch it? I'm telling youthis now you had me on your
(24:08):
podcast. Yep. So
Laura Orr (24:10):
we're so glad to have you. That is so an A fun uncle
thing to do. I cannot even like
Swanka Burnette (24:17):
oops, my sister was not happy. She was not
happy.
Laura Orr (24:21):
But you know, we've talked about these older movies,
you know, where they usepuppetry. And I love it. We've
talked about the what you callit baby Yoda and how I love that
they actually use a real lifepuppet as opposed to CGI. I love
it when they do that. I justfeel like the the interaction
(24:43):
between characters when theyhave them actually in front of
them on set is just feels moreauthentic and I get I think that
you get more out of actors andcharacters in the story really
when you use that. This is moreon the fever dream side, but I'm
okay with that. I love the law.
labyrinth, I love
Kara Edwards (25:01):
it. I love the labyrinth. And I love like i Are
you kidding? Labyrinth is myfavorite movie. And I love the
Dark Crystal and the DarkCrystal. I
Swanka Burnette (25:12):
was just about to say that crystal Yeah,
Kara Edwards (25:13):
one of my all time childhood favorites. Like I
mean, I was so mad at my mombecause she didn't need Shamim
Cara instead of Kara. Has
Laura Orr (25:21):
Michael seen those
Swanka Burnette (25:22):
crystal clear as a seven year old child. I
watched it recently and I waslike this is kind of scary.
Kara Edwards (25:30):
No this. I mean, I would be interested because one
of the things that I wrote downin my notes because as you guys
were talking about that this isfine for younger kids, which I
do agree I had no problem withmy son watching this. But I did
write down what is this one A BPinocchio, teenage grooming Tent
City ninja training locationthat they have come up with
(25:53):
because oh, well if thatscreamed Pinocchio to me.
Laura Orr (25:59):
Oh my god. I any chance Kara gets she's gonna
bring up Pinocchio. I cannot.
Swanka Burnette (26:05):
I didn't see the film yet. Okay.
Laura Orr (26:07):
Oh, no, no, no, I'm gonna let carrot just sit back,
relax and let Cara regale you onher Pinocchio experience while I
blow my nose. Go ahead.
Kara Edwards (26:16):
Okay, so in Pinocchio, like you think it's
gonna be this really innocentmovie about a boy who lies and
learns his lesson. But there'slike this whole thing where
they're like me, I'm gonna keepusing the word indoctrinating
young children. They'reliterally like, enticing them to
come into this land wherethey're grooming him and to
being who they want them to be.
And they let them shoot pool andthey let him drink and they let
(26:38):
him smoke cigarettes. And theylet him and this is all in the
movie of Pinocchio. And that'sall I could think of while
watching this movie. TM and Tthat it was like, Okay, so
here's another little like placewhere they're getting young kids
to come and shoot pool andthere's no parental supervision.
And apparently parents don'tcare. Because I know this was
(26:58):
9090. And we've alreadydiscussed this in past
broadcasts, parents don't carewhere their children are back in
the day, but that's all I couldthink was oh my gosh, this
Pinocchio haven't Tent Cityninja training place.
Laura Orr (27:15):
I'm gonna defend that though, because I feel like they
were using that to show howeasily a person can find
themselves in a harmfulsituation, when they are being
manipulated and groomed bysomebody older, who puts
themselves in a place ofauthority, or puts them place
(27:36):
themselves in as a parentalfigure to somebody who is
feeling isolated from theirfamily, for whatever reason,
that could be if the if you havea very harmful home life, you
are going to try to seek familyout elsewhere and outside of
your own. And so a way to and sothat is that is a way for a
(27:58):
person to become manipulated,and indoctrinated all say, into
a very dangerous, harmfulsituation such as a game win.
And so by putting them in thissituation where they were like,
here's cigarettes, here's, youknow, pool, we have no rules
here, you're safe here. But alsoyou have to do crime. And I feel
(28:20):
like that's a very realsituation for some people in our
world. If we were to look atlike young people in gang
culture, so I thought it was oneof the things I put on my list
that I liked. Because then yousee that scene between splinter
and Danny, the one the one thatwas recruited into the gang and
Splinter is appealing to hispain and offers a listening ear
(28:44):
and like says like, I see thatyou're in pain. And what does
that do? He got he joinedsplinter. And he like, he does
the right thing because of beingseen. Splunk What were you gonna
say? Yeah, and also,
Swanka Burnette (28:56):
this really just adding on to what you're
saying, you know, the film, eventhough it shows these kids in
this criminal enterprise, thefilm goes out of its way to
really say, this is not a realfamily shredder doesn't care
about you. You know what I mean?
It's overt about that message,this specific sequence where
Casey Jones is basically tellingthese kids look, this is this is
(29:16):
not your family. And thesepeople, these people don't care
about you. So,
Kara Edwards (29:22):
but he doesn't tell any of the like, 150
teenagers to guys go home toyour families.
Laura Orr (29:28):
Well, what if they don't have a family? I think
that's the that's the impulses,children? Well, I think that's
the implication here becauselike you went city as well, that
that's the thing is, I don'tknow if you know much about what
New York was like in the 80s and90s. But the gang culture was
huge, especially in the subwaysystems, and you can see
glimmers of that in certainmovies like what is that
(29:48):
adventures in babysitting? And,and a lot of movies like that
during that time where therewere a lot of young kids just
doing crime in the city and Iwould venture to say that they
didn't have the best home lifeand that's why they were going
out and doing this kind of stuffso yeah, go home, but like, what
are they going home to?
Swanka Burnette (30:02):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, no, I mean, it'sdefinitely I can see both of
both of your positions on it.
And, you know, it's it's thefilm does in some ways glamorize
with those sequences where itshows the kids kind of like
smoking cigarettes and playingvideo games, all that kind of
thing. But my main takeaway wasthat this was, this is not
something that it's good to bedoing in the movies, trying to
(30:25):
tell people watching that peoplewho really care about you who
are really your family are notgoing to encourage you to do do
crimes and, you know, bealtruistic, not go to school and
not do the things you supposedto be doing. Like, yeah, this
group is encouraging these kidsto do you know,
Kara Edwards (30:41):
yeah. Okay. So since you guys liked that so
much. I have one other thing onmy list that I was like, full
stop. I don't know if I can getpast this. Okay. I feel as I
watched this movie, I felt thiswas a racist movie. Okay. I
googled that. I know, I'm sorry.
I googled it. Is this a racistmovie? And it strongly came out
(31:05):
with the answer was no, I willtell you what bothered me and I
again, I don't feel that I'm theperson that gets to speak on
this. But what bothered me wasthe bad guys what was the Foot
Clan? They're, they're Asian.
(31:26):
And there's a scene in thebeginning, when they very first
come down in the subway, therewere two things that I was like,
Oh, my gosh, April says to them,when they come down, she says,
Oh, I'm behind on my Sonypayments again. What am I behind
on my Sony payments again, and Iwas like, and then the second
one is when the Foot Clanspeaks, and I believe they're
(31:48):
speaking to one of the turtles.
And they have they have anaccent. I do not know this. So
I'm speaking way out of turnhere. Please, someone listening,
like write in and tell me I'minsane. The accent to me,
sounded like an American doingan Asian accent. I do not know
if the voice actor who did thatis Asian. I do not know. But but
(32:11):
it sounded to me. It just mademe uncomfortable. And then as I
kept watching the movie, Ialready had that in the back of
my head from those two thingsearly on, that I was like, I
just wanted, I didn't want it tobe like America versus east
versus West. It just it had thissort of bad guys versus good
(32:35):
guys. thing going on that Idon't think plays as well today,
as it could have gotten awaywith a 9090. I would have just
liked to see that if they wereremaking the movie. I would want
there it not to be like that. Iwould want there to be more
diversity all around.
Swanka Burnette (32:55):
So I've got I've got one, it's okay. So I
can totally understand yourposition on that. And definitely
both those things. Certainlyproblematic. Do a 2022 lens and
maybe even through an economiclens, right. So I get that. The
one thing I just want to quicklypoint out that actually I always
found to be kind of like, oh,wow, that's I'm surprised I went
(33:15):
there is the scene where CaseyJones goes, he's he's trapped.
He's trying to say that. Hebasically he's claustrophobic,
right? Right. And he thinksclaustrophobic means somehow B
means gay. Yeah, he goes, I'venever looked at another guy. You
want a fist in the mouth,suggesting that one being gay is
something you should want tofight somebody for accusing you
(33:36):
of being which is obviously notwhat we believe. So that is
really of anything in the film.
That's problematic for me.
That's probably the main onebecause it's a very homophobic
sequence. Yeah, that's the
Laura Orr (33:49):
itself I was actually curious what you guys thought of
because even the fact thatthey're making fun of him felt
also like a toxic masculinity.
Yeah, definitely is if APR wasif that if APR was the one who
was having the problem, I thinkthey would have been much more
nurturing but instead they makefun of him and he goes and
sleeps in his car. So I'm withyou on that one spunk. I think
(34:09):
though, I wouldn't say that thismovie as a whole is racist or
homophobic. I think in my in myopinion, what we're seeing here
is just stuff that has not agedwell and if it was to be remade,
it would not have been
Kara Edwards (34:27):
I don't I don't think this was made today. I do
not believe that would be done.
Even the sounds
Laura Orr (34:31):
that they make when they're fighting you don't see
anymore just like it's veryBruce Lee just like the
Swanka Burnette (34:38):
Yeah, the high Yeah, like the product of his
time. 100%
Laura Orr (34:41):
it's a product of his time. I think that's exactly
what it was. And and when youput this up against what was out
there, I just don't think thatnot that comparison makes it any
better. But, you know, as awhole, I just didn't view it in
that way. I think it just hadmoments where it's like that
that could that would be cut ifwe if this reviewing Yeah,
Kara Edwards (35:01):
references like Michael had asked me, Mom,
what's a Kodak moment? Yeah. Andthere's a reference to
moonlighting that he was like,
Swanka Burnette (35:08):
right. Yeah.
war in peace.
Laura Orr (35:12):
Yeah. And even a dynamic between Casey and April,
I think they would probablyapproach it differently. Because
that whole like, we hate eachother until we love each other
thing doesn't happen as muchanymore. But I still, I mean, I
love Casey though. He as a humanbeing for me, really did hold
up. I loved him as a child andas a living, breathing woman
(35:35):
with a pulse. I totally love himnow. Really? Oh, yeah.
Swanka Burnette (35:39):
It's funny, too. You mentioned toxic
masculinity, really thinkingabout it? Casey Jones, that is
his character trait that he'sthat, you know, everything he
does is informed by the factthat he's just like this macho
ex hockey player. Do you knowwhat I think sports equipment?
Laura Orr (35:57):
Yeah, for sure. And the question I had was, you
know, would he would would theymake a huge change to his
character now? Or is there aplace for somebody like that in
cinema now? And I would, I wouldbe sad to see it go. I think
that there's a way you can, youcan use that character to where
(36:18):
they're, you know, I don't knowthere was this I was listening
to something a podcast recently,they were talking about how
people are really scared now tomake characters flawed. A lot of
characters don't have a lot offlaws. And so then conflict is
hard to come by especiallylikeable characters. They're
supposed to they're just held toa different standard now and so
(36:39):
what does that do to the contentthat we're watching and I
thought that was reallyinteresting, and that's making
me think of Casey. Definitely,he would fit now but I love him.
I loved watching him cut carrotswith a Katana sword. That's the
only time we actually weactually see anything being cut
with a Katana sword.
Swanka Burnette (36:56):
I love that sequence. And I just every it's
funny since this movie, Anytimehe's pops up in like a movie or
something else. I just get sohappy because I just love that.
I love that actor. He just he tome he is Casey Jones. Like he'll
always be.
Laura Orr (37:10):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, he's super cute up on
that. Yeah.
Kara Edwards (37:14):
And this is where it finally green went. I was
like, Wait, so you have like a,she's got to be in her 30s If
she's that successful of areporter, and now, and like you
have these teenage TeenageMutant Ninja Turtles, federal
like crashing on her, which Iunderstand. I thought it was a
little weird that she invitedall the teenagers, even though
(37:35):
they're turtles to her house tochill. And there was kind of
some weird stuff going on therefor me. And then yeah, the whole
Casey Jones. I'm like, Wait, sohe's like a guy who considers
themselves a superhero that goesaround the neighborhood trying
to trying to
Laura Orr (37:52):
agility okay. That was how we were though. Like, I
Kara Edwards (37:56):
liked this character. I will agree. I liked
his character. I just had thislike, sweet so the successful
reporter falls in love with thevigilante 20 Something guy but
hangs out with teenagers thathappen to be turtles. Yes, Kara
that bothered me? Well,
Swanka Burnette (38:11):
when you start looking at it through the lens
of what would be normal, yougotta kind of just accept that
these are turtles that wereliterally walking in a sewer and
like some kind of who's got onthem and now they're like
adults, it's there's no
Laura Orr (38:27):
way to make that sophisticated. There's no way to
sophisticate this this is nothighbrow This is the in the fact
that I cannot believe we havenot talked about the
ridiculousness of splinters,backstory where he's literally
doing karate in a cage as a rat.
Thank you.
Kara Edwards (38:46):
I'm literally scratched like I'm jumping up
and down on this couch rightnow.
Swanka Burnette (38:50):
To be silly, though, it's supposed to be
silly. That's, that's kind oflike, yes, yeah. And like, you
know, for people who arewatching, who maybe are watching
or listening, who may not be asfamiliar with the origins of the
turtle franchise. This franchisestarted with those two guys,
Kevin Eastman, and Peter Laird.
And they literally drew as ajoke completely as a joke. But
one of them I forgot which oneit was a turtle that was dressed
(39:12):
like a ninja, like just as ajoke as a throwaway. And then,
at some point, they looked atit, and they're like, oh,
there's something there. Andthis turned into what it is now.
So it started off as like just asilly, just sketch. You know
what I mean? So I think thatreally kind of informs like
where the franchise has gone,and the silliness of it. It
(39:33):
started off silly, and it'salways been silly, but in my
mind, they've been able to, youknow, inject some pathos into
the franchise, specifically thisfilm at least. And like, you
know, Raphael, for example, likehis character has a pretty
strong arc as far as likedealing with anger and feeling
really isolated and like hisanger. He feels when rathlin
Splinter gets kidnapped and thenbeing able to reconcile with
(39:55):
Leonardo like there's a lotthere and it's just It's just
there if you want to go with itand kind of see it and feel it,
but at the same time it also hasa veneer of dislike 80s 90s Just
slug and that way too, you know
Kara Edwards (40:12):
yeah cuz I was one of my things I'm like wait a
second so shredder did not puttogether that the talking giant
rat with one year was the samerat that destroyed his main mold
him
Laura Orr (40:23):
I thought that too I was like shredder how many you
spend a whole movie? Well wejust don't know Kara in this
world, there could be manyradioactive kung fu karate or
martial arts, I guess is theright way to say it. Rats living
in our sewers, so and maulingbad guys, we just don't know,
okay.
Kara Edwards (40:43):
I mean, I had a heck of an aphid problem. Maybe
they're all radioactive, and Ididn't know where to go over
Dallas. Maybe they're justradioactive, whatever.
Laura Orr (40:52):
You know what Kara was speaking of bias. You hate
your turtles that live in yourhome. So maybe it's a turtle.
It's the frogs.
Kara Edwards (40:59):
I have an issue with our frogs. We don't have
turtles. I did have turtlesgrowing up, okay. And I loved my
little baby turtles. And we hadturtles, they grew up and they
lived in our backyard. And Ilove turtles. I do not have hate
against turtles. If this was ashow about frogs, you would be
able to say that because No, Ithink the frogs are kind of
weird animals to have as pets,but we have them anyway.
Laura Orr (41:21):
You have so many reptile we have
Kara Edwards (41:24):
a lot of reptiles we have like I'm a reptile
person. I mean, like we
Laura Orr (41:28):
like the representation Kara.
Kara Edwards (41:29):
Maybe that's what it is. And I felt that it was
actually the representation ofthe turtles themselves. I have
to say I did like, yes, like youwere just saying about Raphael.
I did like his character arc.
The one with the blue bandana isthat Donna Telo. That's
Leonardo. That's Leonardo's.
Okay, well, I liked that. Youknow, Leonardo leads. Okay, got
(41:50):
it. Sorry. They, I liked thatthey they kind of had a fight
and a falling out and that theywere able to reconcile that.
Again, I had no issue with myson watching this movie. There
was no part that I that I waslike, super cringy or, you know,
it was fine. I just don't knowthat it held up. 32 years later,
Laura Orr (42:15):
I get I get what you're saying. Is there anything
else that's problematic that weneed to touch on? i There's some
cursing?
Kara Edwards (42:22):
Yeah, there's some but it's like cursing. It's none
of the big heavy words. Butthere's a little bit a little
bit.
Laura Orr (42:28):
Well, who is your favorite turtle?
Swanka Burnette (42:30):
Roughly? Oh. I like the Babyliss.
Laura Orr (42:36):
Okay. Mine was always Michelangelo. But it's He's the
funny one. So okay. But did youhave a favorite?
Kara Edwards (42:45):
I did. I mean, in the movie. I did like Raphael
Raphael. Yeah, I just I likedhis story arc I liked. He had
the best angry sequence thatI've ever seen in a movie when
he goes across the roof and isworking out his frustration and
various kicks and punches. GreatTaekwondo, great,
Laura Orr (43:04):
great, the angry cartwheel, I was dying. We call
that punch, dance sheet andpunch dancing your rage out
series from the movie Hot Rod.
Kara Edwards (43:14):
I didn't notice that. Because Michael has the
thing right now where he wantsme to take videos of him like
dancing. And after watching themovie, he did start adding in
some punching and kicking to hisdancing. So he was properly
influenced everybody by thismovie,
Laura Orr (43:30):
but I think you do have to go into it with like,
this is a nostalgic movie. Thisis a puppet movie.
Kara Edwards (43:35):
Like, yeah,
Laura Orr (43:37):
this is a movie about kung fu turtles, you know,
you're active. And a walkingtalking rat. Like there's just
linear with one year's lot goingon.
Swanka Burnette (43:45):
It's one of those things where it's just, I
It's really fascinating to mehow this perspective has an
effect on everything that we doand everything, our approach to
everything and the way we thinkabout everything we consume,
right? Because, well, Ieverything you've said care as
far as not having the sameaffinity for the franchise and
like it just being a kind of asilly movie that you didn't
(44:07):
like, I can totally understandthat. But on the other end, when
I watch it, I see like, forexample, Splinter telling
Raphael that you know, angerclouds of mind turn inwards,
it's an uncomfortable anduncomfortable entity, right?
That's pretty deep. And to me, Iremember as a child thinking to
myself, he's right, like, it'snot helpful to be angry, you
(44:27):
know, it's that there's betterways of if something is
bothering you or somethingyou're experiencing is not going
where you want it to go. There'sbetter ways of expressing
yourself or addressing it thanjust being angry like, well, how
does that help the situation?
And I remember taking thatmessage away from this film as a
young person and there's not alot of films that I think I can
remember watching where I hadthat kind of memory of learning
something right and then I'lljust I'll give one more example
(44:51):
splitter, they the scene at theranch or whatever where Splinter
goes you've a cop As your finalmission and learn that mastery
comes not of the body, but ofthe mind. And again, as a kid, I
remember thinking myself, okay,so martial arts is not really
even though fighting is a bigpart of it. It's really not
about the fighting. It's moreabout learning the technique,
(45:12):
it's about being disciplined,it's about being mindful. And I
thought about these things. As achild, I remember thinking about
that, and taking taking thesethings away from this very silly
film with Jim Henson puppets. Sothat's part of the reason why in
2022, I still will anybody whowill listen, tell them to watch
the movie and you know, you'll,you'll find those themes.
Laura Orr (45:34):
I love that point that you make two about all of
that, because if you think aboutwhen this was being made, and
and who it was for, I think thatwas a very self aware movie,
because the audience is going tobe I think, I mean, I'm, I'm
gonna venture to say, youngboys, I'm loving, you know, the
(45:55):
Ninja Turtles and seeing themas, as role models in a way,
right. And so they're going tothis movie to watch Michelangelo
be funny to watch shutter be badto watch, you know, the them do
the martial arts, the fun,karate, and things like that.
(46:16):
But then they're also sneakingin these really important
messages being told from themouths of these role models. And
so I think that it was reallycool that they would put that
stuff in there among thesilliness, knowing who's
watching it, so that you can gohome and say, yeah, there was
some really fun scenes, but man,they had some really cool
(46:36):
insight too. So I like hearingthat from you. I would
Kara Edwards (46:40):
love to see this movie remade. I wonder
Laura Orr (46:43):
if I honestly I, there was another one that came
out.
Kara Edwards (46:48):
When was it like 2014 or something?
Swanka Burnette (46:52):
In Oh, seven, they did an animated version,
which did pretty well, which Ithink is a pretty solid film.
It's not I don't think it's asgood as the the 9090 version
version. And then in you justmentioned, I think in 2014, or
around that time, Michael Bayproduced a remake, which I
didn't care for. I mean, it wasokay, but it just didn't have
(47:13):
any, any none of the elementsthat I'm discussing, that make
me like the 1990 film arepresent in the 24 2014 film in
my
Kara Edwards (47:21):
Yeah. And that's, that's what makes it because all
the like, as you're saying allthose things. I'm like, wow,
there's a lot to this movie,that I think my son and I
completely missed, because wewere caught up and all the other
stuff that was there was thedistraction quite frankly, like
all these things are talkingabout Splinter saying are so
profound, and I have no memoryof them. Because all I could
(47:41):
think of was What microphone
Swanka Burnette (47:47):
that I highly recommend. Just if you're super
bored one day, just go back andwatch that one. It's like a 32nd
scene or Rafeal comes home. Andhe's trying to go to bed and
splinters like, No, you're notgoing to bed, come over here and
we're going to talk and Splinterbasically says to him, like stop
being so angry. We're here foryou. We love you. All right,
yeah.
Laura Orr (48:05):
And you know what? I was just thinking you could
totally make this a drinkinggame. If anything, just get
drunk and watch
Kara Edwards (48:15):
this every time.
Laura Orr (48:17):
Every time there's a funny fight scene where they do
something super silly during thefight scene. Yeah, take a drink.
Kara Edwards (48:24):
And there is a lot of slapstick. Like, before
Michael was laughing throughoutthe movie. We actually ate pizza
last night when we finished thismovie in honor of the turtle.
That's so sweet. So I mean, thisis a heck of a promo for pizza,
if anything.
Swanka Burnette (48:42):
So I have a question for you guys. Did you
find it to be kind ofinteresting slash awkward that
the turtles kind of sexual? Whatkind of they definitely were
like, it seemed like they aresexually attracted to a little
deal.
Kara Edwards (48:56):
Totally 100%.
That's what I was mentioningsuggests
Swanka Burnette (48:59):
some kind of like interspecies.
Laura Orr (49:02):
Well, I mean, I, unfortunately I have not met or
seen a female ninja turtle or aturtle of wilt or do they have
crushes on female turtles of asmaller size? Their sexual
attraction to anything isactually very interesting to me.
Now that you mentioned it'sWonka,
Swanka Burnette (49:19):
because they definitely were like, really
excited anytime she'd give thema compliment or give them any
intention.
Kara Edwards (49:24):
I mean, they flat out literally this girl gets
called a babe. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Iswear they use that exact
phrase. Like, so many times.
She's such a baby. Like she's a
Laura Orr (49:34):
baby. So they're teenagers.
Kara Edwards (49:36):
And I let that go a little bit.
Laura Orr (49:39):
How do they you know, fulfill that, you know, without
getting in cell anger, you know?
But
Swanka Burnette (49:48):
yeah, no, I just Yes, you're right. Again. I
just it's just funny to mebecause these are literally
these are turtles that have beengrown into anthropomorphized
human shapes but they They'restill turtles. So it's it's
funny to me that they would findthe human attractive at all
Laura Orr (50:03):
right? I know. Well, and they have a human component
to them. I mean, they talk.
Regular turtles don't talk,right and they do initial art
pieces and they eat pizza. Sothere they are definitely like a
turtle human hybrid, they havemuscles. So they where are they
going to put their attraction?
Are they going to put theirattraction to their turtle side
(50:25):
which are much smaller than themand are nothing and offer
nothing by way of conversation?
Swanka Burnette (50:33):
Turtle we talked about Galapagos turtles
those listings are like twopoint they're
Laura Orr (50:38):
bigger and they live forever. And they probably have
stories. If they could only talk
Swanka Burnette (50:45):
to the turtle speak turtle like that. I guess
that's
Kara Edwards (50:48):
Oh, are
Laura Orr (50:49):
they bilingual? We've
Kara Edwards (50:50):
got a lot to figure out.
Laura Orr (50:52):
Well, on that note, Mancha. My goodness, thank you
so much for coming on the show.
We didn't even talk about thefact that you and I have known
each other for like
Kara Edwards (51:00):
Friday. No, I wanted to start here. But I was
so nervous about having to tellyou guys that I didn't like the
movie. I feel like we need tohang on the line for at least
another hour and just hearstories about Laura. Could you
guys have known each other forwhat 10 years?
Laura Orr (51:17):
Well, we worked in the same office together. He was
a cohort ahead of mine. And itwas it's a very weird it was a I
don't know someone how you feelabout looking back at that time.
But yeah, it was like our firstbig job after I graduated
college and it was a reallyunique situation. I don't know
Sancho, were you as drunk as Iwas. During that time.
Swanka Burnette (51:36):
I was drunk a lot. It definitely felt like
real world a TNT. And yeah,okay. Straight up and down. Like
we were basically. I mean, it'salmost the exact premise of real
world is just we worked for acanteen, we lived in the same
buildings. Yep. You know, wespent all our time together,
drinking and hanging out, youknow? Yeah. How
Kara Edwards (51:53):
did you both grow up to become movie reviewers? I
don't know, hang out. Was thisthe thing that y'all like bonded
over? Oh,
Laura Orr (51:59):
not at all. Actually.
Swanka Burnette (52:01):
Yeah. And you know, like this, either here nor
there. But I have like, a verylong career doing something
completely unrelated to this.
This is something that, youknow, I kind of jumped into a
couple of years ago, as a kindof a side thing that I would
like to eventually become moreof a significant portion of my,
my life. But um, but yeah, sothere you go.
Laura Orr (52:20):
I think we the three of us have that in common? Yeah.
Interesting. It's our littlepassion project and aside from
our careers, and yeah, I lovethat we all have
Kara Edwards (52:29):
that I have loved having you on here. I would love
to have you back as a guest.
Totally more of your thoughts onthese movies? And maybe I won't
disagree with you so much. Next,no,
Swanka Burnette (52:40):
no, it's fine.
What are different ourdifferences and our differences,
strengths and strengthen ourresolve?
Laura Orr (52:46):
Absolutely. And what a fun conversation we had, if we
had all liked it, this wouldhave come out to be very
different sort of in a lovestory to Teenage Mutant
Kara Edwards (52:53):
Ninja Turtles, as opposed to said, instead of
offense and defense,
Swanka Burnette (52:59):
I think it was a better conversation, the fact
that you know, we're kind oftrying to, you know, just a
little bit so yeah,
Laura Orr (53:05):
I agree. I agree.
Some of our best conversationscoming when Kara and I disagree
on a show or movie, but, Sancho,before we leave, where can
people find you if they want tolearn more about you or the
quick critic,
Swanka Burnette (53:17):
so you can go to the quick critic.com There's
links to all my socials rightthere on the front, Instagram,
YouTube, Facebook, tick tock, orif you want to just search
directly on Instagram or Tiktok.
It's just at real quick, critic,one word.
Kara Edwards (53:30):
Perfect, easy again, so on. Good, thank you.
My pleasure. All right. We'llsee you guys next week. In the
meantime, you can find us onTwitter. You can find us on
Instagram. You can leave reviewsgive us stars. We appreciate all
of your feedback. The more starsthe better. Yeah. Tell us Are
you Team Kara. Are you TeamLaura and serwotka?
Laura Orr (53:50):
Oh, I would love to know that. Thanks, everyone.
Kara Edwards (53:53):
Thank you. We'll see you next week.
Laura Orr (54:01):
Scribe and follow us on Instagram
The views and opinions expressed by the should
they watch it podcast are thoseof two moms who happen to be a
registered play therapist and avoice actor for cartoons. So
while they may feel theiropinions come from a
knowledgeable place, they arestill in fact just opinions.
Should they watch it? A podcastthat takes the task of reviewing
your kid's favorite shows upyour to do list? Hello, and
(00:22):
welcome to the should they watchit podcast. decongested edition.
I'm Kara Edwards
Laura Orr (00:28):
and I am Laura Orr the phlegm master. I am full of
phlegm today, and
Kara Edwards (00:34):
we are both we just both have a little thumb
something going on. Yep, tis theseason for some allergies and
colds. Yeah. So we didn't youknow, but we're not going to let
that stand in our way.
Laura Orr (00:46):
Not today. Not today, not even when it comes to
singing Kara. And I'll waituntil after we introduce our
guests because there is a lot ofmusical conversation that we
could have about this one,because we're discussing the
Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesTeenage
Kara Edwards (01:02):
Mutant Ninja Turtles button. I mean, there's
a lot to discuss when it comesto teenage mutant ninja Ninja
Turtles. But we are going backto 1990
Laura Orr (01:11):
Yes, we are at 92 right or is it handy? I don't
know. Maybe our guests don'tknow. Maybe I should introduce
them. Yes. swanky Burnett is thegenius behind the quick critic,
a website and social media pageproviding pop culture goodness
to the world and short form.
Long before it was cool. WelcomeSwanka. Hi
Kara Edwards (01:29):
Swanka.
Swanka Burnette (01:30):
Thank you so much. So I'm so happy to be here
with you guys today.
Kara Edwards (01:33):
We're so happy that you are here. And I am so
curious. First, I just have somany things to talk to you
about, about what you do abouthow your site works, and what
you bring to the world. But I'mmore than anything. I am so
curious what made you chooseTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Swanka Burnette (01:53):
So I love that movie. It's It's quite simple.
And it's really one of myfavorite films. And you know,
even though it's a kidsproperty, the movie really just
has a lot of meaning for me. Andthat both as a film that came
out when I was 10 years old, in1990. And that also speaks to a
lot of themes that I think areimportant and are just important
(02:17):
things like, you know, family,and the idea of loving one
another and dealing withisolation and feeling like, you
know, in the case of theseturtles, they feel isolated.
They're the only ones of theirtype, and they're trying to
protect the city, but alsopeople are scared of them. So,
you know, there's a lot ofinteresting themes in there. And
I think the movie just, it holdsup in 2022. And, ya know, people
(02:38):
ask my favorite movie a lot oftimes and I tell them that this
is it, or this is amongst thatgroup in a dark kind of looking
me with bewilderment. But, youknow, I feel like I can back up
my position.
Kara Edwards (02:49):
Because you like watch movies. This is like what
you do. This is you, you know,movies and you you have a lot of
movies you can choose from whenyou choose this one as your
favorite. Yeah, absolutely.
Swanka Burnette (03:01):
So I so I pulled up my review that I read
a bit and I'm just gonna readone sentence. I think it kind of
encapsulates encapsulates a lotof why I have a lot of affinity
for this film. Right. So inthere, I mentioned that the
target for the film is anyonewho has experienced loss dealt
with being an outsider waschallenged by family infighting,
(03:21):
felt neglected by their parentsor struggles with anger. And you
know, that covers a prettysizable swath of the human
condition. So for me that's abig part of it. Yeah. And anyone
Laura Orr (03:31):
who loves pizza watching crazy crazy martial
arts, by Turtles
Kara Edwards (03:41):
Turtles if you have a thing for sewers
Laura Orr (03:43):
on a more shallow and, and like surfer accents,
Kara Edwards (03:50):
but if you love the word cowabunga
Laura Orr (03:53):
for sure.
Swanka Burnette (03:54):
Got you got some romance in there with Casey
Jones and April O'Neil.
Laura Orr (03:57):
Oh my god. Yeah, I
Swanka Burnette (03:59):
think for everybody,
Kara Edwards (04:00):
I mean that we have a lot to dig into with this
movie. There's no question.
Laura Orr (04:05):
The turtle franchise is huge, too. And I feel like I
say this all the time. But whenbut it really has like so many
projects behind it. And it wasfunny, and there's also these
cultural moments that I really Iforgot about until I watched
this again, because growing up,I watched the Ninja Turtles,
(04:27):
religiously. The cartoon with myfriends and I was a girl who was
surrounded by boys it justhappened to be that way all my
friends were boys when I wasreally little. And so Ninja
Turtles was a game we played allthe time and I ended up falling
into the April O'Neil role. Andso we would watch this we would
play this this was huge. And sowhen the movie came out, it was
(04:52):
such a big deal for kids ourage. My husband told me that
this is how he spent his seventhbirthday was they waited Like an
a long time before the movieactually started so that they
could get in the front row. Andthey took up the first two front
rows so that they could watchthis movie for his birthday
party. And this movie doesn'teven have the Vanilla Ice song,
(05:16):
which was like, I don't havebillboard pulled up on my
computer right now, but I amgoing to say it was like a hit
song. Do you remember that?
Kara Edwards (05:24):
I did. Yeah,
Swanka Burnette (05:25):
I think it was called ninja rap. And it was on
the soundtrack of the sequel,
Laura Orr (05:29):
actually, the sequel?
I
Swanka Burnette (05:30):
know. And then so this hearing in my head right
now the song?
Laura Orr (05:35):
Absolutely. I'm seeing the dance as well. Can
you remember the dance? What didyou do? And so it was really fun
to go back and watch somethinglike this. That something that I
personally have not thoughtabout for 20 plus years. And
just remember pretty iconicscenes that we would recreate in
(05:57):
our little friend group. When Iwas a kid, so that was really
fun for me.
Kara Edwards (06:02):
I am really interested to see how this
podcast is about to go. But I'mgonna start with I know Laura
said you're excited about thesong. I don't even know what
song would be associated withthis other than the one at the
end that was like,
Laura Orr (06:17):
well, then when I think of the song again, I don't
think of this movie. This movieactually disappoints me with its
music. You think of Vanilla Ice,I think of an ice but I also
think of the show and I thinkthe show's song was rewritten
before Swan could correct me ifI'm wrong. But the the song
where I mean, Teenage MutantNinja Turtles?
Kara Edwards (06:38):
Do you need to be denied? Remember that it
Laura Orr (06:40):
was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Heroes in a half
shell.
Kara Edwards (06:44):
I do remember that. And
Laura Orr (06:45):
they do a description of each turtle in the song that
really does help you rememberwhich turtle euros? Yes.
Kara Edwards (06:55):
Okay, so then I'm gonna go ahead and just start
and I'm gonna ask you guysfirst. I feel like I know the
answer here. Sonka. Should theywatch it?
Swanka Burnette (07:05):
So this this movie, definitely, I think the
only thing that gives me anypause as far as children
watching this film, you know,there is a lot of violence. And
there is a lot of violence withweapons, which parents express a
lot of concerns with and it's areason why if you watch the
sequel, they almost never usetheir weapons at all. So that
being said, it's I see it aslike comic violence. You know,
(07:28):
it's not like nobody's gettinglike, there's no blood. It's not
graphic. Yeah, it's not graphicor anything. So as long as a
parent is okay with, you know,seeing people getting kicked in
the face and people resolvingissues with fisticuffs.
Laura Orr (07:42):
fisticuffs, you know,
Swanka Burnette (07:43):
Ninja is in the title of the movie, you know. So
as long as they're okay withthat. I think the film, the fact
that it addresses again, allthese themes that I talked about
that are, you know, maturethemes that are interesting
themes that are things that youwill make you think, I think
that definitely Trump's the factthat it does have that violent
content
Laura Orr (08:02):
to it. It does inspire conversation between
parent and child if the parentstake the opportunity. But before
we move forward, Tonka What isyour relationship to the turtle
franchise? Because I know youlove this movie, but does it
stop there?
Swanka Burnette (08:17):
No. So I grew up, I grew up watching the
cartoon as well. I mean,literally every day after school
for most of my childhood, youknow, we're watching the show.
And then at some point, it wentto Saturday mornings, I was
watching it there as well. Icollected the toys growing up,
you know, obviously, watch thismovie, watch the sequel, watch
the third one, although I wish Ihadn't. And then there, you
(08:38):
know, there's been a bunch ofother movies since that I've
enjoyed to to varying degrees,but, ya know, I mean, it's just
like, when you when you thinkabout pop culture, properties,
you know, in my lifetime, youknow, if you're gonna pick the
top five, I mean, you got to putthe turtles in there, you know,
it's like Power Rangers, NinjaTurtles, I guess for me, like
(08:59):
Street Fighter, I guess. But,um, but ya know, they're
definitely if you're gonna gotop five or top 10 all time, you
know, pop culture properties.
You can't you can't not includeTNT.
Kara Edwards (09:10):
Okay, so, Laura.
I'm gonna go to you next. Shouldthey watch it?
Laura Orr (09:14):
I'm going with uh, yes, I had a lot of fun watching
this. Of course, there's somethings that we can talk about
that are potentiallyproblematic, but I feel like
they're more like talking pointsthat parents can you know,
approach their kids with asopposed to a hard No. Kara?
Should they watch it?
Kara Edwards (09:32):
I have been so nervous. I kind of sitting here
feeling like I'm literally I'msitting on a couch by myself
looking at Laura and I honestlyfeel like I'm on an island. At
this point. I have been sonervous to do this podcast,
Laura with you and with swagbecause I'm like, clearly swonk
I knew you chose this becauseyou were gonna love it. Laura. I
(09:53):
just had a feeling you weregonna love it. Oh, you put some
stuff on Twitter that I saw thatI was like, Oh crap. Because I
did not like this movie did haveno history with the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles. Other thanI know some of their voice
actors and the voices have beendifferent depending on the
(10:16):
property. There hasn't been aconsistent voice for any of the
turtles. But I am friends withmany of the Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles and Karis friends at theturtle I am and so I wanted to
show up and be a net none of myfriends are in this movie. Okay.
But um, I think they came lateron but so I came at this like, I
(10:37):
this is gonna be my firstsitting down. I did not watch
this in 1990 I remember theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
being a really big deal. Theywere not a big deal in Live
World. Gotcha. So I was like,This is gonna be fun. And I had
my seven year old son sittingnext to me. We had to watch this
over the course of four nights,because we kept turning it off.
(10:59):
Michael was an endo. He kind ofstarted getting into it a little
bit more when they got into thefighting. Yeah, he laughed
through a lot of the fightinglike because it is there's a lot
of slapstick that goes on in themovie and so he he definitely
got all the jokes it'sdefinitely on his age level and
(11:20):
any got it but at the end Iasked him because again, we had
to split this up because I waslike, Oh my God, I need a break.
And at the end I asked him likeso overall Did you love it, did
you and he was like no man thoseturtles are super creepy. He
didn't but he's he's seven likeyeah world where he's used to
seeing CGI and things lookingvery realistic. And like this
(11:45):
was Jim Henson designed thecostumes for this movie and they
had puppeteers that were andpeople in the costumes which by
the way, each person in acostume did make a cameo in the
movie. Yeah, the each I made alist. I don't know if anyone
would find this interesting. I'mfinding but I'll find it in a
(12:05):
minute.
Swanka Burnette (12:06):
So actually know who they are. I can tell
you just off the top of my
Kara Edwards (12:09):
head. Yes, okay.
Swanka Burnette (12:12):
So the guy who delivers a pizza? Yep. Is
Michelangelo Yep.
Laura Orr (12:18):
Oh,
Swanka Burnette (12:20):
the guy played Rafa yell was the guy in the
taxi. Okay, right after RaphaelJones have their fight? Uh huh.
And those those who actuallydon't I don't remember the other
two. I those two I just
Kara Edwards (12:35):
down and it looks like I didn't.
Laura Orr (12:36):
But Corey Feldman one
Kara Edwards (12:38):
of the Bellman is one of the hotels. Yeah. Yeah,
there's I mean,
Laura Orr (12:43):
I wonder he's one of the riffraff teenagers or
something. No, but
Kara Edwards (12:47):
there are boys talk about some people skied.
Oh, riches in there. Scott Wolfis in there. Obviously. Sam
Rockwell is the hedgehog Well,Oh, yeah. So there's I mean, the
cameos it's that part was fun towatch for me on the movie, where
the different people would popup. And I'm like, is that Sam
Rockwell? Oh, my god. That's soand so. So it was fun to see
from 1990 and then know thattheir careers have flourished
(13:10):
from there. I'm sure from such adramatic Oscar winning movie I
did. I'm going to be a no, I amI and I tread lightly because I
know that fandom for TeenageMutant Ninja Turtles is
enormous. I go to conventions.
And I know that. I might get alot of flack for saying that.
But for me, there was a lot thatdidn't hold up today. Gotcha.
(13:33):
And I have some questions I wantto get into later about your
feelings on some things thatbothered me that maybe I don't
need to be bothered by. Butalso, I just felt Yeah, I just
felt like, as of today, this isa this is something that I see
being very nostalgic for a lotof people but I don't know that
(13:53):
I felt great. After letting myseven year old Watch
Laura Orr (13:58):
out. It translates.
Yeah, for me. fair. That's fair.
And that's a question I tend toask myself when I'm watching
these older movies is am Ibiased because of when I watched
this? And is this more than apiece for me? Also, when it
comes to Michael, thedifference, I think between he
and us when we were children iswe were primed for this movie.
(14:22):
We were watching no plus showevery at least once a week when
it would come out and also thereruns. I mean, it was playing
all the time. And so we wereready for this to come out. We
knew who the characters were, weknew their personalities. We
were we were psyched for thismovie to come out. And so when
it came out it delivered in away that you know, I think was
(14:46):
appropriate for the time and forthe people watching
Kara Edwards (14:49):
for the time. I mean 9090 Because then you can
kind of tell because there isthis cross between the 80s you
can see a little bit of the 80spunk rock going into the 90s
grunge you I can tell this is amovie that landed right in
between those two areas. There'sa part at the very beginning. I
think it's Raphael that there'stwo turtles sitting next to each
other. And one of them ischewing on a toothpick. It's
(15:12):
right in the beginning of themovie. And when the actor goes
to put the toothpick in hismouth, he misses his mouth. And
he hits the top of his mouth,and then he's like, Oh, crap,
and then he goes back and sticksit in his mouth. And that like I
watched it, like four times Ikept rewinding it to watch it
again. And I'm like, that's kindof how I felt about the movie is
(15:33):
I felt there was just like, forme, I felt there was minimal
effort put in what I do. I'msorry, is I felt like they were
gonna take something that'salready really popular. Turn it
into a movie and kind of hadlike, just kind of easily do a
movie and oh, yeah, Raphaeldefinitely just stabbed himself
(15:54):
in the nose with a toothpick.
It's fine, guys just leave itin.
Laura Orr (15:57):
Yeah, but like the human condition is not perfect.
They made it more realistic.
Kara Edwards (16:03):
No, it definitely looks like there's a man inside
of a costume that wasn't able tofind the mouth swanky. What
Laura Orr (16:08):
do you think of toothpicks?
Swanka Burnette (16:10):
So I it's funny I don't remember that secret.
You know that this is a thing tobrag about. But I feel like I
know everything with this film.
I don't remember that.
Kara Edwards (16:22):
It's right in the beginning and you're gonna have
to go back and watch it because
Laura Orr (16:27):
the thing about Kara is that she's in the industry
and so she noticed this crapthat it's like whatever Cara Oh
it
Kara Edwards (16:33):
does definitely that drives me nuts like I'm
Splinter i the whole time don'teven about splinter. No, I could
not figure out what microphonethey recorded him on. That's all
I could think the entire timewatching the movie. I'm like,
could you guys not find a bettermic for him? Because it was at
the processing did they put toomuch EQ on the voice? He sounded
so bizarre as from an audiostandpoint that it was driving
(16:57):
me bonkers and the ADR don'teven get me started on the ADR
in this movie. Oh my word youpeople can you not find a mouth
anyway? We're missing all of theflaps. Speaking of
Laura Orr (17:08):
speaking of Splinter Did you know that the voice
actor who plays him Kevin clashhe was also the voice of Elmo
prior to 2012
Kara Edwards (17:15):
Oh, that's fun.
Oh, see? Oh, had a greatmicrophone. I don't understand.
I think they just did cute it Ijust think they did weird EQ on
it while
Laura Orr (17:26):
the voice itself was great and is done by and Kevin
clash is also a puppeteer sohe's not just a voice actor. He
also super moves the puppetaround
Kara Edwards (17:36):
not saying anything about the acting not
saying anything about the voicetotally. From a technical
standpoint,
Laura Orr (17:41):
I get you I get you.
But I thought that that was funto to to see and hear. Because
those voices are so starklydifferent. And then I started
imagining like swapping thevoices with the characters like
can you imagine what Splinterwould sound like with Elmos
voice or what Oh, it sounds likewas splinters voice. These are
the things that were goingthrough my head while watching
(18:03):
this movie. I'm so weird, butit's because I it was so weird
to because I haven't seen thismovie and so long, but I once I
started watching it, everythingcame back to me. Does that
happen to you? Like, you haven'theard a song and 20 years? Yeah,
comes on the radio. And you knowevery word. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Kara Edwards (18:21):
I mean, and that's what I think you as WONCA have
so much nostalgia that I wascoming at this without that, and
watching this movie and avoidit. Yeah, I think I definitely
clearly saw something verydifferent than you guys did.
Laura Orr (18:36):
Yeah. So I think what you're saying is, should they
watch it? Maybe only if theparent has nostalgic
Kara Edwards (18:44):
value and can talk about like their connection to
the to Ninja Turtles? Andabsolutely, then that's
perfectly fine.
Laura Orr (18:51):
Or existing fans of the franchise because there's a
show out. I mean, I think it'srunning right now. I'm not sure
my nephew loves it. And he's ateenager and I think that if if
you are wrapped up in thisfranchise currently,
Kara Edwards (19:07):
then you might love it. Absolutely. And there
are a lot of themes swanky. Youdid such a good job and I know
you want to go into this morebut there there are themes in
here and I wrote some down aswell that are really good, you
know, showing teamwork andloyalty and various stuff that
yes, that I think you canabsolutely point out and again,
(19:29):
I think Michael and I were justwatching it with these eyes with
no context and it was like Whatare we watching?
Swanka Burnette (19:35):
Yeah, I think if you if you take away the
nostalgia element, then thattakes away a significant
significant piece so I canunderstand your position in that
way.
Kara Edwards (19:44):
Yeah, like the turtle disguise. I'm just gonna
go the turtles disguise was wasa hat and a Traco well
Swanka Burnette (19:58):
comic books into the cartoon So it's kind of
one of those things where it'slike, yeah, it's ridiculous.
Like he could walk in a movietheater dressed like that. No
notice, but it's like, you justkind of gotta go. You just kind
of have to go with it.
Laura Orr (20:10):
There is definitely a level of camp in this movie that
asks you to suspend yourdisbelief and certain things and
one of them is definitely theappearance of the turtles in
every way, shape and form.
Kara Edwards (20:24):
I just wish we had a camera on us right now. It's
one guy because if you couldhave seen the way Laura was like
her nananana booboo face, shewas just making me while you
were talking like, what do youknow? You don't know the
history. In your face,
Laura Orr (20:40):
I think this is the most looks I've given you. But
if you are interested inwatching this, you can stream it
on HBO, Max, Amazon Prime,YouTube, Google Play Apple TV,
it's all over the place. Who isthe audience? Guys? It's rated
PG.
Kara Edwards (20:55):
I'm gonna let you guys answer those one.
Laura Orr (20:57):
We've already cooked discussed it a little bit, but
what do you think sancha agewise?
Swanka Burnette (21:01):
So the audience for this movie in 2022? I think
I think the the nostalgia pieceis critically important, right?
So if you get a child, like toyour to your son, I think you
said he was seven, watching thisfilm and not having the affinity
for the turtles that somebody ofmy age has, yeah, they're
(21:22):
probably not going to have thesame enjoyable experience, not
to mention the fact that, youknow, this is practical effects
that, by and large are not beingdone or used anymore. So someone
who's seven this is like, it'slike a fever dream. You know,
it's like, there's nothing outthere like this. So it's
definitely as far as who's theaudience, the audience is adults
(21:44):
who grew up with this property,and also the children of those
adults, if those adults want tokind of use the word of
doctrine, it you know, what Imean, who wants to child into
this franchise that had so muchmeaning to them, throughout
their, you know, their theirlives? So, I think, again, a
(22:05):
seven year old probablywouldn't, wouldn't make the film
unless they're just kind ofliking it, because they're
trying to trying to kind of fitin with their parents or if
their parents does, theirparents do a good enough job of
saying, talking about thefranchise, getting them excited
about Yeah, so
Laura Orr (22:20):
we love a parent of a child, but also this this
franchise exists today. Soagain, if somebody watches,
newer cartoons, and like yousaid the comics reads the
comics, I think that if you areto categorize or lay out what
(22:41):
would be enjoyable to them, Idefinitely find this at the top
of the list.
Swanka Burnette (22:46):
One thing I was going to add the view which is
typically asked who's What ageis it for? My response to that
is the film is for all ages, butyour mileage, your mileage is
gonna vary depending on youknow, your closeness and
affinity for the Ninja Turtlesfranchise. So I think someone
who is, you know, in my agerange, or Yeah, it's going to
have more years of just beingbombarded with the turtles. So,
(23:11):
you know, the member berries arevery strong. Nostalgia is a very
strong thing.
Laura Orr (23:17):
Man, I love how you I love that reference. Quick
question. Have you introducedthis to your nieces and nephews?
Swanka Burnette (23:26):
So not really, because honestly, when I hang
out with them, I kind of letthem drive as far as what we
watch. Usually, although thisactually reminds me of I kind of
got in trouble recently becauseI've watched Austin Powers with
a seven year old niece. Oh, andhonestly, I wasn't really
thinking about it during themovie, because for me, I don't
(23:48):
think of Austin Powers as beinglike, even though he is kind of
very sexual being. I don't thinkof it as being like overt, but
like, after the fact that waslike, oh, yeah, I probably
shouldn't have done that. Thebest, the best. Judge should
they watch it? I'm telling youthis now you had me on your
(24:08):
podcast. Yep. So
Laura Orr (24:10):
we're so glad to have you. That is so an A fun uncle
thing to do. I cannot even like
Swanka Burnette (24:17):
oops, my sister was not happy. She was not
happy.
Laura Orr (24:21):
But you know, we've talked about these older movies,
you know, where they usepuppetry. And I love it. We've
talked about the what you callit baby Yoda and how I love that
they actually use a real lifepuppet as opposed to CGI. I love
it when they do that. I justfeel like the the interaction
(24:43):
between characters when theyhave them actually in front of
them on set is just feels moreauthentic and I get I think that
you get more out of actors andcharacters in the story really
when you use that. This is moreon the fever dream side, but I'm
okay with that. I love the law.
labyrinth, I love
Kara Edwards (25:01):
it. I love the labyrinth. And I love like i Are
you kidding? Labyrinth is myfavorite movie. And I love the
Dark Crystal and the DarkCrystal. I
Swanka Burnette (25:12):
was just about to say that crystal Yeah,
Kara Edwards (25:13):
one of my all time childhood favorites. Like I
mean, I was so mad at my mombecause she didn't need Shamim
Cara instead of Kara. Has
Laura Orr (25:21):
Michael seen those
Swanka Burnette (25:22):
crystal clear as a seven year old child. I
watched it recently and I waslike this is kind of scary.
Kara Edwards (25:30):
No this. I mean, I would be interested because one
of the things that I wrote downin my notes because as you guys
were talking about that this isfine for younger kids, which I
do agree I had no problem withmy son watching this. But I did
write down what is this one A BPinocchio, teenage grooming Tent
City ninja training locationthat they have come up with
(25:53):
because oh, well if thatscreamed Pinocchio to me.
Laura Orr (25:59):
Oh my god. I any chance Kara gets she's gonna
bring up Pinocchio. I cannot.
Swanka Burnette (26:05):
I didn't see the film yet. Okay.
Laura Orr (26:07):
Oh, no, no, no, I'm gonna let carrot just sit back,
relax and let Cara regale you onher Pinocchio experience while I
blow my nose. Go ahead.
Kara Edwards (26:16):
Okay, so in Pinocchio, like you think it's
gonna be this really innocentmovie about a boy who lies and
learns his lesson. But there'slike this whole thing where
they're like me, I'm gonna keepusing the word indoctrinating
young children. They'reliterally like, enticing them to
come into this land wherethey're grooming him and to
being who they want them to be.
And they let them shoot pool andthey let him drink and they let
(26:38):
him smoke cigarettes. And theylet him and this is all in the
movie of Pinocchio. And that'sall I could think of while
watching this movie. TM and Tthat it was like, Okay, so
here's another little like placewhere they're getting young kids
to come and shoot pool andthere's no parental supervision.
And apparently parents don'tcare. Because I know this was
(26:58):
9090. And we've alreadydiscussed this in past
broadcasts, parents don't carewhere their children are back in
the day, but that's all I couldthink was oh my gosh, this
Pinocchio haven't Tent Cityninja training place.
Laura Orr (27:15):
I'm gonna defend that though, because I feel like they
were using that to show howeasily a person can find
themselves in a harmfulsituation, when they are being
manipulated and groomed bysomebody older, who puts
themselves in a place ofauthority, or puts them place
(27:36):
themselves in as a parentalfigure to somebody who is
feeling isolated from theirfamily, for whatever reason,
that could be if the if you havea very harmful home life, you
are going to try to seek familyout elsewhere and outside of
your own. And so a way to and sothat is that is a way for a
(27:58):
person to become manipulated,and indoctrinated all say, into
a very dangerous, harmfulsituation such as a game win.
And so by putting them in thissituation where they were like,
here's cigarettes, here's, youknow, pool, we have no rules
here, you're safe here. But alsoyou have to do crime. And I feel
(28:20):
like that's a very realsituation for some people in our
world. If we were to look atlike young people in gang
culture, so I thought it was oneof the things I put on my list
that I liked. Because then yousee that scene between splinter
and Danny, the one the one thatwas recruited into the gang and
Splinter is appealing to hispain and offers a listening ear
(28:44):
and like says like, I see thatyou're in pain. And what does
that do? He got he joinedsplinter. And he like, he does
the right thing because of beingseen. Splunk What were you gonna
say? Yeah, and also,
Swanka Burnette (28:56):
this really just adding on to what you're
saying, you know, the film, eventhough it shows these kids in
this criminal enterprise, thefilm goes out of its way to
really say, this is not a realfamily shredder doesn't care
about you. You know what I mean?
It's overt about that message,this specific sequence where
Casey Jones is basically tellingthese kids look, this is this is
(29:16):
not your family. And thesepeople, these people don't care
about you. So,
Kara Edwards (29:22):
but he doesn't tell any of the like, 150
teenagers to guys go home toyour families.
Laura Orr (29:28):
Well, what if they don't have a family? I think
that's the that's the impulses,children? Well, I think that's
the implication here becauselike you went city as well, that
that's the thing is, I don'tknow if you know much about what
New York was like in the 80s and90s. But the gang culture was
huge, especially in the subwaysystems, and you can see
glimmers of that in certainmovies like what is that
(29:48):
adventures in babysitting? And,and a lot of movies like that
during that time where therewere a lot of young kids just
doing crime in the city and Iwould venture to say that they
didn't have the best home lifeand that's why they were going
out and doing this kind of stuffso yeah, go home, but like, what
are they going home to?
Swanka Burnette (30:02):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, no, I mean, it'sdefinitely I can see both of
both of your positions on it.
And, you know, it's it's thefilm does in some ways glamorize
with those sequences where itshows the kids kind of like
smoking cigarettes and playingvideo games, all that kind of
thing. But my main takeaway wasthat this was, this is not
something that it's good to bedoing in the movies, trying to
(30:25):
tell people watching that peoplewho really care about you who
are really your family are notgoing to encourage you to do do
crimes and, you know, bealtruistic, not go to school and
not do the things you supposedto be doing. Like, yeah, this
group is encouraging these kidsto do you know,
Kara Edwards (30:41):
yeah. Okay. So since you guys liked that so
much. I have one other thing onmy list that I was like, full
stop. I don't know if I can getpast this. Okay. I feel as I
watched this movie, I felt thiswas a racist movie. Okay. I
googled that. I know, I'm sorry.
I googled it. Is this a racistmovie? And it strongly came out
(31:05):
with the answer was no, I willtell you what bothered me and I
again, I don't feel that I'm theperson that gets to speak on
this. But what bothered me wasthe bad guys what was the Foot
Clan? They're, they're Asian.
(31:26):
And there's a scene in thebeginning, when they very first
come down in the subway, therewere two things that I was like,
Oh, my gosh, April says to them,when they come down, she says,
Oh, I'm behind on my Sonypayments again. What am I behind
on my Sony payments again, and Iwas like, and then the second
one is when the Foot Clanspeaks, and I believe they're
(31:48):
speaking to one of the turtles.
And they have they have anaccent. I do not know this. So
I'm speaking way out of turnhere. Please, someone listening,
like write in and tell me I'minsane. The accent to me,
sounded like an American doingan Asian accent. I do not know
if the voice actor who did thatis Asian. I do not know. But but
(32:11):
it sounded to me. It just mademe uncomfortable. And then as I
kept watching the movie, Ialready had that in the back of
my head from those two thingsearly on, that I was like, I
just wanted, I didn't want it tobe like America versus east
versus West. It just it had thissort of bad guys versus good
(32:35):
guys. thing going on that Idon't think plays as well today,
as it could have gotten awaywith a 9090. I would have just
liked to see that if they wereremaking the movie. I would want
there it not to be like that. Iwould want there to be more
diversity all around.
Swanka Burnette (32:55):
So I've got I've got one, it's okay. So I
can totally understand yourposition on that. And definitely
both those things. Certainlyproblematic. Do a 2022 lens and
maybe even through an economiclens, right. So I get that. The
one thing I just want to quicklypoint out that actually I always
found to be kind of like, oh,wow, that's I'm surprised I went
(33:15):
there is the scene where CaseyJones goes, he's he's trapped.
He's trying to say that. Hebasically he's claustrophobic,
right? Right. And he thinksclaustrophobic means somehow B
means gay. Yeah, he goes, I'venever looked at another guy. You
want a fist in the mouth,suggesting that one being gay is
something you should want tofight somebody for accusing you
(33:36):
of being which is obviously notwhat we believe. So that is
really of anything in the film.
That's problematic for me.
That's probably the main onebecause it's a very homophobic
sequence. Yeah, that's the
Laura Orr (33:49):
itself I was actually curious what you guys thought of
because even the fact thatthey're making fun of him felt
also like a toxic masculinity.
Yeah, definitely is if APR wasif that if APR was the one who
was having the problem, I thinkthey would have been much more
nurturing but instead they makefun of him and he goes and
sleeps in his car. So I'm withyou on that one spunk. I think
(34:09):
though, I wouldn't say that thismovie as a whole is racist or
homophobic. I think in my in myopinion, what we're seeing here
is just stuff that has not agedwell and if it was to be remade,
it would not have been
Kara Edwards (34:27):
I don't I don't think this was made today. I do
not believe that would be done.
Even the sounds
Laura Orr (34:31):
that they make when they're fighting you don't see
anymore just like it's veryBruce Lee just like the
Swanka Burnette (34:38):
Yeah, the high Yeah, like the product of his
time. 100%
Laura Orr (34:41):
it's a product of his time. I think that's exactly
what it was. And and when youput this up against what was out
there, I just don't think thatnot that comparison makes it any
better. But, you know, as awhole, I just didn't view it in
that way. I think it just hadmoments where it's like that
that could that would be cut ifwe if this reviewing Yeah,
Kara Edwards (35:01):
references like Michael had asked me, Mom,
what's a Kodak moment? Yeah. Andthere's a reference to
moonlighting that he was like,
Swanka Burnette (35:08):
right. Yeah.
war in peace.
Laura Orr (35:12):
Yeah. And even a dynamic between Casey and April,
I think they would probablyapproach it differently. Because
that whole like, we hate eachother until we love each other
thing doesn't happen as muchanymore. But I still, I mean, I
love Casey though. He as a humanbeing for me, really did hold
up. I loved him as a child andas a living, breathing woman
(35:35):
with a pulse. I totally love himnow. Really? Oh, yeah.
Swanka Burnette (35:39):
It's funny, too. You mentioned toxic
masculinity, really thinkingabout it? Casey Jones, that is
his character trait that he'sthat, you know, everything he
does is informed by the factthat he's just like this macho
ex hockey player. Do you knowwhat I think sports equipment?
Laura Orr (35:57):
Yeah, for sure. And the question I had was, you
know, would he would would theymake a huge change to his
character now? Or is there aplace for somebody like that in
cinema now? And I would, I wouldbe sad to see it go. I think
that there's a way you can, youcan use that character to where
(36:18):
they're, you know, I don't knowthere was this I was listening
to something a podcast recently,they were talking about how
people are really scared now tomake characters flawed. A lot of
characters don't have a lot offlaws. And so then conflict is
hard to come by especiallylikeable characters. They're
supposed to they're just held toa different standard now and so
(36:39):
what does that do to the contentthat we're watching and I
thought that was reallyinteresting, and that's making
me think of Casey. Definitely,he would fit now but I love him.
I loved watching him cut carrotswith a Katana sword. That's the
only time we actually weactually see anything being cut
with a Katana sword.
Swanka Burnette (36:56):
I love that sequence. And I just every it's
funny since this movie, Anytimehe's pops up in like a movie or
something else. I just get sohappy because I just love that.
I love that actor. He just he tome he is Casey Jones. Like he'll
always be.
Laura Orr (37:10):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, he's super cute up on
that. Yeah.
Kara Edwards (37:14):
And this is where it finally green went. I was
like, Wait, so you have like a,she's got to be in her 30s If
she's that successful of areporter, and now, and like you
have these teenage TeenageMutant Ninja Turtles, federal
like crashing on her, which Iunderstand. I thought it was a
little weird that she invitedall the teenagers, even though
(37:35):
they're turtles to her house tochill. And there was kind of
some weird stuff going on therefor me. And then yeah, the whole
Casey Jones. I'm like, Wait, sohe's like a guy who considers
themselves a superhero that goesaround the neighborhood trying
to trying to
Laura Orr (37:52):
agility okay. That was how we were though. Like, I
Kara Edwards (37:56):
liked this character. I will agree. I liked
his character. I just had thislike, sweet so the successful
reporter falls in love with thevigilante 20 Something guy but
hangs out with teenagers thathappen to be turtles. Yes, Kara
that bothered me? Well,
Swanka Burnette (38:11):
when you start looking at it through the lens
of what would be normal, yougotta kind of just accept that
these are turtles that wereliterally walking in a sewer and
like some kind of who's got onthem and now they're like
adults, it's there's no
Laura Orr (38:27):
way to make that sophisticated. There's no way to
sophisticate this this is nothighbrow This is the in the fact
that I cannot believe we havenot talked about the
ridiculousness of splinters,backstory where he's literally
doing karate in a cage as a rat.
Thank you.
Kara Edwards (38:46):
I'm literally scratched like I'm jumping up
and down on this couch rightnow.
Swanka Burnette (38:50):
To be silly, though, it's supposed to be
silly. That's, that's kind oflike, yes, yeah. And like, you
know, for people who arewatching, who maybe are watching
or listening, who may not be asfamiliar with the origins of the
turtle franchise. This franchisestarted with those two guys,
Kevin Eastman, and Peter Laird.
And they literally drew as ajoke completely as a joke. But
one of them I forgot which oneit was a turtle that was dressed
(39:12):
like a ninja, like just as ajoke as a throwaway. And then,
at some point, they looked atit, and they're like, oh,
there's something there. Andthis turned into what it is now.
So it started off as like just asilly, just sketch. You know
what I mean? So I think thatreally kind of informs like
where the franchise has gone,and the silliness of it. It
(39:33):
started off silly, and it'salways been silly, but in my
mind, they've been able to, youknow, inject some pathos into
the franchise, specifically thisfilm at least. And like, you
know, Raphael, for example, likehis character has a pretty
strong arc as far as likedealing with anger and feeling
really isolated and like hisanger. He feels when rathlin
Splinter gets kidnapped and thenbeing able to reconcile with
(39:55):
Leonardo like there's a lotthere and it's just It's just
there if you want to go with itand kind of see it and feel it,
but at the same time it also hasa veneer of dislike 80s 90s Just
slug and that way too, you know
Kara Edwards (40:12):
yeah cuz I was one of my things I'm like wait a
second so shredder did not puttogether that the talking giant
rat with one year was the samerat that destroyed his main mold
him
Laura Orr (40:23):
I thought that too I was like shredder how many you
spend a whole movie? Well wejust don't know Kara in this
world, there could be manyradioactive kung fu karate or
martial arts, I guess is theright way to say it. Rats living
in our sewers, so and maulingbad guys, we just don't know,
okay.
Kara Edwards (40:43):
I mean, I had a heck of an aphid problem. Maybe
they're all radioactive, and Ididn't know where to go over
Dallas. Maybe they're justradioactive, whatever.
Laura Orr (40:52):
You know what Kara was speaking of bias. You hate
your turtles that live in yourhome. So maybe it's a turtle.
It's the frogs.
Kara Edwards (40:59):
I have an issue with our frogs. We don't have
turtles. I did have turtlesgrowing up, okay. And I loved my
little baby turtles. And we hadturtles, they grew up and they
lived in our backyard. And Ilove turtles. I do not have hate
against turtles. If this was ashow about frogs, you would be
able to say that because No, Ithink the frogs are kind of
weird animals to have as pets,but we have them anyway.
Laura Orr (41:21):
You have so many reptile we have
Kara Edwards (41:24):
a lot of reptiles we have like I'm a reptile
person. I mean, like we
Laura Orr (41:28):
like the representation Kara.
Kara Edwards (41:29):
Maybe that's what it is. And I felt that it was
actually the representation ofthe turtles themselves. I have
to say I did like, yes, like youwere just saying about Raphael.
I did like his character arc.
The one with the blue bandana isthat Donna Telo. That's
Leonardo. That's Leonardo's.
Okay, well, I liked that. Youknow, Leonardo leads. Okay, got
(41:50):
it. Sorry. They, I liked thatthey they kind of had a fight
and a falling out and that theywere able to reconcile that.
Again, I had no issue with myson watching this movie. There
was no part that I that I waslike, super cringy or, you know,
it was fine. I just don't knowthat it held up. 32 years later,
Laura Orr (42:15):
I get I get what you're saying. Is there anything
else that's problematic that weneed to touch on? i There's some
cursing?
Kara Edwards (42:22):
Yeah, there's some but it's like cursing. It's none
of the big heavy words. Butthere's a little bit a little
bit.
Laura Orr (42:28):
Well, who is your favorite turtle?
Swanka Burnette (42:30):
Roughly? Oh. I like the Babyliss.
Laura Orr (42:36):
Okay. Mine was always Michelangelo. But it's He's the
funny one. So okay. But did youhave a favorite?
Kara Edwards (42:45):
I did. I mean, in the movie. I did like Raphael
Raphael. Yeah, I just I likedhis story arc I liked. He had
the best angry sequence thatI've ever seen in a movie when
he goes across the roof and isworking out his frustration and
various kicks and punches. GreatTaekwondo, great,
Laura Orr (43:04):
great, the angry cartwheel, I was dying. We call
that punch, dance sheet andpunch dancing your rage out
series from the movie Hot Rod.
Kara Edwards (43:14):
I didn't notice that. Because Michael has the
thing right now where he wantsme to take videos of him like
dancing. And after watching themovie, he did start adding in
some punching and kicking to hisdancing. So he was properly
influenced everybody by thismovie,
Laura Orr (43:30):
but I think you do have to go into it with like,
this is a nostalgic movie. Thisis a puppet movie.
Kara Edwards (43:35):
Like, yeah,
Laura Orr (43:37):
this is a movie about kung fu turtles, you know,
you're active. And a walkingtalking rat. Like there's just
linear with one year's lot goingon.
Swanka Burnette (43:45):
It's one of those things where it's just, I
It's really fascinating to mehow this perspective has an
effect on everything that we doand everything, our approach to
everything and the way we thinkabout everything we consume,
right? Because, well, Ieverything you've said care as
far as not having the sameaffinity for the franchise and
like it just being a kind of asilly movie that you didn't
(44:07):
like, I can totally understandthat. But on the other end, when
I watch it, I see like, forexample, Splinter telling
Raphael that you know, angerclouds of mind turn inwards,
it's an uncomfortable anduncomfortable entity, right?
That's pretty deep. And to me, Iremember as a child thinking to
myself, he's right, like, it'snot helpful to be angry, you
(44:27):
know, it's that there's betterways of if something is
bothering you or somethingyou're experiencing is not going
where you want it to go. There'sbetter ways of expressing
yourself or addressing it thanjust being angry like, well, how
does that help the situation?
And I remember taking thatmessage away from this film as a
young person and there's not alot of films that I think I can
remember watching where I hadthat kind of memory of learning
something right and then I'lljust I'll give one more example
(44:51):
splitter, they the scene at theranch or whatever where Splinter
goes you've a cop As your finalmission and learn that mastery
comes not of the body, but ofthe mind. And again, as a kid, I
remember thinking myself, okay,so martial arts is not really
even though fighting is a bigpart of it. It's really not
about the fighting. It's moreabout learning the technique,
(45:12):
it's about being disciplined,it's about being mindful. And I
thought about these things. As achild, I remember thinking about
that, and taking taking thesethings away from this very silly
film with Jim Henson puppets. Sothat's part of the reason why in
2022, I still will anybody whowill listen, tell them to watch
the movie and you know, you'll,you'll find those themes.
Laura Orr (45:34):
I love that point that you make two about all of
that, because if you think aboutwhen this was being made, and
and who it was for, I think thatwas a very self aware movie,
because the audience is going tobe I think, I mean, I'm, I'm
gonna venture to say, youngboys, I'm loving, you know, the
(45:55):
Ninja Turtles and seeing themas, as role models in a way,
right. And so they're going tothis movie to watch Michelangelo
be funny to watch shutter be badto watch, you know, the them do
the martial arts, the fun,karate, and things like that.
(46:16):
But then they're also sneakingin these really important
messages being told from themouths of these role models. And
so I think that it was reallycool that they would put that
stuff in there among thesilliness, knowing who's
watching it, so that you can gohome and say, yeah, there was
some really fun scenes, but man,they had some really cool
(46:36):
insight too. So I like hearingthat from you. I would
Kara Edwards (46:40):
love to see this movie remade. I wonder
Laura Orr (46:43):
if I honestly I, there was another one that came
out.
Kara Edwards (46:48):
When was it like 2014 or something?
Swanka Burnette (46:52):
In Oh, seven, they did an animated version,
which did pretty well, which Ithink is a pretty solid film.
It's not I don't think it's asgood as the the 9090 version
version. And then in you justmentioned, I think in 2014, or
around that time, Michael Bayproduced a remake, which I
didn't care for. I mean, it wasokay, but it just didn't have
(47:13):
any, any none of the elementsthat I'm discussing, that make
me like the 1990 film arepresent in the 24 2014 film in
my
Kara Edwards (47:21):
Yeah. And that's, that's what makes it because all
the like, as you're saying allthose things. I'm like, wow,
there's a lot to this movie,that I think my son and I
completely missed, because wewere caught up and all the other
stuff that was there was thedistraction quite frankly, like
all these things are talkingabout Splinter saying are so
profound, and I have no memoryof them. Because all I could
(47:41):
think of was What microphone
Swanka Burnette (47:47):
that I highly recommend. Just if you're super
bored one day, just go back andwatch that one. It's like a 32nd
scene or Rafeal comes home. Andhe's trying to go to bed and
splinters like, No, you're notgoing to bed, come over here and
we're going to talk and Splinterbasically says to him, like stop
being so angry. We're here foryou. We love you. All right,
yeah.
Laura Orr (48:05):
And you know what? I was just thinking you could
totally make this a drinkinggame. If anything, just get
drunk and watch
Kara Edwards (48:15):
this every time.
Laura Orr (48:17):
Every time there's a funny fight scene where they do
something super silly during thefight scene. Yeah, take a drink.
Kara Edwards (48:24):
And there is a lot of slapstick. Like, before
Michael was laughing throughoutthe movie. We actually ate pizza
last night when we finished thismovie in honor of the turtle.
That's so sweet. So I mean, thisis a heck of a promo for pizza,
if anything.
Swanka Burnette (48:42):
So I have a question for you guys. Did you
find it to be kind ofinteresting slash awkward that
the turtles kind of sexual? Whatkind of they definitely were
like, it seemed like they aresexually attracted to a little
deal.
Kara Edwards (48:56):
Totally 100%.
That's what I was mentioningsuggests
Swanka Burnette (48:59):
some kind of like interspecies.
Laura Orr (49:02):
Well, I mean, I, unfortunately I have not met or
seen a female ninja turtle or aturtle of wilt or do they have
crushes on female turtles of asmaller size? Their sexual
attraction to anything isactually very interesting to me.
Now that you mentioned it'sWonka,
Swanka Burnette (49:19):
because they definitely were like, really
excited anytime she'd give thema compliment or give them any
intention.
Kara Edwards (49:24):
I mean, they flat out literally this girl gets
called a babe. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Iswear they use that exact
phrase. Like, so many times.
She's such a baby. Like she's a
Laura Orr (49:34):
baby. So they're teenagers.
Kara Edwards (49:36):
And I let that go a little bit.
Laura Orr (49:39):
How do they you know, fulfill that, you know, without
getting in cell anger, you know?
But
Swanka Burnette (49:48):
yeah, no, I just Yes, you're right. Again. I
just it's just funny to mebecause these are literally
these are turtles that have beengrown into anthropomorphized
human shapes but they They'restill turtles. So it's it's
funny to me that they would findthe human attractive at all
Laura Orr (50:03):
right? I know. Well, and they have a human component
to them. I mean, they talk.
Regular turtles don't talk,right and they do initial art
pieces and they eat pizza. Sothere they are definitely like a
turtle human hybrid, they havemuscles. So they where are they
going to put their attraction?
Are they going to put theirattraction to their turtle side
(50:25):
which are much smaller than themand are nothing and offer
nothing by way of conversation?
Swanka Burnette (50:33):
Turtle we talked about Galapagos turtles
those listings are like twopoint they're
Laura Orr (50:38):
bigger and they live forever. And they probably have
stories. If they could only talk
Swanka Burnette (50:45):
to the turtle speak turtle like that. I guess
that's
Kara Edwards (50:48):
Oh, are
Laura Orr (50:49):
they bilingual? We've
Kara Edwards (50:50):
got a lot to figure out.
Laura Orr (50:52):
Well, on that note, Mancha. My goodness, thank you
so much for coming on the show.
We didn't even talk about thefact that you and I have known
each other for like
Kara Edwards (51:00):
Friday. No, I wanted to start here. But I was
so nervous about having to tellyou guys that I didn't like the
movie. I feel like we need tohang on the line for at least
another hour and just hearstories about Laura. Could you
guys have known each other forwhat 10 years?
Laura Orr (51:17):
Well, we worked in the same office together. He was
a cohort ahead of mine. And itwas it's a very weird it was a I
don't know someone how you feelabout looking back at that time.
But yeah, it was like our firstbig job after I graduated
college and it was a reallyunique situation. I don't know
Sancho, were you as drunk as Iwas. During that time.
Swanka Burnette (51:36):
I was drunk a lot. It definitely felt like
real world a TNT. And yeah,okay. Straight up and down. Like
we were basically. I mean, it'salmost the exact premise of real
world is just we worked for acanteen, we lived in the same
buildings. Yep. You know, wespent all our time together,
drinking and hanging out, youknow? Yeah. How
Kara Edwards (51:53):
did you both grow up to become movie reviewers? I
don't know, hang out. Was thisthe thing that y'all like bonded
over? Oh,
Laura Orr (51:59):
not at all. Actually.
Swanka Burnette (52:01):
Yeah. And you know, like this, either here nor
there. But I have like, a verylong career doing something
completely unrelated to this.
This is something that, youknow, I kind of jumped into a
couple of years ago, as a kindof a side thing that I would
like to eventually become moreof a significant portion of my,
my life. But um, but yeah, sothere you go.
Laura Orr (52:20):
I think we the three of us have that in common? Yeah.
Interesting. It's our littlepassion project and aside from
our careers, and yeah, I lovethat we all have
Kara Edwards (52:29):
that I have loved having you on here. I would love
to have you back as a guest.
Totally more of your thoughts onthese movies? And maybe I won't
disagree with you so much. Next,no,
Swanka Burnette (52:40):
no, it's fine.
What are different ourdifferences and our differences,
strengths and strengthen ourresolve?
Laura Orr (52:46):
Absolutely. And what a fun conversation we had, if we
had all liked it, this wouldhave come out to be very
different sort of in a lovestory to Teenage Mutant
Kara Edwards (52:53):
Ninja Turtles, as opposed to said, instead of
offense and defense,
Swanka Burnette (52:59):
I think it was a better conversation, the fact
that you know, we're kind oftrying to, you know, just a
little bit so yeah,
Laura Orr (53:05):
I agree. I agree.
Some of our best conversationscoming when Kara and I disagree
on a show or movie, but, Sancho,before we leave, where can
people find you if they want tolearn more about you or the
quick critic,
Swanka Burnette (53:17):
so you can go to the quick critic.com There's
links to all my socials rightthere on the front, Instagram,
YouTube, Facebook, tick tock, orif you want to just search
directly on Instagram or Tiktok.
It's just at real quick, critic,one word.
Kara Edwards (53:30):
Perfect, easy again, so on. Good, thank you.
My pleasure. All right. We'llsee you guys next week. In the
meantime, you can find us onTwitter. You can find us on
Instagram. You can leave reviewsgive us stars. We appreciate all
of your feedback. The more starsthe better. Yeah. Tell us Are
you Team Kara. Are you TeamLaura and serwotka?
Laura Orr (53:50):
Oh, I would love to know that. Thanks, everyone.
Kara Edwards (53:53):
Thank you. We'll see you next week.
Laura Orr (54:01):
Scribe and follow us on Instagram
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