Episode Summary:
In this Weekly Round-Up episode of The Fandom Portals Podcast, Aaron and Brash catch up on what they've been into—and not all of it gets glowing reviews. From the chaotic fan-service of the Minecraft Movie, to early reactions to Apple TV’s The Studio, and a rave over Murderbot Diaries, the duo explores what’s working, what’s flopping, and what hits that nostalgic sweet spot. Plus, Aaron shares a touching moment rewatching Lilo & Stitch through his son’s eyes, and they preview next week’s emotional dive into Kevin Smith’s Jersey Girl.
Topics:
- The Minecraft Movie: Fan service overload or misunderstood fun?
- Why live-action video game movies keep falling back on the "real world crossover" trope
- The Studio on Apple TV: Satire, cameos, and a surprisingly annoying protagonist
- Murderbot Diaries: Book-to-TV adaptation hype and Skarsgård steals the screen
- Weekly nostalgia pick: Lilo & Stitch rewatch through a parent’s eyes
- Concerns about the Lilo & Stitch live-action remake (where is Gantu?)
- Will Elvis make the soundtrack cut?
Key Takeaways:
- The Minecraft Movie skips the game's survival mechanics in favor of chaotic energy and celebrity cameos.
- The Studio is technically brilliant but not emotionally gripping—yet.
- Murderbot nails emotional storytelling through a non-human lens, earning a full episode deep dive soon.
- Lilo & Stitch remains a perfect starter movie for kids—and a tearjerker for adults.
- Fans are wary of live-action remakes losing the heart (and villains) of the originals.
Quotes:
“We’ve got to mine... and then we’ve got to craft!”
“You don’t see him build a wood pickaxe! That’s like Minecraft 101.”
“The Studio is like The Office meets Hollywood satire... but everyone’s extremely annoying on purpose.”
“Murderbot is a robot that understands humanity better than the humans around him.”
Apple Podcast Tags:
Minecraft Movie, Murderbot, Lilo and Stitch, Apple TV, The Studio, Fandom Round-Up, Weekly Podcast, Geek Freaks Network, Fandom Portals Podcast, Movie Reviews, Book Adaptations, Kevin Smith, Jersey Girl, Live Action Remakes, Pop Culture News
Contact Us:
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Threads: threads.net/@fandomportals
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, the podcast
that helps you learn and grow.
I'm joined here with Brash foranother short episode.
What are you into?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What am I into?
What are you into?
Well, I watched the Minecraftmovie.
It was a movie Like they triedtoo hard, like this, really like
the whole, like the thing isreally cool, like it looks
really cool.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's very colorful, it is.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
And they really got the essence of like the
Minecraft and everything likethat.
I think the thing that reallyruins it is the people, all the
actors in it.
I've heard I know all theamazing actors, but it doesn't
fit Okay To me.
It doesn't.
(00:58):
I would have preferred even ifit was still Jack Black, that's
fine, but I would have preferreda movie about Steve.
I would have preferred a storyabout him and from start to
finish, like how he learns aboutthe world and he starts
(01:20):
building this stuff and thenmaybe having to fight in the
nether and stuff like that, andjust a big story about that.
And like he's building upsomething and then all of a
sudden nether people from thenether come in or he finds where
he's nether and then pissesthem off and they come and try
and fight him and he has tofight them back by building
kinds of weird shit and new shit.
(01:40):
And instead of just having awhole bunch of random kids and
adults fall into the world andthey just run around and like
they don't do any, like like youthink it was just like a
minecraft expose, like what youjust said.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Then sounds like you wanted it to be, uh,
highlighting the survivalaspects or the strategy of
minecraft, as opposed to, uh,just having characters slapped
into the world and then almostlike how movies do for fan
service, how they just show youwhat you want to see.
So they showed the highlightsof Minecraft, basically, and
tried to tie them together withstory elements, because the only
things that I've been seeingabout it are obviously the
(02:15):
chicken jockey and all of theconnections and publicity from
Jack Black and Jason Momoa andpeople have been saying their
chemistry was good, but whetherit's what the Minecraft movie
needed, not too sure.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh yeah, like it was good, but I think it took like I
think maybe the chemistry wastoo good or too strong, because
it sort of took away from theactual overarching movie.
Because like at one point JackBlack's like we've got a mine
and's like we've got a mine andthen craft.
We've got a mine, craft.
And then there's like thislittle montage thing, but it's
(02:52):
really like well, it's like acouple minute montage.
Jack Black breaks one rock withdiamond in it, a couple of the
kids make one item on theworkbench.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
It almost seemed like it was pushing for all the
trending stuff, yeah.
That being said, though, it hasalmost made a billion dollars.
So my question to you, brash,is do you think maybe you didn't
like it because we're just tooold for it now?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
No, no, the thing, my thing was it wasn't enough
about the game Minecraft movie.
It's supposed to be a movieabout Minecraft but literally
you see Jack when he first getsinto the world and you sort of
see this like sort of thingabout him learning how to craft
things.
But it's sort of you're like,oh, I can break this thing, oh,
and then I can place a blockthere, place a block there, oh,
(03:37):
I can start to build stuff.
And then it just about allthose cool shit he's built.
It doesn't show like how helearned to do things, like you
never see him craft, or like abasic wood axe or anything like
that.
Or first of all, before you cando anything else, or a wood
pickaxe and then one or anythingelse.
It sort of just skips all thatand then cuts back into the real
world where you meet the othercharacters and then, after their
(03:59):
bit of real world nonsense,they all inadvertently, somehow
these four random people thatonly sort of barely know each
other all get together and getthrust into this, into the
minecraft world.
And I'm taking a story about,like jennifer coolidge.
I love jennifer coolidge, butthe whole thing with her and the
village that comes out.
Yeah, it was a bit funny, butgod, it just took away from the
(04:22):
actual movie because, yeah,there's no building or crafting,
it's there.
That's what dulled it for me.
I was just like, oh, it's moreof it's more of them just joking
around, rather, and I wouldhave rather, because it is meant
to be, you know, kids, it ismeant to be a survival game?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
yep, no, I can see that.
I think that, um, when theyreleased the Super Mario Bros
movie, for example, I was verymuch looking forward to seeing
the game elements in that movie.
But they attached it to a storyand the game elements sort of
enhanced the story.
Yeah, movies, they have to makesure that the mechanics of the
(05:01):
game, or the easter eggs in fromthe game that you're doing,
enhance or accompany the storyin a productive way, as opposed
to just putting them in there toget the reels or to get the
viral boost or to get that sortof fan service.
Hey, look at that moment.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
You know what I mean my cry, like, and like I did
like to do that.
Like they place things in thebackground and they had that
little, that homage to technobladelade, which was really
beautiful and a good one forthat as well, because it was a
really big thing for Minecraft,technoblade and like they had,
like they had bits and piecesthere and all the things there.
But I think it's oh, actuallyit is.
(05:37):
It reminds me of there's amovie where it does the same
thing, where, um, oh uh, the ummonster hunter movie oh yeah,
they did this thing, where theybrought these people from our
world into the monster hunterworld.
I'm like why?
It's like a monster huntermovie about the people in the
(05:58):
monster world?
Why drag people from our worldinto that world?
And I'm like they probablycould have done the same thing
with, we'll see, because withmario, mario was a human who
went into it.
That's that's where it'sdifferent people from our world
into that world.
And I'm like they probablycould have done the same thing
with, well see, because withMario, mario was a human who
went into it that's where it'sdifferent.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I think that's where the trend started, because Mario
originated from a world thatwas not the Mushroom Kingdom
exactly, but because that'sworked so well, I feel like it's
the trend going forward.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
And, yeah, they did the same thing in Monster Hunter
.
They brought people from ourworld into Monster Hunter world
and now all of a sudden inMonster Hunter world you have
all fucking machine guns andstuff, and so there's lots of
cool ass weapons that MonsterHunter has.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I feel like it's also a way that the people try to
immerse the audience into themovie.
So it's just like a real worldperson, just like you.
It goes into the game world.
You know, that's how you feelwhen you're playing it.
You're part of the world, thatkind of thing.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I know that If people want to watch that kind of
stuff, just stick to Isekai'sanime yeah.
Isekai's.
They're way better.
They're way better Like if youwant to watch Monster Hunter,
watch Gate instead, an animecalled Gate.
Like, like, like, like, like,like, like, like, like, like,
like, like, like, like, like,like, like, like, like, like,
like, like, like, like, like,like, like, like, like, like,
like, like, like even KingdomHearts in a way.
(07:22):
They could do it like that.
I reckon that'd be a reallygood movie and they could sort
of do that like kids on a beachon this island and all of a
sudden get sucked into thisDisney Final Fantasy world, like
yeah, that's where it works.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I think it works when it's actually part of the
content, but, as you said, Idon't think it's needs to be a
Minecraft movie.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Even if they still wanted to keep Jason Momoa and
the other kids in it, they couldhave just made them other
characters in Minecraft.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, I think it comes back to them trying to
create movies based on anexisting IP because they have an
audience already that they canbank on to come to the movie to
watch it.
But when it's something likeMinecraft, where there's not
really a Minecraft story asopposed to it just being a
survival game, it gets reallydifficult to do sort of properly
(08:10):
.
I guess my last question foryou, brash, in this regard is
would you recommend it toanybody?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Oh yeah, I'd recommend it to everyone.
It was still a good watch.
I would have just rather it bemore about the game than the
story that it really had aboutthese random people.
Honestly, they didn't needthose real people in there, even
if Steve fell into it and hewas in the world and he was
(08:34):
still human and they didn'tanimate him.
That's fine.
But then having these randomscome in and being able to go
back and forth from Minecrafthas been weird.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah.
And being able to go back andforth from Minecraft has been
weird, yeah, unnecessary.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
All right, do you want to know what I've been into
?
Sure sure I have been watchingthe Studio.
The Studio is on Apple.
There's 11 or so episodes outnow and it is a series that
stars Seth Rogen, catherineO'Hara and Ike Barinholtz,
created by Evan Goldberg, andit's basically a.
It's about a legacy Hollywoodmovie studio that's trying to
(09:11):
survive in the world where it'sreally difficult for a studio
and a business like that tosurvive in, and it's a complete
satire of the film and moviegoing business.
It's getting lots of criticalacclaim.
Watching the first few episodes,I didn't really understand or
get the hype because, yes, it'sgetting lots of critical acclaim
.
Watching the first few episodes, I didn't really understand or
get the hype because, yes, it'sclever and I can see the
messages that it's trying to do.
(09:32):
But I just find the maincharacter played by Seth Rogen
to be very, very annoying.
In his people pleasing mannerhe plays this executive called
Matt Remick and he's just likeso flip-flop with all the
decisions he makes.
He gets put into this positionof leadership and he's highly
underqualified to do it and he'sjust trying to impress
(09:52):
everybody and he's slowlylearning throughout the episodes
that as a studio head, he hasto break some eggs, basically.
And, yeah, as the episodes goon, I did find myself enjoying
it more and more.
One of the good things about itis how technically creative it
kind of is.
So they have an episode calledthe one-er and it's literally a
one-shot episode, which meansthere is no scene cuts.
(10:15):
So the whole thing is just oneum, one scene cut and the yeah
it's, and it's a 40 minute or soepisode.
So it's pretty impressive as afeat and the like.
Just the way that they sort ofgo about pulling off some of
these studio techniques isreally impressive to see.
But it's just not.
It's just not really grabbingme, I don't think, because I'm
(10:36):
so annoyed by the main characterand I don't really know if
that's the purpose or not.
Perhaps it is, but there are afew episodes that kind of stand
out for me.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Does it have an issue with like hooks in the episodes
, like something that hooks you?
Speaker 1 (10:48):
in.
Some do and some don't.
So there was this episodecalled the Missing Reel.
It was episode four and it'sbasically starring Olivia Wilde
as a guest star director andhe's working with the guest star
, yeah, and she made this moviethat she's really impressed with
and Zac Efron's starring in themovie.
So it's kind of meta that way.
But there is a film reel thatgoes missing and the whole
(11:12):
episode is shot as a neo-noirdetective, like one of those old
school movies where they dovoiceovers and it's all darkly
lit and there's smoke machinesgoing throughout.
And they've modernized it bymaking the main character Seth
Rogen's character.
Instead of monologuing to theaudience, he's taking voice
memos because his therapist hastold him that voice memos can
help him when he's feelingreally heightened.
(11:32):
So it's really clever in thatsort of space and that episode
was really funny and that onehooked me in.
But then there are otherepisodes, like the very first
episode.
I was almost not going to watchany further, but the episode
after that, the one hour, wastechnically brilliant.
So I was like, okay, I'll giveit.
I'll give it more of a shot.
So I feel like the charactersare developing in chemistry.
(11:55):
There's not really many that Iwould say I would like.
So I think I'm watching in termsof characters, to see what
celebrities cameo in this show,because there are heaps and it's
probably the most cameo filledor star studded tv show that
I've ever watched.
So it's got like ice cube.
He cameos ron howard, zachefron, steve bishimi, um olivia
(12:17):
wild, as I said, josh hutchisonas well.
Yeah, paul dano is in one ofthe first episodes as well,
johnnyville is in there and DaveFranco plays a part in three of
the episodes and so does ZoeKravitz as well.
So it's growing on me, but Iprobably it wasn't something
that grabbed me straight away,and when I was looking at
(12:39):
internet reviews, it was beingraved about and for me it wasn't
something that straight awaygrabbed me.
So I think it's something thattakes a little bit of thought.
So I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, I don't think, because obviously there is a bit
of satire, so is it becausemaybe like and then maybe you're
finding more?
Annoying because the likethey're probably making all the
celebrities more cliche in theway of being celebrities and
they're being handfuls, andannoying because they're rich,
entitled people.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, I would absolutely think that that is.
That is exactly what they'redoing, because, um, all of the
celebrities do appear that wayand they are extremely annoying.
So maybe this show is actuallyso brilliant that it's making me
feel the things I'm supposed to.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, and I'm feeling annoyed at these.
You meant to.
You meant to feel annoyedbecause you're seeing that was
the purpose.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, you're seeing like a more expanded, exploded
and warped version of like beinga celebrity, yeah, or running a
studio or the industry as awhole as well, and I think it
does do a good job of ofcommentating some of those
business elements Like it givesme I've.
This is me admitting somethinghere.
I've never actually seen theOffice, but it feels like the
(13:49):
Office if it was set in a filmstudio and you know, the four
title characters in this aregrowing on me but, as I said,
not really forming a connectionLike I don't really like any of
them.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Who's the four title?
So you've got Seth Rogen as themain character.
Yep, catherine O'Hara, oh,catherine O'Hara.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, she plays Patti Lee, who was the ex-studio head
before Seth Rogen's character,matt Remick, got employed.
Mike Barinholtz is in it.
He plays Matt's secondhand man,basically as Sal Saperstein,
and he's like a klutz combinedwith just like a lovable idiot
but also a conniving kind of,but at the same time I feel like
(14:28):
he's really loyal to to Matt,like they have each other's back
really really well, but it'sjust like a cutthroat business.
So those two together arereally good and they play off
each other really well.
And the last one is is Chase Suewonders, who I haven't seen
very much of in anything else,but she plays Quinn Hackett and
she's like the intern, she'slike the first year creative
consultant who's trying to getup in the business and is
(14:51):
literally she's like the newwave, gen Z, of people that are
entering the film world andHollywood.
Because there used to be like aprocess and one of the episodes
talks about this, the episodecalled the War.
It talks about how there usedto be this process for interns
that come in and they had towait their turn and in meetings
they just were silent and shutup.
But she goes in there and she'svery boisterous and it's
combating towards what SalSaperstein, ike Barinholtz's
(15:14):
character, usually does, becausehe came up in the old school
way and is only just now as asecond stand-in person for for
Matt Remick, the studio director, but Quinn Hackett Chase, who
Wonders, is coming in and risingthrough the ranks very quickly,
so he's getting very jealousand because it's that
combination of the old schoolway and the new school way,
those two characters representthat really well in my opinion.
(15:37):
So those are the four mains,and then there's also Katherine
Hahn, who comes in every now andagain as the marketing expert.
Yeah, she's the over the top 11episodes apparently.
Yeah, yeah, 11 episodes.
It's literally just finished acouple of weeks ago at time of
recording, but it's already beengreenlit for a second season,
so I think it's being ravedabout and they've got a budget
to get all of these awesomecelebrity guests and everybody
(16:01):
wants to be a part of thein-joke of the studio, so that's
a good sign.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I'm trying to see all the people who play themselves.
Even Dave Franco plays himself.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yep.
Dave Franco plays himself, ZoeKravitz plays herself.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yep, yep, peter Berg plays himself, ice Cube plays
himself.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
They play themselves, but they also.
I don't think that's whatthey're actually like.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, they'll all be they'll be
extremely exaggerated,exaggerated versions of
themselves.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, or you just it's exaggerated um versions of
their style of like, like actoror person, I guess yeah, or the
yeah, the role they need to playin this particular for example,
the olivia wild episode that Imentioned before, the missing
reel.
She is this crazed director whois completely obsessed with
getting her movie correct andshow the vision that she wants
(16:52):
to see, and she plays that tothe nth degree.
Whether that's something OliviaWilde is like on set, we don't
really know, but we know andhave heard stories about
directors being like that, soshe's playing that satire.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, she's playing the satire version of a director
.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah.
My one question for this is Idon't know, because it's so
steeped in current pop cultureand Hollywood culture right now,
I'm wondering will this besomething that survives, like
Friends has, for example, likethat's just survived generations
upon generations because it'sso easily accessible?
Or is this just a hit for thenow, because it's something that
communicates a part of rightnow, getting the attention now,
(17:30):
but will it in future To have ashow last?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
as many seasons as sort of like anything.
Now it seems very difficult andit doesn't really happen.
Yeah, not anymore Like what thelast sort of ones were like.
Were that one, I think it'd belike some stuff like
Supernaturals and you knowOffices and New Girls which
started in the early 2000s,these ones here.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's like companies buy shows for 11 to 12,
sometimes 8 episode runs andthen they're not guaranteed a
second, third, fourth season,and to me I think that stifles
storytelling, because you couldtell these overarching tales
across multiple seasons oracross multiple episodes, but
you were never really sure ifyou were going to get that next
(18:13):
season.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, it stunts that initial ability to be like, ooh,
I have this idea that can playout over seasons, but we may not
get there.
So we might have to not do thatand try and focus on quick,
short-winded sort ofstorytelling to try and just get
us through these eight episodesand hope for the best that we
get.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And because of that it sort of loses any interest,
because people aren't interestedin going to see what's
happening next, because therehasn't been any sort of
long-term development, um, thatpeople are going to be waiting
for, because it's all based inthe short term, and that's 100
correct, because I think thatfrom what I've watched so far of
the studio, matt remick inepisode one is exactly the same
as he is in episode seven, sothere's no sort of character
growth across the seven episodearc.
(18:59):
Are we going to see a differentMatt Remick in season two?
Not too sure like and how longdoes that system last until
people start to get bored of itand then the show has ended up
being cancelled halfway throughor not continued.
So I think that's the nature ofstreaming, and the nature of
television now is because we'reso able to pick and choose what
we can watch instead of it beingon the network.
And you watch it at seveno'clock every weeknight.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yeah, it's either that or whatever else on one of
the other channels.
Exactly Like three channels orfour channels?
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, so because it's so readily accessible, people
really do pay with theirwatching presence.
So if you're not watching it,it's not going to continue.
I'll probably watch the secondseason of this one.
I probably would recommend it,just for some of the clever
shots they are.
You just have to get throughwatching some of the annoying
characterizations that are inhere.
(19:48):
But from talking to you, I dothink that is the purpose of
these characters.
They're supposed to be annoying, they're supposed to be over
the top, they're supposed to bea satire of what the industry is
.
So, yeah, the studio from AppleTV.
If you want to watch it, watchsomething a little bit clever,
get your teeth into it.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Not too bad.
Speaking of Apple, I'm notgoing to talk about it too much
but Murder.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
I recommend watching that.
Yeah, let's get into yourrecommendation.
I know you've read Reddit.
Yes, yeah, I've read the books.
They are Actually funny story,those books.
I was wanting something quick tolisten to on audiobook because
I was doing menu log deliveryover night time and my shift
would usually last for likethree or four hours and I needed
something that would be donestart and finish during that
time because I didn't want tocontinue it over.
So I picked those books up andthey were like there's seven or
(20:39):
eight in the series now, but atthe time that I was doing it
there was five and I'd consumethem all in a week and it was
just so awesome to just thecharacter of of Murderbot was
immediately loved by me and forfor lots of obvious reasons if
you've watched the show, but ifyou haven't, brash is going to
recommend it for you.
Now I'm not going to give toomuch away about it because I
(21:01):
said to him as well.
I said I think I'd like to do afull Phantom Portals episode on
it because I do love it.
It is.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I was like I'll watch it and I'll see what it's like
I'm like because, like it's gotAlexander Skarsgård in it and
I'm a big fan of Skarsgård.
I've watched like all TrueBlood, like him and True Blood
and like him as Tarzan and himas any other sort of extremely
handsome and ripped and buffedcharacter he plays.
(21:28):
But I was like, ooh, yeah, I'mgoing to watch it.
And then like also David, hislast name, dashmalian I think it
is Dashmalian Dashmalian and healways me, always.
I love watching him like actbecause he always plays that
weird, weird creepy yeah, hedoes.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
He plays the spot or something in the suicide squad.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
It's that guy yeah, yeah, he does, he plays the spot
or something in the suicidesquad.
It's that guy yeah he alwaysplays awkward in that really
well, and yeah.
So I'm like.
I'm like oh, I'll give it awatch.
And I watched the first episodeand was like crap.
Only two episodes are outcurrently.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
So I watched the first two episodes and then the
third episode came out and I'mlike crap, now I'm gonna waste
the fourth episode yeah, sohighly wrecked, I would just
based on the book series becausethe character of the murder bot
developed so much in these fivesmall stories.
It's a real good portrayal orpicture of humanity.
And I'll say that in quotemarks because the murder bot is
(22:28):
obviously an automaton robot,but he presents such a really
vivid picture of the humancondition, more so, I think,
than some of the humancharacters, which is the
interesting part for me.
So yeah, I haven't watched theMurderbot series yet.
I'm waiting to watch it in fullin the 10 episode full run, and
after that I think we will doan episode of Phantom Portals on
it as a deep dive because it'sso great.
But Brash is watching it as wego, so I'm glad another fan's on
(22:51):
the on the murderbot train yeah, yeah, I'm a bit um upset with
myself.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I probably should have done what you're gonna do
and wait for the 10th time,because I mean and this probably
probably tags into what you'retalking about the studio about
hey, there's gonna be a long,long, long running show like I
want to watch all of it rightnow.
But I think that also in a wayruins longevity of shows,
(23:16):
because if everyone just watchesa show in one quick span, it
only lives for that quick span.
Exactly.
And then there's another show,and then another show comes out
and then you watch it, and so,in a way, it's good and sucks.
So it's good because I'm goingto be watching this now over the
10 episodes over the next 10weeks, and then I'll get excited
for the next season to come out.
(23:37):
If there's a next season or ifthey're going to expand on it
Awesome.
And then I can watch that,whereas when they throw out the
shows, it's all just one show.
I'll binge watch that and belike cool, I'll watch that now.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
And then yeah, and that's the thing with this as
well I know that I mentionedbefore that there's about seven
or so books out now.
I'll be interested to see howthey pace the first season,
whether one season is one book,because then I'll get an idea of
how long it may go for, or ifit's going to be multiple
stories from multiple booksacross this 10 episode arc.
That's what will be interestingto have a look at, and maybe
once I watch it, I'll be able togauge what that longevity will
be like, based on what I knowhappens to the character and how
(24:18):
far they stick to it as well.
They might create their ownstories based on the character
as well.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, which I reckon.
Well, I reckon they can do somuch with it too.
I know at the moment, I'm quitehooked.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
But, yes, definitely go and watch Murderbot on Apple
TV.
My recommendation for this week.
I'm going to go to a throwback,but it's a relevant throwback
because I have been tossing andturning, umming and ahhing about
what my son's first movie goingexperience is going to be and I
thought maybe it's the Lilo andStitch live action movie.
So we watched the cartoon.
I'm going to recommendeverybody go and watch the old
cartoon of Lilo and Stitch and Isay old but it's not really
(24:51):
that old, just for some of thatnostalgia.
And it was interesting Brash tosee it through the lens of a
child, because when it came outI was about 14 or 13 or
something like that.
I was a teenager Seeing itthrough the lens of a child, a
child that's three and a half,almost four.
He asked all the right questions, which is great, and some of
them were really hard to answer.
But that's kind of why I likemovies and TV and watching
(25:13):
things like this with himbecause you're able to explore
and talk about things like thatwith your kids and through a
lens of Lilo and Stitch insteadof through the lens of a real
life thing that's happening.
It could be upsetting.
So, for example, nani firstcame on the TV who is Lilo's
sister?
And he said to me my son saidto me, dad, is that Lilo's mom?
(25:34):
And I said no, that's Lilo'ssister.
And then he said dad, where'sLilo's mom?
And I said, oh, how do I dothis?
How do I answer this question?
And then you know he did thesame with Jumba, the alien Jumba
.
He asked the question aboutJumba.
He goes is that man evil?
I was like the question aboutJumba.
He goes is that man evil?
(25:54):
I was like, well, he didn'tmake an alien experiment, but he
loves it very much and he istrying to shoot at him right now
.
But you know he's trying to gethim back and he stays on Earth
to look after him.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
It's a tough question .
Speaker 1 (26:04):
It's a tough question .
He becomes his uncle, yeah.
And then you know, he gotemotional at times in the movie
as well.
When we were watching it solike when Lilo gets taken away
and Stitch escapes and they'reall agreeing to go and find him
again he got pretty upset Notcrying upset, but you could see
that the emotional beats werehitting him as he was watching
(26:26):
it.
So it just replayed the magicof cinema and then, obviously,
when they all get together as afamily, he was extremely happy
at the end of it, when you knowthere's the montage of photo
album shots and everybody has isan ohana again.
So I really hope I haven't seenthe new one, but I really hope
that the new one captures thatkind of magic.
Have you seen a brush?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I haven't seen it but , but I've heard some scathing
things.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Well, I have heard the biggest thing that I've
heard.
That is my like.
I don't think I'll write it offfor it, but apparently Captain
Gantu isn't in the movie.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
At all.
The main bad guy in the movieis not in the movie Is not in
the movie.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, and I don't know how they're going to fix
the movie through around that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Well, because Jumba is made the bad guy throughout
the whole entire movie.
Oh okay, he doesn't become agood guy.
I hope he does by the end.
I, from what I've heard, Idon't believe so, because
everyone's upset at the factthat what they do to Uncle Jumba
Hmm, okay, so that meansPleakley is obviously his inept
(27:33):
assistant yeah, and they don'tdo any cross-dressing completely
yeah so at no point does heever dress up.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Oh yeah, because that's another thing that I have
actually seen as well is thatJumba and Pleakley are aliens
hiding in plain sight.
In the cartoon they're dressedup as humans, but in this one
they are using alien technologyto actually look like humans,
which I think takes away some ofthe charm and the hilarity of
the actual you know, I haveheard, like Maya and Sydney who
(28:05):
play Nani and Lilo and Stitchand all that is all really good,
but they're just upset with thefact that, yeah, there's the
main bad guys.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
No, not even in the movie anymore.
And um, zelda and jumba doesn'thave the german accent, he's
just that guy the russian accent?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
yeah, I think everybody's.
I watched an interview withzach galifianakis and he said
that it's a little bit of asensitive issue now when you're
doing villain accents andthey're done like Lilo and
Stitch.
For example, the movie Jumbohas a Russian accent and
apparently that's a little bitof a faux pas these days is to
do that sort of thing why don'tthey just get the voice actor
(28:46):
that?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
did it before to do a TV show to do it yeah that's
what I understand, like, didthey actually need Zach
Galifianakis to voice thatcharacter, or could they have
just had the voice actor whovoice acts that?
Okay, jumbo voice actor.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yeah, one thing I did love about the upcoming or the
the time until this was releasedwas the marketing campaign they
did with Lilo and Stitch, whereStish just started appearing on
TV places and was justchaotically ruining all
different things, like even theSuper Bowl.
He was on a Super Bowlcommercial as well and he was
out like rampaging along thefield.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
That's what I mean Like the whole.
Like Stitch, lilo, nani, allthat it all works, seems really
good.
It's just that they sort ofthey've changed the story and
for a lot of people I think likethere's probably reasons why.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I'm not sure entirely why, but I think people are
just upset because they're likeyou changed it, but we don't
know the reason why you changedit.
Yeah, I I heard that the gantusituation was changed.
The director said that it wasvery difficult to pull off gantu
in live action like it didn't.
It didn't fully work.
Um, one thing I will say isthat in its opening weekend it
made $146 million, which hasalready surpassed its $100
million budget.
So it's a financial success.
(30:02):
The new Lilo and Sitch movie andI think it is definitely
drawing from the nostalgia ofthe original cartoon because
there was a spinoff series onSaturday Disney.
There was a second movie thatwent straight to video that
everybody was sort of enamoredby and in love with for a very
long period of time.
And there's lots of memes goingaround now, especially on
(30:22):
Instagram, that show likedancing memes where it says me
being 32 in the cinema when Liloand Stitch comes out, or
another one where it's like thememe of Billy Madison sitting
amongst the class and he's justlike me enjoying Lilo and Stitch
in a cinema full of kids.
So I think it's thatcross-generational thing where
parents are taking their kids toit but also people like our age
would be going to it because ofthe nostalgia of the original.
(30:45):
So it's got a good market and Ithink that's why Disney has
started to do these live actions, why they continue to do them
as well.
But overall, in summary, Irecommend watching the original
when it All Started Lilo andStitch.
Here's a question, actually,before we go on to this does
Elvis Presley feature in the newone?
Do you know?
Because he's got to, not aslike a character, but on the
(31:06):
soundtrack.
Surely he's a staple ofHawaiian culture?
Yes, yeah, that is true.
Somebody that knows, if you'relistening to this and you know,
please comment and let us know.
Does Elvis Presley feature inthe soundtrack at all in this
movie?
I hope so.
Yeah, because one of myfavorite scenes from the
original is when Lilo's lying onthe floor singing Heartbreak
Hotel or mouthing HeartbreakHotel, while her sister tries to
(31:27):
get in the dog door orunhooking all the nails that
have been pelted in there.
Another question my son askedas well was why is the house so
messy?
I was like because they'rebeing looked after by somebody
who's also working a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
A lot yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
But yeah, I think the feelings that are evoked from
the original should be revisitedby everyone.
So that's my recommendationEverybody go and watch Lilo and
Stitch.
All right, let's get to ourpreview of what's coming up on
next episode of the FandomPortals podcast.
If you're listening to this, itmeans coming up next in your
feed will be the Fandom Portalsepisode on Jersey Girl.
Brash and I are going to talkabout Kevin Smith's unusual
(32:07):
pivot from his usual movies tothis more heartfelt one of
Jersey Girl.
So make sure you check that outas well, and we'll see you very
, very soon here on the FenderPortals.
Goodbye everybody.
Ohana means family.
Family means nobody gets leftbehind or forgotten.
Welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, the podcast
that helps you learn and grow.
I'm joined here with Brash foranother short episode.
What are you into?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What am I into?
What are you into?
Well, I watched the Minecraftmovie.
It was a movie Like they triedtoo hard, like this, really like
the whole, like the thing isreally cool, like it looks
really cool.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's very colorful, it is.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
And they really got the essence of like the
Minecraft and everything likethat.
I think the thing that reallyruins it is the people, all the
actors in it.
I've heard I know all theamazing actors, but it doesn't
fit Okay To me.
It doesn't.
(00:58):
I would have preferred even ifit was still Jack Black, that's
fine, but I would have preferreda movie about Steve.
I would have preferred a storyabout him and from start to
finish, like how he learns aboutthe world and he starts
(01:20):
building this stuff and thenmaybe having to fight in the
nether and stuff like that, andjust a big story about that.
And like he's building upsomething and then all of a
sudden nether people from thenether come in or he finds where
he's nether and then pissesthem off and they come and try
and fight him and he has tofight them back by building
kinds of weird shit and new shit.
(01:40):
And instead of just having awhole bunch of random kids and
adults fall into the world andthey just run around and like
they don't do any, like like youthink it was just like a
minecraft expose, like what youjust said.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Then sounds like you wanted it to be, uh,
highlighting the survivalaspects or the strategy of
minecraft, as opposed to, uh,just having characters slapped
into the world and then almostlike how movies do for fan
service, how they just show youwhat you want to see.
So they showed the highlightsof Minecraft, basically, and
tried to tie them together withstory elements, because the only
things that I've been seeingabout it are obviously the
(02:15):
chicken jockey and all of theconnections and publicity from
Jack Black and Jason Momoa andpeople have been saying their
chemistry was good, but whetherit's what the Minecraft movie
needed, not too sure.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh yeah, like it was good, but I think it took like I
think maybe the chemistry wastoo good or too strong, because
it sort of took away from theactual overarching movie.
Because like at one point JackBlack's like we've got a mine
and's like we've got a mine andthen craft.
We've got a mine, craft.
And then there's like thislittle montage thing, but it's
(02:52):
really like well, it's like acouple minute montage.
Jack Black breaks one rock withdiamond in it, a couple of the
kids make one item on theworkbench.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
It almost seemed like it was pushing for all the
trending stuff, yeah.
That being said, though, it hasalmost made a billion dollars.
So my question to you, brash,is do you think maybe you didn't
like it because we're just tooold for it now?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
No, no, the thing, my thing was it wasn't enough
about the game Minecraft movie.
It's supposed to be a movieabout Minecraft but literally
you see Jack when he first getsinto the world and you sort of
see this like sort of thingabout him learning how to craft
things.
But it's sort of you're like,oh, I can break this thing, oh,
and then I can place a blockthere, place a block there, oh,
(03:37):
I can start to build stuff.
And then it just about allthose cool shit he's built.
It doesn't show like how helearned to do things, like you
never see him craft, or like abasic wood axe or anything like
that.
Or first of all, before you cando anything else, or a wood
pickaxe and then one or anythingelse.
It sort of just skips all thatand then cuts back into the real
world where you meet the othercharacters and then, after their
(03:59):
bit of real world nonsense,they all inadvertently, somehow
these four random people thatonly sort of barely know each
other all get together and getthrust into this, into the
minecraft world.
And I'm taking a story about,like jennifer coolidge.
I love jennifer coolidge, butthe whole thing with her and the
village that comes out.
Yeah, it was a bit funny, butgod, it just took away from the
(04:22):
actual movie because, yeah,there's no building or crafting,
it's there.
That's what dulled it for me.
I was just like, oh, it's moreof it's more of them just joking
around, rather, and I wouldhave rather, because it is meant
to be, you know, kids, it ismeant to be a survival game?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
yep, no, I can see that.
I think that, um, when theyreleased the Super Mario Bros
movie, for example, I was verymuch looking forward to seeing
the game elements in that movie.
But they attached it to a storyand the game elements sort of
enhanced the story.
Yeah, movies, they have to makesure that the mechanics of the
(05:01):
game, or the easter eggs in fromthe game that you're doing,
enhance or accompany the storyin a productive way, as opposed
to just putting them in there toget the reels or to get the
viral boost or to get that sortof fan service.
Hey, look at that moment.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
You know what I mean my cry, like, and like I did
like to do that.
Like they place things in thebackground and they had that
little, that homage to technobladelade, which was really
beautiful and a good one forthat as well, because it was a
really big thing for Minecraft,technoblade and like they had,
like they had bits and piecesthere and all the things there.
But I think it's oh, actuallyit is.
(05:37):
It reminds me of there's amovie where it does the same
thing, where, um, oh uh, the ummonster hunter movie oh yeah,
they did this thing, where theybrought these people from our
world into the monster hunterworld.
I'm like why?
It's like a monster huntermovie about the people in the
(05:58):
monster world?
Why drag people from our worldinto that world?
And I'm like they probablycould have done the same thing
with, we'll see, because withmario, mario was a human who
went into it.
That's that's where it'sdifferent people from our world
into that world.
And I'm like they probablycould have done the same thing
with, well see, because withMario, mario was a human who
went into it that's where it'sdifferent.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I think that's where the trend started, because Mario
originated from a world thatwas not the Mushroom Kingdom
exactly, but because that'sworked so well, I feel like it's
the trend going forward.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
And, yeah, they did the same thing in Monster Hunter
.
They brought people from ourworld into Monster Hunter world
and now all of a sudden inMonster Hunter world you have
all fucking machine guns andstuff, and so there's lots of
cool ass weapons that MonsterHunter has.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I feel like it's also a way that the people try to
immerse the audience into themovie.
So it's just like a real worldperson, just like you.
It goes into the game world.
You know, that's how you feelwhen you're playing it.
You're part of the world, thatkind of thing.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I know that If people want to watch that kind of
stuff, just stick to Isekai'sanime yeah.
Isekai's.
They're way better.
They're way better Like if youwant to watch Monster Hunter,
watch Gate instead, an animecalled Gate.
Like, like, like, like, like,like, like, like, like, like,
like, like, like, like, like,like, like, like, like, like,
like, like, like, like, like,like, like, like, like, like,
like, like, like even KingdomHearts in a way.
(07:22):
They could do it like that.
I reckon that'd be a reallygood movie and they could sort
of do that like kids on a beachon this island and all of a
sudden get sucked into thisDisney Final Fantasy world, like
yeah, that's where it works.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I think it works when it's actually part of the
content, but, as you said, Idon't think it's needs to be a
Minecraft movie.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Even if they still wanted to keep Jason Momoa and
the other kids in it, they couldhave just made them other
characters in Minecraft.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, I think it comes back to them trying to
create movies based on anexisting IP because they have an
audience already that they canbank on to come to the movie to
watch it.
But when it's something likeMinecraft, where there's not
really a Minecraft story asopposed to it just being a
survival game, it gets reallydifficult to do sort of properly
(08:10):
.
I guess my last question foryou, brash, in this regard is
would you recommend it toanybody?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Oh yeah, I'd recommend it to everyone.
It was still a good watch.
I would have just rather it bemore about the game than the
story that it really had aboutthese random people.
Honestly, they didn't needthose real people in there, even
if Steve fell into it and hewas in the world and he was
(08:34):
still human and they didn'tanimate him.
That's fine.
But then having these randomscome in and being able to go
back and forth from Minecrafthas been weird.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah.
And being able to go back andforth from Minecraft has been
weird, yeah, unnecessary.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
All right, do you want to know what I've been into
?
Sure sure I have been watchingthe Studio.
The Studio is on Apple.
There's 11 or so episodes outnow and it is a series that
stars Seth Rogen, catherineO'Hara and Ike Barinholtz,
created by Evan Goldberg, andit's basically a.
It's about a legacy Hollywoodmovie studio that's trying to
(09:11):
survive in the world where it'sreally difficult for a studio
and a business like that tosurvive in, and it's a complete
satire of the film and moviegoing business.
It's getting lots of criticalacclaim.
Watching the first few episodes,I didn't really understand or
get the hype because, yes, it'sgetting lots of critical acclaim
.
Watching the first few episodes, I didn't really understand or
get the hype because, yes, it'sclever and I can see the
messages that it's trying to do.
(09:32):
But I just find the maincharacter played by Seth Rogen
to be very, very annoying.
In his people pleasing mannerhe plays this executive called
Matt Remick and he's just likeso flip-flop with all the
decisions he makes.
He gets put into this positionof leadership and he's highly
underqualified to do it and he'sjust trying to impress
(09:52):
everybody and he's slowlylearning throughout the episodes
that as a studio head, he hasto break some eggs, basically.
And, yeah, as the episodes goon, I did find myself enjoying
it more and more.
One of the good things about itis how technically creative it
kind of is.
So they have an episode calledthe one-er and it's literally a
one-shot episode, which meansthere is no scene cuts.
(10:15):
So the whole thing is just oneum, one scene cut and the yeah
it's, and it's a 40 minute or soepisode.
So it's pretty impressive as afeat and the like.
Just the way that they sort ofgo about pulling off some of
these studio techniques isreally impressive to see.
But it's just not.
It's just not really grabbingme, I don't think, because I'm
(10:36):
so annoyed by the main characterand I don't really know if
that's the purpose or not.
Perhaps it is, but there are afew episodes that kind of stand
out for me.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Does it have an issue with like hooks in the episodes
, like something that hooks you?
Speaker 1 (10:48):
in.
Some do and some don't.
So there was this episodecalled the Missing Reel.
It was episode four and it'sbasically starring Olivia Wilde
as a guest star director andhe's working with the guest star
, yeah, and she made this moviethat she's really impressed with
and Zac Efron's starring in themovie.
So it's kind of meta that way.
But there is a film reel thatgoes missing and the whole
(11:12):
episode is shot as a neo-noirdetective, like one of those old
school movies where they dovoiceovers and it's all darkly
lit and there's smoke machinesgoing throughout.
And they've modernized it bymaking the main character Seth
Rogen's character.
Instead of monologuing to theaudience, he's taking voice
memos because his therapist hastold him that voice memos can
help him when he's feelingreally heightened.
(11:32):
So it's really clever in thatsort of space and that episode
was really funny and that onehooked me in.
But then there are otherepisodes, like the very first
episode.
I was almost not going to watchany further, but the episode
after that, the one hour, wastechnically brilliant.
So I was like, okay, I'll giveit.
I'll give it more of a shot.
So I feel like the charactersare developing in chemistry.
(11:55):
There's not really many that Iwould say I would like.
So I think I'm watching in termsof characters, to see what
celebrities cameo in this show,because there are heaps and it's
probably the most cameo filledor star studded tv show that
I've ever watched.
So it's got like ice cube.
He cameos ron howard, zachefron, steve bishimi, um olivia
(12:17):
wild, as I said, josh hutchisonas well.
Yeah, paul dano is in one ofthe first episodes as well,
johnnyville is in there and DaveFranco plays a part in three of
the episodes and so does ZoeKravitz as well.
So it's growing on me, but Iprobably it wasn't something
that grabbed me straight away,and when I was looking at
(12:39):
internet reviews, it was beingraved about and for me it wasn't
something that straight awaygrabbed me.
So I think it's something thattakes a little bit of thought.
So I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, I don't think, because obviously there is a bit
of satire, so is it becausemaybe like and then maybe you're
finding more?
Annoying because the likethey're probably making all the
celebrities more cliche in theway of being celebrities and
they're being handfuls, andannoying because they're rich,
entitled people.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, I would absolutely think that that is.
That is exactly what they'redoing, because, um, all of the
celebrities do appear that wayand they are extremely annoying.
So maybe this show is actuallyso brilliant that it's making me
feel the things I'm supposed to.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, and I'm feeling annoyed at these.
You meant to.
You meant to feel annoyedbecause you're seeing that was
the purpose.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, you're seeing like a more expanded, exploded
and warped version of like beinga celebrity, yeah, or running a
studio or the industry as awhole as well, and I think it
does do a good job of ofcommentating some of those
business elements Like it givesme I've.
This is me admitting somethinghere.
I've never actually seen theOffice, but it feels like the
(13:49):
Office if it was set in a filmstudio and you know, the four
title characters in this aregrowing on me but, as I said,
not really forming a connectionLike I don't really like any of
them.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Who's the four title?
So you've got Seth Rogen as themain character.
Yep, catherine O'Hara, oh,catherine O'Hara.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, she plays Patti Lee, who was the ex-studio head
before Seth Rogen's character,matt Remick, got employed.
Mike Barinholtz is in it.
He plays Matt's secondhand man,basically as Sal Saperstein,
and he's like a klutz combinedwith just like a lovable idiot
but also a conniving kind of,but at the same time I feel like
(14:28):
he's really loyal to to Matt,like they have each other's back
really really well, but it'sjust like a cutthroat business.
So those two together arereally good and they play off
each other really well.
And the last one is is Chase Suewonders, who I haven't seen
very much of in anything else,but she plays Quinn Hackett and
she's like the intern, she'slike the first year creative
consultant who's trying to getup in the business and is
(14:51):
literally she's like the newwave, gen Z, of people that are
entering the film world andHollywood.
Because there used to be like aprocess and one of the episodes
talks about this, the episodecalled the War.
It talks about how there usedto be this process for interns
that come in and they had towait their turn and in meetings
they just were silent and shutup.
But she goes in there and she'svery boisterous and it's
combating towards what SalSaperstein, ike Barinholtz's
(15:14):
character, usually does, becausehe came up in the old school
way and is only just now as asecond stand-in person for for
Matt Remick, the studio director, but Quinn Hackett Chase, who
Wonders, is coming in and risingthrough the ranks very quickly,
so he's getting very jealousand because it's that
combination of the old schoolway and the new school way,
those two characters representthat really well in my opinion.
(15:37):
So those are the four mains,and then there's also Katherine
Hahn, who comes in every now andagain as the marketing expert.
Yeah, she's the over the top 11episodes apparently.
Yeah, yeah, 11 episodes.
It's literally just finished acouple of weeks ago at time of
recording, but it's already beengreenlit for a second season,
so I think it's being ravedabout and they've got a budget
to get all of these awesomecelebrity guests and everybody
(16:01):
wants to be a part of thein-joke of the studio, so that's
a good sign.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I'm trying to see all the people who play themselves.
Even Dave Franco plays himself.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yep.
Dave Franco plays himself, ZoeKravitz plays herself.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yep, yep, peter Berg plays himself, ice Cube plays
himself.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
They play themselves, but they also.
I don't think that's whatthey're actually like.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, they'll all be they'll be
extremely exaggerated,exaggerated versions of
themselves.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, or you just it's exaggerated um versions of
their style of like, like actoror person, I guess yeah, or the
yeah, the role they need to playin this particular for example,
the olivia wild episode that Imentioned before, the missing
reel.
She is this crazed director whois completely obsessed with
getting her movie correct andshow the vision that she wants
(16:52):
to see, and she plays that tothe nth degree.
Whether that's something OliviaWilde is like on set, we don't
really know, but we know andhave heard stories about
directors being like that, soshe's playing that satire.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, she's playing the satire version of a director
.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah.
My one question for this is Idon't know, because it's so
steeped in current pop cultureand Hollywood culture right now,
I'm wondering will this besomething that survives, like
Friends has, for example, likethat's just survived generations
upon generations because it'sso easily accessible?
Or is this just a hit for thenow, because it's something that
communicates a part of rightnow, getting the attention now,
(17:30):
but will it in future To have ashow last?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
as many seasons as sort of like anything.
Now it seems very difficult andit doesn't really happen.
Yeah, not anymore Like what thelast sort of ones were like.
Were that one, I think it'd belike some stuff like
Supernaturals and you knowOffices and New Girls which
started in the early 2000s,these ones here.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's like companies buy shows for 11 to 12,
sometimes 8 episode runs andthen they're not guaranteed a
second, third, fourth season,and to me I think that stifles
storytelling, because you couldtell these overarching tales
across multiple seasons oracross multiple episodes, but
you were never really sure ifyou were going to get that next
(18:13):
season.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, it stunts that initial ability to be like, ooh,
I have this idea that can playout over seasons, but we may not
get there.
So we might have to not do thatand try and focus on quick,
short-winded sort ofstorytelling to try and just get
us through these eight episodesand hope for the best that we
get.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And because of that it sort of loses any interest,
because people aren't interestedin going to see what's
happening next, because therehasn't been any sort of
long-term development, um, thatpeople are going to be waiting
for, because it's all based inthe short term, and that's 100
correct, because I think thatfrom what I've watched so far of
the studio, matt remick inepisode one is exactly the same
as he is in episode seven, sothere's no sort of character
growth across the seven episodearc.
(18:59):
Are we going to see a differentMatt Remick in season two?
Not too sure like and how longdoes that system last until
people start to get bored of itand then the show has ended up
being cancelled halfway throughor not continued.
So I think that's the nature ofstreaming, and the nature of
television now is because we'reso able to pick and choose what
we can watch instead of it beingon the network.
And you watch it at seveno'clock every weeknight.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yeah, it's either that or whatever else on one of
the other channels.
Exactly Like three channels orfour channels?
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, so because it's so readily accessible, people
really do pay with theirwatching presence.
So if you're not watching it,it's not going to continue.
I'll probably watch the secondseason of this one.
I probably would recommend it,just for some of the clever
shots they are.
You just have to get throughwatching some of the annoying
characterizations that are inhere.
(19:48):
But from talking to you, I dothink that is the purpose of
these characters.
They're supposed to be annoying, they're supposed to be over
the top, they're supposed to bea satire of what the industry is
.
So, yeah, the studio from AppleTV.
If you want to watch it, watchsomething a little bit clever,
get your teeth into it.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Not too bad.
Speaking of Apple, I'm notgoing to talk about it too much
but Murder.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
I recommend watching that.
Yeah, let's get into yourrecommendation.
I know you've read Reddit.
Yes, yeah, I've read the books.
They are Actually funny story,those books.
I was wanting something quick tolisten to on audiobook because
I was doing menu log deliveryover night time and my shift
would usually last for likethree or four hours and I needed
something that would be donestart and finish during that
time because I didn't want tocontinue it over.
So I picked those books up andthey were like there's seven or
(20:39):
eight in the series now, but atthe time that I was doing it
there was five and I'd consumethem all in a week and it was
just so awesome to just thecharacter of of Murderbot was
immediately loved by me and forfor lots of obvious reasons if
you've watched the show, but ifyou haven't, brash is going to
recommend it for you.
Now I'm not going to give toomuch away about it because I
(21:01):
said to him as well.
I said I think I'd like to do afull Phantom Portals episode on
it because I do love it.
It is.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I was like I'll watch it and I'll see what it's like
I'm like because, like it's gotAlexander Skarsgård in it and
I'm a big fan of Skarsgård.
I've watched like all TrueBlood, like him and True Blood
and like him as Tarzan and himas any other sort of extremely
handsome and ripped and buffedcharacter he plays.
(21:28):
But I was like, ooh, yeah, I'mgoing to watch it.
And then like also David, hislast name, dashmalian I think it
is Dashmalian Dashmalian and healways me, always.
I love watching him like actbecause he always plays that
weird, weird creepy yeah, hedoes.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
He plays the spot or something in the suicide squad.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
It's that guy yeah, yeah, he does, he plays the spot
or something in the suicidesquad.
It's that guy yeah he alwaysplays awkward in that really
well, and yeah.
So I'm like.
I'm like oh, I'll give it awatch.
And I watched the first episodeand was like crap.
Only two episodes are outcurrently.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
So I watched the first two episodes and then the
third episode came out and I'mlike crap, now I'm gonna waste
the fourth episode yeah, sohighly wrecked, I would just
based on the book series becausethe character of the murder bot
developed so much in these fivesmall stories.
It's a real good portrayal orpicture of humanity.
And I'll say that in quotemarks because the murder bot is
(22:28):
obviously an automaton robot,but he presents such a really
vivid picture of the humancondition, more so, I think,
than some of the humancharacters, which is the
interesting part for me.
So yeah, I haven't watched theMurderbot series yet.
I'm waiting to watch it in fullin the 10 episode full run, and
after that I think we will doan episode of Phantom Portals on
it as a deep dive because it'sso great.
But Brash is watching it as wego, so I'm glad another fan's on
(22:51):
the on the murderbot train yeah, yeah, I'm a bit um upset with
myself.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I probably should have done what you're gonna do
and wait for the 10th time,because I mean and this probably
probably tags into what you'retalking about the studio about
hey, there's gonna be a long,long, long running show like I
want to watch all of it rightnow.
But I think that also in a wayruins longevity of shows,
(23:16):
because if everyone just watchesa show in one quick span, it
only lives for that quick span.
Exactly.
And then there's another show,and then another show comes out
and then you watch it, and so,in a way, it's good and sucks.
So it's good because I'm goingto be watching this now over the
10 episodes over the next 10weeks, and then I'll get excited
for the next season to come out.
(23:37):
If there's a next season or ifthey're going to expand on it
Awesome.
And then I can watch that,whereas when they throw out the
shows, it's all just one show.
I'll binge watch that and belike cool, I'll watch that now.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
And then yeah, and that's the thing with this as
well I know that I mentionedbefore that there's about seven
or so books out now.
I'll be interested to see howthey pace the first season,
whether one season is one book,because then I'll get an idea of
how long it may go for, or ifit's going to be multiple
stories from multiple booksacross this 10 episode arc.
That's what will be interestingto have a look at, and maybe
once I watch it, I'll be able togauge what that longevity will
be like, based on what I knowhappens to the character and how
(24:18):
far they stick to it as well.
They might create their ownstories based on the character
as well.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, which I reckon.
Well, I reckon they can do somuch with it too.
I know at the moment, I'm quitehooked.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
But, yes, definitely go and watch Murderbot on Apple
TV.
My recommendation for this week.
I'm going to go to a throwback,but it's a relevant throwback
because I have been tossing andturning, umming and ahhing about
what my son's first movie goingexperience is going to be and I
thought maybe it's the Lilo andStitch live action movie.
So we watched the cartoon.
I'm going to recommendeverybody go and watch the old
cartoon of Lilo and Stitch and Isay old but it's not really
(24:51):
that old, just for some of thatnostalgia.
And it was interesting Brash tosee it through the lens of a
child, because when it came outI was about 14 or 13 or
something like that.
I was a teenager Seeing itthrough the lens of a child, a
child that's three and a half,almost four.
He asked all the right questions, which is great, and some of
them were really hard to answer.
But that's kind of why I likemovies and TV and watching
(25:13):
things like this with himbecause you're able to explore
and talk about things like thatwith your kids and through a
lens of Lilo and Stitch insteadof through the lens of a real
life thing that's happening.
It could be upsetting.
So, for example, nani firstcame on the TV who is Lilo's
sister?
And he said to me my son saidto me, dad, is that Lilo's mom?
(25:34):
And I said no, that's Lilo'ssister.
And then he said dad, where'sLilo's mom?
And I said, oh, how do I dothis?
How do I answer this question?
And then you know he did thesame with Jumba, the alien Jumba
.
He asked the question aboutJumba.
He goes is that man evil?
I was like the question aboutJumba.
He goes is that man evil?
(25:54):
I was like, well, he didn'tmake an alien experiment, but he
loves it very much and he istrying to shoot at him right now
.
But you know he's trying to gethim back and he stays on Earth
to look after him.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
It's a tough question .
Speaker 1 (26:04):
It's a tough question .
He becomes his uncle, yeah.
And then you know, he gotemotional at times in the movie
as well.
When we were watching it solike when Lilo gets taken away
and Stitch escapes and they'reall agreeing to go and find him
again he got pretty upset Notcrying upset, but you could see
that the emotional beats werehitting him as he was watching
(26:26):
it.
So it just replayed the magicof cinema and then, obviously,
when they all get together as afamily, he was extremely happy
at the end of it, when you knowthere's the montage of photo
album shots and everybody has isan ohana again.
So I really hope I haven't seenthe new one, but I really hope
that the new one captures thatkind of magic.
Have you seen a brush?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I haven't seen it but , but I've heard some scathing
things.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Well, I have heard the biggest thing that I've
heard.
That is my like.
I don't think I'll write it offfor it, but apparently Captain
Gantu isn't in the movie.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
At all.
The main bad guy in the movieis not in the movie Is not in
the movie.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, and I don't know how they're going to fix
the movie through around that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Well, because Jumba is made the bad guy throughout
the whole entire movie.
Oh okay, he doesn't become agood guy.
I hope he does by the end.
I, from what I've heard, Idon't believe so, because
everyone's upset at the factthat what they do to Uncle Jumba
Hmm, okay, so that meansPleakley is obviously his inept
(27:33):
assistant yeah, and they don'tdo any cross-dressing completely
yeah so at no point does heever dress up.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Oh yeah, because that's another thing that I have
actually seen as well is thatJumba and Pleakley are aliens
hiding in plain sight.
In the cartoon they're dressedup as humans, but in this one
they are using alien technologyto actually look like humans,
which I think takes away some ofthe charm and the hilarity of
the actual you know, I haveheard, like Maya and Sydney who
(28:05):
play Nani and Lilo and Stitchand all that is all really good,
but they're just upset with thefact that, yeah, there's the
main bad guys.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
No, not even in the movie anymore.
And um, zelda and jumba doesn'thave the german accent, he's
just that guy the russian accent?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
yeah, I think everybody's.
I watched an interview withzach galifianakis and he said
that it's a little bit of asensitive issue now when you're
doing villain accents andthey're done like Lilo and
Stitch.
For example, the movie Jumbohas a Russian accent and
apparently that's a little bitof a faux pas these days is to
do that sort of thing why don'tthey just get the voice actor
(28:46):
that?
Speaker 2 (28:46):
did it before to do a TV show to do it yeah that's
what I understand, like, didthey actually need Zach
Galifianakis to voice thatcharacter, or could they have
just had the voice actor whovoice acts that?
Okay, jumbo voice actor.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yeah, one thing I did love about the upcoming or the
the time until this was releasedwas the marketing campaign they
did with Lilo and Stitch, whereStish just started appearing on
TV places and was justchaotically ruining all
different things, like even theSuper Bowl.
He was on a Super Bowlcommercial as well and he was
out like rampaging along thefield.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
That's what I mean Like the whole.
Like Stitch, lilo, nani, allthat it all works, seems really
good.
It's just that they sort ofthey've changed the story and
for a lot of people I think likethere's probably reasons why.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I'm not sure entirely why, but I think people are
just upset because they're likeyou changed it, but we don't
know the reason why you changedit.
Yeah, I I heard that the gantusituation was changed.
The director said that it wasvery difficult to pull off gantu
in live action like it didn't.
It didn't fully work.
Um, one thing I will say isthat in its opening weekend it
made $146 million, which hasalready surpassed its $100
million budget.
So it's a financial success.
(30:02):
The new Lilo and Sitch movie andI think it is definitely
drawing from the nostalgia ofthe original cartoon because
there was a spinoff series onSaturday Disney.
There was a second movie thatwent straight to video that
everybody was sort of enamoredby and in love with for a very
long period of time.
And there's lots of memes goingaround now, especially on
(30:22):
Instagram, that show likedancing memes where it says me
being 32 in the cinema when Liloand Stitch comes out, or
another one where it's like thememe of Billy Madison sitting
amongst the class and he's justlike me enjoying Lilo and Stitch
in a cinema full of kids.
So I think it's thatcross-generational thing where
parents are taking their kids toit but also people like our age
would be going to it because ofthe nostalgia of the original.
(30:45):
So it's got a good market and Ithink that's why Disney has
started to do these live actions, why they continue to do them
as well.
But overall, in summary, Irecommend watching the original
when it All Started Lilo andStitch.
Here's a question, actually,before we go on to this does
Elvis Presley feature in the newone?
Do you know?
Because he's got to, not aslike a character, but on the
(31:06):
soundtrack.
Surely he's a staple ofHawaiian culture?
Yes, yeah, that is true.
Somebody that knows, if you'relistening to this and you know,
please comment and let us know.
Does Elvis Presley feature inthe soundtrack at all in this
movie?
I hope so.
Yeah, because one of myfavorite scenes from the
original is when Lilo's lying onthe floor singing Heartbreak
Hotel or mouthing HeartbreakHotel, while her sister tries to
(31:27):
get in the dog door orunhooking all the nails that
have been pelted in there.
Another question my son askedas well was why is the house so
messy?
I was like because they'rebeing looked after by somebody
who's also working a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
A lot yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
But yeah, I think the feelings that are evoked from
the original should be revisitedby everyone.
So that's my recommendationEverybody go and watch Lilo and
Stitch.
All right, let's get to ourpreview of what's coming up on
next episode of the FandomPortals podcast.
If you're listening to this, itmeans coming up next in your
feed will be the Fandom Portalsepisode on Jersey Girl.
Brash and I are going to talkabout Kevin Smith's unusual
(32:07):
pivot from his usual movies tothis more heartfelt one of
Jersey Girl.
So make sure you check that outas well, and we'll see you very
, very soon here on the FenderPortals.
Goodbye everybody.
Ohana means family.
Family means nobody gets leftbehind or forgotten.
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