Mike gives a history of the only 10 films that have held the title of the highest-grossing animated film of all time. He goes back to 1937 to 2025 to share how each movie became the highest grossing. He also talks about the only movies to reach the billionaire mark in the post-covid box office. In the Movie Review, Mike talks about The Long Walk. It’s based on a Stephen King novel about a group of teenage boys who compete in an annual contest known where they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot. Mike talks how it was more emotional than he was expecting, the standout performances and how this movie could be turned into a podcast. In the Trailer Park, Mike talks about 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and how do we feel about quick sequels? In this trailer, Dr. Kelson finds himself in a shocking new relationship with consequences that could change the world as he knows it.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's Movie Podcast. Did
you know that only ten movies in history have ever
held the crown of the highest grossing animated movie of
all time? I'm going to tell you what those ten
movies are, how they did it, and how some of
these movies almost never saw the light of day. In
the movie review, The Long Walk, the horror movie I've
(00:20):
been waiting for in September. It's about a group of
teenage boys who compete in this brutal walking competition. If
they slow down and stop, they get taken out. And
in the trailer park we'll talk about twenty eight years later,
The Bone Temple. How soon is too soon for a sequel?
Thank you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed.
Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now
(00:41):
let's talk movies from the.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Nashville Podcast Network And this is Movie Mike's Movie Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
These ten movies are the only ones to ever hold
the title of the highest grossing animated movie of all time.
So I want to go through all ten movies, how
much they cost to make, how much they ended up making,
and then the movie that came after them that took
that title from them, so let's go all the way
back to the beginning. The first movie to ever hold
(01:09):
this title was from nineteen thirty seven, Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs from Disney. It cost about one point
four to one point five million dollars to make and
ended up making eight point five million dollars worldwide. It
was the world's first ever fully animated feature film. You
think back to animation back in the early thirties, it
(01:30):
was just cartoons, and I called them cartoons. And I
hate it when people refer to animated movies now as cartoons,
because that implies that they are so simplistic, they are
just for children. But at the time I would accept
the term cartoons because when you think about the thirties,
you think about cartoons like Betty Boop, very early Mickey
Mouse or Popeye. They were all really short and funny
(01:52):
cartoons that you would often see before you went to
go see a movie. So the idea of taking that
and making it a fully flashed out story was seen
as being something ridiculous. Before it even came out, critics
were referring to this movie as Disney's folly. They thought
it was going to bankrupt his studio because Walt Disney
put up his own money too fun this film. He
(02:15):
mortgaged his house, so, like I mentioned earlier, the movie
ended up costing them one point five million dollars, which
was a lot more than they thought it was going
to an incredible amount of money during the Great Depression.
That's about ten times the amount that a typical short
would cost. So not only did the critics hate it,
but even people inside of Disney also thought the ideal
(02:35):
was dumb. Many people thought that people would get tired
of watching an animated movie for that long. All this skepticism,
but it's a high risk and high reward because this
is the granddaddy of them all. If snow White would
have failed, Disney would have failed, He'd have been out
of house. The studio could have gone to put Not
only was it financially successful, but it also won an
(02:57):
Academy Award, it got the Oscar, and this cemented Disney
as a serious filmmaker. So this was the first edition
on the list because it was the first ever fully
animated full length feature, and it held the record for
fifty five years until it was taken over by number
two on the list, Aladdin, which came out in nineteen
ninety two, also from Disney. Made on a budget of
(03:19):
twenty eight million dollars, Aladdin went on to make roughly
four hundred and eighteen million dollars at the box office.
This came as a part of Disney's Renaissance era. The
thing I did not know about Aladdin is there was
some drama between Robin Williams and Disney because he initially
did not want to do it. Disney convinced him to
do it. He agreed to a small paycheck, only seventy
(03:43):
five thousand dollars, which that is sag scale. Normally he
would have been paid eight million dollars for this. His
one condition was that neither his name nor his image
be used for the marketing, and that the character of Genie,
which he voiced, would not be used in more than
twenty five percent of the advertising artwork. Because he had
that movie coming out called Toys Disney, although they didn't
(04:06):
use his name, they did use Genie's voice in the commercials,
in the poster in the toys that you would get
from fast food restaurants, and Robin Williams later said in
an interview, you realize when you work for Disney why
the mouse only has four fingers because he can't pick
up a check. He didn't really want them to profit
(04:27):
off his image in that way because he had allowed
advertising and merchandising rights before for shows like Morgan Mindi,
because he felt like that was actually him, his likeness
being sold, but in this case it was just his
voice being sold, and he felt like they could exploit
him more so for that reason, he did not sign
on to the sequel. He did come back eventually to
(04:49):
the third animated sequel, and he did work with Disney
again in Flubber. And the crazy part was Disney knew
they were in the wrong, and as sort of a
I'm sorry, they gave him a gift of a Picasso painting,
which is probably worth so much money now if it's
still around, because you think about how famous Picasso work is.
(05:11):
But then you think about the fact that Robin Williams
owned a Picasso gifted to him by Disney. He is
a beloved actor and comedian who also died in a
very tragic way. So you think about all the walks
of life that that painting had to go through. What
a rare piece of art. I wonder who has that,
but that was the second movie to ever hold the
(05:32):
title of being the highest grossing animated movie of all time.
Only two years later and the number three slot was
The Lion King, also from Disney, had a budget of
about forty five million dollars and went on to make
seven hundred and sixty eight million dollars worldwide. This became
the most recent hand drawn, non CGI animated movie to
(05:53):
hold the record. Everything since nineteen ninety four has had
some influence of CGI or computer But Disney didn't even
fully believe in The Lion King, and they thought, I
don't know if we should invest all our time in this.
That they actually had what they call the B team
working on the animation for The Lion King. So they
always have an A team which is working on the
(06:14):
movie they think is going to be the biggest hit,
and then they have the B team, which sometimes just
ends up being a direct to video movie like a
Goofy movie. Is one of my favorite Disney movies of
all time that was worked on by a B team
because they were thinking, Ah, this isn't really good to
go out in the theaters. It'll probably just go straight
to video. The movie they were really banking on was Pocahontas.
(06:35):
They thought that was going to be their biggest hit.
Kind of had an underwhelming performance, even though it is
a great movie. They just thought The Lion King was
too similar to Bambi and it just wouldn't become the
phenomenon that it ended up being. It was also kind
of a risk for them to use Elton John to
write songs for the movie because he wasn't really known
for writing family musicals, but Circle of Life and can
(06:58):
You Feel the Love Tonight andended up becoming iconic. That
movie comes in at number three. At number four, taking
away the title from The Lion King was two thousand
and three He's Finding Nemo from Pixar. The movie cost
about ninety four million dollars to produce and went on
to make eight hundred and sixty seven million dollars at
(07:19):
the box office. This was the first ever fully cgi
animated film to hold this title. And I think this
is a great time to talk about this relationship of
Disney and Pixar, because I think sometimes people get confused
of I don't know what's Disney, I don't know what's Pixar.
It's all the same to me. Everything is just Disney.
But the original deal started back in nineteen ninety one.
(07:41):
Pixar at that time was just a small computer graphics
company led by the one and only Steve Jobs. Where
he made a lot of his money was not Apple,
it was through Pixar and the deal he had with Disney.
And at the time in ninety one, they had only
made a short call Tenjoy, and they were really just
experimenting with this computer animation. But Disney saw potential here,
(08:03):
so they struck a deal with them. It was a
three picture deal, and here was the arrangement. Pixar would
make the movies, Disney would finance them, handle the marketing
and the distribution because how massive that they are. Essentially,
you give us the art that we fund and we'll
get it out into the world. The profits would be split,
but Disney owned the characters and they own the sequels.
(08:26):
Pixar only got a fraction of the back end, which
if you have a movie that comes out that kind
of underperforms, doesn't really matter. But if you put out
a movie that is a huge hit, all the money
is in the back end because that can continue to
generate income and perpetuity, which is something I learned from
Shark Tank. So this deal was hugely lopsided in Disney's
(08:47):
favor because Pixar started putting out banger after banger. But
Pixar needed the money from Disney to produce these movies,
and they needed that distribution, which is key here because
a lot of people can make great art, but it's
all about how you get it out into the world,
how you get it out into theaters, which with the
power of the Internet now and the ability for you
(09:08):
to do more things with your computer, your tablets, your phones,
that's also why I believe in the power of animation
right now. But the first three movies they put out together,
Toy Story in ninety five, A Bugs Life in ninety eight,
and then Toy Story two in ninety nine, which there
was so much drama over that movie. I could probably
do an entire episode on just the drama that went
(09:28):
down between Disney and Pixar. But why it's relevant to
this story is because there was a lot of tension
around Finding Nemo when this movie came out, because Steve
Jobs felt that Pixar was being exploited. He threatened to
completely walk away from Disney. At the time, Steve Jobs
even met with Warner Brothers and other studios to explore
distribution deals, and Finding Nimo would have failed. Pixar would
(09:52):
have lost that leverage, and Disney could have just dominated
and strong armed them into a degal they didn't want
to take. But instead, Finding Nemo became the highest grossing
animated film ever at the time and proved that Pixar
did it just need Disney. Disney needed Pixar, So writing
off that success, Steve Jobs said that he would not
renew the Disney contract they would start shopping for a
(10:15):
new partner. Disney paniced because they realized that meant they
would be losing Toy Story, which was a cash cow,
but instead Disney bought Pixar outright for seven point four
billion dollars in stock, making Steve Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder.
That's where he made all his money. So at number
(10:35):
four is Finding Nemo from two thousand and three, although
it only took about a year for it to be
dethroned because Shrek two overtook it in two thousand and four,
with the budget of about one hundred and fifty million dollars,
went on to make nine hundred and twenty eight million
dollars worldwide, and in relation to the House of Mouse.
DreamWorks and Shrek were really anti Disney in the sense
(10:58):
that they were a tire of all of Disney's fairy
tale formula movies. Think back to the movie that started
this list, Snow White. It was taking those movies and
making a parody of them, making fun of those characters,
how ridiculous they were, including pop culture references, including things
like inn window that whenever you watch Shrek one or
(11:18):
Shrek two as a kid, you don't fully get your
parents are probably laughing, and now you watching them as
an adult with your kids, you're like, man, I can't
believe they put that in the movie, and I had
no idea what it was about. But this was the
first ever non Disney, non Pixar movie to hold this title,
which Shrek two was very important for DreamWorks because without
it becoming their biggest hit ever, they probably would have
(11:41):
had to scale down a whole lot. So this was
definitely a big win for them and also showing other
studios that people can have success in animation even if
your name is not Disney Pixar, and Shrek two held
that title for a while until the number sixth movie
came in Toy Story three from twenty ten from Disney.
Pixar had a budget of about three hundred million dollars
(12:04):
and became the first animated movie to cross the billion
dollar mark, making about one point six seven billion dollars worldwide.
Toy Story three almost didn't happen because after Toy Story two,
Disney actually started working on a direct to video story
for Toy Story three without Pixar's involvement, because even initially
they wanted Toy Story two to be direct to video,
(12:25):
much like Aladdin two Simba's Pride. They did this, they
came out with their big hit, and then they thought, Okay,
let's get this b team working on a sequel. We'll
put it out on VHS, we'll put it out on DVD,
and we'll make some money off it. Pixar decided to
fight back and those versions that were direct to video
were scrapped. And if Disney had gone ahead with those
(12:46):
cheap sequels, I think it would have lessened the brand,
and I think that was something they didn't really care about.
But I feel that Pixar has always been big on
the brand and the characters and the focus on how
this story actually plays out, and Toy Story three is
a movie that tugs at your heartstrings. There was big
debate over how to end this movie, and for a
(13:07):
good period of time, the Insiderator scene was the actual ending.
That is how they were going to have our characters
go out. They eventually changed that and had Andy give
away his toys. Could you imagine, because in that moment
I saw this movie in theaters, I was nineteen years
old when this movie came out, and I was so
(13:28):
sad in that moment that you didn't know if they
were going to live or not. Could you imagine if
that had actually been the ending to Toy Story three.
I think at the time I would have hated it.
Now fifteen years removed from that in twenty twenty five, man,
that would have been bold and that would have had
a lasting effect. It also would have completely shut down
(13:51):
any more sequels, which they are working and going to
put out five. But could you imagine if that's where
that had ended. I think it would have been more poetic.
I just think of the artistry of saying, here is
this kid's film. This is how we're gonna end it
in a very tragic way, which Disney and Pixar haven't
ever shied away from tragedy and sad things happening, but
(14:13):
I think that is one they probably could not have
recouped from because of all the traumatized kids. Me as
an adult now would love it. But I can see
why they decided to go with the ending of Andy
giving away his toys. But man, why would you give
away such cool toys? I still don't forgive anyone at
number seven, de throating that movie. Just a few years later,
(14:33):
is Frozen from twenty thirteen, also from Disney, cost about
one hundred and fifty million dollars to make and went
on to earn one point two eight seven billion dollars
at the box office. Disney had actually tried to make
a Snow Queen movie since the nineteen thirty so back
in the snow white days, but it just never worked.
They tried it in the two thousands, the project just
(14:55):
continued to stall. Even up till twenty twelve, executives were
still unsure that this movie could come together. The song
that actually changed the entire trajectory of this movie was
let It Go. It reshaped the entire script because originally
Elsa was written as an evil Ice Queen, So that's
what made the story click when they changed Elsa from
(15:18):
being a villain to being a misunderstood sister, and it
worked so much better, and it kind of got Disney
back to its roots a little bit. With another fairy
Tale project having success dethroning that in twenty nineteen was
The Lion King, which was the CGI remake of the
original nineteen ninety four version. I think what continues to
be the controversy over this movie, even though it went
(15:41):
on to be successful with the budget of two hundred
and sixty million dollars made one point sixty five billion
dollars at the box office, but a lot of people
debate whether or not this really classifies as an animated
movie because it's really not live action. It is animated,
that's why it ends up here on this list. But
it was really fully animated using photo real CGI. And
(16:04):
my problem with it was that I just didn't really
connect with the characters, because when they are animated in
the traditional way where it doesn't look like they are
of this earth, you are completely able to disconnect. You
feel more empathy for these characters. You see this world
for what it is, and you are able to buy
into it more when they look more realistic, even though
(16:27):
they are still animated and just being sold as live action.
It is hard to connect to a character like that.
I think even though it made a lot of money
at the box office, it didn't have that same lasting
impression because the merchandise just didn't really translate the same way.
If somebody now is going to buy a Lion King lunchbox,
(16:48):
I have to imagine they're going to go back to
the nineties version and not the live action animated version,
because it just looks much better. It's more appealing and
really just connects. If they would have made this version
first and then reanimated it to make an animated version
of that, which now it's just so confusing, but it
would not work in the reverse way. But with a success,
(17:12):
they're going to do this more. Disney is notorious for
just trying to cash their checks. But at number eight
is The Lion King, which held the title of the
highest grossing animated movie of all time back in twenty
nineteen and held it until twenty twenty four until the
number nine movie came in. Inside Out Too, also from
Disney and Pixar, cost about two hundred million dollars to
(17:33):
make and made just under one point seven billion dollars,
sur passing The Lion King and Pixar, for the most part,
with holds from making sequels unless they believe there is
truly a story there worth telling. They had scrapped early
drafts of Inside Out to until they finally landed on
these new emotions being the hook of this story, which
(17:54):
is really what drives this movie home. So I don't
think that was so much a risk of them having
issues like they had with Cars two or some of
the other Pixar sequels that weren't as well received, maybe
a Finding Dory. But I think the true risk they
were taking here is it came out during a string
of underperforming films where people just really weren't getting what
(18:17):
they expected from Pixar. This is also the era of
Disney Plus, where some of their features were going on
Disney Plus and some were going out in theaters. I
kind of felt like they were setting up some of
their movies to fail. You had movies coming out like
light Year and Elemental that, even though most of them
were good movies, not great movies, but good movies, just
(18:40):
weren't exciting audiences. Anymore. But Inside Out two came out
and was just a big hit, a big success. It
went on to make a lot of money, which I'm
glad it was so successful, because they could have easily said, hey,
we've kind of been taken some l's here, let's just
put it out on Disney Plus and not waste any
more money on marketing. But it did so well. I
think they could make an Inside Out three, although I
(19:02):
don't know how far you want to get into some
of the emotions you start dealing with once you entered
in college. And finally, I'm gonna intro this next movie
like the raining Heavyweight Champion at a boxing event, coming
in at number ten with a budget of eighty million
dollars and went on to gross more than two point
two billion dollars at the global box office, becoming not
(19:27):
only the highest grossing animated movie of all time, but
the fifth overall grossing movie of all time in film history.
And it's the first movie on this list to be
a non English film, entering the ring Naja two, which
(19:48):
I think a lot of people don't even know that
this movie exists. Naja one came out back in twenty nineteen.
Naja is the story of a young boy that's his
name Naja, who is is the reincarnation of a demon
orb who fights back against what he is a demon
and chooses to use his magical powers and martial arts
(20:08):
skills to defend humanity to defend his family from dragons
and other crazy creatures. It is highly rooted in Chinese
folklore and it is such a massive movie on an
incredible scale. If you haven't seen it or heard of it,
Part one is available now on Netflix. I initially watched
it on Peacock, so if you have Peacock two, it
(20:29):
could still be on there. But Naja two came out
earlier this year, and I actually went to go see
it in theaters last month because I had to witness
this movie for myself in theaters. And it really is
an incredible feat in animation, because to me, these movies
feel on the scale of a Game of Thrones, where
there are action sequences and fights and battles that are
(20:51):
so huge and so epic, and they have so many characters,
so many backstories where you really have to pay attention
in one of these movies, and it comes across so
differently than American animation, where for the most part, it
is very simplified, even though some stories can have big
(21:11):
message behind them. Overall they play out a little bit
more like fairy tales or very traditional literature stories with
the moral But in Naja too, the stories are more complex.
These characters have a lot of inner demons, no pun intended,
and they don't use the medium the same way because
even though it is animated in American culture, oftentimes that
(21:34):
means it is always a family film. There is death
in these movies at times. There are moments that are
a little bit crude, and the violence itself isn't too hardcore.
You're not going to see somebody get their head chopped off,
but it's a little bit more sophisticated and just really
pushes the boundaries of animation because while the humans in
(21:54):
these movies look a little bit more like what you
would expect in a Disney or Pixar movie, all of
the other animals and dragons and other people that they
have to fight and encounter, the flames and the big
sets all feel so photo realistic, and like I was saying,
it feels like an episode of Game of Thrones in
the background happening. And I've just never witnessed an animated
(22:15):
movie on such a huge scale, so I do think
at times it has almost an Avengers Endgame level of depth,
very cinematic maneuvers, a lot of information thrown out at
you where I felt like I needed to be taking
notes at sometimes, much like I felt when I was
watching Game of Thrones. So much character development and also
(22:36):
a very ambitious runtime. I think Part two is probably
the longest animated movie I've ever seen in theaters, and
animation is very expensive, so that's also what makes it
feel a little bit untraditional. So these movies are a
bit of an investment. I think some people struggle with
the fact that it is a movie in a different language,
(22:56):
but when you watch it here, you have it translated
with with English voice actors, so I think that emotion
still comes across. I don't feel like a whole lot
of the story is lost on us, and I just
see this overall as a win because as a movie lover,
I love it because I want to be exposed to
different characters and stories from around the world, not just
what they are about, but also how they are told.
(23:19):
Because I think in America we get so kind of
used to the same formula, especially when it comes to animation.
For me to see this same medium but it feel
completely different unlike anything I've ever seen, is exciting to me.
And it was a movie that I continue to see
popping up on these lists, and I was so confused
by it, and at times I wanted to write it
(23:41):
off because I'm like, oh, that's a movie from China
that has no relevance to me here. But when I
see it now as the number fifth highest grossing movie
of all time, that is a force to be reckoned with.
That needs to be not just brushed off. Is that
that has to be a mistake. There's no way this
movie should be on this list. That should be a
justed somehow. No. Instead, I went and watched one. I
(24:03):
went in theaters and watched two. Even though when I
went to go see it, I was the only person
in that theater. It felt like I had my own
private screening. It was awesome. So if you love animation
like me, which I think if you've gotten to this
point of the episode, you are, check it out. Part
one is on Netflix. You can rent part two now
at home, but I'm sure in a little amounts time
it'll either be on Peacock or on Netflix as well.
(24:26):
So that is the list of the only ten films
to ever hold the title of the highest grossing animated
film of all time. Let's get into it now. A
spoiler free movie review of The Long Walk. Stephen King's
first ever novel that he wrote, actually one of seven
novels that he put out under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
(24:46):
But what this movie is about, and they always change
things from the book version to the movie version. But
here we have fifty teenage boys embarking on this long walk.
They all entered into a lottery. They were randomly selected.
They start at the starting line and then just continue
walking because there is no finish line. The walk is
(25:07):
not over until there's only one person who remains walking.
They have to maintain a speed of three miles per hour.
If they don't maintain that speed, they get a warning.
If they don't pick up the pace, they get a
second warning. If they don't pick up the pace, after that,
they get a third warning. And then they get what
they describe in the movie. They get their ticket, which
means they get taken out. And I was expecting this
(25:31):
movie to be a lot more focused on the brutality
of the walk. By watching the trailer, by watching Mark
Hamill's performance as the person overseeing all the boys, I
thought it was going to really lean into the brutality,
the repercussions if you do not maintain that speed, and
overall the wear and tear that it takes on these
(25:51):
people because they're not allowed to sleep, they can't stop
to use the restroom. I was going into this thinking
it was going to lean more into the horror elements,
being that it is a Stephen King story and just
the way this movie was marketed. But I feel like
I got something better because this movie was way more
dramatic than I was expecting, and I really enjoyed that
(26:13):
you really get to know these characters, because if you
think about it, the entire movie, all one hour and
forty minutes of it, is just these people walking. How
do you make that interesting? But what you really got
was seeing all of these young men bond in a
way that I have not seen on screen in a
really long time. It kind of reminded me of watching
all the kids in the Sandlot who just formed this
(26:35):
really strong relationship, where sometimes it is hard for men
in movies and in real life to show and express
their feelings. I allowed my brain to process and put
myself into this situation where you are starting to meet
these people that you were bonding with, that you were
having this unique experience that nobody else is going to have.
(26:55):
But then in the back of your mind, as you're
forming these relationships, you have to know, well, only one
person can win, and you think about these friendships, you
start to form, these alliances you form within the group.
How much they helped out each other and were there
for each other. That part of it I was not expecting,
because if you think about how exciting can you make
(27:17):
fifty boys walking down an empty road, you have to
focus on the dialogue. You have to focus on their backstories,
capturing how they bonded and how they grew stronger as
their bodies started to grow weaker and everything just started deteriorating.
And then of course you have the politics as to
why they are doing this. It is a dystopian future
(27:38):
where the country is trying to give people just a
shimmer of hope, saying that if you do endure this,
look at the results of it. One person gets to
be victorious and make that wish and take all the
riches and get to give that back to the people
who mean the most to them. It gives people hope.
They talk about how inspiring it is right after the
(27:58):
Long Walk and you have that victor and how it
fuels the country. And if that starts to sound familiar
to you, you're probably like me, because it really reminded
me of The Hunger Games. And the director of The
Long Walk actually directed a lot of the Hunger Games franchise,
pretty much everyone except for the first one. He also
directed I Am Legend. Because when you start to think
about all the mechanics of this story, even though The
(28:21):
Long Walk the book came out way before Hunger Games
the book, a lot of those things really started to
parallel each other. You have all these young people pitted
against each other. Some are stronger, some are weaker, some
are smaller, some are younger. And what this Long Walk
really proves is you don't have to be the fastest,
you don't have to be the strongest, you don't have
to be the youngest or the oldest. The intensity and
(28:43):
how long this contest goes along really levels the playing field,
making it a possibility for anybody to win. Everybody thinks
that they have the potential to do it, and everybody
wants their wish to be cast. I'd say the biggest
standout in the cast was David Johnson, who I really
loved an alien romulus in this movie. He has the
number twenty three, which they are all assigned numbers at
(29:03):
the beginning of the film. I think him on screen
was so powerful and how inspiring his character was, because
really it's him and Cooper Hoffman keeping everybody in line
who Cooper Hoffman is also the son of late actor
Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He was also great in Licorice Pizza,
and while the story at the beginning focuses more on
(29:24):
Cooper Hoffman's character, I really think David Johnson overall stole
the show because I was going into this movie thinking
it was going to make me feel really uneasy, which
at times it did. There were some scenes that were
hard to watch, but I wasn't expecting to go into
The Long Walk thinking I'm about to watch one of
the saddest things I have ever watched. I was not
expecting it to hit me so much in the gut,
(29:46):
to feel so sad for all these characters, and at
times wanting to shed a tear like a lot of
these contestants did, because how much you felt for them
and how much you wanted all of them to win.
You see them become such great friends and bond and
help out each other in ways I really wasn't expecting.
I thought it was going to be a little bit
(30:07):
more like The Hunger Games. But I think this story
was a big message on the good in people and
how when people are in a position of not really
having a whole lot of hope, just having that one
glimmer of seeing better days, how much that can push
you to extremes in ways that you never thought your
(30:27):
body could be pushed. That is what is driving everybody.
That is what is filling all of their shoes with
blood as they walk miles and miles and miles to
try and achieve that. The part I thought was kind
of the weakest was Mark Hamill, which I like him. Obviously,
Luke Skywalker has done some really fantastic work and voice acting,
(30:47):
but I thought his character, who was known as the
major who was overseeing the entire thing, was really one dimensional,
and I think if he would have been more of
a villain, which obviously, if he wasn't in the book,
They're not going to change it a whole lot. I
think his character was more a representation of power and authority.
But just from the trailer and just given some of
the dynamics of his character, I wanted him to be
(31:09):
more of a villain, which I know Mark Hamill has
that in him. I was expecting him to be more
of a jerk, more of a force to be reckoned with,
but he was kind of just there and existing. Something
I thought about as I was watching The Long Walk
is if you took just the audio from this movie
and just listen to it as if it were a podcast,
I think it would work one hundred percent, because in
(31:32):
this movie, it's not so much about what you see
on the screen, the shocking images, the violent imagery. It
is about how these characters make you feel. And if
you were just to listen to these conversations, I still
believe you would feel that character development. You would still
feel the horrors of it at times. I feel like
it could be even scarier just to hear these exchanges,
(31:54):
to hear some of the shots ring out and not
know exactly what is happening. I think a podcast version
would be a really interesting way to take in The
Long Walk, because I think every actor's performance is so strong.
The Stephen King writing is so powerful that it would
work even in an audio medium. Overall, a really entertaining
and engaging movie. I still don't think it's one of
(32:14):
the best movies of the year, but for The Long Walk,
I give it four out of five boots. It's time
to head down to movie Mike Trey, Lar Paul. How
do we feel about fast sequels? Because twenty eight years
Later came out earlier this year on June twentieth, and
(32:37):
twenty eight years later The Bone Temple is coming out
at the start of next year on January sixteenth, twenty
twenty six. This entire franchise is moving pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Now.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
What we have here is they actually film both of
these movies at the exact same time, so they're loaded
up and ready to go. But twenty eight years Later
came out in theaters on June twentieth. It is coming
out now on Netflix for you to watch and the
comfort of your home for free. Ninety two days after that,
on September twentieth, you can watch that movie at home.
(33:12):
So say you didn't go see it in theaters, you're
gonna see it in September. Crazy to me that just
a few months later you can go see the sequel
in theaters. In this situation, I love it. And I
think as a society we become more and more impatient,
especially when it comes to movies. When it comes to
TV shows, we can devour an entire franchise or an
(33:34):
entire series in a weekend, and then we're itching for
that next hit. We want the next installment, and here
they kind of figured it out. Now. Sometimes I get
annoyed by this. And I know I've been talking so
much about things that annoy me recently. Oh believe me.
I've been reading in the comments how I'm so annoying
with some of the things that I find annoying. And
I get that. But a thing that I don't like
(33:56):
is whenever a franchise is coming to an end and
they have the final installment and they decide to split
that movie into two. I think these two situations are different.
If you film one big movie at once, and you
have clear, defined story in between both of them, and
you decide, I'm gonna split this up into twenty eight
years later and into twenty eight years later. The Bone
(34:18):
Temple and they both feel independent from each other. I'm
okay with it because in this situation, I love twenty
eight years Later, had waited so long for that legacy
sequel that now we're getting this other one so quickly.
But then you have situations like The Hunger Games or
Harry Potters of the World, or most recently the Last
(34:38):
Mission Impossible movie where it really felt like they had
one movie that they just decided to have a stopping
point in order to split it into two to get
more money out of one entity. And that I don't like,
but I do like that sense of urgency when it
comes to getting things and striking while it's hot. I
think our attention spans are going getting shorter and shorter,
(35:01):
and also as consumers, we don't see how long it
takes to make these things. That is why we're like, man,
we got a way two sometimes three years in between
movies or between seasons of a TV show. But I
think if you can organize these productions in a way
where you can just gather all these actors to get
the director, and you film all these things at once,
(35:23):
and then through the master of editing and storytelling, you're
able to get two very clear defined movies and get
them out back to back. I think that is a
pretty good move. It is a little risky because at
the first one comes out and doesn't do so well,
then you're just sitting with this other product, kind of
like what Kevin Costner in the situation he found himself
(35:44):
in with the Horizon movie, where he had all these
seguells planned and now he doesn't know what to do
with him. So it is a double edged sword. But
I think that's going to be the key in the
future to keeping audiences engaged. I do want to get
into more of what this story is about, but essentially
it takes place right at the end of twenty eight
(36:04):
years later. This is also where we get into some
weird territory because that movie already exists. But I can't
really talk about that ending quite yet, even though it
takes place right at the end, and there are things
in this trailer that I can easily reference what is
happening in the first one. But since it's so fresh
and it's not out on Netflix yet, I'm going to
(36:26):
walk the line very delicately. I'm only going to talk
about the details that are out so far about the
Bone Temple and not reference exactly what happened in part one.
So before we get into that, here's just a little
bit of the twenty eight years Later the Bone Temple trailer.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Trying to predict the future. Is it discouraging and hazard
as occupation? In fact, it may not even exist at all.
Many of the things we take for granted, well one
day pass Away completely aisle.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
These so kind of like we got in the twenty
eight Years Later trailer, which was such a fantastic trailer.
I believe when that came out, I awarded it Trailer
of the Year, and a lot of the same elements here,
that music, that voiceover, they pulled a really old recording,
and it just gives you these glimpses of how this
movie is really good to ramp up the action more.
(37:22):
To me, this one feels a little bit less like
a drama and a little bit more of just okay,
here are more the elements that we got to know
in the first twenty eight Days Later movie, because although
there was a good amount of action in twenty eight
Years Later, I feel like there was more emotional development.
It was a lot more world building, some psychological here
(37:45):
at least what we see so far in the trailer,
it looks like we have some more people running for
their lives. But here is what I'm going to read
from the official synopsis of twenty eight years Later, The
Bone Temple. It says it is a continuation of the
epic story. In it, we will see Ray Fine's character
who finds himself in a shocking new relationship with consequences
(38:07):
that could change the world as they know it. You
also had the continuation of Spike's character, who was the
son to Aaron Taylor Johnson's character in the first part
of this movie, and he apparently gets himself into a
situation that he can't escape. Killian Murphy is not shown
in the trailer, but the story came out after the
last one came out in theaters that he is confirmed
(38:29):
to reprise his role as Jim, which everybody was speculating
whenever the first trailer to twenty eight years Later came
out that he was one of the infected that you
saw in the trailer that was basically just the sack
of Bones because it kind of had a similar face
structure as him. I thought that would have been a
weird way to reintroduce him. Like, oh yeah, it finally
got him, and here is a quick little cameo from him.
(38:50):
So I'm glad that he is actually going to be
in this movie, and I cannot wait to see his
on screen reveal. So I hope they keep him out
of all the trailers. I hope there are no press
photos released, because I think that's going to be a
pretty cool moment, the way they tie these two stories together.
And I could really see this franchise just branching out
into all different levels as you build these other side stories,
(39:14):
as you build what is happening in different parts of
the world, because I think the possibilities here are endless.
But I'm so glad that Killy and Murphy is coming back.
It looks like ray Fin's character is going to get
even more weird. His will is going to be tested
in this movie. I just love the way he looks
because he is entirely covered in blood, almost looks like
(39:35):
he is painted red and yellow. And I can't wait
to see if he gets some kind of Oscar nomination
out of this, because he is that good in this role.
But here's another line from the official synopsis. It says,
in the world of the Bone, Temple. The infected are
no longer the greatest threat to survival. The inhumanity of
the survivors can be a strange and more terrifying thing,
(39:57):
which is interesting to me that it's going to be
less about the fear of being infected, which for the
most part, if you've watched any kind of zombie movie,
which this not really a zombie movie, even though they
do turn into zombies. I think in twenty eight years later,
that was the first time they even ever used the
word zombie, But in that sense, I think it was
more of a slang term. They didn't really use it
(40:19):
in a way of identifying the infected. That's the word
they use, and I feel like that's a more accurate
representation because these people don't feel like zombies to me.
They're infected. It's this rage virus that allows them to
be so much faster and smarter than your average zombie.
And they took it a step further by introducing alphas,
who are these huge, ripped up infected with the ability
(40:43):
to run and crush your skull. So the fact that
we're getting away from that of just trying to survive
and not become infected to now dealing with these people
who have created these organizations, created these societies that are
more terrifying, because really the biggest threat to man is
man and people trying to survive, people trying to restore order,
(41:07):
and with order comes power, and with power, what comes corruption.
And I think that is what we are going to see.
So I still am holding on to hope that this
movie will have a little bit more action. I just
want to see things go down a little bit more.
But I think we have a lot more action in
store in The Bone Temple. So I was all in
(41:28):
on twenty eight years Later. I'm all in on the
Bone Temple. I hope I'm alive somehow. Somebody keep me
frozen if they ever decide to make twenty eight decades later,
because I will be there in that theater. Just to
give you all these timelines again, twenty eight years Later
will be available to watch on Netflix on September twentieth,
But the movie we've been talking about, The Bone Temple,
(41:50):
will be out in theaters on January sixteenth, and then
I have to imagine in three months after that, it'll
be on Netflix already at that balls. This week's of
movie line Frame or par and that is going to
do it for another episode here of the podcast. But
before I go, I gotta give my listeners shout out
of the week. How do you get a listener shout
(42:12):
out of the week. You can tweet me, you can
DM me on Instagram. You can comment on my tiktoks,
which you can find the link in the episode notes
I don't know my username is still kind of screwed up.
Or you can also go over to YouTube dot com
slash Mike dshro individual movie reviews over there. I also
post some of the things that I normally post on
(42:33):
TikTok over there. So depending on where you like to
get your bite sized videos, go to TikTok, go to YouTube.
I would prefer YouTube right now, just because for the
most part, nobody really knows me over there, because I'm
still building out that channel and most people are mean,
and I can take most of that. I like to
respond with funny things. It never really gets to me.
(42:54):
I think the only thing that is a little bit
disheartening to me is it doesn't matter if I love
a movie or I hate a movie. I get the
hate from every sign on YouTube. So this week I'm
actually going over to X and shouting out Matthew who
tweeted me with the screenshot of him listening to an
episode Bright and Early on a Monday, and he said
(43:15):
listening to the pod and having a Topo Chico, and
it was the screenshot next to a cold bottle of
my favorite drink, Topo Chico. That is the perfect combination, Matthew.
That is also saying you know a little bit about
me and knowing what my favorite drink is. Watching a
movie and having a Topo Chico is pretty peak for me.
(43:36):
I wish more movie theaters carry Topo Chico. The only
place I can find that is when I'm in Texas,
and is because there they also have the screwcat bottles,
because most of them are the ones you have to
use a bottle opener for and they're not doing that
at the movie theater. So Regal, I'm a big fan
of you, but if you added Topo Chico, I would
love it even more. So appreciate you Matthew for tweeting
(43:57):
me or listening on a Monday. That's why you are
a part of the Monday Morning movie crew. Shout out
to everybody else who listens on Release Dagg shout out
to everybody who has subscribed over on YouTube, and until
next time, go out and watch good movies and I
will talk to you later
Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's Movie Podcast. Did
you know that only ten movies in history have ever
held the crown of the highest grossing animated movie of
all time? I'm going to tell you what those ten
movies are, how they did it, and how some of
these movies almost never saw the light of day. In
the movie review, The Long Walk, the horror movie I've
(00:20):
been waiting for in September. It's about a group of
teenage boys who compete in this brutal walking competition. If
they slow down and stop, they get taken out. And
in the trailer park we'll talk about twenty eight years later,
The Bone Temple. How soon is too soon for a sequel?
Thank you for being here, Thank you for being subscribed.
Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now
(00:41):
let's talk movies from the.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Nashville Podcast Network And this is Movie Mike's Movie Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
These ten movies are the only ones to ever hold
the title of the highest grossing animated movie of all time.
So I want to go through all ten movies, how
much they cost to make, how much they ended up making,
and then the movie that came after them that took
that title from them, so let's go all the way
back to the beginning. The first movie to ever hold
(01:09):
this title was from nineteen thirty seven, Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs from Disney. It cost about one point
four to one point five million dollars to make and
ended up making eight point five million dollars worldwide. It
was the world's first ever fully animated feature film. You
think back to animation back in the early thirties, it
(01:30):
was just cartoons, and I called them cartoons. And I
hate it when people refer to animated movies now as cartoons,
because that implies that they are so simplistic, they are
just for children. But at the time I would accept
the term cartoons because when you think about the thirties,
you think about cartoons like Betty Boop, very early Mickey
Mouse or Popeye. They were all really short and funny
(01:52):
cartoons that you would often see before you went to
go see a movie. So the idea of taking that
and making it a fully flashed out story was seen
as being something ridiculous. Before it even came out, critics
were referring to this movie as Disney's folly. They thought
it was going to bankrupt his studio because Walt Disney
put up his own money too fun this film. He
(02:15):
mortgaged his house, so, like I mentioned earlier, the movie
ended up costing them one point five million dollars, which
was a lot more than they thought it was going
to an incredible amount of money during the Great Depression.
That's about ten times the amount that a typical short
would cost. So not only did the critics hate it,
but even people inside of Disney also thought the ideal
(02:35):
was dumb. Many people thought that people would get tired
of watching an animated movie for that long. All this skepticism,
but it's a high risk and high reward because this
is the granddaddy of them all. If snow White would
have failed, Disney would have failed, He'd have been out
of house. The studio could have gone to put Not
only was it financially successful, but it also won an
(02:57):
Academy Award, it got the Oscar, and this cemented Disney
as a serious filmmaker. So this was the first edition
on the list because it was the first ever fully
animated full length feature, and it held the record for
fifty five years until it was taken over by number
two on the list, Aladdin, which came out in nineteen
ninety two, also from Disney. Made on a budget of
(03:19):
twenty eight million dollars, Aladdin went on to make roughly
four hundred and eighteen million dollars at the box office.
This came as a part of Disney's Renaissance era. The
thing I did not know about Aladdin is there was
some drama between Robin Williams and Disney because he initially
did not want to do it. Disney convinced him to
do it. He agreed to a small paycheck, only seventy
(03:43):
five thousand dollars, which that is sag scale. Normally he
would have been paid eight million dollars for this. His
one condition was that neither his name nor his image
be used for the marketing, and that the character of Genie,
which he voiced, would not be used in more than
twenty five percent of the advertising artwork. Because he had
that movie coming out called Toys Disney, although they didn't
(04:06):
use his name, they did use Genie's voice in the commercials,
in the poster in the toys that you would get
from fast food restaurants, and Robin Williams later said in
an interview, you realize when you work for Disney why
the mouse only has four fingers because he can't pick
up a check. He didn't really want them to profit
(04:27):
off his image in that way because he had allowed
advertising and merchandising rights before for shows like Morgan Mindi,
because he felt like that was actually him, his likeness
being sold, but in this case it was just his
voice being sold, and he felt like they could exploit
him more so for that reason, he did not sign
on to the sequel. He did come back eventually to
(04:49):
the third animated sequel, and he did work with Disney
again in Flubber. And the crazy part was Disney knew
they were in the wrong, and as sort of a
I'm sorry, they gave him a gift of a Picasso painting,
which is probably worth so much money now if it's
still around, because you think about how famous Picasso work is.
(05:11):
But then you think about the fact that Robin Williams
owned a Picasso gifted to him by Disney. He is
a beloved actor and comedian who also died in a
very tragic way. So you think about all the walks
of life that that painting had to go through. What
a rare piece of art. I wonder who has that,
but that was the second movie to ever hold the
(05:32):
title of being the highest grossing animated movie of all time.
Only two years later and the number three slot was
The Lion King, also from Disney, had a budget of
about forty five million dollars and went on to make
seven hundred and sixty eight million dollars worldwide. This became
the most recent hand drawn, non CGI animated movie to
(05:53):
hold the record. Everything since nineteen ninety four has had
some influence of CGI or computer But Disney didn't even
fully believe in The Lion King, and they thought, I
don't know if we should invest all our time in this.
That they actually had what they call the B team
working on the animation for The Lion King. So they
always have an A team which is working on the
(06:14):
movie they think is going to be the biggest hit,
and then they have the B team, which sometimes just
ends up being a direct to video movie like a
Goofy movie. Is one of my favorite Disney movies of
all time that was worked on by a B team
because they were thinking, Ah, this isn't really good to
go out in the theaters. It'll probably just go straight
to video. The movie they were really banking on was Pocahontas.
(06:35):
They thought that was going to be their biggest hit.
Kind of had an underwhelming performance, even though it is
a great movie. They just thought The Lion King was
too similar to Bambi and it just wouldn't become the
phenomenon that it ended up being. It was also kind
of a risk for them to use Elton John to
write songs for the movie because he wasn't really known
for writing family musicals, but Circle of Life and can
(06:58):
You Feel the Love Tonight andended up becoming iconic. That
movie comes in at number three. At number four, taking
away the title from The Lion King was two thousand
and three He's Finding Nemo from Pixar. The movie cost
about ninety four million dollars to produce and went on
to make eight hundred and sixty seven million dollars at
(07:19):
the box office. This was the first ever fully cgi
animated film to hold this title. And I think this
is a great time to talk about this relationship of
Disney and Pixar, because I think sometimes people get confused
of I don't know what's Disney, I don't know what's Pixar.
It's all the same to me. Everything is just Disney.
But the original deal started back in nineteen ninety one.
(07:41):
Pixar at that time was just a small computer graphics
company led by the one and only Steve Jobs. Where
he made a lot of his money was not Apple,
it was through Pixar and the deal he had with Disney.
And at the time in ninety one, they had only
made a short call Tenjoy, and they were really just
experimenting with this computer animation. But Disney saw potential here,
(08:03):
so they struck a deal with them. It was a
three picture deal, and here was the arrangement. Pixar would
make the movies, Disney would finance them, handle the marketing
and the distribution because how massive that they are. Essentially,
you give us the art that we fund and we'll
get it out into the world. The profits would be split,
but Disney owned the characters and they own the sequels.
(08:26):
Pixar only got a fraction of the back end, which
if you have a movie that comes out that kind
of underperforms, doesn't really matter. But if you put out
a movie that is a huge hit, all the money
is in the back end because that can continue to
generate income and perpetuity, which is something I learned from
Shark Tank. So this deal was hugely lopsided in Disney's
(08:47):
favor because Pixar started putting out banger after banger. But
Pixar needed the money from Disney to produce these movies,
and they needed that distribution, which is key here because
a lot of people can make great art, but it's
all about how you get it out into the world,
how you get it out into theaters, which with the
power of the Internet now and the ability for you
(09:08):
to do more things with your computer, your tablets, your phones,
that's also why I believe in the power of animation
right now. But the first three movies they put out together,
Toy Story in ninety five, A Bugs Life in ninety eight,
and then Toy Story two in ninety nine, which there
was so much drama over that movie. I could probably
do an entire episode on just the drama that went
(09:28):
down between Disney and Pixar. But why it's relevant to
this story is because there was a lot of tension
around Finding Nemo when this movie came out, because Steve
Jobs felt that Pixar was being exploited. He threatened to
completely walk away from Disney. At the time, Steve Jobs
even met with Warner Brothers and other studios to explore
distribution deals, and Finding Nimo would have failed. Pixar would
(09:52):
have lost that leverage, and Disney could have just dominated
and strong armed them into a degal they didn't want
to take. But instead, Finding Nemo became the highest grossing
animated film ever at the time and proved that Pixar
did it just need Disney. Disney needed Pixar, So writing
off that success, Steve Jobs said that he would not
renew the Disney contract they would start shopping for a
(10:15):
new partner. Disney paniced because they realized that meant they
would be losing Toy Story, which was a cash cow,
but instead Disney bought Pixar outright for seven point four
billion dollars in stock, making Steve Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder.
That's where he made all his money. So at number
(10:35):
four is Finding Nemo from two thousand and three, although
it only took about a year for it to be
dethroned because Shrek two overtook it in two thousand and four,
with the budget of about one hundred and fifty million dollars,
went on to make nine hundred and twenty eight million
dollars worldwide, and in relation to the House of Mouse.
DreamWorks and Shrek were really anti Disney in the sense
(10:58):
that they were a tire of all of Disney's fairy
tale formula movies. Think back to the movie that started
this list, Snow White. It was taking those movies and
making a parody of them, making fun of those characters,
how ridiculous they were, including pop culture references, including things
like inn window that whenever you watch Shrek one or
(11:18):
Shrek two as a kid, you don't fully get your
parents are probably laughing, and now you watching them as
an adult with your kids, you're like, man, I can't
believe they put that in the movie, and I had
no idea what it was about. But this was the
first ever non Disney, non Pixar movie to hold this title,
which Shrek two was very important for DreamWorks because without
it becoming their biggest hit ever, they probably would have
(11:41):
had to scale down a whole lot. So this was
definitely a big win for them and also showing other
studios that people can have success in animation even if
your name is not Disney Pixar, and Shrek two held
that title for a while until the number sixth movie
came in Toy Story three from twenty ten from Disney.
Pixar had a budget of about three hundred million dollars
(12:04):
and became the first animated movie to cross the billion
dollar mark, making about one point six seven billion dollars worldwide.
Toy Story three almost didn't happen because after Toy Story two,
Disney actually started working on a direct to video story
for Toy Story three without Pixar's involvement, because even initially
they wanted Toy Story two to be direct to video,
(12:25):
much like Aladdin two Simba's Pride. They did this, they
came out with their big hit, and then they thought, Okay,
let's get this b team working on a sequel. We'll
put it out on VHS, we'll put it out on DVD,
and we'll make some money off it. Pixar decided to
fight back and those versions that were direct to video
were scrapped. And if Disney had gone ahead with those
(12:46):
cheap sequels, I think it would have lessened the brand,
and I think that was something they didn't really care about.
But I feel that Pixar has always been big on
the brand and the characters and the focus on how
this story actually plays out, and Toy Story three is
a movie that tugs at your heartstrings. There was big
debate over how to end this movie, and for a
(13:07):
good period of time, the Insiderator scene was the actual ending.
That is how they were going to have our characters
go out. They eventually changed that and had Andy give
away his toys. Could you imagine, because in that moment
I saw this movie in theaters, I was nineteen years
old when this movie came out, and I was so
(13:28):
sad in that moment that you didn't know if they
were going to live or not. Could you imagine if
that had actually been the ending to Toy Story three.
I think at the time I would have hated it.
Now fifteen years removed from that in twenty twenty five, man,
that would have been bold and that would have had
a lasting effect. It also would have completely shut down
(13:51):
any more sequels, which they are working and going to
put out five. But could you imagine if that's where
that had ended. I think it would have been more poetic.
I just think of the artistry of saying, here is
this kid's film. This is how we're gonna end it
in a very tragic way, which Disney and Pixar haven't
ever shied away from tragedy and sad things happening, but
(14:13):
I think that is one they probably could not have
recouped from because of all the traumatized kids. Me as
an adult now would love it. But I can see
why they decided to go with the ending of Andy
giving away his toys. But man, why would you give
away such cool toys? I still don't forgive anyone at
number seven, de throating that movie. Just a few years later,
(14:33):
is Frozen from twenty thirteen, also from Disney, cost about
one hundred and fifty million dollars to make and went
on to earn one point two eight seven billion dollars
at the box office. Disney had actually tried to make
a Snow Queen movie since the nineteen thirty so back
in the snow white days, but it just never worked.
They tried it in the two thousands, the project just
(14:55):
continued to stall. Even up till twenty twelve, executives were
still unsure that this movie could come together. The song
that actually changed the entire trajectory of this movie was
let It Go. It reshaped the entire script because originally
Elsa was written as an evil Ice Queen, So that's
what made the story click when they changed Elsa from
(15:18):
being a villain to being a misunderstood sister, and it
worked so much better, and it kind of got Disney
back to its roots a little bit. With another fairy
Tale project having success dethroning that in twenty nineteen was
The Lion King, which was the CGI remake of the
original nineteen ninety four version. I think what continues to
be the controversy over this movie, even though it went
(15:41):
on to be successful with the budget of two hundred
and sixty million dollars made one point sixty five billion
dollars at the box office, but a lot of people
debate whether or not this really classifies as an animated
movie because it's really not live action. It is animated,
that's why it ends up here on this list. But
it was really fully animated using photo real CGI. And
(16:04):
my problem with it was that I just didn't really
connect with the characters, because when they are animated in
the traditional way where it doesn't look like they are
of this earth, you are completely able to disconnect. You
feel more empathy for these characters. You see this world
for what it is, and you are able to buy
into it more when they look more realistic, even though
(16:27):
they are still animated and just being sold as live action.
It is hard to connect to a character like that.
I think even though it made a lot of money
at the box office, it didn't have that same lasting
impression because the merchandise just didn't really translate the same way.
If somebody now is going to buy a Lion King lunchbox,
(16:48):
I have to imagine they're going to go back to
the nineties version and not the live action animated version,
because it just looks much better. It's more appealing and
really just connects. If they would have made this version
first and then reanimated it to make an animated version
of that, which now it's just so confusing, but it
would not work in the reverse way. But with a success,
(17:12):
they're going to do this more. Disney is notorious for
just trying to cash their checks. But at number eight
is The Lion King, which held the title of the
highest grossing animated movie of all time back in twenty
nineteen and held it until twenty twenty four until the
number nine movie came in. Inside Out Too, also from
Disney and Pixar, cost about two hundred million dollars to
(17:33):
make and made just under one point seven billion dollars,
sur passing The Lion King and Pixar, for the most part,
with holds from making sequels unless they believe there is
truly a story there worth telling. They had scrapped early
drafts of Inside Out to until they finally landed on
these new emotions being the hook of this story, which
(17:54):
is really what drives this movie home. So I don't
think that was so much a risk of them having
issues like they had with Cars two or some of
the other Pixar sequels that weren't as well received, maybe
a Finding Dory. But I think the true risk they
were taking here is it came out during a string
of underperforming films where people just really weren't getting what
(18:17):
they expected from Pixar. This is also the era of
Disney Plus, where some of their features were going on
Disney Plus and some were going out in theaters. I
kind of felt like they were setting up some of
their movies to fail. You had movies coming out like
light Year and Elemental that, even though most of them
were good movies, not great movies, but good movies, just
(18:40):
weren't exciting audiences. Anymore. But Inside Out two came out
and was just a big hit, a big success. It
went on to make a lot of money, which I'm
glad it was so successful, because they could have easily said, hey,
we've kind of been taken some l's here, let's just
put it out on Disney Plus and not waste any
more money on marketing. But it did so well. I
think they could make an Inside Out three, although I
(19:02):
don't know how far you want to get into some
of the emotions you start dealing with once you entered
in college. And finally, I'm gonna intro this next movie
like the raining Heavyweight Champion at a boxing event, coming
in at number ten with a budget of eighty million
dollars and went on to gross more than two point
two billion dollars at the global box office, becoming not
(19:27):
only the highest grossing animated movie of all time, but
the fifth overall grossing movie of all time in film history.
And it's the first movie on this list to be
a non English film, entering the ring Naja two, which
(19:48):
I think a lot of people don't even know that
this movie exists. Naja one came out back in twenty nineteen.
Naja is the story of a young boy that's his
name Naja, who is is the reincarnation of a demon
orb who fights back against what he is a demon
and chooses to use his magical powers and martial arts
(20:08):
skills to defend humanity to defend his family from dragons
and other crazy creatures. It is highly rooted in Chinese
folklore and it is such a massive movie on an
incredible scale. If you haven't seen it or heard of it,
Part one is available now on Netflix. I initially watched
it on Peacock, so if you have Peacock two, it
(20:29):
could still be on there. But Naja two came out
earlier this year, and I actually went to go see
it in theaters last month because I had to witness
this movie for myself in theaters. And it really is
an incredible feat in animation, because to me, these movies
feel on the scale of a Game of Thrones, where
there are action sequences and fights and battles that are
(20:51):
so huge and so epic, and they have so many characters,
so many backstories where you really have to pay attention
in one of these movies, and it comes across so
differently than American animation, where for the most part, it
is very simplified, even though some stories can have big
(21:11):
message behind them. Overall they play out a little bit
more like fairy tales or very traditional literature stories with
the moral But in Naja too, the stories are more complex.
These characters have a lot of inner demons, no pun intended,
and they don't use the medium the same way because
even though it is animated in American culture, oftentimes that
(21:34):
means it is always a family film. There is death
in these movies at times. There are moments that are
a little bit crude, and the violence itself isn't too hardcore.
You're not going to see somebody get their head chopped off,
but it's a little bit more sophisticated and just really
pushes the boundaries of animation because while the humans in
(21:54):
these movies look a little bit more like what you
would expect in a Disney or Pixar movie, all of
the other animals and dragons and other people that they
have to fight and encounter, the flames and the big
sets all feel so photo realistic, and like I was saying,
it feels like an episode of Game of Thrones in
the background happening. And I've just never witnessed an animated
(22:15):
movie on such a huge scale, so I do think
at times it has almost an Avengers Endgame level of depth,
very cinematic maneuvers, a lot of information thrown out at
you where I felt like I needed to be taking
notes at sometimes, much like I felt when I was
watching Game of Thrones. So much character development and also
(22:36):
a very ambitious runtime. I think Part two is probably
the longest animated movie I've ever seen in theaters, and
animation is very expensive, so that's also what makes it
feel a little bit untraditional. So these movies are a
bit of an investment. I think some people struggle with
the fact that it is a movie in a different language,
(22:56):
but when you watch it here, you have it translated
with with English voice actors, so I think that emotion
still comes across. I don't feel like a whole lot
of the story is lost on us, and I just
see this overall as a win because as a movie lover,
I love it because I want to be exposed to
different characters and stories from around the world, not just
what they are about, but also how they are told.
(23:19):
Because I think in America we get so kind of
used to the same formula, especially when it comes to animation.
For me to see this same medium but it feel
completely different unlike anything I've ever seen, is exciting to me.
And it was a movie that I continue to see
popping up on these lists, and I was so confused
by it, and at times I wanted to write it
(23:41):
off because I'm like, oh, that's a movie from China
that has no relevance to me here. But when I
see it now as the number fifth highest grossing movie
of all time, that is a force to be reckoned with.
That needs to be not just brushed off. Is that
that has to be a mistake. There's no way this
movie should be on this list. That should be a
justed somehow. No. Instead, I went and watched one. I
(24:03):
went in theaters and watched two. Even though when I
went to go see it, I was the only person
in that theater. It felt like I had my own
private screening. It was awesome. So if you love animation
like me, which I think if you've gotten to this
point of the episode, you are, check it out. Part
one is on Netflix. You can rent part two now
at home, but I'm sure in a little amounts time
it'll either be on Peacock or on Netflix as well.
(24:26):
So that is the list of the only ten films
to ever hold the title of the highest grossing animated
film of all time. Let's get into it now. A
spoiler free movie review of The Long Walk. Stephen King's
first ever novel that he wrote, actually one of seven
novels that he put out under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
(24:46):
But what this movie is about, and they always change
things from the book version to the movie version. But
here we have fifty teenage boys embarking on this long walk.
They all entered into a lottery. They were randomly selected.
They start at the starting line and then just continue
walking because there is no finish line. The walk is
(25:07):
not over until there's only one person who remains walking.
They have to maintain a speed of three miles per hour.
If they don't maintain that speed, they get a warning.
If they don't pick up the pace, they get a
second warning. If they don't pick up the pace, after that,
they get a third warning. And then they get what
they describe in the movie. They get their ticket, which
means they get taken out. And I was expecting this
(25:31):
movie to be a lot more focused on the brutality
of the walk. By watching the trailer, by watching Mark
Hamill's performance as the person overseeing all the boys, I
thought it was going to really lean into the brutality,
the repercussions if you do not maintain that speed, and
overall the wear and tear that it takes on these
(25:51):
people because they're not allowed to sleep, they can't stop
to use the restroom. I was going into this thinking
it was going to lean more into the horror elements,
being that it is a Stephen King story and just
the way this movie was marketed. But I feel like
I got something better because this movie was way more
dramatic than I was expecting, and I really enjoyed that
(26:13):
you really get to know these characters, because if you
think about it, the entire movie, all one hour and
forty minutes of it, is just these people walking. How
do you make that interesting? But what you really got
was seeing all of these young men bond in a
way that I have not seen on screen in a
really long time. It kind of reminded me of watching
all the kids in the Sandlot who just formed this
(26:35):
really strong relationship, where sometimes it is hard for men
in movies and in real life to show and express
their feelings. I allowed my brain to process and put
myself into this situation where you are starting to meet
these people that you were bonding with, that you were
having this unique experience that nobody else is going to have.
(26:55):
But then in the back of your mind, as you're
forming these relationships, you have to know, well, only one
person can win, and you think about these friendships, you
start to form, these alliances you form within the group.
How much they helped out each other and were there
for each other. That part of it I was not expecting,
because if you think about how exciting can you make
(27:17):
fifty boys walking down an empty road, you have to
focus on the dialogue. You have to focus on their backstories,
capturing how they bonded and how they grew stronger as
their bodies started to grow weaker and everything just started deteriorating.
And then of course you have the politics as to
why they are doing this. It is a dystopian future
(27:38):
where the country is trying to give people just a
shimmer of hope, saying that if you do endure this,
look at the results of it. One person gets to
be victorious and make that wish and take all the
riches and get to give that back to the people
who mean the most to them. It gives people hope.
They talk about how inspiring it is right after the
(27:58):
Long Walk and you have that victor and how it
fuels the country. And if that starts to sound familiar
to you, you're probably like me, because it really reminded
me of The Hunger Games. And the director of The
Long Walk actually directed a lot of the Hunger Games franchise,
pretty much everyone except for the first one. He also
directed I Am Legend. Because when you start to think
about all the mechanics of this story, even though The
(28:21):
Long Walk the book came out way before Hunger Games
the book, a lot of those things really started to
parallel each other. You have all these young people pitted
against each other. Some are stronger, some are weaker, some
are smaller, some are younger. And what this Long Walk
really proves is you don't have to be the fastest,
you don't have to be the strongest, you don't have
to be the youngest or the oldest. The intensity and
(28:43):
how long this contest goes along really levels the playing field,
making it a possibility for anybody to win. Everybody thinks
that they have the potential to do it, and everybody
wants their wish to be cast. I'd say the biggest
standout in the cast was David Johnson, who I really
loved an alien romulus in this movie. He has the
number twenty three, which they are all assigned numbers at
(29:03):
the beginning of the film. I think him on screen
was so powerful and how inspiring his character was, because
really it's him and Cooper Hoffman keeping everybody in line
who Cooper Hoffman is also the son of late actor
Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He was also great in Licorice Pizza,
and while the story at the beginning focuses more on
(29:24):
Cooper Hoffman's character, I really think David Johnson overall stole
the show because I was going into this movie thinking
it was going to make me feel really uneasy, which
at times it did. There were some scenes that were
hard to watch, but I wasn't expecting to go into
The Long Walk thinking I'm about to watch one of
the saddest things I have ever watched. I was not
expecting it to hit me so much in the gut,
(29:46):
to feel so sad for all these characters, and at
times wanting to shed a tear like a lot of
these contestants did, because how much you felt for them
and how much you wanted all of them to win.
You see them become such great friends and bond and
help out each other in ways I really wasn't expecting.
I thought it was going to be a little bit
(30:07):
more like The Hunger Games. But I think this story
was a big message on the good in people and
how when people are in a position of not really
having a whole lot of hope, just having that one
glimmer of seeing better days, how much that can push
you to extremes in ways that you never thought your
(30:27):
body could be pushed. That is what is driving everybody.
That is what is filling all of their shoes with
blood as they walk miles and miles and miles to
try and achieve that. The part I thought was kind
of the weakest was Mark Hamill, which I like him. Obviously,
Luke Skywalker has done some really fantastic work and voice acting,
(30:47):
but I thought his character, who was known as the
major who was overseeing the entire thing, was really one dimensional,
and I think if he would have been more of
a villain, which obviously, if he wasn't in the book,
They're not going to change it a whole lot. I
think his character was more a representation of power and authority.
But just from the trailer and just given some of
the dynamics of his character, I wanted him to be
(31:09):
more of a villain, which I know Mark Hamill has
that in him. I was expecting him to be more
of a jerk, more of a force to be reckoned with,
but he was kind of just there and existing. Something
I thought about as I was watching The Long Walk
is if you took just the audio from this movie
and just listen to it as if it were a podcast,
I think it would work one hundred percent, because in
(31:32):
this movie, it's not so much about what you see
on the screen, the shocking images, the violent imagery. It
is about how these characters make you feel. And if
you were just to listen to these conversations, I still
believe you would feel that character development. You would still
feel the horrors of it at times. I feel like
it could be even scarier just to hear these exchanges,
(31:54):
to hear some of the shots ring out and not
know exactly what is happening. I think a podcast version
would be a really interesting way to take in The
Long Walk, because I think every actor's performance is so strong.
The Stephen King writing is so powerful that it would
work even in an audio medium. Overall, a really entertaining
and engaging movie. I still don't think it's one of
(32:14):
the best movies of the year, but for The Long Walk,
I give it four out of five boots. It's time
to head down to movie Mike Trey, Lar Paul. How
do we feel about fast sequels? Because twenty eight years
Later came out earlier this year on June twentieth, and
(32:37):
twenty eight years later The Bone Temple is coming out
at the start of next year on January sixteenth, twenty
twenty six. This entire franchise is moving pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Now.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
What we have here is they actually film both of
these movies at the exact same time, so they're loaded
up and ready to go. But twenty eight years Later
came out in theaters on June twentieth. It is coming
out now on Netflix for you to watch and the
comfort of your home for free. Ninety two days after that,
on September twentieth, you can watch that movie at home.
(33:12):
So say you didn't go see it in theaters, you're
gonna see it in September. Crazy to me that just
a few months later you can go see the sequel
in theaters. In this situation, I love it. And I
think as a society we become more and more impatient,
especially when it comes to movies. When it comes to
TV shows, we can devour an entire franchise or an
(33:34):
entire series in a weekend, and then we're itching for
that next hit. We want the next installment, and here
they kind of figured it out. Now. Sometimes I get
annoyed by this. And I know I've been talking so
much about things that annoy me recently. Oh believe me.
I've been reading in the comments how I'm so annoying
with some of the things that I find annoying. And
I get that. But a thing that I don't like
(33:56):
is whenever a franchise is coming to an end and
they have the final installment and they decide to split
that movie into two. I think these two situations are different.
If you film one big movie at once, and you
have clear, defined story in between both of them, and
you decide, I'm gonna split this up into twenty eight
years later and into twenty eight years later. The Bone
(34:18):
Temple and they both feel independent from each other. I'm
okay with it because in this situation, I love twenty
eight years Later, had waited so long for that legacy
sequel that now we're getting this other one so quickly.
But then you have situations like The Hunger Games or
Harry Potters of the World, or most recently the Last
(34:38):
Mission Impossible movie where it really felt like they had
one movie that they just decided to have a stopping
point in order to split it into two to get
more money out of one entity. And that I don't like,
but I do like that sense of urgency when it
comes to getting things and striking while it's hot. I
think our attention spans are going getting shorter and shorter,
(35:01):
and also as consumers, we don't see how long it
takes to make these things. That is why we're like, man,
we got a way two sometimes three years in between
movies or between seasons of a TV show. But I
think if you can organize these productions in a way
where you can just gather all these actors to get
the director, and you film all these things at once,
(35:23):
and then through the master of editing and storytelling, you're
able to get two very clear defined movies and get
them out back to back. I think that is a
pretty good move. It is a little risky because at
the first one comes out and doesn't do so well,
then you're just sitting with this other product, kind of
like what Kevin Costner in the situation he found himself
(35:44):
in with the Horizon movie, where he had all these
seguells planned and now he doesn't know what to do
with him. So it is a double edged sword. But
I think that's going to be the key in the
future to keeping audiences engaged. I do want to get
into more of what this story is about, but essentially
it takes place right at the end of twenty eight
(36:04):
years later. This is also where we get into some
weird territory because that movie already exists. But I can't
really talk about that ending quite yet, even though it
takes place right at the end, and there are things
in this trailer that I can easily reference what is
happening in the first one. But since it's so fresh
and it's not out on Netflix yet, I'm going to
(36:26):
walk the line very delicately. I'm only going to talk
about the details that are out so far about the
Bone Temple and not reference exactly what happened in part one.
So before we get into that, here's just a little
bit of the twenty eight years Later the Bone Temple trailer.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Trying to predict the future. Is it discouraging and hazard
as occupation? In fact, it may not even exist at all.
Many of the things we take for granted, well one
day pass Away completely aisle.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
These so kind of like we got in the twenty
eight Years Later trailer, which was such a fantastic trailer.
I believe when that came out, I awarded it Trailer
of the Year, and a lot of the same elements here,
that music, that voiceover, they pulled a really old recording,
and it just gives you these glimpses of how this
movie is really good to ramp up the action more.
(37:22):
To me, this one feels a little bit less like
a drama and a little bit more of just okay,
here are more the elements that we got to know
in the first twenty eight Days Later movie, because although
there was a good amount of action in twenty eight
Years Later, I feel like there was more emotional development.
It was a lot more world building, some psychological here
(37:45):
at least what we see so far in the trailer,
it looks like we have some more people running for
their lives. But here is what I'm going to read
from the official synopsis of twenty eight years Later, The
Bone Temple. It says it is a continuation of the
epic story. In it, we will see Ray Fine's character
who finds himself in a shocking new relationship with consequences
(38:07):
that could change the world as they know it. You
also had the continuation of Spike's character, who was the
son to Aaron Taylor Johnson's character in the first part
of this movie, and he apparently gets himself into a
situation that he can't escape. Killian Murphy is not shown
in the trailer, but the story came out after the
last one came out in theaters that he is confirmed
(38:29):
to reprise his role as Jim, which everybody was speculating
whenever the first trailer to twenty eight years Later came
out that he was one of the infected that you
saw in the trailer that was basically just the sack
of Bones because it kind of had a similar face
structure as him. I thought that would have been a
weird way to reintroduce him. Like, oh yeah, it finally
got him, and here is a quick little cameo from him.
(38:50):
So I'm glad that he is actually going to be
in this movie, and I cannot wait to see his
on screen reveal. So I hope they keep him out
of all the trailers. I hope there are no press
photos released, because I think that's going to be a
pretty cool moment, the way they tie these two stories together.
And I could really see this franchise just branching out
into all different levels as you build these other side stories,
(39:14):
as you build what is happening in different parts of
the world, because I think the possibilities here are endless.
But I'm so glad that Killy and Murphy is coming back.
It looks like ray Fin's character is going to get
even more weird. His will is going to be tested
in this movie. I just love the way he looks
because he is entirely covered in blood, almost looks like
(39:35):
he is painted red and yellow. And I can't wait
to see if he gets some kind of Oscar nomination
out of this, because he is that good in this role.
But here's another line from the official synopsis. It says,
in the world of the Bone, Temple. The infected are
no longer the greatest threat to survival. The inhumanity of
the survivors can be a strange and more terrifying thing,
(39:57):
which is interesting to me that it's going to be
less about the fear of being infected, which for the
most part, if you've watched any kind of zombie movie,
which this not really a zombie movie, even though they
do turn into zombies. I think in twenty eight years later,
that was the first time they even ever used the
word zombie, But in that sense, I think it was
more of a slang term. They didn't really use it
(40:19):
in a way of identifying the infected. That's the word
they use, and I feel like that's a more accurate
representation because these people don't feel like zombies to me.
They're infected. It's this rage virus that allows them to
be so much faster and smarter than your average zombie.
And they took it a step further by introducing alphas,
who are these huge, ripped up infected with the ability
(40:43):
to run and crush your skull. So the fact that
we're getting away from that of just trying to survive
and not become infected to now dealing with these people
who have created these organizations, created these societies that are
more terrifying, because really the biggest threat to man is
man and people trying to survive, people trying to restore order,
(41:07):
and with order comes power, and with power, what comes corruption.
And I think that is what we are going to see.
So I still am holding on to hope that this
movie will have a little bit more action. I just
want to see things go down a little bit more.
But I think we have a lot more action in
store in The Bone Temple. So I was all in
(41:28):
on twenty eight years Later. I'm all in on the
Bone Temple. I hope I'm alive somehow. Somebody keep me
frozen if they ever decide to make twenty eight decades later,
because I will be there in that theater. Just to
give you all these timelines again, twenty eight years Later
will be available to watch on Netflix on September twentieth,
But the movie we've been talking about, The Bone Temple,
(41:50):
will be out in theaters on January sixteenth, and then
I have to imagine in three months after that, it'll
be on Netflix already at that balls. This week's of
movie line Frame or par and that is going to
do it for another episode here of the podcast. But
before I go, I gotta give my listeners shout out
of the week. How do you get a listener shout
(42:12):
out of the week. You can tweet me, you can
DM me on Instagram. You can comment on my tiktoks,
which you can find the link in the episode notes
I don't know my username is still kind of screwed up.
Or you can also go over to YouTube dot com
slash Mike dshro individual movie reviews over there. I also
post some of the things that I normally post on
(42:33):
TikTok over there. So depending on where you like to
get your bite sized videos, go to TikTok, go to YouTube.
I would prefer YouTube right now, just because for the
most part, nobody really knows me over there, because I'm
still building out that channel and most people are mean,
and I can take most of that. I like to
respond with funny things. It never really gets to me.
(42:54):
I think the only thing that is a little bit
disheartening to me is it doesn't matter if I love
a movie or I hate a movie. I get the
hate from every sign on YouTube. So this week I'm
actually going over to X and shouting out Matthew who
tweeted me with the screenshot of him listening to an
episode Bright and Early on a Monday, and he said
(43:15):
listening to the pod and having a Topo Chico, and
it was the screenshot next to a cold bottle of
my favorite drink, Topo Chico. That is the perfect combination, Matthew.
That is also saying you know a little bit about
me and knowing what my favorite drink is. Watching a
movie and having a Topo Chico is pretty peak for me.
(43:36):
I wish more movie theaters carry Topo Chico. The only
place I can find that is when I'm in Texas,
and is because there they also have the screwcat bottles,
because most of them are the ones you have to
use a bottle opener for and they're not doing that
at the movie theater. So Regal, I'm a big fan
of you, but if you added Topo Chico, I would
love it even more. So appreciate you Matthew for tweeting
(43:57):
me or listening on a Monday. That's why you are
a part of the Monday Morning movie crew. Shout out
to everybody else who listens on Release Dagg shout out
to everybody who has subscribed over on YouTube, and until
next time, go out and watch good movies and I
will talk to you later
Host
Mike D
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