Cap'n Crunch and Harry Potter

Welcome to episode sixty-nine! Nice! This week Rich was mostly hungry, so he's bringing you the origins and many flavors of his favorite breakfast cereal. And Natalie just went on a reading binge and is going to talk about Harry Potter! Let's have some fun.

Thanks as always to Shad Warrell for creating our theme music. Check him out at soundcloud.com/shad-warrell!

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Hey, they're friends. Um,it's rich and I'm one of the people
that you're here to listen to Uand Natalie's the other one, And I
just want to let you know.Um, we recorded this episode actually two
or three weeks ago now, likethings have just gotten away from us.
It's been weird having Core in school. UM, and so we we we

(00:24):
started dropped the ball on this.We're gonna get better. We're gonna get
better. We've got two episodes nowthat you'll have in a row. We've
got one that you're gonna hear rightnow that we recorded a couple of weeks
ago, and another one that wejust recently recorded, and so you're you're
going to get some consistent episodes fromus. We thank you for for just
sticking it out with us and beingsuper duper cool. UM, and I

(00:45):
hope you enjoy the show that werecorded like a month ago or however long.
Okay, see see him a second. All right, welcome, Where

(01:10):
where have you been because we've beenhere a whole time. All Right,
it's been I'm pretty sure like amonth. This is not super Bowl for
adults. And this is as alwaysa podcast that releases every single week unless
we don't never take a break unlesswe do, and we're always here for
you unless we aren't. August wasbusy, Yeah, I was brutal.

(01:36):
It was getting through. So we'vea chorus started kindergarten, which super excited
about. Loved it for a week, and then Delta variant decided no,
let's let's not do school. Soshe didn't get to do school for a

(02:00):
week and hopefully she's getting to goback tomorrow and navigating all of that,
and it's just I mean, that'sjust a bunch of excuses. But so
anyway, that's kind of been ourAugust, is getting ready for school,

(02:22):
doing school, being sick, sometimesbeing a little sick. We didn't have
COVID, but we didn't have Dreamage. We got the back to school yuckiness
that I still get every August,even though I'm not in school anymore.
I used to. I used toget so sick, like the first week

(02:44):
of school in August in college everysingle year. Yea, and I still
do it. And I don't knowif it's allergies. I don't know,
if it's just people. I don'tknow. Yeah, it's been around people,
yeah maybe, I mean, we'reall not used to being around people,
and then this summer we were ableto be around people more, and

(03:07):
now people are now. Yeah,the normal things it's not to say,
I mean lots of COVID is happening. COVID is happening, and also the
other normal things that happened the summeryear also happened right exactly anyway. But
we're here. But we're here inSeptember. A month later, its September.

(03:29):
An unintentional break, a little bitof a fire I think was lit
under us when we were at thecampground with my family and our sister,
one of our loyal listeners, oursister in law Catherine, who you all
know and love, was like,hey, you guys coming back over tomorrow.

(03:52):
We're like, no, We're justgoing to hang out at home,
and she was like, and recorda podcast. We were like, oh,
yeah, we need one of those. Should do that. She gave
us a look like I've been waiting. So here it is, Okate,
this is just for you. Thisis it. So we've got a couple

(04:13):
of things to talk about, umand one of them is a little unusual.
I talked about it here last time. We had an episode of the
time before I don't remember that faraway. Um, I'm gonna talk about
a breakfast cereal. My favorite breakfastcereal, the one that has all the
sugar in it, the one thathas all the sugar in it, um,

(04:36):
which could be any number of uhof breakfast cereals. I'm talking about
Captain Crunch. Are you talking aboutCaptain Crunch or the Captain Crunch with berries?
I'm talking about both. I'm I'mI'm just Capain Crunch makes no sense

(05:00):
to me. Really, you gottahave the berries if it's even worth it.
I don't think so. I disagree. I actually like both very much.
I was talking to someone about thisand I, um, I'm not
actually a fan of like the allBerries one as much. It's fine.
All Berries is the same as justregular Captain Crunch. It's a completely different
cereal. Yeah, Happin Crunch withBerries is two things put together that love

(05:26):
each other very much. Yeah,Captain Crunch and then All Berries are just
singles living out their lives and they'rea little bitter, but they're fine being
alone. Okay, But Captain Crunchwith berry is a happy union. Interesting.
I don't even like Captain Crunch.I'm just saying if I was,

(05:49):
that's the one I would passing thejudgment. Absolutely, That's what I do.
Okay, cool, Um, soI want to talk about I want
to talk about this. There's nota ton of like amazing history on Captain
Crunch. I just I realized,like, we've done musical instruments, and
we've done books, and we've doneand chosen movies like like normal, and

(06:13):
this is a thing that's designed forkids. Oh for sure that I enjoy
as a grown up, but youalso enjoyed it as a child. I
also enjoyed it as a child.That's true. So real quickly, I'm
just gonna tell you a little bitabout the history of Captain Crunch. The
first thing is an anecdotal thing.One of my favorite like pop culture moments

(06:35):
with Capain Crunch was one time,I think it was on Jeopardy. Um,
someone was answering, no, no, I think it's really fortune.
Captain Crunch was the clue, likethat was what they were solving for.
Did they not spell it correctly?They didn't pronounce it correctly? Oh do
they say captain? They said captaincrunch. That's not correct, And I'm

(06:58):
pretty sure Pat said said, I'msorry, you said captain crunch. There's
no tea in this word. Yeah, captain crunch. Yeah, it's how
it's c ap apostrophe and crunch.And that's how captain crunch cost that person
thousands of dollars. Yes, that'show that person didn't get that one,
which I just think is funny,and I am sorry for that person,

(07:21):
but I'm also not because it's afun memory in my head. There was
a there was a person whose nameis Pamela Lowe. Pamela worked for for
a company I guess called Arthur Littleor else maybe that was like the it
says she was a flavorist, quoteunquote Arthur Little. Oh how do you

(07:44):
become a flavorist? I think byimagining new flavors for things. And so
they were coming up with a newum, They're coming up with a new
cereal, and they were thinking of, like, what would be a good
flavor for that, and she rememberedthis thing that her grand mother used to
make, which was that she wouldmelt down brown sugar and butter and pour

(08:05):
that over like cooked rice. Andthat was like a treat at their at
her grandmother's. So it was kindof like a caramel rice kind of thing,
which, by the way I'm hearingmy voice, it seems gravelly I'm
coughing over on the side too,were ikey, Sorry everybody, This was
in nineteen sixty three. That isthe beginning, that's the origin, the

(08:28):
genesis of the cap'ain Crunch flavor.So the next time you're eating cap'n Crunch,
sort of imagine the flavor that they'reaiming for is a brown sugar and
butter flavor over what is actually acorn puffed cereal. They created that flavor
for Capa and Crunch. They describedit she called She described the flavor as

(08:50):
being as giving the cereal a wantmoorishness, So yeah, crevable. We
call today cravable, but she calledit want more or what we we call
like when we call something like crapchips or something like that, like we
want it so much, right um. She also worked on Heath Mounds and

(09:15):
Almond Joy and candy bars, soshe was she was sort of like the
best of the candy gud bars.Either. Here's the DL though I'm just
gonna say this and I didn't knowthat these that these products are related.
Heath is hands down my favorite,like ice cream topping if you if you
can like top, if you can, if you're like at an ice cream
bar or something, and you cantop it with Heath Bars. Love that

(09:37):
that sort of crunchy toffee with chocolateI love. I'm not as big of
a fan of Almond Joys, butI love mounds. Neither one of those
or maybe this is maybe this iswhere we differ. You're a big Captain
Crunch fan that comes along with HeathMounds, Almond joy and none of those

(09:58):
are my favorites. There's something aboutthe way that Pamelalo designed these flavors.
Flavoring, that's right, that's right. Um. So Quaker Quaker Oats is
the original owner of Captain Crunch Andbefore they released the flavor, they already
had the marketing ready. They alreadyhad the idea for Captain Crunch. They

(10:22):
just needed a cereal for it.Um, And so it was, um
it was. You know, it'sthe classic captain on the cere on the
red cereal box. His name isCaptain crunch. Um. He's depicted as
an eighteenth century naval captain. Uh, sort of an old man wearing a
revolutionary style naval uniform. Um.He apparently there was there was a thing

(10:46):
where he's like, uh, he'sbeen like incorrectly portrayed as not having captain's
rank a lot like through the years, Um, there were times when he
only had like one bar, twobars or three, like they never actually
for a while, they just didn'tshow him correctly as a captain. M
by, I guess right, that'ssure, he's a captain. He's missing

(11:11):
the T and he commands the goodship the SS Guppy. Uh And that's
and I guess, like for awhile, and like especially the seventies,
eighties and nineties, which I guessI probably saw some of these, but
like there were commercials where like thingshappened in the commercials I don't feel like

(11:31):
I've seen them, like a story, like a story like like he set
sail with like these three children namedI guess they were named Alfie Brunhilda,
Carlisle, and Davey. And hedefended the SS Guppy from Jean Lafoote,
who is named after an actual likehistorical pirate I believe, um the Barefoot

(11:54):
pirate often attacked the Guppy in orderto steal its cargo of Captain crunch Cereal,
So like Captain Crunch was like atreasure. It was like the golden
treasure. Was he named after thetreasure? Or did he create the treasure
well foot or Captain Crunch cap CrunchCapain Crunch is his name. But you
said he also had Captain Crunch inhis cereal, right storage The cereal was

(12:18):
like the treasure, right? So? Was he named after the cereal or
go on? Or did he lovethe cereal so much he changed his name.
Or did he discover the cereal andcall it after himself? I truly
don't know. I don't know theanswer to this. I mean, it

(12:39):
sounds like you need to do moreresearch. According to the Wall Street Journal,
his full name is Horatio Magellan Crunch. He Captain's guppy. He was
born on Crunch Island. Okay,Um a magical let's say it with a

(13:01):
straight face. I watch tried sayit with a straight face. A magical
island off the coast of Ohio andin the Sea of milk, gross with
talking trees, crazy creatures, anda mountain mountain crunch more made out of
Capain crunch cereal. Sounds like anightmare. Uh yeah, um the coast

(13:30):
of Ohio. That's good. Accordingto uh, I guess. There's a
website called crunch Facts, which isa website dedicated to specifically dedicated to the
mascot, not to the cereal.It's dedicated to Horatio Magellan Crunch Young Captain
Crunch. Capain Crunch was adopted ata young age by John F. Kennedy

(13:52):
and has an IQ of two hundred. Wow. Okay, okay, yeah,
I'm letting it permeate. This wasthe original slogan for Captain Crunch.
It's got corn for crunch. Waitwait, wait, wait, there's a
comma there. It's got corn forcrunch, oats for punch, and it

(14:15):
stays crunchy even in milk. Thatwas that was That was the big thing.
It's not a very good slogan.It's got corner, it's got cornfer
crunch, oats for punch. Itstays crunchy even in milk. Um.
What it does. It stays crunchya long time. Um, many people
This isn't in the information I'm reading, but I know from anecdotal evidence that

(14:35):
many people don't like Captain Crunch becauseit stabs your mouth when you eat it.
It stabs your mouth because of thestructures that they make the corn and
oats into to keep them nice andcrunchy. They stab your mouth like little
swords. But you love it.I love it. Do you ever get?

(14:56):
Do you ever come out of it? Just fully obliterated in there?
But sometimes sometimes it hurts my mouth, but love that love it. Listen,
here's the deal. It's it's alot like pineapple pineapples, much the
same way pineapple hurts your mouth.I love pineapple. Um, it's just

(15:16):
with the pineapple, it's the it'sthe dangerous acids. And with this it's
a tiny swords. Same thing withme with almost any type of like sucker,
especially a dumb dumb. If Ieat a dumb dump that's a very
sharp they often will um laceerate theroof of my mouth. It's hard to

(15:41):
explain why. It's something about theway it like crystallizes or something. Guess
so, um, I have anothersort of interesting thing. I don't know
if it's related to Captain Crunch ornot. Captain Crunch. Sorry I know.
Well, here's the reason why.Before Captain Crunch the cereal existed,
there a book called Crunch and Deaz, which was a book of pirate adventures

(16:03):
about a person whose name was CaptainCrunch. T this came out in the
fifties, Crunch and des classic storiesof saltwater fishing, and these are like
this is like these two guys wholike sailed the seas as fishermen, and
I guess like there's like a pirateswing to it somehow too, but like

(16:25):
they'd sell it on the ocean.His name's Captain Crunch, and I couldn't
find a lot of information out aboutit, except that it looks like the
book came out in the fifties andthere was a brief television series called Crunch
and DEAs where there was a charactercalled Captain Crunch, and that was like
almost a decade before the serial existed. And when I hope to find because

(16:47):
I found that out, I washoping to see like and then there was
a lot of drama between the ownerof Crunch and DEAs and Captain Crunch.
Nope, Nope, it doesn't exist. Maybe that's why they called him Cappin,
maybe so that they didn't have tocontend with Captain Ye. Maybe,

(17:08):
so that's entirely possible. I thoughtabout, like trying to find an excerpt
of the book to read, butI didn't feel like it. Did you
find anything about why he was calledCappin and not captain? No? Did
you do very much research? Ididn't do a ton of research, but

(17:30):
I'm but I'm looking at the here. Let's do this. This is real
time. I'm going to Crunch factscrunch bags. Oh, I bet you
they'll have something up there. Ohboy, oh boy. This is at
the top Crunch Facts. Crunch wasa man shrouded in mystery, but no
longer thanks to newly declassified FBI files. Well, they're taking this very seriously.

(17:55):
Food theory. There's a video righton the front page. It says
food Theory. Captain Crunch is animpostor. Did they say captain? It
says Captain Crunch. Uh. Thissays something about a Cap and Crunch show.
Oh man, I'd have to doso much clicking. I have to
do so much clicking right now.Well, I think they probably honestly,

(18:21):
they probably did it because it looksfun and it doesn't take so much space
on the Do you want me totry to do some research while you're talking?
Not? Not really, because I'mnot. I'm pretty close to done,
Okay, I do want to dothis really quickly. I'm not going
to give a lot of time inbetween each thing, but I'm going to
read all the variations of Captain CaptainCrunch that's on the Wikipedia page, because
there's a lot more than I knewabout, y'all. Y'all, here we

(18:45):
go, ready, cap and Crunch. Capin Crunch is crunch Berries, Peanut
Butter Crunch, Peanut Butter Crunch,Vanilly Crunch, and Joel Foot Cinnamon Crunch.
Those are all three editions that cameout in the seventies. Chaco Crunch,
Chocolate e Crunch, Christmas Crunch,deep Sea Crunch, Oops all berries
this still do that one? Idon't understand. Deep Sea Crunch deep Sea

(19:07):
Crunch a version of the cereal introducedin nineteen ninety three, which featured crunchberry
shild sea creatures. Oh. Thisversion was discontinued but returned in two thousand
and nine. We put seaweed algae, buy Luminescent Algie, Halloween Crunch,
Galactic Crunch, Choco Donuts, HomeRun Crunch, Neutron Berries, Rugrats Go

(19:30):
wild Berries. Capin Crunch is MysteryVolcano Crunch, Capin crunches Oop Oops Oops
smashed berries oops all which is justoops allberries cereal with flat crunchberries. Okay,
Um, Capin Crunch is cosmic crunch, polar crunch, Superman Crunch,
Sentiment roll Crunch, Caprin Crunch,Crunch Treasures, capn crunch bars, airhead

(19:52):
berries. Okay, are you doneyet? Nope. Cabin Crunch is sprinkled
donut crunch. I'm not I'm gonnastop saying Capin cr orange cream, pop
crunch, blueberry pancake crunch. Thatsounds great, chocolate crunch berries, strawberry
shortcake crunch also sounds good, Redwhite and blue crunch Slash Here Crunch Slash
Freedom Crunch, and finally cotton candyCrunch, which came out in twenty nineteen.

(20:14):
Wow. Um, just a bunchof different, a bunch of crunch.
Yeah. That blueberry pancake one soundsblueberry pancake sounds good. Strawberry shortcake
sounds good. Those came out inthe in the late twenty teens, and
I don't look like maybe they mightstill be circulated every now and then.
That's what I got. Um.Oh, there's a there's a Wikipedia reference

(20:37):
to the term flavoristum, which I'mnot going to click on. That is
well, that was a fun littlething you just did there. Well,
I just apparently it's a real thing, Like it's not just a made up
word that they made up for seriouslyvery much, I very much assumed it
was a real thing. Cool thatis, Capa and crunch um not a

(20:59):
lot too, but I guess,but I feel like we had some fun
along the way. When did yousay it came out in nineteen sixty three?
It's when they initially created the flavorand released it sixty Do you know
what else came out in nineteen sixtythree? Um, was one of your

(21:21):
parents born? Yes? But also, oh, it's not that okay,
go on the pink Panther. Ijust watched it again, nineteen sixty three,
The Peter Seller's Pink Panther. Thatis something I watched as a kid.
Yeah, but it's not something we'recovering in this episode though, right

(21:45):
not now? Well wait were we? I was gonna talk a little bit
too. I thought you were.I thought you were just making a connection
to your real world life because Ididn't think you were watching past I mean,
I was just saying, tell meabout that's something that I watched as
a kid, Yeah, and watchingit again I've watched it several times in
my adulthood, and it's always goodto me. Yeah, there's very many

(22:11):
there. It's not as it's verygoofy, but it's not completely ridiculous.
What are your feelings as a fanof the original Pink Panther of the reboot
with Steve Martin. I didn't watchit. You didn't watch it in protests
or you just never got around toit. I adore Steve Martin, sure,

(22:34):
adore him. I didn't want myfeelings to change about that. Okay,
So I didn't watch it all right, well, because I figured it
would not be good. Did youwatch it? Yeah, Oh it's not
good. Okay, well there it'sone of my least favorite Steve Martin things.

(22:57):
Okay, we'll see Steve Martin.I know. I love Steve Martin
too, And yeah, I didn'twatch it mostly, yeah, by choice,
because I know the original Pink Pantherso well. So I did watch
that. I think I've talked aboutthis before that I spent we lived a

(23:19):
long time with my grandparents and mygrandpa. My grandps is super into old
movies, and we just grew upon them. We really didn't see anything
current ever, we were always justwatching like Turner Classic movies or AMC or

(23:45):
TV Land stuff like that, orhe would be shown us movies and I
remember, excuse me, I rememberhim showing me The Pink Panther and just
thinking the lie that they lived wasjust so glamorous looking. They just went
to parties and the biggest thing thathappened was that sometimes something was stolen.

(24:12):
Like That's just it was very coolto me to think of a time like
that. It makes me think oflike to catch a thief. Yeah,
that's one of my all time favoritestoo. It's just when you said nineteen
sixty three, I knew that's whenPaint Panther happened, and I just watched
it like yesterday, So it cameto mind and that now there are some

(24:37):
there's drinking, they're smoking. Asfar as foul language goes, it's like
foul language of nineteen sixty three.And then there are some like adult themed
things that you don't actually see,but like you understand that this person is

(25:02):
being seduced away. It's implied throughthe context the stuff that's going on.
Yeah, so anyway, but Ialways thought the Pink Panther was a weird
thing because like, um, whenI was a kid, I didn't watch
the I didn't watch The Pink Panther, the original Pink Panther movies until I
was like an adult. Um,I didn't know they existed until I was

(25:22):
like maybe a young teenager. Ithought the Pink Panther was the cartoon,
um and like the comic strip thePink Panther, And then when I learned
it was a movie, I thoughtit was weird because the pink Panther in
the movie is the diamond. Itis. It's not like the thief is

(25:45):
the phantom, right and so,but like in the cartoon, it's like
the pink Panther is being is beingsought by cartoon Inspector Cluzo, right,
um, and and like that that'skind of the same thing. But it's
but it's like he's running away fromhim, like he's like he's the bad
guy, right, which makes thewhich makes like the watching if that's all

(26:08):
you knew, then you go backand watching the movies is kind of weird.
Yeah, because the Pink Panther isactually the diamond that the phantom is
trying to steal, and that inspectorCluseo is trying to keep safe. Also,
I think it'd be interesting. Weshould do we should do some research
and and I don't know if anyonebut me would be interested, But like

(26:30):
then there's also pink panther insulation.There's like there's a house insulation that's branded
oh yeah, with the pink panther, with that pink panther. Yeah,
And I wonder how that happened.That's a weird that's a weird twist.
I have no idea I could lookinto it though. At some point.
All I'm meant to say is thatthis is not like the planned next thing

(26:53):
that we're gonna tell people about.Right, we're gonna take a break and
we're gonna tell him about and anotherthing. No, that was just a
little something I was thrown in there. Yes, I won't do that.
No, I'm not saying it wasn'tgood. That was really good. Oh
yeah, good idea about pink panther. Let's not talk about Oh, it's

(27:14):
just that we don't like, wedon't have notes ready for pink panther.
Right, it's all I mean,I know, I know you know everything
about pink panther. You do,That's true. I didn't have to say
notes, the pink panther lives inme. It's in me, it's in
my brain, it's in my soul. Okay, let's take a quick break
in promo Ville and then we're gonnacome right back. And we're back from

(27:42):
promo Ville. Um, Natalie,you've been doing some reading lately, a
lot of reading, like thousands ofpages of reading. And then we started
watching some movies. Yes, andthat's what we're gonna talk about, your
reading, and you're reading experience inthe movies. That's a good, nice,

(28:03):
nice job there. Let's talk aboutHarry Pottery. Yeah. I just
reread through Harry Potter again, justbecause we since moving to this house,
it had been a little bit oftime. And I went back to the
storage building at my parents on myparents land and got out all of our

(28:26):
books that we had had stored foreverago. And when I pulled them out,
we have all of the hardback versionsof Harry Potter. So I was
like, hey, why not?So I started re reading Harry Potter again,
and then we watched the first movieand most of the second movie.

(28:47):
Yeah, So I just thought itmight be fun to talk about mostly those
I guess too, but kind ofHarry Potter, as like I didn't do
a deep dive into everything Harry Potterbecause that would take a lot, a
full seven episodes and we don't haveseven episodes to devote to Harry Potter,

(29:15):
right, We definitely don't, um, I mean, unless somebody wants to
pay us millions of dollars. Yeah, I was gonna say we could,
but like it would be a lotum So yeah, what that means is
one thing I want to like rightat the right at the jump, like
say that we know exists and thenlike also that this isn't part of our
discussion. We're really just going totalk about the content itself. Is like

(29:40):
there's some controversy around JK. Rowlingright now and like in the last few
years, I'm not interested in her, right, that's not the point of
That's not the point of this.Were where where that exists? And that's
not the point of this because likethe content exists separate from the from the
creator. So yeah, we're thatwe're just going to talk about the movies

(30:03):
as movies and to a certain degreethe books as books and not really get
into the and that's not because weagree or disagree with JK. Rowling.
It's just because that's a whole otherthing. I mean, Yeah, Harry
Potter will always be Harry Potter.Yeah. So something that I found interesting

(30:27):
reading the books and then watching thefirst two movies is that as I was
reading, and also as we've beenwatching through the movies, I have heard
several people say to me, Ireally like the first three books or the

(30:49):
first three movies. Right after thatpoint, I'm not interested anymore because it
starts to get more serious. Itstarts to get dark of times, is
what they say. I've had severalpeople say that to me. Um.
Somebody even told me that they listened, like on road trips, one of
their favorite things is to listen tothe audio books, the Harry Potter audio

(31:12):
books, which are great audio books, but they never go past book three.
So they only listen to like Ithink, or book four. But
um, because it gets too dark. To me, honestly, it gets
more interesting. Yeah. First youhave children's books and you have children's movies.

(31:38):
Then I believe as Harry Potter andHermione and Ron grow, as do
their problems. Even though yes,at the beginning, eleven year olds should
not be like fleeing for their fortheir lives in um um from you know,

(32:05):
a terrifying wizard. But Um,what I mean is is that things
get more dark and more serious becausebeing a teenager a lot of times there's
a lot more dark and a lotmore serious and it wouldn't make sense for
it to stay kitty. Um.They're growing, and I believe the books

(32:30):
grew grew in maturity level as thecharacters grew in maturity level. For sure.
Excuse me, um. Also justwatching for through the first couple ones.
Again, these babies, they're babies. Every time we watch the first

(32:52):
movie, I look at little DanielRadcliffe and um and uh Emma Watson,
and I just look at them likethey're so little, like they were tiny
babies, and they really grew intoI think, really close friends. I

(33:15):
think by the end, I don'tknow how they are now, but I
remember hearing a interview with Rupert Grantabout kissing hermione for the first time,
and it was he was like,I don't know, it was kind of
like kissing my sister. Because that'show they are. They grew up together

(33:36):
like they were they were childhood friends, and then they grew up and they
were brothers and sisters. I feellike, Yeah. One thing I did
think that was interesting watching the twomovies again was that Snape is not as

(33:57):
bad in the movies as he isin the books. For sure, Snape
is the worst in the books.Every turn Harry takes, Snape is there
to cut him down, absolutely andcompletely every single time. We rarely,

(34:20):
at least in these first two,and I know through the other movies it's
the same. But I'm sure theydidn't. They didn't want to show that
as much in a movie, right, because that doesn't make for very fun
movies an adult like completely terrorizing achild. But Snape gets off really easy

(34:49):
in the movies, and I knowby the end, I mean we all
know the end that you know Snapewas doing his best with what he have
and he had and he's just fullof grief and regret and hatred and whatever.
But I mean, he was aterrible person in the books. Something

(35:12):
else that I said, when,of course Allen Rickman shows up, because
Alan Rickman is Alan Rickman like heshows up. He's the perfect Snape.
He's an amazing Snape. He's actuallytoo likable as Snape, though, I
think, yeah, I like himtoo much as Snape. I feel like
they could have almost done like beforewe liked him like a Tom Holland,

(35:37):
before we liked him Tom Holland,Sorry, Tom Hittleson, Okay, sorry
Danny Toms, Tom Hitteleson. Butbefore we liked him, Okay, I
think he would have. I'm notsaying Allen Rickman was a bad choice.
I think he was likable as Snape. And we're supposed to as hate Snape.

(36:00):
Yeah. But when I was talkingto you about it, I said,
Alan Rickman always plays a bad guyexcept for like in Galaxy Quest question
um, and even then he's likea jerk yea um. But every single
time you see him, you go, oh yeah, oh good, Yes,

(36:22):
Alan Rickman's here, this means thiswill be good. Um. Even
though he always plays somebody that youend up hating at the end, he
does it so well. Um.And I think I'm not saying he did
a bad job with Snape at all. I think he was a great Snape.

(36:43):
What I think was is that everybodyloves Ellen Rickman and therefore he made
more of a um likable Snape ifthat makes sense. Yeah for sure.
Um. Something you said again,and I'm just I'm throwing things out here.
This has no structure at all.But something you said about Um Felton,

(37:10):
another Tom Tom Felton, Draco,Oh yeah, yeah, Um,
I said so many Toms Felton.Was that this poor kid, this poor
child, like you know, earlyteens kid grew up being Draco Malfoy in

(37:31):
a world that hated Draco Malfoy.Yeah, And I have seen those interviews
of him going like actually it wasreally hard. Yeah, Like anywhere I
went, people didn't like me becausepeople don't like Draco, which is a

(37:51):
um, which is like a bigcompliment for him as an actor. He
played a very good Draco. Youhe sniffling, he's cowardly, he's um,
he's uh just pompous, and hesays things with just the right amount
of like malice that it makes youjust want to punch him in his Yes,

(38:15):
yes, you know. But hedoes that so well that this child
grew up with many other children dislikinghim because of the character he played.
And I think that's actually like am that's like that's like the opposite of
the of the problem with Alan Rickmanis like this kid from the beginning,

(38:37):
Yeah, super accurately portrayed a spoiled, sniveling levil Brat. Yeah. Yeah,
and he did it consistently through thewhole thing. Like he does such
a good job, such a goodjob yea as Draco. And and it's

(38:57):
something that you don't I didn't reallyeven think of out we've watched. I've
watched these movies a few times.Yeah, but it's been a while.
And like even just these last coupleof days we've been watching the the first
two movies. Like he stood outmore. I think, like now that
I'm even more grown up, Iguess the more grown up I'm getting,
the more I'm paying attention to theinteresting characters. Yeah, that I haven't

(39:21):
really paid attention to do before.And like he's just a really good actor.
Yeah, And like you said,we all liked. I don't know
what I was fixing to stay there, so just cut that part. Yeah,
we had a parenting break. Yeah, we're talking about interesting characters and
good actors. Yeah. Anyway,I'm well, while you're thinking, I

(39:45):
don't know what I was doing,So just move on. The other thing
about these first two movies is RichardHarris, who plays Dumbledore. Uh,
and he ends up passing that passingthat that wizard's cap off to to Michael

(40:07):
Gambon in the in the last sixmovies after he passed away in October two
thousand and two. Um, Ijust want to say that for me,
like when I read the books andthen was watching the movies, Richard Harris's
Albus Dumbledore is what I had alreadypictured like he was. He's so much

(40:31):
embodied Dumbledore to me, m andI guess Dumbledore as he's sort of portrayed
in the first Again, Harry getsto know Dumbledore a lot more later dumb
changes just like everybody else does,which like you, like you're saying,
he plays the kitty Wizard really well, But honestly, I don't think he

(40:57):
could have done the job. Youdon't think he would have been as good
of a Dumbledore and darker episodes,No, I don't, because he's very
quiet and calm and loving and hetalks like this, and in those last
movies, in those last books,he becomes a powerhouse and a secretive person

(41:24):
and somebody that has the weight ofeverything on him, and somebody that has
to distance himself from Harry. Likeit's just I don't see I'm Obviously,
I'm not saying it's good that thechange happened the way it happened. Listen,
Michael Gambon is great. I'm I'msaying Michael Gambon did what I thought

(41:50):
the last half of the books.Get Gandalf, no Dumbledore, I could
think of it. Okay, anotherparenting break, and I have to say
Cora was knocking on our door,and that's why I said, yeah,
it was distracting. Um. Here'sthe thing. I think I understand the

(42:14):
sort of picture of of Dumbledore thatChris Columbus sort of put uh Richard Harris
in. I agree with. Ifeel like so Richard Harris um was one
of those that like he I mean, he's one of those like uh an
Ian McKellen or a Christopher Lee fromfrom Lord of the Rings. Like he's

(42:37):
one of these like people who getsbrought in or who got brought into two
projects to give them more gravitas.Um, I think so. Do you
remember, Um, this is amovie that's not for that's not for kids.
It's not like Crazy Battery anything,but it's just it's for it's made
for grown ups. Um. TheCount of Monte Christo. Do you remember

(42:58):
that movie. Yeah. So um, for those of you who haven't seen
this movie, uh, in inin Count of Mountay, Christo Christoph or
Christopher Richard Harris plays like this,uh, this prisoner who teaches the future
count like how to how to infiltratelike polite society. Yeah, and also

(43:20):
how to fight and how to bea warrior. And and to me,
like in that he brings a lotmore in that movie, he brings a
lot more darkness. Like he's stilla positive figure, but he brings a
lot more like grit um. AndI think it would have been interesting to
see him because I because I knowthat he had like that ability. Yeah,

(43:45):
it would have been interesting to seehim turn from like, yeah,
the the uh the like archetypal wizardinto this sort of broken, the sort
of broken, like flawed character thatwe learned that Tumbledore raised by the end
of the series, right exactly.Yeah, he plays such a caring,

(44:08):
caring yes, very very Santa Clauscharacter. Yeah, he's a very Santa
Claus character in the first two moviesthat it kind of makes me wonder how
he would be when it did getdark, when it did get more mature.
Um, but yeah, I seewhat you're saying about that, but

(44:30):
um, there is one other thingI wanted to say, Are we running?
Are we doing great? Okay,there's another thing I wanted to say,
which was, Um, I didnot at all understand the diagonally joke,
the alley jokes, the diagon alleyjoke, the diagonally joke until I

(44:55):
was fully an adult, right,um, because it just never. I
just didn't. I just didn't getfor some reason that didn't click. It
didn't. It didn't. I waslike, why did he say that so
weird? In my brain, Diagonallywasn't a word or something. So I

(45:16):
was like, or didn't map todie like it? Right, It just
didn't. It was just it wasjust that he said diagon alley in a
really weird way. Why did hesay it like that? And then they
were like what did he say?He said diagonally and I was like,
why would he say that? Likethat's not even a word. Um.

(45:37):
So I only just very When Isay very recently, I mean like in
the past like seven years, right, it was since since we've been married.
It's when you came to that realization. Yeah it did. I did
I really understand it? Did youdid you happen to catch the story about

(45:58):
how Dana Radcli got cast because I'vegot it in front of me. I
just thought it's an interesting story.Um. So they were searching for uh,
for the actor who would be HarryPotter for like for this. This
says for seven months and in theyear two thousand, Daniel Radcliffe was discovered
by the producers. Um, theproducers of the movie. Um, they

(46:21):
were like in a movie theater andhe was sitting behind them, and they
like turned around, looked at thiskid and apparently we're like, oh my
gosh, Harry Potter's behind us.And they and so they there's this quote
from from one of the producers.It says, they're sitting behind me was
this was this boy with these bigblue eyes. It was Dan Radcliffe.

(46:44):
I remember my first impressions. Hewas curious and funny and energeticum, and
there was generosity and sweetness. So, uh, Daniel Radcliffe was already he
had played like a like kind ofa big character. I guess in the
BBC version of David Copperfield, um, where he played young David. I

(47:05):
guess in some of the uh insome of that production. So he had
some acting experience, but like hewasn't auditioning to be Harry Potter. They
just kind of found him, butjust how he looked. Yeah, and
it was apparently was one of thosethings where it was similar to what he
said with the Princess Bride, wherethen like, yeah, they ran him

(47:27):
by JK. Rowling and she's likethat's that's he found him. Yeah.
I just think that's always really cool. Um. And of course, like
Emma Watson and Rupert Grant were unknowns, they were right. They just came
to a casting call and got castas little children. I think that um,
uh, Daniel Radcliffe probably did notgrow up to be what they thought

(47:51):
Harry Potter would grow up to be. No, because Daniel Radcliffe was a
very short He was more of ashorter kind of doubt more not not like
round, but he was. Hewas shorter and stouter than I think the
books. He never got lanky.He never got lanky, which Harry Potter

(48:13):
did at a time got very lanky. Now Ron was supposed to always be
much taller than Harry. Um andRupert Grint also yeah, did not get
tall. I'm actually looking I'm actuallylooking at um. There's a picture on
the IMDb page of them standing nextto each other, and this looks like

(48:34):
it's probably Yeah, this is atthe world premiere for the final movie,
okay, um, and they're standingthere, the three of them, and
Emma Watson is taller than the twoguys. Yeah, but she's standing like
about an inch taller than both ofthem. Yeah. That is one thing
that I think is funny when you'rechoosing a child actor to grow up into
a character, is that you don'tknow if they're going to grow up to

(49:00):
be the character that you wrote.Because Rupert Grint did not get tall,
and neither one of them got verylanky at all, and except for when
they were eleven. U. Butyeah, there was something else I was

(49:20):
going to say. Oh, theWeasley's, specifically Molly and Arthur, I
thought were perfect. I love.I think they took Molly from the books
and made her even more Molly,if that can even be a thing,

(49:43):
which I think is fantastic. Percyisn't in much of anything until later when
we're supposed to hate him again.You know. Um. I always thought
Percy caught kind of like the rawend of the deal, because all you

(50:05):
hear about Percy is how his youngersiblings dislike him, and you don't see
that in the movies. They don'tdislike him in the movies, right at
all. They're at the breakfast table, they're you know, talking and stuff.
They're not overly friendly with each other, but they're just like a family.
And in the books they really startPercy out with being they start him

(50:31):
out being very pompous and very arrogantand everything. They don't do that in
the movies. Right, Suddenly,it's I feel like they didn't they didn't
resolve that very well in the movies, because it's a very sudden that Percy
is somebody to be despised in themovies when we have been leading up to

(50:52):
it in the books. Right.So yeah, it's a slow, much
slower burn, right right, It'ssomething that doesn't come as a surprise when
it gets there. So anything else, no, just how it's this is
one of those movies that like orone of these I would say, like

(51:14):
series that did such a good job, just did such a good job casting.
Can I say something, oh,Professor McGonagall, Yeah, of course.
She's played by none other than theamazing Maggie Smith, who is killer

(51:35):
and basically anything she does. Ido want to say for everyone to hear,
because I think it is. Itis so fun. Yeah. Maggie
Smith's full name is Margaret Natalie Smith. Yeah. Did you know that?
Yeah? I did. My fullname is Natalie Margaret Smith. Very cool.

(51:58):
I have a kinmanship, I havea bond to Maggie. Dame Maggie
Smith, yes, and a worldtreasure. I think I'm gonna have you
start calling me dame Dame. Idon't know that's gonna sound like he'p out
in the world, like kind oflike hey, Dame, Hey Dave,
excuse you, sir. So manygood people are in this are in these

(52:21):
movies. Were Davis is in thesemovies? Yeah, Jason Isaacs is in
these movies. Davis is the goblin, right, Yeah, he's yea for
a pook? Yeah, um man, so many just yeah. John Cleese
is nearly headless, Nick. Yeah, that's so good. Yeah. Um
I forgot that John Hurt is alla vander like we were. We've been

(52:45):
watching through Doctor Who. Yeah,and I know that I know John Hurt
from stuff right like, and soI just I just take him like in
stride, but then like he cameup on the screen and he's all Avander
and I was like, oh right, John Hurt. Yeah, that's awesome.
Anyway, That's all I got.Everyone in these movies is very good.

(53:07):
I even I mean love um thecast of Moaning Myrtle. Yeah,
remind me of her name if youcan find it. I gotta hang on
Moaning Myrtle. Shirley Henderson, sheis in. She's also in Doctor Who.
She's in a lot of like BBCkind of things. I think she

(53:29):
makes the perfect Moaning Myrtle because she'sso whiny, Like I love that's her
voice. Her voice. Her voiceis just high pitched crying. I'm also
just going to mention that John Williamswrites the score for the first three movies
and it's great. Yeah. Therewas actually when we were watching we were

(53:52):
watching the first one and there camethere was one moment where it was literally
like, I don't know if youdid it on purpose or not, but
he almost fully snuck the title themefrom Star Wars into There's like a bump
bump and we both like du yeah, um yeah. One other thing is

(54:19):
just Rupert Grin's sweet little face.It's dumb, dumb face. He's dumb.
He's such a dumb face, alittle face, and the expressions he
makes with that face, and thenhe uses that adolescent squeaky in his young
boy voice. Yes, that wasactually happening like such to his advantage to

(54:40):
make it just so good. Anyway, we can be done talking about Harry
Potter. Yeah, we can probablygo on and on. We're mostly discussing
because because there are good people inthis movie. There's like good there's there's
good cinematography and music in this movie. Acting from our three are or all

(55:00):
of our youngest it's not are notawesome because they're babies, tiny baby children.
But then they grow into it,they figure it out. Neville really
grows into himself. It is along bottom club. But it is so
interesting to see that small, pudgylittle thing grow up to become what he

(55:23):
did become and ironically like a tall, lanky, exactly British boy like he
could have been. He could havebeen Harry. And so I think about
the story of Harry Potter r.And like how there's a point where like
Neville could have been the boy wholived, but he got marked and he
did never he didn't make it throughyea and here then is this young boy
who was like, no, youdon't You're not Harry Potter. And then

(55:44):
by the end it's like, oh, you could have you could have been
if we had made you Harry Potter, you would have looked. He wasn't
nerdy enough looking as a kid.He was. I think he was a
little too, a little too round, a little too. I agree,
he didn't done. Yeah, hedidn't look like yeah, he looked like
he he didn't look sharp right asa child. Right, Yeah, anyways,

(56:06):
good times. This has been anotherepisode not suing for adults, and
we thank you for sticking with us. We're sorry, we were going for
a month. We're not trying tosay sorry anymore. Were it's too late
to say sorry, too late toapologize. Yeah, we just reference to
whole songs. Um, but wedo. Thank you for sticking with us,
and we'll continue to get episodes outas we're able to. Um.

(56:29):
Thank you to shadd Warl for creatingour theme music. You can find his
work at SoundCloud at SoundCloud dot com, slash shad dash World, and there'll
be a link in the show notes. As usual. Um, we don't
have any other things coming up.I don't think no announcements or anything,
right that that's changing for us anyway. So yeah, just don't bring your

(56:49):
whole thing, and um, goout, go out to go out,
get outside. First of all,are you talking about going outside? Sometimes
you should get outside? Do youknow? Does anybody on this podcast know
you at all? I need toget outside? Okay, I could,
do you need me to force you? Well? What I mean is like

(57:09):
sometimes sometimes like you, you areworking from home all the time, and
most of your free time is spentat your place. Yeah, and so
like you might go out in theworld from time to time, and that's
a good thing. Yeah, butwhen you're at your house, when you're
in your safe space, just neverever forget that you are, in fact
still and remain and we're always theboss. So watch whatever you want,

(57:30):
all right, Hey, bye bye