Filoni or Gilroy: Can Star Wars Find Balance?

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, guys, I want to get your gut level reaction.
I haven't prepared you for this question. You don't know
what's coming. You have to pick one, no hesitation. I'm
gonna start with you, Nate, so that you don't have
a chance to overthink this. Okayut reaction. Which is your
favorite Ahsoka or and or go Ahsoka. That's not a

(00:20):
popular position, by the way, Oh, I know, okay Sam
Ahsoka order. It's honestly, it's a hard pick for me.
Got to pick one right now. I would go with Asoka.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Really yeah, well, I mean I loved and Or just
for like what it was and like it's it's just
quality and everything.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
I mean, it was a phenomenal show. Nobody can deny that.
But there's more.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
And I think this is probably what influenced Nathan as well.
There's more personal connection plus throw. I'll expand on my
thoughts later.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
We'll dig it. We'll dig into that topic on more
on today's episode, and I guess we'll find out as
their way to find balance on this or could we
be on the verge of a war to rival the
millennia long conflict between the Jedi and the Seth. This

(01:14):
is Tatooine Sons.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Welcome to Tatooine Sons, a Star Wars podcast, the only
fan podcast to name a cannon Star Wars creature and
to be endorsed by the writer and director of The
Last Jedi, Ryan Johnson. Get ready to celebrate a galaxy far,
far away across the generations. Here are your hosts, David

(01:37):
the bow Tie Jedi Guy, Samuel the Hutt and B B.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Nate.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Welcome Star Wars fans. This is Tatswooine Sons, your weekly
look into all things Star Wars from the unique perspective
of a father sharing his love for the amazing space
fantasy saga with his two sons. I am BB Nate
and I am joined first by my brother Samuel the Hutt.
And you to Star Wars fans. And if you're not
a Star Wars fan, and you probably.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Have no idea about the dialogue that we have between
Ahsoka versus and or because the dialogue, the conversation, the
conflict between that because and why would you know? And
you're probably not listening to this podcast either. Well, and
we talk about more than just Star Wars.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Now, this is so, this is true, and of course
you can't have Star Wars without bizarre father figures.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
So on that note, here's my dad, the bow tie
Jedi guy. If I say the number seven hundred, what's
the first scene that comes to your mind? Dyslexic James Bond,
dyslexic Jed, you're a double of seven seven hundred. Okay,
interesting the number seven hundred and literally doesn't bring nothing
comes to your mind that sounds like for me. It's

(02:42):
the amazing response when we posted on threads where we
were just saying listen if we won't, if you're a
Star Wars dad, we want to connect with you, and
then talked a little bit about building a community for
Star Wars dads, and over seven hundred Star Wars dads metaphorically,
i guess, electronically raised their hands and said they want

(03:05):
to be digitally digitally raised their hands saying they want
to be a part of it. We've actually got a
group of about fifteen sixteen that have directly reached out
submitted information, and we're trying to get this group together,
so start planning out what that means. What this community
is awesome playing. I love that people from all over

(03:26):
different ages. Some are grandparents, some are Original trilogy, kids
that grew up and now have grandkids that are watching
Star Wars, and others are like one, he's literally got
twins that are getting ready to be born. Oh that's
cool with it, so all over the board on that,
but thank you guys for tending it. This is gonna
be a lot of fun. What's been happening. It's been

(03:47):
a month since we recorded it has been what's been
happening in our worlds?

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Nate's like Nate almost adulting that he's adulting a summer
internship at the church right now.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Just some tech stuff. So it's been a busy week,
very What was the weirdest thing your first week? It
was VBS week, Yeah, which is a big part of that, right,
running sound tech, all that kind of stuff. What was
the weirdest thing you had to be a part of
this week?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Pushing a stuffed gorilla off the catwalk. I'm sorry, Yeah,
that was that was fun. What was the context behind, Well,
they have a cameo of the stuffed gorilla every year
for for years now.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Oh, okay, it's a running gag. I had to have
a cameo, and so there were kids that were waiting
for the stuff gorilla. So do you like the spartan kick? No,
I can even do that, or I would have fallen off.
Oh I'm sorry. So you they actually had the entered
risk his life. Yeah, pretty much.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
No lights in the catwalk either, because it would have
it would have given it away. Something was happening in
the It was really dark up there, and you would
have died if you don't at all, he would have
died because the ladder to get up there goes a
little bit back.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Oh good, back to get to get up there. So
what about you, Sam, you've had some You had an
interesting week. I did.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, it's different. I adopted a little puppy, Chubbs. It
was just less in less than a week long week. Well,
his name's Chubbs. He's probably about three or four months old.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Now.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
We think he's mostly an American bulldog, maybe with some
other stuff mixed in there, because he's a rescue.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
The shelter, you know, they don't know. But he is
a sweetheart. He is clingy. Oh my word, is he clinging?
But it's okay.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
I can't you know, I can't play dog. He's a
good thing most of the time. Yeah, so still getting
them trained. He still likes to nibble on stuff and
all that, but he's he's a really sweet dog and
he gets along with Rex pretty well.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Rex is a sweetheart. Rex is our sixty pound golden doodle. Yeah,
he definitely is bigger. Oh yes, and wants to play,
but knows he would crush chub Yes, and so like
he was like breaking up he Rex got a treat
last night. Well, we last night we went and saw
How to Treat Your Dragon for the second time, second

(06:08):
in a row, while mom staying home and dog sat
Chubs and Rex got a treat and he broke it
up and laid it on the floor and gave a
piece to Chubs.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Well, it's funny too, is they're kind of like a
nice little symbiotic relationship because Rex, well he'll like drop
food all the time whenever he's eating he just didn't
like it, and then Chubbs will come up and finish
up little pieces.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, that's exactly. It's fun Yeah. And well, we're recording
this Friday, the friday before Father's Day. You're listening to
this after Father's Day. With this, I'm trying to decide.
So tomorrow is basically just a chill day for me
with it, and I feel like I'm just going to

(06:56):
crash and watch some some Star Wars. But I can't decide,
So I got to get your guys's input on this.
I'm about halfway through almost actually, I'm almost in the
Twin Suns episode of season three of Rebels watch, so
I've got basically three or four episodes and a season
left of Star Wars Rebels, right, But I also have
this kind of craving to rewatch Skeleton Crew. What do

(07:23):
you guys say? Which one should I do tomorrow? If
I just crash in here and watch Star Wars Hmmm,
I don't think it's always good to finish up Rebels.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
I was going to vote Rebels, yeah, because you've watched
Skeleton Crew more recently.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
So I have, and I'm really getting into Rebels, but
I really, I mean, that's kind of the logic that
I've been having to make Rebels the rewatch. But I
really want to watch Skeleton Crew too. I mean, I
don't know if I have to. I mean, it's Scott,
You've got Sunday Sunday. You wanted to see Last Crusade.
That's the question, is that Sunday. Yeah, they're putting it
back in for Father's Day. I didn't know this. Really

(07:59):
that's the best one. Well, I mean there's there's DEI
that is the best. It is the best one. That
pretty good one. It's a Father's Day episode, is That's
probably why they put it in there. One that's cool.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
It's also an anniversary. I can't remember what kind of anniversary,
but it is an anniversary.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Probably thirty fifth thirty thirty fifth anniversary of Last Crusades.
I feel like it's older than that. No, I don't
think so, no clue. Anyway, we'll have to say we've
already talked mentioned that in the opening. What we're going
to be talking about were talking about this contrasting visions

(08:34):
for the future of Star Wars. You have the kind
of Gilroy and Or approach and then you have the
Felonio Soca approach. We're going to dive into that a
little bit more. What else were we going to be
talking about on today's episode. I mean we went to.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Uh, probably got to visit Epic Universe, yes, which was
really cool. So yeah, I want to say too much now,
but we'll get into that for sure.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yes, and then we've seen a lot of movies this
last time. There's a lot more more movies to count,
more movies to come to.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
I think we have I think we have a movie
pretty much every week for the next like five weeks.
What's next week slash this week, depending on I mean,
we're going to see twenty eight years later?

Speaker 1 (09:14):
You and I? Yeah, that's right now, I'm not going
to go that. There's a week after that. Yeah, the
week after that's one dang, and then after that's Jurassic World,
and then after that super So I got a break. Okay,
we'll get we'll get to Superman, and there's a bunch
of stuff coming up. But yeah, we got to talk
about what we've seen first. So yeah, absolutely cool. All right,
that's enough talking about what we're going to talk about.

(09:35):
Let's talk about what we're talking about. This is where
the fun begin is, all right. So what were your
expectations going into Epic Universal start with you Bb names, Oh,
they were high. You know, you've heard that it.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Was going to be absolutely game changing and all this stuff,
and even from previews, people were super excited. My expectations
started to get a little lower closer to time due
to some issues that they ran into during the previews,
but I was still just like, like all the lines
and the whole queue system for ballot the Ministry was

(10:08):
a mess.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
And because they were doing Virgil cue for that part of.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
It was and then other parts that were only having
it open for like two hours a day and some
days that didn't even open at all, and a bunch
of rides, especially like Monsters unchained and just pretty much
all Dark Universe the rider down all day. Like a
lot of issues running into the opening. But thankfully that
none of that happened for us, So that was that

(10:32):
was good.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
So your expectations were extremely high for Yeah, they're pretty hard,
But about you, Sam, I think they were pretty tempered.
I I made it a point not to.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Watch or read a lot of stuff about it, what
was in the parks, or even reactions before going to
the park, because I wanted it to be my own
opinions going into it. So I was going into it
with just kind of a pretty open mind, clean slake,
just whatever it was going to be was what it
was going to be sort of mindset. But what about
what about you?

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Dad? I was going in completely blind. I knew nothing
about this park. I mean I remember, like the morning
of like waiting in line out front for early early
access because we got on universal property, we got early access.
This was the second second day it was open to

(11:25):
the public, first full day, first of full day that
it was right to the public. We were standing outside
in rope drop and I'm trying to understand what this
park is, right, I remember seeing the announcement video, but
I didn't remember what you universe, what World's like, themes
that they were going to have, and so I went
in basically blind to it. So my expectations were honestly

(11:52):
pretty low because my expectations were built around second day
of the park is open, massive crowds. It's going to
be a mess. Logistically, it's going to be crazy crowds,
and we're going to be just pretty much if we
get a handful of rides in, I'm going to consider
it a wind, I was thinking. So my expectations were

(12:15):
really low. Start with you, Sam, what did did Epic
meet whatever expectations you had coming into it? Oh?

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, it exceeded them. I mean, the park was sure.
It was day two, so it's brand new, which the
newness of the park was really nice too, right, I
mean just the fact that everything was shiny, you know,
that was that was neat, But the actual theming of
the of the lands and the rides themselves, even just

(12:45):
the small details like the restaurant we went to and
stuff like that. You know, it all came together to
make a really, really nice experience. It was just a
great theme park in general. You know, whether you're comparing
it to Disney or Universal is different. But just as
a theme park in and of itself, it was a

(13:05):
great experience. Excuse me, great experience.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
What about Unate did meet your expectation?

Speaker 2 (13:10):
I mean for what I was wanting it it exceeded
them from what I could expect. Yeah, it was a
really great park and everything was just pretty seamless, even
though it was the second day.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah, yeah, blow my expectations away. Yeah I had, I
mean I had no expectations, but my expectations were crazy
long lines, things breaking down, it not working the right way.
None of that happened. We had a.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Couple we had one time, one issue really with the
line we were It was Mario Kar, the Mario Kar. Yeah,
they we got stuck in that line for a long
time because it broke. We actually guess it has a
reputation for that.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah. Well, I mean there's a lot that goes on
in it.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
It's complex, I mean, but what sucked was we got
sat on the ride and then had our little helmets on,
and then we had to sit for another.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
What was it, it was a forty five minutes. Yeah,
just waiting to go a lot. But that the only thing. Yeah, yeah,
for day two in a theme park.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
If that's our only issue you've had, that's a successful
day at any park.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
The beautiful thing is staying on property, early access. We
also had investment xtray into express Pass because we were
trying to be prepared for crazy crowds, crazy alliance and dividends.
We didn't even use express Pass for most of the
day at the beginning.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
No, No, towards the yeah, you're right, the morning we didn't.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
We were able to just almost like ten minute waits.
So they limited capacity so much for the initial weekend opening.
I know that the next week they had some tragic issues.
But the weekend of opening, uh, it was phenomenal with
it and we got in and I guess the Super

(14:52):
Nintendo World was open. Was one of that was open?
Was there another land that had opened yet? No? No, okay,
so Super, We did the a Donkey Kong ride, got
in there ten minutes, were done with that, got in
line at Super. At the Mario Kart ride, it broke down.
We got out of line, went and did some other
Stuffshi did some other stuff in that area, and then

(15:13):
by then it was basically nine. We went over to
Burke which was the how to Train Your Dragon Land
and with it rode those right away right to Stardust.
Racers waited in line because they that's the only gripe
that I had pretty much all day. Was the way
that they managed it was because they limited the number

(15:33):
of cars that were running, and then they would have
to stop the ride, bring in more cars when they
wanted to do it, and started up again. And it
just felt like it's opening It's opening day. Just get
all your cars on the on the track and run them.
That was but it's a great ride. It was. It
went over to Monsters the Monsters is that dark dark

(15:55):
Universe or dark Yeah, dark more is what they call.
I mean. That was great. Went over to Harry Potter
Land that that I thought we were going to be
in line for a lot longer than we were. It
was a long line, but it wasn't that bad. We
waited about forty five minutes. But the thing is the cue.
The cue there.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
It was one of the best cues I've ever been
in saved for well, honestly, it beats Resistance.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
I mean, Rise of Resistance has.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
The cool moment we're in the shuttle and then you
go into the star start.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
That's it. Like all of the ministry was just yeah, insane.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
It was just it was so overdone for what a
queue needs to be, right, which it is a weird
thing to say, yeah, but they put a lot more
into that where you're just people are standing there. I
mean it was really cool.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
It was really cool. What was your favorite experience?

Speaker 2 (16:45):
I think we know no Burke, no doubt, just all
a Burke. I mean I could probably spend an entire
day there if I really wanted to. Yeah, there was
so much that we didn't even see, Like it feels
like there was so much that we could have done.
We didn't even do a ride in it because it
was a water ride, but would be I've heard is
a fun ride, but just just Burke in general, it

(17:06):
was It's just probably one of the most immersive theme
park lands.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
I've ever been in. I mean, it blew galaxies Edge
out of the water.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Really, I mean Galaxy's Edge on the main issue that
I think we've all had with Galaxy's Edge is how
it just feels like it's placed into a park and yeah,
there's no transition to Star Wars.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
It feels like you're still just there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, and I think the other thing, the other point
we brought up with that because we we've made this
comparison between Universal and Galaxy's Edge before. The other thing, too,
is like with Burke and dagon Alley and things like that,
these are places that you have seen in the movies
been like, oh man, I would love to go there,

(17:56):
and now you can with Galaxy's Edge.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
They trying to make it to where you can make
your own story. It's this new thing, right, but you
have no connection to the place, so you have to
throw in things like X Wings and the Millennium Falcon
and then have characters show up to give you that. Honestly, nostalgia,
I mean that's let's just be honest. That's a theme
park's playoff of is nostalgia. That's the whole the big
ticket item.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
And I think you and I.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
We'll probably talk about this later, but with things like Burke,
you've seen that and you're like, I'm here, I'm in
my favorite story now right, So it gives you a
different anchor when you're in the theme park. So I
think that's another thing that really helps the immersion with it.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
What was your favorite experience epic? I don't know. I
mean it was it was tough. I I liked Burke
a lot.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
I thought it was it was really cool because you
and I Nay, we grew up.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
On that movie. I mean, that thing was on repeat.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
But that was really cool. In a more like recent
thing that I found interesting, The Dark Universe.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Was pretty cool. I liked that a lot. I I
I just started I actually just finished reading the original
Frankenstein all and stuff, and you and I we watched
a few of the well you watched One to Day,
but we watched a few of the original Universal Monsters movies.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
So it was really cool to see that land and
what they did with it. The ride in there was
really cool. It was the same ride system as Thank
You for Journey in Adventure, but it was really cool
to see the animatronics that we like way months ago.
When they did, they were geal for him. It was
cool to see him in person. It was technologically really

(19:41):
it was really impressive. Insane about you.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
I mean just you were touching on it a minute ago.
But the queue, the initially ento the queue at the
Ministry of Magic, Yeah, was jaw dropping. It really was
the level of grandeur in that space, in detail and

(20:10):
detail and yeah, I mean just just being in that
area and just hanging out. I just you're standing there
just like this is amazing, and you just kept saying
it over again, and you're in there. I mean we
were in there probably half of the time we were in
the queue, would you say, the section with it and
just never once finding things that you're like, You're like

(20:33):
you're bored with it. You're constantly looking at finding new things.
And the way that it just it goes seemed like
it just looks like it continues to go forward.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
I think the thing that impressed us the most about
that area is the fact that they didn't cut any corners. No,
I mean that entire room. So if you've seen pictures
of the Q or even if you've seen the Ministry
of Magic and the movies, there's these tiles along the floors, walls,
and ceiling, and there were actual tiles laid on every

(21:04):
surface in there, which is crazy because they didn't have
to do that, Like once you get to a certain height,
you could switch it to like a wallpaper or something, right,
because there have been parks that do that.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
But they didn't.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Everything was tile, or if it was, the wallpaper was convincing.
And then you had all those offices. Those offices had.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Furnishings in them. Nobody uses them, but they're there, and
they made it look like they were lived in.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
All for nothing but a Q line. I mean, that's
a level of immersion that's for something that's just a
waiting area. I mean, that's impressive, it is, that's a
lot of that's a really cool.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Attention to detail. Yeah, and for me, that was not
just my favorite experience, but that was probably the thing
I was most surprised with That we had heard about
the queue, the queue, the que the q's and experience
the q's and experience all of that. I was skeptical
of that. I mean, how do you make it cool
beyond what we'd seen in you know, Galaxies, Edge Alley

(22:01):
and some of these other places. I mean you'd seen
cool cues before. I was my jaw was on the floor. Yeah,
it was throughout that experience. What was your biggest surprise,
I'll start with you, Sam, What was your biggest surprise?

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Mine was definitely Super Nintendo World. I mean the rides
themselves were fine. I wouldn't put any of them near
my favorites. They were decent, but the land itself really
took me by surprise. Again, it comes to the immersion thing,
but the way they had you enter the park really
helped sell the effect because you go in through an

(22:35):
escalator that's like going up one of the green pipes
from the Mario games, which was cool. Right, It plays
the sound and everything, and then you exit out into
you was it Princess Peach's Castle and it's got the
paintings from like Mario sixty four that change and stuff.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Right, it was cool.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
But then as you're walking, you know, you see the
exit of the castle and it was bright so you
can see, so you kind of once everything came into focus,
you saw Nintendo War World. I mean it looked like
you stepped straight into game. I mean there's coins that
are floating around everywhere. A little mushrooms floating around and goombas.
I mean, it looked like you stepped in a game.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Again, they didn't need to put that much detail in it.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
I mean, these were like animatronics sprinkled everywhere you look.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
They didn't have to do that, but it really sold
the effect.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
And the vertical nature of it felt like a video
game level because you had to you know, jump up and.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Down and everything.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Right, I mean, the the feeling of stepping into a
video game is cool.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
And I'm not even that big of an Nintendo.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Guy, right Like, I played a few of the games
and they're they're fine, I can you know, I enjoy them,
But there was just something really neat about stepping into
that world like that.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
It was a really cool feeling neither.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
What was your biggest way outside of like Burke in
the ministry Magic A weird one that I don't think
many people talk about, but was something that we discovered.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
The food was fantastic. Oh yeah, well, and that goes
back to how bad the regular And it's really hard
to find pretty good food even at Disney World, like
sometimes sometimes like outside the major restaurants, right.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
Like, it's it's difficult, and then you find the same
exact things everywhere, Like the pizza at Disney pretty atrocious.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
At a lot of places, and for Universal is worse.
Universals somehow worse. But the food at Epic Universe, all
the places that.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
We ate the mac and cheese cone and Burke, that's
where it's at.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
But no Pizza Moon was pizza good. It was What's
the Park the really really good. And then Mom and
I went to Toadstool Cafe and that burger was fantastic and
it was fun, you know, it had like a I
had like a painted on mustache and like a little

(24:50):
Mario hat toothpick at the like, and Mom's like she
got a kid's meal because she doesn't eat much. And
her entire plate was laid out like a Mario level.
Really it was a flag at the top of her burger,
and like in the fries, and there was like a
not just the food, it was the presentation, but the thing.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yes, And I mean the Toastal Cafe, the closest thing
I can compare it to is it has a similar
vibe to like Brainforest Cafe because they have screens on
all the walls and like events happen every now and
then are coming in to like attack the toads and
all that stuff, and like.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
The place gets a bunch of thunder and darks cooler
like table rumbles, like really cool stuff.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
And the food was good, like which is shocking, but
it's important because you know you're you're there for that long.
I mean you think from a business perspective, people will
spend more money if her food's good, and then they
stay in.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
The park for longer.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
So truly was a surprise because I was expecting to
be like, there's nothing good around here, and we've barely
tried and we played tried two places. Yeah, and I'm
sure there are many more that we can So yeah,
that was that was the biggest surprise for sure.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
I was surprised is at how The thing that was
was pretty cool about Epic was every time you go
from your main's the Celestial Park, is that that's your
main's hub into each of these additional lands. The way
that you transition into those makes you truly feel like

(26:20):
you're in a completely different.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Well, there's one way in and out of each of
those lands because with like say Magic Kingdom in Disney World, right, Yeah,
there's the central hub and you can get to adventure
Land and Tomorrow Land and Fantasy Land and stuff from
the central hub, but you can also get to any
other land from the other lands by just going around
the outside right, So there's no real barriers between there's

(26:44):
they're not sectioned off very much, kind of like what
you said you were talking about with Dox's ed.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
You just walk from or what was Muppet right land right,
and literally you just walk through a small tunnel. Well
that's going from one way the other if you're going
from Toy Story and it's just straight in. Yeah, that's true.
That's it, And that isn't an issue. I know what
we've had about Galaxy. It's just and we've.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Never been to the la version no, but I feel
like it's pretty similar from what I've heard. But the
transitions to parks was excellent portal.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
It does. It really does feel like you're transitioning into it.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Completely and they did such an amazing job and it
literally can only get better from here. Of even when
you're outside of a park or outside of a land,
it's hard to see anything in that land outside of it,
but when you immediately get through that gate, it feels
like an entire new section of the park open, and
that's because it's blocked by a lot of trees currently,
and those trees can only grow, and so it's just

(27:43):
going to get more immersive, get better from here, and
highly highly impressive.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
So one of the things that we ended up having
a lot of conversations with, you know, kind of the
second half of the day at Epic was this park
Universe is the closest we've ever come to finding a
park that feels like it has that Disney magic something

(28:12):
with it. I mean, we love Universe. We've been so
to give people that may not be aware lived in Orlando,
annual pass holders at Walt Disney World, annual pass holders
at Universal. We've done it all right. We love Universal,
but we're Disney people. We've always been Disney people. But
Epic seemed to come the closest to finding that Disney

(28:35):
magic right where you feel like you're completely in a
new new world. It just feels special with it. But
at the same time, we kept having that conversation of
there's still something that's missing, Sam, I think you picked
up on it. At the end of the day, we
kind of gathered around the fountain at the center of
Celestial Park, which is they do a fountain water light show,

(28:56):
the closing ceremonies thing. And I think it was during
that that you nailed what I think is is the
is something that is going to keep all of these
parks from having that that Disney magic that we tend
to be attracted towards. Maybe they think disagrees, but Sam

(29:17):
explain what we were saying.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Well, it's the thing that I came to the conclusion
of is it's the music. You know, even for people
who may not be musical right like where they play
instruments or anything, music still has a profound emotional impact
on anyone, right. And the thing that Disney has on universal,

(29:40):
that universal just they can't they can't manufacture this now
is nostalgia with the music. I mean, you go to Disney,
right and every single song you hear is a callback
to some other thing in their past. Right, every single
one of their songs has some necessies.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
It's an emotional tie down. Yeah, I mean every buddies,
everybody's childhood had Disney in it.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
If you grew up in even if you weren't in America,
but certainly if you grew up in America.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
You had Disney as a kid.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Right, So you'll be walking through the park and they
all have music playing anywhere, and it's something from a
movie or a cartoon or whatever, right, helping play on
that nostalgia.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Right.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
And then every closing ceremony it's just chalk full of
these classic.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Disney songs that you can't help but love. Right.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
And from even the entry music to Disney is just songs,
you know, right, Like I'll catch myself, I'll find YouTube
videos of entry the entry loops to Disney World and
listen to it, right, because it's just it just feels good, right,
It's just a nice feeling of nostalgia.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Right. So from day, from park open to park close, you're.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Inundated with these songs that you grew up loving or
you came to love, you know as you watch the movies.
Universal doesn't have that, really, I mean they've got like
I mean, I'm trying to think of some stuff that's
got some classic music. You got Harry Potter. Harry Potter's
got some classical music, right. A lot of people grew
up on that too, closer to our age. Probably Nate,
you have that, right, You've got maybe Jaws a little

(31:14):
bit I'm just trying to think of other franchises that
it's not an emotional No, you got Jurrassic Park. But
chances are if you were a little kid, you weren't.
You hopefully weren't watching Drassic Park. But then again, you know,
I can't judge. We probably watched it.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
You watched it, yeah, but whatever, Right, but you know
you got that.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
And then the closest thing, I think, at least for
you and I, Nate, the closest franchise that has that
music that hits that nostalgia similar to Disney, is How
to Train You Drag, right, because we grew up on that.
It's got such a iconic sound and them too, right,
you instantly know when you hear it.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Right.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
So, but the problem is with Universal is when we
were walking around like the general areas, like like Little
less A Park or the entry, they just have kind
of generic epic orchestral music and it's fine.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
It sets the tone, but it doesn't hit any emotion
for you. Right. And then this is kind of it
was a long lead up, but this is kind of
where we came to this conclusion. Dad.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
When you and I were sitting there, we were watching
the closing Fountain show, they were playing music from each
of the four lands.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Right.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
You had start with the Nintendo music. Oh, it's fun.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
You know, everyone like knows the Mario theme, right, And
that was a cool little.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Moment, right.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
And then they had Harry Potter. Right, everyone knows the
Harry Potter themes and stuff.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
And then they did Dark Universe. Nothing. You don't know
any of that music. They had to make it up, right,
they had to make it up for the park.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
It was cool, it sounds great. I even bought the
vinyl and I listened to it. It's great vinyl, right,
but no connection to right then how to.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Train Your Dragon?

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Right, and it's a huge right, like this instant, instant moment.
And we were like, this is Universal's attempt to play
on that nostalgia through.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Music, but they just don't have the They just don't
have the history for it. What do you think about
that name?

Speaker 2 (32:59):
I think that that all of that is accurate, But
I think that y'all are putting more weight on it
than it actually has. I don't believe it's as important
as some people make it out to be.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
I think that when I walk into a park, I
don't know, maybe I'm more critical with theme parks and
most people. Magic Kingdom's fine, it's never been something that
like woo, I love the nostalgia doesn't carry it for me.
There's nothing uber fun there. Like I enjoyed Pirates with

(33:33):
the Caribbean because I like the movies. Space Mountains kind
of fun. That's pretty much the extent of the things
I enjoy doing at Magic Kingdom. Hollywood Studios, of course,
I like more. You've got Star Wars, You've got Indiana Jones,
you got Tire Terror like like, I enjoy Hollywood Studios more.

(33:53):
But I enjoy Edcot the most because I like all
of the theming. I love walking around the lands, cultures,
I love all that.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
But when you think about it, there's no music that
plays from Disney movies.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
That's a good point.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
Epcot's probably the closest comparison to Epic that we can make.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
It's my favorite there will and I don't think anything
will ever pop it. I just enjoy Epcot the most.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Of course, you got you got the Guardians ride, and
I mean it's a fantastic ride, and it does have
the classic seventies eighties music, but that's just because that's
good right to.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Each great as well.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
It's a fun ride, but I mean there's not too
many rides that Epcot. I just love the experience of
Epcot and the immersion of Epcot with all the different
countries and everything, and I think that carries to Epic Universe.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
I think if a theme park is good by itself,
that's what matters. And I do think that Epic itself
is a great theme park because you walk into Habit Train,
you walk into Burke and you see the two Viking
statutes like movies open and you're just like, oh my gosh,
it's right there. And even especially at night when all
the flames going on and everything like that, and you

(35:06):
go on the ride and it's just, oh, there's Truthless,
There's there's Hiccup, and you you walk around the park
and you see one of the Truthless's kids animatronic walking
around or dragon breathing ice bread. Like, a theme park
on itself should be great by itself and not rely
on nostalgia. That's my opinion.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Well, Nate, let me let me ask you this. Are
you a very nostalgic person? I don't get that, don't
think so? Yeah, that was what I was gonna say,
I just don't think you're a very nostalgic person. You're
able to be a much more objective with that sort
of thing. So I think that's kind of where places
into your things. And I'm not saying one.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Way is right the other, it's just a different viewpoint. Well,
we're gonna we're annual pass holders at Universal again. We're
going to get back down to epic maybe sooner than
we think. You and I are going to h hm
for sure, Halloween. Halloween, We're not too It'll be fun cool. Well,
let's let's kind of let's move on. If there is

(36:05):
ever a sure fire away to get people to click
on your article, it's to find a way to write
a headline that suggests that Mark Hamill was saying something
negative about the sequel trilogy. On this week's bad News,
we're going to call out scream Rant for really twisting
things to make that happen. Well, you want the bad news?

(36:26):
Are there really bad news? All right?

Speaker 2 (36:28):
So we've got this this headline from screen rant dot com.
Screamrit is pretty reputable most of the time, Like, well,
they ranked us number two in fan podcasts and back
in what was that twenty.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Two.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah, Yeah, but we're gonna we're gonna call him out.
We're objective, right. The headline reads, Mark Hamill throws shade
as the Star Wars sequel trilogy makes Revenge of the
Sith's worst decision.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Even more confusing. This is a two fer. Yeah, there's
a lot because you've got something bad about the sequels
and you have them tapping into all the recent hype
around around Revenge of the Siths. So what's what what's
going on with Mark?

Speaker 2 (37:13):
So the quote from the actual article, Mark Hamill says,
when I would complain about things in the third one,
I'm assuming that's Return of the Jedi.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Is Return of the Jedi is the correct? Yea third? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (37:26):
I said Luke has lost his hand, he's got the
black Doves. Shouldn't it be Luke struggling with turning to
the dark side? And then George said marks for children,
and that's why he would never consider killing off any
of the main characters in the new ones, though they
pop us off one at a time.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
That's that's the quote. That's that's the entire quote. That's
the quote. So where's the headline in this one? I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
I don't see Revenge of the Sith in this. No,
but I think that they may have thought third one. No, No,
I don't think so. I'll come back to revenge of this.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
I know where that where screen Rand is coming from
on that on the Revenge of the said thing. But
Mark is saying, nothing to do with it with a vengeance.
Where's the headline about the sequel trilogy in here? It's
in the.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
New ones They pop us off one at a time,
which is silly because yeah, okay, George is saying Mark's
for children. That's why he would never consider killing off
any of the main characters. Right, Well, sure, I don't
really think any main characters died in the original trilogy, right,
none of the main characters died in the sequel trilogy either.

(38:30):
Mark Luke isn't the main character anymore in the sequels.
I mean, I love Luke, I love the originals, but
they aren't the main characters in the sequel trilogy. That's
that's Ray, that's Finn, that's Po, That's You could argue
ky Loo probably and sure he dies, but it's about
the equivalent of Vader dying. So that's you can't use

(38:53):
that as an argument either. Really so honestly, it's not
George's franchise anymore. Well, yeah, I hate to break it
to you, but it's not George's decision to do what
he wants with these movies. Like that's a slippery slope though,
because we've had this discussion before and we came to
a good conclusion.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
But it is.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
He says it's for children, right, and I think the
movies are.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
But they didn't kill the main characters. We haven't remember that.
Here's the thing. Mark is always cracking jokes. That's true,
so Mark, So Mark is he's kind of a joker.
Mark is taking this moment where he's describing Revenge of
the orcive me Revenge of the Jedi the Jedi. When

(39:40):
he was making these comments to the Jedi return the Jedi.
He's talking about, okay, so Luke's lost his hand, Luke's
got a glove, He's going dark and and all that.
He's being serious about that conversation. Then he reacts with
a joke, which is when you watch Mark conversations about

(40:01):
Star Wars, he does this all the time. The joke is, yeah,
the new ones, they just pop us off one at
a time. That's him joking. Around. That wasn't the point
of his quote. The quote was when we made Return
of the Jedi, George was saying this is for kids.
We're not killing off our main characters in that. That's

(40:21):
the point of the quote. Instead, screen Ramp pulls this
up and tries to turn that quote into throwing shade
at the sequel trilogy when he wasn't even really talking
about the sequel trilogy. And that's why it's bad news,
because that's not an accurate retelling of what Mark's saying.

(40:42):
Then you bring in the Revenge of the Sith, and
the way that the author of the article brings in
Revenge of the Sith is well, they killed off one
of the big three in Revenge of the Sith because
in their mind the big three are Anakin, Obi Wan,
and Padna in that and they killed off pad Man.
How are they going to keep Padme alive? Right? But

(41:05):
think about where we're ating the story. How do you
keep Padme alive? Is you get to die off screen
in between Revenge of the Sith And that's I mean
so so there again, all they're doing in this is
are creating a clickbait headline that throws shade at the
sequel trilogy because that's that's clickbaiting and taps into Revenge

(41:27):
of the Sith hype because it's it's been a bit
slow news. It is, it is. I mean, honestly, I'm
looking for content all the time now that we've redone
this and I'm having to find I'm having to manufacture
Superman stories. Well, we're talking to start. I literally did
it YouTube short where we talk about James Gunn and
Superman and tie it to Star Wars. There you go,

(41:47):
because click I needed content, right click. So so, but
at the same time, you need your you need your
headlines to be truthful, to not be misleading, and this headline,
specifically as it relates to Mark's comments about the sequel trilogy,
is misleading and that is bad journalism because that's not

(42:09):
helping Star Wars fandom. That's hurting Star Wars fandom. So
that's my rant on that. All right, So the summer
blockbuster season is well underway. The last time that you
heard from the three of us, we've seen Let's see
Mission Impossible, Final Reckoning, Leelo and Stitch Ballerina and How

(42:31):
to Train Your Dragon. So we're going to go really
fast through this but we're going to share our thoughts
on all of them. I'm surprised, to be sure, but
to welcome on all.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
Right, So we'll go first and on the list, we'll
do these real wrap fire kind of letterbox rating like
two sentence, blur them on it, and we'll go from there.
So first up, let's talk about Ballerina. Nate, what would
you give Ballerina A four?

Speaker 1 (42:55):
I liked it, I think mean when you're talking about
john Wick, it felt like a John Wick movie. It
fit very well into that franchise, and action was good.
I think, Yeah, I enjoyed it. It was a fun time. Yeah,
I would say four out of five as well. The
thing that I want from a John Wick story is
I wanted to feel like it's in the John Wick universe,
and I don't want them to be explaining everything happening

(43:17):
in that universe. I want them to drop me down
into it and make me go, why are they doing that?
Where did that come from? And let me have those
questions of going away. I got all of that, plus
great action and Keanu Reeves showing up being Keanu Reeves
for me. So what about you? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Actually four across the boards for yeah, I would. I
would echo everything that y'all are saying. The thing I appreciated, too,
was when John Wick showed up, they didn't, for lack
of a better term, nerve him. You know, he was
still a presence, which makes those movies, you know, more substantial.
It it added to the world and made what already

(43:55):
existed better.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
I agree. So it was a great movie. Yep, all right,
Mission Impossible, Final Reckoning. We spent a lot of time
talking about Dead Reckoning when that thing came out, because
the Christopher McCrory interchange that we had for two weeks
where he was we were talking about things. I'll start
with you, Sam, how would you get what We're a being?
You didn't like it as much as we did. What

(44:17):
would you? What did you give it? I initially gave
it a three.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
I would probably bump it up to three and a
half three point five.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
I just didn't get it.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
And then now I'll say it was a great action
There were great action pieces, right, you know, Tom Cruise
did what Tom Cruise does best, and that was a
lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Some of the story beats didn't make sense to me,
and then I felt like the final action sequence just
felt like a rehash of Fallout. That's just me. The
airplane sequence, Yeah, like mimicking Well, I felt very similar
to me. But you know it was fine. I'll go

(45:05):
with that. It was fine. Okay, what about you? Well,
I gave it a five. It was I okay.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
My ratings would I read that it's like, oh my gosh,
that's one of your favorite movies. No, when it comes
to my ratings, if I liked the movie, I'd give
the like. But I didn't like the movie, I'd do
not like okay, But when it comes to the stars
and everything, it's how do I think the quality of
what they were wanting to achieve was approached and for
a mission impossible movie, they nailed everything they needed to.

(45:36):
Writing was sharp, action was very well done, set pieces
were amazing. The stunts were some of the craziest we've
seen it. I mean Tom Cruise fell out of a
plane with a burning parachute sixteen times in a row.
It was impressive, and him held breath his breath under
the water for lord knows how long. When Tom Cruise
is nervous for a stunt, you know you're having a

(45:58):
crazy time. Storyline is great, wrapped it up very well,
gave Ethan hunt some more weight. Stakes were highest we've
ever seen in a mission impossible movie. You and you
felt it. Yes, it wasn't just like a oh, this
is far fetched. No, they really took the intensity from
Dead Reckoning and ampt it up to an eleven and
put you in the middle of it. So, yes, five

(46:21):
stars for what they were trying to achieve. One hundred percent.
I liked it. It was a very well made movie.
I think I did the same thing with Sinners. If
I was going purely off base in my like probaly
wouldn't give it that, But for what they were trying
to achieve and the quality of filmmaking from that one
hundred percent in a Sinner's reference, well, I'm just talking

(46:42):
about the movies itself for sure.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
What about you, I would I don't give out fives,
so I would say it's probably four to four point
five somewhere in that area. I loved this movie. You
know that, Nathan and I. You've seen it three times.
I went into this movie with one north star, and

(47:05):
that was our theory from Dead Reckoning as to whether
or not Grace was Ethan's daughter. I wanted to see
if that was going to be accurate. It held up.
I watched it a second time. It held up even more.
I watched it a third time. I am one hundred
percent convinced. I fell asleep during the scenes. It didn't
matter with it. One hundred percent convinced. Plus it just

(47:30):
for Ethan the point it's now far enough. If you
haven't seen this movie, you can skip to the next
part of this podcast. But for Ethan Hunt. They wanted
to make this There's only one person on the planet
that should be entrusted with this technology, with this responsibility,
and that's Ethan. Because Ethan is genuinely good. And I

(47:52):
loved the way that they closed that ouse that was
set up from the rest of the franchise. Absolutely, and
that was very well told. Absolutely. All right, Lelo and Stitch,
somebody go yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
I think I gave it a three point five, which
is pretty middle of the road for me.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
I read a lot of movies at that middle of
the effect is four for me, really, but I'm just more.
I guess I like movies more. That's fair.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Well, you and I have a different rhetoric. That's true
rubric for parading anyway, No, it was it was a fun,
fresh take on the movie. There were some things like
I think Jumbo was a little weird and I missed
Ganto a little bit. But as for the movie, I
liked it. We are definitely in the minority from what
I'm hearing about liking the ending. Yeah, most people I'm

(48:42):
seeing at least some line do not like the ending.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
But I liked it. I thought it was a good
live action adaptation. Yay. I gave it four point five.
I think for what they were wanting to achieve with
the remake, I mean, you look at Disney's live action remakes,
no doubt it's the best one. Yeah, it made what
it was. I don't know. Cinderella was pretty good.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
I never watched it all right, But with Leland Stitch,
I liked the changes. I whoever they got to play Lelo,
she did an amazing She was really fantastic. Stitch was cute,
not too realistic for the movie. I was worried they

(49:26):
were gonna just like.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Make him a rat and then like cars Sonic. Yeah,
exactly like that. But no, he was still cute. He
was still fun. It was a fun movie, felt more
emotional in some parts, and that maybe I'm just older
than when I watched the original Lelon Stitch, but I
knew it even got mom more than the original one.
I didn't it have more time to breathe. It did
have more time to breathe. And so I think for

(49:47):
what they were trying to achieve, very well done. I
think it struggled with the ending being a slightly rushed.
I feel like we kind of just jumped right into
it a little quick compared to the original one. Yeah,
but I mean it's not an issue. I think it's
still told the story exactly how they needed to tell it.
I enjoyed it. Yeah, it's good. Uh Nate, yep, the

(50:10):
Big Boy, the one that you've been waiting to see
for a long time. You were genuinely nervous going into it.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Very much Train your Dragon well the originals of five
and this was just pretty much an updated version of
the original.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
So a five for sure.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
I mean it's you hear live action remake and you
immediately like, yikes, there was no reason to do that
for this one. I mean, the best CG I've seen
in the movie in a long time, And after rewatching
it last night, that was just confirmed, Like I was
actively searching bad CG and I and I was like,

(50:49):
how did they do this? And you know a lot
of those movies, and I mean you even go to like,
I'll compare it to a not great live actually remake
of Lion King. All the all the characters, well they're
still c GI characters, and they still look artificial. They
have like a weird artificial shine and like looking at
like an outline, and I was looking for that in

(51:10):
this one with the dragons, and I'm just like, they
just did such an excellent job with just moving it
into this and all the actors did amazing. And you
get Dar Butler back as Stoic, but Mason Thames's Hiccup
did a fantastic job. And whoever played after that, I
remember name, she did great.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
I mean, I really just for How to Train Your Dragon,
it was amazing and I cannot wait to see and
torn part in the second one.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
That's gonna be a lot, and then I hope that
they make the third one. But truly, I mean I
think that this allows the next generation of fans to
be able to get into How to Paying Dragon. We
saw that last night and there was a lot.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Of young kids at that movie that did obviously hadn't
seen the Originals before. There was a little girl that
after Hiccup fell into the fire at the end, it
was is it started laughing. But I mean that just
shows when you were at.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
Epic Universe and we were walking through the gift shop
in Burke and one of the kids was like, I
want this dragon that I was like, let's wait till
you watch the movie and then you can decide what
dragon you want.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Like, there are a bunch of kids that haven't see
these movies that are now going to see these movies
and fall in love with it the same way that
Sam and I did, which is it feels kind of
like how I'm sure it felt like with you for
Star Wars with a sequel trophy seeing a bunch of
new fans come into it. And now we're seeing a
bunch of new fans come to something that we loved
for for so long, and so that's highly highly recommended. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
For me, the original is of four and the reason
I do that is because they get better with each one.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
So I can't start at five originals four No, I
think all of them are five. Literally, none of them
are dead. Okay, well, but the end this one was
a four.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
It was pretty much shot for shot, line for line
a lot of time, which and this isn't a dig
at the movie. This is just me not knowing exactly
what I want from a live action remake yet. Do
I want them to take liberties or do I want
them to make a shot for shot I don't know yet,
because I liked Leland Stitch and they took some liberties

(53:16):
in that, and I like this. I probably liked it
this more honestly, which maybe you like the.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
Source material love this more true, but this was pretty
much shot for shot and it was great. So I
don't know. Added twenty seven more minutes runtime to this movie, Yep,
it didn't feel like it. No. I think they just let.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Certain scenes breathe a little longer. For the most part,
it was pretty much longer a little bit, yeah, by like.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
A minute and a half. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
But the movie itself was great, and yeah, I mean
we're going to talk about it from now on.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
The visuals were great.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
If it isn't at least nominated for an Oscar and visuals,
that would be a crime.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Yeah. Visual effects are the best.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
It was.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
It was incredible, very very long time. I liked I
really like How to Train Your Dragon. I don't have
the emotional connection with the story that you guys have,
just like I don't have the emotional connection to Lelo
and Stitch that you guys had. I liked Leelo and Stitch.
I thought it was really really good. Don't care if
I ever see it again. Yeah, uh, How to Train
Your Dragon really really enjoyed. It was not as I

(54:22):
did not recall the emotional content that's in this. The
thing that I struggle with with How To Train Your
Dragon is the the quick heel turn on the dads
in this. It's like the dads are kind of bad
guys for the first two thirds of this movie seting
they're treating their kids parably. They're you know that kind

(54:45):
of situation. You got that with Stoic. I think Stoke.
You can tell Stoic loves his loves Hiccup, but Stowack's like,
I want you to be this, this, this, this, this,
this this, And then even when he's proud of him,
it's because you're getting you're a dragon killer, You're that,
and then all of a sudden it's like, boom, you're
no longer my son. And then boom, we're good again,

(55:06):
right as I struggle with that in these movies. This
movie is specifically yeah, and I.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Can understand that, but coming from a perspective like I
know you haven't seen the second one in a long time,
but coming from the perspective of Sam and I or
maybe just me, that doesn't feel as drastic when you
know what Volka's opinions on dragons are, which are the
same as hiccups. So it came from a place of
I've hurt, hurt, yes, and of like, well, she was

(55:34):
saying the same dragons, and so you feel that, and
then you come back to this and you're like, you
don't understand why he was so against it, but he
still had that seed kind of planted in his mind
of dragons.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
So well, we got a lot of lots of still
covering the podcast, so I want to keep things moving forward.
But we've got a lot of movies coming out in July,
Jurassic World, Rebirth, Superman, Fantastic Board, First Steps. I'll start
with I'll I already know your answer. I'll start with
you saying I'm curious about of those movies, I don't
think the Jurassic World is the one you already said
you're gonna skip it. Superman, are Fantastic War, which one

(56:06):
of your most excited about Superman? Okay, and you're Superman.
I'm most excited about Superman. I'm most intrigued about Fantastic No. Yeah,
I can guess all those words to Superman right now
because so much is writing on it. I agree, I
agree wholeheartedly. But if it because Fantastic Force coming out

(56:26):
two weeks later, this is what I think. I think
Superman is going to be a triumph. Everything I see
from this movie right now tells me it's going to
be a box office juggernaut, first billion dollar movie of
the year. And I think that they're going to deliver.
They're going to open up the DCU really really effectively,
like powerfully. Right. So, then two weeks later, you've got

(56:49):
Fantastic Four coming out in an era where Marble has
already lost the shine's gone from the Diamonds, Thunderbolts didn't
even make its budget. Exactly what's going Actually, there's some fancy,
funny math with the way. There is a little bit
of funny math. But anyway, Fantastic four is going to
have a lot of pressure when it comes out so

(57:11):
I'm intrigued to see how that plays, all right. It
is very interesting to think about how the Jurassic franchise
and the MCU that we've been talking about are struggling
to find their way while the DCU is rebooting under
James Gunn, who recently must have listened to our episode
from December twenty twenty three when we said that the

(57:33):
future of these franchises has to follow the blueprint of
Godzilla minus one story first ip second. James Gunn recently
said that that's the model that he's following with Superman,
and it feels like this is the strategy that Tony
Gilroy used with and Or, which is both a critical
and a popular super success. Meanwhile, a report from The

(57:57):
Hollywood Reporter suggests that Dave Alone and Carrie Beck are
next in line to lead lucasfilm. So what does this
mean for the future of a galaxy far far away?
You've taken your first step into a larger world, all right.
So when you guys heard the rumors that Felony was
potentially taking on a larger role, even beyond creative, because

(58:19):
a director potentially replacing Kathleen Kennedy, what was your initial reaction.
Was it excitement, was it a little trepidation? Was it
a little bit of both. I'm super excited. I mean,
I don't think that there is.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
A bigger fan in Lucasfilm that has this type of
authority that will do better at telling these stories.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
I love his stories with Star Wars. I mean, we've
seen it, and there.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Are a lot of people that love the stories. I
think just people like to hate what's popular. It's frustrating
when people start hating on Filony when they said in
Flowing we trust for it feels like my entire life
we've seen Clone Wars is amazing, Rebels is amazing. Mavalorian
pretty freaking fantastic.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Well he was only he was speaking in Dimandal World.
He was, and he's not. John Ahska spectacular, in my opinion,
one of the most outside of the movies. It feels
the most Star Wars and I I think we'll talk
about this a little bit later, the differences between and
Or and Ahsoka, and I'll expand on more what I

(59:23):
said earlier in the podcast, But I truly do think
that Filoni, the head of Lucasfilm, could never be a
bad thing. Sam there when you go back and you
watch some of the Ahsoka specifically, right because that's Feloni's
first live action like the thing that he's done. It

(59:44):
tends to be what the complaints about Ahsoka, the criticisms
of Ahsoka, where if you're not if you don't know rebels,
you can't watch it. It's too tied to it's too
tied to the lore, too tied to the previous stories
for you to pick up on it. And that's a
challenge because Faloni is neck deep in Star Wars lore,

(01:00:10):
so when he writes a story, it's all real for him.
He isn't seeing it from the casual fan, the Normi's
perspective with it. Do you think that could be a
problem if Dave Filoni is leading Lucasfilm and helping drive
these stories.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Yeah, I mean I can definitely see I can definitely
see how that's a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
It depends on the direction that Lucasfilm wants to go
with Star Wars. Right now, I think the.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
Advantage that and Or has is it's not really connected
to anything. You can watch that show from start to
finish not having seen anything else Star Wars pretty much
and you'll be fine, right, Absolutely so, I think that
gave a lot of people who heard the online buzz
like I got Disney. Plus they're familiar with Star Wars,
but they're like, let's see what the hype is about, right,

(01:01:03):
and they watch it, right, and they liked it. With
with Ahsoka, you can't do that, I mean, I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
You're talking about the show that's titled after character that
was introduced in a TV show.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
You're right, You're right, and that may just be an
inherent issue with it, right, I mean Mando. I guess
you could probably watch Mando without and that would be fine.
I think it gets a little more tied into stuff
later down the road once you start bringing the.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
Criticisms of season three are the same criticism.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
That's where like Cocatan and all of them show back, well,
she's in season two she was okay, well Mandalora and
all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
So I don't know, It's it's tough. I can. If
Lucasfilm wants to go, hey, let's try to bring in
new people, they're gonna need to go closer to the
and or route, right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
But if they want to be hey, let's really dive
into this story that we have already set.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
Up, they need to go to Filoni route. Okay, let's
let's us talk about what we love here for a minute,
all right, So we love Rebels, we love Clone Wars,
we love Filony, we love Ahsoka. You guys both picked
the Soca over and Or as your favorite between the two.
So what is it about Dave Filoni's approach to Star
Wars that resonates with you guys so much? What does

(01:02:20):
he bring to the table that you feel like is
uniquely his heart? I mean, I'm not saying that and
Or didn't have heart feeling, but maybe hope is the
right word.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Is closer to the word I'm needing. I'm meaning here, joy,
I don't know something like that. I think they both
had heart and feeling behind what being made, but one
was a lot more I guess light side anyway. And
that's that's Falani, right, there's with Rebels and all of
that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
Sure, there are some dark moments, especially in Clone Wars too.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
I mean that gets pretty heavy, but it always comes
back around to the good guys win and it's like
an overwhelming triumph, right, and there's always this hope to it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
When and Or it was kind of depressing the whole time.
I think that Dave Filoni brings like kind of what
Sam says, but levity there there's always a good feeling
when you finish a felony ip kind of even within

(01:03:29):
the Rebels last five episodes hurting so much, you still
get a sense of hope and a sense of good afterwards.
I mean, there's always something towards the end. And even
with Ahsoka, the entire entire first season is continuing to
search for Ezra and continuing to search of a way

(01:03:52):
to stop throng Like it feels like there is a
very distinct line between good and evil, light side and
dark side.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
When you're watching something that Dave Flemmy makes for Star
Wars of and Or it was Living in the Gray,
which is not a problem, and Or was amazing, and
and Or was Star Wars. I'm not saying that, but
when I think of if you put and Or back
in the eighties with that kind of Star Wars, it
wouldn't work as well as if you put Ahsoka back
in the eighties and had it with that Star Wars.

(01:04:23):
Because it feels like an easier transition for even newer
fans to go from watching the Skywalker saga and then
watching Ahsoka. Then I feel like it would be for
Star Wars fans to watch the Skywalkersaga and watch.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
And Or In terms of tone, you mean yes, and yeah,
I mean, and it changes things. It's darker. I mean,
it's grittier. It's it feels closer to something like if
you throw back in the eighties, right, it feels something
closer to like Alien. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I mean it's darker,
it's more grounded. Tony Gilroy has said he really doesn't

(01:04:57):
he doesn't even really watch the movie, didn't really watch
the Star Wars movies. He's not into Star Wars, right,
and he's making this this show. It's funny you guys
are talking about people could watch and or that didn't
really get into Star Wars or I haven't watched Star Wars.
I had a thread Twitter or threads. I think it
was threads, threads back and forth with the guy that
plays Mike in the TV show Suits with Patrick Dick Adams.

(01:05:19):
You know, this is not not Harvey speculator, but Mike
the lawyer that's cheating his way into So anyway, those
of you listening, you know, we were talking and he's like,
I'm not a star Wars fan, I really, I mean,
I don't have a problem with Star Wars, but I
just never really got into the movies. I just watched
Ander and I love it, and I said, you're the
exact target audience.

Speaker 4 (01:05:40):
For and Or.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
Yeah, I don't. And this has been This is where
this comes. It becomes a bit of a challenge because
I mean, can Ander George Lucas has said Star Wars
should be for twelve year olds? Yeah, right, we acknowledged
even on our previous episode when we talked about Ander.
Star Wars has changed. It's fifty years. There are old

(01:06:04):
guys like me that need that want their Star Wars
and we can have it through things like and Or
that we're in the Star Wars universe. But it's an
adult driven show. But can you can you introduce kids
to Star Wars through something like and Well?

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
I think, well, I don't think I wouldn't let I
wouldn't let a twelve year old watch Handler. I mean,
that's that's it might be controversial, but there's a lot
of heavy stuff. And even you've goven to the point
of if content wise, if it's too heavy, I don't
think that they would understand that the complex weight.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
And complexity of it, because wouldn't be able to even
appreciate that's fair. I think so, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
Don't think it's I don't think you can introduce younger
audiences to and Or. But that's not to say that
and Or being in Star Wars is a bad thing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
No, I'm not saying. The context for this conversation, though,
is which Drew I would use the right direction for
Star Wars. Is it the Loney's version of Star Wars
or is it Gilroy's version. I think that there's plenty
of options for both, And I mean, of course, if
you ask me, I'm going to bring dc into everything.

(01:07:14):
You can look at what James Gunn is doing for
the DCU right now, and he's even specifically said it.
He's like, if there's a movie or a project that
needs to be more family oriented in PG thirteen, we're
going to make sure it stays that way. But if
there's something that needs to be kind of R rated
and more for the adults, we're gonna make sure it
stays that way. Is going to be areas for both people.

(01:07:38):
They're making a Starfire animated series that's more geared towards
the tweens, teens, kids kind of thing. And then you're
gonna be getting this Mister Miracle TV show, which I'm
gonna talk about a little later, not for kids, not
even closed. It's dark, it's really heavy. And then you're
gonna get Peacemaker and you're gonna have Superman coming out
both to a month of each other. One for family,

(01:08:00):
one's certainly not. You look at Star Wars you're gonna
get and or not for kids, you're gonna get a Soka.
It very well could be for I would be completely
fine twelve year old watching Ahsoka. They love the Rebels,
they could go right into Ahsoka, or say love Clone
Wars can go right into Ahsoka. You don't need to
watch both Clone Wars and Rebels to understand Ahsoka. I

(01:08:22):
truly don't or even appreciate it. So I think it
just comes with the fact that you can have both.
I don't know why we feel like we have to
choose one or the other. Well, I mean, I don't
think that we need to choose one or the other.
But the reality is when the conversation around Star Wars
right now is overwhelmingly give me more gilt and or

(01:08:47):
give me more that's going to be more of that style.
Of course, that's going to be the dialogue. I think
we had this yere well no, I mean, of course
that's what everyone's gonna saying online. Twelve year olds aren't
going to Twitter saying hey, give me more, Ahsoka, They're
just that's not how kids work.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
So of course it's the survivorship bias. It's like, oh,
you know everything is saying this, so it has to
be what the majority wants. No, that's just the only
people who can say that, right, Like, it's not a
fair metric to say everyone online wants this.

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
Thing, right, That's what I was saying about like Young
Jedi Adventures last podcast, like they're telling everybody watch give
me more. Like we're not gonna get that, right, But
you look at the ratings, Sam. Do you think that
these two styles can co exist in the I think
they have to.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
I think, like Nathan was saying, the world of franchises
is going to have to diversify now because these franchises
are so long standing. Now that you are, you have
this weird era where there's people like you Dad, and
then even Nathan and I to an extent, these generations

(01:09:55):
who grew up on it, wanting more mature stories in
this world. So you're gonna have to cater to them
because there there's still customers that are going to give
you money. But these people have their own kids that
they want to bring into it too, and if there
isn't something for them, they lose out on customer.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
Right. You look at Marvel now, and I mean we
grew up with Marvel and that was a little bit
more family oriented, it really was, and then now you're
getting our age that are growing out of it. It
still love Marvel. And then you get Gardens of the
Galaxy three, which was PG. Thirteen and yes, families can watch,

(01:10:30):
but he was dark, it was heavy, Daredevil born again.
They're not kids. Not kids in the Netflix era too.
We never watched Underbolts. It's whole the discussion was about
the depression. I mean, like, come on.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
So Marvel's Marvel is trying to figure that out right now,
I feel like they're leaning more towards the adulter side
of things currently, but I think Fantastic four is going
to reel that back. But I do think that, like
Sam said, franchises are going to have to learn how
the diverse spuff.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
So what aspects of Feloney's Star Wars can benefit from
Gilray's influence and vice versa, what can they learn from
each other.

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
I think that it's you can't have the light has
no impact if you don't have the dark, and I
think that that can be shown in both. It was
really hard to watch and Or, and it barely had
any moments of like real hope outside of maybe Mathma's
speech at the end of season two. It was just

(01:11:31):
depressing the entire show. But Felony, a lot of his
stuff is while he has dark moments, a lot of
it's uplifting and lighter. So if they can find that
balance of having those moments of pure dread in Filoney's stuff,
that lets his hope and uplifting hit so much more.
And then vice versa with Tony Gilroy and have those

(01:11:52):
dark moments be just supposed with moments were seeing of
the galaxy rising up like you could do an and
Or like, Okay, the rest of the galaxy is learning
how that this rebellion is the thing because we knew
that there were they even mentioned it in and Or
that there were tons of cells of rebels around.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
There, but we never really saw that.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
We never saw the rest of the galaxy rising up
outside of amb I mean I loved, would have loved
to have seen more cells like Phoenix Squadron and what
they're doing in the galaxy, because then that would give
me a sense of the rebellions bigger than and rebels.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
True, So just watch rebels and ander together and then
boom your what do you think? You know? What would
you take from both sides of this? And I think
Nathan kind of stole not stolen you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:40):
You You and I have the same opinion with that.
I think both can learn to balance each other in
more ways than just tone. I think content wise as well.
I think filoni stuff can learn to be a little
more general and then go where stuff could be a
little more leaned into the larger story. I'm I mean
all the yeah for US Star Wars fans, and only

(01:13:02):
things in and or that were really sing our teeth
and do or some stuff in like the shop like
some like background stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
You know. Well, I would say that more than that,
I would say that Flowony needs to level up as
a live action director, writer, producer and take from Gilroy
the fact that every shot was beautiful and perfect and
special effects were great. Gilroy understands. You you show, you

(01:13:34):
don't tell. Flani has a real problem with telling instead
of showing a lot too much exposition. Yeah, not as
much as as much that type of stuff and just
story first, lower ip cameos seconds, But you can do
both of those together. I agree on this. One interesting

(01:13:58):
thing to consider is that the next Live action Star
Wars that we're getting his mandaloriin and Grogu, the Africa
release coming in May of twenty six. It's directed by Fabreau,
but he's being heavily influenced by Dave Feloni with that,
and then after that we're getting season two of his Soca.
So gil Roy has said he has no more interest

(01:14:20):
in doing Star Wars. So it seems that this direction
going forward is going to be Felony verse by default.
All right, anything else, you guys want to talk about?
Anything else? Yeah? We got the villain for the new
Toy story. It's an iPad. Are you serious? Yeah? Yeah,
it's the whole against the iPad. I mean, because nobody

(01:14:44):
plays a toys anymore. It's just every kids on the right.
So that's the villain pretty much in the new movie,
which I love it. That's true. I like it. I
like that all right. Date.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
Yes, we got announced yesterday that we're getting a Mister
Miracle animated TV series for DC student. Whether it's in
the DCU or not, I don't know. Somebody's gonna ask
James Gunn on thread and I want to respond in
like two days. But if they do, as a choice,
I mean, you have dark Sight already finding the anti

(01:15:14):
life equation, so it's like if Thanos found all the
Infinity Stones within the first like two projects iron Yeah, exactly,
it would be a choice. But also it's based off
of Tom King's Mister Miracle comics series. If you haven't
read it, I highly recommend just don't take mushrooms before
you read it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:33):
I think you will trip out. But you can't watch
the last episodes of the studio if you want right,
exactly mushrooms. I am speaking of reading. I'm rereading the
prequel novels. Oh yeah, they're better than the movies. The
movies are great. Attack of the Clones, Phantom Menace, Revenge
of the Say, they're great. The novels are. You should
read the sequel trilogy novels. I've already read them. No

(01:15:57):
I'm already I'm doing all of that with it. But
they they're fantastic. I highly encourage it. Like the first
three chapters of Attack of the Clones happened before you
get to the opening crawl of Attack of the Clones.
It's that's like an hour and a half worth of
reading before you get to the it's all. It's all
like character and world building. That's really it's really really cool.

(01:16:17):
All right. I think that's going to do it pretty
much for this week. I you know, listen, if you're
if you're looking for a community, find us on socials
because we are seeing something really cool that's being built
up on that. Stay on everything we are. I mean,
Blue Sky is for people that are angry about everything political.
So I really stay off of that right now because
even the Star Wars people are just talking politics there.

(01:16:38):
But Threads is where we're finding most of our engagements.
Will find us there with it. You know, share your
thoughts with this, engage with us. I'd love to love
to stay connected with it. Yeah, of course, anything else
you guys want to say. Fourth, to be with you, man,
to be with you, als, be with you always.

Speaker 3 (01:16:55):
Thank you for listening to Tattooine Sums, a Star Wars podcast.
Please subscribe and follow Tattooine Suns on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube,
or your favorite podcast app. Tattooine Sons regularly publishes thoughtful
articles intended to provoke conversation about the larger themes in
Star Wars. Go to tattooinsuns dot com to explore further

(01:17:17):
and may the Force be with you always.

Speaker 4 (01:17:20):
This podcast, website, and social media accounts are not endorsed
by the Walt Disney Company or Lucasfilm Limited, and it's
intended for entertainment purposes only.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
Star Wars.

Speaker 4 (01:17:26):
All names and sounds, and any other Star Wars related
items and properties are trademarks of Lucasfilm Limited and its affiliates.
All original contents of this podcast in website is the
intellectual property of Tattooing Sons unless otherwise indicated

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