December 2, 2024 • 46 mins
In honor of Moana 2, Mike takes on the world of animated sequels to rank his Top 7 of all time! From timeless classics to modern marvels, see which sequels truly live up to the magic of their originals. In the Movie Review, Mike shares his thoughts on Disney's highly anticipated Moana 2—does it capture the same heart and adventure as the first? Are the songs memorable? Or was it just a cash grab? Is The Rock a better voice actor than a live action actor? In the Trailer Park, Mike breaks down the upcoming Minecraft movie based on the video game. Will it be a block-buster or just a pixelated flop?
New Episodes Every Monday!
Watch on YouTube: @MikeDeestro
Follow Mike on TikTok: @mikedeestro
Follow Mike on Instagram: @mikedeestro
Follow Mike on X: @mikedeestro
Follow Mike on Letterboxd: @mikedeestro
Email: MovieMikeD@gmail.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am
your host Movie Mike. Today I want to share with
you my top five animated sequels in honor of Mowana
I coming out over the weekend. We'll talk about more
sequels to animated movies and whether or not they lived
up to the original. Maybe some of these were better
than the original. Then we'll get into a spoiler Freemana review,
and in the trailer park we'll talk about a new
(00:21):
video game adaptation Minecraft. I've been waiting to talk about
this trailer because the first one came out and it
was so cringe worthy. Second trailer giving me a much
different perspective on what I thought about this movie. So
we'll get into that. Thank you for being here, Thank
you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday Morning
Movie crew. He Now, let's talk movies.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTB with glasses.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
From the Nashville Podcast. Now this Movie Mike Movie Podcast.
I have my top five animated sequels of all time.
We're going different animation studios, from Disney to Pixar, to
dream Works to Sony, and for this list, I decided
to do direct sequels only, so I'm only talking about
part twos, because really, anything after a part one is
(01:21):
a sequel, a part three is a sequel, a part
four is a sequel. But I wanted to limit the
discussion to a part two because there's always so much
anticipation to get to that sequel from an animated movie.
Because with all these they come from movies that define
a genre. They defined an entire franchise. One is so
definitive that you're always looking into how are you gonna
(01:44):
match those same expectations and how do you build upon
the story without just making the same movie over again,
which is really what any sequel has to face. So
we're going to get into this list. I have some
honorable mentions. You know, I love animation, so let's get
right into the list. At number five, I have Frozen
two from Disney, and I was a late comer to
(02:04):
Frozen whenever the first one came out. I was just
checked out at Disney. For the most part, I feel
like Disney took a bit of a tumble into twenty
tens as far as my interest in it. The movies
are really lacking imagination and if it wouldn't have been
for Frozen, they would have had a rough twenty tens.
And the reason that movie, I feel was so successful
is because Let It Go was such a massive hit,
(02:25):
and I think I just got tired of hearing that song,
saw it all over YouTube. It was just the center
of pop culture when it came to movies, So I
didn't really look back into this franchise until Frozen two
came out and I was like, Okay, let me check
out Frozen one, go back and watch Frozen two. And
watching those movies both together, I feel like Frozen two
(02:45):
is the stronger movie because I think overall it has
the better story. It deals with heavier themes, that shows
the different consequences of that, and I just think it
is stronger overall because it goes into deeper the connection
between these characters. You get more into Elsa and Anna's background.
So Let It Go and do you want to build
a Snowman? Pave the way for Frozen two. But what
(03:07):
into the unknown hits and Frozen two that really gets me.
I love that song, and I feel like it's because
that song feels a little less kid friendly. It has
a really great melody, really strong harmonies, and I just
feel like overall it has much more of an emotional
impact on the story. So that is why I like
this movie actually better than Frozen one, and it is
(03:28):
a perfect sequel. First one came out in twenty thirteen.
There was a lot of anticipation when this one came
out in twenty nineteen. We have Frozen three supposedly coming
out on November twenty four to twenty twenty seven, so
obviously that is gonna get massive. I think Disney is
just trying to bank upon all of their big properties.
Frozen is a juggernaut franchise. So at number five, I
(03:50):
have Frozen two from twenty nineteen. At number four from Sony,
I have Spider Man Across the Spider Verse came out
in twenty twenty three. Visually, this movie is better than
the first one. I think overall, Part one in this
series is the stronger movie because I feel like that
is a complete story. It is Miles Morales's origin story,
(04:12):
and overall you get a full character arc of what
it is to be Spider Man, and that movie felt
so refreshing, It was fun, no holds barred when it
came to what could be a Spider Man movie. So
I think that is why that movie was so novel
and so inventive that in a franchise with a character
that we've seen so many iterations from w. Maguire Andrew Garfield,
(04:34):
Tom Holland, the question was how do you reinvent that again?
And they completely nailed it in that first movie, So
that movie can hold its own and stand on its
own without any help of any other Spider Man movie.
I think that is why it is a better movie. However,
Part two is so much better visually and really ramps
(04:55):
up the character in the third act of this movie.
Problem is it is split into two, so if I
were gonna sit down and just watch one movie, it
would be Part one. But Part two is so strong
and feels like such a great roller coaster. And overall
I have become so invested in the miles of Spider
Gwin love story. Their entire relationship between the first and
(05:16):
the second movie has me captivated more than any other
Spider Man loves story and above all the things that
I want to see play out and get wrapped up
from part one. That is really what I cannot wait
to see, because I think the great thing about Spider
Man movies are these love stories. This will they won't
they between all of the love interests, the really sad
(05:38):
things that have happened to Mary, Jane and Gwen over
the years. So I don't know what direction they are
going to go in, but I have to imagine it
isn't going to end the way we all want it
to based on across the Spider Verse Part one. This
movie also did a really great job introducing new characters
from Spider Punk to my now new favorite Spider Man
(06:00):
twenty ninety nine, which I wasn't that familiar with going
into this movie, but now I love The character has
a fantastic suit. I've invested some time in the comic
books getting to know more about the origin story of
Miguel O'Hara, so it has been great for me as
a new fan, but I think people who have been
familiar with this character now for a very long time
since the nineties has to be really cool and what
(06:22):
an investment to finally see this character come to life
in a really great way and overall last year it
was one of my favorite in theater experiences. And I
also love the fact that Miles Morales aged from part
one to Part two. I think that is something that
should be explored more in animation, that you actually grow
in age with the character, much like you would with
the real actor, because sometimes animated movies are kind of
(06:45):
frozen in time. I get that you want to have
animated characters look the same all throughout the movies because
you can keep making these forever and ever. So I
think it's a very interesting kind of situation that this
movie is gonna paint itself into, because eventually you gotta
get older and older and older. So even though I
think Part one is better than Part two, it is
still a fantastic sequel, and that is why it is
(07:07):
that number four on my top five animated sequels. At
number three from two thousand and four from DreamWorks, it
is Shrek two. Some people believe that Shrek two is
the superior Shrek movie. There are some arguments to that story. Again,
I'm gonna hold these all to a very high standard,
and they have made my list for a reason, but
I also feel the need in some of these to
(07:29):
defend part one versus Part two. Shrek two has a
great villain. You have the Fairy Godmother, arguably one of
the best villains in animation overall. When you look at
the numbers, Shrek two was a bigger commercial success, making
one billion dollars worldwide, which is wild to me. How
much of a choke hold the Shrek franchise had to
(07:50):
sell in And it was because that first one was
so successful. You had that anticipation going into this one.
That is why this one was one of the most
successful movies of the two thousands and made more money
than any movie in this franchise. It was inevitable with
all the DVD sales from Shrek one, Shrek two was
a guaranteed hit. They just had to get it out there.
(08:11):
And I think why people enjoy Shrek two more is
because it leans more into the comedy, making fun of
fairy tales. It gets a little bit more whimsical. But
what I enjoyed more about Shrek one is the way
that the character was actually portrayed as being an ogre.
I think that is what truly defines the character, and
I get that Shrek becomes a little bit softer as
(08:33):
the movies go on and on, he becomes a little
bit more human. He gets married and Fiona, much like
I feel like in my relationship, Kelsey has made me better.
Fiona makes him better, makes him a more rounded out human.
He has a little bit more of a dilemma that
goes into effect in Shrek two. But in Shrek one,
I like Shrek being an ogre. I like how he
(08:55):
just wants to stick to his swamp and hang out there.
He gets annoyed by Don. He doesn't want to go
on this quest. He hates everybody that he encounters because
ultimately he just wants to be chilling at his home
and not be bothered. And that is the side of
Shrek I enjoy more. But again, I don't think it
is a quality issue here that I'm fighting for. It
is merely a preference issue. One and two are both great.
(09:19):
I think overall story wise, two is probably stronger, but
one will always be my favorite. Nonetheless, it is really
hard to make an animated sequel be as impactful as
the first one, and Shrek two did that, And I
think overall DreamWorks is really good at creating animated franchises
and having strong part twos look at their history Kung
(09:41):
Fu Panda Tu, How To Train Your Dragon to Puss
in Boots two DreamWorks, I feel is an underrated animation studio.
I feel like overall they are better at building franchises
over Disney and over Pixar. And we also have Strik
five to look forward to supposedly coming out in summer
twenty twenty six at number three. I have Shrek two
(10:02):
from two thousand and four at number two from Pixar
in nineteen ninety nine, I have Toy Story two. Toy
Story two is really strong. One is always going to
be my favorite, Part three is always going to be
my second favorite, and Part two will always be in
that number three slot. But again, I think overall, Toy
Story is the best Pixar franchise of all time. Was
(10:25):
their first computer generated movie, and I think in that
first one, it was really them realizing can this even
be possible? Can you make an entire movie from computer
generated animation? And that movie proved that. But I think
a lot of the hurdles that they had to overcome
and making that movie was just dealing with the technology.
(10:47):
If you go back and rewatch the original version of
that which now they have remastered on Disney Plus, so
it looks way better if you haven't seen it in
a while and you go rewatch Toy Story one, it
looks so much better. Reid watched it maybe a couple
of years ago, and it felt like I was rewatching
it again for the first time because all the colors
were more vibrant. It felt a little bit more smooth.
(11:08):
If you go back and actually rewatch the first one, Oh,
it looks so data now because it was so new.
It almost looked like you were watching a PlayStation one
game take place on screen. But at the time it
was so innovative. But I think a lot of those
hurdles came with just making sure that all the animation
worked and using that to tell the story. If you
(11:28):
look at Toy Story one versus Toy Story four, it
looks like night and day almost just looking at examples,
like the dog in the first one, it looks computer generated,
but you can look at an image of a cat
from Toy Story four and it looks real. So there
have been major improvements from one to four, but there
were also major improvements from one to two. I think
(11:49):
where two really shines is the writing was so much better.
And funnier because it was almost as if they were like, Okay,
we got the animation down, now how do we build
upon this story? And Toy Story two introduces two characters
now that you can't look at Toy Story and not
think about Jesse and think about Bullseye. And it was
the introduction of those characters that brought almost a more
(12:11):
adult theme to the story because the first one is
really just about the toys and learning about Oh, these
toys have feelings and they want to be played with
and they're worried about being forgotten. It's really all about
Woody and his abandonment issues. Whenever buzz light Year comes
around starts taking some of the shine away from him,
all the posters of wood He come down and the
(12:32):
buzz light Year posters go up. But then in part two,
the themes just kind of widen a little bit and
there is much more on the line and Toy Story
two where you start thinking more about all of these characters' motivations,
their emotional struggles. Woody becomes a way more complex character
as he learns about the history of him and thinking, oh,
(12:53):
there are people out there who would actually want to
see me and I can live on forever in this museum.
Start struggling with this internal conflict of leaving Andy behind
and thinking, well, and he's been there since the beginning.
Jesse's like, yo, he's gonna leave you anyway, look what
my owner did to me. And then you have the
song when She Loved Me That ooh, I think it
(13:14):
rivals as the best song in the Toy Story franchise.
Obviously You've Got a Friend in Me is the theme song,
and I feel like you can't really put that song
in the same conversation. So if it was second to
one song, it would be that one, because that is
the song you think about when you think about Toy Story.
But When She Loved Me hits you feel an emotional
connection that you haven't really felt before in an animated
(13:35):
movie paired with music, because in part one, when you
kind of feel that is whenever they play strange things.
And like I was talking about earlier, when Woody sees
all of his posters going down and the buzz light
your stuff going up, that hits too. I feel like
that hits me more than an adult now thinking about
being replaced. But that has a little bit more of
a comedic tone. When when she loved Me hits. It's like,
(13:57):
oh my gosh. You see her from being the center
of a tension in this kid's world and then being
discarded on the side of the road. Why would you
leave toys on the side of the road anyway, How
sad was that? And the great thing about Toy Story
two is it built upon the first one and stay
true to the heart of the film, focusing on some
of these same themes but widening them up. Toy Story
(14:19):
Two became the highest grossing Disney sequel of the nineties,
and this was before Disney acquired Pixar. But I feel
like it set the blueprint for the decade to come
of really taking into consideration putting a lot of money
and promotion and integrity behind sequels. Because Disney in the
(14:39):
decade before this, the way they would put their sequels
out is it would be straight to video, and you'd
have The Lion King come out in ninety four, and
then you have Lion King Part two, Simba's Pride. There's
like a ladd intwo. There's all these sequels that don't
really have the same weight as the original. It's just
kind of seen as I let's try to make some
more money off of this. So even though Disney's involvement
(15:01):
wasn't with Pixar at this time, I feel like with
this movie being so successful, it made Pixar and later
Disney realize, hey, we should really spend more time and
effort into making sequels and building franchises instead of just
doing a one and done, because there are worlds to
create if there's a story there to be told. Before
I get to number one, I do have a lot
(15:22):
of honorable mentions. I wanted to mention Illumination as a
whole because I think that studio is doing really great
work and I still think their best is yet to come,
even though they've been crushing it for a long time
with all the Despicable Me movies, I feel like overall
the Menion movies have been really strong. I feel like
once they start leaning more into Nintendo with the success
(15:44):
of Super Mario, that that is really good to pop
off for them. But I would put on this list
Despicable Me Too, which is now one of the most
profitable animated franchises of all time, and that franchise does
a really good job of building that world. I feel
like with Despicable me for maybe they're kind of struggling
right now to decide where they want to take that
(16:05):
because one, two, and three really built upon that story. Oh,
it's just really hard to make a four. As hard
as it is to make a good two, it is
almost impossible to make a great four in an animated franchise.
And I think where they have seen some success is
with the spinoff movies. And my also honorable mention is
Minions The Rise of Grew, which is the prequel to
(16:25):
the entire story, And I think why those movies are
so fun because it gives the audience what they really want,
more Minions all the time. I think overall all the
Minions movies have been really strong, the first one coming
out in twenty fifteen, then following it up with a
sequel to that movie in twenty twenty two. So that's
why I put this one as an honorable mention. Another
honorable mention I have that was teetering on making it
(16:47):
in at number five was Ralph Breaks the Internet from
Disney in twenty eighteen. I think, overall record Ralph movies
are really great. That first one was just such a
big world that he created. What I love about recket
Ralph is how misunderstood of a character he is. He's
always seen as the villain, He's always seen as the
bad guy, and all he wants to do is become
(17:07):
a hero. You also have Penelope who kind of in
the same boat as him. In the first one, it's
all about the arcade style video games, and then the
second one he gets thrown into the Internet, which I
thought was also a lot of fun. But I feel overall,
when it comes to Disney movies, there are so many
other big movies that I feel this one gets forgotten
about a lot. So I wanted to include Wrecket Ralph
(17:29):
and the sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet, because I would
like to see a part three. Another honorable mention is
Finding Dory from Pixar in twenty sixteen, which is almost
essentially the story of the first one. I think overall
it is a solid movie, but it's a little bit forgettable.
That's why I wasn't fully comfortable putting it in my
top five. I remember watching it in theaters and thinking, oh,
(17:49):
that was a really fun time, but it's not really one.
I go back and rewatch a whole lot because the
first one is so strong and so iconic. I think
the fact that they probably waited a little bit too
long to make this sequel, that it didn't quite have
that same momentum and that same lasting ability that the
first one did. And my final honorable mention is The
Rescuers down Under. As a kid, I didn't realize that
(18:11):
this was a Part two because I only had this
VHS and I rewatched this movie a lot as a
kid has one of the wildest opening scenes for an
animated movie meant for kids that it was just like,
what is happening here? Why are all these movies teaching
me about death? So early on? You have John Candy
as Wilbur and I will always love this movie more
(18:31):
than Part one, But at number one, what I believe
is the best animated sequel, the best Part two of
all time actually came out this year in twenty twenty four.
It is Inside Out Too, from Pixar. Now. The first
one was truly groundbreaking, and that movie is a five
out of five at the top of the list, and
(18:52):
it was hard for me to imagine how they were
going to expand upon this story without making the same
movie again and again, because is dealing with Riley's emotions,
and what if your emotions had emotions, which is like
inception when it comes to Pixar, because Pixar is really
famous for giving things human qualities. What if your car
(19:12):
had feelings? What if your toys had feelings? What if
your feelings had feelings? Hear me out here. I didn't
know if it was gonna work whenever I saw Inside Out,
but man, they proved me wrong. There are some really
emotional hits in that movie that are pretty long standing
and really defining moments in cinema, especially when it comes
to animation. But what I love about Inside Out Too
(19:33):
is you can watch it without seeing part one, and
I think you would even benefit a little without knowing
what happens in part one, because it would feel a
little bit more novel. That is the only reason that
I think Inside Out two isn't better than part one
is because the overall concept just isn't new in this sequel.
(19:53):
But I think on an emotional level, and maybe more
so because I'm an adult, I felt like the story
and in Side Out Too was more complex and spoke
more to me. The introduction of anxiety and embarrassment and
all these teenage feelings. I feel overall might go over
some young kids' heads, but I think to somebody who
(20:14):
is probably going through this, and I always try to
think like that of putting myself in the age that
this is targeted to, and how I would feel if
this movie came out when I was at age, and
this would have been my favorite movie. I think even
now as an adult, it was me needing to relearn
some of these things and see these things played out
and inside out too. That was kind of a refresher
(20:35):
for me. And I think it's great when animated movies
really push those boundaries of how complex can you make
these characters, how many different emotions can you deal with?
Before you cross that line and go a little bit
over everybody's head. But I love that this movie doesn't
downplay it to its audience. It's hey, these are these feelings,
this is what anxiety makes to do. You've probably felt
(20:57):
this and didn't know even how to express that's what
you were feeling. But this movie does that. It hits
you on a level that you're not really expecting these
cute animated characters to make you feel. I think it
is the best Pixar sequel ever made. They have done
twenty four feature films in nine sequels, so really there
aren't that many Pixar sequels, and out of any sequel,
(21:19):
this one does the best upon building on the original
movie to get you to that next level. So if
they're gonna make Inside Out three, which I think there
are still potential to make a three, you kind of
have to decide how old you want to make rally
in that one, because you go past high school and
into college and it becomes an entirely different franchise. But
at number one, I have as the best animated sequel
(21:42):
Inside Out to Now, well Muwana end up making this list.
We'll talk about that next. I'll give you my spoiler
free review. Then in the trailer park we'll talk about
Minecraft and how the creator of this video game is
actually a billionaire. Let's get into it now. A spoiler
free review of Mowana too. The question I want to
answer by the end of this review is was it
(22:04):
even necessary? And yes, I know, I'm an adult man
talking about a movie primarily meant for kids, but it's
a Disney movie. It is important, So we're here to
talk about it. Pretty much. What this movie is about.
I hate to say it it's basically the same thing
as the first one. When it comes to the plotline,
Molana goes out on another big adventure. This one is
(22:26):
going to test her levels of being a leader now,
somebody now who can speak and communicate with the ocean
to a whole new level. So really, I would say,
if you didn't watch the first one, it's almost like
watching it again, and that kind of sucks. And I
know to the younger audience that's probably not really going
(22:47):
to matter. The fact that this movie pretty much follows
the exact same beats as Mowana one. I don't think
a kid is going to care about that. But for me,
as an adult, I just wanted something a little bit
more so to answer my question early on, I don't
really think this sequel was necessary. And when it comes
to Disney's plan of action with their movies on whether
(23:08):
they put them in theaters or whether they put them
on streaming, I feel like this one was kind of
rushed together and slapped on and put out in the theaters.
Because this one kind of came out out a knower
saying that, hey, we're gonna put out a new Muana
movie this year. We're also working on the live action
remake of the first one, it kind of feels like
(23:29):
they're just having a cash grab on Mawana as a whole.
And I feel like the first one was really important
for portraying the character in a full length movie that
we haven't really seen before in Disney. I don't want
to stray away from that and the importance of that,
because I think that representation is significant when it comes
to the story of mi Wana, the people that represents,
(23:50):
the music, the way they speak. I love all of that.
But when it comes to what I look for in sequels,
especially in animated sequels that we've been talking about this
entire episode, is it building upon the first one and
taking your character to another level or does it just
feel like, hey, remember what worked in that first one,
Let's do that entire thing again and see if we
(24:10):
can make some money off this thing. And that is
what this movie felt like to me. To me, I
felt Disney had this decision to make do we want
to put this movie out in theaters? Do we want
to put it on Disney Plus? But given the fact
that it is a big property, you have the Rock
one of the biggest actors in the world right now,
probably of the last five years, maybe even the last
ten years. You're gonna put out in theaters and you're
(24:31):
probably gonna make a lot of money, and looking at
the box office umber from opening weekend, it is generating
a lot of revenue. I do think it is going
to have a pretty big dip, maybe not too significant,
because it is a family friendly movie. It is a
Disney movie out during the holidays right now, where every
single movie we've gone to see in the last week
has been packed. So I think the demand is still
(24:52):
going to be there, and I think when it comes
to word of mouth for an animated movie, it doesn't
really carry that same weight because I think families are
just gonna go see this regardless. But for me, as
the adult Disney fan, I don't call myself a Disney adult.
I don't think I'm on that level. If that is
your thing, hey, whatever makes you happy. But I'm not
super obsessed with the first one. Whenever I saw Mowana
(25:14):
one in theaters back in twenty sixteen, I didn't like
it upon first watch. I didn't really get the flow
of the movie and the story. It wasn't really until
I rewatched that movie and it hit a second time,
and I became a little bit more of a lin
Manuel Miranda fan that I realized how good that first
one actually is. And my other main problem I had
(25:35):
with this movie not just that the story was very
repetitive from the first one. There's no real struggle. It
kind of feels like the villain was a rehashed version
of the villain from the first movie. It was the music.
The music was so important to Mowana one, really so
important in any Disney movie right now. You need that
one big song and Mawana you had that song how
(25:57):
Far I'll Go, which is a big anthem from that movie.
It is the character defining song of Mowana. That is
your hit from that Every Disney musical movie needs that
song to really resonate with kids, to really drive this
to be a movie that a kid is going to
leave the theater and immediately want to go watch it
on Disney Plus, even though it isn't available yet. You
(26:18):
need that song to define your movie. Mawana, too did
not have that song. It didn't have how Far I'll Go.
It didn't have a year Welcome, which is another character
defining song from Maui. It didn't even have the shiny
Thing song from one of the villains in the first movie.
There were no memorable songs whatsoever in Mowana Too. And
what I believe it comes down to is that Lynn
(26:40):
Manuel Miranda was not a part of this movie. He
did not write the songs. You have two new female
writers who did all the music, and they were really
just given guidance from Lynn Manuel Miranda before they started
making the music for this movie. He sat down with
them and gave them the blueprint of what he did
on the first one and what worked in that movie.
And then they said that he was just a phone
(27:01):
call or FaceTime away. So maybe they used him with
some guidance here and there, but you really felt his
presence missing in these songs because they lacked originality, and
it felt like they were given the assignment of, hey,
do what we did in the first movie, channel your
best lin Manuel Miranda and create your own songs, but
you have to fit in this box. And what happens
(27:23):
when you do that when it comes to music, is
you lose that creativity because you're just trying to do
an impression. You're trying to cover the songs from the
first one and make them your own, but you don't
have that same artist doing it, and you don't have
that originality. Because if Lynn Manuel Miranda was given this
movie and said, hey, let's see what you can do
(27:44):
here with all these new characters, with this new storyline,
what songs can you create? He's not gonna do exactly
what he did in the first one. He's gonna experiment
and do different things. And that is where you get
the better songs, not trying to do an impression of
what you did in the first one, but trying to
build upon it and create new songs. And you see
this happening in movies all the time. Whenever the Batman
(28:06):
movies lost Danny Elfman and they had to bring in
a new composer and say, hey, do what Danny Elfman
did and create these themes. You can't do it because
you're trying to do an impression of somebody. You're not
being original, and you're really not growing the music in
any way. So I really felt out of everything that
was really what was lacking in this movie that that
(28:26):
is the one factor I could see bleeding out to
the younger audience of it not being as memorable and
it not being their favorite because these songs aren't really
going to stick in your head. I wasn't leaving the
theater thinking, oh, I still had that song stick in
my head. Darn that Mawana too. I really could not
name you the melodies from any of those songs because
it felt like all the lyrics to the songs were
(28:49):
really saying the same thing over and over again. Where
the message was there of like you can really do
things if you put your mind to it, you can
go and be really strong, but it just felt like
every song was saying that over and over again, and
there weren't any defining songs to these new characters, which
made all the characters really forgettable. They tried to bring
(29:09):
in new friends, they brought back the old friends, but
all those new friends, much like the songs, you don't
really see anything from them and you forget them by
the end of the movie. The improvements I do think
they made was the animation style, and where this movie
looked the best was in the nighttime animation scenes. I
think on the water at night there was a level
of depth and the shading and the overall flow of
(29:31):
these characters. I think that is where this movie really shined,
and those action sequences, especially in that third act, So
maybe the story was kind of the same thing over
and over again, the music which kind of just slapped together,
but the animation really I thought was improved from the
first one, so I think at least Disney is getting
that right, because even the comedy wasn't anything new. It
(29:51):
was really just rehashing some of the jokes from the
first one, which again I don't think kids are really
going to care about that, and the theater people were
still laughing as this movie went along. But I think
the main thing was we didn't really see a whole
lot of development from the character of Moljana from one
to two, because she went through that entire journey in one,
and at the start of this movie it almost felt
(30:12):
like she was back at that point after going through
all those things and finding out all these things about
herself and being this really strong character. By the end
of one, it almost like she regressed a little bit
and was learning all over again. Instead, I would have
liked to have seen her shine more. At the beginning
of this movie, he has still been given a test
that she had to overcome and do. What she set
(30:34):
out to do was find this island and connect her
people with the rest of the world. That still could
have been a test, but I would have liked to
see her be kind of a stronger leader in the
beginning because I think that would have been more impactful
to kids of seeing like, oh, she learned something from
the first one. She has these leadership skills now that
she has to hone in and the struggles of being
(30:55):
the leader where even though you are strong and have
proven yourself, how you kind of advance on that. Instead
it was kind of just her from the beginning again
all over and then trying to do what she did
in the first one. So I think you have to
give the kids like a stronger role model at the
beginning and show what comes with even though you have
proven yourself how you have to do it again. The
(31:17):
other interesting thing about Disney movies now is I think
they want to bring this incentive for people to see
it in theaters to maximize profits. It's putting butts in
the seats, but I almost feel like we're at a
point now a technology. And I got this idea because
as the movie was wrapping up, there was a kid
sitting next to us with her dad and said, Hey,
(31:37):
can we watch this at home now, And I think
that is the mentality that kids have now because you
can so easily watch everything on your phone, your tablet,
on Disney Plus, and you don't really have that separation
of wait, I can watch this in theaters, but I
can't watch it at home now. I almost feel like Disney,
which I feel like this is probably an expensive thing
(32:00):
for them to do, or maybe they wouldn't make a
whole lot of money off of this. But I feel
like there was always this kind of idea that people
had of back when you would go to concerts and
you'd go see a band, and then after you see
that band, if you enjoyed them, you could buy to
see thee at the end of the concert and then
listen to it because they're out promoting an album. You
(32:21):
enjoyed the band, Now I want to listen to the
album at home. I feel like there was a point
where people wanted to do that with movies, of Hey,
you go see a movie in theaters, if you enjoyed it,
you could buy it in the lobby and their way
you could that way you could watch it at home.
I feel like it should be that kind of incentive
for people to go see a movie in theaters, and
maybe it's as easy as hey, if you go watch
Malana Iu in theaters, we'll give you this code where
(32:44):
you can go plug it into Disney Plus and then
watch it at home for maybe a week. You get
early access to it because it's going to be all
Disney Plus eventually, probably in three or four months, depending
on how well this does in its box office run.
But it could be as easy as like a Q.
You upload your ticket that you paid for either on
your app or if you actually buy it at the theater,
(33:05):
and you're given a code that only works on your
Disney Plus at home, like a one time code. You're
not sharing it with everybody, and that way it gives
people an in send them to go and see it
in theaters, because then you can take it home and
watch it again. And I think that's important for kids
who want to rewatch it immediately. Maybe some parents don't
want that because for a movie like this, they get
(33:27):
tired of it by the end of it, of it
just being on repeat on Disney Plus over and over again.
But I think when you're trying to give people a
reason to go to the theater, you have to give
them some kind of incentive that isn't just spending more money. So, yeah,
you can go to the theater to get the exclusive
popcorn bucket, but I want something I can get for
free and take home. Give me a reason to do that.
(33:47):
So that's just an idea I had because I too,
sometimes would like to rewatch a movie instantly when I
get home to catch some things I missed, and then
sometimes by the time it is on a streaming service,
I don't care to watch it again. So maybe Disney
can make something like that happen, but probably won't because
it probably doesn't make them a whole lot of money.
It's only gonna make us happy, and they don't want that.
(34:08):
I will say as much crap as I give the Rock.
He is actually a really good voice actor. I think
he should stop doing live action movies and just do
a voice acting because he really shines as Maui. I
think he really gives it as all. You can see
his inflections and how much he puts a lot of
his personal details into Maui. I think he has a
lot of fun with it. It's probably also easier to
(34:30):
fit into his schedule. He can just get into a
recording booth, lay some lines down, and then get on
his private jet and go work out for ten hours
or whatever he does whatever causes them to be five
twelve hours late to set. I think he actually does
really great work in voice acting. Maui is his best
character in the last ten years. Why is Maui his
best character in the last ten years. It's because it's
(34:52):
the only character that he portrays that actually has depth,
that actually goes through something, that actually has up and downs,
and doesn't win all the time. Mali loses fights. Maui
also wins fights. Mali goes through sad times. All his
other characters in every other movie, he's just the same
thing over and over again, wins every fight, doesn't get
(35:15):
a scratch on him, faces no adversity. Maui actually has that,
So I think that is why he's so attached to
this character and why he's gonna do him again in
the live action movie. But I'm not that excited for that.
I think he should just stick to doing more animated roles.
So for Mawana two, I don't think it was entirely necessary.
I was even at a two point five for a while,
(35:38):
but there was some clapping at the end of this movie,
and I think people did leave satisfied, and I saw
a lot of happy faces all around, So I think
I have to give it a point five just because
I am an adult talking about an animated movie meant
for a much younger demographic, and if they had a
good time, I think that is worth a point five boost.
(35:58):
So for ma Wana two, I give it three out
of five hooks. It's time to head down to movie.
Mike Traylor Paul. When I saw the first teaser trailer
to Minecraft the movie, I thought, what is this garbage?
It was to the point that I didn't even want
(36:19):
to feature it here because I thought it has to
get better than this, right And Jack Black is doing
every single video game adaptation right now. It seems like
it was in Borderlands earlier this year. That movie completely
flopped and I thought, oh, man, is he gonna do
it again? Is he gonna take down every single video
(36:39):
game adaptation he does? And Minecraft is the best selling
video game of all time. The creator of Minecraft is
actually a billionaire, which is rare for creators of video
games because usually they developed them underneath a company. When
I think of the biggest video game franchise, of all time,
(37:00):
my head goes to Pokemon and how big that game
Boy game was in the nineties and two thousands, and
how much money Pokemon is generated. But the creator of
Pokemon did it under a company, so he really just
got paid like a normal employee, even though he is
responsible for all these characters and the success of this
franchise because of the idea that he had. However, when
(37:24):
it comes to the creator of Minecraft, Marcus Pearson, he
is worth one point two billion dollars after selling fifteen
million copies of Minecraft across all the different consoles. In
twenty fourteen, he sold it to Microsoft for two point
five billion dollars two point five billion dollars. Obviously, with
(37:45):
the rights to the Minecraft, they're going to make a
movie about it. It is embedded in the minds of kids.
You see it all the time at Target. Even if
you're not that familiar with it, you have seen something
Minecraft because of how unique and distinct it looks with
all the blocks. And even me, I've never played the
video game, but I know the character Steve. I know
more about it just from Redditt Internet culture. Being a nerd,
(38:07):
you kind of know all about these things, even though
you don't play the video game yourself, so there is
some anticipation around this movie, and even though I'm not
that familiar with it, I can see that. And I
can also tell whenever something is going to be huge
and know that it's not going to be exactly for me.
Last year I experienced that with Five Nights at Freddy's,
where I thought that movie was so lame and terrible,
(38:30):
and I came on here and said it was one
of the worst movies I've ever seen. I wanted to
walk out of it, and I stand by that, but
there were so many fans of that franchise that told
me how wrong I was, because that movie directly played
into the lore and really embodied what that video game
franchise stood for. And I missed that because I never
played the video game. So I can see that now.
Whenever this first teaser trailer came out from Minecraft, I
(38:52):
thought there has to be something I'm missing here because
it gave us nothing. It had really awful writing, and
the one moment of triumph it's supposed to have it
just felt completely flat. And I thought, this looks terrible.
But this next full trailer has completely I would say
erase that bad teaser from my memory, and I can
actually see the big adventure you're gonna go on with
(39:14):
these characters. I see now more how they are going
to adapt the story into actually following the character of
Steve played by Jack Black. You also have Jason Momoa
in this movie, Jennifer Coolidge, Emma Myers from Wednesday, Danielle
Brooks from Orange is the New Black, and the color
Purple is also rounding out this cast. It looks like
they are all characters who get sucked into this world,
(39:36):
which also looks like it's gonna be the origin story
of Steve. You see him as a young kid in
this trailer saying that he always wanted to go to
the mines but was totally wasn't cut out for it.
Then it cuts to him as adult Jack Black getting
sucked into this world and realizing that here you can
create anything you want, anything you can imagine, as long
as you can do with blocks. So this movie is
(39:57):
coming out next year on April fourth, twenty twenty five.
Before I get into more about Minecraft, here's just a
little bit of the trailer. I am Steve. As a child,
I yearned for the minds, So one day I started
digging and digging until I found this a wonderland where
(40:21):
anything you can imagine is possible as long as what
you imagine can be built out of blocks. Now, that
makes me want to see this movie. The teaser before
this did not make me want to see this movie
because it emphasized more the comedy of this movie, which
(40:42):
I feel is really playing to young kids, probably more
so the demographic of Minecraft, even though the game has
been out for a long time. I think if there
are people still actively playing this, there are probably young
kids that they are targeting this movie towards and hoping
the teenagers, twenty year olds or thirty years holds like
me will still be enticed by it. And this was
(41:04):
an example of the comedy from the first teaser, I'm Steve, Okay,
this guy is such a tool bug. That is awful
writing that line that's like okay, calling him a toolbag
is just vanilla writing and very much so like why
are we even doing this? And a big issue right
(41:25):
now in Hollywood has to do with this movie where
it feels almost that ips are more lucrative and more
important than writing a good script. And after watching that teaser,
that is what I felt because it seemed like they
weren't really trying to make a movie that was trying
to say anything, that was building a world. They were
(41:47):
just thinking, Okay, we have this ip of Minecraft that
is a huge ip. It's made all this money. This
dude's a billionaire. Obviously we have to make a movie
about this to make some more money. But just having
that ip without having a good script, it led me
to believe that they're just churning out another generic video
game movie that'll come out, probably be number one at
(42:10):
the box office, but then greatly dip in that second week.
I've seen it time and time again. There are some
great video game franchises out there right now. I can't
wait to see Sonic three. But after seeing what happened
with Borderlands earlier this year, it's almost like certain movies
are like, Okay, they did this one right, but this
one is terrible. There is such a crazy difference in
the best video game adaptations to the worst. It's almost
(42:32):
like there's no middle ground. You either nail it and
incorporate things from the video game strategically and make those
fans happy, but also, at the end of the day,
make a really great movie that is what is important here.
You have to tell a story with character development, not
just throw a bunch of quirky little jokes in there
that are not even really jokes. This movie is also
directed by Jared Hess, who famously directed Napoleon Dynamite and
(42:55):
Not Jolibite, which gives me the Jack Black connection between
him and Jared. So I'm hoping there's some comedy that
comes out that draws inspiration from those two movies, which
is very dry and witty, and hopefully that still holds
up with a movie with a budget like this. And
I think overall, all the creatures that you see in
this trailer in the Overworld look really good. They look
(43:17):
like you can physically touch them. They're all square, some
of them are fuzzy, and I think overall did a
really good job, based upon what I see from the
video game and what I see in this trailer, of
really bringing that world to life. So I think they
have the visuals down pretty well, even though the character
design and the costumes on the live action people with
I just don't really quite get it. Jason Momo's wig
(43:39):
looks awful, but I think that is what his character,
the garbage Man, looks like, so hopefully that holds up
throughout this movie. He just looks to me utterly ridiculous.
But I think overall the visuals are there. It's going
to come down to is there actually a story here?
This trailer does give me indication that there is going
to be. I think it will lean into this kind
(44:00):
of kitchy style of comedy throughout the movie. So is
that gonna wear on you by the end? Hopefully not.
Hopefully the big action in this movie will actually make
for some great conflict again. This movie is coming out
next year on April fourth.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
And that was this week's edition of Movie Line Tram or.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Bar And that is gonna do it for another episode
here of the podcast. But before I go, I gotta
get my listeners. Shout out of the week this week,
I'm going over to my Instagram DMS listener Shout Out
of the Week goes to Cinnamon the Cat. I didn't
know cats could listen to podcasts. Maybe they call them podcats.
But send him in the cat send me a message
and said love your podcast. Wanted to let you know.
(44:39):
The expression is suspend your disbelief, not suspend your belief.
If you don't care, just ignore this Lol. Cheers you guys.
It took a cat to call me out on that.
I felt so stupid reading that DM, and I knew
what I was trying to say, and I thought I
had the phrase right and I used that phrase a lot,
but it took Cinnamon the Cat to correct me on that.
(45:01):
And since then, I've heard other people say now, and
I'm like, oh my gosh, how did I not realize
I was saying it wrong? Suspend your disbelief? Like, I
don't really know. Maybe I'm stupid here. How much different
that is from suspend your belief because you're suspending it
makes sense. I realize I'm saying it wrong now, so
appreciate that. Cinnamon the Cat, thank you for listening. I'll
try to include more cat content in episodes. Maybe I'll
(45:23):
do my top five animated cats of all time. Hmm
if I had to think about that now, Well, Cinnamon
the Cat, you're not in a movie, because you're my
favorite cat right now. But Garfield obviously.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Ooh.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
I also really like Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Great cat, but not really in a movie. There's the
cat in the hat, Puss in boots obviously that's a
strong one, Felix the Cat, Sylvester these An't some movies
here and there, Pink pant Ah, the Pink Panther, Hill Kitty. Oh,
there are a lot of great animated cats, but right
now my favorite cat is Cinnamon the Cat. Thank you
for calling me out on that. I'm sure it was
(45:55):
driving other people crazy. Also, the other DM I got
recently is how much I was butchering Kieran Colkin's name
not Kierrian. I don't know why I was saying that
wrong either. I listened back to that review, I was like,
you idiot, it is Kieran, So apologies. I know I'm
not perfect. I mess up words. Sometimes my brain thinks
faster than my mouth can keep up with, so in
(46:18):
my head I'm always moving on to the next thing.
In my mouth is delayed a little bit. It's kind
of like when you're having a meeting on Zoom where
you're saying something the other person starts saying something. That
is sometimes the level of delay I have between my
brain thinking something and my mouth saying it. And sometimes
I listen back and I'm like, why did I even
say that? I have no idea. Sometimes you just got
to suspend your disbelief. So thank you for listening, and
(46:39):
until next time, go out and watch good movies and
I will talk to you.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
I
Hello, Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am
your host Movie Mike. Today I want to share with
you my top five animated sequels in honor of Mowana
I coming out over the weekend. We'll talk about more
sequels to animated movies and whether or not they lived
up to the original. Maybe some of these were better
than the original. Then we'll get into a spoiler Freemana review,
and in the trailer park we'll talk about a new
(00:21):
video game adaptation Minecraft. I've been waiting to talk about
this trailer because the first one came out and it
was so cringe worthy. Second trailer giving me a much
different perspective on what I thought about this movie. So
we'll get into that. Thank you for being here, Thank
you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday Morning
Movie crew. He Now, let's talk movies.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTB with glasses.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
From the Nashville Podcast. Now this Movie Mike Movie Podcast.
I have my top five animated sequels of all time.
We're going different animation studios, from Disney to Pixar, to
dream Works to Sony, and for this list, I decided
to do direct sequels only, so I'm only talking about
part twos, because really, anything after a part one is
(01:21):
a sequel, a part three is a sequel, a part
four is a sequel. But I wanted to limit the
discussion to a part two because there's always so much
anticipation to get to that sequel from an animated movie.
Because with all these they come from movies that define
a genre. They defined an entire franchise. One is so
definitive that you're always looking into how are you gonna
(01:44):
match those same expectations and how do you build upon
the story without just making the same movie over again,
which is really what any sequel has to face. So
we're going to get into this list. I have some
honorable mentions. You know, I love animation, so let's get
right into the list. At number five, I have Frozen
two from Disney, and I was a late comer to
(02:04):
Frozen whenever the first one came out. I was just
checked out at Disney. For the most part, I feel
like Disney took a bit of a tumble into twenty
tens as far as my interest in it. The movies
are really lacking imagination and if it wouldn't have been
for Frozen, they would have had a rough twenty tens.
And the reason that movie, I feel was so successful
is because Let It Go was such a massive hit,
(02:25):
and I think I just got tired of hearing that song,
saw it all over YouTube. It was just the center
of pop culture when it came to movies, So I
didn't really look back into this franchise until Frozen two
came out and I was like, Okay, let me check
out Frozen one, go back and watch Frozen two. And
watching those movies both together, I feel like Frozen two
(02:45):
is the stronger movie because I think overall it has
the better story. It deals with heavier themes, that shows
the different consequences of that, and I just think it
is stronger overall because it goes into deeper the connection
between these characters. You get more into Elsa and Anna's background.
So Let It Go and do you want to build
a Snowman? Pave the way for Frozen two. But what
(03:07):
into the unknown hits and Frozen two that really gets me.
I love that song, and I feel like it's because
that song feels a little less kid friendly. It has
a really great melody, really strong harmonies, and I just
feel like overall it has much more of an emotional
impact on the story. So that is why I like
this movie actually better than Frozen one, and it is
(03:28):
a perfect sequel. First one came out in twenty thirteen.
There was a lot of anticipation when this one came
out in twenty nineteen. We have Frozen three supposedly coming
out on November twenty four to twenty twenty seven, so
obviously that is gonna get massive. I think Disney is
just trying to bank upon all of their big properties.
Frozen is a juggernaut franchise. So at number five, I
(03:50):
have Frozen two from twenty nineteen. At number four from Sony,
I have Spider Man Across the Spider Verse came out
in twenty twenty three. Visually, this movie is better than
the first one. I think overall, Part one in this
series is the stronger movie because I feel like that
is a complete story. It is Miles Morales's origin story,
(04:12):
and overall you get a full character arc of what
it is to be Spider Man, and that movie felt
so refreshing, It was fun, no holds barred when it
came to what could be a Spider Man movie. So
I think that is why that movie was so novel
and so inventive that in a franchise with a character
that we've seen so many iterations from w. Maguire Andrew Garfield,
(04:34):
Tom Holland, the question was how do you reinvent that again?
And they completely nailed it in that first movie, So
that movie can hold its own and stand on its
own without any help of any other Spider Man movie.
I think that is why it is a better movie. However,
Part two is so much better visually and really ramps
(04:55):
up the character in the third act of this movie.
Problem is it is split into two, so if I
were gonna sit down and just watch one movie, it
would be Part one. But Part two is so strong
and feels like such a great roller coaster. And overall
I have become so invested in the miles of Spider
Gwin love story. Their entire relationship between the first and
(05:16):
the second movie has me captivated more than any other
Spider Man loves story and above all the things that
I want to see play out and get wrapped up
from part one. That is really what I cannot wait
to see, because I think the great thing about Spider
Man movies are these love stories. This will they won't
they between all of the love interests, the really sad
(05:38):
things that have happened to Mary, Jane and Gwen over
the years. So I don't know what direction they are
going to go in, but I have to imagine it
isn't going to end the way we all want it
to based on across the Spider Verse Part one. This
movie also did a really great job introducing new characters
from Spider Punk to my now new favorite Spider Man
(06:00):
twenty ninety nine, which I wasn't that familiar with going
into this movie, but now I love The character has
a fantastic suit. I've invested some time in the comic
books getting to know more about the origin story of
Miguel O'Hara, so it has been great for me as
a new fan, but I think people who have been
familiar with this character now for a very long time
since the nineties has to be really cool and what
(06:22):
an investment to finally see this character come to life
in a really great way and overall last year it
was one of my favorite in theater experiences. And I
also love the fact that Miles Morales aged from part
one to Part two. I think that is something that
should be explored more in animation, that you actually grow
in age with the character, much like you would with
the real actor, because sometimes animated movies are kind of
(06:45):
frozen in time. I get that you want to have
animated characters look the same all throughout the movies because
you can keep making these forever and ever. So I
think it's a very interesting kind of situation that this
movie is gonna paint itself into, because eventually you gotta
get older and older and older. So even though I
think Part one is better than Part two, it is
still a fantastic sequel, and that is why it is
(07:07):
that number four on my top five animated sequels. At
number three from two thousand and four from DreamWorks, it
is Shrek two. Some people believe that Shrek two is
the superior Shrek movie. There are some arguments to that story. Again,
I'm gonna hold these all to a very high standard,
and they have made my list for a reason, but
I also feel the need in some of these to
(07:29):
defend part one versus Part two. Shrek two has a
great villain. You have the Fairy Godmother, arguably one of
the best villains in animation overall. When you look at
the numbers, Shrek two was a bigger commercial success, making
one billion dollars worldwide, which is wild to me. How
much of a choke hold the Shrek franchise had to
(07:50):
sell in And it was because that first one was
so successful. You had that anticipation going into this one.
That is why this one was one of the most
successful movies of the two thousands and made more money
than any movie in this franchise. It was inevitable with
all the DVD sales from Shrek one, Shrek two was
a guaranteed hit. They just had to get it out there.
(08:11):
And I think why people enjoy Shrek two more is
because it leans more into the comedy, making fun of
fairy tales. It gets a little bit more whimsical. But
what I enjoyed more about Shrek one is the way
that the character was actually portrayed as being an ogre.
I think that is what truly defines the character, and
I get that Shrek becomes a little bit softer as
(08:33):
the movies go on and on, he becomes a little
bit more human. He gets married and Fiona, much like
I feel like in my relationship, Kelsey has made me better.
Fiona makes him better, makes him a more rounded out human.
He has a little bit more of a dilemma that
goes into effect in Shrek two. But in Shrek one,
I like Shrek being an ogre. I like how he
(08:55):
just wants to stick to his swamp and hang out there.
He gets annoyed by Don. He doesn't want to go
on this quest. He hates everybody that he encounters because
ultimately he just wants to be chilling at his home
and not be bothered. And that is the side of
Shrek I enjoy more. But again, I don't think it
is a quality issue here that I'm fighting for. It
is merely a preference issue. One and two are both great.
(09:19):
I think overall story wise, two is probably stronger, but
one will always be my favorite. Nonetheless, it is really
hard to make an animated sequel be as impactful as
the first one, and Shrek two did that, And I
think overall DreamWorks is really good at creating animated franchises
and having strong part twos look at their history Kung
(09:41):
Fu Panda Tu, How To Train Your Dragon to Puss
in Boots two DreamWorks, I feel is an underrated animation studio.
I feel like overall they are better at building franchises
over Disney and over Pixar. And we also have Strik
five to look forward to supposedly coming out in summer
twenty twenty six at number three. I have Shrek two
(10:02):
from two thousand and four at number two from Pixar
in nineteen ninety nine, I have Toy Story two. Toy
Story two is really strong. One is always going to
be my favorite, Part three is always going to be
my second favorite, and Part two will always be in
that number three slot. But again, I think overall, Toy
Story is the best Pixar franchise of all time. Was
(10:25):
their first computer generated movie, and I think in that
first one, it was really them realizing can this even
be possible? Can you make an entire movie from computer
generated animation? And that movie proved that. But I think
a lot of the hurdles that they had to overcome
and making that movie was just dealing with the technology.
(10:47):
If you go back and rewatch the original version of
that which now they have remastered on Disney Plus, so
it looks way better if you haven't seen it in
a while and you go rewatch Toy Story one, it
looks so much better. Reid watched it maybe a couple
of years ago, and it felt like I was rewatching
it again for the first time because all the colors
were more vibrant. It felt a little bit more smooth.
(11:08):
If you go back and actually rewatch the first one, Oh,
it looks so data now because it was so new.
It almost looked like you were watching a PlayStation one
game take place on screen. But at the time it
was so innovative. But I think a lot of those
hurdles came with just making sure that all the animation
worked and using that to tell the story. If you
(11:28):
look at Toy Story one versus Toy Story four, it
looks like night and day almost just looking at examples,
like the dog in the first one, it looks computer generated,
but you can look at an image of a cat
from Toy Story four and it looks real. So there
have been major improvements from one to four, but there
were also major improvements from one to two. I think
(11:49):
where two really shines is the writing was so much better.
And funnier because it was almost as if they were like, Okay,
we got the animation down, now how do we build
upon this story? And Toy Story two introduces two characters
now that you can't look at Toy Story and not
think about Jesse and think about Bullseye. And it was
the introduction of those characters that brought almost a more
(12:11):
adult theme to the story because the first one is
really just about the toys and learning about Oh, these
toys have feelings and they want to be played with
and they're worried about being forgotten. It's really all about
Woody and his abandonment issues. Whenever buzz light Year comes
around starts taking some of the shine away from him,
all the posters of wood He come down and the
(12:32):
buzz light Year posters go up. But then in part two,
the themes just kind of widen a little bit and
there is much more on the line and Toy Story
two where you start thinking more about all of these characters' motivations,
their emotional struggles. Woody becomes a way more complex character
as he learns about the history of him and thinking, oh,
(12:53):
there are people out there who would actually want to
see me and I can live on forever in this museum.
Start struggling with this internal conflict of leaving Andy behind
and thinking, well, and he's been there since the beginning.
Jesse's like, yo, he's gonna leave you anyway, look what
my owner did to me. And then you have the
song when She Loved Me That ooh, I think it
(13:14):
rivals as the best song in the Toy Story franchise.
Obviously You've Got a Friend in Me is the theme song,
and I feel like you can't really put that song
in the same conversation. So if it was second to
one song, it would be that one, because that is
the song you think about when you think about Toy Story.
But When She Loved Me hits you feel an emotional
connection that you haven't really felt before in an animated
(13:35):
movie paired with music, because in part one, when you
kind of feel that is whenever they play strange things.
And like I was talking about earlier, when Woody sees
all of his posters going down and the buzz light
your stuff going up, that hits too. I feel like
that hits me more than an adult now thinking about
being replaced. But that has a little bit more of
a comedic tone. When when she loved Me hits. It's like,
(13:57):
oh my gosh. You see her from being the center
of a tension in this kid's world and then being
discarded on the side of the road. Why would you
leave toys on the side of the road anyway, How
sad was that? And the great thing about Toy Story
two is it built upon the first one and stay
true to the heart of the film, focusing on some
of these same themes but widening them up. Toy Story
(14:19):
Two became the highest grossing Disney sequel of the nineties,
and this was before Disney acquired Pixar. But I feel
like it set the blueprint for the decade to come
of really taking into consideration putting a lot of money
and promotion and integrity behind sequels. Because Disney in the
(14:39):
decade before this, the way they would put their sequels
out is it would be straight to video, and you'd
have The Lion King come out in ninety four, and
then you have Lion King Part two, Simba's Pride. There's
like a ladd intwo. There's all these sequels that don't
really have the same weight as the original. It's just
kind of seen as I let's try to make some
more money off of this. So even though Disney's involvement
(15:01):
wasn't with Pixar at this time, I feel like with
this movie being so successful, it made Pixar and later
Disney realize, hey, we should really spend more time and
effort into making sequels and building franchises instead of just
doing a one and done, because there are worlds to
create if there's a story there to be told. Before
I get to number one, I do have a lot
(15:22):
of honorable mentions. I wanted to mention Illumination as a
whole because I think that studio is doing really great
work and I still think their best is yet to come,
even though they've been crushing it for a long time
with all the Despicable Me movies, I feel like overall
the Menion movies have been really strong. I feel like
once they start leaning more into Nintendo with the success
(15:44):
of Super Mario, that that is really good to pop
off for them. But I would put on this list
Despicable Me Too, which is now one of the most
profitable animated franchises of all time, and that franchise does
a really good job of building that world. I feel
like with Despicable me for maybe they're kind of struggling
right now to decide where they want to take that
(16:05):
because one, two, and three really built upon that story. Oh,
it's just really hard to make a four. As hard
as it is to make a good two, it is
almost impossible to make a great four in an animated franchise.
And I think where they have seen some success is
with the spinoff movies. And my also honorable mention is
Minions The Rise of Grew, which is the prequel to
(16:25):
the entire story, And I think why those movies are
so fun because it gives the audience what they really want,
more Minions all the time. I think overall all the
Minions movies have been really strong, the first one coming
out in twenty fifteen, then following it up with a
sequel to that movie in twenty twenty two. So that's
why I put this one as an honorable mention. Another
honorable mention I have that was teetering on making it
(16:47):
in at number five was Ralph Breaks the Internet from
Disney in twenty eighteen. I think, overall record Ralph movies
are really great. That first one was just such a
big world that he created. What I love about recket
Ralph is how misunderstood of a character he is. He's
always seen as the villain, He's always seen as the
bad guy, and all he wants to do is become
(17:07):
a hero. You also have Penelope who kind of in
the same boat as him. In the first one, it's
all about the arcade style video games, and then the
second one he gets thrown into the Internet, which I
thought was also a lot of fun. But I feel overall,
when it comes to Disney movies, there are so many
other big movies that I feel this one gets forgotten
about a lot. So I wanted to include Wrecket Ralph
(17:29):
and the sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet, because I would
like to see a part three. Another honorable mention is
Finding Dory from Pixar in twenty sixteen, which is almost
essentially the story of the first one. I think overall
it is a solid movie, but it's a little bit forgettable.
That's why I wasn't fully comfortable putting it in my
top five. I remember watching it in theaters and thinking, oh,
(17:49):
that was a really fun time, but it's not really one.
I go back and rewatch a whole lot because the
first one is so strong and so iconic. I think
the fact that they probably waited a little bit too
long to make this sequel, that it didn't quite have
that same momentum and that same lasting ability that the
first one did. And my final honorable mention is The
Rescuers down Under. As a kid, I didn't realize that
(18:11):
this was a Part two because I only had this
VHS and I rewatched this movie a lot as a
kid has one of the wildest opening scenes for an
animated movie meant for kids that it was just like,
what is happening here? Why are all these movies teaching
me about death? So early on? You have John Candy
as Wilbur and I will always love this movie more
(18:31):
than Part one, But at number one, what I believe
is the best animated sequel, the best Part two of
all time actually came out this year in twenty twenty four.
It is Inside Out Too, from Pixar. Now. The first
one was truly groundbreaking, and that movie is a five
out of five at the top of the list, and
(18:52):
it was hard for me to imagine how they were
going to expand upon this story without making the same
movie again and again, because is dealing with Riley's emotions,
and what if your emotions had emotions, which is like
inception when it comes to Pixar, because Pixar is really
famous for giving things human qualities. What if your car
(19:12):
had feelings? What if your toys had feelings? What if
your feelings had feelings? Hear me out here. I didn't
know if it was gonna work whenever I saw Inside Out,
but man, they proved me wrong. There are some really
emotional hits in that movie that are pretty long standing
and really defining moments in cinema, especially when it comes
to animation. But what I love about Inside Out Too
(19:33):
is you can watch it without seeing part one, and
I think you would even benefit a little without knowing
what happens in part one, because it would feel a
little bit more novel. That is the only reason that
I think Inside Out two isn't better than part one
is because the overall concept just isn't new in this sequel.
(19:53):
But I think on an emotional level, and maybe more
so because I'm an adult, I felt like the story
and in Side Out Too was more complex and spoke
more to me. The introduction of anxiety and embarrassment and
all these teenage feelings. I feel overall might go over
some young kids' heads, but I think to somebody who
(20:14):
is probably going through this, and I always try to
think like that of putting myself in the age that
this is targeted to, and how I would feel if
this movie came out when I was at age, and
this would have been my favorite movie. I think even
now as an adult, it was me needing to relearn
some of these things and see these things played out
and inside out too. That was kind of a refresher
(20:35):
for me. And I think it's great when animated movies
really push those boundaries of how complex can you make
these characters, how many different emotions can you deal with?
Before you cross that line and go a little bit
over everybody's head. But I love that this movie doesn't
downplay it to its audience. It's hey, these are these feelings,
this is what anxiety makes to do. You've probably felt
(20:57):
this and didn't know even how to express that's what
you were feeling. But this movie does that. It hits
you on a level that you're not really expecting these
cute animated characters to make you feel. I think it
is the best Pixar sequel ever made. They have done
twenty four feature films in nine sequels, so really there
aren't that many Pixar sequels, and out of any sequel,
(21:19):
this one does the best upon building on the original
movie to get you to that next level. So if
they're gonna make Inside Out three, which I think there
are still potential to make a three, you kind of
have to decide how old you want to make rally
in that one, because you go past high school and
into college and it becomes an entirely different franchise. But
at number one, I have as the best animated sequel
(21:42):
Inside Out to Now, well Muwana end up making this list.
We'll talk about that next. I'll give you my spoiler
free review. Then in the trailer park we'll talk about
Minecraft and how the creator of this video game is
actually a billionaire. Let's get into it now. A spoiler
free review of Mowana too. The question I want to
answer by the end of this review is was it
(22:04):
even necessary? And yes, I know, I'm an adult man
talking about a movie primarily meant for kids, but it's
a Disney movie. It is important, So we're here to
talk about it. Pretty much. What this movie is about.
I hate to say it it's basically the same thing
as the first one. When it comes to the plotline,
Molana goes out on another big adventure. This one is
(22:26):
going to test her levels of being a leader now,
somebody now who can speak and communicate with the ocean
to a whole new level. So really, I would say,
if you didn't watch the first one, it's almost like
watching it again, and that kind of sucks. And I
know to the younger audience that's probably not really going
(22:47):
to matter. The fact that this movie pretty much follows
the exact same beats as Mowana one. I don't think
a kid is going to care about that. But for me,
as an adult, I just wanted something a little bit
more so to answer my question early on, I don't
really think this sequel was necessary. And when it comes
to Disney's plan of action with their movies on whether
(23:08):
they put them in theaters or whether they put them
on streaming, I feel like this one was kind of
rushed together and slapped on and put out in the theaters.
Because this one kind of came out out a knower
saying that, hey, we're gonna put out a new Muana
movie this year. We're also working on the live action
remake of the first one, it kind of feels like
(23:29):
they're just having a cash grab on Mawana as a whole.
And I feel like the first one was really important
for portraying the character in a full length movie that
we haven't really seen before in Disney. I don't want
to stray away from that and the importance of that,
because I think that representation is significant when it comes
to the story of mi Wana, the people that represents,
(23:50):
the music, the way they speak. I love all of that.
But when it comes to what I look for in sequels,
especially in animated sequels that we've been talking about this
entire episode, is it building upon the first one and
taking your character to another level or does it just
feel like, hey, remember what worked in that first one,
Let's do that entire thing again and see if we
(24:10):
can make some money off this thing. And that is
what this movie felt like to me. To me, I
felt Disney had this decision to make do we want
to put this movie out in theaters? Do we want
to put it on Disney Plus? But given the fact
that it is a big property, you have the Rock
one of the biggest actors in the world right now,
probably of the last five years, maybe even the last
ten years. You're gonna put out in theaters and you're
(24:31):
probably gonna make a lot of money, and looking at
the box office umber from opening weekend, it is generating
a lot of revenue. I do think it is going
to have a pretty big dip, maybe not too significant,
because it is a family friendly movie. It is a
Disney movie out during the holidays right now, where every
single movie we've gone to see in the last week
has been packed. So I think the demand is still
(24:52):
going to be there, and I think when it comes
to word of mouth for an animated movie, it doesn't
really carry that same weight because I think families are
just gonna go see this regardless. But for me, as
the adult Disney fan, I don't call myself a Disney adult.
I don't think I'm on that level. If that is
your thing, hey, whatever makes you happy. But I'm not
super obsessed with the first one. Whenever I saw Mowana
(25:14):
one in theaters back in twenty sixteen, I didn't like
it upon first watch. I didn't really get the flow
of the movie and the story. It wasn't really until
I rewatched that movie and it hit a second time,
and I became a little bit more of a lin
Manuel Miranda fan that I realized how good that first
one actually is. And my other main problem I had
(25:35):
with this movie not just that the story was very
repetitive from the first one. There's no real struggle. It
kind of feels like the villain was a rehashed version
of the villain from the first movie. It was the music.
The music was so important to Mowana one, really so
important in any Disney movie right now. You need that
one big song and Mawana you had that song how
(25:57):
Far I'll Go, which is a big anthem from that movie.
It is the character defining song of Mowana. That is
your hit from that Every Disney musical movie needs that
song to really resonate with kids, to really drive this
to be a movie that a kid is going to
leave the theater and immediately want to go watch it
on Disney Plus, even though it isn't available yet. You
(26:18):
need that song to define your movie. Mawana, too did
not have that song. It didn't have how Far I'll Go.
It didn't have a year Welcome, which is another character
defining song from Maui. It didn't even have the shiny
Thing song from one of the villains in the first movie.
There were no memorable songs whatsoever in Mowana Too. And
what I believe it comes down to is that Lynn
(26:40):
Manuel Miranda was not a part of this movie. He
did not write the songs. You have two new female
writers who did all the music, and they were really
just given guidance from Lynn Manuel Miranda before they started
making the music for this movie. He sat down with
them and gave them the blueprint of what he did
on the first one and what worked in that movie.
And then they said that he was just a phone
(27:01):
call or FaceTime away. So maybe they used him with
some guidance here and there, but you really felt his
presence missing in these songs because they lacked originality, and
it felt like they were given the assignment of, hey,
do what we did in the first movie, channel your
best lin Manuel Miranda and create your own songs, but
you have to fit in this box. And what happens
(27:23):
when you do that when it comes to music, is
you lose that creativity because you're just trying to do
an impression. You're trying to cover the songs from the
first one and make them your own, but you don't
have that same artist doing it, and you don't have
that originality. Because if Lynn Manuel Miranda was given this
movie and said, hey, let's see what you can do
(27:44):
here with all these new characters, with this new storyline,
what songs can you create? He's not gonna do exactly
what he did in the first one. He's gonna experiment
and do different things. And that is where you get
the better songs, not trying to do an impression of
what you did in the first one, but trying to
build upon it and create new songs. And you see
this happening in movies all the time. Whenever the Batman
(28:06):
movies lost Danny Elfman and they had to bring in
a new composer and say, hey, do what Danny Elfman
did and create these themes. You can't do it because
you're trying to do an impression of somebody. You're not
being original, and you're really not growing the music in
any way. So I really felt out of everything that
was really what was lacking in this movie that that
(28:26):
is the one factor I could see bleeding out to
the younger audience of it not being as memorable and
it not being their favorite because these songs aren't really
going to stick in your head. I wasn't leaving the
theater thinking, oh, I still had that song stick in
my head. Darn that Mawana too. I really could not
name you the melodies from any of those songs because
it felt like all the lyrics to the songs were
(28:49):
really saying the same thing over and over again. Where
the message was there of like you can really do
things if you put your mind to it, you can
go and be really strong, but it just felt like
every song was saying that over and over again, and
there weren't any defining songs to these new characters, which
made all the characters really forgettable. They tried to bring
(29:09):
in new friends, they brought back the old friends, but
all those new friends, much like the songs, you don't
really see anything from them and you forget them by
the end of the movie. The improvements I do think
they made was the animation style, and where this movie
looked the best was in the nighttime animation scenes. I
think on the water at night there was a level
of depth and the shading and the overall flow of
(29:31):
these characters. I think that is where this movie really shined,
and those action sequences, especially in that third act, So
maybe the story was kind of the same thing over
and over again, the music which kind of just slapped together,
but the animation really I thought was improved from the
first one, so I think at least Disney is getting
that right, because even the comedy wasn't anything new. It
(29:51):
was really just rehashing some of the jokes from the
first one, which again I don't think kids are really
going to care about that, and the theater people were
still laughing as this movie went along. But I think
the main thing was we didn't really see a whole
lot of development from the character of Moljana from one
to two, because she went through that entire journey in one,
and at the start of this movie it almost felt
(30:12):
like she was back at that point after going through
all those things and finding out all these things about
herself and being this really strong character. By the end
of one, it almost like she regressed a little bit
and was learning all over again. Instead, I would have
liked to have seen her shine more. At the beginning
of this movie, he has still been given a test
that she had to overcome and do. What she set
(30:34):
out to do was find this island and connect her
people with the rest of the world. That still could
have been a test, but I would have liked to
see her be kind of a stronger leader in the
beginning because I think that would have been more impactful
to kids of seeing like, oh, she learned something from
the first one. She has these leadership skills now that
she has to hone in and the struggles of being
(30:55):
the leader where even though you are strong and have
proven yourself, how you kind of advance on that. Instead
it was kind of just her from the beginning again
all over and then trying to do what she did
in the first one. So I think you have to
give the kids like a stronger role model at the
beginning and show what comes with even though you have
proven yourself how you have to do it again. The
(31:17):
other interesting thing about Disney movies now is I think
they want to bring this incentive for people to see
it in theaters to maximize profits. It's putting butts in
the seats, but I almost feel like we're at a
point now a technology. And I got this idea because
as the movie was wrapping up, there was a kid
sitting next to us with her dad and said, Hey,
(31:37):
can we watch this at home now, And I think
that is the mentality that kids have now because you
can so easily watch everything on your phone, your tablet,
on Disney Plus, and you don't really have that separation
of wait, I can watch this in theaters, but I
can't watch it at home now. I almost feel like Disney,
which I feel like this is probably an expensive thing
(32:00):
for them to do, or maybe they wouldn't make a
whole lot of money off of this. But I feel
like there was always this kind of idea that people
had of back when you would go to concerts and
you'd go see a band, and then after you see
that band, if you enjoyed them, you could buy to
see thee at the end of the concert and then
listen to it because they're out promoting an album. You
(32:21):
enjoyed the band, Now I want to listen to the
album at home. I feel like there was a point
where people wanted to do that with movies, of Hey,
you go see a movie in theaters, if you enjoyed it,
you could buy it in the lobby and their way
you could that way you could watch it at home.
I feel like it should be that kind of incentive
for people to go see a movie in theaters, and
maybe it's as easy as hey, if you go watch
Malana Iu in theaters, we'll give you this code where
(32:44):
you can go plug it into Disney Plus and then
watch it at home for maybe a week. You get
early access to it because it's going to be all
Disney Plus eventually, probably in three or four months, depending
on how well this does in its box office run.
But it could be as easy as like a Q.
You upload your ticket that you paid for either on
your app or if you actually buy it at the theater,
(33:05):
and you're given a code that only works on your
Disney Plus at home, like a one time code. You're
not sharing it with everybody, and that way it gives
people an in send them to go and see it
in theaters, because then you can take it home and
watch it again. And I think that's important for kids
who want to rewatch it immediately. Maybe some parents don't
want that because for a movie like this, they get
(33:27):
tired of it by the end of it, of it
just being on repeat on Disney Plus over and over again.
But I think when you're trying to give people a
reason to go to the theater, you have to give
them some kind of incentive that isn't just spending more money. So, yeah,
you can go to the theater to get the exclusive
popcorn bucket, but I want something I can get for
free and take home. Give me a reason to do that.
(33:47):
So that's just an idea I had because I too,
sometimes would like to rewatch a movie instantly when I
get home to catch some things I missed, and then
sometimes by the time it is on a streaming service,
I don't care to watch it again. So maybe Disney
can make something like that happen, but probably won't because
it probably doesn't make them a whole lot of money.
It's only gonna make us happy, and they don't want that.
(34:08):
I will say as much crap as I give the Rock.
He is actually a really good voice actor. I think
he should stop doing live action movies and just do
a voice acting because he really shines as Maui. I
think he really gives it as all. You can see
his inflections and how much he puts a lot of
his personal details into Maui. I think he has a
lot of fun with it. It's probably also easier to
(34:30):
fit into his schedule. He can just get into a
recording booth, lay some lines down, and then get on
his private jet and go work out for ten hours
or whatever he does whatever causes them to be five
twelve hours late to set. I think he actually does
really great work in voice acting. Maui is his best
character in the last ten years. Why is Maui his
best character in the last ten years. It's because it's
(34:52):
the only character that he portrays that actually has depth,
that actually goes through something, that actually has up and downs,
and doesn't win all the time. Mali loses fights. Maui
also wins fights. Mali goes through sad times. All his
other characters in every other movie, he's just the same
thing over and over again, wins every fight, doesn't get
(35:15):
a scratch on him, faces no adversity. Maui actually has that,
So I think that is why he's so attached to
this character and why he's gonna do him again in
the live action movie. But I'm not that excited for that.
I think he should just stick to doing more animated roles.
So for Mawana two, I don't think it was entirely necessary.
I was even at a two point five for a while,
(35:38):
but there was some clapping at the end of this movie,
and I think people did leave satisfied, and I saw
a lot of happy faces all around, So I think
I have to give it a point five just because
I am an adult talking about an animated movie meant
for a much younger demographic, and if they had a
good time, I think that is worth a point five boost.
(35:58):
So for ma Wana two, I give it three out
of five hooks. It's time to head down to movie.
Mike Traylor Paul. When I saw the first teaser trailer
to Minecraft the movie, I thought, what is this garbage?
It was to the point that I didn't even want
(36:19):
to feature it here because I thought it has to
get better than this, right And Jack Black is doing
every single video game adaptation right now. It seems like
it was in Borderlands earlier this year. That movie completely
flopped and I thought, oh, man, is he gonna do
it again? Is he gonna take down every single video
(36:39):
game adaptation he does? And Minecraft is the best selling
video game of all time. The creator of Minecraft is
actually a billionaire, which is rare for creators of video
games because usually they developed them underneath a company. When
I think of the biggest video game franchise, of all time,
(37:00):
my head goes to Pokemon and how big that game
Boy game was in the nineties and two thousands, and
how much money Pokemon is generated. But the creator of
Pokemon did it under a company, so he really just
got paid like a normal employee, even though he is
responsible for all these characters and the success of this
franchise because of the idea that he had. However, when
(37:24):
it comes to the creator of Minecraft, Marcus Pearson, he
is worth one point two billion dollars after selling fifteen
million copies of Minecraft across all the different consoles. In
twenty fourteen, he sold it to Microsoft for two point
five billion dollars two point five billion dollars. Obviously, with
(37:45):
the rights to the Minecraft, they're going to make a
movie about it. It is embedded in the minds of kids.
You see it all the time at Target. Even if
you're not that familiar with it, you have seen something
Minecraft because of how unique and distinct it looks with
all the blocks. And even me, I've never played the
video game, but I know the character Steve. I know
more about it just from Redditt Internet culture. Being a nerd,
(38:07):
you kind of know all about these things, even though
you don't play the video game yourself, so there is
some anticipation around this movie, and even though I'm not
that familiar with it, I can see that. And I
can also tell whenever something is going to be huge
and know that it's not going to be exactly for me.
Last year I experienced that with Five Nights at Freddy's,
where I thought that movie was so lame and terrible,
(38:30):
and I came on here and said it was one
of the worst movies I've ever seen. I wanted to
walk out of it, and I stand by that, but
there were so many fans of that franchise that told
me how wrong I was, because that movie directly played
into the lore and really embodied what that video game
franchise stood for. And I missed that because I never
played the video game. So I can see that now.
Whenever this first teaser trailer came out from Minecraft, I
(38:52):
thought there has to be something I'm missing here because
it gave us nothing. It had really awful writing, and
the one moment of triumph it's supposed to have it
just felt completely flat. And I thought, this looks terrible.
But this next full trailer has completely I would say
erase that bad teaser from my memory, and I can
actually see the big adventure you're gonna go on with
(39:14):
these characters. I see now more how they are going
to adapt the story into actually following the character of
Steve played by Jack Black. You also have Jason Momoa
in this movie, Jennifer Coolidge, Emma Myers from Wednesday, Danielle
Brooks from Orange is the New Black, and the color
Purple is also rounding out this cast. It looks like
they are all characters who get sucked into this world,
(39:36):
which also looks like it's gonna be the origin story
of Steve. You see him as a young kid in
this trailer saying that he always wanted to go to
the mines but was totally wasn't cut out for it.
Then it cuts to him as adult Jack Black getting
sucked into this world and realizing that here you can
create anything you want, anything you can imagine, as long
as you can do with blocks. So this movie is
(39:57):
coming out next year on April fourth, twenty twenty five.
Before I get into more about Minecraft, here's just a
little bit of the trailer. I am Steve. As a child,
I yearned for the minds, So one day I started
digging and digging until I found this a wonderland where
(40:21):
anything you can imagine is possible as long as what
you imagine can be built out of blocks. Now, that
makes me want to see this movie. The teaser before
this did not make me want to see this movie
because it emphasized more the comedy of this movie, which
(40:42):
I feel is really playing to young kids, probably more
so the demographic of Minecraft, even though the game has
been out for a long time. I think if there
are people still actively playing this, there are probably young
kids that they are targeting this movie towards and hoping
the teenagers, twenty year olds or thirty years holds like
me will still be enticed by it. And this was
(41:04):
an example of the comedy from the first teaser, I'm Steve, Okay,
this guy is such a tool bug. That is awful
writing that line that's like okay, calling him a toolbag
is just vanilla writing and very much so like why
are we even doing this? And a big issue right
(41:25):
now in Hollywood has to do with this movie where
it feels almost that ips are more lucrative and more
important than writing a good script. And after watching that teaser,
that is what I felt because it seemed like they
weren't really trying to make a movie that was trying
to say anything, that was building a world. They were
(41:47):
just thinking, Okay, we have this ip of Minecraft that
is a huge ip. It's made all this money. This
dude's a billionaire. Obviously we have to make a movie
about this to make some more money. But just having
that ip without having a good script, it led me
to believe that they're just churning out another generic video
game movie that'll come out, probably be number one at
(42:10):
the box office, but then greatly dip in that second week.
I've seen it time and time again. There are some
great video game franchises out there right now. I can't
wait to see Sonic three. But after seeing what happened
with Borderlands earlier this year, it's almost like certain movies
are like, Okay, they did this one right, but this
one is terrible. There is such a crazy difference in
the best video game adaptations to the worst. It's almost
(42:32):
like there's no middle ground. You either nail it and
incorporate things from the video game strategically and make those
fans happy, but also, at the end of the day,
make a really great movie that is what is important here.
You have to tell a story with character development, not
just throw a bunch of quirky little jokes in there
that are not even really jokes. This movie is also
directed by Jared Hess, who famously directed Napoleon Dynamite and
(42:55):
Not Jolibite, which gives me the Jack Black connection between
him and Jared. So I'm hoping there's some comedy that
comes out that draws inspiration from those two movies, which
is very dry and witty, and hopefully that still holds
up with a movie with a budget like this. And
I think overall, all the creatures that you see in
this trailer in the Overworld look really good. They look
(43:17):
like you can physically touch them. They're all square, some
of them are fuzzy, and I think overall did a
really good job, based upon what I see from the
video game and what I see in this trailer, of
really bringing that world to life. So I think they
have the visuals down pretty well, even though the character
design and the costumes on the live action people with
I just don't really quite get it. Jason Momo's wig
(43:39):
looks awful, but I think that is what his character,
the garbage Man, looks like, so hopefully that holds up
throughout this movie. He just looks to me utterly ridiculous.
But I think overall the visuals are there. It's going
to come down to is there actually a story here?
This trailer does give me indication that there is going
to be. I think it will lean into this kind
(44:00):
of kitchy style of comedy throughout the movie. So is
that gonna wear on you by the end? Hopefully not.
Hopefully the big action in this movie will actually make
for some great conflict again. This movie is coming out
next year on April fourth.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
And that was this week's edition of Movie Line Tram or.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Bar And that is gonna do it for another episode
here of the podcast. But before I go, I gotta
get my listeners. Shout out of the week this week,
I'm going over to my Instagram DMS listener Shout Out
of the Week goes to Cinnamon the Cat. I didn't
know cats could listen to podcasts. Maybe they call them podcats.
But send him in the cat send me a message
and said love your podcast. Wanted to let you know.
(44:39):
The expression is suspend your disbelief, not suspend your belief.
If you don't care, just ignore this Lol. Cheers you guys.
It took a cat to call me out on that.
I felt so stupid reading that DM, and I knew
what I was trying to say, and I thought I
had the phrase right and I used that phrase a lot,
but it took Cinnamon the Cat to correct me on that.
(45:01):
And since then, I've heard other people say now, and
I'm like, oh my gosh, how did I not realize
I was saying it wrong? Suspend your disbelief? Like, I
don't really know. Maybe I'm stupid here. How much different
that is from suspend your belief because you're suspending it
makes sense. I realize I'm saying it wrong now, so
appreciate that. Cinnamon the Cat, thank you for listening. I'll
try to include more cat content in episodes. Maybe I'll
(45:23):
do my top five animated cats of all time. Hmm
if I had to think about that now, Well, Cinnamon
the Cat, you're not in a movie, because you're my
favorite cat right now. But Garfield obviously.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Ooh.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
I also really like Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Great cat, but not really in a movie. There's the
cat in the hat, Puss in boots obviously that's a
strong one, Felix the Cat, Sylvester these An't some movies
here and there, Pink pant Ah, the Pink Panther, Hill Kitty. Oh,
there are a lot of great animated cats, but right
now my favorite cat is Cinnamon the Cat. Thank you
for calling me out on that. I'm sure it was
(45:55):
driving other people crazy. Also, the other DM I got
recently is how much I was butchering Kieran Colkin's name
not Kierrian. I don't know why I was saying that
wrong either. I listened back to that review, I was like,
you idiot, it is Kieran, So apologies. I know I'm
not perfect. I mess up words. Sometimes my brain thinks
faster than my mouth can keep up with, so in
(46:18):
my head I'm always moving on to the next thing.
In my mouth is delayed a little bit. It's kind
of like when you're having a meeting on Zoom where
you're saying something the other person starts saying something. That
is sometimes the level of delay I have between my
brain thinking something and my mouth saying it. And sometimes
I listen back and I'm like, why did I even
say that? I have no idea. Sometimes you just got
to suspend your disbelief. So thank you for listening, and
(46:39):
until next time, go out and watch good movies and
I will talk to you.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
I
Host
Mike D
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.