#77. 'Encanto'
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The gang reviews Encanto, and Sonny is fine on it — good soundtrack, harmless kids' fare, no real villain, basically "Scarface, but a cartoon" — while Vic gives it a Quadrant C+ (plot D, duration A, action/violence C, sex/nudity N/A, with music as an honorary bonus category), joking he must have been drunk when he watched it since he couldn't follow the family tree. JVL goes the other direction entirely, delivering an extended, heartfelt monologue arguing the movie is really about generational family trauma and the "miracle" that a family of refugees survived at all, tying it to the parable of the prodigal son and a friend's brutal divorce; Sonny and Vic needle him for taking a cartoon about a magic candle so seriously. Before the review, the trio opens with a long stretch of banter: JVL trying to get the notoriously tech-illiterate Vic to let him bring over his Oculus for VR games (Vic can't work headphones or a streaming search bar to save his life), a somber note on the sudden death of critic Terry Teachout, and Vic's chaotic story of his son's skeet-shooting lesson at Bull Run, including a distracting fellow shooter who looked exactly like Scarlett Johansson. There's also a detour into box-office trivia (Sing's record as the highest-grossing movie never to hit #1, Spider-Man: No Way Home's huge run) and old-DC-movie-theater nostalgia before they get to Encanto proper. It closes with JVL fuming over TikTok star Axel Weber's rejection from Juilliard and the trio picking which magical Madrigal power they'd want for themselves.
From the show notes
Sonny's a downer. JVL wants to play a game. Vic goes shooting. And the guys review Encanto !
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00I'm not super strong like Luisa. The donkey's got out again. On it! Or effortlessly perfect like Señorita Perfecta Isabela. But mama, why am I the only one that didn't get a gift? You're just as special as anyone else in this family. You just healed my hand with an arepa con queso.
Vic00:00:30Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Sub Beacon. I'm Victor Matys, along with Jonathan V. Lass and Sonny Bunch. Just a reminder, The Sub Beacon is now available through Patreon. Go to subbeacon.com, you'll find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, and don't forget about The Sub Beacon merchandise store at tpublic.com. Gentlemen, how are we? JVL, what is going on?
JVL00:00:57Victorino, do you have contact lenses anywhere that you could possibly use?
Vic00:01:05Yes, but they haven't been upgraded, so the grading on them is when my eyesight was better. If I put them on now, everything would probably be blurry, because I'm as blind as a bat. Why do you ask?
JVL00:01:17Okay, because I'm coming over to your house, and I'm bringing the Oculus.
Vic00:01:23Oh! Well, no. So here's what they, you know, my eye doctor, who I haven't seen in like four years, said because of the progressive lens situation that I have, that the way out of this, and I'm not getting that surgery, is apparently one eye has to be nearsighted and the other one is farsighted lens. And it creates, and together that creates, that's the result. You get this progressive, you know, compromise. But of course he said, you know, initially you'll feel disoriented and nauseous but other than that so i tried it sounds awesome did not work i'm coming over uh
JVL00:02:00i finally fired it up to do some of the the video games that the kids play and the you're gonna have to take you're gonna have to take pictures darth vader virtual reality game victorino you can laugh at me all you want it's good i am no i believe it i believe it we're going down to your basement paneling and we're going to have ourselves a good old time yeah but
Vic00:02:25i'm going to have this thing in my head and i'll be like what is that your lightsaber that's going
JVL00:02:28to say wait what's behind me it's awfully hot it's so great now another another one yeah no don't just keep moving listen another one is a uh world war one flying aces game where you're in a biplane
Vic00:02:45Oh, I can be like the Red Baron.
JVL00:02:47Not that I would choose that side, I'm just saying. Well, I believe you can choose to play as either the fellow in the Sopwith Camel or the fellow in the Fokker. It's really up to you. Fokker, I don't even know her. And I am Victorino. Baron von Richthofen. When can we make this happen?
Vic00:03:04We'll pick a weekend and you'll...
JVL00:03:05Can we pick a Saturday afternoon that I can come over and we can have a little bit of Oculus time because you're going to love it.
Sonny00:03:12I'm so scared.
JVL00:03:14Your kids are going to love it.
Sonny00:03:16If I get an Oculus, can we play against each other across the country? Yes, we can. Does it work over the internet?
JVL00:03:22Yes. I am actually, honestly, I am this close to buying each of you Oculi and sending them to you. The only reason I won't do it is because I am 100% confident that Vic will need me to set his up anyway.
Vic00:03:37Oh, there's no question about that, number one.
JVL00:03:39Vic won't be able to set it up.
Sonny00:03:40Well, we were just discussing Vic's headphone situation. Yes.
Vic00:03:44I don't use headphones because they don't fit on my computer.
Sonny00:03:49Again, there's just an attachment you can unscrew.
Vic00:03:52I'm going to take a look at that.
JVL00:03:54Or again, if you go to Amazon.com, the Amazon.com, they have for $1.50 an adapter that you plug the big one in and it comes out a little one.
Vic00:04:05We had one in our office. It's a little one like this. In Dublin. It's in Dublin. We had one in our office. remember I got I'm just gonna look for that one I'm telling I'm telling you
Sonny00:04:17it's it's you can literally fix it right now I will bring it okay bring if you go and get it and we'll do it on the bonus episode none of this is important what's
JVL00:04:26important is that if you find out on the bonus episode got your lightsaber never know okay and the the training droids you know that spin around that one the William Falcon, when Obi-Wan is like, just release those things. Those things were everywhere. You've got to just stop. There was a moment when I could swear that I could smell burning metal from where I had. From the Oculus? And I had to, I said to Flash, I said, is something burning? He said, no. And I think what happened was my mind was so fooled by the total immersion that my olfactory senses were just filling in the gaps with what they believed I should have been smelling. Question.
Sonny00:05:16It's like you're there, man. Question. Yeah. Do you have, does the Oculus come with like a little stick or something that you hold while doing, or does it just like, oh. Two of these.
JVL00:05:29Two of these. You see these guys? So you two handhold things, and here's what's cool. You see this big ring here? That ring is somehow a sensor that knows how your thumb is moving, so even if you're not pushing any buttons, it senses it. It figures this.
Vic00:05:45It's alien technology. It is magic. It's magic. Once I get my contact lens situation squared away, because I really can't wear glasses with it.
JVL00:05:56Well, no, so there is an adapter for it, a spacer for people who wear glasses. i'm a little bit yeah does that is that really gonna work but i'm gonna bring it over i just ordered myself uh the the larger head strap and i got it just for you so that when i come over to your house we will i don't think it was tested called the magnum it's called the magnum yes in many ways and so i got that so that you will be comfortable and you won't be ashamed you won't feel self-conscious about it and i literally i i am scouts honor by wearing the magnum i bought this so that when i come over to your house in a week and we go downstairs to play video games together you will be able to without just be like okay great this fits let's go with the glasses
Vic00:06:42yeah well just with the set over your yes you know your planetoid side yes i don't know if we'll see
Sonny00:06:48we will see sunny what's going on uh not a whole lot i'm kind of sad tonight yeah kind of sad uh I don't know if you guys saw the news. Yeah, I did. But Terry Teachout died.
Vic00:07:02Yeah, that was very unexpected.
Sonny00:07:05Unexpected. I mean, he was age 65. It's not like he was a young man, but he certainly wasn't an old man. And the weird thing about it to me is I don't really know what to say other than he was a good writer. He knew a lot. He was a good artist. He was an actual artist. He was a playwright and a musician. Yeah, musician, yeah. And he was just like a good, friendly person in a venue that good friendliness is often not valued, Twitter.com, which is how lots of people knew him. But he was, I mean, he's one of the most important conservative cultural critics currently working or was currently working. And, you know, he had a monthly column at Commentary for like 25 years.
Vic00:07:55Contributed more than any other person to commentary. Yeah, I saw that in J-Pod's remembrance.
Sonny00:08:01You know, he was a theater critic at the Wall Street Journal. He wrote, I mean, just endlessly prolific. And always, always, again, very nice, very smart, good writer. And from, you know, I met him like two times in my life. But, like, from all I could tell, he was a very, very decent and, like, pleasant guy. And it's, like, just one of these random things that, like, was not expecting him to tie. So, like, I'm bummed out. This is going to be a bummer of a show for me.
Vic00:08:45It should have been for last week's episode. Sorry. I was in the middle of emailing with him back and forth over book review ideas. And so I just spoke to him a couple days ago or emailed with him because I had a list and different things and other books that he might be interested in. And he actually mentioned to me that he owed Pod that Buster Keaton review that he didn't finish. And then all of a sudden I heard about it today and that was crazy. So it is very, very weird. And yeah, yeah, it's very sad. Great. Thanks for starting the show out that way. Yeah. How are you, Vic? Vic, how was your weekend? i tell you it was terrible uh so as part of a like a christmas present uh to my son um kate thought it would be great to uh uh have him take a uh like a skeet a clay pigeon uh shooting thing out in manassas because because he's good at this so he's good at this thing so i mean like he can knock targets like 100 yards away so he's very good he did like they do this nra course and and he hit like 19 out of 20 of the things. I did not get a chance to do it. I'm sure I would have been just as good. So we go to this thing. It's a shotgun safety class. That's what you want to do first, you know, the whole thing. And this was really interesting because I've never fired a shotgun before. And, you know, from the movies, and everyone says, oh, you know, you're going to get the recoil and you're going to get the bruised shoulder and the whole thing. So I was expecting this big thing. First of all, it's not pump action. I was kind of expecting, like, you know, in the movies. Oh, no, these are double barrels. Yeah, these are double barrels. These are double barrels, right, exactly. So these are double barrels. They are heavy. They are heavy. But you load two shells in them.
JVL00:10:30Don't aim. Don't aim? The key with pigeons is you're guiding, not aiming. Yeah, it was crazy.
Vic00:10:37Okay, so the recoil, first of all, the thing about the recoil was nothing, at least for me, with my beefiness, I was able to handle that. It was nothing. I could do it like in one hand. They can't await from that head on the rest of your... Exactly. That just holds everything else down.
Sonny00:10:52If you shoot a shotgun correctly, if you brace it against your body and you don't have it on your eye...
Vic00:11:03No, although they have you for skeet shooting and such, you're supposed to press the stock against your cheek. It's really up there. So it's not what I expected. That's how you see. Yeah, it's not what I expected. You're not Elliot Ness. this isn't the untouchables it's down to your waist I was thinking from the hip but the other thing is if it's not yeah whatever and not as a rifle where you don't put it like you know if you have a rifle with a scope you're not going to press it up against you get the black eye so anyway there's six people in this course right it's half it has like me my son some other guy and then there's a mother daughter and then this other girl of the six are you at the Manassas gun yes bull run why didn't you stop at my place you drove past my house you're kidding me i figure you couldn't come in and play the oculus i picture you south and i imagine we're out west okay go ahead anyway we uh uh the six of us i was the only one to hit nothing it was we're aiming because i was in well and i'm you know what i'm so used to being at a gun range where you're supposed to be very still you know and this one you're moving you're moving and the guy's telling me move the gun move the guy i'm not moving i can't move and all i'm thinking about and all the other people behind me in silence because everyone is else, everyone who's never handled the gun before, they're knocking clay pigeons and everyone's clapping for everybody. The mom, the little mom, you know, who is like, you know, she's knocking them down. This woman, this girl who is... How old was she, Vic? I'm going to guess she's in her 20s. She looked like Scarlett Johansson. I kid you not. Like, I kept on staring at her. Probably why I was missing the clay pigeons. From the profile, she had these piercing blue eyes and the nose, everything was bad. To the point where you actually stopped and you had to say, that cannot be Scarlett Johansson. There's no way Scarlett Johansson here is at the Bull Run Shooting Center. And yet, she looked like her. It was so freaky.
Sonny00:13:01Maybe she was training for a movie.
Vic00:13:02And wanted to do it incognito. And the jeans were like... Did she do the hair thing? Yeah, she did the hair thing. No, she was wearing this hat and everything. She had blonde hair. and these jeans i'm sorry it was crazy and so she's up there i went after what about the jeans
JVL00:13:18what about what i'm sorry you started they were painted on and so you know he's adjusting her
Vic00:13:23stance and i'm just like this thing and then and then she gets done and the guy said oh did you bring your own shotgun i go what oh no i thought i see no no no i didn't i didn't i'm just gonna borrow okay that's just my backup piece i got so nervous uh so that that that threw me off it was horrible is all i'm gonna say and i did you did you do the so i i did not know this existed
JVL00:13:46until i have some midwestern friends took me to do it um so i was taken out to go skeet shooting okay or i guess trap shooting not skeet right which which is which is the one where they bounce not the one that where they bounce along the ground but the one where they go like frisbees
Vic00:14:02yes that's like and pigeons i guess it's basically redneck mini golf because what you do is you go to
JVL00:14:10uh this place and it's it's a range and it's a a gigantic circle and you walk around the circle uh like you know clockwise or counterclockwise and you come to a station and you've got like there's a setup with the things and you all shoot you write down your scores there's a button and
Vic00:14:27you know you pull and then right so you you know you shoot and that's like hole number one and
JVL00:14:32then you walk to the next one it took like it took two hours and we got a nice long walk in while we were doing it and it was fun then we added up our scores and it was totally indistinguishable from the experience of mini golf that's funny and i thought this is a lot of fun i could see why
Vic00:14:45people do this yeah yeah well not me uh i was horrible you know uh and uh i just totally missed the mark speaking of shooting blanks over the weekend the 355 came in third place with 4.6 million behind sing 2 with 11.6 it's just racking it up and once again perched atop the box office was spider-man no way home with 32.6 million dollars box office thoughts somebody call 9-1-1 on the 355 sonny i have i have some 411 jvl hold on i have some thoughts because sonny would never
JVL00:15:23brag about himself like this and you don't listen to podcasts victorino it's true but but while sonny was interviewing christopher mckenna one of the two co-writers of the yes highest grossing movie in the last three years great guy he told a story about being on set down in the the dungeon the crypt and alfred molina saying to him hey i heard you uh interviewed on that podcast the bulwark that was great real right true story alfred molina listening to some show how great is that
Vic00:15:58By the way, that was a pretty good Alfred Molina voice, by the way. I don't know if you realize that. It was pretty good.
Sonny00:16:06Interesting box office fact that I learned this week. I had never realized this, but Sing, the original Sing, is the highest grossing movie of all time, never to hit number one at the box office. It grossed like $290 million domestically. Never got to number one.
JVL00:16:21$290 million?
Sonny00:16:23It made an insane amount of money, $270 million, something like that. like two days like just shy of 300 million dollars never got to number one at the box office very interesting uh this is not going to do that sync 2 is not going to do that it's it would have to it's already on premium video on demand people go watch it at home so i assume the box office is going to come down a bit in the the next few weeks here i mean look spider-man's gonna is spider-man is still huge um it will it will not be the number one highest grossing film next weekend scream will i would be willing to bet um dethrone it but it it is i mean it really is putting up crazy crazy numbers and i just wanted there was there was a there's a little tidbit that i wrote down so in its in its fourth week uh it was grossing it grossed about eight thousand dollars per screen in its fourth weekend um the previous best per screen average before that uh was you have to go all the way back to ghostbusters afterlife november 19th to the 21st which grossed about ten thousand dollars per screen there were 13 new wide releases that have come out since then that uh that uh spider-man no way home was higher than in its fourth weekend than those movies were in their first weekends so i mean like it's this this movie uh has done very very good business uh but like really everything else is just doing very bad business where is it at right now domestically sunny uh i would i would have to check i i don't know off the top of my head um but it it was right at last last i saw it was like around 670 something like that 675 um so it'll it'll pass 700 million dollars sometime in the next few days here uh which will put it uh which will put it past black panther for fourth highest grossing of all time domestically 675 as of right now wow yeah so so uh yeah i mean it's it's doing huge huge business it's a big movie with sing everyone wants to go see it with sing 2 you said it was
Vic00:18:28the second highest grossing movie that has not hit that never hit number one sing for the first thing the first thing what was the what's the biggest movie did they do you do you know what the biggest movie was that uh you know made the most money without being number one was sing so
Sonny00:18:42that is that is the highest the highest no no sing is the highest grossing film of all time do you
JVL00:18:49remember who was number two on that list yeah i'm curious i can't i i can't remember that's very
Sonny00:18:52interesting that's what i want to know yeah it's it's a it's at box office mojo maybe i'll look i
JVL00:18:56remember something about mary yes i was gonna say something about mary except that it hit number one finally but it hit number one in like its 11th week of release or something yeah when it was which was his own weird record right it was the longest the deepest into a release that a movie
Vic00:19:12had ever gotten to number one was it did it come out like i don't know the same time as saving private ryan or something like that is that what happened you you and i saw those two movies on the same day oh no no you did you did because you told me about it you told you and i did you just come
JVL00:19:27to oh you didn't go to okay so we went together we went to see more of ryan together which was But then you didn't see something about Mary that night with me.
Sonny00:19:35So you did a doubleheader of Saving Private Ryan and then Cleanse the Palate with something about Mary.
JVL00:19:40Well, these were critic screenings. So they were both like the allied screenings.
Sonny00:19:45Was it at the MPAA?
JVL00:19:47No. They were both at – no, you know, Saving Private Ryan was at Mazza Gallery and – Is that right? The other one, something about Mary was at the Cineplex Odeon on Wisconsin. No longer there. By the old Roy Rogers.
Vic00:20:03The old McDonald's flagship. It's gone. It's all gone. Okay. Very interesting. Very interesting.
Sonny00:20:11Did you guys ever go to the DuPont Five? Yeah.
Vic00:20:15Yes.
Sonny00:20:16Yes. It was like underground. Yes.
Vic00:20:19It's right next to my favorite restaurant. Never mind. Forget it. I'm not even going to bother telling the joke.
JVL00:20:24Yeah, where are you going with this one, Vic? Never mind.
Vic00:20:25We're all thinking it. We're all thinking it. I didn't mean to say it. I ruined the joke. I ruined the joke. My favorite bar, the Manhole. I was just going to say that.
JVL00:20:34I had Matt Labash come to me one day when I was a kid, a child, and came to me on a Friday afternoon at work at our office, our place of business, and he said, there are only two periods of your life. There's before and after you've seen the Buena Vista Social Club. Let's go. Let's go see it right now. And I was like, what? And he's like, come on, come on. I was like, I have work. I mean, he's like, no, no, no, this is a magazine. So you don't have to roll, come on, this is a magazine. There's no work. It's true, that's actually true. And so Matt Labash took me and bought my ticket to see the Buena Vista Social Club at that little tiny, on a screen which is probably not much larger than my current television.
Sonny00:21:18Those theaters. You know what I saw there? One of the crappiest little theaters in the world.
Vic00:21:23What did you say, the what theater?
Sonny00:21:24Crappiest little theater. I'm talking about the DuPont 5 or whatever.
Vic00:21:28You know what I saw there? I saw Austin Translation there.
Sonny00:21:30i saw clerks 2 there yeah it was the only theater there was it's the size of your room it was the only theater that was playing clerks 2 in washington dc when it came out was like the
JVL00:21:42dupont amc5 or regal 5 or whatever that was yeah i'm not kidding when i say that the screen that we watch on was probably four feet wide yeah like it really was incredibly small well no i the
Sonny00:21:57there's the there's a there's a theater in dc uh the west end the landmark west end where the screens are really not much bigger than that it is it is a it's a very small uh it's a very small exhibition space and the chairs are like i think they've replaced the chairs since i have been there last but they were like they were almost like folding chairs frankly it was there was
JVL00:22:18another theater i remember in dupont where to to watch the film you had to look through a little hole like this yeah but then it was almost like it was 3d i mean it was it was like you couldn't
Vic00:22:29even believe it was like it was coming right at you well you have to put your eye there but not that eye no terrible this is what kind of a show is this uh okay very interesting we're actually change of pace here uh something very family friendly instead thank goodness uh and compared with last week's episode uh this is a very bright and cheery family movie also also now streaming and and and this is on disney we are talking this week about encanto so encanto encanto has been around for some time uh and and they when it i forget when it actually came out sonny when was that rjvl when was that it came out okay it's bombed right oh no no it did okay didn't it do i used to i would mention it in box office i would give me like 90 yeah i mean it was it didn't it didn't do huge huge numbers you know initially uh i so it's on disney plus initially i could not find it because i was looking in disney plus in the pixar category no you know and it but they're basically the same right i mean what is what's going on so they're not so here's pixar is trash
Sonny00:23:35disney plus we can discuss this in a second but i want to clarify something very very quickly Yes, Sonny. Because I hear things like this from people all the time, that they go to an app and they start browsing and they can't find a thing. And I want to know who you people are who don't just go to the little search box and start typing in the goddamn name of the movie. I expect it to come up. I hear this all the time from people. I'm so glad it's not just me. Complaining about like, oh, I can't find this thing on HBO Max. You know why? I'll tell you why, Sonny. I was trying to, I was browsing and I was scrolling and I couldn't find it. You know the name of the movie. Just type it into the search bar.
Vic00:24:12I hate going up and down like a maze game. And by the way, if you go all the way across the letters and you go further across, it doesn't reset. It just goes on to the main screen. That's the first thing. The second thing is I'm like, well, this is a big movie, so it's going to be the first thing that pops up when I hit Pixar. And it wasn't. I'm like, well, okay, it's got to be the second thing. And then I'm like, now I really want to know. Did they bury this movie? This is really interesting. What's going on? And then I realized, oh, it's not Pixar. That's my answer to you.
Sonny00:24:38All you have to do is put in the first – you put in an E and it like resets and it shows what the things are. All of the apps do this. They all do this.
JVL00:24:47I expect them to showcase it.
Vic00:24:50Okay.
JVL00:24:50So, Sonny, Roku, as part of their business model, is that they are collecting every single remote control press that you make. And so they know do you go up, down, left, right, et cetera, et cetera. And as part of that, I assume that means that they know exactly how people navigate through the apps on streaming. And the fact that every single app I know of for streaming places the search way far away. It's just like, it's the little magnifying glass in a square. Yes, it's the magnifying glass. And it is. Why? It is given like 50 pixels by 50 pixels of real estate. It doesn't need a lot of real estate. It's right there. getting at i know what i'm getting at is and that's because people don't use the search
Sonny00:25:38they browse no i agree they do i understand this but it it baffles me it literally confuses me because people are sheep sunny i hear people around i hear people complain about not being able to find things on an app and i'm just like are you fuckers illiterate are you can you do
JVL00:25:58have come to this fine establishment to watch Red Notice. Where's Red Notice? What is that? And I'm going to look around. Oh, look. Hell's Kitchen. I hear that Hell's Kitchen is a funny show. I shall watch that.
Sonny00:26:12It's the goldfish. It's goldfish brain. It's just people they see a thing and they're like, oh yeah, I'll watch that, I guess.
JVL00:26:19They're four minutes into Hell's Kitchen and they don't like it so they press pause and underneath it, there's floor is lava and they say, floor is lava? What is that? I'll try that.
Vic00:26:29Why don't they just put it in Pixar? It's close enough. Well, first of all, it's not a Pixar.
Sonny00:26:33But this is the whole problem with your generation, Vic.
Vic00:26:39Because when I go to search, trust me, I search enough. Brassers. B, R, A, Z. It's not in here. It's not in here. Search has always let me down. I always feel, it's like a conspiracy. Every time I want to, I'll see a movie, and then every time I look for it, it's then gone. And then I'll have to pay for the movie. And as soon as I pay for the movie, next week, hey, here's something that's new and free. They do this on purpose. They do it on purpose.
Sonny00:27:08They do. Specifically, they watch what you search, and they're like, oh, Vic is searching for.
Vic00:27:13Now it's like, oh, everything's free after I watch it, after I pay for it.
Sonny00:27:16Vic is searching for Snow Bunnies 2. Fuzzy Bra's Revenge. We're going to keep that off. We're going to keep that off until next week, and then we're going to bring it.
Vic00:27:26That's what they're waiting for. Right to Netflix. They're waiting for me to actually pay to see Embrace of the Vampire Part 2. And then it's free. Really? How dare you?
Sonny00:27:38Well, you've got to finish the trilogy.
Vic00:27:40Yeah, that's true.
Sonny00:27:41Yeah, you don't want to leave it.
Vic00:27:42No, I've got to see how it's going, so to speak. JVL, so you're down on Pixar. Pixar was it. Pixar was the go-why-why. So now you're down on it.
JVL00:27:52had one of the great runs in the history of movie studios yes and i think that for i have not done like an actual chronology of this but i think at least for the last five years maybe longer they have they have resorted to nothing but emotional manipulation and tear jerking in telling not always there are some exceptions but basically the same kind of story over and over which is parents
Sonny00:28:25oh parents we're going to get you
JVL00:28:27being a parent is very poignant being a parent is poignant makes you vulnerable
Sonny00:28:32well that's just the Toy Story movies that's what you're talking about
JVL00:28:36and the Monsters Inc movies and the Up movies and the Finding Nemo movies I didn't see Inside Out
Vic00:28:45that's what surprised me
JVL00:28:46and Inside Out
Vic00:28:47I go to Disney Plus then I watch it And I'm like, wait a minute, that's an unusual opening. Oh, wait a minute, it's not. So, like, because they acquired Pixar, so they must have, like, I wonder how they feel about each other.
JVL00:28:59They got John Lasseter. I mean, when Disney bought Pixar, what they were really buying was John Lasseter and Brad Bird. And, you know, once they had them in-house, that's the secret sauce. It wasn't like Pixar had some, like, a magic box or something. And once you can have John Lasseter executive producing a bunch of Disney animated movies, all of a sudden, like magic, the Disney animated slate got really sophisticated and much better.
Sonny00:29:26Starting with Tangled and then really kicking it with Frozen. Then they had to push him out.
Vic00:29:32He just liked hugging people, Sonny. What's wrong with hugs? He's a hugger. He's a hugger.
Sonny00:29:36He's a hugger.
Vic00:29:38All right. Who wants to give a big boy review of Encanto?
Sonny00:29:42Encanto.
JVL00:29:44I don't know, Vic. Sonny, before you do this, I defy Vic to tell us what happens in the movie.
Vic00:29:49You wait till the quadrant. You're going to get it. Sonny.
Sonny00:29:53Encanto is the touching story of a wealthy family deep in the jungles of Columbia that uses a magical white substance to give themselves superpowers like amazing strength and magical visions.
Vic00:30:04Yayo. It's called Yayo, Sonny.
Sonny00:30:07I was actually going to do a whole Gene bit with jokes like, you know, Bruno. uh look out for his little friends the rats uh you know uh and and that sort of thing you know mama mama makes recipes that that heals people because she she has a good idea of of what fixes people knows she knows candy i don't know i couldn't but i i didn't have enough time to do it so you gotta you gotta stuff it there uh incanto uh is a is a the animated story of a a family of refugees fleeing a burning city that settles in the mountains of Columbia, and they get a magic candle for some reason. It's Columbia. It is Columbia. It's set in Columbia. That's where it is. They get a magic candle for some reason. I wasn't 100% clear on that. The magic candle opens up doors in their magic house, and when the children walk through them, they get magical powers, except for poor Mirabelle, who did not get magical powers. but everybody else does and mirabelle has to learn that her magic power is healing the family with by being normal that's how she does it uh i will look here's the the movies the movie is totally fine it has it has the same weird problem that moana has which is that there's no actual villain really there's no villain in this movie it's just like uh people people you know uh the villain is life well this is well okay we can i have a feeling i know where jbl's
Vic00:31:49it was the giant crab by jimmy and then and of course the volcano the villain he's just like
Sonny00:31:55it's about rape it's like oh my god fatidi nefertiti or whatever in moana is just like she's just angry because yes because maui stole her fucking rock that's right but there's a big battle okay go ahead sorry yeah anyway uh anyway uh encanto is fine it has uh it has a very very good soundtrack by lynn manuel miranda uh we have we we we have we are in this weird moment in the culture where lots of people want to talk about how terrible lynn manuel miranda is because white because hamilton because hamilton is terrible i mean it is pretty annoying i hear he's a member the proud boys that's what i hear as well uh but uh but he uh he he churns out these bangers these these these bangers of soundtracks for disney movies like again moana and this uh i don't people seem to like in the heights i was i was as as you guys remember kind of uh about it um but yeah i've been i have been we've been listening to this in the car a lot because the kids are very into Encanto very they like Encanto a lot but we have been listening to uh uh surface pressure and um what's the what's the opening song the family magical we are the family magical we don't talk about Bruno anyway oh yeah anyway good it's it's got a good it's got a good soundtrack kids love it uh the movie itself again is is totally fine I I was I did not I wouldn't say i found it compelling um just from a uh from a story telling perspective it's fine it's okay about this crazy colombian drug cartel in the middle of the mountains you know uh lording their power over everybody else it's fine thank that's it that's it well i mean you know
JVL00:33:49there's not much that yeah jvl i i gotta know the quadrants oh okay how does this because i not good let me guess i guess that this ends up as a d plus oh you're so close total d plus because i think this might be one of the lowest scoring quadrant movies ever except for the length
Vic00:34:15well no saved by length this is pretty good uh it's a c plus but you'll i'll explain why uh okay so the quadrants for encanto the plot is a d i didn't think there was a plot uh okay a girl has i wrote this down a girl has no powers except to point out her grandmother's over demanding and then that saves the house okay duration is an a i actually was kind of thinking it might be it should be a little longer just because we're going to get to this big confrontation with something a big battle i don't know maybe the people come back i assume they were like el guapo and the gang from three amigos that's who they were with the swords and the horses now there's there's no there's no big conflict at the end of this sort of events it's just kind of like okay so that means action and violence gets a C. There is a big conflict, Sonny. We'll get up. Wait, wait. Good life. And sex nudity, I give it an N-A because this is a cartoon, okay? Let's keep this thing clean. Although you could replace that quadrant with maybe music, and then music was quite nice. But in the end, I gave that a C+. So that's, again, it was fine. I watched it with my daughter. She liked it, you know? Kids love it.
Sonny00:35:23It's a very good animation.
Vic00:35:25I'm not sure what the takeaway is. Jonathan clearly knows what the takeaway is.
JVL00:35:30Jonathan has a lot of thoughts on this, Jamie. And we're now ready. So I am going to predict that Encanto is going to become an absolute sleeper classic. And it is going to have been basically $92 million box office, which is very, very low for a kids movie in pandemic time. I think that people are going to find this movie on Disney+. And they're going to fall in love with it. And they're going to fall in love with the soundtrack over time.
Sonny00:36:01Well, it's already number one.
JVL00:36:03Part of the reason is because both the film and the music really reward repeated listening and repeated viewing. I am shocked that anybody in America saw this movie by choice. Because the trailers were terrible. I remember the trailers. And the trailers don't even tell you what the story is. It's like there's a superpowered family and one member of the family doesn't have powers. That was the trailer. I figured she'd get a big power at the end. The truth of the movie is that it's... That's the movie. No, it's not. The movie's more boring than that. The movie is a Neil Simon play with songs in it. it's it's a story about family trauma echoing through the generations but with songs and the fact that this was able to be turned into something which was really clever and entertaining but then most importantly i think very deeply touching and i i just think it's going to it's going to get to people and i i predicted when i said to you guys i want to talk about this and i said and both you guys will hate it and won't understand it because it's about family trauma that's what this is about it is incanto is about how finding your place in the world is hard and it's hard because your place in the world is influenced not just by you and the choices you make but what happened for generations before you and incanto is the story of a woman who goes fleeing a very bad situation. We don't know what it is, but it's unimportant. This is why immigrants always flee bad situations, right? So the Quakers coming to America, this is the Vietnamese leaving Vietnam on Vietnam coming here, the Jews coming here, you know, they were fleeing Europe. It's Mexicans and South Americans fleeing bad things down South America. And when people do that, that is trauma. And it means something bad was happening. And the immigrant experience is just one form of trauma, right? There's, you know, having a family member who is an alcoholic, divorce, death, sickness, financial ruin, right? And what is, what people I think don't realize is, I gotta be careful here because I, I don't think they, I have a friend who is going through an incredibly horrible divorce right now a a nightmare divorce uh three kids the husband has it turns out a number of kids by other women on the side uh there's just one of these it's awful and but when you look at this situation what you have to understand is this isn't just a thing that's happening now, this is a thing that these kids are going to be grappling with for the next 40 years, and then their kids will grapple with it because of the ways in which it affected their parents, right? And it points to a very deep truth, which I actually hadn't considered until somebody suggested this to me like a year ago uh because i was i was talking about how i felt bad that my kids are getting very different parental experiences from me because the things that i had to give you know the attention and energy that i had to give for for one kid by the time you get to kid four like i just you know all my i have i have all these other things i have to do too. And my friend said to me, look, every child grows up in a different family. You know, like you have a kid, that kid gets one version of his parents. The next kid gets a very different version, right? And there is like a Heisenberg uncertainty principle to family life, which is that any time you alter it, or touch it in a way by by, you know, taking something away or adding something to it, it changes everything. And some of those changes are good, some of those are bad. In the central metaphor of Encanto, I'm sorry, I realize I'm monologuing at you guys. The central metaphor of Encanto, which is these these powers, these miracles is a little bit on the nose, once you realize what, what the story is telling you and what the story is telling you is that the miracle is that the family is alive that's the miracle the miracle is that they made it and you know what mirabelle mirabelle doesn't have any any powers but what she does is she winds up being the person who sits with the grandmother gets the grandmother to realize that the choices she has made have been you know understandably in many ways related to the the terrible trauma she went through as a young woman and there you know i i thought a lot about sunny i'm sure you've talked about this during uh rcia um the uh the the the um the prodigal son victorino i don't know about you but i know which character is
Vic00:41:25the oh yeah i know i know the prodigal son i know you you were so pissed off because hate the bible son because the other he worked the other the son who did everything he was told and then the father says you know everything mine is yours everything is yours you shouldn't there's no reason why you should be upset that your your other son who led this profligate life or whatever comes back and and and and and we get to you'd have a big celebration you shouldn't feel bad
JVL00:41:49about that right right so you like look you've been working real hard and he got he was having himself some whores with the money he took from us and uh you know and i always thought to myself like what what sort of world is this father living in that he thinks no harm no foul because this other guy took half like it isn't like he just left on his own it is he took half of the resources anyway so i you know i spent 40 years of my life hating this you know one sunday a year when when that was the gospel reading and i what finally dawned on me and maybe this is just my own reading was that the reason, this has nothing to do with the sons. It's about resurrection. It's the fact that the son has come back from the dead. And that is why he is slaughtering the fatted calf. And that's, again, is the miracle of life, the miracle that the family is alive. And that is at the heart of Encanto. The miracle is that they made it. They got out of that place and they are there together. And learning to appreciate that that is the miracle is the healthy way to grow and heal. it's a beautiful because look god knows i mean telling kids uh like well you know you gotta be careful of the sea witch because the sea witch will steal your voice and that's fine right and you know or you you know gotta slay the dragon these are interesting metaphors for life but the truth is that life is hard enough it's hard enough without dragons right finding your place in this world can be really really difficult and uh a movie like encanto is speaking to i think very
Sonny00:43:23universal truths about life now sunny now jbl you you say you say that the miracle is that the family is still alive but in the movie there's a candle that grants powers that seems like an
JVL00:43:42actual miracle this is what i'm saying it's a heavy-handed metaphor and you you walk through
Sonny00:43:48it and you become super strong and you have to shoulder all the burden it is a heavy-handed
JVL00:43:52metaphor except that you don't know that it's a heavy-handed metaphor until the end one of the
Sonny00:43:56daughters is perfect another one can hear everything and has to keep all the secrets tribes are crazy uh that seems like there's an actual literal miracle no not this figurative
JVL00:44:06turns out a lot of these blessings are curses so can i can i tell you one reason why i think the movie may have really been hurt in theaters by I think it's aside from the terrible trailer the music is heavily complex heavily complex really really layered often very fast yeah and I as a for instance I don't know about you fellas I ended the first viewing of the movie only bare I only, I would say three quarters of the movie before I figured out most of the family relationships, which are supposedly established in the first number. She has a father.
Vic00:44:49She has a father. And it just never seemed clear to me that he was the father.
JVL00:44:54Louisa.
Vic00:44:55It's too fast.
JVL00:44:56So we finished watching the movie the first time and I turned to Shannon and I said, so wait a minute, whose kid is Louisa? Louisa is the super strong, strong kid. Oh, yes. And Shannon said, I don't know. Like, we know who, we know, well, now I know, right, I mean, I've done it.
Sonny00:45:13I know this because I've listened to the soundtrack like ten times over the last five days.
Vic00:45:17There were three babies, but that's the parents and uncles.
JVL00:45:21It's supposed to establish the, all 12 characters, there are 12 characters with relations, and God love them. Lin-Manuel Miranda goes through this thing twice in the course of this number, and I still didn't pick it up. And I have to think some significant percentage of the audience probably on first viewing, like, in a theater.
Sonny00:45:44Goes through it twice in, like, four minutes and 50 seconds or something like that. Goes through it twice. It's very fast.
JVL00:45:49Just walked out, you know, not quite knowing what was going on. And I don't know. This is why, again, I think once you can watch it for free on Disney Plus over and over again, people are going to just absolutely fall in love with it.
Sonny00:46:02So what you're saying is it's the under the Silver Lake. Yeah.
Vic00:46:05of disney movies that's so interesting i believe i was drunk when i was watching
JVL00:46:09incanta so that makes a lot of sense no yeah i so you guys you really didn't uh you didn't
Sonny00:46:15i i think it's look i think i think i think the songs are very very good i think yeah the songs are great he's very good super catchy super catchy for me the movie itself is the movie itself is also kind of interestingly animated in the in in the way that uh like for instance the song the surface pressure the way that that song is animated is very uh i don't know what the word i'm looking for exactly is it's very impressionistic it's very it's it's not realistic it's not like it is not tied to what is happening in the movie it is it is like its own thing its
JVL00:46:54own little yeah i don't like that actually and oh really see i like this is a thing that some So Maui's number is like that in Moana, right? I mean, Maui finds himself in tapestries and, you know, like... Oh, sure. Suddenly, you know, and... You mean the rock, when the rock sings. When the rock sings. I love that song. His number. So, but a lot of those...
Sonny00:47:16But it's the tattoos on his body, though, right?
JVL00:47:20I don't know what it is, but I think he winds up... And there's everything. The point is, it takes you out of the actual scene where you are and puts you in this Fantasia-like world.
Vic00:47:29And I don't like that.
JVL00:47:31And Kanto does that, I think, in most of the songs, except for Bruno. Except for the opening. Except for Bruno, because Bruno takes you back in time and shows you a bunch of scenes that actually happened. John Lee Guzama. Yeah. Yeah.
Sonny00:47:47I did like that, for what it's worth. I mean, again, it's an interestingly animated film, just as a piece of actual storytelling. maybe when i watch it 17 more times over the next six months next week i will i will i will come to appreciate the nuances of the uh of of the storytelling more but i will i look i like i like how it looked i like how it was animated i like that was voiced you mentioned john leguizamo uh who is very good as bruno very distinct um is very distinct to the point where i heard him i know that yeah is that is that's what i thought and then i was like oh yeah that makes that makes
Vic00:48:25also the very strong sister uh her voice matches it's really interesting you could picture it you know i mean her she's a very strong voice i'm just gonna say it's a strong voice uh but i guess i was watching it and i was like well i guess the problem is that the house is falling apart because of the grandmother it's it's she's the problem she's forcing the cracks that's why everything is no
JVL00:48:46she's not the problem she's isn't that what the granddaughter says she says it's you it is her but it's not because she's been it's because she's been carrying this burden of yes you know
Sonny00:48:57ever since a long time right and the problem with this movie is that it doesn't have a villain it needs the villains or something the villain in life is life yeah but what you know like we
JVL00:49:08don't have jafar chasing us down the street and locking us into mystery tunes oh no it depends where you live what we have are like alcoholic stepfathers and divorces and people who die or lose children and breaks the families of our that's what we have and that's what this movie
Vic00:49:26gets at yeah okay as for the prodigal son uh i've i've my takeaway was always well when i get my half i know how i'm spending it i'm going to vegas i'm going to vegas i'm gonna go to going to sapphire uh okay uh do you do you have any other thoughts on on on incanto other than
JVL00:49:52no i mean i you know i i've things here and there but the point is it's uh and then i thought the
Vic00:49:58lesson that the lesson is that the you know and they did all this stuff for the community and in the end the community returns the favor sort of it takes a village or something yeah and i'm just
Sonny00:50:06i'm telling you oh the at the end you're telling me the employees of the drug factory Oh, I didn't know what to say.
JVL00:50:12Out of the goodness of their heart, Sonny.
Sonny00:50:14Yeah, they were, you know, they were just like, oh, thank God.
JVL00:50:17They just don't want Louisa to visit them at night. Yeah. You know, to break their legs.
Sonny00:50:21I mean, there's a lot of, like, weird undertones and sub-currents here. What they owe her. Again, it's all a metaphor for drugs. JBL says it's a metaphor for families and broken traumas or whatever. I'm pretty sure it's just Scarface, but a cartoon. It's a metaphor for the yayo.
JVL00:50:37It's like the Fast and the Furious of the Disney animated movies. It's all about family.
Vic00:50:41It's a movie about family. They rebuilt the house so fast, though. Did you notice? It's a magic house! I don't know what the people themselves are magic, I said. It's a magic house! Normal, non-magical people rebuilt that house like it was the Toll Brothers. Thank you.
Sonny00:50:55I don't understand how the house became magical. That's a local joke.
Vic00:50:57I don't know if anyone appreciates that one. I don't understand. It's a Jersey. Yeah, yeah. Jersey joke. You're blinking your eye. Oh, there it is. The whole neighborhood has just been built suddenly.
JVL00:51:06It's the Toll Brothers.
Sonny00:51:06I don't understand how the house was magical. Was it just running off white candle power?
JVL00:51:12It's a metaphor, Sonny. None of it is magical. Well, I mean, things are moving. It's not a metaphor. It's literally there. You literally see it.
Sonny00:51:20It's literally happening. There's literally magic doors that they walk through. Like, this is the drawing of the three.
Vic00:51:26I have a deeper thought and question, but I'm going to save that for an outtake. Unless you have an outtake, then I'll mention it now. Okay, fine. Okay, thank you. Uh, do we have, uh, what's, JVL, what are you drinking? It looks like red wine. I'm drinking Comet and Cupid Cabernet Sauvignon.
JVL00:51:46Very nice. Which is, I think, uh, something my brother-in-law picked up.
Vic00:51:48Ah, very nice. It's delicious. Out of a stemless glass. It looked chilled, but I, I, I assume it's not. No. It looked like it was just the effect of the lens. Okay. Uh, any other corrections or shout outs, anything?
Sonny00:51:59I got a shout out.
Vic00:51:59What do you got?
Sonny00:52:01And Abigail Simon DM'd me to ask to say happy birthday to Matt Mandel. Her boyfriend is turning some number of years.
Vic00:52:15Happy birthday, Matt Mandel.
Sonny00:52:1725. Oh, that's a good one. Hey, Matt. That's 25?
Vic00:52:21Man, I wish I could go back to 25. Yes and no.
Sonny00:52:24Good year, good age. It is. But anyway, Matt, happy birthday. Happy birthday. Good crushing, Matt. Say thanks to Abigail.
Vic00:52:34Oh, those were the days, weren't they? This is better. Eat and drink as much as you want without any... No, this is better than 25. Now I find myself on the floor, blacked out. It's not the same. I don't know. Go back to 25. Okay.
Sonny00:52:48Being on the floor and blacked out at 25 is much different. Oh, wait. Oh, that never happened to me. It's my experience of being on the floor and blacked out.
Vic00:52:54Because I don't remember it at the time. I don't remember it. Okay. Great. And that is all the time we're giving today. You know, we got a bonus episode coming up, so, you know.
Sonny00:53:04Different strokes.
Vic00:53:05For different folks. We'll rule the world. Okay. And are we talking about different or deferent strokes? There's two different movies, and they're both available on Amazon. Find out by subscribing. And that's all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, compliments, tweet us at Sunny Bunch, at Victorina Mattis. Again, be sure to subscribe to us on Patreon. Just go to subbeacon.com. We are there. Tell your friends. Until next time.
JVL00:53:40Victorino, before you take us home, I have one thing I needed to get off my chest. Go for it. I woke up this morning and I checked in to make sure the world was still standing as I always do. It's not. The top Google trending search auto-populated for me was Juilliard School rejects Axel Weber.
Vic00:54:02Oh, you know what? I saw this Axel thing and I just skipped over it. So what happened? Who is Axel Weber?
JVL00:54:08So I don't often want to murder people. Okay, that's not true. That's not true at all.
Vic00:54:16Stop lying to the listeners. What are you not wanting to murder people?
JVL00:54:18So you guys know that I am a real Juilliard nerd. right juilliard means something to me and the way some people fetishize harvard i fetishize juilliard so is it and you because you thought about going there i i thought about going i decided not to go to juilliard after juilliard said no thank you um juliard axel weber is a tiktok star oh and uh he his dream is to be an actor and instead of uh signing up for the carl weathers stage fighting course for two thousand dollars yes uh he decided he was going to audition for juliard and uh he auditioned and uh now he says this is by his own admission that he the one thing he think he thinks is going to be a great actor but he can't do accents but for his audition he had to he had to do a shakespeare monologue and he was moved in the moment and so he just tried to do a british accent and uh you're kidding me he said post audition that he he thought it just didn't really work but when he got his official rejection letter and then posted about it on tiktok because that's his millions and millions of tiktok followers flash mobbed juilliard all over the social medias oh my gosh with a trending hashtag justice for axel with these millions and millions of i don't know like fucking morons demanding that Juilliard take their beloved TikTok star. Because, you know, that's what's really going to convince
Vic00:56:04them now. If they were on the fence. Release the axle cut. Right.
JVL00:56:08I want them all dead. That's all. Okay. Victorino, please.
Sonny00:56:12All the millions? All the millions.
JVL00:56:14Other than that. Yes, all of them. Other than that. Show some respect to the big
Sonny00:56:18green J. How are you going to feel when Juilliard decides to accept him?
JVL00:56:23That's 100% going to happen, right?
Vic00:56:26100% that's going to happen. Because then they'll be topical and everyone's going to be talking about them and maybe they'll get money out of this, people give them money. Okay, so you were talking about in Encanto how hard it was to keep track of all the different siblings and everything, and it's big. There's like three, there's the mother, the aunt, the uncle, and then they have children and it's hard to keep track of them. And spouses. And spouses and the cousins and the whole deal. And the superpowers. And it's sometimes hard for me to keep track of who, what are the what is everybody's superpowers and the littlest kid is the one who you can that animals because he's dr do little okay what if you could choose one of their powers what would it be
JVL00:57:05oh you like that well i like that victorino what do you you're gonna go with listening
Vic00:57:13aren't you i wouldn't i wouldn't choose like the listening i would no i wouldn't and i wouldn't choose the weather thing because it only seems to be happening to her yeah mostly it's healing You could heal your gout with food. Heal gout with more food. Yes, okay.
Sonny00:57:27Healing the food is the one I would actually pick.
Vic00:57:28That is pretty good. That's my second choice. My first choice is I would have been the kid Camillo, and then you could turn into different people, and then I would turn into Emma Watson, and then I'd just never leave my room.
Sonny00:57:41Oh, God. All right. Sure, it's fine.
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