#256. 'Inside Out 2'
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The hosts are split on Pixar's Inside Out 2, and JVL is the most dramatic holdout of all: he refused to even watch it, using the review slot to deliver a full anti-Pixar manifesto in which he declares he's become "smart" (in the wrestling sense) to the studio's manipulative tricks, blames the decline on John Lasseter's departure to Disney Animation, and says he'd rather watch WALL-E-style silent slapstick than one more movie designed to make parents cry about mortality. Sonny did see it and gives it "the most half-hearted thumbs up ever," annoyed by the over-literal visual puns (a literal storm of lightbulbs for a "brainstorm") and by how tired he's grown of the therapy-speak dialogue, though he singles out the Nostalgia/Pouchy sequence as a genuine highlight even if it's derivative of Wreck-It Ralph. Mike is more positive, reporting his kids liked the sequel better than the original, while both he and Sonny needle the new emotion Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke) as a too-specific, TikTok-trend-chasing addition that lacks the universality of the original five. The episode opens with a long banter stretch: Sonny's saga of an unclaimed $600 Washington Post check from a firm called "Payne Richards and Associates" and a trip to unclaimed.org; JVL recounting a Wall Street Journal exposé on mothers monetizing their preteen daughters' Instagram followings even as 92% of followers turn out to be adult men, which spins into a heated debate about phones in schools; and Mike's story about a Pennsylvania little-league dad getting mocked by name via an airplane banner after complaining about a shortened season. Later tangents include griping about modern animated films' lack of real villains, a detour into an old rewatch of The Black Cauldron, the note that Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling skipped the sequel over a modest pay offer (with Tony Hale and Lewis Black filling in), and a closing discussion of an uncannily deepfaked Star Wars Acolyte reaction video that leaves Sonny uneasy about the ethics of AI likeness recreation.
From the show notes
So many feelings! The feelings have feelings! Also, here's the YouTube clip we discuss at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgHEojRPnrU
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Hello, I'm Anxiety. Where can I put my stuff? A new emotion. Oh, I'm sorry. We wanted to make such a good first impression. What do you mean, "we"? I'm Envy. Look at your hair. Oh, yeah, not happening. That's on "we". On what? It's what you would call the boredom. What's your name, big fella? That's Embarrassment. Welcome to Headquarters, Embarrassment. Oh, we're doing a fit—no, oh, nope, going high. Oh, you got a real sweaty palm there, buddy.
Mike00:00:45Welcome to the Sub-Beacon Podcast. I am your co-host, Mike Warren. Joining me, as always, are my two co-hosts who know that when you grow up, you feel less joy. Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Join us over at Sub-Beacon.com. Become a patron if you're not already. Tell your friends and family that the only way they can get new episodes of the Sub-Beacon Podcast is if they become a patron at Sub-Beacon.com. Join the conversation. We got a little community over there in the comments. You can only do it at Sub-Beacon.com. We're going to be talking about Inside Out 2: Electric Boogaloo later in the show. But first, Sonny, what is going on with you?
Sonny00:01:32I have an interesting story. Maybe it's not interesting, but it was kind of interesting. Maybe it was kind of interesting, a kind of interesting story, or at least a story that had an unexpected outcome. So I got a letter in the mail. I get a lot of letters in them. I get a lot of junk mail, right? We all get a lot of junk mail. But I got a letter that looked like kind of official. It was on like thicker stock of envelope and paper than usual for the pre-sorted mail. It was from an organization called Payne Richards and Associates, which is a firm of some sort in California. I don't want to say law firm. I don't think they're technically a law firm. But what it said was, it had my like legal name, which is interesting. Which is unusual for this sort of thing, because I don't I don't sign up for a lot of stuff that I get spam from, like with my like full legal name.
JVL00:02:34That's my first trade bunch.
Sonny00:02:39And here's here's what it says, says our firm is contacting you regarding your $600 refund transferred into a third party trust account where it is being held on your behalf for safekeeping. Now, it goes on. There's all sorts of stuff that the long and the short is at the end, it says do not send any money after you successfully receive your $600. We will send you an invoice for our fee, which is $60 if your claim is denied, you will not be charged the fee. OK, so like there's there's part of me that reads this and is like this is an interesting sort of Nigerian variant of spam fraud sort of thing. But again, this is like it's like a real it's like it's like it's a real paper like it's it's got it's it's got a real feel to it. It's got it's got. It's got links and phone numbers and addresses to the Texas Department of Public Safety. It is it's got the it's got the better business bureaus thing on it, you know, so I'm like, I'm like, OK, well, this is kind of interesting. Let me Google this this company to see what they're dealing. So I Google Payne Richards and Associates and the legit, legit business, legit business, according to the Internet. Who knows? Who knows what that means? But I mean, the Internet, the Internet says they they specialize in finding people who have unclaimed. Money that the government claimed property, unclaimed property.
JVL00:04:00Exactly.
Sonny00:04:01So there's there's there's it's a real thing. And I know this is real things I've read about. I've read about like the the, you know, states have massive these. They basically just hold like returned mail or insurance money that cannot be distributed.
JVL00:04:15Things like that goes into like a perceived unclaimed property. What's that? I once received twelve hundred dollars of unclaimed property.
Sonny00:04:24That you were entitled to. Yeah. So and well, this is where I'm going with this story. So I look up this firm unclaimed property. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. Let's see what let's see where my unclaimed property is. It's in Texas. So I I go to the I go to unclaimed dot org, which is like kind of a clearinghouse, a clearinghouse for all these for that, like send you to the right place, basically. And I click on the Texas one and it sends me to a Texas dot gov address. Like an actual dot gov address. I'm like, OK, this this feels legit. And I put in my name and sure enough, there's a six hundred dollar check, suppose, or there's a six hundred dollar something for me in the the the the unclaimed property in the state of Texas. So I'm like, OK, well, this is interesting. This is very interesting. So I like filled out the I filled out the form to see what it was and sent it off to the to the state and got an email back today saying it's a check from WP LLC, which is a Washington Post check that was mailed sometime in twenty twenty three and I never got to me. So it's been it's been in the unclaimed property of the Texas state for however long. And I should be getting that six hundred dollar check that I probably already paid taxes on sometime. I don't know. God only knows how long it'll take. But in theory, it's like six hundred dollars in free money. So I just want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to Payne Richards and Associates. I did not use your service, but you gave me the heads up here and I really appreciate
Mike00:06:02it.
Sonny00:06:03Question.
Mike00:06:04Yes. What was the service you would have availed yourself of that you would have owed them sixty bucks?
Sonny00:06:11Well, so I think what they are, what what their business model is, I would assume, is that they trawl through these unclaimed properties, they find addresses that match names and they mail the people and they'd say, hey, you have a certain and they count on people not like. Figuring out how to do it there themselves, they count on people just being like, OK, sure, if you can give me six hundred dollars, that's worth sixty dollars, sure, that that's a that's a fair trade and like, honestly, that is that is kind of a fair trade I never would have known about. I frankly never would have known about this.
JVL00:06:42I don't know what the amount of paperwork is required for Texas unclaimed property, but in New Jersey, unclaimed property, which is where I got the amount of time I spent. Doing paperwork and filing requests and whatnot, the number of hours hundred percent would have been worth ten percent to.
Mike00:07:05Isn't that what the mob is for in New Jersey?
JVL00:07:10Yeah, well, I mean, you know, it's a it's a very gray area between where the government ends and the mob begins. But yeah, like paying somebody else to jump through all those hoops for you would have been worth it.
Sonny00:07:25I'll I'll say it. It looks I haven't actually filled out the form yet for Texas, but it's literally a one page form that's just like your address to your address and like you have to send more dollars to you and you have to send them like a copy of your you know, you send them a picture of your I.D. and your Social Security card and like whatever. But I'm like, well, this is I mean. This is great. Question.
Mike00:07:50Yes. Should I just go look in my state's unclaimed property? Unclaimed property index?
Sonny00:07:58No reason not to.
Mike00:07:59Not going to cost me anything. No.
JVL00:08:02Unclaimed property.org. Right.
Mike00:08:04Yes. Oh, I'll find it. I'll get there. Yeah. All right.
Sonny00:08:09Now I know what to do when. Just uncle.
Mike00:08:11Unclaimed.org. During Sonny's big boy review.
Sonny00:08:13OK. Just unclaimed.org. Go to unclaimed.org. So anyway, who knows? For all the listeners out there, there might be free money waiting for you that was yours and you just don't you don't you don't have it.
Mike00:08:26Matthew, let's go. You just need the suit with the question.
Sonny00:08:28I got dollar signs all over my suit.
JVL00:08:30Hmm. All right. Matthew, let's go. Did he die? I think I don't know.
Mike00:08:37I think he did.
Sonny00:08:38Did he get? Did he get COVID?
Mike00:08:40I thought he had cancer. Yeah. I think he had cancer. He had a cancer. Something.
Sonny00:08:45Yes. That sounds. That sounds.
Mike00:08:48Yeah. He's still still up.
Sonny00:08:50Still still kicking age. And Noam Chomsky.
Mike00:08:52Him and Noam Chomsky. Still alive. No.
Sonny00:08:55Noam Chomsky is dead. Noam Chomsky is alive. No, he was.
JVL00:08:58That was fake. Fake news. Oh, it was fake. Yeah. Yeah.
Sonny00:09:03Although by Willie. Willie Mays. Willie Mays is dead. Willie Mays is dead. We got a bad trade on that one. I feel like we traded. We traded Chomsky for Willie Mays.
?00:09:10That's a.
Mike00:09:11That's a. And Matthew. Let's go. That's kind of neutral. All right. JVL.
JVL00:09:17What is going on? You want to talk about something, don't you? So there were two things I'd want to talk about, one of which I told you guys, one of which I didn't. The thing I. I told you guys about was this YouTube. Channel. Uh, where a guy does a like kind of mystery science theater 2000 about the acolyte, which is evidently the Disney star wars, lesbian space, which force movie or TV series. I don't know. I don't pay any attention to this, but, uh, although I do know that if you had told the 12 year old version of me that there's going to be a lesbian Jedi movie, I would've been super into it.
Sonny00:09:55But not. I don't like hot lesbian, but like witchcraft was Carrie and Moss.
JVL00:10:00You know what? 12 year old me would have taken what he could have gotten. Um, but, uh, so that, that's one thing is very, very funny. YouTube thing that I was going to sort of red letter media ask. Yes. Um, but also there was this, uh, there's this long, long piece in the wall street journal this week about, uh, Instagram influencers preteen. Tween early teen Instagram influencers and the uncomfortable truth, which is that 92% of their followers are adult men. And this, uh, this piece followed this one mother and daughter team who, uh, began her Instagram career during COVID when she was in middle school. And how they, they discovered very quickly that all of the people who would comment on her posts and DM them were adult men. And for a while they blocked them, but then they noticed that because the way Instagram works, when you block people who are high engagement followers, it really limits your growth. And so they made the decision to really lean into the pedophile market. Because that would help their overall follower count. And, uh, the mother justifies it by saying that, you know, her daughter has always wanted to be an influencer. It was her dream job. And plus she saved money for college. But the part that really got me was that she said that the experience by which I can only assume she means the experience of pimping her daughter to pedophiles has brought the two of them closer together and really helped them bond.
Mike00:11:53And I'm just like, I don't even know what to do with that. I just, I, uh, everything is terrible. Yeah.
JVL00:12:00Everything. People are horrible. And I don't like to judge other parents. Like people do. Every parent has their own philosophy. I am judging the fuck out of this because it's one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen. And there was, there was this Disney channel show dance moms. I don't know if you guys ever caught dance moms, but I caught a little bit of that. It's just like a bunch of 10 year old girls dressed up like hookers and like. Being yelled at by this woman who looks like job of the hut to like shake their asses more on stage. And I, again, don't want to judge, but I'm, I'm judging.
Sonny00:12:37Yeah. No, when you, you, you linked to that in your newsletter and I read it and I did not click to read the rest of the story because it was just the excerpt that you sent was in your, your newsletter was too depressing, depressing enough for me. Uh, but yeah, no, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's awful. And it really is, you know, uh, I know, I know people were kind of having. People were mocking the, uh, surgeon general is a surgeon general wants warning.
JVL00:13:03I saw the mocking on this and I'm like, what the fuck are you people talking about? This is very mockable or this is not mockable. Sorry. The social media is terrible.
Sonny00:13:11Yeah.
JVL00:13:11No, I mean, actually bad.
Sonny00:13:12Like the social, social media is, is incredibly, incredibly damaging, uh, for, for children and for young children, for teenagers. Like, again, it's, it's, you know, being, being a teenager is hard enough, but being a teenager and having a. Feedback loop machine in your pocket, telling you constantly that you are either great or more likely that you're terrible and you should kill yourself and nobody likes you, um, uh, is bad. That's bad. It's bad for kids. It's bad for kids to have that. Uh, and I like, you know, I'm, I'm torn on this because I do think there are real positives through social media and people should have freedom to be able to engage in a bubble, but it's not. But at the same time, like I, I, I, I think ever like any school that allows kids to have phones in class should be shut down. Uh, like you, if you, if you enter a school with a phone, there should be a device that blows it up in your pocket. This is, that's how I feel about it.
Mike00:14:14This is a huge point of contention in like local public school districts. Uh, I think around the country I know in, in, in my area and there is a really stupid counter argument to what you just said, Sonny. What if there's a school shooting?
Sonny00:14:31What if there's a school shooting?
Mike00:14:32They're going to be able to get in contact with even dumber. It's even, yeah. What if I need to reach my child? I'm sorry.
Sonny00:14:38Did, how did you do that in the olden times? How did you call the office? Exactly.
Mike00:14:42I'll take a message. Exactly. Exactly. This is, it's so dumb and it, it is of a piece with what you, what this journal article, uh, you referenced JVL, which it all seems to be. Oriented toward the convenience of the parents or the enjoyment or entertainment or monetary, uh, uh, uh, sort of, uh, benefit to the parents and with like the kids welfare being secondary or tertiary and it's, it's all disgusting.
Sonny00:15:16I would say, I would say, I would say it's even slightly, it's, it's slightly different than that. It's, it's having, it's taking the path of least resistance with your kids who the kids are the ones who want it. The kids. The ones who are like, I need to be on, I need to be on this so I can talk to my friends and blah, blah, blah. My daughter, my daughter who is, uh, who is not even nine years old came home the other day and was like, one of my friends is on Tik TOK and she's, she's got 300 followers. And I just was like, what's her name? I'm going to go see who all these fucking sickos are that are following your friend. Because I bet, I bet there, but I didn't say this to her obviously, but like, I was just like, I don't know what a pedophile is. I don't, I don't. I don't, I don't care. I don't care how many followers your dumb little friend has on Tik TOK on the Chinese spyware app that will never enter my home will never be put onto my various internet systems. Even if, even when you're a, if you're 30 years old, you're going to have to hook up to the, you will not have a device that is anyway.
Mike00:16:19So Mike, I do wonder if there is going to be, the answer is probably no to this question. I'm just going to preface, you know, get ahead. Of what I think is likely the answer, but I do wonder if there is something of a, uh, there was going to be something of a serious backlash because I know JVL, you're already shaking your head, but like, but for parents who grew up with the internet at some point in their teenage or young adult life, I do think there is a better understanding of the, of how terrible it is because in many ways it's, it's warped us, uh, in ways that I think we are starting to recognize very well. So, um, that's more hopeful than I think, you know, is, is, is the reality of it.
JVL00:17:07But cigarettes actually killed people by the millions every year and it took a hundred years to start having like any sort of effective pushback against, Hey, maybe we shouldn't, uh, allow a lot of people to poison themselves. I'll say this. So we've held the line on flash flashes 16 now. And, you know, we have a communal flip phone that he takes when he's going to go someplace where it would be helpful for him to like communicate with us. And, uh, you know, like he's dying to have an iPhone, like everybody else. We were at our first showcase tournament of the, of the summer and really liked this team. I liked the coaches. I liked the kids. Like the kids are, they're this perfect mix of like super serious about baseball. Uh, but also a lot of camaraderie wanting everybody to succeed, not competitive within
Mike00:18:03each other.
JVL00:18:04But we had this team dinner and, uh, flash, you know, afterwards I was like, Hey, was it a good time? He was like, I don't know. Like as soon as we sat down, everybody just took out their phones and stared at their phones the whole time. And these are like the good kids who spend 20 hours a week playing baseball, you know, and are not always like, and even them, you know, you put them in a social situation where they're 12. They just, they just all sit and like steer down with their phones. Isn't that crazy? No. Am I, are we old people? Is this all, does this get off my lawn talk?
Sonny00:18:38No, it is slightly, but I mean, this is exactly how, this is how, this is how old people act too. This is how any, this is how everybody acts any, any, you know, it's funny. I was, I was, we were, I went to a, uh, I went to a like pool party that one of the, one of my son's friends. Was putting on, it was at their house where it was just, and it was like the adults were all like standing around talking and I had to like make a conscious effort frequently not to like pull out my phone. Like I would, I would like start to reach for it and be like, no, I'm talking to people. This is a, I'm in a social situation. I need to, you know, that must've been hard for you.
Mike00:19:14Something.
Sonny00:19:15It was, it was hard. Cause I don't like people, but, but the, uh, but no, it was, but I made, I made an effort, but it was, it was literally a conscious effort. I chose to make an effort to do it. And if I hadn't, I could have easily just zonked out there for, see, that's like the
JVL00:19:32only occasion where I think it's perfectly acceptable to just get off your phone when you're using as a shield to avoid human contact with people you don't want to talk to. Then it's, that is okay.
Sonny00:19:43Yeah.
JVL00:19:44The problem is when people default to the phone, when they're actually around people that they would enjoy being with. Yeah. And so if I had been at that pool party, I would have been in a corner on my phone basically as a broadcast. Asking, don't come and talk to me. Don't come near me. I'm doing something else. I don't want to.
Mike00:20:02So your face hole.
JVL00:20:03So that's all.
Mike00:20:04Yeah. Well, the, the only other thing I'll say about this is the, um, the, it's the, the, the social aspect of the, the, the way that the kids are or could be is, is something that concerns me. So when we got the Nintendo switch, whenever that was two Christmases ago, um, we, we basically have said to the kids, like, we don't want to be in a pool party. We don't, we're not using the, the online function of the Nintendo. Um, and I know some of their friends do, and I don't, I don't judge parents who do, but I was like, we're not going to do that. And I've heard a little bit of, well, what about like, what if I, I could play with my friend from, I said, you know what your friend can also do can come over and play, come to your house, come to our house or go to his house. They bring their controllers and like, like we, everybody. Can play together. And you know what? That's a lot more fun. Um, it's a lot more fun to do, even to do the video game thing, which, you know, the boomers don't get, but like it is a communal and fun thing to do with friends. So, um, it's just, I think parents just have to be much more, um, intentional about that stuff. Like we are not, we're not taking the path path of least resistance. So Michael, how are you buddy? Fine. I wanted to share a fun little base. Ball story, uh, with you guys, not about me. Um, but one I'm, I'm cribbing this entirely from Axios.
JVL00:21:33Oh, this is the Philadelphia. Yes.
Mike00:21:35Are you, are you familiar? You're familiar with this. It's fantastic. Uh, so I'm just good. This is from Axios is, uh, Isaac, uh, Ava, Ava Lucia has, uh, written this up. A youth baseball game came to a halt in a small Philadelphia suburb last month when parents started pointing up at the sky. It wasn't a ball. Or a bird that caught their eye, but rather a banner towed by an airplane calling out a parent by name. Oh, it's good. The Springfield little league stunt has caused a scandal in the Montgomery County town. This stop brought me up short, by the way, because our little league is the, is the Annandale North Springfield little league. So I was like, wait, this is different Springfield. This is the one in the Simpson Springfield. Uh, no, that's in the other state, um, angering community members and prompting an investigation. Parents flocked to a township board meeting last week to decry the flyover, blah, blah, blah, big pic. Uh, most important thing I'm actually reading is this big picture, but the most important thing is this banner at a little league game calls out a dad who had complained to officials about quote, a decision to end the in-house season early for the second straight year. So more advanced players could begin competing on summer. Travel teams. He felt it unfair to intramural players. I'm assuming that means like just the regular rec players who wouldn't get to compete in a playoff to crown a champion.
JVL00:23:06So kind of on his side, a thousand percent on his side.
Mike00:23:10So the dad basically goes to the heads to the, the board, I'm assuming of the little league and says, Hey, listen, why are we cutting the league short again? So that all the super kids, uh, the, the supposed, you know, the supposedly better kids can go their summer travel league early and all the other kids who aren't going to be able to do that have to cut their season short by the way that we pay for. So that dad makes that very reasonable complaint. And the response is for somebody to pay for a plane with a banner to mock this dad by name. Something is wrong. It's not, the kids aren't just wrong. The parents, something's wrong. Something's wrong with the parents in this country as well.
Sonny00:23:51They need to find out the guy who bought that plane and Bernie. That's what I would easily, easily. That's, I think that's the only fair, the only fair response.
JVL00:24:00The company that, uh, that, that executed the flyover, uh, said that they will only release the name of the person who paid for it. If they are subpoenaed, I guess, I guess like the confessional or the, the, the bondery of marriage or the attorney client privilege, the relate the privileged relationship between performing banner flyer and client is utterly sacrosanct. And if we, I mean, it's, it's, it is, who knows what you could unleash if these people decided to just say who paid them to fly the fucking banner.
Sonny00:24:38I mean, I, I, I, I actually, I, I totally understand that. You don't want to, you don't want to like be the company that, you know, throws your customers under the bus, been like, it was these assholes. Don't blame us. But at the same time, like, uh, I would subpoena them. I, I would, I would, I would find out who it is and I would. Subpoena them.
JVL00:24:57How, how would you do that? I don't know.
Sonny00:24:59Laws. Jerry, Jerry, you write it off. You just, you just, you subpoena them. I don't know. You send them a letter and it's like, Hey, this is a subpoena and then they got to do it. You, you declare subpoena. I declare subpoena.
Mike00:25:16So yeah, no, it's things are not well. Things are not well. I guess it's kind of the theme of, uh, of this episode. Uh, all right. Well, let's talk about. Let's talk about the box office because things maybe are well, are the movies there? Are the movies back? Sonny number one in the box office this week, inside out to $154 million. That's a lot of money. Sonny, isn't it?
JVL00:25:40For a decade, people have been clamoring. I mean, if I had a nickel for every time I had heard somebody say, I have to get the next inside out movie. I don't know what happens next. How could they leave it? She says like, I'm her father and you don't know if she's really your father.
Sonny00:25:53The emotion verse needed closure. That's right. Yeah, no, this is a huge, it's not just, it's not just inside out to grossing $154 million this weekend, which is the second biggest opening ever for an animated feature in the United States. Biggest opening since Barbie, I think it's the, it's the first nine figure opening since Barbie. It is. So it's, we've gone almost a year without having a hundred million dollar movie open domestically, which is like. Kind of unheard of over the last decade or so. I mean, in the, in the Marvel, the Marvel age, the Marvel cinematic universe age is kind of unheard of. Um, so, you know, that, that, that's a, that's a, but, but on top of that, I mean, on top of that, it's worth noting that bad boys, uh, ride or die also dropped, I think just 38%, something like 40% drop 40%. Yeah. So, um, you know, that, that's holding really well. That's a better hold than the previous bad boys film. Um, which, which itself held very well. I think the, the, uh, bad boys for life dropped 44% or something like that in its second weekend. So the, the, uh, so, I mean, look, it, it, it turns out, it turns out if you get people stuff, they want to watch to show up at the theaters. The problem is what they want to watch are like retreads and franchise fair and like unnecessary sequels that, which is not necessarily the best thing in the world. Uh, but you know, whatever.
Mike00:27:23I think beggars can't be choosers.
Sonny00:27:25Theaters will take what they can get at this point. Um, but no, this was a, this was a huge, huge weekend.
JVL00:27:31It, it, you know, runway does, uh, Pixar have before minions comes out three weeks, two weeks.
Sonny00:27:39Uh, I think that minions movie comes out July 4th weekend. Um, I think so. That's, that's the two weeks. So another two weekends, I think it might, it might be the week before July 4th.
Mike00:27:51Uh, it, it comes out July 3rd. Yeah.
Sonny00:27:53July 3rd. So yeah, so it's, it comes out. So. So they've got, they've got two more weekends, uh, that, I mean, this movie is going to grow us, uh, 500 to $600 million like that. You don't, it would be hard for it not to, not to do $500 million with a $150 million opening and it's an animated films and those tend to hold a little better, blah, blah, blah. But the, but you know, it's, it, this is a big, this is a big hit. Um, and despicable me four is going to be a big hit. That's going to be another movie that probably opens over a hundred million dollars.
JVL00:28:23And then we'll be a big hit.
Sonny00:28:24What's that?
JVL00:28:25Deadpool and Wolverine will be a big hit.
Sonny00:28:27Deadpool Wolverine. Uh, the tracking came online for that last week. Uh, and the conservative number, the conservative opening weekend number was $200 million.
JVL00:28:38The biggest R rated opener ever.
Sonny00:28:40Oh, by far. Yeah. But I mean the, I think the highest grossing R rated open is 140 or $150 million, something like that. So this will be, this will be like, if it gets anywhere near $200 million, it's going to be the biggest R rated opening. I have 50 or $60 million. Just a, that's going to be question.
Mike00:28:59And this is, this is not, uh, I'm not trying to be a clip here. Uh, were we wrong to be so worried last week or two weeks here, whenever it was, what we had that big discussion about the death of movies in the theatrical experience or is this what?
Sonny00:29:16Like, uh, no, no, no. The, the box office is still way down year over year. Uh, I mean the, I, everybody tends to get a little bit freaked out. Um, whenever there are a series of flops, because there is not a lot of room to give in the box office. I mean, like it's, it is, things are tight out there. Uh, you know, I mean, I, I just look at, I look at this and I'm like, I wonder I, there, there must've been, there must've been some discussion between the Alamo, uh, corporate and the franchisee, because if the franchisee was looking at these movies on the horizon, bad boys for an inside out too. And then despicable. Me like they, they had to think they could hold on for another two weeks and make it to this at least. And then, and then fold, fold up shop, but I don't know. Um, no, this is a, this, these are, these are huge numbers and, uh, it's still not enough to get us anywhere near to where we were, uh, at the same point last year. And it's not like last year was some sort of record setting year. I mean, last year was, was still $2 billion off the pace from 2019. Or whatever. So it's, you know, things are, things are slowly getting back to normal. Uh, but it's still, you know, between, between the pandemic, shutting everything down between the strike, shutting everything down, there's, there's a lack of product and there's a lack of habits of people going back to the box office. So I don't know.
Mike00:30:46Well, it seems to me that, uh, if this does not shake Hollywood into, into making more regular. Family and kids movie fair, then like, I don't know what will, because like my, my theater was packed with kids summer, but like on a weekday, like summer, you know, uh, mid evening, you know, early evening, like packed with kids, but all there.
Sonny00:31:17I, and the other thing is, I mean, look, there were, there's been a lot of talk in recent years about Pixar in particular's troubles. So Pixar is had a run of. Like pretty big misses at the box office, you know, movies like light year and like Pixar and Disney in general, you know, movies like light year, strange world. Um, uh, what was the, what was the other Coco red turning red, turning red. Well, there, there were, there were also the ones that went straight to, uh, straight to Disney plus. Oh, what was the, what was the wish upon a star one?
JVL00:31:50What the star wish wish Disney animation.
Sonny00:31:53So that one, that one, another, another giant. And so there was, there was some talk about, there was some talk about like, well, do all these bombs mean that, uh, there were two, there were two competing strains of argument. I argued that it was a lot of families. They were, Disney was training families to stay at home. They were training families to wait for stuff to come out on Disney plus they put so much stuff on Disney plus immediately. And then, and then with a short theatrical window that families were just staying home in general. Um, uh, and then there was a secondary argument that, you know, Oh, well, Disney, Disney went woke and they went broke and blah, blah, blah. And I, I would say that like both of those arguments are, uh, are dinged slightly by this, but I mean, I, at the beginning of the year said that I think Moana two is probably going to be the biggest hit of the year. Like Moana two comes out around Thanksgiving time. That movie is going to do an enormous number. I'm going to do an, like Moana is the most popular movie on Disney plus. I mean, like if you, every time you look at the, the numbers of like most watchers, watched films in a year on Disney plus Moana is number one by an enormous margin. The kids love that movie.
JVL00:33:02So God knows we needed a sequel to that.
Sonny00:33:05It's going to be huge. It's going to gross, uh, $500 million. Yeah.
Mike00:33:10Um, I'm, I'm a little less, uh, optimistic about, uh, the wild robot. I've just got to say after seeing the trailer, um, but okay. Uh, let's, uh, move on and talk about that big movie this weekend. At the box office inside out to the sequel to inside out, Sonny, you got a big boy review for us inside out to, uh, picks up, uh, several years after the first inside out.
Sonny00:33:40And Riley is a teenager and she gets a whole bunch of new emotions like anxiety and envy and, uh, embarrassment, embarrassment's a new one. And then, uh, those new emotions bottle up the old emotions. And they send them to the land of lost memories or whatever, or that, I guess they have to get to the land of lost memories. It doesn't matter. Point is Riley's getting older. She's going to high school. Uh, she's being flooded with, uh, new, new emotions and she has to decide if she wants to make new friends or keep her old friends. And it creates a lot of, a lot of conflict. There's some interesting stuff here about the idea of, uh, memories and how they form beliefs, the, how they help you kind of create a sense of self. Um, and how the emotions play into that. Uh, but the, the, it is all so literal. It's all so literal and with lines like anxiety saying to joy, Riley doesn't need joy anymore. And it's just like, ah, stop. You have to, you have to stop doing this puns, this, this pun. It's not even, those aren't, those aren't the puns. Those aren't the puns. Those are just literally saying the thing. The puns come later. When they have like, it's a brain storm and it's a storm with light bulbs, you know, like a light bulb going off over your head, the storm of light bulbs, or they're traveling down the stream of consciousness and it's a literal stream. And I was just like, every time I see something like this on screen, it makes me want to die just a little bit more. Um, I, I like this movie. Okay. There are a couple of occasional, very funny moments, but, uh, I, I gave it like the most half-hearted thing. Thumbs up ever in my review. Cause it's like, it was, it was amusing enough to, to, uh, justify its own existence, but it also like greatly annoyed me. And it's just filled with, it's filled with, um, therapy speak and therapy talk. And like, you know, we, we, you have to confront your emotions and I just like, I don't, I like, I've grown way more tired of that over the last 10 years than I was when the first came out. I just, I don't. I don't know, man.
Mike00:35:56Yeah.
Sonny00:35:56Um, so I don't know. It's, it's fine. It's, it's, it's amusing. There's some cute stuff in it. It's the, there's a, there's a new, the pouch pouchy pouchy that, that cracked me up a little bit. Uh, but, but even that sequence is derivative of other stuff that Disney has done. Like Wreck-It Ralph, like that whole sequence feels like a riff on Wreck-It Ralph, just with like cartoon characters instead of, um, video games.
Mike00:36:22I mean, it was, it felt a little, well, there is a video game. There is a video game as well. Um, uh, I will say that my, sorry, I, am I, am I cutting into you? I'm all, I'm all done. You're all done. I don't, I don't have much to say about this movie. It wasn't a real review, Sonny.
Sonny00:36:34I don't say much about that. I don't have much to say about this movie cause it's, it's like, it's, it's fine. It's fine. Like it, it's, it's inoffensive and fine.
Mike00:36:42So, um, my kids thought it was very funny and very, and they liked it. Um, they were not that big on the original, uh, Inside Out. Um, they liked this. One more, they said, I don't know, you know, I, there's no accounting for, for taste. Um, I think the, uh, so I do want to start at the, at the whole blue fee, right? That was the cartoon character with pouchy. Um, uh, that whole sequence, like with, uh, along with the, the, the, uh, video game character and his very unspecial special move, um, like that was the, the single, like most sort of rapid fire belly laughs my kids gave throughout the whole movie. Um, and so like, that's like worth the price of admission as far as they're concerned. So, uh, not that they paid the price of admission, but, um, so that was fine. I agree with you entirely about the over-reliance on the therapy talk stuff. And in particular, I may be like dissecting this movie too much, but what I found kind of charming about the original idea was that they had sort of whittled down those, like, there's a gazillion emotions that human beings feel, but they had like whittled them down to these, um, these five, right? That was, there's, there's joy, sadness, anger, uh, disgust and fear, which like seemed like a pretty good, you know, creates a pretty good, uh, uh, way of understanding emotions. And it's like, okay, well, that's it. Like, what else can you do? So then they start putting in these added emotions from, from, uh, from being a teenager. And, and I just, I found them so, I found them too specific and not, not very relatable. Like the, like the whole, like anxiety thing, like anxiety is like, it's, it almost felt like a, um, Hey, uh, let's throw, what, what's something that the kids are talking about on TikTok?
Sonny00:38:53Totally. Totally.
Mike00:38:54Oh, they're all talking about anxiety. So let's have one be, let's have the main character who's not a really a villain be anxiety.
Sonny00:39:01Yeah, no, no, 100%. And this is, this is, I, you, you're, you're onto something very important here, which is like, I, I had trouble connecting with this movie because I am not naturally a very anxious person. Like anxiety is not in my, like, go-to reservoir of emotions. Anger. Yes. What's that?
JVL00:39:23What's that like?
Sonny00:39:25It's great. It's great.
JVL00:39:27Wander around, not thinking about how the whole world's about to end in five seconds.
Sonny00:39:31I don't, I don't, I don't worry about, I don't, I worry about things. I, I, I, I, I absorbed the Alcoholics Anonymous creed years ago. I changed the things that I can change and I, I accept that I cannot change the things I cannot change. Um, but the, but the, but like anxiety, like I, I, she is the main character. She's voiced by Maya Hawks and like, she does a fine job. And I, I like some of the character design and I like, I like kind of the idea of anxiety as, um, it's like power is actually imagination, right? Like she takes control of the imagination center and like, and like, there's some clever stuff there, but it just, it does not, it is not universal in the same way that, uh, in the same way that fear or, uh, anger or sadness really are. I don't, I don't think I do. I think you're right that it's like. Like too specific, but there are, but there are like, I, a friend of mine, a friend of mine who's a critic was like, I loved anxiety cause I am anxious all the time. So like, I do think it, I do think it like will, I think there are, there are people it will hit very strongly with, but like, uh, for me it was just like, yeah, it's not.
Mike00:40:42Well, it, it also seems derivative of derivative of say like fear, like anxiety seems like a, like a subsection, a subsection of fear and it's what.
Sonny00:40:54Fear of the future.
Mike00:40:55Right. Or fear of the things we can't control or, or whatever. And, and it's, it, it seems that, um, it just seems like it was all wedged in to make a sequel. And I guess that's fine. Like, I can't get too like upset and Disney's obviously like fine with it. Uh, it's just made them a ton of money. I just, it, it felt, um, it just felt like it was not for me.
JVL00:41:20And it was not the same company that made cars too.
Mike00:41:24Yeah. But without cars too, we couldn't have gotten cars three, which is better than cars too. And you have to admit that.
Sonny00:41:29But, but the, but the cars movies exist are like the cars movies are perfect in a very mercenary sense, which is that like they solely exist. It's, it's literally just exists to sell toys. And like, you can, like you, if you posit, if you posit a world in which it's basically like, all right, people are cars, you can do anything with it. I mean, like, I am still waiting for the world war two cars movie where they have to fight Hitler. Car and, and Stalin's team up with Stalin car against, uh, you know, but all the, all the Hitler's cars are VWs.
Mike00:42:02Um, they got to go up against the Mazdas and the Mitsubishi, the Mitsubishi will be the ones flying into a car Pearl Harbor.
JVL00:42:12Um, so I, I didn't see this movie because I am anti-Pixar anti-Pixar. I'm a Pixar hater and I'm pretty sure it was the last.
Mike00:42:24Yeah, I was going to say you, you used to, you used to like Pixar.
JVL00:42:27I did before I figured out what they were doing. And it was the last inside out movie that, uh, that made me realize that this is a company which exists to do one thing and one thing only. And that is to terrorize parents. They are there to tell us parents, uh, that we are going to die, that, uh, our children are going to be helpless in the world. That their childhoods are passing in front of us. Like, like, you know, wind in the willows. And, uh, you know what? I fucking know all that on my own. I don't need to pay Pixar $15 per ticket to be told that the mortality is real. Thanks, John Lasseter. Uh, and you know what? I, I would like, I would like to spend my money on animated movies. That either, uh, plumb something interesting about the human condition in the way that Encanto and Moana do and, and frozen does also, or I would like to see strange yellow creatures with one eye flying an airliner and getting stuck into a toilet and doing this sort of three stooges ask, uh, Buster Keaton style wordless comedy, because both of those things are genuine entertainments. And what Pixar does is sentiment and cloying in manipulative and rank sentiment. Fuck them.
Sonny00:44:02Yeah.
JVL00:44:03I'm done with Pixar. Done with Pixar. That's why, honestly, you're talking about the cars. I take the cars as horrible as the cars movies are. At least they are what they are. Like, I get that. There's no pretense of, oh, we're really talking about art when we're just trying to make the grownups cry. Fuck. Fuck. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to say, I'm not crying. You're crying.
Sonny00:44:26You refuse to allow the emotions to take over.
Mike00:44:30Here's my question. Here's my question, JBL. Yes, Michael. Did things change at Pixar to get us to this point or were things always this way and you are just now, you might even say woke to what's happened at Pixar?
JVL00:44:46I think this is all Lasseter related and I think that this is what Lasseter was doing. But he was a much more subtle and skillful manipulator. And when they lost him first to Disney animation, because this, I mean, the, the, the demise of Pixar begins with Lasseter transferring his creative attention to Disney. And that's when all of a sudden the Disney animated movies started getting good. Uh, and then when he left the company altogether, uh, the, it was just, you said then all the artifice was laid bare because John Lasseter. Whatever else you want to say about him. And that is a weird dude. Um, he's a very skillful storyteller.
Mike00:45:29And, uh, but, but this is the thing I don't quite understand about your hatred of it, because if the manipulation is skilled and subtle, what's the problem? Like, that's like, that's what storytelling and, and, and moviemaking is. It's all.
JVL00:45:46But once you understand that that's what's going on, right. And this is the problem, right? So long as you don't see the manipulation, you can be like, okay. But once, once the, the, the blindfold has been ripped from your eyes and you see it in all of the modern movies, then you look back and you see it in toy story and you see it in finding Nemo, even sort of see it monsters, Inc. Then those things are ruined for you because you realize, oh, you were just a mark, right? This wasn't interesting storytelling. You were just a mark. Who was, I don't, I don't mind. I don't mind being, I don't mind being a mark. I do. I ain't nobody's sucker. I don't lay down. I don't bend over for nobody.
Sonny00:46:27All right. And what's, what's the opposite of a mark in wrestling?
JVL00:46:31Uh, smart. You are smart.
Sonny00:46:33You're now a smart.
JVL00:46:35I'm a smart. I'm a smart.
Sonny00:46:36And that, and that, that is creative. But, but now that you are, you're a smart, shouldn't you, uh, be on Pixar side because you see what they're doing to manipulate the marks?
JVL00:46:48No. So the people who are smart to wrestling, uh, tend to be the people who hate wrestling. The people who are genuine fans of wrestling are called smarks or smart marks, which is to say they have all the enjoyment and love of a mark, but they're smart to what's going on. They don't need to, they, they understand that Hulk Hogan is not actually about to fall asleep in the sleeper hold when his, his arm drops for the third time. Uh, and they love it anyway. And I am not, I, I am, I am really smart to Pixar's game. I am not a smart.
Mike00:47:23It's still real to me. Damn it.
JVL00:47:28I, I mean, I'm, I'm being, what about Wally?
?00:47:32A hundred percent. Fuck that.
JVL00:47:35Fuck that. I'm, I'm a hundred percent serious about this. Like I, I think many, not all, but many of the Disney animation movies have something interesting to say about life, which isn't sent. I mean, you know, Moana is a trauma movie. Uh, Encanto is really just about families in a, in a beautiful way and circumstances and immigration and drug dealing. Yeah. And, uh, and I, you know what? I, I have a great deal of respect for what the men's movies do because it is not high art or high cinema, right? But some of it is really good silliness.
Sonny00:48:15It's three stooges. It's three, three, three, right?
JVL00:48:18Or Looney Tunes or anything. Yeah. Um, but this, this other stuff with his
Sonny00:48:22pretense of Pixar way, we're here to make the parents cry, I guess.
Mike00:48:30I, you know, you know, I don't know. It's, it's fine. It's fine. My bigger issue is nothing to do with this. These divisions between Disney and, uh, and what is it? Imagination.
Sonny00:48:43Imagine there's Disney and Pixar.
Mike00:48:45No, no, no. Disney, Pixar, illumination, illumination, all these different dreamworks, blah, blah, blah. And maybe we've talked about this before, but the lack of real villains in any of these movies drives me insane.
Sonny00:48:59Like, yes.
Mike00:49:01Perfect example is in inside out to who is the bill? There is no villain.
Sonny00:49:05The villain, the villain is your, the villain is always your, it's overcoming your own. Yes. Uh, in, in like not the overcoming your own kind of uncertainty about yourself. That is, that is who, what the hell kind of villain is that? This is, and this is like, this is like. Like in Canto or Moana or Frozen or any, it's so like, at least Frozen had like a proper villain kind of.
Mike00:49:32Well, but, but like the, you don't know that until the end. I mean, the, the, again, Frozen, I think suffers from the same problem. You might call him the phantom menace.
JVL00:49:39Hmm.
Mike00:49:40Hmm. It's a coin of phrase. Uh, but I find, I find this so frustrating and I, and I do think it's why like my kids really like the. The older Disney animated movies a lot more.
JVL00:49:57What are you going to say by older? Please don't say seventies Disney.
Sonny00:50:01Please don't say 101 Dalmatians and the rescuers down under.
Mike00:50:04What? Why?
JVL00:50:05Please say that you mean like sleeping beauty. Just tell me JBL. I mean, sleeping beauty, sleeping views, an amazing movie.
Mike00:50:12No, it has a villain in it. Not really. Not really. Sleeping beauty. More like, uh, rescuers down under. No, they actually, they do like the rescuers down under. I think they like little mermaid rescuers. Better, um, from, from, from Aladdin these, um, don't say Robin hood. No, like don't say the animal Robin hood, jungle book, jungle book, all of those.
JVL00:50:35You hate those. I mean, that is generally regarded as the low point of animation in America. Yeah. It's the animation is bad, but at least there's like everything.
Mike00:50:47Bad guys.
Sonny00:50:48The jungle book, the jungle book at least has some, some banger songs.
Mike00:50:52Yeah.
Sonny00:50:52I want to be like you. I want to doubt that you will be Prima.
Mike00:50:58Come on, man. The, the, that Robin hood, that Robin hood animal. Oh, I love that movie. I love that movie. It's fantastic. With Roger Miller.
Sonny00:51:09I liked it as a kid because I liked all Robin hood stuff, but like trying to watch it now, it's unwatchable.
Mike00:51:15It is absolutely unwatchable. Oh, you guys, you guys are. Such a, you know, I'm a man of the people here and I snow white has a villain in it.
JVL00:51:27It's a great movie.
Mike00:51:28It is a great movie. Yes. Um, Cinderella and, um, uh, Peter Pan, Peter Pan. That's a, that's a classic.
Sonny00:51:37Have you watched Peter Pan?
Mike00:51:38Oh yeah.
Sonny00:51:39Recently.
Mike00:51:40Oh yeah. No, we used to watch kids bailed on it.
Sonny00:51:42My kids, my kids, my kids, my kids bailed on Peter Pan. They did not care. We went, so we went to, we went to Disney world, you know, we went on the, there's like a Peter Pan ride where it's basically, you're just going through the movie, like on a, you just fly through the movie and we, and they love that, but we watched the movie and they, they like left the room 40 minutes
Mike00:52:03in, they were just not, they were outraged about what made the red man red. Is that what they were?
Sonny00:52:07They were definitely, it's very problem. It's, it is like, but it's a catchy song. I have, I have a very, as you, as listeners of this podcast and readers of anything I've ever written. No, I have a very high tolerance for that sort of thing. And even I was. Kind of like awkwardly tugging on my collar, like a Simpsons character.
JVL00:52:27Like some of it was like, Ooh, it's, it is not at song of the South levels. No, it's like in the same zip code. Yeah.
Mike00:52:35Same zip code as song of the South. Yeah. But it's, uh, like I said, it's got a catchy tune and
Sonny00:52:41Zippity-doo-dah is catchy as hell.
Mike00:52:43Zippity-doo-dah is catchy. And there's, Hey, there's nothing actually racist in Zippity-doo-dah. Um, they used to do it on the, they used to do it on the musical videos, you know? Uh, the ball, the bouncing ball, um, that is a very racist movie anyway. Uh, uh, but I like, I like villains. I like having bad guys and good guys. And, um, did I tell you guys that we watched, uh, the, the black cauldron several couple of months ago? Did we talk about that?
JVL00:53:09No, how does that hold up?
Mike00:53:11So I had never seen it. This was like two months ago. And, um, we were looking for a new old Disney movie, old being before that they, before they were born. And so. So we watched the black cauldron and it's, it's a fascinating, like, I don't like, I wasn't quite sure what to think of it. Like it's on like, right. So I don't think. No, we, we, we did this.
Sonny00:53:39Yeah, I thought we did this because I looked at it. I think it was, it was either, it was right after he left.
Mike00:53:44Yes, it's right.
Sonny00:53:44It was like, it was like the first thing that Jeffrey Katzenberg oversaw. That's right. Like he wanted, he wanted to, he wanted to cut a bunch of stuff and they were like, this is animation. We can't just like redo it. Like we can't just, we can't just like you, this is what you have to look. We put storyboards through the entire building. We laid out the entire movie for you and you, you have to, you have to sign off on these things because they take nine months to do like, we can't, we can't just do reshoots.
Mike00:54:12Um, anyway, uh, I just want, I want more movies like that. I, I want less, you know, fewer movies about the internal emotions of a, you know, of a 13 year old girl, uh, and her parents, like, like it's fine.
Sonny00:54:28I want, I want somebody, I want the 13 year old girl girl to have somebody to, to struggle against, like not herself.
JVL00:54:35That's all right. Well, what if, just hear me out, spit ball in here, trying to help Hollywood. What if it's a 13 year old girl who's dealing with the complex relationship she has with her mother, who's trying to pimp her out on Instagram.
Mike00:54:52That's a movie that's kid movie gold right there.
Sonny00:54:55Well, as long as there's an evil pedophile in it, as long as there's, as
JVL00:55:00long as there's like, uh, as opposed to the other, the pedophile with a heart of
Sonny00:55:05gold, that's what they could call the movie pedophile with a heart of gold. The good pedophile has to say, Oh God, I'm gonna have to cut all this shit.
JVL00:55:13The good dinosaur, the good pedophile.
Mike00:55:17Uh, anyway, we've gotten on some, uh, some unfortunate. Uh, hit some unfortunate cul-de-sacs here. Um, all right. Any other thoughts on inside out? Oh, I know what I was going to ask about inside out too. So like some of the voices changed. Yes.
Sonny00:55:33Bill Hader and Whitney Kaling were not back. Not, not in it. That's uh, yeah, yeah, I think, uh, they, they were, they were, they, they got offered not very much money. I think like Amy Poehler got offered. Uh, I could look this up, but it was, she got offered a pretty big raise. And it was like 10 or 15 million dollars. Salary or something like that. And they offered the supporting voice cast like 200 grand a piece or something. Yeah. Yeah.
JVL00:56:00Bill Hader doesn't get out of bed for 200 grand.
Sonny00:56:03Bill Hader was like, you, I got better things to do with my life.
JVL00:56:07Does he mean just as an hourly rate?
Sonny00:56:10Barry Barry's an enormous hit. Barry was a huge, he's, he's making his own movies. Mindy Kaling on the other hand, I think, uh, like it was, it runs, it has, it has like two shows. Two shows that she does, you know, I don't know. The problem is there's so much stuff out there now that it's hard to keep. Louis Black came back because Louis Black was like, yeah, $200,000. I'll do that. I could use that.
Mike00:56:35Um, yeah, but like the thing is besides, sorry, I'm thinking of Bunny Lebowski.
Sonny00:56:40Tony Hale. Tony Hale was like, yeah, I'll do it. I'll, I'll fill in for Bill Hader. Are you sure you don't have any more sporky stuff for me to do? I could do that.
Mike00:56:50Um, but the, the, uh. Um, the next 500 of Grant gets to watch the voices actually don't do much for me in this movie. Like Amy Poehler, like, like there's nothing, there's nothing about this movie and, and
Sonny00:57:05all that voice talent that I got to say, I got to say, I had some real flashbacks to like late Obama era parks and rec Amy Poehler vibes, which are like real nails on chalkboard stuff at this point. I like, I love, I like Amy Poehler and I, I love parks and rec. It's, it's a fine show, but there it's, it, it really does call back to another, it calls back to a time that has passed and is probably best left in the past.
JVL00:57:41I, I have a, an economic question for you, Sonny. Sure. There are animated movies which need stars doing voiceover work. That is a genuine. That is a genuine thing because you do need the stars to sell, but for a property like Inside Out, why pay any of these people anything when you could just hire like voice talent as long as they're good, right? But they're not names that you don't have to pay. Everything. That doesn't add a dollar to the box office gross, does it?
Sonny00:58:11Every, every single movie like this has real names doing all the voiceover work. I don't know. I don't know why. I don't understand why.
Mike00:58:19It didn't even use, it didn't use to be that way. It did not. You were lucky if you got like a couple stars.
JVL00:58:26Bugs Life, everybody in it is somebody you know. Dave Foley? Dave Foley is a name.
Sonny00:58:30Dave Foley is where, Toy Story has, you know, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. I mean, Tim Allen is like, when, when Toy Story comes out, like people kind of forget this, but Tim Allen is arguably, if not the biggest sitcom star in the world, one of them. Yeah.
Mike00:58:45Basically behind Seinfeld, Home Improvement is the, is the number one sitcom. And like, and Tom Hanks is Tom Hanks.
JVL00:58:52Right. And, uh, yeah. In, in Willem Dafoe, I mean, it just, I, I look at this and I just think to myself, this, I mean, maybe these things are just boondoggles, right? Cause they're friends of producers or something. So you can give them work and it's easy work.
Sonny00:59:10It's how you sell it though. It's how you see, you get these, you get these people on the hot shows and blah, blah, blah.
JVL00:59:16Like Ants, right? So DreamWorks does Ants. It is a movie that comes out. That's exactly like. It's Bugs Life. It's the first DreamWorks animation movie. And so they look like that fucking thing has everything. It's got Sylvester Stallone in it. It's, it's, you know, the Jerry Seinfeld, right? It's like 40, 40 above the line talent credits. And so, yeah, that you, you need names for, for an established property. Like you do not need Owen Wilson's name in Cars 2. Ka-ching. Right. I mean, Cars 2 just sells itself. You do not need anybody in it. Kids like the continuity.
Sonny00:59:52Kids like continuity. Kids, if you, if you give them like knockoff Owen Wilson, they'll be like, something's wrong.
Mike00:59:57They will. Yes, I agree with that.
JVL00:59:59I would just, I just think. I don't think BII could take care of that now.
Sonny01:00:03No, probably.
JVL01:00:04Tying it all back together with our Acolyte thing.
Sonny01:00:07Well, I, we didn't even talk about that at all. Maybe we'll talk about that in the bonus. Cause I do have like, I have an ethical question about that, but we can.
Mike01:00:14Yeah, let's talk about that.
Sonny01:00:15I will say, Mike, did you miss JBL? You didn't see the movie, but Mike, did you miss not having Aqua? Fina as a key.
Mike01:00:22I was just going to make that joke. I was just about to make that joke. I was like, where's Aqua? Fina?
Sonny01:00:27I'm surprised the makers of inside out to aren't in prison as we speak for violating the Aqua Fina full employment act of 2017.
JVL01:00:36Well, they did have Anya Taylor joy though, right?
Sonny01:00:39No, not even, not even Anya Taylor joy.
JVL01:00:41Really? I was, it was unbelievable. I feel like all movies need to have one of those two in them.
Sonny01:00:47No, this had Maya Hawken, IO at a berry. Yeah, that's right.
Mike01:00:50IO at a berry is kind of. The new, yeah, the, the new, you know, but everything. Um, all right. Well, I'm glad we're on the same wavelength here, Sonny. Uh, that is all the time we are going to give to this episode. Check us out@subbeacon.com and we'll talk to you next time.
Sonny01:01:12JBL. What was the name of this video? So we can tell, uh, I'll try to remember to include a link to it in the, but the, all right, so here's here, I want to, I want to just. Describe the video that JBL sent us. So it's, it's basically, uh, Anakin, Obi-Wan and force ghost Qui-Gon Jinn watching this new episode of the Acolyte and making jokes about it, doing the MST MST 3000.
JVL01:01:40Mystery science, Charlie Hopkinson is the name of the creator on YouTube. This video is Anakin reacts to the episode that pissed everyone off.
Sonny01:01:50So, uh. And it's very funny. It is, as JBL says, it is, it's very amusing. The guy does a pretty spot on Ewan McGregor, uh, voice impression and his, his Christensen is very good as well. Um, but, but I want to, I want, I need to describe how this is because there, there's a part of it that I have a real problem with, right? So it's basically one guy is playing all three of these and he is using deep fake technology to make himself look like Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. And, uh, Liam Neeson in their various guises and he does the voice work himself, you know, so it's like he is doing, he is doing some work here, but I have like, I have a mild problem. I have a, I have a mild ethical problem with him assuming like a spot on visual representation of these guys through the use of AI footage that has just been cobbled together from all sorts of sorts. Like, I don't. I don't know, like, did, did deep fake license the rights to Ewan McGregor? I don't think they did. So, I mean, like I, if I was Ewan McGregor's people, I'd be sending takedowns to this guy all day long. I like, I would not, I, I, I do not think this should be a loud. I think it's bad. I think it's bad for, I think deep fake stuff is like, we're talking about anxiety. That's what I have anxiety about is would it be okay? Yes. If he was, no, if he was, if he was just doing like, um, uh, who's the Fox, the endo, if he was just doing the Frank Caliendo thing, right. I would be like, okay, this is fine. It's, you know, it's hack or whatever, but like, okay. But like I, the, the, the deep fake stuff crosses a different line. Does you like, I don't know, man, he looked exactly like Ewan McGregor.
Mike01:03:40Yeah, I don't know. I, I thought, I thought the, the, uh, Hayden Christensen one was the most obvious, like, that's not really him. Right. Like it was obviously AI. So I could, I, I sort of, I don't know. I saw the, I thought it, it, they all reached the uncanny valley at some point during, during the videos I was watching and I got it, but I don't know. You know what it also, I'm sorry to get it off this very serious topic. It also reminds me of there's a British show called Gogglebox, which is a show, a reality show where people watch TV shows and they have a camera in their house. As they're all, as they're like the families, like sitting around watching a TV show and it captures their commentary on the show itself. And this is like, this seems to be a takeoff. So I was wondering actually, to bring it back to the serious topic, if there's some kind of fair use element of this, if this is like satire, uh, or something like that, or is that basically what all deep fakes are, they're all satire. And so it doesn't really, it doesn't really make a difference. I don't know. I, I, I just think
JVL01:04:48I just thought the writing was really funny.
Mike01:04:51Yeah, it was very funny.
Sonny01:04:52The writing is very right. It is. It's very amusing. I'm not, I would not, I would not dispute that at all, but I do. I, as I was watching it, I was like getting antsier and antsier. I was like, Hmm, something is wrong. This is the, there's a disturbance in the force, so to speak.
Mike01:05:08I'm sure it's fine.
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