Griffin and David review an episode of the 1993 television series Amazing Stories directed by Brad Bird: Family Dog. This episode is sponsored by Never Seen It podcast.
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[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check
[00:01:01] I like the bonuses I like the powerpuff girls It would be two episodes per episode And then you have a little interstitial, a gag Little thing Amazing Stories, which was a very hyped up show Here Spielberg doing an anthology show It's like Twilight Zone but full of wonder
[00:01:47] Have you ever seen him? I've seen a handful of episodes I kind of like the show It was inconsistent, it was very expensive It didn't live up to the hype I think it was sort of seen as a folly But there's good shit on it
[00:02:01] And I will say the opening of the show is the most pretentious fucking thing I've ever seen Oh my god Where it starts with the original story The original story tells the caveman by the fire And then it ends with that caveman Now on a TV screen
[00:02:17] And there's like the CGI And there's like hieroglyphics That can go fuck itself There was one I used to watch a lot for some bizarre reason I had it on tape It was like, it was kind of basically like a little shop of Harzerpoff With like a plant
[00:02:35] Oh weird I'm gonna try and see a plant Yes, the 21 inch sun A sitcom writer Writes a script thanks to a spider plant that absorbs TV rays What a weird I used to watch a lot of TV Who is that? Who directed it?
[00:02:49] They had a lot of good people behind the scenes on that show No they did, when you go through it It's all these names that you recognize It was directed by Nick Castle Okay, who was Who did the last star fighter Co-wrote escape from New York played
[00:03:03] Michael Myers, he was a carpenter guy Yeah, Robert Townsend Right, Robert Townsend The Meteor Man himself I used to love that one I don't know why There were a lot of people who got their first jobs on amazing stories as well I mean like Brad Bird
[00:03:19] But then there's also weird reclamation projects Like Toby Hooper did Danny DeVito directed an episode Was that before he had made a feature yet? Or was he already? 86, I'm trying to remember when he made I think War of the Roses had come up at that point maybe
[00:03:33] No, maybe that was later Throw Mama from the Train is 87 That's a second film, so War of the Roses The ratings game his TV movies Oh right Let's do DeVito, Hoffa Throw Mama was before I'm here to tell you that Throw Mama from the Train is 1987 Wow
[00:03:51] War of the Roses is 1989 I'd like to do DeVito Duplex, Death of Smushy That must, must the children's films Fuck I'm just testing you now At this point you must know I'm testing you That's all you do Yeah, also Death of Smushy rules
[00:04:09] And by rules I mean fucks So Brad Bird who A thing I find very interesting about Family Dog Yeah Which really just felt like cartoon Network shit to me Like pre-cartoon, cartoon Design, the sort of, well I was talking about it with Ben But yeah, say your thing
[00:04:31] I was Tim Burton Fanatic as a child He was sort of like The first director I got really obsessed with Through the idea of Oh there's a director There's like a person who makes all this stuff He's a real starter Director in that way because it's like
[00:04:47] All his movies are about the same thing They all look the same way You know I was such a completist That like Family Dog The Series is one of only I think two things he has a producer credit on That he didn't direct before the year
[00:05:05] 2000, the other being Cabin Boy Sure Which he was also supposed to direct Weird So I saw both of those things early on And then I saw I was like I'm not going to talk about them No, which is why I'm talking about them now
[00:05:23] Tim Burton Design Family Dog Conflicting reports as to whether he Initially developed it as his idea The dog looks like Frank and Weenie 100% He designed all the characters And what I had heard was that he pitched this To amazing stories
[00:05:39] Because Brad Bird and Tim Burton were kind of In similar places in their career They distinct styles And reputations These guys are weird, they're going to do something And Brad Bird kept on floating around the ether Almost getting projects and same thing with Tim Burton Tim Burton's
[00:05:55] Debut film was almost After hours I did not know that Because Griffin Dunn liked Frank and Weenie so much He hired him and then when Scorsese got interested In the project Tim Burton was like that's final step away But Tim Burton was like developing After hours
[00:06:11] He was being passed around same thing with Brad Bird Right? What I had sort of heard but then I couldn't find Anything online to corroborate this Is that Burton pitched this I'd love to do Domestic Suburban Nuclear family from the perspective of the dog
[00:06:29] Which feels very much in line with his work Especially in this early period Started developing it then his feature career took off And Brad Bird who was a classmate of his At Kellarts The best pure animation director The man knows drawing Takes over it
[00:06:45] He gets soul writing credit I think he took just the germ of the idea But all the designs are Burton And Burton gets the animation designed by Tim Burton In the end of this thing Yeah he does get soul credit though
[00:06:57] And then when he creates the TV show It is created by Brad Bird Right But Tim Burton gets an executive producer So I had seen the series Which was like four years later Yes I can look it up It was in the post-Simpson's wave
[00:07:15] Of we need more prime time Cartoons Yeah it was In 1993 This is 87 So six years later it was on CBS And it was a summer show It aired June to July I think because at that point they were dumping it But it was like you remember Capital Critters
[00:07:35] No no I know what you're talking about There was this wave of like What are other Put cartoons at It's funny that it was on CBS Because I think Amazing Stories was NBC But maybe Amazing Stories was syndicated It was also done by that point No I know
[00:07:53] Brad Bird refused to carry over To the cartoon But he did create it He gets a contractual credit He had no involvement with the series Which I had seen and at the time I was like where the timber improves This thing is fine It was a big disaster
[00:08:11] They like Got an episode order of 13 They only ever produced 10 They end up re-writing and re-animating a bunch of the first 10 After they were done and then loaded them off in the summer Sure, fuck that show But I had seen those for years
[00:08:25] And then when I became a Brad Bird fan Later and started to understand his career a little more Ben came over to adjust my microphone I did it myself and now he's Charlie Brown Walking back in resignation to his chair Then I dug into like
[00:08:37] Oh that's Brad Bird made that thing And watched the original one Which I think I had seen I don't know mid-2000s and then rewatched last night for this Yeah It's a very interesting piece Because it is like This very expensive Like Real
[00:08:57] For what Brad Bird is capable of That's true At a time where people wouldn't hire him because I thought he was difficult And animation was in a week or two And we talked about this on our Iron Giant episode
[00:09:07] He sort of got this pass from Spielberg to be like Hey you got 22 minutes Do you know there was a Super NES video game? Yeah Fuck Like they really tried to make it a big thing That's why it took so long Because they were like
[00:09:23] There's a lot riding on Family Dog We already have licensing deals But the game is going to be on serial boxes So they like kept on pushing it back and redoing it Like you say it took six years I think it was in development four years
[00:09:35] Or three years later And it took another two or three years to make it on air We're watching a let's play of the video game Weird right? It looks kind of cool And the cartoon show has A Martin Mull playing the dad Yeah
[00:09:51] But it loses Annie Potts and replaces her With Molly Cheek from Shandling show fair enough. Yeah. So I was talking about this with Ben. It's like these 80s cartoons and the 90s have it too. They're just about these miserable fucking family.
[00:10:09] Yes, where it's like that's the it's that era of like well now everything's solved. We have all the conveniences and we live in these boring nuclear and it's just like it's always like the dad being like you know and the mom being like shrieky. Yeah.
[00:10:24] But I also think and that's what the Simpsons is except the Simpsons immediately expands out. Right. I also think whether he was starting this wave or just in line with a sort of cultural movement. This was kind of a cornerstone
[00:10:40] of Burton's brand at the beginning of his career, which reads as its apex and Edward Scissorhands, which is here's a guy who grew up in sunny, beautiful California in the 1960s and was miserable. Yeah. You know,
[00:10:51] like here's my dad, mowing the lawn. Here's my mom baking the cookies. And I think all of this sucks and I'm really cynical about all of it. Right. And it's like less horrifying than Lynch more funny, but like that similar vibe,
[00:11:04] which is why I think it will never talk about Burton again. No, but. This game is weird, dude. You're still watching the Let's Play. You should like all set in the apartment. Do they have it for Sega Genesis? No, I think it was an SNES exclusive.
[00:11:21] It was core part of their 1994, whatever. Do you remember when certain video games were siphoned off as a blockbuster exclusive and it was clear that like the developer gave up on it? They're like, we're not even going to sell this in stores.
[00:11:33] This is the classic game that you get bought for Christmas. And you're like, what? You know, like you wanted Bone Storm, like whatever this Simpsons joke is, but like you got a fucking family dog. You're just playing fetch. Look at that shit. I see it. Still playing fetch.
[00:11:50] And so you would be like, well, you know, you're seven years old and you're like, well, this is what I got. So I'm going to play this game. Do you remember a game like that though that you were given at Christmas?
[00:12:00] I had the Gremlins 2 game on the Game Boy that you're like Gizmo. And it's like this fucking impossible platform game where your weapon is like a pencil and it sucked. And I was like, I am beating this game. I don't care.
[00:12:12] The thing is for me, like I was a Game Boy kid and I like two things. Like I liked like Mario Nintendo games. And I liked games based off of movies and TV shows. Right, you're and you're still like that.
[00:12:23] Right. And there were so many video games I got that were objectively bad that I had so much fun playing because I was like, but look at me. Right. It's like you're getting. I made your chip hazard leader of the Commando elite.
[00:12:36] Like I just had fun playing like the fucking small soldiers game, whether or not it was good. Yeah. So I don't think I ever disliked the Toy Story game. Yeah, it was the best. It's a good game. I got it for the Genesis now.
[00:12:46] I found the one I got. Which one? I like, I think literally my uncle was like, I saw you wear like a floral print shirt one time. Leisure suit Larry. No, that would be good. Green dog, the beach surfer dude. What? I've never heard of this.
[00:13:01] It's called Green Dog, the beach surfer dude. Yeah. I'm loading it up because they thought you were a surfer dude because you want. I mean, my uncle literally knew nothing about me. He knew my he barely knew my name. I don't know.
[00:13:14] This is like the cool spot game or whatever. It was one of your uncle made. Maybe. Did you play it? Did you turn your computer screen around? Can I get a look at this? Like a Genesis game or something? What is this? It looks weird.
[00:13:28] It is so weird. And I actually did end up playing it. It's not a dog. Is a person. You get into him because it's like, I had this game called Cybernator, which is just like you're a robot and you shoot shit.
[00:13:39] I've never heard anyone's ever mentioned this game to me in any other context. I like beat that game 10 times because what else am I going to do? So that's been our bonus episode. Thank you for listening. Fuck. I see.
[00:13:50] I liked the Genesis Aladdin better than the Super Nintendo Aladdin. That was the one where they were weirdly different. Oh, yeah. I didn't have a Genesis. My friends did, but I would like go play the Aladdin.
[00:13:59] Well, that's so my my friend Pat May, we were at like an old video game store and I found the Toy Story game for the Genesis, which I've said I have one of those like Genesis emulator emulator, the $40 like plug and play thing.
[00:14:11] But it takes cartridges and I had only played the Toy Story game on the Game Boy and he was like, you know that game is like insanely hard, right? Yeah. And I don't remember the Game Boy game being as hard, but I also don't
[00:14:25] know if it was just that was more diligent. Some of these games are right. Different versions were harder. Like I had a game gear. Yeah. Because my parents like convinced themselves that like that was a good
[00:14:35] choice because it like was color or someone hurt your eyes, you know. And I had like Sonic 2 on the game gear, which is like punishing. Yeah. It's so cruel. Yeah. Whereas like Sonic 2 on the Genesis is fun and colorful and
[00:14:48] like Sonic 2 on the it's just like fuck you. This game sucks. You to turn you asshole. So I would just play it obsessively because I was level mid like level 16. You to turn you asshole. You're an idiot. Dumb kid. God, this is a little break looks weird.
[00:15:07] I love it. OK, but look at like the Genesis version of the SNES version because the big selling point was it was the first video game with like CGI rendered. Yes. No, I remember that. I remember how it looked.
[00:15:17] It was so advertising campaign was they didn't think Toy Story was going to be big. So they just sold it off of like the characters are 3D. I just remember the scene where you like it's in the nightmare. Yeah. And that was cool. They did the level scene.
[00:15:30] Hey, are you tired of pretending that you've seen things like HBO's masterpiece, The Wire when you're at a party and people start talking about it? OK, well then you should check out a podcast called Never Seen It. It's hosted by comedian Kyle Ayres and people will come on
[00:15:47] comedians and they'll rewrite famous movies that they've never seen and then they'll do a cold read in studio. So you'll hear Dan Harmon's take on Lawrence of Arabia or your or Amy Miller rewriting The Shining or Fula Borgs, No Country for Old Men.
[00:16:03] And they'll do segments like what movies Kyle's dad describing based solely off having seen the trailer and never heard of the movie or guess which three movie scenes are playing when the audio of all three is played simultaneously.
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[00:16:31] Anyway, family dog. It's funny. What I was going to say is animation at this point is it such a sort of a trough as a medium. Yes in the 80s. Yes, absolutely. Of course. Because adult animation hasn't come back at this point.
[00:16:48] Pixar is but a company in someone's garage basically. In the feature department Disney is slashing budgets, putting them together. She got the blue smoothies. Okay. This is what's happening concurrently which is Spielberg saying like I want to bring animation back.
[00:17:02] And so he's the one guy who's got the blank check to be able to get animators big budgets. Right. And the animation on family dog is way above TV animation. Like I look at this thing. This was I think it looks good.
[00:17:16] I think it looks amazing and it was one of the most expensive episodes they did of the show. And as a byproduct, they like heavily promoted it as an episode. Not just as the series like bought ads just for like this week family dog gets animated.
[00:17:30] You know, yeah, this is going to be like movie quality animation. That was still a cool gimmick at your home. And so he had this massive like here's a premise that Tim Burton came up with it's really general because this is still like two years before the Simpsons.
[00:17:42] Correct. Yeah, yeah. Right. And I think it takes them two years to make this thing. Honestly. Sure. So he sort of had a lot of latitude on this thing. And this is a fascinating artifact because it's kind of like here's Brad Bird with the top resources
[00:17:58] of 1987 animation getting to show off what he can do as a director with no real ideology behind it. Like all the murky Brad Bird stuff that we've been digging into of like is he kind of fucked? What's up with you, Brad? Right. What's going on here?
[00:18:13] Like this is just like I want to show everyone that I'm a really fucking good animation director. I mean, I actually I agree with you by and large, but the movie is kind of funny. I mean, the show is like funny and cynical and very fun.
[00:18:26] Like I guess there is that Burton-y thing. Like I love the turn of him just joining the bank robber. I mean, that's funny. Yeah, but that also just feels like it's just like Bugs Bunny shit. Like it's like exactly. It's just my terrace.
[00:18:37] It's like what's the funniest situations we can put these characters into? It's coming from a darker sense of humor. It's darker, but you're right. There's that person. You can't read the philosophy of this dude. Yeah, you can just go like God, this guy is
[00:18:50] such a fucking master of like performance. But I'll say this. It's a hard movie to summer. A hard premise to summarize. Yes, like someone's like, oh, what's family dog? And I was like it's kind of about how the dog gets real.
[00:19:02] Like is really the sort of treated like shit by its family. And you're like that's not like a thing. Well, it's like everyone's like, you're right. The dog is always treated like shit. Like no, it isn't usually the dog is well liked. There are three acts.
[00:19:15] There's three acts of this thing, right? Where the ad breaks would have gone separate them and they're each kind of their own thing. So the first one is here's just like a day, a normal day,
[00:19:27] uneventful from the POV of the dog and how everyone relates to the dog. Right. Which is not as much I think the game of like everyone treats the dog like shit. It's more the game of like if you're a dog, you have a perspective on every
[00:19:38] member that's different than how they would ever. Sure. Okay. We react to the humans. Yeah. Right. The mom is very like shitty to the dog, but it's clear that it's just like the mom is almost at a breaking point. That she has this whole rant about her place.
[00:19:53] Which I love. It's a family. I know it's, that's what I'm saying. This is a first to herself as a line cook. Yeah. And then when she gives in the food and it comes out in like a can shape,
[00:20:04] which is I think the single best piece of like animation direction in this thing is the one continuous shot where she takes out the can and the like gross like cylinder of meat is very slowly dripping out of the can as like
[00:20:22] one solid like chunk and you just watch the dog's expression change from like the shore like a static optimism at like food. It's just getting more and more disappointed at what the thing is by the time it lands in the bowl, he's like disgusted by it doesn't even
[00:20:36] want to eat it. Right. It's really good character animation. Yeah. But that's like the mom's relationship. The boy is kind of like a little Ben. Right. He's like a little terror. Um, right? Sucks. He's like, he's like a little sly grand. You're right.
[00:20:53] But I would never hurt an animal. I know that. Okay. Because that's some serial killer shit. Right. But but that's that's this relationship. Right. Yeah. Is the dog being kind of terrified this boy who looks a little satanic.
[00:21:08] Um, the girl, the daughter just wants to play with the dog like a dog. That that feels very classic. Yeah, that is a dog's predicament. Right. You know, the girl or boy, whatever wants to dress up the dog or whatever. Right.
[00:21:23] And the dad, he just like cannot engage. Um, yes. Until the fart. The fart thing is a little fucked up. Yeah. That was where I'm just like, this is a little fucked up. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Did that bother you?
[00:21:37] Didn't bother me or did that? I was just like, this is mean. It's kind of gross. Right. It's weird. But it ends with them blaming everything on the dog when the dog pisses on the rug,
[00:21:48] which is sort of like this boiling point moment where they're all fighting with each other so much. So right. I get that. The dog becomes the scapegoat. It's like why? Right. Yeah. So that's the first idea. I love how the dog emotes too. Yeah. It's so expressive. Yeah.
[00:21:59] And it's such great like classical animation stuff where it's like, like this is the whole reason they've made 17 Ice Age movies is because they just cracked something with that fucking scrap character where it's like he's got big eyes and he wants to get the nut.
[00:22:14] And it's like so simple and so expressive that people just like that fucking road runner, Wiley Coyote game that they play there. Right. And this dog is just like, it's great that like it's all low level. It's like all on the floor.
[00:22:28] You're seeing everyone from these like low angles or you're just seeing their feet or whatever. And he's just kind of this sad sack who can't get a break. You know, there's something like so working man about this dog. He's just like trying to do his best.
[00:22:41] That's like half of animated animal characters. Yeah. Like half of them are little stinkers. Yeah. And then half of them are like, I just want to fucking do this thing. Right. Half of them are Griffins and half of them are Davids. I'm the bad one in that.
[00:23:00] Yes, you're right. Yes. You're Tom and I'm Jerry. Yep. I'm a little stinker and you're trying to eat me. Okay. Bow style. Yep. Yeah. Bow bow. Shader. So then like the dog is on the lawn.
[00:23:16] What if the movie just ends with it being like, I hate my son. That's it. It's just the end of the movie. It's just like, the credits roll in. You know something?
[00:23:28] You know something I can't believe we didn't talk about in the Incredibles episode that we just recorded? Sure. That they changed the logos. The logos? That the Disney logo they redid incredible stuff and the Pixar logo they didn't read which they never fucked with. Never fucked with.
[00:23:42] It looks so good though. Loved it. And you know Bird likes to change logos he changed. He had that Iron Man logo that was very unique to one of our. Sir. What was that? Yeah. Anyway, like that.
[00:23:57] But so like family dog kicked to the lawn sad sack at night. Here he is. And then just like fade to black and then you just imagine them cutting to like, you know a dodge commercial or whatever. Yeah. You know like Cindy Crawford telling Coke.
[00:24:12] I know you're right. I mean that's what amazing stories is it's weird. It's kind of weird that that was on TV. It's crazy that it was just like, hey, you can do whatever you want. Spielberg is just letting filmmakers tell fucking stories. Right? It's true.
[00:24:22] And some of them are hack and some of them aren't. Comes back then it's like a short skit which is like the family watching home videos and just doing commentary on their home video. Yeah. That's okay. So that's the weakest. Right.
[00:24:33] That last like two and a half minutes. But it's also very similar to the beginning of Frank and Weenie. Yeah. The live action short, which is them watching the film that he made and all just commenting on it. And you watch just the screen without seeing them,
[00:24:47] which is interesting just because the dog is so Frank and Weenie-ish as well. And then we get to this third bit, which feels like the old animation tradition of like, you know, not just at Warner Brothers, but like all these other animation houses.
[00:25:02] It's like, okay, come up with a fun character. And then if your character's good, then okay, great. Now Droopy Dog's a hit. We want to make it a series. What's the next Droopy Dog cartoon? Like the first act of Family Dog just feels like here's the setup.
[00:25:17] And now it's like, okay, your character's a hit. What are other funny things you can do with this character? Yeah. Like it's like they're already jumping to the sequel within the same half hour block. Another thing I want to, well, okay, go on.
[00:25:28] All right, go on, go on. How do you find other games for him to play? Right. And so this game of this shitty fucking dog who's always getting all the blame. What about the dog side? I agree with you.
[00:25:39] I'm saying shitty from the perspective of the humans, right? They're like, fuck this dog. And the dog's like, I am trying. It's a landmine. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. I'm trying my best here. Right. Apparently the most crime infested neighborhood in America.
[00:25:52] This is the, it just gets so dystopian so fast. It reminded me of Beavis and Butthead kind of universe. Of just like this shitty town. Yeah. And sort of the shitty burglars who are like not even good at really disguising what they're up to. Right.
[00:26:08] And this nice looking family that's miserable in the middle of it. Right. Like they got the nice house and the nice clothes and the big smiles, but they're also just like fucking angry. They keep on getting robbed every time they go out. They blame it on the dog.
[00:26:24] Even the bit with the mom making the meal. Yeah. And then trying it herself in the kitchen being like, this is awful. It is weird that in the home videos just like, yeah, there's the thing where the dog ate the Christmas dinner and they had to get pizza.
[00:26:36] Right. The mom is justifiably like pizza for Christmas dinner. And the dad's like, who's a good pizza? You don't like that because they didn't eat the food. I didn't eat the food. I also get shitty of a dog. He really sinks into that ham or whatever.
[00:26:47] Well, they should have been watching. And then the dad should be like, yeah, no, that sucked. He's like pizza was, who wants pizza? Anyway, whatever. Back to your thing. My dream. Just pizza. Oh yeah, for Christmas. Yeah. So they're angry that the dog isn't a guard dog? Yes.
[00:27:03] Even though he is a cute dog. Why would you expect? But it's kind of funny to me because it's like that argument people would always make about dogs where it's like, it also keeps you safe. The burglars try to break in and it's like, you never hear
[00:27:13] stories about that happening. Domestic dogs. It's like they bought like the fucking line from the dog commercial. Right. Right. And now they're angry. The thing isn't doing the thing that it was never supposed to do. Yeah. Well, the predator keeps the criminals out.
[00:27:25] But then it becomes this like very burtiny. Like they have to bring the dog to like a conversion therapy. Right. There's like four twists in four minutes and the conversion place is very burtiny. Those characters. Yeah. Now the woman sounds like it must be Edna mode.
[00:27:40] I must be Bradford gets a voice credit. I was just looking at this. It has to be. It has to be. Yeah. Right. Because he gets a voice credit, but then on I need to be it just credits him for playing the dog like the whimpers.
[00:27:50] I think that has to be Bert. It sounds exactly like his Edna mode voice. Right. Basically. Yeah. So that's funny. They convert the dog into a killing machine. Right. He becomes like Jason Bourne. Like he is like an MPL truck like sleeper agent. Yeah. And then.
[00:28:09] Well, first the robbers come in and I like already the bit they keep on playing of the robberies happening all over and that one shot where they walk in through the front door and it's just the silhouettes of all the furniture that's missing. Right.
[00:28:21] The house is like completely empty and the dog's just there. Like. But yes, when the robbers come in, the dog bites the arm. Right. But then there's a great like cartoon premise of they're just like well I guess we'll just leave.
[00:28:37] And he's just holding on to the arm. Right. He just stays on the arm for like a long time until they realize that they can train the dog to commit crimes for them. They have like a weird little criminal house that they live in. Yeah.
[00:28:49] And then there's that scene at the bar that's like something out of like a Dick Tracy like comic where it's just like this rogues gallery of all these like disgusting looking animated creatures. So I'm assuming the TV show is less fucked up than this.
[00:29:03] Like the TV show is more just like a family. Haven't seen it since I was 10, but that's what I remember being like as a family sitcom that's a little less from the perspective of the dog. Right. But it's like family shit that always somehow circles around the dog.
[00:29:15] I mean the one episode I remember distinctively distinctly is the dog somehow getting roped into a dog show. OK, someone scouts him and is like that's a great looking dog. Good premise. And he goes to the dog show and he's not well behaved
[00:29:30] and he fucks everything up by accident. At the end they're like well you win the prize for being you know he came in third place and it's like there were only three dad and it's like it's still the third best you know whatever.
[00:29:40] It's like the dog just kind of fucks things up. That was what the show was. Remember Fish Police? Yes. What was the other one? There was the one that Plasky Coupso did that was like a south of the border.
[00:29:53] It might have actually been called south of the border. It was like bugs in Mexico who lived under Sombrero. Do you remember that? Sound weird. Capital Critters was the big flame out. That was John Ritter as a mouse in the White House, right? Neil Patrick Harris. Oh.
[00:30:09] Capital Critters. OK. Oh my God. Rama's Storm. I'm trying to find. Oh no. Santo Baguito. That's what I'm thinking of. Thank you very much. Santo Baguito. There it is. Yep. That was like if I was home sick and like oh great I get to
[00:30:28] watch Cartoon Network during the day and there would be two episodes of Santo Baguito. And I was like of course they save the good shit for night and the morning. So when kids aren't home. I understood what prime time was. Right. Yeah. Anyway. Family Dog. Family Dog.
[00:30:44] Four stars. Yeah it's like a good piece. Good job Brad. Of animation. And it you go despite this thing being cynical obviously Brad Bird's got chip on his shoulder. This maybe comes from a point in time where Brad Bird feels less
[00:30:56] angry about needing to prove how brilliant he is. Which then becomes the dominant theme of his work. At this point he maybe still has some optimism of like well I'll just get jobs people will pay me to do stuff because I'm good at what I do. Milkman.
[00:31:11] They say we want to do a series. He goes I don't think this can sustain a series. Right. And steps away from it. Yeah well that's his damn integrity. Yeah. Gets him every time. But that's what everyone said at the time like this guy's too difficult.
[00:31:24] It's a how is he going to have a career. Yeah now he has a career lecturing America. From on high. What a wacky guy. He's so full of rage I love him. So like this is the thing the real reason I want to do
[00:31:39] these bonus episodes because I feel like we used to have these sort of concluding thoughts. Where are we just sort of thinking about Brad. Right. It's been fun talking Brad. It's been fun talking about him and listening to these episodes at a distance from when we've recorded them.
[00:31:49] I just like look I see this guy like a lot but he's super fucking messy that they get into. Yep. Right. And I feel like I've seen a lot more sort of revaluation of his work in the you know anticipation of Incredibles 2
[00:32:03] people being like is this stuff fucked up. Yeah yeah yeah. But it's like good fucked up and I also think I also am just fascinated by an artist with a point of view even if it's a point of view I don't agree with.
[00:32:15] That's my big thing which I think is a cornerstone of this show. A lot of times people will suggest certain directors and I'll be like that person's made a lot of interesting movies. Sure. I don't really know who they are. Who you thinking about.
[00:32:28] Let me get back to you on that one. Okay. Oh here's one someone started a thread in the red about Kenneth Branagh. Sure. And I'm like there are certain things I know he likes like Shakespeare. Fun. Yeah. He likes Shakespeare. Right.
[00:32:40] But there's not necessarily a strong point of view. No I think Branagh is more a guy who's like I'll give that a shot. That seems fun. Like he likes to work in different genres just kind of to fuck around. Right because like when he likes 70 millimeter like
[00:32:53] he likes beautiful photography. When when he started with the Shakespeare movies and he was so young everyone was like is this guy Orson Welles and it's like no he's probably more like Richard Attenborough. Right. He's like a decent journeyman. Right. That's yes.
[00:33:06] I mean Attenborough is like a guy who I feel like is I am making David Lean type movies like you know and he's not here anymore but here I am to make these very classic epic movies about great people. You know.
[00:33:22] But don't you think that's what he's not interesting. Branagh would do if those types of movies still existed. Maybe. But I think Branagh he's he just likes to do a new thing. Yeah. I think he just likes working. He likes working. He does like working.
[00:33:35] That's why like Branagh made a remake of Sleuth. I know which is so bizarre. Which was like a bad idea anyway but then it's also this cranky script written by like very old Harold Pinter. Right. And like that's a wilder role. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:33:50] And it's really toxic and weird. And that was like sandwich between two Shakespeare movies that were unreleasable. Like what those are sort of interesting. All of his Shakespeare movies are interesting. Yeah. And then his other stuff is he do a magic flute
[00:34:05] movie to did he did never seen that. Me neither. But he did as you like it. That's the one that I think got that was the least in Britain but it was not in America. Trying to think I'm trying to find his filmography. Yeah.
[00:34:18] You know interesting guy and is pointing at David. Right. And recruit. Yeah. What do you mean what we're doing on a bonus episode grew up in Britain. Good. What grew up Britain. Kenneth Branagh and is lifting his microphone all the way the ceiling.
[00:34:33] No making an Artemis foul movie. He's making Artemis foul which Mike. My school friend is in from Britain. Nick Cash. Congratulations. Really excited for him. Hey actually this is a great opportunity as a bonus episode should we retire bits. 100%. I think we should. I think we should.
[00:34:49] Well which bit do you want gone. I think that that might have been maybe the last UK drop. We can't. That was so we could bring it back eventually. And that was not ceremonial enough. We were both so apathetic on that when we were going through the motion.
[00:35:04] You need to even register. You need to really the problem I have with the UK. That was like old married couple sex like we can't retire on that. No the problem with the UK bit for me is that it has poisoned every well in my life.
[00:35:20] Wait which bit are you talking about. We're like fucking people who I am friends with who already knew this about me and wouldn't make fun of me are now like wait what you know like everyone does it. David I'm sorry knew what about. Yeah I'm sorry.
[00:35:35] I grew up in. What. Oh my God. Oh my God. A spoiler alert. Yeah I hold on this is a bonus episode. What people don't listen to this one they won't be able to follow the rest of the podcast. Jesus you're supposed to be comedians and cars getting
[00:35:54] coffee. It's supposed to be a concert context. You have no context. Apparently apparently it's it's comedians in automobiles drinking tea. You know what I'm saying over here. Let me pay for this tea with some pounds. He's not wrong. What.
[00:36:14] How many meters do we have to drive to get to that little can I mean God would do I go I mean who do you even how do you do we have to do we have to show up to the studio get on the lift.
[00:36:25] This economy how do you do that. Do you know what I'm saying I can't even you're actually have a question for you guys because I'm thinking what's the British like word you know that like Jars you the most. You're saying lift you're saying you know you're doing all
[00:36:41] the jokes. I mean this isn't a word it's it's a pronunciation yes aluminium that one I hear a lot really can't deal with that one aluminium that's one for example that because when I went to Britain and grew up there wait a second shut the fuck up.
[00:36:56] There were some words that I adopted just as a matter of course because I just wanted to survive because otherwise anytime you say the word in your American accent it's just mockery right and aluminium was one I just I couldn't get to aluminium I just couldn't do it.
[00:37:13] There was a British girl in my middle school who like moved there from let me try explain this to you David she grew up in London and then move to New York City. Yeah I get it as like a teenager. I'm so weak.
[00:37:28] And what was the word she would say I would say that it would weird me out it would give me like reverse ASMR and I also would be like I can't even remember like I want to be able
[00:37:40] to like mimic that to complain about how much I dislike it and I can't even keep it in my head. I would like sit down and be like how do you pronounce aluminium incorrectly like which syllable would she there they had a letter yeah. It's so weird.
[00:37:54] No I am always a vitamin she was very vitamin yes I just felt another chill down my spine you know it's another one that settle for me but that always I'm like oh right. A man called sure right right right right you know there's
[00:38:09] the dropping of the definite article like he went to hospital you know things like that yeah weird stuff that like just like you wouldn't even notice. The one I always hated the most that I was coming from the most was sidewalk.
[00:38:24] I always thought that was so mean that they would make fun of me for that because I was like it's a perfectly ordinary word sidewalk. Uh-huh. I went and if I said like the word sidewalk they would just be like oh you're you're you're going to walk on
[00:38:38] the sidewalk like they would just like lose their minds they call it the pavement which is stupid yeah too broad a word yep I think that means all kinds of things so that was our sidebar and Kenneth Branagh. That one really drove me crazy.
[00:38:53] The point I was going to make is I don't feel like there's meat to dig into there even if there's meat in individual films. I mean we'll take Kenneth Branagh in like 2028 I don't know. Exactly right when when we fling. But we're just totally giving up.
[00:39:06] No we'll be giving in. You just said that and I just pictured myself slowly be lowered into a grave. 2028. Just sitting with an umbrella as it's raining of course it's raining at my funeral I better be. Yeah we're doing bits.
[00:39:23] And we're going like so today we're talking about dead again. Well done. Thank you. I have comedy points. This is called. Where's the death card. Pod Ryan for Shadowcast. Sure it sounds good. It gave it to myself. No it's 15 minutes 15 minutes. We're gonna we're done. People online.
[00:39:46] Sometimes go like they were queuing. Get the fuck out of here. Hey he spiked the audio again. All right red card. No screaming right at the microphone Griffith. Ace of spades. Yeah that's right. All right people online. Sometimes say.
[00:40:04] That did genuinely just hurt my ears there was such a loud. It was a crack. Crack. Yeah that's what happens. I hated it. Fix that Ben. Ben I hated that. Ben. Ben I hated that. All right people online. People online will sometimes say like.
[00:40:22] Does this person fit in the blank check is this. And I'll see people in response go like they pretty much drop the premise. And I feel like whereas we started out as like this act of like we're going to solve
[00:40:31] a mystery show and the first couple of director miniseries carried into this like there's a central question we're asking about this person. Even if we haven't had these bonus episodes where we kind of like bring the room together.
[00:40:43] I still think there's always like rug gaps we could call them. Sure. I like that. Thanks. I still think there's always like us trying to sort of like figure out what their filmography is. Sure. And why they did connect at certain points and didn't connect at certain
[00:40:59] points and they have to be people who have some kind of through line there in some way or another for why they were so in touch with the culture at some point you know and either continued to be escalated crashed whatever it
[00:41:11] is and there's so much meat to him to Brad Bird. But this thing I keep on coming back to is when you know like people are like oh is he Randy and you and I are like well actually it's about ethics and game journalism.
[00:41:25] He's more of an exceptionalist or is it that he's an elitist or is it that he's this or is it that. Sure. Sure. Yeah. What I find kind of interesting about him is I sort of feel like at the end
[00:41:37] of the day he's not someone who completely fits into a box in that way. No. I think he's got a lot of conflicting ideas. Yeah. And I think we're in a culture now where it's very much like what are your party lines?
[00:41:52] Like what is your philosophy that you buy a party parcel. Are you on this side? Yeah. Right. And you accept all the ingredients all the toppings on the burger. Sure. And he's kind of a guy like a lot of interesting directors you know
[00:42:06] who's like his work is very personal. You see himself in there and he's not telling stories about himself and there are a lot of contrasting things. I feel like when you talk about guys in like the old studio system in
[00:42:18] like the 40s and 50s you sometimes have those things where you'd be like it seems like he's for this but against this. Yeah. You know he's like anti-war but like pro capitalism. Is that is that in there or am I just reading into it too much. Okay.
[00:42:32] And because he's working on such a high level and like a big expensive studio products either doing like big live action blockbusters or family films it's kind of interesting the way that stuff gets smuggled in there and can't totally be parsed because he's not
[00:42:45] offering them up as Pat lessons like the lesson is always share. Don't lie. You know right. Yeah. And a lot of Disney movies especially are like the lesson is it's important to be yourself or whatever like there's like seven movies that make the same message.
[00:43:02] When I was like five or six and like starting to really like become obsessed with like stories because I hear my parents like use certain terms and I'd be like oh so that's like it's called
[00:43:12] this when that happens in a story and this and that I got really into like the moral of the story thing and the idea because children entertainment like almost always has a moral which I think the incredible movies have like a lot of ideas and lessons
[00:43:25] in them and things like that you know right but like they're pretty devoid of like a clear moral to carry through with you. Okay. But I have this very distinct memory as a child where I was watching all the Disney movies and would like parse the moral.
[00:43:38] I was like OK so the moral is to always do this and never do this. Okay. And I was watching Theoristic Cats for the first time on the movie I like and I turned to my cousin who was like 17 at the
[00:43:50] time and I was like so what's the moral of this story and he was like I don't know everybody wants to be a cat. And at the time I found that very good if you're a cat
[00:44:02] at the time of the movie like as a six year old I find that so unsatisfying when I think back to it now I'm like that's one of the funniest things that anyone's ever said very funny just this jaded 17 year old house with a six year old Theoristic
[00:44:14] isn't but that final number is all then like jamming on the panel going everybody wants to be a cat. And I was like what's the moral of this story wiser older person and he was like I don't know everybody wants to be a cat. Fuck this.
[00:44:27] I don't want to talk to a kid. What a bad movie Theoristic Cats is. Yeah it is true though that everybody wants to be a cat. No it isn't. Yes it is. Truth and comedy. That's the end of. That's the end of Brad Bird.
[00:44:42] That's the end of Brad Bird. OK so here we go. Rankin' them. I got my rank I'm probably gonna. OK ready. Your dears. Number one. Six movies. The Incredibles. Number two. Ratatouille. Ratatouille. Number three. The Iron Giant. Number four. Ghost protocol. Gotacall. Number five. Incredibles two. Number six.
[00:45:16] Tomorrow. Well I have the same list as you except the first two are flipped. You got two is tops. I'm twoy Incredibles giant gotacall. I got twoy two you got twoy tops. Tomorrow at six. Like them all. Yeah.
[00:45:32] Yeah I mean look he's a symphonic filmmaker like even when he fucking misses like he does in Tomorrowland it's like. It's crazy. I know how to make movies and it's crazy and it's engaging even when there's stuff in it that's maddening. Maddening.
[00:45:47] He's I just think he's a guy who's incapable of making an uninteresting movie. Family dogs weird one. Very weird weird. I was thinking about pitching something but I'm not going to do it. What. What do you want to then can we end this episode with Do the Bartman.
[00:46:07] Why. He directed that music video. All right let's end it. That was his other big credit. You can sing it. Do the bar. So what is yeah how does it what are like everybody. Do the bar. You know there's a rumor that Michael Jackson wrote Do the Bartman.
[00:46:25] He didn't want residuals and now that he's died the guy who got the credit is like no I'm I wrote Do the Bartman. He produced it. Yeah. Yeah. Brian Lauren the rumors that he called up Matt Graning and was
[00:46:38] like I want Bart Simpson to have a number one hit. Uh-huh. And then sent him you know sheet music. That's Do the Bartman. And he's in that weird episode. Yeah this is why you tune into bonus episodes folks.
[00:46:54] What a weird episode that is so that you can do the Bartman. The star craving dad. It's a weird one. Well he didn't get credited because John J Smith. This was his credit. Yeah. Can you do you remember that song. The new birthday song. Yeah.
[00:47:07] Lisa it's your birthday happy birthday Lisa. I mean Bart's part is it gave me the gift of a little sister and I'm proud of you today. Okay look folks it's been a fun bonus. I don't know what to tell you a small you later.
[00:47:23] He had no time to make it. I'm just reading about Do the Bartman. Yeah. Well he had to get on a plane to Hungary. Listen where it was animated. The song Bartman is copyrighted. Right so let's play it. Yeah let's play it in full three times.
[00:47:38] One two three. Can you edit the minute really bad episode out. We're at 50 minutes. All right. Okay thank you all for listening please remember to rate your views subscribe Ben's head is in his hands. He spread his two fingers out a little bit so I can see
[00:47:51] his glaring next week. Ang Lee Ang Lee push hands and wedding banquet two for one two movies one of them is amazing one of them is fine. Right it's the opposite of this episode where we didn't have
[00:48:02] enough to talk about in the next episode we got two movies to talk about. We recorded that one I don't know fucking eight months ago. Yeah I think do we just be Truman in the newspaper. Right thank you all for listening rate your views
[00:48:16] subscribe and for good for social media job on Pat rounds for artwork. Am I coming for the theme song go to blankiesoutread.com for some real nerdy shit and as always wait a second. What do you see the lights going down. My God what is flashing.
[00:48:32] Oh my God look at those cables they're lifting something Jersey. What does it say on it. The David is from UK bit. It's being lifted to the rafters. Oh my God this better be real. That's not saying retired in the rafters. It's in the rafters.
[00:48:53] Okay all right let's load it. Oh my God. I'm gonna make fun of me anymore. A lot of good times were had with yeah this is it. This is it. We're done. We're done. Well what do you want me to promise that we're not going to
[00:49:06] the UK bit or that we're not going to make fun of you anymore. But you're not going to do the UK bit if I say I'm from the UK you just accept that as a matter of fact.
[00:49:14] I this is what I'm saying you want to put in the rafters graph it's in the rafters. I know but I like the bit of having things in the right now it was so hard for me not it's a fucking reflex for you. It really is.
[00:49:25] I genuinely felt like a physical like like a clenching to stop myself from saying it fine. It's in the rafters. I didn't do it. I like the rafters bit because then it's like another weird bit of marginalia for our fans to like build out a Wikipedia page about.
[00:49:40] Okay so now we have cards and we have the UK bit out with the old in with the new the UK bit is in the rafters it's done it's out of here it's retired and this is why you
[00:49:51] got to listen to the bonuses or otherwise you're not going to be able to keep track of the. That's it that's the end of the effort out of here.