Kiki's Delivery Service with Caroline Framke

[00:00:00] 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

[00:00:21] Without even thinking about it I used to be able to podcast. Now I'm trying to look inside myself and find out how I did it.

[00:00:28] There you go. What have you seen inside? Nothing good. A morass. Here's the howling void. So you tweeted yesterday in relation to when we were recording this photo of the young man from this movie.

[00:00:46] That's right, his name is Tombow. Tombow. Who you think looks like me. That's correct. Tintin looking mother fucker. I was going to say Tintin.

[00:00:54] But I would say he also looks a lot like both Griffin McRoy and Chris Gether. Three people with glasses. Right, similar hairstyles and a propensity for wearing striped shirts. Boyish bodies.

[00:01:09] So then people on Twitter were like, yes, inevitable cast live action remake. Yes. Which I know is a joke, right? But when I just went to IADB to look for the Kiki's delivery service.

[00:01:22] There is a live action remake. There's a 2014 Japanese live action remake. Is that, I mean that's obviously because he didn't own the underlying rights to the book.

[00:01:31] It's a book. Yeah, anyone can take a swing I guess. Do we know anything about the quality of this live action remake? My guess is it's low. Low? I don't know. Maybe it's amazing. Maybe it's fine.

[00:01:44] It's like one best picture. Academy Awards? I mean it just kind of looks like a retitled green book in the United States. Look at it. It looks like a video game. It doesn't look like it.

[00:01:57] We're watching the trailer. Got a lot of... Yeah, this looks bad. No. We just got to the first shot of her on a... On a ground. She's flying. Six inches off the ground. So yeah, you know, the definitive version I think remains 1989's Kiki's delivery service.

[00:02:21] So the live action window is wide open for you? Wide open. Wide open. I don't want to make a Kiki move. I just want to make a Tombow spin-off. I want to acquire the rights to just Tombow. Tombow's fucking, you know, helicopter plane bike service.

[00:02:34] Love that movie about that weird kid who makes the flying thing. Bruce McLeod. Yeah. Yeah, who that kid wears a red and white striped shirt much like Tombow. What's true? What I really wanted to... Here's what I'd love to... On court.

[00:02:47] I'd love to acquire the rights to Tombow. Okay? As a person. And then I'd like to try to piece together the rights to make the Umbo cinematic universe. Uh, Tombow versus Dumbover's Tombow. Oh, I'm seeing here. I am trying to write in my bathtub!

[00:03:06] Yep, that was the club. All the Finch won't stop flying around to me. You getting those levels down there? Just say nothing of this boy in his bicycle! His propeller bicycle! I'm in the bath! This performance was nominated for an Academy Award!

[00:03:24] Then just slowly turning down the volume. An Oscar! In the bath! An Oscar in the bath. It was nominated for a bathy! First bathtub-based performance! My cigarette is in a holder! Yeah. So you know I'm a man! So you know it's from a while ago! Yep, the bathies.

[00:03:48] Remember when What Lies Beneath swept that one year? What else have we got? The favorite? Oh, the favorite! Good bathtubs. Good bathtub. Handmaiden. Great bathtub. Sexy bathtub. I think he's got kind of sexy. Shave my noon. They're joint baths? Do you remember that? Pretty woman. Pivotal bath.

[00:04:12] Is it Batman vs Superman? Where Superman gets in the tub fully clothed and you're like, behave! What is this behavior? Superman in the lowest length fucking a bathtub. Yeah, but he's got his clothes on and she's fully naked? Awful.

[00:04:25] Is it need to be a bathtub or can it be a cave pool? Like in Wonder Woman? Does that count as a bath scene? That would fall into the KVs. Oh, sure. But what about in Wanted when there's those sort of like old

[00:04:37] timey bathtubs that they take like healing baths in and you see Angelina Jolie's buttocks? Well if that counts then Jupiter ascending counts. Oh, right. So it's sort of a healing de-aging bath. I'm stretching the definition here. Yeah, it's a good question. Genre is dead, you know?

[00:04:54] That is true. I mean Wanted is elevated bullet bending assassin action. They are. That's a bathtub. You know what? In my memory I thought he was wearing the Superman suit. I thought he got in and showing David a picture. What is it? The Road to Wellville.

[00:05:13] Oh, that's a really bathy movie. Yeah, man. Is that ever a Comedy Central 1pm movie? Yup, in the summer. Yup. What was I going to say about the bathys? Lock, Shack and Barrel obviously split the supporting categories for Nightmare for Christmas. Gomo got a lifetime achievement. Right, right.

[00:05:33] Now Totoro has some bathing because their family bathes. I don't think there's any bathing in Kiki. No. I don't think anyone takes a bath. She gets bathed in money from this killer business. Bathes in self-doubt. Uh-huh. Yup, bathed in you know sort of adolescent growing pains

[00:05:50] and moving to the big city anxieties. I want to say this right off the bat. Good kid. Yeah, best. You're a good kid. Kiki, she's solid. Alright, so let me set the scene actually. Let's get this out. Right off the bat I walk into the AudioBoom Studios.

[00:06:06] There's no one else here. Summer Friday. And I walk in and who's on the couch outside the studio but Pledgeman Hosley. Fendus or Purban. Poet Laureate the haze. Peeper. Tiebreaker. Birthday Benny. Smoking. Smoking what? Smoking hot. Smoking wet Benny. Smoking hot Benny. Smoking hot Benny. Yeah.

[00:06:30] Smoking wet, Bapen. He's the far detective. He's the meat lover. He's the fuck master. He's a non-professor. He's graduated certain tells her of the course of the different majors. Kylo Ben. Chris Benkinobi. Ben Nichomala. Ben Seid. SayBennyThing. Ily Benz with the dollar sign. Fucking Ben 19, The Fennell Maker.

[00:06:50] War Hawes. Mr. Ben Credible. Ben Glish. You drink Ben Hosley. God damn it. Damage. Beetle vape juice. That's what my dad would call me a lot. And for Miami Vice? What was that? From Miami Vice? From Michael Mann? Yeah. Someone suggested Benjamin Dollar, Haas. Oh, from like Manhunter?

[00:07:19] Yeah. Well, who knows? We'll figure it out later. Well, we are fiends for Ben Hito. It's a great picture. It's a great picture. I don't have to post it, but I walk in. It's so good though. Who is stretched out on the couch,

[00:07:32] watching Kiki's delivery service on his laptop, and has moist tears on his cheeks just sitting there, like little dew drops that gather in the lily pad or whatever. How long were you here before I got here? Because that was still the case when I got here.

[00:07:47] Like two minutes. You showed up right after me. And just not watching like an emotionally wrenching scene, just watching Kiki like succeed. It was the blip. Yeah. Watching her do the final rest connected with the old lady. Oh, I mean, who gave her the cake?

[00:08:03] The old lady seems to be Ben's trigger point. That's the trigger. Oh, no, he's crying. Can't look you guys. He's actually crying again now. And then she had to save the day, and that was nice. She does save the day. She has to borrow another broom.

[00:08:15] She has to believe in herself. And support you fully. For the listener at home, as Ben started explaining this, he broke eye contact. So he didn't have to see us looking at him. He's staring off into the middle of his fin.

[00:08:25] His eyes are red and he's genuinely crying. He's crying so right now. All right. She's great. It's hard living in the city on your own. And I related to that. All true. She made it happen. She figured it out on her own. She made her own path. Okay.

[00:08:43] That's hard. She is a good kid. She figured it out. She's a good little witch. She's a good witch. She's a good witch. I love witches. I love witches. Look, I don't know how much of this comes from the book,

[00:08:55] but this is the master's trope of this movie for me. Everyone who meets her is like, oh, a witch, good for you. Oh, you're okay. Yeah, no, we don't have one of those around here. We've been looking for a witch.

[00:09:05] Because there's that initial when she lands and she's like, I'm the witch for the town. And they're all like what? And I'm like, oh, is this like an acronym stick? She's come to a modern town and they're like, what's a witch? And like, each town gets one witch.

[00:09:15] Oh, oh, right, right, right, right. The broom, right, I didn't put it together. Yeah, you're a witch, okay. Do you want to like deliver this fucking mackerel pie? No, I'm sorry, I thought you said hitch. I was like, is someone going to... Kevin James around the corner?

[00:09:29] Someone going on a hot date to Ellis Island? Sure for the common man. Everyone's first date is like, let's go to Ellis Island and reckon with your immigration ancestry. It's such a big swing. It's like a fourth date. Yeah, a fourth date? That's like a tenth date.

[00:09:43] Yeah, first date should be like let's get coffee. Jesus Christ. Even if her relative wasn't a serial killer as he was. Right, right, right. That's a lot. The butcher, right? Yeah. It's funny. It's very funny. So they called him the butcher.

[00:09:56] Is that before or after he smacks her in the face with his leg on the jet ski? I think it's after. I think it's after because that's on the way. The jet ski is on the way. Right. I mean, here's... Okay, first one.

[00:10:06] It's a good premise that he can't... He's a good matchmaker and he can't do his own fucking day. It's just, it's still funny. That's what makes it the single best film of the 2000s. Ooh, it does not hold up guys. I know.

[00:10:16] It is a movie that has some... Proud of them when you watch it now. Yeah. Well, also do you remember how the trailer is like a lady slaps a man and he's like comes over and he's like,

[00:10:26] she's mad at you because you said like Diet Coke or whatever. And it's like, what the fuck out of here? What is this? Seventeen magazines for like 92. Like don't say diet to a lady. She'll think you mean she's fat. Does my butt look big in this?

[00:10:41] Remember when that was supposedly what like... Every woman said to every man. Oh yeah. Does my butt look big in this? And people are like, people are talking about butts now. It's the 90s. Yeah, you can talk about it. We can finally talk about it.

[00:10:52] We can finally talk about it. Maybe it's going on a ramp about God knows what. I like Walsh, man. Me too. Love him. Hitch and butts. Hitch and butts. Well, this of course is a blank check. It's a podcast about hitch and butts from Aker

[00:11:06] who have massive success early on in their careers. With hitch and butts. And they give a series of blank checks to hitch whatever butts they want. And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they get delivered via broomstick. Oh, maybe.

[00:11:19] And yeah, there's a main series on the films of Hayao Miyazaki. It's called Howl's Moving Podcast. We'll talk about Kiki's delivery service. And with us back for the second time. Kaboom. Here I am. Kaboom Caroline Frank. Hello. She's from Variety. I am. From Variety.

[00:11:34] I can't remember if you were from Variety last time. I wasn't. I was at Vox last time. For a very similar film, I feel like. Showgirls? Yeah. Yeah, about Moving to the Big City. Yeah. They're just trying to make it. Innocence moving to a cruel world.

[00:11:48] Oh no, it actually is. Ranching out on their own. Yeah. Here we go. Comic-con news for you. OK. Halloween, two sequels both directed by David Gordon Green and starring Jamie Lee Curtis. 2020 Halloween kills. 2021 Halloween ends. Because they've never tried to end this series before.

[00:12:08] Yeah, I was gonna say. That's never pitting them in the ass. Kind of felt like the last one ended. Sure, when she burned them up in the old basement? Yeah, and it was like a complete closure to her emotional art.

[00:12:18] But then there was this definitive moment where it began again when it made $1 billion in like one day. Yeah. When they were just like, it's called Halloween, fucking Michael Myers in it. And people were like, if I don't see this movie right fucking now.

[00:12:30] You know, like it made a good jillion dollars. I just think like, that's a sequel that I find depressing. Do you know what I'm saying? Halloween kills. Maybe he'll kill more podcaster. I would be into that. Yeah. Remember when he killed, he just massacred a podcast? Yeah.

[00:12:46] They were like, what's up? We're here with Michael Myers and he was just like, pfft. Yeah. And then that woman got nominated for best Frady Cat performance of the MTV Movie Awards. You Frady Cat, what are you afraid of the big man who's trying to kill you?

[00:12:58] Yeah, she lost to Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock. Really? Yeah. In what? Oh, Bird Box. Yes. Along with our friend Esther Zuckerman, Matt Starr, who's a great comedian here in the city. I did like the MTV Movie Awards, like post-show, live show, web wrap up thing.

[00:13:17] So right, you were up on the Frady Cat Award and the best kiss. I think it's scared as hell now. They keep adjusting the titles. See, I thought it was scared as shit at first. Yes, it was.

[00:13:27] And then now is it scared as hell or is it like... According to IMDb... Yeah, what is it? It is... It was scared as bleep for a while. Most frightened performance. And here are the five nominees. Here we go. Can I try to remember?

[00:13:39] Can I try to remember? Go ahead. Yep. Halloween, obviously. Halloween, the podcast lady. Right, the podcast lady. Who got murdered in a fucking toilet. Right. Okay. Sandra Bullock for Bird Box Wins. Yes. Are the other three nominees... One TV, two movies. Right, one TV, two movies.

[00:13:56] One of them, Screen Queens? Nope. This is this year. Is it Orion Murphy? No. No, it's not. It's not Riverdale. No. It's not, no. It's like a true horror series. It's the one series. It's a true horror TV series. Yeah. Oh, Big Bang Theory. No. Lazinga. Lazinga.

[00:14:15] Jim Parsons stares at Kaylee Cuoco with dead eyes. He's terrified. He's like, why are we friends? It's a true horror... Oh, Walking Dead? No. What? It's one of those things you forgot happened even though it was the hottest ship for two weeks.

[00:14:34] Because this year has been ten years long. Haunting Hill House. Correct. The Haunting of Hill House. Victoria Pedretti. Okay. And then two movies. Two movies. One of them, a fantastic movie. What we love. What we love. We love! Oh, oh, oh, of course.

[00:14:50] Alex Wolfer Hereditary who should have won that category. Correct. That's the best scared-to-ship. I don't know, Bird Box had a bird box. It did have a bird box. Bird Box. Okay, and then the other one is a franchise? No. Yes. It's a spin-off I believe.

[00:15:02] Is it the nun? No, but you're in the right direction. It's not Curse of La Llorone. La Curse of La Llorone. Was it Cardellini? Oh, Linda Cardellini for the Green Book. The Curse of the Green Book. Yeah, she's the heart and soul of that movie.

[00:15:19] She is the heart and soul of The Curse of La Llorone. The Curse of La Llorone made a ton of money too. People will fucking see anything. Conjuring is the most... Except for comedy. Yes, or other films. Conjuring is the most successful horror franchise of all time. Right.

[00:15:38] And La Llorone is kind of like cousins with it. La Llorone. It's not not connected. Is it a spin-off of the nun or something? It's sort of like, right, it's become so disparate this whole... Yeah, it kind of touches it a little bit. Kind of touches the nun?

[00:15:51] Yeah, it kind of touches the nun. She's like, she's in the dunn there. I'm a fucked up nun. What if the nun is Robert De Niro? Shouldn't have fucking... I'll curse you. I can't wait for that. I know La Llorone. I can't wait for the nun creation.

[00:16:06] Yeah, the nun comes home. Yeah, the nun comes home. The nun plays Ouija. What if we just start intersecting them all? You know what I mean? Paranormal activity, Ouija. Don't you think that's what's going to happen though? Like all these other rebooted franchises are like underperforming.

[00:16:22] They're just gonna be like, fuck. We have to make one mega-franchise that can keep with Marvel. Right, it's like the Conjuring Universe is investigated by the men in black. Sounds great. Right. And the Legos are there. And Wreck-It Ralph is there too. Yeah, he's got Wreck-It.

[00:16:38] Fucking Vigo's there from Green Book. Hey, La Llorone! Look, I could drive you, but you better not curse me. What would you do if, like, someone will borrow, they announced a Green Book sequel? It'd be great. I'm so fucking excited. But it's him driving someone else.

[00:16:56] Now he's driving like a Japanese guy and you're like, oh, Jesus. What's he gonna say? MTV Movie Awards would have to bring back the best sandwich in a movie category. Best sandwich in a movie? They had it once. Was Spanglish nominated?

[00:17:08] It was in 96 and that's the only year they had it. Fuck. Okay, wait. How many nominees were there? I don't know. I have to find the actual nominees. All right, I'm finding out. The retired categories at the MTV Movie Awards are incredible. The show used to be fun.

[00:17:19] I know. I can say this now. I had to review it this year. That was impossible. I've never felt older in my life. Do this thing where they were like, hey, what was your favorite moment from the show and I couldn't name any? There were three sandwiches nominated.

[00:17:31] Let's do it. 96. And here's the real fucking curveball. The winner is a movie your dad produced. No shit. Oh fuck, is the winner smoke? Ham and cheese from smoke. Wow. You're dead produced that right? Yeah. I think I told him that and he put it on his resume.

[00:17:49] That he won the MTV Best Sandwich? His films have won one MTV Movie Award. Wow, 96 has some good categories. Smoke beat out the turkey club from four rooms in the sub from GoldenEye, which is one of the best game ponchos. It's when he's like, and what's this?

[00:18:06] And Q's like, that's my lunch. Great joke. Great joke. He's always just fucking explode and turn me invisible. That's my lunch. It's just a regular sandwich. It's just a sandwich. Do you remember when?

[00:18:16] And then it's just funny to think about Q being like, can't wait to eat that sub. I'm like a nice old English man in a cardigan and he was like, ah. It doesn't feel like what he would pack. Yeah, but it's good because he can grab.

[00:18:26] You can go, that's my lunch. David's doing the grab for the listener at home. It's great. He's killing the grab. He's doing it. It's some really good physical comedy space work. What are they call sandwiches in the UK? You know how like every regional names, subtleties, sub, grinders.

[00:18:39] I don't know. Because she's pretty worldly. She looked in the. She looked in the. I did. Okay. As the only person in this room who has ever looked in the plan. Right. Do they have like a regional? Can I talk about this? What's that?

[00:18:51] What would you have to say? One, I grew up in England. What? Oh, never all this time we've been friends. We never mentioned. Shut the fuck up. We're doing two episodes today. I can't believe I'm going to do this shit twice.

[00:19:07] For one, the sandwich is named after the place sandwich in England. There's a place called Santa. I'm a little upset. The Earl of Sandwich was supposedly like so addicted to gambling that he was like, I need one thing that I can hold in one hand. Yeah.

[00:19:20] And someone was like, I don't know, put his meat in a bread wrap and he lived in the airport, which is why they dedicated one kiosk per airport to him, the Earl of Sandwich. But my favorite English word for sandwich is, is butty. Oh, yes.

[00:19:40] B-U-T-T-Y, which especially in the north is like a bacon buddy. Can I ask a question? Which is basically like a little role with one thing in it. Gotcha. Okay. I know what you're talking about. Let me ask you this follow up. Why? Why is it called a buddy?

[00:19:55] Yeah. It's a great question. Like what's the etymology of a butty? Yeah. A butty. It's usually like, you know, origin, eighth century weird peasants. Yeah. It's like, I don't know, it's an old fucking country. People used to talk really well. You know what though?

[00:20:09] Can I make a guess? Not for this. Not for this. Can I make a guess? I just found out. Is it because they're using like the, the ingredients from the but of the thing? Like the end of the bread or the but of the meat or whatever.

[00:20:19] That's a fair guess, but no, apparently it's from the word butter. Like because butter is such a classic ingredient in a sandwich. Butter and bacon. Yeah. I usually prefer not to like dig deeper into British food because most of it is, you do not want to know.

[00:20:31] Here are some other English words for sandwich. Bap, which is like a big role. Yeah. Bap also is a very coarse way to say breast. Oh. Get your baps out. I agree. I said course. Oh boy. A Sarny, which is like a sandwich you get at the beach.

[00:20:50] Have they done that joke in a fucking movie where a guy is like, hey, get your baps out and then she raises two sandwiches from out of frame? Yeah. Have you ever seen like a carry on movie? Like they're all like that. I haven't seen those.

[00:20:59] There's a lot of them. What if we did carry on as a franchise in patriarch? It's like 40 movies. Like because it's just like they're at the beach now. Like a carry on the DMV. Pretty much. Carry on the accountants office.

[00:21:09] But I always like to bake and buddy sometimes you can get a chip buddy, which is literally just a French fries sandwich. Pretty great. That's not pretty cool. Pretty great. Anyway, you grew up in England? It did. I mean, not as much as you. I know.

[00:21:20] What was your chunk? What were your years? Who were your years? I mean, it was only like three years, but it was like basically. She did a jazz setting one. Yeah, exactly. Well, yeah, what years? Come on, come on. Oh, this is true.

[00:21:30] I moved there the week that Princess Diana died. 97. She lived like near Kensington Palace and like just watched everyone lose their lives. Wow, this country's a really sad. I remember I have. You know, my mom was a reporter who covered, you know,

[00:21:45] if something happened in England, she was on it. And I remember the day Diana died. She, well, she went to Paris and then like, you know, the day they opened the memorial thing where they just, they just put out a book outside Kensington Palace. It's like, you know,

[00:21:58] and people were piling up the flowers and there was a book and it was like just sign the book if you want to give your condolences. And so my mom goes to check it out and there was a line that was like eight hours long.

[00:22:07] And she like went to the back of the line and she was like, you know, it's like, you have to wait all day to like sign a book. And they were like, yeah, yeah, totally. And she came home and she was like,

[00:22:16] this is like going to be the biggest deal in the world. Like I don't think anyone understands how much this is hitting people. I remember we went and put like flowers at the gate sort of thing. And there was this gold balloon.

[00:22:26] And I remember because every time we saw it on the news after that, the gold balloon was like further and further away because the cameras could not get any closer because there were so many flowers. Anyway, that's when you move. That's when I moved to England. 97.

[00:22:38] Yeah, I was nine. Sure. And I left when I was 12. So it's like, I, when I left, I was like this cute kid. I was kind of a jerk, but like I could be cause I was a cute kid.

[00:22:46] And then I went to England and puberty just happened all over everywhere. It was just, I came back with like my mom had cut off all my hair. I had my glasses. Weird move. I will, All your hair. It was a lot of hair.

[00:23:00] It was, she was sick of doing it. I don't, I will know. I do blame her. I've never forgiven her. She knows this. I'll say that on mic. I don't care. The exact point in time when you want to really shake things up, big reset, move across the

[00:23:12] country right when you turn 13. Exactly. So then I went, I moved very calm time. I moved to Brom, New Jersey and then back to New Jersey. When I came back, I just looked like, not, they were like, you can't pull that like cute bratty shit anymore. Really? No.

[00:23:27] I fell way down on the social order when I came back there like, this is not the same person. Also three years. I mean it's like, It's just long enough to get used to it.

[00:23:35] Just long enough to get like a hint of an accent and then like if I had stayed one more year, I think I would have like taken the common entrance exam, which is kind of like their SATs where you then go to like secondary school.

[00:23:44] And then I might have just like gone to boarding school and had like dated life, you know? Well, I didn't go to boarding school. You didn't go to boarding school? How? How may, you know, posh little friends went to boarding school. What was that posh?

[00:23:54] Oh, he says it's a swing. Swing to headphone cable. Look, I'm swinging around like you some fucking constable. Just a little, little tosser. My mom, my parents, I should say, my parents refused to put me. Swinging around like a baton. Is it one-foot cable?

[00:24:08] You went to boarding school? No, well, no, they were never going to put me in boarding school. I think my mom would have been like, yeah, you should go to boarding school and I would have been the one to be like, That's terrible. That fucks people around.

[00:24:16] She went to boarding school and it did fuck her up and she was still like, Yeah, boarding school. Every English person I knew, you know, whose parents had been to boarding school, if you even brought it up, they'd be like, They have such horror stories.

[00:24:22] I never picked up my parents. It's such a thing. But no, I was not allowed to go to the American school, which does exist in London, which is like trying to be like an American high school experience. Yeah, yeah. You even speak English.

[00:24:33] Is it bilingual or do they only speak English? You're like, hello. And they're like, hey guys. And they're like, oh hi, how you doing man? Howdy, what's up? Better not ask anyone for a buddy over there. You know what I'm saying?

[00:24:45] Because they were like, look, you're in England. You might as well like, you know, keep it real. Right. And then I went to the school where you got like the little uniforms at Harrods. Did you have a hat?

[00:24:55] Oh, I had two hats, one for summer, one for winter. The winter one was like a naughty elf hat. Like we looked like little naughties. And then the summer one was like a Madeline straw boater that's like flat on top and super uncomfortable. My mom loved those.

[00:25:07] There was a hat as part of the- If the kids wearing a hat in their uniform, you're like, that is the upper crust. Those are the fancy schools. Thank you. Yeah. I didn't, I had to wear a blazer, just a black blazer. I mean blazer standard.

[00:25:20] They just gave us sacks. In Jersey. Yeah. And the meat was still in them. You had to eat your way through. They were like, your lunch is in there. Every day, every day. Are you guys doing like a potato sack race or something? No, you earned your sack.

[00:25:37] Every day you just walk to school naked and then you have to do your sack. That's what Jersey's like, right? Yeah. What a good time. Thank you all for listening. Kiki's delivery service. Kiki's delivery service. It's a goofy Friday on Blank Check.

[00:25:59] The highest grossing film of Japan that year. Really? He's come off of Totoro, which is like this cultural sensation. Yes. Totoro has been elected prime minister. Which had been big but then grown. It's not like Totoro just was an instant hit.

[00:26:13] It was like a hit that then became a big deal. Right. So for this it's like now everyone is like Miyazaki. He is for real. He is the king of animation. And it's a very crowd pleasing movie.

[00:26:24] I mean this is just a movie that is very, very nice. Oh you think this movie is lovable? Yeah. You think this one's whimsical and charming? Yeah. Kiki's delivery service? Are you sure? Yeah. I'll tell you what Kiki delivered to me. A great time.

[00:26:41] Thank you all for listening. Simultaneous head in hands situation across the table for months. Kiki certainly delivers the laughs. I'm Gene Shellett. I thought I saw Gene Shellett on the bus the other day because I saw a man who was stark

[00:26:55] white, like totally white, white hair and mustache. But it kind of looked like the Gene Shellett. Like he had that sort of mustache and the hair looked like it could be like how Gene Shellett was combing over his hair now if he was trying to replicate the hairstyle

[00:27:12] and he was dressed very, very loudly. I mean that also feels like a classic New York bus experience. That was the thing. It was kind of like, it's just... I haven't seen him on our screens in like 10 years.

[00:27:22] He might look like this now or also Gene Shellett's a product of New York. He's not the only Gene Shellett. There are a lot of them out there. So... I think it wasn't him but I was like really staring him down. In 1985, a book is published. Okay.

[00:27:38] Kiki's delivery service. A novel, right? Aiko Kendo no, yes. It's not a manga. No. It's a fantasy novel about a young witch whose mother is a witch or dad's just a regular old guy just like in most Miyazaki movies. The dad's just like, hey what's up?

[00:27:51] He's a nice guy with glasses. He's got glasses. He's pushed up. He's never fucking heard of a fly. Some fucking muggle. Miyazaki dads are hot. They are hot. No, well... Have you already talked about the hot dads? No but like they're good. Let's get into it.

[00:28:03] Miyazaki dad sidebar. Miyazaki dad sidebar. They tend to be goofuses and I guess... I watched Totoro for the first time this week and I was like that's a hot dad. That's a hot dad. Did you like Totoro? I really did. It's so cute.

[00:28:14] I mean it's just so nice. It's too bad that anyone who listens to our episode about it will never like it again or anything again. Oh no. What did you do? No, you edited it to make it good. It's also... It's not our fault. It's pod fade.

[00:28:27] Yeah, it's a fucking pod fade. It's unavoidable. I love how we're making fun of everything that will totally be forgotten but in the month, you know since... By the time this episode comes out we'll be done with pod fade fade. Pod fade fade.

[00:28:37] The notion of pod fade will have faded. So she's got a cat called Gigi. It's a whole book and it's nice and they fucking buy the rights to it. It's like Japan's answer to Sabrina.

[00:28:53] Yeah, Ghibli basically buys it and is like Miyazaki or Takahata, the two directors we got, one of them will do this. Both of them were busy and so initially Miyazaki's like I'll produce it but find a different director.

[00:29:06] And then he wraps up on Totoro and he's like you know what? Kind of like this. I want to do this. He was getting hands on with the script and the story development. Yeah, he's like right. Yeah, yeah, I got some ideas about being a woman.

[00:29:17] Being a young woman in Japan. I want to put my experiences into this first year. Yeah. Right. And he looks like that was the end. You usually have your leather bound volume with Miyazaki interviews. Take it.

[00:29:30] The starting point, so I got them, this is David Reads from the book that he bought about Hayo Miyazaki. With the glowing crest with the line holding it. This is an interview he gave in 1989 about Kiki's delivery service.

[00:29:41] The starting point was wanting to make a film about a girl in adolescence. She would be an ordinary girl who comes to Tokyo from the countryside. I wanted to depict these kinds of situations faced by such girls in our current society.

[00:29:52] This is a fictional story set in a fictional land where witches live, but you know, he wanted it to be like this is what's happening now. It's like we've got this country city divide and these people are moving into

[00:30:05] and they're like, I don't know how to fucking hack this. This is like such a big scary city. And I love that the witch thing isn't a metaphor for any form of bigotry. Totally. My God. It's a metaphor for talent. Right. Right. It's whatever your thing is.

[00:30:22] It's not a metaphor for any sort of otherness. Right. It's whatever you got to figure out how to do best in your life, your art, your craft or your career or whatever the thing is. I don't know.

[00:30:32] At one point she does say like, I just want people to see me as I am. Here's a... Sure. I mean, I feel like we all feel that way. Do you know what I'm saying? She's not like...

[00:30:41] I just feel like witches always kind of have like that underlying sort of like half fear, half like intrigue thing. That's true. I was so astounded by the fact... It's not as heavy. Yeah, that no one in this movie ever goes like a witch.

[00:30:52] A witch cast her out. No, they're mostly just like a little startled. They're like, oh, shit a witch. Yeah, or the girls are kind of like, oh, you're a witch? Like how queen? Oh, I mean the teens are meaner. You know what I mean?

[00:31:02] The teens are kind of mean. Here's something else he says. Kiki goes into a slump when she finds out she can't fly, which happens late in the movie. She'll be depressed about other things in the future as well.

[00:31:11] She may become sad, but she will climb out of that feeling. That's how I wanted to end the film. I didn't want her to have a happy ending with her business becoming success or her becoming the town sweetheart. I wanted her to give...

[00:31:21] I wanted to give the sense that she will repeatedly become dejected but then regain her vitality. So he sort of ends it with like, look, it's gonna be ups and downs. I mean, this is the thing I'm really getting into with Miyazaki.

[00:31:33] This guy's so good at making movies that are just about inside conflict. Yes, right. Where the outside conflict is not really a thing. Like this might have like, oh, this scene she's struggling to find the cat toy that she dropped. You know? Good scene.

[00:31:51] But there isn't an overarching outside conflict. It's just like this girl needs to figure it out. Absolutely. She's just figuring out her place in this room. I also feel like so many Miyazaki movies, not Todoroki... Not yet.

[00:32:03] This is probably the first one because the previous ones have all been more fantastic. And this, even though she's a witch who flies, is more grounded. But a lot of Miyazaki stories are like, look, you gotta get a job. Yeah. And you're gonna learn through working.

[00:32:18] Get a job. Get a job. Miyazaki. Of course it's... We all know Miyazaki is a member of Shana now. He is, of course, a member of Shana. Because like, you know, so much of the pleasure and the, you know, sort of like emotional truth,

[00:32:36] Kiki arrives at is through fucking rolling up her sleeves and doing something. She gets a couple lucky breaks when she meets the wonderful bakery owner, but then she's... The wonderful bakery owner is good, but she does have to earn her key.

[00:32:47] Just to earn her key, just to clean up that attic. And like when she... She has to eat pancakes for a while. You know, and she's got the flam flam with the cat statue.

[00:32:54] You know, like the girl's like, well, if you clean my floor, I'll help you out. Like it's not just like, I'm just gonna help you out because you seem like a nice lady. You know, cut to Kiki's on the floor scrubbing. She got to scrub that floor.

[00:33:05] We spirited away obviously, like has a floor scrubbing set piece. Like he likes floor scrubbing. But there's also like, she's so willing to do that. And she's also like, well, I can't just take... I can't do work for nothing. I have to help.

[00:33:18] Like I remember when she does find the cat toy in the window. I was like, just take it and run. Just go, you found it. Excuse me, that's mine. I know you think it's yours. It's not. She doesn't have to. I would have just run away.

[00:33:30] I'm not as nice. And then Miyazaki's thing is like when she's running into like the more spoiled rich girl who like takes the pie and is like, I don't want this pie. Like my grandma with her fucking pies. Here's Miyazaki's take.

[00:33:44] This kind of thing happens all the time in real life. It might have been shocking for Kiki to hear. It might hurt her deeply, but there are many things in this world we just have to bear. Yeah.

[00:33:52] You know, where he's like, I'm not trying to say a lesson about rich kids. I'm just being like, yeah man, you know, sometimes it'll work hard and they'll be like, fuck that. And you're like, okay, I guess that was my day.

[00:34:03] And when the grandma was like, oh, it's my famous herring and pumpkin pie. My first reaction was, ooh, I don't know. It looks really gross. I mean, that response is bad. The response is so bad that I felt bad. I want that pie. Give me that pie.

[00:34:18] I mean, I guess if you treat the pumpkin more like a squash and it's not like a sweet pumpkin. Yeah. I mean, there's a thing, there's a restaurant in Boston that I like that makes like it's an Afghanistan restaurant. I didn't know you grew up in Boston.

[00:34:31] How do you like those apples? Them apples? Them apples, please. That makes like a pumpkin and beef dish that when you hear it, you're like, oh what? And then you taste it and you're like, this is the best thing I've ever eaten in my life.

[00:34:43] Like what the fuck? I love this. So also the grandma did like a very like British bake show thing where it's like there's a fish on top. Yes. Oh, I know the sculpted fish showstopper. Yeah. That like the Kiki bread circle gross.

[00:34:57] Griffin's just like, I know thank you. I was like, you're trying to remind us that there's a fish inside? It might be like kind of a warning where it's like looks like a pie, right? Yeah. So skull and crossbones at the top of the pie. Yeah.

[00:35:12] Would you actually rather not know and then be surprised with fish? I would rather. Here's my thing. We were talking about this before we recorded. Weird that I don't like the taste of iced coffee. Yeah, I barely like iced tea.

[00:35:24] You've got a lot of your sort of like little hangups with food. That's a surprise. I got a bazillion hangouts, but a lot of them are I'm a little bit binary about like this is how this thing is.

[00:35:34] You know, like don't put savory stuff in the sweet stuff. I might point out though that you like raspberry coffee. I like so many weird fucking things that don't make sense with my food hangups. Right.

[00:35:45] I'm saying like if I get a meat dish and then there are raisins on it. I like raisins. Oh, I'm with you on this one. I like meat. Don't put raisins in your raisins. I can't bring up raisins. That's like, no one's going to say yes to that.

[00:35:55] Have you ever had a Moroccan lamb stew with golden raisins in it? It is pretty lit. Yeah. Once in a while if someone wants to throw a raisin in. I got some meat dishes with raisins the other day and I was unhappy. You got meat and raisins? Yeah.

[00:36:09] Why'd you go to Jimmy's Meat and Raisins Shop? What's my mistake? You've got to stop going there. I'll have the number one. Oh, you want the meat and raisins? And you're like, can I hold the raisins? He's like, nope.

[00:36:23] But I just feel like that kind of thing where it's like we all know fish. Sure. Yeah. Don't usually hang out in a pie. You know what they do? It's the UK.

[00:36:33] So it's not like if they didn't sculpt a fish on top of the pie, I would forget the fish was in it. Right. But I also don't need you to underline it a bunch of times because if I'm going

[00:36:42] to enjoy this, I'm going to be like, you know what? Fish and pie taste surprisingly different than I expect. I'm not thinking about it. I'm just taking a bite of a thing. Away your beef and squat.

[00:36:51] Like I kind of want like whatever you mommy sensation of just like this is like greater the sum of the parts. But you're saying that you would reject that pie? You would break that grandma's heart? No, I wouldn't just smash it. Just carefully. Here's my answer.

[00:37:03] I would not act like this fucking brat. I would go like, oh, thank you so much. I'd close the door and then I throw it out. Sure. I wouldn't stand there and go like, ugh. Or you'd be like, fish pie going once. I don't want it.

[00:37:13] Like, you know, once you close the door. Right. I'm not mad about it. Well, I think we do it to Kiki. I think that moment is tremendous because it's not Kiki that's being rejected. No. It's the grandma. But Kiki just had this whole day with this woman.

[00:37:28] She knows how hard she worked for it. That's a complete person. I helped her. That's a complete person. We discovered the sort of, you know, like she likes the old oven better. We worked hard. Humanity.

[00:37:38] And Kiki's like, and then I drag this fucking thing over in the rain and the girl's like, yeah, no, thank you. She's got sweat equity in that pie. Exactly. Right. But it's not like, I feel like it would just be easier and more manipulative if like Kiki

[00:37:50] had made the pie and the girl's like, I don't want you to pie. Then it's like the girls being mean to Kiki. It's just this moment where she realizes that people can be really careless. The girl's really even thinking about Kiki.

[00:37:59] Kiki is just like a UPS delivery person. Right. Standard run in the mill delivery with. Exactly. What was the thing I was going to say? Oh, I also love that when she gets sick and stands up. Why am I forgetting his name already? Tombo.

[00:38:18] I was going to say Jumbo. Tintin Waldo. And she stands up Tombo and you're like, this is going to be one of those things where he's so angry at her and she can't explain. She's hiding. She doesn't want to face him. Right.

[00:38:31] And then he's like, you were sick. He's like, yeah, no, I'm sick. Yeah. Sorry, you got sick. I was told by the nice baker lady. I wish you had told me directly, but it's fine. I understand. Everyone gets sick. He doesn't even say that.

[00:38:44] He's just like, yeah, you were sick. Yeah. I found out. I heard. Right. I heard you were sick. I had to wait for like 10 minutes for her. I'm sorry. You got wet or something. There's something very cute. I just love that there's no fucking fight over that.

[00:38:55] Well, I also love that like, okay. So Kiki, all right. This is a movie about Kiki. She's a witch. She feels the shame and she's like, I'm going to get yelled at in the movie. It's like, no, it's fine. He's not a monster. Jesus.

[00:39:05] You know, whereas like in some movies it's like, you know, a misunderstanding leads to scar assuming kingship. Yeah. Where he's like, geez, Simba, when you think about it, you kind of killed your dad and Simba rather than being like, well, wait, no, I didn't. He what?

[00:39:19] What are you talking about? It's like, you're right. I did. I got to go. Which movies are you talking about? The Lion King. The Lion King. Okay. King Alliance is King. He's a lion. He's a lion. He's a lion. No. Kiki, she's 13 years old.

[00:39:34] She lives with her parents as many a 13 year old does, but she's a witch. When you're 13, you got to hop on your fucking broomstick, get your fucking shine on and go to a town that's witchless. Every town. This is what I want to know from the book.

[00:39:50] Like, do they ever explain why every town gets one witch? Like one? Witches do you need. That's so much pressure. That's brand-rich. It's weird. It's like a witch like Batmitzvah. At 13, you then have to like rum spring up but also go on like a church mission.

[00:40:06] It's kind of a mix of like you got to grow up, but also you got to kind of learn your trade. You got to live in the real world. When she gets there, she's like, is there a witch here? They're like, no, she's like chill.

[00:40:15] I'm your witch now. Cool. There is now. Put up a notice. Which is like... And you get the impression that her mom is kind of like a potions witch. That's right. They all have skills. Potions is kind of her major.

[00:40:30] When they interest the mom visually, I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. Her mom's like a chemist in the movie. And I'm like, oh no, no, she's a witch doing potions. Oh my God, though, that garden lab, like greenhouse thing.

[00:40:41] Can we talk about the houses in this movie? They're beautiful. Like every house is so specific. The production design is so good. Where does this film take place? Well, you're talking about that. You know, fantasy world. It feels very French. I also thought it felt very San Francisco.

[00:40:56] I kept it like accidentally just assuming it was San Francisco with the trolley cars. I know it's not literally that. They went on a trip, Miyazaki and his senior staff. They went on a trip around to sort of look at towns.

[00:41:11] They settled on stock home and other Swedish cities with their main visual inspiration. And then they kind of just tweak it as they see fit. You know what I mean? Of course it's Miyazaki. So there's also like a Zeppelin.

[00:41:26] She called the island like a town floating on the water. But it's like a big city. Yeah, she's like I found a town and I'm like, Kiki, this ain't no town. This place has multiple schools. It's still crying. No, I appreciate it.

[00:41:41] I told David, I was like, I'm going to cry on this podcast. Now I feel like Ben's doing it for me and I'm really grateful. In the book, the book is simpler. And in the book, like her broomstick breaks so she can't fly.

[00:41:52] So she has to fix the broomstick. Miyazaki is like, no, it needs to be more just like she emotionally loses the ability to access her flight. You know what I mean? Like she has to like just sort of be brought down and then figure it back out.

[00:42:04] This whole like weird kind of like polar express thing too. Really she stops being able to hear the cast. Yeah. I don't know what that what's the polar express though. The polar express the whole thing is that like there's the bell.

[00:42:17] And when you get older, you stop being able to hear the bell. Right. You know, you also like the adults think the bell is broken right until a kid hears it and they realize, oh, I've now grown up. Yeah. What are you going to say?

[00:42:30] Sorry, I was going to say what I like about even though she says that her skill is flying and that she like always knew how to fly and everything. She's not incredible at it in the beginning.

[00:42:38] Like she's like crashing into the trees and they're like, oh, I'm going to miss the sound of those bells because she's always crashing into those trees. And then, you know, she has her flight and it's beautiful but she's still like she's still kind of figuring it out.

[00:42:48] She's not a great flyer because they're like, oh, are you sure you don't want to wait a month? You were going to wait a month and she's like, no, I'm ready. I'm doing this. She does it a little bit before she like a little bit before she's ready.

[00:42:57] Right. She has a really funny line in that where she's like, well, what if I meet a boy in the next month and then I like, I don't go. That could happen. Oh my god. My mom used to tell me that all the time.

[00:43:06] She's like, when I said I wanted to go to LA, she's like, you got to go now. You got to go. In case you follow me. Yeah, it was weird. She told me that and this HR person I like talked to about like the business in LA.

[00:43:16] She's like, you got to go before you meet a guy. I was like, that's a weird thing to tell me. I just met you. But it is like a thing anyway. I just love that she's not awesome at it.

[00:43:25] And I also love, oh my god, the opening sequence when she's flying. Yeah. So pretty. I'm just like clawing at my face right now. And she's flying over like their cool towns, their kind of neon, you know, she meets the other which is kind of like,

[00:43:39] Oh that cool witch with like her cool like hair and her dangly earrings. And she's got like a really stuck up cat and Gigi's like, Fuck that cat. Relax, you know what I mean? Gigi rules by the way. Oh yes. Gigi's good. Yeah. The cat. Yeah, yeah.

[00:43:54] Good girl. But then Phil Hartman, that's the... Yeah, which versions did you guys watch for this one? I watched the double. I mean the subs. Yeah, I watched the subs but I always, especially when it's like interesting people like that. You would click over. Yeah, yeah.

[00:44:07] I mean the first time I saw it, it was the dub because I saw it like a substitute teacher with basically like wheeled in the TV and was like, Here we go.

[00:44:14] We were saying like even though Totoro had had like a massive success and then after this like Mononoke gets released by Near Max, This one was just released on VHS by Disney 10 years later with Phil Hartman and Kirsten Dunst. It's the last Phil Hartman thing that's released.

[00:44:33] It's a small soldiers reunion. Right. But yeah, it took 10 years to get any form of distribution in the US. Right. Never played in theaters here.

[00:44:43] Only came to VHS like 10 years later and Siskel and Ebert, this was the first time they reviewed a straight to VHS movie as a proper movie. Right. They gave it two thumbs up. Hell yeah. Because they would have their little VHS corner that like wasn't reviews.

[00:44:57] It would be like here are some things that just came out that we reviewed eight months ago or here are some things that came straight to VHS and were just telling you they exist.

[00:45:04] And they gave it a proper review that was validating it as like, I don't know why this isn't getting treated better but this is a real movie. That's 10 years old. It's funny. It's funny that this comes out the same year as the Little Mermaid.

[00:45:17] I pointed that on Totoro. Right. You know not in the same countries but like Japan has this and America has the Little Mermaid in the same year and like this is a movie about womanhood.

[00:45:27] And growing up and like discovering yourself and so is the Little Mermaid and the Little Mermaid. It's like I'm in love with that guy I've never met and I will give up my voice to marry him before we even have a fucking conversation. But it's also interesting.

[00:45:41] I love the Little Mermaid but it is you know, it's a wild movie. The Disney VHS released it really really well but you're saying this comes out the same year as the Little Mermaid which is the beginning of the Disney Renaissance. Yes.

[00:45:52] The Disney releases this in 1998 which is almost the end of the Disney Renaissance. People if they are charitable include Tarzan and they go like that's the last. I know they should not. It's very charitable. It's very charitable. Don't do that. Right. Stop it. What is 98? What movie is 98?

[00:46:08] Because Mulan's 97. It's not Mulan. Mulan is 98. Maybe Mulan is 98 and Hercules is 97. Hercules is 97. Okay. Mulan is 98 and Tarzan is 99. Gotcha. And in 2000 we have the Empress New Group which is so good but it's kind of outside all of it.

[00:46:26] Yeah and then 2002 you have Lilo and Stitch and those are the two best Disney films of the last 30 years. But yes as you noted the cat in the Japanese version is voiced by a woman which is typical for Japanese. Yes.

[00:46:40] Depictions of talking cats and is like basically like Kiki take it easy. Hey Kiki watch out. You don't want to do that like very conscientious, very kind of cautious. Not very a good character, good friend. Not very like comic relief. Right where is it?

[00:46:54] She has a couple of good lines. Yeah she's got some reposts. Yeah. Totally. But you know but in the American version it's like Phil Hartman as like Salem from Superhero. Exactly. Like Wisecrash. It's such a different vibe.

[00:47:04] And they now I think on the on the Blu-ray their DVD they've cut a lot of these out. Oh really? But at the time Disney added extra Phil Hartman jokes even when... Yes. When the cat's mouth is not moved. Correct. Yeah. I think they've been reduced. Yeah.

[00:47:20] But look I mean the cast seems to make sense because we all know that all cats are girls and all dogs are boys. The science. That's what God wants. What about Salem? Salem Saber-Hagan from Sabrina. Great character. Yeah but that shows a fantasy.

[00:47:34] It's not real it's a TV show. That's true. I just want to bring up Salem. Come on Salem you were so funny. You'd be like I don't think so. I like when he would read the newspaper. He had little glasses. Yeah. And then he turned to the pages.

[00:47:47] I don't know but I want to know. Kramke I agree with you Jenner's a construct. I'm obviously just joking but also all dogs are boys and all cats are girls and I'm not going to back down on this issue.

[00:47:56] All dogs go to heaven, all cats go to heaven. I have science to back it up. Here. I'm sorry Ben oh my god his face when I just said that. I want to talk to have a cat. I want to talk to some others to heaven too.

[00:48:06] Yes she does she goes right to heaven. Yeah yeah no I was just joking. Her name is Pig and she's nice. That's good. I'm going to talk to I'm going to give you some more Miyazaki. I love it. I want to make red cry again. Let's do it.

[00:48:18] The old lady who bakes Kiki a cake is a nice acquaintance. Ben's already crying. But listen listen but what gives Kiki more pleasure is the first person. I hold back the tears. Listen to what I'm saying. I'm listening.

[00:48:28] What gives Kiki more pleasure is the first person who visits her room as a friend is not a landlord. That's like when her home becomes real in Miyazaki's eyes. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Like when he moved to the big city.

[00:48:39] And you make that first friend. Right right right. And you have them over. Like excited to like show them your stuff. Right you know. You set things up. He's talking about Ursula, you know the cool artist girl. Yeah she's so cool.

[00:48:49] She understands Kiki's anguish in an affirming way. I think these aspects are much more valuable to Kiki than whether her business will succeed. This is the same for the animators around me.

[00:48:58] They go around the day or go out drinking late at night and they say maybe I should call it quits. Maybe I should go back to my hometown and give up. They too are searching for a place of refuge and trying out different ways of living.

[00:49:10] It's not easy for them to regain their vitality. They repeat their feelings. Things don't work out. They can't work out. We can't help but think this is a disappointment in our path in life. Those reading the book will go on a similar path.

[00:49:22] But people often turn out to be helpful when we get to know them. Hey that's the theme of the film. Miyazaki is a genius. I'm getting a CI too because now I'm thinking about the fact that Miyazaki made this movie to make his employees feel better.

[00:49:36] It's just one of those girls. They just go drinking and they get sad. You hear about what a taskmaster he is and how intense it is to work for him. And the G. B. Lee animators work their fingers to the bone. He's a very deeply emotionally intelligent person.

[00:49:47] When you hear him talking like that, you're like if I worked for him I would be obsessed with him. Everything he said I would treasure is like a little pearl of wisdom. Not that it's one-to-one but that's in a far more sort of... What was I say?

[00:50:03] How would I put this? Obtuse may be sort of antagonistic way. That's how people talk about Lauren Michaels. Yeah, sure. This guy is scary and he works people hard. He's kind of like weird ultimate dad. But there's an obsessive thing where you're like...

[00:50:19] You're scared about him but also... You want to make dad proud. You go on a walk with him and he says something and you're like oh my god. He's summed it all up. It's why like fucking Marin always asks the Lauren question.

[00:50:29] Whether they auditioned for it or whether they were on the show for a minute or whatever. Because everyone has it. Like I have the fucking story from like meeting him once where like everyone has the like...

[00:50:37] He says some weirdly profound thing to you that brings in your head. I've told you what he said to me, right? I don't think so. Tri-Side once. He said Tri-Side once. No, I think about this all the fucking time. Had gotten on... Cast on the Mulaney pilot.

[00:50:53] It felt crazy that I had gotten that role. And we had to do like a rehearsal thing at the NBC Rockfella Channel. And I was like hanging out there and someone knocked on the door and was like Lauren would like to meet you. Oh my god.

[00:51:13] Right, so it's like you're like what? Yeah right. And go down corridors like four offices whatever. They make the popcorn. Truly. Standing in the vestibule outside his office. Did he make you wait like a long time? No, well this is what happened.

[00:51:27] So there's like the vestibule outside his office and I'm in the hallway outside the vestibule. And the vestibule is like all the Loranettes which are like his 10 female assistants, right? And he's standing... Seems healthy. Yup.

[00:51:39] In the door frame of his office looking out the vestibule at all the Loranettes and he's just listing. And he's like, and remember we have to put two tickets aside for John and do this.

[00:51:51] And we need to see what the edit is like on that Griffin common side. No need to be scared. We need to cut 15 minutes. He could feel it? He could feel the fear? I was like, I have to be outside of his range of peripheral vision here. Right.

[00:52:03] And I went oh no I'm not scared. Which I'm sure... Great thing to say. Really sold him. Oh he's a good thing to say to someone. No you are. I'm not scared. You are. I think he bought it. Sure.

[00:52:14] And then I walk inside so he didn't make me wait but then once I was in there there was three minutes of silence as he made popcorn and arranged his office. And he was like, have a seat. I have not told this story before.

[00:52:25] I've never told you this before. I've definitely not told in the podcast but I thought I'd told you personally. Maybe you've told me what he said but I don't remember all this preamble. The only chair in the office is not facing him at the desk.

[00:52:37] It's like facing the other wall and I was like, I'm not going to be presumptuous enough to move the chair. Right. This feels like one of those tests that people talk about in these auditions. So I sit in the chair and then I rotate my entire upper body.

[00:52:49] Sure. So my legs are pointing in one direction and my torso is pointing like 60 degrees in the other direction. Like a Gumby situation. Totally. And then he sits down with a bowl of popcorn. It's like, okay. Are you allowed to eat the popcorn? No, no it's for him.

[00:53:03] He's like hugging it. And he says, so how do you feel? Just in general? That's the only question right? And I go well I feel incredible. You know I've been like, you know struggling at this for like, you know five or six

[00:53:17] years now and just auditioning and doing shows in basements and trying to get anything. This is the first time I was ever getting close to like getting on a TV show and somehow I tested for these two other shows and I didn't really like either one.

[00:53:28] And I would have been like happy to do it because I would have been happy to be working, but the idea of having to be on that for seven years is like a little terrifying when you're signing that contract.

[00:53:37] And then this show is just like, I think it's so funny and everyone on is so incredible and this character I love. And like so I'm not just happy that I have a job. I'm happy because it's like something I actually want to do. Solid answer.

[00:53:49] And he without a pause goes, well you'll get sad eventually. And I think about it all the fucking time because and I don't know how he knew this but I genuinely when I got the Malani pilot I went, oh cool. So my depression is solved. Fair enough.

[00:54:09] He was like, man. Yeah. I didn't say that to him but I was like, you were sort of saying like I'm feeling great. I was like, I finally did it. I've been struggling with severe depression anxiety my entire life but all

[00:54:19] I needed was one role on a sitcom. I needed to buck. My brain's going to be perfect now. And then he just proceeded to go, well, you know, I mean you'll learn the craft, you know, you'll have to figure out how to play out to the audience

[00:54:30] and find your voice in this and that. And just like said stuff for like, you know, a minute and then went, you'll be fine. And then stood up and pat me on the shoulder and I'll see you in that way.

[00:54:40] And the only other time he talked to me was after the pilot. He went, good work. But you'll be, you'll get sad eventually I think anytime I'm like feeling too hot on myself or about anything. I know Lauren is this tricky cultural figure at this point.

[00:54:56] Yes, very tricky. I think one thing is obviously SNL's a big thing so SNL. But also we watched and loved a sitcom for many years about that kind of a relationship in 30 Rock. You know what I mean? Even though it's not a direct Lorne parody.

[00:55:09] It's that parody of going into the big leather bound office and like having this sort of like insane rich person. Right, like in the first season especially it's just like so. I mean that dynamic in 30 Rock is so great.

[00:55:18] Just the other little note about this story when we had to do the rehearsal in New York they were like it's going to be in one of Lorne's offices because he's got like six offices in 30 Rock. Because he's like in charge of Broadway video and he's in

[00:55:31] charge of, yeah, yeah. The one that we went to which is the one that he apparently does not spend much time in because he spends most of time in that SNL office which is the one with the big window looking out to this stage.

[00:55:40] Which is where I sat in a position that probably led to my back injuries six years later. The office that we met in was the Jack Donagy office 100%. It was 92% accurate. Like a secret bathroom? Secret bathroom. Yes, we walked in and Malini said I wanted to have this

[00:55:58] rehearsal in here because I worked here for eight years and never got to use the secret bathroom. And he hit the wall and the door open and he used the bathroom. Oh my God, good for him. Yeah. You made me watch. He was like Griffin come in.

[00:56:10] Come look. See? You're going to watch me pee. I mean, I will say that like ever since working at Variety Clugs. Oh, Variety. Yeah, Bapobizz. But you have to list all the exec producers for every show

[00:56:22] which I never had to do before and it's made me so much more aware of like so many things first of all how many are usually it's just men all around maybe one woman and then there men have you heard of them? You're not great. Wait a second.

[00:56:33] What are you talking about? I'm so great. Him? But he's on like everything. You just forget Lord. I mean, you just forget like how many things he's doing and how many things you like won't let people do without him. You know that sort of thing.

[00:56:47] I mean, I will say the one time I've ever seen him is that like a CAA Christmas party like 20 or 13 or something. Never seen more like high profile celebrities in my life. I was a plus one. I was not prepared.

[00:57:00] I was like, I'm like all forever 21 gear and like with my glasses, which I will also say if you're ever in an early party, dress down people will be like, who's that? That doesn't have to care. Right, right, right. It worked. It should not have.

[00:57:10] I was like, oh, I'm a writer's assistant. Please don't talk to me. I've never seen more celebrities in a smaller space in my life and still the table that was getting the most attention was like Fallon and Lorne sitting at this like round booth and everyone is just

[00:57:22] kind of going up paying for it. It was a core thing. It was totally that. And it was so noticeable even in this environment. Like that was the Nexus, right? Like everyone is orbiting around that booth. Well, that's like the, I mean,

[00:57:34] no one should have that much power is my take too much. I agree. No one man should have all that power is a thing that I said famously in my song power. That's right. Off the album, my beautiful dark twist of fantasy. Right.

[00:57:45] It was after you had that beautiful dark twist of fantasy. I feel like no one ever gives me credit for that album. It's crazy. You were the one who wanted to talk about all the lights. I got a perfect score from pitchfork and then now

[00:57:54] everyone acts like I didn't write and perform all of that album. It's like literally we've forgotten. It's your monster. Oh God, we're when that album was good and it was just like, oh yeah Kanye West, we love him. Yeah. That's the music. It's a simpler time.

[00:58:13] Come on, let's come on. Let's re-litigate every fucking bad guy. Come on, let's do it. No, I was going to say famously at the SNL after party, Lauren just holds court wherever, you know, the location changes,

[00:58:25] but he finds his little corner table or booth and he sits there until five o'clock in the morning. Yeah. And it's like a big deal. Like the writers of the new cast members are like, maybe this is the week that he invites me over to the booth.

[00:58:36] Got such like scraps of affection. But they're like, he never goes home. Right. He stays out the whole time. He outlasts everybody. And he just sits there in that corner and has a conversation. He likes walks too. You hear about the walks. Yeah.

[00:58:49] And Seth did a, Seth Meyers did a podcast a while back and they talk about the walks. Yeah. Like some sort of like walks they took with Lauren one. But there's the mafia thing.

[00:58:58] I mean, you talking about how many things he ends up as an executive producer on, there are these stories of like, yeah, when I was like a cast member and then I like made my first movie, it wasn't with him.

[00:59:08] And he like, it took me eight years to like, He doesn't forget. He does not forgive. Right. And now he does it with like all of the TV shows like, you know, Shrill and all these things like, one or two. Right. Right. Other two, the other two. Right.

[00:59:23] Anyone who like comes out from under him, it's like you're going to stand in the family. Losers Boogie's. Right? You know, at least for the first thing. Losers Boogie's fucking rule. You like it? Losers Boogie's is so funny. It's so funny. You see Losers Boogie's?

[00:59:33] I've only seen the first two episodes. Yeah. So funny. Yeah, I ain't talked about this. It's such a like, That was a hard one. It seems complicated as a setup. Yeah, yeah. You get right into it. No. I mean, yeah, they're just like, this is what it's about.

[00:59:45] I'm going to review because I was just like, Oh, how do you describe the show? Hard gang is a good way to put it. It's also, it is so thoroughly strange. Yeah. And in a way that's not unexpected, but that you're just kind of like,

[00:59:55] this is incredible that like Julio had this wave. Right. It's like, wait, The New York Times is writing about a guy who writes sketches. The weird sketch of SNL. Who isn't credited. Like, Right. That someone like put all of this together and then clearly they just gave him

[01:00:08] this weird blank check to be like. On a Fabrega. Yes. You can make like a Spanish. So funny. And to do it in Spanish and I remember on Mike, I'm sorry. She's so cute. She's the best. She's the best. She's very fine. One of America's best hack comedians.

[01:00:24] Such good hats. Such good hats. Such good hats. You know who's got a cool piece of headwear? Kiki. Got a big bow. Got a big bow. Thank you for bringing me on your Lorne Michaels podcast. Yes. Seriously. Let's get off of Lorne. Yeah. We can, you know,

[01:00:40] as long as we're on cute people, I can talk about Kiki because not Kiki Ursula. Let's talk about Ursula. Ursula. Look, I don't go looking for queer subtext. Sometimes it just finds me, but I feel like their dynamic is very much like the like cute baby sitter,

[01:00:52] the older babysitter. You're like, I just want to be this person. Yeah. But also, do you know who fucking voiced her in the American version? I do. Go ahead though. She's in Garofalo. Yeah, she did. They found the subtext. Yeah. She's like the cool alt girl. Yeah, exactly.

[01:01:06] She's like, I don't really live in town. I'm a little too weird for town. You know, I'm out here. Yeah. You can't meet Kiki's just like, oh my God, you're so cool. I just want to be you.

[01:01:14] She's going to like five years be like, oh, now I see why. Yeah. Right, right. In five years she'll put it all together. Yeah. The final puzzle she'll be like, Tombo, we're more of like a friend dynamic, right? Yeah. Well, you know what?

[01:01:27] I feel like that's true though. Like his stupid friends, his terrible friends who might as well just be like James Spader and that convertible they suck. They're just like these preppy assholes. His friends kind of suck. He does have the preem.

[01:01:36] I'm like, why are you friends with them? And I think that's probably part of why he's like, Kiki seems like cool and fun and my friends suck. Yeah. But also like what a bunch of dorks he's like, yeah, you want to come to this party?

[01:01:44] Or the flying club or amateur propeller makers. Like it's not like they're like, you know, dropping X to Z. Maybe they are. The two things are mutually exclusive. That's fair. Yeah, right. I just feel like their dynamic was always very friendly. They're like, oh, is that your girlfriend?

[01:01:57] He's just like, I don't know. She's just like a cool witch. I know. And she's so nice about her. He doesn't seem to enjoy hanging out with them. Like he doesn't seem to dislike them. They're the kids, right? So you kind of have to hang out, I guess.

[01:02:09] I sort of had that. In middle school, all my best friends were the guys on the basketball team. Because I went to a very small school and we had almost no shared interests. You know?

[01:02:18] And it was just like, well, these are like the six guys I hang out with. I go to a school with 40 people per grade. So then when you like meet someone who you actually like have things in common with, you're like, oh, this is a whole new thing.

[01:02:27] It was sort of like what you were talking about where it was, I can't talk about on this podcast, but I went off to summer camp and I met cool older kids. And then I was like, Sirens, Sirens, Send out an Amber alert to everyone's phone.

[01:02:42] Flash flood warning. But no, then I came back to school and everyone was like, what the fuck is this? And I was like, oh, I figured out what I actually like. You know? It's big. I feel like he's like, oh, she flies. She's going to get it.

[01:02:54] Like she'll get my like weird flight thing. I think he's like, this is the kind of person I actually want to be friends with as opposed to the friends that are based on geographical convenience. Right. But she's got in the early scenes whenever he's like, hey, what's up?

[01:03:06] Hey, how you doing? She's like, oh Jesus. She's just like, I'm not, I don't know. I don't know what this is that you're talking to me. Yeah. I'm not ready to take that at face value. You're suspiciously nice. Something's up. Right, exactly, exactly.

[01:03:17] Whereas like at the bakery, the pregnant lady is nice obviously. You know, Osono, right? But she's going to earn her keep to live there. I love when she makes a little Kiki in the bread. Oh my God. Yes. See again, showstopper. Just that. Bake off showstopper.

[01:03:31] Maybe Osono should, they should do like an all Miyazaki. Oh my God. Baking show. How weird would it be if like Ghibli was like, yeah, our next project is a 10 part animated reality cooking competition. Oh my God. Are you kidding?

[01:03:44] Mary, Mary Berry and like, you know, Zeneba from Spirit of the Way are close cousins. There's a lot of overlap. Wait, what was I going to say? I just like the idea of Miyazaki being like, it is a reality show.

[01:03:59] We aim to represent reality and it's purest form. Triangle bread boy, Ben. That's what you called him? Oh, chunky boy. No, I was calling him a chunky bread boy. Chunky bread boy. I'm sorry, but he looks like a big triangle.

[01:04:10] The upside down triangle is shaped like a stone. Yes. He is, I like that he is never really speaks. He says look once. Yeah, right. I love him. He's emoting so much energy and just like. When he's showing off for the cat.

[01:04:25] He spends, he's so good at his craft too. You can tell that he's proud of it. He's got like a lot of respect. He has a lot of respect. He has a lot of cage and moon struck vibe. You know what I mean?

[01:04:36] Where he's just like, it's all going into the bread. No one's talking to him though. And then like in the last, in the post credit scene as we, as Ben just discovered as we were watching it with him. Oh no, me too. I didn't.

[01:04:45] You realize like, oh, he's the mother of a sonos baby, the father of a sonos baby. Generally construct. Like they're together. Oh yeah. I didn't realize that either. I remember like I was watching my roommate and was like, oh, I like that you know, you don't know.

[01:04:55] Like she's just like having this kid. And then I was like, oh no, they are. And he's like, oh, you know, like, and they go off. And then you see him with the baby. That's the post credit scene? There's one other post credit scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:05:05] She sends a letter like her parents or her parents. Oh yeah, she sends a letter to her parents where she's like, yeah, anyway, life's tough, but I'm figuring it out. I have some more confidence now. Right. It's fine. I miss you. I'll do it myself.

[01:05:15] And fucking Nick Balawanga shows up and he's like, Hey, I'll take six loaves. You're kind of like a virtuoso. It's Italian for pretty good. We need more Velo long. We do. Valolonga's got to come back. Bring him in MCU. Well, hey, don't he stock this guy. He's smart.

[01:05:34] Makes this iron suit. Like I don't know. I feel like my Velo long. I need to like look that's a more is going to happen. That's a more is going to happen. That's so boy. How do you more? We don't need that. I'll tell you that much here.

[01:05:48] I want to read another means hockey quote. Okay. All right. I am very self conscious. Oh, sometimes I can't even ask a train station attendant if I'm at the correct exit. Sometimes I'm too embarrassed to stand still and look around to figure out which street

[01:06:01] I should take in town. I keep trudging along the wrong street and end up nowhere near my destination. I've done a lot of foolish things like that in my life. I never thought I wanted to tip depict that sort of thing in a film,

[01:06:11] but at my age I've come to look back on such things objectively. Foolish behavior can be quite heartwarming. So that's sort of his vibe with Kiki where it's like, look, she's kind of a wacko sometimes. She's figuring it out. She's eating pancakes.

[01:06:25] She's sleeping in a dusty room in the attic. Catching a cold. Ben is a dehydrated husk. He's cried all the water in his body. Just a tumbleweed. Yeah. He's just a skin flap now. He looks like a SpongeBob is fried out. Oh, God. Oh boy.

[01:06:46] Yeah, it's really good about how I feel like when she first gets to the city and everyone's like, oh, holy shit, a witch. And then they're kind of like, cool, which and then they just keep going.

[01:06:53] It feels like that moment in like Spider-Verse where he's just, you know, they like crash land and everyone's just stepping over him. He's just like, thanks, New York. Like, here we are. Yeah, I love that. And she's a little bit like, but I'm a witch.

[01:07:03] And they're like, yeah, that's cool. I think there's so many things like that, like as I already said, the not becoming a fight between her and Tombow, like all these like dumb things that other movies ring out for conflict that are never the fun part of the movie.

[01:07:17] You know? It was like, oh, we have to get through this thing to get to the next thing. Come on, get to the part I like, you know? Yeah, but she's just like sad sometimes. Yeah. And like, yeah, because after when she doesn't meet his friends,

[01:07:29] but he's like, come on the blimp with my friend and she's like, would rather not feel like it's going to not be fun for me than she just gets sad and she's like, I don't know why I'm sad. Look, and that's a mood. It really is.

[01:07:38] I relate to that. And I feel like I very rarely see movies that are just like, this objectively quote unquote fun activity is something that's going to bum me out and make me feel bad about myself. Right.

[01:07:49] And then, you know, she does the self care move of not doing it. But then she's like, oh, I should have had fun with this thing. Yeah. You know what movies don't depict? Here's the specificity of it. It's not that, oh, if she goes there,

[01:07:58] they're going to pick on her and show her that. No. It's just like, this vibe is going to make her feel shitty. She's just like, oh, I'm just going to have to like perform for these people. Right. Just not into it. And then she does the face flop,

[01:08:08] which is one of the best moments in cinema, I think ever. Yeah. Just like this very, and I love the lead up too, because I had kind of forgotten. I've seen it so much as a gift now that I just like in my head,

[01:08:17] she just goes to her room and flops down, but there's such a lead up. The walk to her bed is so slow. She's so sad. He's so good at depicting like a hard day. He lets it sit, right? Like 30 seconds of her like looking around being like,

[01:08:31] don't feel good. Nothing fucked up happened to her. But she's just like, you know what? I'm out. I'm out of energy. Like this was, I was drained. You know what's hard? Being alive. Yeah. Exactly. For everybody. Exactly it. All the time. God.

[01:08:47] And then when she's sick too, like he's, you get how fucking sick she is. Yeah. It's not going to die. She just feels like garbage. Yeah. That part where like the cat's like, what about food? And she's just like, There it is. Go have some. Just points.

[01:08:59] Isn't that the last time that they like talk? I think it is. I think it might be. Because that's really sad. Yeah. I remember that is the thing that fucked me up the first time I watched this and I was younger,

[01:09:06] but like it's still so much when like at the end, she gets her confidence back. She learns how to fly again, but she still can't talk to the cat. Right. And there's kind of this moment where she like gives him a little hug and she's like,

[01:09:16] All right, this is our dynamic now. And it is a little bit like she figured out some stuff, but she is growing up anyway. And I know, but it's just like, it's that sort of thing as well. Like when you read those books about kids who

[01:09:26] have some kind of power. And then like, you know, like it happens in his dark materials where she loses the ability to read the enema. And I'm like, when I was a kid, I was like, that is fucking crushing. She could read this compass thing that told her

[01:09:40] like the truth of all, like, you know, it's like, well, you know what? You hit puberty. So you got a boyfriend, but you lost a magic power. It's like the first time you like try and play a game that was really fun when you're a kid.

[01:09:51] And now you're just like, no, it's not doing it for me anymore. And it's so sad. Oh, God damn it. Oh, are you going to? Oh, no, no, I'm going to get you. But like, like, you know, I was just on vacation

[01:10:01] and my friends came up for the weekend and they brought their two year old and like it's still in that phase where like, you blow some bubbles. He's got that. That's it. God damn. That is all he needs.

[01:10:11] So you get all over and the world gets less magical. Like there's that thing where you're a kid. Yeah. Like, really? That's the thing. Like I did genuinely used to believe I'm like, I know everyone tells me that toys don't come to life.

[01:10:22] But what if on the other hand, right? And there's they do though. Like parents all the time telling you like dragons are not real. And you're like, I get it. My dad doesn't know everything. You haven't seen him. My dad can't remember where he parked.

[01:10:34] They might be dragons. That's why imagine dragons are single-handedly keeping them hatching alive. That's true. They're yelling at us. They're going, please. The thunder and the lightning. Isn't that your favorite song? The thunder, lightning. I want Valolonga sings Imagine Dragons as an album.

[01:10:52] I want that like karaoke album. Two time Academy Award winner. Valolongas like Christmas album. Hey, you got this. It's a thunder, lightning. Thunder and a lightning. My wrong is lightning. Oh my God. It's the pizza pie. He's never that crazy. You'd be like, hey, what are you?

[01:11:13] What are you fucking racist? I never said it's the pizza pie. I'm a fucking grown man. I parked my car by the fire engine and put a bucket over it like everybody else. Does he do that? Maybe Green Book should have won Best Picture.

[01:11:27] One day I'm going to have some fucking kid who's going to write a story about me and win two Oscars. Two. Kubrick has won. And it was for visual effects. He got the one for 2001. That's Kubrick's only Oscar. That was pretty good impression, right?

[01:11:46] Valolonga turning into an Oscar nerd. Another thing that Dave and I were talking about what I'm really loving about me as Zaki Movies is just watching them make the characters make a cup of coffee or go grocery shopping. Ben was talking about this. He's totally right.

[01:12:01] And there's just something about how it's like teaching you how to live and like depicting normal activities but showing the ritual of it and how special it could be. This is how it is to be a human. It's so nice and quiet and I love this movie.

[01:12:16] You really love this one. Is this your fave so far? Or you did like how big Totoro was. I did like Totoro. And Ponyo loved him. I mean, almost every movie we've watched, Ben has later texted us to be like, I love Ponyo. Totoro is so big.

[01:12:29] Whatever, right? Yeah, I like Kiki the best. I think what's going to happen... Oh, Kiki number one! But I'm going to keep just liking them. I'll have to get to the end and then really have it. But you know what?

[01:12:39] I mean this is the last whimsy for a while because like Mononoke spirited away how those are weirder. Those are more like emotionally like kind of dense and like dark... I'm Ponyo's whimsical, but we've already recorded that one. Ponyo is obviously right.

[01:12:53] Like super shot at whimsy, but that's... We've done that and then the win rises is Miyazaki being like, was I a bad father? Did Japan ruin itself by going to war? You know, like you're like, whoa, whoa! Tyho Jesus! Come on, let's do like kind of pillow movie.

[01:13:10] What the fuck? That movie's gonna destroy me. That movie's fantastic. I love that movie. This one's really just like the everyday... Like you were saying very like everyday little experiences. Like I mean, I mentioned the houses before, but I just love all the backgrounds of it.

[01:13:24] Like all the detail, like everything in that grocery aisle that she touched is so good and specific. All the little rice cookers. And I mean obviously Gigi pointing out the mug with himself on it is the cutest. And then you see it later because she buys it.

[01:13:37] But I don't know, there's so many kitchens in this movie I wanted. Great kitchens. You know what? Like talk about Nancy Meyers kitchen, the like grandmother's kitchen with the copper pots. The copper pots. But I love that thing where the grandma's like, you know what?

[01:13:49] I do like the old wood burning oven. I don't like this electric thing. Yeah, let's fucking open it up. Like you know what I mean? Like that kind of like yeah. Like the practicality of that background. You think it's a little detail of like the electric...

[01:14:01] In her like rustic house. Yeah. I love Ursula's house obviously. Ursula's is cool. Or LaRole. I've got a crush on her. I have not. I mean hard same. I picked up on the subtext folks. Oh, David's doing the finger. You said I couldn't work in.

[01:14:18] I said he could. But you forgot about Ursula and her cool painting. He did the barn. With a unicorn. Oh, and I mean the style of that painting is so beautiful. I know it's wild though. It doesn't look like the movie at all. It's so different.

[01:14:31] And I feel like it's so hard. I feel like this in every movie TV show, whatever it is so hard to show someone being good at something. Because you like build something up so hard. Yeah. And then you know, like you hear Carrie Bradshaw's like columns

[01:14:42] and you're like this sucks. Like you get paid how much for this bullshit? Isn't it the worst feeling in a movie when like someone has some sort of like craft like that? It's usually writing because we're narcissists. Right.

[01:14:53] But even when it's like music or it's like other performing or they're doing this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you watch it and you can't figure out whether the movie wants you to think they're good or not. Yeah.

[01:15:01] Like you're like is this supposed to be the scene is like they're bopping it or like. I feel like that was one of those things that made Mad Men immediately good because like they build up Don Draper so much as being good at his job.

[01:15:10] And then you see and you're like, oh you're really fucking good. Right. He's really like. That is so hard. God this guy's amazing. You're like, how good is he? Yeah. He's like I have an idea for cigarettes and you're like fuck I want to smoke a

[01:15:21] whole pack of light up packs right now. Yeah. Can't wait to be addicted. I don't think I'm about you at all. He's in Top Gun. I know. I forgot about that when I saw like Ham just across the screen. That's right.

[01:15:33] I was too busy looking for Glenn Powell. That's funny. He wants to see Top Gun. Yeah. That's such a crazy good performance. Mad Men? Yeah. Yeah. I think because there's the Emmy nominations were being announced and they were actually like pretty good.

[01:15:45] And they nominated a lot of shows that I watched and like. So annoyed. I wanted to write like a new college. Which was surprising because usually I expected it to be like comedy series we only nominated the Kaminsky method. That was it. What else would we nominate?

[01:15:55] You know, but instead they actually were like pretty rational. Best fight choreography in a comedy series. The nominees were great. Those were especially. Really good. But I feel like I was like the last time I was truly invested in an Emmy

[01:16:05] win was when Ham won for the last season of Mad Men. And you were like, there's no way he's winning. And he won and you were like, oh my God, I feel like delighted for him. It felt like they were going to do the corral thing again. Right.

[01:16:17] Where they were like, and the winner is somehow James Spader, even though he was not anything this year. We're just going to bring him up. Knowing how much Ham kind of killed himself for that part. Of course. That part fucked him up. Yeah.

[01:16:29] I don't think he's ever fully come back. No. I don't think we should have always awarded that, but like he deserves something for that. It's like Cape Blanche or playing Blanche. Right. It's definitely not what we talk about where sometimes people merge a lot. Yeah, totally.

[01:16:41] My friend Alex Perlman, a shout out. We used to always talk about that phenomenon as the Bradley Cooper effect because of his run of playing jerky guys in comedies. Right. And we were like, he's never going to get out of this.

[01:16:56] He spent too many years playing the jerky best friend or the boyfriend of the love interest. And now I just kind of think he's a douche and it's unbelievable how you now prove so wrong. I can't deal with that. Yeah.

[01:17:09] When you see him as the jerk, you're like, oh right. He used to do this. That's so weird that he used to do that. This used to be his vibe. Yeah. Like when you watch the hangover now, you're like, who's that playing? I recognize Justin Barth of course.

[01:17:19] Right. For wedding crashers. Because hangover is the weird bridge there where it's like he's still doing that, but at least it's as the leading man. Yeah. And then it's like, well now what's his leading man career going to be? He can only play like, right. Hey. Hey.

[01:17:34] I'm just trust me. It's all you gotta do. All right, I'll fucking trust. So glad we got Jackson together. We got it. I mean, Jackson's a musician. Right. And Jackson could like crush some oxycodone in the back of the car. He could and he did.

[01:17:49] The line about the line. The line about the line? I call that being dust. Boot dust. Yeah. Because the chunks are the line you love where he says like. Grabbing two different conversations. That's fine. That's over the fucking line or something.

[01:18:03] You're talking about stars because of course they are. Yes. We're talking about boot dust. That's all trash. Thank you. That's all the fucking line. Oh my God, I was going to make a Jersey reference earlier and I totally lost it. Here it comes. Are you ready? Yeah.

[01:18:17] Got it? Yeah. The opening credits, the opening credits where she's like soaring over everything and then she soars over like the factories and it's like sooty and she has to like cough or whatever. Remind me so much of this. Here it comes.

[01:18:28] Steven Universe episode where he does where they're like flying over all the cities and the towns and everything. I feel like it has to be a little bit related. I mean, I'm sure it is. These movies are so influential for animators.

[01:18:38] They make a very rude Jersey joke where they like go over this like very city factory thing and he's like what's that? And she's like, ah, don't worry about it. It's just Jersey. And I was like, what? You're Jersey's and Steven Universe and they hate it.

[01:18:49] What if Kiki went to Jersey? Like bake her into a fucking sausage. They would be nice to her. They'd be nice to her. They'd be like, hey, you're alright. She's salt of the earth. You're a meat sack. Yeah. Deliver this meat sack.

[01:19:02] He could just go to a lot of movies and be kind of a pal. They treat her like one of their own horribly. They give her the same lack of respect they give their native children. You have more telling your fucking finger than his fucking finger, right?

[01:19:16] That's the line. We have to disrespect ourselves first before other people can do it. It's kind of a Jersey way. I get it. We wear that chip on our shoulder, Proud Burr. People from Jersey have a chip on their shoulder? Shut up David. No, no.

[01:19:28] There was a moment in Newcastle. This is a long time ago. I went to college in Newcastle. What? Which is in the north of England. Yes. What? What? You went to college? I went to university. Hold on. What? I have a bachelor's degree. What? In what, David?

[01:19:46] English literature. Oh my God. You can read? First time hearing of this. Damn. The reason I made it a movie podcast. I've been talking books for all these years. Find who you can read. What else do we want to say about Kiki's delivery service?

[01:20:07] Speaking of digital fur technology. Digital fur technology. Gigi's fur is great. I love Gigi's fur. I think we're done with Kiki. I think we nailed it. Do you want to talk about the flying, the final vehicle? I mean, I think that's great.

[01:20:19] I think it's fun that she has a moment of sort of triumph that's not too ludicrous. She's helpful. She catches the boy. She doesn't do anything insane. She's got to catch him because he's dangling from the airship. That's kind of surprising to me.

[01:20:36] I don't know because everything else felt so small and low stakes every day that the sudden catastrophic blimp event, I was a little like, I don't know if I need it. It is funny that there's a blimp there, but it is a Miyazaki movie.

[01:20:48] We didn't talk about Jeff. Jeff the dog. Oh, Jeff the dog. No one cares about Jeff. I do love this run. I mean, I like how hijinky this is. Well, just like Gigi's profusely sweating. I love it. And I like the shadow. That's a July anxiety mood.

[01:21:06] I keep on setting it up as like the shadow creeping over. Yeah. And he's just a nice boy. And the music's really like getting into trouble. When Disney released this, a conservative Christian group called Concerted Women for America boycotted it because of the witchcraft.

[01:21:22] I mean, and this is the same time that like Sabrina is busting up the ratings every Friday night. I can't imagine. Gigi, I have. Yeah. God, I saw it. I have seen every episode of like the first two or three seasons of that show.

[01:21:34] I watched it every day after school. Yeah. Like the other ones, the later seasons I've seen, but like it was that early, the high school episode. Can we talk about Clarissa Explains It All? No, the Mike Ferguson is a little stinker. That's true.

[01:21:46] Okay, but Sam with the ladder. Hey Sam. I aspire to be Sam. Sam rules. Sam's cool. Okay, I'm going to break rules, but I got to do it now. I don't mean to interrupt Ben Explains Clarissa Explains It All.

[01:22:00] But if I can say something at the summer camp I went to. Sam was he the Sam there? Ferguson was a counselor. A counselor? Jason Zimbler. Was he cool? No, he was a cool guy. He was a theater director. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.

[01:22:19] Do people do that to him? Nah, nah, nah, nah. I'll say he wore it pretty well and the other thing is like I feel like I was there as the generation that was most like, oh my god I can't believe like Ferguson is a counselor.

[01:22:33] And then like five years later no kids knew who he was. You know like there was the window where it was like. And I assume he got older and he just didn't look like Ferguson as much anymore. But when I got there I couldn't get over.

[01:22:44] Like it was like probably five years after the show had gone off the air and I had watched it when I was like seven. He's bald now. Yes. I mean time catches up to us all. It does, that's true.

[01:22:54] But he directed a killer production of Man of La Mancha. Hey, the impossible dream. Yeah. Kiki tries to live it out. Does she succeed? Probably. I think so. I think, yeah. I forgot about this other part that I really love with Ursula

[01:23:07] besides just like her painting and her being the best. When she sings about the poor unfortunate souls? I mean that's a great part. It's just funny that there's these two movies came out the same year and they both have an Ursula. Extremely different Ursula. Yes.

[01:23:19] But I love the part, I mean her pep talk to Kiki I feel like goes so well with like that post credits, the post credit scene of the letter where she's like, she talks about and this is such a real thing

[01:23:28] if you're like into any sort of like art or whatever is that she was like, I was just imitating other painters before and not well. And now she's not and it's, and I love that she was like and it's not, she didn't say it was easier.

[01:23:40] She was like it's harder but it's more rewarding. Yeah. I was like, oh that is such a good lesson. I mean that is a hard lesson to learn but it's so important and for her to tell Kiki just like, you can't do what everyone's doing

[01:23:52] you got to do your own thing. It's going to be hard though. Ben is quenching his jaws so tightly trying to hold it in. Hold on to eye dryness. Yeah. Like that idea of just like you imitate the cool things that

[01:24:03] you've seen when she was like, I had to stop doing that because it wasn't actually good or helpful. Also when you go through this world on your own you learn by example and you learn from kind people that are also going to like teach you these lessons

[01:24:17] and they're so important because especially when you're away from your parents, it's really scary because those are the people that usually have the answers and now you have to figure it out. But also you try to replicate things based on end result

[01:24:31] rather than having an understanding of the process that leads to that result. She's just like, oh I want to have a delivery service that's going to be successful and she's like, oh it's work. Right, right. And that the people who are the most successful get there

[01:24:43] through a series of trial and errors, not through going like this is my target, you know? And it's around yourself with supportive people. Like one of the things I love about the bakery owner and I feel like a lot of adults in the Miyazaki have seen

[01:24:55] they find the kids so funny. Yeah. Like she's like, you're great and industrious and I believe in you but also like you're ridiculous. This is so funny. She just always is bursting out laughing. It's so cute. David here's a crazy question.

[01:25:08] It might be a swing and a miss. Okay. Do you think it would be possible to pull up the VHS sales chart from when this came out? I have no idea how you sort of find that but I can Google. I would just, I would Google exactly that.

[01:25:19] Kiki's Delivery Service VHS sales chart. I know people used to publish that show. Yeah, Lee's Movie Info. What was your number? It just cites a lot of sales numbers. Do you remember when the year was? I can get it, it was 98. 98.

[01:25:31] But they mentioned how well, let me see. This website hasn't been updated since 1998. Yeah that is for sure. It was released to VHS September 15th, 1998. Well let's just plug Kiki in here and... Plug it in. Plug it in.

[01:25:45] Okay one other thing I wanted to mention is the play by play news broadcaster. Oh yes when the blimps going down. Yeah very funny. Like kind of unnecessary but it's just like a great... This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Like he's like just like...

[01:25:57] I've never seen anyone like it. He's like a speed racer announcer. Oh my god speed's doing it. He's defeating Racer X. Like the grandmother's like friend butler person. Like she's like banging the TV, being like oh it always craps out the most exciting part.

[01:26:10] Like in her head she's just like, oh this is like this fun TV show we're watching. The Bizarre Valley TV. She just wants to see a little bit of drama. Yeah who does it? The bizarre website I found did not have Kiki's info

[01:26:23] but did have some VHS sales info. But we can look up the Japanese total from... Okay yeah. Oh this is a re-release. Has it been released in China? Can we play that game? Yeah let's check this out. These are tough. We're having a tough round.

[01:26:40] I mean my solution was that we were going to do the box office game for a delivery man. Oh my god. I mean look I'm not against that. He is a delivery man after all. Yes. The thing he's delivering now... His delivery service was? It ain't Mackerel Pie.

[01:26:52] Yeah. Or I was gonna say we could try to guess the top five Kirsten Dunst movies but I feel like three of those are such gimmies that I don't know how much fun that is. That's a fair question though. What are the other two?

[01:27:05] These are interesting few years for her too. Yeah but what are the other two? Do you have it? Give me one second I don't have it. Kirsten Dunst Kiki, two were friends. Uh huh. Mrs. Dunst, two were enemies. So it would be Spider-Man 1, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3. Mrs. Plenons.

[01:27:23] In that order. In that order. Can you give me the domestic totals for those three movies? First one's 403. Bingo. The second one is 364. 373. Okay and the third one is like 335. 336. Woo. Those are big movies for me. Those are big but however, what is number four? An idea.

[01:27:48] It's a film that made 169 million dollars. So she's not the lead in it right? No she's not. In fact I forgot she was in this one. Wait. Sure. Okay. Yeah I think I know what it is. Is it Jumanji? Nope. That's her number six. Hidden figure. Wow.

[01:28:05] Jumanji is number six. That's ridiculous. It should be number six. Yeah. Should be number, whoa. Okay. I didn't smoke him. It is a prequel to the most successful movie of all time. That's right. Can we talk about the new Jumanji trailer for a second? Yeah sure.

[01:28:18] The next level. I don't understand what the hook of that movie is. They're gonna play a different one this time. No not really because the hook is, I thought they would just do that. They go we shake the bag up.

[01:28:27] It's the same four kids but now they've each swapped roles. Here's the, so here's what I'm gonna try and recount it because I only saw this trailer once. Can I give it a shot? Yeah. Okay so the girl who was Karen Gillan. Yeah. Same vibe.

[01:28:37] It's 100% has not changed at all. She's just Karen Gillan again. Right. Okay Karen Gillan, same person inside her. Right. All right. Kevin Hart, this time the football player is Kevin Hart? No. No this time. Last time the football player was Kevin Hart.

[01:28:50] Like the big athlete guy was Kevin Hart. This time he's Jack Black. This time he's Jack, is that true? Yes. Yup. Take it easy Jack. Agreed? Take it easy Jack. And I'll tell you he's making choices. I know because Jack Black was like,

[01:29:06] you love the stereotypical things I did when I was a girl in the last one. Somehow you played it with the degree of nuance. Yeah. That we all. And he's like, here we go. And it's like, Jack. I laid it on pretty thick last time. You did. Right.

[01:29:25] That's true. And it was good. Yes. He liked it. I can't deny that people like it. Don't necessarily take lessons from that. And this time the Black guy is me. He is. We didn't think about this, but yeah. He is. Therefore where's he gone? He's gone.

[01:29:42] He's like runs into the jungle. All right. Okay. So that's those are those two kids. The clean pitches is a Yankee swap. All four of them are swapped. No, no. Karen Gillan is fixed. The air villain is the same. Okay. The football players now Jack Black.

[01:29:56] One of the kids or two of them have gone missing within the game. Two of them are lost in digital feedback. One of them went lost before them. The other one went in with them at the same time and also got lost somewhere. Yes.

[01:30:11] Have you seen this trailer? No. Okay. I hope this is all very helpful. Yeah. They're still in it even though they see the Pollenhanks got out of it. Yeah. Maybe one of them's in Nick Jonas now. Who knows? I didn't want to demonstrate my original Jumanji experience. Right.

[01:30:25] That's the pure. Pure cut Jumanji. And now Danny DeVito. Yes. And Danny Glover. Yes. As grandpas. Who happened to be upstairs because apparently the rules now is that the video game captures anyone within a radius. It's not just how he's holding the controller.

[01:30:43] It's just who's getting the main property lines griffin'. But now the Rock is doing his DeVito impression and Kevin Hart is Glover. Yep. And Hart's really doing Glover. Hart's doing a good job it looks like. And the Rock's doing his thing. He's doing New York hot dog vendor.

[01:31:00] Yeah. And like, hey come on here. Yeah. So it's two new characters playing the two biggest stars. Right. One person playing the exact same characters you played last time. Yes. And then the worst combination of actor and character possible from the original. Now here's my take. Yeah.

[01:31:18] Holly was having a transitional difficult year. Right? Some things are hitting still like the marvels and the disney's. A lot of things are missing. Okay. Right? Then we're not sure what's going to happen next. Jumanji was this insane. The highest grossing film in the history of time. More.

[01:31:32] More. Okay. Some sequels are being made that audiences are obviously just responding with like, we didn't need a sequel to that. Yes. Now this sequel has been made. It has a confusing premise. Yeah. God knows what's going on. Yeah.

[01:31:45] I think the history like the future of Hollywood everything rests on Jumanji the next level. I think if it hits then Hollywood can be like, okay. All right. All right. Something still makes sense. The last movie was a hit. This is a hit. Thank God. Yeah.

[01:31:58] If it doesn't hit, I think Hollywood's going to be like, you know what? That's it. Close up shop. Not if it makes sense. Right. I kind of agree with that. Sure. We do have cat. They both come out on Christmas.

[01:32:07] They always come out with a week of each other. They are cats. They are cats. Yeah. They sing. They sing. They sing. That's true. I think cats is going to do really well. Of course. 100% because it's going to have one. We're now got like morbid curiosity. Morbid curiosity.

[01:32:21] And then two, the other people who like cats. Morning motherfuckers who've been taking trips to see cats. I feel like this is extremely disrespectful. No, it's not. You cannot disrespect that. No, no, no. I mean to the animal. Oh, yeah. I guess so.

[01:32:34] Again, also they're not sized right. You'll talk about it. It's fine. But they're the size of like mice. The size that they are is. They made this big furniture. They make a big to do about this furniture. They didn't make shit. It's all fucking computer.

[01:32:46] It's also it's very much a feature. It's like small soldiers. It's a little like small soldiers. It's like kind of that. And you know, I think so much that this pushback to the cat trailers is misogynistic because all cats are girls and all dogs and boys.

[01:32:57] I mean the cats do have boobs. They do. Or baps. They do have boobs. They got their baps out. It's one of the many choices in that trailer that alarmed me. I would say. What else was it? I don't know. The fact that fuck.

[01:33:11] Oh, well we'll say this on the Lion King episode, but the fact that Jennifer Hudson looks like Salazar from Pirate the Caribbean where her face is like half complete. Drake during the Sprite commercial. My favorite Paul where they were just like,

[01:33:25] can you fit her face on that cat thing? And they're like, not really. They're like, well, it looks fine. I don't know. What are they going to cite us for realism? It's not like anything else in this makes sense. Okay, number five Pearson Duns movie. Give me it.

[01:33:40] So it's not Jumanji. No. And Jumanji did like a hundred. Jumanji is her other hundred minutes. She has six that made over a hundred and Jumanji is the six, but there's also a fifth. Is she above the title on this? Nope. She's not. Don't think so.

[01:33:54] How deep in the cast is she? I would say fifth. She is probably the best performance in it though. Maybe second best. Oh, interview with a vampire. She's so good in that. She's so. That was the performance where people were like,

[01:34:04] this has to be a major star because it was sort of the Haley Jalosman thing where it's like, for her to have this kind of poise at age 10, like she must be a fucking talent. She's terrifying in it. Yeah, with. Because you know, she's Slater.

[01:34:18] You know, Steven Ray. I love Steven Ray. Because she's supposed to be like, she's just locked in that body forever. There's a tweet I think about like every week from Lindsay Barr, AP film critic, Lindsay Barr. Of course. Like 2016, I think where she was like,

[01:34:34] when is Kirsten Dunn's going to get like the cult icon like status she that like Winona Ryder has like the same kind of thing. I feel like she is like about there and now. She's in there. I mean, marrying Jesse Plamons,

[01:34:44] I feel like a lot of people enjoy that sort of like in her. The only extremely blonde family I trust. That's a blonde family. That's a blonde estimate. Also, here's the difference I think between Winona and Gimmi. Winona is obviously one generation prior.

[01:34:59] Well, this is I think the big shift of this generation. I think Kee's doing great work now. She's kind of at the best she's ever been just in terms of pure crap. That new show she has coming out looks like a ton of fucking fun to me.

[01:35:12] Oh, I'm becoming a god on Central Florida. Yeah, I'll watch anything she's doing. She wears braces. Yeah, into it, right? I think she's like the first person to sort of movie star to sort of fall victim to a franchise culture. Yeah, yeah.

[01:35:26] Because she found a way out of it. She found a way out of it. More Winona movie. Yes. I think that's why she has that status because she was so much this like avatar for people and there was like a grouping of them. Right.

[01:35:35] Kiki has one definitive Kiki Dunst movie. Bring it on. Yeah. Like that's the movie that was like a hit that she is the face of that everybody saw, right? You know what I mean? Obviously she has like crazy beautiful or whatever like her weirder less pop.

[01:35:49] But like those were, you know, those were more. The post-Spider-Man movie sort of comeback movies are like everything between like the Spider-Man's and Mel and Kahlia is like Wimbledon. Eternal Sunshine is the one outlier which she's great at. She's amazing.

[01:36:04] That's a hard part and she's so good at it. Same thing to bring it on. That's a hard part. I feel like on the level of like... I haven't seen Bring It On in a long time but she's great. It mostly holds up

[01:36:11] and I feel like she does what kind of like Reese Witherspoon does and Leglu Blonde where like that part could have been like... I totally agree with that. It could have been fine and both of them like show so much intelligence in it. And that's like souffle work

[01:36:23] that like no one gives credit to because it's like really light and it's tasty but it's... Sous-fle-work. Sous-fle-work! That's a good term, right? It's difficult to fucking make! Here's her post-Eternal Sunshine Spider-Man 2 career. Wimbledon comes out the same way as Spider-Man 2. Dunn! Wimbledon. Looking American. Elizabeth Town.

[01:36:42] Oh, jeez. Mary Antoinette. She's good in that. And obviously that's a good choice. Spider-Man 3. That's been great. How to lose friends and alienate people. Okay, why'd you do that? Two year break. Alienated people, would you say? What's going on with Kiki, though? Yeah, she's fucking alienated.

[01:36:55] All good things which was that like Robert Durst movie that like... Wasn't that also like long delayed? Like it came out a long time after they shot it, right? We do not talk enough about the fact that before making this film. That Ryan got played Robert Durst. What?

[01:37:10] Yeah, man! And that was Jerecki's film. That's why he knew Durst. That's why he like had an in with Durst. And then Durst was like... Yanks! The inciting incident for the jinx is Robert Durst calling up Jerecki and going like I saw that movie and you were like...

[01:37:26] Then Mel and Kallia and it's like, Oh, she's back. Where had she been? And it's like, oh, she's been having a tough time. What's going on? Rehab, you know. Yeah, she was drinking a lot. And then since then, yeah, she's just sort of been like in and out.

[01:37:42] She's like very good in Fargo. She's a good bachelorette. She's great in Fargo. She's smoke in in Bachelorette. She pops up in things like Midnight Specials and Midnight Special and Hidden Figures. Oh, I thought she was very good in that. And you're like, oh, here's Kirsten Dunn.

[01:37:52] She's good. And then the big guy old was, I feel like the last, the first time it's like lead performance from Kirsten Dunn. It's kind of. Again, yeah. You know, Hidden Figures, I think she hasn't got enough credit for playing that role with zero interest in...

[01:38:08] In being redeemable. Yeah. I just, there's always a time... Without being mustache twirly. I'm like this is like... That movie is fun. That movie is very charming. Yeah. But it is that character. I mean, I always joke in Bell. That's the Bell trailer. Yeah.

[01:38:21] The Tom Felton character where it's like some people are like, well, I don't know. And some people are like, well, I like her. And one guy's like, well, I'm a racist and I think it's bad because of racism. Yeah. And it's like, oh, he's the racist. That's...

[01:38:33] He represents racism. That character is not written well? No. But I think she just as an actor, what's given her, she avoids both doing mustache twirly. Yeah. And she avoids trying to like, because Kevin Costner is very good in that movie,

[01:38:45] but he famously came in and was like, I think you should believe in her. I think you should be nice and not do anything bad. Right. And you should tear that sign down. And she's... There should be more like ostensibly nice white ladies

[01:38:55] who are just like awful racist. She's... That's just the reality of this. She's not protective of her movie star image at all in that movie because it would have been easier for her to try to make her redeemable or to make her more villainous where it's like,

[01:39:05] I'm nothing like this woman. Yeah. I definitely think she doesn't care about her movie star image anymore. Yeah, what's cool. Like that's not a consideration. All right. Number seven, give me her last three. Small soldiers? Small soldiers is nine. I can't believe small soldiers can make 100.

[01:39:18] No, I mean 54, baby. I know. Did you make 100 worldwide? Let's find out. I think it probably ended up like this side. It doesn't even have a worldwide total list. Okay. Okay, so small soldiers are nine. Small soldiers. Eight in the 10. Big movie. Middling blue box up. Okay.

[01:39:32] Big action. Small soldiers. The other two are they lead performances or they are they ensemble? One's an ensemble. The other is an ensemble. They're both ensembles. Yes. And from what era's from what decade? One's from 2003 and one's from 1994. 1994. So one's like teen Kiki and one is like 20 something.

[01:39:58] Well, go on. No, no, no. Go on. No, I've got a teen. Do you think you got the teen or the 03? I feel like maybe the teen. True. Is it little women? That's right. Little women. Good call. Good call. She's young enough that she plays young Amy

[01:40:12] and everyone pretty much everyone else plays themselves as the older ones, but she's not. They get an older Amy because she's too young and it would have been weird with Christian Vale. It would have been bad. Yeah. No, that's a good call. She's really good in that too.

[01:40:22] And Amy sucks. That's an actress I like a lot who I kind of miss. Trini Alvarado. Oh sure. I liked her a lot. Just anytime you watch a 90s movie and you're like what happened to this actress who was in eight big movies and then turned 30

[01:40:35] and they never hired ever again. She showed up on one episode of private practice or whatever. Okay, wait. So the other ones from 03. Yep. Mona Lisa Smile. Bingo. There you go. That was like, you know when they were like this thing can't miss. You got Dunst.

[01:40:51] You got Gyllenhaal. Julia Roberts. Museum tours. Yeah. Mike Newell. This thing is going to make, oh, $141 million actually. Really? Quite a lot. I just feel like. The Stalgia never. They were like she's got this girl group and it's the next four biggest stars. Dunst could win.

[01:41:10] Who else is it? Gyllenhaal, right? Yeah. And who's the fourth one? Pas de la Huerta. No, I don't know. I feel like it was a fourth. Julia Stahl. Julia Stahl. Yeah, it was like these are the four like kind of, I mean I feel like

[01:41:21] Gyllenhaal, Dunst and Stahls were in similar positions at that point where it's like they've had hits on their own, they've had like critical claim. Teen stuff. Yeah. Let's not forget that Dominic West is in that movie. Let us not. Toe for Grace. Tori Amos.

[01:41:35] Let's not forget that Mona Lisa smiled. She smells like this. David's doing a really good impression. I can't believe. It's like a raised eyebrow situation. This is your best impression, David. Leave it to the listener to imagine it. Can I take a photo?

[01:41:51] You don't or do you want to not have it, Leigh Ann? Yeah, no, no. The mystery might be fun to preserve. I don't think the. Try doing it and I'll decide whether or not to release it. But you got to make eye contact with me because that's the.

[01:42:01] Yeah. David's doing his impression of Mona Lisa. Ben left for five minutes for Mona Lisa smiling. Anyway, yeah, we're done. Okay, good. That's good. Bramkey, anything else you want to talk about? Any other business you brought to the table today? Look, look, man, I don't know.

[01:42:17] I got nothing. It's like. Summer Friday. Kiki's just a nice. Kiki rules. A nice fun movie about a nice girl. Yeah. Making the most of things. You cry a lot. You're ready to ankle this skin. Yeah, you're ready to ankle this one. Yeah. I'm ready to what?

[01:42:32] I'm ready to ankle. Ankle skeins. Oh, I don't know. Some Bobo podcast. I'm a bad trade writer. I'm like, does variety have a term for podcasts? Any skeins right now? Yeah, I don't know. Knob, knob. Yeah. Button. Yeah. Knob. Yeah, we're done. You definitely just looked at

[01:42:49] equipment to call up with. Nob. Nobbers. Yeah. Yeah. Table signed up for a new 12 episode. Nobber wall microphone. Just like, thanks for having me. This is nice. Yep. I just like it's nice to come on about a nice movie after the last time. Right, right. Awesome.

[01:43:08] Good movie about a nice girl. God, that movie makes me so uncomfortable. Showgirls. Yeah. I'm just thinking about it again. It's like, there are few movies I like that I hate watching that much. You know? And I feel like there's always some like revisiting of, oh, did

[01:43:22] it have some merit or whatever? I'm like, yeah, that's so. How do you write a dance? How do you write a dance? I don't get it. I mean, I. Chip Smith? Yeah. Chip Smith. Remember he was on the show? That's where he was.

[01:43:36] It was his origin, the showgirl. Have you been talking with him? You're going to ask him? I had a weird dream about him, but that was it. Weird. I don't know. He was just sitting in a chair that was on fire. Where did you get that Miyazaki book?

[01:43:47] I don't know. Turned off my doorstep. Because I've noticed that sometimes it breathes. Ba, ba, ba. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, subscribe, and leave a like. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time. Bye. Remember to rate, review, subscribe.

[01:44:02] Thanks to Ange for Guda for her social media. Joe Bonn and Pat Reynolds for artwork. Lame I can't make for a theme song. Go to BlankiesIread.com for some real nerdy shit. To the public for some real nerdy shirts. Go to Patreon where we're only 15

[01:44:16] movies away from finishing the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Caroline, do you have anything to plug? Read all your work on Variety. Find me on Twitter at Caroline Framke. I tweet a lot of stupid shit. I'm rewatching Lost for the first time. The first rewatch? No, actually.

[01:44:31] You've never seen it. Wow. OK. So come find me. She's a dumbass. How are you enjoying it? You know what? More than I thought I would. Yeah. I hate Jack so much. Really? How far into it are you? 14 episodes, baby. OK. Amazing how little I know about Lost.

[01:44:46] Who's your favorite character? Uh... Hurley. Vincent the dog. OK. Very concerned for Vincent. Yeah, he'll be fine. Yeah. But anyway, come talk to me about Vincent the dog. That's about all I got. Well, so what? This episode's dropping October? No, not that late. October? What's this episode dropping?

[01:45:04] Let me check the spreadsheet. So Tomber, I'm just wondering if by the time this episode drops... September 8th. If by the time this episode drops, Caroline will have met Nikki and Paolo. Oh. This might be a great time to follow Framke and get those Nikki and Paolo takes.

[01:45:18] Has anyone prepared for Nikki and Paolo? I have no idea what you're talking about. Get ready. Follow Framke. Follow Framke. One of the wildest things that ever happened. I'm the best TV critic I know all about TV. Yep. Get ready. All right. And...

[01:45:32] And as always, you'll get sad eventually.