The Incredibles with Rebecca Drysdale

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check The Supers are not gone, Mr. Incredible. You're still here.

[00:00:24] You can still do great things. Or you can listen to podcasts. Your choice. What does she actually say? Police scanners. Oh yeah, you're right! Perfect! 24 hours to respond. 24 hours to respond. Then it blows up. Set off the sprinklers. Oh I just did it. I mean it's...

[00:00:41] Oh, was that it? You want to give me notes so I can do it? No, I thought you were practicing. We don't practice on this podcast. A lot to my performance. I thought you were like, what about this one? I'm not paying attention to what's going on.

[00:00:54] We at one point recently were asked if we wanted to do a second take of something and I reacted with complete surprise. Remember that? We're like, second take? What are you talking about? That's not a thing is it?

[00:01:05] Yeah. I think people think that we act like we edit this podcast less than we do when in fact we just don't edit this podcast. No, Ben just takes out the most egregious shit and, you know, digression. Which is literally five things that have ever happened.

[00:01:21] Well, he does more work than that. I don't even know if we're rolling right now. We're rolling. That's kind of the magic. Do you know what I'm saying? Is it like are we even rolling? Then would it matter if we weren't? To be clear, we are rolling.

[00:01:34] And to be clear, it doesn't matter. Hello everybody. My name is downtown Griffey Numes. Great. I'm David Sims. And this is a podcast called Blank Check with Griffin and David. We talk about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their career

[00:01:49] in a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes the check's clear and sometimes they bounce baby Jack Jack. Baby Jack Jack. Sometimes they bounce baby Jack Jack. This is a- I love that babysitter character. Oh yeah.

[00:02:04] Every single little character in this movie. Yeah, Hot Take, perfect movie. Hot Take literally no mistakes in this entire film. Well, we'll see. Wow. Wow. This is hard because the incredible- Are we talking about it yet? Well, to me is damn near perfect.

[00:02:20] It's not only one of my favorite Pixar movies but one of my favorite movies period in the world. It is- if I had to sum up what I'm looking for in a movie, it's that. It's the funniest movie. It's the best- I love it.

[00:02:34] There's a reason I immediately thought to ask you because we have spent so many years talking about this. There are some things in my old age that I'm like, well wait a minute. I think that's fair. Interesting. I think that's fair.

[00:02:43] And it's hard for me because I also am an unconditional fan of it. And I forgive all of the things that- like, I love the incredible so much. I think it's perfect. Well, like- But there are some things that I'm like,

[00:02:55] okay but if I had to be a wiener and be like- Interesting. In the name of like trying to make myself smarter, I'll take- I'll look at perfect things and be like, okay but if I had to find a problem. I mean we'll do a wiener corner.

[00:03:07] We'll set up a wiener circle. There's gonna be a wiener moment. There'll be a wiener circle. There'll be a wiener circle. But we should introduce that this is a Brad Bird podcast. Yeah, it's amazing. It's about the films of Brad Bird.

[00:03:15] Biggest- he's my biggest- one of my biggest heroes. Okay. Were you gonna say man crash? I can't say man crash. Were you gonna say man crash? That too. But I can't say my biggest because there's like, you know, Jim Henson and things like that.

[00:03:27] Maybe one of your biggest living heroes. Absolutely. He's, yeah, next loves. This mini series is called The Podcastables. That's right. And today we're talking about The Titular Movie and it's the guarantor as we like to say. It's the second film. On this show.

[00:03:42] It's the one that gives him the check. It's called Incredible. And our guest spoke before she was introduced, which is three point shot. So sorry. No, that's what we like. That's the test of character. We see if people innately do it. If they do, they're good. If not-

[00:03:59] If they do, they're probably gonna be a little more into how this podcast works. Otherwise we throw them right out the studio. No, otherwise we have just a slightly more awkward episode. Yeah, correct. I'm looking up. I'm just IMD being to keep myself up today.

[00:04:12] I should have done that before, but there's some less exciting moments. What? I didn't know that. What are you looking up exactly? I'm looking at what he's written and what he's directed. Oh, yes. Oh, sure. The Life of Bradford. Yes. Battery's not included?

[00:04:27] Is that the one that got you? Yeah. And of course. That was how he, yeah, you know, that was his first sort of big paying gig. Because that was supposed to be an episode of Amazing Stories. Right. When they expanded it. He worked on that.

[00:04:39] He wrote a couple of them and directed Family Dog, which was incubated by Tim Burton. That's another weird thing we haven't talked about. Right. Family Dog was like Tim Burton designs that they hired Brad Bird to direct. And then it was so successful

[00:04:53] they put it in front of a movie. Right. And then they turned it into a prime time TV show but kicked Bird and Burton off of it. The Incredibles. Can you introduce our guest? Yes. Sorry. No, no, I'm talking to Griffin. I know that.

[00:05:08] But I keep being like, and the other thing. But here's the thing. When I mess up, our guest apologizes because she's responsible for it. Yeah. Right, right. I am in some way. It's all her fault. It's my failure as a camp counselor that Griffin has not.

[00:05:21] I'm not house broken yet. You really isn't. Yeah. Every week it comes in your poops on the floor. Well, so I mean we got the biggest credit out of the way. My former summer camp counselor. It is my biggest. Yeah. But also an amazing comedian and writer

[00:05:36] for key and peel, for baskets, for high maintenance, for can we say this for you're currently working on? Or is that? What show am I currently working on? I thought you were working on. I'm working on 18 things that don't exist yet.

[00:05:50] She's working on 18 things that don't exist yet. Like most writers, I'm playing house in the world of creating television. Becky, try to tell us our guest tonight. Hello. Welcome. So nice to have me here. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me.

[00:06:04] Yes, I like to take credit for creating Griffin. Yeah, in a lab. Then you should be dragged before the highest tribunal. But then also anytime I do anything wrong, then she kind of uses like the stitch argument of like he escaped

[00:06:18] before I had a chance to work on all the kinks. It's been years. Anything you like is me. I will say though that your generation of campers have all gone on to be like giant stars. It's absolutely insane. Let's do a little run though. The flash himself.

[00:06:32] We got Ezra Miller. We got Lola and L. King and Anna Dunn. Lola Kirk. Everyone's on mode. Sorry. I'm going to turn to general. L. King five time granny award nominee. It's insane. I don't know L. King.

[00:06:45] Not to mention most of us were on that one improv team that you coached in my parents living room. Hannah, Ellie, Ezra and I were all in Uncle Dad. Right. Which was the name of our high school improv troop where we couldn't get any shows

[00:06:59] because they were all at bars and we were 15. Right. It happens. Yeah. It's really awesome to see. It's really awesome to watch. Yeah. But then there's some other people, I mean people who weren't clown kids which is what they called the comedy section

[00:07:15] of the camp where all of us were doing stuff. Lola not as much everyone else. Lola didn't do it all. Hannah, Ellie, Ezra, myself. We got to have Lola and Ezra on this show. Yeah. Yeah. Lola will be on at some point. Yeah.

[00:07:30] It's just about lining up schedules. I haven't spoken to her in a very long time. I would love to see her. But yeah, who else is doing what? Sadie DePuy is a big former head of music, is a big indie rock star. Right. Oh well there's stars.

[00:07:48] Of speedy Ortiz. Wasn't Matt McGorrey a box writer? Right, Matt McGorrey from How to Get Away with Murder and Orange Sleep Black. He's famously woke. He is famously woke. Not afraid to shed a tear. He has a safety pin and a t-shirt.

[00:08:06] Ezra from other Ezra from Vampire Weekend. Oh, Caning. Yeah we kind of ran the table on Ezra's. Seriously. I would like to get Ezra Miller on the show. Ezra Pound. We had Ezra Pound. I'd like to get Ezra Miller on the show. Problem is he's too dang fast.

[00:08:23] I can't keep him in the studio. He's too dang fast. Problem is he turned into a... Everything down so that he is in super slow motion. An emo cloud. Fantastic piece. Yes, yes, he's an emo cloud. Have you seen that movie?

[00:08:37] The Harry Potter movie where Ezra plays an evil cloud. Yeah, I mean he's sort of a, you know, a sad boy for a while and then he's a good cloud. And then he's a very sad cloud. I went to see that movie not knowing he was in it

[00:08:48] and I was in the audience and audibly said what is happening? I mean, I audibly said that too and I knew he was in it. It's very, yeah. They had the little platypus that ate gold though. That was cute. That movie was totally banana.

[00:09:00] We went to this, you know, Becky was a camper and then became a counselor and then was like the counselor to us and then we went on to become counselors ourselves. There's this very cyclical thing at this camp but it's a camp where like everyone's like

[00:09:12] the one weirdest kid from every school goes to this camp and is like I have a ride. Yeah, my people. It's sufferable. And I was that kid too. Yeah, fair enough. And then eventually you get smoothed out a little bit. You go through your arc.

[00:09:24] There's the clown head thing we talk about where like you come the one summer and think you're like fucking, you know. Isn't it the big fish little pond thing where it's like yeah, right, you're not just the one weird kid anymore. Oh, totally.

[00:09:35] You got to learn how to work with others. I will say that the clown shop like, you know, as much as we all as teenagers got a totally disproportionate ego because we had all been previously destroyed for all of the same things that then made us popular. Right.

[00:09:52] And suddenly you're doing like sketch and long form improv and people are like fawning over you. I know and you're like a big star. Yeah. But I will say that so many people have legit gone on to do actually that for their living

[00:10:04] but when I was a teenager, I worked with Dave Isersen who, you know, then went on to work on SNL and Mr. Robot. He just wrote a movie with K. McKinnon, Mila Kunis. He's still a very good friend of mine. David Minor was one of your counselors, right?

[00:10:16] No, he was before me. David Minor was a clown guy and he produces literally every television show on TV. Very rock and chemistry. Represent CNAF, and so forth. So people, it wasn't, there was something built in that didn't make people only obnoxious.

[00:10:33] Like there was also this element of like, no, but I'm really going to do this. Right, you need a job at the end of all this. Yeah. And there was an element, I mean, and granted a lot of these people, myself, Griffin, everyone we know included

[00:10:45] came from, you know, pretty supportive families with money and were given the opportunity and support to do those things. But, you know, I'm not going to pretend that it was, you know, that we were like, it was crazy uphill, you know, battle to be supported in our endeavors.

[00:11:02] But there was an element of like, no, I understand that this is a real job that is very hard and has a limited success rate. And the place taught a weird amount of work ethic because it's a very unstructured camp,

[00:11:19] so you weren't going to succeed unless you actually did the work, because there's not any handholding. Yeah, and we did in two months, we did up two fully original sketch shows with like 60 kids who were all in various places on the autism spectrum. Right, right.

[00:11:35] And it was hard, and it was, we basically had 12 days to put together an entire sketch show. So it really did kind of, I've never worked harder in my life than I did being the head of that job ever. Oh yeah, it's the hardest job,

[00:11:48] and it's the most underpaid job. When you actually break down the numbers, you're being paid like a cent an hour. Like truly that's how it works. But it's also the most fulfilling job, it's the best job I've ever had. But it is one of those things where like

[00:11:59] when you're a camper and you're like, I'm weird, I've never had a place where I fit in and then someone suddenly like shapes you and puts you in a context, kind of sort of context. And then you like make sense

[00:12:08] and people are laughing with you for the first time. It like changes your life. And then you get to the other side of the wall and then the job is like, oh here all these fucking kids that don't make sense. How do I make them funny?

[00:12:18] I know, I have to make them make sense. And that becomes the job. Like how do you make everyone look like their Bill Hader? Well it's also like, what's so fulfilling about it is this idea of like someone did this for me

[00:12:29] and so my investment now is to pass that on. It's not for the money, it's not blah blah blah. You're deeply, deeply invested in passing on the experience that you had to this new generation of kids. And so like the idea of someone leaving camp

[00:12:43] and not being like, oh I couldn't live without this is your failure. Right, Becky, Becky like has a tattoo of the camp logo. I'm gonna make such a good transition. You have no idea. It's important. I know. I just don't want to do an ad read

[00:12:55] without even mentioning the incredible. She has a tattoo of the camp logo and when she would see kids like crying, she would go up to them and be like, I remember being a sad and I now have this tattooed on my body.

[00:13:06] I'm gonna do anything I can to make you enjoy this even if you don't want to do sketch comedy. It's relevant because Andrew Stanton's nephew went to Buzzer. Really? Interesting. Well here's the transition I was gonna make. Oh. Talking about... Yeah, mine wasn't great. That was good.

[00:13:21] It was good. It was good. This was like a thematic story that also ends in me being an idiot which I know you love and our listeners love. Sarah Rubin who's now like big deal at Buzzer Feed. Oh that's right. Sarah is so great.

[00:13:36] Yeah, has five billion Twitter followers. Has to get on this podcast. She's another West Coast person where we're just waiting for it. I know, I know, I know. But she came to like... The auditions for these shows are like all the kids get in the lawn

[00:13:47] and you just try to do group improv games with them to see who kind of pops a little bit. And Sarah was one of these people who like couldn't make eye contact. She looked exactly like Violet Incredible. Right. She had straightened hair in front of her face. Sure.

[00:13:59] She'd stare at the ground. She looked like Violet. She was tough for animators to work on. Totally. Right. Yeah, a lot of technical complication. She disappeared a lot. Right. She was like hiding from like the world and she was super flossing.

[00:14:09] She had a side career as like an NPR person who read these great stories. Like weirdly knowledgeable about Lincoln? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. But she was like throwing out these amazing jokes and it was one of these kids where I'd see

[00:14:21] like Becky every once in a while going like I'm in love with her. Like that's my kid. Like I see the like diamond there and I got to like get it out of her. And when the doors closed and we were all trying to assign sketches

[00:14:30] because you try to even out talent you use the metaphor. You were like Sarah Rubin is Violet incredible and I need to like get that hair out of her face so she has the power to fight Omnidroids. Did I say that? You said that.

[00:14:42] I don't remember a goddamn thing I've ever said is what I'm learning. You said that. So then we were like, Sarah Rubin was like our pet project. We're like we're going to at the end of the summer make this girl know that she's awesome.

[00:14:53] You know, which I think we did. Yeah, but I hope so. There was like a workshop you did where you put Incredibles on a TV so you could do some other work for two hours then came out the unexplained why it was good. Interesting. And Sarah was there

[00:15:06] and then when it ended we found this piece of paper with a really good drawing of Violet Incredible and we all went like, oh fuck Sarah Rubin drew that she knows that she's our Violet like this is perfect

[00:15:17] we're going to fucking get that hair out of her face. Turns out someone else drew it. I totally like blew my cool and went to her and was like, Sarah we saw that drawing and you left behind. That's so funny. And she was like,

[00:15:29] I have no idea what you're talking about. And so this kid Dennis Moran left it there and she had no promise. No promise. Oh wow. I just love the idea of like I love the idea of like and it was this other kid who we hated.

[00:15:41] I'm so glad you remember all this stuff because I don't remember anything. But like we did there was like that summer like symbolically like we got her hair out of her face and she became the funniest person in the world. Yeah. She's great. The Incredibles.

[00:15:57] And now the Incredibles. And now Incredibles. 2004. Right. So great year. Sure. One of the best. One of the top 2004 moves. John Kerry lost the election mere weeks later. Yeah. What else has happened in 2004? We're born pretty hard. Lost began to disappoint already. Lost begins. I go to college.

[00:16:22] Me. Humble brand. I know. Huge news. You went to college. You went to college. I began college. Good Lord. You're all ten. I'm fucking older than him. David's the only person here who actually made it through college. The three of us all dropped out.

[00:16:36] I have a bachelor's degree. Thank you very much. Well no, I went back and finished. I just I took some time off. Okay. Me too. I'm still technically in on a year abroad. Yeah. I'm on a 10-year leave of absence. So actually I in order to drop out

[00:16:52] I had to convince my parents that I was taking a year abroad. Like doing a work study. Yeah, sure. Gap year. Yeah. And I put together this whole curriculum that I was going to do in Chicago, which I knew I was just dropping out and going to Chicago.

[00:17:05] But I was like, no, I'm going to spend a year in Chicago and study. And I put together this whole curriculum and got approved by the school. And so I went to Chicago, grabbed Jordan. Three-time Academy Award nominee Jordan Pail. He might be a winner at this point.

[00:17:17] He knows. Might be a winner at this point. I fucking hope so. Better be. But yeah, grabbed Jordan, went to Chicago. I knew I wasn't going back. But according to the school, according to Sarah Lawrence, I was doing this year abroad. So the next year

[00:17:31] I won the housing lottery. I got number one in the housing lottery. And I wasn't there. I could have picked anywhere I wanted to. Any place. And there are like some amazing places. Like there's like a tower. There's like a castle tower I could have lived in.

[00:17:46] And like three months later started getting these notices that were like, are you coming back to school? Can you pick? And I was like, no, I'm, it's the long gone. I'm a superstar now. I'm not just three months late. I love that you,

[00:18:01] like your friend who you like, grabbed hands with and like locked eyes and said like, let's do this. Let's drop out together and like make it is Jordan Pail. And my friend I did that with became a drug dealer. Literally like three years later

[00:18:15] I was like, let's catch up and I went on a crack selling run with him. I didn't realize. Crack? Yeah. He wasn't even like a sort of expensive drug dealer. He was cracking crack. Cracking crack cocaine. Yeah. It was a high end crack.

[00:18:28] But I was like, let's catch up and I showed up and he had a gun and I was like doing crack drop offs with him. That's a story I don't often tell. Anyway, I mean, I don't know what Jordan's doing on his off time. Now Jordan was,

[00:18:38] I was like, hey man, I think I'm going to go to Chicago and just like do the second city thing and just like commit to this improv thing. And I was like, do you want to come? And his answer was something something along the lines of like,

[00:18:50] yeah, let me get my stuff. Like there's no, he's the most, he's so laid back. He still is. But like at the time it wasn't like, well, I got away the, it was just like, yeah, let me grab my chest, my weed and let's go.

[00:19:02] Can you give me 10? Yeah. I mean, like it was so not a, not a conversation. So this movie, when it comes out, you and Jordan are both like died in the wall Pixar people. I am too. Come on. I mean, I see him.

[00:19:16] Becky and I go harder on Pixar than you do. For sure. I'm not going to say this because sometimes you say dismissive things. I did, I did call you a child. Yes. I did at some point have to become conditional about it.

[00:19:29] Like for a while I was unconditional. And then I was like, okay. The first 10 years. This point, even I am still pretty unconditional. Really? Yeah. I don't think. Oh, I would love to have, to have some conversation. Because at this point the movie is...

[00:19:44] I also think there are a couple that David haven't seen. Wait, what? I think there are a couple that you haven't seen. Which ones do you think I haven't seen? I think I haven't seen. Have you not seen Cars 3? I haven't seen Cars 3. I have not seen Cars 3.

[00:19:52] Yeah, I've seen Cars 3. Or two. Both very conditional movies. Yeah, I'm very conditional about it. I haven't seen Monsters University. I haven't seen Seekwals. I haven't seen Seekwals. I stand for hard. You stand for hard? I stand for hard. I like Monsters University and I love...

[00:20:07] One of the things I love about Monsters University is the score, the music which was done by the March 4th marching band, which is one of my favorite marching bands. I'm a big marching band fan. But Monsters University worked.

[00:20:23] I also think it's the only smart prequel I have ever seen. I wasn't actually trying to say Monsters University. Well, you fucking did. Yeah, I think it's the only prequel where it uses the inevitability of the previous movie for narrative tension in an interesting way. Yes.

[00:20:41] I have seen everything else. Good dinosaur? Yeah. It's more like the okay dinosaur. More like the bad dinosaur. More like the trippy acid trip in the middle for no reason for 10 seconds. That's crazy. More like the corn farming movie. More like... Reptiles farming corn.

[00:20:57] Reptiles don't eat corn, do they? Do you know how they do? Not according to my game arc survival. Do you folks know that the good dinosaur, they did one of those classic Pixar, hey director, we're pushing you off the project

[00:21:11] and then didn't hire a new director for a year and a half? And people in like... So there's that part of the movie where the dinosaurs are just looking around, not knowing where to stand. Is this my mark still? No, but literally like they would do interviews

[00:21:23] other Pixar people and they'd be like, so who's directing the good dinosaur now? And they'd be like, you know, it's kind of just everyone's doing their stuff and for the time being it feels okay. It was strange. I mean it was very much a...

[00:21:33] It was more a kids movie then. Yeah, yes. I didn't hate it. But it was very strange. It looked nice and it had one great scene. That was sort of how I felt about the good dinosaur. The tripping scene? The sticks where the little boy makes the sticks

[00:21:49] to describe the loss of his family. I was like, oh we're getting somewhere here. That's a classic Pixar scene. The rest of the movie. Anyway. But you know what I'm talking about that crazy? Yeah, no, that shit's good. It's so insane. I mean it's interesting.

[00:22:01] And it's fast enough that you're like, wait what just happened? But at this point it's been Toy Story. It's a miracle. It's Bugs Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo. Those are the only Pixar movies that have been made. So far we're adding a thousand. Right, 100%.

[00:22:14] And two years from now is cars. So that's the first like, you know... But almost exclusively every film has outgrossed the previous. It's like a Bugs Life, I think, is a little down from Toy Story 2 outgrosses and then Monsters Inc.

[00:22:27] And I will say very firmly that I think a Bugs Life is the most underrated picture. Right, I mean at this point I feel like people are... That's why a long shot. I think that's the key to us retaining our friendship

[00:22:38] is that we will always go hard for a Bugs Life. Even if it's getting in. Nerds. And you're arguing you go as hard for Pixar as we do. Well, no I'm saying at this point I do. Sure. Bugs Life is to me, in terms of storytelling and theme,

[00:22:51] the tightest marriage of setting and characters to the themes and morals of the movie. It is the tightest and cleanest... I've learned more about storytelling from a Bugs Life than almost any other thing. The other thing I've heard you monologue a lot about

[00:23:14] is how well the designs of every character in a Bugs Life support their characters. It's bananas. Yeah. It's total... A Bugs Life is like run, don't walk, breathe it, see it again for the first time. And it's also speaking of rules,

[00:23:32] the tightest set of rules that is the most aggressively followed set of rules in a universe. So, yes. And it's just like a perfect quest story. It's like a total line for line Joseph Campbell Star Wars. Yes, yes. It's really perfect.

[00:23:55] It's like this weird insight Frank Capra movie. Like it's very hard on its sleeve. It's good. The first very first shot of a Bugs Life when they go into the tree and all the ants are walking in a straight line and the twig falls

[00:24:10] and they all panic and they have to like make a plan to get around this leaf or something is the most incredible setup for the thematic ideas of the movie. I'm very much a... I fight hard for Bugs Life because I think it's very underrated and forgotten.

[00:24:34] That's all fair. I think at this time everyone's like Pixar's perfect, Bugs Life, that would be the take right at the time. You're still shine on it. Bugs Life is good. It did well. But it doesn't well. It's beautiful.

[00:24:46] It was the first use of that kind of light. The translucency through the leaves. You know ants the movie that kind of stomped Bugs Life a little bit at the time. It didn't stomp it. Bugs Life out grossed it like three to one.

[00:24:56] Ant was like poor man's Bugs Life. I'm not talking about box office. I'm talking about critical reception, which I think is a real thing. People dismiss Bugs Life as a kid's movie and ants was this like, oh, it's clever and Woody Allen's.

[00:25:06] They also have B-movie, which was not shut out of the park. I just wanted to make a... It's like being insane for an hour and a half. It is. B-movie is a good dinosaur like times 10 in terms of how fucking bizarre it is.

[00:25:20] B-movie is if I'm not mistaken, a romantic comedy between a B and a woman. Also, it's a reparation story about bees trying to get their honey back. The last act becomes a legal thriller. It's a legal thriller. Anyway, there's Suey Lee-Leota. Wasn't talking about B-movie.

[00:25:32] Just wanted to say something about ants and then we got it. Good job, Ben. Fucking hell. He says one thing and you caused a war. Good job, producer, Ben. Ant is a disaster. Thanks to a lot Ben do so. He's doing this thing. He's doing Ben Poet Laureate.

[00:25:48] This is a break. Tiebreaker, Haas, Mr. Positive. Give him like a million nicknames. Finest film critic. And then he says them all. Thanks a lot, fuckmaster. All right, just good job. Good job keeping us on track, meat lover. Okay. Fart detective. Peeper. I'm just doing my- Birthday Ben.

[00:26:08] I'm just doing my job. White hop, Benny. Ben's indicating the thing I haven't done that I should be doing at this point. I haven't even talked about the- Hey, David will get there. Ben's a day as a pain. I just wanted to say about Ant's-

[00:26:21] It's busy graduating to different titles such as producer Ben Kenovek, Kylo Ben, Ben Knight Shyamalan, Ben Say- Say Ben anything dot dot dot. Ailey Ben's with a dollar sign. What's the bro's name again? War Haas. Oh, we still don't have one? Fuck. So here's one that Dan Dodario-

[00:26:37] Sudesh suggested. Yeah. Haas, do you know? Yeah, Haas do you know? That's insane. B19, the fennel maker. Do you have Haagen Haas? Haagen Haas. How we do? Haagen Haas. Haagen Haas. He's a real vanilla bean. He's a real vanilla bean. I think Ant's is- it's so visually homogenous,

[00:26:58] which I know it's sort of the point- It looks terrible that movie. It looks really bad. It looks like four buttholes now. It's trying to be more real about well, Ant's look the same and they have- They have the right number of legs. Right number of legs.

[00:27:11] But it's so grim to look at it. Yeah. It's a weird movie. Yeah. It's not like the worst movie ever made. It's a weird movie. It's not the worst movie ever made. It's a weird movie. It is the praise it deserves.

[00:27:23] But here's the big thing we're talking about. Also how dare you? How dare you? How dare I want- No, not how dare you. There's this whole period where DreamWorks was just because they make- Shit, now Pixar is gone. Yeah. Yeah, they make movies faster

[00:27:37] because they don't care about what Pixar did at the time. The legend is that they- It was like Nemo, Shark's Tale, Bugs Life, Ant's. Shrek was supposed to be an answer to Monster's Inc. I can't even talk about Shrek. We're not going to talk about Shrek.

[00:27:52] I can't even talk about Shrek. I saw a movie three times on opening weekend. Shrek made me want to kill myself. Another movie that looks like four buffaloes. It looks so bad. I don't even care what it looks like. A fucking PlayStation cutscene.

[00:28:02] Let me just say this about Shrek quickly. Go ahead. At the beginning of Shrek where it was like, what if- Oh my God, I'm so mad. What if all the fairy tales took place in the same fairy tale kingdom? Sure, sure.

[00:28:13] And all the characters from all your favorite fairy tales coexisted in this space. Great. I love it. I'm in. Three minutes into the movie they take all of the characters, put them on trucks and ship them out of the movie, and then introduce characters you don't know

[00:28:27] and tell the story about them. The kids love Lord Farquaad. I mean Lord Farquaad is kind of the best thing about Shrek. But like, it was like literally you took the thing that was interesting about this movie and put it on Holocaust buses and shipped them out. Yeah.

[00:28:41] Holocaust buses. You know the famous Holocaust buses? I didn't mean that. But like, they were like, we'll take the thing that sold this movie idea and drive it out of the movie. And then the only good things about the movie are the characters you do know.

[00:28:58] Like the gingerbread man, Puss in Boots, all that stuff. I think Farquaad's okay. I'm cool with Farquaad. Whatever. I think we all agree that movie is overrated. More like Nightmare Works. But I did love how to train your dragon. More like Nightmare Works is going to get underrated

[00:29:14] because Griffin just said ogre rated, but that was also really good. I do. I did love how to train your dragon. I will say that. That's a nice movie. I mean, but that's the movie I think they put more time into.

[00:29:24] I think investment of time matters as well. But yes, right. Absolutely beautiful. Pixar was on this fucking miracle run, but I think they were worried because with every success of film they had, their relationships became greater and greater. Yeah, that's how I feel about my work.

[00:29:41] It's how I feel like this podcast, literally every episode has been better and more successful. One day it's really going to screw the switch. This is after, by the way, airing after an episode where we consistently declared it was the worst episode we'd ever done.

[00:29:53] But our biggest hit. True, exactly. Now that people have seen my two episodes of High Maintenance, the pressure is... Such good episodes! I mean, I saw the first one at least. I haven't seen this. I haven't seen this actually.

[00:30:04] Right, I only saw the first one, but it was great. The first one was pretty good. What I'm saying is I don't have the kind of pressure on me if Pixar does. Fair enough, fair enough. Not right. But they keep citing you in interviews as like,

[00:30:14] Drysdale held us to a higher standard with storytelling this season. They did? I've seen them say that at least twice in interviews. That's extremely flattering. They're very good storytellers. It's that she's the Pixar of people. I made that up. Well, it also doesn't make sense.

[00:30:28] So I knew you made it up. You know, we have writers. We have writers. It really doesn't make any sense. It was clearly nonsense. Because there are writers in that room who are like incredible playwrights and, you know, people who not from the TV world

[00:30:42] who are actual storytellers with real skills. So that's very surprising to me, but extremely flattering. That was an incredible room to work in. Hot taken I used to write about television for many years. Now that Holt and Catchfire is done. That's the best show on TV. High maintenance.

[00:30:57] It is. It's the only show on TV that every week surprises me. Like, I love it so much. It was so interesting. It was also right after the election during the Muslim ban. So it was a really interesting, like going to work every day and being like,

[00:31:09] how do we talk about this when we know the show is going to come out in a year? And how do we capture this moment that's unprecedented? And we have no idea what is going on in here. So that was a really interesting.

[00:31:24] It was a really nice place to go to work every day and feel like there was a lot of crying. Like it was a very safe space and like people. It was nice to be able to go somewhere every day and be like, what the fuck's going on?

[00:31:37] I love it and process that. I love the show. So the legend is that Pixar was in that kind of zone. Yeah, they were. Yeah, they were. They were unbeatable. But Steve Jobs, who still was running the company as a company

[00:31:51] and was giving sort of advice to the creative heads and going like, here's the lessons I want to impart to you as to how to not make an Apple too. Yeah, exactly. You know, right? Make a Newton. Right.

[00:32:02] And he kept on saying like you guys can't get comfortable. You have to keep yourself. You keep thinking me Apple too was the bomb. The Apple too was the success. It was the Macintosh that was the bomb. It doesn't matter. That was the money maker.

[00:32:13] Yeah, it's the one that Jobs thinks is like hacky. Are you saying the honey do is the money melon? Exactly. Honey do is the money melon. So they decided the story they tell is they saw Monsters Inc, which opened huge great reviews doctor also amazing.

[00:32:28] But they were like, he doctors the genius of create the infrastructure of the imaginary world. The rules of the incredible world builder. Absolutely. They go, we just had another hit. It's another buddy picture. Right. We got Nemo on deck. Sure. That's another buddy picture. Right.

[00:32:46] We need to shake it up in some way. Right. And they knew that Brad Bird was a classmate of most of them. And also all of them had their bite at the app. The 113 guy. Yeah, right. All of the original sort of like top tier range.

[00:32:57] These guys had their own project at this point. They weren't doing all hands on deck movies anymore. So they needed another guy in the hopper. They thought he would shake things up and they brought him in. They essentially had the blank check to do whatever they wanted.

[00:33:09] And they said, we want to gift it to someone else. And apparently Disney was like super against almost everything. Really? Were there other people or was it just? Brad Bird's difficult. Oh, sure. Pitched it to them. Well, also the iron giant had lost money.

[00:33:23] He had lost a lot of money. But he had a reputation. And he had gotten fired off a bunch of things because they were like, this guy's exacting. Did they remember that they also fired John Lasseter? Right. Right.

[00:33:33] But also the story they tell, like I watched this movie twice in preparation for this episode once with the commentary because I realized I'd never heard the commentary. Excellent commentary. Excellent commentary. I don't know if I've done that.

[00:33:45] Isn't the commentary the one that begins with Brad Bird being like, this is not an animated film. It's a film. Like he's aggressive like from second to one. He does that about halfway through. And someone calls animation a genre. I'm going to punch him in the face.

[00:33:56] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're like, I think you will, Brad. I think it's outside of the animation as well. Same with Wally. It's also, it's recorded the morning after either Frank or Ollie has died. His two mentors. The old man. The old man. The old man.

[00:34:11] But before the movies come out. Before the movies come out so they keep on making jokes about like, fuck, I hope this isn't Pixar's first flop. They don't say fuck. But they like keep on joking about like. Yeah.

[00:34:23] But they said, and it's clearly, it sounds like it's about Eisner that they went in and pitched it and Eisner or whoever it was, these top Disney executives were like, this is not an animated movie and proceeded to explain to Brad Bird what

[00:34:36] is or isn't an animated movie. And they were like, you can't do animated films about humans. This is an action movie. They're better in live action. You're breaking a lot of the rules. Right. They were just like, this is not what does well in animation. Right.

[00:34:48] It's not a musical. Brad Bird just sat there silently and his producer John Walker, who he had brought in, had been his like, I'm a giant guy. Yeah. Was like, I was genuinely afraid that Brad was going to lose his mind and get fired in his response.

[00:35:00] Go postal at my guys near. Right. And in the greatest moment of history, and I've ever seen him use, he just turned to Lassiter and went, John. Because he kind of knew he had the Lassiter bubble at that point. Pixar was so proven.

[00:35:13] Which is insane because they said the same thing to Lassiter when it was like, you can do a feature length computer generated movie. Right. And they were like, he's mad. Right. Kick him out on the street.

[00:35:23] But now four years later, they were like, we had to keep on fighting for fucking everything on this movie. And I think they were all a little worried about it. Sure. And the marketing was like very goofy. Yeah. Like very pun based, very fat superhero based. Well, right.

[00:35:40] They released that little teaser that isn't actually in the movie. Right. They did that a lot in the movie. I remember that teaser watching that in a packed house and it was like fucking showtime at the apocalyptic. It went over. It's amazing.

[00:35:55] But then I remember when they cut the trailer together. And was it their first, I'm sorry, was it there? It was the first human movie. Yes. First human Pixar movie. 100%. First movie with humans. Full stop ever. Right.

[00:36:08] Well, there are humans in the other movies, but they're not mean. Right. And they tend to be creepy plastic looking people. And they even talk like that was a big thing. Like humans were always really tough to do in CGI and also a very tough. Humans in hair.

[00:36:21] Humans in hair. Once they nailed hair. That's the craziest thing. It's like this is this huge action movie with all these stakes. And on the commentary they keep on talking about like the most difficult things in this movie were hair feathers fabric. Oh, the fabric is water.

[00:36:34] I could go two hours on the fabric of that movie. Like the scene where they're in the water. Nobody wants me to, but I could. Wet hair. Like the next episode. When they land after the plane crashes and their suits are wet.

[00:36:44] You can see what a pain in the ass that was. Yeah, totally. Well, when they're after that happens and then they're zipping through like elastic, or turns into a boat and dash is pedaling that his wet hair is blowing in the wind. And it's insane. It's amazing.

[00:36:59] They keep on talking about how like there were all these shots where they were like Brad, if we just don't show this we'll save like a month. Right. And like $50,000. And he was like, no, it has to be in there.

[00:37:09] Because he was, I think he knew this was like his last big shot and he had come with this premise under his arm because he'd been trying to make this movie as a 2D movie for years at different studios. This I did not.

[00:37:22] And just was like knock an a bend on this. There's like, he was developing this in the 90s, like early 90s at like Turner animation and stuff. Okay. Ding dong. Someone's at the door. Just let him in Christian. Oh, Ben's going for it. Wow.

[00:37:40] Everyone's opening the door at the same time. Hey, what's up? Looking for stars. The cable channel. I'm sure that might be a good start on your dial. Look, I got a skill. Okay. I find the next big stars like the cable channel. Megas note. I did discover them.

[00:38:02] You mean Hollywood stars? Hollywood talent. Big Hollywood talent. Okay. Looking for talent. I've lost some of the more impressive members of my roster. Uh-oh. Who are you? Psy Weinstein. It doesn't matter. Weinstein probably was a bad choice of a name. Don't blame me for it.

[00:38:20] That's, I mean, no relation. Hey, what's your name? Psy Weinstein. He's doubling down on it. Great. Okay. No relation. I don't have a choice that's a lineage. What's your name? Psy Hershkowitz. All right. There we go. There we go. I resent having to be whitewashed in this way.

[00:38:39] All right. So you're looking on, you're on the lookout for stars. Right. Where'd your other stars go? Most of them have died. Oh, okay. Okay. I mean, you're an older gentleman. Yeah, I don't mean to say really. Yeah, I had some of the biggest stars of the 90s.

[00:38:55] Moose. Uh, from Rocky Bowling? No, the dog from Frasier. Oh, from Frasier. Eddie. I'd say you meant from, you can't do that on television. No, couldn't get him. Couldn't get him. He actually cornered in on your territory in some ways. Yeah.

[00:39:14] No, you mean Moose from like the artist? Or no, that was Uggie. Moose is the first dog. I had Uggie as well, unfortunately, dearly departed. Yeah, no, R-A-P, R-A-P. I had, you know, Baltho. He was a cartoon, wasn't he?

[00:39:29] Yeah, but I mean, who do you think's doing the voice? You? No, Baltho. Wasn't it Kevin Bacon? Well, that's what they tell you. They boost up the box office grosses. Which it certainly did. Who do you think did all the barking? My guy, Mark Baltho.

[00:39:46] Look, Hollywood's number one dog talent agent, but the point is, you work, you develop a talent for five years and then they kick the bucket. And the dog talent agency. Okay. The second they hit cruising altitude, fucking out the door dead.

[00:40:00] So you're telling me you need some kind of a platform, maybe? Yes. Where you could find the right job candidate for you. It's fast and en masse. Every business needs great people and a better way to find them.

[00:40:11] Something better than just posting your job online and just praying for the right people to see it. I mean, sounds good. Keep on going. They learn what you're looking for, which sounds like is mostly dog talent. Particularly now I want a dog who's good at wearing glasses. Great.

[00:40:26] Well, they identify them with people or dogs with the right experience such as glasses wearing. And they invite these dogs to apply. Now, here's a fun fact. Okay. 80% of employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate through the site, but just in one day.

[00:40:45] So you can get a glasses wearing dog in 24 hours. Well, because pilot season, hot project going around right now, they're rebooting bones, but with dogs. So you need a dog to play bones, Dr. Bones?

[00:40:58] Yeah, I need a dog who's good at some sort of will they won't take chemistry. Well, here's the thing. With the bones. Here's the thing. The right candidates, right? Yeah. Are out there. Because they're testing tomorrow. I need someone. Okay.

[00:41:09] So, and ZipRecruiter is how you're going to find them. That sounds great to me. All right. Well, right now, blank check listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free. That's right. For free. For free. That's right. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com slash blank. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash blank.

[00:41:25] They're not even taking the commission. It's ZipRecruiter.com slash blank. Well, that's all I need to hear. I'll leave the promo code blank. Just remember this. No, no, no. Remember this ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Ben's really, really dragging her out.

[00:41:42] As I said, what I'm looking for is a smart dog or at least a dog that appears to be smart by balancing glasses on the bridge of its. Well then try ZipRecruiter out for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash blank. All right. I get out of here. Okay.

[00:41:53] Yeah. Get the heck out of here. Hi. Hey Griffin. Hi, how's it going? You don't know that guy? I feel like you know everyone in the industry. He used to represent me. Then he dropped you. His only human client. Well, we did that. We did that.

[00:42:11] God, Becky, it would be so embarrassing if we had to do some dumb improv thing in front of you on this show. Thank God that is not a circumstance. Well, I've clearly been highly coached. I thought it was great. Thank you. Well, all compliments to sigh. Hershkoits? Aprilman?

[00:42:27] I really had to. I rarely will shut down one of your bits, but that had to go. So the incredible. The incredible. So he makes the pitch to, or is it Lasseter recruits him? I mean, I know he had this pitch.

[00:42:46] Lasseter brings him in, but they still have to pitch to Disney what the film's going to be. Disney doesn't believe it's a good idea. I mean, they're accepting this pitch at a point like when only X-Men has come out. Right. Because it's like 2000, right? Yeah.

[00:43:02] And they just fought really hard for this movie. So the country doesn't even know what superheroes are. They've never heard of them. Yeah, totally foreign content. The other thing that is interesting is this is like the first Pixar movie that's not written by like a room.

[00:43:16] Like Brad Bird wrote the movie. He came in with his script and a lot of it was reworked. But he essentially like entered with a spec, a spec that he had been shopping around Hollywood for like 10 years. Right.

[00:43:28] Whereas every other Pixar movie had sort of been like incubated in a collaborative way. And then someone goes off and tries to like make the bones of it mostly themselves. Which I hear is one of the hottest pilots this pilot season, Dog Bones.

[00:43:42] You got to get a talented dog for that though. You got to get a talented dog for that in less than 24 hours. But he makes this movie. It's fascinating because in the commentary he keeps on talking about like, yeah, you know what I don't like in superhero movies.

[00:43:55] And it's like there have been four at this point. He's complaining about the like cliches of the genre. Right. And there's so few examples, but he was already upending things that we hadn't even gotten tired of yet. Right.

[00:44:08] But I mean, you know, there's a long history of Superhero. A larger lore. You know, everything else before this generation of superhero movies. It has this fantastic four kind of pitch of, oh, we're going to take the American family reflected in these characters.

[00:44:23] It's still the one good Fantastic Four movie. Agreed. Do you know the Miyazaki story? No. Miyazaki visited Pixar at this time when he was making Spirited Away, I believe. Like obviously, you know, yeah, Pixar and Ghibli had, you know, Lasseter and Ghibli had this relationship at that point.

[00:44:39] Like Lasseter helped Spirited Away. I feel like it must have been the movie after that. Well, I don't know. And that Spirited Away was before that too. It was in the way of 2002. Domestically. Alright, fine. So maybe it's maybe. Domestically. Domestically. Jesus Christ.

[00:44:52] I mean, well, maybe he's working on the American release of Spirited Away, which had a dub, you know, had like a very, like Lasseter supervised the American release of that movie. Two-year dubbing process? Maybe it's, maybe it's Hell's Movie. Well, no, it's more than this movie.

[00:45:03] Like a four year production process. Let's just assume, oh, it's 2001 too. Oh, it is. Oh, fuck you, Ray. Actually, it is. No, no, it was 2001 in Japan. Right. Yeah. So, he visits and Bird was like sweating bricks because he respects this guy. Yeah.

[00:45:21] And he shows him some reels and he says, like, what do you think? Like, is this just American nonsense? And Miyazaki was like, you're doing a very adventurous thing in an American film. Like, you know, sort of like was like, I'm very impressed with this and like probably

[00:45:34] wandered off onto a cloud and vanished or something. They also like it was turned into a giant baby head and rolled away. He jibbled on out of there. Exactly. Yes, everyone became a river. Yeah.

[00:45:47] It was Pixar's first PG movie, which was more of a leak than people thought it was. Right. And it like almost opens with machine gun fire. Yeah, it's true. And it's suicide. Yeah. Right. This movie is brutal. Like directly. The suicide is like, whoa.

[00:46:02] Like that's a lot of parents having to turn to their kids and be like, well, we'll talk about it. And he directly says like you foiled my suicide attempt. Yeah. He didn't want to be safe. Right. But you have like adults who clearly have a sex life.

[00:46:17] Like they're all these like complicated things in this movie. You're a Hollywood. Well, it's a movie about parenting. I mean, it's a movie about parents. It's a movie about midlife. Yeah. It's a movie about losing your sense of self. I mean, this is not a kid's movie.

[00:46:32] It's also not the pain lip service. It like actually delves into all these things and has long animated discussions with like middle aged people. Totally. Weighing like legacy and stuff. Totally middle aged. Give them credit. Okay. Well, there's like all that stuff with Wallace Sean. Yeah.

[00:46:48] Like it's like we're talking about the corporate system. Right. And like being stuffed into a career too. But it also has Holly Hunter at my point who just like it's just too grown up to be in a G rated movie.

[00:46:58] I think Holly Hunter is too like mature and interesting. She's sexy. Exactly. I'm also going to throw out a hot take and I don't say this lightly. I think this is the best vocal performance in any Pixar movie. What would Holly Hunter, I mean it's unreal. She's amazing.

[00:47:14] Who would be like the competitor? I think Amy and Inside Out is pretty fun. She's phenomenal. And a deceptively difficult performer. Absolutely. And I think Albert Brooks is phenomenal. I agree. And subtle. That's even more difficult too. Yeah. Because he has to do a lot of whining. Right.

[00:47:31] And I obviously love. I mean he's Albert Brooks. I mean he's good. I mean I love that Pixar at least for a while was casting people who were very much the right person for the role and not the sexy star. Which like Dreamworks was the Will Smith.

[00:47:44] Of course. And the fish looks like Will Smith. Martin Scorsese and the fish looks like Martin Scorsese. I can't even. But like Disney at this point. What do you have? Disney at this point. Hot to the youngsters. Yeah.

[00:47:55] But that was literally Dreamworks' model was like take a celebrity whose persona we all know, design a character to look like them and just play into their bit. Right. And Disney and Pixar would be like, hey Disney do you want to give us over a hundred million dollars

[00:48:09] to make a movie starring coach? Right. You know what was also great was Rip Torn. He was a great Pixar voice and Richard Kye. I mean they're a lot of great ones. Which one, why am I blanking on Rip Torn? Wasn't Rip Torn the guy in Monster's Inc.

[00:48:24] Who was the James Coburn. That's James Coburn. Wait who was, Rip Torn was someone. I think you're right. But Coburn is Waternoose and Monster's Inc. Rip Torn is one of those guys every time I Google him. I'm like, he's not dead. Right. I know he's not dead.

[00:48:40] I've had my Rip Torn death tweet saved on my phone for literally nine years now. Oh maybe he, wow I've never been so very wrong. Guess what he is in? B movie. Hercules. Oh yes he's a Hercules. Hercules my boy. He's so great. That's my Rip Torn impression.

[00:48:59] I thought he was a... That's Coburn is the crab man. Bad Crab Boss. I think his official name is Mr. Bad Crab Boss. I may also be having like brain association with Albert Brooks and Rip Torn because of Defending Your Life, which often happens to my brain.

[00:49:16] But so I'm glad I was wrong about that. I thought Amy Poehler's performance in Inside Out was truly one of the, I think her best performances. I think it's a terrific performance. Yeah I think there's some incredible voice moments for a lot of people.

[00:49:35] Hunter is just doing such a really adult performance in this movie. Like A, I think she's one of those actors who like finds an unconventional way around every single line reading without sounding like that's the purposeful challenge. Like she's not doing like a Christopher Walken thing

[00:49:53] where it's like let me find a weird tempo. And it was just a really smart choice. Right. And she's also one of those people who like always reads with a lot of integrity. Like even if it's just a voice on screen, she has so much authority, integrity, gumption.

[00:50:11] Well and I think that the big thing for both of these characters was they have to be parents. And she's trying to be a good mother and I believe Holly Hunter in that role. And they have to be grown ups. They can't be like cartoon versions of parents.

[00:50:29] They have to be like, they're the main characters. We have to believe them as like complicated adults. So like the movie opens with this documentary opening which he said he did because he wanted to like purposely play against expectations

[00:50:44] of like you always open with the biggest action sequence to like start it off. And instead you start off with like a documentary. Like put it. I love it so much. I love it too. And the you know, the square presentation. And the newsreel. Right. Right.

[00:50:59] Well, so then you go from that to Mr. Incredible like at his glory day. Trying to save as many people as he can before he gets to his wedding. Right. And then the newsreel. Right. Which like already there's one moment in this movie

[00:51:17] that activates a certain kind of like this is what I want to see out of a superhero movie Joy for me. That's still in the what 14 years since this came out. I have not seen done again in any of the 40 million superhero films that have been released.

[00:51:34] It's when Mr. Incredible is like on the rooftop and he sees Frozone all the way in the distance like switching by. And they just have this like long distance conversation. Should you be getting ready or what? Yeah. I got time. Right. Especially in this like interconnected superhero

[00:51:52] universe landscape that we're in. None of the superhero movies have gotten across that vibe of just like casually like this is just a world where superheroes are just doing shit all the time. Like one superhero saving someone over here another superheroes 20 blocks away saving someone else. You know.

[00:52:08] Yeah. Like this is just an ecosystem. Yeah. It's just my only question is what's happening after they're all gone. You know what I mean? I'm just running rampant. Well like like crime running rampant is one thing but like are there like mole people drilling

[00:52:20] like you know who deals with the sort of the more outsized issues. Hubs. Sure. Fair enough. Yeah. I mean it's not a thing they delve into but yeah. So you know there is this this suicide thing. I mean I think a thing that Brad Bird is incredibly

[00:52:36] incredibly good at and it translates to his live action movie as well is like knowing how color can change the mood of a scene because this is a movie where like every time period. Which I have tomorrow land. Tomorrow land I think it's probably the strongest aspect

[00:52:52] of tomorrow land is like the color shifts between the environments but this is a movie where like when he's going through time periods or different environments like he's so good at like this is fun and this is light and then establishing a new scene where

[00:53:03] immediately it's like ominous and sort of foreboding and there's. Which is also true of batteries not included because you have these very sort of dark or darker more grim sort of depressing. Yeah. Back drops and then these moments of color.

[00:53:19] He said that like his thing that he's obsessed with and that he really wanted to capture in this movie is like the fantastic mundane. Like he likes that contrast of and he was like when I went into Pixar and I pitched it

[00:53:32] I included a couple specific jokes and usually those pitches you're doing just a larger York pitch but I mentioned the joke of like Mrs. Incredible looking at her butt in the mirror. Like some of those things because I had to hammer

[00:53:44] home to Disney like no but the idea is you keep on getting back to how human these characters are in these insane circumstances and he's really good at those drab shifts where like it's like glory days section of Mr. Incredible is like super bright super saturated hero theme

[00:54:00] but like the moment it goes into that like building with bomb voyage. Monster crab. The best character in the history of cinema. He was going to be called Bomb Parignon. He makes me still after seeing the Incredibles 150 times I laugh so hard. The accordion. The sound track.

[00:54:18] Yes, the music. I can't like like a like a giggling baby. His body language is so yeah. I love Bomb Voyage so much. I can't even I can't even but that's like the other thing this movie gets to is you feel like oh this is just a

[00:54:34] world where at any given time there are like 80 shitty villains like that running around right whereas like every superhero movie now is like focused on one like there's one plot there are no like sort of like supplemental threats that we're not even considering you know and you're like

[00:54:48] Bomb Voyage is like robbing a bank every night probably you know. You're forgetting about Suicide Squad. We're doing that on purpose. Well yeah you keep bringing up David Ayer movies keep pitching bright on us keep pushing bright yeah before recorded

[00:55:06] Ben kept on pitching bright to us as if we had to explain them that bright's already been made but what if it's brighter all right Griffin can I talk to you for a second he can always talk to me that's the format of this show well so I'm

[00:55:18] glad that our relationship has a real back and forth yeah open boundaries I would say that our relationship is sort of easy and free kind of discourse it's a constant transfer of ideas and thoughts and words exactly it's sort of like the we transfer simple easy

[00:55:32] free uploading and share process there's no sign in there's no onboarding there's no complicated file system you never make me on board I never do it's I think that we don't talk about that it up actually competitive advantage actually it's you know we transfer

[00:55:48] they're just they make the creative processes here for everybody okay but but I'm probably gonna have to I don't know withstand some ugly wallpapers right while I'm on their site use me their wallpapers are beautiful 30% of them are devoted to showcasing the best art photography music and more

[00:56:04] from around the world so I can't get back to me don't eat that space to our artists you know to promote their work yeah anyway so we transfers great you can share big files around the world for free no sign in no offer codes

[00:56:16] no password to forget you just upload you send you get back to make what you make okay so I mean sounds good to I'll get back to make it I mean what we probably like 30 seconds left on the rest of this ad and get right back

[00:56:28] to the adcast it's we transfer dot com you make we transfer okay done so then we have this like shift we're suddenly like buddy shows up who's missing incredible is number one fan he he's voiced by Jason Lee right this brilliant brilliant great voice and I'm incredible

[00:56:48] does a really good job playing the two ages you know a really yes he does you don't really gets to me about buddy especially that the teeth his teeth and it freaks me out I think it's intentionally he has like well he also intentionally was modeled

[00:57:02] after Brad Bird well but how intentionally right because I thought Brad Bird only realized that later right wasn't that something they were kind of sneaking by him yeah it was intentional on the part of the design where I didn't realize it was him but they were also terrified

[00:57:16] of him because he's like so exact thing the documentary about like the big making of like begins with them being like there's a 700 pound gorilla in the room and it's Brad Bird right that's how they describe him and he's just like sitting there being like yeah

[00:57:28] that's me you know there's a clip in that documentary where he's like and ladies and gentlemen here's our new director Brad Bird like they're bringing him just to meet all of Pixar and he's like I know you guys are sitting back and you're like huh yeah we're Pixar

[00:57:40] we're pretty good or hits in a row like I'm here to tell you like it like he was early or me like before he even got his like yeah staff I think he was also very like you have forgotten what 2d animation is and I need to

[00:57:52] remind you like he was really really religious about that he didn't want to go to Pixar because he didn't want to do so then when he got in he was like I want to do everything I would like to do

[00:58:02] in 2d that I'm told I can't do in CGI in CGI right right because your pics are if like you're on this much of a hot streak you can support me in doing whatever I want yeah but then you hear him talk about it

[00:58:14] afterwards he was like yeah I was terrified I thought I was like ruining the entire thing yeah he deals with his anxiety in one way so he puts these at the other way but I think a thing I really like in this movie is that like Mr. Incredible

[00:58:28] is a dick to buddy like he is overly harsh and dismissive in a way that it's not just like this is some annoying kid he gets what's coming for him but like Mr. Incredible could have stopped this if he were a little more diplomatic

[00:58:42] well that's like what happens when you're with the camp counselor who dismisses the kid with the hair in front of her face and then they end up going crazy yes the question is how this is where some of my problems start okay okay all right with the villain

[00:59:00] so I think what makes my favorite pics are movies especially as a person who's like learning from these things and has learned so much from these things and actually a great example is in Finding Nemo where at some point early on in the movie someone

[00:59:24] just says what the movie's about out loud in a sentence and in Finding Nemo that is when Marlin says I promise him nothing would happen to him and Dory says why would you promise him that if nothing ever happens to him then nothing will ever happen to him

[00:59:42] and it's like every single thing in the movie supports that idea thumbs up isn't that insane it's amazing and in the same way in A Bug's Life the theme is so tight you know we're going to explore the idea of marching to the beat of your own drummer

[00:59:56] in a world where everyone walks in a straight line so Pixar movies the good ones I feel like are very I keep saying tight because it's the best way I can explain it but I feel like the best Pixar movies are so clean with the theme versus

[01:00:12] setting there is nothing that doesn't feed into the theme right from a design standpoint and to me when I write things I use that lesson of like if this isn't supporting that statement it goes yeah because jokes are easy you can come up with a million

[01:00:26] jokes but if this thing is taking me away from that large remission statement I can lose it so it becomes a really good editing tool so my issue with with The Incredibles is I don't know if it's about if everybody's super then no one will be

[01:00:42] right or I don't or if it's about everyone is special you know what I'm saying like if everyone is super then no one will be is not what the movie is about no and and I don't understand it as syndrome's motivation

[01:01:02] you know what I mean his motivation is not to make no one super his motivation is to create a villain that only he can defeat and thereby make himself the greatest superhero ever he also says at some point in the movie that his idea

[01:01:14] is that with his technology anyone could be a superhero it's not even just selfishly him wanting to be as powerful it's him wanting to take the power away from those who were given it from birth yes but then you have Dash on the other side of that coin

[01:01:30] says something I'm going to misquote this and I hate myself for it but there's something about like you know if if everybody is special then no one is is that what he says she says everyone's special Dash and he says which is another way

[01:01:48] of saying that no one is and syndrome says that in a triumphant way if everyone's special then no one will be yeah I guess there's something for me and I'm very very happy to say that it's I'm very happy to admit

[01:02:00] if it's just that I'm not smart enough because I believe very strongly that people making these movies are significantly smarter than I am but there is something about those thematic statements that didn't sew together for me with what the movie ended up being about especially because

[01:02:18] what it was so much about for me was these middle aged people trying to recapture their youth and find meaning I had an issue with sewing together this idea of everyone is special than nobody is as either a motivation it didn't get it didn't feel answered to me

[01:02:42] this is a movie that people fight over a lot people fight over the motivation of syndrome and what the ideology of the film is and Bradford because he gets throwing this accusation of being this kind of andrandian like objectivist guy this is the movie that is

[01:02:56] the beginning of that argument and it is the most it is the most clear start that being said it is still like I will stand in front of an army of armed men to protect this man I think it's genius and brilliant whatever

[01:03:12] that's my only thing that I'm like I don't quite understand because it said twice because it's clearly like this thematic statement that I don't see it supported in the way that I do with other Pixar movies the other thing with the movie

[01:03:28] is that it's not a great draw to meet a line but that I think the main thing this movie comes out of especially when he's like writing it in the 90s and he can't get like arrested in Hollywood there's this long period where he's burned so many bridges

[01:03:42] as being that guy's too difficult he's too exact I don't know anything about that part of it he got like fired from Disney he was like the wonder kind and he got fired from Disney because he kept on going into superiors

[01:03:56] we should make this better we should do this the way they used to do in the 40s and they'd go like we don't give a shit so they fired from Disney as a great way of then becoming in charge of Disney I think well okay

[01:04:08] because we went over a lot of that last week I don't know it's fine I just don't need Griffin to rematch it but to tie it into this I think the main thing this movie is coming out of is his frustration with

[01:04:20] I'm constantly being told that I shouldn't play to the best of my abilities he kept on going into environments that of a frustrated artist that's the argument against him being a randian keep on saying you don't have to aim for a 10 just do a 2

[01:04:32] but what I think Becky is bringing up is what's syndrome because what syndrome is is a genius he's undeniably talented he's absolutely prepared to be a superhero like once he's grown up maybe not when he's a kid he has the zero point energy thing like he's

[01:04:50] he could be a super young right so what's his motivation for doing all of this past go home buddy I work alone at first it's you know like there's this there's this that's why I'm saying there's these kind of two ideas that I can't reconcile one is

[01:05:08] I'm gonna create this unbeatable I'm gonna create a villain that only I can beat and then I will be super that's one thing that even Mr. Incredible can't beat and then I'll be even better than you know Mr. Incredible on the other side his goal is

[01:05:26] I'm gonna make a situation where everyone can be a superhero and then no one will be yeah and then that kind of makes me feel like is his motivation to make everyone be able to be a superhero or is his motivation because there's a moment

[01:05:44] where he walks away very in a very villainous way and says no one will be so is his motivation to make everyone super or to eliminate the idea of super hero all together that is the thing that trips people up with this movie

[01:05:56] and I think it's fair if he wants homogeny and what does that mean and why is it nitpicky I mean I again I guess it is my read is that it's both of those things like it gets into I feel like a lot of Brad Bird movies are

[01:06:10] him externalizing arguments that he has with himself sure right I also think that those storylines lead me to feel like oh this wants to be about a movie about what makes someone super is it being a born superhero or is it making gadgets and stuff

[01:06:30] that allow you to you know behave the way a superhero like what truly makes someone super but that's not what the movie is about either no I think it's a movie it's so easy to get into that because they're all born with their powers

[01:06:44] and villain is someone who like worked hard right but there's a yeah and there's a whole thing of like I make gadgets and stuff so everyone can be a superhero and that makes me think that the movie is trying to be about something that the movie is not

[01:06:58] about so I had a little bit of a hard time with and I'm very obsessed with villains and what motivates villains and so um oh so you must love Suicide Squad I actually made the wise choice to not go see Suicide Squad bring on the wise choice

[01:07:18] but so that's my sort of like nitpicky thematic issue with it that I hate having because I love the incredible so much I think it's fair but I think especially because he was a scorned child buddy whatever his motivation is should stem from that which it sort of

[01:07:44] supposedly does but then it's like his goal his mission doesn't quite sew together with the origin story of why he started doing this well it's like a have and have nots thing where it's like this seat of resentment is placed in him because he's told

[01:08:02] in no uncertain terms you will never be a superhero because you were not born a superhero it doesn't matter how hard you work how much you care there is sort of just like a real ground A line here that you can't it's kind of like

[01:08:14] a star thing it's like you either got it or you don't kid right and you don't got it so then what he wants to do is essentially just tear the entire thing down wipe out all the superhero right he wants to become a superhero

[01:08:24] in a formative way to prove that anyone can be a superhero so that no one will ever be a superhero again sure I guess it's a little convoluted and it also makes me feel like it should then be you know if mr. incredible is like you should

[01:08:40] you'll never be a superhero you know superheroes are born then to me that invites a story of of mr. incredible learning his lesson and and buddy's redemption as opposed to buddy falls down into a lot of bits or whatever right whatever he ends up

[01:08:56] whatever he ends up doing he gets fucking shredded by a jet engine oh yeah that's right oh my god there definitely there isn't a redemption arc for buddy he remains awful until the very last moment which he dies like a loser and an idiot and

[01:09:10] and mr. incredible he opted for the cape yeah I mean he's also like a psychopath he's like willing to murder children for reasons that are sort of only vaguely understandable I also think he's a great villain I love where you played right yeah I love

[01:09:24] how how joyful and playful and and maniacal he is a fan he's like a fan of all this yeah yeah well I mean and this is maybe the answer to your question he was originally supposed to be the villain there was supposed to be a cold open of

[01:09:38] the movie different than the one we have where he was the villain invading the family trying to get revenge on mr. incredible while they were in like witness protection anonymous hiding in the suburbs and they had another villain who was more corporate I guess there's an element

[01:09:54] where I feel like there's kind of two movies happening yeah I also think it's a movie it differs from the other Pixar films certainly up until this point where like they had been very cohesive and straightforward on like as you said everything supporting one

[01:10:08] theme whereas this movie is sort of more of like an essay yeah exploring questions from a lot of different angles like it doesn't have it has complete thoughts in terms of character arcs in terms of themes it's kind of wrestling with a lot of things

[01:10:24] and not trying to really settle on any one thing or I'm wrong you know or I'm or I'm not but also no one has ever been able to totally crack this movie in terms of what he's trying to say like there's a reason people keep on coming

[01:10:36] back to it and going like are we supporting this weird Atlas shruggy thing which I don't think it's that clear cut but it also is like you can never find any read of the movie that totally lines up right the thing that the thing that always

[01:10:48] sticks in my craw the most is the running at the end running at the end yeah dashes winning the race oh sure doesn't he comes in second no I think he wins no they pull him back pull him back

[01:11:02] but I thought it was like because they're like not too close that he comes in second where it's like he shouldn't be allowed to run against those people I always get so mad about it yeah he's got super speed

[01:11:14] and the argument but he doesn't win that's the point is like he just makes no sense the argument of the movie seems to be like oh but he's finally embracing his gifts he's like one he's not right because and two it's not

[01:11:24] fair and I think the movie is like well that's life you know what I mean and like that's where I always yeah one thing about the Incredibles that bugs me sure I can't dismiss it whereas like with Ratatouille in Tomorrowland his other quote-unquote like little

[01:11:37] slightly Randy and movies I'm more like that I think he's moving away from that I think he's challenging it I think you're like this is the one where I'm like what am I supposed to take away from him running in that fucking race

[01:11:48] just sort of like the you know a bow on Dash's story and we're and we can kind of be like oh that's the happy ending on that and the bow on Violet's story is like so emotionally fulfilling you know the bow and everything but with

[01:12:02] Dash I'm like what he can't race that's crazy I wonder Violet ends up dating my friend John Trowbridge at the end of the day he does look like friend of the podcast and he does look like John Trowbridge he's so awkward that name is so good

[01:12:20] my best friend you're talking about no I'm talking about the character yeah I know you're talking about whatever my friend another turtle neck by the way well and this is where I want to segue into something that if I may that blows my god damn mind about

[01:12:36] the Incredibles the last time I watched the Incredibles and this might be just something we all have you've talked about a million times and I'm like my mind is blown that Incredibles I was watching the last time I was watching the Incredibles I was like wait a minute

[01:12:54] does this take place in the 60s have you read about this so the Incredibles like takes place in like an undefined retroy place, the Inesiburg right but beyond that so the newsreel with the suicide or whatever you think is like 40 that could be anywhere from the 40s

[01:13:22] to the 50s and in the early 60s I always took it as 50s maybe late 40s the story takes place 15 years after that so the latest this could happen is the 70s the newspaper he's reading has the date 1962 on it all of their furniture is mid-century modern furniture

[01:13:44] every all of the gadgets and stuff are very 1960s a lot of the vehicles are as well the whole look of the community the cop uniforms are like the two button and other than super villain technology there's no and there was that super villain technology

[01:14:02] in the 60s super hero movies anyway but my brain exploded and then I started reading about it and there's like all of these tons and tons of articles about when the incredible because the again even just that newsreel the timeline with the newsreel

[01:14:22] and knowing that this is 15 years later like it's the mid 60s and it's really and then I watched it again and I went through those eyes also the island is very like very much and stylistically it's like oh yeah that makes throwing back to that imagery

[01:14:46] and that visual language I totally understand and that's very Pixar but literally it's in this not just like throwback genre stuff it's like actually takes place then and then there you have your turtle necks all of those turtle necks but you know what I mean?

[01:15:06] the car that they're sitting in when they're listening to the cop the cop scanner like it's just a moment of like the world chains shape when you're looking at Bob's office where he has all the sort of like Mr. Incredible heyday memorabilia

[01:15:24] the format of the time magazine cover it's all early 60s it's very much like the woody collection and Toy Story 2 where they've like so studied what merchandise look like from that time period what crests look like from that time period all the sort of graphic design styles

[01:15:42] and everything well and the quality of the film grain quality of the interview yeah and the the news reel that places it really yeah because when you when you see all the men like walking in their hats like that incredible shot

[01:16:00] that's one of my favorite things in the movie is that out of focus rack shot one of the five most complicated shots I'm sure like that I'm obsessed with pulling focus and animated movies I can't wrap my head around it it blows my mind and that shot which

[01:16:16] is I can't even wrap my head around but because of the clothes that they're wearing and because of the way it was shot it's just like that's when the movie takes it blows my mind so that the Incredibles watch it again yeah

[01:16:32] and then it literally takes place in the 60s or the 50s 1962 is the perfect read to me but then there are things that are outside of that live outside there are technologies that are a little outside of that stuff but it's very interesting

[01:16:46] like to nerd out about something for a second this is something I had not heard before now let's nerd out if I can open this nerd box here a big difference with like CGI versus hand-drawn animation is like actually a simulated camera within the computer

[01:17:04] so it's like you have your little set and you have your characters and all your props but then there's another part of the program that is this digital computer that is able to like pull focus and such but also rather than just like drawing it from the angle

[01:17:18] that you want the shot to be at you stage it in a sort of proscenium way and then you kind of find where you're going to place the camera and set up your shots and your coverage within that animation can't you do that after the fact too? yes

[01:17:32] but that's the point, it's like you pretty much like you animate it straight to some degree and then he'll go in like a director would after seeing a blocking rehearsal with like his camera team where there's literally like the team that's like the digital camera team

[01:17:46] and he's like could we shoot it on this kind of lens and the computer pretends that that lens is on it whatever all this crazy stuff but so a big thing they did with this movie because this movie has like a thousand

[01:17:56] different sets and most of the Pixar films have been pretty contained up until this point they have a couple central environments and they'll reuse a lot of the same like Monsters Inc. has takes place a lot within that office building and then there's like his apartment

[01:18:10] right and Toy Story takes place in essentially like four rooms, you know, Bugs Life all takes place in like the backyard they had so many sets for this and each of those sets you have to take the time to design it and also construct it

[01:18:24] and then you have to build a computer and construct every object, you know like if there's a coffee mug right you have to render the coffee mug they save a lot of time if they make a sequel and money well they have rigs, you know about rigs

[01:18:36] oh baby do I know about rigs so the thing that blew my mind was Tim Riggins? Do you know about Tim Riggins? do I know about Tim Riggins? King of the Riggers easy a thing they did in this movie that is incredible and the real fun intended

[01:18:54] is in order to save money they partially built digital sets and then place the camera in places where you couldn't see that the rest of the set hadn't been built like it was a live action movie so they actually did it like a live action movie

[01:19:06] right so like if a syndromes layer is like this big or that one transitional room with like the volcano door is this big and it would take that much time and energy to do the whole thing they're like can we shoot it from this angle

[01:19:18] so you never have to see this corner of the house which is insane and ingenious this movie needs to have that globetrotting bond feel has the score and the edna mode so you gotta do that and because people are more discerning with human characters

[01:19:38] in like the whole kind of uncanny valley way like a bugs life they had like four ant templates and they essentially kept on copy-pasting them for all the crowd scenes for this they had to develop a whole new technology to be able to like mass produce variations

[01:19:52] on a couple human types so that they could have like in that scene of all the businessmen walking like 40 characters that look somewhat distinct but you don't have to spend time designing each one separately there are all these cheats they came up with

[01:20:06] which are like very bootstrappy live action type things in order to like pinch pennies because he kept on being like no I need the shot of the finger going through the hole on the costume which they were like that will take us 9 months to do

[01:20:18] yeah with the fabric yeah have you ever seen those like hair algorithm tests for monsters ink it's unreal it's insane where like celly will be jumping over celly will like jump over a barrel and his hair will be left behind him

[01:20:36] and he's like turn into a kooch ball right if he touches the wrong object yeah exactly okay so we get to let's talk about the movie I already have been talking about the movie no it's just you don't understand how long this podcast goes

[01:20:52] we don't have to do the equivalent amount of time to what we've set out the pace we've set out right now well but that's always the problem we spent an hour and 20 minutes on 5 minutes we're talking themes baby I know I know but then the thing is

[01:21:04] you then want to talk about 10 more things it's also partially my fault because I'm like here's what I want to talk about so you can just when I leave you can blame me we could do it this is what I'm saying

[01:21:14] let's do a dash run through the plot yeah but the problem is there are I swear to God 50 things in this movie you want to talk about for 5 minutes right I guess it's a 6 parter I don't know what to tell you this is what I'm saying

[01:21:26] you can say we can rush through it but we always and I'll actually that is interesting though you know I'm counting at least 5 minutes of talking about how long it's taking this is what the fans demand people can we talk about my favorite character

[01:21:40] Violet yeah all of our favorite character I don't know if this is the best way to wait on that for a sec I think I just haven't decided the thing they do so well with Violet very unusual character for a movie like this right would you say

[01:21:56] not something Disney has done a lot of no but it also feels like they're highly introverted character yes and then they also did it a little bit and then sighed out yes a teenager convincing teenage girl right they made the whole movie about that about building that character

[01:22:14] but there's something so specific to her level of self-consciousness and when it's cut with like anger like there's the scene when she starts freaking out at Dash making fun of her for Tony Ride and sure at the dinner table where she gets like a little bit too angry

[01:22:30] like her emotions just get a little out of whack and there's one shot where she looks maniacal don't talk to me a little insect right right like she looks like evil would it yeah right right well she's got the one eye too

[01:22:42] which is a little like yeah a little demonic right and it's also just like talking about like writing to theme the beauty of like this girl who doesn't want to be seen can literally turn invisible and still feel self-conscious you know like she can hide out from the

[01:22:56] entire world and still she feels uncomfortable yeah she also pulls a weird move of just dissolving her head so she's a headless body that's not her choice it's established right she can't change the clothes clothes don't change until Edna designs the special suit right but that's like

[01:23:10] God what fucking good economic storytelling to like beautiful like 60s upbeat like Gia Cino cute Tony Ridinger who just wants to disappear John Trover it's his first score right this is his first film he had done Lost and he had done video games

[01:23:28] I mean Lost is coming out this year so even Lost he's new I don't even know how they found it and he worked on Alias maybe he must have been on someone's radar but he just like kills this thing they said this was the first time that

[01:23:46] they allowed someone to use a different musical cue over the Disney Pixar logos oh yeah sure sure it had always been the classical like when you wish upon a star and Bradford was like I need like right yeah but the opening cue is like very kind of somber

[01:24:04] and like sort of um what's the word I'm looking for I don't I know the word you're looking for but I don't know I know what you're talking about it's ominous I guess like in the short before this what did I just see oh Coco

[01:24:20] I don't know if you folks remember but the short before this was Boundon yeah which was like the tail of the animal strange mash yeah humble bragg that I married and my wife Boundon is the inside of my wife's brain like if you crack her own

[01:24:38] her inside out is just Boundon for two hours it is if you had to ask me to explain my wife I'd be like watch Boundon wrap skin around it the and then everyone would be like the director Boundon who just passed at the time

[01:24:54] that we're recording this humble bragg uh Ben knows your wife Ben knows my wife humble bragg yeah um the director Boundon who just passed away but was also the narrator in Boundon plays Rick Decker in this and they who's Rick Decker is the

[01:25:10] nice real occasional like come on Bob I can't do this again and then the sequel he's gonna be played by Jonathan Banks because I guess but Lucky's health was declining right um but they Brad Bird said that he pitched to Disney when

[01:25:22] they realized they were gonna put the short before the movie that the intro to Boundon was Rick Decker sitting at a desk and pointing himself a glass of whiskey me like can I tell you a story cause then he's like 40 minutes later

[01:25:34] when he shows up in the Incredibles you're like well this guy's got an act of imagination he really pitched that that's a crazy pitch he actually did he was like yeah I guess I get why they didn't want to go I could see Disney being like that sounds

[01:25:46] very confusing for a small child so the jackalope he's a part of this somehow like is he another superhero I'm always like very and I always am very like studious about how you know the short but before a Pixar movie is usually like

[01:26:06] we're working out the kinks of some kind of technology for the next Pixar movie so like what was it a bird on a wire or the birds that is like okay we're looking at feathers and then Monsters Inc came out or whatever or like light source or fur

[01:26:22] or whatever so when Boundon came out I was like what the hell is the next Pixar movie gonna be antlers we gotta figure out we gotta figure out our antlers and our jumping yeah right I really I know that Boundon is an outlier but I really love it

[01:26:38] Boundon's really fun it's so crazy yeah did you have some point to make about Boundon apart from the just I wanted to get that crazy notion to make it Rick Decker's daydream it lost the Academy Award two Harvey Crumpet oh Harvey Crumpet's really good I remember that

[01:26:56] it's like Polish or something it's the guy who did Mary and Max that acclimation movie about Aspergers um yeah which was sort of a Pixar sized hit right yeah yeah it was the Incredibles of Asperger's shorts if you'll see more Hoffman plays a morbidly obese Orthodox Asperger

[01:27:18] man who's afraid to leave his home um so made 300 million domestic so we did that we did the front of this movie I love the office stuff in this movie I love that his cubicle has a giant pillar in it that always makes me laugh

[01:27:32] every time it's like the boiler sticking into his support is his thing I just love the visual of him when I think it's one of the shirt hard cuts of all time is like them it's all white right right but

[01:27:46] them kissing at the wedding to then hard cut like it's great and her being like you're gonna need to be a you know and he said a lot of color it's also a huge loss of color which is part of this movie's weird homogene take but yes yeah

[01:27:58] um but but he also said like needs to be like a cog you know yeah that's it together that's well I watched yes I watched that the last time I watched Incredibles I watched that scene like 16 times I'm obsessed with it the character design of that character

[01:28:14] of all of Sean's character is so funny yeah his he's like his height three quarters jaw while he's walking across the desk his head is just bobbing along like three inches above very short arms because unbelievable is that you know because there's if they're so afraid of a

[01:28:30] movie about humans right like isn't part of the fun it's like no don't worry every human this right exactly like crazy because it's a world where literally the variation height can be between like one foot five and seven foot fifteen right yeah yeah seven foot fifteen yeah

[01:28:46] classic height yeah um but but he said that like the cooperative cogs in the in terms of the way his hands so I know he's a little like a little real yeah yeah he had a like finger yeah um he uh he animated the office

[01:29:04] and then on the camera digitally zoomed in like did a digital zoom lens rather than putting the camera closer oh weird so that it looks even more flattened out like he used all these insane techniques uh that you don't need to do and cost a lot more money

[01:29:22] but he was like I want to really saw this up and I love that he has OCD that character with all the lining the pencils on the calendar but even I remember like seeing this in theaters and the the bob

[01:29:34] looking at the window and seeing the guy be like brutally beaten felt like very heavy for like a PG Disney one also that they have there's insurance agent who's like insurance is a scam and the stockholders are who matter I hope we don't

[01:29:48] represent him it's a lot to right so he he he he grown up he very he puts the guy in traction also that shot of him letting go of the doorknob and it's just all crumpled up yeah it's very yeah it's grown

[01:30:02] up this these are grown up issues yes he feels inadequate and I think it actually started yeah it started a run of Pixar movies that were very much not because you've got up not long right I cannot get into I cannot get into up

[01:30:18] we have the same takes on up let's not get into up the first act right I think we actually it sounds like we all agree on that yeah yeah down we're like down oh boy oh my god Becky do you want to go out

[01:30:32] this is going out publicly right if that's too hot we can cut that out you can know that I think up as a giant bag of dicks I'm fine with it you can't you can't blind me with pretty and make me forget that there's no story

[01:30:48] it does sound like you love the other doctor movies though you love Monsters Inc and I love p-doctor I love inside out I love Monsters Inc the guy knows how to design the internal workings of an idea more than better than anyone else

[01:31:02] it feels like they just didn't do the work like on the story they were just like this is cute enough I have a friend who gets very pissed off that the I'll remember it it's something to do with like the rule bending of like the dogs

[01:31:18] need collars to talk right but like other things don't they can fly planes oh right yes the dogs fly planes I haven't seen it for a while well again we're not talking about we're not here to talk but I have feelings about it

[01:31:34] I heard the doctor say that like the Christopher Plummer character the bad guy the idea the reason why Kevin the bird was the McGuffin was because his eggs gave you immortality and he was like and then we realized early on we didn't need that

[01:31:50] and it's like no you kind of needed something like that yeah I mean and I will say I liked the end of it the beginning of up I think was the greatest manipulation of the last 20 years yeah I agree insane yeah I mean I'm happy to be manipulated

[01:32:04] sometimes it works but it's but earn my tears I agree when I'm crying in Toy Story 3 and 2 and 1 and 1 I mean those tears are earned I care I care about these characters I've lived and grown up with these characters I'm invested in what happens to these

[01:32:24] characters I get that as opposed to just like when you as a bonus star and then a portion or whatever a miscarriage miscarriage right I also crazy I think Toy Story 3 is really manipulative too though that's my that's my but at that point I have an investment

[01:32:42] in those characters we're using it to manipulate reach for the sky decade plus anyway incredible we have to do not make a point about different movie are you about to I'm gonna be I'm gonna talk about that when when people put up there with the best Pixar movies

[01:33:02] it reminds me of that makes me crazy and what I kill everybody it reminds me of the scene and freaks and geeks where they're arguing over the best film Murray movie and someone suggest stripes and he just goes no one can tell me what happens in the

[01:33:12] third act of stripes bring this up all the time you mentioned this on like four podcasts fucking best but everyone talks about up they remember the ending and the first 30 minutes that's true okay I'm not and also no one can tell you

[01:33:22] what happens in the third act of talking about up in the context of the incredible guess what I mean now let me talk about stripes story problems the incredible you know both in stripes and in the Incredibles there's a win a bet go that is true

[01:33:38] that is true we can't ignore that this is one of those movies where like there is not a single detail that doesn't somehow pay off later like they set all the pieces out in the board so well incredible not not stripes stripes leaves a lot

[01:33:52] stuff on the table but Incredibles like there are so many things we're like that's such a good example of okay so how do they get back to the city from like syndromes island well we've established the visual language of like what his rocket looks

[01:34:08] like how it has this space for the Omni drone we can have them exploit that with her I agree right the only thing the only exception to that again I think is I think almost every promise is kept in the incredible everything that's

[01:34:22] set up is paid off everything that's paid off is set up except for this villain motivation thing and I think because I'm so sensitive about that because I mean I look for that so strongly like bad guys who are just like I'm a bad guy

[01:34:36] I'm like I don't care I need to know why you're a bad guy so that's the only thing to me that didn't feel tied together I do love that they pretty much keep him out of the first hour of the movie

[01:34:48] like the first hour is a lot of like you know setting up the golden days setting up the homogeneity of like the present present day the family how the dynamic is right to me that's definitely the thing too is that the villain in this

[01:35:00] movie to me is the fear of aging of losing your spirit of relevancy yeah yeah the fear of invisibility of losing the thing that makes you you right and that's a much more interesting villain so I kind of wish that syndrome supported that

[01:35:16] well he does in a way because he wants to take away what makes you you know then that that's how syndrome works like he wants to rob you of you know you're what's special about you right it's just I think also he's buddy and they planted that seed

[01:35:30] there and maybe maybe that doesn't resonate right already have the weird like 30 second exchange about participation trophies well that's right that's and like that's obviously maybe it's a bread bird thing it's a classic 60s dad thing where it's like god they don't let kids

[01:35:44] like compete anymore and I'm waiting from eighth grade to ninth grade yeah right it's like the most hacky like yeah dad complaint there is right what am I doing attending a kindergarten graduation ceremony right like it's like I almost I and it's creakty nosa

[01:35:58] I mean he's that he's a dad and he's a coach yeah I don't know if this is an overly simplistic right he's a good he's a good he's a good I don't know if this is an overly simplistic read but I feel like the main thing Brad

[01:36:12] bird is trying to argue for with this movie is like standards sure you know like he's like we should have a world in which standards exist and like sounds like it does sound like yeah it sounds like it that standard movie I mean standards are slipping

[01:36:28] the thing I love most about I mean I don't even know if that's true but one of the things I love so much about this movie is that it is about you know growing up every stage yeah and the things you're able to do when you you know

[01:36:46] like there's this feeling of loss that I'm growing up and then there's also yeah but then there's all these superpowers you get when you grow up and realizing how much better they are now than they were in their glory days because of how much more experienced intelligent and

[01:37:00] and in this movie after he gets fired when he starts doing these superhero missions again yeah just fighting a weird ball droid but whatever but also is like killing it and they have this and he's flirting with Elizabeth Pena so good great in this movie and we're

[01:37:16] like then we see he's reinvigorated and he's you know more sexually virile and he's showing him like pulling him back into the background that whole montage is amazing with that life is incredible again greatest music fucking queue of all time

[01:37:32] and then like what you were saying about before about these very adult themes that there's this sniff of an affair right little bit which is really interesting yeah well she finds Maraj's hair on his coat she does I mean it's the classic I mean and

[01:37:46] in doing so she discovers that her husband has become a secret agent superhero fighting a ball droid but like it's the same iconography right the reason but but the it's also the same motivation if I want to feel young again I want to feel alive again

[01:38:00] that's why people have affairs and or become superheroes right there is a moment that I like viewed in a new way this time which is when he gets the first message from Maraj and it slips out of like the Manila envelope

[01:38:16] and at the time it was like oh my god it's a flat video screen right right any kid watching would be like yeah she's having an iPad with this expensive gift but like it doesn't feel like and then I would come in and be like

[01:38:26] it was the 60s tech like you explained to like two prongs a it came out in 2004 40 years before that yeah I do love the like business card printing out what that my headphones are dead so I don't know if I'm blowing up they're dead yeah they're not

[01:38:42] working at all it went from like one year no it's plugged in well it was like in both years and then one year and then now it was like a lenticular image right now I love yes yeah no both no both yeah screen is lenticular

[01:38:54] and the card is that's insane too like they said that was another one of those shots that took like eight months two guys just worked on that yeah like how do you shoot in my am I blowing up unhappy okay how do you in CGI

[01:39:08] make some a lenticular image a different way of difficulty I don't know it's crazy I can answer this question so he gets getting your head on caught up in this thing he's living he's screaming and blowing everyone's ears up he's right he starts

[01:39:24] doing the omni droid mission they're fun so fun there's also that scene where he and Frozone do the police scanner in the front you know which is okay I love no I love that scene because no no I love that I mean for one

[01:39:36] he's wearing a great purple I'd be great powder blue turtleneck so that's a great part of it one of the great turtleneck movies in the fantastic turtleneck but also I love like Frozone being like let's just like move on what's what are you doing

[01:39:50] when like like what's his job now you know he's got a good apartment he's got a fabulous apartment he's a black man in 1962 I mean he's killing immunisiburg and the rents are high immunisiburg he's got like a high rise that's a lot of white big women

[01:40:06] for black guys who are not super hero he's it also I pointed this out like when I was watching it there's two like these characters designed to look like say middle Jackson just like the comic book and Ultimatic Fury was

[01:40:18] designed to look like say like how many actors are that where it's like let's just make him look like Samuel Jackson everyone's going to get it yeah I mean doesn't look that much like Samuel he looks like a very skinny wish is him jack he looks like Samuel

[01:40:32] Jackson you guys are crazy as Gaze or beam looks exactly like Stephen Colbert pull up an image of Gaze or I was like Colbert it's so weird by the way one of the great super hero because they had to come up with so many

[01:40:48] he does look like Stephen Colbert so many right like as they go through that slideshow of all the names and some of them are fine I think Gaze or beam is Thunderheads good the one I love is atomic Jack that's good

[01:41:00] not because there is there is yeah right yeah you look just like a atomic jack has this like swoop of blonde hair and he just looks a little disgruntled you don't you guys don't like Gaze or beam I know he's like Cyclops

[01:41:14] well I don't know you didn't do a great job against that okay no one did well nobody did Mr. and Crabble but the whole point is they escalated until it can finally be Mr. and Crabble is better at hiding here's another question

[01:41:26] Mr. and Crabble so that's when he goes down and he sees Gaze or beam and sees the cronos thing and that little scanner comes in and scans the room he hides behind bones I know that's bad scan terrible scanner really let syndrome down

[01:41:40] there's no question I think about it all the time behind bones I love that scanner because I like the little chirpy noise it makes we all love the scanner I assume Incredibles 2 is like 50% about the scanner I think yes I believe so I just

[01:41:58] that has always bothered me where I'm like you would have picked up the yes like the scanner is not a Vuddvillian Keystone Cop he'd be like well I guess he's not here he's hiding behind that lamppost the scanner wasn't drunk that you know I mean because

[01:42:16] he's Mr. and Crabble is very large big guy and Gaze or beam is all bones yeah what would you be pointing a bent for and what do you think about Mr. and Crabble's physical size it's a great question um is it well here's my thing Becky

[01:42:34] I like stuff big and you cannot lie I like big stuff I cannot lie Ben gets angry when things are small in movies and gets excited when things are big in movies can I have an example of something that's small in a movie that bothers you

[01:42:50] Ewoks he hates Yoda what I also love that I love that you look like a monitor with arms because I can't see your head at all you look like a TV like a Peewee's Playhouse TV monitor with arms I don't like the Ewoks because

[01:43:08] they're trying to be like is look don't underestimate the small thing I don't like that you love Shubak you want to overestimate the big thing I want you to see a big thing and be like that thing's big I'm scared what about compies what are compies

[01:43:24] they're little dinosaurs that are scary they're little a lot of little things a lot of little things are just as scary as I like things there's an Ellen joke about that a lot of things because you'll remember in the second matrix there's the key man

[01:43:42] he got a ton of keys it's so good how did he get all those keys so you like a lot of little things or a big thing he likes size and also it has to be wet that's true too there are a lot of Ewoks

[01:43:58] if they were in the rain he would be happy he likes a good slick flick never rains if you wet Ewoks on a key ring you'd be happy yes 100% bunch of wet Ewoks when's your birthday it's June 24th so I have some time to work that together

[01:44:16] this episode dropping I would honestly love that an encased little Ewok on the key chain in water do you think he's bigger so what's your favorite big thing in a movie some guy there's a new one coming out I love Pacific Rim because to me

[01:44:38] the whole movie is just about bigness well Ben's got am I misspeaking here by saying your favorite movie character in recent history we say the character oh yeah he's quite big not only is he big are you excited about rampage there's gonna be a lot of big

[01:44:58] between Johnson fights big animals well fights with the arcade games yeah it's the movie version of rampage of the video big girl a big wolf big alligator also wait what about the omni droid Ben did you rewatch the Incredibles for this so the end of the omni droid

[01:45:14] starts out big only gets bigger that's good right that just makes sense it makes it a better fighting device they're gonna make it small I love big and small as like a preference thing just like big Ben and try and wet cause like

[01:45:30] you can make a movie dry sure so clover field yeah original huge oh yeah absolutely very big and I think reigning at some point I need to make it clear this is like not a bit at all oh no I believe you

[01:45:44] any film in which something is large and wet and especially if there are multiples of it Ben immediate so you're like a whale guy a whale guy for sure Ben hates free willy once he starts trying to escape so there's this big shift

[01:46:00] like an hour a big shift big shift an hour and after not a lot of little incredible again uh right syndrome reveals himself yep he's been systematically killing off locating and killing off all the superheroes using them as testing grounds for there's there's the great gazer beam

[01:46:18] fuck up like in which we as we discuss yeah probe doesn't see him right I mean it's fine I'm willing to let that go no I think it's good I mean it's it's nothing has to be perfect than this no no it's not

[01:46:30] but I I'm I'm I'm willing to be like okay that scanner for whatever reason can't yeah because it's like past bones is 90% you know it's like you know his rocket boots aren't great he doesn't work very well the cape was a bad choice

[01:46:46] yeah well so that's the other thing that's going so we've been introduced to Edna at this point briefly gets repaired the hobo suit right and the hobo suit yeah and she demands uh that she redo the entire thing played by Brad bird amazing he

[01:47:00] he won the racist question mark you know okay so this is my question I don't think so but now it's like you're like wait is Edna mode supposed to be Asian but she's not she's well she's European isn't she I think she's either that commentary

[01:47:14] track uh oh he directly says she's supposed to be half German half Japanese I always thought she was entirely European I always took her as German exactly supposed to be half and half and I think this was because Brad bird and

[01:47:30] I may very much be wrong it's that it's a character he did anyway no wasn't anything where he's like no one was getting what he wanted and he's like I'll just do it because they do their scratch tracks were like the pixel

[01:47:42] animators voice all the characters for the story reels and he said he played like seven of the characters like he played mr. incredible he played dash he played like all the male characters and all those story reels and they found other actors and he had

[01:47:54] such a specific idea of what this accent would sound like yeah and no one else could do I also don't think it's racist because it's so crazily muddled but there are moments where I'm like everyone else they wanted that's my fear always oh Lily Tomlin

[01:48:08] they that Brad Bird was like here's what I wanted to sound like did it for Lily Tomlin Lily Tomlin was like I think you got it like I don't think I need for this right which is weird because right Lily Tomlin could have been like great

[01:48:20] right to check I'll do whatever that was or she was like I don't know what Lily Tomlin would have been great wouldn't be great and the rules she's great she makes suits she has a fabulous apartment darling she has a big automated gun

[01:48:36] unsurprisingly one of Romley's favorite characters I don't know why that's a real Becky joke it's the timing I mean the thing about the thing about Brad Bird that I love the most is that his timing is impeccable and the comic timing

[01:48:52] and I'm also always amazed at how you animate timing it's just insane to me the timing and the Incredibles the comedic timing and Incredibles is like text book I've shown it as like when I teach I was just like this is timing but I think

[01:49:08] that that gun moment for some reason is just like it just tickles all of my parts and also the fact that and guest she's so unfazed by it she knows what's happening behind her she's not acknowledging it and she's taking her time

[01:49:22] with the correction and it's almost that she's annoyed that she installed it like and guest like this thing right but so once Helen starts to become suspicious that Bob is having an affair sure notices the rip in the suit calls up Edna goes to visit her

[01:49:42] and Edna reveals that she's made all these costumes for the whole family and Edna plays into this affair thing a little bit too because she's like do you want to know where he is I think she just loves drama she just loves it and I love this notion

[01:49:56] that like she hates supermodels she's so bored by that world by the fashion world like she loves fashion but she only wants to apply it to these people who are gods I love that justification I think it's so fun she walks on her kitchen counter

[01:50:14] and she has like a little incinerator on her kitchen that she tosses files into she's tiny but she still lives in a normal sized house like she designed with like she has to hop on the counter we should talk about the fact that this movie

[01:50:26] is very similar in plot to Watchmen it is both about like superhero act being passed that fans supers and it's also about someone killing off all the former supers and she's like right in the middle of that where she's like you should be gods

[01:50:42] like that's what you are anyway let the exceptional people be exceptional who watches the Incredibles we did in preparation for this but so there's like this beautiful he does this a lot but in this sequence when he's cross cutting in between Helen and Edna talking

[01:51:06] and Bob has snuck into the computer lab now where he finds the whole program with all the files sees the run down right and you're cross cutting between the two cross cutting between the two seemingly unrelated things and then when Edna hands her the tracking device

[01:51:26] which is very from the 60s activates the thing, sets off the alarm which is such a great Pixar technology thing Oh my god I am obsessed I am obsessed with that weapon and I also love you see it and you're like I know exactly what these things smell

[01:51:42] like I know what texture they have visually one of the most incredible things in the movie and period in general and also what's the one way you stop this guy how do you fail Mr. Incredible you basically just put him in a putty

[01:51:56] I'm obsessed with the Goobal guns and the texture on those things so into it then there's my favorite sequence in the movie that makes me cry a million tears which no one else does I've tried to bring this up with other people

[01:52:10] and they're like oh that's the sequence that gets you because I know there's a sequence that makes Becky cry that's also one that doesn't what? what are you gonna say? yes I have watched you cry spontaneously burst into tears when Violet can't make the force field

[01:52:28] it's the whole little heart is broken it's a great movie about parents and it's the whole mounting thing of like where she can't pretend to her kids anymore that it's not scary well that's the scene in the cave no no that's later I'll talk about on the plane

[01:52:44] because that's probably my favorite scene scene in the cave is phenomenal amazing scene but no this is sort of setting that up where it's like at first she's like sit down kids strap in like and they're still playing you know what I mean and like

[01:52:56] they're slowly and then very quickly and then she says there are children on board and you cut back to syndrome and Mirage's face like shifts and he's and you're like whoa what's he doing this is insane no Pixar movies ever done anything like that again

[01:53:10] no like there's the threat of children dying no but the it doesn't feel like a fake threat it feels like they're about to die but I will say the in toy story through when they're headed towards the incinerator that's a moment of like

[01:53:22] what is the actual hell is going on that is a moment that I refuse I think that is highly emotionally manipulative exactly what I don't like it's not trying to manipulate tears to me it's no no no like I just I remember they're gonna die

[01:53:38] and like for some reason in the Incredibles I do but that is a very complicated emotion like well let's join hands and die like that's the beauty that scene that's really accepting death not that the audience thinks they're actually going to kill off the toys and toy story

[01:53:52] well when everyone said when people said when people said that when people said that like they cried their eyes out in toy story and then I saw it I thought that's what they were talking three right that I thought that's what they were

[01:54:06] talking about but they were talking about yeah and that moment was just like I don't know how to feel right now and that's a lot we can have a whole debate about toy story three but in terms of in terms of like holy shit factor

[01:54:20] but not to be dismissive because I do love the toys from toy story three yeah they are they're not children I don't mean to be mean but there are best friends hey hey come on and then there's the force field thing that you mentioned

[01:54:40] where she's saying put a field around I know you're gonna hate me for this but can I tell a brief side story yes but I just want to finish the sentence and then you can't it's what you're saying the force field thing it's like she's literally saying

[01:54:52] to her you need to grow up right now you know like you need to I know you're still like a girl like a little girl in a lot of ways but you like you need to make a force field around

[01:55:00] and you need to suddenly do something that I've never let you do and now I need you you need to cut off and and she's like I have seen your parents like losing their cool when you're talking about don't know what's going on

[01:55:14] where it's suddenly the switch flips and the kids are like mom is not yeah it's when the mean she's panicking it's when the flight attendant looks scared right you just described my greatest fear which is I will look at a flight attendant one day and be like

[01:55:28] oh I can't read this one with face of a boy all the turbulence in the world I always check the flight they're always just like yeah whatever same shit different day but when a flight attendant runs down the aisle I'm like we're gonna die

[01:55:38] you literally just described a nightmare I have anyway very afraid of flying maybe that's also why the plane thing this is vaguely related and also not related so last year I went to Japan for the first time okay cool congratulations

[01:55:52] and thank you it was would you go with my friend Zach I was hoping you'd say your wife so he could say humble break oh humble break humble break I went with Zach it was great um Japan's crazy and we did not help ourselves by

[01:56:06] in the middle of our trip in this in a place called a Hakone which is kind of sure between Kyoto and Tokyo which is where Fuji is and it's very much like the aspen of Japan like it's all like saunas and reyokens

[01:56:18] with like spas and stuff like that it's lovely so we were like I have an idea let's eat so many mushrooms oh sure and go to this open air museum in Hakone which is like an insane place that's on another planet so we ate these

[01:56:34] mushrooms and we were like we don't have time to go up in an air museum we're gonna go this botanical garden instead and then of course once we had done the botanical garden we were like okay we have time we're gonna go to the open

[01:56:44] air museum and we walked to the open air museum in what was a not on earth location like down a road that didn't have markings on it all the lettering was in Japanese if there was any and we were in the mountains

[01:56:58] so there was nothing while we were tripping our balls off to ground us to the fact that we were on the planet like and I was having a very hard time because it wasn't like oh well there's a school bus you're describing another nightmare honestly that sounds crazy

[01:57:12] there was no anchors to reality there wasn't like well there's a sandwich so I know what that is we were just on another planet you just need a sandwich in your pocket so you can just take it with Zach was becoming totally unhinged like we were losing it

[01:57:28] and we were walking down this crazy path down the side of the mountain and anytime a car went by it was like a crazy weird cartoon car like we were losing our minds and then we were like kind of rounding the corner door of the open air museum

[01:57:40] and there was this little ramshackle hut called the woody cafe you sent me pictures from there I know right and so I was like woody cafe I was like I don't know what that is but it's like at least a building

[01:57:52] and I know what that is so we like headed towards the woody cafe I have pictures of it I can show you and it was just this little hut and as we got close to we were like oh I guess it's like a little

[01:58:02] restaurant like you can get tea or sandwich or whatever and then as we got closer realized like oh this is a full on toy story themed restaurant in the middle of a fucking mountain in Japan I'm booking my flight and so we went from I went from

[01:58:20] like I don't even know what direction up is to like all my best friends are here your favorite deputy and I was so I've never been more comforted in my life my friends from the toy story universe were there holding an ice cream cone I've never felt safer

[01:58:38] you had a friend in them I had so many friends in them and that's what they were playing they were just pumping Ranny Newman out of this restaurant and you could get like a hamburger or an ice cream but then also crazy Japanese food it was so

[01:58:52] weird and it was the only thing with it but there is nothing more when you're in a world of the unfamiliar like nothing is more comforting than turning a corner and seeing all the toys from toy story holding food it was the absolute

[01:59:08] I mean I literally I watch Pixar movies when I'm having panic attacks of course it's the most comforting thing sorry that was a side story but good good story good story so the plane crashes mom has to make this last second decision mom

[01:59:24] Helen has to make this parachute right right realizing that she's asking more of Violet than Violet is capable and she didn't even want to bring them in the first place she realizes they're roped into this whole thing but then they find the suits

[01:59:36] they realize the suits were made for them right Violet realizes she can finally go full invisible crash in the middle of the water and when they're both like freaking out and Helen is like we do not have time for this yeah yeah right and then the fire

[01:59:52] the cave scene where she's like these people will want to murder you because they are evil you sent me the photo sorry you sent it to me when it happened the witty cafe looks amazing here you go check it out we'll post it online but that whole thing

[02:00:06] where she's like these are not like the characters it looks amazing right if you zoom in you can see all the characters like buzz is holding a big ice cream cone actual action figures of them yeah there they are what do you appears to be in front of

[02:00:20] well those aren't actual I mean those are the real buzz would he those are the stars I mean that's all that's the genius of Toy Story right where anyone can own the cast yeah what the heck is the name of the dog Slinky Dawg

[02:00:32] it's just called Slinky Dog I couldn't remember a human name Slink you turd David's a real big turd alright so yes the plane crashes it's very serious she turns into a parachute and then turns into a boat and then a boat right a speed boat

[02:00:48] with Dash like kicking his legs Bradford says the one moment he regrets in this felt like the one thing he watches and like I wish I had done this at the time is when they've landed back on the beach and Mrs. Incredible like compliments Dash

[02:01:06] he was like you did a good job there you know thank you so much for that he says he wishes he had one shot of Violet looking back at them yeah and feeling the guilt over the fact that she she'd rise to the occasion yeah

[02:01:18] which the arc still works the speech in the cable it's the best written thing in the whole movie it is it's also again unusual for a movie like this to just state directly like these are not the Saudi morning cartoons

[02:01:32] you grew up with these people do not care that your children they will kill you if they get the chance guns super weird yeah and then the movies just like an incredible Bond movie like slash superhero movie that rules but it's also like I mean like

[02:01:48] this is incredible like Elastigirl I'm sorry Elastigirl the Elastigirl Helen but isn't that the question she never uses that name I also always call Violet Violet Incredible even though that's not technically her name I guess she's just Violet Parr do they have like names

[02:02:06] no they I hope it's Violet Incredible I mean he's Dash Dash is obviously yeah that works the scene where she's trying to break in and she's stretching through all the different closing cars like fucking Raiders of the Lost Ark level just like so beautifully

[02:02:20] constructed like story beat action sequence like the way her little hand or little her regular size hand like sort of feels around for a second and finds this jaw which is another big thing about this movie that's the comic timing thing too

[02:02:34] but this movie is like almost two hours and the longest Pixar movie prior to this had been like an hour 35 right the next our movies were always bound in bound they were always 90 minutes because they were really expensive once you get those deleted scenes back in bound

[02:02:48] four hours I think the thing that really pushes this movie over the edge is like the time it takes for like those comedic beats things like the shot of Mr. Incredible wincing before he has to catch the train at the beginning all these little moments that just

[02:03:02] continually ground you back in the characters and what they're going through yeah and then this just becomes like fucking textbook film school in a box action filmmaking here's how you set up stakes here's how you like establish an environment know the rules

[02:03:18] the movie is also so smart about like each of them having one power so you know exactly what they can do and what they can't do because he said like earlier draft Mr. Incredible had like laser eyes and he had like oh sure he was they all flew

[02:03:30] no I mean he wants every power to reflect their like psyche in some way right like and also they're not really going to be able to tackle this threat until they're all together and that's like in harmonize right which right rules when he's running around I always have

[02:03:48] you know this is unrelated but this is my problem with the last spider-man movie is that like I like the the limitation of having one power forces you to use your imagination of what that power can do giving him the iron man

[02:04:06] I think X-Men I think X-Men is the absolute best example of that yeah but then yeah you just made a miron man and I love the like what you get to see like okay elastigirl can do these things and then you get to see

[02:04:20] the full range of what she can do with that skill with that ability right I prefer those so much to just the superheroes that can just kind of do anything agreed one one one power at a time that's what bothered me about homecoming and nobody seems to agree

[02:04:36] with that no that's a point I fully agree with I think I agree with that too I just assume that it will be done away with as soon enough his next suits gonna be more high tech yeah but it's gonna be done away with I mean

[02:04:46] pretty sure we're getting at least two consecutive movies where he's got some Tony Stark suit yeah but Sony is not going to stand for that forever if that makes sense well we got infinity war coming up that'll obviously we got venom I mean that's gonna change the entire

[02:05:00] cinematic landscape yeah what in venom is moving I just I just I think they they again like Shrek shipped out the thing that was interesting about yes having a you know a superpower that is specific and limited and then what seeing the unlimited power of that

[02:05:20] already a learning curve despite me figuring out how his own powers work you don't need also the learning curve suit like his new iOS right yeah right that's right that's what I don't like about homecoming too much of it's about like right how do I work that yeah

[02:05:34] bullshit on the suit right it's how do I work this other superpower instead of harness and and develop my own also Iron Man already with I know also high school sucks high school fucking sucks high school does I there's so many

[02:05:50] Spider-Man movies oh I thought you were gonna say high school cool you're gonna hurt her girls love high school what a great time yeah that's why Griffin and I escaped to our socialist Jewish rich rich why I didn't have a fucking socialist Jewish rich not many people do

[02:06:04] very very lucky we're aware of our privilege yeah um so where did where did you I didn't say anything you're bringing this up but you were bringing it up I mean wait but why don't you just go to an American summer camp yeah you were in America

[02:06:18] I was not I grew up in England and oh my god my mother actually what you want to hear real because you brought this shit up so I'm not gonna talk about it you mother fucker in a different country and I still

[02:06:28] went to camp really where'd you grow up Canada humble brand great place yeah but I'm actually gonna talk about this my mother was like well you should go to summer camp you are talk about the incredible no he brought it up he brought

[02:06:40] it up I get so mad when they make fun of me for talking about this podcast is so long yep it is actually insanely long but anyway doesn't matter it's the Incredibles okay but my mom was like well you should go to summer camp

[02:06:52] because even though we're raising you in this country you're American and Americans go to summer camp she was gonna send me to a summer camp and in Britain summer camp is basically like military school right because like no one goes so it's

[02:07:02] like if they're if you're sending your kid there it's because your kid is like you just like I can't look at this child and I almost got sent to what probably would have been like the worst month of my life I imagine yeah and finally for our camp

[02:07:14] it was like we've got money and a weird kid do something with this to this to Buck's Rock where they learn how to weave and make boutiques right right it's like it's uh Buck's Rock is like a professor Xavier school but for kids who are good

[02:07:32] at making pottery rather than mutants you're just like a little creative take care of them I imagine British summer camps looking like the boat that briefly saves them in Dunkirk where it's just a lot of kids they're all huddled into a space

[02:07:48] and it's just like no not even toasted it's just we put jam on a slice of bread there's your Ludge and this may sink I imagine it as like the king's men so I have a little bit of a higher I have higher expectations

[02:08:02] does British summer camp take place at sea good we're sending you to summer boat that sounds fun I like boats I'm gonna pitch summer boat to fucking dream work so you can I'm sure it'll happen yeah is there anything else

[02:08:16] in this that we want because the end of the movie is the end of the movie is there anything before the direct ending I'm gonna bring up a really specific thing that I always find very funny for yeah because this movie is loaded with

[02:08:26] those little details because the characters in this movie are so extreme in terms of them having like really big heads and really small limbs right so like Mr. Incredible has these like tiny hands and like the design of superheroes no for sure

[02:08:38] I mean that's it's so great right but they just like they don't make an effort to make them people right yeah violet is like so so skinny she is like she's like a couple toothpicks but then this big cartoon head and big cartoon

[02:08:50] eyes guys right so when Helen hands her her like superhero mask her mask is like seven times the size of her hands there are two shots of her holding it in her hands that is yes in which it literally looks like if I tried to hold a surfboard

[02:09:06] there's the one where she puts it on her face and literally like lifting a surfboard onto her face which I love but that moment where like they step outside of the fire and she's like but mom I seriously can't do this

[02:09:18] and she's like when the moment comes you'll know what to do and violet has that like slow like raise the mask to her face and learn to like improve her posture and the mom pushes the hair behind her here yeah but then when

[02:09:30] she does the force field that's amazing it's a great moment of empowerment that makes me happy and then the hamster wheel the hamster wheel thing rules it's the great X-Men thing where it's like how do the powers start to like combine how do they harmonize dashes like

[02:09:42] pure childish joy being able to run on water like learning to you could do things that you didn't think you could do keep testing the limits the threat keeps on becoming more and more extreme it all just revs my engine it's just like it's it's the

[02:09:52] fucking business it's the best and then at the end then they go back to minisburg and frozen's got to find a super suit that's that's a couple minutes can I just just a side thing that one of my favorite parts in that movie

[02:10:04] and I think one of the most beautifully animated moments of that movie and I don't know why I think this is when Mr. Incredible comes home and slams the door of his car and it's the second time and that kid on the trace

[02:10:16] of both sitting in the driveway and he goes what do you look at or what are you waiting for or something and he goes something amazing I guess amazing and his eyes like do this puppy dog thing I don't know why I am so obsessed with the

[02:10:32] the way that they captured the that facial expression on that kid I love that moment so much the same thing as like Dash and Violet where it's like they could be very arch stock type kid characters like here's the hyperactive kid and here's the like introverted

[02:10:52] like awkward girl and the performances on the animation let alone like the vocal performances are so precise part where Dash runs and he's running on water and he realizes he's running on water and he has that little laugh like yeah but that's where like the runtime comes in

[02:11:12] because I think Bradford just fought for like this movie needs to be 20 minutes longer than other Pixar movies because all those little moments which are gonna add up are what's gonna differentiate us from other types of superheroes so what was the Pixar movie right after the Incredibles

[02:11:26] cars two years later wow I mean or more like 18 months later this is a November movie and it's a deal cars made me want to kill with my friends but I remember right after cars you and I were both like trying to apologize it for

[02:11:42] more I remember us having defensive conversations about cars that then when Ratatouille came out we were like okay we can get off the cars thing a little bit right yeah and and I and I'm not I'm not unconditional about Ratatouille either but I it's okay

[02:11:58] we don't it's okay for us to differ you don't like a Mary and Eddie human beings no I just there's I think I think visually Ratatouille is stunning I also growing up in France very it was very drawn that's my humble break we need some sound

[02:12:16] yeah we need like an accordion very very drawn to that imagery and the the lighting and that movie is incredible and the copper and the metallic stuff I think that it was again it was like another one for me that I just didn't have the like

[02:12:34] the allegorical connection I think the theme is cleaner in that one than what then Incredibles well I will say this I have to see it again you should watch it but I also I I think I'm just very I think I'm drawing I'm also losing my

[02:12:48] headphones a little bit here but I don't seem to have a screaming problem wow made a grip and doesn't I think I really really like the allegorical stuff sure and or the inside the world of stuff right which Brad Bird is less interested in well

[02:13:04] wait and in what in both Ratatouille and Incredibles he's got other things on his mind but Incredibles to me is different because that's a world of thing and and and a universe building thing but like and I like the you know the Monsters Inc and the and

[02:13:22] Inside Out and the war the you know the mechanics of a world Ratatouille is putting a weird thing in an otherwise normal world exactly and I I liked the France part of it sure but it is not it is also not my favorite my favorite picture

[02:13:36] cars oh my god can't you have seen two or three I can't I I defend cars one a little because the rule breaking in cars makes me absolutely insane mean you know my joke what is your job which one of your jokes are we talking

[02:13:54] about I only made one joke ever we gotta finish talking about this movie all right let's talk about it cars two is so bad it makes cars three look like cars one that joke got that is the nerdiest thing and the put out the

[02:14:12] group and put out the red carpet my famous my famous my famous cars everyone knows my famous joke about cars two here comes got seven faves on twitter we know this joke cars two makes cars three look like cars one there was a walk to that joke yeah

[02:14:28] I took a stroll it was a leisurely stroll I feel like I'm going to be like cars two makes cars three look like an act looks like look like actual cars like functional actual cool cars here's my problem with cars nutshell are we

[02:14:44] like this is our inception episode this is the one where we keep on going deep the cars are the characters but also the cars watch the characters but also the cars are bugs correct who's driving the car nobody and also the big man upstairs g.o.d

[02:14:58] and then are the RVs are the ones that are going to watch the cars race yeah man and but they also do it human structures like only thing I think about cars I know the only thing I liked about cars was that the

[02:15:12] the bugs flying around the fire were but were vw bugs everything else about it I think cars is fucking weird you guys are gonna kill me but I have to bring this up is it another one of your great jokes yeah I'm gonna tell you

[02:15:26] your word put your word salad this is like a joke of all time no cars two I think it just got appendicitis while I was sitting here it just got a horrible appendicitis the plot of cars two is about trying to come out with a more eco-friendly fuel

[02:15:44] source there's a scene in which they explain where gasoline comes from Jesus that it's fossil fuel and they show that it comes from the bones of dinosaurs but they're not dinosaur cars they're actual dinosaurs right well isn't car set within the same world and everyone's dead

[02:16:02] that's the theory yeah the cars is set in the far future we like turned into cars at some point but whenever I have movie I want to see when anyone asked John Lassner in an interview because we don't like to talk about this yeah we don't he's like

[02:16:14] we also don't like to watch but I will say this it was the movie that John Lassner really really wanted to make and at that point I think John Lassner gets to do whatever he wants at that point because he touch whoever he wants

[02:16:28] I mean I can't even get into that but his story at Disney and his sort of history with Disney and then coming back and creating Pixar like at that point he's like if you want to make your dumb car movie go ahead

[02:16:40] three was so the end of the Incredibles in which they fight the Omni droid I don't even know as much as Frozen well where's the super suit to be fair where is the super suit that is the central question of this movie

[02:16:52] also did we just discuss the just full fact that his superpower is speed skating yeah okay and his uniform reflects it in itself is the funniest thing in the entire world and I love the the business of the super guy the skates

[02:17:08] popping out of his boots and then the skates or the skis rather turning into the disc yeah yes snowboard it's like circular I love Frozone, I love that he's in this movie you will not stop talking about Frozone somebody's got a crush on that

[02:17:28] bringing up a character in the Incredibles someone's got a crush on Frozone David's Google history is just Frozone hentai Frozone naked question mark no I just wanted to say I like Frozone bisexual Frozone college phase no it's just he doesn't contribute a ton in the final battle

[02:17:50] he's like I'll build a snow wall that's his whole story he's yelling out like this isn't working yeah okay Frozone we got it where he's like I'm stalling them and I'm like I don't think he's even really stalling anything well it's about the family

[02:18:04] it's about the family and sometimes friends or family I just hope Frozone gets to do some shit in Incredibles too like like date you yeah exactly hey guys on this episode Blank Check is partnering with the Starkey Hearing Foundation which is a human services charity

[02:18:20] that provides hearing aids and hearing related health care to hearing impaired people in poor communities around the world about five percent of the world's population that's like four hundred and thirty two million adults and thirty four million children have disabling hearing loss

[02:18:36] with the greatest prevalence in low and middle income populations and so the Starkey Hearing Foundation provides hearing aids and hearing related health care to millions of patients in over a hundred countries empowering them to achieve their full potential they're a public charity

[02:18:52] that donations to them are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowable by the law rated four four stars by charity navigator which is the highest score you can get this month Starkey Hearing Foundation and AudiabOOM are launching the Listen In campaign

[02:19:06] and they're asking Blank Check and our listeners to help them reach their twenty five thousand dollar fundraising goal so funds raised from Listen In are going to support the next round of global outreach and you can help them by donating to the Listen In campaign today

[02:19:18] just trying to get to twenty five thousand dollars to give the gift of hearing go to listeningcampaign.org that's listenincampaign.org to give the gift of hearing today no there's two other things we need to much of one is the baby sitter who wishes that Mozart

[02:19:34] had been played for her she's hilarious I love her braces and Jack Jack attack he had whatever he does this thing syndrome dies in absolutely horrible fashion as we mentioned but um and then the underminer who's all Incredibles 2 right yeah yeah right

[02:19:52] I don't know yeah or he was just a tag on one no he's in it he's in the trailer two opens with that fight oh interesting I do like I do like mirage's turn yeah me too I think she's got

[02:20:06] so much more of an arc than any other movie would give her very very true bond trope it's a good syndrome thing where we crush him like you know right that's great snapping a twig but also it's like she realizes that her morality is more in line

[02:20:20] with with mr. Incredibles then syndromes when it gets to the kid thing you also have to think at the moment when he doesn't call the missiles off on the plane he doesn't even know the kids are superheros like he thinks no that's why I'm not

[02:20:32] seen as so fucking cold blooded and so good and makes me cry right but yeah let's play the box office game okay I don't know unless there's some other is that the segment you were queuing up in was there another segment I do

[02:20:44] okay so I tried to guess the box office of the weekend movie this movie opened huge huge geez because it was a big deal that every Pixar movie had out open the previous one and they started promoting it like two years before they remember seeing that little teaser

[02:20:58] like was that really early was that teaser from Nemo or was it in front of it was in front of snow white right it was fucking early we don't know what this is but we're gonna do it they were like superheros that's like real fresh I don't know

[02:21:14] the the first teaser for the Incredibles I'm not gonna say it at this point it's too sweaty it was gonna take a real long walk to get there first teaser for the Incredibles Brad Bird sonogram that's okay fine fuck me wow sweaty I said it was

[02:21:34] sweaty that thing is like fucking malaria that thing is sweating all of its body weight off but it's big and it's wet so Ben probably loves it not that big no it was a big idea number one it opened November 5th 2004

[02:21:50] great great day one of the box office it was a good day that's one of your top five days oh my god November 5th 2004 August 3rd 2009 which is that just a great day Ice cubes good day I had a weekend in 2001 that kind of blended together

[02:22:12] that I loved so you count that as one day rather than counting each other's separate because I didn't sleep so then yeah only a new day when you go to sleep Incredibles I remember I saw this at a press screening I reviewed it for my college

[02:22:22] newspaper wow in Newcastle thank you thank you just set he's draw up off 70 million dollars Griffin huge tell me what number two was number 2004 2004 it's been out for a week so it's been an October picture and it will be nominated for best picture at the Academy

[02:22:42] Awards doesn't win no does it does win another Oscar before a performance Oscar is it Ray Ray Ray wow that's why we play this game and loser because I'm a loser nine yeah nine 2004 was when I or well I taught you in 0305 right yeah so you were 14

[02:23:06] I was 5,000 I free information what do you see Ray guys sorry it's bad movie yeah not too good yeah not too good no no problem I haven't seen it since then I haven't either I have no desire to ever

[02:23:18] there is that good Malani is amazing and it is terrible yeah it's such a bad movie where his date said I could have done with the without the whole brother dying part he's like well so could have Ray Charles if you ever do

[02:23:30] want to do a podcast about the Quivon's and a Wallace revival of Annie yeah I have done a three and a half hour show about it so I have a lot of expertise it's a will guck picture yeah it was a Jamie Foxx connective tissue

[02:23:46] of course numbers I can't believe how boring it was a horror movie people love this the grudge yes the grudge what's wrong I remember what is the how you're so successful now you're so annoying great question I can't believe someone was like let's give this guy a major

[02:24:04] TV money I mean I remember when you got hired for the ticker I was like what really they have to talk do they know they have to talk to him all the time he's got to like show up places yeah they're gonna have to talk to

[02:24:20] and he's gonna have to talk to other people and he'll keep talking it'll be the premise of the show that he has conversations with people yeah yeah yeah yeah alright number four another one so if the grudge is the sort of the tail end of one wave

[02:24:36] of a genre in Hollywood saw it's the first saw yeah exactly the beginning of another I don't even need clues to this I remember this time period very great then tell me number five well now I mean now I I guess I guess I will say you were

[02:24:48] like in the prime of your dorky knowing what the hell is going on in movies yeah this is the whole thing he's not getting laid this is it box up his charts were you dating anyone at camp ever yeah wow when and when

[02:25:02] or after I was after I was 2003 I dated a girl who Colin Beckett called lady griff I remember that which probably is but that was when he was dating Colin back yes yes yes I do yes that's a conversation we can have off my Colin Beckett

[02:25:18] was literally my best friend when he was 17 and I was 23 the funniest person has ever lived we have to talk about it but not on Mike number five it's a new movie it is a movie that doesn't exist it's a movie that doesn't exist what genre

[02:25:34] oh it's a tricky one romantic comedy 2004 still we're talking about the number five movie of 2004 romantic oh this weekend I know exactly what it is number five of this I know exactly what it is because I remember this is this is how insane my memory

[02:25:50] would you agree that this movie doesn't exist I agree and what's even crazier than I saw it twice in theaters wow because my grandpa wanted to see it okay for keeping the faith did he like it no that's a good movie he didn't I overhyped it to him

[02:26:02] I saw it the first time I like what movie was it it's Alfie it is the Jude Law remake of Alfie yeah in which he betrays Omar Epps yes why do you say it doesn't exist because nobody remembers your response you forgot

[02:26:16] that that was a thing it's not even a movie like if you saw it on HBO this was his year like closer and this was closer Sky Captain the aviator Alfie there were six there were six Jude Law couple before right maybe it's this year

[02:26:32] Ben has just committed ritual suicide in his watch humble brag Brad Ben has a watch so Alfie is the number five movie oh Sky Captain let me sneak it let me those are the six yeah and yeah cold mountain the year before oh and I heard

[02:26:54] Huckabees that's the other one he had six films in four months and never again he was in spy yeah just thinking about that also Lily Tomlin yeah yeah how much do you think Alfie grossed total domestically me out 12 it grows while you're close 13 million dollars

[02:27:20] God it's so unimportant to know this God I hope the tick goes on forever for you I really do because there's nothing else for you to do in the world it's like a charitable act they're like give him something to do

[02:27:36] no it's great I'm pleased to show up and things to learn I love that my campers are wildly more successful than I am not a favorite not true not true you've saved high maintenance oh please I did not I mean you're the Pixar of people I'm the

[02:27:50] Pixar of humans Becky thank you so much for being on the show I had a blast and I also got to not do another thing today that I didn't want to do happy to be of help in that way yeah my pleasure do

[02:28:02] people listen to this podcast a weird amount of people how many people talk about like success that doesn't make sense success that does not make sense people really like the super nerdy it's super nerdy I would watch I would I would watch it yeah that's

[02:28:18] good all right good to know so if it's on TV I would listen to it but I'm the worst at podcasts so hey not true you're the Pixar you have to stop okay I'm done thank you so much for being here it was my pleasure I watch all

[02:28:32] Becky Dresdell shows on Hulu I know well Becky Dresdell collection please watch the multiple shows that I'm developing that are too expensive to make and no one will that's gonna be my that's gonna be my legacy every Becky pilot would require twenty million dollars of set construction

[02:28:52] it really would they all take place in spaceships or or like in the war or willow they take place in willow their side stories it begins with Ron Howard it's a workplace comedy in the tavern and willow oh my god you guys all right we're done I'm obsessed

[02:29:14] right we're done yes thank you so much for listening oh good movie by the way oh incredible yeah great yeah after three hours four stars yeah B plus re-watching it I think this is the best superhero film ever made because I think it's the most complete

[02:29:34] and one of the best comedies yeah my other favorite superhero movie probably comes out this year which Spider-Man 2 no I mean 2004 but I think I prefer this to it's one of my favorite animated movies it's one of my favorite comedies it's one of my favorite superhero movies

[02:29:50] one of my favorite family movies yeah right up there with the family stone and as we said the single greatest turtleneck movie yeah that's true thank you for listening please remember to rate, review, subscribe go to blankies.com

[02:30:04] for some real nerdy shit if you think this is nerdy the shit that people talk about on reddit oh this is iceberg stuff yeah this iceberg shit thank you to AntroGudo for our social media thanks to Lane Montgomery for our theme song Joe Bonaparte-Rowls for our artwork

[02:30:18] oh sure and Brad Bird yeah next week tune in for Ratatouille with two very special guys great up in my opinion great great crazy app thank you to Zippercruder and WeTransfer for sponsoring the show and as always cars 2 makes cars 3 look like cars 1