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Bullied Nostalgia: Miracle on 34th Street · Bullied Nostalgia

0:00
Order in the Court The case before us today.
0:02
Elite nostalgia versus Miracle on the 34th St.
0:05
The charge that it may not be the innocent Christmas classic
0:09
by which it's remembered, but a cutting piece of cinematic
0:12
manipulation. This isn't the 1940s anymore.
0:15
It's 1994. Fate's harder to prove, miracles
0:18
need marketing, and even Santa needs a good defense attorney.
0:22
Objection, Your Honor. The defense maintains that Kris
0:25
Kringle is Santa Claus, the film is wholesome, and anyone who
0:31
says otherwise is a Grinch with a podcast mic.
0:35
Then it's settled. The jury, our listeners, will
0:37
decide if Miracle on 34th St. stands as a timeless testimony
0:41
of faith and kindness, or if nostalgia has been tampering
0:44
with the evidence. The defense is prepared, Your
0:47
Honor. Eggnog is admissible.
0:50
And yes, Santa is on the stand. And it's not just any Santa, but
0:55
the kind that makes department stores nervous and lawyers
0:58
sentimental. Because in this courtroom, the
1:00
miracle's on trial. This is bullied nostalgia.
1:05
So many of our favors to watch. Oh look, now they're being.
1:10
Bashed I guess. That's what we should expect on
1:15
the bullied. Nostalgia podcast?
1:21
Is it just our judges from Luko? Hello fellow citizens of Earth.
1:26
As the residing judge Chance Nesbitt just mentioned, this is
1:30
the Bullied Nostalgia Podcast where we rewatch classics from
1:34
our childhood and see how they hold up without the wonder of a
1:39
child. Today's episode has us take a
1:42
look at the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street.
1:48
I'm Timothy Nesbitt, and representing the prosecution we
1:52
have Kylin Nesbitt. My case will say enough.
1:55
For itself, here to defend the Christmas classic is Jonathan
2:01
Nesbitt. Happy.
2:03
OK. And last, lastly, as mentioned,
2:08
Chance Nesbitt will be overseeing these proceedings.
2:11
I locked into a voice really early on.
2:15
What? This is not the voice.
2:16
You had five minutes, I locked into a voice.
2:19
You. Can change my voice whenever I
2:22
will. This is a free country.
2:24
That's literally the opposite of locking into a voice.
2:28
I I'm locked out of a voice really early.
2:32
Before we get into the usual humdrum conversation about a
2:38
movie, The housekeeping stuff, as always, is that you can find
2:43
ourmerch@redbubble.com by searching Bullied Pod.
2:48
And you can use that same spelling, bulliedpod@gmail.com
2:53
to find a way to reach out to us and let us know if you have any
2:57
input on movies that we should tackle for the podcast or
3:02
questions, questions that you would like us to answer at the
3:05
season in review. So with that, it's podcast time.
3:10
We're tackling Miracle on 34th St. the 1994 remake Chance and
3:18
Kai. Had either of you seen this
3:20
movie before? Absolutely.
3:23
Yeah. I don't think I'd yes, I
3:25
definitely. It was definitely in our mom's
3:27
Christmas then. I feel like that's true, but I
3:29
also feel like I've never seen this movie before.
3:32
Yeah, I think that I can spoil a little bit in my feelings about
3:38
it. I liked this movie a lot more
3:41
than I expected to. It was pretty wholesome.
3:45
It was very entertaining. That said, traditionally when we
3:50
tackle entertaining movies on this podcast, it makes for not
3:55
very good episodes. So that's why you're going all
3:58
in on a theme. So we'll see how things shake
4:01
out. Chance.
4:03
Do you want to walk us through what Miracle on 34th Street is?
4:08
Miracle on 34th St. stars our 4 main characters, Susan, Brian,
4:13
Belford, Dory, and the one and only Chris Pringle.
4:17
The story is that the supposed real Santa Claus, or at least a
4:21
man who truly believes he's Santa, is hired by a department
4:25
store. He's so good at being Santa that
4:29
the city begins to love the old man, but the rivals of the
4:33
department store company calls frame him or egg him on into
4:37
making a rash decision so they could just besmirch his name and
4:41
ruin the company's good faith. Put him on trial as not the
4:45
person who did that crime, but instead the person who believes
4:50
he's Santa Claus. Yeah.
4:51
The charges will be dropped and it won't mean anything if he's
4:55
proved to be insane. But if he is by definition Santa
5:00
Claus, then they can't rule out the possibility that he might be
5:04
telling the truth. So it quickly becomes, can they
5:08
prove that he is Santa Claus in court or is he a man who is
5:13
delusional? Can they prove that Santa exists
5:17
at all? Right.
5:18
I think it's important to note that this old man who gets hired
5:21
by the department store very much claims to be Santa Claus.
5:26
He's not just acting like Santa Claus, he claims to be the real
5:30
thing. So as we kind of referenced,
5:34
this is a remake to a movie. There's an old classic from
5:39
1947. This movie has been remade
5:43
several different times and in different ways, but this is the
5:48
one that John and I grew up with.
5:50
So this is the one that has made it to the podcast.
5:54
And there's a number of big hitters in this movie, famous
5:58
actors and actresses. What did people who did they
6:03
recognize from different movies or TV shows?
6:05
Matilda. Yeah, Matilda.
6:07
I joked with Em that this is the time in her career when she was
6:09
in absolutely everything. Yeah, so Susan Walker, the
6:13
little girl, absolutely kills it.
6:16
Her name is Mara Wilson, and as High and Chance have both said,
6:21
she was the main character in the Matilda movie.
6:24
John, anybody stand out to you? My favorite movie of all time,
6:28
Jurassic Park stars Richard Attenborough.
6:32
He's the owner of Jurassic Park in the movies, and he plays Kris
6:38
Kringle in this movie. That's right.
6:40
Yes. I was kind of hinting that you
6:43
should tell us a little bit about Jurassic Park.
6:45
Yes, there's also other very talented actors and actresses in
6:49
this. Elizabeth Perkins plays Dory,
6:53
who I watched in the Flintstones movie for this podcast last
6:59
year. Which is very weird.
7:01
Why did you watch that? And I had very nice things to
7:04
say about her in that role. Dylan McDermott, of course, is
7:09
Brian Bedford. And then lastly, James Reamer
7:13
plays Jack Duff, who has been a ton of stuff as well.
7:18
But I always like to circle back and speak to people who voiced
7:24
characters in the Bruce Tim DC superheroes shows.
7:30
That series means so much to me and and I would have made you 2
7:35
watch it so many times over the years.
7:37
He voiced several characters. Sorry to our listeners, Mesa
7:42
really wants to ruin the audio right now.
7:44
Yes, Kai's cat is running around a lot, and so I'm just gonna
7:50
lean into it and say that her it's.
7:53
Christmas. That's right, those are Jingle
7:55
Bells. OK, So what do people want to
7:59
talk about this movie? Well, I think too, even just
8:02
placing these characters in the story that Chance described,
8:06
essentially the main cast surrounding Kris Kringle is the
8:11
woman who hires him for the department store.
8:14
That's Wilma from The Flintstones.
8:16
She has a boyfriend. That's Dilek McDermott.
8:21
He is a lawyer, and so they're dating, and she has a daughter
8:26
named Susan, who's the Mara Wilson from Mrs. Doubtfire in
8:30
Matilda. The dynamic between them is that
8:34
the mom's glad she hired Santa, but she does not believe in
8:37
Santa Claus herself. And she's raised Susan, her
8:41
daughter, to be a skeptic of Santa like her.
8:44
But the boyfriend, the lawyer, he has kind of a belief in Santa
8:49
Claus, and so no. It's not kind of a belief, it's
8:53
a wholehearted belief. The guy's like, yeah, that's
8:56
Santa. Yeah, I think that they were
8:58
really cute. They had this weird banter, like
9:01
they'd say something that was critical of him and Dylan
9:05
Mcdermott's character would turn over to Santa and be like non
9:08
believers, what can you do? It's very weird.
9:12
Though yeah, I'm not sure what this movie means by the term
9:15
believes. I don't know if anyone else felt
9:18
this way, but this movie almost feels like it's not people
9:21
rallying behind the idea that he's really Santa Claus.
9:25
It's like rallying behind the idea that there's at least one
9:27
good human being in the world. Objection although you are.
9:31
Agreeing with my point, judges are non partial overruled.
9:36
I like it. The big part of the movie is,
9:39
yes, there's this overarching plot, but whether or not Kris
9:43
Kringle is Santa Claus plays out in the dynamic between this
9:47
woman, her boyfriend and her daughter, because she doesn't
9:51
believe the boyfriend does, and the daughter is kind of torn
9:55
between the two. And so you get to kind of get to
9:57
see how each of them react. Their relationship is very
10:02
confusing, yeah. It's like they're dating, yeah,
10:07
But it's also like they're not. Yeah.
10:12
So. And then I really thought he was
10:15
his boss. For a while.
10:16
The start of the movie is the little girl sending a recording
10:20
to her mom, being like, hey, I'm at the neighbor's house and he
10:24
doesn't want me to tell you this, but he really wants to hug
10:27
and kiss you. And so it's like, OK, they're
10:29
dating. Well, I think he proposes to her
10:32
and she's like, if I gave you the wrong idea about this and
10:37
it's very muddied. He gave everyone the wrong idea.
10:40
We didn't know either. Yeah, exactly.
10:42
But I do really like Dylan McDermott.
10:46
I think he's a really charming actor in general, and his
10:52
character Brian Bedford in this movie just really leans into
10:56
that. He is extremely likable.
10:59
As we already mentioned, Mara Wilson's Susan the little girl
11:03
is very likable. The whole cast is very likable.
11:07
When the whole cast is likable, the ones who stand out to you
11:11
are exceptionally likable. I don't remember watching a
11:16
movie that's this wholesome that I enjoyed.
11:20
Normally movies are really trying to push a narrative so
11:23
hard. Most wholesome movies are
11:26
preaching so loudly that you kind of lose the story and that
11:31
the message is so loud. Yes, this movie is still
11:36
preachy. It is a lot, but it never really
11:41
feels like it gets in the way of enjoying time with these
11:45
characters. You could chop off the last
11:49
third of this movie and still have a really positive
11:54
experience watching these characters interact.
11:58
I appreciate the way the judge is presented, Brian accuses him.
12:02
He's like, you're doing this for all the wrong reasons.
12:04
And he's like, I'm a judge for the government.
12:07
I can't in good faith do this or I'll lose my job.
12:10
I would have much more appreciated if the villains in
12:13
this movie were like that. No one wants to send Santa to
12:16
prison, man. But like, we got jobs, we have
12:18
kids. So let's talk about how this
12:21
movie was received in 1994. This movie was originally
12:26
planned as a small release, and then when Fox tested it, the
12:33
approval rating was 100%, which never happens.
12:38
They showed it in front of preview audiences.
12:40
Every single one of them were like, yes, I love this movie.
12:45
That gave them this undeserved confidence to go all in on this
12:50
movie. They spent a ton then marketing
12:54
it and trying to get it out to everybody.
12:57
The problem was this movie landed in Christmas of 1994,
13:02
which was also the Christmas when Tim Allen's Santa Claus
13:08
came out out. You don't need to be a rocket
13:11
scientist or a mathematician to figure out if that movie was
13:15
successful. It had two sequel movies.
13:18
It blew this movie out of the water.
13:22
Also, just like in concept Miracle on 34th St. the movie
13:27
would struggle to beat Santa Claus the movie because Miracle
13:30
on 34th St. has a boring name and it's about law.
13:35
Yeah, I feel. Similarly, I enjoyed this movie
13:39
and I'm like is this marketed towards kids then the kid?
13:41
I would not like this movie. Yeah, that's a very good point.
13:45
Chance this is a family kids movie from 1947, but the things
13:52
that we like 50 years later are not the same things that they
13:58
liked in 1947. So that's a good question.
14:02
We know that this movie cost them $46,000,000 to make, but as
14:08
I mentioned they we put a lot of money into marketing it.
14:11
We don't know if they made money, but we don't think so.
14:15
The consensus is it was probably a bust. 20th Century Fox
14:19
believed in it so much that they offered a full refund to anybody
14:25
who bought a ticket and didn't like the movie.
14:29
They reported that they refunded 1500 tickets, which you know,
14:35
the movie made 40, some $1,000,000.
14:39
That's a pretty small amount of people, but it does all kind of
14:44
speak to this fact that it probably didn't deserve 100%
14:48
approval rating. Rotten Tomatoes has this sitting
14:51
at a 59. Which?
14:53
Low, I think is low. Yeah, I was going to say I think
14:56
it's worth more than that, but I can certainly see where they got
15:00
really excited about something that was maybe undeserved.
15:04
John, you were the main voice behind making this our Christmas
15:10
movie for the podcast. Do you want to tell us a little
15:13
bit about why you wanted to do this movie so much and whether
15:19
or not it. Lived up to your expectations on
15:22
it? Yeah, exactly.
15:23
Yeah, things I remember from being a kid is that I remember
15:29
the bad guy's plot of mob boss, banker, owner of this other
15:34
competing store. He's got these goonies who hired
15:37
this guy who gets on Santa's nerves until the point where
15:41
Santa kind of hits the guy with a cane kind.
15:44
Of yeah. He does hit him.
15:47
No, it's more of a kind. Of, well, the guy.
15:49
Catches the cane and then pulls it into his hand.
15:52
He certainly wanted to hit him. But anyways, keep going John.
15:56
As a kid, I remember that scene and be like, Oh my goodness, I
16:01
was so angry at the bad guys for doing that and I was scared and
16:05
sad for Santa for getting implicated in all of that.
16:09
In my notes after the guy's speech to egg on Santa, I just
16:14
have Litton in quotes. Whoa, gross.
16:17
Oh yeah, I think that goes to show what kind of people, the
16:19
villains and. That is a great.
16:21
I want to come back to John for one second, but just tying off
16:25
what you were talking about earlier, chance you asked if
16:27
this is a movie for children. And essentially, the way the bad
16:34
guys get Santa to be upset is that they infer that he's doing
16:40
inappropriate things to children, and that is not really
16:45
a. Suitable for any.
16:46
Yeah, it really does tie back to that.
16:50
I don't know who was intended to watch this.
16:54
It's a good point. Chance.
16:55
Kate, back to you, John. So you were talking about how
16:58
upsetting these villains were? Yes.
17:01
And then the other emotion I remember is the way that they
17:05
win the court case is on the American dollar bill.
17:09
It says in God we trust. And so the defense lawyer for
17:14
Chris Kringle circles to that line.
17:16
And then the judge sees it. And the judge says, oh, well, we
17:20
clearly acknowledge that God exists in America because he's
17:23
on our bill. So who are we to challenge
17:25
whether or not Santa exists? That's kind of how they win.
17:28
And I just remember that case being made on circling a dollar
17:32
bill. I remember just as a small kid,
17:35
that was the fun fact that I knew, even though I was in
17:37
Canada, I knew that the American bill said, and God we trust.
17:40
And I knew that that was a deal breaker to win a court case.
17:44
So those are the things that I remember from the movie.
17:48
I vaguely remember it when rewatching, but those were the
17:51
two emotional moments. And you wanted to revisit those
17:56
moments. That's why you made it for the
17:57
podcast. Yeah, well, it was a Christmas
18:00
movie that I knew I had watched a lot as a kid and I wanted an
18:05
excuse to watch it. But I mean, having watched it
18:09
now, I think it was actually quite clever of a movie because
18:14
they never actually. They never proved that Santa is
18:17
actually Santa. He could just, yeah, convinced
18:20
maul Santa. They film it in such a way that
18:23
you could make a case either way.
18:25
He is so pure and lovely that you could be convinced that he's
18:31
Santa, but he's imperfect enough.
18:34
He gets angry sometimes. He didn't know that Susan didn't
18:38
have a dad. He's not like magical enough.
18:41
You don't see him do anything supernatural.
18:44
The closest you get to that is him having weird knowledge about
18:47
sales. For talking like 12 languages.
18:51
Yeah, I guess, knowing languages.
18:53
But he could be just someone who's quite eccentric.
18:56
Yeah, I was watching this with M and I actually said I'm like, I
18:59
think this movie is more meaningful if he's not Santa.
19:02
Yeah, and that's kind of the cool thing.
19:04
At the end of the day, it's left up to us to have faith or doubt
19:08
things. Even the big thing at the end
19:11
where the Susan girl's wishes come true, she wishes that her
19:15
mom would get married and that she would have a baby brother
19:19
and that they would get a house. Well, the way that Kris Kringle
19:23
organizes this is he gives the engagement ring to a priest,
19:28
lies to the mom and her boyfriend to get them to meet up
19:31
so that they get married. He finds out that the house that
19:34
Susan wants is up on the market, so he arranges the ride for them
19:38
to go there. And they get a Christmas bonus
19:41
this year so they can afford it. And now mom's pregnant, so she
19:45
might get a brother. Like none of it's supernatural.
19:48
John, He's no proof that she's pregnant.
19:50
He sabotaged the condoms. I.
19:52
Actually said that, yeah. I was like And then Santa boat
19:57
tolls and all of their condoms and my wife was so mad at me.
20:02
There's nothing supernatural about it.
20:05
Yeah, this is all above code. And was mad at you for saying
20:12
that. Yes, she was mad that that's
20:14
where my mind went like, well, he's got to solve the third
20:17
wish. There's only one way to
20:20
guarantee you. If he actually isn't Santa
20:23
Claus, it's a little bit unnerving.
20:26
Like, yeah. But how convinced he is that he
20:29
is Santa Claus and the access he has to kids, then sure you could
20:33
have a delusion that way and maybe it not be dangerous but.
20:37
I mentioned it earlier, nowadays it's very easy to view, like
20:41
everybody has an evil side. You know, everyone's got
20:44
secrets, everyone's got skeletons in their closet.
20:46
But I don't know, there's something to be said that
20:48
everyone in the world around India, that's like, no, there's
20:51
one good guy because if there's at least one, there's hope for
20:54
us. This is truly just a jolly old
20:57
man who loves kids, and I think that's why it's more meaningful
21:01
if he's not really Santa. Yeah, he's crazy, but at least
21:04
he's genuine. What's interesting is that these
21:08
questions that we're having are all questions that were posed in
21:13
the movie that came out at the same time as this movie, right
21:17
in Tim Allen's Santa Claus. He starts to get chubby.
21:22
He's on a cookie diet, his hair turns white, and everybody's
21:26
like, this guy's a creep who's pretending to be Santa.
21:30
They don't know that magic is at play to everyone around him that
21:35
he knows in his personal life. They know this, Scott Calvin.
21:40
And why are you rewriting history to claim to be Santa
21:45
Claus? It's interesting that these two
21:47
movies came out at the same time, came at it from completely
21:52
different angles, but we're still asking the same questions.
21:55
Now, your honor, I have to say this movie's full of freaks and
21:59
creeps. Almost every character in this
22:01
movie is wrong and messed up the judge that we're supposed to.
22:05
Like at the end of the movie. Would have taken a bribe to send
22:09
this guy to jail. Santa himself is aggressive and
22:13
violent. He also trespasses and deals
22:17
damage to property. At the start of the movie, he's
22:19
climbing on the parade floats. To.
22:21
Point out that all we know about Santa's that he needs a
22:24
trespasser. That's fair, but.
22:28
So I don't know what to tell you man.
22:31
Diction overruled. The neighbor gets it turned down
22:37
from his marriage proposal. He proposes and then she says
22:41
I'm sorry, I've given you the wrong idea.
22:44
And then the guy says I do everything for you and you turn
22:48
me down. Why is this the good guy?
22:50
He just said that he deserves this.
22:53
I don't know when we were watching this M and I like.
22:56
He. Walks away from this
22:58
conversation. He doesn't deserve it because I
23:00
think there is something to be said up like you're watching
23:02
this movie. I think he does do everything
23:05
for. Sure, he.
23:06
Does things, sure. There's a point of like, well,
23:09
he doesn't deserve anything that outcome, but she's also leading
23:12
him on. I think it's hard to not have a
23:15
response like he does. Your honor, he does things for
23:18
her, she doesn't repay that bath, and so his expectation is
23:23
that she will do anything for him on a whim, building up this
23:27
good credit to give herself to him.
23:29
That's insane. Is the boyfriend on trial?
23:32
Is that what's happening? I'm putting.
23:34
Yeah, I don't agree movies more. I'm not going to say that you're
23:37
wrong, but I personally don't agree with it.
23:40
The only person in this podcast who has not been married at one
23:43
point. I think if there's something to
23:46
be said about Brian that's questionable is how much he does
23:51
things behind the mom's back. She's made it very clear that
23:56
she doesn't want her daughter Susan exposed to Santa Claus at
24:00
every turn where he can. The boyfriend tries to undermine
24:03
that by bringing Susan to see Santa, by giving Santa to
24:07
babysit her. So I did feel like that was a
24:10
bit of an overreach on this. Santa, who mind you up to this
24:13
point was seen as an untrustworthy random old guy.
24:18
There's an old guy who really likes kids and you hire him for
24:21
your business. It's only like the villain in
24:23
this story. John, is it true that up to this
24:26
point in the movie, Santa is seen as an old guy who likes
24:29
kids? Do you?
24:32
Do you vow to speak the truth and.
24:34
Holy truth, yeah, but the truth so help you God.
24:38
In God we trust. Up to this point in the movie,
24:43
does the mother of the child see Santa as an old dude who gets
24:47
really into character and likes children?
24:50
Yeah. Does she have any reason to
24:53
trust him? No.
24:55
Now, if you were to get told not to allow your kid to be nearby
25:00
this guy, do you think that that's a good reason to go
25:03
around somebody's back is just because you think that they
25:05
might be Santa? Objection.
25:08
Leading the witness. That's all, Your honor.
25:12
That's all. You're not doing your job very
25:14
well, John. Sustained.
25:17
Okay, well with that, let's talk about Santa.
25:20
I do appreciate that none of us have revealed our own personal
25:25
beliefs around Santa Claus because we understand that we
25:28
might have listeners who come from various backgrounds and
25:32
values around Santa's. People can make up their own
25:35
mind about Santa. I'm more of a Krampus guy
25:38
myself. Can't have one without the
25:43
other. Did you guys see Krampus pulling
25:46
the strings in the background of this movie?
25:49
He was everywhere, he was Bedford the whole time.
25:53
It's kind of like. How there's some horror movies
25:55
where they're like, did you see that saving was in every other
25:58
scene and you rewatch they're like, Oh my gosh, he was why is
26:01
he doing there? In every other scene, you look
26:03
in the background, there's Krampus.
26:05
I wonder if there was any kids who watched this movie and then
26:09
asked Santa Claus for their parent to get married, have a
26:12
kid and get a new mansion and it didn't come true.
26:16
But what do you? Mean it didn't come true.
26:19
I don't know because I had you. Didn't ask how many people asked
26:23
for that and it did come true. Why are you looking at the glass
26:26
half empty? Hey, I appreciate that Tim.
26:30
I feel like this is worth a social media survey maybe you
26:34
could put on to the world. Hey, anyone asked for this and
26:37
get it? Or who asked for this and didn't
26:41
get it, because we're assuming most people did.
26:43
If you asked Santa for a sibling, for your parent to get
26:49
married, and a mansion, please e-mail us at bullypod@gmail.com
26:55
and let us know if you got it or not.
26:59
Much appreciated. Speaking of Santa, as Chance
27:03
referenced earlier, Santa knows a lot of languages and one such
27:07
language is sign language. The little girl Sammy in this
27:12
movie actually was deaf and Richard Attenborough asked her
27:19
parents not to let her know what was going to happen in the scene
27:24
and so she sat down on his lap and the actor actually signed
27:29
everything. So her surprise in the movie is
27:33
real. She did not know Santa was going
27:36
to know sign language. It is an adorable scene.
27:40
It's so sweet, especially knowing that that kit was very
27:43
genuine. Right.
27:44
It's very cute. If there's anything that's very
27:47
consistent in this movie, is it David?
27:49
Attenborough. He does such a phenomenal job.
27:51
The scenes where he's at his best are when interacting with
27:54
children. There's just a lot of warmth
27:56
that comes with performance. How far do you think you'd have
27:59
to fall before? Or you thought genetically
28:02
altering dinosaurs was a good idea.
28:05
You told me that Santa. The greatest?
28:08
Gift of all he's giving the gift of dinosaurs.
28:12
Jurassic Park. Came out first, right?
28:15
So would he have been the brain damage from Isla Nubar?
28:19
He had to collect a. New identity.
28:22
That was where Santa's workshop was.
28:25
But to velociraptors making toys.
28:28
I think there's spinoff possibilities here.
28:30
I'm sure that movie exists. Give me some time, I'll come up
28:35
with the name for it. There was some things in
28:38
watching this movie that Emily and I were like, there's
28:40
something unique, interesting when I looked into it is tied
28:45
back to an homage to the original 1940s version.
28:50
All the kids, everyone there is wearing very dressy winter
28:54
clothes, not wearing clothes that you'd be wearing in 1994.
28:58
And so that was a choice to make all the clothing and outfits
29:02
look older. And then also it would put
29:05
gliding above actors heads to mimic that classic glow and some
29:11
of those same camera angles. So it doesn't feel like a 1994
29:15
movie in some ways. Yeah, there's a couple other
29:18
things that all tied back to it. We have a lot of drunk Santas
29:24
and pop culture to the point where it's a trope.
29:27
And Kai actually asked, is this where this trope comes from?
29:30
And my answer from research is yes.
29:34
Yeah, I mean, this is a remake of a 1947 movie, so.
29:39
It was from the 1947 movie. Yeah, Your honor, if I have to
29:43
say why portraying the people that interact with children most
29:47
as constantly drunk OK with this film goes out of its way to say
29:51
that the mall Santas are all just drunkards.
29:54
I don't know. It's one of those things where
29:57
you mentioned like, oh, this is where the cliche starts.
29:59
And you're like, man, I wish that wasn't a cliche.
30:01
Yeah, it's a gross you'll. Hear somebody make a cynical
30:04
comment and then that cynical comment becomes the norm.
30:06
And it's like, why does that have to be the norm, you guys?
30:09
Yes, drunk and misbehaving Santas have become a trope, but
30:14
I think their place in this movie is to kind of speak to
30:18
people's lost hope or reasons why people disbelieve.
30:23
This movie has an overlap in the themes around faith and even God
30:28
is mentioned in it, and that certain ministers or priests are
30:32
characterized as being a certain way or history has shown them to
30:35
be a certain way. And so then people walk away
30:37
from faith because of that. And so maybe in the same way
30:41
people walk away from belief in Santa Claus because there's
30:45
people who are misappropriating it.
30:47
Jonathan, every example of Santa Claus other than the one that
30:51
gets hired by the big company is a drunkard.
30:53
There's a full. Are full of drunk Santas.
30:56
I don't think there's enough mall Santa jobs in the area for
30:59
there to be that many drunk Santas.
31:02
It could have been a Christmas party.
31:05
I did try watching select scenes from the different Miracle on
31:11
34th Streets over the decades. OK, some of them were harder to
31:15
watch than others. Some were direct to TV movies.
31:19
I do really appreciate that we have color movies nowadays with
31:23
soundtracks. But the original 1940's, the
31:27
focus in that movie was that the store psychologist was concerned
31:33
with Santa Claus and Santa Claus's mental instability.
31:37
So then Santa Claus was committed to the psychiatric
31:41
unit. And so the way they broke the
31:43
case in the end and proved that Santa could be given a clean
31:47
bill of health was that they brought in letters from all the
31:52
post offices that were written to Santa Claus.
31:55
And so they poured out these thousands of letters in front of
31:58
the judge. And the case was made that
32:00
because the government acknowledges Santa's existence
32:04
through the mail system, that therefore they have to
32:07
acknowledge this Santa as being the real thing.
32:10
That is a lot less strong. It's a much worse argument.
32:14
I didn't realize that ending was different.
32:18
It is more creative in this 90s one in retrospect.
32:22
Has anyone here ever written a letter to Santa or is that
32:25
getting too personal? I honestly couldn't tell you.
32:28
John writes letters to every movie we watch and.
32:32
Yeah, consistently. It's happened to every episode.
32:35
Yes, I have written a letter to Santa.
32:37
Do you remember anything about that sense?
32:39
No, I don't remember anything about that.
32:41
But I do remember that I believed in Santa until I was
32:44
much older than most people. Because we're not revealing if
32:47
we believe in Santa. Yeah, right now we're not.
32:51
Older than you might still believe, because we might still
32:54
believe in Santa. You might well.
32:56
I just want to tell you a story about how I was asked to help.
33:07
I was like, what? That's getting cut from this
33:09
podcast. Yeah, Chance.
33:11
You're just gonna have the long sensor bar like.
33:15
I might actually do that, John. There was a time when I asked
33:21
for a Ninja Turtle pizza thrower from Santa and I did not get it
33:25
now. I wrote an angry letter.
33:28
It was. After the fact, you didn't give
33:30
me what I wanted. I didn't write the letter asking
33:33
him for it. I wrote the letter rebuking him
33:36
for not bringing it. One Star review The most magical
33:42
Santa experience I remember was when we were at the ice skating
33:47
rink. Oh, Bose.
33:48
Crystal Gardens. Yes.
33:50
And I remember Santa came and he skated with us and then he
33:55
pulled over to the side and pulled out his bag and had gifts
33:59
for each of us. And I got Q from Star Trek The
34:02
Next Generation, an action figure, and I thought that was
34:05
super cool. Seems like a personalized gift
34:08
because I think. Q Could have been Santa.
34:11
It's possible. Wouldn't that be funny?
34:14
He's just giving gifts that reference himself.
34:18
Just. Everyone who shows up, Qi.
34:20
Didn't question him if he was Q you.
34:23
Q. Is the Jurassic.
34:26
Park. Auction figure from the old man
34:29
who runs the park. Isn't that interesting?
34:34
OK, the best I've got so far is like Velossa present rappers.
34:39
No, that's bad. Velossa rapper is funny.
34:43
Actually, you could just shorten it to that and that'd be.
34:45
Good. Yeah, it's saying Velossa
34:46
present rapper is the worst joke I've ever heard.
34:49
No Velossa rapper is what you want.
34:51
Of course, that could also be an Eminem crossover with Jurassic
34:55
Park. Maybe Santa is Eminem.
35:00
Lost the trail. Lost the trail.
35:03
Bail, bail. Get out.
35:05
Have you been thinking about that joke this entire time?
35:08
Him being Eminem, no Velociraptor, obviously, I
35:12
promise you. Higher life thinking about Santa
35:15
being Eminem. OK.
35:17
Well. I have more.
35:19
Folks against this. OK, Kai wants to speak for a
35:22
little bit. Chance earlier mentioned the bad
35:24
guys. They still do messed up things
35:27
in this movie. And then at the end of the movie
35:29
it's like, can you get my kid a good present?
35:31
That's it. We aren't going to talk about
35:32
the fact that these guys just did messed up stuff.
35:35
I think that people are complicated and they're
35:38
ambivalent. There's parts of them that want
35:40
to do evil and want to do good. The message of hope is that
35:44
everyone's redeemable. Jonathan These characters get no
35:47
redemption, get presents. They don't do anything to earn
35:52
that redemption. They just lose and then they
35:55
side with the other guys. This is why Santas Velosa
35:59
wrappers are dual purpose. They eat the bad guy.
36:03
Stupid. Wrap your presence or cut open
36:07
your spleen. To the judge, what I'm trying to
36:10
say is we as the audience are supposed to take these
36:13
characters at face value as evil people, but then the moment that
36:18
they lose in the fight they're allowed to turn around and say
36:21
oh but no, I didn't really mean to ruin this guys life.
36:25
I totally forgot I was the judge I find guilty of being a bad
36:31
podcast member. I'm just in guilty a scene where
36:36
this. Stop thinking about dinosaurs.
36:39
Like pulls the bow with his claw and you know how when you slide
36:44
it against scissors, it like, wraps up really nicely and then
36:47
Muldoons, they're watching through the window and he's like
36:50
clever, clever. Why is everything in this
36:54
podcast about dinosaurs to you? Half of our episodes this season
36:57
we have mentioned one of the dinosaur shows and movies.
37:00
Kind of like I don't know why we always loop back to dinosaurs
37:03
like he doesn't love dinosaurs. I think one dinosaur is pretty.
37:06
Cool, everybody loves dinosaurs. Yeah, not enough to make 80
37:10
podcast episodes about. Just like everybody loves Santa.
37:14
Boom, Velociraptor flaked it back.
37:16
We're back in. Who Loves Raymond?
37:18
This is a biased judge. There we go.
37:24
Oh my goodness. Court case closed.
37:27
All right, closing argument. I have one last argument.
37:31
That could be part of your closing argument.
37:33
OK. Everyone Loves Raymond Kylan.
37:36
The case is closed. So capitalism, the big scary
37:40
one. This movie does a lot to ignore
37:45
the bureaucracy. Imagine a movie like Elf where
37:49
the lesson is not to get so focused on your job and assist
37:53
with the family and whatever. We have a main character whose
37:56
entire trait is that they're too focused on on their job and that
38:00
doesn't get resolved. Instead, we never see any bad
38:04
thing talked about overworking yourself.
38:07
Tim, are you thinking of another picture of velociraptors right
38:13
now? I was thinking about Samuel L
38:15
Jackson's character smoking and be like, hold on to your
38:19
stockings. Ladies and gentlemen of the
38:23
jewelry, this 40 year old man just presented me with a
38:26
dinosaur and that has reminded me of how this courtroom is
38:32
really like a big birthday present.
38:34
Sorry, Christmas. What is happening?
38:39
I'm surrounded by morons. Nobody's taking this job
38:42
seriously. I went to 8 years of law school
38:45
for this. I correct you, young man, you're
38:48
surrounded by the winning side of the.
38:50
Dog, you're the guy. It just feels nice to be the one
38:55
who knocks the whole podcast off.
38:57
You're. Not even supposed to be.
38:59
You don't even have a job in this trial.
39:02
I called you to the stand once. Now get back to the seat in the
39:05
jury. Okay, closing arguments or
39:07
whatever. Yeah, that's pretty you.
39:10
Can't say the magic word. Ho ho, ho ho.
39:13
What's? Your closing argument.
39:15
What are you going to say about this movie?
39:16
You don't even have a job. Really talk about dinosaurs.
39:19
Yeah, I could. Have expected as much.
39:22
All right. Chance No.
39:23
End with chance. OK?
39:24
Why do we start with Chance? He's the judge.
39:26
Super aggressive. And gentleman of the drawer, he
39:29
used to make my statement now. So guy, what did you think of
39:34
this movie? Did you like it?
39:36
Oh, it's a fine movie. I'm talking about the morality
39:38
of this movie, right? This movie enforces terrible
39:41
acts continually. Characters in this movie are
39:44
terrible people doing terrible things, and we as the audience
39:48
are supposed to accept those terrible things as just part of
39:51
what makes you a good person. There's nothing to be learned
39:54
from the characters of this film because we're just supposed to
39:57
accept whatever traits they have as just the way that things are.
40:03
Of that, the film continually propagates this idea that doing
40:06
this terrible thing isn't a bad thing, it's deserved.
40:08
This guy actually should feel like he's earned a marriage with
40:12
this woman. This old man should hang out
40:15
with children, even with the express acknowledgement from the
40:18
parent that that is not something that she wants.
40:20
I rest my case, Your Honor. Yeah, your scientists were so
40:25
preoccupied with whether or not Brian Bedford could trick this
40:29
kid into liking Santa, they never thought to ask whether or
40:33
not they should. I mean, I like the fact that
40:35
you're using your stupid dinosaur quotes to further my
40:38
point, so. All right, John, was this movie
40:45
everything you wanted it to be? Your Honor, I had a good time.
40:49
This is one of those movies where it's actually better than
40:54
I remembered because as an adult, I understand the themes
40:58
behind it and the nuance, even the subtleties of why the mom
41:04
doesn't like to believe in Santa Claus.
41:06
Because there's something from her past that's led to
41:09
disappointment, which leads to commitment issues, which leads
41:12
to all kinds of things. And so there's just so many more
41:15
layers as an adult that I was able to able to appreciate
41:18
layers such as people are nuanced and not everything gets
41:22
wrapped up in a nice little Veloso wrapper bow at the end of
41:26
the story. Because humans are good and bad
41:29
and not every plot point gets resolved just like in real life.
41:33
I rest my case. Yeah, it is very unusual for me
41:37
to recommend a movie through our podcast, but it's Christmas
41:42
times. People are probably looking for
41:44
movies to watch. And you know what?
41:47
I think that this is a good Christmas movie.
41:50
It's a slow burn for sure. You don't really know what
41:54
you're watching until 3/4. That's true.
41:57
I did that with Kai. You're like.
41:59
Did you think that this was going to be a courtroom drama?
42:01
No. Yeah.
42:03
So, yeah, it's got a real slow burn, and I don't think that
42:08
this movie's really for kids, but it is a very wholesome
42:12
Christmas movie and I think it's worth a watch and I really value
42:18
that We found a way to tie this back to our dinosaur themed
42:22
season, so I'm happy about that as well.
42:24
Get out of here. Your Honor, your closing
42:27
comments. I agree, I don't think this
42:29
movie is for kids what I think is an adult.
42:31
That's actually surprisingly nuanced.
42:34
Like I said, I think it's more meaningful if it's not really
42:37
Santa. So as an adult I liked it.
42:39
This is not a Christmas movie I'd suggest watching for kids,
42:42
but if you're an adult looking for a good Christmas movie to
42:44
watch, I would recommend it. It's not perfect like a three,
42:48
maybe a four. OK, with that, we are wrapping
42:52
up today's episode. And yeah, Merry Christmas to
42:57
everyone in the meantime, and we'll see you on the other side.
43:02
Tim Mccancell, Disney Plus, so. So you cancel Disney Plus?
43:06
Yes, we're going with Netflix. Stranger Things season is coming
43:10
out, so we'll watch Netflix for a while, get caught up on things
43:13
we haven't watched, and then when we're caught up there then
43:15
we might switch back to Apple or Disney Plus.
43:18
K pop demon hunters while you're there.
43:20
Yeah, I don't know if I'm AK pop Demon Hunter kind of guy.
43:23
My father is specifically a few of the characters for some weird
43:27
reason. I feel like Tim would be really
43:29
into the boy band. That was what I was alluding.
43:33
To the boy band, I love them. It's so.
43:36
Stupid. They are the best part of that
43:39
movie. Yeah, I'm with your chance.
43:42
I was looking at trailers back when that movie wasn't out yet.
43:45
I'm like, this looks like a stupid movie.
43:48
And they're like, what's our plan going to be to convince all
43:50
the humans they went demon boy band.
43:52
And I was like, Oh my gosh, how is no one made this movie?
43:56
Because that's the most brilliant bad guy group I've
43:59
ever heard. Of.
44:00
Course demons would be boy band. I like the implication that is
44:05
that they would just do that. Of course they would be, boy.
44:07
Band. Like what group of people do I
44:10
know human beings would actively sell their soul to it's hot
44:14
teenage boys? Well, look out for weirdos.
44:18
They might be a demon boy band in disguise and praise
44:22
Beethoven's because trying. To think of like Christmas
44:24
themed alterations on us. But I'm just thinking of Veloso
44:28
rapper right now. Maybe Tim, you want to close us
44:31
out with one of the raps from the Veloster rappers?
44:35
Right, right, right. What's Mrs. Claus?
44:38
Mrs. Raptor Claus. No, I'm saying, is she a human?
44:42
You've got all the dinosaurs at your disposal.
44:45
You don't think the claw is their big like claw on their
44:49
foot? That's fair.
44:50
Don't forget to breathe. In and out.
44:53
I did my thing. Still waiting for that wrap.
44:56
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's coming up with it.
44:58
He's he's cooking. He's.
45:00
Cooking. I'll go.
45:02
Simmer right now. Moving in while we're waiting,
45:04
Grandma. Grandma.
45:11
That's my favorite part of that. So chance we're all talking
45:15
about something completely different and in the background
45:18
you're just like Grandma goes on for we're just trying to talk.
45:24
You just keep going, Grandma. I was kind of wondering if have
45:30
you seen my childhood? Wait, chance?
45:34
Who won the court dispute? What's the outcome?
45:37
The dinosaur side Velossa rapper Eminem is Santa.
45:43
It's your dad writing down some notes.
45:45
He's making a rap rap. Speak.
45:48
Yo, it's Christmas in the Cretaceous.
45:50
Snow on the scene. Got a tree so tall it's Jurassic
45:54
green. Santa Claus be rolling in with a
45:58
Dino sleigh. Raptors in the front yelling yo
46:01
we gonna slay are you? Coming up with this as we speak,
46:05
or it's not. Good.
46:07
It's not good. I need.
46:09
A good time, keep going. Ninja go ninja adventure, Jamie
46:16
adventure and do all a good night.
46:21
Oh, that was good. Thank you.
46:23
With some dinosaur freight.