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A Royal Corgi Christmas · Forever Hallmark Christmas Podcast

0:08
SPEAKER_02: Hello everybody and welcome to another Forever Hallmark Christmas movie review.
0:13
SPEAKER_02: This week we're gonna do a Royal Corgi Christmas, and as always, I'm joined by Rich.
0:18
SPEAKER_02: How are you doing, Rich?
0:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing good, Renee.
0:20
SPEAKER_01: Ready to uh talk uh royals, talk Corgis, and talk Christmas.
0:24
SPEAKER_02: I absolutely am, but first I want to hear some Hallmark news.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we've got a couple points today.
0:28
SPEAKER_01: First of all, as you uh know, I always like to say how long we have until Hallmark's countdown to Christmas 2026, which I'm estimating based on the last couple of years, the weekend of October 16th and 17th, which means we're about 28 weeks away uh from the countdown to Christmas 2026.
0:45
SPEAKER_01: And first news item today, uh I saw this one, uh Holly Robinson Peach.
0:49
SPEAKER_01: She's done a ton of Hallmark stuff.
0:51
SPEAKER_01: We actually reviewed her movie Christmas and Evergreen.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know this about her mom.
0:55
SPEAKER_01: Her mom's name is Dolores Robinson.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: She's 89, and she was the first black female talent manager in film and television.
1:03
SPEAKER_01: And she just got her star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Palm Springs has a walk of fame kind of like the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh, a lot smaller.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: I think there's about 500 different stars there.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and a couple of those stars uh include uh Hallmark writer and director Ron Oliver, as well as Hallmark actor Jonathan Bennett.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: Uh but Holly Robinson's Pete Mom Dolores got her star on the Walk of Fame.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh Holly Robinson Pete was there.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: Uh, of course, watching her mom get the star.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: So really cool for that.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know much about her mom.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: So that's a cool little uh Hallmark fun fact there.
1:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh, that's a great.
1:34
SPEAKER_02: I did not know that there was uh Palm Springs Walk of Fame, so I'll have to go check that out next time I'm out that way.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right in downtown Palm Springs on Palm Canyon Drive.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: So and uh number two here, as you know, we're trying to keep our eye on any um 2026 Hallmark Christmas movies in the works.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: And I got this from uh uh an influencer blogger uh big time on Instagram called Hallmark Enthusiast24-7.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: And she's really good about keeping her eye on what movies are upcoming uh for 2026.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: And there's one that started filming in Vancouver called The Christmas Loop.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: And I'll read the quick little uh synopsis here.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: After a wish traps him, reliving Christmas Eve, a man makes the most of the loop until he falls for a woman and desperately wants a tomorrow with her.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: So I have no idea if this is going to be kind of a groundhog day, round and round kind of movie, but uh sounds kind of fun and uh something to look forward to, the Christmas loop in 2026.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: No actors have been attached to it yet, but as soon as I find out, uh we'll let you know.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: And uh, we do have a couple Hallmark birthdays we want to shout out here.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: Happy belated uh birthday to uh Fiona Goebelman, who had a birthday on March 30th.
2:38
SPEAKER_01: And on the day of this podcast, Jops, happy birthday to uh Hallmark actress Bethany Joy Lentz.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: Oh, she's one of my favorites.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: She's fantastic, and uh she's got her new series uh that just started uh uh on Hallmark, and uh, she only ends up doing a Christmas movie every couple years.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: I think the last one we saw in was was Built More Christmas, but I'm really hoping we get one uh in 2026 from her.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: I could use one from her every year.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: I just I really do like her a lot.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: All right, let's talk a little bit uh Royal Corgi Christmas.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: So this one came out in 2022.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: Uh it stars uh Hunter King as Cecily.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: We know her from the great The Santa Summit, probably one of our all-time favorite movies.
3:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh A Holiday Touchdown, A Chiefs Love Story.
3:19
SPEAKER_02: I saw actually saw that one last year.
3:21
SPEAKER_02: Uh Make or Break Holiday, and uh Jordan Renzo as Edmund.
3:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh he's in an a f he has a few non-Hallmark credits.
3:28
SPEAKER_02: I didn't see him in any other Hallmark credits that I could find.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh movie called Class, Boys from County Hell and Chosen, and a few others that I'm not really too familiar with.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: And Bon Bon is plays Mistletoe, the dog, in a Royal Corgi Christmas.
3:43
SPEAKER_02: I had to find I'm assuming it's a he, his credit, but I couldn't quite tell.
3:48
SPEAKER_02: Bon Bon's pretty gender neutral.
3:50
SPEAKER_02: So I that was uh a lookup that I had to do.
3:53
SPEAKER_02: And uh supporting Julie Lamberton as Prince Eva Princess Victoria and Martin McDonough, which was uh I thought he was related to the other McDonough actor.
4:01
SPEAKER_02: Like I can't remember.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: He's a very well-famous guy who like refuses to do kissing scenes with anybody because he's he has a strong faith, but they're not related.
4:10
SPEAKER_02: Uh this one's written by you know, I don't know if it's pronounced Erin or Erin, because she spells it E-R-I-N-N-E, Dobson.
4:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh she's written a lot of Hallmark stuff.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: Jessica Shores, which I watched most of.
4:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh she did 21 episodes of The Good Witch, which I did not know.
4:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh, she's also an executive story editor there and creative consultant.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: Uh, she did The Sweetest Christmas, Once Upon a Christmas Miracle, and One Perfect Wedding.
4:34
SPEAKER_02: So she's done a lot.
4:36
SPEAKER_02: She's very strong in the Hallmark community, so I'm glad to get a chance to review this movie with her.
4:42
SPEAKER_02: I'm very glad to be able to review this movie of something she did.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: Our uh FHC log line is a reluctant prince, an American dog trainer, a queen to impress, and one chaotic corgi named Mistletoe.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: The setup is exactly what it sounds like.
4:56
SPEAKER_02: Prince Edmund gives his mother an unruly corgi, the dog becomes a disaster, and uh Cecily is brought in to train both the dog and basically the prince too.
5:04
SPEAKER_02: We have an IMDB rating of 5.8, and our Forever Hallmark equivalent rating scale came up with a 7.1.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: Do you have any fun facts we could share about this one?
5:13
SPEAKER_01: I do, Renee.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: We've had uh we've had some good fun facts the last few weeks speaking with uh producers and writers, and I was able to pull that off one more time.
5:22
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if we're gonna be able to do it every week, but uh, I was able to connect with Edwin of Fork, and she was the producer on this movie.
5:28
SPEAKER_01: And if there is a Hallmark movie shot in the UK, better chance than not that Edwin is going to be involved in the production.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: She does a ton of the Hallmark stuff over there in England and Ireland, Scotland, and she was heavily involved in this one as well.
5:40
SPEAKER_01: So she was able to give me some fun facts about this movie and also confirm some stuff that I'd read to let me know whether it was true or not.
5:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you already mentioned uh Mistletoe's real name uh is a corgi named Bonbon.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: And this movie was shot in three weeks.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: And I because I asked her about that, because I thought it might take a little longer with all the dogs and everything, but she says no, they worked on a really tight schedule, had an amazing crew, and uh it was shot in three weeks.
6:06
SPEAKER_01: One thing I read the the scene early on in the movie in the ballroom where Edwin brings Bonbon in for the first time and the queen is doing a speech, and then you know, Bonbon, or excuse me, mistletoe runs all around the room there, he uh pulls down uh the tablecloth and the buffet, spills all over the floor.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: I'd read that was shot in uh in one single take.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: They took three weeks to rehearse, and then Bonbon, excuse me, mistletoe, Bon Bon pulled it off in a single take.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: So I asked for if that was true or not, because I found that really hard to believe.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: And it is true.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: Bon Bon pulled it off the very first time.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: So Ultimate Pro, a great uh a great TV dog there and knows what they're doing.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: Um this movie was filmed in and around Ireland, specifically the area around Dublin and Southern Ireland, and the main castle that we see with the Irish sea there in the background is our Gillan Castle.
6:57
SPEAKER_01: But uh, Edwina, let me know there were two other castles also used in the shooting.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: One is called Slain Castle, and the other is called Luttrullstown Castle.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: So three different castles used uh for the shoot.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: And here is a couple really fun facts that we gave me that I don't think anybody would ever know.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: That it was really hard to get accommodations for the dogs because the Ukraine war had started that same year, and the Irish government took in a lot of refugees, about 67,000 that first year.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: So it was really hard to get uh the accommodations for the dog there in the Dublin area.
7:30
SPEAKER_01: So Edwina Forkin, the producer, she literally gave up her house to Bon Bon and all of the other dogs, as well as the UK trainers, groomers, handlers, and and put them in her house while the shoot was going on.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: And she said it was absolute craziness for those three weeks, but she said it was a lot of fun having all of the dogs around.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: So pretty amazing there.
7:51
SPEAKER_01: Um, did whatever she had to to get this get this movie made, uh, just because you know, who know, there was a war going on, and obviously you had a lot of refugees from Ukraine coming into Ireland.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: And one other thing that I think people might have forgot about, I certainly did.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: So this movie is kind of based on Queen Elizabeth and her love of Corgis.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Queen Elizabeth actually passed away during the shooting of this movie in September of 2022.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: So they were literally filming a movie about Corgis.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: Queen Elizabeth and her love of Corgis dies during the shooting, and all of a sudden everyone's talking about corgis became a really hot commodity, literally, while this movie was being shot.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: So kind of an interesting fact about Queen Elizabeth uh passing away during the movie shoot.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, those are those are a couple fun facts, and hopefully that uh gives everyone a little kind of uh story behind the stories uh when it comes to uh to this particular movie.
8:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and if you don't mind, I'm gonna add one fun fact that I came across randomly because immediately when I saw the corgi, I said the corgi has a tail.
8:47
SPEAKER_02: And I generally see corgis with dock tails.
8:50
SPEAKER_02: So I just looked it up, you know, or because I thought I didn't realize that they, you know, they were actually docked, and I thought they that's how they were.
8:56
SPEAKER_02: And I found out that corgi tail docking is banned regularly.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: They don't allow it.
9:02
SPEAKER_02: So I thought that was kind of interesting.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: I did not know that, and they look adorable with their with their little tails long, so I thought that was nice.
9:08
SPEAKER_02: I had some overall thoughts on this movie.
9:10
SPEAKER_02: It was predictable, yeah, an enjoyable hallmark movie, right?
9:14
SPEAKER_02: So it was it's what we like.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: The only thing is for me, no Christmas magic involved, and it's not really Christmas based, except that it's just that time of year.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: Christmas space, what did you think?
9:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I too noted the uh the predictability and kind of the lack of the kind of the Christmas almost could have been shot anytime.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: I don't necessarily had to be around Christmas.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: I found it a tough watch.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: I found it very, very slow, and I had trouble getting other than Cecily, I really liked her character.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: I had trouble kind of embracing the other characters in this movie.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: I I struggled with the chemistry between the two leads, which I'll talk a little bit about later on.
9:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, so part of me struggled with that part of the movie.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: Then the other half of me, whenever the Corgi's were on screen, it just made me smile huge.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh love watching those scenes.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: They were so much fun to watch.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: I love the castles and the great visuals of Ireland.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: So some pros and cons.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: Half of me really liked it, half of me struggled with the movie.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: So I'll I'll leave it at that, and then we'll talk more, obviously, as we as we move along.
10:10
SPEAKER_02: Some of the things I really like as well.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: You know, Mistletoe steals every scene uh he's in, which is great.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: The dog training setup was fun and different enough, I thought, was for uh for the movie.
10:22
SPEAKER_02: It did have a cozy Christmas atmosphere in that there was music in the background subtly playing that were Christmas theme songs.
10:29
SPEAKER_02: They were non um no lyrics, it was just orchestral music playing, which I noticed.
10:34
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's this Christmas song, or that's this Christmas song.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of easy, comfortable watching movie.
10:41
SPEAKER_02: The royal dog handler saying that the dogs are basically untrainable after a year old.
10:46
SPEAKER_02: I thought that was kind of funny.
10:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that uh that mistletoe is a bad apple.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: Right.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: So I liked also the interaction between uh Alex and Princess Victoria in the beginning, more to come on that, I guess.
10:58
SPEAKER_02: And you talked about it already, mistletoe knocking down the ham and eating that food and doing that in one take.
11:04
SPEAKER_02: I thought that was the funniest scene in the movie because anyone who's a dog owner has experienced something similar along those lines.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh okay, a couple things that I really liked.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: I liked how they called it uh when the video went viral, they called it puppy gate with five million views.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: Um I like that.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: I like that Cecily doesn't know how to cursey.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: She kept trying and trying and trying, and they're all what is she doing?
11:25
SPEAKER_01: And uh I think the queen goes, I think she's trying to cursey.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: So that that was that was pretty funny.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: I liked how the queen uh embraced that Cecily wasn't afraid to be toughed with Edmund.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: He she she really didn't care whether he was royalty or not.
11:39
SPEAKER_01: She needed him to help train mistletoe.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: I love Cecily in the blue dress, it's almost always a red dress for that big gala in the ball.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: I loved the blue dress.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: I think she I think she looked amazing in it.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: I liked Hunter King in general.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: I think she is so charismatic.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: This was only her second Hallmark movie that she'd ever done.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: I think when she is on camera, that charisma really shows.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: So I liked her part of this movie for sure.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: And then I mentioned the corgis and the whole royalty angle.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, whenever Mistletoe or the other corgis were on camera, it put a big smile to my face.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: And the whole royalty angle, that's a real thing because uh Queen Elizabeth owned more than 30 corgis during her time as queen.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so that's kind of how I think this movie found its way onto uh onto the screen and onto Hallmark, was kind of that real true story.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: So I like that this wasn't just a made-up kind of thing that the corgis and in in the royalty are a real thing.
12:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I liked all the mistletoe swag when they went, they were selling mistletoe stuffed animals and shirts.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: Mistletoe t-shirts, yeah.
12:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that was I thought that was hilarious.
12:41
SPEAKER_02: I really enjoyed that.
12:42
SPEAKER_02: You and I you and I need to see if we can get our hands on a mistletoe t-shirt.
12:46
SPEAKER_02: I would totally wear that out.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
12:49
SPEAKER_02: You know, the other thing, uh, on a little bit more serious note, the the misunderstanding, because there's always a misunderstanding in a Hallmark movie.
12:56
SPEAKER_02: I thought it was one of the more realistic misunderstandings I've seen.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: I really thought that was a good one.
13:01
SPEAKER_02: I could see like how that could happen.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: It I would totally think the same thing if I was in his shoes.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: So I really liked that.
13:08
SPEAKER_02: I thought that was one of the best writing moments in that show for me.
13:12
SPEAKER_02: I like I don't know what you thought about that, but I also liked how Victoria dumped Alec.
13:16
SPEAKER_02: That was great.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I thought the the misunderstanding, I thought it was predictable.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: I figured the book was going to come into play with it, but I thought it was well done.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just bringing that whole book about the you know the monarchs and kind of their tabloid kind of stuff into into the movie early on.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: I I kind of saw that as becoming an issue later on, maybe the misunderstanding, which it did.
13:35
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I think it was a it was a neat way to get there for sure.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, I always like the sort of serious talks, and so when Queen Portia's telling Edmund that she sees king-like qualities in him, but she wants him to use them.
13:46
SPEAKER_02: I like that scene.
13:47
SPEAKER_02: It was very short, but it it was very uh poignant to me.
13:51
SPEAKER_02: I she was really it seemed like an honest thing that a mother, especially a queen mother, would say to her uh aspiring king's prince son.
13:59
SPEAKER_02: So I like that scene as well.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: Are there some things I know you have some things you'd fix on a rewrite?
14:05
SPEAKER_02: So let's see what you got.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: I have two big things.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: Uh and first of all, I've already mentioned the chemistry between Cecily and Prince Edmund.
14:12
SPEAKER_01: I just wasn't I wasn't getting it at all.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think one of the reasons there just wasn't enough tension or conflict between them early on, and a lot of Hallmark writers will talk about that romantic tension is what you need to build that chemistry.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: I mean, other than him really being aloof and just not really caring much, there we just didn't have enough conflict between them early on.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: I think that suffered.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: So I I do think we needed some more tension between Cecily and Edmund early in the film to kind of build that chemistry.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: Because I just throughout the entire film, I just never saw it.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: I just it that's me.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'm alone on that, but I I wasn't getting great chemistry between the two.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like aside when you know when she's like, You didn't read the contract, I'm here to train you and the dog, you know, that sort of attitude.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: Aside from that, there wasn't really too too much where she put him in his place.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: Although when she told him that one of his duties was to pick up the poop, I thought that was a hilarious scene as well.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: No, that was funny, yeah.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: And my my other this is probably my biggest pet peeve about this movie.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and I don't know about you, I kind of go on to some forums after I've kind of put my nose down to see if it what people are saying.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: And in and and just and sometimes I say, okay, you know, how you know do we cut them some slack on this?
15:20
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people said they needed more dog training in this movie, like more advanced stuff.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm I'm cutting Hallmark some slack on that because look, they have 86 minutes, they have a a royalty they kind of had for two romances for sure.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: I think kind of three I'll talk about later on, between Dobbs and the Queen.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: Um but you had three different romances, you had all the corgis.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, you can only do so much in 86 minutes.
15:43
SPEAKER_01: So I'm cutting some slack on that.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you want to get kind of one more advanced little scene with a where she demonstrates a you know a dog training technique that's a little more advanced, fine.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: But my biggest pet peeve was this was just how her background in dog training made her to be a dog trainer.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: And I because I think if you were an actual dog trainer watching this movie, you would be insulted.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: Because Cecily literally says, I took a couple psych classes in college and then used that to learn how to train dogs.
16:15
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, but that's not the way it works.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: So what they should have done is they really should have highlighted everything that she's gone through so far to make herself really this well-known expert when it comes to dog training.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: And there's a very easy way to do it.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: Number one, when Dobbs hands Edmund that note, basically saying, Hey, there's somebody that's saying they're willing to train mistletoe.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: Next thing you know, they cut to Cecily basically getting ready to head to the airport.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: We needed a little transition in between those two scenes.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: And I think what it went perfect, Edmund just jumps on his laptop.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: This would take 30 seconds.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: He jumps on his laptop, yeah, he pulls up her website, it shows all these certifications that she has when it comes to dog training, and all of a sudden, that tells you right then, you know, that hey, okay, he's she knows what she's doing.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: And then instead of her talking that I took a couple when she's with the queen everything, you know, in psych classes that then translate into dog training.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: There's a college in New York that's supposed to be the best school in the country where you can get a bachelor's degree in canine training and management.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's upstate in upstate New York, it's called SUNY Cobble Skill.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: She could have thrown that out there.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: She's from New York.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: So, and then believe it or not, I know you know, I love doing a little research for it.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: You can actually get a master's degree in animal behavior from either Cornell University, which is an Ivy League, again, in New York, or UC Davis out here in California where we live.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: So she could have said, Hey, I eventually I want to get my master's, you know, from Cornell, but just throwing that out there instead of saying the site classes, that all of a sudden just elevates her into somebody that really knows what she's doing.
17:49
SPEAKER_01: It puts dog training in general, I think, in a much better light that there is really this expertise behind it.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: And you just don't take a couple site classes in college, and then all of a sudden you're a great YouTube dog trainer.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: So the whole dog training thing and her background, that's the biggest thing I would have rewritten.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: I think that would have made a big difference.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: Your rewrites are the best because mine are just so dumb and silly, but I have to be how how I am.
18:12
SPEAKER_02: I just thought, is she from Brooklyn?
18:14
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't seem like it.
18:15
SPEAKER_02: You know, she does not seem like a we've all met people from New York.
18:19
SPEAKER_02: Not to stereotype, don't send me any emails at foreverhomework at gmail.com.
18:26
SPEAKER_02: Bad bad plug there.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: But you know, is she from Brooklyn?
18:29
SPEAKER_02: Does not seem like it.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: She'd not seem like a typical New York tough person, which is fine.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to do do stereotypes on the royal storyline.
18:36
SPEAKER_02: It's a little generic, but that's part of what we like.
18:39
SPEAKER_02: We like to see that.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: I thought no one locally, like you can't order that guy, hey, train this dog.
18:44
SPEAKER_02: You served the the throne.
18:46
SPEAKER_02: Train this dog, not saying that the dog is untrainable after a year.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: You know, they could have forced him to train the dog.
18:52
SPEAKER_02: No one else locally can train the dog.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: I think the queen could have pulled rank really easily and uh yeah, gotten uh gotten Alec there to uh to train mistletoe.
19:01
SPEAKER_02: I get that that's you know a plot device that we need to get someone in.
19:04
SPEAKER_02: I thought they could have made her already our and local that they knew about or had trained the previous dogs or something like that when they had an unruly dog or something like that.
19:14
SPEAKER_02: I would have liked to have seen more of that be in England, right?
19:17
SPEAKER_02: That she was maybe a British person instead of actually having to go across across the world to and then fly someone and to do that.
19:23
SPEAKER_02: That was uh you know, my little minor things I'd fixed in the rewrite.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: Did you have uh any favorite moments?
19:28
SPEAKER_01: I think my one favorite moment is when Cecily and Edmund went to the foster care center there with uh with mistletoe and all the kids came out.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: He had presents for them all, kind of kind of brought him down, you know, a little, he's trying to be a little bit more human, humanize him a little bit, uh that he can be a a prince or possibly a king, but can also be a man of the people.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: So I like that scene.
19:49
SPEAKER_01: That's probably my my favorite of the movie.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: That's a scene that made me laugh because the one kid gets a bike, the other kid gets a scooter, and then the one girl gets a basketball.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: I was dying.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh, like I could have gotten a bike.
20:01
SPEAKER_02: Poor poor girl.
20:02
SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh man, I got a basketball.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: That was hilarious to me.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: Uh my favorite moment was as I as I tend to like is when Edmund and said to Queen Portia that Victoria should take the throne because she's probably a little bit better suited for that.
20:16
SPEAKER_02: And I liked his integrity.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: I I I'm glad that he saw his sister in that light because she really was well suited for the throne.
20:25
SPEAKER_02: Honestly, better than he is, even though he's he's not bad.
20:28
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: He would have a good king, but it's nice to see him defer to his sister and not be greedy.
20:36
SPEAKER_02: And you know, I I like that he did that.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: That shows his integrity in his character a lot.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you kind of got through the movie.
20:42
SPEAKER_01: He really doesn't want it.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he he would take it just almost to make his mom happy because pleasing her is important to him, but he in the end doesn't want it.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: And he knows his sister's right for the role.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: So you know, we know she she ended up doing the right thing by dumping I forgot it's Alec or Alex.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: Alec, yeah.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: Alec, yeah.
20:59
SPEAKER_02: Getting rid of him because he ended up being a snot.
21:01
SPEAKER_02: So that's I'm glad that she did that.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: Thoughts on a best supporting character character actor who deserved more screen time.
21:08
SPEAKER_02: I had some uh I thought uh Cicely's manager Jacob is hilarious.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: Every scene he was in, he made me laugh, even though he was a little bit funny at the end, a little bit more uh shallow than I would have liked to have been.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: And Hobbes and Queen Porsche.
21:23
SPEAKER_02: I would love to see more scenes of those two together.
21:25
SPEAKER_02: Because as soon as I saw the first interaction, I go, Oh, Hobbes is totally in love with Queen Porsche, and they they must be, they're gonna have to end up somehow together in the movie, and sure enough, they did end up dancing at the end.
21:38
SPEAKER_02: So and I'm assuming that they got together as well.
21:41
SPEAKER_02: So those were the my my two characters who deserve more screen time.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I went with Hobbes as well.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: I struggled on this one.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: I like I say I wasn't crazy about a lot of the supporting characters in this movie, they just weren't connecting with me for whatever reason, but I I did like Hobbes.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, I like that he was a mentor to you know all of the family, the especially.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: The the queen and to Edmund.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I yeah, I was questioning the whole Hobbes Queen relationship.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: It was a little strange because Hobbes was so dear to the king before he passed.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they literally grew up together as little kids, and then I'm sure sure he was you know involved in with the king and in the royalty his entire life, and then the king dies, and he's now with the queen a little bit, yeah.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: But it was like 20 like it was over a decade later.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: I know, I understand.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: But the the fact that you know if you're so close, you've known the king your whole life, then when he passes, you're you're with his wife.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh oh.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, I did like I did like the Hobbes character.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh he was just so professional, um, and a really good mentor to everybody.
22:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that that is that is I thought about that too.
22:46
SPEAKER_02: That I'm like, that's a little weird.
22:47
SPEAKER_02: But you know what?
22:48
SPEAKER_02: Maybe over time they know they grow close.
22:51
SPEAKER_02: And he and maybe he was honorable during the whole time his friend was married to her?
22:56
SPEAKER_02: Sure he was.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: He didn't have that.
22:57
SPEAKER_02: That would be to me a natural thing that I wouldn't necessarily frown on, but it does on paper right away.
23:04
SPEAKER_02: It looks kind of funny for sure.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: You know, one of the things I wrote on uh Are We Sure, I really wrote just one thing, and I just thought, would Puppy Gate really ruin an ascension to the throne?
23:14
SPEAKER_02: Like I I don't I didn't understand that.
23:17
SPEAKER_02: I thought I thought that was a bit of a stretch.
23:19
SPEAKER_02: You mentioned puppy gate already, but uh that was uh a funny, you know, the fact that they called it puppy gate was hilarious, and then the fact that they were worried that he would not allow the son to become the king over puppy gate, just a course everybody's had a puppy knows that they tear stuff up and they go a little crazy, so it it humanizes them, it should it makes them actually more likable, I think.
23:40
SPEAKER_02: And that was really all I wrote, and then I wrote, you know, no one else could train a dog, which we already touched on.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: I I Are we sure?
23:47
SPEAKER_01: Are we sure that Prince Edmund would really sell his Ferrari for a couple basketball hoops for the foster care center kids, which he says he did?
23:53
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if he was joking or not, but he literally says, you know, he in order to pay for the uh the basketball court for the uh foster center, he sold his Ferrari.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: Um and then my other are we sure?
24:02
SPEAKER_01: Are we sure that Edmund, who never has ever cooked in his life, it seems like, can just whip up a recipe he's never made with that uh that famous pie that he he loves.
24:10
SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, that same recipe would start burning in the oven after about 90 seconds.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: Those those those were my two are we shures.
24:16
SPEAKER_02: That actually ties in like one of the moments I really liked where they're dancing in the kitchen.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: I thought that was uh that was a really nice moment that I liked.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: Then the the the pie, I guess it's called the comfrey pie, uh starts burning.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he he just whips up that recipe like nothing.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: Like he's never cooked before in slice.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it could be like some sort of pot pie.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't quite tell what it was.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: It looked like a pot, yeah, it looked like a pot pie.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: They just put a kind of a piece on it.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: I was trying to figure out what it was.
24:43
SPEAKER_02: So I was like, oh man, I'm kinda hungry.
24:44
SPEAKER_02: You know, what I what what I want to eat.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: It was too hot to eat that kind of food, anyways, right now.
24:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh, do you think this couple would last 12 months?
24:51
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Renee, I'm I'm I'm gonna go here and you better not screw it up this time, okay?
24:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh I know you like to be the optimist here, but I I there is no way that I see these guys lasting 12 months.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm I'm gonna give you four bullet points as to why.
25:04
unknown: Wow.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay, her life is back in America.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: All of her friends are there, I'm sure.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: She might even have some siblings for all we know.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: She's from New York.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: People are very proud of being in New York.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: She's not getting any Brooklyn pizza out there by the castle.
25:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh um, so that's number one.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: Number two, Edmund.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: He's they could they literally call him the Playboy Prince, right?
25:22
SPEAKER_01: This guy travels the world.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: There's all these women in all these different cities that he goes to.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: I just don't see him changing his stripes that fast.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: As I already mentioned, number three, zero chemistry between the two of them.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: It could be me, but I wasn't seeing it.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: And number four, we're gonna talk about this kiss in a second, but two people who kiss like that, they simply shouldn't be a couple.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: So I'll disgrace.
25:44
SPEAKER_01: Those are my rationales for them uh not quite making it.
25:48
SPEAKER_02: You know, I wrote, I'm not sure.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: His lifestyle and hers, like I think are too different in the long run.
25:54
SPEAKER_02: I think both of them got caught up in the moment.
25:56
SPEAKER_02: Like she's caught up, like, oh, this is a prince.
25:59
SPEAKER_02: You know, he looked the guy's good looking and he's and he got along well with her.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, he might have gotten along well with her.
26:04
SPEAKER_02: I I wrote down, I'm not sure, but my last sentence I put here is I'm gonna say I believe in Hallmark love.
26:10
SPEAKER_02: So ultimately, why not?
26:11
SPEAKER_02: Why not?
26:12
SPEAKER_02: Don't they last?
26:13
SPEAKER_02: But in reality, in reality, yeah, no way, no way they last.
26:17
SPEAKER_02: So keep it real here.
26:19
SPEAKER_02: We keep it real.
26:19
SPEAKER_02: We're keeping it real.
26:20
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I believe in Hallmark love, but we're keeping it real.
26:24
SPEAKER_02: I don't think so.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: I think after a year or two, she's out.
26:27
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so let's let's talk about this.
26:30
SPEAKER_02: The kiss.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: I have to say, the you know, we call our kiss the mistletoe meter, which I thought was hilarious, as no pun is intended, obviously.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: There was no no real dog kisses in this, but uh, what did you think of those kisses?
26:41
SPEAKER_02: Because there was two.
26:41
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and um, this is this was a bad kiss.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, they didn't even tilt their heads like one inch.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: The kiss was like two seconds.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: I just wrote bad with three exclamation points.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: It got a D.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: They're pretty close to failing and having to go to summer school on this one.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: Um, now this was only Hunter King's second.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: This is the kind of deep research I do, Renee.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: This was only Hunter King's second Hallmark movie.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: Her first one she did was called Hidden Gems.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: It was in this the same summer before this movie, just a few months earlier.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: So I go, all right, let's pull up, let's pull up Hallmark Plus.
27:13
SPEAKER_01: Good shout out to Hallmark Plus, and let's zip to the end and see that final kiss uh of Hidden Gems to see if maybe she's she's struggling.
27:20
SPEAKER_01: An A kiss all the way, awesome kiss in her first movie.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: So I go, okay, it's it's not that, but yeah, this one.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: What'd you give it?
27:28
SPEAKER_02: I gave it a C minus, and I think I'm being nice.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you're a generous.
27:33
SPEAKER_02: I I feel badly because I'm such a fan of you know Hallmark stuff.
27:37
SPEAKER_02: I don't uh but we have to you're right, we have to keep it real.
27:40
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna stick with my C minus, but it could have easily gone into D territory easily.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it was that especially kind of in it, maybe even more put that D down after I saw that she did a great kiss just a couple months earlier in that uh in that first Hallmark movie she'd ever done.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was a great kiss.
27:56
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, yeah, she's a good actress.
27:58
SPEAKER_02: She's one of the better Hallmark actresses out there now.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I mean there's no doubt that they've put her in some really big movies the last couple of years.
28:05
SPEAKER_02: I think she's like one of the next uh you know, she is the next.
28:08
SPEAKER_02: She's the next generation of like the greats, I think.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Well, and and you know, they're they're trying to find those younger actresses.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: I believe she's 32 now.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: She was 28 when she was doing this movie, so yeah, she she's definitely one they're gonna keep around uh at all costs.
28:19
SPEAKER_02: I'm pretty sure we agree on who won the movie.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna go first.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: I doubt I I don't I don't think so, but okay, go ahead.
28:25
SPEAKER_02: Mistletoe, of course.
28:26
SPEAKER_02: He was chaos in almost every scene.
28:28
SPEAKER_02: I think he was the best.
28:29
SPEAKER_02: Who'd you have?
28:31
SPEAKER_01: So obviously mistletoe is great.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: I I'm going with the filmmakers of this movie, and specifically the producer, producer Edwina Forkin, who I already mentioned, who literally gave up her home to all the dogs and the trainers and the groomers and the handlers to get this movie across the line, as well as the director Claire Niederbroom, who she's become one of their hottest directors.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: She did the Grand Old Opera Christmas last uh year in 2025.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: She's getting ready to do the Kentucky Roses movie coming up in May, I believe, with Andrew Walker.
29:00
SPEAKER_01: But this had to be an extremely difficult directing job with all the corgis.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh when you're working in castles in Ireland overseas.
29:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think the corgis just, I mean, just having to direct a movie with them in, you know, because they're they're just unpredictable.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: They're they're very loving dogs, they're herding dogs, they love to be with each other.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh, they love people.
29:19
SPEAKER_01: So directing, I think, the corgis, which were in a lot of the movie, uh, uh, I think that had to be a really tough directing job.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: So kudos to both Edwina and and the director Claire for getting this uh across the line and doing it in three weeks, pretty amazing.
29:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and the cinematography was nice.
29:34
SPEAKER_02: There were some beautiful shots.
29:36
SPEAKER_02: The scenery were on the location.
29:38
SPEAKER_02: Whoever scouted the location did a really good job.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: And again, I'm pretty sure that was the production company in Edwina and her team.
29:43
SPEAKER_01: That was great.
29:44
SPEAKER_02: So the honorable mention for me was uh Hobbes and Victoria.
29:47
SPEAKER_02: At their subtle, not so subtle, really.
29:50
SPEAKER_02: You can tell the Hobbes liked the queen pretty early on.
29:53
SPEAKER_02: We see that right away.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: If you've watched Hallmarks before, there's always that sort of you know, the butler or the royal helper that's in love with someone.
30:02
SPEAKER_02: So they were the honorable mention.
30:04
SPEAKER_02: I would have loved to see more of that.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's gonna be a love interest whenever you see kind of the uh the assistant or he's press secretary in this, or the kind of the the confidant.
30:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they were cute, and she looked el she was very elegant.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: I loved her posture and and her, you know, the way she spoke.
30:17
SPEAKER_02: I thought she was very well played by I you know I forgot to write the name of the lady, but she did a good job, Queen Victoria.
30:23
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna rate this first because I'm gonna be curious about yours.
30:27
SPEAKER_02: It takes a lot for me to get into the twos.
30:28
SPEAKER_02: I have to not like the movie, and I did like the movie.
30:32
SPEAKER_02: I gave it a 3.0.
30:33
SPEAKER_02: It just wasn't, you know.
30:34
SPEAKER_02: I liked it.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: It's a 3.0 for me.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: So I started off thinking if I didn't have the Corgis, what would this movie be?
30:43
SPEAKER_01: And I wrote down 2.75, but we did have the Corgies.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think they made the movie a lot more fun.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I really enjoyed every scene they were in.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, kudos to Hallmark.
30:54
SPEAKER_01: It's making a movie like this with the Corgis knowing it's gonna be a really difficult shoot, is it's a it's kind of a tough call, I'm sure, in a way, because they know that the production is is a little tougher.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, you they they really take their animal safety uh to the highest level.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: They always have trainers and and everything on site there with the with the animals.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: So kudos to them for making this movie.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: So with the corgis and everything, I bumped it up to exactly what you had, a 3.0.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I think I think without them just the storyline itself was a little bit too soft for me.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: But you throw in the corgis, you throw in a very charismatic Hunter King, and uh I think 3.0 is my final score.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm having a hard time sometimes being, you know, I have to remember we're we're grading this in the Hallmark sphere of things, right?
31:36
SPEAKER_02: So I don't want to be overly critical as I would, you know, say a regular movie in the theater, but I have to keep it, you know, kind of like okay, compared to other Hallmark movies, how that it's this rank.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: What is your next movie?
31:49
SPEAKER_01: So we are gonna go back to 2014, and we are gonna watch a movie called Christmas under Rats.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: And Renee, I am gonna make a very bold statement about this movie, and then I will defend it next week when we review it.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: But I don't think this is anybody's favorite movie in terms of rating-wise.
32:08
SPEAKER_01: There were 15 movies in 2014.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: This was ranked number 13 out of 15 when it comes to ratings.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: That Christmas Under Raps is the most important film, but I'm gonna argue in the history of Hallmark Christmas movies.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I know you're gonna I know go you can tell me, Rich, you've lost your Hallmark, but and I'm gonna defend that statement when we review this movie next week.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: The most important film in Hallmark Christmas movie history, Christmas Under Raps.
32:36
SPEAKER_02: Now, is it about two rappers or is it about Christmas rapping?
32:39
SPEAKER_01: It's about it's uh it's about let's say the raps uh word takes on a couple different meanings when the movie uh uh comes into play.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: So gotcha.
32:50
SPEAKER_02: All right, Rich.
32:51
SPEAKER_02: This is it for this review.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: Give us our uh our stuff where people can get a hold of us and contact us and all that stuff.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Forever Hallmark Christmas at gmail.com.
32:58
SPEAKER_01: If you want to shoot us an email, let us know uh what you think of uh of the show, any movies you'd like to see us review, maybe down the road.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: Uh Instagram is the best place where we post uh all of our material.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: Forever Hallmark Christmas is where you can find us there.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, that's it.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: We'll look forward to uh talking Christmas under wraps next week.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: Sounds good.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: For the love of Hallmark, for the love of Hallmark.