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Aquamarine · This Film is Lit

• 0:04
  Speaker A: This Film Is lit, the podcast where we finally settle the score on one simple Is the book really better than the movie? I'm Brian and I have a film degree, so I watch the movie but don't read the book.
• 0:15
  Speaker B: And I'm Katie, I have an English degree, so I do things the right way and read the book before we watch the movie.
• 0:22
  Speaker A: So prepare to be wowed by our expertise and charm as we dissect all of your favorite film adaptations and decide if the silver screen the or the written word did it better. So turn it up, settle in and get ready for spoilers. Because this film is lit. We are not fictional. We're just discreet. It's Aquamarine and this film is lit. Hello and welcome back to this Film Is lit the podcast where we talk about movies that are based on books. We have every single one of our segments. Lots to talk about. Let's jump right in. If you have not read or watched Aquamarine, we're going to give you a brief summary of the film. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. This summary is sourced from Wikipedia. Best friends Claire Brown and Haley Rogers are enjoying their last few days of summer vacation in their small beach town of Baby Ridge Bay Bridge. I thought I was like Baby Ridge isn't a place Bay Bridge near Tampa, Florida where Haley has to move to Australia Before Haley has to move to Australia due to her mother's job as a marine biologist, Haley prays to the ocean gods for a miracle to change her mother's mind about moving. Minutes later, a violent storm occurs. The next morning, Claire falls into the local pool, which has been flooded with seawater from the storm. Believing to have seen something moving in the water, the girls sneak back into the pool that night where they discover a mermaid named Aquamarine who had been washed in by the storm. Aquamarine explains that she ran away from home after being forced into an arranged marriage by her father, as merfolk do not believe in true love. However, he has agreed to end the engagement if she is able to prove to him within three days that love does exist. Aquamarine explains that she is able to transform her tail into legs during the day, but will revert into a mermaid if she touches water as well as when the sun sets. Her eye is eventually caught by Raymond, a lifeguard Haley and Claire have had a crush on for years. They were reluctant to help her get him to notice her, but agree. After Aquamarine reveals, anyone who helps a mermaid is granted a wish. Hoping to use the wish to prevent Haley's impending Move. Not understanding human social cues, Aquamarine is rejected by Raymond. When they first meet, Haley and Claire promise to make Raymond fall in love with her in the next three days, using strategies found in teen magazines. A group of popular girls headed by Cecilia Banks, the spoiled daughter of local meteorologist Storm Banks, who is also interested in Raymond, attempt. She is not. The meteorologist Storm Banks is not interested in Raymond attempt to sabotage Aquamarine by telling Raymond she has a boyfriend, something the girls manage to clear up, bringing them closer together. Aquamarine and Raymond bond at the Last Splash, a local celebration. She hastily leaves before the sunset, but first kisses him and asks him to meet her on the pier. In the morning, Cecilia follows the girls to the water tower where Aquamarine is staying and discovers her secret. She unhooks the ladder to prevent Aquamarine from leaving and calls the news to expose her on national television. The town's mysterious handyman, Leonard, helps Aquamarine escape, and she grants him a wish as punishment for publicly humiliating him. Storm confiscates save Cecilia's car, a pink Volkswagen convertible. The next morning at the pier, Aquamarine asks Raymond if he loves her. Raymond admits that he likes her but has not fallen in love with her yet, as they have only been on one date and he wants to take his time getting to know her. Cecilia angrily approaches and pushes Aquamarine into the ocean, revealing her true form to Raymond. He is shocked, but rushes to get his rescue board to save her. Much to Cecilia's dismay. Aquamarine's father summons a giant storm to drag her back home, but Haley and Claire jump into the ocean to her aid. When Aquamarine asks why they risked their lives to save her, they respond that they love her. The power of the girl's friendship finally convinces Aquamarine's father of true love's existence, and the storm subsides. Realizing how hard Hayley's mother has worked for her job, the girls decide to save their wish for something else and say goodbye to Aquamarine, who promises to visit. Raymond also visits Aquamar or asks Aquamarine to visit him, and they kiss. Back on shore, Raymond thanks the girls for their bravery and for introducing him to Aquamarine. Haley and Claire tell each other that they will miss each other and part ways. The end. We do have one guess who this week. Let's do it. Who are you? No one of consequence. I must know. Get used to disappointment, okay?
• 4:43
  Speaker B: Okay. I think you're gonna get this one. I think you can do it. Her hair was pale and silvery, and her nails were a shimmering blue. Between each finger, there was a Thin webbing of the sort you might find on a newborn seal or duck. She was as beautiful as a pearl with a faint turquoise tinge to her skin and eyes so blue they were the exact same color as the deepest sea. Yeah.
• 5:08
  Speaker A: So, yeah, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that that is aquamarine.
• 5:10
  Speaker B: It is. She's a little more creature.
• 5:14
  Speaker A: Yeah. I don't think she has webbing in her hands.
• 5:16
  Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think so.
• 5:17
  Speaker A: Movie, which I imagine is as much as anything, is just a budget saving thing of not having to do that. But also probably part of it is because she's a human most of the time, or walking around on land, it would. They would have to deal with. I guess they could just say it went away like her tail did. But. Yeah. She doesn't have a faint turquoise tinge to her skin.
• 5:39
  Speaker B: No.
• 5:39
  Speaker A: At least not that I.
• 5:41
  Speaker B: She looks. When she doesn't have the tail, she looks pretty.
• 5:43
  Speaker A: Pretty much like a human. And even with the tail, she just looks like a human with a tail.
• 5:47
  Speaker B: Also true.
• 5:48
  Speaker A: So. All right, I got some questions. Let's get into them. And was that in the book?
• 5:53
  Speaker B: Gaston? May I have my book, please?
• 5:55
  Speaker A: How can you read this?
• 5:56
  Speaker B: There's no pictures. Well, some people use their imagination.
• 6:00
  Speaker A: So first off, is the premise the same, which is that as we set up in the movie, Haley is for being forced to move to Australia with her mother. And her and her friend Claire are very sad about it. And I wanted to know if that was kind of the. The looming threat for our two main characters.
• 6:16
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's basically that there are a couple changes in the book. It's Claire who's about to move to Florida with her grandpar. So the movie is set in Florida and the book is set on the coast somewhere. It's implied to be further north, somewhere in New England probably. They talk about, like, winter, so.
• 6:38
  Speaker A: So they're. Yeah, so they're. Because in the movie it's near Tampa.
• 6:41
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 6:42
  Speaker A: I think that makes more sense just because I'm trying to imagine. I guess it would work up in the northeast, but it's not as much of like a. A beach.
• 6:52
  Speaker B: No, but the. I would say that the book is not like, beachy in the same way that the movie is. Okay.
• 6:59
  Speaker A: Because of the impending move. One night as they're having a sleepover, Haley decides she should pray to the sea gods for a. I don't even know exactly what she requests, but she basically, like, prays to the sea gods and a storm blows in. And I wanted to know if that happened in the book. Does she seemingly summon the storm?
• 7:20
  Speaker B: There is no prayer to the sea gods in the book. But a big storm does like kick off the story proper.
• 7:27
  Speaker A: Okay. It's also like she's. The Wikipedia summary says that like she. Her praying. Isn't that what it said? Like essentially summoned?
• 7:38
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 7:39
  Speaker A: Haley prays the ocean gods for a miracle to change. And then it said. Okay. It does say minutes later a violent storm occurs. Because to be fair, in the movie, I'm pretty sure I don't know if it's minutes later. I think it's like Ashley.
• 7:50
  Speaker B: It's like right after she.
• 7:52
  Speaker A: Yeah, I guess you could guess whether you can imply whether or not her. Because later when we find out that it doesn't matter.
• 8:00
  Speaker B: I don't know why I'm talking about it.
• 8:01
  Speaker A: Who cares? I was going to start.
• 8:04
  Speaker B: I mean we do find out later that ostensibly Aquamarine's father can make storms. Yes.
• 8:11
  Speaker A: And what I was going to say is that he's like. Kicks her. He doesn't kick her out though. Wait, hold on. What did it say? She has been washed in by the storm. Oh, she got. She ran away from home. So the storm was unrelated to her father there. It just happened to occur at the time that Haley was. I guess or I guess you could argue that maybe Haley somehow did cause it. But it wasn't Haley's. If Haley caused it, it wasn't through Aquamarine's father. Probably.
• 8:43
  Speaker B: Probably not. It seems unlikely that he would respond. Respond to her. Of prayer doesn't matter.
• 8:48
  Speaker A: I don't know why I'm. I already got bored of trying to figure it out. This was almost a lost in adaptation. But I must have just missed something. We're watching the next morning after the storm happens. They go out and they're kind of investigating or it might even be that I can't remember. But I think it's the next morning. They're kind of investigating like the damage because the storm was. It was a pretty big storm and there's like debris everywhere and quite a bit of damage and stuff like that. And they're walking around out by this pool that like is on the little resort or whatever that I guess they live near or at or never really entirely clear in the movie. But I believe one of Claire's family owns it.
• 9:26
  Speaker B: It seems like her grandparents own it. Yeah, it's like a little beach front resort. So it butts up to the beach and then there's a pool and a snack area and whatever.
• 9:36
  Speaker A: Yeah. So I couldn't figure out why she seems to be seeing something in the water, but then she just falls into the pool. And I was like, what happened there? And I couldn't tell if she was lured in by the lights or what occurred there. And I just may have missed something. But.
• 9:51
  Speaker B: So this isn't from the book. I just happened to notice this in the movie, the tile on the edge of the pool gives way when she stepped on it.
• 9:59
  Speaker A: Oh.
• 10:00
  Speaker B: Like, she's as. She's, like, leaning over to look in the pool. Like, the tile under her foot.
• 10:04
  Speaker A: I must have missed that exact shot because I remembered watching her fall into the water and not remembering a shot
• 10:11
  Speaker B: where at least I'm pretty sure.
• 10:13
  Speaker A: I believe that makes the most sense, because otherwise I couldn't figure out why she just fell in the pool. Like, it didn't seem like. But that actually makes sense because. And it being damaged from the storm or whatever would track. So, okay. But then she discovers. She sees when she falls into the pool, a mermaid. And it is revealed that a mermaid has ended up trapped in their pool. And I wanted to know if that's what happened in the book. Does the mermaid end up stranded in their swimming pool?
• 10:39
  Speaker B: Yes, the storm does deposit a mermaid into the pool at the Capri Beach Club.
• 10:45
  Speaker A: Is that different?
• 10:46
  Speaker B: I think it's called the same thing.
• 10:48
  Speaker A: And whose is it in the.
• 10:51
  Speaker B: We don't know. It's just the beach club they always go to.
• 10:55
  Speaker A: They just go there. Yeah, I see. Okay. Okay. There's this a little moment in the movie when they first meet her that they come back in the evening, they see her during the day, Claire sees her, and then she's like, we'll come back tonight and see. And they come back later that evening, and they're talking to her, and she pops out of the pool, and they're having a discussion, and they're just talking about her being a mermaid, obviously. But there's a moment where she. They're, like, looking at her tail, and she's like, do you want to touch it? And the way she asked. It has a very weird energy in the movie. And I wanted to know if that came from the book.
• 11:26
  Speaker B: No, that does not happen in the book. And I agree that it was a strange moment.
• 11:31
  Speaker A: It was a weird moment. And then right after that, she, like, sticks one of the girl's feet in her, like, mouth.
• 11:36
  Speaker B: Yeah. She, like, grabs one of their feet,
• 11:38
  Speaker A: and it's like investing. Yeah. And it gave me. That whole exchange. Gave me Dan Schneider.
• 11:45
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 11:46
  Speaker A: Nickelodeon. Like, early. Like, I know.
• 11:48
  Speaker B: I wrote.
• 11:50
  Speaker A: But, like, mid 2000s, Nickelodeon.
• 11:52
  Speaker B: I had a note in Odds and Ends that was like, oh, this is one for the feet, people.
• 11:55
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, okay. And it just is. That's the only moment like that in the movie. But it was just strange. So the next day, they're freaking out because they wake up. They're like, well, we'll come back and we'll see you tomorrow. They wake up the next day and the pool has been drained.
• 12:12
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 12:12
  Speaker A: Because it's obviously full of, like, debris and stuff from the ocean. So they drain the pool, and they're, like, freaking out, like, what the heck? Where's she at? Because she's not in the pool. And then they discover that she's hiding in, like, the little snack shack or whatever next to the pool because she has grown legs. And she explains that during the day, while on land, she can grow legs.
• 12:34
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 12:34
  Speaker A: Her tail, like, transforms, but at night, she will turn back into a mermaid.
• 12:39
  Speaker B: Or if she gets wet.
• 12:40
  Speaker A: Yes, she will turn back into a mermaid. And I wanted to know if that came from the book.
• 12:45
  Speaker B: So this is. It's H2O. Just add water Rules here.
• 12:50
  Speaker A: I mean, I've heard of that.
• 12:51
  Speaker B: I've not seen that show. I've heard of it. It's incredible. And bad, but also incredible. Except that I checked and this movie actually came out first. So technically, H2O just add water was using Aquamarine Rules. Although I'm sure that neither of these properties came up with the idea of.
• 13:11
  Speaker A: That's a. Seems like a pretty obvious, like, solution to how you're gonna do a mermaid story where she comes to land.
• 13:17
  Speaker B: But anyway, the answer is no, this is not from the book. She is a mermaid the whole time, and she's in the pool the whole time.
• 13:26
  Speaker A: Interesting.
• 13:27
  Speaker B: And when they arrange, like, a dinner date with Raymond for her, they put her in a wheelchair and hide her tail under a blanket.
• 13:34
  Speaker A: See? Okay, now I get why they. Okay, that's fun, though. The hijinks that that would entail, I think would be fun.
• 13:43
  Speaker B: I. And I actually like this better in the book. And I totally get why the movie does it. Because it would be boring to have her be stuck in one place for the entire runtime. But I can have legs. Actually kind of feels like cheating.
• 13:58
  Speaker A: It does feel a little bit like.
• 13:59
  Speaker B: It feels a little easy.
• 14:00
  Speaker A: Especially because she didn't say it before. Like, it's. The way it's retreated is like a reveal of, like, oh, she has legs. It's like. And she seemed to be aware of this. But then didn' say anything about it. Just, it's a little like, all right, I guess that's convenient.
• 14:13
  Speaker B: Like, again, I totally get why the movie does it.
• 14:16
  Speaker A: Yeah. But, yeah, it's fine. It's whatever. So they. They take her inside now because they're like, well, we got to get you out of here and get you some clothes. She's also naked for, like, half the movie. Whenever she's a mermaid, she does not have a top. She doesn't even have a shell top. She just has hair.
• 14:34
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 14:34
  Speaker A: In front of her. Her breasts, but they're like, well, you're naked.
• 14:38
  Speaker B: Classic mermaid things. Classic.
• 14:39
  Speaker A: Classic mermaid. Yeah. And so they're like, well, we got to get you inside and get you some clothes and stuff. So they go inside, and there's just one brief moment where she explains that she has a shell, a conch that she can communicate with the ocean with.
• 14:53
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 14:54
  Speaker A: And I was like, oh, she has a shell phone. And then the movie makes. I mean, it's the obvious joke, but the movie makes that joke two seconds later. And I wanted to know if she had a shell phone in the book.
• 15:07
  Speaker B: Not in the way that the movie depicts, although there is something that's kind of arguably similar. Ish. At the end of the book, Aquamarine gives a shell to both Claire and Haley as, like, a parting gift. And the line from the book is, when you held one up to your ear, you could hear the sound of your best friend talking to you, even if she was a thousand miles away. So it's. I don't. I don't feel like that implies that you can, like, communicate through it, but
• 15:41
  Speaker A: maybe you can maybe. Yeah. I don't know. It's hard to tell from that line, at least.
• 15:46
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 15:47
  Speaker A: Yeah. Essentially, it's. It's like a phone in the movie. They never use it, though.
• 15:51
  Speaker B: Does her dad calls her on it?
• 15:52
  Speaker A: Does he?
• 15:53
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 15:53
  Speaker A: When.
• 15:54
  Speaker B: When they're in the bedroom. Like that first scene where she has the phone.
• 15:59
  Speaker A: Yeah. Like, that's. Sorry, I meant that it doesn't. Yeah. Yes, I am aware of her. I meant, like, I. To me, that felt like an item they were setting up that was going to, like.
• 16:07
  Speaker B: I see what you're.
• 16:08
  Speaker A: Play a role in the narrative at
• 16:10
  Speaker B: some point, but it's just like, just
• 16:12
  Speaker A: in this one off scene, and. Yeah. And then I was like, okay. Yeah. Because I was expecting that. That's the kind of thing that feels like, you know, okay, we're setting this up. It's gonna be important later. She's gonna use it. For something, or one of the girls is gonna have to use it or something. And it just never. I was like, all right, well, it doesn't really matter. I was just. Just interested to see. So then we get to the actual premise of the story, which is that Aquamarine was put into an arranged marriage by her father. She ran away from home, and after talking to her dad, he has given her three days to find love or prove love exists in order to get out of her arranged marriage. And the line she explicitly says in reference to that, that I wanted to know if it was a book because I thought it was funny, is she says, I have to find love. We don't have it where I'm from. And I wanted to know if that was kind of the. The whole premise of the book is that she needs to find love in three days or at all. Or whatever in order to. If it's the Little Mermaid or what.
• 17:11
  Speaker B: No, this is. It's not from the book.
• 17:13
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 17:14
  Speaker B: She does fall in love with Raymond, like, when she sees him, but the book does not swipe anything beyond that from the Little Mermaid.
• 17:22
  Speaker A: So she just develops a crush on him. But there's no, like.
• 17:25
  Speaker B: There's no, like, you have to ultimatum or a confession of true love within three days or else.
• 17:30
  Speaker A: Okay. Does the mermaid offer the girls a wish in exchange for helping her bag Raymond? Because that then becomes the thing. She goes, well, if you help me get with Raymond in order to prove that love exists, or just to get with him, as I guess would be in the book's case, because she has a crush on him, if you do that, I can grant you a wish, because mermaids can grant wishes. And so they're like, well, we can use that to stop you from having to move. And I wanted to know if that came from the book.
• 17:57
  Speaker B: No, it does not. She doesn't offer them a wish. I didn't mind this edition. I think it's a fun mythology twist. In the book, the girls realize that Aquamarine can only stay on land for seven days before she dries up and turns into dust.
• 18:17
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 18:19
  Speaker B: However, because she has fallen in love with Raymond, she refuses to leave. So they're like, what are we gonna do? I know will give her what she wants. So they tell her that they're going to arrange this date for her and Raymond on the stipulation that she agrees to then go back to the ocean.
• 18:40
  Speaker A: Okay, I see. Because I was trying to figure out, like, what the plot of the book was that, like, what's the. What's the Goals. What are the. You know, what are, like, the stakes or whatever. But that. That at least makes sense and clarifies a little bit. But one of the things mentioned in the summary is that Haley's mother is a marine biologist. And when Aquamarine finds this out, she tells Haley to thank her mom for cleaning up the ocean because the water tastes way better now than it did before her mom got there. And I wanted to know if that came from the book.
• 19:12
  Speaker B: It does not. No, just the lightest of light. Environmental messaging.
• 19:17
  Speaker A: A little bit of environmental messaging there. But it's also. It's actually. I mean, that is what it is, but it's more. More importantly, it's just. It's thematically important for Haley's character.
• 19:25
  Speaker B: True.
• 19:26
  Speaker A: Like, that's what it is, is her
• 19:27
  Speaker B: realizing, realize it, that her mom is
• 19:29
  Speaker A: doing important work and, like, is, you know, helping people or not helping people
• 19:33
  Speaker B: and isn't just, like, dragging her around for the fun of it.
• 19:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So they come up, they gotta figure out how to get Aquamarine on a date with Raymond and to get her. Raymond to fall in love with her. And so they start using, you know, like, stuff from magazine like Cosmos, Teen Vogue or whatever. Like tips on how to, like, get with a boy or whatever. And the first step, they say, is calling and hanging up on him. And they don't know why you do that. That's just what you do. And I wanted to know if that happened in the book. I thought that was funny in the movie.
• 20:06
  Speaker B: No, this doesn't happen in the book. This is one of those episodes where
• 20:11
  Speaker A: all my answers are, like, literally no to every answer.
• 20:13
  Speaker B: But I agree with you. I thought this was cute.
• 20:16
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's fun. And she chucks the phone out the window.
• 20:18
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 20:19
  Speaker A: She doesn't know what to do, so they have to figure out what to do with her at night when she's gonna turn back into a mermaid. They can't leave her in the pool necessarily. So they figure out they have to come up with a place to put her. And their solution is like, oh, the water town's water tower. We can climb up there and it just opens and it's just a giant thing. It was pretty easy to get into. Pretty easy to get into. Pretty easy to get up there.
• 20:42
  Speaker B: Seems like desert.
• 20:42
  Speaker A: It's also just like a door that leads directly to a big pool, basically
• 20:47
  Speaker B: to the town's water source.
• 20:49
  Speaker A: Very silly, obviously, but it's fun for the movie's purposes. It's fun. So that's where she stays at night. She lives in the water tower. And I wanted to know if that
• 20:57
  Speaker B: came from the book also. Not from the book, but I also liked this. I thought it was fun and unique, and it's kind of got an extra fairy tale. Like she goes and stays in a tower, you know?
• 21:08
  Speaker A: Exactly.
• 21:09
  Speaker B: It's fun.
• 21:10
  Speaker A: So in the book, she just stay in the pool?
• 21:12
  Speaker B: Yeah, she stays in the pool.
• 21:13
  Speaker A: How do they keep her?
• 21:14
  Speaker B: So the beach club in the book is, like, really run down, and it's actually going to be demolished at the end of the summer. Nobody goes there anymore. So it's like she's able to stay there because literally no one.
• 21:28
  Speaker A: It's like a band.
• 21:29
  Speaker B: Yes. Abandoned, basically.
• 21:31
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 21:31
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 21:32
  Speaker A: So then they need to. I think they're preparing to go. They need to get Aquamarine a new wardrobe because she's exclusively been wearing Haley's T shirt as a dress.
• 21:40
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 21:42
  Speaker A: And so they need to give her some. Get her some clothes. So they need to go shopping. So they take a bus trip into Tampa to go shopping, because I guess Baybridge doesn't have clothing stores or whatever. So they go into Tampa, and Aquamarine surprisingly introduces them to the world of thrifting. And I needed to know if that occurred in the book, because that was a lot of fun.
• 22:06
  Speaker B: It doesn't. But, you know, I can't hate on that.
• 22:09
  Speaker A: I know. I was like, look at this. It's like it's. They wrote this little aside just for you. But, yeah, she basically is like, oh, you know, like, all the mainstream, like, designer clothes are boring. Like, go find. She goes. She takes him to, like, a vintage thrift shop and is like, this stuff's all way cooler. And they're like, oh, okay. And again, here, the goal, the essential moment here is her teaching them to not care what other people think and to find their own identities and to be their own people and to forge their own kind of fashion and make their own choices in life and not just conform with people and stuff like that. Again, it's fine. It's good. It's fun. A little thing that kind of comes up again at the end of the movie is that Aquamarine says she needs earrings, and they're going to give her normal earrings, but she's like, what. What. What do you do with these? Because, like, you put them, and they're like, you just put them in your holes. And she's like, what? That's weird. And because she doesn't actually have her ears pierced, the earrings wears are tiny starfish that sucked onto her ears. And then Whisper compliments in her ear. And I needed to know if that came from the book because, boy, is that some interesting world building.
• 23:16
  Speaker B: No, this is also not from the book. And I wanted to like that. And I do think it's kind of a fun idea. But I really hated the way the starfish talked. I really hated it. I thought they sounded creepy.
• 23:33
  Speaker A: Yes, I agree. They. They do. Like, so I looked it up. It's on Wikipedia. It just says it's just the voice of the actresses doing their own.
• 23:42
  Speaker B: And I assume with like, a filter or something.
• 23:45
  Speaker A: Basically just pitch shifted.
• 23:47
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 23:47
  Speaker A: Really high so that they're like. But it's like this droning weird. Like, it sounds kind of similar to in, like, an episode of Doctor who if there were like, an evil, tiny alien.
• 24:00
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 24:01
  Speaker A: That's like, what it would sound like or something.
• 24:03
  Speaker B: Like the thing then coupled with, like, what they're am.
• 24:06
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 24:06
  Speaker B: They're like, you're so amazing. Is so beautiful.
• 24:11
  Speaker A: Like, the way they talk is. It has this, like. I don't even know how the. The cadence of it. And like, the. The way it's voiced. It has. It. It is like horror movie villain, like, haunted doll voice or something like that. That. That's what it is. It's haunted doll voice. And it's so interesting because. Yeah, it's like.
• 24:31
  Speaker B: And I. Yeah, it's like a haunted doll luring you in before it kills you.
• 24:36
  Speaker A: And I feel like they needed to come up with a better solution for what that should sound like, because, again, the idea is fine, but as it plays out in the movie, it comes across weird and creepy. Another very interesting moment in the movie is throughout the movie, we've learned that Claire is scared of the water. She doesn't like swimming. And I don't know if this is the scene where we find it out, or. I think we may have heard earlier that the reason for that is that her parents drowned.
• 25:03
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 25:04
  Speaker A: A while ago. I don't know if we know how long ago.
• 25:06
  Speaker B: I don't think the movie ever specifies
• 25:08
  Speaker A: how long, but that's why she's living with her grandparents, is that her parents drown. And Aquamarine, in an exchange with Claire, is talking about how she knows what true love is, because one time while she was out at sea, she saw these two people in a boat that were clearly in love.
• 25:27
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 25:28
  Speaker A: And so that's the only time she had seen true love. So she knew that it was real. And Claire is like, what was the name of the boat those people were on? And she's like, the Claire De Lune, which is.
• 25:41
  Speaker B: And it was her parents.
• 25:43
  Speaker A: Yeah. And surprise. It was her parents. And I think it was the trip. Right. Like, that they drowned on, I think is the implication.
• 25:51
  Speaker B: I don't know if it was necessarily, like, it wasn't necessarily. I think that's never confirmed. But Aquamarine does say that she never saw them again after that.
• 26:03
  Speaker A: So, like, maybe. I think that's kind of the implication is that that was when they drown. And I needed to know if that happened in the book because I was like, boy, that's something. That exchange is something that does not
• 26:15
  Speaker B: happen in the book. In the book, Claire's parents actually died in a car crash. They don't die in, like, a boating accident, drowning incident. I do think that having Aquamarine independently bring up how in love they seemed was a little, like, overly sentimental. But I also think that having Claire's parents die in a boating accident feels more solidly connected to her ensuing fear of water, which she also has in the book.
• 26:45
  Speaker A: Yeah. So, like, I don't even hate the idea of it in the movie. Like, it's kind of clever and makes sense, but the way it all plays out in the movie feels a little convenient and weird. Yeah. It feels strange how she's like, well, the one time I saw them was. It just so happens that the people she saw.
• 27:05
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 27:05
  Speaker A: Were Claire's parents right before they drowned. It's just.
• 27:08
  Speaker B: And then like, on top of that, it's not a very good story about how you realize.
• 27:12
  Speaker A: No, she just saw them on a boat. She didn't even. Yeah. She doesn't even necessarily go into, like, detail about, like, what they were doing and why. Like, it's just. She's like, oh, I saw this couple and they were so in love. And it's like, but how did you know they were in love if you don't know what love? Like, the idea is there, but that's one that needed to be, like, hashed out in. In the scripting process on a couple more drafts or something to make that scene work a little bit better than it does. Because, like I said, I think it's a good idea. I just think it ends up playing out a little, like, overwrought and under thought out.
• 27:44
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 27:46
  Speaker A: They go back home. I don't know. I think they're getting ready for.
• 27:49
  Speaker B: I don't remember. There are, like, multiple parties in this.
• 27:52
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 27:53
  Speaker B: Part of the movie.
• 27:53
  Speaker A: Oh, also, I think she's just upset. I think she's just upset because she thinks. Because she's, like, in the tub like, freaking out.
• 28:01
  Speaker B: Oh, is this the part where Raymond thinks that she has a boyfriend and
• 28:07
  Speaker A: so he's going to.
• 28:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, so he's going to the party.
• 28:10
  Speaker A: The party with Cecilia Celia. And so she's upset about that, and so they're all, like, hanging out, and
• 28:15
  Speaker B: she's just like, yes. This is when she's eating Ben and Jerry's. Yes.
• 28:17
  Speaker A: Yeah. She's in the bathtub eating Ben and Jerry's fish food.
• 28:20
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 28:20
  Speaker A: Great joke. I guess it's fine. And it would be fine if they didn't just, like, literally have her go, this is my new two favorite people, Ben and Jerry. I get it. That it's a. She's like, says Ben and Jerry's. It's. It's a marketing tie in. I understand what's going on here, but at the same time, I'm just like, whatever. But it's fine. It's a fine joke. It's just. I think they spotlight it a little too much, which makes it. But again, it's also a kids movie. Who cares? Point being, she's in the tub and Raymond shows up because Claire has explained. I think Claire went and found Raymond,
• 28:56
  Speaker B: explained to him, and that she doesn't
• 28:59
  Speaker A: have a boy, she doesn't have a boyfriend. That's not true. Blah, blah, blah. And so he comes to talk to her.
• 29:04
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 29:05
  Speaker A: And she is in the tub. So she has her tail, and her tail is, like, hanging out of the tub. And in order to make this look not suspicious, Haley, who is sitting there in the bathroom, jumps in the tub and hides under the. Her top half under the water. And then hangs her legs out of the tub.
• 29:25
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 29:25
  Speaker A: So that when Raymond opens the door, he sees Aquamarine's top half and then Haley's legs, but assumes Haley's legs are Aquamarine's legs. And then he won't realize she's a mermaid. I needed to know if this happened in the book.
• 29:41
  Speaker B: No, it doesn't. I do think it's a funny bit.
• 29:45
  Speaker A: It is. If you don't think about it at all, it's fine.
• 29:47
  Speaker B: I think they probably could have just covered her tail.
• 29:50
  Speaker A: Could have just put her tail in the tub, which is what she did. In order for it not to think
• 29:56
  Speaker B: her legs need to be poking out of the.
• 29:58
  Speaker A: No, that's what makes it very silly. It's fine. It's a kid. It's a good gag. I understand why you come up with that gag. It makes for a funny moment.
• 30:07
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 30:08
  Speaker A: But it does make you go, but she could just put her tail under the water and that would have done the same thing. But it's fine. It's fine. I wanted to know if Raymond's character felt similar to how he does in the movie, because I actually really liked his character in the film and thought that he felt they did a good job writing him to feel like kind of just did like a normal, nice guy. He's not super interesting or like, doesn't have a particularly strong or unique character. Yeah, but he's a good, believable beach himbo.
• 30:38
  Speaker B: And I thought, yeah, his job is beach.
• 30:40
  Speaker A: Yes, exactly. And. But. But also he's very nice in a way that feels like, genuine and not, like, overly.
• 30:50
  Speaker B: He seems like a decent guy.
• 30:51
  Speaker A: Seems like a decent guy who's just kind of dumb.
• 30:54
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 30:54
  Speaker A: And I liked that. And I wanted to know if he felt similar in the book.
• 30:58
  Speaker B: Not. No, not really. Not really at all. In the book, Raymond is. He is supposed to be super handsome, but his whole personality is that he's always reading books because he's going to college at the end of that summer. I honestly don't have strong feelings about this change. I think both versions work for the property that they're in. Yeah, like, it's fine.
• 31:22
  Speaker A: I just thought he was. I liked him in the movie. I thought he grew on me as a character over the course of the film. I thought he was. Specifically the scene I thought's really sweet where Claire gets embarrassed at the party and he, like, runs out and like, apologizes and like, make sure she's okay and stuff. I thought that was like, really sweet, but also like kind of underwritten in a way that felt realistic and like. I don't know, I just thought the way his character was written and I guess the way he performs it were both done pretty well. So then we get to the big kind of second act low point. Cecilia discovers Aquamarine's secret that she is a mermaid.
• 31:59
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 32:00
  Speaker A: I can't remember exactly how. She follows them. That's right.
• 32:03
  Speaker B: She climbs up the water.
• 32:04
  Speaker A: Yeah. She follows them one evening to the water tower and then later that evening climbs up and sees Aquamarine in the water tower, climbs back down, knocks the ladder over so that nobody can get in or out, and then goes to tell her dad. And I wanted to know if that happened. Her dad, who is the meteorologist, so that he can do it on the news. For some reason he's reporting.
• 32:31
  Speaker B: Maybe he aspires to be a reporter.
• 32:32
  Speaker A: I guess he aspires to be a reporter, which isn't really how meteorologists work, but whatever. Not that's its own specialty. You don't.
• 32:39
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 32:40
  Speaker A: Their meteorologists aren't just anchors and waiting.
• 32:43
  Speaker B: He was waiting for his big break.
• 32:44
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 32:45
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 32:45
  Speaker A: It's like, I. I know. I think he's doing what he want. Whatever. Fine. But, yeah, he's now reporting. I just don't even understand why they make him a media. They make him a meteorologist because his name is Storm Banks or whatever like that.
• 32:57
  Speaker B: That's why his dream was never to be a meteor.
• 33:01
  Speaker A: But I just don't understand why you could have just made him a reporter. You know what I mean? Like, he could have just, in the movie, been a news reporter or the main anchor at the station or whatever.
• 33:09
  Speaker B: Right.
• 33:09
  Speaker A: And then it would have, like, worked. But they make him the meteorologist and he's reporting on a. Supposedly a woman trapped in a water tower.
• 33:16
  Speaker B: Right.
• 33:16
  Speaker A: Okay, fine.
• 33:17
  Speaker B: Whatever.
• 33:18
  Speaker A: Makes no sense. Doesn't really matter. But I wanted to know if that all came from the book.
• 33:22
  Speaker B: It does not. Cecilia is actually not in the book at all. Oh, interesting. And I'm honestly not sure she needed to be in the movie either. Yeah, I kind of think that there was already enough going on without adding a mean girl character.
• 33:36
  Speaker A: I feel like they thought the movie needed something resembling an antagonist because there's not. Otherwise there's really anything working against them other than just her being a mermaid and the ticking clock or whatever.
• 33:50
  Speaker B: But I. I do. If I may, like, rewrite the script a tiny bit, I. I think she could have still been in it, but I think she should have been maybe more of a background character, like this cool older girl that the girls have this, like, aspirational hate relationship to, like, but they don't ever really interact. Because to me, that's something that is integral to girlhood there being like, this cool girl that you desperately want to be like. So you make up reasons to dislike her, Right?
• 34:25
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 34:25
  Speaker B: Even though you've never actually interacted with her.
• 34:28
  Speaker A: Yeah. That would also feel more in line with what the movie's doing on the whole.
• 34:32
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 34:32
  Speaker A: In terms of, like, it being about, like, personal growth. Personal growth, but just also, like, kind of friendship and, like, girlhood and.
• 34:40
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 34:41
  Speaker A: And all of that sort of stuff. I think part of that would be being kind of realizing that maybe this person that they.
• 34:48
  Speaker B: This person that they have, like, built up in their heads is not actually what they've built her up.
• 34:53
  Speaker A: Both not as cool nor not as evil, maybe, or, like, you know, as they thought or something like that could have been interesting. But she kind of just ends up being A generic. Like, no, she is the bully who gets her comeuppance. And that's.
• 35:05
  Speaker B: And I do think it is very much like the time period and the genre that, oh, we have to have a mean girl.
• 35:11
  Speaker A: It is a classic. Yeah. And even just. Yeah, yeah. It's the classic. She's the bully in the school, like, whatever. Or the cool girl. Whatever. Cool kid who is the bully to our main characters and gets her comeuppance at the end. It's very rote. It's very. And so finding out it wasn't in the book actually makes more sense in that it feels more like a traditional Hollywood storyline.
• 35:33
  Speaker B: For sure.
• 35:34
  Speaker A: Does the mysterious handyman that I can't remember the name of.
• 35:37
  Speaker B: Leonard.
• 35:38
  Speaker A: Leonard rescue. He knows about mermaids in the movie. Seemingly he finds, like, a little necklace or something.
• 35:45
  Speaker B: Yeah. He finds her necklace in the pool
• 35:47
  Speaker A: and then uses this in his ancient book that he has of mermaid lore or whatever to realize that a mermaid has washed up on shore and then somehow realizes she's in the water tower, finds her and rescues her from the water tower before the news shows up the next day. So she doesn't actually get discovered. And I wanted to know if any of that came like. Or anything like that. Obviously, I know the water tower and stuff isn't. But if a friendly handyman saves the day in some way in the book.
• 36:14
  Speaker B: No, his character is not in the book at all. The only tiny little element that's kind of similar is that in the book, the girls do ultimately tell Claire's grandfather about Aquamarine, and he, like, is very wise about it. And, like, implies that he has also seen a mermaid in his. In his days.
• 36:37
  Speaker A: Right.
• 36:38
  Speaker B: So that's kind of the only thing that's similar.
• 36:41
  Speaker A: Ish.
• 36:42
  Speaker B: I guess I. I didn't mind the. The Leonard character. I think he's a very cliche character, but I think it works.
• 36:49
  Speaker A: And he's barely in the movie. Yeah, it's fine. The only issue I have with it is that we get the classic, like, oh, okay. But he. So he gets a wish because he helped the mermaid, and then he uses the wish.
• 37:00
  Speaker B: I have a note about that.
• 37:01
  Speaker A: Later. We'll get to it. What he uses his wish for, I was like, all right, I guess we're just not gonna address that issue in this property. That's fine. We'll get to that in a second, though. She's saved. She's running out of time. So she goes and she meets Raymond on the pier, which. Where they agreed to meet the next day or whatever. After they shared a brief kiss the night before at the Last Splash party or whatever it was. And now they're meeting the next day, and he meets her on the pier, and they're kind of having a discussion, and she asks. She straight up asks him, like, do you love me? And he explains that he likes her, but he doesn't love her because we've only been on one date. So, no, I don't.
• 37:39
  Speaker B: Very reasonable.
• 37:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, I don't love you. And I wanted to know if any of that exchange came from the book.
• 37:45
  Speaker B: No, it doesn't. But the goal in the book also isn't to get Raymond to fall in love with her.
• 37:50
  Speaker A: So, okay, what is the end status of their relationship in the book?
• 37:56
  Speaker B: So they have their dinner date, and Raymond is, like, very smitten with her, probably more in love with her in the book than he is in the movie at that point. And then the next day, he. There's like, a farewell party at the beach club, so there are actually people there. And a little kid falls into the pool, and Raymond dives in to get him out and sees Aquamarine in her mermaid form. Doesn't say anything. And then they return her to the ocean. And then at the end of the book, we find out that wherever Raymond went to college is also on the coast, and he and Aquamarine go on ocean dates.
• 38:42
  Speaker A: Okay, cool. So similar, like, I'll see you again kind of thing.
• 38:47
  Speaker B: Right.
• 38:48
  Speaker A: During that exchange, though, after he tells her that she doesn't love him or he doesn't love her, she starts crying. And he asks, like, are you crying? And her response is, great. And I want to know if it came from the book. She says, yes. Apparently it's something I do, which I thought was funny, and I wanted to know what was in the book.
• 39:04
  Speaker B: That exchange is not from the book. She does cry in the book, and the book mentions that her tears are blue, but they.
• 39:12
  Speaker A: Is she surprised by the act of crying?
• 39:14
  Speaker B: No.
• 39:15
  Speaker A: Okay. Because she's taken aback at the first time this happens, which I thought was a little silly. Like, the idea. I was like, okay, like, I get that, like, the water coming out of her face. I guess she might not realize, but, like, the act of crying, I don't know. Maybe it makes sense. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Who cares? I don't know why I'm trying to make sense of it. Cecilia shows up, pushes. She's very mad at everything that has gone down. She pushes Aquamarine in the water, turns into a mermaid. Raymond runs to get his Boogie board to save her. Apparently, as a lifeguard, he can't just jump in and save her. Like, I get that, you know, better to have, like your little thing or whatever, but you can also save people without a thing, whatever. Because he runs. He's gone for a long time. And I'm like, she would have drowned. She could have just drowned in that time, man. Like, you could have just jumped in and saved her. It's not. It's right at the end of the pier. You're a lifeguard. Like, okay. And again, I get that it's better to have, like a flotation device when you're doing that, but it's not impossible to do it without one. While they're waiting for him, the girls decide, well, we gotta do something. So they jump into the water together. Claire has a great moment where she conquers her fear and says, you know, I'm gonna do it too. And they jump in. Because on top of being in the water, the bigger issue, obviously, she's a mermaid. It's not an issue.
• 40:30
  Speaker B: Right? She's not gonna drown.
• 40:31
  Speaker A: No, she's not gonna drown. But the issue is that her father is creating a storm that is like, dragging her away. He's like, pulling her with the tire or whatever and dragging her away back to the ocean. And so they jump in to try to save her, and they meet up. She's able to grab onto the buoy out in the ocean, and they kind of meet up on the buoy. And as they're sitting there and they're having their conversation, they tell her that they love her. Or she asks, like, why did you do it? Why did you come after me? And they said, well, because we love you. And that moment, them saying that is what causes her father to realize love does exist. That saves the day. The storm stops and he doesn't drag her back to the ocean. And I wanted to know if it was their friendship, the love of their friendship that saves the day in the book.
• 41:17
  Speaker B: No, not really.
• 41:20
  Speaker A: Really.
• 41:20
  Speaker B: Friendship being the true love that they needed all along, I would say is not really from the book. The book is about friendship, but not in this specific way that the movie is. And I do like this, though. It's. Yeah, it's cliche, but it's cute.
• 41:39
  Speaker A: I don't even know how cliche it is for a kid movie.
• 41:41
  Speaker B: It's a little cliche, I think, for
• 41:44
  Speaker A: this, for a kids movie is a. I don't want to say it's not like, particularly, like, mind blowing or anything, but it's to me, it felt kind of subversive to what a traditional story like this would end up having. Like, the moment where the thing that saves the day is these two best friends can. Especially because it's playing like a fairy tale. It's playing on fairy tale stuff. I mean, we're doing the Little Mermaid kind of, and where you're expecting the true love's kiss or whatever to save the day, but he goes, no, it's the friendship, the love, this platonic love between these friends that is what saves the day. Which, again, is not like, the most unique thing ever. And it's not like other stories don't do it. But I think the way this movie sets up the traditional fairy tale romantic love as the thing and then subverts that with platonic love feels, I think, maybe a little unique for a kid's story like this. I don't know. I liked it. I thought it was good.
• 42:41
  Speaker B: It is good. It's a good message as well.
• 42:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. So. And then they finally. They save the day, and then she reminds them that they have their wish since they helped her, but they decide not to use their wish to stop Hayley from moving because they realize, or Haley specifically realizes, that her mom deserves this, has been working hard for this. There's been some other scenes that we didn't talk about where there's some other stuff where she kind of realizes how hard her mom has worked for this, how important the work she does is, all that kind of stuff. And so decides and actually, I won't stop her from getting to move to Australia and live out her dream. And I wanted to know if that can. From the book.
• 43:20
  Speaker B: No, it doesn't. Like I said, there isn't a wish in the book. However, by the end of the book, the girls have come into their own a bit more. They've gained confidence in themselves and their relationship, so they're able to come to terms with parting ways. By the end of the book, they come to this realization that, yeah, we're not going to live next door to each other anymore, but we're still friends. And that doesn't mean that. That we're not gonna be friends.
• 43:49
  Speaker A: Yeah. So it's the same idea. It's just there isn't like a concrete.
• 43:52
  Speaker B: Like a. Yeah, there isn't like a concrete.
• 43:54
  Speaker A: Like, there was a thing that could have.
• 43:56
  Speaker B: Right.
• 43:56
  Speaker A: Yeah. We could have wished it from stopping it from happening and decide not to.
• 44:00
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 44:00
  Speaker A: But it's the same idea. Okay, cool. Those are all my questions for. Was that in the book I do have a couple things I want to talk about in Lost, in Adaptation. Just show me the way to get out of here, and I'll be on my way. Yes, yes. And I want to get unlost as soon as possible. This one's a little movie thing, I assume, or maybe. Maybe you can expand on it from the book, but I couldn't decide if I think they're actually in Claire's. Like, staying at Claire's. When they have the sleepover the first night, they're sleeping in a room that is full of, like, arcade cabinets and vending machines. And I was like, what is going on here? And then I realized, like, oh, I guess this is, like, the resort. And, like, oh. And then I realized, like, maybe Claire's grandparents own. Because we saw them, like, working. Doing work on it earlier. And so I was like. Because I thought they were just having a sleepover at one of their houses or whatever. So I was trying to figure out why one of these girls, living room or basement or whatever, had a bunch of pinball machines and vending machines and all this.
• 45:01
  Speaker B: Because they have the coolest basement.
• 45:02
  Speaker A: Yeah. I was like, it's pretty gnarly. But, like, what. And then. So I think, what's going on here? I'm basically just talking this out and not really asking a question. But I think what's going on here is that they're just staying in, like, the. The rec room of the resort or whatever.
• 45:17
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think you're right. I think they're supposed to be in a rec room or some kind of common area in this beach club resort. Like I said, Claire's grandparents don't own the club in the book, but it seems like they do in the movie.
• 45:31
  Speaker A: Okay, that at least makes sense. Another little moment that I thought was very strange in the movie, that I needed to know if it was in the book and if you have any expanse or can expand on this at all, is at one point, they're at a party.
• 45:42
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 45:42
  Speaker A: And a band is playing.
• 45:44
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 45:44
  Speaker A: And they come and I don't remember the exact context of this, but the girls walk up to the band and they bring the lead singer a piece of cake on a plate and go, hey, can you play this specific song for us? They have, like, a special request before the band, I believe, has even started playing. They're like, hey, can you open your show with a special request? And they give him a piece of cake. And the band is like, okay. And then just sets the cake, like, off to the side and plays. And again, It's a single piece of cake. Sets it off to the side. They're all gonna share it, and then plays whatever the song. It's a.
• 46:23
  Speaker B: It's a Weezer song.
• 46:25
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 46:25
  Speaker B: Island in the Sun.
• 46:26
  Speaker A: Yes. And they play the song, and I wanted to know if that happened in the book. And what did they. Is that a. Did I. I was like, is bringing a. The band a piece of cake a normal way to request this? What is happening here?
• 46:39
  Speaker B: I think you're overthinking this.
• 46:42
  Speaker A: It was so str. I've never seen anything. Like, who would think, like, I know. I want to go request a song from the band. I'll bring the lead singer a slice of cake right as they're about to. It's just so strange, and I needed to know.
• 46:57
  Speaker B: Thoughts? So this does not happen in the book, but I don't know. Sure. I guess, like, I feel like they probably could have just had them go request a song, and that would have worked fine, and I wouldn't have had any questions about it.
• 47:12
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 47:13
  Speaker B: But I suppose a bribe doesn't hurt.
• 47:15
  Speaker A: I guess that's the idea. The thing that was just so weird. It almost felt like maybe there was a deleted scene with the band earlier.
• 47:22
  Speaker B: Yeah. Or maybe the lead singer was talking about wanting cake or something.
• 47:27
  Speaker A: I was just like. She just. It's so strange. Why would you think to bring the. Again, they're about to perform. Why are you bringing him a slice? It's so weird. And again, then the way the band just, like. Like, sets it off to the sides. Also weird. I don't know. I just thought it was a very strange little moment in this movie of otherwise pretty normal stuff happening, apart from the mermaid stuff. But, like, I was. Okay then. My final question is the colored fingernails thing. This happens, I think, twice in the movie where we see Aquamarine's fingernails change from, like, blue to red.
• 48:00
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 48:01
  Speaker A: And I couldn't tell exactly why or what was going on there.
• 48:06
  Speaker B: So she says at one point in the movie that her finger scales change colors with her mood. Like a mood ring.
• 48:13
  Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
• 48:14
  Speaker B: This is not from the book, but I did think it was a fun little lore addition.
• 48:19
  Speaker A: I think they needed to do more with it. I agree, because I think it happens exactly twice.
• 48:25
  Speaker B: Could have done more.
• 48:25
  Speaker A: And it is from blue to red both times. And it's like her being angry or, like, getting like. Like, you know, kind of, like, upset or something.
• 48:33
  Speaker B: I think at the end they changed to pink for love.
• 48:36
  Speaker A: Oh, is that what it is? Okay. That is at least something Else that. Because that was the thing. I was like, I feel like they needed at least a couple other colors. And like. And I guess in my brain with the pink and red, I thought they were just the same. I was like, okay.
• 48:48
  Speaker B: I feel like they were pretty similar shapes.
• 48:50
  Speaker A: Okay. That would at least make sense. I feel like you could have had one other. I don't know what else you would have done, I guess. But something else where we see them change and it's like related to her mood would have helped make it more obvious to me. I. I assumed it was something like that, like mood because again, the one time it happens earlier she like slams her hands down and it happens. I was like, okay. So like, I guess, yeah, that's all I had. Let's find out what Katie thought was better in the book.
• 49:15
  Speaker B: You like to read? Oh yes, I love to read. What do you like to read? Every. So I mentioned that in the book the Capri Beach Club is run down. It's basically abandoned. It's on the verge of closing. And it is just like the atmosphere that that creates in the story is just such a mood. And it works so well with the themes of the story too, like childhood ending and things that have been a constant in your life. Life changing and aging.
• 49:53
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 49:54
  Speaker B: In the book it's implied that the girls used to have a crush on Raymond, but then they like got to know him because he works at the snack shack at the beach club in the book. And he's like the only other. The only employee that actually goes there anymore. So they get to know him and now they're just friends.
• 50:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. I thought the movie did a good job of. Because it's like initially you don't really think about it, but then as it plays out more, I'm like, oh, he's clearly like much older than that. And so like this is like a.
• 50:21
  Speaker B: It's. It's a little fantasy.
• 50:23
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And like, obviously they're not going to end up dating him or at least shouldn't because they're like 12 and he's like 16 or 17 or something like that.
• 50:33
  Speaker B: Speaking of 16 year olds, the other reason that I really didn't like Cecilia, the mean girl character, is that I. The whole movie I was like, because she can drive.
• 50:45
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 50:46
  Speaker B: I was like, why is this at least 16 year old beefing with 8th graders? Yeah, what is your problem?
• 50:54
  Speaker A: I mean, I guess that's the idea is that, yeah, she's kind of pathetic. And like, yeah, I guess with these two little girls is like very Weird,
• 51:02
  Speaker B: because I. I did not.
• 51:04
  Speaker A: Pathetic.
• 51:04
  Speaker B: I did not care about 8th graders when I was 16.
• 51:07
  Speaker A: When you're 16, they don't exist. Yeah, like, they might as well not exist.
• 51:13
  Speaker B: Weird, specific thing in the movie, we mentioned that they have these teen magazines that they use for advice about boys.
• 51:21
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 51:22
  Speaker B: And one of the things that comes up over and over again is this technique that they call. I think it was fluff and retreat, where you like, really? Because it comes up multiple times in the first part of the movie.
• 51:38
  Speaker A: I must admit, I missed that exact word.
• 51:41
  Speaker B: So the idea is that you walk up to a boy and you compliment him, and then you. You leave.
• 51:46
  Speaker A: Yeah, I remember that. I just don't remember.
• 51:49
  Speaker B: But they call it the. It was the fluff and retreat. I could be wrong about the second half of what they call. What it was called, but I remember. I remember the word fluff because, boy, did I hate that.
• 52:00
  Speaker A: Like that. Don't like that.
• 52:02
  Speaker B: A little detail in the book that I missed in the movie is that Claire is really into fashion, and she has they. They say, like, almost a magic touch with putting together outfits. And at one point, when they're. They're getting ready for Aquamarine's date with Raymond, and she, like, dresses up this dress that used to belong to Haley's mom. Says Haley's mother found a blue dress at the back of her closet that she had worn to a dance years before, before Haley had even been born. Later that night, after the grownups had gone to sleep, Claire went to her room and opened the last box she had packed. This was where she kept all the treasures of summer's past. There were angel wings and creamy oyster shells, tiny starfish and pink rocks. She stitched everyone onto the blue dress so that the fabric shone in the moonlight, sighing as though it had just been fished out of the sea. And I thought that was a really nice description.
• 53:02
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's cool. You can't have her be good at fashion in the movie, though, because then you don't get to have Aquamarine introduce them to vintage thrifting.
• 53:11
  Speaker B: I guess.
• 53:12
  Speaker A: I guess you could. You could just shift it, actually. That would have been. I think that actually would have made more sense. I think what they're for there is a play on Little Mermaid. But, like, because they could have just had a shift and have Claire be into, like, vintage fashion or whatever and, like, her be the person who, like, takes them, whatever. I think the idea they're kind of playing on there. Well, two things. One, they need her. They need Aquamarine to introduce Them to
• 53:34
  Speaker B: being more outgoing, kind of a manic pixie dream girl.
• 53:38
  Speaker A: They need her to be the one who, like, kind of gets them out of their shell. But also, I think they're playing a little bit there. I wouldn't be surprised with the idea of the little Ariel having, like, collecting old jackets and doodads and, like, so her being into, like, weird vintage fashion and, like, kind of matches that vibe.
• 53:55
  Speaker B: I think this movie does have Raymond drop the line. You're not like the most. You're not like most girls around here.
• 54:02
  Speaker A: The only bad moment for Raymond in the film. Yeah, it's the only bad moment. It's not his fault. It's the year 2006. That was a compliment back then. That was. That was. We thought that was progressive back then.
• 54:17
  Speaker B: Mentioned this earlier, but I really didn't like the implication that Aquamarine used magic to make the snack shack lady go out with Leonard the handyman. Yes. Like the movie. The movie should have had her be like, oh, you don't need a wish for that. You just need the confidence to ask, or something like that.
• 54:37
  Speaker A: Yeah, 100%.
• 54:39
  Speaker B: Because it's really just implied that she magics a relationship.
• 54:42
  Speaker A: Because I was gonna mention that was the thing I was gonna mention earlier that this movie does, which is that it does. Does the thing where it's like, up using magic to make people fall in love in a way that is like.
• 54:51
  Speaker B: That never problematic. That's always bad.
• 54:54
  Speaker A: Yes, it's. It's obviously problematic. Even for 2006. Yeah. Like, we had. People had. Had plenty of discussions about, like, love potions and all that about how it denies agency and consent and all this wasn't like a completely unique idea then. And so it's. Yeah, it's. It's definitely. And then they made a whole movie about it this year. So. Yeah. There you go.
• 55:13
  Speaker B: My last note in this section is that I thought Aquamarine just like, deciding that she needs to leave was a pretty nothing ending.
• 55:22
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's a little strange. She's just like, well, I gotta go
• 55:25
  Speaker B: back because my family. Yeah. After she proves that true love exists, the love of friendship, she's like, well, I have to go home now. The movie needed her to leave, but it couldn't figure out a good way to do it.
• 55:37
  Speaker A: Because the whole point is. Well, her dad is like, okay, well, you figured out love. True love exists or love exists or whatever. So you don't have to marry.
• 55:45
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 55:46
  Speaker A: This arranged. Yeah. Why does she have to go? She's like, well, I gotta go back because I Have family.
• 55:50
  Speaker B: It's like, okay, you didn't care about
• 55:53
  Speaker A: them the whole movie at all. And it's like, you sure, you could go visit them, but you can come back. Yeah, it does feel a little bit like that. Gotta go back to the ocean.
• 56:01
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 56:02
  Speaker A: All right, let's go ahead and find out what Katie thought was better in the movie. My life has taught me one lesson, Hugo, and not the one I thought it would. Happy endings only happen in the movies.
• 56:15
  Speaker B: This is a little moment that made me laugh. When Clare falls into the pool.
• 56:20
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 56:21
  Speaker B: Raymond ripping his T shirt off to jump in and save her. And I know that that is better for swimming, but also, it was really funny.
• 56:31
  Speaker A: It is. Yeah.
• 56:33
  Speaker B: I liked the girls trying different fishy foods to lure Aquamarine out. In the book, they use pickled herrings, but I thought the gummy worms were fun. You used this as our opener, but I really liked the line, we are not fictional. We're discreet.
• 56:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's a good line.
• 56:52
  Speaker B: I thought that Aquamarine being like a manic pixie dream girl was interesting. I don't know that I like it obvious.
• 57:00
  Speaker A: It's obvious because it's the way to do. Because. Because what the movie is, is, to some extent, is fish out of water. Literally. You know, which is the classic thing. And so having her character be a manic pixie dream curl kind of just matches, like.
• 57:16
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 57:17
  Speaker A: Immediately makes perfect sense with the, like, fish out of water. Like, oh, she doesn't know what she's doing here. So everything she does is quirky and weird.
• 57:24
  Speaker B: Right.
• 57:24
  Speaker A: Obviously. But it is. Yeah.
• 57:26
  Speaker B: And she teaches the girls how to have fun.
• 57:29
  Speaker A: Yes, exactly.
• 57:31
  Speaker B: I don't know that I like it better, per se. The characters are very different from between the movie and the book. In the book, she's quite rude. She's a spoiled brat. She's not a super nice character. She's also pretty in line with mermaid mythology.
• 57:49
  Speaker A: Yeah. It also makes sense that she's, like, the daughter of the king of the ocean that she has.
• 57:53
  Speaker B: And the book. Book specifically says that she's the youngest of seven sisters.
• 57:58
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 57:59
  Speaker B: And she's used to getting her way. Nobody ever says no to her. So when she washes up into the pool, she's like, immediately like, I'm not going anywhere.
• 58:09
  Speaker A: And so she probably, in the book, has to learn a little bit about.
• 58:12
  Speaker B: Yeah. A little bit about friendship as well. Yes.
• 58:16
  Speaker A: Whereas in the movie, it doesn't really. She doesn't really have to learn anything other than, like, that true love.
• 58:21
  Speaker B: She's already pretty great.
• 58:22
  Speaker A: She's pretty much. Yeah.
• 58:25
  Speaker B: I thought that aquamarine eating salt straight from the container was fun world building. She's like, adding salt to everything.
• 58:31
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 58:32
  Speaker B: Because she's salt water, you know? And I really. This is also something that made me laugh. Raymond sitting pensively in his lifeguard chair watching fireworks by himself.
• 58:44
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. After she, like, rushes off.
• 58:46
  Speaker B: After she rushes off. Off.
• 58:47
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 58:47
  Speaker B: And there's a shot of him just, like, sitting just, like, pensively alone on the beach watching fireworks.
• 58:54
  Speaker A: Yep. Yep. All right, let's go ahead and talk about a couple things the movie nailed. As I expected.
• 59:03
  Speaker B: Practically perfect in every way. Oh. So you may have noticed throughout this episode that there was not a whole lot of similarities.
• 59:10
  Speaker A: No.
• 59:11
  Speaker B: And a lot of them we already talked about. This movie does take. The story does take place during the last few days of summer is another similarity that we haven't mentioned. And that's about it.
• 59:23
  Speaker A: Okay. All right, there you go. Let's get to a few odds and ends before the final verdict. During the opening scene on the beach, when they're talking and they're, like, spying on Raymond up in the lifeguard perch and stuff, and then Cecilia shows up and blah, blah, we're kind of getting introduced to all the characters. That whole scene is, like, obviously ADR, but specifically JoJo. I. I was like, I've never seen JoJo in anything. I don't know anything about her. She looks to be about, like, 15 in this movie or 14 or something like that.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker B: That.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker A: But it was particularly strange how it's clearly adr, but then also because I knew it was obviously adr, as I'm listening to her voice, I was like, is that what JoJo sounds like? Because she's like, looks like a little kid, but sounds like an adult. And I was at times, and I was very confused.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker B: She has, like, a kind of a
• 1:00:26
  Speaker A: husky, like, in a way that does not match how she looks in the movie.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker B: Like a fully grown woman who. Who smokes sometimes.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker A: And I was like, is that. And I was like, legitimately, like, I actually don't know what JoJo sounds like. Yeah, sounded like, I guess, because she's an adult now. But, like, I was like, it. She sounded like. It was like, did they get an adult woman to voice her for the ADR in this scene? Like, I don't think so. And I guess I got used to it because. Yeah. Notice it as much I didn't notice
• 1:00:51
  Speaker B: it through the rest of the movie. But, yeah, maybe I got used to it. I don't know.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker A: I don't Know, I just thought that was interesting. So if any of our fans are JoJo fans fans and be like, yeah, she as a little kid, she had like an adult voice. I mean, she's a singer. So like, I guess maybe like, you know, it's not outlandish that she had like a more mature voice than she would appear. But one of the things I didn't love about this movie was the way it looked. I got used to it as it went on, but early on, I, I'm pretty sure they're going for like a bleached look, which is like a thing you can do with film. Yeah, it's like, there's like, it's specific, different types of like, bleaching that gives it like a specific look. And I think they're doing that intentionally to give kind of like a beachy, like, sunny feel or whatever. But I, I, I kind of hated some of the opening shots. The way the sky was like blown out and the harsh saturation. It just didn't look great at times. And that kind of con continued throughout the rest of the movie. It never looked horrible. It just, it wasn't my favorite. Especially for something that I think looked like it was shot on film. And especially cuz like, some of the movies you wouldn't expect to look good from this era do look a lot better just, just by the nature of being shot on film and like the whatever other things. But, and so I was a little disappointed that the movie kind of looked meh, in my opinion.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's not like doing anything super special.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker A: It's really not. Which again, it's fine. It doesn't really need to. It's just always fun when you get an outlier of like, like when we did the Coyote Ugly to me, where I'm like, holy cow, this movie looks way better than it has any right to look. That's not true because the movie's good, but it has more. It looks way better than you would, most people would expect it to look.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker B: I heard you talked about the feet people.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker A: You did talk about the feet people. So one of Cecilia's friends in the movie, Bethann, who has like one line in one scene, but she's kind of in the background for a handful of scenes. I was like, what do I recognize her from something?
• 1:02:45
  Speaker B: She has a very, very distinct face.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker A: And if you've watched this movie, I'm sure you, you will have realized who she is. But the actress's name is Dyken Lockman and it is the woman who plays Ms. Casey in Severance, who is Mark's wife. And I was like, holy shit, it's her. As a teenager. I guess she looks the exact same, except just smaller in this movie. It's like her face has not changed at all, really. She just looks a little bit younger. It's crazy.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker B: Yeah. One of Cecilia's other friends is played by Jenna from Pretty Little Liars. If you know, you know, I have
• 1:03:22
  Speaker A: watched the first season of Pretty Little Liars years ago, but I don't remember anything about it.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker B: I watched quite a bit of Pretty. Pretty Little Liars. I would have to, like. I would have to look at the seasons to try to figure out where I tapped out on that.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker A: I'm pretty sure I watched the first season. I watched Crazy. It was. I remember that. I don't remember anything about it. I just watched a little bit of it at one point years ago.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker B: That was like a very much a. Like, where are the adults? Kind of a show. The T shirt into a dress hack in this movie sent me. We've got the queen of five minute crafts over here.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker A: The dress also, or the shirt also, also grows like four sizes.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker A: Because Haley is smaller.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker B: Yes. Now we do establish that she wears oversized clothes.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker A: It's still not as big as when it is on her as a dress.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker A: Yeah. So speaking of Aquamarine, though, played by the actress Sarah Paxton in this movie, who actually hasn't done a ton of other, like, not any other, like, big.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker B: She was in one of the Halloween Town movies.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker A: She's been in stuff and she has had roles and stuff, but, like, she's not been. She's never had, like a. At least not anything that stuck out to me, like, oh, she's that person from that show or movie or whatever. But one thing that I thought was interesting, as I was scrolling through her IMDb, I saw weapons in the credits and I was like, she's in Weapons. I don't remember her in Weapons, but I realized I found out why she has a cameo in Weapons is because she's married to Zach Krieger, the director. Writer and director of Weapons.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker B: That'll do it.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker A: Oh, okay. Okay.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker B: Speaking of recognizing people, that's half of these notes.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker A: Like, my next one is also that
• 1:05:00
  Speaker B: after we watched the movie, I turned to you and I was like, did you figure out what we knew, what we know?
• 1:05:05
  Speaker A: Raymond from I am so this is. This never goes this way. It always goes the other way. You recognize nobody, and I recognize everybody. And this was one of the only times it's gone the other direction. Yeah. And no, I did not recognize what we knew. What's Raymond from?
• 1:05:22
  Speaker B: Yeah, the actor who plays Raymond is Gregor. Jeff Slash. Jeff Jesk.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker A: And what we do in the shadows.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker B: And what we do in the shadows. The TV show, not the movie.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker A: Yeah, the TV show. He is. Yeah, he's Jesk. Gregor. He's great.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker A: Incredible. I couldn't believe it. And I was like, holy shit. It is. Because he. Yeah. He has shorter hair in the show.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker A: And obviously he's.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker B: And he's older.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker A: Significantly older. He's 15 years older or whatever. But it's just like. Yeah. I was like, holy shit. As soon as you said. I was like, yep, that's him. I also was like, I think I know the actress who plays Cecilia from something. I kept thinking it was Katherine Heigl the entire movie. I knew it couldn't be Katherine Heigl because the time. Yeah, she was way older. She has Katherine Heigl's story.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker A: But I also did recognize her from something.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker B: Yes, I also did.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker A: She is Cecilia or. Sorry, she is not Cecilia. She's Cecilia in this movie. She plays. I don't know the character's name in it, but she plays the architect in Fifty Shades Free.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker B: Yes. I'd gone to my head. I could not have told you. That's what I remember.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker A: At least I'm pretty sure she's the architect. Because I looked her up and her name and I was like, I think that's the art.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker B: Because I absolutely. I remember there being an architect in that movie.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker B: But I absolutely cannot conjure a mental image of what that character.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker A: She's in exactly one scene, and when they go to the house and they're talking about the plans to, like, renovate the house he bought or whatever, she
• 1:06:49
  Speaker B: flirts with Christian and then Anastasia has to put her.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker A: Yeah. Place. I'm pretty sure that is that actress.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker A: Because she's in Fifty Shades Free.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker B: Maybe that only happened in the book. I really don't know.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker A: It's 100% in the movie. I remember that scene from the movie 100%. And I'm pretty sure that's her. And I think that's why what I recognized her from.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker B: Can anyone. Riddle me this. They're at. At one point in this movie, they're at a beach party. I mean, they're at a lot of beach parties in this movie.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker A: Nothing but parties.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker B: But there's. There's one specific point where they're on the beach and there's like two lines of people playing a game where they're like tossing a ball back and forth.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker A: They're tossing water balloons.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker B: Yes. Yes. Water balloons. Yes. And there's a guy there dressed in, like, a Colonial America costume.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker A: Didn't they say. I don't remember. But that first event is like some. It's like some festival. It's like some. Because the one later is the Last Splash, which is like the end of summer party. That one is some sort of, like, Founders Day. It might even be a Fourth of July. July party. I don't think it is, because they do fireworks later. Yeah, but they do fireworks later at that one because that's.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker B: But then how would it be the end of.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker A: Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. I don't know.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker B: Fourth of July is solidly in the middle.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker A: I think there was some mention of it being some sort of, like, town festival thing, and I assume he's, like, dressed up as, like, the town's founder or something.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker B: Like the first mayor or something like that.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker A: That would be my guess.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker B: He was. I was so confused by the presence of this man dressed in a Colonial America costume at this beach party.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. My last note was. Yeah, that was cute. I thought it was a cute movie. I actually thought it was really. It's. It's well made, like, for the most part. Again, it's not like, the most gorgeous movie or anything, but, like, it's a. It's a solid script that works well. It's got some fun little jokes and moments.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker B: It's got better messaging than a lot of similar movies from the same era.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker A: 100%. It's aged well. There wasn't anything where I was was like, oof. Other than the, like, you're not like other girls, which is a very minor.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker B: It's a very thing.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker A: Yeah. But there wasn't anything where anybody's, like, you know, making fun of gay people or anything. Like, there was nothing like that. It was all very chill and, like, you know, and. And again, the ultimate message, I thought, was really sweet. And honestly, I thought, like, the performances were really. Emma Roberts was really good in this. I thought, like. But, hey, JoJo's fine. I think she does a good job. And Sarah Paxton as the mermaid is fine. But I thought Emma Roberts was, like, really good. Like, to the point where I thought her kind of big moment at the end where she is like, I'm gonna do it with you to jump into the water. I got a little emotional. I was like, oh, look at her. I thought it was effective in kind of how it built her character up and stuff like that. And again, I think her performance, she did a really good job. I was like, I think it might be the only thing I've seen Emma Roberts in. I know of Emma Roberts. But I was like, I don't actually know if I've watched anything with Emma Roberts in it other than this.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker B: She had a show really briefly on Nickelodeon. I think that I remember watching some of the. Cause Jenna was in the age, the target demographic for that when it was on, but I don't really remember much about it.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker A: I think I stopped watching American Horror Story before she showed up because I don't think she was in the first couple seasons. I only watched the first two seasons of that. And I don't think she showed up till later, I'm pretty sure. So I might have seen her. If she was in one of the first seasons of American Horror Story, I would have seen her in that. But that's the only other thing I could think of that I would have seen her in. I don't think she's been anything we've done on the podcast before. So I don't.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker B: I don't think so.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker A: Anyways, it was a good movie. I thought it was good. Especially, you know, as these little kids movies go. It was very inoffensive. And I don't mean that. I mean that in like a. In like, as a movie, just like viewing experience. It was inoffensive, it was nice and it had a nice little message. I didn't hate watching it. So before we get to the final verdict, we wanted to remind you you can do us a favor by heading over to Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Goodreads, any of those places interact with us. We'd love to hear what you have to say about Aquamarine. You can also help us out by heading over Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to our show. Drop us a five star rating, write us a nice little review that really helps us out. And you can extra help us out by heading over to patreon.com thisfilmislit get access to bonus content starting at the $5 a month level. We just put out an episode where we discussed Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. If you want to hear us talk about that this month, or I say this month. Basically this month, as this episode comes out, we're doing Only Lovers Left Alive. Only Lovers Left Alive for our bonus episode, if you want to hear us talk about that. And then at the $15 a month level, you can get access to priority recommendations. If there's something you would really love for us to talk about on the podcast. Support us for 15 bucks a month. Stick around at least for a few months. So, you know, and we will add that to our list as soon as we possibly can. Katie, it's time for the final verdict.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker B: Sentence fast.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker A: Verdict after.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker B: That's stupid. I have suspicions that this might be a controversial final verdict. Okay, maybe Aquamarine the book and Aquamarine the movie are two entirely different things. One is a poppy, bubbly, mid-2000s teen comedy. The other is a sweetly melancholy little story about the end of childhood. I enjoyed the movie. It delivered pretty much everything you could possibly want from a mermaid fantasy teen movie made in 2006. It's a little cliche and definitely not bringing anything groundbreaking to the table, but it's fun and it's cute and it might be objectively more fun than the book, which is why I think this could be a controversial decision. I briefly mentioned in the prequel that I'd read this book before and that I remembered not really liking it. The ironic thing about that is that when I read it for the first time, I was actually in the target demographic. I was 14. But I don't think that I got it. I did this time. I called it sweetly melancholy, and it is. It's bittersweet. It's about the way that our lives change, even when we desperately want them to remain the same. It's about how it's okay to be sad about that. It's about how friendships can change, and it's okay to be sad about that, too. And it's about how even when friendships do change, it doesn't mean that they were meaningless or not real. That hit me at almost 40 in a way that I don't think it could have at 14. This book got labeled young adult, but I'm not sure that that label was entirely accurate. The movie was fun, but the book made me feel something. And for that reason, I'm giving this one to the book.
• 1:13:50
  Speaker A: Katie, what's next?
• 1:13:52
  Speaker B: Up next, it is summer series time, and I'm freaking out because I haven't started reading yet.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker A: I'm on page three, so I'm so far ahead.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker B: And for our 2026 summer series, we are going to be talking about Wicked.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker A: Oh, boy.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker B: The book that got adapted into a musical that got adapted into two movies.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker B: So this is gonna be interesting.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker A: Yes, it is.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker B: And everything I have ever heard about this book is that people don't like it.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm very interested.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker B: I don't think I've ever talked to a single person that enjoyed this.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker A: I don't know anyone who likes. I. Every time I've ever heard anybody talk about the book they're like, don't like it.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker B: I'm sure somebody likes it.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker B: We'll probably hear from them over the course.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker A: Hopefully. Hopefully. Yeah. But yeah, Wicked, that is our 2026 Summer Series. So yeah, come back in two weeks time, we're talking about Wicked Part 1 or whatever.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's just Wicked.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker A: The first one's just Wicked and then.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker B: Yeah. And then the next part two is Wicked. For good.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker A: For good, yeah. Anyways, so in two weeks time we'll talk about Wicked. In one week's time we'll be previewing Wicked. Seeing what you all had to say about Aquamarine. Until that time, guys, gals, my binary pals, everybody else, keep reading books, watching
• 1:15:17
  Speaker B: movies and keep being awesome.