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It's the Muppet Show! With our Very Special Guest - Godzilla · Large Nerdron Collider

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Speaker 1: The Large Nerdron Collider Podcast is a production of I
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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey everybody, welcome to the Large Nerdron Collider Podcast,
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Speaker 1: the podcast that's all about the geeky things happening in
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Speaker 1: the world around us and how excited we are about them.
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Speaker 1: I'm Ariel casting and with me, as always, is the
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Speaker 1: delightful Jonathan Strickland. Hey, Ariel, I got a question for you. So, Ariel, uh,
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Speaker 1: for the purposes of this question, you have found yourself
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Speaker 1: at the Magic Kingdom over in Disney World. You can
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Speaker 1: pick one ride in the entire park and there will
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Speaker 1: be no line for you, and you can ride in
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Speaker 1: your favorite spot on the ride. So if there's a
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Speaker 1: specific area of whatever ride that you're like, I love
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Speaker 1: to be in the front, or I love to be
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Speaker 1: in the back or whatever, it's all yours. Which ride
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Speaker 1: do you pick? And why I'm gonna say Space Mountain
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Speaker 1: because it's the thrill ride. It's like the thrill ride,
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Speaker 1: you know. It also tends to have like the longest line. Yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I mean, and I would sit in the in the
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Speaker 1: front i feel the most like I'm going to hit
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Speaker 1: my head, because I always feel like I'm going to
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Speaker 1: hit my head because you know, I'm five. Uh. If
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Speaker 1: if it were a past ride, it would be the
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Speaker 1: Alien Encounters ride that they eventually turned into the Lelo
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Speaker 1: and Stitch Encounter where you all sit in this circular
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Speaker 1: room and then the lights go out and the alien
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Speaker 1: attacks n it breathes on your neck and it tickles you.
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Speaker 1: And the Extra Terrorestrial ride. Yeah, it was fantastic, but
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Speaker 1: it didn't really it didn't really fit Disney, but I
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Speaker 1: bit it better. It was very it was very immersive,
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Speaker 1: like you know, they were using all the binarial audio
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Speaker 1: stuff and the four D kind of effects, you know,
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Speaker 1: which was interesting. But it was so mean spirited, which
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Speaker 1: is what really bugged me. Like the pre show had
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Speaker 1: a really mean spirited moment with a teleporter mishap, for example,
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Speaker 1: and it was just something that I felt like, Wow,
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Speaker 1: this is not a great fit for this particular park.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't, so I understand what it went away, even
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Speaker 1: for the when they changed it to Lelo and Stitch.
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Speaker 1: If it were a future ride, I would probably say
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Speaker 1: the tron Coaster is going to beat out Space any day.
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Speaker 1: But but I haven't written that because I haven't been
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Speaker 1: to the park where it currently exists, Jonathan, what ride
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Speaker 1: would you? Um? Gosh, and you think I would have
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Speaker 1: prepared something? You think? Yeah, so, so I'll tell you
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Speaker 1: what my favorite. My favorite two rides in the park
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Speaker 1: happened to be Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion.
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Speaker 1: Those are my two favorite rides. However, Haunted Mansion, even
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Speaker 1: when there's a line, it goes pretty fast because it
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Speaker 1: swallows up big groups of people all at once. Uh,
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Speaker 1: Pirates of the Caribbean, that line can be really long sometimes. Um,
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Speaker 1: I guess that's the one I would go with. Like,
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Speaker 1: I'm tempted to say Space Mountain as well, because that's
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Speaker 1: a great ride and I haven't ridden it in ages
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Speaker 1: because my wife does not like roller coasters. But I
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Speaker 1: love roller coasters. I used to hate them. I love them.
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Speaker 1: See you now, if we were both at the park,
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Speaker 1: I would be okay with saying, all right, i'll use
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Speaker 1: mine to go on Space Mountain. You can ride in front,
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Speaker 1: I'll ride behind, and let's let's do this. Uh that
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Speaker 1: I would do it in that case if I were
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Speaker 1: by myself. Parts of the Caribbean. Fair enough, Okay, Well,
3:51
Speaker 1: now that we have answered that question, it's time for
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Speaker 1: us to move on to what we like to call
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Speaker 1: the rest of the episode. It's such an original original title.
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Speaker 1: I mean, we played with a bunch of different segments,
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Speaker 1: but the rest of the episode one out because we
4:09
Speaker 1: were both tired. Yes, okay, So the next segment in
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Speaker 1: the rest of this episode is going to be some
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Speaker 1: geek news surprise, surprise, And the first piece of geek
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Speaker 1: news is Godzilla Versus Kong got its first trailer. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: and also spoiler alert, this story and another one in
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Speaker 1: our lineup are going to play into our mesh up
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Speaker 1: later on, So that's some foreshadowing. Yeah, I watched this
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Speaker 1: trailer which was entertaining. Uh you know, it's it's got
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Speaker 1: a lot, it's very King Kong heavy, which not very
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Speaker 1: surprising for the United States audience now, and it um
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Speaker 1: it features. So the story is that Godzilla has turned
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Speaker 1: against humanity. If you didn't watch Godzilla and then Godzilla
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Speaker 1: King of Monsters, which are the previous two movies on
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Speaker 1: the god Zilla side of this franchise, Godzilla is kind
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Speaker 1: of an antihero. He's he's kind of a good guy.
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Speaker 1: He she I'm uncertain on that. It changes depending on
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Speaker 1: the on the incarnation. Yes, yeah, and in this one,
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Speaker 1: King Kong, who is also kind of a good guy misunderstood.
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Speaker 1: I mean that's always been the case for King Kong, right,
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Speaker 1: He's he's always been a misunderstood, good ape just giant
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Speaker 1: ends up fighting Godzilla. And so I'm sad because I
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Speaker 1: like both of them. At first, I was so excited,
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Speaker 1: and now I'm like, now that I'm like one of
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Speaker 1: them is going to have to lose, I'm just gonna cry.
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Speaker 1: I'm sure it's gonna be one of those where no
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Speaker 1: one really loses and no one really wins, Like it
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Speaker 1: will be something where Godzilla's you know, lurks off into
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Speaker 1: the ocean and King Kong is uh slowly limping its
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Speaker 1: way back to to safety or some thing. Well, the
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Speaker 1: trailer has a moment where Kong's in chains, well, Godzilla
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Speaker 1: is rising up to reek havoc and Kong is kind
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Speaker 1: of losing his ape mind in the process. My favorite
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Speaker 1: moment in the trailer is where Kong does the action
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Speaker 1: hero leap away from an explosion shot yes, yes, and
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Speaker 1: and the punch into godzilla mouth at the same time. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: It's just to me, it was like that whole it
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Speaker 1: was that whole trope of you know that you see
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Speaker 1: the you see the explosive coming down at a building,
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Speaker 1: and so you make a run for it. You jump
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Speaker 1: just as the explosion goes off and it propels you
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Speaker 1: through the air. And to see that with King Kong,
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Speaker 1: I was like, all right, this is ridiculous. If he
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Speaker 1: had done that, you say that, you think they'll both
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Speaker 1: limp away. If they had done that in the original
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Speaker 1: King Kong movie, he would have survived the Empire State building. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I'm just saying. Well, and to be fair, both King
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Speaker 1: Kong and Godzilla, besides having a history where Godzilla becomes
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Speaker 1: either a he or a she, they both also have
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Speaker 1: a history where one their size changes depending upon the
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Speaker 1: moment of the movie. Like there there are sequences in
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Speaker 1: both King Kong films and in Godzilla films where you
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Speaker 1: can't tell how big these things are supposed to be
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Speaker 1: because they do change from scene to scene, and to
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Speaker 1: their capacity to soak up damage changes from movie to
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Speaker 1: movie too. So uh, but it was it was interesting,
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Speaker 1: Like it definitely is spectacle. It's the kind of movie
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Speaker 1: that immediately made me think, yeah, this is coming to
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Speaker 1: HBO Max. But it definitely feels like the kind of
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Speaker 1: movie that would benefit the most and seeing it on
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Speaker 1: the big screen. I agree. I hope that once theaters
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Speaker 1: open back up that they re release some of these
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Speaker 1: more spectacular movies for people to watch in a larger scale.
7:52
Speaker 1: That being said, we are going to get it earlier
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Speaker 1: than expected. Instead of coming out in May, we're going
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Speaker 1: to get it in March. So that's something to look
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Speaker 1: forward to. Something else to look forward to is that
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Speaker 1: we now know that all five seasons of the original
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Speaker 1: Muppet Show are coming to Disney plus yes, and two
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Speaker 1: of those seasons have never been released on home entertainment before.
8:15
Speaker 1: Seasons seasons four and five one through three were released
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Speaker 1: on DVD, and season four was planned to release on DVD.
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Speaker 1: They had even had a show of the box art
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Speaker 1: at a d twenty three event in the past. It
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Speaker 1: just never happened. There are still some questions. There's a
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Speaker 1: lot of speculation going on. The big one being will
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Speaker 1: this version have all the sequences that were shot for
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Speaker 1: the Muppet Show? Uh? For two reasons. One is that
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Speaker 1: in the UK there was typically one extra segment per
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Speaker 1: episode because they had not as many minutes of commercial
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Speaker 1: to account for. So since they had fewer commercials, they
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Speaker 1: had an extra segment in the UK version of the Muppets,
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Speaker 1: stuff that we here in the United States never got
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Speaker 1: to see and number two. In the past, one of
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Speaker 1: the things that has held up some of those sequences
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Speaker 1: is that the Muppets would do music numbers, and often
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Speaker 1: it was, you know, very popular music of the time,
9:18
Speaker 1: that being the late seventies early eighties, and that meant
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Speaker 1: that music licensing rights were a complication. So the DVD
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Speaker 1: releases left out some of those music numbers because of that,
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Speaker 1: and there's a question about whether or not those will
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Speaker 1: be restored for the Disney Plus version, or if we're
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Speaker 1: going to get the same kind of chopped up episodes
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Speaker 1: due to those music licensing issues. Yeah. Another question is
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Speaker 1: if we're going to get all of the Muppet movies
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Speaker 1: on Disney Plus, because Sony still owns a couple of them, right, yes,
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Speaker 1: Sony still I think it's Muppets from Space might be
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Speaker 1: one of the two. There's a couple, um, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: there's a there are a couple of movies that does
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Speaker 1: need does not own the rights to. When Disney purchased
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Speaker 1: the intellectual property from the Henson Company, it was in
10:08
Speaker 1: bits and pieces. It wasn't everything, and as a result,
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Speaker 1: it has been very difficult to create a library of
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Speaker 1: Hinson material because Disney didn't own all of it. Mhmm, yeah,
10:23
Speaker 1: you know that. Being said, Muppets in Space not my
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Speaker 1: favorite should be my favorite Muppet movie, and it's totally not.
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Speaker 1: I have never watched it because it's a it's a
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Speaker 1: film that explains the origins of Gonzo, and I maintain
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Speaker 1: the Gonzo, very much like another person will be chatting
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Speaker 1: about later in this episode, does not need his origin explained.
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Speaker 1: Fair enough, that's more foreshadowing for the rest of the show. Okay, well,
10:53
Speaker 1: onto our next news item, which is really good news,
10:58
Speaker 1: and that is that AMC is not going into bankruptcy
11:01
Speaker 1: at least for now. They suspect to be able to
11:05
Speaker 1: make it through this crunch of trying to get everybody
11:10
Speaker 1: vaccinated from at least at least till the end of
11:13
Speaker 1: our deep into one is I think how they said it. Yeah,
11:17
Speaker 1: they raised something like more than nine million dollars in
11:21
Speaker 1: an effort to you know, consolidate debt and cover that
11:23
Speaker 1: sort of stuff so that they would not have to
11:25
Speaker 1: go into bankruptcy. So nearly a billion dollars, which is
11:30
Speaker 1: that is good news. Hopefully that means that the theater
11:33
Speaker 1: chain will be able to wait it out. As we're
11:38
Speaker 1: trying to get these vaccines rolled out and to get
11:41
Speaker 1: to a point where they can open up again, some
11:43
Speaker 1: other things will be waiting for. We have a trio
11:46
Speaker 1: of stories that are all spin off sequels or prequels
11:51
Speaker 1: that we thought we would cover. And also this will
11:53
Speaker 1: tie into our next segment. That's even more, doesn't I
11:57
Speaker 1: am shadowing so many fours? Listen, you are really every
12:01
Speaker 1: almost every story kind of falls into what we're going
12:05
Speaker 1: to talk about next. That we talked about. One of
12:08
Speaker 1: those stories is that Warner Brothers is talking about developing
12:13
Speaker 1: a series for HBO Max set in the universe of
12:17
Speaker 1: Harry Potter. That's about all we know. Yeah, yeah, I
12:21
Speaker 1: mean it makes sense. It's it's a hugely profitable to
12:25
Speaker 1: this day, even that we haven't had Harry a new Harry. Well,
12:28
Speaker 1: I guess all of the Fantastic Beast movies are new
12:31
Speaker 1: Harry Potter movies, but I don't count them neither do I.
12:34
Speaker 1: They're terrible, They're almost unwatchable. Yeah. Yeah, So, like there
12:40
Speaker 1: aren't any writers or talent actually set yet they're just
12:45
Speaker 1: exploring the idea. Yeah, so we assume this would be
12:48
Speaker 1: something like a series maybe said at Hogwarts. We don't know,
12:52
Speaker 1: but that does seem like you know pretty sure. Bet.
12:57
Speaker 1: It's the same reason why they decided to make Deathly
12:59
Speaker 1: Hallows two movies. It wasn't that they felt they couldn't
13:02
Speaker 1: tell the story in one movie. It was that they thought,
13:05
Speaker 1: this is literally the last book in the series. We
13:07
Speaker 1: will not be making another one after this. Let's milk it. Next,
13:11
Speaker 1: we have a story that Ariel says she's got opinions about.
13:16
Speaker 1: I do so The Witcher is getting a prequel Blood Origins.
13:19
Speaker 1: We knew that. They finally announced one of their cast members,
13:22
Speaker 1: who is Jody Turner Smith, and she is playing a
13:26
Speaker 1: character Haley I would I would call it a pro
13:31
Speaker 1: too Witcher, sort of like how in Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
13:35
Speaker 1: Buffy eventually meets the first Slayer. This is Kingna, Like
13:39
Speaker 1: the the character that's sword of is a precursor to
13:45
Speaker 1: the Witcher type of of of occupation. So I am
13:50
Speaker 1: really excited to see what Jody Turner Smith does with
13:53
Speaker 1: the property. She has done other science fiction stories before.
13:57
Speaker 1: She was in George RR Martin's adaptation for now Fires,
14:00
Speaker 1: for instance. But I was really hoping for a second
14:04
Speaker 1: season of Wicher as someone who hasn't played the games
14:07
Speaker 1: and was incredibly lost in the first season storyline. I
14:11
Speaker 1: don't want to go to a pre quill and get
14:14
Speaker 1: even more confused while I'm still trying to figure out
14:17
Speaker 1: the original storyline. I don't think it's going to help
14:20
Speaker 1: and our last one in this trio of spinoffs. Some
14:25
Speaker 1: prequels would be the prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate
14:29
Speaker 1: Factory or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a film
14:32
Speaker 1: that we had heard about rumored. It was rumored to
14:35
Speaker 1: be in development for a while, and now we know
14:38
Speaker 1: that the writer and the director for the Paddington films
14:43
Speaker 1: they're both attached to this. So apparently we're going to
14:47
Speaker 1: get a Willy Wonka origin story, which is somewhat challenging,
14:51
Speaker 1: as Tim Burton tried to do that in the last
14:55
Speaker 1: adaptation of Charlie Chocolate Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and
14:58
Speaker 1: it was terry. You kind of have to go away
15:01
Speaker 1: from what the source material does tell us about Willy Wonka. Also,
15:07
Speaker 1: Willy Wonka's other stories that Rode Doll tried to write
15:10
Speaker 1: also didn't do that. Well. Yeah, they never really well.
15:13
Speaker 1: One was the Glass Elevator, Charlie and the Glass Elevator,
15:16
Speaker 1: and that one didn't really capture imaginations. And the third one,
15:20
Speaker 1: Charlie was the Charlie in the White House, I believe,
15:24
Speaker 1: is what it was. That one only got one chapter
15:27
Speaker 1: in before he wrote. Doll himself gave up on it,
15:30
Speaker 1: so it didn't even get finished. Yeah, the the and
15:34
Speaker 1: you know, if you go back to like how Willie
15:36
Speaker 1: Wonka got the Umpa Loompa's that's not a good story
15:38
Speaker 1: to tell. So so for me, like Wonka, like Gonzo,
15:43
Speaker 1: is a character who does not need their back story,
15:45
Speaker 1: explained that being said having put on Paddington two out
15:52
Speaker 1: of a moment of boredom and nothing else being on television,
15:56
Speaker 1: and then watching the entire movie that I thought I
15:58
Speaker 1: was going to watch for five minutes because it was
16:01
Speaker 1: so awesome. If anybody can do it, it's that team. Yeah,
16:04
Speaker 1: so we will have to keep an eye out. It's
16:07
Speaker 1: very possible that they'll make a good, just largely unnecessary movie.
16:11
Speaker 1: Now that kind of leads us into what we're gonna
16:14
Speaker 1: talk about in our next segment where we're going to
16:16
Speaker 1: have a discussion about when is more too much, like
16:22
Speaker 1: when is it bad to get more of a good thing?
16:26
Speaker 1: But we will talk about that after we take this break.
16:39
Speaker 1: So we wanted to talk about this, this trend where
16:43
Speaker 1: we get more entries into a franchise, kind of similar
16:48
Speaker 1: to like Deathly Hallows getting split into two movies or
16:51
Speaker 1: The Hobbit being split into three movies. Yeah, that kind
16:55
Speaker 1: of thing where some rights holder, whether it's a movie studio,
17:01
Speaker 1: television studio, or an author. It could be an author
17:04
Speaker 1: has gotten into their heads that they need to produce
17:08
Speaker 1: more of something that was really popular because it's almost
17:11
Speaker 1: a license to print money. And often that ends up
17:15
Speaker 1: being unsatisfying experience for fans. Um it can. At best,
17:22
Speaker 1: it might be that wasn't as good as I wanted
17:24
Speaker 1: it to be, and at worst, it might be you
17:27
Speaker 1: have ruined everything I loved and helped dear. So, for example,
17:31
Speaker 1: one franchise that I think fits into this mold is Highlander.
17:35
Speaker 1: I think the first film is interesting, It has some
17:38
Speaker 1: stuff in it that I really love. I love the soundtrack.
17:42
Speaker 1: Queen did an amazing job. The concept is bonkers, and
17:46
Speaker 1: I love it. But it's the type of film that
17:50
Speaker 1: has a pretty definitive ending, and so when there was
17:53
Speaker 1: a decision to make more films in the franchise, they
17:56
Speaker 1: had the sort of reet con the ending of the
17:59
Speaker 1: first film for there to be anymore sequels. Otherwise it
18:02
Speaker 1: just doesn't make sense. And it still doesn't make sense,
18:05
Speaker 1: and those sequels are to varying degrees terrible too. The
18:10
Speaker 1: worst thing ever, um, there are no good Highlander sequels
18:15
Speaker 1: as far as I am concerned, And even the original
18:17
Speaker 1: Highlander movie, as much as I enjoy it, is far
18:20
Speaker 1: from a perfect film. But that's a great example of
18:24
Speaker 1: more not necessarily being better. There was always this hope
18:27
Speaker 1: that the next Highlander movie was somehow going to fix
18:31
Speaker 1: the previous Islander movies. It just never seemed to happen. Yeah,
18:36
Speaker 1: you know, I feel that way about a lot of prequels.
18:38
Speaker 1: To for instance, Maleficent, I didn't need an origin story
18:43
Speaker 1: for the bad guy. I didn't need her to be
18:45
Speaker 1: a sympathetic character. Even I understand that people like it,
18:48
Speaker 1: and if that's your jam, more powered to you. But
18:52
Speaker 1: to me, it just didn't add anything to the story
18:56
Speaker 1: at all. And if and again, it feels sort of
18:58
Speaker 1: like Disney cashing in on sleeping beauty, because this is
19:04
Speaker 1: kind of related to Disney's habit of taking their animated
19:08
Speaker 1: films and making live action versions, because rather than try
19:12
Speaker 1: and come up with new i P. They're relying on
19:16
Speaker 1: the love and affection people have for the stuff that
19:19
Speaker 1: they've already done, so why not we do that again
19:23
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Um. Star Wars I think falls into
19:26
Speaker 1: this category to at least for some people. For me, definitely,
19:29
Speaker 1: like both the prequels and the sequels fall into this category.
19:32
Speaker 1: For me. The original trilogy is pretty good. Return of
19:38
Speaker 1: the Jedi is probably the weakest of the three, but
19:41
Speaker 1: it's a pretty good trilogy. But the prequels and the
19:45
Speaker 1: sequels don't do much for me at all. You know,
19:47
Speaker 1: I would agree there were things I liked about the prequels.
19:50
Speaker 1: Listening to my friends who have children talk about introducing
19:53
Speaker 1: their kids to Star Wars, and even though there's some
19:56
Speaker 1: really dry, dry political material in there, like the kids
20:01
Speaker 1: like it, so, you know, for like, it was great
20:05
Speaker 1: to put that in place for people now who are
20:07
Speaker 1: introducing their kids to Star Wars. That being said, not
20:11
Speaker 1: my favorite trilogy of the bunch, This last trilogy there
20:14
Speaker 1: were things that I liked about the movies. Honestly, Rhan
20:17
Speaker 1: Johnson's was my favorite, even though there are certain things
20:19
Speaker 1: in his episode. I'm also like, why, why why did
20:24
Speaker 1: you give us Luke milking a walrus elephant creature. But
20:30
Speaker 1: it's that blue milk, man, It's that blue milk. Once
20:33
Speaker 1: you have a taste, it was green. But still I digress, though,
20:38
Speaker 1: Like I feel like it's suffered from the definitive decision
20:45
Speaker 1: to make each set of those a trilogy, as opposed to, Oh,
20:49
Speaker 1: I have a story that I think would be great
20:51
Speaker 1: in the Star Wars universe, let me make that alone.
20:55
Speaker 1: Rogue One I think was a fantastic story. Okay, well
20:59
Speaker 1: we just agree on that, but I won't go I
21:01
Speaker 1: won't use this time to go off on that, but
21:04
Speaker 1: I will say that I think a big part of
21:07
Speaker 1: this issue just stood from the fact that in the
21:11
Speaker 1: first Star Wars film, Obi One makes a vague reference
21:16
Speaker 1: to the Clone Wars and to Luke's father, and that
21:20
Speaker 1: was enough to have people have their imaginations go wild
21:24
Speaker 1: about how that must have played out, Like, what are
21:27
Speaker 1: the Clone Wars? What does that mean? How did Obi
21:30
Speaker 1: Wan serve Princess Leah's father during the Clone Wars, what
21:35
Speaker 1: is that? What is this? How? And everyone just came
21:37
Speaker 1: up with different theories about how that was going to
21:39
Speaker 1: play out. And once you get to that point, you're
21:43
Speaker 1: also endanger of the fact that you're never going to
21:45
Speaker 1: be able to create something that's going to measure up
21:48
Speaker 1: to someone's expectations or imagination. It's just impossible. Um, So
21:54
Speaker 1: that that's a big issue to see. To me, the
21:57
Speaker 1: sequels that that I tend to like a lot are
22:00
Speaker 1: ones where it's the same characters, but it's not necessarily
22:04
Speaker 1: a continuation of the original story. So for example, we
22:08
Speaker 1: know speaking about Rhyan Johnson, we know about Knives Out
22:13
Speaker 1: is going to get a sequel, and you know that
22:15
Speaker 1: Knives Out sequel is going to be a new mystery
22:19
Speaker 1: with the Detective. It's not going to be a continuation
22:21
Speaker 1: of the story from the first film. And I can't
22:24
Speaker 1: wait to see that. Honestly. Uh. Thor Ragnarok kind of
22:29
Speaker 1: skirted around the continuous like we had Thor, which I
22:33
Speaker 1: really enjoyed the first Thor, and then we had the
22:34
Speaker 1: second Thor movie, which Dark Elves on Parade. Look, it
22:39
Speaker 1: had Christopher eccleston, So I had to like it a
22:41
Speaker 1: little bit, but but it was not great. I will
22:45
Speaker 1: admit it was not great. And then they turned it
22:47
Speaker 1: around for the third largely by just making it, making
22:50
Speaker 1: it its own thing, you know. And and that's another like,
22:54
Speaker 1: that's another interesting challenge though, right, because each of those movies,
22:59
Speaker 1: in all of those different franchises are themselves part of
23:01
Speaker 1: an even bigger franchise, that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
23:05
Speaker 1: So then you've got multiple, you know, multiple people to
23:10
Speaker 1: to satisfy. You have the fans of the actual hero,
23:14
Speaker 1: you have the fans of the overall cinematic universe, and
23:18
Speaker 1: trying to tell stories that continue not just the individual storyline,
23:22
Speaker 1: but then feedback into this bigger, overarching storyline. I can't
23:27
Speaker 1: imagine how difficult it is keep all those plates from
23:30
Speaker 1: falling off, you know, you have to keep them spinning.
23:33
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think there's this tendency to go toward
23:40
Speaker 1: prequels and sequels because of the idea that you've already
23:45
Speaker 1: got a built in audience there. So therefore you know
23:48
Speaker 1: you're you're you're banking on a good box office from
23:51
Speaker 1: the get go. That is, to the detriment of good storytelling,
23:55
Speaker 1: Like we can get good stories from that, they do happen.
23:59
Speaker 1: I I'm hoping the new Guest Ghostbusters movie is a
24:03
Speaker 1: good sequel. I I hope. So I'm not super optimistic,
24:10
Speaker 1: but I'm hoping it was. If I'm hoping, I didn't
24:13
Speaker 1: say I expected it to be. Usually I can do
24:15
Speaker 1: about one sequel before I feel like it's a cash
24:18
Speaker 1: grab in the same storyline, before they have to go
24:21
Speaker 1: to different storylines. That being said, you know, I'm see
24:25
Speaker 1: you like you said, spin Clates does good, good at it.
24:27
Speaker 1: I you know, the third Foor was great, the third
24:31
Speaker 1: Iron Man was passible. The Yeah, I'm hoping the Third
24:35
Speaker 1: Spider Man is fantastic. The Third Captain America was good,
24:39
Speaker 1: but not as good as the Second Captain America, which
24:42
Speaker 1: was way better than the First Captain America. I agree,
24:47
Speaker 1: First Captain America was well. First Captain America has the
24:51
Speaker 1: same problems that all the Marvel origin stories have. So,
24:56
Speaker 1: but that's a story, that's a that's a conversation for
24:58
Speaker 1: a different time. At least they're starting with the prequel,
25:01
Speaker 1: so it's the beginning of the story and not going back. Yeah,
25:04
Speaker 1: we're not gonna We're not gonna get a movie filling
25:08
Speaker 1: in what happened in the interim years for Captain America
25:11
Speaker 1: because he's just a block of ice, so it would
25:14
Speaker 1: be nothing happening. May you see like a little like
25:17
Speaker 1: Penguin walked by occasionally, that would be about it. You know,
25:20
Speaker 1: I wouldn't watch that movie, but I would use it
25:23
Speaker 1: as a screen saver. It can. It'd be like the
25:26
Speaker 1: Captain America Penguin webcam and you just have that up
25:29
Speaker 1: in the window if you're listening want this. You know
25:33
Speaker 1: that sounds like a great mash up, but we have
25:35
Speaker 1: our own matchup to cover in just a second. And yes,
25:39
Speaker 1: both factors of the mashup have been part of our
25:43
Speaker 1: conversation in our news segment. So I hope you're ready
25:48
Speaker 1: to hear some monstrous fun stuff as we move right
25:52
Speaker 1: along into this next break aieal, Hey, Jonathan, would you
26:14
Speaker 1: like to tell the good people about the terrible thing
26:16
Speaker 1: that you're gonna make us do? Now? Listen, you can't
26:20
Speaker 1: judge you made us do that Gotham. Gotham Universe meets
26:25
Speaker 1: Veggie Hill Universe last week. Okay, that was pretty bad
26:29
Speaker 1: and I am not ashamed. So this week we are
26:33
Speaker 1: taking them up at universe and mixing it with the
26:35
Speaker 1: Godzilla universe. I'm very excited about it. Do you want
26:40
Speaker 1: me to go first? Or do you want to go first?
26:45
Speaker 1: Why message tradition, I'll go first. So my mashup is
26:49
Speaker 1: a mashup of the original Muppet movie mixed with Godzilla
26:54
Speaker 1: King of the Monsters, which is the nineteen fifty six version,
26:58
Speaker 1: not the nineteen nineteen version, because I still haven't been
27:01
Speaker 1: able to catch that one all the way through. I'm
27:03
Speaker 1: gonna interrupt you already, arial because I'm so excited. I
27:06
Speaker 1: have a feeling we have the same joke. Go for it.
27:10
Speaker 1: Oh no, yeah, go for it. Go for it. So
27:14
Speaker 1: this is called the Muppet Muto. Beloved comedian Steve Martin
27:18
Speaker 1: sits in a hospital, bandaged up, broken banjo, telling reporters
27:22
Speaker 1: of the CHAOSI witness firsthand and how he self saved
27:26
Speaker 1: l A and the world from a fearsome felt uprising.
27:30
Speaker 1: You see, it all started started with the scientist Dr Hopper,
27:33
Speaker 1: who is Evil Matt, on his quest to get the
27:35
Speaker 1: largest frog legs ever for his true passion, a French
27:38
Speaker 1: fried frog leg restaurant. All of his previous genetic engineering
27:42
Speaker 1: feats had failed him. And catching frogs is hard and tedious,
27:46
Speaker 1: so after weeks of scouring the Okainoki swamp, he was
27:49
Speaker 1: about to give up when he met Kermit the Frog
27:53
Speaker 1: singing in the swamp, which is weird one as I
27:55
Speaker 1: felt frog too he's singing, but he thinks surely Kermit
28:00
Speaker 1: has frog friends, so he talks Kermit into bringing a
28:03
Speaker 1: bunch of his froggy friends to l A to start.
28:07
Speaker 1: The swamp and friends show uh. The address he really
28:11
Speaker 1: gives Kermit is to his secret lab, his plan being
28:13
Speaker 1: to catch all the frogs that Kermit brings in the lab,
28:16
Speaker 1: exposed them to radiation in a controlled environment, and blow
28:19
Speaker 1: them up to get giant frog legs. However, Kermit, being
28:23
Speaker 1: a Muppet, ends up not just bringing his swampy frog friends,
28:26
Speaker 1: but a bunch of other muppets he meets along the way.
28:28
Speaker 1: In fact, he makes so many new friends, and he
28:31
Speaker 1: sends all his froggy fat friends back home, thinking the
28:34
Speaker 1: muppets will make a better team to entertain the world with. Also,
28:37
Speaker 1: along the way, they meet Steve Martin, the comedian Yes,
28:40
Speaker 1: who is on a bluegrass tour, who thinks that they
28:43
Speaker 1: are absolutely darling and encourages them on the endeavor, he says,
28:47
Speaker 1: look me up once you get to l A. So
28:49
Speaker 1: the Muppets they get to l A and they send
28:51
Speaker 1: Steve Martin a note saying we made it. Come watch
28:53
Speaker 1: our audition, Net so and so addressed, and they enter
28:56
Speaker 1: the theater, which is really the lab to Dr Hopper.
29:00
Speaker 1: Dr Hopper only sees Kermit entering the building, missing all
29:04
Speaker 1: of the other muppets, and he locks the doors and
29:06
Speaker 1: starts up the radiation mechanism, not realizing that all the
29:09
Speaker 1: other creatures who entered are not frogs. However, as that
29:14
Speaker 1: radiation starts upticking, one of Gonzo's rogue chickens bumps into
29:19
Speaker 1: the wrong button and the radiation goes off the charts
29:21
Speaker 1: and the next thing you know, out of this collapsing
29:24
Speaker 1: building emerges kerm Zilla breathing rainbow fires, Rolf Dan firing
29:29
Speaker 1: musical shock waves, Gonza, who has merged with his chickens,
29:32
Speaker 1: becoming winged and causing major wind gusts, Mecca Piggy, who
29:36
Speaker 1: pierce his ear dumps with her high pitched whining roar,
29:39
Speaker 1: and Fawzuki, who is ridiculous and finds mayhem the funniest
29:42
Speaker 1: joke of all. They start rampages and buggling all over
29:45
Speaker 1: l a wreaking havoc, and Steve Martin, who was just
29:48
Speaker 1: heading to out to watch their auditions, sees it all.
29:51
Speaker 1: Martin knows that they think they are doing good for humanity,
29:54
Speaker 1: and must still think so at their giant size. He
29:56
Speaker 1: also knows that music soothes as a savage beast, and
29:59
Speaker 1: so he starts playing the Rainbow Connection on his banjo,
30:04
Speaker 1: luring Kermit and the other Muppets to the Libreya tar pits,
30:07
Speaker 1: the closest thing he can think of to match the
30:11
Speaker 1: swamps back at Kermit's home. His goal is to just
30:14
Speaker 1: stick them Uppets in the tar pets until he can
30:16
Speaker 1: figure out how to change them back to regular size,
30:19
Speaker 1: But giant felt soaks up tar really well, and the
30:23
Speaker 1: Muppets starts singing to the bottom of the pits. We
30:26
Speaker 1: flash back to Mr Martin in his hospital room with
30:29
Speaker 1: all the reporters around him, as a single tear rolls
30:31
Speaker 1: down his cheek and he finishes his story. The reporters leave,
30:35
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, Martin hears in the distance
30:38
Speaker 1: the brief, otherworldly humming of never before, Never again, Never Before,
30:44
Speaker 1: Never Again. Cut to black Wow your's got grim he
30:50
Speaker 1: killed all the Muppets. They're gonna listen, you heard the
30:52
Speaker 1: ominous singing, They're gonna come back. Godzilla always comes back. Well, well,
30:56
Speaker 1: I can now say that I thought you were going
30:59
Speaker 1: to go the same to action I went in and
31:01
Speaker 1: you did not, So I have got a different take.
31:04
Speaker 1: Mine is called The Muppets Take Godzilla, and our movie
31:08
Speaker 1: begins with a flashback. It's the climax of the original
31:13
Speaker 1: The Muppet Movie, in which Doc Hopper, the restaurant mogul
31:17
Speaker 1: who wants Kermit as his spokes frog for his chain
31:20
Speaker 1: of Frog's legs restaurants, is closing in. Animal consumes some
31:26
Speaker 1: growth formula made by Dr Bunsen honeydew and grows to
31:29
Speaker 1: a massive size, scaring off all the bad guys and
31:33
Speaker 1: saving the day. We have a swimmy dissolve. We're now
31:37
Speaker 1: in the present day and Animal is back to his
31:40
Speaker 1: usual animal size. The Muppets are on a cargo ship
31:44
Speaker 1: captained by Tom Hanks, and they are bound for Tokyo Bay.
31:48
Speaker 1: As Hanks pilots the ship, he hears that they are
31:51
Speaker 1: being pursued by pirates. How can the same thing happen
31:55
Speaker 1: to the same guy twice, he says, and someone says,
31:58
Speaker 1: is that is that Bruce Willis's line. The pirates close
32:03
Speaker 1: in and are ready to board, and that's when the
32:05
Speaker 1: Muppets see that the pirates are led by Tim Curry
32:08
Speaker 1: and the entire crew are from Muppet Treasure Island. Kermit
32:11
Speaker 1: helpfully explains to Mr. Curry that they're in the wrong movie. Curry,
32:16
Speaker 1: or Long John, to his friends, apologizes he is a
32:19
Speaker 1: gentleman of fortune after all, and the pirates sail off
32:22
Speaker 1: peacefully singing what a nice man, says. Fozzy Hanks maneuvers
32:27
Speaker 1: the ship toward Tokyo Bay, but chaos is breaking out
32:31
Speaker 1: on deck. Miss Piggy is practicing her Japanese dr Teeth
32:35
Speaker 1: and the Electric Mayhem are playing Turning Japanese by the vapors,
32:38
Speaker 1: and Lose Zealand is hurling his Boomerang fish as he
32:41
Speaker 1: practice practices his idea for a super fresh sushi delivery service.
32:47
Speaker 1: One such fish wax tom Hanks in the head and
32:51
Speaker 1: he veers off course. The ship carrying the Muppets accidentally
32:55
Speaker 1: nudges another ship carrying barrels labeled super nuclear toxic fish food.
33:01
Speaker 1: Barrel falls off the ship and sinks into the ocean,
33:04
Speaker 1: which bubbles a lot. The Muppets disembark and start to
33:07
Speaker 1: debate what they should do first, with everyone seeming to
33:10
Speaker 1: have a different idea of what they should do. Kermit
33:14
Speaker 1: wants to head to the countryside and see the cherry blossoms.
33:17
Speaker 1: Piggy wants to check out the fashion district. Scooter really
33:20
Speaker 1: just wants to look at electronics stores. Fozzy wants to
33:23
Speaker 1: try out some new material. As they bicker, the sea
33:27
Speaker 1: behind them is roiling and the spiky back of a
33:30
Speaker 1: certain enormous lizard monster rises up. Godzilla stands tall, his
33:37
Speaker 1: slash her shadow covering the Muppets as they continue to
33:41
Speaker 1: argue amongst themselves. Meanwhile, the people of Tokyo sort of
33:45
Speaker 1: roll their eyes and go indoors, shutting themselves in as
33:48
Speaker 1: if to say, well, here we go again. The traffic
33:51
Speaker 1: stops and the streets are emptied. But it's only when
33:54
Speaker 1: Godzilla lets out that monstrous scream then the Muppets all
33:58
Speaker 1: freeze and turn around in unison. After a beat of silence,
34:02
Speaker 1: all the Muppets go into full on freak out mode.
34:06
Speaker 1: Godzilla starts to make his her way to the shoreline,
34:09
Speaker 1: approaching Tokyo, which seems almost resigned to what's about to happen.
34:14
Speaker 1: Kurmit sees that Godzilla is heading directly toward Tokyo Disney
34:17
Speaker 1: see the theme park, guys. Kermit yells, we gotta do
34:21
Speaker 1: something or the Boss is gonna be awful mad. The
34:25
Speaker 1: Muppets all look, and it's clear they are all processing
34:27
Speaker 1: how Mickey is gonna be miffed if Godzilla crushes that
34:30
Speaker 1: theme park. They spring into action. What follows is a
34:34
Speaker 1: series of attempts to distract Godzilla. Fozzy Fozzy tries out
34:38
Speaker 1: his material, but Godzilla agrees with Statler and Waldorf that
34:41
Speaker 1: it's fishy honey dew and Beaker tried to distract Godzilla
34:45
Speaker 1: with her own Mecca Muppet Godzilla, but while Godzilla first
34:49
Speaker 1: seems interested, a malfunctioning remote control in Baker's hands leads
34:53
Speaker 1: to the robots premature destruction, and so on, until Animal,
34:57
Speaker 1: convinced he can take on Godzilla, is who's out his
35:00
Speaker 1: own roar of a challenge. Godzilla seems either amused or confused,
35:04
Speaker 1: and it's just about the squish animal when Baker, zapped
35:07
Speaker 1: by that remote control, accidentally tosses the last remaining vial
35:12
Speaker 1: of the growth formula forgotten in his own lab coat.
35:15
Speaker 1: It flies through the air and hits Animal directly, and
35:19
Speaker 1: then Animal grows to the size of Godzilla. What follows
35:23
Speaker 1: is essentially the trailer for Godzilla versus Kong, complete with
35:27
Speaker 1: Animal doing an action movie jump away from an explosion.
35:31
Speaker 1: But in the middle of their struggle, Animal in Godzilla
35:33
Speaker 1: find out they aren't so different after all, and Kermit,
35:37
Speaker 1: teeny Tiny Kermit points this out with a lovely earnest
35:41
Speaker 1: speech which gets to Godzilla and instead of fighting, they
35:45
Speaker 1: all become friends. Were in the movie with a montage
35:48
Speaker 1: of the Muppets touring Japan, Godzilla into We see them
35:52
Speaker 1: at Disneyland, downtown Tokyo, touring the countryside on top of
35:56
Speaker 1: Mount Fiji, and in the very end we learned Godzilla
36:00
Speaker 1: has joined the Electric Mayhem as a backup singer and dancer.
36:03
Speaker 1: The end. I would so watch that, I feel like
36:09
Speaker 1: I did in my head as you were saying it,
36:11
Speaker 1: but I would watch that on the big screen as well. Yeah,
36:14
Speaker 1: the first thing that came to me was that scene
36:17
Speaker 1: in the Muppet movie where Animal grows to an enormous size,
36:22
Speaker 1: And that's why when you mentioned the Muppet movie. I thought, Oh,
36:25
Speaker 1: I have a feeling we're going to have the same story.
36:27
Speaker 1: Oh no, really, uh, I just wanted to pick a
36:31
Speaker 1: movie that I was familiar with, and that one was
36:33
Speaker 1: the first one. Also, I picked Godzilly King of Monsters,
36:38
Speaker 1: the version that I did specifically because there it starts
36:42
Speaker 1: with an injured American reporter named Steve Martin. Nice. I
36:46
Speaker 1: like that. I like that we also had references to
36:49
Speaker 1: other stuff. I couldn't resist having the reference to Muppet
36:52
Speaker 1: Treasure Island, which I maintain it's probably the best of
36:56
Speaker 1: the Muppet films that came out in that era. Agree.
37:00
Speaker 1: I agree. In fact, I want to go and watch
37:03
Speaker 1: that right now. So I'm going to end this episode
37:05
Speaker 1: with you, Jonathan. That sounds good, Ariel. If people would
37:08
Speaker 1: like to reach out and send us their thoughts, their
37:11
Speaker 1: own mash ups, maybe suggestions for things we can talk
37:14
Speaker 1: about in future episodes, how would they do such a thing, Well,
37:17
Speaker 1: they can email us at ellen C and I heart
37:19
Speaker 1: Media dot com, or they can reach out to us
37:22
Speaker 1: on social media at on Twitter we are ellen c
37:25
Speaker 1: Underscore Podcast, and on Facebook and Instagram We're Large and
37:28
Speaker 1: or Drunk Collider. You can also go to our website
37:31
Speaker 1: and leave us a note there. That's where we put
37:33
Speaker 1: all of our episodes and show notes. Yep, and thank
37:37
Speaker 1: you guys for listening. We really appreciate it. Remember, if
37:40
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the show, leave us a review. Tell your
37:43
Speaker 1: friends about the show where the mouth helps a lot.
37:46
Speaker 1: We really enjoyed doing this. We can't wait to hear
37:48
Speaker 1: from you, guys. And until next time. She has been
37:51
Speaker 1: arial casting and he has been Jonathan Mecha Strickland m
38:00
Speaker 1: h m hm hm h m hm hm. The Large
38:18
Speaker 1: New Drunk Collider is a production of I Heart Radio
38:21
Speaker 1: and was created by Ariel cast In. Jonathan Strickland is
38:24
Speaker 1: the executive producer. The show is produced, edited and published
38:27
Speaker 1: by Torri Harrison. For more podcasts on my heart Radio,
38:31
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
38:34
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.