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The Last Airbender w/ Abby Govindan · Everyone's A Critic

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Everyone's a Critic.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: A show where a guest picks a movie rated below 40% on Rotten Tomatoes and tells us why critics got it wrong.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Yanis Cove, a formerly pretentious film school student.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Ten years later sees the error of his ways.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: My guest today is comedian and writer Abby Govinden.
0:20
SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
0:21
SPEAKER_04: Thank you so much.
0:21
SPEAKER_04: It's a great to be here.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: How are you today?
0:24
SPEAKER_04: I'm doing so well.
0:26
SPEAKER_04: I'm so excited to talk about Avatar The Last Airbender.
0:30
SPEAKER_04: I am a little bit stressed politics-wise, like things are not going well here right now.
0:36
SPEAKER_04: Um, or anywhere for that matter, except maybe New Zealand.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Um that seems to be the one place where it's just like calm at the moment.
0:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
0:45
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
0:46
SPEAKER_04: It's a shame that I don't live there.
0:48
SPEAKER_04: Um funny story, actually.
0:50
SPEAKER_04: Uh my so my parents told us that um we almost uh immigrated as a family.
0:58
SPEAKER_04: I mean, like before we before me and my sister were born, they almost immigrated as a family to uh Australia.
1:05
SPEAKER_04: I mean, I was like, Oh, why didn't you guys not or why didn't you guys immigrate to Australia?
1:10
SPEAKER_04: And they were like, you know, if we were in Australia right now, you would say, Hey, why didn't we immigrate to America?
1:17
SPEAKER_04: And I I was like, no, if we were in Australia right now, I'd be like, look at those idiot Americans.
1:23
SPEAKER_04: They're paying$400,000 for healthcare and like$200,000 for college.
1:29
SPEAKER_04: Also, we have these sexy accents and they sound stupid.
1:33
SPEAKER_04: They sound stupid.
1:34
SPEAKER_04: We do, we as Americans sound stupid.
1:36
SPEAKER_04: Um, it depends on the accent.
1:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it adds a whole aspect of personality, I think.
1:43
SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah.
1:45
SPEAKER_04: So that's how I'm doing it.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: So that's how you do it.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: You want to live in Australia.
1:49
SPEAKER_04: I do, I do.
1:51
SPEAKER_04: Well, the one plus side I always say to like all my parents, my mom, um, my dad, and my sister, uh my sister's in college, but for what she wants to do, all of their professions would be fine in Australia.
2:05
SPEAKER_04: Like if they up and moved to Australia, they'd be fine.
2:07
SPEAKER_04: Um, but the only reason I'm glad I'm here is because I want to be in Hollywood.
2:11
SPEAKER_04: So like Hollywood, you can't really recreate anywhere else.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: No.
2:15
SPEAKER_04: Um, so that's one reason that I'm glad to do it.
2:18
SPEAKER_04: You might get away with it here.
2:19
SPEAKER_04: The only reason.
2:20
SPEAKER_04: What?
2:20
SPEAKER_00: You probably get away with it in London.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: That's about it.
2:23
SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's I guess that's true.
2:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and there, I might be wrong about this, but I feel like there are more Indian filmmakers in London.
2:32
SPEAKER_04: Um, it's just like a little bit easier to succeed here as an Indian person.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:41
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't act, so I can't say I can't speak myself.
2:46
unknown: Yeah.
2:47
SPEAKER_04: Are you Indian?
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm half Indian.
2:49
SPEAKER_04: Oh, very cool.
2:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but the other half.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh Greek, Greek Cypriot.
2:54
SPEAKER_04: Oh, cool.
2:55
SPEAKER_04: Cool.
2:56
SPEAKER_04: So you have thick eyebrows, is what I'm hearing.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: So I have what?
3:00
SPEAKER_04: Thick eyebrows is what I'm hearing.
3:03
SPEAKER_04: I mean, not hugely thick eyebrows, but because I have naturally thick eyebrows because I'm Indian and I know that Greek people also have very thick eyebrows.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm not like that's another weird thing.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: I should be like the hairiest person in the world is an Indian and Greek person, and I'm like I don't know.
3:19
SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, that's lucky.
3:21
SPEAKER_04: That's nice.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh let's talk.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: So you picked the movie The Last Airbender.
3:26
SPEAKER_04: I did.
3:28
SPEAKER_04: I did.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: Can you speak to why you decided to pick it?
3:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
3:33
SPEAKER_04: No, honestly.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: I mean, um You had a few choices, didn't you, that you wanted to make it?
3:38
SPEAKER_04: I had a few, yeah, I had a few choices.
3:41
SPEAKER_04: Um I guess like I just have like okay, here's the thing is when I watched it, I watched it when it came out in theaters in India when I was 12.
3:53
SPEAKER_04: So it came out in theaters in India, I think like a day later than it came out in America.
3:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
3:57
SPEAKER_04: And I begged my aunt to take me.
4:01
SPEAKER_04: Like, I was like, please, like, I annoyed her so much about that movie.
4:06
SPEAKER_04: Um, and the only other movie I annoyed them about as much was Harry Potter because like the movies, the blockbusters, all came out in summer, and like every summer when I was a kid, my parents would just shit me off to India.
4:17
SPEAKER_04: Like they'd be like, we can't deal with this ass for three months, so we're gonna make our brothers and sisters deal with you.
4:24
SPEAKER_04: Um, so yeah, I begged to see Avatar.
4:26
SPEAKER_04: And here's the thing is as a 12-year-old, it changed in my life, and that's another that's another thing, is I've always been obsessed with Dev Patel, just like always just had an immense love for him.
4:37
SPEAKER_04: Um, I watched him on Slum Dog Millionaire.
4:40
SPEAKER_04: Um, I so he was in, I've watched him in other movies that I just like can't seem to remember right now.
4:46
SPEAKER_04: But he was in this movie and he played Zuko, who was my like sexual awakening when I when I first watched Amazon Last Hair Render and I was like 10.
4:56
SPEAKER_03: Um and what's comical about Dev Patel is I don't want to make any enemies of people in this movie, but he's the only good actor, and it's literally comical how good he is compared to everyone else.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: He's really bad in this movie.
5:15
SPEAKER_04: You think he's really bad?
5:16
SPEAKER_00: I think he's this is his worst movie.
5:18
SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, that's why because I think he's so good, just like his emotion.
5:24
SPEAKER_04: Also, he had the like most realistic dialogue because even in the show, Zuko, just like the way he talks, no one talked like that, you know?
5:32
SPEAKER_04: So um I was obsessed with Dev Patel, and so this movie literally changed my life, and I had no idea it got bad reviews until I like grew up, until I was like 16 or 17, and like I remember when we were talking about it, and someone was like, Oh, that movie was bad, and I was like, No, that movie was really good, and then I read all the reviews, and then I was like, I guess it it can't be as good as I remembered it being.
5:55
SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, because it's uh 5% on Rotten Tomatoes, 5% on Rotten Tomatoes, yeah, exactly.
6:02
SPEAKER_04: Crazy, yeah, but at its core, it was a movie for kids.
6:08
SPEAKER_04: So like a lot of the adults did like rip into it.
6:11
SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't know what you expect.
6:12
SPEAKER_04: Also, like no Disney or sorry, no Nickelodeon original movie that's released in theaters ever ends up being good.
6:20
SPEAKER_04: Like the SpongeBob SquarePants movie, both of them bombed.
6:24
SPEAKER_04: And a large part of it, I feel like, is I don't know if it's budget reasons for animation or if they just have an in-house animation team that's like good at animating for TV shows, but like sucks at animating for movies.
6:36
SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?
6:36
SPEAKER_04: Like animation budgets for movies should be higher, and like Nickelodeon Studios, I feel like just has the same budget across the board because the animation in this movie was also subpar at best.
6:47
SPEAKER_04: Sorry, sorry, I'm supposed to be talking about how good it is.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna No, you're you you still loved it though, so I did, I did.
6:56
SPEAKER_04: So um yeah, the answer was why I chose this movie.
7:00
SPEAKER_04: I guess I had such such a positive memory of it from being 12, and I saved re-watching it for like a special occasion, and like this podcast is a special occasion, and I rewatched it, and I was like, this is a train wreck.
7:13
SPEAKER_04: Like, here's first of all, Katara is the worst narrator ever.
7:19
SPEAKER_04: I was like, why is the water tribe a whole bunch of like pasty white, like boring looking people?
7:26
SPEAKER_04: And okay, I fully lost my shit at the beginning, at like the very beginning.
7:32
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you remember.
7:33
SPEAKER_04: Um, when Aang gets Ken Ang, as they call it.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: I know.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, everyone has the wrong pronunciation in this movie.
7:42
SPEAKER_04: Uh I get, I mean, I get it.
7:44
SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
7:45
SPEAKER_04: Is an Indian and he was like, I want to like sprinkle some spice.
7:48
SPEAKER_04: Like, I believe Avatar, I could be wrong.
7:53
SPEAKER_04: I believe it's a Sanskrit word, right?
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Don't know.
7:58
SPEAKER_04: I'll look it up and get back to you.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: I haven't looked that far into it.
8:02
SPEAKER_04: Okay, I'll look it up right now.
8:05
SPEAKER_04: Is Avatar or is Avatar a Sanskrit word?
8:10
SPEAKER_04: Yes, yes, I was right.
8:12
SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah, avatar is a Sanskrit word, it comes from avatar, which is like if I'm remembering Sunday school as like a kid that I was forced to go to write, it's like um different gods had different, like not reincarnations, like different avatars.
8:28
SPEAKER_04: There's really no other way to say it, in that like they took on different forms.
8:32
SPEAKER_04: So I'm sure that's what the concept was based off of.
8:36
SPEAKER_04: Um, so yeah, I get I get why Emmett Shalon was like, let's call him Aug.
8:41
SPEAKER_04: Um, and let's let's call it the Avatar instead of Avatar.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: Um But the issue with that is it's already it's already got it's already got it comes from a TV show, so why are you changing it in the first exactly?
8:55
SPEAKER_04: And then like everyone else's like look, if if the if the Fire Nation had Indian accents, right?
9:03
SPEAKER_04: Like, okay.
9:06
SPEAKER_04: But they like everyone just has an American accent, which is not like you can't expect anything, anyways.
9:11
SPEAKER_04: At the beginning, when Aung gets kidnapped, I'll call him Aung for the sake of continuity, whatever the fuck.
9:18
SPEAKER_03: Uh in the beginning, when he gets kidnapped, I'm gonna stop laughing through everything.
9:23
SPEAKER_03: This movie was such a train wreck that I just like can't help.
9:26
SPEAKER_04: In the beginning, when he gets kidnapped, um uh Katara and Soka, by the way, I don't know why they changed the pronunciation of that.
9:35
SPEAKER_04: Soka just sounds more American, whatever.
9:38
SPEAKER_04: Um, go to their grandma's hut and and they're like, we have to go after him.
9:43
SPEAKER_04: And Sokka's like, Soka, whatever, is like 14.
9:47
SPEAKER_04: No, no, sorry, Katara's 14, Sokka's like 15 or 16, if I did the math right in the TV show.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, about that, I think.
9:54
SPEAKER_04: And they're like, Yeah, we want to travel across the world to find this strange boy that we just met.
9:59
SPEAKER_04: And and their grandma's like, okay, like she was like, I I always knew that your destiny was something, and I guess this is your destiny.
10:08
SPEAKER_04: Um, and then she pulls out a map, and the map is fully in Chinese, and I had to pause because I was laughing so hard.
10:15
SPEAKER_04: I was like, What is the butter tribe MFs?
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Like, how did I completely miss that?
10:21
SPEAKER_03: A Chinese map.
10:23
SPEAKER_03: Like, where?
10:24
SPEAKER_04: And like also everything in this show is is like written in Chinese, and of course, in the original show, it makes sense because like all of these people for the most part are of Asian descent.
10:36
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but like just it's something comical about watching this like white family pull out a Chinese map and like just fully understanding what it says.
10:45
SPEAKER_04: Um, but anyways, in the TV show, um, I guess because they had like time to develop things over episodes, uh, like things just made a lot more sense.
10:54
SPEAKER_04: Whereas like in the movie, it just didn't work.
10:56
SPEAKER_04: Like in the TV show, Aang, Aang, Aang, call him what you want.
11:03
SPEAKER_04: What?
11:03
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, whatever.
11:04
SPEAKER_04: He's he's in the village for a few days before he gets kidnapped, and he has time to like build these bonds with people and show people that he's like a trustworthy person and that he's like fun-loving and lighthearted.
11:15
SPEAKER_04: Um, and so when he leaves and people get attached to him and like want to find him, it makes sense.
11:22
SPEAKER_03: But in the movie, he's literally there for two, like literally there for two minutes before Zuko kidnaps him.
11:29
SPEAKER_03: And then all these people are like, and then Katara especially is like in tears, she's like, we have to go after him, and then her grandma's like, yeah, why not?
11:38
SPEAKER_03: And like it just doesn't make any fucking sense.
11:41
SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah.
11:43
SPEAKER_04: Uh and oh, another thing.
11:46
SPEAKER_04: So in uh in the TV show, Zuko at one point kidnaps the avatar from Fire Nation from his uncle, not from his uncle, I guess uh just another war war general whose name I forget.
12:02
SPEAKER_04: Um because he wants to be the one to bring the avatar to the Fire Nation, you know, like war general to do it.
12:09
SPEAKER_04: And he goes in a blue mask and he kidnaps the avatar from the shackles.
12:16
SPEAKER_04: And um, as Aang is escaping, like Fire Nation throws fire at Zuko, and he I mean, yeah, it's Zuko.
12:25
SPEAKER_04: Like we we don't know that it's Zuko until this point, but like Fire Nation like throws flames at Zuko and then his mask falls off, and and Aang is like, oh my god, that's Zuko.
12:35
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I should leave him here.
12:36
SPEAKER_04: Like for a split second, he almost leaves Zuko there, and then he's like, Yeah, he was trying to kidnap me, but he's the reason I'm still alive, so he saves Zuko.
12:43
SPEAKER_04: And then Zuko, like, he takes him deep into the forest, and Zuko is like tranquilized essentially.
12:49
SPEAKER_04: And then as Zuko slowly wakes up, Aang gives this very beautiful speech about um I forget his name.
12:59
SPEAKER_04: Uh about his Fire Nation friend.
13:02
SPEAKER_04: Like he had a friend in the Fire Nation when he was younger, and he was like, Yeah, like uh we had a lot of differences, but I used to go visit him in the Fire Nation all the time, and we used to play, and like despite our differences, we got along really well.
13:17
SPEAKER_04: And and then like the last line that Aang says to Zuko is um, if we met under certain different circumstances, do you think we would be friends?
13:27
SPEAKER_04: And it's this like very powerful dialogue, right?
13:30
SPEAKER_04: Um and pretty much like this is a pivotal moment in Aang's character development.
13:36
SPEAKER_04: Like we already knew he was a big person, like a really, really good person, but like you can tell that Aang holds like some sort of affection for Zuko despite everything, and that like circles back in the third season when Zuko is like, I want to be your firebending teacher, and Aang is kind of like like conflicted again.
13:57
SPEAKER_04: Like, some part of him holds affection for Zuko, and that that plays a large part in Aang like forgiving him later on for like all the bullshit that he did.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:06
SPEAKER_04: Um, whereas in the movie, Aang I was waiting for this.
14:11
SPEAKER_03: In the movie, Aang uh in the movie, Aang uh saves Zuko and first of all, like uh like freezes him in like a in like this like ice cylinder block, um, and then freeze his head, and Zuko's like confused, he's like, why?
14:35
SPEAKER_04: And then Aang like is just running away, and as he's running away, he was like, We could have been friends, you know, and it just makes no sense at all whatsoever.
14:43
SPEAKER_03: There's no content for him.
14:44
SPEAKER_04: So just a lot of things like that.
14:46
SPEAKER_04: Like, I understand, I really, really empathize with M Night Shyamalan because um, because like capturing like a TV show in a movie when the TV show had time to like build stuff is hard, but man, he really dropped the fucking ball.
15:02
SPEAKER_04: Sorry, what were you saying?
15:03
SPEAKER_03: I didn't mean to speak up for you.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's fine.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say that there you go.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: The the thing is he's only doing book one, he's not doing the whole thing.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: He has time to develop it, I feel like, and he just he just decides to cut so much important integral, so many important integral scenes out of the of the movie that could have gone in, and then everything else is just exposition, yeah, and also um like the way the dialogue is written, uh like it just comes off as everyone being rude to each other to make sense.
15:33
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
15:33
SPEAKER_04: Like when Sokka and Yue are like meeting for the first time.
15:37
SPEAKER_04: First of all, that's another thing that like the nuance was just taken out of completely.
15:42
SPEAKER_04: Like they go to the Northern Water tribe, and then in a voiceover, Katara is like Sokka and Yue immediately hit it off, and that's the only development that we see in Sokka and Yue's character.
15:56
SPEAKER_04: Characters like romantically, yeah.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: I I because I I don't remember so when I was re-watching it, I had only seen like up to I'd uh I'd only seen like a few episodes like trying to catch up again just to remind myself, and I hadn't seen I hadn't seen that relationship, and I don't remember her, and because I hadn't seen the show in like 15 years, so I don't remember like anything beyond that.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: And seeing her, I was just like, wait, who is she and why is he in love with her suddenly and where is this coming from?
16:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so that was Princess Yue, she's the princess of the Northern Water Tribe.
16:30
SPEAKER_04: She's like one of the biggest memeable moments of Avatar because she's the one who turned into the moon, yeah.
16:36
SPEAKER_04: And then like later, uh, when like Sokka and Zuko are having their heart to heart, um Zuko's talking about like how he has to leave behind Mei to like help the Avatar and like betray his his father essentially.
16:51
SPEAKER_04: And Sokka's like, my first girlfriend turned into the moon, and Zuko's like, that's rough, buddy.
16:57
SPEAKER_04: And it's like such a funny moment.
16:59
SPEAKER_04: It's like one of the biggest memes of the show.
17:01
SPEAKER_04: Anyway, they're like talking and getting to know each other, and like the one the one moment that stuck out to my head is like Sokka was like, when you meet my gr grandmother, she's gonna have so many questions for you.
17:14
SPEAKER_04: And Yue was like, I'll answer all her questions.
17:17
SPEAKER_04: What questions would she have?
17:18
SPEAKER_04: And then Sokka was like, she'd ask why your hair is such an alarming like color of gray.
17:26
SPEAKER_04: He didn't say alarming, he said something insulting.
17:28
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Oh my god, if I were Yue, I would have slapped the shit out of him.
17:32
SPEAKER_04: Of course, it was like exposition, right?
17:35
SPEAKER_04: It's like the reason that came up is because they wanted to explain that like she had the moon spirit in her.
17:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:41
SPEAKER_04: But it was done so poorly.
17:43
SPEAKER_04: Um also Asif Manvi plays the the general.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: I know, I had no idea he was in this, and I wrote down, I was like, he's in this.
17:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: What is he doing?
17:53
SPEAKER_03: First of all, Asif Manvi is in every movie starring an Indian person ever.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: He's so miscast in this.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: So miscast.
18:04
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
18:05
SPEAKER_04: Asif Manvi is a personal hero of mine, um, because he was a correspondent for The Daily Show.
18:11
SPEAKER_04: Uh I believe he was the first Indian correspondent.
18:14
SPEAKER_04: A lot of people, but it was actually Asif Manvi.
18:18
SPEAKER_04: Um so I just like look up to him and uh usually he plays like the goofy Indian friend in like movies.
18:27
SPEAKER_04: So like seeing him as like a war general was so interesting.
18:30
SPEAKER_04: And and he he did it well, I thought.
18:33
SPEAKER_04: You might disagree.
18:34
SPEAKER_04: I disagree.
18:35
SPEAKER_04: But I forget why I brought it.
18:37
SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, yeah.
18:37
SPEAKER_04: So the scene at the Northern Water Tribe when he like kills the koi fish.
18:43
SPEAKER_04: The koi fish in the bag is like so obviously a robot.
18:47
SPEAKER_04: That's another thing that stood out to me.
18:48
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you noticed.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Um it looked really funny.
18:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it looked really weird.
18:53
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, there's like I was like, I know your budget was big enough to like make this more natural looking.
19:00
SPEAKER_04: Um and also that entire scene was just a mess.
19:03
SPEAKER_04: First of all, we learn in this movie they can't make fire out of nowhere.
19:08
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you remember that.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: In like what's the difference of in the TV show?
19:13
SPEAKER_04: Um firebenders are the only people that can like just develop fire out of their hands, which by the way, I thought it was bullshit.
19:21
SPEAKER_04: Like, waterbenders, earthbenders could do that.
19:25
SPEAKER_04: I guess airbenders could, but only because air is like everywhere around them, you know?
19:29
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, but so in this movie, Zuko to fight Katara, like brings um a torch and then like lights the whole place on fire.
19:40
SPEAKER_04: And then Iroh, to protect the moon spirit, like like blows fire out of his knuckles, and then everyone else in the Fire Nation is like, oh my god, he's making fire out of nowhere, which also is just a weird way to word it.
19:54
SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, that'd be like what a third grader would say.
19:58
SPEAKER_04: Um, it's just so weird.
20:00
SPEAKER_04: Any anyway, this movie's avant-garde.
20:03
SPEAKER_04: Here's the thing, also, is I think that it got a lot of hate because it was made by an Indian person.
20:09
SPEAKER_03: Like, I feel like if it was made by a white person, it would have instantly become a cult classic, just like the room.
20:16
SPEAKER_03: Like when people of color make bad movies, they're just bad movies.
20:19
SPEAKER_03: But when people when white people make bad movies, they're cult classics for whatever fucking reason.
20:25
SPEAKER_03: But I'm ready, I'm on team Make Avatar a cult classic.
20:29
SPEAKER_03: Like, I think it's time.
20:31
SPEAKER_04: I think that enough time has passed that we can look back at it and be like, that was a funny memory that we all shared.
20:38
SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, also making making the Fire Nation Indian people is something I'm very, very conflicted by because the Fire Nation was supposed to represent settler colonials, if that makes sense, like colonizers.
20:53
SPEAKER_04: Um, so making them Indian just like takes away from so much of that symbology.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: And then the fact that they uh like the Water Nation all white as well, and there's water trap being all white don't even don't even get me started.
21:06
SPEAKER_04: Don't even get me started.
21:08
SPEAKER_04: The reason that I was so excited about Avatar when I was a little kid is because Katara looks like me.
21:13
SPEAKER_04: Um so the fact that also, so like the reason that the TV show did really well is because it was such a perfect blend of like dark storylines and like childish humor.
21:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there's humor in it.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: There's no humor in this at all.
21:32
SPEAKER_04: There's no humor in this one at all.
21:35
SPEAKER_04: Like it was so dark.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Aang is so depressing.
21:42
SPEAKER_04: The kid who played Aang wasn't even that cute, which I think I don't want to talk, I don't want to talk Josh about children.
21:50
SPEAKER_04: I've seen a picture of him recently.
21:51
SPEAKER_04: He's very cute now.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Um I just He must be a grown man now.
21:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's my age.
21:58
SPEAKER_04: He's 23.
21:59
unknown: Wow.
22:00
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, he looks he's very good looking now.
22:04
SPEAKER_04: And he was even he was even a like he was a cute child then, but I think something about him being bald like just did not translate well at all whatsoever.
22:12
SPEAKER_04: Um I don't know how they're gonna do that for the new reboot.
22:14
SPEAKER_04: And like and Aang was so in the in the movie, he was so serious about everything that he just like wasn't a likable character.
22:23
SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?
22:24
SPEAKER_04: Like the reason that he's so likable in the TV show is because he's like adorable, and that's what I when I say cute, I don't mean like physical attributes solely.
22:35
SPEAKER_04: I know that's personality-wise, like Aang was just a kid that you'd want to like hug in the TV show, just in the movie, he was just fucking um, and it was just like rapid fire, like scene by scene by scene by scene.
22:49
SPEAKER_04: They were it was just like so hard.
22:50
SPEAKER_04: It was like vertigo watching this movie.
22:54
SPEAKER_04: Um but like I said, it's avant-garde.
22:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like oh yeah, so what I was saying earlier um is my Joker origin story is the fact that there were no Asian people involved in the in the process of the cartoon, like not even not even on the animation team.
23:11
SPEAKER_04: And here's the thing is like animation is the most Asian profession in entertainment, like you have to go out of your way to not have an Asian animation team.
23:19
SPEAKER_04: And I used to watch the credits just to like make myself mad because like it would get to the animation team and there'd be like two Asian people, and I'd be like, How did you manage to do like how did you manage to go out of your way?
23:29
SPEAKER_04: Um It's an American which I should um but but only Asian people were involved in the remake, in the live action remake, and it was trash.
23:41
SPEAKER_04: And then for a split second, I was like, huh, maybe Asian people don't deserve opportunities in Hollywood.
23:48
SPEAKER_04: Maybe I'm racist, maybe I'm racist against Indian people now.
23:51
SPEAKER_04: That's movie made me racist against Indian people.
23:53
SPEAKER_04: And here's the thing: being racist against Indian people, and I feel like I can say this.
23:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
24:01
SPEAKER_03: Being racist against Indian people, Indian people make it so easy to be racist against them.
24:07
SPEAKER_03: I mean, and I say this as if you're Indian, you're allowed to be racist against Indian people.
24:12
SPEAKER_03: I am absolutely not excusing like hate crimes against Indian people.
24:16
SPEAKER_04: But uh, like even more recently, um, like in the Black Lives Matter movement, like pretty much Indian Americans just like stayed completely radio silent on Black Lives Matter.
24:29
SPEAKER_04: Um and then like of course, there's like all this nonsense going on in like India, India with like CAA and like cast and like religious religious um genocide, and Indian Americans again just stayed radio silent on that.
24:43
SPEAKER_04: Um so that's my case for being racist against Indian people.
24:47
SPEAKER_04: Um they're the worst.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: That's not being racist against that's not being racist against Indian people, that's calling out your own own people.
24:55
SPEAKER_03: I'm racist against Indian people.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: No, that's just calling your own people out to be better.
25:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously I'm joking.
25:03
SPEAKER_04: Um I don't hate being Indian by any means.
25:06
SPEAKER_04: But this movie made me hate being Indian, you know?
25:09
SPEAKER_04: Oh, and here's the thing is the face against it.
25:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
25:14
SPEAKER_04: Oh, sorry, sorry.
25:15
SPEAKER_04: No, it's I mean, no, but here's the thing.
25:17
SPEAKER_04: When I was 12, it made me very proud to be Indian because when I saw it, I had like I had I hadn't hadn't really seen Indian people in movies except for like Slum Dog Millionaire, which is a great movie.
25:32
SPEAKER_04: I I loved Slum Dog Millionaire, but like one of the biggest criticisms of Slum Dog Millionaire is that it shows the side of India that like Hollywood and whatever Hollywood in London is um called, uh it shows a side of India that only the movie industry the is the only side of India that move the movie industry shows, which is like slum, slums, like whatever, and like uh corruption and poverty, which are big issues in India, but like our stories are much more diverse than that.
26:03
SPEAKER_04: Um so seeing uh Indian people as Fire Nation, again, conflicting.
26:09
SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, I didn't finish the sentence earlier.
26:11
SPEAKER_04: It was conflicting because like the Fire Nation is supposed to be settler colonials, but also the Fire Nation undeniably were the sexiest people in the cartoon.
26:21
SPEAKER_04: Um like you can make a case for the Water Tribe.
26:24
SPEAKER_04: The Water Tribe for sure had the most attractive people, but the Fire Nation had the sexiest outfits.
26:29
SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't know if you remember in season three, they like infiltrated the Fire Nation and they all had Fire Nation outfits, and that was the hottest all of them liked, especially Katara.
26:39
SPEAKER_04: Um, Zuko's always been hot.
26:41
SPEAKER_04: Azula, don't even get me started on how hot Azula is, right?
26:46
SPEAKER_04: So, like seeing Indian people as Fire Nation, that was really exciting for me as a 12-year-old.
26:49
SPEAKER_04: And I get why M9 Shamalan wanted to do that.
26:52
SPEAKER_04: Like, I get he's Indian, and so he wanted to like add this aspect to the movie.
26:57
SPEAKER_04: But the water nation, the water tribe was right there, you know.
27:01
SPEAKER_04: Like the water tribe, you could argue is supposed to be some for form of South Asian, because um, I read somewhere that like every single population in in Avatar is supposed to be Asian of some sort.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: Do you know do you remember do you know which is supposed to be which?
27:21
SPEAKER_00: Or does it did it say did it say which is supposed to be which that when you read it, or do you not remember?
27:26
SPEAKER_04: Like which tribe is um no, I don't remember, but I do remember reading, so like someone said someone tweeted like there are no white people in Avatar, and someone else brought up the swamp people.
27:37
SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't know if you remember the swamp people.
27:39
SPEAKER_04: I know you haven't watched it in 15 years or anybody.
27:41
SPEAKER_04: Um the swamp people were these like water, I want to say they were waterbenders, they might have been earth benders, but they like pretty much bended the swamp um to like save it from outsiders.
27:52
SPEAKER_04: And Aang goes into the swamp because he's like, I feel like calling me, and then they all have this like beautiful spiritual journey um in the swamp, and it's really cool.
28:02
SPEAKER_04: But they get ambushed by these like southern hick um, like they have these southern accents and they like are bumbling idiots, yeah, and it's hilarious um people.
28:15
SPEAKER_04: And someone was like, Oh yeah, these are white people, and and someone else was like, these no, like I get why you would think they're white people because they have like southern accents and they're bumbling, whatever, but they're actually coded to be the Vietnamese diaspora in Louisiana, yeah.
28:32
SPEAKER_04: I forget why.
28:33
SPEAKER_04: Um, I'm not sure what what ethnicity all of the different nations are.
28:39
SPEAKER_04: I'm sure if we looked it up, we could find it.
28:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
28:43
SPEAKER_04: Um I'm amazed, frankly, at the TV show's ability to capture such like complex Asian stories, um, especially with the people.
28:58
SPEAKER_04: Um this is about the movie, not the TV show.
29:00
SPEAKER_04: The movie is avant-garde.
29:02
SPEAKER_04: Um, I think what's hilarious is in the TV show, and I believe this was like the third episode, um, Katara meets Haru, who's this like really, really cute earthbender, and his dad is taken prisoner, and then eventually Haru is taken prisoner, and then Katara is like, I can't just let them be taken prisoner.
29:21
SPEAKER_04: Um, like I want to save them.
29:22
SPEAKER_04: So she gets arrested as well.
29:24
SPEAKER_04: And yeah, and she goes on the ship, she like saves the earthbenders.
29:28
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and the earthbenders can't bend metal, which is something I was very mad about the entire TV show, by the way.
29:35
SPEAKER_04: And finally, like Toph learns metal bending in season three, and she's somehow the first earthbender to do metal bending, but like metal is earth.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: Like I was a chemistry major for two years.
29:45
SPEAKER_04: What?
29:46
SPEAKER_00: I'd say, yeah, I'm agreeing with you.
29:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
29:49
SPEAKER_04: It's just refined earth.
29:50
SPEAKER_04: So it always made me mad that they couldn't metal bend, but whatever.
29:54
SPEAKER_04: So Petara and Aang are trying to figure out like how to get like earth to these earthbenders, and they do something really cool with the coal.
30:03
SPEAKER_04: Um, and coal is like pure earth, so then they like send a whole bunch of coal up to the earthbenders, and then the earthbenders use the coal to like defeat the fire nation and take over the ship.
30:13
SPEAKER_04: But in the movie, um, Aang is just like walking through, right?
30:18
SPEAKER_04: Literally just like walking through the forest, and then he comes across this earth nation internment camp, and they're literally in the middle of the forest, and like we're supposed to believe that none of them thought to like ambush the Fire Nation with Earth.
30:34
SPEAKER_04: And the and then also the Fire Nation just lets Aang and Katara and Sokka walk through.
30:40
SPEAKER_04: It's not like a guarded camp at all.
30:42
SPEAKER_04: They're literally just like it literally, they're literally just camping.
30:45
SPEAKER_04: Like the way the setup was, I was like, anyone could sneak out of here.
30:49
SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't know what M.
30:50
SPEAKER_04: Nai Shaman was thinking when he wrote this scene.
30:53
SPEAKER_04: Um, and Aang goes and he gives an impassioned speech, and it's not even a good speech.
31:01
SPEAKER_04: He's like, You have earth beneath your feet, use it.
31:06
SPEAKER_04: I'm the avatar.
31:07
SPEAKER_04: Literally, that was the entire speech.
31:09
SPEAKER_04: And then all at once, all the earthbenders were like, Oh my god, he's right.
31:14
SPEAKER_04: We do have earth beneath our feet, as if they like didn't know this whole time.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, it was I feel like they're just such the earth vendors, and I guess like there's no airbenders other than Aang, are there?
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Aang is the only airbender.
31:32
SPEAKER_04: Aang is the only airbender.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the earthbenders are just like such a side thought of the of this movie.
31:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
31:41
SPEAKER_04: Um, which is fine.
31:43
SPEAKER_04: Like they literally, I don't think they met any earthbenders until like season two.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I didn't they make such a big deal out of it though, of there being four different uh ways of the of of being, and like the the fire, earth, air, and water.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: It's like you'd think that you'd think that they would use those in this, but they just don't yeah, exactly.
32:07
SPEAKER_04: And like, I don't know, it was ridiculous.
32:09
SPEAKER_04: It was so ridiculous that that like Aang just literally went up there and he was like, I'm the Avatar, you have Earth, use it.
32:19
SPEAKER_04: And they were all like, Oh my god, like it changed their lives.
32:22
SPEAKER_04: Um, another thing about the movie is that like a lot of things worked in the cartoon that just like didn't would not work in a live-action movie.
32:29
SPEAKER_04: Like in the cartoon, like Aang jumps like 20, 30 feet at a time because he's an airbender and he's like bending the air beneath him.
32:37
SPEAKER_04: But in the movie, Aang does it a couple times and he just looks stupid.
32:40
SPEAKER_04: Like he he looks like a mixed martial artist.
32:45
SPEAKER_04: Um, it's Warren Cromwell.
32:48
SPEAKER_04: What?
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he it looks a lot like that.
32:50
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, and then um, and then like in the show, they like freeze people a lot.
32:57
SPEAKER_04: Like Katara like water bends water around them and then freezes the water.
33:02
SPEAKER_04: And of course that's like funny in a cartoon.
33:04
SPEAKER_04: It's like funny and cute in a cartoon, but in real life that would never work.
33:07
SPEAKER_04: Like people would freeze to death.
33:08
SPEAKER_04: But they were doing it in the movie, and it was just like so hard to like wrap my head around it, you know.
33:14
SPEAKER_04: Like, I think that you have a certain responsibility when you transfer mediums of a TV show, like from cartoon to live action, to like take into consideration those things that just like breach what we know to be true of reality.
33:30
SPEAKER_04: Like, literally anything is possible in a cartoon, but then like when you when you add a live action element to it, you really have to take those things into consideration.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: But I think that's why I think that's also like why the any sort of like this bending that they do within this, it looks weird.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: So they they do the they're doing all the movements, it looks like Tai Chi, and it doesn't look quite as smooth and and elegant as uh in the show.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: It just looks kind of just a bit basic.
33:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
33:57
SPEAKER_04: And also, um yeah, like you said, Tai Chi, like that that is like when they choreographed the animation, like that, it was based off of like those Asian martial arts.
34:09
SPEAKER_04: Um and non-Asian people just don't look as natural doing them.
34:15
SPEAKER_04: Um, so it's just like kind of weird to see Katara in the movie who's like pale, like Lily White as white can get, and she's like doing Tai Chi.
34:24
SPEAKER_04: And look, I'm not saying that non-Asian people can't do Tai Chi, but like the point what I'm trying to say is that like these are inherently Asian art forms, so like some part of this felt like cultural appropriation-y, if that made sense.
34:35
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely, yeah.
34:36
SPEAKER_04: Um that was another thing is that like the fact that Aang wasn't Asian, and okay, I looked it up, and apparently the kid who plays Aang is half Asian, but he's like so obviously not meant to look Asian.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:48
SPEAKER_04: Like, I'm so sure that when they didn't look at all, they weren't they weren't giving priority to Asian kids.
34:55
SPEAKER_04: Um, and so the fact that Aang was an Asian just like it didn't sit right with my soul, or I should say he wasn't Asian passing, because Noah Rogers, the kid who plays Aang, is actually half Asian.
35:06
SPEAKER_04: So like the fact that Aang wasn't Asian passing also like just didn't sit right with my soul.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it feels weird.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: And I w I also wonder if like he well, I wonder if he was cast first and then they and then they cast the rest of the water nation around like all the water nation around that, or if he was actually that wouldn't really make sense because he's airbender, but like um I don't know.
35:27
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, I think then M.
35:28
SPEAKER_04: Night Chamalan just like decided to pick races for each of the nations, which is I mean, like it's how it's supposed to work, except he like didn't really pick Asian people.
35:37
SPEAKER_04: Um I don't know why.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, yeah.
35:40
SPEAKER_04: Now that I think about it, the only East Asian person that I remember seeing in the entire movie is the guy that betrayed Aang.
35:48
SPEAKER_04: Do you remember him?
35:49
SPEAKER_04: No, he goes to the air temple or water temple or something.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: I know, yes, yes, I know who you mean.
36:01
SPEAKER_04: And and an old Asian man is just like very nice to him, and then and then at the end he's like, uh you'll forgive me, Avatar, like you leaving a hundred years ago ruined my life or something.
36:14
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, why is this the only East Asian man in a sh in a movie about East Asian mythology?
36:21
SPEAKER_00: Like it just why is that that's the other thing though?
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Like every so the Fire Nation are bad, he's bad as well as the East Asian man.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: He's like a trickster, um, he's lying to Aang.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: Like, why is every the the guy like the the guy that he got that sells him out uh that you were talking about?
36:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so like why why is every Asian person in this bad?
36:44
SPEAKER_00: And why is every white person good?
36:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, beats me.
36:50
SPEAKER_04: And then at the end, when um Aang defeats the Fire Nation and like makes them evacuate from the Northern Water Tribe, when they all like bowed down to him, like I might be wrong, but I feel like that would never happen in the live in the cartoon because Aang was just like such a um like humble, down-to-earth.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: That's the thing.
37:19
SPEAKER_04: Like he was just like very like anyone can be the avatar, you know.
37:22
SPEAKER_04: It just like happened to be me.
37:25
SPEAKER_04: Oh, and another thing that bothered me, and I see we're running over like we're close to running over time, so I won't talk to you long.
37:32
SPEAKER_04: Another thing that bothered me was in the in the cartoon, the way to tell who's the avatar is so clever, it's so clever.
37:41
SPEAKER_04: So they present a thousand toys to the avatar when when they're young and ask them to pick out four, yeah.
37:50
SPEAKER_04: And if the four they pick out are the are the four that the how do I explain?
37:58
SPEAKER_04: So like the four they pick out, the four that Aang picked out were four that belong to the previous four reincarnations of the Avatar.
38:08
SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?
38:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
38:09
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and that's that's the test that they give to all kids, like to see who the avatar is.
38:15
SPEAKER_04: And so in the cartoon, it's so cute.
38:17
SPEAKER_04: Like they were like, We presented you with this test, you picked these four items, so you're the avatar.
38:22
SPEAKER_04: And he's like, No, I just picked them because they like looked fun.
38:25
SPEAKER_04: They were just like cool looking, and they were like, No, this the science is proven you're the avatar.
38:29
SPEAKER_04: Whereas like in the movie, in the movie, they they capture him, and Iroh is like, um, we're gonna test to see if you're the avatar.
38:41
SPEAKER_04: And they pour water on the table.
38:45
SPEAKER_04: It's like, what the fuck are they doing?
38:47
SPEAKER_04: And the water like coagulate, is that the word?
38:49
SPEAKER_04: Like coagulates.
38:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:52
SPEAKER_04: And the rock just like shakes a little.
38:55
SPEAKER_04: Um and the candle, like the candle with the window.
38:59
SPEAKER_04: It goes like the flame goes into the wing, by the way.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the candle.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: I think the flame goes bigger.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: I think the flame is a bigger.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh, maybe, maybe, yeah, yeah.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:06
SPEAKER_04: Um, and I I don't even remember what they did for air, I'm not gonna lie to you, but I was like, this is so dumb.
39:12
SPEAKER_04: Because like in the cartoon, they were very big on like the avatar doesn't know how to bend until he knows how to bend.
39:19
SPEAKER_04: Like, it legit took him more than half of season three to even master fire.
39:25
SPEAKER_04: Like, he tried so hard and he just like couldn't control it.
39:29
SPEAKER_04: So the fact that like this was the way that they tested to see who's the avatar, it's just like it was comical.
39:36
SPEAKER_04: It was legitimately comical.
39:37
SPEAKER_04: Like everything was thought out in the cartoon in such a thoughtful, meaningful way, and all you had to do was rewrite it on paper.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: Just remake that.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be changed.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's nothing, there's nothing.
39:52
SPEAKER_04: Literally, nothing has to be changed.
39:54
SPEAKER_04: Look, yeah, it was a terrible movie, got five percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
39:58
SPEAKER_04: It was still a blockbuster, it still like broke records for that year in terms of movie sales.
40:05
SPEAKER_04: The thing is, people are so dedicated to this TV show that like no matter what you write, they'll watch it.
40:10
SPEAKER_04: So you don't even have to create a new storyline.
40:13
SPEAKER_04: Like, you did not have to create a new storyline.
40:15
SPEAKER_04: All you had to do was write what was already in the TV show into a screenplay, cast the right people.
40:22
SPEAKER_04: Like, literally, the bar was so low.
40:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and somehow he's M.
40:28
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan still managed to disappoint.
40:31
SPEAKER_04: And I love M.
40:32
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan.
40:33
SPEAKER_04: Let me just say I am the fan club or I'm the president of the M.
40:36
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan fan club, but some part of me feels like him tanking this movie was intentional because I just like can't there's no other reasonable explanation.
40:49
SPEAKER_04: I think that he took an avant-garde.
40:51
SPEAKER_04: And here's the thing, when you watch this movie as avant-garde, it's a genius movie.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: So let's hit let's hear that from you then.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Like you explain that to me.
41:02
SPEAKER_04: It's genius, no, it's genius.
41:04
SPEAKER_04: Like, so I'm I'm of the very big belief that there's no there's no such thing as bad movies, there's only good movies, and there's satire, and I think and I think I think the last airbender is a satire of M Night Shyamalan movies.
41:22
SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?
41:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:25
SPEAKER_04: Um and when you watch it as a satire of Might Shyamalan movies, it's a genius movie.
41:32
SPEAKER_04: Like the dialogue, the plot twists.
41:37
SPEAKER_04: Um let me let me just say um also the costume design.
41:43
SPEAKER_04: If if you watch this movie as like the costume design is a satire of costume design, it's genius.
41:50
SPEAKER_04: It's genius.
41:52
SPEAKER_04: But if you watch it as a serious movie, it's not because like the costumes, especially for the Southern Water Tribe, look like they were bought from Claire's.
42:02
SPEAKER_04: Like Katara's entire wardrobe just looks like it was furnished by Claire's.
42:08
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, especially the water tribe.
42:12
SPEAKER_04: You know, you know, um, the one good casting choice was Princess Ue.
42:17
SPEAKER_04: She was beautiful.
42:18
SPEAKER_04: I looked her up.
42:19
SPEAKER_04: I believe she's of Asian descent.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I looked her up as well.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: I think she is.
42:23
SPEAKER_04: And she voices someone, I forget who, in The Legend of Korra.
42:27
SPEAKER_04: So, like, I think she's very cute.
42:29
SPEAKER_04: So Princess Uay is not satire.
42:31
SPEAKER_04: Princess UA is to be taken seriously.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: But she doesn't have lines for like half her role.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: It's like the first half of her being in it, she doesn't have any any any lines.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: They don't even give her lines for the first half of her being in it.
42:43
SPEAKER_04: Princess UA?
42:44
SPEAKER_04: But she's silent?
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
42:47
SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's true, that's true.
42:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
42:48
SPEAKER_04: Oh, and then I didn't even I didn't even finish.
42:51
SPEAKER_04: Like Katara narrating was a fucking train wreck.
42:54
SPEAKER_04: Like, I get I get what he was trying to do.
42:57
SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay.
42:58
SPEAKER_04: Have you seen um there's a Jimmy there's a Jimmy Fallon um Jimmy Fallon like bit that he does where like every time there's a singer on his show, they feed lyrics of one of their songs into Google Translate into like some random language and then feed it back around into English.
43:21
SPEAKER_04: That's what Katara's like narration feels exactly.
43:25
SPEAKER_04: Like at the very beginning of the TV show, the title sequence is like beautifully narrated, right?
43:30
SPEAKER_04: And I guess like he didn't Emne Shamlon like didn't want to catch a lawsuit.
43:35
SPEAKER_04: Emne Shamlon and I and I speak the same language, by the way.
43:37
SPEAKER_04: We both speak Dhamil, like we're both from the south of India.
43:41
SPEAKER_04: So what it feels like he did is he took the entire title sequence at the beginning.
43:45
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you remember of the movie.
43:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
43:48
SPEAKER_03: Um, he took the entire title sequence, fed it into Google Translate for Dhammel, and then like retranslated it back to English, and then just had the actress for Katara read it.
43:59
SPEAKER_00: That would be You should like try that out and try to translate it back and then see if it works back the other way.
44:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because I assume like even though it's Nickelodeon Studios and like the creator signed off on it, I assume that if you just take dialogue straight out of the TV show, there's some legal dispute about it or whatever.
44:22
SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't know.
44:23
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it was a big deal in college, right?
44:25
SPEAKER_04: Plagiarism and what you can't do it.
44:26
SPEAKER_01: But yeah.
44:28
SPEAKER_04: So like all of Katara's narration just felt like they wrote it, just like how people talk and like fed it into Google Translate in some language, like Slovenian or something, and then translated it back and just had the actress read it like that to like prevent catching a lawsuit.
44:45
SPEAKER_03: Like the way she talked just is not how it's not.
44:47
SPEAKER_03: It's so wooden talk.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: It's so wooden.
44:50
SPEAKER_03: What?
44:51
SPEAKER_00: It's so wooden.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: It's just so wooden.
44:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
44:54
SPEAKER_04: Wouldn't yeah, that's such a good that's such a that's such a good way of putting it.
44:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was just like very stiff, like very like not how people talk at all.
45:03
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah.
45:05
SPEAKER_04: I have I mean I have a lot of thoughts about this movie.
45:08
SPEAKER_04: But again, if you look at it as a satire, oh, I got it.
45:13
SPEAKER_04: No, I got it.
45:14
SPEAKER_04: The last airbender, the last airbender is a satire of the TV show.
45:21
SPEAKER_03: Why that makes the most sense, but it also makes no sense, yeah.
45:28
SPEAKER_04: But if you if you think about it, it makes zero sense 100% sense at the same time.
45:33
SPEAKER_04: So let's like average it.
45:34
SPEAKER_04: It makes 50% sense.
45:36
SPEAKER_04: Like okay, if if Mnai Shyamalan was like, how can I take this this cartoon that's beloved and like the bar is so low and just like make people hate it for the next five years?
45:50
SPEAKER_04: Because it's true, like for the for the five, for like five years afterwards, yeah, anytime someone brought up Avatar The Last Airbender, like the first thing people would mention is the movie, as opposed to like the very well thought-out TV show.
46:03
SPEAKER_04: But also, props to M.
46:04
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan.
46:05
SPEAKER_04: The bar may have been low, but like, like I said, the cartoon just captured, like it has this like childhood wittiness, like childish like humor, mixed with like this dark storyline that just like like the tone works so well in the cartoon, you know.
46:21
SPEAKER_04: Like the entire three seasons, they were like, We're gonna have to fight the fire lord, he might kill me.
46:25
SPEAKER_04: Like, people die, people die in Avatar, and like they somehow made it palatable to children, you know.
46:32
SPEAKER_04: Like, usually they don't kill people, like no one ever died in SpongeBob, you know, like do you know what I'm saying?
46:38
SPEAKER_04: But like Avatar very much, I don't want to say overestimated, I want to say correctly estimated the emotional intelligence of children.
46:47
SPEAKER_04: Um, and it taught us so much about like love and loss and um Asian culture.
46:55
SPEAKER_04: And I even think there's a new, I don't know if you heard there's a new live-action TV show in the works.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm very curious about that.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: I don't know like how they could surely they're gonna cast that correctly this time.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: You would hope.
47:06
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they're gonna cast well because the two creators who made Michael Dante DiMartino and I always forget the other person's name, which sucks.
47:14
SPEAKER_04: Um but the two creators are involved with the TV show, so a lot of people have high hopes for it.
47:20
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
47:20
SPEAKER_04: But even I'm not keeping I'm keeping my Barlow only for the same reason.
47:25
SPEAKER_04: Like I think that the childish humor and the playfulness mixed with the dark story, um, I feel like that can only be captured so well in a cartoon.
47:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
47:35
SPEAKER_04: Also, I've just found that like keeping Barlow means that like you can only ever get surprised, like pleasantly surprised.
47:44
SPEAKER_04: You can't get disappointed.
47:45
SPEAKER_04: Like now, if the if the TV show is bad, I can be like I told you guys, so I was expecting that, then I can like yeah, cherish it all over again.
47:55
SPEAKER_00: Um and if not, you've still got the movie.
47:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
48:00
SPEAKER_04: Um I do want to play guitar.
48:02
SPEAKER_04: I mean, I have no acting experience.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Like I mean, look at the people in the movie, they had no acting experience.
48:10
SPEAKER_04: That is true.
48:11
SPEAKER_04: That is true.
48:12
SPEAKER_04: Oh, the guy who played Aang just like quit the movie industry.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: That happens a lot with Child Act.
48:17
SPEAKER_04: Like, he's just a normal kid in college now, or something.
48:22
SPEAKER_04: But like, I may be thinking of Aang the voiceover actor.
48:25
SPEAKER_04: So I something I know about both Aang the voiceover actor and Aang the kid who played Aang in the live action movie, is that they both neither of them are involved in in Hollywood anymore.
48:36
SPEAKER_04: Noah Rogers, I know for a fact, like last year bender was his only stint.
48:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm not surprised.
48:44
SPEAKER_00: Given his reaction, I'm given his given the reaction to him, I'm not surprised.
48:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and poor kid, like here's the thing, poor kid is like yeah, he was so young.
48:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and given the backlash, like I'm sure that was so traumatic.
49:00
SPEAKER_04: Um, and I like really feel for him.
49:02
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's not his fault at all.
49:03
SPEAKER_04: Being the voiceover kid, I think only did like two or three more acting stints before like he's he's I think he's also my age or like really, really close in age.
49:11
SPEAKER_04: Uh he might be a little bit older, but I and I last I read he's like in college somewhere in Connecticut.
49:19
SPEAKER_04: Um he never moved out of Connecticut actually.
49:22
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
49:22
SPEAKER_04: Uh I read that like he did his voiceover parts like just at home and sent them in, which I think is really cool because you have to and he was young too, you have to be really talented to like not have like just be able to recreate those emotions and those that like cadence without having like any frame of reference.
49:43
SPEAKER_04: Like I feel like in a voice booth they can like play back the line before and after yours, and there's a director right there who's like coaching you and like telling you what they expect from your lines.
49:54
SPEAKER_04: Um, but like having to do that long distance just like takes so much more talent, and the fact that he was so young is just like very impressive.
50:01
SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, I feel for both of those kids.
50:04
SPEAKER_04: Uh I don't know, I don't know why the guy who voiced Aang left the industry.
50:07
SPEAKER_04: I mean, like he for sure had the industry on lock.
50:11
SPEAKER_04: Like after being the star of Avatar, he could have gotten any job he wanted.
50:16
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, I find people, I find famous real quick tangent.
50:20
SPEAKER_04: I find famous people who leave the industry and just like become normal people so fascinating.
50:24
SPEAKER_04: Um, like the guy who played Charlie Bucket in the original chocolate factory, not the Johnny Depp version, but like the original 80s one, um, apparently just like hated fame.
50:33
SPEAKER_04: Like he just hated it.
50:34
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
50:34
SPEAKER_04: Um so he just like stopped making movies, went to med school.
50:38
SPEAKER_04: I know that's crazy, isn't it?
50:39
SPEAKER_04: In like bumblefuck upstate New York with his normal ass family.
50:44
SPEAKER_04: Um, which is cool.
50:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure my mom has like some connection to him in some way.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember what it is, but she has like she knows she knows of him, or she I just remember her telling that story constantly of like oh she knows the guy who played traffic.
50:58
SPEAKER_00: I feel like she knows him, and I don't know why.
51:00
SPEAKER_00: Or she just knew that story.
51:02
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but I just like I just feel or um or people who were like kind of famous but not famous enough to leave their jobs, like Ken Jong uh is an Asian icon, by the way.
51:16
SPEAKER_04: Like he's always wanted to do comedy, but he like just got his med school degree.
51:22
SPEAKER_04: And I read that he like he booked Hangover, but he ke continued practicing um medicine, and so so like uh some people like recognized him from the hangover, and I was like, oh my god, imagine that you're just like waiting for your doctor's appointment and the fucking mafia boss from Hangover walks in.
51:44
SPEAKER_04: I would like or like just imagine, imagine anything.
51:47
SPEAKER_04: What is with famous people and being doctors?
51:49
SPEAKER_04: Like, imagine like imagine you're just like chilling in the waiting room, and then Jennifer Aniston walks out and she's like, Giannis, you're next.
51:56
SPEAKER_04: Wouldn't you like shit shit your bands literally?
52:01
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
52:02
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, famous people, famous people who just like leave fame, just like yeah, they fascinate me so much.
52:12
SPEAKER_04: But yeah, that's uh what I'm saying is I guess Noah Rogers was so traumatized by what happened with Last Game Thunder that he was like, yeah, fuck you guys.
52:20
SPEAKER_04: Um hilarious.
52:22
SPEAKER_00: That happened with the um the the kid who played um uh what's his name?
52:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh Anakin Skywalker.
52:31
SPEAKER_04: Really?
52:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so he was in Jingle All the Way as the kid, and then he was in he was in uh Phantom Menace as Anakin Skywalker.
52:39
SPEAKER_00: Got such hate for it, he left the business immediately.
52:41
SPEAKER_04: What does he do now?
52:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh the last I know he was he went to college and like just did a normal just does normal stuff now, I think.
52:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what his job is, but it's just power to him.
52:53
SPEAKER_02: That's wild.
52:54
SPEAKER_00: But he just does he wants nothing to do with it.
52:56
SPEAKER_00: He hates it being brought up.
52:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
52:58
SPEAKER_00: So it must be tough.
53:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, anyways, that is my thesis.
53:02
SPEAKER_04: Is that Avatar The Last Airbender, the last airbender, the movie, is a satire of Avatar The Last Airbender, the TV show.
53:13
SPEAKER_00: Great.
53:14
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
53:15
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go over some bad reviews now and let's let let's see what you think of these.
53:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, so this is an interesting one.
53:24
SPEAKER_00: It says$150 million well wasted.
53:28
SPEAKER_00: The last airbender is an insult to those wanting sophisticated, entertaining, or or even competent cinema.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: That's one review.
53:38
SPEAKER_00: Which is just$150 million.
53:40
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize it was that expensive.
53:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, where did the money go?
53:46
SPEAKER_04: I think the animation looked terrible.
53:48
unknown: Yeah.
53:48
SPEAKER_04: If they bought shit from Claire's.
53:51
SPEAKER_04: Also, they hired all new actors, essentially, so they couldn't have been that expensive.
53:55
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is Dev Patel coming off of Slundok.
53:57
SPEAKER_00: He can't have been that expensive at that point.
54:00
SPEAKER_04: That's true.
54:01
SPEAKER_00: He's probably the most expensive person.
54:02
SPEAKER_04: I feel like would have been expensive.
54:03
SPEAKER_04: Asif Mundi, I feel like would have been expensive.
54:07
SPEAKER_00: I feel like Dev Patel is only like maybe two, three million at this point.
54:11
SPEAKER_00: It's not 150 million into it.
54:13
SPEAKER_04: Maybe, yeah, you're right.
54:16
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, 150 million dollars.
54:18
SPEAKER_04: Well, first of all, anyone who dislikes Avatar is racist.
54:23
SPEAKER_04: That's my approach to this.
54:25
SPEAKER_04: So it's racist against successful Indian filmmakers.
54:30
SPEAKER_00: Hey, but hold on.
54:31
SPEAKER_00: Didn't you say that you are racist to get this made you racist against Indians?
54:36
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
54:37
SPEAKER_03: That's what like that proves my point.
54:38
SPEAKER_03: I don't know why you're saying.
54:49
SPEAKER_04: Um so this guy's a fucking racist.
54:53
SPEAKER_04: Like I said, I'm just gonna say I don't like if it were made by a white person, Avatar would have been a c become a cult classic.
55:00
SPEAKER_04: Um, no, in all seriousness,$150 million is a humongous budget.
55:06
SPEAKER_04: Um, and it takes talent to burn through that money like that and still put out such a shitty movie.
55:13
SPEAKER_04: And I think that we really have to appreciate the efforts here.
55:18
SPEAKER_04: And look, Emma Shyamalan, his name is behind the project because like he wrote it and he directed it.
55:24
SPEAKER_04: And yes, we should hold him accountable.
55:26
SPEAKER_04: But there were hundreds of people involved in the making of this movie, and not one of them thought to stop Emma Shyamalan and be like, hey, maybe like they literally enabled him, like, hey, maybe we shouldn't make the water tribe white.
55:39
SPEAKER_04: Like, M.A.
55:40
SPEAKER_04: Shyamalan was like, make the water tribe white, and then like tens of casting directors were like, okay, sounds good.
55:46
SPEAKER_04: And then like like the five producers were like, okay, sounds good.
55:50
SPEAKER_04: Like, look, we typically blame the director of a movie for all of its shortcomings, but like, like sociologically speaking, bad movies should not exist, they shouldn't exist because if you have I don't know how else to explain it.
56:08
SPEAKER_00: Like I I'm of the opposite view.
56:10
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what, like, finish your thought, but I'm of the opposite view.
56:13
SPEAKER_04: I'm trying to think, like, if you get a hundred statisticians in a room, right, and um you ask them to calculate like a set of ten problems, by the end of it, they should have all 10 problems right.
56:29
SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?
56:31
SPEAKER_04: Because there's so many like people to hold these accountable.
56:35
SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, like I said, M Nai Shyamalan takes a majority of the fall, but like everyone enabled him, and like all together, they they came together.
56:44
SPEAKER_04: Like, this was a team effort, and they burned through 150 million dollars.
56:49
SPEAKER_04: The wardrobe looks like it's from TJ Maxx, like the set design looks like it was from Lowe's, which like I don't know if we ever talked about that, but like all of these amazing American references that my my listeners will probably get.
57:05
SPEAKER_03: Oh, hold on.
57:06
SPEAKER_03: No, it's fine.
57:07
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
57:08
SPEAKER_03: The the set design, what's the Primark?
57:12
SPEAKER_00: Primark TK TK Max, we have.
57:15
SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay, okay.
57:16
SPEAKER_04: Let me redo this.
57:17
SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's fine.
57:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm joking.
57:18
SPEAKER_00: I was missing it.
57:19
SPEAKER_04: The wardrobe looks like it's from Primark.
57:23
SPEAKER_04: The what's a what's the what's a UK like department store?
57:28
SPEAKER_04: Oh, the set design looks like it's from Aldi.
57:32
SPEAKER_04: Does that work?
57:33
SPEAKER_00: How do you know Aldi?
57:34
SPEAKER_00: How do you know Aldi?
57:35
SPEAKER_04: Aldi has like furnishings.
57:37
SPEAKER_04: I've been there.
57:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
57:40
SPEAKER_00: Fair.
57:41
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
57:43
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, the UK friendly version.
57:46
SPEAKER_04: Um, so they all came together and like made this truly terrible movie, and I think that's beautiful.
57:53
SPEAKER_04: Like, I really think it's like inspiring.
57:56
SPEAKER_04: Um, it proves to me that like Indian people can make bad things too, you know?
58:02
SPEAKER_04: We're like, we're so successful all the time.
58:04
SPEAKER_04: It's just tiring.
58:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
58:06
SPEAKER_04: Um, and I think that I needed to see that representation.
58:10
SPEAKER_04: So here's the way I see it:$150 were not blown.
58:14
SPEAKER_04: $150 were setting a record, trailblazing for Indian people like me who are just bad at what they do.
58:27
SPEAKER_03: I love Mnate Shamalan.
58:28
SPEAKER_03: I'm not even being ironic about my love for M.N.
58:31
SPEAKER_03: Shamalan.
58:31
SPEAKER_03: I've always wanted to be like him.
58:33
SPEAKER_04: I just think this movie was such a ball drop on his part.
58:37
SPEAKER_04: Um I'll say this.
58:38
SPEAKER_04: But I do want to meet him one day and be like, oh my god, you literally changed my life.
58:42
SPEAKER_04: So, like I said, this is a non-M.NA Shamalan hate hate place.
58:47
SPEAKER_04: I just think the fact that this movie was came out so badly, it's just so funny.
58:54
SPEAKER_00: For me, it's like I I think he's a very, very good director.
59:01
SPEAKER_00: I just think he bought into his own hype.
59:03
SPEAKER_00: And I think nobody said no to him for this.
59:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and now he's essentially blacklisted from that.
59:11
SPEAKER_04: That's another thing that sucks, though, is that like and another reason I'm like an M shameland rights activist is because like like non or like white directors will keep getting hand-ed projects, and even if they have like one, two, even ten commercial like failures, people will just be like, Oh, it's time to have faith in them.
59:31
SPEAKER_04: Whereas like what I should say, white male directors also, whereas like women and people of color get blacklisted from the industry, despite like even even if they've had commercial successes before, and and like Mnate Shyamalan is very much a uh an example of that.
59:44
SPEAKER_04: So, like, even though I like make fun of him in Jess, like I do respect like the fact that he's trailblazed for Indian people, and because without M.
59:53
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan, there wouldn't be other Indian directors, you know.
59:57
SPEAKER_04: Um, same way that like I wouldn't be, you or I wouldn't be here where we are in comedy if not for like Russell Peters, you know, and like Hassan Minaj and all these people who um kind of paved the way for us and Asif Manmi, even for that, even for that matter.
1:00:11
SPEAKER_04: So in that sense, I very much respect M.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_04: Night Shamalan and like all these things I say in jest, but like I think that listeners and everyone who watches this this movie and other M.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan movies and like uses his name as a punchline or whatever, should be hyper aware of the fact that like M.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan's name is only a punchline because he's a person of color.
1:00:32
SPEAKER_04: Like, there's so many white directors who have time and again produced shitty projects, and their name never becomes a punchline, they just get handed more and more money, and they're given the benefit of the doubt.
1:00:42
SPEAKER_04: Um, so this became a lot more introspective than I than I intended.
1:00:47
SPEAKER_04: But that is my that is my response to that review.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I agree with that.
1:00:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm with you on that.
1:00:52
SPEAKER_00: I think like he gets a lot of unfair hate, and his movies, they all make a lot of money, every single one of them is a huge, huge success.
1:01:02
SPEAKER_00: And people want to see them, and so I can't fault him there.
1:01:07
SPEAKER_00: And and I think it's great that he he always makes what he wants to make, and he's like, and it's it's always his vision on it, and that that's not an easy thing to do for a person of color in in the Hollywood industry, yeah.
1:01:22
SPEAKER_04: No, not I mean, not by any means, especially like right now, is they're calling it the second golden age of film and television because Hollywood is like thirsty for diverse stories, and they're like, we want to be the first ones to invest in like young people of color telling stories that haven't been and so anyone who finds success now as a person of color, as a woman or a woman of color, obviously they worked for it and they deserved it, but there were more avenues for them right now, there are more avenues for them as opposed to someone of the same demographic, like 20 years ago.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_04: So the fact that M.
1:01:57
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan was able to pave a way for himself in film, despite the fact that at the time, like seeing an Indian man direct a movie was not common at all whatsoever.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_04: Like seeing an Indian man sell a screenplay was not common at all whatsoever, is like even more of a big deal.
1:02:14
SPEAKER_04: So, like I said, everything that I say isn't jest.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_04: I truly I love M.
1:02:18
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_04: I don't want to perpetuate any of the hate that he gets, a lot of which is fueled in like racial rhetoric.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
1:02:26
SPEAKER_04: Um draw jokes.
1:02:28
SPEAKER_04: Just like when next time you're making fun of M.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_04: Night Shyamalan, just like reflect on why, on why you're making fun of Kent and not like Max Landis, for example.
1:02:36
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you know who Max Landis is.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
1:02:39
SPEAKER_04: He's just like he he sold that film Bright um to Netflix, which is it's like racial commentary, but you can't write racial commentary if you're white.
1:02:50
SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't know if you've ever watched other racial commentary movies written by white people, but the racism is so over.
1:02:56
SPEAKER_04: Like the only racism that white white filmmakers think exists are like white characters being like I hate black and brown people, when like racism is a lot more it's it's microaggressions that they completely miss.
1:03:10
SPEAKER_04: What?
1:03:10
SPEAKER_00: It's all microaggressions that they completely miss.
1:03:12
SPEAKER_00: It's not just yeah, exactly.
1:03:14
SPEAKER_04: Microaggressions, subtlety to it.
1:03:16
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, excuse me, sorry.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, exactly.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_04: So and like Max Landis isn't isn't a punchline, you know, like we literally made fun of Bright for like a few months, and then we all collectively moved on.
1:03:30
SPEAKER_04: And like Max Landis got detooed, and that's the only reason he hasn't made any movies.
1:03:35
SPEAKER_04: But I'm so sure that like he'll be back in years, he'll be fine.
1:03:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, he'll be back, he'll be fine.
1:03:41
SPEAKER_04: Um, he has like a cult following of like rabid white inside, but even like look at his dad as well.
1:03:46
SPEAKER_00: Like, look at what his dad did.
1:03:47
SPEAKER_04: Like John Landis, yeah, he literally murdered people and he was fine.
1:03:52
SPEAKER_04: He was fine.
1:03:53
SPEAKER_00: Like the next year he went on to make like a massive Eddie Murphy movie.
1:03:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
1:03:58
SPEAKER_04: So like, so yeah, and that's another thing as a as a person of color, um, just like in the public eye and like pursuing pursuing a career in film and TV.
1:04:09
SPEAKER_04: I'm like very and I'm not anywhere yet, like I haven't sold a script or a TV show or movie or anything, but I'm like very I try to be very intentional about the things that I say and do because I know that my mistakes will stick with me for a way longer time than my white male counterparts.
1:04:28
SPEAKER_04: And I'm so sure you can relate to this.
1:04:30
SPEAKER_04: I would definitely relate to that.
1:04:31
SPEAKER_04: So uh yeah, um, yeah, again, a lot more introspective than I intend to.
1:04:38
SPEAKER_04: That's good though.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_04: I think it's interesting.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_00: It brings a whole new perspective to this movie, though, I think.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's and that's why look, that's why I love it.
1:04:44
SPEAKER_04: That's literally why I love this movie, is that I think Indian people should be allowed to, and people of color dunno, I think they should be allowed to make bad movies and recover from it and not be made to be a punchline or not be blacklisted from the industry.
1:04:57
SPEAKER_04: Um and that that is unironically why I love it.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_04: It is a bad movie, objectively, and I like I've been I'm the first to criticize how badly it was done.
1:05:07
SPEAKER_04: But um, I really appreciate the talent that it takes to collectively make a bad movie.
1:05:12
SPEAKER_04: Why do you think that it's possible to make a bad movie?
1:05:14
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so my theory on this is that there's so many collective parts that go into it that it's almost impossible to make a good movie because there's the one one slight slip in one section of it uh can derail the whole thing.
1:05:31
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's my theory on it.
1:05:32
SPEAKER_04: So, like that say That's a good point.
1:05:35
SPEAKER_04: Oh okay, that's fair, that's fair, that's fair.
1:05:37
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, actually, yeah, you might have changed my mind on that because there's there are so many good movies that like I finished watching, and I'm like, how like how did that turn?
1:05:47
SPEAKER_04: Like, how did not one person like act badly, you know, like deliver one line poorly?
1:05:54
SPEAKER_04: How is there not one editing error?
1:05:56
SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, I see where you're coming from.
1:05:58
SPEAKER_04: I think, well, I think.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_04: Thing is that like so many people have to okay the movie, like once it's finished editing, like so many people have to watch it and be like, okay, is that like I cannot believe that like a hundred fifty people watched Avatar and they were just like, Yeah, this is good.
1:06:17
SPEAKER_04: Send it to the theaters.
1:06:19
SPEAKER_04: This can't go on.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to think what he just what what was the movie he made before this, like right before.
1:06:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't even know.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_00: Was it like Lady in the Water, maybe?
1:06:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't even uh oh, okay.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_00: The movie he made before this was the happening.
1:06:36
SPEAKER_04: I heard that was a good movie.
1:06:37
SPEAKER_04: Was that not a good movie?
1:06:38
SPEAKER_00: That's worse than this.
1:06:39
SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's worse than The Last Airbender?
1:06:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because it's originally I'm trying to ride for you, but you make it so hard.
1:06:50
SPEAKER_04: I'll watch more of his movies.
1:06:52
SPEAKER_04: He has a he has a new series on Apple TV that I've been meaning to watch, even though I'm not paying for Apple TV.
1:06:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna pay for Apple Series.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:07:00
SPEAKER_00: So do you want to talk next about a good movie or a movie that's reviewed well that you consider bad?
1:07:08
SPEAKER_04: I do.
1:07:09
SPEAKER_04: I know I have so many of these, but now that you bring it up, I just like can't remember.
1:07:13
SPEAKER_00: I know.
1:07:15
SPEAKER_04: Um, fucking that Quentin Tarantino movie.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_04: What is it?
1:07:20
SPEAKER_04: Kill Kill Bill?
1:07:21
SPEAKER_00: Kill Bill.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_04: And then what's the other Quentin Tarantino movie?
1:07:26
SPEAKER_04: Um, with Uma German?
1:07:28
SPEAKER_00: Pulp Fiction.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_04: Pulp Fiction! What?
1:07:31
SPEAKER_04: Those are two of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life.
1:07:35
SPEAKER_04: I'm so convinced they're an inside joke.
1:07:38
SPEAKER_04: I could not even finish Pulp Fiction.
1:07:40
SPEAKER_04: I got 20 minutes in, and I was like, this is the most boring movie I've ever seen in my life.
1:07:46
SPEAKER_04: Why is it every white boy's personality?
1:07:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's turned into that so much.
1:07:51
SPEAKER_04: And it's so well reviewed.
1:07:52
SPEAKER_04: It's like considered, like, I believe pulp fiction is considered like one of the best movies of all time.
1:07:57
SPEAKER_04: I was like, is this a fucking joke?
1:08:00
SPEAKER_04: And while we're on the subject, Twin Peaks, I like watched and I was like, I don't fucking get it.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_04: There's it's a whole season.
1:08:09
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you have you seen Twin Peaks.
1:08:11
SPEAKER_00: I love Twin Peaks.
1:08:12
SPEAKER_00: You no, you don't! Yes, I do.
1:08:16
SPEAKER_04: Dude, what there's a whole season figuring out who murdered this girl, and then at the end of the season, you don't even find out who murdered this girl, and this this wacky, nutty like detective just like follows his intuition and gets like half the things wrong, anyways, but he's considered a good detective.
1:08:38
SPEAKER_04: Again, the bar for white men is so low.
1:08:41
SPEAKER_04: If I, as a female woman of color detective, walked into Houston police department and I was like, hey, so I have this dream where the mur the murdered girl speaks gibberish to me, and so I think we should check this spot in the forest in the middle of nowhere to see if we can find any.
1:08:58
SPEAKER_04: They'd be like, No, you're fucking insane.
1:09:00
SPEAKER_04: And so I genuinely don't believe the hyper on that show.
1:09:03
SPEAKER_04: And then yeah, at the end of the first season, you don't even know who murdered her.
1:09:07
SPEAKER_04: I finished the first season and I was like, I don't even care enough to keep watching.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_04: Like, I genuinely do not care enough about this show to keep watching.
1:09:15
SPEAKER_00: Um Do you know the funny thing is two people on here, two people on here have brought out brought up already how much they love Twin Peaks, and then you've just kind of like slaced it.
1:09:26
SPEAKER_04: It's a bad show.
1:09:27
SPEAKER_04: I have a theory, but you can't confirm the theory or deny the theory because um I haven't finished watching season two.
1:09:36
SPEAKER_04: Um and I do plan on watching it just like eventually, but not not anytime soon.
1:09:41
SPEAKER_04: Um so I was watching it with this guy that I was seeing, and we like ended things eventually and went our separate ways.
1:09:47
SPEAKER_04: It's it's fine.
1:09:48
SPEAKER_04: He's a good dude.
1:09:49
SPEAKER_04: But the entire time, like from the second episode, I was like, it's the dad.
1:09:55
SPEAKER_04: And he was like, Why do you think it's the dad?
1:09:57
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Because he's over literally overreacting.
1:10:02
SPEAKER_04: Like his her mom found out she was dead, and her mom like smoked a few cigarettes and cried like a lot, as as one does, but her dad like balled, and and maybe this is my trauma because my dad was never emotional growing up, so I just like didn't know dads got that sad ever.
1:10:23
SPEAKER_00: You mean Indian dads are not that emotional, Indian dad.
1:10:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
1:10:26
SPEAKER_00: That's the general thing.
1:10:28
SPEAKER_04: Um and then like at the funeral, he like threw herself on his on her, threw himself on her coffin, and I was like, what are all these theatrics for if not to throw people off your trail?
1:10:43
SPEAKER_04: I you can't confirm or deny it.
1:10:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna remain stone faced and not do anything.
1:10:47
SPEAKER_04: Okay, you can't.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_00: But speak speak to me after you've seen it.
1:10:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:10:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you're like the the fourth or fifth person that I have to reach out to after I've seen it.
1:10:57
SPEAKER_04: I've told so many people this theory, and I've been like, don't confirm or deny it.
1:11:00
SPEAKER_04: I need to say anything.
1:11:01
SPEAKER_00: This is trash, it's not trash.
1:11:04
SPEAKER_04: Shut up.
1:11:07
SPEAKER_04: You're straight up laugh.
1:11:08
SPEAKER_04: I'm so convinced that Twin Peaks, Kill Bill, and Pulp Fiction are just inside jokes.
1:11:13
SPEAKER_04: Okay, that everyone just like has a secret meeting every Sunday where they're just like, we're gonna pretend this is good just to fuck with Abby.
1:11:19
SPEAKER_00: Let me talk about I'll talk.
1:11:21
SPEAKER_00: I will talk to Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction.
1:11:24
SPEAKER_00: Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill are homages of like they take peace bits and pieces of other classic movies and they reference them and they use those to make essentially like a better version of what's coming before them.
1:11:38
SPEAKER_00: Um what you saw of Pulp Fiction was 20 minutes of it, a lot changes.
1:11:45
SPEAKER_04: Maybe I'll force myself to watch it again.
1:11:48
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
1:11:49
SPEAKER_04: I just like did not get it.
1:11:50
SPEAKER_00: Um I think you I think them they're I think there are also movies that you need to know what they're referencing to appreciate them.
1:11:57
SPEAKER_00: So like if you haven't seen a lot of the older stuff that you might not like.
1:12:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting very pretentious.
1:12:02
SPEAKER_04: And I was just about to say, you sound like a lot of film bros right now.
1:12:06
SPEAKER_00: I I went to film school, so like it's it's oh did you?
1:12:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, where which film school?
1:12:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I went to uh one in London that was Middlesex University, and then I went to School of Visual Arts in New York as well.
1:12:18
SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, it's very pretentious there.
1:12:22
SPEAKER_00: And this this is the whole point of me like getting into it doing this.
1:12:25
SPEAKER_00: It's like once I got out of it, I realized it doesn't matter.
1:12:27
SPEAKER_00: I can like what I like, I don't have to like force myself to like all this stuff.
1:12:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
1:12:32
SPEAKER_04: So fuck Kill Bill.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_04: Fuck Pulp Fiction.
1:12:38
SPEAKER_04: I actually did, I finished Kill Bill and I was like, I don't get it.
1:12:41
SPEAKER_04: I was also I was like 16 or 17 when I watched it.
1:12:44
SPEAKER_04: And my best friend at the time was like, I just watched this movie and it's the best movie I've seen in my entire life.
1:12:49
SPEAKER_04: And we finished it together, and I was like, is that a joke?
1:12:52
SPEAKER_04: Like I genuinely did not get it.
1:12:54
SPEAKER_04: Um I guess like also, uh, I don't know if this is true of all Quentin Tarantino movies or just Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, but um everything's just like very exaggerated.
1:13:06
SPEAKER_04: That's all that's just like very out of the box, and I just like did not like it.
1:13:12
SPEAKER_04: I'm my favorite movie, my unironic favorite movie that I've watched over and over and I never get tired of is Shutter Island, and I hate that about me because like liking Martin Corsesi and Leonardo DiCaprio isn't special, you know.
1:13:28
SPEAKER_04: Like I would imagine myself what it's a good movie though, it's a good movie, but I would imagine myself to be the type of person who'd like a movie that like not many other people like.
1:13:39
SPEAKER_04: Um, but no, Shutter Island is and yeah, exactly.
1:13:43
SPEAKER_04: And the reason that Shutter Island is good is because it was so realistic and it was so subtle in the way that it was done, and like every time you watch it, you get something new from it, like something you didn't pick up the previous, and I've seen it like seven times, and and and like even if I watched it tomorrow, I'm sure I'd pick up on something that I didn't see the first previous seven times.
1:14:05
SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah, but like kill Kill Bill just didn't feel that way, it was very over-exaggerated.
1:14:11
SPEAKER_04: It it wasn't for me at least, it wasn't in the realm of possibility at all whatsoever, like for any of those things to happen, and so I just couldn't enjoy it.
1:14:19
SPEAKER_00: That's fair.
1:14:20
SPEAKER_00: Do you have you seen like I like a I like Killbill part one way more than the second part though?
1:14:26
SPEAKER_02: I think the first part I've only seen Kill Bill Part One.
1:14:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
1:14:29
SPEAKER_00: But I also like I also grew up watching a lot of like martial arts movies, so I I I knew what he was going for, and I really appreciated that seeing all those references.
1:14:37
SPEAKER_00: But like it's if you don't like that, it makes sense.
1:14:40
SPEAKER_00: I can understand why you wouldn't like that one.
1:14:42
SPEAKER_00: It's very exciting.
1:14:45
SPEAKER_04: Every time I'm like, Yeah, I don't like Killville or Pulp Fiction, people are like, What?
1:14:48
SPEAKER_04: You're they literally talk to me like I just walked out of the insane asylum.
1:14:52
SPEAKER_04: Same with Twin Peaks, which you just talked to me like I walked out of the insane asylum.
1:14:56
SPEAKER_04: No, I like it.
1:14:57
SPEAKER_00: I get why people don't like it, but I like it.
1:14:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you understand why people don't like it then.
1:15:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I definitely get it.
1:15:02
SPEAKER_00: It's very strange.
1:15:04
SPEAKER_04: Everyone likes it.
1:15:05
SPEAKER_04: I have yet to meet a person who is like, Yes, I agree with you.
1:15:11
SPEAKER_04: It felt the whole trip, the whole show felt like an acid trip trip.
1:15:15
SPEAKER_00: Um I enjoy that though.
1:15:17
SPEAKER_04: And that's what I'm like, am I crazy?
1:15:20
SPEAKER_04: Did I miss something?
1:15:21
SPEAKER_04: Like, did I hallucinate that entire show?
1:15:24
SPEAKER_04: Is it actually something entirely different?
1:15:26
SPEAKER_04: You know who does look really good in that show though is Maitron Amick.
1:15:29
SPEAKER_04: She plays, I forget her name, she plays the curly haired waitress.
1:15:32
SPEAKER_04: Oh, right.
1:15:34
SPEAKER_04: She's in Riverdale now.
1:15:36
SPEAKER_04: She plays the mom in Riverdale, and she just like is so yeah, she's just so like timelessly beautiful, um, that it almost made the entire show worth watching.
1:15:45
SPEAKER_04: Almost.
1:15:46
SPEAKER_04: Almost.
1:15:47
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen the new, I haven't seen the most recent uh series of it though, like the one that they when they brought it back recently.
1:15:53
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen that yet.
1:15:54
SPEAKER_04: Do you watch Riverdale?
1:15:55
SPEAKER_00: No, no, I'm talking about Twin Peaks, not Riverdale.
1:15:58
SPEAKER_00: I've never seen Riverdale.
1:16:00
SPEAKER_04: Riverdale.
1:16:01
SPEAKER_04: If you ever do if you ever do a podcast about a TV show that everyone picks are bad, I will, oh my god, I will.
1:16:11
SPEAKER_00: If I move on to a spin-off, I'm I'll ring you on for that one.
1:16:14
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, look, I'm also convinced, like, that's what I was saying for the longest time is that like Riverdale is satire.
1:16:21
SPEAKER_04: And I think Riverdale is a satire of the yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:16:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that was great.
1:16:26
SPEAKER_00: So do you have how can we find you?
1:16:27
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any plugs you want to give?
1:16:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, sure.
1:16:30
SPEAKER_04: Um, I am Abby Govindan on Instagram, A-B-B-Y-G-O-V, I-N-D-A-N.
1:16:38
SPEAKER_04: Um, I'm Abby Gove on Twitter, A-B-B-Y-G-O-V, and my website, abbygovinden.com, you can find like uh my YouTube clips and like my media uh features and stuff.
1:16:51
SPEAKER_01: Oh, nice.
1:16:51
SPEAKER_04: And if anyone out there happens to be a TV show producer hiring, I would love to write for your TV show.
1:16:59
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah.
1:17:00
SPEAKER_04: Thanks so much for having me on.
1:17:02
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being on.
1:17:02
SPEAKER_00: This yeah, you you you had so much to say, it was great.
1:17:05
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm so excited.
1:17:07
SPEAKER_04: I'm so excited for this episode to come out.
1:17:09
SPEAKER_04: So um my opinion about how everyone who doesn't like Avatar The Last Airbender is racist is finally made public.
1:17:18
SPEAKER_04: Also that Twin Peaks is an inside joke.
1:17:20
SPEAKER_04: I know Twin Peaks, Killbill, Pulp Fiction, all inside jokes that I'm just not in on.
1:17:26
SPEAKER_00: So someone that on the someone who did the podcast like a few weeks ago, he said that he watched uh a four-hour video explaining Twin Peaks.
1:17:34
SPEAKER_00: Four hour video, and even that was just I was just like, that's too much.
1:17:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:17:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:17:40
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
1:17:42
SPEAKER_04: I mean for four hours you might as well just watch the show.
1:17:46
SPEAKER_04: Oh, he like watched the show.
1:17:47
SPEAKER_00: No, he watched the show and then afterwards he watched the four hours explaining it.
1:17:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because he's like a massive David Lynch fan.
1:17:53
SPEAKER_04: So oh, David Lynch, yeah.
1:17:56
SPEAKER_04: I understand why people are David Lynch fans.
1:17:58
SPEAKER_04: Um, I heard that the second season isn't that good, like after you find out who the killer is in like the third or fourth episode, and that the reboot also wasn't um amazing.
1:18:07
SPEAKER_00: That's why I haven't watched the reboot.
1:18:09
SPEAKER_04: Here's the thing about Twin Peaks, and also is that like, and also Kill Bill and and Pulp Fiction for that matter, is that if I wrote those screenplays and like presented it to my managers, my managers would be like, What are you smoking?
1:18:25
SPEAKER_04: Does that make sense?
1:18:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:18:26
SPEAKER_04: So the fact that it was like they were made and then they ended up being beloved, that like everyone just saw something in it that I seemed to not find is like I was like, what am I missing?
1:18:38
SPEAKER_00: You have to go watch a four-hour video explaining Tarantino.
1:18:42
SPEAKER_00: Please don't ever do that.
1:18:44
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not.
1:18:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm liking him less and less as he goes on as well.
1:18:47
SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
1:18:49
SPEAKER_04: Also, I'm just I'm one of those film people who knows like jack shit about film.
1:18:54
SPEAKER_04: Like, I'm pursuing a career in film, but like I don't know anything about film, and I'm so open about I think there needs to be more representation of idiots pursuing film.
1:19:02
SPEAKER_04: Um, like I've never seen Citizen Kane.
1:19:05
SPEAKER_04: I know Citizen Kane is like considered to be the best movie of all.
1:19:07
SPEAKER_00: You're probably not gonna like it because just it's just like you're gonna be like, oh, I've seen all this done before, but it's it's the originator for a lot of stuff, but at the same time, it's just like yeah, I heard it's the originator of like the big different things.
1:19:19
SPEAKER_00: It's not interesting.
1:19:20
SPEAKER_04: I'll get around to watching it.
1:19:21
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but thank you for having me on.
1:19:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for being on.
1:19:27
SPEAKER_00: That's the end of the podcast.
1:19:29
SPEAKER_00: You can find me on Twitter with the username at YCove or at Yannis Cove on Instagram.
1:19:34
SPEAKER_00: Please remember to rate and review us on iTunes if you enjoyed this, so I can end up making more.
1:19:39
SPEAKER_00: And I'll see you next week for more movies that critics got roll.