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Cheetah Girls with Korama Danquah · The Bechdel Cast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On the Dog Cast, the questions asked if movies have
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: women and um, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: or do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef in best
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: start changing it with the Bell Cast. And there's a
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: time when we all choose Caitlyn join in. Come on,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: my dog just fell in a hole. Oh um. Yeah.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: The next lyrics are this, you're fired from the Cheetah Girls.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: We're supposed to be magic and we just know the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: words to this song. Welcome to the beck Dol Cast. Yes, welcome, Welcome.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I do really like the girl Power song. I know,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: listening to it on purpose. You texted me about it
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: two times. Really? Yeah, every song I remember the one.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Every song in this movie is fun. It's fun. This
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: is a this is a fun and complicated movie text
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: expanded universe. It's the Cheetah Girls episode of the Bechtel Cast. Uh.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: For let's get some formalities out of the way. My
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: name is Jamie Loftus, my name is Caitlin Dronte, and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: this is our movie podcast where we take a look
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: at your favorite movies using an intersectional feminist lens. Uh.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Cheetah Girls, I believe is one of our most popular
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: requests in the d com canon, I would say specifically
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: in the dcom canon. Yes, yes, I mean if we're
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: going sub sections. Um. So, this episode has been a
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: long time coming. I am so thrilled. I feel that
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: we have really found the perfect guest here. This This
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: episode was originally going to be on our Matreon because
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: we were like, let's just do every Raven simone d coom,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: which turns out to be a more ambitious project than
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: you would imagine it would be. That's gonna have to
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: be its own whole podcast exactly. Yeah, I'm just I'm
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: just so thrilled. That's final the Cheetah Girls day on
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: the pod. It's been a long time coming. I'm completely ambivalent.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: And but let's introduce that wonderful guest. Um. She is
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a writer, actor, and co host of the podcast Popcorn
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Book Club. It's Karama Dunqua. Hello, Hi for having me.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited to talk about the Cheetah Girls. I'm excited.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Karama and I had a two am discussion about Cheetah Girls.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: It was intense. It was intense. It was the like
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the best late night d M result of all time.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Yes and no, unsolicited Dick pics, So it just couldn't
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: have ended any better. It's possible, It's possible it happens. Um. Yeah,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited to talk about the Cheetah Girls expanded
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: universe with you today. So uh, let's just get into it, Karama.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: What is your experience with the Cheetah Girls property in general, books, movie,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: whatever it is. I'm so excited. Did thank you for
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: asking me that question, because a lot of people don't
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: even know that The Cheetah Girls was a book series
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: originally started in the late nineteen nineties. I think the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: first one came out in and they're over ten bucks
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and they were written by Debora Gregory. Her name is
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: spelled like Debora, but it's pronounced Debora, which is a
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: thing that I know because I and I was telling
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Caitlin this. You don't know this, Jamie, but I met
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: her in two thousand three, right before my twelfth birthday.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I've just aged myself forever, and she gave me this
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: signed headshot where she is in Cheetah print. I just
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: found this yesterday and all of my stuff, so, um,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I can definitely scan this and get it for you
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: if you want to make this a cool thing for
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the Matreon. I don't know. God, I put it on
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: our Instagram. No big deal. Her her Twitter handle is
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Mama Cheetahs. She's like she's on brand. She love it. Yeah.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: So my experience with the Cheetah Girls property was being
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: an avid reader of the book series. It was like
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: my whole life. I used to quote unquote work in
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: a bookstore when I was ten, which is illegal because
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I was ten, but I used to like hang out
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: there and they would like watch me, and I would
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: put prices on like eight books and say I did work,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and then they would pay me in free Cheetah Girls books,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: which was like a cool thing. Other books as well,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: but the Cheetah Girls books were what I was really
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: angling for sure. That's amazing. Yeah. Um. And then the
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: movie came out in the early two thousand's, two thousand three,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I believe, and I was psyched and stoked, and then
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I found the movie a little bit disappointing when I
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: watched it. As a fan of the books. It was
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: my very first experience with whitewashing. So that was super
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: cool because that's the big, big difference for me in
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the books in the movies is that Diffrenda is not
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: a biracial woman of color as she was in the books,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and we'll get more into that later, and how my
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: feelings on that had sort of per rested, especially because
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I do believe the girl who plays her as a
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: white passing or white presenting Latin X person um, which
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I think is very interesting and didn't know until I
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: was an adult, and race is complicated. Yikes, what do
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: you mean? But yeah, I love the box, love the movies,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and I'm so excited to be here and talk about them.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: We're so excited to have you here. Well, I'll go
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: next because as with most as with all d coms,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: until we cover them on the show, until we cover
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: them on the show, I have never seen them because
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I grew up without cable. I did not have access
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: to the Disney Channel much as a child, and didn't
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: know that d coms existed until like three years ago
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: or something, or that they were called d coms. So
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I just hadn't seen this until a couple of days ago.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: But I will say that now that we've been covering
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a few since it's d Come months on It's dcom
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: July on our Matreon, I'm getting more into them, and
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I actually watched a d com not for homework. I
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: saw a teen Beach movie and I loved it. It's
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: my new favorite movie. Is that a newer one? Yeah?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I think it's from twenty it's within the past ten
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: outside of my era of expertise, Like you got Alley
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Cats Strike, I'm there. Um so yeah, I'm I'm broadening
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: my horizons, is what I'm saying. Um, Jamie, what's your
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: relationship with Cheetah Girls? Pretty similar to Karama. I think
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I started reading the books maybe like in the year
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: leading up to the movie. It was definitely before the movie,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: because I remember my main memory with watching the movie
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: for the first time was that I was the only
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: girl at the sleepover it that had been curated to
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: watch this movie at that had read some of the books,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and I was really set that Angie wasn't there. That
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: was what mainly jumped out to me, which we'll talk about.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: But basically, there were five cheetah girls in the books.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Aquanite has a twin named Angie, and I she was
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: my favorite character because she was really quiet and she
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: was like her I don't know, she was like the
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: quiet cheetah girl and so I like felt connected to
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: her because I was really shy, and then she was
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: so quiet that they just wrote her out of the movie.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: So I remember being really disappointed in that, and my
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: friends finding my disappointment annoying because I didn't know what
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I was talking about. And then I enjoyed the movie.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I I definitely loved the songs. I watched the second one.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I was too old for the third one, and I
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: hear it's really bad. Also, Raven's not in the third one,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: So what's the point true, what's the point not no
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: shade to like Adrian Baylon or Keeley Williams or girl
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: whose name I can't remember, Sabrina something. I think, yeah,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: but yeah, like Raven was. She was the Cheetah Girls.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: She was girl power, she was growl Power, she was
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: cheat Delicious, and I think taking her out really takes
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: some wind out of the sales. I will also say
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: this viewing because I haven't seen this movie in at
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: least ten years of like revisiting it. Even though the
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: lyrics to the songs, I was like, oh my god,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like they were just apparently imprinted on my They're just
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: in you Memento style, because I just knew them all,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: but I will say I was more on Galleria's side
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: at certain parts of The Cheetah Girls this time than
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I ever was as a child. Like she is. She
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: has her flaws, certainly quite second act. There is a
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: lot going on with her, but in the end, she's
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the only Cheetah Girl with any focus. Anyways, I agreed
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: with Galeria more than I was expecting to this time,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: and you know, people change. I agreed with Dorothea a
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: lot more than I thought I would. Galeria's mom, I'm like, yeah,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: you know what, she's making sense. That's the thing about
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: becoming an adult, you start agreeing with a lot of
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: like movies, parent parent characters. Yeah, you're like, you are
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: too young for this, what's wrong with you? I got
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: annoyed with the dad of Like, why are the dad
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: always get to be the good guy in this situation?
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: It's not fair. There's a whole there's so much to discuss.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: But I love the Cheetah Girls. They have a special
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: place in my heart. But it's a complicated adaptation job. Yeah, well,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: should we get into the recap and go from there? Yeah,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I'm down all right. The film opens on a performance
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: by the Cheetah Girls. They are a girl group comprised
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: of Gallerio, that's Raven Simone, Chanelle played by Adrian Bylan
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: And then I think her she go now goes by
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Houghton is her last name? If I'm not mistaken? Um
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Aqua is is her name? Keiley? I have a lot
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: to say about her, there is I I recently caught
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: up because there was like Cheetah Girls drama while we're
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: were in quarantine, and I was clinging to it because
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: I needed things to cling to. Adrian and Kiley, I
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: guess they did not get along. And I don't know
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: how much was related to Cheetah Girls and how much
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: was related to three l W which was the group
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: that they were in together with that other girl with
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: that other girl who Why wasn't she and the Cheetah
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Girls anyway? Shrug um. And then the fourth member of
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the Cheetah Girls in the movie adaptation is Dorinda Um
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: played by Sabrina Brian. Yes. Yes, They discuss whether or
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: not they're ready for tomorrow's talent show audition at their
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Magnet High School in New York City. Ever heard of it?
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: And they are hoping to be the first freshman to
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: win because winning the talent show could open up some
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: doors for them in their career. We learned that Chanelle
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and Galeria started the group just the two of them,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and they added the two other girls later on. This
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: is relatively faithful to book canon, minus okay a fifth member. Correct.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: We see Galeria at home and we meet her parents
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: and her dog, Toto, whose presence in the story is
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: going to pay off way more than you would ever imagine.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Toto falls in a hole and that's the climax of
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the movie. Love and Toto's in the hall and the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: fireman is like sing faster, faster, faster, it's working. That
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: guy really earned his SAG card that day. That was beautiful.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Oh good grief. So we meet Toto the dog. Then
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: we see Chanelle at home and we meet her mother
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and established their relationship. Both of these girls come from
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: pretty upper class backgrounds um and then we meet also
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: faithful to the book, I will say, okay, good to know. Meanwhile,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: we see Dorinda. She is mopping the floors and a
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: community center. We will come to learn that she is
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: a foster child and comes from a lower socioeconomic background.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: And then we don't learn anything about Awkwa's home life
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: at all, that she has a twin, that she has
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: a twin sister at home in the basement. In this
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: particular iteration of The Cheetah Girls, Cannon, what if it's
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: like in um, what's the Christopher Nolan movie? Um, The Prestige,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: where like the their secret twins and you don't know
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: that they're twins and they just keep swapping out. Really
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: in the Christopher Nolan zone today? Oh sure, I'll bring
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: up inception by the end. Sure. Oh you guys didn't
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: know that Christopher Nolan actually wrote and directed this film
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: The Cheetah Girls. They're experimenting with time. Um. Okay. So
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: then we see the Cheetah Girls at school and we
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: meet these two boys who are also competing in the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: talent show. I think their names are Derek and Mackerel.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: That sounds right. One is the boy from Ali Cat's Strike,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: which I remember being thrilled by. And that's basically all
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: you need to know about him. I will say, I'm
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: disappointed that Eric von Detton was not in this film
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: because Eric von Detton was the major export of Disney
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Channel in the late nineties early two thousand's. We were
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: trying to make Eric von Deetton happen so much, wasn't
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: He wasn't his final stand in the Princess Diaries, and
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: then it was just like, it's not going to happen
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: for him. That was his last stand. I think that
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: sounds like the right era for him to have faded away.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I hope he's doing okay. Hi, Eric, he's a listener,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: he's our fan. Who isn't he's a matron um and
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: it's Derek has a crush on Galeria. Then they do
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: their audition and we meet the teacher who is running
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the talent show. Her name is Drinka, played by Sandra Caldwell,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and she tells them that they did a great job,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and so does Jackal Johnson, who is a big time
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: music producer, and he's got the outfit to prove it.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: He's wearing chains. He looks so early two thousands, like vague, sleazy,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: but also like hot, like coated as hot. But looking
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: at him, I'm just like, there's no way anyone ever
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: thought this was attractive. It's baffling that he's coated as hot,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: because it just who was like, oh my god, Jackal Johnson.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I wrote in my notes Jackal Johnson wishes he was
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Matthew Lillard. He does that is it that hits the
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: nail on the head. Definitely big Matthew vibes. When Matthew
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Lillard is sick, they call this guy to show up.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: That's Will, I will say, just as an aside. And
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know how many of these are canon like
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to the book, but they casually drop a lot of
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: artist names in this movie and they all maybe laugh.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: There was Monique Twig, which was a fun one. I
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: think I caught Michelle Breeze. There was like Electric Breeze
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: or Electric Breeze. I was like, is this Michelle Branch.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: So here's a really funny fact about the books. I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: recently just because I hadn't I hadn't read them in
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a while, and like, I can't find my copies. They
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: are lost to the ages. I got them from my
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: local like digital library. They have all of them with
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the in the l A Public library system. And uh,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: there is a group that's mentioned early on in the
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: books called Karma's Children, and I'm like, this is Destiny's child.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: And Galleria is talking about how everybody says she looks
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: like the lead singer of Karma's Children Backstaba and they
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: all have like sort of vaguely sin based name, so
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: it's like greed and I'm just like, who which one
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: of these is supposed to be? Kelly Rowland? That's all
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I want to know. And there are four of them,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: which makes sense for the time that the book comes out,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: because there were four people in Destiny's Child at the time.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was it was predictive because Destiny's Child eventually
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: just mysteriously did away with one of their members without disappeared. Farah.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: They went through a whole thing. There's a conspiracy here.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Another thing, another thing about the book that I went to,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I like, went to whatever the Amazon preview because I'm like, oh,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: I hope it's there. I vaguely remembered, like the Cheetah
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Girls packed. That was the Cheetahs Credo, which I here
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and can read from. Oh, I did my homework. The
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Jetah Girls create o. This is from the first book.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: I think it's at the beginning of all the books.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: But this is from wishing on a star Uh to
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: earn my spots and rightful place in the world. I
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: solemnly swear to honor and uphold the Cheetah girls. Cheetah
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: girls don't litter, they glitter. I will help my family, friends,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: and other cheetah girls whenever they need my love, support,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: or a really big hug. All cheetah girls are created equal,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: but we are not alike. We come in different sizes, shapes,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and colors, and hail from different cultures. I will not
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: judge others by the color of their spots, but by
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: their character. A true cheetah girl doesn't spend more time
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: doing her hair than her homework. Hair extensions maybe career extensions,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: but talent and skills will pay my bills. True Cheetah
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: girls can achieve without a weave or a wiggle, jiggle
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: or a giggle. I promised to rely mostly on my brains,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: heart and courage to reach my cheeta a delicious potential.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: It's about halfway through. It talks about how grown ups
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: are not always right, but they are bigger, older, and louder.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I will treat my teachers, parents, and people of authority
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: with respect and expect them to do the same, which
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate. Yeah, like the true cheetah girls don't
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: run with wolves or hang with hyenas. True cheetahs picked
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: much better friends. It's just I don't know. That really
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: stuck with me as a kid, and I was like, oh,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I wonder and it's it's right there. There's no bullet points,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: there's just cheetah pap prints. It is aesthetically on brand.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: It is amazingly progressive, also just for the time, Like environmentalism,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: right off the bat, they don't literally they glitter on
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the number one. Glitter is somewhat of a contentious thing
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: in the environmentalism community. There are some environmental like biodegradable glitters,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and you should definitely look into those if you're a
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: glitter person, because we don't want to hurt the environment.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: That's not cheatalicious, remember not, certainly not. It is. Deborah
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: is an inspiration um. And then there was also the
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: glossaries in the back of the book, which would just
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: if you didn't know, yeah, it was so good. It
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: was like if you didn't know what a cheetah girl
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: was saying, you could look it up and be like, oh,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: she was saying that's cool. Yeah. Duckets. That was the
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: one that I recall learning at the time, and I
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, okay, buckets of duckets means like a
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: lot of money. I am cool now, I was. I
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: was excited looking back and thinking, oh, okay, yeah, this
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: is a lot. It is pretty, if not exactly directly faithful,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: it's got the spirit of the thing, you know. I
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: missed the glassary and rereading that Cheetah Girls credo going
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: into rewatching the movie made me a little disappointed in
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: myself at how upset I was about Dorinda's recasting. I
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: was like, you know what, she is still a Cheetah Girl,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and we don't judge other people by the color of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: their spots, by their character, and I felt that Dorinda's
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: character still lived on in Sabrina Brian and I would
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: just like to formally apologize to Sabrina Brian for all
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: of the vitriol that my twelve year old self had
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: at your like if anything bad happened to you in
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: two thousand three, I'm so sorry for that energy. She's okay,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: she came in like fourth place and dancing with the stars,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: she's doing great. That is amazing. That is more places
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: than I got in Dancing with the Nobody's the thing
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that I do in my bedroom by myself. Well, I
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: think there's a lot that we could all learn from
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the Cheetah Girls credo and I kind of want to
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: print it up and hang in my house. I saved
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: it as a PDF on my computer. I'm like, this
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: is the thing that I need to remember, Like there's
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of good stuff in here that I can
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: still benefit from as I move into my thirties. Um, okay.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: So Jackal Jackal Johnson was at the audition and he's
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: this big time music producer and he wants to work
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: with them. But Galeria's mom is there, Dorothea, and she
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: thinks the girls are too young because they're only in
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: ninth grade their freshman right, But after a lot of
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: pleading with Galerie's mom, she changes her mind and the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Cheetah Girls are allowed to contact Jackal Johnson, so they
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: set up a meeting with him at deaf Duck Records.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Hilarious sort of that some of the that was like
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: one of those moments where I'm like, oh, fun art
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: department assignment to be like, okay, we need a logo
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: for deaf Duck Records. Like that's fun homework. And some
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: might argue, and by that I mean me that they
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: did not try very hard or do a good job there.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Budget was fourteen dollars, Caitlin, what are they gonna do?
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: It was a valiant effort. We understood that there was
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: a duck involved, so for that I will commend them.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: It did not look like another creature. It looked like
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: a duck's. The semiotics was like working. We did get
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: into our first song also in that audition with Jackal Johnson,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Cinder and which one that that's Cinderella. That was my favorite.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: That was my favorite back in the day of Cinderella
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: was like my top cheaty girl's song. And it's still
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: in the shower regularly and like they're they're very specific
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: dances and like, I just loved it. I liked it
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: that d coms were pretty good about. If there was dancing,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: it was usually dancing that like a kid could basically learn,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: which I think is a nice touch. Yes, it was
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: like Darren's Dance Grooves light right right, you know, do
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: you guys remember Darren's Dance Grooves. Oh, Darren's Dance Grooves
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: were like, That's all I wanted as a child was
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: a Darren's Dance Grooves DVD. So there was this guy
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: named Darren. He had a last name doesn't matter what
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: it is um And he used to choreograph for like
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: in Sync and Britney Spears, and he had this DVD
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: that he would like pedal on television where you could
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: learn these dances that he taught Britney Spears and in
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Sync alone in your home, which is the best way
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: for p well like me to dance. Darren Henson, Yeah,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I remember my friend had the DVD and it was
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: like it really made her mom's condo a hot spot
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: to visit because you had Darren's dance grooves. No, you
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: all have those friends when you were little, and there
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: were things that you couldn't have or weren't allowed to
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: have that you definitely used for their access. Like I
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: had a cable friend. I didn't have cable in my house,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: so I'd be like, Hey, how's it going, Let's hang out.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I want to come over to your
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: house and see you and just watch Disney Channel. Yeah.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: I had a Mary Kayton Ashley VHS friend. There's like
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: she just has to remember this. She had them all.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: She had them all and if you wanted to see one,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: you had to do it. And she was of brother
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: for sale. Yes, but yeah, so Cinderella was the first performance,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and Jackal s's that and that's where he's like, I
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: need these children in my def duck factory. So so
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: they go to the meeting and um, Jackal, he seems
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: pretty sleazy, and Galeria's mom is trying to like I
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: think the movie would have you think she's trying to interfere,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: but she's really just looking out for She's making sure
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: this weirdo isn't like abducting the Cheetah girls. Right. Also,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Galeria had stepped in dog poop. The meeting is kind
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: of it's relatable. There's a lot of stuff going on.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: But they do schedule a demo recording on that Saturday,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: which conflicts with their school talent show, which the other
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: girls didn't want to miss. But Galeria is like, screw that,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: we will be here for the demo recording. Because Galeria
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: had been she's been turning into a bit of a diva.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: We will say she was mean to Aqua about the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: hot sauce she condescends to drink. Other teacher, She's mean
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: to Dorinda about her clothes of this and stuff like that. Um,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: and her like abilities as a singer. She was really
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: she was doubling and tripling down on dere Inda. Yeah, truly,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: just like not she was rude. She was just rude.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: There's no other way around it. There. Yeah, but she
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: was being an asshole, really was. Yeah. And it was
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: like I forgot how intense that insult is because it's
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: like Dorinda tries to walk away three times, and then
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Galleria just continues to double down. She's like, well, you
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: can't sing. Also, you're poor. Also I hate how you look.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: And then everyone's just like, oh my god, Direnda run.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: She's like it's not optional. It's just like okay, wow,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: just stop over here, right um. And then it's shortly
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: after this that Chanelle learns that Dorinda is in foster care.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: So the girls go in further demo recording, but it
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: turns out that Jackal Johnson has a different vision for
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the Cheetah Girls that includes the creepiest masks I've ever
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: seen in my life, horrifying. They're like, okay, what if
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: you were daft punk boat scarier. It's very I think
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: it was the inspiration for the ad campaign for that
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: movie You're Next. Do you all remember that with all
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: those animal faces? Yeah, that was somebody watched The Cheetah
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Girls and was like, haunting, this is haunting. I must
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: make a film. I remember having like just I don't
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: know that like shot of Dorinda holding the pandamask and
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: then tilting her head to the side. I just remember
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: that really sticking with me in a negative way. It's terrific. Yeah,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: same exact same. I was like, oh, it's going to happen.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: When I was rewatching this is the moment. Was it
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: in the trailer or something? Why did that? Okay? Okay?
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Because I was like that shot really hit for me.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: So I had like a like a weird little psychological
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: gut punch. Gallery is like this is some bullshit. We're
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: not going to wear your masks, We're not gonna lip sync, like,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: come on, Cheetah Girls, let's go. But the others are like, well,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: maybe we're okay with this. We were fine, we'll rebrand
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: as Global, get done whatever. Geez were very in that year,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: which is another moment where I I like the other
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: three Cheetah Girls, I'm like what They're like, what we
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: should do it? We should sell out? What are you doing?
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And then I was like, wait a second, I'm not
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: on their side. I guess I was of two minds
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: because I'm like, on the one hand, I feel like
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: they should talk about it as a group and it
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be them, I think, to use Dorinda's term, rubber
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: stamping Galleria's decision. But on the other hand, and like,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: you all are actually a creative group. You're not just
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: like lip syncing too pop songs on the radio. Their
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: four team, they're writing and producing their own stuff. God
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: knows how. They are very wealthy, though it did established
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: the at least half of them, three quarters of them
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: are rich because because Aqua, like got sent from Houston,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: and she can afford to take taxis everywhere. She's afraid
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: of the subway because she hates the subway. Yeah, so
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: she's wealthy enough to afford to live in New York
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: City apparently by herself, and then um take taxis everywhere.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: She does have to feed her twin every once in
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: a while. I do remember, though in the books that
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: maybe her dad was gone a lot on business, and
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: that might have been one of the reasons that we
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: didn't see a lot of her home life, because it
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: was the two of them, Angie and Aqua that we're
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: often together and they had each other and we're very
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: tight knit. Which now without Angie there, it's just Aqua
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: being alone with her hot sauce, and I know it
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: makes me kind of sad. Yeah, so I guess that
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: she I like went back into the there is a
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: wiki for but like that. Yeah, like Angie and Aqua
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: lived with just their dad. I'm not sure where how
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: do they mom is dead? Okay, maybe so so their
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: mom has died. They live with their dad, but their
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: dad travels a lot, so they're on their own quite
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: a bit on the Upper West Side. But there was like,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know, Yeah, this ended up. I was expecting
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: to come to this episode being like this, this adaptation
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: is wholly unfaithful. Um, but not I mean down to
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: like the like in the books. I didn't remember this,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: but I guess Akwa carried around hot sauce in the
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: books as well, and like there was there was there
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: was a fair amount carried over. I was like, okay, alright, alright.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: It made me feel like very cool because my mom
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: would carry hot sauce in her bag and I was like, oh,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: my mom's like this cool character from this book. I like,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: maybe my mom is not that uncool. After all, she's not.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: My mom is very cool. I just was whack as
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: a kid and I was just like everything my mom
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: is yah um okay. So the other Cheetah Girls, they're like,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: we're cool with doing this Global Get Down rebranding thing,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and Gallery is not. So the Cheetah Girls kind of
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: more or less breakup or like Galerie breaks away from them.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: And then one day, Galeria is out walking her dog Toto,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: and she spots a poster for Global Get Down, so
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: she thinks that like the other Cheetah Girls had like
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: gone ahead with this deal, and she feels very betrayed.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: But then Toto gets loose and he falls in a
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: hole in the sidewalk and chaos erupts around the city
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: of New York. Cops show up, fire people show up,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: the press shows up, there's an enormous traffic jam. It's
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: it's everything is chaos in New York City. But then Chanel,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Aqua and Dorinda show up to help Toto. Also, everyone
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: at school shows up because they were in the middle
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: of the talent show. But this emergency was so severe
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: that they had to cut power around the city, so
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: the power went out during the talent show to wrap
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: that gallery is rush that I was. I watched it
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: three times because you're just like, what is going on here?
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: It's just That's another one where it was a little
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: bit imprinted inside of me because when he was like
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: come on, come on, I was like doing the shout back.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: He was like come on, and I was like, yeah,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: come on, and then I was like stop it, don't
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: encourage him, and then he just ends it so like
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: it's just such a like generic. It's just so generic
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: where he's like and my DJs got into play his
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: beat and then it just like cuts away and you're like,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: oh my god. I was watching that and I was like,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: thank God, the power is gonna get And I will
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: say earlier, when they were about to do the audition
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Mackerel and who Derek, Yes, Mackerel is the name that
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: truly stuck with me in that duo, the two of
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: them were making a big deal about having to switch
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: their audition time slots because Mackerel had to go to
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: the orthodontes and they had real instruments that they needed
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: to set up, and I was just like, where are
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: these alleged real instruments in this moment? But then at
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the end. He's a good Derek is a guitar god,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: but it just doesn't come into play in his actual
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Not only is he a white rapper, he's also a
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: legendary rock guitarist and my d is going to play
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: his beat. I was just like, I can't get over it.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: They're also in that scene where they're trying to switch
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the times. There was just another funny character you've never
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: seen name where Chanelle. I don't know why. She's kind
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: of like, oh, let's switch to the time, but she's like, no,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: we should switch the time. Mrs Almanac needs to look
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: at my history paper. I was like, Mrs Almanac, I
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: literally on my notes, I just have written really big
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Mrs Almanac. I was dying. I was like, that is
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: just bold to be like, oh, history teacher character or
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: history teacher character, Mrs Almanac perfect. I love it. I
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: hope that's in the books. I have no idea, but
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: whoever don't remember that, but I hope it is too.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: It's great whoever wrote that line, or even if Adrian
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Baylan improvised it, it's genius. Oh good grieve. Okay, So
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Total is still in the hole and they can't get
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Toto out of the hole. So the Cheetah Girls starts
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: singing to him, and because it's been set up that
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: he responds well to their music, it works. He's there
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: able to coax him out of the hole and the
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: day is saved. But the Cheetah Girls are still broken
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: up question Mark and Galeria realizes that their friendship is
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the most important thing. So in a very what I
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: felt was an extremely Titanic moment. Remember in Titanic, when
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: the musicians are playing as the ship is sinking and
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: then they say they're goodbyes are like, let's go the
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: ship is about to sink. Let's just go off and
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: split apart. But then one of them stays behind and
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: keeps playing, and then the others are like, well, what
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: else are we going to do? So then they come
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: back and join him. And this happens in Cheetah Girls
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: as well, where Galeria starts singing and then the other
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Cheetah Girls join in. Because their Cheetah Girls Cheetah sisters
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: and inspiring. They all I love. Even when I was
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: a kid, I'm like, wow, they really were all wearing
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the matching outfit. That was the wild part to me,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: because I was like, oh, right, there's a talent show.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: But then I remember they were not going to perform
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: instead talent show, So why are they matching? Is it
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: just the power of sisterhood? I they could feel it.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: I love, I love, I love that moment. I did
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: appreciate the detail of Dorinda's matching outfit, looking just a
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: little shittier than everybody else, just a little bit, because
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: presumably she had to make that herself, like I guess yeah,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: or like or like thrift shop at like she's Macklemore,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, Macklemore Mackerel. The connections, there's everything is
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: It's all there, Okay. So then they get back together.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: They're singing in the street with the crowd that has
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: is still there on the streets for some reason, and
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: the other girls are like, no, we didn't take that
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: global get down deal. We're the Cheetah Sisters, and we
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: don't break up. And they win the talent show. I
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: think is it based on the performance they did on
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: the street that everyone saw. Yeah, because in this world
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: the news has filmed like a music video, and so
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: they see the music video news and then jackals like,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: I can't believe I missed out. So they win and
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: then everyone's happy, and that's how the movie ends. So
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: let's take a quick break and then we'll come right
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: back to discuss and we're back. Oh boy, where to
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: start with the Cheetah Girls. There really is so much.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, we've already been talking about the books quite
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: a bit. Um. I my my first instinct because I
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: don't know. I honestly I was expecting to like this
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: movie far less on the rewatch. There's definitely some stuff
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: that I still don't like. There's whitewashing elements of the
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: movie that are inexcusable. They cut a character for for
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: every reason I've been able to find. Was pretty like
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: dismissive and not realistic sounding because they were like, we
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: couldn't find black Twins, which I'm like, I don't believe that.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I so didn't believe that when I read it, because
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: I read the same thing and I'm like, okay, but
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: it's not like anybody else was a big draw and
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: like Sabrina Brian was not a name, you know what
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, Like Raven was the name. Adrian Baylon was
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: a name because she was in three l W And
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: I feel like it was because they didn't want to
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: spend the money to make like a parent trap situation
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: to Kilee. Yeah, they were like maybe not. And they
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: had the three l W people, so they were like, well,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: we got this really great deal on these two real singers,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: so let's bring them in. I felt for the third
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: l W. I was like, why why are we not
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: bringing the third l W into the mix here? But
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I looked, I looked her. I need to find what
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: her name is. She's like a thriving TV actor and
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: she it turns out that she didn't need did Cheetah
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Girls amazing? That makes me really happy because I know
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: they had a whole dramatic three l W fight that
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: involved like KFC at one point, like oh like somebody
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: three OKAYFC at somebody else there was. It was very
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: dramatic and embarrassing for everyone three LW. It seems like
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of I don't know why there's
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: been so much three l W Cheetah Girls drama resurfacing
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: since Quarantine, but it's a part of the conspiracy. But
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: so Noturi, Notton is the third LW. She's doing fine.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: She's in a stars drama show right now. It turns
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: out she's actually doing better than the other LW's. I
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: also learned that Alicia Keys was asked to be a
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: three l W and she was like, I am busy no.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: And the final thing that I learned from just behind
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: the scenes, I guess it's kind of fun to know
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: is that all like the Cheetah girls didn't get along
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: very well behind the scenes. But I guess it mostly
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: had to do with the fact that Kiely and Adrian
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: already didn't like each other from three LW. So then
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: it's a picking side situation exactly. So it's a polarizing
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: effect within the group. And then, for god knows why,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Raven Simone took it upon herself to go live with
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Keeley Williams a few months ago and just talk about
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: all of it. So I guess if you're interested in that,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: you can watch it. But it was just like the
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: messiest I was watching it live. Um, it was just
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: the messiest Instagram live broadcast I had seen in a while,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: where Raven was like, Yeah, we're gonna go live and
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about fifteen year old teenage drama and
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: people are gonna love it. And she was right, she
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: was correct, Let's try to do uh so so um,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: I was the first thing I wanted to make sure
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: was that was that the author, Deborah Gregory, was involved
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: in the production of the movie. And it seems like
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: she was involved in all three movies. She was a
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: co producer in the first two and an executive producer
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: on the Bad One. Question Mark, I don't know what
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: happens in that one, so so I I was first
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: off very relieved and and knowing that it kind of
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: like contextualizes a lot of the book makes it in
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: so that I was pleasantly surprised at and I'm glad
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: that just in general, Dabora Gregory is getting paid. She's
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: like a really interesting career where she's like dabbled in
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: comedy and she's been like a magazine writer and she's
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: written books and like she's just so she's not a
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: former model. Also, I don't know, she definitely studied fashion,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: and it seems like her life story kind of mirrors
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Dorinda's in more so in the book. But what I'm
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: seeing on the scholarly journal wikipedia um is that she
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: was put into foster care when she was three years old,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: and as she was growing up, she started designing her
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: own clothes and fantasized about a singing career. So it
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: seems like her life mirror Diranda's character quite a bit.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: I don't think I knew about the foster care Yeah,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't either. Um, I read that because of her
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: background in the background she wrote for the character of Dorinda,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: she identifies most with Dorinda of all the characters that
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: she wrote. So it's interesting that that's the character who
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: ends up being whitewashed in the movies because Debora Gregory
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: is a black woman, So to have the character that
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: she most identified with be the like white presenting character,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: it's frustrating. It's frustra because I believe that again consulting
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: this scholarly journal that, Um, Debora Gregory is biracial, and
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: so is Dorinda in the books. Um, and so it
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: seems like, yeah, Dorinda is her her like Avatar. Sorry,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: I watched Avatar recently, the Last Airbender or Horrible One
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: the so you know, it's like Derenda's her Avatar. She
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: gets in the machine, she comes out, she's Direnda. But
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: in the movie. So it's I feel like it's a
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: real like twist of the knife to change this character
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: so significantly and that's not Sabrina Brian's fault, but I
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: just it's such as it brings us such a Disney decision,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: I felt like not at all in line with the
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: principles set forth in the Disney film The Color of Friendship.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I will just say, yes, absolutely, that's another one that
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: we another popular request of ours in the dcom sphere understandable.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: I think it's the only dcon that has the N word. Think. Um,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: I did read that, yeah, brave there. Yeah, So, I
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: mean it's I was especially disappoint because I didn't know
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: these details about Debora Gregory's life either. Um, but the
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: fact that Dorinda is her and that that is the
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: character that the movie elects to whitewash is super disappointing
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: and also just I mean, I'm curious on everyone's thoughts
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: around just that scene between Chanelle and Dorinda, where Chanelle
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: has taken her mother's credit cards, something I've remember very
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: clearly from the books. That was a good one because
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: in every Cheata Girl's book, for those of you who
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: haven't read it, it's like that they're like, I think
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: that it's like narrated by a specific character, and so
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, so the first one is narrated by Galeria,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: the second one is narrated by Chanelle. I think, the
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: third one is narrated by Dorinda, and the fourth one
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: is narrated by Aqua. Angie does not narrate any books
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: because she's quiet, because she's too quiet, she's too quiet
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: to write something down. I justice for Angie. Those books
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: are so even just rereading. I reread the first chapter
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: that was available on Amazon, and the writing style is
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: just like teen girl tween girl, mainlining of like what
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: you want to read. It's so fun. But that scene
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: with Chanelle and Dorinda where Dorinda like they are are
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: kind of talking about race, but then Dorinda kind of
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: shuts the conversation down where I think that like Chanelle
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: is like, oh, you're you're mixed, you're half black, because
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: she confuses um Dorinda's a foster mother for her biological mother,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: and then Dorinda supplies by saying, no, like that's not
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I'm not black. I don't know if
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: I'm white, I don't know what I am, but I'm
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: a foster child. And then that's kind of like the scene.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: I just found that to be a very bizarre scene
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: like the way it plays out, it just seems to
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: be like skirting any discussion. I don't know. Yeah, there's
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: also a class element that I think the movie doesn't
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: really know how to handle as well. And then following
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: that scene is when Chanelle goes back home and talks
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: with her mother, who has been dating this French guy
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: named Luke. And there's a huge part of the second
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: movie Okay, because they're in Barcelona his family, So this
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Luke guys is taking up all of Chanelle's mom's attention
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: and and Chanelle is resentful of this, so she's she
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: confronts her mother and is like, well, you know, I've
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: seen what it's like to not have a mom, and
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: she's referring to the fact that Dorinda is in foster care,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: and she's like, I know what it's like to not
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: have a mother, and she's like conflating that with like
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: her mother being gone sometimes, and it's like, um, I don't.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, maybe that's just a very like freshman year
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: in high school understanding of all of that. But I
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: also submissive of Mrs Bosco, who is Dorinda's foster mother,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: and she calls her mom that scene, so you're like
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Dorenda does have a mom, right, Yeah, there's somebody who's
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: there who cares for her. And I think that much
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: of the Direnda's parents not showing up for things, at
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: least my understanding of it, is Drina to harporing a
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: sense of shame for not being wealthy, and I think
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: that's especially hard for her because she lives very adjacent
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: to wealth because Mr Bosco is the super of the
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: of the building that they live in, which is this
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: very like fancy New York City high rise. And that's
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: how she's sort of been able to make people think
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: that she's rich, is because she'll have them drop her
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: off there or like meet up in front and she's like,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: this is the building I live in, which is not
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: technically a lie, but yeah, I think that the class
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: aspect of it is a big deal, and I think
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons that she hides she's a
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: foster kid so much. And it has nothing to do
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: with race or anything, and that's and that's Chanel's immediate thing.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: She's like, oh, well, we know you had to have
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: a little something in you because you could dance, so
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: of course you're half black, which is its own problematic
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: statement right right right the whole scene, and you're just like,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: oh no, oh no, oh no. Um yeah it's and
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: it's like though that element is introduced of I don't know,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: I mean this maybe it's just like this movie not
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: maybe like this movie is just I guess not really
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: making a class statement isn't really their thing, because it's
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: like the Cheetah girls are so like girl power capitalism.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: As much as I love them like that, they very
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: fall they may very much fall into that early two
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: thousand's like girl power capitalism aesthetic um where they're talking
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: about buckets of duckets all the time and like money
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: is a part of what they are aspiring for. So
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: I feel like it is interesting to have this class aspect.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: But then it kind of like ends up spluttering in
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: this weird way. I forgot that Mrs Bosco comes at
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: the end to the Talent Show and that she's immediately
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: welcomed into the Cheetah mom like fold, and I thought
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: that was awesome, and like I'd forgotten that that happens. Um, Yeah,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: it's just it's it's Dorinda's whole character is so just
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: strangely handled in this move. Be for reasons that feel
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: very like sinister Disney. And then on top of that,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the storyline they do give her this class storyline is
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: also not really resolved or examined in a conclusive way
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: right because what happens there is that she works at
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: this community center to basically earn credits to be able
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: to take dance classes there, so she's become a really
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: skilled dancer, to the point where this dance instructor who
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: has like a traveling like a touring dance crew, she
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: should have gone on the tour dancing and then offers
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: her a spot, and then she which would have been paid,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: and she says like, oh wow, it's paid. Great, I
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: need that money. But then she kind of backtracks when
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: she's talking to her rich Cheetah Girls friends and she's like, well,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: I'm just holding out for you know, Cheetah Girls Cheddar
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: and it's like, I don't understand why you made that choice.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: You just hurt, you just turned away from all of that,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: so now there's no there's no anything. Yeah, I U
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: that it was a weird I was like she should
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: have also. Now the Cheetah Girls, as much as I
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: loved their performance, when total got out of a hole. Um,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: it's not like they're like, okay, and now we're off
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: to do this, like they're just kind of actually not
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: to not to be the well actually person. The prize
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: prize from the Talent Show was studio time, so they
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: do get to record, like in a professional demo like
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: they would have gotten with Jackal Johnson, but they get
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: to do it on their own terms, which I do
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: think is a lovely resolution to that issue where it's like, oh,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: we all come together, we're sisters, were a big family,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: and now we get to make our recording studio debut
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: without sleazy want to be Matthew Lillard. Right, Okay, so
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: that I didn't I didn't even think of that. Okay,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: So that's good. But the movie doesn't make it clear
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: you're at the end, it's all about the friendship they had.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: It's not about the progression of their career at all. Right,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: It's in the books, I feel like, are more explicit
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: about like the goal of they want to be a
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: pop group. And then sometimes there's like there was like
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: a whole book about girl. Do you remember the one
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: that was like it was a whole book about like Galleria,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: Like where's a dog? Caller and then it becomes a
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: really popular accessory and then she's like, I have to
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: market this. That was a whole book. So sometimes stuff
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: like that will happen, but it's career focus. It is
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: very capitalistic, the whole thing. Hashtag girl boss to thet.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: It's really girl possi. It's great. Yeah, I had thought
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: about the dog Collar one in a long time. That
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: was a whole book. Because there's like sixteen Cheetah Girls books, right,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: there's a whole of them. I remember the eleventh one.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: I think it's the eleventh one was the one that
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: stood out to me the most. And just going back
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: to Drenda's care character and how Deborah Gregory sees herself
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: most as Dorinda. That's the one where Dorenda finds out
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: that her mother was white because she had this image
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: in her head of her mother being this beautiful black
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: woman because she knew that she was biracial and she
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: knew that one of her parents was black and one
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: of her parents was white, she just didn't know which,
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: and she had this image in her head at this
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: beautiful black woman that looks kind of like her. And
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: then she finds out that she has a biosister who
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: shares the same mother her. So she goes to meet
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: her biosister, and her biosister is like white and blonde
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and looks like Scandinavian and that sort of really shatters
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: her world and her view and takes away this mother
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: that looks like her and this powerful black woman that
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: she feels she has as her ancestor. And that made
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: a huge impact on me as like a tween. I
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: was like, Wow, can you imagine your entire personality and
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: not entire personality, but your entire perception of your of
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: yourself being shifted like that? And I feel like that
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: sort of all the stuff that maybe they were trying
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: to get at there. And she's like, I don't know
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: what I am and I don't know who I am,
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: and that's why being a foster kid is so like
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: tough for me. But and this isn't a pre twenty
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: three and me world, obviously, we need to remember that.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: But I feel like it was just so shallowly handled.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: It was very surface in that scene, which is which
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: is kind of a bummer too, because it's like, I mean, yeah,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: I guess that her like raises not really, I mean,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: she does make that comment to drink like cuts drink off,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: which is another thing of like, oh, let's explore this
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: insecurity that she has. And then it just kind of
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: doesn't come up again, but where she cuts drink off
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: and she's like, oh, I'm the white girl that can dance,
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, it's like, are you, like, do we know?
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: And and she seems And then especially because they cast
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: I did a little bit of research on Sabrina Brian
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: and she is she's certainly white passing, but her her
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: father is Mexican Spanish and her mother is German and Cherokee,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: so she is a mixed person herself. So it's like,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: you hired a white passing mixed person. So if you're
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: going to do like that is very like like you
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: were saying, Crol, that's a very Cheetah girls like storyline
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: to examine. But then they kind of are just like
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: question Mark, question Mark, and it never got to move
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: on to the dog in the Hole? Right, And now
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: what dogs in the Hole? I don't understand why that's
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: the climax of the movie. What does a dog in
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: a hole I have anything to do with anything? Anyway.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: It's a bummer because I feel like I mean, I
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: don't know, I'm very curious of what what Debora Gregory
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: thought of that decision. I wasn't able to find a
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: quote on it, but you know, it's like, this was
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: her character. And then I feel like generally Dorinda is
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: everyone's least favorite cheatah girl. Um, so that stinks because
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: she has personality I feel like in the film also,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: and maybe the part of that springs from the fact
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: that in the book she was actually two years younger
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: than everybody, which I thought was interesting that they I mean,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: I guess it's easier to kind of just have them
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: all be the same age in the movie, but she
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: kind of feels behind in terms of character development, and
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: maybe that's what they were trying to get at, but
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: it just came off as like she's a little white
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: one and all she does is dance. She doesn't sing
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: much and she dances, and that's She's cute for the dancing, right,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: which is also confusing because she sings at least as
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: much as Aqua does, so it's like, yeah, that seems
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: like they're all singing equal parts. It's weird because like
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: with Dorinda, she is mostly characterized by her shame. She
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: feels around being a foster child. Like that's mainly what
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: we know about her, aside from like she's also she's
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: the one who can like dance better than everyone, so
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: I think like that, And then then we've got Aqua,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: who just like is barely characterized at all except that
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: we know that she has she takes a trigonometric class
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: and because in the book she wants to be it
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: again just like a nod to the book, but it's
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: so passing that you're if you didn't read the book,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: you're like, huh, Like she wanted to be a doctor
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: in the books. I remember that super clearly, where it
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: was like she was like, yeah, I'm a musician and
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: like her and Angie were the best singers in the group,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: but Aqua also had this ambition to be a doctor,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: and like she just there was just so much more
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: there and it looked horror films. Yes, oh yeah, they
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: liked her and Angie did right, Like that was like
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: there was the thing. There was so much there. And
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: then yeah, I feel like it's kind of like at
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: least they get in references to her character, but we
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: don't see her home life. I wonder if that ever
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: was in the script because it's like the other three
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: chee the girls get their side quest as it were,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: and um, no side quest for Aqua except that I
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: guess she takes the subway one time, right, and she
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: is the darkest, which I'm also like, is this colorism
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: or is this just bad script pacing? What I was
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: kind of curious as to like if casting I mean,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: no shade on Kiley will Williams. Again, it's not her fault,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: but like that, uh, if the casting of Keiley Williams
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: was also colorism because I remember in the books, And
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: then I went back to the covers, the original covers
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: of the Cheetah Girl books that Aqua and Angie were
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: darker than the rest of the group. They were like
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: dark skinned. Um, and then Disney Channel did not really
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: follow through on that. Much like Dorinda, she was I
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: will say, the darkest of the people that were cast
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: in the group, but yeah, she's still Killey Williams is
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: not like super dark skinned and not in the same
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: way that Anti Knoqua were on the covers. It was
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: like very clearly and they used the same models for
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: all of the book covers, so they were like, oh,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: there's my girl. During the There's My Girl, Galeria, like
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: you had your girls on the cover and they were
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: much darker. I did some deep dive into because I
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: was like, who are the girls and the covers of
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: the Cheetah Girl books. I found out, Um, three of them,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know who's who, but three of them were
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: in a girl group named Before Dark. One of them
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: was a ballerina, and one of them was on Broadway
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: in The Lion King. I don't know, but it's just like,
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: it looks like a group. It looks like they like
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: did a casting call for a group of like tween
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: girls from New York. So there's iconic covers too, I
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: like looking. I went back into like a used book
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: website to revisit the covers and like, scratch my nostalgia whatever,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: brain what and the covers rock. But anyways, yeah, it
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: seems like there's some some fun gery going on there
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: as well. Um, let's take another quick break and then
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: we'll come back for a more discussion. So I was
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: starting to say before the break that I found some
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: of the characterization to be a little weird. Um, and
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: then with Galeria and Chanel getting more screen time, I
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: guess that mostly makes sense because they were like the
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: original founding members members that they would get maybe just
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: a little bit more focused in real estate in the movie,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: which I think is generally true of the books. And
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: also I'm just like, you know, because Raven, it is
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: kind of a funny coinciding plot point that everyone in
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: the Cheetah Girls is annoyed that Galleria is the center
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: and bigger than everyone else on the poster, because that
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: was just also very true of this movie, where like
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: everyone knew who Raven was and there was maybe some
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: head scratching for the other three if you didn't know
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: three l W, which I did not at all. I
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: didn't learn of the existence of that girl group until
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: I started reading about this movie. That's crazy because they
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: have such a good song yeah with a little list
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: is Yeah, it's their music is so cute because that
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: was when they literally were like twelve or thirteen or something. Yeah,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: there's a line in there it's like, well, you promise
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: me Kate Spade, but that was last year, baby, in
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: the eighth grade, and I was just like, oh my god.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: First of all, what young gentleman is promising an eighth
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: grade girl Kate Spade? And why do I have the
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: same taste in handbags as an eighth grade girl. I
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: forgot about that lyric, but yeah, it's like Adrian has
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: maybe she has braces or something, but she has like
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: a little lisp and that it's really it's really cute.
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: But yeah, Raven was also very much the star of
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: this movie, so I wasn't surprised that Galleria got a
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: gigantic storyline as well. It's all about the dollars. But
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: I think that I think this movie would have actually
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: benefited from being a series, sort of allah the brand
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: new Babysitters Club series on Netflix, because like the Babysitters
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: Club movie, I felt was a pale dive into the
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: world of the Babysitters Club, another book series that are
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: super into as a child. Uh, And this new TV
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: show That's Happening is much better and gets into the
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: interior lives of more of the characters. And it's a
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: similar thing where each babysitter had their own books. So
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: it's like Christie's big Idea, Claudia and mean Janine all
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: of that. And I think that the Cheetah Girls probably
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: would have benefited from something similar where we could have
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: seen Aqua and hopefully Angie at home watching horror movies.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: Wanting to be a doctor, which again in the nineties
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: black girl who's like very clear about wanting to be
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: a doctor. That's actually huge and having that not be
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: like a big where it's just like normal that she's like, yeah,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: I want to be a doctor. It's like pre Doc
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: mc stuffins too, a show that made me cry the
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: first time I watched it with my little sister. She's like,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: why are you crying? And it was like she was
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: seeing a doctor and everyone she's fine with it and
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: it's normal, and even the little dictail. We do get
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: with Awkwa's character that she's like a math genius apparently
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: taking a college level Trigg class, Like that's also pretty
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: revolutionary to see, like a young black girl interested in
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: math taking an advanced math class, Like that's not something
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: we very up handedly mentioned. She's like, I have to
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: cabs so I can get to my very fancy class.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: And another thing that I think this, I mean just
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: putting it in the context of two thousand and three,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: because we've covered so many movies that are in this
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: like chunk of late nineties into early to mid two
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: thousand's of um even like seeing in detail the home
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: life of a non teen character is huge. I mean
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: it's yeah, you you talked about it a lot, and
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: you bring it on episode where we didn't get to
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: see any of isis is like life at all outside
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: of what Torrance was exploring and what Torrance felt was
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: relevant to her. And yeah, seeing Galeria at home and
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: seeing Chanel at home is still really cool, especially because
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: we get to see Galerias interracial parents and this like
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: intercultural thing where her father is an immigrant and speaks
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: in Italian. He's like, I don't understand that. The slang
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: and bling bling now that is an instabling, which is
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: adorable and very relatable to anybody who has immigrant parents
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: who are like, wait, no, this is not what you
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: said last week. I just everything's always changing, right, And
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: also that it seems like Galeria's mom is the breadwinner
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: of the family and like she's she's uh, I think
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: this is I also like watched the second Cheetah Grass
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: movie just simply because I wanted to. But she's like
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: a fashion designer, like a famous fashion designer, and that's
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: why they have this huge apartment. And I don't remember
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: if we know what Chanelle's mom does I don't really remember. Um,
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: I guess yeah, I was kind of. I I kind
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: of forgot that being the huge element of Chanelle's mom
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: where I think it's cool to have like a single
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: parent representation that like rocks. I was kind of that
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: storyline for me was a little all over the place,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: and I don't really remember. I remember in the books
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: that she took her mom's credit card and spent a
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: ton of money, and that Chanelle like was pretty well off.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: But I but then she also like resents her mom
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: for being kind of like openly like I want to
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: date a rich guy and this is what I want.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: UM and her she kind of like is calling her
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: mom a gold digger, but then also is in this
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: very like kid like way. It's like she doesn't like
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: how her mom lives her life but also directly benefits
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: from it, and so it just kind of ends up
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: being a story element that exists. I didn't really know
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: what to make of that. I liked her mom, but
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: then there are also were times where she was kind
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: of neglecting Chanelle to you know, gong like go hang
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: out with rich guys, and I didn't like that. And
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: then when they when their storyline resolves after that Dorinda scene,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: and Chanelle comes back and she's like, actually, you're an
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: awesome mom. And I'm like, she's not an awesome mom.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: She's not a bad mom. She's like she feeds you,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: but she doesn't do other things that maybe could make
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: her an even better mom, Like she stopped paying attention
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: to Chanelle and she now wanted to tell her, like
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: I hit the high Seat with the Cheetah Girls today,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: and she's like, I have to go and meet up
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: with Luke by. Yeah, she keeps getting bailed on by
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: her mom and then just kind of forgives her mom
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: for doing that without her mom having to do anything
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: or change her behavior, um, which seems like maybe kind
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: of a lucky break for Chanelle's mom. Yeah. Yeah. Uh
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: So we've talked about the whitewashing of Dorinda's character, and
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: you know, there's lots to be critical about there, but
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: you know the fact that this movie's cast is predominantly
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: women and girls of color, between Galeria and her mom,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: Chanelle and her mom, Aqua Drinka, and then also like
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: as far as behind the scenes representation, the screenwriter is
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: a black woman named Alison Taylor, The director is a
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: black man named Oz Scott. A number of the producers
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: are black women, so many I loved doing research on
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: the writer of this movie. Alison Taylor was such a
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: pleasure because she has written on so many legendary like
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: millennial children's properties. She wrote the first two Cheeta Girls movies.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: She wrote on Lizzie McGuire, she wrote on Sister Sister,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: she wrote on Mary with Children, which I don't care about.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: She wrote about Clarissa explains it all, and she wrote
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: on doesn't even remember this show A Hundred Deeds for
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: Eddie mcdoud never heard of it, do not. It was
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: about It was a Nickelodeon show. I love it. Okay,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: so the premise of the show, and I want to
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: go back and rewatch it. It It was about a man
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: that was trapped in a dog's body and the dog
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: and the dog had to do a hundred good deeds
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: and then he could be a man again. And so okay, wait, wait,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: how does the dog do a good deed like Timmy
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: stuck in a well? Like does he have to go
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Toto stuck in a hole and he has to get
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: the other dog out of the hole basically, and it
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: was one of those scary movies where, I mean, if
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: you google, it was like one of those scary movies
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: that Tariffy or not movies shows that terrified me where
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: they would manipulate, like the dog was talking like a man.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: Oh I was like, I have to do a hundred
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: good deeds like he was, and the jaw is scary
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: and the eyes are dead and but that was Logistically
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: is it like a puppet like it was on Sabrina
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: or is it like c G I. It's early c
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: G I. It would have been like early two thousands
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: if you look it up. The dog is really blue
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: eyes and they're digitally manipulating his mouth. Anyways, she wrote
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: on that show, I liked that show even though it
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: scared me, and really quick aside, since I talked about
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: Salem the Cat from Subritain to the Teenage, which Nick Backai,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: who voices Salem the Cat wrote, Paul Blart, mall cop what, Yeah,
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: that is a true fact. Well, so what is the
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: lesson to be learned from that? Like the Salem the
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: Cat really loves Kevin James, I could we just give
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: Sale of the Cat too much money? And he felt emboldened.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: I mean it got greenlit and got a got a sequel.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: So did we embolden him? Or is this who we
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: are as a nation? That's true, Let's not let's not
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: put the blame on Salem. We were asking for it.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: But yes, so Allison Alison Taylor. I just it turns
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: out I'm a fan of so much of her work. Um,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: and yes I was. I was also one of the
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: first things I was like, did they give this to
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: a black female screenwriter? And they did? Disney Channel, well,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: I mean Disney in general, but but the channel by
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: extension that no one ever makes the right decision there,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: and in this movie they did. It seems like several
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: times over the authors involved. Whitney Houston is a producer
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: that there is a black director in the first movie,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: although Kenny Ortega comes in on the second movie, which
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: is why the second movie is all dancing, no plot,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: No shade to Kenny Ortega. I love him, but those
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: are what his movies are like. Um, but on this movie. Yeah.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: Oz Scott is a director. He directed for Color Girl.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: For Colored Girls. Also, I didn't have like name recognition
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: for him, but once I looked at his filmography, I
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, I know this guy's worked pretty well,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: and so it was. It was a good team making
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: this movie. I was happy to see that. Can we
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: talk really quickly about Drinka? Yes, yes, First of all,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: just drink at the character, a wonderful character. I'm so glad.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: I don't remember is Drinka in the books? Girl, I don't.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: I believe Drinka is in the box. I think that
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: she's like a vocal coach or something in the books
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: that like an outside vocal coach and not somebody involved
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: with school if I remember correctly, because the talent show
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: thing is a contrivance for the movie so that they
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: can be in school and have all the stuff to
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: be school related when the thing. I like drink of
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: character a lot in the movie. I like how when
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: Galleria is being an asshole, you know, drinking it doesn't
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: stand for it. She's like, all I have is a school.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: You kids in my word, and you're like, yeah, drink
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: a fuck Galeria. She's being you know, she's being rude.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: The stage name drink a champagne, like just beautiful, incredible.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: When she started what is that anecdote she starts saying
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: on stage when the rat when the power gets pulled
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: she's talking about like the Captain and Tenniel or something.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: It's also like, this reminds me of the New York
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: City Blackout of nineteen seven or seven, and they're like, Okay,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: drink up, all right, give us the history. It's the best. Um.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: But I also I didn't realize, um until I recently
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: saw her speak to it in an interview on Netflix,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: that the actress, uh, Sandra Caldwell is a very famous transactress. Um.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: I did not. I did not know that. Um. I
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: mean when I saw the movie when I was a kid.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: But that was kind of what like brought Cheetah Girls
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: back to because you see her, you're like, oh my god,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: drink I think that though at the time that the
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: movie was filmed and at that point in time, I
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: don't know that she was out as trans. Correct Yeah, yeah, right,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: she I believe didn't come out until fairly recently. I
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: want to say, there was a New York Times article
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: about her coming out in so yeah, in the last
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: couple of years. Um, she she came out. Yes, she
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: is one of the actors featured in the documentary Disclosure
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: that I keep referring to, in which she was describing
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: her struggle of being a transactor but not being out
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: and living in constant fear that someone would discover that
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: she is trans, and that might have meant her not
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: being able to continue to get work, that might have
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: meant the end of her career, that might have meant
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: she was a target for violence, like any number of
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: things that trans people have to deal with on a
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: daily basis. Um. So yeah, she she speaks to that
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: in that interview and in the documentary. Will link to
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: it in our episode description to it's like a really
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: incredible interview and um is worth mentioning inside of this
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: episode because it's also just like, I don't know she
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: it's just such a fun character. She's an amazing character actress.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: And the added context of knowing, you know, the constant
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: anxiety and stress that she had to be under while
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: consistently turning in these amazing character performances. Um, it's like,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: it's it's incredible, So we will link that. It's frustrating too,
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: because I'm just like, if she hadn't had to worry
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: about this, what could she have accomplished? This weren't a
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: fear that she had an a legitimate danger in her life,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: what could she have accomplished, because look at what she
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: did with all of that totally, and it's it's just
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: mind boggling that on top of everything else that actors
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: have to worry about, that she had to worry about
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: this added like genuine legitimate in like nineteen I mean,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: I guess at this point it's two thousand three, but
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: still her career from late or early nineties. Yeah, she
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: was an active, working actor. And just the idea that
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: this is something that was a part of this anxiety
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: was a part of her career trajectory is just very upsetting, absolutely,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: and then to to come out as an older person
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: and face a whole new wave of scrutiny and anxiety,
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: and I mean, she speaks to it so like it's
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: just it's an incredible devastating interview because the way she
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: talks about it, she's like, well, I just I just
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: had to do what I had to do and it
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: was stressful, and I you know, like it was hell,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: but this was the path I had to take. And
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: it's such an unfair it's such an unfair path for
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: anyone to have had to worry about I don't know,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: and it makes me want to watch more of her
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: work as well. She's been in so much um and
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: hopefully we will continue to be as well. But she's wonderful.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: Drink A rocks. She's such a funny character at The
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: Countain Antinel well, and I love the sort of loving
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: read that she gives Galeria at the end, where she's like,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: you got a big heart, you just have to worry
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: about that big mouth of your And it's like the
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: sort of adult, non parental guidance that sometimes you need,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: because nobody listens to their parents from their fourteen and
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: it's nice to have an outside adult who is engaged
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: in the thing that you want to do, be this
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: mentor to you and teach you like it's okay to
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: be opinionated, but you also need to know when to
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: hold back, and you need to be considerate of the
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: people around you. Part of the Cheetah creto, it really is,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: and you know she does, drink A upholds the Cheetah
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: credo of you know, expecting adults to treat you with
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: respect because even in her frustration, even in her anger
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: with the girls, she does not ever malign them or
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: be like you're banned from my talent shelf forever or
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: anything like that. She's just like, Okay, if you think
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: this is more important than fine, go do that. But
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: this is something that's important to me, and I am
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: still going to treat it as if it's important to me.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: And you treat what's important to you as what's important
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: to you, right, And then it comes back around and uh,
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: she's the best. She's very classy, and I love how
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: supportive she is of the girls and their musical talent
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: and ambition. I wish that I don't think that she's
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: in the side. I don't they're not really in school.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: In the second one, I just wish she came back
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: in those movies. Yeah. Second one is like junior summer,
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: summer after junior year trip to bar Someone were like, yeah,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: really relatable. And the fact that Dorinda had to use
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: gallery as dad's miles was. I like, how that's how
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: they got around it? And like, what about when she
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: gets there, who's paying for her food? I'll tell you what.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: She starts dating a count in the second one right away,
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: what which I totally forgot. There's like some count that
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: she meets that it's like, I think you're beautiful and
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: I want you to dance the tango with me, and
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: there's a whole tango sequence. I don't I realize I
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: do not remember a lot about the second movie at all. Wow, Well,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: speaking of the teen romances, can we talk about Eric
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: and the romantic subplot him? And so it's it's not
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: worth going into that much about it, but it's set
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: up that he he's got this musical duo with his
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: friend Mackerel Machel has an orthodontis appointment. Thanks we're introduced
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: to him because they're also trying out for the talent show.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: So he pops up every so often in the movie
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: to mostly condescend to Galeria to a greater extent than
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen in a movie, where when he's pitching
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: the idea of switching audition times, he calls the Cheetah
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: Girls a little project, which is really rich kind once
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: you hear his music, especially right, you're like mat God,
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: men will go to the mat with their mediocrity in
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: a way that is never not shocking. Right. Um. Then
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: he he hears that they've gotten a meeting with Jackal
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: Johnson and he tries to one up her by talking
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: about another And I don't know if this is a
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: real musician if this is just one of the inventions
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: of the movie, but some famous musician, he's lying about
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: the extent to which they've interacted. Mackerel calls him on it.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: He's like, what are you talking about? Bro? Right, it's
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: like you handed him a sugar packet and maybe want
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: way more of Mackerel because I like Mackerel is the
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: real character here. He's not a liar. He's like, I
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: need to go to the orthodontist. Derek handed him a
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: sugar packet, like he's a journalists. Yeah, I need a
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: Mackerel drink. A spin off, Oh my god, where he's
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: like her intern or something also there, And this was
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: another character that I think they made show up in
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: the movie for two seconds to be a little brother.
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: But it's yeah, that's Chanel's little brother, right, Yeah, where
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: does he go? Where does he do with their dad?
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: There's a very explicit line in the earlier part where
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, Pucci's at your dad's house. I'm going
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: out with Luke and I guess it's supposed to be
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: a thing where it's like Pucci's with the dad because
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: he needs a strong male figure in his life or something.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: But if they also have him running the light and
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: sound the chard for the audition, like a literal child
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: is running the board and you don't know that it's
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: Pucci At first, I'm just like, what is this child
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: labor that's happening at this high school who's also condescending
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: to the Cheetah girls. He does mag them, this eight
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: year old next to Cheetah girls. I have kind of
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: I think that this is at very least a Disney
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: Channel Trent, but I think it might be a stock
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: character that expands beyond the Disney channel of of like
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: precocious little Brother specifically, where it's like a brother who
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: is secretly a tech genius who shows up for plot reasons.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: This is like Huge and Lisie McGuire, But it comes
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: up in a lot of kids shows where it's like them.
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: If it's a show about a teen girl, there's often
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: a bothersome little brother around who knows how computers work.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: I also think it's very funny that Chanelle and Pucci
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: are both named after designer brands. Yes, I love it right,
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: and Galeria is named after them all so in Glenda
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: Galeria in the second in the second movie, because they
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: don't really talk about their names in the first one.
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: In the second movie, Galeria literally says to a boy
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: she just met in Barcelona because he's like, my name's Angel,
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: and she's like, oh, that's a beautiful name. Mining name
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: is Galeria. It's a big building where you buy things.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: And he's like, oh, that's actually in the box too,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: it is. She was named both of them. Their names
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: are very intentional, and their parents intentional named them those
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: things for the reasons that you hope that they didn't
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: baby capitalisms. I'm going back to the Derek thing really quickly.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: So after he's like lying about this interaction with a
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: famous musician, then he like leaves the scene, and um,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: Galeria is like, that's when she gives the incredible line.
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: If he can't respect my art, he can't have my
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: heart or like that. Then later in the movie, after
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: the Cheetah girls have kind of broken up, she is
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: in the theater at school playing a song and then
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: Derek comes in. Here's what he says, quote, it wasn't
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: entirely all that bad. It actually sounded like something not
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: like that pop fluff you usually are doing. And right,
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: and then and then he assumes that someone else wrote
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: it for her, and that she did not write it herself.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: So he's being this like condescending piece of ship the
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: entire movie. Yeah, he is still negging her, and then
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: at the end they kiss, and it's like, I just
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: I hate this. I don't hate necessarily that there is
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: a romantic subplot. I hate that it's with this kid Derek,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: who sucks and constantly condescends to her, you know, who
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: doesn't condescend to the Cheetah Girls music and who is
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: very supportive of them. Toto the Dog, Well, you can't,
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: can't Toto the Dog at the end. No, No, I'm
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: not suggesting romantically. I do love the I mean, if
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: we're talking screenwriting kit, then I know you've got a
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: handful of degrees in this. The plant and payoff of
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: Toto and the dog, and they also because of the
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: dcom they reuse the same shot of the dog jumping
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: around constantly. They use it three or four times every
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: day she goes Toto. It's the same shot. It's shot
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: on like a nine team two cam quarter like they
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: did not I don't know. It cuts to this weird,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: like really grainy, poorly lit shot of the dog in
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: the hole and it's like, what always the thing happened?
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: It's very funny. Yeah, I I didn't think that the
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: thing that it needed to be there. I think it's
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: definitely a part of the Disney Channel formula, and I
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: at least appreciate it that it didn't take up, you know,
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: because sometimes those stories really I mean we were talking
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: about it with Xenon not too long ago, where a
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: boy plot really ends up kind of consuming the back
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: half of the movie. But at least that doesn't happen here.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: He's like only in three scenes maybe, I mean, he's
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: not in a bad for I also appreciate that, Uh,
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: it is an interracial romance, which is something even for
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: the early two thousand's was not something that was seen,
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: or if it was seen, it wasn't presented in a
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: way that was just normalizing it. It was always like
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: it was something like Save the Last Dance, where it's
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: like a white person and a black person want to kiss.
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: They come from different world. He's hip hop, she's ballet.
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: Can they dance together? Yes, she's a pop star, he's
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: a white rapper. Can they kiss? You're like, I guess,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: but I do live the Galeria basically says that men
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: are scams. Early on, she's like, I don't have time
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: for that. I need to focus on my career. And
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: that's that for me. Was the problem with the kiss
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: with Derek. At the end, it didn't feel earned. There
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: was no chemistry there, there was no real desire from
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: her to be involved with him. They're like jokes from
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: the other girls. It's like, oh, your boom and she's like, no,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: he's not. And then at the end for them to kiss,
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: I was like, right, where's this come with m She
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: does she even like, I think that because he was
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: there in the wake of the global get down things.
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: She's like, ah, my rock and I was like, no,
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: get another rock, right, you have Toto Totos, you're rock?
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: I mean yeah. It's like, I wouldn't mind the romance
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: subplot if it had been presented in a way that
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: just made more sense, because it doesn't seem like she
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: likes him. She is very articulate and like makes a
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: lot of sense of the reasons she doesn't like him, um,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: and then at the end she's like, I guess I
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: like him, and which which is? Um? It just didn't
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: make a ton of sense. I did appreciate um that
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: the main conflict of this movie, it's not a will
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: there won't they? It mainly is like the tension of
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: the friendship with Galeria and Chanel I remember, at least
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: when I was a kid, even though it's like it
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: was aspirational because there's their problems are very like rich
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: girl problems. But I do like seeing um and I
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: feel like you don't get a lot of like two
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: friends in conflict where it's resolved with love. I think
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: that that's always nice to see. And also like Galeria
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: is being a huge asshole to channel for so much
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: of the movie, and like and several other characters every wee,
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: it's the thing they end up with. They end up with.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: In two thousand three, a disk site chop cheetah dot com.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: Nothing currently there. I checked. I also checked them. I
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: hope this still exists. Have they kept onto this? Have
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: they held onto this domain the same way space jam has?
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: Since it would it would have been a beautiful thing
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: to see. But I mean, I guess if you're listening
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: and you want that domain name is available. It's my
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: new personal website, chomp cheetah dot com. Jamie, please please
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: do it that domain name. It's just when during the
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: plug section, I'm like, you can check out my website
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: chomp Cheeta dot com. I love that they have a
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: disc site. Um yeah, I mean again, I'm like, I
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: don't mean to be two critical of the I mean
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: the girls that eventually just become the only Cheetah girls
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: sons raven Um, but they, I mean, they just seem
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: to be so they're like, well, we should give these
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: terrifying masks a chance, and I I mean that was
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: That's a great place. I thought. I was like, Okay,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: this is where they can introduce the class aspect of
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: like okay, like maybe Dorinda is inclined to play ball
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: here with a scary panda mask because they're offering her
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: money that she wants to elevate her status and that
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: is a part of her character. But they kind of
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: don't do that, and they're just like it is more
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: of a fame thing than uh, he is offering them
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: money that would give them independence that they want. I
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: don't know that, And it's like it's weird to me.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: Well maybe maybe I don't know how to feel about this,
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: but I found it something that Galeria is both the
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: character who turns into an enormous like asshole to everyone
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: and is mean and condescending to everyone. That she and
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: Derek deserve each other since they're both condescending to everybody,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: but she is like very mean to everyone. And but
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: then she's also the character with like this wrongest conviction
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: in terms of like, no, we need to be true
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: and authentic to ourself and our music, and we're not
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: going to sell out. So it feels like those two
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: things should have been given to two different characters. Maybe,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know, unless they were making a really sophisticated point,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: which is that people can be assholes and then also
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: occasionally make a good point. But that doesn't seem like
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: the kind of sophisticated point that it should be made
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: in a movie for eleven year old like right, that
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: seems like a more like a three hour long Paul
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: Thomas Anderson thing to say, don't you mean inception by
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: Christopher Nolan. No, his character suck um you know, but
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: uh yeah, I guess Galeria does turn into such a
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: cartoon villain for a good twenty minutes of the movie,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: and then she becomes She's right at the beginning, and
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: then it starts good where it's like, oh, she said
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: she was the founder, that's not necessarily true. Now you're like, okay,
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: that's an interesting But then she just goes full like
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: she's cackling for an entire montage um and then she's
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: kind of back to being the moral center and like
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: our art is more important than our than capitalism. And yeah,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: it's a little messy. I do appreciate that perhaps the
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: movie is making commentary on how like the music industry,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: among many other branches of the entertainment industry try to
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: like co modify people, especially young women, to like sell stuff.
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: It's very intentional to me because they were like, oh,
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: we're gonna capitalize on the letter G being big this year.
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: We're going to capitalize environmentalism and how all of these
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: creatures are endangered. And I was just like, well, can
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: we just talk for a second about their sound, because
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: they briefly are like, yeah, you guys sound good, which
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: is why we're going to put you into this thing
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: that's nothing at all like you. And it was just
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: sort of this complete erasure of everything that made the
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: Cheetah girls cheet delicious and fierce. And I am very
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: disturbed by their handshake though, where there is a very
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: realistic cheetah growl, I'm like, how do you make that
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: sound out of your mouth? Multiple times? That was also
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: in the trailer, I remember very clearly because it's just yeah,
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: like copy paste cheetah sound dot MP three, Like it's
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: the same row every time. Yes, I will say. What
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: was interesting to me about that sort of montage where
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: Galleria was just laughing at her own hilarity and Jackal
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: says that all the time was that as soon as
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: everything became about a man, it got very hairy and
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: like very unfun and uninteresting, And that was sort of
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: the commentary for me. It was like when you let
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: men enter your sphere and you make things about the
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: men entering your sphere instead of about your girls and
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: about the connection that you have and the people that
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: were already in your world. So just even taking gender
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: out of it, like when you let somebody else come
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: in and influence you as opposed to the people that
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: you built something with, that's when things go topsy turvy
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: and bad totally. I like, I mean that I'd never
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: had that read of it before that that I love
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: that read is like when you let men and capitalism
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: into your mix. Things get bad your world. You get
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: this website, you get cheating, you get chop Cheeta dot com.
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: I think too, like there's um the lyrics to several
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: of their songs are empowering for women and young girls,
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: like there's and and maybe it's a little bit of
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: like the superficial, Like I mean, there's literally a song
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: called girl Power, which we have criticized the idea on
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: the podcast a lot of the idea of like nineties,
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: early two thousands, like just very surface level girl power
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: sentiment that is not that helpful for our purposes. But
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: I've also been thinking about this recently, where like girls
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: and women generally have to learn feminism because you know,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: we grow up, we're still surrounded by patriarchal structures. We
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: are often conditioned to think and believe certain things that
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: are in direct conflict with our own self interest, and
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: we have to unlearn a lot of stuff. But you know,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: you have to start somewhere when it comes to learning feminism.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: So the kind of surface level like girl power thing
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: that is often directed at young girls, Yes, it's very superficial,
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: but it also feels like a good entry point, you know,
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: for this learning process as long as it also like
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: moves into more kind of complicated feminism that everyone needs
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: to learn. Well, I think that that's my general problem
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: with this message is that it doesn't really it doesn't
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: tend to do that Cinderella sort of more than girl Power.
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: The song Cinderella has the idea of don't wait around
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: for a man to rescue you, rescue yourself. You have
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: that power and you have the capability. But then that's
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: the first song that we're really getting from them as
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: the Cheetah Girls, and then it just sort of devolves
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: into like generic, Oh, we're here for each other, and
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: like how how are you here for each other? Are
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: you disclosing your salaries to make sure that everybody is
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: getting paid the same, and like what's the deal? How?
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: What is the action here? Not just the sort of
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: slogan the future is female sort of deal? Right, there's
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: I guess that that is. And and this is like,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, cheated Girls. I'm like, I almost want to
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: give cheating Girls a pass on it because I love
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: the Cheata Girls so much, But but all of these,
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, my main criticism of the girl power aesthetic
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: has always been that, like the sentence itself not a
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: problem with it. Yeah, girls should have more power than
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: they do, and they should be empowered by themselves and
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: by each other and by the people around them. But
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: to me, the message underneath that girl power message is
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: that the way to get power is by being complicit
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: in capitalism and participating in it as thoroughly and as
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: heavily as you can, which is also baked into what
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: the Cheetah Girls are and what their aspirations are. It's
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: like they want to succeed through capitalism. Obviously, it's like
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: the cheat, Like I'm not asking the Cheata Girls to
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: be a socialist text Like it's fine as is, but
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: just that overarching like we I think we started talking
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: about it in our Spice Girls episode like three years
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: ago at this point, but that it's like I agree
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: with what they're saying, but how much is actually done
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: through the actions. I think that the Cheetah Girls are
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: certainly doing a lot more than Spice World was, um,
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: but not as much as Josie and the Pussycats exactly.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: Like if if we're talking about the spectrum of you know,
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: how much franchisees challenging us the best movie ever? Okay,
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: let's got the shirt. Yes, thank you, Jamie. Jamie bought
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: it for me and my mom. I have two of
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: the same shirt. That means two people know you very well.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that that's I mean. But it's
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: capitalism is baked into the Cheetah Girls to such a
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: comical degree that it's kind of funny because their names
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: are Galleria and Chanel, like they are embodying it. And
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: I feel like, especially the books, Dorinda presents uh kind
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: of an oppositional force and a bit of a challenge
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: to that mindset, which she sort of does in the
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: movie as well. But yeah, I don't know. I'm never
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: gonna like two thousands girl power, and partially because I
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: deeply resent it. It's a tough thing to reckon with
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: because you do, again want girls to have more power
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: and do sort of want to implant just the seed
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: of the idea that like, hey, girls, you can be
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: in n y U math classes and be good at STEM.
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: But it's also like, how are you then going to
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: use that? It's it's about what you do with the
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: tools that you're given, and right now they're just like,
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: let's use these tools to help build the capitalist machine. Ding, Ding,
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: what are you gonna do with the buckets of duckets.
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: Once you have acquired the buckets of duckets gallery, are
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: you going to redistribute it things? We distribute the duckets
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: the duckets. But yeah, I mean, like in this song Cinderella,
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: I think some of the lyrics are I can slay
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: my own dragons, I can dream my own dreams. My
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: night in shining Armor is me, So I'm going to
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: set me free. I don't want to be lax and dure.
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: It's so good. That's not a Cheetah Girls original bt dubs.
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: Really another group I think it like, is some European
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: group also corded that song prior to the film, and
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: then they repackaged it as a Cheetah Girls song for
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: the movie. I cannot remember the name of the group.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: Hal I thought that Galeria wrote Cinderella, as she claims
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: in the film. I know, yeah, Also there was I
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, no, there's authorship issues. That never bodes
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: well for a group. No, it doesn't. The last thing
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about was Galeria. We've alluded to
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: this heavily, so maybe I won't even be a very
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: long discussion. But Galeria and her mom uh, Dorothea uh.
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: And I am just now connecting Dorothea and Toto, Okay, Jamie,
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: Oh nope, didn't make that connection either, you know. And
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: they love the love the Wizard of Oz. And there's
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: the scene right before Toto goes down into the hole,
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: which maybe is Toto's own version of Oz. Who's to say? Where? Um? Where?
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: Gallery is like bummed because of the globe will get
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: down thing, and Dorothea is like, well, maybe we'll just
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: go home and watch your favorite movie. And she's like,
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know if the Wizard of Oz can solve this.
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: I remember really liking that because it was my favorite
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: movie when I was a kid. But Dorothea, I I
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: used to be more like I feel like it's it's interesting.
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: I want to like give props to Deborah, and I
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: also want to give props to Allison on the way
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: that this character is written in the movie, because it's like,
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: I feel like there's multiple reads on her. Like when
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: I saw her when I was a kid, I was
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: definitely like, oh, okay, this is like a parent who
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: is going to be withholding from their kid who wants
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: to do something cool, Like I've seen this character. I
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: get it. But when you revisit this character as like
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: we were saying, it's like, oh, you totally understand why
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: she's like she's protecting Galleria. That wasn't She wasn't just
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: saying that, she she meant it. Yeah, I mean she
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: was looking at this contract and Jacko was like standard contract.
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: She crosses out several subsections of the contract, looks at
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: him and said standard revisions, which I was just yes,
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: because she's like, she's like a famous fashion designer. She
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: would know all about this ship and she would be
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: released like you know, like rightfully skeptical, and she would
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: know this whole world and like it just I was
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: very team Dorothea on this watch. She really cares about
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: her kids. I also thought it was really badass that
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: she was so mean to Jaggle the second she met him,
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: like maybe a little bit too me, but like she
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't care, but like it was
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: she was so aggressively mean. And then Gallery was like,
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: you don't know who Jackal Johnson is, and then she
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: named five hundred facts about him. She's like, I do
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: know who he is, I just don't respect him. Yeah,
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: I read and I'm like, yes, you do, mom, Yes
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: you do. Um, yeah, I mean harkening back to like
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: our Xenon episode on the Matreon, where we had a
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: big problem with the way the like Xenon his parents
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: were treated in that like her mother was this like
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: hysterical woman who has to put on a stress helmet.
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: And then but her dad is like the cool dad
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: who like gets her and like is chill and relaxed,
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: And I think they're on the on the very surface,
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: there is a similar dynamic here in that, like you
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: have a concerned mother and then a chiller dad. But
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: I feel like it was handled way better here because
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: you understand where the mother is coming from. She's not
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: presented nearly as much as being this like hysterical like
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: shrew mom who's like no, like she's looking out for
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: her daughter. She knows stuff. She knows how music is recorded,
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: she knows about contracts. She comes in very informed, and um,
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: she's also just like characterized beyond we we get to
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: know more about her character that like contextualizes why she's
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: so like concerned for her daughter and like her daughter's
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: friends and stuff. So I liked that. I always get
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: a little I mean, there was a little bit of
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: cool dad dattery going on here where that is someone
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: that was like, come on, like, dude, it would be
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: fun if we let her do the thing. And but
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: but I did appreciate that you get something you don't
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: get in Xenon, which is a little like, look at
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: what their relationship dynamic is. You get like a sweet
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: moment with them that doesn't seem particularly aggressive to either character,
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: and you almost like so I was more lenient towards
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: the way that results. It wasn't just like dad's of course,
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: as we know, are way cooler than moms, and that's
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: why this is happening. Like you get a look at
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: she gets to speak her piece, say why she doesn't
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: agree with it, the dad gets to speak his piece,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: and then they make a compromise. So I was like, Okay,
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: this isn't the worst way that I've seen this play
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: out in like a Disney movie. And it felt like
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: both parents were coming from a place of wanting Galeria
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: to be happy and healthy, which I appreciate it because
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: the dad wasn't just like let her have fun. He
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: was like, she has this dream. This can maybe help
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: her achieve this dream, and there's never going to be
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: a point at which she is not going to want
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: to achieve this dream, but if it falls apart, now
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: we are here to help support her. And I think
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: that that's important that we be here to help support her.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: So I thought that that was a really interesting take
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: on it, where he's like, I'm not just fun Dad,
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: I am fun dad who also wants to be able
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: to support her when this may not work out because
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: that happens, and she has her first situation where it
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: doesn't work out, and we're here, so she knows that
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: the next time how to handle it better, which is
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: logic I can basically follow. I was like, okay, Dad
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: has maybe not the point I agree with most, but
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: a point. And then they didn't just go into it
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: willy nilly. It was like both parents came together. It's like, okay,
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: so we are going to let you do this because
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: this is your dream, but I'm going to go with
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: you as your mother, and I'm going to make sure
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: that you don't fall behind in your grades or anything
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: like that. Like they're conditioned like don't forget the capers
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: at the store, don't put your dog in a whole,
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: et cetera. Yeah, I really, I mean it's I originally
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: was skeptical of that, but now even as we're talking
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: about like me and I think it's actually fine. Yeah,
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: the dog in the hole, the doctor and maybe they
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: should have left in there. He was in there. I
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: will never get over that. I watched that. I must
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: have rewound that five hundred times. That the firefighter baby
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: like staying faster, staying faster, it's working, it's working. Wait, okay, sorry,
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: if the whole is Oz, the director of this movie
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: is Oz Scott. The connections keep coming. Makes you think,
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: my goodness, is this funded by the illuminati? Do you
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: think that? Yeah? I think we can pretty definitively say that. Yeah.
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: And recently we did find out that Beyonce a k A.
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: Backstaba and Karma's Children is secretly Italian and half that
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: item was so one of the messiest news items of
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: the year. And that's saying something truly messier than the
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: global pandemic is the would be member of the House
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: of Legislature who's like, did you know that Beyonce is
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: secretly Italian? She's not even black. Don't listen to any
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: of her pro black rhetoric because she is scamming you all.
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: It exploded my brain. They're like, she's working for the
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: meatball lobby, the spaghetti Like You're just like, what are
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: you talking about so much? So much? Um? Yeah, it
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: doesn't doesn't even have anything else. I think that was
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: all I had. Those are all my main things. Most importantly,
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: how do they make the realistic growling sounds in the handshake?
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: I think we went into that it was a copy paste.
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: Oh there is a line that we have not talked
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: about that. I just think the hold I hold it
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: very near to my heart, which is after a history test. Um. Oh,
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: I also think this is important. Galeria calls a Cheetah
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: Girl study session, so they are about, you know, supporting
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: academically as well. But they talked about the Louisiana purchase
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: and Chanelle says, are you sure the Louisiana purchase had
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with gumbo? And I'm just like, Mrs
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: Almanac truly has failed you. That was what she had
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: to go to talk to Mrs Almanac about, like, how
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: would anybody buy gumbo for fifteen million dollars? What's the
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: deal with that? That was the actual price of Louisiana purchase.
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: I was an a music about the Louisiana purchase. So
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: I remember many fun facts about it. Oh my good
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: at ten not recently. You got to go into and
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: tell Galeria she are not Galleria Chanelle she was. That
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: was another. There are so many like quick like I mean,
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: it's it's a service is it's like an homage to
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: the book. But the quippy lines that pop up are
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: just they're so fun me and they're so weird. And
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: there's a really good one that I like. Sorry, there's
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: also a dog. My new neighbor got a very yippie dog, Toto.
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: It's in a hole and it's it's yipping very loudly
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: right now, So my apologies for that. But there's one
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: line that I my favorite line in the entire movie
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: is when um Chanelle shows up at Dorinda's apartment and
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: this is like her discovery of like her you know,
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: living in like the super's apartment kind of thing, and
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: Dorinda says, oh, if I would have known you were
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: coming over, I would have been rich and lived somewhere else,
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: and it's like, that is very funny. You should be
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: a comedian. Speaking of comedians, Oh my gosh. Okay, So
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: there's the one of the guys in the Talent Show
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: is this male comedian who's talking about like he's doing
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: a bird impression and um dieing that. Cheetah girls are like,
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: he's so funny. They love it. It doesn't seem that funny.
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: But my favorite hard about that is Drinka is like, Okay,
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: you've gone over your three minutes, Like stop now, like
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: a male comedians trying to go over his time and
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: she's and Drink is having none of it. She's like, Nope,
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: you're done now. I always leave them wanting more. It's fine.
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: I liked that there. I just when they cut to
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: the Cheetah girls losing it, being like, oh my god,
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: he's so random, but like you're just like a fully
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: triggered by them by this open the seventeen year old
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: open micer just another fun behind the scenes fact. Keeley
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: Williams later in her career, released a song. I don't
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: know if either of you have heard of it or
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: seen the music video for it. It's called Spectacular, and
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: the original video has been taken down, I believe, but
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: it's still up there in many facets and it is
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: wildly different than you would think based on her past music. Um, really,
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: if you've never seen it. Check it out. I'm mean
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: the chorus of the song goes, the sex was spectacular.
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: The sex was spectacular. They're a little like oh sounds,
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: They're delicious. Post Disney music careers. That has to be
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: someone's like doctoral thesis. There's there's just so much to
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: be found. It's it's ripe. It is a field ripe
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: for study. And it was kind of controversial when it
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: came out. People were like, Kiely's gone wild. And I
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: think at this point it was like ten or twelve
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: years ago, so it's been a while. But in college
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: that was one of my favorite videos. I would watch
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: it at least once a month because I was just like,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: this is crazy. It was octacular. Check it out. Let
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: me know what you think. As far as sex songs go.
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: That is like a pretty polite thing to say that
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: the sex was spec tacular. She's using like, you know,
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: C word to describe the sex. It was. Yeah, it
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: was a plus sex. According to Parquil, She's like, gotta
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: gotta pull up the thesaurus and see how else can
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: describe this. That's my last thing I wanted to say.
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: I just needed everyone to know about spectacular. I appreciate that.
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: So as far as the Bechtel test, um does the
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: Cheetah Girls pass the Bechdel test every almost every second
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: of thee yeah, constantly. I don't think they mentioned men
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: as existing for like a solid three and a half minutes,
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: which is I think the longest I've ever seen a
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: movie go without mentioning a man in the opening of it.
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: And when they do talk about men, it's generally a
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: reference to Jackal and it still is at least even
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: when it doesn't pass, it's usually still tangentially about their careers,
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: which yeah, yeah, this I think might be like one
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: of the most Bechtel test passing movies we have ever done.
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: I would agree it passes the DuVernay test, that passes
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: the Duverney test it um. I think it might not
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: pass the reverse Spectel test, in which I don't think
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: men or boys. Mackerel and Derek do talk to each other,
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: but I feel like they're always they're talking either about
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: the girls or they're talking to the girl. Like their
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: interactions are very few and far between on screen, so
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: usually connected to the girls. Yeah, and usually connected to
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: the girls. Yeah. Yeah. Realizing that now, I'd like to
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: think that maybe Mackerel's ornantists is a woman also, so
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: even when he's in his famous line, he's talking about
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: a woman. Hell yeah, Now I have the sex with Spectacular,
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: a song I've never heard stuck in my head, but
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: it's it does say were pass the test? It does
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: it so seamlessly too, where I feel like sometimes when
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: movies pass the backteal test, they really like all but
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: break the fourth wall to be like, are you happy? Um,
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: but this is a great I mean, davora. Gregory has
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: built a world that is so centered on female characters
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: and their ambitions and their dreams and their conflicx that
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: it's like, it's just seamless. It's just built into what
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: this world is. Which brings us to our nipple scale um,
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: in which we examine how the movie fares from an
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: intersectional lens on a scale of zero to five nipples.
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: And I would say there's a lot to consider here,
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: because you know, you have the issue with the Dorinda
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: character being whitewashed from the book to movie adaptation, which
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: is upsetting. On the other hand, of the characters who
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: you're rooting for, who get the most screen time and
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: dialogue and narrative significance they are predominantly black and Latin
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: X women, and the fact that it's by and large
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: a story about female friendship, female creative expression, like women
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: making art and entertainment. Are they too concerned with capitalism? Yes,
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: but they're also fifteen, so maybe they'll grow out of it.
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: And you know, like same thing with Galeria becoming really mean.
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: The second she gets a taste of fame, she doesn't
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: handle it well. But again, she's fifteen, and then she learns,
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: and then she learns, and she she understands that the
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: important thing is her friendship with these other girls, and
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: that's the resolution of the story. UM. So I like
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: that aspect of it, that the that the movie, the
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: story um centers around the female friendship. I think that
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: there is a shortage of that in media directed to children,
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: especially to young girls, So I appreciate that. Um there's
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: a few, you know, the issues that we've talked about,
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: like the weird romantic subplot with the kid being an asshole.
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: I guess I'd give it like a four still, I
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: think four nipples, and I'll give one to each cheetah
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: girl I want to go for as well. I was
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: really pleasantly surprised at just on revisiting the books a
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: little bit as well, and just kind of like resurfacing
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: all this old, unused cheated Girls canon information that I
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: had inside of my head. Of how much on the rewatch,
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: I did find that it was generally, um, true to
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: the spirit of the books. It was less disney Fied
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: than I expected. Again, this is like some qualifying language
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: of like, wow, I thought that Disney would have really
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: fucked it up like they have sucked up other franchises. Um,
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: but in general I think that especially and I guess,
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: just jumping off what you're saying, Caitlin, I was happy
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: to see that the behind the scenes team was mostly
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: black artists and people of color. I was really glad
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: that Debora Gregory was involved in a meaningful wake and
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: it really shows. And yeah, I mean it's a predominantly
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: um non white cast. Really the only two well I
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: guess with Dryanda, guess she is a white coated character. Um.
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: But it is all the all the authority figures that
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: you see that you love are are non white characters.
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: And then there's Jackal, who is evil. Uh. There's there's
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: just like so much that this movie is doing right
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: in two thousand three that most movies in two thousand
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: three weren't doing right. So it definitely has its issues,
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: and I think that all of these issues can basically
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: be boiled down to the disneyfication elements that did get through,
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: the whitewashing, the forced in uh love story that doesn't
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: really belong there um. But all things considered, I feel
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: like it. It was and it was a huge hit,
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: which again is just it makes it extremely apparent that
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: the representation that this movie offers, even though it is
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: not in no way perfect, was very wanted and very needed,
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: and it became this super successful franchise until Raven left.
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna give it for I still really enjoy
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: this movie. Cinderella is a great song, and I'll give,
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: We'll give. I don't want to be mean to Dorenda,
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: but I'm going to give one to every Cheeta girl
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: but Dorinda, and then give that nipple to Drink A
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: sorry drink. I thought you were going to give it
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: to Angie because I know you're a big Angie Sngie. Well, yes, Angie,
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: and you can share a nipple with Drinka when she's
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: so quiet she she wouldn't request more than half a nipple.
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: I couldn't hear her. Yeah, for me, I think that I,
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: like Jamie, came back at the movie and was surprised
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: by how much I liked it and how much more
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: I liked it, especially as an adult. What really I
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: get caught on is, I mean the whitewashing is slump
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: them and the just rampant capitalism and non addressing of
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: classism and class issues that happened. I mean that one
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: scene with Galleria where she's like, you need to change
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: the way you dress, and she harps on the way
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 1: that Dorinda dresses in a couple of scenes, and that
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: for me was just like unchecked classism part like just
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: to a level that is unbelievable even for a teenager.
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: That is kind of not really resolved between them either, right,
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: So that that takes it a little bit down on
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: the nipple scale for me, But again I am very
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: pro one also showing interracial families and these blended families
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: and non traditional families where um, they do have a
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: single parent and it's not like the second parent is dead,
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: because that is a huge Disney thing where it's like
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: if it's going to be a single parent, the other
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: one's dead. Divorce doesn't exist. You die or you're there.
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: So that's really great for me. And uh, I feel
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: like I'm gonna give it three and a half nipples.
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give it the lowest on the nipple
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: scale so far because that the classes um really does
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: get me. And that's I think such an important aspect
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: of intersectionality. And a lot of people focus on the
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: race aspect, but class, I think is so intertwined with
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: that too in general, generational wealth or whatnot. Um. So, yeah,
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: three and a half nipples. But I really came into
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: it looking at rewatching it for this episode. I was like,
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: I'm only gonna give it like a nipple, maybe half
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: a nipple, and I was just like, oh, actually maybe three,
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: maybe four somewhere in there. So it is a well
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: deserved and earned three and a half nipples. I think
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: if I were to rate it on like how much
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: do I enjoy watching this movie or how well do
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: I think this screenplay has written, No, I would give
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: it far lower. I give it, I give it, I'd
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: give it maybe like why is the climax about a
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: dog in a hole? Sometimes dogs go into whole scale
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: on a screenwriting nipple scale, I would give it like
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: two nipples. But there there's it's the Checoban dog in
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: a hole, I will say for me, I think screenwriting
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: definitely lower nipples. No disrespect to Allison. It is a
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: monumental task to have to adapt, and also to have
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: to adapt a series of books. It's not just one story,
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: it's several stories, and they do tread into territory I
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: think from the first three or four books. So that
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: is impressive, but it didn't quite track, especially if you
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: hadn't read the books. From an enjoyment nipple scale, i'd
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: give it more nipples. I enjoyed it just objectively as
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: something I could watch on this Saturday night, even as
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: a grown up. I'm like, this is good. This is
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: very good. It made me homesick. I was like just
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 1: thinking of all my childhood friends and I was watching that.
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, it was a simpler time. Yes,
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: the nostalgia is strong, it really is. Yeah, but they're
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: but as we will find out in as we continued
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: into our Matreon episodes about d coms, uh, the person
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: that the important character in Whole is a is a
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: common d coom convention because in Caitlin Chu saying at
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: the climax of Cadet Kelly, animals not diad falls. It's
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: less of a full he falls off a cliff into
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: there's a falling thing. And that is also the climax
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: of Cadet Kelly. Now I do remember the Cadet Kelly
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: cliff thing. I remember the ribbons more. The ribbons were
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 1: a big thing. I was like, I could ribbon dance.
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: I cannot. I cannot do any dance. Is it ribbons?
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: Aren't they flinging guns around there like toy rifles? But
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: then they replaced rifles with ribbons, And that's feminism metaphor
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: early two thousands. They really had to figure it out
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: back then. I wonder if there is like a style
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: guide that if you're hired to write a d com,
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: they're like, if you're getting stuck, here's what we would do.
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: Are you having trouble in the third act? Put someone
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: in a hole, just toss him somewhere. Yeah, have someone
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: fall and almost I I was just watching an episode
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: of So Weird, which was a Disney Channel show. Um yes,
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: and there was an episode where Fee goes missing and
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: she does fall off a cliff and then is in
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: a cave, which is just a very large horizontal hole.
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: That's true. They're really just going for it with that.
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: She saved by Bigfoot. So that's the so weird aspect
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: of it. That show is really fun. I don't remember
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: anything about it except that I liked it. It's on
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: Disney Plus. You should rewatch it. Okay, all right, oh Grandma,
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much,
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: so much fun. What a wild what a wild time
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: we've had? Um Where where can people follow your stuff
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: and find you online? Okay, if you want to follow me,
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: please just do it on the internet, not in real
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: life because that's crazy. But I'm at Karama Drama k
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: O r a m A drama on all platforms, and
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: by all I mean Instagram and Twitter because I am
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: very afraid of TikTok. I am not cool. Don't understand it.
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: I think that it's super cool and there's so much
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: stuff on it that's interesting. They have conspiracy theorists, they
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: have like life hackers, they have education stuff and like
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: alternative education and counter education. But I am very intimidated
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: by all of the dancing and the editing that happens,
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: and I just oh yeah, I love to watch other
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: people's TikTok. I just have no idea how to produce
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: my own content there to talk, I finally understand why
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: there were all these weird people, Like I've used to
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: think people who are on Twitter there were just an
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: egg and never said anything. We're so weird. But I'm like, oh,
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: that's literally me on TikTok. That's what I do. I
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: just look at stuff and I say nothing. I feel
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: like Twitter, though, it's weirder because everybody on Twitter knows
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: words like on the talk to create content. There's a
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: lot that goes into it in terms of like means
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: a sin and all of that stuff, you know, like,
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: uh well, speaking of Twitter and social media, you can
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: follow us there at spectel Cast. You can subscribe to
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: our Patreon aka Matreon. It's five dollars a month. It's
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: two bonus episodes every month, plus access to our entire
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: back catalog. There is a siren happening behind me and um.
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: You can go to patreon dot com slash spectel cast
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: for access to that. Yeah, you can get are all
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: of our merch. However, at public dot com slash the
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: backsel Cast, we have masks. I just saw someone wearing
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: us sexy baby grinch mask and I for credit it.
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: Why try have ever made in my whole life bear
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: icon baby grinchy. So that is something you could do
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: if you so choose and someone in facted it. Um. Yeah,
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: we'll see you on the Matrian will see on the
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: main feed and thank you for being here, Granma. This
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: was so much fun. I please, I would love to
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: come back whenever you come back any time, anytime, anytime.
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: And this is the point where Caitlyn, would it be
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: the most annoying thing if at the end you just
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: edit it in a really loud cheetah girl cheetah sound effect.
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I'll do my best and if if I
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: manage it, it's gonna go right here. Wow. Bye