Latest / Systematic Geekology / Bear Hugs and Beanstalks: Another Look at Disney's Package Film Era
Transcript
- 1:17Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, bears, mice and giants of all ages, we welcome you all to the wonderful world of Walt Disney's animation studios.
- 1:28Kinda.
- 1:28This is Mac Ecology talking about Walt Disney's animation studios.
- 1:32We've been going through three films in each of Disney's animation eras and a few we made up because why not having a lot of fun with it?
- 1:41I am Joshua Noel.
- 1:43Today we are on the third film in the package film era, wartime era.
- 1:47If that confuses some of you because we've been doing it so long, it's because we started this series doing two films per era, switched to three, and now we're going back around Encore, doing one more for the earlier
- 1:57eras to round it out to three films per era.
- 2:00So we are in the package film or wartime era of Disney animation today talking about Fun and Fancy3.
- 2:08Can't wait for this.
- 2:08It's going to be a ton of fun.
- 2:10I'm already mentioned.
- 2:11I'm Joshua Noll.
- 2:13You're.
- 2:13Well, you're a res.
- 2:14Dis.
- 2:15Nerd.
- 2:15Here with the one and only true Keyblade master Christian Ashley.
- 2:18How's it going?
- 2:20That's from a previous recording.
- 2:22Did not mean to put that in there for this one.
- 2:26Yeah.
- 2:26I wasn't even supposed to be here today, but apparently someone just had to take time off to like have a baby or something like that, you know?
- 2:34What an excuse.
- 2:36You've seen the film though, right?
- 2:39Expert on fun and fancy free.
- 2:42Christian's the expert.
- 2:43It's gonna be a lot of fun.
- 2:44So what have you been geeking out on lately?
- 2:46Let's see, my invention with Superman is continuing to go on and I'm really enjoying what they've.
- 2:51They've been doing with this season.
- 2:53Got a lot.
- 2:53We got the death of Superman going on.
- 2:55We got hints of maybe Darkseid showing up at some point in time.
- 2:57Had a great episode recently with Mr.
- 2:59Mistel Flick and his wife.
- 3:00It was pretty fun.
- 3:01Yeah, I've been.
- 3:03I've actually finally got around to finishing or starting and finishing binge watching the season two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
- 3:12They've been doing a pretty good job.
- 3:13The show.
- 3:14A lot better than the movies from my understanding.
- 3:15I didn't read the books, but I'm like, I enjoy these more, so I guess they're better.
- 3:19I don't know.
- 3:19As someone who's read the books, this is a fairly faithful adaptation.
- 3:23Nice.
- 3:23Nice.
- 3:24Yeah, it's fun.
- 3:24I know my cousin Ali's been on the show a few times.
- 3:27Was one of the original hosts and she loves it.
- 3:28So I feel obligated to watch them.
- 3:30And I'm like, you know, these are pretty good.
- 3:32I just kept forgetting.
- 3:33There's so much stuff to watch.
- 3:34It's hard to remember everything.
- 3:35But I'm enjoying it.
- 3:37Yes.
- 3:37I also enjoy recording this show with Christian.
- 3:40And if you guys enjoy us recording together and listening to it, then you should rate and review our show.
- 3:46Wherever you get your podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever.
- 3:49It really helps other people find the show, trick the algorithms to think we're important.
- 3:54All that good jazz and we really appreciate it.
- 3:56We also really appreciate each and every one of our listeners and our financial supporters.
- 4:00Today we're shouting out for Frank Troglauer.
- 4:03I might be saying his name wrong, but Frank, you rock, man.
- 4:06Thank you for supporting the show.
- 4:08And guys, if you want to be like Frank and get your own shout out, you can also become an official member Systemic Ecology on our website, the link is in the show's description.
- 4:17If you want to become an official member, be like Frank, get a shout out and just help us keep the lights on.
- 4:22We really appreciate it.
- 4:23Same website, if you don't want to become a member, you can also get some free extra content.
- 4:27If you just want to hear us talk a little bit more, you can buy merch to support the show.
- 4:31You can leave a one time financial gift.
- 4:32If like the whole membership sponsorship thing's not your thing.
- 4:35We appreciate all the help we can get.
- 4:37We appreciate your support and we just like geeking out with you guys.
- 4:40So come interact with us on the website.
- 4:42We appreciate all of you and all of your time.
- 4:46Yeah, if we hear the rest of our Disney eras films, remember this is the third film in our package film era of Disney animation.
- 4:53We've done plenty others.
- 4:55There's a link to the whole playlist also in the show description.
- 4:57There's lots of links down there.
- 4:58Make sure you read through the show notes, follow us however you like, engage whatever way best suits you.
- 5:04We want to just have you joining us in all this geeky goodness and just being part of the community.
- 5:08And yeah, we thank you for your time doing that and all that out of the way time for the actual episode.
- 5:14Christian, when did you first watch Fun and Francie Free?
- 5:18I think this is like a 1947 film if I'm thinking right.
- 5:20Something like that.
- 5:21Yeah.
- 5:22Yeah.
- 5:23I was shocked to learn a couple of months ago that I had never actually seen this film and its totality until about two months ago.
- 5:32And I had thought I'd seen it because I Had only ever seen the Mickey, Donald and Goofy with Willie the Giant part because that had been on, like, a separate VHS or something like that.
- 5:44Only that part of the film.
- 5:46And I had the framing device I had never seen before.
- 5:50The bongo part of the film I'd never seen seen before.
- 5:53The only reason I know about the other parts of the film is because I was helping my brother move in Chicago.
- 5:59We had put the TV on in the background on Disney plus on, like, one of the random channels they had in Fun and Fancy Free were playing.
- 6:04And while I'm like, screwing stuff together, I'm like, I don't remember that.
- 6:07I don't remember that because I've never seen it.
- 6:11That is so funny.
- 6:14Yeah.
- 6:14I mean, I think, honestly I found out about it because of the House of Mouse show.
- 6:19I think they played part of the Giants.
- 6:21And I have always been the weirdo who's like, where did that come from?
- 6:25That's how I watched the original Three Musketeers for Disney and a few of the other movies and shorts they used to do is like, they play part of it on House of House.
- 6:33I'm like, there's gotta be more of that.
- 6:36And I would go find it.
- 6:37And that's how I eventually found fun of Hates Freeze.
- 6:39I was probably in, like, middle school or something.
- 6:41I probably didn't tell anybody.
- 6:42I wouldn't watch it.
- 6:43But also, there's a reason anyone's ever seen the Jack and the Bing Stop part.
- 6:47In my opinion, it's the good part.
- 6:49Yeah.
- 6:52Yeah.
- 6:53So, like, that's how, like, I remember the characters.
- 6:54Really, like House of Mouse.
- 6:56I remember seeing that giant pretty often.
- 6:58He was just.
- 6:58He was a fun, silly giant.
- 7:00I was like, I don't know.
- 7:01I feel like Disney didn't invent Jack of the Beansock.
- 7:03Why is this giant here, like, him?
- 7:04Not going to complain, but what about you?
- 7:07You just saw the movie for the first time a couple months ago.
- 7:09You said you've seen the Jack and the Beanstalk part, but do you have any other memories of these characters or anything from.
- 7:14From ages before?
- 7:16I remember loving that, however.
- 7:18Heck, I watched it back in the day.
- 7:20Just the idea of poor Mickey, Donald and Goofy, like, struggling to get by and they're gifted with this opportunity to go up in this beanstalk.
- 7:28Yeah, I knew the jacket of Beanstalk Story, so it was very familiar to me.
- 7:31Ceiling Will in the giant as, like, the villain, but also not.
- 7:35Is kind of weird.
- 7:36Like, in the framing device of the film, he shows up in the real world as it Were.
- 7:42But, like, he's just kind of, like, looking for people and not, like, being villainous about it.
- 7:48It's very interesting now, compared to what I remember watching.
- 7:52Yeah.
- 7:52That.
- 7:52Honestly, that's the only good part of seeing it as a film, is that I've just seen the short.
- 7:56Is that in part, Giant, straight up walking around in real world.
- 8:02Just because it's like.
- 8:04To me, I thought it was just so funny how the one puppet was, like, going on about how sad he was, the giant died.
- 8:11They're explaining, oh, it's a figment of your imagination.
- 8:13And then that happens.
- 8:13The guy thinks, like, what happened to him?
- 8:15A figment of his imagination.
- 8:18That, to me, funniest part of the whole.
- 8:20The whole darn bit.
- 8:22Yeah.
- 8:23Like, that cracks me up every time, but that's great.
- 8:27So, yeah, not a lot of memories, really.
- 8:30But what we do remember, it's mostly the Jack in the Beanstop part.
- 8:33I feel like every cartoon had an iteration of Jack and the Beans out.
- 8:36There's like, a Tom and Jerry one.
- 8:37I feel like Finney and Ferb did it at some point.
- 8:39Like, pretty much any cartoon I could think of at some point was like, yeah, Jack and the Beanstalk.
- 8:45That.
- 8:45That needs to happen.
- 8:46Public domain, baby.
- 8:47Yeah.
- 8:49And usually it's pretty entertaining, I think.
- 8:52I like what they did here.
- 8:53Some of the changes.
- 8:54I like that the giant's a shapeshifter, not just a giant.
- 8:58And I like, that was three of them and not just one, you know, oh, what a naive guy.
- 9:02Like, his friends were like, dude, what the heck are you talking about?
- 9:05And they all go onto the adventure together.
- 9:06And it's not just, hey, sometimes people aren't crazy.
- 9:09It's.
- 9:10There's more to it.
- 9:11I feel like thematically, they wanted to say a lot more than they could say with what they did.
- 9:16As you can tell, there's a lot about poverty, the system being broke, something being stolen from the town.
- 9:22Like, there's a lot of elements that I'm like, man, they could have really spun this out to a full movie, which is what they originally wanted to do.
- 9:27But fun and such were short because of the war, and this is what we got.
- 9:31Instead, they just threw it in together with another story that was going to be a full movie.
- 9:35And instead of either of them being a full movie, they both got to be part of a movie because budget constraints.
- 9:41Yeah.
- 9:42So how would you summarize the story?
- 9:45Stories of fun and fancy freak.
- 9:48So, like I said, we have our framing device here in that there's this man who has some relation to the girl.
- 9:57It's a more innocent time, as it were, back in the day.
- 10:00Nothing nefarious about it.
- 10:01This would be seen with way different eyes.
- 10:03Now, this guy, this ventriloquist, showing up with multiple dolls, dummies to spice up this girl's solo birthday party or something like that.
- 10:12I wasn't really paying attention that much to the first part.
- 10:16And some unfunny jokes are made.
- 10:17Some funny jokes are made.
- 10:18Yeah, go ahead.
- 10:19I was gonna say it starts with Jiminy Cricket and then later transitions to that guy.
- 10:24Oh, this is like, to me, this is where Jiminy Cricket really solidifies as one of the Disney mascots because, yeah, he was great in Pinocchio, but seeing him outside of Pinocchio in another feature length Disney film was kind
- 10:35of.
- 10:35It was unique.
- 10:36Yeah, yeah.
- 10:37It's part of his thing too, is he's also there for that, like listening in on everything, on the events of the film and the stories being told.
- 10:44And so the ventriloquist is telling the girl these stories.
- 10:47We start off with Bongo the bear who.
- 10:51Bongo is a circus bear.
- 10:54You know, think of the stereotypical, you know, unicycle performances.
- 10:58You know, when you think of circus bear, that's what he does.
- 11:01But he's not fulfilled in his life.
- 11:03He loves, like, the attention, but at the same time he hates his job.
- 11:07So one day you just like when the train is going by.
- 11:10By the way, I learned as I was doing research for this that this was intended to be like a pseudo sequel to Dumbo in some way.
- 11:17Bongo was going to be like, either in that film or something like that.
- 11:20Or like they were going to show characters from Dumbo part of the circus.
- 11:23Interesting tidbit there.
- 11:26But he's forced out of the train.
- 11:28Yeah.
- 11:29And is in the wild now.
- 11:31And as someone who's lives his entire life in captivity, knows nothing about the ways of the world, the natural world, as it were.
- 11:37So it's him.
- 11:38He falls in love with some girl, bear learns that the only way to show affection in the bear world, which is a great lesson for all children to learn, is that when you want to show love and affection,
- 11:48you slap each other.
- 11:49Uh, which is once again, what an awesome message for today's children to hear, especially in loving relationships.
- 11:56That's how you treat your spouse, potential girlfriend and the like.
- 11:59Wonderful.
- 12:01And after he's learned how to slap really well and do all these tricks really well, he is accepted by the other bears, falls in love with the girl, and they're together.
- 12:07Yeah.
- 12:08Uh, then that's why when I see Christian Ashley, I always greet him with a smack.
- 12:12It's.
- 12:12It's in the Bible too.
- 12:13Greet one another with a holy smack on the cheek.
- 13:07Yeah, it's my favorite part of Corinthians.
- 13:10So then we move to the next story, which is the more famous one, which is Mickey and the Beanstalk.
- 13:15And Mickey, Donald and Goofy, as said before, are living in extreme poverty.
- 13:19You know, the grand harp that was stolen from their kingdom, as it were, provided no rejuvenation in the fields and much wealth and everything, which is why the giant stole in the first place to take for his own.
- 13:31Or does he know that?
- 13:32Kind of hard to tell in the film.
- 13:34So they're left destitute.
- 13:35They're like breaking apart these really thin slices of bread and beans just so they can survive for another day.
- 13:43It's actually pretty good animation.
- 13:45A.
- 13:45A bean between the three of them.
- 13:47Oh, that's right, a bean.
- 13:51And Donald goes crazy because he's tired of, like, living under these conditions.
- 13:55And they go out, we're going to sell our cow to go make money, you know, as it is in the original folk tale.
- 14:01But many Mickey almost said many Mickey is instead encouraged to buy this bag of beans, magic beans.
- 14:09And now, of course, it gets everyone upset, but in the middle of the night, the beans grow after having them tossed down underneath the house and they go into the clouds.
- 14:18They find a giant up there to find a harp.
- 14:20They rescue the harp after dealing with, like, dragonflies and the like, are able to then descend and end up killing the giant.
- 14:29But not really in the story by breaking down, you know, the beanstalk where we didn't get to the end of the film where Willie is in fact still alive, looking for Mickey and friends.
- 14:38And the girl's okay, I guess happy now.
- 14:42Great birthday party.
- 14:44Saw a real life animated giant.
- 14:49Yeah, it's a.
- 14:50It's wild.
- 14:51Yeah, it's wild and fancy free.
- 14:54Yes.
- 14:55So, I mean, I don't have anything to say that that's what happens.
- 14:58You have a story about Bongo the bear that feels very similar to Dumbo.
- 15:02That's just instead of, oh, he's weird because of his birth defects.
- 15:06It just is simply the part of, yeah, I want to be loved for who I am and not what I can do for people.
- 15:12It's like, okay, fair.
- 15:14And then the second part's Jack and the Beanstalk story told a little bit differently with some different elements of, like, what's happening to the society as a whole.
- 15:21Not Just Jackson kind of, you know, it was cool.
- 15:24I liked it.
- 15:25And both were kind of framed within this weird ventriloquist puppet person showing up to a girl's birthday.
- 15:31But, like, it's actually being narrated by Jiminy Cricket explaining to you that there's a ventriloquist.
- 15:36I don't know, man.
- 15:38That part is just.
- 15:39Just out there.
- 15:40But you gotta think package film era.
- 15:42The other ones we've talked about, also pretty out there.
- 15:45Ichabod and Mr.
- 15:46Toad's.
- 15:46The most normal of the package is three caballero.
- 15:52No, not normal at all.
- 15:54Like, very not normal.
- 15:57What was the other one that came before the Three Caballeros?
- 15:59That one was just.
- 16:00I almost did that.
- 16:01The.
- 16:02Whatever.
- 16:03The.
- 16:03I can't even pronounce it right now.
- 16:04Oh, gosh.
- 16:06What is it?
- 16:08Three Caballeros.
- 16:09That one.
- 16:09Saludos, amigos.
- 16:11Yeah.
- 16:11Yeah.
- 16:11That would have been impossible for us to review with the straight face.
- 16:16I think that might be Disney's worst film.
- 16:18It's not bad, but it just does not measure up at all to the other Disney films.
- 16:23Yeah.
- 16:24So that said, Christian, you had us to rate this final Fancy free from 0 to 10.
- 16:30How are you rating this one?
- 16:31I mean, if it was just Mickey and the Beanstalk, like, I'd give this a 10.
- 16:35But it is hindered by the fact that there are two other segments in this film.
- 16:41I guess maybe a six.
- 16:44And I think, lay in mind, again, when I rate, I'm comparing to the other things.
- 16:49I'm not just giving it like, a 0 to 100%, like, grade.
- 16:53Like, you know, I'm not giving it A, B, C, D.
- 16:54No, they're, like, compared to all other Disney films.
- 16:58Where does this sit?
- 16:59I'm giving it like, a two or a three.
- 17:01Probably closer to two, but I'm gonna say three because there's probably some films I'm not thinking of, like, that there are worse.
- 17:08We mentioned some of the other ones in the back of the film.
- 17:10There are worse.
- 17:11But there are also some of the package films that are the three caballeros, Igbo out of Mr.
- 17:16Toad that are better.
- 17:17And the package film is just not the best era of Disney on top of that.
- 17:20So, like, I can find better movies in the era and the other eras are better.
- 17:24So it's like, I don't know.
- 17:26It's got to be pretty.
- 17:27Pretty low for me.
- 17:28And again, I'm not saying it's bad.
- 17:30I think it's worth your time to watch in the background, you know, whatever.
- 17:33It's entertaining, but just doesn't measure up to other Disney films for me.
- 17:36Sorry.
- 17:37For those who maybe that's their favorite.
- 17:38I don't know who you are, but I apologize.
- 17:42So we do want to talk some about the art and animation.
- 17:46You can kind of tell what they did to make this affordable.
- 17:48Like a huge chunk of this film is them narrating just basically like a house video with an older man, a young girl and some puppets.
- 17:58The film filled lot of time with that because it's cheap.
- 18:01More to some time, even the part where the animations interacting, if you notice the live action people in the animation are almost never in the screen at the same time.
- 18:09Way too expensive for the time for them to do that.
- 18:11Do you notice the actual scenes?
- 18:13It's a lot of reused backgrounds, like a whole lot.
- 18:17Both Bongo and Final Fantasy were supposed to be full length films that they shortened, cut down to what they could and just kind of used what they had.
- 18:25The good part of that though is a lot of the animation is pretty cool.
- 18:29They do some wacky interesting things.
- 18:30They do some like puns because like they couldn't rely on having a star cast.
- 18:35They couldn't rely on a budget.
- 18:37They just had to be good at drawing.
- 18:39It was Disney's nine old men, Walt himself being Mickey.
- 18:42And they said, let's see what we can still get done.
- 18:45Even in World War II, because art still important.
- 18:47They did what they could.
- 18:49Yeah.
- 18:50And this was one of Walt Disney's last times playing Mickey Mouse before he handed the voice off to someone else.
- 18:56So, you know, interesting stuff.
- 18:57I can't think of anything else that really makes this film stand out for me.
- 19:00Do you any other like history, art, animation, gags that you were like?
- 19:04Oh, that was kind of cool.
- 19:04You didn't see a lot of animation interacting with the real world back then.
- 19:08So that was unique.
- 19:09Like I said earlier, like the see through bread that they do and like you can like the haggard appearances of our trio in this film is really well done.
- 19:18The Dragonfly assault is pretty fun.
- 19:22The, the bean salt growing in the night and them like jumping out of bed while they're still asleep is handled extremely well.
- 19:31Struggling to think, I guess the Bongo nature scenes are fine.
- 19:35I.
- 19:35I really don't care for it.
- 19:37So I'm struggling.
- 19:38I'm trying to like throw a bone.
- 19:40Yeah.
- 19:41Oh, and we get the live action scenes with the mix of animation near the end with Willy like interacting with the house and bringing it up like for the time.
- 19:48That's the effects are pretty well done.
- 19:50Yeah, yeah.
- 19:51I Think I agree.
- 19:52Yeah, The Beamstock, even just from an animation standpoint, the beanstalk one just stands out so much more to me.
- 19:58They wanted the Golden Harp or the Singing Harp was supposed to be like another Disney mascot.
- 20:03They wanted it to be a big deal and it just didn't catch on.
- 20:05But Willy's giant shows up a lot more later on.
- 20:07He's in House of Mouse.
- 20:09He's in a few other things.
- 20:10He's the Christmas Carol, he's the giant ghost.
- 20:15They reuse Willy a lot because that character stood out.
- 20:17People loved.
- 20:18But what they did with the giant there, like, he was a funny character.
- 20:21He was so like, oh, the antagonist, you know, whatever.
- 20:24You're like, oh, yeah, okay.
- 20:25I know I'm supposed to cheer against him, but he was still likable.
- 20:28So, you know, they did.
- 20:29And then I think part of why they made him a shape changer is why, like, package films.
- 20:33You could tell there were some parts where we were on a budget, but Disney's nine old men were like, we still want to animate cool stuff.
- 20:39So I think they just made him a shapeshifter so they could animate some stuff and kind of show off a little bit because they were bored.
- 20:46I really think that's part of why they were bored and wanted to show off a little bit.
- 20:50That's like three caballeros.
- 20:51That insane scene at the end to us now we're like, huh, Why'd they do that?
- 20:55But like, if you were back then, you're like, whoa, how did they do that?
- 20:58The animation was revolutionary.
- 21:00And now we're like, that was kind of weird.
- 21:03We're spoiled.
- 21:04We don't have the context.
- 21:05Yeah, we don't have the context for how crazy it was to be able to achieve such animation feats.
- 21:10But to do it on a budget and have a shape shifting giant, so pretty impressive.
- 21:14Okay, that out of the way.
- 21:16Christian, if you had to pick a favorite scene, a favorite song, and a favorite character from Fun and Fancy Free, who you going with?
- 21:25Scene?
- 21:26I mean, Donald's breakdown.
- 21:28Like, I feel for him.
- 21:30Yeah, he's doing some crazy things, but, like, brought to the point of starvation.
- 21:34And after all the hard work they've done, they haven't produced anything.
- 21:37It makes perfect sense to me.
- 21:38I think that's a great voice acting, great animation around this because, like, you feel for this poor duck.
- 21:44He's like, lost it.
- 21:46I.
- 21:47I love what they did there with that.
- 21:49Are there songs in this movie?
- 21:51There's a few.
- 21:52There's a Fun and Fancy Free.
- 21:55It's I.
- 21:57I'm okay.
- 21:58I don't doubt you.
- 21:59I just don't remember there being a song or if it did, it was like, okay, and I moved on with my life.
- 22:05Or maybe it was because I was doing other things while watching the film.
- 22:08So who knows Characters, like.
- 22:11Well, I mean, it's hard not to like Lily.
- 22:14I mean, they make him almost look like a simpleton, but they don't do.
- 22:18They do a kind of dopey voice, but not in a.
- 22:20Like, he's completely and utterly stupid.
- 22:21Like, yeah, he's simple, but he's not like, you know, an idiot.
- 22:24Like, there's still some menace behind him.
- 22:26And I can definitely see later on why he called on with people.
- 22:29We've seen him as many times as we do.
- 22:31Like, he's on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now.
- 22:33I think that's still airing, you know, for the smaller children.
- 22:36I've seen a couple of episodes.
- 22:38Like, and he's just a nice guy they're friends with.
- 22:40Yeah.
- 22:41Yeah.
- 22:42Well, I think that's what it's hard for me because part of me wants to say Jiminy Cricket's my favorite character because he's Jiminy Cricket, guys, like.
- 22:50And he's a good narrator.
- 22:53He has the right reaction to everything of being like, what?
- 22:57Huh?
- 22:58Why?
- 23:01It is just the correct reaction.
- 23:04But yeah, so I'm not gonna say him.
- 23:07I am gonna say Willie the Giant.
- 23:08Favorite character because same reason.
- 23:11My favorite scene is actually when.
- 23:14So Mickey's trying to like, deceive him because, you know, you always have.
- 23:16Jack deceives the giant, they trick him, they get away.
- 23:19And it's like the way he deceives him is like, this giant just wants to be loved.
- 23:22He wants to be liked.
- 23:23He is very selfish.
- 23:24He's self centered.
- 23:26And that's why he took the harp for himself.
- 23:28But he's not like, malevolent.
- 23:30Like, he's not like, oh, I want to crush these stupid little humans.
- 23:34He just cares about himself too much.
- 23:36And like, Mickey's tricky.
- 23:37And like, oh, you could really transform into a fly.
- 23:40And they're gonna take this fly swatter and swat the fly when he becomes a tiny fly, right?
- 23:44And like, instead he turns into a bunny because he keeps like, wouldn't it be cool if I was a bunny?
- 23:49And they hold up the fly swatter and he's like, wait a minute.
- 23:52And that was so funny to me because, like, a.
- 23:54It was just funny that he turned into a pink little bunny.
- 23:57He's like, look at me.
- 23:59And they thought they were gonna Go.
- 24:00It was funny scene, but also it really shows the heart of.
- 24:03It was like.
- 24:03And to me, this is always a big thing when you retell a story.
- 24:06The changes someone makes to the story is probably the big point.
- 24:09And that's why I wish we could have seen this as a longer film.
- 24:12Because he wasn't trying to be malevolent.
- 24:15What you see in the scene is, like, he wanted friends.
- 24:18He wanted, like, whatever, but they wanted to just squash him and move on.
- 24:22Treat him like he's just a bad guy, not a human who did some human thing.
- 24:25I mean, he's a giant, so he's not a human, but you know what I mean?
- 24:29So having that kind of, like, irony, so you have, like, the comedy, but then you're also like, not only was that funny, but also it's like, oh, yeah, Mickey trying to trick them so they could murder him when
- 24:39he wasn't actually trying to hurt them.
- 24:41Still seems kind of wrong.
- 24:43So it's like, I don't know.
- 24:44It's a layered scene for me.
- 24:46I like that.
- 24:46Maybe it's because I think too much,.
- 24:47But I think that's fair.
- 24:50Yeah.
- 24:50Because.
- 24:50Yeah.
- 24:51It's not made in the film.
- 24:52Apparent in the film.
- 24:52Like, yeah, I'm doing this because I'm evil and I just really want this harp.
- 24:55Yeah.
- 24:56He's conceited, a little selfish, but he's not like, I to hurt other people.
- 25:00And I know I'm hurting them by taking this harp.
- 25:02Yeah.
- 25:02Yeah.
- 25:03As far as we're aware.
- 25:06Yeah.
- 25:07So I.
- 25:10Favorite song.
- 25:11I'm trying to remember if this happened in a dream for Evan when they went to Giant Land, but there's a song of Goofy and Donald thinking that they're going to eat until they die.
- 25:20To me, it's just so darn funny.
- 25:23It's catchy, too.
- 25:24But I'm like, man, if, like, the next time I go to Disney World and go to Liberty Tree Tavern and they're like, it's endless meat, all of a sudden the speaker played eat until I die.
- 25:33That would just be priceless.
- 25:35That would be great.
- 25:36It'd be my rallying prize.
- 25:38Yeah, I got this.
- 25:41I'll do it for you, Donald.
- 25:44Oh, man.
- 25:45I just.
- 25:45I don't know.
- 25:46I love that song.
- 25:46I think it's funny.
- 25:48The whole film, like, that whole part of the film is so good.
- 25:50It's just so disappointing as a whole, what we got.
- 25:53Because, like, the giant part, I don't know, I just feel like it could have been so much more.
- 25:58But that said, we do have Some interesting themes to talk about.
- 26:01We'll start with Bongo the bear, since that's the first part of the film.
- 26:05You see that he's yearning for freedom.
- 26:08It really feels like so much of a rehash of Dumbo.
- 26:11But you also see of like him not wanting to be controlled, and then he finds love by finding the other bears and that one girl who understands him, even though they do the weird slapping thing.
- 26:20But I think it's important to talk about love, is understanding love, not being controlling, that kind of stuff.
- 26:26Christian, if we're thinking about it more seriously, how do you go about that kind of concept they're trying to show there?
- 26:31I mean, you can go in the general sense of humanity, you can go into other way of animals.
- 26:36I'll focus on the animal choir first.
- 26:37I mean, at this time in history, like, circuses were filled to the brim with animals.
- 26:42And today that is heavily frowned upon because people would see the conditions that they were kept under or the beatings that they would get if they didn't perform correctly.
- 26:52And, you know, I have mixed feelings on that because, you know, it introduced a lot of these animals to people, the circus, across time, so that they can understand them a little better.
- 27:00Maybe we actually want to care about them even more, but at that same time, I don't care for how most of them were treated.
- 27:05It's that.
- 27:06That weird moment of, like, I learned more about them because I got to see them in person.
- 27:10But behind the scenes, how are they being taken care of?
- 27:13Not saying that every circus ever was abusive, but it happened enough to where legislation started getting passed.
- 27:19And it be like, hey, you should really stop doing this.
- 27:22To where, like, modern circuses focus way more on people than they do animals.
- 27:26So there's that part.
- 27:27Then you get to the freedom part.
- 27:28Poor Bongo, I mean, I guess he has an arc.
- 27:31And the.
- 27:32The idea of, I'm being told to do this, this is how they want me to be.
- 27:37What about what I want?
- 27:38Well, everyone goes through that.
- 27:40And like, how do you challenge that?
- 27:41Is it.
- 27:42Are you actually supposed to be the thing that they want you to do?
- 27:44Are you going to do it your way, or are you supposed to be something completely different?
- 27:48Like it in a childish, childlike way?
- 27:52Childish is the wrong way to say it.
- 27:53It does a good enough job for introducing the concept to children of, hey, just because someone says this doesn't mean you have to be that.
- 28:00Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with the animal stuff once a.
- 28:05There's a reason the AZA will not accredit any circus.
- 28:09For those who don't know, it's the Aquarium and Zoo association and its accreditation means that the animals are being taken care of.
- 28:14But it's weird because they typically don't accredit anyone who forces animals to entertain.
- 28:20But you do see, sometimes.
- 28:22Most of the time, SeaWorld actually has been AZA accredited.
- 28:24They have been known to lose their accreditation a couple times.
- 28:27You know, I follow up on this stuff.
- 28:29It's important to me.
- 28:31It is.
- 28:32Zoos are interesting and a lot of people are just against all animals being portrayed like this.
- 28:36But, like, you gotta think, a lot of the zoos, the animals in that zoo will not live that long if they're not in that zoo, which is why they're there.
- 28:43They're being taken care of.
- 28:43They're being used to study so that we can help other animals.
- 28:47They're there because they won't survive in the wild.
- 28:49Like, there is a reason for zoos, circuses, I don't think you can say the same thing for.
- 28:53So, fine, whatever.
- 28:56I guess I'm against circus animals, but, man, they're fun to see on tv.
- 29:01But, like, I don't think I would go to a circus that was treating animals that way because I do care about such things.
- 29:07But, yeah, like, as far as love and stuff.
- 29:09Yeah.
- 29:09Understanding the person you love.
- 29:11You know, my wife, I don't expect her to understand Kingdom Hearts.
- 29:16I expect her to understand that I love Kingdom Hearts.
- 29:19And When Kingdom Hearts 4 comes out, she's going to understand that I play it.
- 29:22Like I know her.
- 29:22She's like, for Christmas, she found this really cool raincoat.
- 29:26That was Kingdom Hearts scene with all the Kingdom Hearts stuff on it.
- 29:28Does she know anything about it?
- 29:29No, but she understands me and cares about me, and that's what love is.
- 29:32It's not controlling, saying, like, what I, like, do what I do.
- 29:35You can't play this video game at this time or you gotta do this with me.
- 29:38It's.
- 29:39I understand you and I appreciate you for who you are, even if I'm not into the same thing all the time.
- 29:43She knows she'll be a widow for like a month or two months while you devote yourself completely to that.
- 29:48And you taught her that by slapping her.
- 29:52Not any of those last things that she said at all.
- 29:55This, of course, couldn't happen because she's not real to begin with.
- 29:58You've met my wife now.
- 30:01I met the woman you hired to pretend to be your wife.
- 30:03So, anyway, on to the next thing.
- 30:06Jack of the Big stock, the Mickey Mouse Version there's a systemic failure happening.
- 30:11The whole city, everyone's collapsing because this harp gets taken from them.
- 30:16They're all in desperate poverty.
- 30:18The desperation shows differently why some people are angry all the time.
- 30:21Some people are fighting and fighting.
- 30:24Mickey Mouse is like, I'm gonna try anything.
- 30:26Even throwing beans in the ground and hoping for a giant money making machine.
- 30:29I don't know, I don't understand the motivation there.
- 30:32But they're magical beings.
- 30:34Like.
- 30:34Like everybody is just so desperate and that's what makes the giant bad.
- 30:38Not that he's trying to hurt everyone, but that he took something from them and it really ruined the whole society.
- 30:44Watching it today was really weird for me because I'm like, I think that just describes the current president of the United States of America.
- 30:51He I don't think is always out evil and wants to hurt everybody, but he just cares so much about himself that he's taking things and doing stuff for himself that does seem to harm other people.
- 31:00Other people take a hit.
- 31:02Yeah.
- 31:02And it's causing a lot of poverty and a lot of problems in our country and other countries.
- 31:08Again, not making it political, but it's just one of the way I'm looking at it going, that's really realistic.
- 31:12Like that actually happens.
- 31:13Like not a real giant, but where someone takes something and they're just not thinking of the repercussions and that turns them into a villain, even if they're not villainous.
- 31:22So I thought that was a really interesting aspect and again should have been a full movie.
- 31:27But Christian, would you like to comment on that?
- 31:29Any that aspect of the film?
- 31:30I mean, that makes perfect sense to me.
- 31:32It's like sometimes resources are taken from people and you don't even recognize it.
- 31:38Whether that's you took someone else's time, you someone else's fame and all you were doing was something else and you intended this, but this came out instead.
- 31:45That's just personal.
- 31:46Then we get to larger picture with people like you have this one specific resource, whatever, and they mine it or they plant for it.
- 31:56And as a result people over here have less water because of irrigation needed over here to produce this plant.
- 32:03You know, the farmers aren't intending to for someone else to suffer drought conditions.
- 32:08But without the water, they don't have any way to feed their plants in that way.
- 32:12In the same way that these people over here need that water to get stuff done that are not able to because farmer here is doing this.
- 32:19Like the farmer isn't inherently evil, but it feed.
- 32:22They feel like villains because of the actions that they do versus, you know, like, certain water companies that want to bottle water and make sure no one else has access to it.
- 32:33That would actually be villainous because the intent is greed.
- 32:38The intent is to cause harm for the sake of self when it comes to the poverty side of things.
- 32:44Once again, I really feel for our trio in this film.
- 32:48Like, they are so haggard and, like, downtrodden and desperate that, like, they give in to a hope.
- 32:54And that's what why Mickey makes the decision that he does to buy those magic beans.
- 32:59He's like, well, I have this cow.
- 33:01But, like, we could kill the cow maybe, but the meat will be gone eventually.
- 33:05What are we going to do?
- 33:06Well, maybe something could be grown in this ground.
- 33:08Maybe magic beans can actually grow in a drought condition.
- 33:11Who knows?
- 33:12So we give in to hope, sometimes false hope.
- 33:15This actually turned in his favor, but he didn't know that for sure.
- 33:19And that can bring us to desperation to make decisions we wouldn't otherwise make.
- 34:25Yeah, yeah.
- 34:26It's.
- 34:27Yeah, also really funny that the ventriloquist and the puppet, the one puppet going, I do not want to hear this story.
- 34:33If they eat that cow, I will stop listening.
- 34:37It's so funny.
- 34:38The other one's like, wait a minute, cheeseburgers.
- 34:41And I'm like, well, there is pretty clear which one I relate to most here anyway.
- 34:47But, yeah, one of the things I find really interesting, this has been brought to my attention over the last couple years from a couple different friends, how this happens in real life and not directly political, but it's interesting
- 35:00how many times in different films you'll see these hicks and the Appalachians, they're portrayed as, like, savages, almost like the evil.
- 35:07You go into their town and they're, you know, whatever.
- 35:10And, like, I think a lot of the times, people from more wealthy areas, especially up north, they think of Appalachians either as uncultured, uneducated, whatever, or they think that they genuinely don't care about other people.
- 35:20Like, they just have a negative vision.
- 35:22A lot of people in your Appalachians have a terrible vision of people up north and stuff.
- 35:26And some of it's somewhat justified.
- 35:28They've been tearing down all these trees and stuff to make these computer chips for all these fancy cars and electric, you know, whatever, and the video game systems and all the stuff.
- 35:35And mostly where we're getting that resource from is the Appalachians.
- 35:39We're destroying their towns and giving them nothing in return.
- 35:43And they're just like, yeah, the north must be evil, and they need to know It.
- 35:47And like, the people at north are just like, oh, educated people up out there.
- 35:50They're just angry all the time.
- 35:52And, you know, they have no idea what they're taking from these sounds.
- 35:56And it's like, huh, that's pretty much what happens in this film.
- 36:00I don't think they were trying to be that deep with it, but I watched it going, man, this is just so weirdly relevant.
- 36:06I agree.
- 36:07They probably weren't thinking of this, but it is that you can get unintended aesops in a film or, yeah, like, oh, Walter didn't mean for that to happen.
- 36:15But if you think about it, go, okay, that makes sense.
- 36:18Yeah.
- 36:18I'm like, ah, yeah.
- 36:20Maybe all kids just need to watch this growing up and we'll have a better world.
- 36:24But only this part, they don't need to watch Bongo.
- 36:26They can leave that part.
- 36:29We may.
- 36:29We may turn them into very things we don't want them to be while watching the other parts of the film.
- 36:35Indeed.
- 36:36Indeed.
- 36:36All right, you want to say anything else about, like, the selfishness or anything else that we see thematically in this film?
- 36:44Are you ready to move on to where we see these characters outside of the movie?
- 36:47It is an inherently selfish thing to take the harp for yourself because it produces good things, because it can sing and all this good stuff that happens because something like that, it's meant for everyone, like.
- 36:59And yeah, it is.
- 37:00It is a villainous action to take it.
- 37:02That does not inherently make Willie a villain, but when you keep acting this way, it's harder to support you.
- 37:08So we are taught to give our gifts to others, our talents to others.
- 37:12Like, that is day one, like Christianity right there.
- 37:16Yes.
- 37:17We are a Christian podcast, and we bring it up when it has to.
- 37:19Like, the literal word talent we get comes from the actual money back in the day that was given for a day's wage or what have you, or I can't remember which one of us.
- 37:29A day or a year.
- 37:31So use that wisely.
- 37:32Make something of this.
- 37:33Otherwise your creditor God is going to come back and go, hey, what'd you do?
- 37:38I gave you this, I gave you that.
- 37:39Why didn't you love the people around you?
- 37:41Well.
- 37:42Well, if I just hold it on to myself out of fear or because I don't want to work, then I don't love people as well as I say I do.
- 37:49Yeah.
- 37:49Yeah.
- 37:50And it's not a one to one relationship, but it's interesting.
- 37:53I'm a general manager of a corporate store now, and it's fun.
- 37:58I've seen part of this before I became a manager.
- 38:01But, like, it just really stands out to me now.
- 38:04You know what it is?
- 38:05Honestly, Sometimes I don't like speaking to things until I've gone through it.
- 38:08To know that I'm not also one of the selfish bad guys, I have to put myself through the test.
- 38:12I'm like, okay, now I can talk about those other people because I'm not them.
- 38:15I just had to make sure.
- 38:18But it's not saying you're not taking from anyone, but the amount of times, like, people, you know, in my position who can get a bonus if their store does really well, have all their workers work extra hard, do
- 38:29all this extra work, all this stuff, and, like, hey, they get paid hourly.
- 38:31That's cool.
- 38:32It's fine.
- 38:32Whatever.
- 38:33Boss gets a bonus.
- 38:34They got paid hourly into the story.
- 38:36But then a lot of them feel like, I work harder.
- 38:38I don't get anything extra.
- 38:39They feel like they're not being appreciated, whatever.
- 38:43And then to me, who.
- 38:44I think the really good GMs are the ones who are like, hey, that's their bonus.
- 38:48But also, hey, guys, we achieved something huge.
- 38:50I'm gonna throw a pizza party after work.
- 38:51I want to give you all something to show you a token of appropriation.
- 38:55It's like, yeah, if you get something, appreciation, you should.
- 38:59Thank you, you should share it.
- 39:00I don't think you should hold on to it and be like, it's all mine.
- 39:02Now I have this extra thing.
- 39:04Like, it just makes sense.
- 39:05Some things are a gift, a bonus.
- 39:08And sometimes it's good to share.
- 39:10Not all of it.
- 39:10Not, like, equally.
- 39:11Like, okay, I'm gonna divide my bonus up and give everybody cash.
- 39:14That's not what I'm talking about.
- 39:15I'm just saying, like, if you don't show any appreciation to the people who helped you get where you are, or if you don't share good things that happen to you when you have the chance to.
- 39:24You know, I think if you're wealthy, you should share your wealth.
- 39:27If you're poor, you should.
- 39:29If you're in a church, the people in your church should be helping you.
- 39:31I don't expect the poor people to share their.
- 39:34You know what I mean?
- 39:35I just think, like, if you have a golden harp that produces good things, you should share it.
- 39:39So instead of appropriating their wealth for yourself, you appreciate them.
- 39:45Ah, there we go.
- 39:45We turn my stuttering speech impediments your.
- 39:49Robber baron mentality now that you're part of the machine.
- 39:53Yeah, yeah, there we go.
- 39:55All right, question.
- 39:56Can you think of anywhere else that we see Bongo the Bear or Jiminy Cricket or Mickey Mouse outside?
- 40:03I mean, as far as I'm concerned, Bongo didn't exist before this film.
- 40:06And he doesn't exist after this film.
- 40:08I don't know, maybe, you know.
- 40:10Yeah, exactly.
- 40:11But yeah, Willie, like I said, House of Mouse, Disney House, Clubhouse, Christmas Carol.
- 40:19Surely there was something else he's been in.
- 40:21Probably.
- 40:21Is he in the parks at all?
- 40:22A couple times.
- 40:23I know he's in the Art of Animation Resort at Disney World.
- 40:26And sometimes he's on merch.
- 40:27If you go to like a Disney Expo or something, you know, he's cool.
- 40:31Bongo does appear a few other places.
- 40:33Christian, I hate to tell you, I genuinely apologize.
- 40:37How dare you contradict.
- 40:38Him and Lulu Bell both made somewhat regular appearances at the parks until the 90s.
- 40:43He has a name.
- 40:43When we were born.
- 40:45They also had a cameo appearance at the Breyer Bear show.
- 40:49And two of the country bears at the Muppets Walt Disney World as an audience for Fozzie Bears, a stand up comedy act.
- 40:58But more importantly, he makes a couple short cameos in Disney's Christmas Carol.
- 41:03And I think the most notable reappearance of Bongo that's actually a little bit funny.
- 41:09The second Aladdin film, the Return of Jafar.
- 41:12During the one feswig party, one of the songs or whatever genie briefly turns into Bongo during one of the songs.
- 41:19Just what?
- 41:21Because they were like, you know what?
- 41:22Let's just do a little nonsense.
- 41:24Your reference.
- 41:25Because we can.
- 41:27Yeah, yeah.
- 41:28More power to them.
- 41:29Okay.
- 41:30Also this.
- 41:31I just looked this one up, I gotta be honest.
- 41:33But apparently in Zootopia, one of the images of the wall of Judy's room is a bear that's dressed with the same outfit as Bongo.
- 41:42What a reference.
- 41:43What a.
- 41:44Really.
- 41:44That's 1947.
- 41:45That is what almost 80 year old.
- 41:51Reference now that's doing it for the art.
- 41:54I can appreciate that.
- 41:55Phenomenal.
- 41:56Don't like Bongo.
- 41:58But man, hats off to whoever was on that Zootopia team and said wait a minute.
- 42:02That bear up there in the painted.
- 42:03What if he was wearing Bongo's outfit and everybody else in the room went who the hell is.
- 42:11You know, hats off to that man.
- 42:13Thank you.
- 42:13Thank you for you and your work.
- 42:15Even if I do hate Bongo.
- 42:17That's.
- 42:17That's pretty clever.
- 42:19Oh man.
- 42:21I think that's all I got.
- 42:22I'm.
- 42:23I'm bongoed out.
- 42:25Dang it.
- 42:25You beat me to It.
- 42:27I was just about to make that joke.
- 42:30So let's, let's start wrapping this up.
- 42:33Oh, man.
- 42:35At the end of the.
- 42:36At the end of this episode, we're gonna ask a question just for our official members.
- 42:40What if both of these films were made into future length movies?
- 42:43How could they be improved?
- 42:45Half of that question's really easy.
- 42:47We'll see.
- 42:48What do we do with the other half?
- 42:49For now though, Christian, do you have a recommendation for those listening?
- 42:53Yeah.
- 42:54I recently saw the movie Hungry, which is a horror film with a hippo.
- 43:00Hippo.
- 43:00Hippo in the Louisiana bayou.
- 43:02I was immensely surprised at how much I loved this film.
- 43:05I thought it was going to be a schlocky monster flick, but they use actual history to justify why it's there.
- 43:11And they do some really good stuff with, you know, the suspense and the like.
- 43:14I actually really enjoyed Hungry, much like.
- 43:18A recording we did earlier today.
- 43:19I was trying to look up what I was talking about.
- 43:22That's why I write them down beforehand so I don't forget.
- 43:25So I'm gonna do a really weird recommendation.
- 43:29I recommend that you guys check something out when it comes out that hasn't come out yet.
- 43:32Yeah.
- 43:33So some Supernatural comics have actually turned out to be okay from the Supernatural television show.
- 43:39Coming up, they're doing Supernatural Wayward.
- 43:41It's gonna be a one off special in September.
- 43:43And after that there's gonna be two separate series.
- 43:45Supernatural Dean Winchester and Supernatural Sam Winchester.
- 43:49I'm excited to see what they do.
- 43:50I've heard it was one of the Dynamite.
- 43:52Why can't I think of the name Dynamite?
- 43:54Dynamite.
- 43:54Yeah.
- 43:54Dynamite Entertainment says one of their more ambitious events.
- 43:59So, you know, Dynamite doesn't usually do a ton of stuff.
- 44:01I'm willing to give it.
- 44:02You know, it's not like when Marvel is like, oh, this is a big event for us, man.
- 44:06Every other Tuesday is a big event for you.
- 44:08Marvel.
- 44:09Dynamite says that I'm willing to listen.
- 44:10They don't say that all the time.
- 44:12Everything will be changed forever.
- 44:14Yeah, all the time.
- 44:15Everything's always changed forever, Marvel.
- 44:17We get it.
- 44:19So I recommend you checking out some of those Supernatural comics with me when they come out because I'm excited for them.
- 44:24And with that, I do want to thank and shout out one of our financial supporters, Frank Taglauer.
- 44:28He probably has rated and reviewed our show before on Spotify or Apple podcasts.
- 44:33And you should too, because rating our show helps a whole lot.
- 44:36You should also be like Frank and support our show financially because you can get your own shout out just like he did and maybe in the correct order.
- 44:43We'll see.
- 44:45So you could do that by going to our website.
- 44:46The link is in the show description and just click it and you become an official member over there and get me to shout your name out and do some nonsense at the beginning and end of shows with your
- 44:55name.
- 44:56If you don't feel like becoming in a member or doing that like subscription thing, you could also support our show a few other ways on the same website, same link.
- 45:04You can get some extra free content over there just to listen, comment, join in and geek out with us.
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- 45:16Every little bit helps us a lot and we do appreciate it.
- 45:19We also want to remind you guys that this series ongoing only has a couple more episodes left.
- 45:25So we're going back doing like a the third for a couple that we only did two for in the Disney eras.
- 45:30So we have three in each era.
- 45:32By the time we finish, it's kind of like our encore.
- 45:34This is Disney Air package film era, the third film.
- 45:38We are now done with the package film era.
- 45:40Coming up we have the Silver era and then I think the Bronze era will be our last in the series when we do our third film for it.
- 45:46So tune back in if you want more of that.
- 45:49Also you can check the play the you can get a link for the playlist down in the show's description.
- 45:53There's a lot of links down there, different ways to join in what we're doing.
- 45:56Hang out with us, Geek out with us.
- 45:58We appreciate you your time and I hope you'll consider joining in and all the geeky goodness.
- 46:04And remember, we are all a chosen people.
- 46:06A Geekdom of Priest.
- 46:14Sat.