Latest / Large Nerdron Collider / Something's Rotten in Gotham City

Transcript

Something's Rotten in Gotham City · Large Nerdron Collider

0:07
Speaker 1: The Large Nerdron Collider Podcast is a production of I
0:10
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey everybody, Welcome to The Large Nerdron Collider Podcast,
0:23
Speaker 1: the podcast that's all about the geeky things happening in
0:26
Speaker 1: the world around us and how excited we are about them.
0:30
Speaker 1: I'm Ariel casting, and with me, as always is my
0:33
Speaker 1: super awesome, super original co host Jonathan Strickland. Hey, Ariel,
0:38
Speaker 1: I got I got an original idea. I'm gonna ask
0:41
Speaker 1: you a question. You're a bad guy in a Scooby
0:49
Speaker 1: Doo cartoon. What sort of abandoned structure or location is
0:52
Speaker 1: your home base of operations? Uh? Functional yet uh not inhabited?
1:00
Speaker 1: Old Stone Creamery. Okay, that's that's a good answer. I
1:04
Speaker 1: like it. Yeah, you're just like the marble slab it's
1:08
Speaker 1: still cold. It's a nice twist on the it's still
1:13
Speaker 1: warm trope. I like it. Excellent. Alright, so we know,
1:17
Speaker 1: oh me, uh, an abandoned renaissance festival site. I like that.
1:23
Speaker 1: We're yeah, we're both like, it's abandoned. Well, it has
1:26
Speaker 1: to be. It has to be, because that's like that's
1:28
Speaker 1: the trope, right, That's always the old abandoned amusement park
1:32
Speaker 1: or the old abandoned train station. So so my reasoning
1:37
Speaker 1: is because I just want to be able to make
1:39
Speaker 1: ice cream to fuel my villainy. What is your reason
1:42
Speaker 1: to be behind it? Because Renaissance. I love Renaissance festivals
1:46
Speaker 1: if it weren't for all those dang people. Uh, that
1:50
Speaker 1: is not true, sir. The best part of the Renaissance
1:54
Speaker 1: festival is the people, because otherwise you can't entertain them.
1:57
Speaker 1: And you and I have spent more than enough time
2:01
Speaker 1: on a more or less abandoned Renaissance Festival site for
2:06
Speaker 1: rehearsals and stuff where it's just the cast, and it
2:10
Speaker 1: does get creepy, but that's uh, that's enough of all that.
2:13
Speaker 1: Now we know where are our villainous Scooby Do characters
2:16
Speaker 1: would reside. Let us move on to what we have
2:20
Speaker 1: to talk about today. Yeah, and the first thing we
2:23
Speaker 1: want to talk about, and almost the most important thing
2:25
Speaker 1: to me is One Division. Because One Division came out
2:29
Speaker 1: last week and Jonathan and I both watched it, So
2:33
Speaker 1: the first two episodes, we should say the first two episodes.
2:36
Speaker 1: So Jonathan, in a as not as spoilery spoilery as
2:41
Speaker 1: you can way, what did you think of the show?
2:44
Speaker 1: I absolutely adored it I wholeheartedly loved it. Um. I
2:51
Speaker 1: loved it both for the the obvious love and affection
2:58
Speaker 1: the writers and everybody you have for classic sitcoms, American sitcoms,
3:03
Speaker 1: and I loved it for all the weird and slightly
3:07
Speaker 1: sinister creepy stuff that gets woven in. Again, no spoilers,
3:11
Speaker 1: but there the first two episodes, I think it's safe
3:15
Speaker 1: to say fall way harder on the sitcom love and
3:19
Speaker 1: corny humor than the creepy stuff. The creepy stuff just
3:22
Speaker 1: kind of is there occasionally, but that just makes the
3:26
Speaker 1: creepy stuff stand out more. And that's what it made
3:29
Speaker 1: me really really enjoy it. What about you? What did
3:31
Speaker 1: you think? Um? I also absolutely loved it. I actually
3:35
Speaker 1: spent the entire weekend saying, why are there not more
3:38
Speaker 1: episodes of this for me to watch? Maybe I just
3:40
Speaker 1: want to go back and watch the first two again,
3:43
Speaker 1: because it was, UM, you know, we know that something
3:46
Speaker 1: is up in the show, you know that from the trailers. Uh.
3:49
Speaker 1: And and like you said, there was some sinister stuff
3:51
Speaker 1: that happens throughout UH, But it was just overall very
3:57
Speaker 1: uplifting and fun and it was just fun, which is
4:01
Speaker 1: a fun show. And I feel like so many shows
4:05
Speaker 1: in the past five ten years have just tried to
4:08
Speaker 1: be gritty and dark and and graphic that I just
4:11
Speaker 1: really appreciated almost the wholesomeness of of this mystery comedy.
4:18
Speaker 1: And I just have to say, like, Elizabeth Olsen has
4:24
Speaker 1: floored me with how well she embodies that classic sitcom
4:30
Speaker 1: leading lady uh kind of kind of spirit. She nailed
4:37
Speaker 1: it in such a great way, like that interesting balance
4:40
Speaker 1: between being uh, you know, sort of the straight man
4:45
Speaker 1: but also genuinely funny in her own right. And the
4:48
Speaker 1: supporting cast of that show is amazing. I agree. I agree.
4:55
Speaker 1: Unlike Fuller House or something where they're trying to bank
4:57
Speaker 1: on old kitch, this show just really takes old nostalgia
5:03
Speaker 1: and makes it feel natural. Yeah, it doesn't make it
5:06
Speaker 1: feel forced. You know. Paul Bettany also did an amazing job,
5:11
Speaker 1: you know, bribling some Dick van Dyke in there. They Yes,
5:14
Speaker 1: there's their actual direct references to things like the Dick
5:17
Speaker 1: Van Dyke Show and a little bit of Lucy ole
5:19
Speaker 1: Ball in that first episode. And I don't know for
5:23
Speaker 1: a fact, but at least the way the first two
5:25
Speaker 1: episodes play out, I suspect we're going to see almost
5:29
Speaker 1: a chain of different sitcom styles. We know there's one
5:33
Speaker 1: other one because it was in the trailer, right there
5:36
Speaker 1: was one that looks very much Partridge Family Brady Bunch ish,
5:40
Speaker 1: but I expect we'll see maybe a couple of others,
5:43
Speaker 1: hopefully before the season ends, because I am absolutely digging it.
5:48
Speaker 1: And and it's also fun in that they have customized
5:52
Speaker 1: openings for each episode to write, like the opening sequence
5:57
Speaker 1: for episode two is different from the opening sequence for
5:59
Speaker 1: apisode one and reflects the kind of sitcom that that
6:03
Speaker 1: episode embodies, which is really cool. It also makes me
6:07
Speaker 1: really curious how they're going to go forward because we
6:10
Speaker 1: know in the movies Vision has died. That's spoilers really
6:15
Speaker 1: most sincerely dead, and now he's back, and I I
6:21
Speaker 1: worry Jonathan that it's not going to stay so fun
6:24
Speaker 1: and wholesome. No, this is going to end in a
6:27
Speaker 1: very sad way. But you see, they could they can
6:29
Speaker 1: spin it. They can they can keep Vision around. They
6:31
Speaker 1: can do this. Uh well yeah, I mean it would
6:34
Speaker 1: be great if you could keep him around because he
6:37
Speaker 1: he is such a genuinely fun character. Listen, if they
6:41
Speaker 1: can make three movies out of the Hobbit we'll talk
6:45
Speaker 1: about that later. Well, that was my clever way to segue,
6:50
Speaker 1: right right, right, So, speaking the Hobbit Tolkien Lord of
6:56
Speaker 1: the Rings all that, there is a Lord of the
6:58
Speaker 1: Rings show happening eventually, really more of a Middle Earth show.
7:04
Speaker 1: It's going to coming out for Amazon. We knew about this.
7:08
Speaker 1: Turns out it's going to be the most expensive TV
7:10
Speaker 1: show in all of history, with a five million dollar budget,
7:14
Speaker 1: which is in sane. It also has a five season commitment,
7:18
Speaker 1: so I'm not sure whether that budget is per season
7:22
Speaker 1: or for all five or for all five. And it's
7:25
Speaker 1: already been renewed for season two without a single episode
7:27
Speaker 1: of season one having come out, but that is still
7:30
Speaker 1: a huge budget. You know, they're filming in New Zealand,
7:34
Speaker 1: and they, like everybody else, kind of got uh sidelined
7:38
Speaker 1: by the pandemic. Of course, New Zealand's in much better
7:42
Speaker 1: shape than most of the world. So yeah, yeah, And
7:45
Speaker 1: apparently we've been waiting for this for three years and
7:48
Speaker 1: I must have put that out of my mind because
7:50
Speaker 1: I forgot about it until now. I'm pretty sure we
7:52
Speaker 1: covered this when Ellen c was still going back in
7:56
Speaker 1: probably and then I forgot about it. Yeah. Well, I
8:00
Speaker 1: and and this show is going to be set during
8:02
Speaker 1: the Second Age of Middle Earth. And if you don't
8:06
Speaker 1: know how the history of Middle Earth works, everything you
8:10
Speaker 1: see in the Hobbit, everything you see in Lord of
8:12
Speaker 1: the Rings, all that takes place at the end of
8:14
Speaker 1: the Third Age of Middle Earth. And so this is
8:18
Speaker 1: three thousand years before that. Um, it's when Saron is
8:22
Speaker 1: the big bad for the first time around. You remember
8:26
Speaker 1: the beginning of Lord of the Rings has Um, Yeah,
8:30
Speaker 1: is Selder chopping off Saon's fingers with Narsal the sword,
8:35
Speaker 1: the shards of Narsal, And that is essentially the the
8:41
Speaker 1: day New Ma the end scene of of of the
8:45
Speaker 1: Second Age of Middle Earth. So this is going to
8:48
Speaker 1: take place during that. And we suspect that a lot
8:50
Speaker 1: of it is going to take place on New Menoor,
8:52
Speaker 1: the island where the the sort of elevated members of
8:59
Speaker 1: humans live that's Arragorn is descended from them. So yeah, yeah,
9:05
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm excited about this. I when the
9:09
Speaker 1: Hobbit movies came out one I was like, why are
9:11
Speaker 1: there three of them? This is a short story, not
9:14
Speaker 1: a short story, but a shorter story. Uh. And and
9:17
Speaker 1: to like, there's so much world that Tolkien built that
9:23
Speaker 1: I want to explore it. So this has given me
9:25
Speaker 1: the opportunity. I'm I'm cautiously optimistic about this one. If
9:30
Speaker 1: it fails, it will not be because it was cheap. Yes, yes,
9:34
Speaker 1: I am also cautiously optimistic about the Doogie Howser reboot,
9:39
Speaker 1: which is not a sentence I ever thought i'd be saying. Yeah.
9:43
Speaker 1: So this was one that had escaped my attention until recently,
9:48
Speaker 1: where we learn more about the the the new version
9:55
Speaker 1: of Doogie Howser, which will not be Doogie Howser, It's
9:58
Speaker 1: it's doogie kame Aloha m D. So uh one. Now
10:04
Speaker 1: we're following a person of Hawaiian descent and to that
10:08
Speaker 1: person happens to be female. So we've got a young
10:12
Speaker 1: woman doogie and I think this is awesome. I actually
10:16
Speaker 1: really kind of dig this idea and I'm very interested
10:20
Speaker 1: to see where it goes. Um. And I also hope
10:24
Speaker 1: that they play the theme song on a ukulele, and
10:28
Speaker 1: I hope it's the same. Yeah. I just hope that
10:35
Speaker 1: she types up all her thoughts on a really really
10:37
Speaker 1: really really old computer or I think it will have
10:41
Speaker 1: to be like a smartphone. Um, it's Peyton Elizabeth Lee
10:45
Speaker 1: who is who is playing the title role. You know,
10:47
Speaker 1: I went back and watched the first couple of episodes
10:50
Speaker 1: of Doogie Howser again recently. They are deal with some
10:55
Speaker 1: more adult issues than I thought they would. I was like,
10:58
Speaker 1: they aren't doing this in this episode? Are they What
11:01
Speaker 1: are they doing? I can't. I watched this as a child.
11:05
Speaker 1: I mean it was, but that was the whole point, right,
11:07
Speaker 1: was that here here's a person who is incredibly intelligent
11:11
Speaker 1: but lacks worldly experience, and and how how the difference
11:17
Speaker 1: between intelligence and wisdom needs to be understood so that
11:23
Speaker 1: you don't just assume someone who's really intelligent is wise,
11:26
Speaker 1: or someone who is wise is you know, book smart intelligent.
11:30
Speaker 1: It's it's the combination of those two things that is
11:33
Speaker 1: his journey. So, yeah, it will be I'm curious to
11:36
Speaker 1: see how this one plays out. So our next story,
11:40
Speaker 1: and actually the story that is going to be um
11:43
Speaker 1: inspiring our mash up later, is about the television show Batwoman, Yes,
11:50
Speaker 1: which has a new Batwoman Yeah Yeah. Ruby Rose left
11:54
Speaker 1: h at the end of the last season. After the
11:58
Speaker 1: last season, and instead of recasting her, they're just giving
12:02
Speaker 1: us a whole new character. The new Batwoman will be
12:06
Speaker 1: a character called Ryan Wilder Leslie. Yes, And this is
12:14
Speaker 1: the reason why Ruby Rose left. At least in part
12:17
Speaker 1: was that she suffered an injury during her shoots of
12:21
Speaker 1: the the previous season of bat Woman and had to
12:24
Speaker 1: have surgery in order to correct the injury. And that
12:28
Speaker 1: was part of it, But another part was just that
12:30
Speaker 1: she was kind of re examining her goals during the
12:34
Speaker 1: whole lockdown period and I felt like they weren't really
12:38
Speaker 1: in alignment with bat Woman. So now we've got a
12:40
Speaker 1: new Batwoman. We've already seen trailers of her, and of
12:44
Speaker 1: course the show's coming out very soon, so you'll get
12:47
Speaker 1: to see her in action. Um. I love the look
12:49
Speaker 1: of her. I think that it looks great, you know,
12:52
Speaker 1: the fact that she's adjusted the cowl and everything. Um,
12:55
Speaker 1: And hopefully this will be the change that Batwoman to
13:00
Speaker 1: really get its you know, get up and running. Because
13:05
Speaker 1: a lot of people have said that the Batwoman series
13:08
Speaker 1: so far has not quite met expectations. I honestly, I
13:14
Speaker 1: will say I haven't watched it because the wig looked
13:16
Speaker 1: so bad in the trailers for the first season that
13:19
Speaker 1: I yeah, So I'm hoping that's better too. But you know,
13:23
Speaker 1: I'm I'm excited for about I like Batman, I'm excited
13:26
Speaker 1: for more bat Person media. So I will give the
13:30
Speaker 1: second season a try. Something I'm not Yeah, something I'm
13:35
Speaker 1: not sure if I'm going to give a try though,
13:36
Speaker 1: is the Snyder cut of Justice League. I was already
13:41
Speaker 1: on the fence, but now that we know it's going
13:42
Speaker 1: to be four hours long and and new, I don't
13:52
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can sit through that. Yeah,
13:55
Speaker 1: I um, I gotta be honest with your Ariel. When
13:59
Speaker 1: I finally watched Justice League, not once, not once in
14:03
Speaker 1: that running time, did I think, Gosh, I wish this
14:05
Speaker 1: would go longer? No? No, No, I mean I will
14:09
Speaker 1: say like it was a fairly ho um storyline. I
14:15
Speaker 1: really just enjoyed Justice League for the character h exploration. Yeah,
14:22
Speaker 1: but you know, Snyder has a darker vision, and so
14:24
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I'm going to like the
14:26
Speaker 1: character exploration. Yeah. No, I have a feeling like the
14:30
Speaker 1: the more lighthearted, quippy stuff that we saw was very
14:34
Speaker 1: likely the contributions of Josh Weeden. It just felt much
14:38
Speaker 1: more like Josh Weeden's style. Um, and that Yeah, that
14:43
Speaker 1: to me tells me that I probably will not I'll
14:47
Speaker 1: probably watch it, if I'm being honest, but I'm not
14:50
Speaker 1: looking forward to it. I think that it's I almost
14:54
Speaker 1: feel like of the same, I almost feel like I
14:57
Speaker 1: have to watch it for purposes of being able to
14:59
Speaker 1: talk about it here. Uh the And also it does
15:03
Speaker 1: have one thing that makes me kind of want to
15:05
Speaker 1: watch it, which is, in theory, we're gonna get Martian Manhunter,
15:08
Speaker 1: who I do very much like. I'm being curious to
15:12
Speaker 1: see how how that is handled because it's such an
15:16
Speaker 1: outlandish character. Well, we'll have to see if that realization
15:21
Speaker 1: of the character ends up, you know, meeting your very
15:25
Speaker 1: high standards areal. In the meantime, let's take a quick break,
15:29
Speaker 1: and when we come back, we're going to talk about
15:32
Speaker 1: when adaptations are no longer really adaptations and when that's
15:38
Speaker 1: good and when that's bad. But first let's take this
15:40
Speaker 1: quick break and we're back. So a lot of the
15:55
Speaker 1: things that we talked about in the news segment are
15:57
Speaker 1: adaptations or reboots or or the like from properties we
16:02
Speaker 1: really like. And sometimes they are really great, like when
16:07
Speaker 1: we get the Lord of the Rings movies, and sometimes
16:10
Speaker 1: they're not so great, like when we get the Hobbit movies,
16:14
Speaker 1: they usually have a wide range of of criticism about them,
16:19
Speaker 1: in part to the fact that a lot of times
16:22
Speaker 1: when properties are adjusted for movie or television, they veer
16:27
Speaker 1: from the source material to make it a better viewing experience.
16:31
Speaker 1: So arguably they try to make it a better viewing experience,
16:35
Speaker 1: it does not always work out, as the aforementioned The
16:38
Speaker 1: Hobbit proves. Yes, so uh, I mean where do you
16:45
Speaker 1: Let's start at the basic level of of movies that
16:48
Speaker 1: are adaptations that just kind of veer away from their
16:51
Speaker 1: source material in places that don't follow the storyline exactly.
16:54
Speaker 1: We see this a lot in you know, superhero movies
16:58
Speaker 1: for example. What are what are your thoughts of that
17:02
Speaker 1: just between staying true to the thing that you love
17:05
Speaker 1: because that's what you're going to watch and and giving
17:07
Speaker 1: a new story And I mean like this this to me,
17:11
Speaker 1: it largely depends upon your experience with the material. And
17:16
Speaker 1: by that, I mean if you are someone who has
17:19
Speaker 1: never seen or read, or or otherwise encountered the original
17:25
Speaker 1: version of that thing, then your impression of the adaptation
17:31
Speaker 1: is likely to be very different from someone who is
17:33
Speaker 1: like a big fan of the source material. Um, and
17:38
Speaker 1: you know, fans of source material are notoriously picky, myself included,
17:43
Speaker 1: and that I think is one of the major determining factors.
17:47
Speaker 1: There are other ones as well. You mentioned superhero movies.
17:50
Speaker 1: I think superhero movies in particular have a lot of
17:54
Speaker 1: license only because for especially the classic superhero characters, there
18:01
Speaker 1: have been so many different incarnations of those characters told
18:05
Speaker 1: in so many different styles from so many different writers
18:08
Speaker 1: and artists that you can pick and choose, and it's
18:12
Speaker 1: everything's up for grabs, right Like there is a can't
18:15
Speaker 1: be Batman if you wanted to go with the campy
18:17
Speaker 1: Batman route. There's the dark and gritty Batman if you
18:20
Speaker 1: want to go that route. There's the Tim Burton route,
18:22
Speaker 1: where it's kind of both. Like it's you know, there's
18:26
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of flexibility there in other ways,
18:28
Speaker 1: like other works, there's not as much flexibility. And so
18:33
Speaker 1: one of the the examples I put in our our
18:36
Speaker 1: notes that I think excels as a movie and was
18:40
Speaker 1: terrible as a book is Jaws. Uh. Jaws is my
18:46
Speaker 1: favorite film of all time. It is I think a
18:49
Speaker 1: perfect movie. The book is almost unreadable, you see, I
18:57
Speaker 1: feel that way about Hitty Chitty Bang Bang. The only
19:00
Speaker 1: thing the movie in the book having common is a
19:03
Speaker 1: flying car. Yeah, well, if you got rid of Husha
19:06
Speaker 1: by Mountain, I would be all over that because that
19:10
Speaker 1: Husha by Mountain is the song that kills that movie
19:13
Speaker 1: for me. Kind of similar to Cheer Up Charlie and
19:16
Speaker 1: Willie Wonka in the Chocolate Factory. Another example of a
19:19
Speaker 1: movie that's very different from the source material. Um, Slow
19:23
Speaker 1: songs kill movies, is what I'm saying. You know, I
19:27
Speaker 1: would wait you to say in cases like Jaws or
19:30
Speaker 1: Chitty Chitta Bang Bang, or even Willie Wonka in the
19:32
Speaker 1: Chocolate Factory, depending on which iteration you're talking about. Well,
19:35
Speaker 1: I said Willy Wonka, not Charlie. Fair enough Willy Wonka,
19:39
Speaker 1: which is the gene Wilder one. Uh. I think that
19:43
Speaker 1: it is beneficial, especially in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,
19:47
Speaker 1: to um kind of reinvigorate an old story that had
19:52
Speaker 1: some old concepts and ideas that were problematic. Yeah. No,
19:55
Speaker 1: that's that's a fair point. Is that there's stuff in
19:58
Speaker 1: that book where, you know, viewed through the lens of today,
20:01
Speaker 1: you think, wow, that that is that is harmful thinking,
20:06
Speaker 1: That is reinforcing some pretty negative stereotypes. Yeah, so I
20:10
Speaker 1: think I think you're right on there. Yeah. And yet
20:14
Speaker 1: when Tim Burton readed it to Charlie in the Chocolate Factory,
20:17
Speaker 1: I didn't it focused more on Willy Wonka unless on Charlie,
20:22
Speaker 1: which was odd because of the title change. And I
20:27
Speaker 1: didn't like that that adaptation as much. And maybe it's
20:30
Speaker 1: just because it's a story I came to as a
20:32
Speaker 1: child and related to at a childlike level and didn't
20:37
Speaker 1: relate to on the candy mogul level. Well, and to
20:39
Speaker 1: be fair, also for Willy Wonka, that's like, that's a
20:42
Speaker 1: movie I encountered well before I ever read Charlie in
20:46
Speaker 1: the Chocolate Factory. So again that's another example of I
20:50
Speaker 1: encountered that story in the form of its adaptation. First,
20:54
Speaker 1: it's kind of like if you hear a cover song
20:56
Speaker 1: without realizing it's a cover song, you might then us
21:00
Speaker 1: into the original and think, oh, this isn't this isn't
21:02
Speaker 1: what I expected, because you know the cover has done
21:05
Speaker 1: something different to it, and you might not even like
21:08
Speaker 1: the original as much as you like the cover. That
21:10
Speaker 1: that happens a lot. It tends to be whatever version
21:13
Speaker 1: of person encounters first, they they imprint upon that more.
21:19
Speaker 1: I see that also with adaptations of foreign films, like
21:22
Speaker 1: if you have seen The Ring before you saw Ringou,
21:26
Speaker 1: then you may like the Ring more. But people who
21:29
Speaker 1: saw Ringo first will say, oh, no, the Ring is that. No,
21:31
Speaker 1: they didn't get anything right. Ringo's the best. Well did
21:35
Speaker 1: you watch or read The Shining first, because that's another
21:38
Speaker 1: one that's really popular, Uh, but veered from its source
21:43
Speaker 1: material and actually made it made Stephen King upset as
21:46
Speaker 1: it did. He Yeah, we're talking to course about the
21:48
Speaker 1: kubric adaptation of The Shining, not the not the faithful
21:53
Speaker 1: and yet nigh unwatchable mini series that was made much later. Um.
21:58
Speaker 1: I read The Shining first, and I I feel like
22:02
Speaker 1: those are It's almost like it's two different stories that
22:06
Speaker 1: share some common DNA, and I think both are brilliant.
22:11
Speaker 1: I understand King's objections, and I agree that if you're
22:16
Speaker 1: telling the story of the book, Kubrick made some decisions
22:20
Speaker 1: that don't work, the big one being that that Jack Torrens,
22:24
Speaker 1: the character played by Nicholson, that, um that he comes
22:29
Speaker 1: off way too crazy, way too quickly. And in the
22:33
Speaker 1: book it's something that you see is built upon his
22:36
Speaker 1: alcoholism and his history of anger management issues that then escalates, Well,
22:42
Speaker 1: there's not a whole of escalation in the Shining It
22:45
Speaker 1: kind of he kind of comes off as unhinged from
22:48
Speaker 1: the beginning. And so it's a different story. But I
22:51
Speaker 1: think it's a good story. It's just different. Yeah. Yeah, Now,
22:57
Speaker 1: I would say that all of these things that we've
22:59
Speaker 1: talked about so far are maybe not bang bang, are
23:03
Speaker 1: close enough to the original story that they should be
23:07
Speaker 1: called the original story, just a different adaptation. There are
23:11
Speaker 1: there are things out there that try to say that
23:13
Speaker 1: they're a loved story that really aren't. World war Z
23:18
Speaker 1: the watch and I'm going to say Pete Dragon, even
23:22
Speaker 1: though Disney owned the story Pete Dragon to begin with
23:25
Speaker 1: and had complete right to change it, their new Pete
23:27
Speaker 1: Dragon is not Peach Dragon to me right. The the
23:31
Speaker 1: remake Pete Dragon completely ignores almost everything about the original
23:37
Speaker 1: except for having an orphan and a dragon, or is
23:40
Speaker 1: even an orphan in the remake he is an orphan, yes, yes,
23:44
Speaker 1: but you know World war Z has to do with zombies,
23:48
Speaker 1: yea for my Anderson, that's about Yeah, that's about it.
23:51
Speaker 1: So have you read the book? Yes, so you know
23:55
Speaker 1: that the book's brilliant. The book is more of an
23:58
Speaker 1: observation about how humans cope in the wake of a
24:03
Speaker 1: massive disaster. And honestly, if you read World War Z
24:06
Speaker 1: and you look at how the United States has handled
24:08
Speaker 1: the pandemic, you're like, wow, this is the World War
24:13
Speaker 1: Z is so accurate. And how how these things play out? Um,
24:17
Speaker 1: Because it's more of a commentary on things like how
24:20
Speaker 1: bureaucracy can get in the way and mess things up
24:23
Speaker 1: and make a bad situation even worse. Um. And the
24:28
Speaker 1: movie is a zombie action movie. Yeah. Well, and and
24:31
Speaker 1: a big thing like the story is told from the
24:35
Speaker 1: recollection recollections of a bunch of different people, right, and
24:39
Speaker 1: it's after the zombie the zombie menace has passed its
24:44
Speaker 1: peak and now we're on the other side of it.
24:47
Speaker 1: So it's people thinking back to when it was going
24:50
Speaker 1: into its peak, but from the perspective of the story teller,
24:54
Speaker 1: the worst has already happened. Yeah. And then you've got
24:59
Speaker 1: the Watch, which you talked about in a previous episode Trying,
25:04
Speaker 1: which is based off of Guards Cards by Terry Pratchett. Right, Yeah,
25:07
Speaker 1: it's it's based off the night Watch series of books,
25:10
Speaker 1: but mainly Guards Guards, It's got the The main storyline
25:14
Speaker 1: is mostly pulled from Guards cards, with the onset of
25:17
Speaker 1: a dragon around on more pork and um yeah, it's um.
25:24
Speaker 1: It's so different from the source material. It shares tiny
25:29
Speaker 1: little bits of of identity with the source material, but
25:33
Speaker 1: it makes so many drastic changes that you lose the
25:38
Speaker 1: spirit and you start to wonder, like, why would you
25:41
Speaker 1: Why would you make these choices? Because every choice you
25:45
Speaker 1: make that gets further away from the source material is
25:49
Speaker 1: alienating the built in audience. But if you are making
25:53
Speaker 1: it for people who are not that built in audience,
25:55
Speaker 1: why would you bother adapting something in the first place.
25:59
Speaker 1: Maybe the as they they had an idea that they
26:02
Speaker 1: thought would be similar enough, but they wanted to get
26:07
Speaker 1: a chunk of audience automatically, so they said, we're going
26:12
Speaker 1: to throw in a couple of things so we can
26:14
Speaker 1: call it the Watch, so that Terry Pratchett fans will
26:16
Speaker 1: want to watch it, even though we really want to
26:19
Speaker 1: tell our own story. But then, I mean, you know,
26:23
Speaker 1: or you should know going into it, that you're going
26:26
Speaker 1: to alienate those fans, and thus any reaction you get
26:30
Speaker 1: from them is going to be negative and that that
26:33
Speaker 1: is going to become a very powerful story all on
26:36
Speaker 1: its own. Is that the fans of the series are
26:39
Speaker 1: rejecting the adaptation you've made. Um. I think if I
26:44
Speaker 1: watched the watch without ever having read any Terry Pratchett,
26:48
Speaker 1: I would have thought it was very unusual and strange
26:52
Speaker 1: and a little compelling, just because it was unusual, but
26:55
Speaker 1: not particularly well told or interesting, like like it's unusual.
27:01
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a David don't get on me
27:04
Speaker 1: David Lynch fans. I think David Lynch has worked brilliant,
27:07
Speaker 1: but it's like a David Lynch thing in the sense
27:09
Speaker 1: that you're watching stuff and you're like, this is I'm
27:11
Speaker 1: just trying to get my head wrapped around what's happening now.
27:14
Speaker 1: The fact that I've read Pratchett tells me a little
27:16
Speaker 1: bit more about what's going on, But the changes that
27:19
Speaker 1: have been made are so drastic that, uh, my knowledge
27:24
Speaker 1: of Pratchett is only somewhat helpful in sussing out what's happening.
27:28
Speaker 1: And you know, they leave out entire characters who are
27:30
Speaker 1: really important in the books, who don't even appear in
27:33
Speaker 1: the in the show. Um. Yeah, it's one of those
27:37
Speaker 1: that I find particularly perplexing because I can't figure out
27:41
Speaker 1: what your end goal was if you are making choices
27:44
Speaker 1: that are bound to alienate the fan base. Yeah. So
27:48
Speaker 1: we've talked about some stories that are close enough that
27:51
Speaker 1: they should be titled after their source material, and we've
27:53
Speaker 1: talked about some that are so far away that they
27:56
Speaker 1: really shouldn't. What about Disney, because Disney writes that line
28:00
Speaker 1: for me of and I know we need to wrap
28:03
Speaker 1: this up so maybe we can get into this deeper later.
28:05
Speaker 1: But uh, Disney rides that line of just that they
28:12
Speaker 1: changed the original story just enough that I'm like, is
28:15
Speaker 1: it that original story anymore? I got you? Yeah, Like
28:18
Speaker 1: like all the fairy tales, I mean, obviously they take
28:21
Speaker 1: all the hard edges off the fairy tales. Right if
28:23
Speaker 1: you read Grimm's fairy Tales. I mean it's called the
28:27
Speaker 1: Brothers Grim right there, the Brothers Grim. But they can
28:29
Speaker 1: be pretty grim fairy tales. Uh, you know, people get
28:33
Speaker 1: their feet chopped off at ice, pecked out and stuff.
28:37
Speaker 1: You don't see that in the Disney stories. I I mean, Disney,
28:43
Speaker 1: for much of its history, is known for sanitizing a
28:47
Speaker 1: lot of stories in an effort to create a particular
28:53
Speaker 1: kind of feel right, like you can see a lot
28:57
Speaker 1: of those classic Disney movies and to tell act like, yeah,
29:00
Speaker 1: this is all trying to create that sort of sense
29:03
Speaker 1: of wonder and magic, and the bad guys are easily
29:06
Speaker 1: identifiable and they are bad, and the good guys are
29:09
Speaker 1: really really good, and you know, the good guys will
29:11
Speaker 1: win in the end, and nothing terrible will happen to
29:14
Speaker 1: anybody that's permanent except the bad guy who will probably die.
29:18
Speaker 1: Um that's about it. Uh. I'm okay with it because
29:24
Speaker 1: I know going into it what I'm going to get, Like,
29:27
Speaker 1: I know, the disease not going to break the mold
29:30
Speaker 1: on that. Um, you're not gonna have some morally ambiguous
29:34
Speaker 1: characters in there. For the most part, no one's gonna
29:36
Speaker 1: get their eyes pecked out. Um. If I want that,
29:40
Speaker 1: I can go back and read the original fairy tales.
29:43
Speaker 1: So I just accept it as a totally different take
29:48
Speaker 1: on the basic plot points of a story. Um, and
29:54
Speaker 1: some cases it gets way the heck away from the
29:57
Speaker 1: basic plot points. There You're like, okay, yeah, you've got
30:00
Speaker 1: some dwarves in here, but this is not snow white.
30:05
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Well, um, now we're going to adapt some
30:10
Speaker 1: things of our own. Uh, and I don't know if
30:14
Speaker 1: they either of our adaptations will live up to their namesakes,
30:17
Speaker 1: but we're going to give it a go. But first
30:19
Speaker 1: we're going to take this quick break. Al Right, guys,
30:37
Speaker 1: we're back. And as you know or maybe you don't,
30:40
Speaker 1: we like to mash up two different properties into one
30:44
Speaker 1: and find out what happens. And this week I chose
30:49
Speaker 1: the properties because I had a joke in my head
30:53
Speaker 1: and I decided that I needed to write a whole
30:55
Speaker 1: piece around. By the way, this is how my brain works.
30:58
Speaker 1: I had to write a whole piece around the joke.
31:00
Speaker 1: So we are combining the world of Gotham City, not
31:05
Speaker 1: Gotham the series, but Gotham City from d C Comics,
31:08
Speaker 1: the home of characters like Batman, Joker, Arkham Asylum, and
31:13
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, with the Veggie Tales, a
31:17
Speaker 1: beloved cartoon series featuring talking vegetables and fruits that tell
31:24
Speaker 1: Bible stories and saying awesome, awesome songs. Um. So, since
31:30
Speaker 1: you have this brilliant joke, oh it's terrible, You're gonna
31:33
Speaker 1: hate it, and you throw you threw me under the
31:36
Speaker 1: vegetable cart for this one, I'm gonna I'm gonna go first. Yes,
31:42
Speaker 1: so this is bat Tails Positive Fables for a Caped
31:45
Speaker 1: Crusader Chapter one. Yes, it's an anthology, all right. Batman
31:50
Speaker 1: was feeling blue. You see, the denizens of Gotham City,
31:53
Speaker 1: we're feeling that their hero was far too violent and dark,
31:56
Speaker 1: leaving Cape Crusaders approval ratings. At a native with women
32:00
Speaker 1: and children, Batman's pr person insisted that he cleaned up
32:04
Speaker 1: his image. He had to start doing p s a
32:07
Speaker 1: s about brushing your teeth and eating your vegetables. They
32:10
Speaker 1: even took away his weapons, so instead of batterings, he
32:12
Speaker 1: would throw bananas. It was torture, but it was working. However,
32:20
Speaker 1: Poison Ivy got wind of this, and she decided that
32:23
Speaker 1: she would not have this. In Gotham's darkest days, people
32:28
Speaker 1: would sorrow eat fast food left and right, and her
32:31
Speaker 1: pants plants were allowed to thrive. But now now that
32:35
Speaker 1: Batman and Gotham were cleaning up their act and their diet,
32:38
Speaker 1: her plants were being murderously killed, yes, murderously killed. She
32:44
Speaker 1: broke into Wayne manchon Well the bat Cave Wayne Mansion,
32:47
Speaker 1: uh one of those two, and animated all of the
32:50
Speaker 1: plant matter in Batman's fridge to attack him. There was
32:54
Speaker 1: a lot that men had had gifted tons of produce baskets,
32:56
Speaker 1: more than he could eat from all of his good
32:58
Speaker 1: will work and in the agriculture business. Slowly, but surely,
33:04
Speaker 1: because they don't really have legs, the animated vegetables and
33:08
Speaker 1: fruits began to creep up on Batman, seeking to bludgeon
33:11
Speaker 1: him to death with their soft, almost ripe bodies. Batman
33:15
Speaker 1: turned and saw the praitis just in time. He was
33:18
Speaker 1: just about to make guacamole out of them when he
33:20
Speaker 1: remembered that he was on a broadcast to a bunch
33:22
Speaker 1: of children, teaching them about playing outside. So, but grudgingly,
33:27
Speaker 1: he decided he tried to make peace with these animated
33:29
Speaker 1: vegetables uh instead of making a massacre, and he addressed
33:34
Speaker 1: the sentient flora. He thought, surely, if these things are
33:38
Speaker 1: good for you, then they must be good at heart too.
33:41
Speaker 1: He explained that he was just trying to make the
33:42
Speaker 1: world a better place and not kill them, and the
33:45
Speaker 1: veggies and fruits, actually being rather selfless, liked this so
33:49
Speaker 1: much showed that they asked to join Batman on his quest.
33:52
Speaker 1: He may not have weapons, but he did have good
33:56
Speaker 1: nutrition for the body in the mind, and that is
33:59
Speaker 1: just is dangerous. And soon Batman took forth with his
34:03
Speaker 1: new arsenal. He had the grapes of wrath, which would
34:05
Speaker 1: incapacitate villains with their smell, because as you know, they
34:07
Speaker 1: never take a bath, a killer tomato named Bob, who
34:10
Speaker 1: had shut down any bad joke, along with French peas
34:13
Speaker 1: who would incapacitate you with bad jokes and laughter. He
34:16
Speaker 1: also had a cucumber who, being mostly water, had a
34:19
Speaker 1: psychic connection with the water buffaloes at the Gotham Zoo,
34:21
Speaker 1: and together they vowed to fight crime the right way
34:25
Speaker 1: by speaking kindness and goodness and reason into the villains.
34:28
Speaker 1: And surprisingly, the villains were so thrown by this that
34:32
Speaker 1: it worked for a time. That was a really good week. Well,
34:40
Speaker 1: I can tell you that my version goes as dark
34:44
Speaker 1: as yours went bright. Oh no, yeah, I get ready,
34:47
Speaker 1: I'm going to ruin it. In my version of Gotham City,
34:53
Speaker 1: there is no Batman. Bruce Wayne, rather than setting out
34:58
Speaker 1: to avenge his slain parents, goes into a deep despair,
35:02
Speaker 1: eventually emerging but being a shell of who he was
35:05
Speaker 1: meant to be, idly spending his time and living off
35:08
Speaker 1: his inheritance and irritating his butler, Archibald. However, also in Gotham,
35:14
Speaker 1: there lives Barbara Gordon, daughter to Jim Gordon, the police commissioner.
35:19
Speaker 1: Despite her father's best efforts to protect his daughter from
35:21
Speaker 1: the grim realities of Gotham, young Barbara realizes at an
35:25
Speaker 1: early age how the world works. She shares her father's
35:29
Speaker 1: convictions and has a strong moral compass, but is also
35:32
Speaker 1: frequently distressed at how corrupt much of Gotham's system is,
35:36
Speaker 1: with criminals frequently bouncing out of the justice system due
35:39
Speaker 1: to bribery and intimidation. She sees the need for a hero.
35:45
Speaker 1: Ever since she was young, Barbara was interested in gymnastics,
35:49
Speaker 1: but as she considers the possibility of the life of
35:52
Speaker 1: a vigilante, she begins to seek out other training. She
35:55
Speaker 1: commences her father she needs to learn martial arts and
35:58
Speaker 1: how to handle weapons, pragmatically pointing out that since he
36:02
Speaker 1: is a police officer and he has a revolver, it
36:05
Speaker 1: would be irresponsible of him not to have her learn
36:07
Speaker 1: how to be responsible with such things. After much training
36:12
Speaker 1: and consideration, Barbara is sitting in her room contemplating what
36:16
Speaker 1: persona she should take on as the vigilante Gotham needs.
36:19
Speaker 1: She has to protect her father, after all, and criminals
36:23
Speaker 1: are a superstitious, cowardly lot. As she thinks, she overhears
36:28
Speaker 1: her own name being sung on the television. It's a
36:30
Speaker 1: children's program that's on, just something she had on in
36:33
Speaker 1: the background. Moreover, it's all about biblical stories, something she
36:37
Speaker 1: hadn't paid much attention to, but now seemed to really
36:40
Speaker 1: hone in on that moral compass, and the song has
36:43
Speaker 1: convinced her Barbara would become the man a t yes,
36:48
Speaker 1: a flipping, somersaulting, kicking and punching manity of justice. She
36:53
Speaker 1: makes a big lumpy suit and sets out to confront
36:56
Speaker 1: the low life of Gotham. While on patrol, she happened,
36:59
Speaker 1: So here's some common street criminals chatting about a new
37:02
Speaker 1: force into town. It's Mr Nezzer, a veritable crime boss
37:07
Speaker 1: who is shaking up the criminal underworld in Gotham, taking
37:10
Speaker 1: territory and assets from other families. But perhaps even more
37:14
Speaker 1: feared than Mr Nezzar is his assistant, Mr Lunt. A
37:18
Speaker 1: native of Gotham. Mr Lunn is known for his sadistic
37:20
Speaker 1: streak with a reputation of slicing open victims and stuffing
37:24
Speaker 1: them with decorative gourds. Similarly, the serial killer of Victor Zaz,
37:29
Speaker 1: known for peeling his victims, has joined forces with the criminals.
37:34
Speaker 1: Barbara begins to research Nezzer and Lunt, doing some detective
37:37
Speaker 1: work as she learns more about their plans and influence.
37:39
Speaker 1: Along the way, she encounters a young man dressed as
37:42
Speaker 1: a pirate. His name is Larry. Larry, smitten with Barbara,
37:47
Speaker 1: the manatee, proves that he can actually handle himself pretty
37:51
Speaker 1: darnwell in the scuffle as the two are discovered by
37:53
Speaker 1: some criminals on the streets of Gotham. Larry mostly seems
37:56
Speaker 1: to be effective by accident, but Barbara proved she is
37:59
Speaker 1: more than capable of handling herself, and so Barbara Manitate
38:04
Speaker 1: and buccaneer Larry form a dynamic duo capable of putting
38:08
Speaker 1: crime in its place. Their first true victory is when
38:10
Speaker 1: they defeat one of the three Scallion brothers. The other
38:13
Speaker 1: two are already making plans and how to bust their
38:16
Speaker 1: baby brother out of our comb to be continued question mark.
38:23
Speaker 1: That is the gritty reboot of Larry Boy. Yeah, so
38:27
Speaker 1: for those who have no idea why I made that joke.
38:30
Speaker 1: It was just for ariel Uh. You need to if
38:33
Speaker 1: you are unfamiliar with eggie tails, you need to look
38:37
Speaker 1: up the video Barbara Manatee, and that is why I
38:41
Speaker 1: wrote that joke. I do love manatees and I do
38:44
Speaker 1: love veggie tails, so totally worth bringing my beloved vegetables
38:49
Speaker 1: into the grimness of reality. I bet I lost at
38:54
Speaker 1: least nine of our audience who are like, why is
38:58
Speaker 1: she a manatee? But the other ten percent absolutely adore you, Jonathan.
39:03
Speaker 1: That's probably true. So if you adore Jonathan and his
39:07
Speaker 1: Barbara manity joke, or have ideas about adaptations yourself and
39:11
Speaker 1: and what you think doesn't doesn't qualify, or you know
39:15
Speaker 1: news that you want to talk to us about, you
39:17
Speaker 1: can reach out to us. How can they do that, Jonathan? Well,
39:20
Speaker 1: the best way now is through our email that would
39:23
Speaker 1: be l n C at I Heart Media dot com.
39:27
Speaker 1: We have a website that is large nerdron Collider dot
39:31
Speaker 1: com where we post episodes and show notes. You can
39:34
Speaker 1: leave comments there as well. We've also got our sights
39:38
Speaker 1: on We've got Twitter that's ll n C Underscore podcasts,
39:41
Speaker 1: and we are on Facebook and Instagram. That's large nerdron Collider,
39:45
Speaker 1: So you can reach out in any of those ways.
39:47
Speaker 1: If we really like what you have to say, you
39:49
Speaker 1: could be referenced on a on a future episode. And
39:53
Speaker 1: um also remember if you enjoyed this show, to like
39:58
Speaker 1: on whatever platform you are listening to us on and
40:02
Speaker 1: recommend it to a friend. Word of mouth really helps.
40:05
Speaker 1: We're starting to see growth every week, which is fantastic.
40:09
Speaker 1: We love to see it because we really want this
40:11
Speaker 1: to become a conversation, not just us talking to you,
40:15
Speaker 1: but talking with you, and we want to hear from you.
40:18
Speaker 1: Yeah uh, and so we hope we hear from you.
40:21
Speaker 1: But until next time, I'm Ariel Caston and I am
40:24
Speaker 1: the Night m M. The Large nur John Collider is
40:49
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and was created by
40:52
Speaker 1: Ariel cast In. Jonathan Strickland is see executive producer. This
40:56
Speaker 1: show is produced, edited and published by Tory Harrison. For
40:59
Speaker 1: more podcast on my heart Radio, visit the I Heart
41:02
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
41:05
Speaker 1: favorite shows.