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Dolls Don't Kill People | Chucky Franchise Wrap-Up · Potato Chip Pictures - A Podcast

0:00
Trying to think of what else I need up drive.
0:01
That's right, that's what I need.
0:05
Yeah, but there's no budget. Well, I guess I do have the
0:09
totals listed, but you're right, there's it's always weird to do
0:14
the wrap UPS because I'm always like, well, ever since double O
0:19
seven, I'm always like, I didn't do anything to prepare.
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For this? Oh no, like I don't, I don't
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think there is anything to prepare.
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It's kind of a low key 45 minute episode.
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Yeah, it's these are the ones that that we usually knock out
0:35
pretty quickly. But yeah, I also didn't look
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anything up about the TV series except that it exists.
0:45
I still know that it's just an interesting thing.
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So like you said, it's probably going to be 45 minutes, so we
0:55
might. As well, depends on how it goes.
0:58
I'm trying to like by film, by character.
1:02
We'll have to see. What do we do?
1:05
Indeed. Which one did I hate?
1:16
Hello and welcome to Potato Chip Pictures, the movie franchise
1:22
review podcast. I am the Sammy Davis.
1:26
I am Justin. He's here and today we are
1:31
finishing with the Child's Play, the Chucky franchise.
1:37
It really depends on how you want to title it because like
1:41
half of the movies are called Child's Play and the other half
1:44
of the movies are something of Chucky.
1:47
So you you can't really say definitively that it is one or
1:52
the other, but I kind of prefer Chucky as the franchise name.
1:57
I feel like there's at least the first, what, 7 movies all feel
2:05
like the same Chucky exists and then you have the reboot.
2:10
So I probably just stick with Chucky 'cause he's the draw.
2:17
Like, I don't know that I could tell you off the top of my head
2:22
the plots of each of them, except for the fact that Chucky
2:26
gets to murder several people over several movies.
2:32
Yeah, see. And I think I still could.
2:34
I think I still could rattle rattle on.
2:37
You enjoyed the first ones? I really did.
2:40
I had a great time with a lot of these.
2:43
There was a particular stinker early in the franchise with
2:49
Child's Play 3, but otherwise really all but one of them ended
2:56
up above A5. There was 1 stinker that I gave
3:01
a 2 and then another one that I gave a 5, but everything else I
3:05
had a great time with this franchise.
3:09
Yeah, I think it after three movies that seemed to be in the
3:15
same era, I do think that Bride of Chucky really brought things
3:23
closer to what the pop culture view of Chucky is.
3:28
The murdering doll, that kind of wisecracks, but he's still a
3:36
serial killer. Yeah.
3:40
And, you know, just looking at some of the scores, that seems
3:44
to be where the franchise took a turn for you in, in terms of
3:49
quality, where you started to say, yeah, this is this is good.
3:55
Yeah, I think it's probably just the era of filmmaking that I'm
4:02
not nostalgic for. 80s movies, early 90s.
4:09
I don't know how well most of them have aged just in, just in
4:14
pure technical appearance. Like there's this hazy look to
4:18
most of the 80s movies. Oh, I'll agree with that
4:22
completely, because I was thinking of movies that I liked
4:26
versus movies that I didn't like from the 80s.
4:31
And the best example would be Indiana Jones.
4:33
Like that's a fantastically fun 80s set of movies, but then
4:40
around the same time you've got weird science and both of those
4:45
movies seem to be shot with fog turned on at all times.
4:51
Got to have some presence. We can't let people know this is
4:54
actual set like. Yeah, and you know how how
4:58
prevalent haze is in the 80s? Everywhere.
5:03
Yeah, yeah, it's, you know, and I'm, I'm going to say the
5:09
biggest surprise for me is that Child's Play is 1988.
5:14
It is late 80s in my head. For some reason I always thought
5:20
Chucky had been around since like, well, as long as I've been
5:24
around, you know, like the whole 80s.
5:27
Yeah, I I don't know the first time I've heard of him.
5:32
I know I was younger, but I don't think I would have really
5:40
heard anything until seed of Chucky may have been coming out.
5:44
Like bride of Chucky feels like it's a the first modern Chucky
5:54
and it it gets it scores a high rating.
5:57
Like it might. I feel like my issue with the
6:02
first 3 where I didn't love them and they all kind of declined,
6:08
is not because of the animatronics.
6:11
I I, I will say that's a shining spot of wow, they made this
6:15
Chucky doll look and move. And yeah, sure, they maybe
6:20
fudged it with long distance ones where you dress up an
6:22
actor, but that's also still cool.
6:24
Like, OK, it's still a moving doll.
6:30
I feel like the other cast of characters kind of just let's it
6:34
down in those first 3. I mean, I'm always going to push
6:39
back with OG Andy and then in the second movie Kyle.
6:44
I think those two are pretty great.
6:46
But then replacement Andy, I'm right there with you.
6:50
Like Child's Play 3 is just raw garbage and the human characters
6:55
do not do it any favors. If I rewatched maybe I would
7:00
increase my score as if I disregard the characters as
7:03
being just there to be killed. But yeah, Andy making it or or
7:12
reconvincing acting in the first movie really makes it feel like
7:16
well why do the rest of these humans feel silly?
7:22
Feel off like Kyle was also good, but then the foster
7:29
parents are just kind of like caricatures and the the Military
7:33
Academy is kind of just to get some war games going on.
7:39
Like I think this just feels like a setup.
7:44
Was it two or three that I think probably 2 that had that the
7:48
couple that was like teenagers getting married?
7:54
That was Bride of Chucky. That was when we returned.
7:58
Yeah. So I mean, I guess it bleeds
8:02
into that one, but. I was going to say you didn't
8:05
like the human characters from Bride of Chucky, whereas I I
8:10
found them charming and I had a good time with them.
8:13
I genuinely, my favorite thing about those characters was the
8:17
fact that both of them suspected the other one of being
8:21
psychotic. Yeah.
8:23
I just thought that was such a wonderful touch.
8:26
Let's get in a van with each other.
8:27
It'll be. Fine, exactly.
8:29
Even though you're kind of psychotic, all we got to do is
8:31
deliver these dolls, these perfectly safe dolls.
8:34
Because, again, dolls don't kill people.
8:38
We'll have it. Made with. $1000.
8:43
It will, yeah. We'll never have to work again.
8:45
Basically, our lives will be set.
8:48
Hold on, this isn't $1,000,000. Yeah, for real.
8:53
Seed of Chucky had some really good ideas and was a lot of fun.
8:58
That was the one where we kind of flipped our scores and I went
9:02
lower and you went higher. I'm not going to spite it.
9:06
It's great ideas, I just didn't vibe on it as much as I did with
9:12
Bride of Chucky. But it's still a very fun movie
9:17
and has some great ideas. And then we get to the real
9:22
surprises, which are the straight to home video movies.
9:28
Curse of Chucky. I had a lot of fun with Cult of
9:32
Chucky. It's not great by any means, but
9:37
it's surprisingly good for a straight to home video movie.
9:41
Yeah, yeah, I I agree that haze is gone and the the shooting
9:48
seems like it's thought out. I think if I remember, my score
9:56
for Cursive Chucky was merely the fact that I thought it was a
10:01
2019 complete reboot, and then it wasn't, and so the first half
10:07
being boring and slow only got halfway redeemed by an amazing
10:15
twist. So yeah, all of that feel like,
10:24
yeah, I, I, not to jump to the last one, but I gave Curse of
10:28
Chucky and the reboot the same score.
10:32
And I think that's mostly fair because I knew going in it was
10:38
reboot and then it had some pleasant above average surprises
10:43
and performances. The kids and the horror of a
10:49
doll that will kill for you was sold well with the props and
10:55
with the acting. You know, I got to be honest, of
10:59
all of these movies, the 2019 reboot is the one I keep
11:03
thinking about just because of how different it was and how
11:07
much of A risk it took. And it's definitely not perfect.
11:13
I still think our scores were accurate.
11:16
But I think it's worth a watch. I think if you you know, if you
11:21
enjoy Chucky, it's worth checking out a totally different
11:25
take on the character. Yeah, he's he is in a different
11:33
form. Indeed.
11:37
Well, since that's just kind of a brief overview, let me go
11:42
through the quick scores. You are on the low end this time
11:47
around with a franchise average of 5.775 or 5.8 if we want to
11:56
make it simple. But that's rounding up the the
12:00
real score is 5.775. I'm at the high end with a
12:04
5.875. So, so much, yeah, a 10th of a
12:11
point higher than yours. And then the the show average is
12:15
5.825. So yeah, we're, we are so close
12:21
to each other on this one. It's just interesting that we
12:25
both got to our scores with just like slightly different
12:30
perspectives. But then in terms of the tower,
12:35
that puts it at #2 behind A Quiet place.
12:39
So those of you keeping score at home?
12:42
I mean, by half of a point it beats out James Bond and it's to
12:48
think the volume of movies versus quality of James Bond
12:53
probably makes this understandable.
12:56
I I can stand by it. Yeah, Double O 7 is one of those
13:00
franchises that because it has so many movies, it's kind of
13:05
skewed and it makes sense that it would have really close to a
13:10
5 out of 10, whereas everything else that we have reviewed has
13:14
been significantly shorter. One of these days we might
13:18
tackle the MCU, and I wonder if it's also going to be somewhere
13:24
in the Fives. Exactly 5 play now.
13:27
Yeah, it's getting like I think the new Spider Man is going to
13:31
be like the 36th movie, maybe 38th.
13:36
Like it is the biggest franchise that I know about.
13:40
I feel like that's a sure credit to the that franchise where it
13:47
felt like, you know, being there when they started with Iron Man.
13:53
It's it has kind of just inevitably grown because
13:58
nobody's has said we got to stop to reboot.
14:04
Maybe they'll do that now. And then I get thinking about
14:09
like a horror franchise, especially something like
14:11
Chucky, where towards the end they were spending 5 to $10
14:16
million on a movie. And Marvel, I mean, they spend
14:22
upwards of like $100 million on movies, even ones that stink.
14:28
And so in my head, I'm like, you should be able to put out 10
14:33
Chucky movies for the price of a single Marvel movie.
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And yet for some reason with with some of these horror
14:42
franchises, we don't have as many movies.
14:47
The the one that I'll think about all the time is Friday the
14:50
13th, where you get just tons of them in the 80s and then a few
14:56
in the 90s and then they seem to just kind of die out and I don't
14:59
even remember when the last Friday the 13th.
15:03
Was like like Jamie Lee Curtis came back for one.
15:08
Maybe for Halloween. Yeah, she came back for those
15:10
ones, Yeah. I get them all confused
15:13
honestly. I mean, Halloween Friday and
15:19
Nightmare on Elm Street, those are the three big slashers that
15:23
people sometimes get confused because they do pretty much the
15:27
same thing, but they are distinct and different ones.
15:32
And of those three that I just named, the one that I am most
15:35
excited to get to 1 Day is the Halloween franchise.
15:40
And that's because the third movie ditched Michael Myers, the
15:46
killer. Apparently, when the creator
15:49
originally pitched it, he wanted it to be just various ideas of
15:54
horror movies that could happen on Halloween night.
15:58
Yeah. And so the third movie is called
16:02
Season of the Witch. It has nothing to do with
16:05
Michael Myers. When it came out, people hated
16:09
it. Today, people seem to love it,
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and they seem to think like, wow, what kind of franchise
16:14
would it have been if Halloween was always a different story?
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You know? Yeah.
16:21
Oh well, maybe we'll get. To those exactly.
16:24
I'm over here talking about other stuff.
16:26
We we have a murderous doll to talk about.
16:32
I think if there's any specifics that you want to touch on over
16:37
all of them, I have one specific like what if that we could we
16:44
could talk about. Well, the only big thing that
16:49
that I can't get out of my head, despite as much as I'm intrigued
16:55
by 2019's Child's Play, I don't think Mark Mark Hamill holds a
17:01
candle to Brad Duriff's Chucky. Like Brad Duriff really is the
17:07
better Chucky I. Think he definitely has made
17:13
decisions with the voice and the screams really of Chucky to to
17:20
make it a separate character. Like yeah I would agree.
17:24
Mark Hamill. All of his accolades and credits
17:28
aside, making Buddy into a Chucky is a tall task.
17:34
I don't know that I would without knowing Brad Doris, name
17:38
it originally. I still knew that.
17:40
Well, Chucky screams when he attacks you, essentially.
17:45
Yeah, with before I knew who Brad Duriff was, I knew what the
17:49
voice of Chucky sounded like. And so he really is iconic.
17:56
And again, like I am impressed with Mark Hamill's performance
18:02
in Child's Play 2019. I think he did a lot better than
18:08
I had anticipated him to do, but there's just no getting around
18:13
it. Brad Dourif is the better Chucky
18:15
for me. He's he's just the tops.
18:19
Yeah, I think that would be the accurate.
18:24
And then my top 4 human characters go OG Andy, including
18:31
adult form when it's the same OG Andy actor Young Kyle.
18:37
I just didn't get enough screen time with old Kyle to be able to
18:40
say that she's, you know, still top of the charts.
18:45
Of course Tiffany played by Oh my God, why did I forget her
18:51
name? Jennifer Tilley.
18:52
Thank you, Jennifer Tilley. As Tiffany playing Jennifer
18:56
Tilley. Exactly.
18:58
And then Brad Duriff's daughter. Oh yeah.
19:04
Another one I have forgotten the name of.
19:07
Nika. Fiona Durif, Nika Pierce is the
19:12
character, but those are my top four humans.
19:16
Like those are the ones that that I like the most.
19:20
I I really did enjoy every time they were on the screen.
19:25
I think if I go by the surprising humans, the twist
19:32
with Charles Lee Ray probably made me appreciate more that
19:38
Chucky is a serial killer because Brad Dorff was just
19:43
called the serial killer. I didn't quite get that sense in
19:46
the first one, but it's the first one where you're like, oh,
19:50
of course he's going to kill everybody he meets.
19:53
We get to cursive Chucky and it's like, oh, this dude was
19:58
messed up. OK, Like he's he hits the bar of
20:03
being a. A person within the universe
20:09
instead of like foster dad. I don't even know his name.
20:14
Foster mom. They were they were there to
20:17
die. Andy.
20:19
Yeah, I'd agree. Kyle was funny.
20:23
She had her own kind of side arc.
20:25
Yeah, I do think growing up and he was a little bit of a less
20:33
than perfect person in the show, just another oddity like, OK,
20:40
well, if we consider he's formed by his trauma, OK.
20:46
Yeah, he's definitely got stains and scars.
20:49
He's he's an adult. He's a human being, which to me
20:55
adds to the charm. Like nobody comes out of this
20:58
clean. I don't think I remember any
21:02
other person in Child's Play 3. I know they tried to give Andy a
21:07
girl. I don't.
21:10
Yeah. That's right.
21:12
There was the girlfriend. There was the little kid.
21:16
Yeah. And then, of course, the nerdy
21:19
friend who jumps on a grenade. And there's the bully.
21:24
Yeah, they they had a lot of archetypes and not a lot of
21:30
character. I think the the friend of theirs
21:34
in Bride of Chucky, he was kind of funny.
21:38
Oh, very funny. I, I liked him a lot.
21:41
As second viewing I liked him even more.
21:43
I was like, he's, he works. He works for me.
21:47
Deserved A spectacular death and he got it.
21:50
Yeah, congratulations. Oh my gosh, I loved his
21:53
explosive death. It was so much fun.
21:58
And then Tiffany, she was very remarkable in her debut and I
22:04
was like, oh, this her friend that shows up and she kills him.
22:12
He's not that much into like murder if I have to, where she
22:16
is full bore straight ahead. Someone's in the way, you know,
22:20
gotta kill him and. Yep, she'll slit a throat.
22:24
She's into it. Well, you had said that you that
22:29
something came up to you. Yeah, I.
22:31
Want to hear it? Well, just in terms of like,
22:34
I'll, I'll speak to it myself first.
22:40
We didn't look at the television series, but we know that there
22:43
are three seasons of Chucky that apparently include Andy and Kyle
22:47
and maybe Nika. I, I, I don't know.
22:50
We didn't watch it. Taking that aside, if it didn't
22:56
happen, would I rather have another Charles Lee Ray Chucky
23:05
or a new buddy as Chucky? Which of those two universes
23:12
would I rather have interest in seeing?
23:16
Or a secret third option, another reboot entirely.
23:22
Sure. That's secret.
23:23
That's I'm going to throw the third option.
23:26
So which one would you? I have.
23:29
I do think there was enough loose ends in the cult of Jackie
23:39
that there were places to go. And obviously television series
23:45
says, yes, we have places that we're heading.
23:49
I do think I would like to see, if I remember right, Cult of
23:56
Chucky, where they only had the directive video.
24:03
I think it would be fun to. I don't think continuity really
24:11
really was a foundational part of the Chucky series as such.
24:18
Jump from what you have with Nika and the chuckies into
24:24
whatever comes next as a full bore movie with Brad Dwarf and
24:33
Nika and Jennifer Tilley like. So you want to return to Chucky
24:41
Prime franchise? I think I enjoyed Seed of Chucky
24:46
so much because it was insane. It didn't have to make sense.
24:54
I'm a little bummed now that we bring it up.
24:57
Then we never got to see what happened with the twins.
25:00
Yeah, yeah, they came and they went, and it was an interesting
25:08
perspective to add. And let's do it again.
25:12
Let's let's. You're making multiple chuckies,
25:16
so why not? We've got Internet voodoo on our
25:19
side. Who else can become a doll?
25:24
Yeah. Why not we?
25:26
You know, we've found the best website we can.
25:29
We can throw souls everywhere. 100% that would be my vote.
25:34
I did. I didn't enjoy the reboot, but I
25:37
would want to see Prime. I think I'm also with you on
25:42
Prime, but I would want to make a Child's Play 4.
25:48
I would want to go back to Child's Play 3.
25:51
Not because I particularly liked that movie, I think that movie
25:55
is terrible. But there is one idea that they
25:58
never explored. And I kind of thought they were
26:02
going to explore it in Cult of Chucky, but then they went the
26:05
voodoo route. But that was when they're firing
26:10
up the factory again and they're pulling the Chucky, the old
26:14
Chucky doll away and blood drips into the plastic.
26:18
I had said, oh, what if we have a bunch of chuckies, you know, a
26:24
bunch of possessed dolls, all of them thinking that they are
26:29
Charles Lee Ray. And all.
26:32
Of yeah, or even if they are aware of them, they're like,
26:35
you're a fake and I got to kill you.
26:37
And and so like I want to return to prime Chucky universe.
26:44
But now instead of voodoo allowing him to create his cult
26:48
of Chucky, I want the blood to be what created them.
26:53
And and not it being a, a thing that he's good with, but a thing
26:56
that he would fight and get angry about, you know, Chucky V
27:01
Chucky. I think that's where I would go.
27:04
But realistically, I, I would give my money to the secret
27:11
third option. If if someone else decided to do
27:14
another child's play reboot and just got a new actor, went with
27:20
a whole new idea, maybe they went with possession again,
27:24
maybe not. Maybe they do something else
27:26
entirely. Maybe.
27:28
Maybe the kid just has so much love for the doll that the doll
27:33
becomes alive. Yeah.
27:36
I think that would be a secret third option.
27:40
I do think it holds with the continuity is not necessary for
27:45
Chucky to be a murderer. So Child's way 4 would be a
27:52
branch to explore. You know, like Marvel Universe
27:57
and Loki's whole bit. Yeah, there's precedent.
28:01
Thanks to the MCU, we can do whatever we want with
28:05
franchises. Yeah, I.
28:09
I mean, it's not Chucky, but I do look forward to another
28:14
instalment of Bond, no matter how it how it appears like.
28:20
I know that they're trying to make it but.
28:23
I might even get the video game. I.
28:25
Think it's called First Light it like the trailer looks so good.
28:30
It's essentially going to be a Kingsman but with Bond.
28:34
And so I'm like yeah, let's go training day.
28:37
I want to I want to be there for the first mission again.
28:42
Yeah, yeah. And then I think about really
28:48
other horror franchises and it does seem as though, and this is
28:56
expected, but it does seem as though the ones that were in our
29:01
childhood have run their course and are kind of dying off and
29:05
new ones are coming in. It seems like possession is
29:10
back. So, you know, we could have
29:13
another Chucky because that's the supernatural is back in
29:18
horror. Yeah, I think the reboot kind of
29:23
had the right idea of if it's an AI personal robot, those exist.
29:29
And yeah, if they went rogue, that would be a problem.
29:33
I do think making the killer a, if it's possession a, a human
29:39
that's doing it makes it scarier than if it was just like Mission
29:43
Impossible rogue AI. It's like, yeah, yeah.
29:47
But that's just like electricity.
29:49
Can we just turn it off like? Yeah.
29:51
Human. Sure you can turn off a human,
29:53
but it's like it is less scary if it's disembodied.
30:00
It feels like so making like a A some other appliance that's
30:07
coming after people and killing them is just not as impressive.
30:11
Yeah, I, I wish I could remember the name for it, but there is a
30:15
cultural touchstone for strong emotions giving life to
30:22
inanimate objects. And I'm, you know, the more I
30:25
think about it, the more I'm like, I think that would be the
30:29
route to go because we've seen the voodoo possession and that's
30:33
not, even though Supernatural is kind of back in modern horror, I
30:39
don't know if that would really connect with audiences.
30:42
And AI was good, but then Megan did it better.
30:48
So like, they were already outclassed, so why not look at
30:55
and I'm this would be the time to write letters to correct me.
31:00
But I think it's Japanese culture that believes that if
31:04
you put enough strong emotion into an inanimate object, it
31:08
develops a soul. And so, you know, having a doll
31:14
that is 100% just a doll and then a kid loves it so fiercely.
31:21
And then maybe the kid gets hit by a car and the doll comes to
31:26
life to try to find the kid. And when it learns the kid is
31:29
dead, it it decides to seek revenge and it doesn't
31:33
understand. And so it's seeking revenge on
31:36
everything. And I, I could see that having
31:40
some potential. Otherwise, I think prime Chucky
31:45
is superior to AI Chucky. AI did some crazy murders, but
31:57
yeah, I think having it be a human just adds that touch of,
32:06
of, of dread. Like it's an AI.
32:10
You could have safeguards, you just turn them back on and
32:12
everything's fine. If you have a serial killer in a
32:15
doll's body, like, there's nothing to redeem them to stop
32:20
killing people. All right, I want to take you
32:24
into my own twisted brain. We, I've said it every episode,
32:31
including this one. The the brilliant thing about
32:35
this franchise is the fact that dolls don't kill people.
32:40
So the question that I am raising to you is what does it
32:45
take for you to believe your kids if they say that one of
32:49
their toys is alive and is bad? I mean before Chucky it may have
33:02
been different. Like after Chucky it definitely
33:05
feels like tell me more of what is bad about it.
33:12
If it were a doll, I think, I don't know.
33:16
I think I would get creeped out if they reported that the doll
33:21
was saying things XY or Z, 'cause I am definitely not a
33:27
believer in the ghost realm of whatever, whatever this planet
33:35
is. So possession doesn't seem like
33:40
a thing that would actually be. I would, I would dig for what
33:46
what could really be happening. It's like, yeah, a doll doesn't
33:53
live. That wouldn't kill people.
33:55
It would be a little tough to convince me.
33:59
Mm hmm. But a video camera and locking
34:03
up the doll would definitely happen.
34:06
Now, how much of the video camera would you have to watch
34:09
before you finally believed that it was alive?
34:13
It would have to move on its own.
34:16
See, because that wasn't enough to convince.
34:19
Oh yeah, his brother-in-law. He watched through this thing
34:23
all the way up to current time 0 and now it's oh, it's behind
34:28
you. Wow.
34:30
So we're ludicrous, but still funny.
34:33
And I still liked it. You know, I also don't know if I
34:39
could answer the question. It's my own Dane question.
34:41
And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what it would take
34:45
for me to believe my kids because when my kids were
34:49
significantly younger and they would say that their doll said
34:54
this or their toy said that or their toy feels this way.
34:58
A little part of me would have like a little chill go down my
35:01
spine where I was like, is it happening?
35:05
Do it like, has it happened? But I live in the real world.
35:10
And so I was always like, no, toys don't.
35:14
Toys aren't alive. Yeah, I think I could rattle off
35:18
a list of things that I don't think are real.
35:21
Bigfoot. Yeah.
35:22
Yeah, et cetera. But still getting it from your
35:26
kids, hearing it from your kids might send a small chill down
35:30
your spine to be like what if? Could be, I guess I, I don't
35:38
know. I think it would be surprising
35:41
if something came alive that was not meant to be alive, that
35:45
yeah, that would change my perspective on a lot of things.
35:51
But we're also entering the age of AI and so like 2019, Chucky
35:57
becomes more and more realistic everyday.
36:03
The only thing that we have not done for this franchise, it's
36:09
just one of the stats. I know we're here way late in
36:14
the episode, but in case you wanted to hear it, the combined
36:18
budget for the entire franchise was $96 million, less than $100
36:26
million to make 8 movies. And in the return, keeping in
36:32
mind that we do not have return numbers for two of these movies,
36:37
the return was 220.9 million, nearly 221 million.
36:46
So more than double, well over double what they spent to make
36:52
this thing. Yeah, I don't know how much they
36:55
would have made, but yeah. Or from the from the home ones.
36:58
I'm trying to think. I don't know that I ever heard
37:01
of them before watching the franchise, so I don't know if
37:05
they are classics by way of the community or not.
37:11
I mean, for me, Curse of Chucky is just because it surprised me
37:15
at how scary and fun it was. But Cult of Chucky, I would be
37:21
surprised if anyone even knew it came out.
37:23
Yeah. Well, they did.
37:28
They did decent age. I'm like, feel like movies are
37:34
so much. At least Marvel movies are so
37:36
much more, $100 million would be so much money to make one movie.
37:43
And that's regularly their stuff.
37:46
They they primarily get that. OK.
37:51
In terms of other media, obviously we talked about the
37:55
movies. There are some.
37:59
Well, there are two short films that we also skipped because
38:03
they're short films. I didn't even know they existed
38:06
until I just read this now. In 2005 there was something
38:10
called Chuckies Vacation Slides. I now I got to take a look at
38:17
and see when Bride of Chucky was.
38:19
That was 1998 and then Seed of Chucky was 2004.
38:24
So maybe this was like a sequel to Seed of Chucky.
38:29
Maybe it had the twins. I don't know.
38:32
I never saw it. And then in 2013 we had the
38:38
short film Chucky Invades, and that would have been the same
38:41
year as Curse of Chucky. I didn't watch the TV series.
38:48
I don't know that I would watch these short films, but if
38:52
they're 10 minutes, maybe, yeah. Yeah, I might look them up on
38:55
YouTube to see if they're available because they might be
38:59
fairly short. And then of course, the TV
39:00
series from 2021 to 2024. And I thought there was another
39:06
season coming, but maybe it is ended.
39:10
There was the video game Chucky slash and dash in 2013.
39:15
Plus, I'm pretty sure Chucky is a playable character in Dead by
39:19
Daylight. So he exists there and then
39:24
books and comics. That's the that's the extent of
39:29
his his reach. He is a long you know, he
39:34
exists. He's he's still around.
39:36
He's still making stuff. I think the the fact that I
39:41
identified Charles Lee Ray as a person in the universe makes it
39:46
easier to say, well, let's find out more.
39:50
Let's see what other things Chucky would do in comics and
39:55
books and that sort of thing where he's not.
39:59
He's just three-dimensional enough.
40:03
He's not like a good three-dimensional person.
40:05
He's just a murderer that has a back story and has a future.
40:11
And kind of I do think there's a slight difference between the
40:17
human and Chucky because Chucky as the doll definitely feels a
40:22
little younger. Like just we don't hear much
40:28
from Charles Lee Ray as his himself.
40:33
And when we hear all this other stuff from Chucky, it feels like
40:38
there's a difference, even if it's just imagined.
40:43
Yeah. No, I, I do think there is.
40:47
I I don't think I've ever mentioned this, but starting
40:51
with Child's Play 2, and I don't know how long this lasted, but
40:57
Brad Durif would speak a little slower and kind of drag words
41:02
out, and that was specifically for the puppet.
41:06
Because if he. Talked too fast, his voice would
41:10
lose lip sync, so he'd have to talk a little slower.
41:15
But that created this really interesting way of speaking that
41:20
really did fit for the character and make him kind of unique.
41:24
You know, you don't really notice that he's talking slower
41:28
until someone points it out. And then you're like, oh, yeah,
41:31
he is kind of dragging out some of these words.
41:33
And that does kind of add to the character and the personality.
41:39
The television series ended in September of 2024.
41:44
It was It was cancelled so. But in February of 2026, so last
41:53
month, Jennifer Tilley confirmed that she is going to be
41:58
returning as Tiffany in a future Chucky.
42:03
So it sounds as though if we are getting more Chucky, it will be
42:07
in the Prime franchise and not the reboot.
42:12
I honestly think they do don't have to do much to make it a
42:15
good Chucky movie because they you really just need a bunch of
42:21
people to run into them without knowing that he's a murder doll.
42:27
If that's without Nika, OK. Like I do feel like she would
42:32
have to. If you do want continuity, then
42:35
yes, she's there. But yeah, I think Chucky himself
42:40
says that, right? He's like.
42:42
I mean, he is her. He put his main soul into Nika
42:47
so. I think it was brighter seed of
42:49
Chucky. He's, he makes some sort of like
42:53
4th wall reference and like, you know, you don't have to do,
42:58
don't have to work so hard on the script or something like
43:00
that. Yes, that's true.
43:03
We don't. We don't need continuity.
43:06
We can, we can keep whatever we liked and ditch whatever we
43:09
don't in the the sequel. It does kind of make the reboot
43:15
a little bit sad because it's like, yeah, like not only is
43:18
that when the odd one out, it never got a sequel, it never got
43:23
a discussion for a sequel. But I'm glad that that it's a
43:30
franchise that is still considered active even though we
43:36
haven't had anything for two years.
43:39
But, you know, people consider Freddy Krueger to be an active
43:44
franchise, and we haven't seen anything from him and I think
43:47
over a decade, yeah. Yeah, definitely.
43:51
Yeah, you know, we could. And there are podcasts who have
43:58
made their entire thing horror movies because there are so many
44:04
horror franchises out there. Coming up soon, there's going to
44:09
be a reboot of The Mummy, the original Mummy, the horror
44:14
franchise, The Mummy, not the Brendan Fraser action comedy
44:20
franchise, but going all the way back.
44:22
And so like even some of the oldest franchises are coming
44:26
back and they are never truly finished.
44:29
Frankenstein came back. So I imagine Child's Play or
44:35
Chucky will come back one day and I hope that we will return
44:39
to it and I imagine we will hit some of the other horror
44:42
franchises, but not immediately. In fact, we're taking a a pretty
44:49
hard shift away from horror, and our next franchise is going to
44:55
be the Lethal Weapon franchise. We're going into action comedy,
45:00
baby. I think it'll be enjoyable.
45:03
I mean, I haven't heard much of how well it's aged.
45:10
I do think I enjoyed it when I saw the TV recorded VHS whenever
45:17
my dad wanted to turn it on and I thought they were funny and I
45:23
thought that it was. It's kind of like Die Hard, you
45:26
know? It's action and a little bit of
45:28
comedy. I saw all four of these shortly
45:34
after high school. I moved in with my older brother
45:38
and that was one of the first things he wanted to watch with
45:41
me. He was like, I love these
45:43
movies, let's watch all four of them.
45:46
And so I, I really dug them. I think they got like I, if I
45:52
remember correctly, I had fun with the first one and then I
45:55
felt like they got better and better.
45:58
And I think the 4th 1 was kind of a stinker.
46:00
But we'll find out together. We'll get to find out together.
46:06
Let's do it. Exactly.
46:08
So next week we're going to 1987's Lethal Weapon.
46:13
This is your chance, dear audience to to run and grab a
46:17
copy so that way you are prepared for that discussion.
46:21
Library might carry it, That's always another option.
46:24
Yep, that's a usually the freest option because you can just run
46:28
in there and say, hey, I want to borrow this.
46:30
And sometimes they'll even let you borrow ADVD or Blu-ray
46:34
player like your local library is a wonder of modern media
46:41
preservation. So make sure to check that out.
46:44
All right, well, do you want to take us out of here for the last
46:48
time for this Chucky franchise? Chucky.
46:51
I mean, I don't feel like it's a what do you call it unique to
46:57
Chucky, our sign off. But thank you audience for
47:01
joining us today. It was our wrap up of Chucky.
47:05
I don't know that I'll watch it again, but hey, maybe the
47:09
whatever Jennifer Tilley is preparing will be a return to
47:13
Prime Chucky form not having watched the television series.
47:18
Maybe that Prime is also fun. I guess he may be watching the
47:23
Prime series. Someone would have to convince
47:25
me, but. I was going to say, it's got to
47:27
be available on one of the few platforms that I have access to,
47:32
yeah. But thanks for listening, if you
47:36
enjoyed it, go ahead and like it or whatever, whatever sort of
47:42
metric the platform uses, where you're listening.
47:46
I think Spotify has like likes right?
47:50
Likes and maybe comments. Subscribe so you know when
47:55
something else comes out. We are still going strong.
47:58
There may be some extra recordings so we can take a
48:03
break here in 2026, but we will continue moving forward.
48:10
Go ahead and send links. Share it out to friends and
48:14
family if they also are movie watchers.
48:17
If they enjoy semi nostalgic trips down past cultural
48:23
touchstone franchises, send them our way.
48:27
We got a big one coming up. With Lethal Weapon or which?
48:32
Yeah, with Lethal Weapon, that's a touchstone.
48:36
Like that's AI, don't know it's 80s.
48:39
You're you're if you are of the young side, your parents
48:42
definitely would have watched it.
48:44
Your older siblings definitely would have watched it.
48:46
Like it was a pretty big deal franchise.
48:50
Felt like it, but go ahead if you have any questions or want
48:54
to suggest anything in the future.
48:56
We do have an e-mail on Gmail, potatochippicturespod@gmail.com.
49:05
And for the last time, watch your ankles with Chucky.
49:09
Goodbye, bye.