Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard - Flightless Bird: EPCOT vs Universal

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

This week on Flightless Bird, David continues his Florida series by going to EPCOT, Disney’s “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” Joined by two Disney Adults, Elizabeth and Patrick, David eats his way around the world, and discovers why many also choose to drink their way around the world. Along the way, Farrier discovers Figment, a Disney character that only exists in EPCOT. After finding out why no one is allowed to die in Disney World, Farrier heads back to LA to compare Disney World with Universal Studios. He meets up with theme park YouTubers Peter Sciretta and Kitra Remick of “Ordinary Adventures” to talk Super Nintendo Land and gets a tour from Jon Corfino, Vice President of Creative at Universal Studios. Why is Mario so popular and what do the kids think about the Super Nintendo Land? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm David Farrier, a New Zealander accidentally marooned in America, and I want to figure out what makes this country tick. Now as you'll be aware, I've been exploring the vast expanse of Florida, and it was inevitable that when I was in Orlando, I'd end up here. Hello? You think it's time to get up? It's goofy! Come on, let's go!

Much like the giggling child in that commercial from 1995, it was time for me to visit Disney World, the home of Mickey Mouse and the place where the NBA hid during the pandemic. Now I'd done Disneyland with Monica and Dax and Rob, but it was time to go all in, to the place that's visited by about 58 million people each year. Opening just over 50 years ago, Disney World is made up of four parks that sprawl over 25,000 acres. That's Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. Ah yes, Epcot. Walt Disney's vision of the perfect community. A Disney town that he imagined people would work in, sleep in, eat in, and have sex in.

But it was a vision of the future that humanity just wasn't ready for. So today it sits as a weird theme park that's a tribute to all of humanity. A tribute that I'm desperate to visit. It was Epcot that had caught my eye, and it was to Epcot that I would go. So, prepare to put your Mickey Mouse ears on and walk around in a mini version of the entire planet, because this is the Epcot episode. I'm a flightless bird. Touchdown in America. I feel bad leaving you all behind on this one.

I just went along with some Disney adults. And you guys were in here. I know. I am mad at you for that. Because I love Disney. I know you love all things Disney. To get back to the basics, just remind me why you love it so much my parents took me to disney every year yeah it's like revisiting your childhood and i haven't been to disney world as an adult oh well now i do feel a bit bad i did go when

harry potter first opened okay in disney world it's my favorite ride i love it so good my mom took me and my brother i mean we were this wasn't that long ago okay last year no it was when it first opened i went on the harry potter ride another time and it broke down halfway through and you know those are just suspended on a weird angle just hanging in front of a giant screen yeah it's a weird but it's weird i front of a giant screen. Yeah. It's a weird buzz. It's weird. I mean, the ride is good, but it's the world, right, that they set up that you get to be in. I mean, it's the dream when you read Harry Potter to live in that world. Completely.

If Epcot had turned into what it was imagined to be, which was this little village, and you'd wake up and you'd be in Disney, would you do it? Or do you think it would be too much all the time and the fun would kind of wear off so it was supposed to be a place to live yeah kind of like you just have a house there and it would be perfect and you'd have disney street and it would be disney themed it wouldn't be rides everywhere but it was like a perfect town that he imagined that's what epcot was going to be and then he died and they abandoned the idea and they're like we're just going to make like a tribute to him in the world and it's going to be epcot theme park i don't think i knew that oh well great yeah no that's the crazy thing about it it was going to be a town oh yeah the and you just go and live there which disney is still

pushing forward on on another town uh-huh looks like Looks like you don't believe me. No, I just. It's a very skeptical face. The face where you're telling someone something and they just clearly don't. I see that face so many times and often it's the right reaction because I do sometimes just spin bullshit. No, no. I do believe you. I was just thinking, would I want to live there? And then I thought, oh, I would maybe like to have a home there.

Holiday home. Holiday. I don't think I could live at Disney for my whole life. In the series on Florida, I also do an episode coming up about the villages, which is the largest retirement village in America. Okay. 100,000 old people all live in the same place. And that felt very, I i think what epcot could have been like it's perfect like the flower beds are made fresh every other week the streets are all

clean it is like a little theme park right yeah but it's all old people i would really like to go to epcot as an adult also isn't there drinking around the world there that was my biggest surprise about this place we went in there at like 10am. By the time it's 3pm, people are louder. And you look who's being loud. And they're people that are just completely trashed. Yeah. Who have been drinking in every mini city around the park, which seems outrageous for like a family sort of fueled place, right? I know. I'm surprised they allow it. I love it. Oh, I mean mean it's a great i mean it's a fucking amazing thing to do i wonder how much money they make i like oh yeah that makes so much that's an interesting question parks and the different amount of money that's all for you like who's

making the most bank kind of thing i imagine it would be the universal bit because it's like all the funky new rides you know, yeah. The Hollywood bit. Sorry, the Hollywood part of the park. Of Magic Kingdom? I think so. What are the four ones? Magic Kingdom, Epcot. There was MGM.

I don't know if that's still. Let's Google. There's Animal Kingdom. Parks and Disney World. Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios. Oh, that's. animal kingdom okay and i feel that hollywood studios has like all the big movie tie-ins hollywood studios is what used to be mgm okay gotcha oh you haven't been there in a while no yeah right okay these are the mgm days yeah

well do you want to sort of return back via an audio documentary? I would like to. It's just like you're there. It's the same thing. Yes, that's the same. Keep gaslighting me. Early in the life of Flightless Bird, I did an episode on Disney adults that was, bad times, a little cynical. So some people may say that Disney adults are weird, but before you judge, let me give you some insight. After listening to the episode, Dax was horrified that I'd never actually been to Disneyland. A very valid point. So he kindly took all of us, Rob, Monica, me, to Disneyland in LA so I could discover the Disney magic. Well, this is great because I can't wait to record your absolute glee and sparkle after the experience. I'm just deeply cynical about this place.

So cynical. And this is basically an ambassador mission. Yeah, and you will be deeply converted. To cut a long story short, I did discover the Disney magic, as well as Disney gangs. So there's still some weird beef between the Main Street Fire Station

and the White Rabbits. Right. I mean, off the record, I could probably tell you what I know. That day had been overwhelming. I'd walked for miles. My feet hurt and I ate too much dough. I discovered corndogs, a majestic American treat that doesn't exist in New Zealand.

But the Disney magic had lodged itself in my brain. And so when I found myself in Orlando, Florida, I decided I needed to investigate the weirdest of the Disney parks. I needed to visit Epcot. Now Epcot was originally going to be a sort of utopian place for people to live in. An experimental prototype community of tomorrow. It would have had houses and shops and a school and a train connecting it all together. Domestic bliss would occur and Disney adults would breed Disney babies who would have Disney dolls. But Walt Disney died and plans changed and Epcot became a theme park. Now to make sure I didn't

get lost during my visit, I connected to the vast network of Disney adults I discovered during that last episode, ending up with Elizabeth and Patrick, a couple who'd agreed to treat me as their adult son for the entire day. Just obviously people can't see in the format of podcast. Can you just describe what you are wearing today? Oh, I sure can. So I have some Mickey earrings in, and then I have what's called a spirit jersey, very popular.

Spirit jersey? A spirit jersey, yes. So it's got these drop sleeves on it. And then it'll typically have the Mickey logo in front, and then the back will be a different design. You'll see several today. As we all approach the entrance, I'm already confused. What's a drop sleeve?

That's where the seam is below the shoulder, like at a t-shirt length. That's what makes it a spirit jersey. Suddenly, her husband Patrick drops a bombshell about Elizabeth. She wasn't always a Disney adult. I kind of converted her. She actually did not like Disney. She was very much anti because in the movies, it's very much so the big strong man comes and says,

so she didn't like that. And I understand. Allow me to pull up my soapbox and say that I did not want to be raised with the princess being saved by the galleon. But since then, we have some really great characters. It's changing dramatically, isn't it? Absolutely. Frozen has Anna and Elsa, who their power saves each other, and Moana.

She didn't have a love interest. She went out on this journey and had somebody guide her. Yeah, it's much better role models for my daughter than what I had as a child. Little mermaid saying goodbye to her family to go off with a boy she knew for three minutes and give up her voice so that she could have legs. No, thank you. No, thank you. Using our legs, we've arrived at the gate. It's time for the magic to begin.

So we've just entered and we did some sort of finger thumb read technology. The first thing I noticed when we entered the park is that I use my thumb to scan in. Americans love thumb and finger scanners. When I arrived in America, it was the first thing I had to do at the airport as I came through immigration. So you're in their database forever and you cannot use a different finger to get in. Elizabeth is particularly excited about the food today because Epcot is all about the world showcase. Each major country on planet Earth recreated but smaller. We're about to visit France.

Typically serviced by people from the country of wherever you're in. So it'll be French people here behind the counters. Do they have an American section? They do. It's right in the middle and it's very large. Each area has that particular country's unique architecture and unique food. We're going to France. We're going to get a brioche that is stuffed with gelato and pressed in a waffle iron so that it's warm and gooey. It's been on my list for you the entire time we've been planning this. that's my Disney adultness is

coming here and trying all the different food especially at Epcot to me the world showcase sounds a bit like the life-size version of that nightmare ride from Disneyland it's a small world the song still reverberates around my mind now usually fake Mexico comes first at Epcot but we've come in the back way, so we've arrived in fake France and go to a fake cafe to get the very French food known as a brioche ice cream sandwich. They've got cinnamon in there. I must do that, I suppose.

Damn it. I'll do apple with cinnamon. What do you think is a good sauce for that? I get caramel with my cinnamon and eat my gooey treat as I get the lay of the land. So there are 11 pavilions, so 11 main countries that are here, and they all had to pay to be a pavilion here. They had to sponsor their own country. So Japan actually sponsors Japan. Yes. And England sponsors England. Everybody paid and then continues to pay to have their country represented here.

I can't wait to visit all the other countries, especially one I'm feeling particularly homesick for. Can't wait to get to the New Zealand section. Filled to the brim with brioche and ice cream, we continue. This used to be the only park where you could get alcohol, so it was very popular for adults who were bringing their children here to get a little treat. But now it's available at all the parks, which is really new, like in the last 10 years. It used to be very anti-alcohol, and now you can find it.

Well, they don't want people getting booze and silly here, do they? Mostly do people keep themselves and the Disney adult community under control? We've seen some things. It's very popular to what's called drink around the world. So to get a drink at each country, which after 12 countries, a drink through the afternoon. That's an unofficial, not a Disney sanctioned activity. It's not, but people make shirts, they bring Sharpies, they check it off and you can definitely tell where they are in their tour. I found myself wondering if she and Patrick moved

to this part of the country because of Disney World. They live about an hour away. Is part of the reason that you moved here not for work but for Disney? Yeah absolutely so we have two children and it's really nice to be about an hour away where we can just drop in and we have the season passes which were available right when we moved and then they stopped selling them so we were really lucky to get those but it's a nice non-pressure way to bring your family here have a good time but if they start melting down just get in the car and go home and you try again another day and your kids are okay about you ducking off without them today they are we've done it a few times and it's usually with the promise of we have our next time planned for when they get to come. But they don't really love Epcot. They like a few

rides here, but they much prefer Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios where it's more kid-friendly. They get a little bit bored by the food and the countries. Suddenly we're in Japan. Japan! The food here includes sushi with an American twist. I like giving that American touch to sushi by making it in the shape of a donut. The rice is in the form of a donut and then the sushi lays on top. As we walk through Japan, heading towards the America area, I spot a giant ball towering over us. What is that big ball? So it looks like a big golf ball, but it's called Spaceship Earth.

It's actually a ride inside. It's very slow moving and very classic Disney. That was a conservation effort, kind of a, here we are on our Spaceship Earth, we have to take care of our spaceship. We're about to hit America. I look up and notice we've arrived in America, as in the small America that's in actual America. Let's see what's on the menu.

What is America? Oh, this is more beer. Okay, these are beers. Okay, I just want to see what... Because it should really be the best of America's palette on display here. So our stand has funnel cakes and onion rings. We have three meat meatloaf, duck and dumplings, and a hummingbird cake, which I've heard we should not pass up. Are these common American treats or just at Disney?

The meatloaf certainly is. I've never eaten duck and dumplings in my life. The hummingbird cake is banana cake with pineapple, coconut, pecans, and cream cheese frosting. Yes, so that's a common dessert, I think, especially down here in the South. Florida's all about the key lime pie, isn't it? Yes, the specific key lime, not just any lime, the key lime. If you have a piece of key lime pie served to you and it is fluorescent green, go away. No, no, no, that is not for you. It needs to be a pale yellow for the true key lime. So you're a fan of the key lime? It's my favorite. I quickly Google key lime pie, which is made from lime juice, egg yolks, and condensed milk.

When I was a kid, I used to sometimes steal condensed milk from the pantry and just gobble it up. Disgusting behavior. The key lime pie was invented here in America in the 1930s, and during the 50s was advertised as Florida's most famous treat. We pass through Germany, England, and we go on a few rides, the ones that had the shortest wait times, because New Zealanders don't like to wait. I think maximum wait time for a New Zealander, 25 minutes. Ratatouille is an hour and a half wait right now.

No, get out of town. Think about that that that can be you know 10 of your day just waiting in line to do one ride we end up taking a boat ride through mexico and then patrick takes me to his favorite ride the imagination lab which features his favorite character figment so this is figment land or something do you love this place is it well this is a favorite place definitely a. You love this place. Well, this is a... It's your favorite place. Definitely a relic from when I was younger, yes.

Taste my chicken. Can I go? Please, please, please. No, I don't want you out of my sight. Out of sight? Okay. Come on, everybody. Here we go.

Figment, you are not to interfere with the tour. Hello. Who is this? It's Figment. Figment? I thought I told you not to interfere. figment is this purple dragon creature who sometimes wears a tiny yellow sweater that didn't come from a disney film he was just created for epcot he's a figment of your imagination that's the gang and he's an old school part of disney world and everyone on this ride loves the little freak,

including Katie, who is sat behind us. I'm from New Zealand. I've never heard of Figment before. Never heard of Figment before? I can't believe it. What the fuck is Figment? Did you just go on this ride? Did you miss the whole thing? That was Figment in there, the purple one.

It's all about imagination, freeing your imagination, freeing your mind. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta free your imagination. How does that compare with the other rides at Disney World? No other ride can compare. This one is beyond compare. That's why the line is just out the door.

For Patrick, Spaceship Earth is particularly meaningful. There's a reason he loves Figment, the character who encourages kids to use their imagination. So my brother unfortunately passed when I was about eight years old of cancer and when i was about seven years old which is about the age of my daughter right now we got the opportunity as a family to take a give kids the world trip which is like a make-a-wish kind of thing we get to go to disney and it was amazing we had a great experience as a family ended up being a you know last big family trip for us and so his memory comes up a lot in fact some of the

rides we went on and and just things we saw just always will bring up his memory and it's kind of why it is a little bit more ingrained into me our trip around the world is almost complete and still no sign of new zealand I asked Africa if they've seen New Zealand and I met with a blank stare. There are photo ops in each country we visit. We pose with George Washington on a boat as a happy looking employee takes our photo. I ask how many photos she's had to take. I've been here for almost a year so over 20 000 photos probably easy it's late afternoon now and as we've been eating our way around the world we start bumping into people who have been drinking their way around the world you can tell them apart from everyone else because they're louder are you

doing the drinking around the world thing yes and how's that going so far we started in mexico so we're still working on it too it's great in mexico we love it tequila more tequila what drink are you on we are this is fourth fourth fourth on four i'm on number six where are we again you're in america it's about this time i learn a sobering fact. There is no New Zealand here at Epcot. Apparently we never signed up. Jacinda never sent the check. We never got real estate in this fake mini-universe.

This utopian vision from the mind of Walt Disney. But is it a utopia without New Zealand? How could it be? I start to feel homesick. But I get distracted by the delicious smell of chocolate. This place is full of distractions. Distractions from the harsh realities of life, like your own country ceasing to exist. Disney pumps scents into the air as well, so they will pump candy, they will pump popcorn to encourage you to seek it out when you pass the cart.

Liz is full of facts like this. And as our day winds to an end, she drops a particularly morbid, sobering one. I mean, I'm sure they don't publicize it, but it is well known if you are from here that you are not allowed to die at Disney. So if you, heaven forbid, drop dead of a heart attack or something happens and paramedics are called, they are not allowed to call your time of death until you are officially off Disney property. So if they can help it, nobody dies at Disney officially. It's the happiest place on earth. Dying isn't happy, is it? No. Even though typically a parent does die in every Disney movie, this is the happiest place on Earth. They should encourage it. They should go to the area if you're having a heart attack, they take you there.

And it's like the sad part of the Disney film. It's the Bambi area. You're onto something. Luckily for all of us, there were no heart attacks on our day at Disney Worlds. It's been lovely. And we finish it all off with a giant fireworks display over the lake.

I've visited places like France, Germany, Japan, Mexico and England all in the same day. I don't think I'd ever want to live here. How could I with no New Zealand? But overall, it's been a good magical day at this experimental prototype community of tomorrow. That fireworks display at the end was probably the highlight of the whole day and went on forever you're there at like eight o'clock it's dark it's sort of the it all opens up on the water all the shit happens it was one of those fireworks displays where it almost goes on for so long you're just like oh god again you know like another one's going off and you think it's the end and then it pauses and people start to shuffle to leave and then, well, it's off again. More start going.

Are there any poor countries? No. They can't, right? No, they can't afford. There's a reason that New Zealand isn't there. Well, New Zealand's not poor. We're small, though. We struggle to get it.

I mean, God knows how much it is to get a spot in there. Right. we're small though like we'd struggle to get i mean god knows how much it is to get a spot in there right it's a very funny concept to like buy this real estate in this little fake world it's very funny and then i guess the hope would be that it would promote tourism yeah you're like wow this place exists yeah this is yeah i forgot about africa africa was the tiniest stall and it's the i don't know if you've heard about this, but Africa's pretty big. Yeah, I've heard that. But in Epcot, it was like-

In fact, it's a continent. It was a little corner. It's tiny. Whereas America is just this monstrosity in there. Yeah. Okay, what are- Can you list the countries? Oh, no, I blur it out.

I sort of got a bit bored in there. But no, you've got- Look, I'll come up with the list. Yeah, yeah. Germany, England was there. Australia, I think, had a spot. It's Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, and Canada. Morocco.

So Africa did have a little spot. So they let a continent in, which is interesting, but it's not listed on this website I'm looking at now either. The donut bit of sushi I found very ridiculous, very hilarious. It's every country stereotype just dialed up. And it's a bit like it's a small world, which does have a New Zealand section. It's every stereotype. It's selling the country. It's like, this is what's unique about us. It's just such like it's a small world, which does have a New Zealand section. It's every stereotype. It's selling the country. It's like, this is what's unique about us.

Yeah. It's just such a funny concept. Yeah. I really want to go. Okay. What was the best food you ate all day? I think it was because I hadn't had breakfast and that brioche with the gelato that had been put under like a little toast maker thing was just so good.

It was delicious. I ate it so quick. I felt a bit sick after that. Yeah. That seems to be the thing was just so good. It was delicious. I ate it so quick. I felt a bit sick after that. Yeah, that seems to be the thing you do. Yeah, I can't have half of a thing. Yeah, you don't pace yourself. And I eat it quickly. Yeah.

So that was pretty good. Hummingbird cake. Oh, hummingbird cake. I've never heard of it. Great. Banana pineapple spice cake. I've never heard of it either. We both learned something.

It doesn't sound American. Yeah, it says here. Yeah, it pineapple spice cake. I've never heard of it either. We both learned something. It doesn't sound American. Yeah, it says here, yeah, it originated in Jamaica. And it's a popular dessert now in the southern United States since the 1970s. So it's like a southern thing. Okay, but I am southern. Sugar, salt, vegetable oil, ripe banana, pineapple, cinnamon, yum, pecans, vanilla extract, eggs, and a leveling agent. Okay, so for the second part of my little doc, I thought we've done too much Disney. Oh.

Too much. There are other parks out in the world. Right. We've done, this is our third Disney episode. Sure. That's insane. Yeah. We're in Disney's pocket.

What's going on? But Disney's so American. It's iconic. But I'm going to present the idea that it's not the only place that we should be celebrating. I kind of want to guess where we're going. Can I guess? You's not the only place that we should be celebrating. I kind of want to guess where we're going. Can I guess? You can guess. Busch Gardens.

Oh, dang. There's another big theme park that exists in America. Direct competition to Disney. From an entirely different universe of intellectual property, that universe is called Universal. And like Disney, they have their fans. Including adults, they're as equally passionate about Jurassic Park as Disney fans are about Figment. With this in mind, I decided to head back to Los Angeles to visit the first Universal Studios theme park built in the US.

It was a good time to go, because they've just opened a new part of the park. Super Nintendo Land. because they've just opened a new part of the park, Super Nintendo Land. A whole new attraction dedicated to the two Italian plumbers invented in Japan in 1983. While Mario had appeared a few years earlier in Donkey Kong, it was a game called Mario Bros that introduced the world to Mario and Luigi. And those characters hold a really special place in my heart, a few years later Super Mario Brothers came out which was the very first video game I ever played. And dear god I challenge you to find a more iconic video game score.

There's this old photo of me and my brother Rob sitting on the floor together in the 80s grasping those classic rectangular Super Nintendo controllers, utterly transfixed by Super Mario. And here I was, decades later, walking into that world come to life. And it was fucking amazing. All those pixels and blocks, mushrooms and pipes, they're blowing up big. Giant. The real blue sky sits against the giant rolling hills of Mario Land. It's magical. You're surrounded by all these great kinetic, you know, high energy activations all over the place. It's really cool.

Are you a Super Mario fan? Absolutely. I've met up with John, who actually made this place a reality. He's down here to iron out a few bugs and to put up with some questions from me. Well, my name is John Corfino. I'm the vice president of Universal Creative here for Universal Studios Hollywood. I've got the best job in the world. I get to work around some of the most crazy, talented people from all over the industry. One of the things we're going to see, or you're going to see when you go on the ride, is it's an augmented reality experience. There's multiple layers involved. So we have the augmented reality goggles.

We have projection. We have video mapping. We have special effects. We have physical effects. But, for example, those AR glasses, goggles, those were developed by us at Universal Studios actually by our advanced technology group in Orlando so it takes a lot of brain power. He started designing this land seven years ago working hand in hand with Nintendo in Japan. To be able to work with Nintendo and Miyamoto-san and kind of dive inside the brain and the creativity there was just magical. John's put a

special Nintendo wristband on me so I can interact with the land around me, knocking on blocks like Mario does in the game. It's really cool and my seven-year-old me is freaking out. As opposed to going behind the scenes or putting you in an immersive film environment, we're putting you now into an actual game. When you come into this environment and you hit a tap point or you, even when you talk with our costume characters in the meet and greets, because you're in a game,

guess what, they're gonna know your score. Walking around, the noises of the game are everywhere. It's triggering and in the best possible way, and it's all been meticulously thought out. What was the hardest thing to design in here and to get working because there's so much mechanical things going on around us right now there's a lot of moving parts was there any bit that was particularly challenging? One of the common challenges in any environment that we do is understanding how people will come in and enter

and interact and giving a sufficient room to that space and also you've got to realize that you've got different audio everywhere a lot of these effects have audio so creating systems that actually allow you to do that and create the illusion again another point where we worked hand in hand with nintendo with their audio team to come out and really just make sure that everything's spot on it's time to try out that augmented reality ride he talked about earlier. I'm actually with my best mate Dan who's visiting from New Zealand. And Dan loves Mario Kart. This ride is a life-size Mario Kart.

You're in a real moving kart with real things around you. It's a real track. But there's also fake things thanks to the AR goggles. It's a lot of stimulation. I feel a bit sick because the AR overloaded my dumb brain. Outside I run back into John and tell him he did a great job. I mean, I've ridden it probably 200 times. I'm still trying to improve my score. I wander around outside through the

giant mushrooms and notice a face I've seen before. He's from one of the most popular theme park YouTube channels on the internet. I'm Peter Sereta and I'm one part of Ordinary Adventures, our theme park YouTube channel. For Disney adults, and I guess universal adults, Peter's a big celeb as is his partner, Kitra. Unlike me, they actually know what they're talking about when it comes to theme parks. Oh my god, I love it all. It makes you feel like you've been shrunk down and transported into a video game. I'm obsessed. I love the music. We've been here probably like 10 times already, and I love the food. We're like regulars there. We go in there and they're like, oh, good to see you again. It's just, it's hard to choose,

but it's all so much fun and colorful. I love it all. It's fantastic. Once you step in here, it's so kinetic. There's so much going on. It's almost like too much going on. They have fit so much into the small space. It's incredible.

Like there's games that feels like you're inside a video game. I'm a big fan of the Jurassic Park, now the Jurassic World ride. Love Transformers. What sets something like this apart? In the Jurassic World ride, you're in the world and experiencing it.

Here, you're interacting with it. Like, I was just running around. I was, like, winded after that. Do you guys remember, like, your first Mario experience? Oh, yeah, I've been playing Mario since I can remember. I used to go to daycare and, I mean it's just showing my age, but I played the original NES. And then it kind of upgraded to Super Mario and then Mario 64, the Wii.

I own a Nintendo Switch at home, so I've been with it my entire life. You're a lifer. Yeah, and I'm almost 40 years old, so I've gone through many different consoles and generations. Kitcher is almost 40. I am 40. And I realize I've just been talking to a load of adults stuck in nostalgia. But there are kids everywhere in here too and they love it. It's amazing to me that this character I was obsessed with when I was seven is still being obsessed over by seven-year-olds today. And what do you think of Mario Land? I like Mario because I saw it on YouTube.

This kid loves Mario because he's watched videos on YouTube. He hasn't even played the game. But things have changed since I was a kid. Mario is more than a game. It's a whole cultural force and Universal is cashing in. We're gonna check the bathroom, how do it look like? Yes, apparently even the bathroom is Mario themed. Everyone I bump into here, adults, kids, teens, they're all having a moment. I'm literally so excited right now, I think I'm about to cry. I'm kind of with her and after visiting Disneyland and Disney World, I feel I'm starting to get some sense of the theme park scene in America. And for me, so far, Super Nintendo Land has been the coolest. I guess I'm a Universal Studios adult, and with a Mario movie out in the world,

starring Chris Pratt as an Italian plumber, I guess our numbers will be growing. Watch out, Disney adults. We're coming for you. I really liked Mario Land a lot. It was really good. You should take your kid, Rob. Yeah, I want to. He loved Mario. So I was curious, because all the kids I talked to, most of them just loved Mario from watching Mario videos on YouTube.

That's hilarious. It's like a real difference in things so they watch the videos and then they started playing the game they haven't even played the game they'll get the lego so i have neighbors and they just know mario as lego interactive lego yeah that's what calvin has he's got the little interactive guy but it shows how powerful those images are and just the whole idea it's just so bizarre to me i know i mean i think the original draw to mario that world is something you could accomplish you can look in every crevice and check the world and beat the world it was contained because i guess the technology wouldn't even let things be too big but yeah it's the opposite I think I stopped playing video games when they became too immersive.

Like I've got a friend that's obsessed with The Witcher 3. And the world is just the most giant and like Skyrim. And these worlds are giant and it's endless exploration. Mario, you've got a few pipes on that screen. You can explore the secret blocks. Yeah. And you can clock it in a couple of hours. And you can win.

And I think for young kids who don't have much control or agency at all yeah that is a really good place to funnel some control to get some control i mean i just remember just being so obsessed with that console and we didn't have one but our friends did yeah and me and my brother would just obsess over that game so much we had a game boy as well oh yeah i had a game boy yeah yeah it was just oh my god then tetris is a whole other thing it's all coming back tetris is now the the movie right i know mario kart that's when calvin plays mario kart see that's an era that i've completely missed but you didn't do mario kart no i was

pre-mario kart and then i stopped playing mar And of course, that's the hugest thing now, right? Well, is it? Still, yeah, with the Switch. Switch has made a comeback, because he's got Luigi's Mansion. He's got Mario Kart. Also, he's jamming on stuff. Yeah, I forgot about that. Wait, so what was the console you had?

So this was when I was seven, so it would have been the Super Nintendo. Okay, okay. And it had those little square controllers. Yeah. And I just got myself a Switch because you can now get an emulator which runs that console from the 90s. And you can get the rectangular controller that you used back then. So it's like time travel. It is. It's nostalgia.

It's that whole thing. I was N64. You were N64, girl. That was my generation. Do you play Goldeneye? No, I only had Mario Kart and... Yeah, you're right. Mario World.

Mario, Super Mario World. Mario World was like the first N64 game. It was like the 3D world that you're in. And yeah, when the movie came out this year, holy shit, giant number one film. How do you feel about Chris Pratt being an an italian is it okay is that okay i guess it is are you sort of allowed to make fun of italians in america or do you know emulated an accent is that okay i'm so curious huh i think the general consensus right now it's a media mario

like that you know is that okay it's tricky i don't yeah i don't really know because i do think a lot of people think and i don't know that this is right but people think like if it's a marginalized group and you're doing that that's a problem yeah 100 and that may be you're either punching up or you're punching down right and maybe italians aren't considered a margin but it's like that thing when you're in new york you're like i'm walking here you know it's that thing like that thing when you're in New York. You're like, I'm walking here. You know, it's that thing. Like, is that okay? They're not marginalized because they're at Epcot.

Totally. But I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm super curious to watch it. What kind of Italian food was at Epcot? Oh, I didn't eat anything there. Yeah, I didn't. I feel it was all a bit warped, though. It definitely wasn't the genuine cuisine of the country. It definitely had a very american twist which

is annoying because they're saying that they hire people from the country yeah to start there yeah which apparently post-covid has kind of changed a bit and there's definitely less um people from each place working there definitely heard a lot of american accents behind the various counters and i think that is like a post-COVID staffing thing. This is a sidebar, but what's your favorite food genre? Just give me Korean barbecue every day, all the time. Okay. And it's just so, just the flavor is so intense.

You love it. I think Korean, I think. Okay, that's great. What's yours, Rob? Probably Mexican. Yeah. You're in the right city for it good street taco i know i really can't be beat it's hard italian for me but it's a close call between italian and mexican and i do love asian food yeah i also just love i eat a lot of cereal i'm not asian japanese where's that from? Cereal is probably American. Probably is American.

I love cereal so much. I could eat cereal all day. I sometimes have cereal for dinner. What kind? I'm still trying to figure out the cereal to eat in America because it's all so sweet. Should do a cereal episode. Ooh, yeah. Yeah, in New Zealand you get some granolas that actually are semi-healthy.

They want you to think that the sugar content here is just off the chain okay like i'm slurping back that milk afterwards and it's the most sugary drink i've ever had you know but what is your favorite cereal any type of granola i'd go for a granola but if i'm going to be completely honest i don't know if you have them here i think they're cocoa puffs here cocoa pops yeah cocoa pops in new zealand oh okay uh just like a chocolate If I'm going to be completely honest, I don't know if you have them here. I think they're Cocoa Puffs here. Cocoa Puffs, yeah. They're Cocoa Pops in New Zealand. Oh, okay. Just like a chocolate milkshake, only crunchy is the thing. There's no better treat.

You put the Cocoa Puffs in. The milk level should come about a centimeter above the puffs. Okay. Mix it up. And at the end, you do have a little milkshake. Yeah. Which is just heaven. Oh, my gosh. Cereal cereal is good it's so good and

it's really really bad for you yeah yeah yeah but yeah i learned a lot in this the main thing that sort of shocked me and it has been talked about a lot on the internet disney won't confirm it the whole death thing where they do try and call allegedly the time of death when you are off grounds so that that death rate is not happening that is wild it's one of the most bonkers things i've ever heard and i love it and it's probably my favorite thing that i've learned about the place it's such a good fact i'm deeply concerned that because i live alone when i die i might not be found until like the rot set in you know or something like that we would have a job yeah we would reach out before the rot sets in you know or something like that we would have a worry yeah we would

reach out before the rot sets in you'd set up before the rot you'd reach out we tend to record at least once a week yeah so a week a week at most yeah a week at most we also text you yeah if you just stopped responding okay so i'm not responding like what would you do two days what would you do would you would you just be like would you oh that means a lot that you would do that that's so nice i think that's like maybe shows the quality of my friends up until this point i think so because you seem awfully touched the other thing i liked about disney world was watching all the kids melt down at around like two o'clock or something i guess like whatever nap time usually is for kids yes just losing their shit and it's just amazing to watch i mean i feel for these parents. And it's just amazing to watch.

I mean, I feel for these parents, but shit, it's funny. It is so funny. My friends just went to Disneyland because, shout out, my friend Anthony wrote a movie for Disney Plus called Prom Pack. It's so good. And my friend Rachel produced it. Anyway, so they got tickets to go to Disneyland. And Allison, Anthony's wife, was like, okay, how do we handle this? When they're starting to disintegrate in front of our eyes, what do we do?

Do we give sugar? Because that will give them a boost. But then it's going to crash. But then they'll crash. Exactly. And then do we time the crash to when we leave or do we not give the sugar? I mean, you know, there's so much to think about with these children. Yeah, totally.

I always forget when I'm like babysitting and kids are like, can we have that chocolate bar? And I'm like, of course. And they're so happy. And then like usually when the parents arrive back, that's when the crash happens. Yep. And they hate it.

They're mad at you. Yeah, they're so mad. But I've had a great time. Also, when kids have sugar, it is like they're having cocaine. I know. It's crazy how you can see it. Powerful it is like they're having cocaine i know like it's crazy how you can see it is really quickly it changes and suddenly they're sort of they are really intense it's horrible they are like drunk adults yeah just everything about them is very funny yeah so that's

the other thing i like about these theme parks is just watching families and how they interact and what they're doing and it's just a very entertaining kind of a place. And again, it's one of those, Rob was saying this the other day, that they went on a vacation and it's pretty miserable. You know, it's like not fun. But then after you're like, oh, like we did this family vacation. And I feel like that's a lot of families at Disney. Like the actual day is tough. Like you're in line all day with these kids who are annoyed that they're

in you know they need sugar on sugar highs whatever and in retrospect amazing yes in reality nightmare nightmare i always like the planning of a thing way more than the event i get so excited knowing things about to happen yeah you know going on a little holiday with rob really excited about the idea of it. Then it's actually happening. Miserable. Just true nightmare. And then afterwards you think back,

you know, it's quite nice. But the actual reality of it, just horrific. But yeah, human brains have such a, they have such a funny way of processing. They do. Events like that. Oh, no, it's fun.

We love Disney and we love Universal. Yeah, I just wanted to give Universal, it's another place out there, you know? And it's got the Jurassic ride, which is my favorite film. 30th anniversary this year of Jurassic Park. Big year for me. When you're at Universal and you hear the music, the Jurassic music, does it make you? It hits.

I'm straight back in that theater in Whangarei in New Zealand with my Jurassic Park t-shirt and popcorn and my parents there my brother's there it's just the best all right well Disney is extremely American Universal as well so I'm gonna give you two points two two percent thank you not very much thank you so much Monica I will knock on your door at least three days after your death okay three days okay how long does it take the rot to start it depends on the heat if it's like my apartment peak summer i think the rot's happening end of day one oh boy the flies are in the window yeah horrible horrific in a temperate climate it usually requires three weeks to several years for a body to decompose. All right.

We have time. Yeah, horrible. Okay, bye. Hello, it's David here again, just recording from my little apartment, actually. Just adding a little tag on the end of this episode. First up, golly gosh, I forgot to really express my thanks to Elizabeth and Patrick for taking me around Disney World. They were the best hosts I could hope for, and I only got lost once. So thank you, Elizabeth and Pat. Now, after recording the episode, I also got really worried about Africa. That's, you know,

the mini version at Epcot. Had I dreamed the whole thing up? Well, there's a piece from 2012 on allears.net that I found. It's a website and newsletter about all things Disney stuff in Orlando. Now, they describe the so-called Almost Pavilion of the World Showcase, the so-called bump in the road collection of huts between China and Germany. Now, that's where I believe I found the continent of Africa, a very tiny area compared with the official countries I'd encountered in my day at Epcot. Now I'm reading straight from all ears. The continent of Africa is made up of many poor nations, and building a pavilion at Epcot is an expensive proposition. So Disney proposed a pavilion that included a collection of African

countries rather than just one. This multi-nation concept would help distribute the costs among several countries. After much searching and many negotiations, letters of intent were signed by the likes of Kenya, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. The African pavilion was scheduled to open sometime in 83, but as negotiations continued to drag on, it was decided to build a temporary African placeholder where guests could grab a snack and pick up a souvenir. Unfortunately, the Equatorial Africa p making it difficult to carry on negotiations with the various nations and their less than stable governments. There was also the fact that many African countries simply couldn't justify spending the amounts needed to build a world showcase pavilion. So that's why Africa is now represented at Epcot by a small area known as an outpost. And that's what I had encountered. There's no New Zealand.

I'm sad about that. All right. See you next week.