Blank Check with Griffin & David - Toy Story 5

Episode Date: August 2, 2026

Woody, Buzz, and Jessie are back - and they're making us freak out about social media! Join Griffin, David, Ben, and Marie as they discuss Andrew Stanton's latest film - this summer's blockbuster hit Toy Story 5. David gets to talk about being a parent. Marie and Ben get to talk about wanting to be parents. And Griffin gets to talk about his special interest - the Toy Story franchise. Special thanks to Nick “Tiger” Wiger (Doughboys, How Did This Get Played?) and Aiko Tanaka (@aikocomedy) for help with the Japanese translations. Read Sucker: My year as a degenerate gambler By McKay Coppins Watch Please take Toy Story 4 away from me by Jenny Nicholson Read: Toy Story Confronts a Nightmare of Modern Parenting By David Sims Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don't know, Jesse. I mean, toys are for play, but podcasts, podcasts are for everything. I have to say, I don't like that line, but it's the closest thing to a line in the trailer. It feels like a trailer line, right? It's a real trailer line. It feels like a sort of mission statement line. It's a mission statement line. Now, here's what I want to say, and I felt like I had to open with a quote.

He's saying tech is for everything, right? Yes, yes. Here's what I want to say to open the episode. Toy Story in five! Oh! We did it. Oh, the sigh emanating from Marie Barty Salinas. Toy Story in five.

He's referencing the Knicks, Ben. I got it. The nine Knicks. Toy Story won the movie franchise championship and only five entries. Marie, why so sad? I just want to say that Woody wears cowboy boots. Yes. With spurs on them.

Oh. So you're saying he's a San Antonio fan? Yes, he is. All I'm saying is that Toy Story won. That's all I'm saying. Not that Toy Story the first movie. I'm saying the Toy Story won the championship. It didn't, just to be clear.

But it's interesting that you're saying that because you're saying there's a movie franchise championship. Ben and I have talked about this. And it's like what would be the competitors? Right. Is there a more consistent five movie run? I would argue Mission Impossible. I know people don't. He's going to exclude it because it has more than five?

No. Or it has to be five plus? What would you call the five? run. One through five. Like, I love two. I'm sorry. I know people don't like to.

And you're, what about... What about... What about four through eight, though? Like, you kind of go, like, the true mission... We're at eight now? Isn't it eight? I think... Yeah, it was eight.

Oh, Jesus. Okay, well, then... You know, because you could do... Four through eight is kind of... Obviously, Mission Apostle three is sort of a prolog, but, like, that's the... Eight's a wash. To me, that franchise is more impressive, maintaining quality. Or you could do three to seven and just be like,

And then they had a weird cliffhanger and I never made another one. Weird. I mean, we do have to live in a world where they botched the ending really badly. Now, Griffin. What? Take it easy just because you want Toy Story to win. Doesn't mean you have to say that they botched it really badly. It was all right.

It was all right. It was all right. I find that movie so frustrating. He's going to, anything we throw at him, he'll be like, actually turns out as bad. No, no, I want to say, I'm ready to be normal about this movie. This is not my favorite movie of the year. Why? We need like a big love.

Ready to be normal. Griffin, how many tote bags of merchandise did you bring today? One. I had one already here. Okay. And then how many pieces of Toy Story apparel are you wearing right now? Currently, three. What's the third?

You have a hat, a shirt. Oh, the shoes. I got the Adidas before they sold out. That was a multiple alarms drop, I'll have you know. Those are cool shoes. Thank you. You're welcome. Ben's just like, you know what?

I'm going to, I'm just, I'm on board. I'm just on board. I'm about to correct what you're about to ask. Well, no, I'm going to say, Griffin, you have now added a new case to your iPad. Well, I've joined the pond. I'm on the pond. I have a lily pad case. I have smarty pants and I have Snappy here on my desk.

I noticed Snappy before. Yeah. This is, um, the lily pad. It's just a case for an actual iPad. Right. That's, is that, that makes sense. Because there was a tweet going around that was. semi-viral of like, why are they producing the evil toy?

It was basically a version of, you know, the classic, like, at long last, we've created the Torment Nexus, famous from the novel, Do Not Create the Torment Nexus. At long last, we've created the Lily Pad from the Famous Movie, Do Not Create the Lily. Well, because, right, it's like, obviously you make toys of villains, but this is saying we made the device for real, the device that breaks Bonnie's brain. The thing that the movie says is right, is a flawed device. Now, I want to clarify, there. two main lily pad toys. There's this,

which is just an iPad case that you put your own tablet into. So in that case, don't hate the case, hate the tablet, right? If the tablet's causing psychological damage. Sure. The other one is like a super nerfed down, dumb,

like learn your ABC's LED tablet. I assume it does not have social network. They have held off from making anything that dangerous. Yes. Yes. But we will, I will give these to you on social, Marie. The snappy I have, the camera character, breakout, breakout star of the new film. It is a functional camera. I have been taking stealth picks the last couple of weeks, including a

snappy version of Stavi, of Tracy Letts. I have some very goofy pictures on this low-quality digital camera. I can't wait. I can't wait to, how do we get them off? Well, much like in this movie, you got hard wire. You got to plug it in. Wow. The double A gang, they all, they all need cables. Oh my God, what was I going to ask you? I had another toy story related question. Was it, do the shoes light up? They don't.

You saw a post that the shoes lit up, and I want to make it clear those were the child versions and I bought the adult versions. They don't let the adult versions light up. I wonder why. Thank God I am one size over being a child footwise. What size? I think it's seven and a half. It depends on how much flexibility I want. I think I'm a men's five.

Yeah. What were you going to ask? I was going to ask, how old is Bonnie? She's eight and a half in this film. And Blaze is supposed to be about nine, nine and a half? They say she's nine. She's eight and a half in this film. In Toy Story 4, she's starting kindergarten.

Someone assumes she's five. Okay. Okay, so three years and change. I think it should be illegal for... Illegal, she says. Illegal for eight and a half year olds to text other people. You know, there's Britain's bringing in a ban. It's the future of the world.

We all saw this film together. Basically, like a smartphone ban for any kid under 16. It seems to be the sort of future. At one point, David, you screamed, this is a movie about. I didn't scream. I whispered it to you. But it was a loud whisper. It was a, this movie's about bad parenting. I was feeling a little judgmental of these parents.

You were getting worked up. You would have done it differently. I was really upset by how all the kids just talking to strangers on the internet. Yeah, it's just one of those things So they're like, I don't know, we got out of this thing And I'm like, you know, read the manual before you maybe hand your child a smart tablet. It's like Club Penguin where you're like, this is a closed loop safe space only for children. And then of course there have been 15 years of like Club Penguin lawsuits.

Of course. But also Club Penguin was in like the beginning days of this. And this is just, you know, Bonnie's parents. I just have a lot of questions about Bonnie. Love Bonnie. Yeah. Bonnie is a great. Bonnie is a genius.

She's an incredible kid. Look, here's the thing that's working against them. They live in a world of sentient toys who are plotting at all times to do all kinds of shit that they don't know about. So that's... So true. I don't have to deal with that. I have to deal with a lot of stuff as a parent. The toys are not alive.

Working possibly against me. Yeah, you don't know. I actually do know because I'm a grown-up, yeah, with a sort of a rational brain. This is hubris that is going to bite you in the butt. When the toys turn out to be alive? Okay. It is well established that Bonnie's dad is a dope and the toys love fucking with him in particular. In the fourth one, I feel like that's a big narrative.

They find it fun. I mean, they get the cops called on it. Correct. They almost killed that whole family. Yeah, they're like driving the car and all that. Yeah, into a crowd of people. Right. I think it is the greatest bit this movie has as a sort of like large global bit across the film.

There are four movies where the toys have to be so strategic about what they do to not break the rules of the world. And in this one, they're like, no one's paying attention. No one's paying attention. And if they see something... That is their hack a little bit. They'll lie to themselves. Yeah, people are so addicted to computer. Seems like the rules are that they just kind of automatically shut down when they're seen.

Well, we'll get to them. But I would say they break it more and more. And by this point, they're kind of breaking it a lot. Like, you know, the toys are kind of animate unless they are truly in like the hands of a child. The film points a finger at a lingering question from the first movie, which is answer a question. Which is, why does Buzz shut down if he thinks he's not a toy? It's like, it's a question people have always had in this movie as sort of cool people.

Yeah. Really cool people. Cool smart people in this room. Some of our greatest minds. Even though Buzz, for some reason, is not blessed with the knowledge that he's a toy that most toys seem to be blessed with. He still has the subconscious need to go limp. And what's the internal logic there?

And I don't think they gild the lily pad on that one. I think it's a pretty simple one-line syncham. I think I'm going to go. Nope, you're saying. Oh, no. Wait a second. One of these bindings on my hands. This is the bed we made.

It's not the bed we made. It is. You said that on a prior stand-in episode. One person made the bed. There's one bed maker in the room right now. Although you don't strike me as a person that makes their bed. It's so hard. You know what?

I do like constructing things. We don't mean making a bed out of like wood. We mean like making your bed like pulling the sheets. The fact that he interpreted. that way is all we need to know. Switch telling. Griffin, can I... Depends on the day.

It depends on the day. It's a big depends on the day. Can I ask you a question? Please. Because I don't think any of us have ever been to where you live. Uh-huh. Right. Do you have, like, novelty sheets?

No. No, no, no. I have grown up bed sheets. Oh, grown up bed sheets? I honestly don't. I got to say I'm a little surprised. Yeah. Bed threads.

I can call out the company bed threads. I was, I was always a Brooklynan guy. And then I feel like they haven't sponsored the podcast in a while. Fuck there. Sorry, come on back, Brooklyn. Please, we love... Please, Brooklyn in. I need to get a new duvet.

Let's not go there with it. A very good company called Bedthreads. Romley gifted me, and then I've bought some additional stuff from them. Okay. Yeah. It's a mature brown and cream linen. Okay, still feel very woody coated to me. Maybe subtly.

Maybe very subtly. Maybe you can add some, like, red and yellow throw pillows. Sure. Kind of like Disney bound your bed a bit. Ben, to answer your question, And the other toys choose to shut down so as not to be caught, right? And obviously, in the first movie, they willingly break the rule because Woody reveals himself to be alive to Sid in order to save the day, right? But it feels like it's more like a moral code kind of thing.

And Buzz always would just go into seemingly hyper sleep without it being acknowledged. And in this one, there is the moment where the human guard comes when they're by the dock. The future buzzes. The tech buzzes. The high tech buzzes. And they go like, why did we just shut down? But they basically say that it's like a defensive protective maneuver in Star Command programming or whatever. Okay. That they enter like a shutdown mode in self-defense.

And then they start to unpack what's going on, you know? Yeah. I think I should buy some more Nick's gear. I'm trying to remember what the movie this episode is about. Oh, Toy Story 5. So what's the podcast? Blank Trek with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin.

I'm David. It's a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes, in one year, they make the least existent film of 2026 going straight to Hulu. This is true, no offense to it.

I mean, maybe a smidge of offense to it. And then within mere months... Within the blink of an eye, one might say. Yes. Have another movie open over like $150 million domestic. It sure seems like it might not hit 200, but it's going to do a very solid, solid 150 plus.

It did 17.5 Thursday night. Very good preview numbers for a movie that is. I don't know if you know this. Yeah. Or children. It's for children. Allegedly. The only animated film that has beaten that as a Thursday preview is Incredibles 2,

which made 182 opening. Is the current record holder for animated film. And it beat it by 1 million. Yes. Right? Inside Out 2 didn't beat it. No. Yeah.

Inside Out 2 was just this incredible moment. The hold. Well, the hold wasn't, but no, no, it was this moment where everything had been opening poorly. And people were, like, for like three months. The box office is dead. People were back to like, movies are over. And then Inside Out 2 was coming out and everyone was like, no one even cares about this. The trailers have been kind of whatever.

And then it opened huge and everyone was like, oh, well, all right. You know, like, and it was sort of the start of people being like, well, I guess some stuff does work. And then more and more stuff started working and, you know, kind of turned around. Yeah. Toy Story 4 had a 12 million preview. they were projecting last night that this was doing 1314, and it came in many millions above that. So it feels like it's overperforming.

In a year where the box office is doing great, and not only that, there is a robust variety of different types of movies. I love the movies. I love the movies. We loved a movie. There was people pocket watching Disclosure Day because they were like, it feels like they're not even trying to advertise this to Gen Z. And then it opened.

And in the opening weekend, which was above estimates or above projections. Then they were like, oh, and look at the exit tracking. It was 75% over 30. And I'm like, what's the problem here? Every movie doesn't have to be for everyone. Right. They successfully got 50-year-olds to go to the movies? Good. I agree. I was just a really funny post on the Blankies, right? I wanted to find it, but it's, it's, I don't know where it ended up, but someone- We've been talking about the films of Antwerstan. We have. We have in the miniseries, of course, called PODC. Podsee.

Hodsey. Someone just said that the Star Wars, the Mandalorian and Grogu, Stanee, had tipped over at their... And someone just posted the Manda Florian, and I just haven't really gotten it. That's what it feels like. The movies are back in Mandalorian. It's just like on the face down. And everyone's like, who cares? There couldn't be a better failure amongst the successes.

And it's not even that I have spite for that movie, but it just represents every bad habit of studio filmmaking for the last 15, 20 years. Even you're not quite beloved, but you're some, you know, Masters of the Universe, which you sort of enjoyed. I'm enjoying. I haven't seen it yet. Yeah. But like that one, too, it's just kind of like, nope, this form, this rulebook is going to get tossed. I don't think it's bad for that movie to flop. I think it's probably beneficial to the movie culture.

Yeah. And in fact, everything I dislike about that movie is the stuff. Is the formula stuff? It's the formula stuff that is, I think, causing it to fail and that I think we need to wash out of the system. I still think, obviously, you know, it seems Spider-Man will do well. Some of these things are gonna... Well, and we're stick around.

Today, talking about the fifth film in a franchise. And we're talking about Toy Story 5, which is potentially going to break records for the franchise. It's a movie that I think is successful and very enjoyable, but obviously, I'm happy you have it, and I'm happy people have it. Easy. I don't think it really, it does not quite justify its existence.

If you, you know, if you point a gun at me, Sure. I'm like, I don't know that it really added enough new that we had to have it, but at least it's good and at least it's doing well and it's well made. And I'm like, I'm kind of basically like, it's all good. But I wasn't like, wow, yeah, they had a whole, you know, sort of room in the Toy Story world that they'd never explored. I'm like, I feel like we're, we're hitting a lot of the stuff we've thought about before in Toy Story, but that's okay. Here's what I'll say. I think I put the other four above it. I rate four much higher than most people. I do two. You like three less than this, I assume.

I think I put this over three. Yeah, I just don't like three. I rewatched three and four after we saw five. And four grew in my estimation. Four I just love. Four is great. But four is very controversial. Whatever.

The things on the Reddit, you would not believe. I would believe. The Toy Story Reddit? Yeah, where people call Bonnie A. And I quote. The normal zone? Cot. What?

Someone did the Anthony. I almost said this to Ben before the record. And then I said, when we were in the theater. And I was like, I'm going to save this for the on-mic response. Ben is stunned silent. I don't think that's acceptable. I think that person should apologize. I also just want to say that...

To the cartoon character, Bonnie. Before you got here, I was telling Ben and David that I have spent some time on the Toy Story Reddit recently. It's a deranged place. It's a really sad place. Sad and scary. I used to be on the bluey Reddit because I just wanted to know when new episodes were dropping. And after a little while, I was like, I think I cannot see. even just headlines from this thing anymore.

These people are out of their minds. Because three quarters of them are like, childless adult here, but I love Bluing more than I love my own family. And you're just like, oh my God. Right. It's a, you know, it's a special interest or whatever. But like, my, I wasn't getting like pulling a child,

the C word vibes from the Reddit. I was getting more like, I'm like, you know, a 30-year-old man and I'm trying to decide which of my toys to bring with me to the theater. I would say that's half of the Reddit. Okay. I would say that's half and that's the sweet half. That's the sweet half.

That's the well-intentioned. That's the emphasis I'd put on that. That's the innocuous. I'm not saying sweet. I'm saying like, that's the like, oh, that's sweet. I understand that it's not at least a malevolent, but it's maybe a little. You know the Anthony Bourdain meme about Henry Kissinger where it's like you read about what he did and you're going to want to attack him with a hammer at a restaurant or whatever? Correct, yes.

people someone recently posted that with Bonnie where when you just it's once you've been to Cambodia you'll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands is the is the broadane line and it was once you read the full you know what it was it wasn't even the full plot breakdown it was that the little golden book had shipped so people were breaking down the spoilers from the story from the children's book adaptation and it was replacement once you read the little golden book adaptation of toy story five you'll never stop wanting to beat Bonnie to death with a hammer. What?

They don't like... They don't like... They're like, Bonnie is disrespectful to the toys. What? She's a child who doesn't know they're alive. Okay, all right. I think we gotta... I'm like...

We gotta pivot away from... No, I'm like actually really upset by all of us. But we said Bonnie's a genius. They're maniacs on the internet. They're maniacs on the internet. And what they don't understand, of course, is that Andy is a cuck loser and Bonnie Rocks. Andy is absolutely a cuck loser.

With every increasing film, Andy is found dead in a ditch. Bonnie is such a champion. Especially because, like, the plots of the, you know, like the first, you know, the Andy movies, you know, the way he plays, pretty uninspired. It's so uninspired. The way they portray Bonnie play. Her imagination. It's so fun.

Now, I mean, I think they also realize as they made these movies like, oh, right, that's interesting. We should have more and more fun with that, you know, like depicting the play or whatever. But the first two, you only see it from the outside. Like, there's a bad guy and then Woody and Buzz fucking kill him. Evil Dr. Porkshop. Yeah. One of the baddest guys of all time. It's a terrible map.

I mean, once you read... People are a terrible bank. Once you read about what evil Dr. Porkchop did, you'll never want to stop eating him to death with a hammer. And if you beat him to death with a hammer, you'll get a bunch of coins inside of him. Today we're talking Toy Story 5 directed by Andrew Stan, which is a fascinating case of a fifth film in a franchise

directed by someone who's directed none of the previous, but has quietly kind of been the author of this whole franchise. He's always had a hand. Yes. The reason is the one he's... The author? In so many ways he was... I mean, he's certainly been the dominant...

I think Griffin's also trying to erase the participation of one hugging fella. Here's my thing with lots of hug and Lasseter. You look at the movies he made where he didn't have everyone working with him, and you're like, huh, where is the juice? Is that cars? Is that what we're talking about? Yes. Cars not even count there.

But also, like, the first... fucking sky dance animated films that he's now overseeing. Yeah, but he's not even directing. I think John Lasser was quite vital to the original toy stories, I assume. No question. But Stanton was always involved, you're saying. Yes. Three's with three?

Three's the one he's least involved. That's the worst one. You know what? That was my take, rewatching it. It's so nasty. I mean, I've ranted about it before. Like, I just, yeah. I think it's a movie that's just like about grown-ups feeling guilty.

or about growing up, whatever. And I'm like, you need to take a pill and relax. Like, calm down. I also think the moment where they're all going to die in the furnace sucks and is ruined by a stupid Deiasex Machina that makes no sense. It makes no sense. The whole thing sucks. That movie is stupid.

And now Tarantino's out here being like, that's the best movie ever made. Why'd they ever make more? Please come on our podcast, Quentin. I respect a lot of the movies he've made. He's too busy hanging out in Tel Aviv. Yeah, that's right. Maybe someday we'll tell you what movie he almost did on this podcast.

Let's keep. But we're not going to talk. about it today. It is this weird thing, though, where, right, there's a portion of people who also are just like, that is the best ending

the franchise we'll ever have and it is disgusting. David is putting a middle finger up. To that person, the straw man. And then he successfully pivoted to a straw man. Here's the thing I like about this movie, and this is sort of

the internal battle of what you're saying. This is the first one to not even attempt to be an ending since two. Right. Yes, exactly. Four still had.

that responsibility it seemed where they were like, well, I guess we'll make it a goodbye to Woody. People are so upset at the idea that we're ruining the sanctity of the three ending that we need to have an ending that's similarly kind of emotional and built around closure. And this one is like, who are we fucking kidding? You know, I probably keep making these as long as they're right. Dana Walden said recently that this is the most streamed franchise on Disney Plus. Can confirm from my house. Right. Right. Above any other. Disney Pixar Marvel Star Wars thing. This is so infinitely valuable

to them. These characters are so beyond evergreen that this movie does feel in certain ways a little bit more like the Toy Story Shorts and Toy Story of Terror, which I love, where it's just like, let's just have another adventure. Right? Yeah, basically. It's got a defined

angle. It does. I think is smart. And it's cleaning up some nerd business. It does some good cleanup. Bring nerds. Yes. Out there. I'm taking my daughter to it on Sunday. Congratulations. Wait, what screening are you going to?

Nighthawk. When? I think noon. Because we're going with the earlicks at 11. I thought you were leaving. That night. Red Eye. No, I'm taking her Sunday.

Yeah, we're going Sunday. Okay, well, and no, I won't be at that one. I think it's noon. Sorry. But I wonder what she will make of. I'm constantly questioning what kids, like, get out of, especially this movie. What was she make of the big tech message? of the kind of like kids should play like this, not like this.

Because it's like this is a little old for like, you know, like that. I don't know that my daughter has thought too hard so far about like socializing, right? You know, which is a big part of this movie. Your daughter's very bonny coded in a lot of ways. Your daughter reminds me of Bonnie. That, that's totally fair. I know what you mean about how she plays. But, you know, this is heady for a five-year-old.

I'm not sure it'll translate. And I'm almost certain. And again, she's five. So, like, you know, she's not the only viewer of this movie. that she will not understand the the big Jesse plot. I think that's going to go completely over her head to the point of confusion.

Interesting, but she's seen too. Yeah, she's not going to get it. She's not going to get that like Jesse named her daughter after a toy. Like that's just not going to make sense to her. I love that so much. That's the one thing in this movie that I didn't like. But we could talk about it.

That emotionally devastated me. And I thought in a way that was not overstated, which I appreciated, that they didn't make too much of a meal out of the moment and that it's not the ending point. Yeah. That it is a beat. It's a beat. Are you going to name your potential future child after a toy?

I had always said I was going to name my kids Brewster and Ripley. Oh, sure. After a movie. Brewster and Ripley. Yeah, after Ellen Ripley and Brewster McLeod. Yeah. You know, after Ellen Ripley. Or Ellen DeGeneres.

That's so true. Yeah, I could name my child Little Ellen. Or David's mom. Yeah, sure. An homage. to a great woman if you so choose. Right, I should name my child after David. Why don't I consider that?

I'm not sure that Ripley's... I'm trying to remember when Ripley's first name becomes... Is Ripley's name in the first alien? I forget. Ellen, you mean? Yes. Like, does Cameron give her a first... You know what I mean?

Like, it's in the first movie, like, everyone's got, like, a last name and, like, you don't really know much about them? I think you really see the readouts. Yeah. I don't remember. Yeah. And my memory, she's Ellen from the beginning. Let's find out.

I'm Ellen. I mean, I think it's definitely harder for young boys to have toys that have, like, names that you would give your child, like, bionicle, you know, like... Well, if you call your child bionicle, like, you get put on a little list on the bed for the government, you know, just keep a eye on you. Meanwhile, my favorite toy was named Samantha Parkington, which is a totally normal name for a girl. Bionicle's also the name of the property. It's not the name of a character. Okay, what are the names of the characters? Please name a bionicle, please. I'm looking it up. but I wonder

what she will make it I'm very interested to see I'm very like intrigued to know what her take will be if she has one she also might just kind of be like you know that was great

like Jesse and Forkey and all my friends were in a movie and I had a great time the magic of these movies though is that they move fast enough and they're bright enough and there is the sort of cheat code

they have of oh you can like explore existential themes because your movie stars a cowboy a space man and a dinosaur and they're fine Like visually, you know. But I do think it's why she likes three the least.

Because three is kind of the slowest and kind of the most about like the experience of grownups. So it's a little, it's her least favorite. She never asks for it. It's my least favor. I guess I would, I think I do put this above three. Wow. Wow. I'm like, I'm working on it in real time.

I've certainly, I've only seen this movie twice. And it's been a mad rough to see it twice. Really? Griffin's seen this movie twice. and it technically was released last night. Yes. And I'm only holding two more sets of tickets. I also saw it twice.

I went with Griffin to both screenings. Yes. You sure did? You really wanted to. You're saying this like you're admitting it to the police. Let's be clear. We walked out of the theater of the preview screening and you said, is there a way to see that again before we record? Because I would like to.

You did say that. Because our screening was, you know, we're recording this. I really enjoyed it. And I really connected with the message. of talking about technology in our contemporary society. But what does they make a toy story about how podcasts are bad?

Then we're fucked. The Toy Story 6 is like Bonnie's listening to too much podcast. Toy Story 6 should be the toys start doing a podcast and pretend they're humans. Right. But they so they have to hide their identities and the higher actors to play them. And then people are like trying to push them to pivot to video

and they're like, wait. Oh my God. Christian, I love this. Yes. Because it's building off of what we established. in Toy Story 5, which is now the toys can communicate through 10. I don't think you learn Ellen's name until the camera one.

There's no readout. There's no like moment where you like see a screen being like Dallas, Ripley. You know what I mean? So like I think they came up with that later. The other characters all have first names. They have later given first names. But like they're credited just as Dallas, Rippley, Lambert, Brett, Kane, Hash, Parker.

You're looking at the uncredits read out right now. And like, and like it kind of. makes sense because of course famously Ripley was sort of written without a gender. Yes. You know, and so maybe they, you know, didn't even think about it. I think most of the characters were sort of, that was kind of the idea. That was the idea. No gender, no race or whatever. Right. And then like, obviously in Cameron's film, he's like, no, she's a mother. Yes. You know, we're going to get into all of this. Uh, and she has a first name. But even in the aliens, I mean, how many times does she say like, I'm Ellen? Like, does she say that to Newt? Like, I think

she says I'm Ripley. Every time the DJ drops a track and She does a little dance to welcome her next guest. She goes, I'm Alan. Okay, before we lose the threat... This has been an Ellen-centric series when you think about all the doors. I wonder what? Yes, go ahead. You're discussing how your daughter's going to react.

I wonder, yeah. And I'm wondering just, like, with her and kids overall, how is the screen time of it all going to connect with kids? Like, what is your daughter's relationship to tech? She watches a TV on an iPad, and she knows that, we often are like, that's enough TV on the iPad. I would say that is her only relationship. She doesn't do anything else on the iPad.

No. She doesn't even really know how to use the iPad. Like, I know that that happens at a certain point that they kind of like start to be like, oh, I get that if I, you know, scroll over to this and press this, I can. I can read political. The most she can, which she loves. ProPublica. And I'm just like, no, like, you know, you can't read that stuff like Daily Wire. That's where you're going to get your news.

Fair and bounds. Newsmax. Right. No, she doesn't even know. She knows how to press a button to make the next episode play. That's the most she's learned so far. Yeah. You know, when frickin Peppa Pig is, you know, spooling up.

What is the angle on Peppa? Why is that stuck around? I don't see the appeal. I don't either. Yeah. I'm not a fan. I don't like Peppa. Oh, Peppa herself.

She's all right. She seems like a nice girl. She's a bit naughty. Oh, okay. No, T. Interesting. She's a trouble. maker? Well, she likes jumping and muddy puggles.

Yeah, so there you know. I get it now. I get it now. It's just one of those things in Peppa Pigger where she's like, what are you like? And I'm like making eggs for everyone. And I'm just like, I like mumping and muddy puddles. I'm like saying it to myself. I'm like it's all she fucking likes. She says it every time she does. It's like her catchphrase. It's like, I'm Peppa Pig and I like jumping in muddy puddles.

Yeah. I just really respect that that the animation style for Peppa Pig is so crude. Yeah. It sure is. It's an interesting design style. I love that. It's got it's working. Getting more, more, like, uncanny valley shit. Well, yeah, that right. I don't truck with the, right, the weirdly, like, low-stake CGI, human people.

That sucks. Well, my friend Spike often refers to as a cartoon show that look like shampoo bottles. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Just human slop. Whatever you want to. Like, Peppa Pig.

Yes, I'm like, this is artfully made in its way and it's got its bit. And I find it a little grading. But I'm not like, this is evil, like, cocoa melon or whatever. They're all British. Yeah, they're British. From what kind of region? What's their accent? They seem to sort of live in the countryside.

Okay. I also just find the dad kind of annoying. I don't like that. He's kind of a buffoon. I don't like that he has the hairs. I don't like the hairs either. It makes sense because he's a pig. On his chin chin chin chin?

Exactly. He's got the kind of like spiky hair. Yeah, I don't like it. Yeah, Ben likes it. Ben laughed. I'm so, you know, I'm a blueie loyalist. And blueie is just so much better than Peppa. But Peppa's fine.

She's fine. I like Peppa. I like Gabby. Like, I mean, I don't like Gabby. like, I don't like to watch it. Gabby is in like Gabby's dollhouse. Yeah, but I mean, like, my daughter likes Gabby and I'm like, Gabby's fine. She's all right. Yeah, exactly. It's a little, like, a little loud.

When you leave the room, Gabby's like, listen, they're out to get us. The great replacement theory. I guess that wouldn't make sense for Gabby. Yeah, right, right. Ben, as someone who's going to, you know, start a family in the future, like, screen time is really something that, like, terrifies me. is like, same.

I'm like, do I become Ted Kaczynski? Mm. The minute I have children. Why not just moderate? Why must you be Ted Kaczynski all of a sudden? I mean, as a parent, I really am interested.

It's not that hard. No, it's not hard now because she can't read. Well, she's getting there, but yeah, sure. It's going to get harder when she's like. You just let him have the tablets. But the way that Bonnie gets so upset by the, group chat.

Yeah. It really, though, affected me. It made me feel like so much empathy, especially for younger generations. Of course. And that this is just from day one, they're growing up with dealing with all of this shit. I will say, just to provide the more measured take as the only parent in the room, I think that the worst of it kind of already happened when there were parents who had no experience of their own with tech. I think you're right about that.

just letting kids, because it's like, oh, your friends have a cell phone, you can have one to. And now there's a lot more awareness. And like my parent generation is a lot more kind of like, those things are like cigarettes. Like, you know, we're going to keep them away as long as possible. Right. Awesome. Not addictive. Makes you badass. You can give up any time. Doctors recommend. And like there's just a lot more hyper awareness about that. Your kid, you know, obviously, this movie depicts essentially like very low stakes, but, mean bullying, right?

And like your kid will experience social stuff at school anyway, that sucks. But yeah, obviously nobody should be socially networked. I shouldn't be. None of us should barely be so. You see how they behave? If this movie had been made 10 years ago with this subject matter, it would have been a nightmare.

I think this is the right point to make it because of what you're saying where we are in the cultural bell curve. And it's sort of in this like we've all now kind of engaged with the worst of what this can be. It's also not going anywhere. I always say this to like my friends who I made on Twitter, including this loser. This is true. The podcast wouldn't exist.

Like I'm like, I'm like in the future going to say to my daughter like, oh yeah, you know, I made all these friends on Twitter and she'll be like the website that's illegal that elected Donald Trump. This is a whole hell website that's like in history books is like, you know, a low point in society. Yeah. But you know, sometimes like there'd be good memes. Yeah. There's a lot of funny stuff. on there. Drill was there?

Drill, yeah. You don't even know about horse e-books. Oh, my God. Horse e-books. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And it'll be like, you know, when our parents were like, oh, yeah, back in the day, you would just leave the house at the age of five with a gun. Right. You know, you'd just get on your horse and ride into the woods, and the parents assumed they'd see you later. You do a quick stand by me. You learn something from it. What was everyone's screen names?

I was a brother Fallout. I still am in a lot of things. Oh, yeah. You're that's too Brother Fallup. That's me. When I was really young, my first, my hot mail address was King Daza 2000. Yeah, there you go. This is what I'm talking about. King Dazza 2000. That's, they let a 13-year-old pick his own email. Yeah, right.

It came up in our recent Patreon episode, but after the release of a Bugs Life, I was briefly Flick Lover 98. That's a little preview for free. And the full discussion can be found on Patreon. And you can have a podcast. Please subscribe. But then I very quickly

pivoted to I Am a Fool Are You 1, 2? Oh. Yes. What's that? Is that a song lyric or something? It was a bit from, I think Mad Magazine had like

a counterfeit money drawing and that was the serial number on it. And I thought it was really funny. I am a fool spelled out and then letter R, letter U number one, number two. Which when I got older read as I'm a fool are you 12. And then of course, in high school I changed it to

fly brewster fly. Right. That's it. Which was my old. original Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, twit handle. David's opening five at the loudest bags. I need some... Can we get that Papa John's order in?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, Marie and I are going to record some social videos after this. These are terrible. What are they? What are you eating? Cookie dough bites. Oh, okay. No, thank you. Papa Johns has three promotional pizzas right now, and I will read them. Space Ranger Roney, an intergalactic pizza mission awaits. This out of this world, personal pizza. That's what makes it intergalactic. That's out of this

world has double pepperoni cheese and pizza sauce and original crust served with root and toot and ranch so the pizza itself sounds pretty normal other than of course that hyper special root and toot root and toton ranch okay then we got reach for the pie this ain't just any not bad not bad at all this ain't just any personal pizza it's got italian sausage banana peppers cheese and pizza sauce served with you guessed it root and tooth ranch only in u.s markets and then the third pie is Sheriff's Roundup. This personal pizza's got grilled chicken, onions, cheese, and barbecue sauce on original crust.

And interestingly enough, it comes with a side of, let me check my notes here. Routen-Tooten Ranch, only in the U.S. in Canada, it's replaced with special garlic sauce. You guess it, Frank Stallone. Can you guessed it,

Routen-Tooten Ranch, be my new, you guessed at Frank Stallone, with any cast list? Yeah, that's good. I'll have the one with the banana peppers, please. We're getting all three. Okay, great.

we're going to get them all. I'm just trying to figure out of how to order. Okay, so sorry, just to go back to this, my screen name, I had several screen names. One of them was clothes lover 13. Clothes like one wears on one's body. Yeah, because I was into fashion. And then punky monkey oh, 990 stuck around for a while. That was that was like when I got into Green Day. And it was a combination of Green Day and, God, what was the name of the Paul Frank. Paul Frank. Julius the monkey?

The monkey. Yeah, wasn't his name Julius? Yeah, but I just was, I had all of that fucking shit. This makes sense. This checks out. Yeah. So it was a combination, combining my two interests and Ben Hosley. I had briefly Cyberben, 85.

That's great. That's great. That's great. of the net. Straight down the middle. Do you remember? Of course, you remember the net. And we'll be covering the net one day.

When we do a John Avnet series? I think there's a way to do a fun Patreon Cyber series Like sort of 90s cyber thrillers Hackers Hackers Lawmower man

You know Do we put antitrust in there? You want Never seen that one Virtuosity I'm starting our order You're proof Oh yeah throw

Excuse me I'm doing the order Because I have a I have an account Just tell me what you're getting though Because how many are we getting here I'm getting three pies right No I get four

You get four Yeah They're personal They're personal They're personal There's a Toy Story 5, create your own personal. Oh, interesting. Yeah, let's, uh, all right now.

Can we get the Root and Tootin Ranch though? Oh, we can. Okay. I think our listeners are going to love this. I'm sorry. I haven't, I haven't had Papa Johnson. Mm-hmm. God knows how long.

You can get Alfredo sauce on the side of your pizza? That sounds just perfect. What kind of fucked up individual is like, you know what? This thing that has cheese in it really needs a little bit more of? What kind of fucked up individual? His name is Papa John Schlauter. We know he's one of the most fucking. up men alive. He is a smidge. He's 15 pizzas a day.

He's made of sweat. Get two of the space rangeronies. Okay. Because that one's the most appealing to me anyway. Okay. David? Yes. I've had some bad meals in my life. I can imagine. Do you know about Hewell? I know about Hewle. Okay. This is...

A lot of its sponsor of this show. Right. They're not a supplement. This is complete food. Very easy to make and very easy to assemble. You know, for 40 grams of protein. You mix it with water or milk in about 30 seconds. and it's a complete meal you have instead of food. Not a shake on top of food. It's got 27 essential vitamins and minerals.

Got no artificial sweeteners, colors, or flavors. You can get an RTD bottle that's the Grab and Go version. That's got 35 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber. It's under $5 a meal. I like the RTDs. I got the chocolate peanut butter. I keep those in the fridge. We often record in the morning.

I don't remember to eat breakfast. I'm watching the movie. and then I'm heading out the door. I didn't eat anything. I just grab one of those. I chug it down. I feel great. I'm ready to do bits.

Right. H-U-E-L. So we've got 15% offline for new customers. Code check at Hewell.com slash check. That's H-U-E-L.com slash check. 15% off online for new customers. Thank you to Hewle for partnering and supporting our show. Okay, so maybe trying guide us back to talking about the movie.

and like the tech of it all. Like, how did the message hit with you guys? It's portraying like, looking at a screen up for a second here, if I may. So Toy Story 4 is very successful. Very successful,

although I feel like not quite the barn born burner they wanted it to be. We've talked about this. It made basically the exact same amount of money is three. Yeah, right. But there had been this big jump.

And it had been a long time since three, obviously. In between three and four, finding Dory comes out, has a huge growth from finding emo. Incredibles 2 comes out has a huge growth. Right. It made a good 250 mil less than Incredibles 2.

And it was sort of like, isn't Toy Story the number one franchise? That was the thing. It was like, does Toy Story actually have a ceiling and three established it? Right. And now it's sort of flat here. But these characters endure. They want to make another one. They make money.

Andrew Stan has said basically that they went to him and said, do you have any ideas for five? Wow. And he said, let me sit in a room and see if I can come up with something. And if something actually excites me, I might noodle with it. And he was like, I wasn't gunning to make a fifth toy story movie, but I didn't like the idea of anyone else doing it. Right. And he said, I sat down and the two things I thought of immediately were how do they react to tech?

And what if there was an island of 50 buzz layers? He had that idea immediately. And this is the thing he's always said, which is, and this is why I'm saying, like, not that I'm taking away John Lasser's credit as a director, on the first two movies, but that he has been the main screenwriter of all but three. Stan is the guy who writes the text of these characters, and most of the big ideas

tend to trace back to Stan, including Forky, our greatest friend, who Marie has constructed and placed on her desk. Yeah, so David's wife is sitting on my desk right now. She is very quietly and respectfully. And so he built from there,

and then once he had written the script, he was like, this is what I find interesting. If you guys want to make this, I'd happily direct this. If this is too weird for you, totally understand. He goes ahead and makes it. He appoints Kenna Harris to be his co-director, which we've talked about is kind of an apprentice position,

but really tried to elevate them on this film. And they have a co-writing credit on it. Correct. And said that he felt like, I don't want to just be like a dude in his 50s or 60s, like, steam rolling this franchise. I need to get, like, a younger voice in here. I need someone who grew up with these movies.

and now works at Pixar and sort of talked about it as a Woody Jesse dynamic. And the two of them have said that when they started writing it, they were much more kind of binary of,

well, tech is bad and the movie is about them defeating tech. And they said they kept getting to like the halfway point of the script and realizing LilyPad's a really

uninteresting character if all of what drives her is get rid of the fucking toys. Right. And so they had the hook of, well, what drives LilyPad? she thinks that she's actually better for Bonnie than the toys are.

She thinks they're outmoded, but she's still serving the same function, which is to help her connect. It would be different if she was actively like, I want to ruin a kid's life. You would kind of be like, this doesn't, that kind of breaks the sort of universe

because, like, the toys are always ostensibly there to serve the child. They know that that's their sort of deep purpose or whatever. I think it was more that she's so against the toys that she doesn't even notice that she's harming. Bonnie was the kind of thing. If that ran throughout the entire movie,

they found it dramatically flat. Of course. And I was, as the movie was starting up, I was kind of like, oh, boy, is it just them fighting a thing? Because then it's just, right. That was my greatest concern from the trailers,

and I heard them say that in an interview, and I felt a little relieved. And I do think that's the smartest thing the movie does, is like, you're not beating tech. It's here to stay. Yes. There is good that can come from it. Right.

I would say, as a parent, I've already encountered people who are trying to keep their kid from ever looking at a screen. Impossible. And it's just sort of like, well, that's silly. And in my opinion, I'm not, you know, I know people are very silly. Ted Kaczynski. Yeah, that's one. Moving to a cabin.

But like, every school has like a smart board. My wife's a teacher. She uses a smart board. Smart boards are screens. This is like a smart blackboard, basically? Exactly. It's like, you know, it's become the default in a school. It's just like, you know, they can put lots of things on it.

can put, you know, just stuff they've written on it, but they could also show you a video once in a while or whatever. And I'm like, we all watched videos in class. Like, this is not, this is just a smoother. Yeah, you know, this is a streamlined way of a thing that's always existed. But there are some parents who are so worried about screens that I, you know, they're just like, well, I really don't want my kid to really ever look at a screen. And it's kind of like, well, that's ridiculous. We live in a society. Right. Yes. And I was happy this movie, right, did not just charge at this as like. And it's like. And it's just charge at this as like, like, well, text's evil and kids should never, like, yeah, you know, like, it's a, right,

it's a war we're going to fight. There's absolutely balance, but I as an adult will say that I've not been participating a social media really anymore. I don't know when I hit that point. As we often would say, maybe the only person who knew how to do social media. Very good at it. I would just check in from time to time. But at this point, I just, yeah, I'm really off it.

It just makes me feel bad. It is really funny that your Twitter profile picture is still a picture of your peers dear. That is, see, this is what we're saying. That's good at it. And I also feel like, too, with just, like, the texting of it all and how that's become so much more prevalent in our lives. Yeah. I struggle with it. Yes.

I really do. I do as well. I find it overwhelming. And I find that lately I've been really struggling to even just keep up with it. I, like, kind of just can't deal with this. See, I enjoy texting because it's social, so it kind of like, it feeds my extrovert energy of, like, I like to have social contact. I enjoy texting just fine. I mostly use it to bully eight-year-olds, obviously.

So, like, the movie resonated for me in that regard. David's on the pond all the time. He's playing, what's it called, Frog Rush, or? I can't say, I remember. Turtle Rush, maybe? Yeah. Turtle? So it was a tag or something?

There's something with turtles. Turtle tag, maybe. Yeah. But I hear you. I mean, you know, it's what they call. frictionlessness, right? Like, it is bad. Anything that's frictionless is increasingly just like,

this is a big thing in gambling, right? It's like, it's different if you go to a place, you gamble some money. Like, it's not like, we're not saying like, that's, that can be harmful and that can make people crazy.

But like, if you can just kind of like bet a thousand dollars by going like, boop, like it's a little too easy. There's no friction. And then suddenly you can get yourself very hooked very quickly. My colleague McKay Coppins,

you know, the Atlantic who is Mormon and thus banned from gambling wrote a whole article about how basically the Atlantic were like, what if we stake due 10 grand to see what happens if you start gambling on your phone? Like just to explore like this new thing. And he got fucking addicted. Like, you know, like, he's fine. But like he writes about like, yeah, man, like very quickly.

Like I was like going to the bathroom to check my phone to like, you know, like look at the day's best. It's serotonin hit. Of course. And it's too easy. Too easy. It doesn't feel real. Obviously, right. So especially with your kids, you worry about, you know, exposing it.

Yeah. Yeah. I think this movie has kind of the right balance of those things. And I think a problem that the Toy Story franchise is always fighting against is that, too, which I like as much as any movie ever made, is, reaches such a satisfying, dramatic point, which is Woody and Buzz have come to an understanding of their own inevitability. Yes. It's why three irritates me. Yeah. Two.

And five, I think you will agree, basically has the same ending as two. It's Jesse having the realization or whatever. But it's the same thing where they're like, right, I'm a toy. Yeah. Yes, your kid will grow up. It's about the journey. You know, that we all have to accept that. And we're going to have a great time while we're being played with.

And like, that's what it's all about, baby. Then, of course, three just makes the huge mistake of being like, in my opinion, the huge mistake. Uh-huh. Of being like, well, someone. time has passed. We should explore what happens when Andy is older and has to give away the toys. And I'm like, I don't know, or you could do what

Five does, where it's just like, I don't know, Bonnie's still a kid. Who cares? Well, three, I think, the thing I bump on in three is that it feels like, A, it's just kind of taking subtext from the first movie, the first two movies and making a text. Right. And B, it is

a lot of it's a double beat of one and two. It's stuff that the characters have like come to understand, but now they're facing it. Right. And it's less interesting because they've already expressed their understanding

of what's coming for them. And I know they've always said about three words like, well, but it's different to say you understand what's happening and then to actually live through it. They say in three, right?

Right. That's like the line. Right. I think what's different in this and what I liked about it and I thought was a good distinction is Jesse's kind of crisis is does it even matter?

It's not like, is it coming to an end? Because she has this thing of like, I've been through two kids. already. I know that this ends. What I'm questioning now is it's less about are we going to be thrown away and does that make me feel useless? It's more about whatever they sort of serve as an idea. And this gets into the sort of stretchiness of the toy story metaphor of like, how are toys supposed to help a kid? She's like, are we oblivious? And is this kid suffering? And am I going to be

forgotten? And there's just like no impact. And I think to a certain degree, I was saying to Ben, I think, you know, the Toy Story movies change what they map onto. Like, what I like about Toy Story is that they're always 50% literally just about what if you were a toy. Like exploring the internal logic of that and the comedic and the dramatic possibilities. And then the other 50%, and Jane Nicholson did a great video about this when Toy Story 4 came out, is they don't all ascribe to the same kind of mapped metaphor. One is sort of about being a child. Two is sort of about being a parent.

I think three is more about religion. Four is about retirement. I'm lost. Three is about religion? Well, I think it's about like the idea of reckoning with a god who has abandoned you, but it's also about reincarnation and new ownership. I thought it was. And Lhocco is like a cult.

Okay. I mean, I thought it was like, would it be cool if we did like a prison escape movie with toys, you know? Yeah, that's the best stuff in the movie. My problem with Pixar, as I say in my review. It's not just Toy Story. It's inside out. It's inside out in Toy Story, the biggest culprits.

There's other ones that all, I can... Is there like... Well, this inanimate thing is alive and you should feel guilty. That you're killing them by ignoring them. And, like, it's something I struggle with very much in the Toy Story movies. And it's why I don't like the Jesse plot in two, where she's like, I was abandoned by my owner. And I'm like, no, your owner grew up like a normal person and stopped using toys. And Jesse's like, I was killed.

That can still hurt. I'm traumatized. She's not saying she's killed. There's a different. between saying I'm traumatized because that hurt me and saying I was killed. She's not killed. The movie presents it as a traumatic, horrible thing that happened to her when toys leave her, like, dresser and she has normal things teenage girls have, clothes and makeup and

things. And the movie just, I have always, I ranted about this on the page try. It irks me. It really drives me crazy. I think we're just hearing a lot of guilt you have. Yeah, exactly. Unprocessed guilt. This is what a guilty man would say.

Obviously, the most audacious thing they ever did was in. inside out where they're like, when you forget about an imaginary friend you had when you were a kid, that's murder. He's dead. You're just like, I'm sorry. I didn't realize he had feelings. I have the exact opposite read of these things, which is I think they're about the sort of existential dread of being in a universe that doesn't consider that you have consciousness. And so these things are not being done to you in a way that is hurtful. These things are being done to you out of like obliviousness.

This is not real. I think there's... I also think there's... There's a nice sentimentality to it. There's gentle. Well, it should be. Right. But then, like, Jesse's like, I can't do it.

You know, like, where you're like, right, she's like a whole person. And that's why I like for, because it's kind of about, like, should we reckon with that these are conscious beings? Yeah. Like, but that's... I assume also why fans got mad at it where it's like, well, now we're just sort of breaking the convention because it's like, what, now would he can do? just kind of live where he wants.

But that's the distinction to me. Is he even a toy? I feel like what you're describing falls a little more into Velveteen rabbit territory. Which is like, right, the ultimate original guilt trip. Like, you're just teaching your child like, right, when you stop loving your toy, like, it's sad.

You literally killed him. He's thrown on the fire because you infected him with your human sickness. Right? Like, that's what that is. Oh, God. I'll never read my kid that fucking evil book. I'll tell you that much.

What I've always loved about Toy Story is, Right. That's the metaphorical element where you're sort of discussing, right, and how it relates to, like, the human condition. And then the other 50% of it

is quietly this sort of bizarre sci-fi premise. Right, which I like. Why are they alive? And what is it? What's the outer boundary? Are they immortal? Like, they don't need food or air.

No. But they can be destroyed. Yes. And then they're dead? Right. I guess if they are destroyed. I think, And also if you put them in a box, they're sort of like, they're not quite dead, but they seem to basically kind of go coma.

There's also the forky of it all where... Well, then, and then forky of the greatest character of all. You become a toy if you are played with? Like, he's made by a child and he is the child's plaything. So thus, he is cursed with consciousness. Right. Right. Like, you know, and, you know, why I love forkeys, he's like, I reject consciousness. I wish to be trash.

I'm trash. Right. Trash is warm. Trash is safe. I'm wearing a forky t-shirt that says love. is trash, which is, of course, against the message of this movie, which is Forky is happily married, although, of course, there are struggles in a relationship. There are, although I, to Forky Trash is good. So maybe Love is Trash is a positive message for

him. You know what? You're right. That's a very positive read on my T-Shed. Right. Like, he likes Trash. Yeah. He's pro-Trash. He is made of trash. He's made of trash. He's made a trash. I have a question for you, Griffin. Please. His wife's name again? Karen Beverly, duh. This is the great bit is that Forky is, of course, a spork. Yes. They made him. they designed him, they showed him to the child of a Pixar employee, and they said, what would you name this character? And the child said, Forky. And they went, it's funnier that the kid gets the utensil wrong, right? Of course. And then they similarly designed Karen Beverly, and they went, this kid's going to name her Knifey. And they said, what's her name? And the

kid said, Karen Beverly. Pretty fine. So that's why they were just like, that is the line of a kid. Go with the logic of what an actual kid would do. Don't explain it. Absolutely. Forky. So you had like a list of topics you wanted to address on this episode. One of which was, Forky status is a gay icon within the Disney. Forky's become a queer icon. There's a lot of, there's a lot of Forky Pride stuff. Is that so? Which I've been fascinated by.

Your shirt that says Love is Trash has a big rainbow on it. So he's got a rainbow on his foot. Oh, you're right. There's a rainbow sticker on his foot. That's why Forge is what I'm trying to figure out. LGBQ fork icon. There is so much Forky Pride merch. And it's not just Forky with a rainbow on its foot.

It's like Forky holding a pride flag. This is what I'm trying to figure out. Is it like it's just the Babadook where they were just kind of like, I don't know. We just decided he's ours. We claim him. He's speaking to the culture in some way. And speaking of cultures and respectful relationships to cultures through the Toy Story franchise. Yes.

Marie, of course, on her trip to Japan, got for me one of my grails. Samurai Woody, the cowboy. Which Ben has on his death. You've been added to. And we're going to pull the string, which I promised them is not offensive. Yeah. Okay. He said something in Japanese.

He did. Do we know that is he saying like, Did you hear the samurai sort of out of breath on that one? That's very Tom Hanks. Is he saying the classic woody phrases or is he saying something completely different? I guess that's my question. Reach for the sky, samurai sword. Right.

I don't know. If anyone, if any of our listeners listening. Like is he saying there's a snake in my boot? You know what? I should record these and send them to Wiger and get him to translate. Can Wiger speak Japanese? He speaks Japanese. We found this out recently.

Wait, what? When Wiger went to Japan, he's like, of course, I'm bilingual. Yeah. Hey, buddy, it's Wiger. Thanks to Griffin for the shout-out. I don't want to overstate my proficiency with the Japanese language, but I have been learning, and a big part of that has been my studies with my tutor. So because my tutor is also a professional translator,

I figured we just throw her into the mix and see if she can help us puzzle these out. Uh, konichua, Tanaka Sensei. Hello. Uh, so are you familiar with the toy story franchise? Oh, yeah, I've seen this. Yes. Did you see Toy Story 5, the most recent entry?

No yet. You, of course, know Woody, um, the, the cowboy, the protagonist of this series. Yes. There is a samurai Woody toy. Um, and it, it has some lines of dialogue. And so I'm going to play these for you one at a time. Okay. And then if you can just, um,

talk them through what your, what your translation might be. Okay. So here we go. He said, Just, Wait, Oi, Yamero. Choto is little. Mm-hmm.

Matta, wait. Yamero, stop it. So he said, wait a little, stop. Got it. Yes. Would you have any idea with a content? Like, is that a common Japanese phrase, you might say? Wait a minute, I wouldn't say it because it's masculine.

Yamero, when do I say that? Can you stop if somebody was, I don't know, pulling my hair or something? I don't know. Oh, so I wonder if what's happening is that's Woody the doll, kind of being like, hey, stop pulling my string. Something, yes. Do you think it's maybe, okay, so that's a little bit of fourth wall breaky there. And directly addressing the person playing with the, the, the person playing with the, all as if they are the toy.

Maybe. Okay. All right. Next up, let's listen to this one. And again, is the samurai Woody, so we have that little sword clash at the end. Yes. He said, Hesley, Kowse, run, as if you're wind. So this is like, bull's eye run like the wind.

Is like, that's, that's like his, he's, he's, right like the wind, I guess is what they would say in English. Yes. So this is like the thing he would say to his horse. And this is a Woody catchphrase. You know the horse bull's eye? He appears in the second one when Woody has a bunch of additional friends. Ah, I see.

That's unnecessary context, but there you go. All right. Let's see, let's see what this third one is. Okay, what is being said there? He said, oh, yo, yes, y, y'est, y'em. Yeah, yeah, let me. you're going to get there. You say, stop it, stop it.

Yeah, me te kreta. I'm telling you to stop it. So again, scolding the person, pulling his string. Something, yeah, he's telling somebody to stop something, whatever they're doing. There again, it's directly addressing the kid, which you would not do unless you were trying to scare them. I mean, if you're samurai, I don't know. Yeah, that sounds. The point is, it doesn't feel samurai specific, right?

Yeah, it doesn't. have a samurai spirit in it. Okay, all right, we got one more. Yeah, he said, you beat me. Oh, yeah, it's a dirty hand. You used dirty hand, so he did. You used a dirty hand. Wait, does this mean a literal dirty hand?

Like the child is filthy? No, like, you know, when you compete, you do it right? And sometimes they cheat. cheat. Oh, okay. That was like whoever was doing something to Woody was using like a cheating. Like a dirty trick. Yeah.

It might say in English. Got it. Yeah. This is a kid's toy though? This is a child's toy. I mean, perhaps the samurai theming is meant to age it up a little bit. But I don't know. It seems like only one of these is at all specific to Woody as we know him, which is his ride like the wind line.

Wait, Toy Story 5 was shot in Japan? No, there's not really a Japanese connection. It's just this toy just happens to exist. Oh, got it. Well, Aiko, thank you so much. Before we go, I did want to add, this is a movie podcast. And you are, in addition to being a translator and an excellent teacher, you are an actor and a comedian. And in fact, you played one of the cowgirls at the starting line in the film, The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Dream.

Yes. Your line was SETO, is it? Yeah. So we're supposed to start the race. Yeah. Somebody else says, my friend Kyla says, ready. I says, SETO, another person said, go. Because as you know, in Japanese it's set is seto.

We have to enunciate the vowel. But people are complaining they're like, she's saying, set go. She's saying it wrong. I'm like, I don't think Universal Studio would publish the movie was my, you know, wrong thing. Right. Yeah. But I lost the voice. I don't think my voice was right.

I think they might have done ADR. Got it. Because I lost the voice because so much fume and gas. Do you have any specific story you remember from your time? Because you have a couple of scenes. One of them is with Vin Diesel.

I'm not sure if he was actually there. I was with this rapper, actor, Little Bow Wow. Yes, yeah. And he's, my size, but he was so popular. Like, all these women were around him. So I was really shocked by that. Like a short king. He's a short king, and he was just so popular. So shocked.

Like Toy Story, a franchise that will be around for a long time. Yeah. Iko, thank you so much. Uh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There you go. Not really very illuminating. Clips don't seem to be in character for Woody and frankly don't make a lot of sense. Seem to mostly be scolding children

for playing with a toy improperly. Anyway, my review of Toy Story 5, Bonnie's mom, thicker than a hand-spun milkshake. Bye, buddy. It's many mysteries to that, man. the greatest man there ever was. Yeah. Number one person tied with Mike Mantrell.

Sure, of course. Let's not forget. He's going to be, Mitch is going to be so angry about the three seconds where we said Wiger was number one. Luckily, he never listens to like that. Does Mitch speak any other languages

besides English? Boston. Boston, okay. Yeah. Right. Yeah. No, I couldn't think of a better job. Yeah.

Okay, so this movie, the plot, what is it? It opens, I love the opening of this film. It opens with a desert island. Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. First person POV inside the Buzzlighter helmet. A cargo, right, okay, yes, okay.

You scan the wreckage, you hear the breathing. It's similar to Buzz's awakening in the first toy story. Right. But then you see, right, like a cargo ship that's turned over, the beach is littered with Buzz Lightyears, and they all start to turn on and activate. And these are the new high-tech buzzes. Right.

These are Wi-Fi-enabled buzzes that look very much like the original buzz, but have kind of a shiny airplane job. And they've got a device in their chest. Their symbol glows. Yeah. They're networked. Everything's got the internet now.

And they function as like, I don't know, they are lesion. They are like a hive mind. They have a horridious situation. And you just have this thing of all of them like waking up and waking each other up, like very lost post crash. Like, are you okay? They don't really have language yet. No, they don't speak.

It cuts to them at night. Like this is. is already a surprising cut to just be like, where are we in this? How much of this were you prepared for? Because I assume you've been scanning the leaks and the rumors. Yeah, yeah. Because I had no idea. I knew the movie had an iPad.

Same. Also, I believe they screened this opening at CinemaCon last year. Like, they had this done. Sure. And so a year ago, there were some stories that were people like, the opening of Toy Story 5 is really bizarre. I'm curious to see what this movie is now because I was not expecting this. It's an MMA fight and not MMA, sorry, wrestling.

It starts with an AW wrestler kicking. Yeah. I want to say someone in the Reddit, because I may... Sorry, I'm just watching Ben Fix Samurai Woody. Marie caught me. I just was trying to make sure he's comfy. He really are looking at him like, he's a little person, and I'm like, you know what? Ben's glowing.

Sweetie. What was the thing I was going to say? Oh, people were calling out that I said AEW instead of WW in the Disclosure Day episode. Sure. And they were kind of calling it out positively, I feel. No, just that I used a different specific, that I didn't go for the most obvious wrestling league. And they said, like, how funny would it be if Griffin got really into wrestling and went to the AEW

all or nothing? I want people to know. You went. You went with Singer, right? I went with Matt Singer, Brendan McDonald, friends at the show. They took me to my first ever wrestling event. It was really fun. And I sat next to a Blankie who bought me drinks in a T-shirt.

I just want people to know. I had a great fucking time, and I like Orange Cassidy. Is this going to be your sport now? I feel like you've always had a little... It's closer to theater. It's wrestling. It is right then. And that's why.

It's sketch comedy. Let's call it what it is. Athletic sketch comedy. It's very athletic. They're impressive athletes. They do all kinds of crazy stunts. And Orange Cassidy's bit is that he's a guy who's sort of like too cool to wrestle. So he shows up wearing a Canadian tuxedo and sunglasses.

His hands in his pockets. And he does crazy moves refusing to take his hands out of his pockets because he doesn't want to show any effort. Right. It's a pretty funny bit. Um, yes. But it's light years all make a campsite. They make a fire. Then they look up at the night sky.

They see stars and they start remembering Star Command. I think this is such a good bit that the movie finds a way to like exploit like seven different ways across the runtime. I just feel like they could have shouted out Lightyear more. You know, it's an important movie. It's part of the canon. But David, these are the toys, not the man that the toys are based on. I'm just awaiting Light Year too. Do you know?

Do you know I have it on good authority that they have. had a trilogy planned. Of course they, I mean, that makes sense. I'm sure they thought it was going to be a big deal. And the second movie, we add the aliens. Right. Oh, like the, like the clock. Are the aliens not in this one?

The first time I saw it, I thought they were not in it at all. And this time I looked, they're in some of the group shots early, but they're like, even when they go to the garage, they're not in the box. Yeah. Enough of them. Yeah. They've had their time. It's cool how the buzzes are able to climb up the crane.

by like climbing on each other like zombie style. I love seeing the action of these new buzzes. I like that, yes, they can sort of form like larger shapes and things. I was a little like afraid of them. They're scary in a good way. They're too powerful. Yeah, sure. Let's stop them.

Yeah. I think we need to stop them. I think they can be weaponized. They're drones. Well, I think look, the limitless like you can't hurt you can't, you'll hurt yourself thinking about it. These toys have access to the internet now. They're sentient beings. They seemingly can do all kinds of things online without us knowing.

Wait, are they on our Reddit commenting? Well, this is the thing I actually... I actually discussed this with someone. Yeah. And I was like, it's something a movie doesn't want to deal with them. That's fine. But I was like, if toys were talking to each other on the internet, as they basically do in this,

that's actually creating a paper trail, which I feel like kind of violates there we can't be seen being alive. It's like... At a certain point, the government might kind of be like, hey, like, there's like other beings talking on these apps. Like, what is this? But that's already started in three.

I mean, Trixie, the Kristen Schall character, does have a texting relationship with other toys. Yes. She's emailing, at least. Yeah. Trixie, I feel, is the most Marie-like of all of the characters. She doesn't really... She has, like, a line in this, maybe.

She's got a couple jokes. She does. Like, Jeff Garland's character is, silenced, unsurprisingly. He is still there. Silenced for speaking the truth on how he wanted to hug people as well or whatever it is he did. He kept saying, ow, my vagina! On set, that was his joke.

Who do you relate to the most? Rex? No. Well, in the early films, it was Jesse and then Forky. I unsurprisingly relate very hard to Fork. My face when I learned Jeff Garland was not going to voice anyone in this movie. What is it that you're showing? The uncanny vats.

They made like a CGI Giff, Jeff Garland for like the finale of the Goldbergs because they'd already fired him, but like they didn't want to like kill the dad off. I think they did. Am I wrong in thinking they did one season post his death? Like post the character death? I don't think. But that was to finish off the season they already had shot. I'm not even sure that he died though. Or did they just kind of like, you know, say like, he's on vacation. My memory is that they've not in.

Let me. Yes. Yes. He died off season. Right. Like, yeah, but he was used for a graduation episode in season nine. Right. Because they had fired. There was a season 10 where Wendy McLevin, Covey got like a big pay raise, deservedly so.

It's so funny. Because she became the only parent. But now, show us your impression. You were about to go into it. Yeah, Marie, can you take a picture of this? No, he's not facing me. You got to face me. Basically, he was so annoying and would just make hypersexual jokes all the time to the cast and crew

that for years they built... I'm getting! It's funny! For years, they did a thing where they basically would shoot him out of every episode in one day, isolated from most other actors. And then finally, it got like,

that's too extreme, but they had a bunch of episodes that already had been written with the assumption they'd get the one day out of him for the end of that season. So they finished it with weird CGI. And I think they threw in some outtakes

and some whatever. You know, like, they did what they patched it together. He doesn't talk in this. The potato heads have been, recast, they also only have a couple lines. I think this is kind of smart, and I heard Stanton and Harris talk about this, where they were like, the cast has gotten too big.

It's an embarrassment of riches. Anytime we cut to the Bonnie's room, we try to put them all in the same frame so you can at least see everyone. But, like, realistically, everyone's getting three lines in this movie outside of our main cast. Totally. Who do you relate to, or who do you feel like you are in this universe?

You are... Bo Peep. You are so broke. Because she's like, I'm fucking Survivor. Griff, you're the toy story expert here. Is there a David coded

Toy Story character? I'm not thinking too hard about. Sometimes I'm potato head. I was going to say potato head. I'm a married spun. I'm a married spun. He's too grumpy. I actually, like, potato head in the early movies,

I'm kind of like, can you fucking relax a while? He's always so down on everything. He sure is. Well, he loves his wife. He does. He's got three children. Yes.

The monkeys. The aliens. Oh, the aliens. The monkeys are in his butt. Right, the monkeys are in his butt. These are all important things to know. You're also a little bit of ham, I think. Sure.

Just don't know it all. Ham in those early movies is also kind of just like, kind of an ombudsman type. Like he's always kind of in the mix and organizing and stuff. I don't know. Ratsenberger was always, of course, the Pixar Good Luck charm. He was in every film. And then since Lasseter was outstead,

he stopped doing them. And I did notice that his billing is very low on this movie. Uh-huh. Does he have a line? him says something or other. He says a couple things and I was like, that's really similar to a joke from three or that's really similar to joke from four. I am wondering if Don Rickles' style, they did just use outtakes for him on this one and paid him. Interesting. And he wouldn't come in. It's pure speculation on my part, but I noticed that the billing order of the end credits was not alphabetical and he was all

the way down at the bottom. Yeah. Well, he noticed. He noticed something. Sluth over here. Yes. Did you make a post on the Toy Story Reddit about this? No, I refuse to engage with that place. Good for you. It's a place for heathens and maniac. I'm Duke Caboom. You are not Duke Caboom. You're not Duke Caboom. That's who I am. You're not Duke Caboom.

Why not? Because Duke Caboom is like a failure. Wow. With an inflated ego, you know? Yeah, but he's, you know, he's come low and he's coming. I guess I'm not really good. You're not Duke Cabo. He's great character.

We love him, but you're not Duke Cabo. Okay, I'm just trying to think of characters. I'm the doll from four. What's her name? Dallies. Gabby. You are kind of Gabby. You're a mean girl.

She's kind of like lost in her, right? Like she's never been able to escape high school even away. You know what I mean? Like she's one of those people who's just kind of like watching the Mets on her laptop. Yeah. Love the Mets. One last night. Beat the Phillies.

David's where I don't care about the Phillies. Yeah. Let's go Mets. Yay. Just to finish this loop, Timothy Dalton, not back as Prickle Pants. Oh, really? I didn't notice that. Was he not in four either?

I feel like had he not departed the role already? He was in four and in Toy Story of Terror. He, someone else voiced the character for Forky asked a question. And it's a different guy who's doing it for this. And I looked up this guy and I was like, what do I know this guy from? And the answer is he played Jeffrey Epstein in the Netflix movie about the Prince Andrew interview, which is when I watched that film, it's a non-speaking role. I was like, this is the worst role you could ever have as an actor.

You are just physical double for Jeffrey Epstein in close-ups, non-speaking, walking through Central Park with Prince Andrew. Can I just read a great, great Ben Hosley tweet out? Please. I've just been scrolling through his feed. One of our finest. This is from April 2021. Vanity license plate that says Fang. God, he's so, he never misses.

We're so lucky to have him. And he never misses. Ben, can you talk about some of the things you liked about this movie? Because I feel like you were surprised by how pro you were. Great jokes. I thought this was really funny. The parents, when Bonnie and Blaze are finally connecting towards the end, and the parents are watching.

And when they start to come in, they're like, get out of here, act normal. This is Ben's favorite moment. He did the Leo point at the screen last night when it happened. Like, it's your favorite part. Well, we should talk. know, I know that feeling a little bit when you're like, when I brought my daughter over to someone's house for a play date

and you are kind of doing the, like, it's like, we're introducing the fish to a new you know, tank and we'll see if she can thrive or, you know, where you just they kind of just like run off to their room and you're like, good, good, great, great, great, great, great. Like, they're doing it, they're doing it. As your daughter famously says, I shy. Yeah,

your daughter does say I. My daughter does say I. My daughter says that too. Yeah. Our daughters have that in common. When we go to Bonnie's room, We open with the wedding being staged, I feel like, or very quickly get to that. Forky and Karen Beverly are getting betrothed. Bonnie's in a phase where she just wants to watch marriages all the time. You're reading another Ben tweet?

That's so good. I ate too many pasta and my apt is small? I don't know what that means. That is March 13th, 2020, so it's right before locked up. Maybe you're just kind of like, you know, exploring like what it felt like to kind of be carb maxing and not being able to go out. My apt is small? Apartment, I assume. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Feathers are bone hair, right? That's a, you know, that, I mean, that's just what's bouncing around that knocking at his all the time. What a brain. What a brain. Feathers are bone hair. Bonnie's in the stage where she's really enjoying, putting on fake weddings. And so Forking and Kevin Beverly are getting married, which is the thing the movie treats as, if Bonnie gives you a wedding, then that counts. It's legally binding.

But also prickle pants, if he's officiating, it's legally blinding because there was one playtime where he was a haunted priest, I think, or haunted reverend. He's ordained. Right. Yes. Yeah. We're in the, right, in the sweet bonnie vision to the, you know, kind of chalk. It's like kind of pastely, little golden book style, which is really cute. I thought it was clever.

We've never gone into playtime vision in this kind of way. No, because in two, you see Andy's, is it two or three? No, it's three that begins with a recreation of play from prior Toy Stories. Yes. But it just looks like an epic movie. It doesn't have like a style beyond the style we know. And I would say that's what we've done. Like if you go to play, it just becomes...

The buzz video game and two is like, you know, it just looks like Toy Story. I think this is like a really, really cool visual choice. And I like that it's always a murder mystery that they imply that there's always a who poisoned blank to these wedding ceremonies. to my playtime as a child. Oh, I thought you were going to say to your wedding. Well, no, but no one died. But it was always like soap opera level. Sure.

Like, people were having affairs. There were weddings. There were secret children. This is a big thing about Bonnie. There were murderer. The problem with Andy that gets exposed more and more as we're deeper into the Bonnieverse is that Andy is incredibly non-specific.

Beyond just how creepy he looks as like early CGI human. He does look awful. It is like the Pixar people all had children who weren't yet at this age. Yeah, I mean, Andy likes cowboy because he like Woody, so he wears a cowboy hat. And then he likes Spaceman because he like Buzz, so he wear a helmet. I'm going to read another Ben tweet. Okay, good.

November 2019. Mm-hmm. I hope the Star Wars universe reveals the chocolate planet. This is what's incredible. They're all good. Ben would just sit down and just spit out a thought like that. And he would... You know, every few weeks.

He would take his time. Yeah. But you'd always... Kind of check in from time to time. Right. They always had the tone of imagining Ben just sitting in his study, stroking his chin, and then going, huh. And then sharing this missive with the world. Do you know that like GIF of like a guy with like a quill?

Yes. And it like is on fire because what he's got to write is so fire. That's always so funny. That's like every one of Ben's tweets. All of Ben's tweets feel like they were written in ink with a feather. Yeah, 100%. Or I'm sorry, a bone hair. Right.

Right. Yeah. Okay, so, all right, what's happening? Oh, yeah, Forky is married. Forky, you know, I love Forky so much, but, you know, relegated to minor character here. He gets good jokes. Gets a couple of guys. I have no offense at this.

I'm not defensive about it. I think he gets good stuff to do. Forky had a movie. He had a movie, exactly. Yeah. And I think this movie very smartly is like, let's really lock in on four kind of main characters and then our double-a gang, which we'll get to. The thing I was going to say is, this is another thing that feels like a nice little corrective

cleanup. A thing I don't like in three is the subplot of Buzz has spent 10 years trying to build up the courage to hold Jesse's hand. It feels so infantilizing. It is. Well, they are toys and their romance is tough to imagine. I agree with you.

I don't like this. I don't like my Buzz being a bitch. No. But Buzz, this is sort of addressed in both three and four, right? Buzz's crush. Like, what are the other... His crush develops at the end of two. In three, it is, he has spent 10 years, in a toy box with her not saying anything,

just being awkward. And at the end, he accidentally holds her hand and they look at each other. And four, they're like kind of together, but they don't get that much time. Four really doesn't know what to do with Jesse. Yeah. Which is my biggest gripe with four.

And then this one, I like that it's like, he's jealous that he hasn't gotten to do the wedding with her. They are clearly in a relationship, and they have a work relationship as well. Do you know, just think, like, the topic of romance in these movies, between toys is just it's a naughty topic. This is my other take that I shared with Ben

is I think this is kind of like the romance movie because I think what Jesse is working through in her like past owners and the sphere of losing it is more of a breakup thing. It's like, can I commit? Can I? Yeah, sure. I've been hurt so many times before. It's that and it's also like

if it ended badly then did it mean anything in the first place? That's what she's looking for. That's what the tree moments about. for me, you know? Wow. It's like, can you have something that meant something that didn't last forever? Would you name your child after an ex? No, that's an insane thing.

That seems like a bad idea. Yeah, I agree. That's where the metaphor gets stretchy. I also, we'll get to the tree moment, but there's some other angles I think you need to consider there for why I think I buy it. So Buzz is now her, like, right-hand deputy. Jesse is leading Bonnie's room. Right.

She's got the sheriff's bad. Yes. Right. Which is something Stanton said he wrote into four pointedly. Yeah, it's four ends with that idea of Woody giving Jesse the star. Not thinking that he was going to do five, but saying, I think that is where the franchise should go. I think we've put so much story on Woody's shoulders. The movies are ready to move over to someone else, and Jesse's probably overdue to be the center at one of these.

So very quickly, Bonnie's parents notice that she has no friends. I mean, she says it to them. She does. It's heartbreaking. Because she sees, like, neighborhood kids. Why does no one want to play with me? And just doesn't know how to talk to them. She's so shy.

There are these twins next door, and she's trying to build up the courage to play with them. The movie does not address whatever is happening at school, which, you know, it can't because it would be, like, that's just too much to deal with. But I guess the idea is that Bonnie is struggling to make friends. She's shy. You see that in four, too. You see that the other kids at school are not particularly nicer. That's why she makes four.

because she's alone. Right. Before is set on the first or even like a preliminary day of kindergarten. So you don't really know what our social son's going to be. Exactly. Yes. But she's shy. She's shy.

She's struggling to whatever, socialize or whatever. And her parents, you know, who again, are mediocre parents, deal with this by buying her a tablet computer called Lily Pad. They like dump it on her fucking bed being like, here you go. This will help you make friends. The implication is that this is like a very popular device. Being marketed is like, help your kid connect to other kids. That's connected to sort of a closed loop for kids social network.

Right. The lily pad. And that's the cell that has successfully worked on the public. I did think watching it a second time, do her parents' oversights make a little more sense if they have a second kid? If in between four and five... You mean, if they're just kind of like, you know, I don't know. We're like, we're stretched thin. It's true.

Bonnie is an only child. Right. I was like, they seem hyper-focused on Bonnie and also making some easy mistakes. I, maybe, I don't know. Maybe one of them has a drug problem. The movie has to happen. Yeah, yeah. Maybe one of them has a drug problem.

Yeah. It's good take, they're not, they're not taking enough of an active role. Correct. Where they should have, the parents should have made a, like, a play date. Right. Like, what are they fucking doing? They're just, like, leaving her in a room. Waiting for her to kind of make it happen through like a group chat.

I guess so. Again, you're, you're, look. I'm analyzing the behavior of cartoon parents in a cartoon movie that has to ever have an iPad to have the story happen. Obviously, it's hard to make your kid make friends at this age, I'm sure, because you can't go to school and be like, hey, you know, my kid wants to be your friend. Like, you know, that's not going to work. Yeah. That's not how kids make friends. For sure.

So, I mean, obviously, she goes to dance class, as we know, because that's who she's connected to via LilyPad. That's true. So she's already going. They have signed her up for classes. Yeah. Clearly she's struggling to make friends. Another lesson of this film is that dance is really clicky. Yeah.

And the girls are mean. This is the thing I love. And friends of the show, Adam Volrich, Dom Niro, host of the Eye of the Duck podcast, I was texting with them about the movie. And they said, a good thing this movie does, in their opinion, that I agree with, is it definitively establishes some kids are just shitty. Lily gets redeemed. Yes, somewhat.

It makes no effort to be like, oh, and those kids, they didn't mean it. It's just kind of like, yeah, no, I guess they suck. Some kids suck. Yeah, people are just bullies. It can be mean to each other. Totally. It's just the nature of the world. Because the Sid argument, you can always say, like,

Sid's creative. He doesn't know he's hurting them. He doesn't think they're alive. Like, he's not an ill-intentioned person. Also, it seems like his home life is... There's a lot of stuff going on there. There are a lot of kids with fucking negligent parents who are growing up shitty in the world of Toy Story 5.

I guess so. Yes. But also, kids are mean to each other. Like, again, it's like, you can only control so much in the world. Of course kids. me means to each other. It's how kids explore everything. They don't, you know, they don't have fully developed senses of empathy or

whatever. They're not, you know, you, it's, it's, you know, it's happened in pre-K. Like, you know, like, you know, of course, kids are mean. Jesse's very invested almost like a parent in how do I get her to connect and feels that she can help facilitate. You know, like Woody is like that in three

and four especially, especially in four, like the whole idea is like, well, I'll go to kindergarten. Yeah. Yeah. To help Bonnie. And it's kind of like, bro, you know, You're being too extra. This is the dramatic tension where they're like... You're being a bit of a... Fuck, what's the ranch called?

Root and Tootin. You're being a little Root and Tootin' Ranch dressing about this. You're putting a little too much Root and Tootan Ranch dress on. But, yes, she tries to do it and then realizes that she accidentally embarrasses Bonnie. That other kids are growing out toys. I remember when the trailer came out, David, you were like, I reject this premise. My daughter loves toys more than anything. What is a...

I don't remember this. You did text this. The idea that it's like... Toys are outmoded. No one cares anymore. She's not going to want to play with their toys because she'll only want to play with the iPad or whatever. Uh-huh. Right.

Okay. What is a sort of like studied thing is that kids are aging out of toys at an earlier age. Sure. And tech is often thought of as the sort of like that's what's bridging the gap. And Jesse keeps saying throughout the film that technology is making kids grow up faster. I know it's going to end. Right. I agree.

Yes. This is the fear. Right. And that Bonnie seems a little bit younger. She seems. I like how you said Jesse says that like it's like Jesse, who's a professor of toyology. Correct. With a degree from the University of Toy.

Yep. You know, kids are growing up faster. I'm like, Jesse, you live in a closet. Like, you know, what the fuck? You're not reading periodicals on this. It's a walk-in. Yeah, where is she getting all of this, like exposure to other? She gets on the walkie-talkie and Woody's like, I live in a skunk robot.

Yeah. And I'm hearing a lot of things too. You have to remember, Jesse and Woody have been alive for like 60 years. Yeah, they've been alive, right? Like 60 to 70 years. Yeah. If they're like 50s or 60s toys, right? That's the idea.

Yeah, but the whole thing was that Jesse wasn't played. Jesse was wasn't played with for like 30 years. The thing the movies won't touch is who was Woody's owner before Andy. I thought it was his family. But they won't say, he won't talk about it. He talks about Andy like his first owner. That's true. And he's not like, of course, I'm a fucking old toy and I would.

was played with by Andy Sr. Before he went off to the war, and he died, or whatever. I really thought four was going to do one line. Uh-huh. And they didn't.

It's always just family. They just clearly are kind of like, it's too complicated. Who cares? Right. And also, the short answer. They also won't explain, like, why is there a Pope car

in the car world? Are the cars Catholic? Well, because they need guidance. What do you mean? No, I'm just saying, like, twice three is about religion. Some cars are Catholic. The Vanessa Redgrave car is Catholic.

Vanessa Redgrave voices Yeah, and Franco Niro. They play Luigi's Italian Aunt and Uncle Carr. Sounds very not. Wait, this isn't real. This is so real. This is the movie

that makes the other movie look like the other movie. Cars 2 is the most demented film ever made. I rewatched it again recently to be like... Vanessa Redgrave voices an Italian car? In a small role, I would even say,

an insignificant role. She maybe only speaks Italian in the movie in the English dub. Yeah, her and Franco Nero. play Italian relatives who they visit in a small cars town. Okay, so Bonnie gets the tablet.

Well, I, no, I was going to mention in Jesse's failed attempt, because this predates it, in Jesse's failed attempt to try to set Bonnie up to make friends, she ends up behind the house with the toys who are all now traumatized by being abandoned by their owner.

They're in a kiddie pool or whatever. There's the kitty pool. It's some of our party source wrecks friends. And all these toys are like doomsday, like tech is coming you don't understand. It's over. There's like the monkey with the symbol, wind up dolls. That's pretty funny. There's a calling out funny moment.

He's just like, he's like doing the Homer Simpson meme kind of. Sure. David's just giving me a blank look. Yeah, I mean, I remember. Blank check look. That's what he's giving. Funny in the bank. So Jesse's got this warning of beware.

Right. They're all iPad addicted now. Tech is coming. And then she sees the box arrive. Lily Pad comes out. And immediately she's got. an attitude. Attitude, she's also just like fucking addicted. Zombie.

Yes. But Ben Griffin's saying that Lily, the character, has an attitude. Lily has an attitude. She's kind of snarky. She's kind of like, well, I know what's best. You know, like, she's got that vibe. Calls Jesse Jessica. Which I think is funny because I think that is kind of the vibe of tech of like, well,

I've solved all the problem. Yeah. I as technology. I'm voiced by Greta Lee in the grand tradition of Pixar being like, I don't know, who's like kind of been in some good grown-up movies recently? Yeah. Also, like who was sort of cresting three years ago when we started developing this movie. At one point it was announced that Ana Ferris was in this movie.

And it's unclear of Gretti replaced her where she was supposed to play a different character. It would make sense as like a kind of chirpy, you know, Anna's so good at that kind of like, you know, making fun of that. But it's almost better to have a voice that's a little steeler. How's Anna Ferris in a scary movie six or whatever? She doesn't look well, is all I will say. I would agree with that. She is so good in Scary Movie 6. And it helps that she's doing the Jamie Lee Curtis.

I've been going crazy in my house waiting for my revenge. I haven't seen the film. I've been seen it multiple times. I see it twice. I think it's very funny. I think it also is like really good at the legacy sequel shit. Sure. The whole movie is the legacy sequel characters being so angry at the young characters

who are like trying to be like, we're the leads now. And they're like, fuck you guys so hard this. no one wants to see your movie. And Ana Farris plays the sort of shell-shocked PTSD trauma plot, survivor character. Did you see it? Did I see scary? How many times did you see it?

Marie's just looking at me. She's going into the sunken place. People won't even say that whether you saw it, they just look at you like this. David's doing the whale. No, wait. In the whale meme, he's actually doing a different face in that. Yeah. So I can't do it.

In the whale meme, he's thinking that people are amazing. People are amazing. No, I didn't see... I've never seen a single scary movie. I'm not sure that I've ever seen one in full, to be honest. This one has a really good K-pop Demon Hunter's parody. That is fully animated. I think you're the only person, like...

I will say, people were generally negative about this film. I'm like a little surprised. I'm not like saying like five stars. I'm... Go see it. I was like, I think this is funny. And I rewatched all the previous ones recently. And they're not better than this. But are they worse?

Several of them are. Right. And I feel... No, I guess, sorry. But are they good? Some of them are... Half of them are not. Four...

In my memory, they're kind of all bad. Five is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Right. And that's one Anna Farris isn't even in. Correct. That's one of the worst films, like, ever, to get a wide release, truly. Maybe you just couldn't handle the truth of all the satire. Five was written and shot, directed by Malcolm D. Lee.

Yes. To primarily be a black... Swan parody. And then in January, Mama came out and opened pretty well. And they panicked and went, what if the movie's Mama instead? And they reshot the movie to be 50% Mama six weeks before it came out. Sounds good. With David Zucker taking over. Yeah, I was supposed to say that sounds right. Yeah, it feels like that. It feels a Ben tweet. A movie made it a month. December 2019. In the Sopranos pilot, Christopher mentions his cousin went to my high school, then shoot someone. It's true. That's the, that's the tweet.

It's just a fact. In high school. Bonnie gets on the pond. She starts making friends. She gets invited to a sleepover. Jesse and Bullseye sneak into the suitcase to accompany her. And she is embarrassed by having toys. Yes.

So this is the thing. Right. Like, Bonnie is now being seen as a baby by other kids because she likes, she wants to play with toys and do goofy voices and pretend. Yes. Right. And Lily Pad really takes it as a like, see, I'm right. I'm right. She just needs to be networked. She needs to be keeping up today on all the games they play on my OS.

Every morning before school, she has to be like, you know, checking in with the group chat. Even the way that they engage with each other is they're all just sitting next to each other but looking at a screen. Yes. I just have to address this. Ben is basically acting like we just watched like a news hour. I know. Can I have a PBS News Hour documentary about how kids actually are. It is a movie. I'm not sure they're all actually in their rooms tapping away on tap. I don't know. I see teens out. Well, the teens, it's different. And they're sitting at the teams, it's bad. They're sitting at the table, you know, at the, whatever, at the fast food place and they're all just staring at their phone. They're not engaging with. I'm kind of like that. Right. We're all, we've all been guilty of this in our lives. I know. I know. You have been. But I'm trying to get away from. every episode staring at a screen. Well, that's true. I mean, how also would I tell you?

Ben Hosley on my birthday in 2019 tweeted, I've decided my new bit is I'm serious. Which is funny. No greater bit. Oh, shit. Okay, I was not sure if I was going to do this. We don't have to. Do it.

Screen time challenge, guys. Screens down? So what do you? What's a screen time? Oh, to literally do the. count to like look it up? Yeah. It can't be good.

Okay. I just need to preface this by saying my job is phone. Yeah. Unfortunately, I mean, we're all kind of in job as tech territory. That is the thing I deal with a little bit. It's not so much job, although I don't like that it's job. Wait, are we doing daily average? Yeah, whatever it says every week.

I got five hours, three minutes. Oh, I'm four hours, seven minutes. That's great. But that's because my job is phone, but also my job is computer. I was about to say, same. I think that perverts as do I. And I slack from. Yes.

Mine is, five hours, 12 men. I seemingly either turn mine off or never turned it on, so it has no report for me. It says, look here. App and website activity, turn on or not. Oh, wow. You broke it because I have the problem also of like, because I'm always like, I should get one of those brick things. And I should brick my phone more off and blah, blah, blah. And then I'm like, but like, it's so irritating how so much of my life is on the phone.

Yes. My admin. You know, that kind of like the school shit, the class app, like the fucking shopping I do for this family or whatever. I went to pick up ASA at school ones and I had to download an app for it. That's really. Class Dojo you had to get. Yeah. Or something.

It's something. I don't know. And I'm like, this is fucking nuts. It's there to like, you know, pick up this child. I try to push away. But it is like the nature. of what we do in this being a thing that exists on the internet, there's just like a constant

amount of stuff that we need to respond to that happens through devices. It's annoying. In addition to obviously watching a lot of stuff and like researching a lot of stuff and then, you know, obviously there's a Blitz event right now with Lily Pat and Bonnie and I'm trying to unlock. Oh, Jesus. Oh, boy. I bet your Disney emoji blitz time is probably bigger than...

That might be a scary number. I will say this. I went to battery usage and it does say that 20% of my battery. reusages emoji blitz, which I think I got down a little bit. What would happen if you stopped playing Disney emoji blitz? We can throw out any sort of wild hypotheticals in this episode. What would happen if there was no planes in the sky? Pigswood took their place and flew.

All right, so Bonnie gets quickly hooked on the pad, and she's just a little zombie. She doesn't want to play with her toys. She's getting bullied for playing with toys, which is constantly what we do to Griffin. This is true. true. Of course, the Griffin is not eager. I laugh all the way to the bank. And we should say, because Jesse and Bullseye, right, they go off

with Bonnie and then end up getting sent over to Bonnie's original. You're skipping a couple steps here because, of course, what happens first is she gets on the walkie-talkie with Woody. This is my hottest take in the movie. I think Tom Hanks remains great at playing this character.

I think everything they do with Woody is funny. I do think this movie would kind of work better of what he was not in it. What he lifts out of the movie, for sure. But I don't remember feeling that he was actually, like, actively a drag on the movie. He doesn't drag anything. Like, but it is certainly, the movie is basically like,

well, you're here because you have to be, but the joke will essentially be like, we don't really, you don't really have a purpose. He's kind of bald now. No, I mean, that's gone. I love his poncho. His poncho isn't, okay, but he is. Not just his poncho, but his ponch.

He got a poncho. He got a poncho, which actually, I struggled with the physics The stuffing has come loose. It's redistributed in his body. It makes actually perfect sense. But then why does he suck it back in? Because he's self-conscious. Much like his bald spot.

Because he has air that he breathes? No, he's like pushing it back. David, stop, stop. Okay. It's a posture thing. But Woody is firmly supporting and is a supporting character in the film. A thing that I didn't like.

A walkie-talkie. Why, you know, like. Buzz doesn't know it exists? Yeah. I'm not sure why that needs to happen, except for the plot mechanics of Buzz kind of accidentally thinks he needs to get involved. I read it as

yes, a Jesse insecurity thing of that I consult Woody for help and also Buzz's insecurity of if she knows... Exactly. It's both of their fragile male egos. I buy this. It doesn't feel like it undoes for... You're like, if Woody's whole thing is that he goes around

saving toys and we see him saving a little Maddie Matheson out of a tree with his gang. Yeah, no, I didn't care. He comes back. It doesn't feel like it's undoing anything. And then he's just funny. It's just a lot of bits of him and buzz fighting and people joking about how old he looks.

But he is firmly supporting it. I assume there are people on Yon internet who are like, they, you know, Toy Story 4 ends with an emotional goodbye. How could they undo this? They're ruining the emotion of that moment. And to them, I say, you know, it'll be okay. I also think the ending still stands. I know. I'm a four lover.

Right. And it's like the ending is still like, yeah. Well, if he got a call that he needed, so they needed help, he would do that. And then he'll leave again, which he does. Sure. Yeah. Does it ever come up?

Do you think Bonnie's ever like, hey, whenever I'm not another fucking cowboy? Well, you have to remember in four, she doesn't really like Woody. I know, but she doesn't know he exists. Yeah, oh, we lost that somewhere. Right. They just don't care that much about Woody.

Yeah. But do you think Andy ever, who lives next door? It's like, hey, where's Woody? My fucking beloved toy. David, you sound like the Reddit now. They're like, Andy gave it to her. with a speech explaining that he was the most important character. He did.

And she didn't even notice. Andy doesn't live next door. Isn't that how he ends up giving her the box? No, because the mom, Andy's mom. Yeah, but it's like Andy's moving. Andy's mom was going to college. Yeah. But I think Andy's mom

donates him to the preschool. Bonnie's mom runs the preschool. Yeah. And then why is Andy there? Because Andy's mom is like, I don't know, maybe he's like, oh, that's a little. Next door.

No, he drove off. He drives. I just rewatched the movie. Who gave him a license? He's going to college. He's 18 years old. No, but what state? Where do they live?

Tri-county area, of course. He got a tri-county license. One of them fancy tri-county licenses. Once Woody comes in, they try to really go aggressive against Lily Pad and... Right. They go to war. They unplug her. Right.

They're like, and they, when do they discover that if you say, hey, Lily, she snaps into Siri mode? Because I thought that was very funny. That's so funny. Very funny. I liked the running bit that every time a tech toy is running low on battery, they're drunk. That was good. Oh, well, this is kind of what I was trying to get us to. So, Jesse gets knocked out of the house.

I just had to establish Woody coming back first. Jesse gets knocked out of the house and then found by an elderly hippie burnout couple, which is another thing I love that they're just specific people. It's very California. Yes. Sounds like we're saying funny a lot. I thought movie was funny. I had a good time with this movie.

I was having a good time, right? I wasn't sitting there being like, well, well, well, perumph. Just pay some respect to the Ben Hosley News Hour. Also, every time he's speaking in this way, he is sitting at his desk with his hands class in front of my posture. I'm going to read a Hosley tree right now. Did you guys talk about how we got new chairs in the office

and that they're like better for our posture? This is from December 2018. Hey, country roads too curvy. It's true. So who voices do you know is? The old couple, I didn't notice anyone specific. But they notice, of course, that Emily Jesse's original owner wrote her name inside the chap. Right.

And her address. And her dress. That's what's vital. So they take her to this sort of, I guess it's like in the boonies or whatever because it's kind of on farm. Right. A horse girl named Blaze. Is the now occupant of this home. With her parents.

Now, Griffin. Are you feeling worried? I know that, like, I'm sure this was a big part of the. rumor mill. Yes. Of like, okay, they're gonna, they're gonna dig into the Jesse owner thing. Yeah.

Are you sitting there like, I hope we meet Jesse's original owner? Or are you worrying like, this is my, that was my guess, that you're worrying like, oh no, Jesse's owner will be a character.

Some pictures. This is something that'll be in the movie in a big way. Some pictures and stuff hinted at the original house and people were like, that looks like the tire swing from the Sarah McLaughlin song.

Right. People were kind of picking up on the camera. And I was like, her going back to the house is interesting. I like her sort of reckoning with stuff. I don't want her to see Emily. Yeah.

That was a big thing for me. I obviously, I'm less emotionally invested in this series than you, but I too was just kind of like, I think that would be a mistake. Yes. And I think, again, I'm thinking about it from my kid's perspective. I'm like, I think my kid wouldn't get it because she would be old. Yes. And it would just be kind of confusing.

I mean, Emily is quite likely dead at this point. Either dead or an old woman because, like, one assumes she owned Jesse in the 60s or whatever. Right. Correct. Correct. So I didn't want them to do that, and I was very relieved that it's like, nope, this is a new family who lives here. It allows her to tackle new issues while also dealing with the echoes and the reminders of the past. And when we get to this house... I do wonder if my kid will be like, I don't get it.

Like, because it is weird that it's like, wait, so this is Jesse's house, but it's different people. I don't know. We'll see. I wonder. We'll see. Again, she might just be like I like the potty robot. Like, you know, who knows? Yeah. I like the internal logic whenever Toy Story gets into. like the different types of toys and the different types of psychologies, but we basically go to the pool house at this ranch, the garden shed

that has mostly kind of like pool toys and beach toys and things like that. They haven't been played with in years. This is like combat car. I don't think it's a pool house. I think it's just like... It's a garden shed. It's a garden shed. It's a little playhouse. It's a little, yeah. It's a lot of like beach toys. It's like summer toys. I guess so, but it's one of those little plastic houses you get a child. Yeah. Right. Whatever.

But combat carl's not an outdoor toy. He's not, but she's like drawn tattoos on him. and put a two-two on him. This is a different combat Carl from the combat Carl of Toy Story 4. This is voiced by Ernie Hudson because, of course, Carl Weathers was previously combat Carl and has passed away. I also love the little pizza guy played by Bad Bunny. Of course.

That really made me laugh. Pizza with sunglasses. That's the kind of Toy Story joke that'll get a chuckle out of old Simsy right here. And then we meet Smarty Pants. Yes. So they've all been sitting here waiting for Blaze to return for a tea party. It's been years, but what killed them all, what ended the tea party was Tassie. the first device that ended everything for them,

and it was Smarty Pants, which Jesse reveals she was sitting on. The MVP of the movie, right? Conan is killing. Is on fire in this fucking thing. What I liked about what he's doing is he's giving a real performance. It doesn't really sound like Conan. No. Certainly not like the Conan we all listen to on the first and only podcast.

Conan O'Brien needs friends. Best and last. He's, you know, he's sort of thought up a character here. Like obviously when you see him in Bonnie's pretend verse and he's got the Conan hair, that's a clever little nod to who's voicing him. But my friend was like, I didn't realize that was Conan. It almost feels like when Conan voices the angry audience member on his show, when he goes like, what are you doing? Yeah, right, right. It's like, it's sort of a kind of like voice in his repertoire, but it's him turned all the way up.

And this is the other part where I was like, oh, I think I see what the movie's doing and it's smart. There was this sort of bridge era of tech toys that Jesse is going to view as enemies. They're just like lily pad. Right, but they are obsolete themselves. They're the same as her. In a way. They're limited tech toys who had an emotional relationship with her because they weren't just a tablet to the internet. They had specific purposes.

Smarty Pants, as he likes to point out, is not a chair. He is a potty training tool. He is meant to help you log your pee-pee and your poo-poo. I don't assume. Which makes it so funny every year. time that he gets really kind of like high and mighty about his position. Right. Right.

I mean, I think all those gags are good. Always. Like every little joke you have. Every little. It's like a you log one for P and two for poop. And then what is it? A fart. It's a one point five?

Yeah. Or so like a heavy fart or. But he's doing this sort of like, number one, number two. Like a really putting, I would say a lot of root and toot and ranch on his line. And the bit of, you know, he, wait, wait, fuck.

His batteries have died. Right, his batteries have died, so he's kind of drunk. He's like Foster's broke. He's good. Yeah, yeah. But he gets really excited at the idea of Jesse being able to reconnect him. His batteries are low, but she has a common purpose. She needs to get back.

He has tech. He can help her get back. So she lets him into the house. He finds Atlas and Snappy, a GPS for kids and a, like, low-tech digital camera, who all three of them connect to each other. with like outmoded USB plugs. Yes. Snappy voiced by Shelby Rabara. Yes.

Not an actress, I know. She's from Stephen Universe. That Ana Ferris was supposed to play Snappy at some point. It was never clear. And then Atlas is Craig Robinson. It's reliable. Yes. Yes. These three are basically able to like together, linked up, with new batteries

installed, form a little like social media tech team. I like that they sort of have. consciousness, but then they also have access to the outside world. Snappy can see things. Atlas can locate things and smarty pants can do text. Right. This is the Pixar thing. They're so smart how they decided to create these characters and how they'll be used throughout the movie. I said to Ben, I think this is a real Stanton thing, where he really likes the internal logic of what's a different type of toy, what would be the psychology of that toy we haven't explored before, and what's a specific way that character can play into the story

and activate something that couldn't be done by any other character. Like, there's no character put on the board in this movie in a major role who doesn't serve significant story function in the third act, unlocking something. And we were talking about it, I mean, you said it, Ben, the second the movie ended last night, you went, I cannot believe that is the same person who made in the blink of an eye.

It's crazy. A movie that feels so kind of, like, misconceived on a basic level. Fair point. And this movie is so goddamn tight. It just feels like every story idea it has has been worked down to its tight as possible point. This is not as funny, Ben,

but a saga I forgot about from your life, October 2018. Yup, I'm locked in my apartment. I went from homeless to too much home. Hell. Remember this? You couldn't like open your front door? I just moved into a new apartment

after couch serving for many months and the doorknob just broke off in my hand. There was an episode we canceled because of this. And I believe you could not exit. Yes. Yeah, we couldn't record. And your landlord said like the bottom lock wasn't his problem.

And you were like, is he just a top lock guy? Like, like. Was that the place of process? Yeah, okay. Yeah. One more. June 2018. Slanderman is Slenderman's lawyer.

That's really. That's good. Fuck, that's really fucking good. I'm just saying. I think you need to publish. a book. That's what it means. You need to be like one of those urban outfit or like wisdom of Woody the Pooh kind of things. We need these

musings, but I don't think it has to be on social media. I mean, certainly I'm like Instagram only these days and I wish I spent even less time on Instagram that I do, but I mostly lurk and then repost things. And I certainly feel healthier for it, not being on any of the text-based apps. Yeah, I don't use Twitter anymore. I'll look at it sometimes for sports. I use Instagram, but

you know, I don't post my... I guess I'm on blue sky, but that's kind of like I post once a week on blue sky. I lost the poster urge. Like I got myself of that. Same. I don't post on... I used to have the thing when I had Twitter where I was like, any thought, I'd be like, oh, that'd be fun. You know, like, you know, like, and I just, I spent enough time, Twitter did, like, Twitter started behaving in a way after this one guy bought it that really started to distress me.

Like I know... Mr. Cool, you're talking about? Yeah. And I just was sort of like, I guess I was like... I'll stop. And then I stopped long enough that I was like, I lost the poster disease. I'm just imagining someone like replying to a Ben tweet being like, at Grock, what does this mean? Right. At Grock explains.

And that's the famous thing of like early AI being asked. Oh, right. Yeah. Would Ben Hosley like the movie Slumdog Millionaire? And the response was, it's impossible to say Ben alternates between liking wet things and dry things. The movie has both. We don't know which one he likes more these days. and we were like, Ben has outsmarted AI.

He can't track his bits. Yeah. Love it. AAA gang is trying to figure out how to make a post through the pond to alert Bonnie that her toys are here. And then Jesse very quickly realizes, wait a second,

is this an opportunity to also connect these two kids? Because she notices that Blaze, who has grown out of toys and grown out of these tech toys, is an animal kid. She's a little bit bigger, but she likes animals and she's still got a creative sensibility. She plays with the animals like their toys,

which I also thought was smart in terms of like any hand-wringing panic about like, is tech the death of everything? You're like, well, like, are toys getting us away from us existing with nature? Like, that's also a technology, right? Yeah. And so the only toys she still has, like, on display

are her horse shelf because she's a horse girl. Right. And that's just sort of for display. But otherwise, she has her pig, Jimmy Dean, and her horse daffodil. And Jimmy Dean, she talks to like, it's a toy she does routines with. I love Jimmy Dean.

Jimmy Dean fucking rules. Jimmy Dean's the pet pig. Yes. Yeah. He's so cute. I just want him to slumber on. I like that he's also not like a cartoon pig that he's like kind of a gross pig in a way that makes him cute. And like Peppa Pig's dad, he has like chin hair or whatever.

But I like it. It doesn't bother me. It's also the classic, you know, people are always like, I want a little pig, you know, piglet for a pet. And it's like, you know, it's going to turn into like a big pig. Turn into a Jimmy Dean. Even if it's like a miniature. pig or whatever. They turned into big old pigs. And that's what's happened.

But she loves her pig. She loves Jimmy Dane. And Jesse recognizes it. Bonnie's not like other kids. She plays. She's creative. And Blaz has got this thing. Can we set the two of them up to hang out? Right. Woody and Buzz have followed after Jesse are committed to trying to save her and are sort of fighting about who's actually number two. Who's the deputy? Because they get there because Bonnie. Yes.

has been, realizes she's lost Jesse. Bonnie gets the message. Right, right, right. It goes to her iPad. LilyPad's trying to block this. This is when Woody and Buzz are sort of triangulating, like, what if we unplug her charger?

She loses battery. She'll get kind of drunk. Then can we interrogate her? There's the lizard that they use to activate her touch pad. That was really funny. They've realized the voice activation thing. They're trying to figure out how to outsmart LilyPad, and she just keeps leveling up.

They're like, can we, we just got. this message. Oh, right. From Jesse, here's where she is. Here's the address. Here are the toys. Let's print it out so they find it. They say, but they, I think one of them says send it to all or something. Send all. Yeah. Yeah. And so it prints out, but then like Lily Pad activates the Rumba, which I like the idea that the Rumba also because Bonnie has played with it has also now sort of gained a little sentience. Oh, I didn't think about that. Later in the film. Right. Lily Pad, of course, wants to fuck the Rumba. They don't fuck the toys

She wants to Mine did I would go like boom boom boom That's how they'd have sex with these stuff The Barbies yeah Perfectly healthy There's nothing wrong There's nothing wrong with this

I was literally thinking the exact same thing I'm getting loopy Should be here in 15 minutes I ordered it So one thing to credit this movie And it felt this way about four as well It just looks fantastic It does

It's that Pixar thing where they're just They're so next level now with the environments and the, you know, the way they make the, like, lighting and the air and all that look. We talked about this. It's very impressive. After the screening we went to where I was, like, a lot of the shots specifically in the, like, buzz hive mind segments are studying. Yes. Like, beautiful sunsets and, like, the fog in that one moment, I'm like, this is really pretty.

He uses color, like, unbelievably well for mood and story. You know, it's one of those things where, like, I know he said, like, this is my last animated film. I really only want, and I'm just kind of like, you're good at this. You're good at it. Like, are you sure you want to stop? I mean, his thing is, like, I'm not primarily a fan of animation. I'm a fan of movies. I fell into this thing.

I've never wanted to limit myself to that. But I think what he does that is so unique is he's, and this is a lot of what Pixar did in general, but I think he was at the forefront of pushing them towards this is, like, marrying the visual language of the two things together. Like, a thing we come. on afterwards that is so cool in this movie, is it acts like it's sort of mostly done with handheld camera. And it's very subtle. But beyond, like, Stanton's always been the stickler guy who's like,

can we make the virtual camera operate by the real rules of a camera? Right. Like, what lens would be on this? What is our lighting source? And in this, you see the camera struggling to keep the characters in frame. Like, the camera sort of, like, moves quickly to readjust as if the performance isn't planned. And it's a very, very subtle thing.

but it like, it psychologically has an effect on you. We should say the tech buzzes, they've been activated, they go to this construction site, they use the crane, they're just in search of a star. They find a campsite for land. They're trying to find civilization.

They're trying to find star command. And at this campsite, one of them is taken. They realize, oh, this is not scary. Maybe this is good to be played with. This one buzz seems happy. And then they look onto the, kids' devices and they see

the Jesse message from Blaise's house. Right. They look up the address and when they use Google Maps or whatever, it places the address with a star. I just like, it's smart all the ways that they're just sort of like she has a star on her chest. There's a star in the sky. There's a star

on the map. We're just simple. We go wherever the fucking star is. When Bonnie goes to Blaze's house for the first time and then the group chat plays out where they send the crying baby image. I was so upset. I was laugh.

Yes. It was awful. So fucking mean, man. Fuck those girls. Yeah. Yeah. They're shitty kids. Shitty kids.

I hope they get docksed. But I do think I might use that joke if someone sends me a stupid text. Crying baby? Yeah. Like whines about something. I do think there's potential there. Maybe that'll be my first tweet. December 2017.

My nickname for Dan Lewis is the method man. My boy. Incredible. Now streaming on Disney Plus, the Hulu original series Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black, played by Emmy Rossum, on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice,

and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. New episodes week over week. Watch the Hulu original series Furious, Now streaming only on Hulu on Disney Plus. Right. So, Jesse, the whole time is like, like you're saying, like, well, I got abandoned before. This Bonnie thing, I'm half want to help her, but I half am like, what's the point? I'm only going to get forgotten again.

And the thing she realizes is that no, her owner didn't forget her because she named her daughter after her. And there's, how do you, it's like, you see a picture? What's the? There's like a buried lunchbox. Yeah, right. She made a little toy capsule. Well, she sees carved into the tree Jesse was here. And she goes, like, what's that?

That doesn't make sense. Arrow pointing down time capsule. And it's a kid with a bunch of like 80s, 90s stuff. And she's like, this stuff is too new. What's going on here? And then she realizes it's her daughter. Now, here's why I buy this. You have to remember that Jesse was a character on a TV show.

Sure. I guess so, right? Woody's Roundup. Right. That this kid presumably watched a lot. If you named your kid, Jesse, after the doll you had. But the character... Why did you put the doll on the side of the road?

That's why I'm saying. It's the character... It's the character more does. I think it's like later in life she looked back... Yeah. With nostalgia for that doll and, like, the name. Sure. I think it makes sense.

It's like... It's enough sense. It's like if Ben named his son's spawn, even though he had given away his spawn toys when he... He was a child. But technically, Spent's son will be Spawn. He will be Spawn of Hosley.

Yeah, that's true. But you could name him medieval Spawn Hosley. Future Spawn Hosley. I'm sure my wife would love Samurai Spawn Hosley. Now that I'm thinking about it, we should just talk about like your hypothetical future child, Future Spawn. Your daughter, she spawns Fosley.

Future Spawn. Future Spawn. Because that's technically, quite literally, what they are. This is true. Your future spawn. You know, it's an exciting thing I want to do it

at some point in my life have family and I'll love the kid for whatever they are. You'll love future spawn. Maybe don't call them Spawn. That's just my tape. Spawn's the middle name.

Is that better? Abigail Spawn Hossley. US World Cup star out. Christian. Be still much. Yeah, he will miss today's pivotal game with a... That's tough news for them.

With a cavendry. We're dating today's episode. I know this has been a fear because he came out of the last game. Well, this will come out like six weeks after the movie comes out, but we're reporting it the day the movie is technically being released because I'm about to go to Spain to do a shoot. He's off to Spain, the rain in Spain, we'll say mainly on the Griffin. I've been feeling so suffocated by the amount of World Cup stuff,

and then I'm like, oh, right, I'm going to Spain. It is going to be a night. How are you feeling suffocated? How is it suffocated? Sports guys keep fucking with me. You know the way that Ben says that everyone fucks with him all the time? It's true.

This only happens to me with sports guys when they're like a vet. People are like fucking with me on the subway. And like at like piece of restaurants. Because you're wearing like a choice story outfit right now? I'm just like not an alpha male.

I swear to God this happens. But it's the soccer guys that are bullied? Both. Both. Because if we want to talk about Nick's fans being bullies, I'm, yes, let's have that conversation. I'm ready to talk about it. They're mean.

it just feels like there is a sort of sports bar culture that breaks containment when things like this happen. That is all I'm saying. I'm so sorry that people are harassing you. It's annoying. David, after the screening, I left my credit card out of bar. Oh, yeah? That was somewhat nearby. Sure.

You go to the bar. Yeah. I have a beer. Yeah. Why not? I have to show my ID to get the card back. Bartender looks at it. He goes, this picture's terrible.

Are you fucking kidding me? So then I'm like, dude, what do you mean? Like, it's an ID picture, whatever. Right, right. He's just like, you are so much more handsome in real life. Maybe he was trying to hit on you. Yeah, maybe this was kind of like a neggy kind of flirt. I guess now actually that I'm reflecting on it.

And then he did give you his phone number, I'm hearing. Well, no, because then I was like, let me see your ID picture. All right? This also sounds like a flirt. This is flirting. And then I said it looked like shit. Oh. Wait, now I want to see your ID picture.

Then he started crying? Yeah. No, he didn't cry. Okay, fair enough. But it was, there's some tension. Wow. No one ever looks good in their ID picture. I would agree with that.

It's just like a rule. You have to look like shit. A handsome photo. All right. I'm going to take a look at Ben's ID photo. Okay. Ben's going to show us. Can I see it first, please?

Can we pass it around? Yeah. I think you look exactly the same. I think that is an incredibly rude comment. That is a handsome picture of a handsome man with a great brain. I think this man was flirting. with you. But it is true that people just say shit to Ben.

It is a pretty good photo. It is. For a driver's license photo. It's an accurate representation of our handsome friend. Yeah. But people do be fucking. They do. I've witnessed this.

It's wild. Remember when we were in Austin and you were like, why are these guys outside a bar in Austin just like being mean to me for no reason? I'm just walking down the street. This happened to my dad a lot too. There are definitely people who unconsciously invite. They put the vibe. Like, kind of like, you can talk to me.

it's okay. You know what I mean? Like, or like guys will just kind of, yeah, come up to you or like the sort of weird guy in the park will think you're ready for a conversation or whatever. Absolutely. Absolutely happens to me. It feels like all the time. I guess I just have one of those faces. July 2015. 2015. We're going back. Oh. I've been to little Italy. It's small. Pretty good. Pretty good. It's getting smaller and smaller. you like the Toy Story movies, Ben. I actually have always kind of just been like...

This was my question. Is this the one that has, for whatever reason, maybe because you have this kind of future parent anxiety, maybe because you remember being a kid or being kind of... I think it's the future parent anxiety. Like, it just sort of like hit you a little harder. Yes. Because I do feel like, I'm trying to remember your general Toy Story fandom.

I kind of had no relationship to it. You were 10 when the first... movie came out. I mean, you like Sid. I love Sid. But you like him in retrospect where you're like, hey, Sid, he's cool. He's got a skull on this t-shirt. He's creative. I agree. I'm person. I don't think I saw Toy Story 1 in theaters. I did. But you were, you're a little younger than me, and that's where it's like a big difference. But I also was very like gendered at the time. And I was like, this is a boy movie. So I just didn't bother with it. I know. I kind of like this movie because it was like about girl stuff. I know. I'm one again wondering if Jesse is my

her's favorite character if she'll be like that movie had more Jesse like I like so I appreciated all of the girl stuff and that's why I it really upset me when a Griffin said that people on the Toy Story Reddit were calling Bonnie a C word because I think Bonnie is an incredible young woman you know anyone who does that is obviously when it's through touch grass when I was rewatching toy story four and watching her make forky yes I was texting you guys and I was like this is insane like she is so advanced she's pretty advanced for making this thing sure she makes forky she even the way that she writes her name on forky like her handwriting's really good she has to have like excellent fine motor skills to like craft this thing my daughter

can write as well as bonnie does she can't uh she can't read but bonnie can't read i guess that whatever that doesn't come up i was reading at bonnie i was reading up you're right that's show off very bonnie also I just want to communicate to everyone what just happened in the bathroom. It's going great. I pushed the number one button. Oh, thank God. He didn't like say number one.

Really, really upset if you press number two and I was like, ew, Griffin. Griff, are you annoyed with that toy? It feels like you were a little let down by it. A little bit. It doesn't work as well as I wanted to. You were hoping it would solve your bathroom problems. Yes.

Buying it would be the final piece of the puzzle. We have had, Smarty Pants in our studio bathroom for several. Can't say I've noticed him. Really? He's been a little Easter egg in the bathroom. When I saw the movie, I was like, oh, that's the weird thing that Griffin has in the bathroom. The thing about our studio.

You thought it was an actual potty training tool. There's so many Griffin toys. You kind of get toy blindness and you kind of don't even notice them. But there aren't that many toys in the bathroom. That's true. But I, with all honesty, had not noticed. I don't think I realized that he was meant to be a role of toilet paper. Yes, which I love.

It's really smart design. And the handle on top of him is sort of like the toilet paper holder in the wall. A couple of things just to discuss, you know, about the movie. I really loved that all of the horses got to participate. Yeah, fun little counter to the Buzz Army is the horse army. Yeah. And I love that Buzz gets her ride a horse that's like more of a unicorn. He loves it.

He gets his eyes light on horse. Yeah. What did you think of the Buzz is turning into trees? drones, the sort of big third act, they finally fly. It's a good fucking 30 years later joke payoff. The buzzes can finally fly. I think she's... Because Lily feels so guilty.

She donated to Bonnie. Yeah, she's suicides. Yeah, she's launched herself. Which I thought... Into like a box to be donated. I was happy that she did that because she deserved it. No, I was just kind of like, it follows in the sort of like bread of these movies that the toy would be like,

well, I do want the child to be happy. and I know I've, you know, the child's unhappy. Yes. So it's my fault. I like that it's not like someone else teaches her to be good. It speaks to like, she actually thought she was doing the right thing. She was Robert Oppenheimer. That tracked for me best, right.

Yeah, she's like Oppenheimer. She's a lot like Oppenheimer. Until they build a bigger lily pad. They should have Zafty coming. You mean Bowser Jr.? My daughter's favorite character in all media ever. Like, just, I mean, she talks about Bowser Jr. like, Putin or whatever. What does he say? She's just like, that's the scariest bad guy in the world.

Really? That's the most incredible bad guy. She loves him so much. But she thinks he's scary. Well, scary, but like she's just like, that's the baddest one. She thinks pretty bad. You know, like, and I think it's because his paintbrush is so powerful. It's really, she's just kind of like he owns Bowser. Bowser doesn't even have a paintbrush. And in the second movie, he's small. Yeah, he's little. He's mostly comic relief. Yeah. Whereas Bowser Jr.'s out here painting up a storm, I guess. Some character arc on Bowser in that second movie. It's a little disjoint. He starts

off little, but desperate to prove that he's a good guy. Then he's kind of their friend, sort of. He's guilty that he maybe wasn't enough of a present father, even though every night he did a bespoke puppet show for his son. I do feel like it was, yeah, he was putting in some effort. His son is causing so much terror that

he's like, I feel guilty. Then his son is like, Dad, I did this for you, and he's like, never mind. I think I've only made great decisions. And then all his skin, I He burns off and he's a skeleton. And he says he's the Lord of Bones. Oh. That happens in the movie.

Yeah. That happens in the movie. Interesting. Buzz drones. It's basically a big extended final chase sequence where they have to save Lily because Lily's the only way they're going to be able to finally get these two kids together.

Right. For Jesse the highest stakes or she wants the two of them to meet. She thinks they could both use the frame. I like those stakes. The stakes is basically just the kind of like, can we get them to have? hang out and not be shy with each other and kind of connect.

Here's another thing I thought of all watching this movie. Those are some real parenting sticks. Those are the stakes that Inside Out 2 tries to establish that I think it does not execute well. And I rewatch Inside Out 2 last night to be like, was I too hard on this at the time? And I think that movie's shitty. And I think that movie makes it too much about like fucking hockey camp and shit. I don't think it's shitty.

I think it has a really, it's fine. I think the representate, like the visual representation of what anxiety feels like. I thought was really meaningful to me. Everything with that character works for me. I wish it was gayer because I think... It should be way gayer. I think that that is kind of like... Sorry, David is.

It's just really... They're pre-sexual characters. It's a children's film. No, not, no. They already established just as she has crushes. Yeah. What's her... Riley?

I feel like Riley, if she's like a, you know, an adolescent... Yeah. And it felt like she had a crush on the girl on her hockey. It really does. Girl is coded kind of tomboyish. Yes. So I was like, okay, like, that's interesting. I wish they actually, like, had the balls to do that.

I know, I know. Well, maybe they should have. Maybe that's what they should have done. Inside Out, too. I also just don't like that the movie is once again, oh, no, they get kicked out of the console and they have to make their way back. Yeah. I think it's really unimaginative that it just runs the exact same story.

Well, that's my problem with the ins... But I don't like the world of Inside Out very much, like the inner world. Yeah. It doesn't... It's not very rich because it is right. is just always like, all right, here we are in the back. They're either like, go down a road. In the console or they're not.

Yeah. Yeah. I just never stuck. My daughter ever also has never cared about them, so I've only seen them like twice. Like, total. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

She doesn't like that one. Maybe she will eventually. Just one more important thing that we need to address, Buzz and Jessie Kiss. Mm. They do. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't like that, David?

I don't, I just, you're the king of kissing on camera. You love kissing. They're toys. I just don't care about it. Let their little plastic faces smush. I'm not stopping them. Let them. Don't stand in the way they're love.

Do we think that Buzz is in love with Jesse because he's in love with Woody? But, no, you're forgetting the moment at the end of Toy Story 2 where Jesse does the rescue. Yeah, sure. And it's, he's impressed with her because she's high status. That's another thing I like that this movie does that I think it does very. subtly, is Jesse the character in the TV show, of course, her divining thing is that she talks to animals, that she's a yodling cowgirl. And she's a critter.

And she communicates with critters. In this, they sort of imply that she has that power on real animals as well. She thinks she does. And maybe she does. She got Daffodil to dig up the time capsule. I'm not mad about it. She gets Jesse Dean to work for her. But they do that.

But Woody does that with Buster. Yeah. In the other movies. I guess it's more that it's... Toys can talk. to animals. That Jesse believes in it more because that's what her, right, her source material is. But then this whole, like, you get your kind of final extended chase of like, how do they save

LilyPad? How are they going to get back to the respective homes? But, like, yeah, it's just, it doesn't fall into the trap of we need to be bigger. No. And, which I feel like four also didn't. I think it's the right size. You know, that kind of picks our trap of like, oh, my God, how do we outdo our sort of final set piece scale or whatever to remain.

mains, I feel like the craziest thing they ever did where they like stop a plane or whatever it is they do. But I love that they're not trying to top that. No. And it is just so funny for me. It's my favorite gag in the movie of like, you know, they're using Atlas's GPS to try to get themselves to lily pad. And they're sort of like, well, we're supposed to take a left here. There's a house there. It used to be a road. The map's out of date. What do we do? And they just ride through the house. And you get this tracking shot that feels like it's out of weapons where they go from room to room and everyone in the family is just on a different device and no one notices there are 50 Buzz Light Years on horses riding through. I think that's really funny. Yes, I enjoyed that.

It's all funny. Yeah. I was laughing. You were laughing. Yeah, no, we had a very nice time. And then the film ends with what I would argue is Taylor Swift's best song in like five years. Let's acknowledge it ends with. I don't think that's a hot take. I knew it. I knew you. It ends with Buzz and Jesse finally getting married. Yes. Yes. And soon Traylor Swift will finally get married at Madison Square Garden. Thank God. I've been so stressed out. I just don't get it. I don't understand. Also, the Taylor Swift fans keep harassing me on the subway and pizza parlors. So oppressed. The omniculture.

But did you tell them I put hundreds of dollars in this woman's pocket because how many versions of the vinyl did you buy? I, excuse me, there were two versions. I bought both. I sent the receipt to the group and I was I hate that she's fucking got me. Sure. That I'm like, fall in prey to this Taylor Swift shit with the countdown clock and the,

like it's going to sell out. And then a week later, I saw an article that they're going for hundreds of dollars. Wow. Randy Newman's quite old. This is the first movie he didn't write a song for.

He did the score. There are some new themes in it I like, but a lot of it is repurposed. A lot of it's reusing previous. And at the premiere, they played together. You see,

Randy's moving pretty slowly. One of my favorite people. of all time. My father, of course, Randy Newman. But it was a pretty fucking insane coup for them to get Taylor Swift to do this. When was the last time? Did she write a song for any movie previously? For Hunger Games. Right. And I don't know if she's done anything besides that, but I remember also liking that song too. She didn't write a song for Amsterdam, rudely. No, she did not. No. That's her song about how a car ran her over. insane that they were like, if we put Taylor Swift in this, the Swifties will go see it. And you're like, what's the movie about? Investigating Taylor Swift's murder.

Maybe they don't want to see this. She did, of course, do a song for 50 Shades Darker called I Don't Want to Live Forever. Okay. And she did a song called Carolina for a little movie in which you heard a crawdad. Oh, my God. She crawled added it up. I believe she also is a co-writer on Beautiful Ghosts, the song that they did for Cats. You are right about that.

Of course, she appeared in that film as well as Bambalina. Bambal arena. Do we have anything else to say about Toy Story 5? I like it a lot. It made me really happy. I'm glad it made you happy. Yes. But I also like...

They keep not making you sad with these, which is good. It's honestly the bigger thing. I do feel like I've been brute force in therapy for a thousand different reasons. And I'm not in a place where I was like, if this movie is bad, it's going to destroy me. I was joking to Ben before the movie. Like, I'm chill. It's only my self. psychology at stake. But I don't actually feel that way. However, every time one of these movies is

good, I feel a tremendous sense of relief. Now, have you noticed, and it's just coming out, you know, the movie just came up? So it's just being like more negativity about this movie online than say the other ones. It's weird because I've seen letterboxed, I've seen tweets. Like, it's always hard now to tell like what's kind of fake outrage and what's real. I don't know. I think Ford was greeted more warmly and then had more negativity like surge up later. Right. Yeah. And then I think this one oddly is like people going like A, a return to form or B, they finally lost the juice. It's one or the other. Just like, and like my friend was like, all my friends hated it. And I was like, and she liked it. But I was like, I was like, how can you feel that strongly? It's so well made. It's well done. Right.

Exactly. Even if my note was basically, it's like, because Jesse at the end is like, it's about the journey, not the destination. And I'm like, right, that's the lesson of two. I do feel like we're out of ideas on that front. So I was kind of like, there's a ceiling on this movie for equality was. But like, yeah, it's like, it's just well done. And like, I had a good time watching it. I can't really be too mad at it, you know, especially because these movies are just going to continue to happen. These movies continue to struggle with how expansive two was thematically. Right.

That it just bit off so much successfully that there's not as much left for them to explore. But I thought this movie had like many new ideas and many new concepts. Yes. It comes to an old idea, but the tech stuff, I was like, I appreciate just running at an idea like that. I thought that was good. And so I said in my review, which is on the Atlantic. You can read it if you want. How would you rank the Stanton movies?

Yeah, I was about to ask. Oh, good call. Yeah, because it's going to be our last episode in a series. That is so true. Now he has to make them it out. Can I pitch my idea for the next and the Toy Story franchise? We need to hear it. Which Griffin, do you think there will be a Toy Story 6?

This, the fact that they don't... Especially given that it's probably going to make a ton of money. The fact that they don't even attempt to make some sort of, here's the end of the series finale to this, I think it's all but guaranteed. I hope they continue to pace them out the way they have. It's nice that these movies are coming out every two years. Yeah, sure.

Okay, it's more of... for prequel, the first toy story. Stick and who? This is a well you like to go to, I will say. You like to go almost prehistoric. Yeah, but I think it would be interesting. Keep going, keep going. What is like a rock?

It's a stick. And like mud. And it's like, you know, primitive people. And it's like exploring the like, what does it mean to be a toy, like as the first toy? But that sort of feels like forky territory. If it's like I made a toy out of some stuff. And now what is that mean?

But what is play? Right? Like, who is the first play? Also, the toy to gain consciousness. Childhood is a modern concept. Yes. This is true. That's why I think it's got to be like, you know,

20th century stick and hoop and it's a toy that's really nauseous all the time. It's like I'm just fucking chased. But you see like ancient Roman, you know, dolls or right? Like we unearth these things sometimes. I guess I do do that a lot. I love that. You love that. It's not an accusation or...

No, it's just... The Stanton has made six films. Yes. I'm not missing anything here. Yes. So I have a ranked thusly from one to six. Okay. Wally.

Mm-hmm. Finding Nemo. Mm-hmm. Toy Story 5. Finding Dory John Carter in the blink of an eye. Mm-hmm. I'm sorry, John. Yeah.

The ambition of John Carter is higher than the animated sequels. Sure. I can't get there with. I think it's better than the animated sequels, which are two movies where I'm like, obviously these are no masterpieces, but they're well done enough that I consider them better than John Carter. I think I have the same ranking.

But I have it over in the blink of it on. Yeah. I go Wally, then finding Nemo, then I go Toy Story 5, then finding Dory, John Carter, and unfortunately we're going to end with a blank. I think that's where one must end.

Yes, one must end there. Marie, do you prefer Nemo to Wally? Do you have a hot take on these lines? No, I love Wally. I'm very curious to re-watch John Carter. I saw it opening weekend at the Ziegfeld. It was like the last movie I saw at the Ziegfeld before it closed down. And there were like five people in the entire theater.

And like one of them was Rob Malone. You know, we recorded that episode some weeks in advance. And I asked the question on the episode, is there any chance I like the Mandalorian and Grogo more than John Carter? And I can definitively say, no. I think John Carter is better than the last three theatrically released Star Wars movies. Sure. Definitely last two. I remember defending it. I kind of a soft spot for solo.

For parts of solo. Because you want to fuck that droid. No, it's, I like the, what's the Lady Proxoma? Lady Proxema. Oh, the original Skimble Shanks. But I remember, like, defending John Carter at the time and being like a, this movie's good actually. It's got stuff in it. There's, I, it's fun to defend, even if it doesn't completely.

completely work. But that's been our Andrew Stanton journey. And now, of course, we're going on to Martin Scorceezy. That's so true. It's actually very true.

Right on to him. Right on to him. We've recorded a good chunk of them. Yeah, we've recorded eight. Martin Scors says the episodes already. Out of... You jerks. 23?

Yeah. We've done about a third, is my estimation. Yeah. I'm Italian. We're working on it. I think our pizza might be here. Hold on one second. I'm sure it was delivered long ago.

I'm sorry. Griffin just said, Hey, this is Griffin calling from the, and I was like, I wonder how he's ending that sentence. Okay.

Thank you. Did. I pulled a Sims. Did you deliver to your house? Yes, but my house is very close. See, I could have fucking, your house is in that,

whatever. My house is very close. I mean, it's pretty close. Yeah. Yeah, but we're hungry. So, let's end the episode

and I'll go get the pizza. All right. I'm going to get out there. I'm just want to say it's a little disappointing they didn't do a bad bunny pizza. Oh, sure. I did see Nighthawk. They are.

I will be ordering it on Sunday. Oh, maybe I'll get that. Yeah, they have a flatbread. Pizza with sunglasses flapbread. They got a new, what's it called? Paidina. What's that? The Italian flatbread sandwich.

Oh. Yeah, I saw that on the menu. It's really good. Interesting. I can't remember what movie I saw it. Oh, it's got ham and mango. That's the, and Fontaine. It's sort of like a fun, like Hawaiian pizza.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a better version of Hawaiian. Right. I love, I love a. Maybe I should get the Spielburger, though. But, oh, Ben's taking a buzz light ear. This is the bucket we got yesterday when we saw the movie.

Oh, wow. Oh, it's a bucket. Yeah, it's pretty good. Oh. It's the high-tech buzz in the package. And you can take the buzz out to put the popcorn in. Yeah, it's like these things get so elaborate now that they're like, where does the popcorn go? Yeah, yeah.

That's really nice. It's very fancy. Yeah. But we're going to end this episode so I can get pizzas or a final thing you want to say, Marie. No, I'm just wondering like this. You know, Toy Story 4 definitely felt like a Woody and Bo Peep side adventure. This is a Jesse

side adventure. Where do they go next? Because I feel like do they go back to the buzz well? Or is there, what is the next character to get their own? Well, the NTs, of course, is that the high-tech buzzes have drone their way down to a playground

to find themselves a bunch of kids and then high-tech Zerg is revealed. Yes. I couldn't wait to find out with that. The greatest villain! Voice by? No, the greatest villain is Bowser Jr. Correct. Andrew Stanton.

Andrew Stanton. Yes. I learned that from the finding emo. Was there a second post-credits thing? Yes, we missed it. Bad Bunny. It's bad bunny and forky wrapping, along with all the other toys. It's pretty fucking great.

It's actually great. I would call it a bump. Cool. That's great. Yeah, but like, what is your, as someone who's very dialed into this, what do you think? Just, were you happy? You were happy? I know.

It's just like, I feel like that's just, it's just like, You're happy. We just... We just want you to be happy, Christian. Are you major... Are you major smile? I made your smile. Standing strong.

Standing tall. No, I think the big thing is... And this is another thing I hold against three is like three is the movie I imagined would be the third movie. And four and five and two all did things I never could have guessed. And that's what I like about this series.

And I think that's what Stanton's really smart at is he continues to kind of sit down and not go like A to B on the story of the stories. Now this is a Ben Hosley tweet from November 2014. This is how we're going to end the episode. So this is before Blank Check. Wow.

He maybe knows us a little bit. Okay. Writing a prequel to the movie My Girl about the bees. This is what I'm saying. He's incredible. But yes, he does want the first. You love a prequel. I guess I want to.

I want to know where it started. Yeah. I don't know, in a beehive. And where did this podcast start? What is the prequel? to blank check why of course it's the Phantom Menace. That's so true. It all comes back to prequoise. That was the beehive

of our 10 year long allergic attack that has been this movie. I'm going to go get these pizzas. Be so hungry. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate review and subscribe. Next week is... Who's that knocking at my door? And Boxcarbertha, a special

guest-free Scorsese intro. Marty Doubleheader. And over on Patreon, we just recently kicked off our Resident Evil commentary series. So what are we up to right now? Are we just the first one? Just the first one.

Broken containment. We'll also be doing a bunch of fun, bonus, Scorsese one-off episodes covering all different kinds of stuff from his career. Shorts, do you name that? All sorts of things happening over there. Okay. And sign up at patreon.com slash blanche. Thank you all.

And as always, just a big congrats to Forky and a Mazel Toff on being made an honest man. Wow.