Talking Simpsons - Talk To The Audience?!? - March 2025

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

We've reached the end of the month, which means it's once again time for another installment of our community podcast! Join us as we scrape together what little news we can during this ongoing Simpsons drought, check in on Disney+'s new 24-hour Simpsons stream, and celebrate the second revival of American Dad. And, as always, we read and respond to your questions and comments from the most recent round of episodes. It's all happening on this month's Talk to the Audience: the only podcast that advocates for the decline of heavy sack beatings. Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

I hardly endorse this event or product. Ahoi hoi everybody and welcome to Talk to the Audience where this is always death. I am one of your hosts, Bob Mackie, praying for another 20 years of American dead and who is here with me today as always... Henry Gilbert, still glued to the 24-7 stream of the Simpsons And yes, this is talk to the audience our community podcast It launches at the end of the month on patreon the beginning of the month on the free feed and in this podcast We talked about what's happening in the Simpsons world

What's happening in our world and we respond to questions and comments left on the last bunch of episodes on patreon another slow news month We have a few things to talk about, but not much is happening in the Simpsons sphere right now. But we have crammed this show full of as much news as possible that we can talk about. Yeah, I mean, this is what happens when there's no new episodes. There wasn't even anything on Disney Plus this,

or new on Disney Plus this month even. Like, so they really did take off all of March, which used to be they'd have a ton of episodes then, cause it was like a sweeps month they really did take off all of March, which used to be they'd have a ton of episodes then because it was like a sweeps month. You'd get a ton of March. I just had to compile so much March history for things in 2004. We were shaking the crumbs out of the news toaster right now over a plate and the plate has talked to the audience for March of 2025. So we'll get started with some Simpsons news items in case you're wondering. There has been a big drought of episodes. So we'll get started with some Simpsons news items in case you're wondering.

There has been a big drought of episodes that's lasted for weeks now, but finally on March 30th, the Flandershees... sorry, excuse me, this is a very complicated title. The Flandershees of Inner Simpson will air on March 30th. That is six days after recording this, so we have no thoughts on it yet, but that will signify the end of the great drought that I believe started in February or late January it's been a very long time since we've had a new episode that aired not counting the time travel episode that was on Disney Plus earlier last month yeah not counting the Disney Plus hidden episodes it's been that long but the Simpsons are returning to animation domination or whatever the brand of that

is now at long last I didn't look at what it's it has to leave the Sunday night block I mean will it be crap opulence will it be the crap opulence I haven't even watched this show well be the murder show that the murder investigation show that John Hamm created I've totally forget what that is Grimsby yeah okay that's off the top of my dome folks I don't know why I know the name Grimsby. Yeah, okay, that's off the top of my dome folks I don't know why I know the name Grimsby. Yeah But yeah, the Grimsburg is a Grimsburg. No, no, I think it is Grimsburg. Actually. Yeah boy We're there's egg on our face. It is Grimsburg. I'm sorry Grim Grimsby is some spin-off

I made up in my head, but what I guess that's gonna be a Banshees of Inisheer in parody or is this just the title I wonder? I assume it'll have something to do with that movie but we'll see on March 30th. In another Simpsons news, keeping with the trend of how people are watching things these days, Disney Plus has recently added a 24-7 stream of Simpsons episodes to the service. It should include all the episodes that are available on Disney Plus and it should run about 300 hours. And they are doing this with other content categories, but The Simpsons is one of them. Again, these are very popular streams on YouTube,

but of course people leave on Twitch for similar things. So Disney is just aligning their service to the behaviors of their viewers. It's this amazing thing of like, what if there was like a channel that just showed things that you didn't control, and it was like, you could like, let's say flip to it on your television. What would that be like?

And I think you can actually read the credits this time because there's no skip to next episode button. So this is the best possible way to read credits on episodes through this content delivery package. Yeah, it's a fun thing. They've been doing these streams. They have a whole stream section on there, which it's mainly because most of the networks the streamers that are around are pivoting to or increasing their investment in live sports so even when they don't have sports content they are trying to turn it they're trying to train the viewers into more live participation of things whether you're

watching an NCAA basketball game that's going on right now, or you're going to flip on to the Simpsons. And this just launched, I think, six days ago as of this recording. And the first streaming package or whatever you want to call it was just all of the episodes in chronological order. I don't know if they're going to mix them up. So if you tune in at a certain point and you say don't want to watch the season 20s, that entire chunk of content

You might be kind of trapped there for a few days It did seem like they were going in chronological order at first at least when I tuned in when it was like You know 20 hours old or so they were showing late season 2 episodes Like it was the Unki Herb episode was the first one I saw when I turned it on So I think maybe they weren't going for a repeat of the now over a decade old, every Simpsons ever marathon vibes from FXX by the first one being in chronological order. Sure. So you can check that out if you have Disney Plus.

And in other news, in what is becoming a trend for the Simpsons writing staff, Carolyn O'Mene wrote an upcoming episode of season 36 with her 20 something son, Kai Kai. It's called Yellow Mirror, and they just did the table read. So I think to date, it has been Jeff Martin and his daughter, Rob Lzebnik and his son, and now we have Carolyn O'Mene and her son. I feel like there's got to be a fourth one we're missing in here or something, but yeah, it's funny. I think when we interviewed Carolyn we interviewed Carolyn Omine like during the interview that this future Simpsons writer like walked through the screen because she was we were doing it from her home and then so we got to see future Simpsons writer Kai Omine walk

walk through the screen. Let's get all of Al Jean's daughters in on a script. It must mean they don't want to be writers of Simpsons because they would be if that was their desire. Hey, I wish Kai nothing but the best. But seriously, Kai is very young because I was looking this up because later today we're recording an episode about, written by Carolyn Omine, that I feel like is based on her experience as a new parent. And I was like, oh, this is when she was writing this episode when future Simpsons writers Kai was born So let's say I guess like 20 21 Maybe she also you remember that episode about where Marge is the recent one where Marge is scared that Bart's growing up too fast

And it's where Marge gets food poisoning right right that that was influenced by Omini I read a whole post about this back then of like she was dropping Kai off at college and it was getting her in her feels, you know, obviously it would. And so that inspired the episode about fearing Bart growing up too. And I thought that was a really good episode. So let's see how that turns out whenever it airs in season 36. And we're really licking the inside of the news baggie for a high on this episode because hey there's this little thing every year it's called the Oscars have you heard

of it well this year it was hosted by some former Simpsons writer Conan O'Brien he did a really good job posting I've only seen clips I don't sit down to watch the entire Oscars anymore but everyone is kind of buzzing about Conan again it's nice to see Yeah it was I thought he did a really good job, especially he had a very rough start to the year, Conan. He lost both his, you know, his parents were in their nineties. Like, so he had a very long time with them and in a great relationship by the sound of it. But his father and mother like passed within days of each other and to do all that. And then, you know know just weeks later have to host the Oscars like that sounds pretty tough for Coney but it was I watched the Oscars he was great he

was having a great time it was all the old Conan stuff and you know what there's a Talking Simpsons connection too because the sketches were directed by Scott Gerdner sorry I said Scartz Scott Gerdner yes our previous Talking Simpsons guest, Scott Gertner, he directed two of the only two filmed sketch pieces for the Oscars. One was Conan's in the substance, and he's crawling through the body of Demi Moore. And then the other one I thought was even funnier was trying to sell.

Conan is selling you an app to watch movies, but it's really secretly just going to the movie theater. It's trying to trick kids into going to a movie theater by calling you an app to watch movies, but it's really secretly just going to the movie theater It's what's trying to trick kids into going to a movie theater by calling it an app Scott Garner has been very busy He had to take a hiatus for podcast the riot to direct a movie and then he had to take another direct Another hiatus to work on the Oscars. So watch out for all the podcasters among you They could be the next rising stars of Hollywood Yeah, you know, I'm so happy for Scott getting these these big opportunities but he's so good on podcast the riot. His success is getting in the way of my enjoyment of a podcast. You heard us everybody if you're

in Hollywood destroy his career bump him back down to podcasting only. But yeah Conan I thought Conan was really good. Just watch the Conan clips from it. They were a very fun Oscars. And we would be out of news about 10 minutes into this podcast, if not for something that happened this weekend. That's, it is Simpsons adjacent, I will say. So the news hits on Saturday and the headline is from Deadline. The headline from Deadline is American Dad poised to return to Fox for season 20 and beyond. So let me explain a few things.

So the history of American Dad, we have two American Dad episodes out there on the Whatacartoon feed. Check that out if you want more in-depth history about the show. But Fox originally canceled American Dad during the summer of 2013. Right after that, that is when TBS renews it for a 15 episode 11th season. And then fast forward to nearly 12 years later, on March 21st of 2025, just a few days ago as of this recording, this is when TBS cancels American Dad at the end of its 21st of 2025, just a few days ago as of this recording, this is when TBS cancels American Dad at the end of its 21st season, though I guess technically there have been 19 production seasons

of American Dad. It gets a little messy and we talk about that in our last time we covered American Dad. And this was TBS's last scripted original, but the details are not final as of this recording. As of now, we know that new episodes of American Dad will be airing at Fox and streaming on Hulu, Disney Plus, and Canada at some point in the near future and I wanted to add a fun time is passing note because this news is hitting about 20 years after American Dad first aired its pilot in February of 2005. So yes, we have had 20 years of American Dad and it is not ending yet. It is the new show in my mind still which which isn't, you know, I mean, that's time for you. But yeah, that I could not believe that news because I was sure the last time we talked about

it with that great gold top nuts episode was talking about how like it seemed that it only got renewed through like a loophole that like TBS technically still had to have a scripted show at the time and so they renewed it and it seemed like they could do whatever they wanted there but I was sure like well okay that's the last renewal and then to hear that not only is it getting renewed again but that it is moving back to network like a major network and actually being boosted by Disney I thought I thought for sure like okay Disney's gonna let that go Family Guy will keep going but American Dad it won't get to keep

Going but a multi season Renewal that is nuts. It's pretty crazy in my own personal history It's fun to see a show that I hate watch for its first season go on for 20 years and become a show I deeply respect and think is very funny. I I still think it's a great show, too I I was gonna say this in my having watch section But this is a great time to bring it up now Which is the 19th season and Bob lays out the history in the gold top nuts one great about what is the season and what? Isn't but on the Disney Plus Hulu count the 19th season just went up on Hulu the whole thing And we like watch the first like four episodes this weekend

It was great the first episode especially is actually like a very, very good episode of American Dad that is a crazy premise that just grows exponentially. And that so I just as my way of saying they are still killing it on American Dad. Trey Lockerbie Now I guess they're going to get a go back to their bigger platform that they left in the early 2010s. It's funny because I think the early 2010s is when Fox was getting cold feed about animation and had they known that this would be their future, they would not have canceled American Dad. They definitely would not have canceled King of the Hill. I feel like they were kicking themselves

after they canceled King of the Hill in like 2009. Now finally that's coming back and we're waiting for news on that reboot. Man, I bet they wouldn't have even canceled The Cleveland Show if they knew this. We'd be in like season 18 of The Cleveland Show by now. Though he'd still have been recast, I would bet. And rightly so.

After 2020. But yeah, that is all the news. So congratulations to Seth MacFarlane. Your empire is growing. Nothing can kill American Dad. And yeah, I mean, despite how you feel about Seth MacFarlane, I think we've all come around on him, but it is a great vehicle for his voice work,

which I think is the best thing that Seth MacFarlane does. He is a great voice actor who, the less he writes, the better on it. I mean, he doesn't write on Family Guy anymore either. Honestly, with American Dad, I would love to know production wise, hour count, how many hours does Seth MacFarlane put into a season of American Dad. Because I can totally see they do the entire show, the entire like season with temp tracks for his characters. And then they block out one, two days tops and just like, okay, record it all Seth or like fit it in. It has to fit around his schedule. Yeah, I bet it's not a super hard for him anymore

now that he's no longer hands on. And by the way, in Seth MacFarlane news, this also happened this weekend, the original pilot for Family Guy leaked. I think only eight minutes of it were available online, or 10 minutes, but now you can just watch the whole thing. And they essentially remade the pilot into the Fox pilots much later,

but now the pilot that Seth MacFarlane did by hand, by himself essentially, I'm sure with some other folks, but the really handmade version is now online in its entirety. You can check that out for yourself. Oh yeah, it's really cool. We talk about that in the, we did a Talking Simpsons on its debut and yeah, he basically animated almost entirely himself as, I mean, as much as that can happen on a show of that size. The first two acts of it. I

haven't seen this this recently. I remember watching the footage of it then and that's why so many parts of the first episode look very rough because they just kept what they could of that pilot in it. So once again, congrats to Seth MacFarlane and that is it for Simpsons News. Let's talk about our stuff that's going on. Our schedule for the month of April, as you all probably know, April is what we consider live action month. It started as a prank, but now it is something you have come to respect and expect as well.

So I'll talk about what's happening on What a Cartoon. The month of April will bring a What a Cartoon episode all about the series Red Dwarf, the classist British sci-fi comedy series that made us all laugh and cry and think about the word smeg. And in the month of April, we'll be covering the episode Gunmen of the Apocalypse. And I will say I've been having a real Red Dwarf Renaissance in my own home. I have rewatched the first six seasons, the golden age of red dwarf. I've reread the first book.

I'm really having a good time spending just like a month settling into the world of red dwarf again. And I can't wait to record this episode and for you to hear it. Yeah, this is going to be a great one. We're recording. I've been looking forward to, to, I watched, I watched a lot of those first six seasons on, on PBS in my neighborhood back then. I was, it taught me the word smeg as well.

I had never heard that. I take that to be because the British didn't embrace circumcision the same way the Americans did. And that's why smeg jokes became such a staple of show. Well, not to gross out our audience, but smeg is a fictional word, although it is based on an actual word. Yes. Yeah. So there's plenty of fun red dwarf insults like goit and gimboid.

We'll talk about all of them on that episode. But yeah, I'm looking forward to that as our most recent in the long, geez, seven year tradition now of covering the live action shows. Ah, you know, that sounds right. I think we started in 2019, probably before the pandemic, I want to say. I think so. I think so, man. That's crazy. So many. And this is the next one in our first British live action show, I think.

I think you're right. So yeah, look forward to us covering Red Dwarf in April. And if you are a Patreon patron at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons at the $5 level, you'll get to hear our mini series like Talking Futurama. This month we are covering an episode title I will only say once, Lurre Reconcilable Nda Ndifference's, and we will be joined by Chris Wade, the producer of Trap-O-Trap House.

He asked to be on and we were happy to give him a spot on our show because he's a big Futurama fan. We have a lot of fun talking about this episode that is about the marital strife between Ler and Nda Nda. With a lot of Comic-Con memories mixed in there too. Yes, a whole first act at Comic-Con. Yeah, it was really great. We don't always have guests on Futurama, but it's always fun to have on a big,

a fellow Futurama lover for an episode like this one. And on Talking of the Hill for patrons, we are covering the episode Isle 8A in which Hank Hill is confronted with menstruation. It is a very, very funny episode that takes Hank out of his comfort zone, but it's also an episode about menstruation, which nothing really ever covers,

and it's just a fact of life for people who menstruate. So it's a great episode. We had a lot of fun covering it. As two people who don't menstruate, we have a lot to think and say about that topic. Oh yes, very informed on it, we are. It was a really fun one to talk about and especially feeling, are we feeling like Hank? Are we feeling like Bobby in the episode? Did we learn things? There's a lot to explore in Aisle 8A. And if you are on the $10 level at patreon.com

Talking Simpsons, you'll get to hear our what a cartoon movie podcast they're typically between three to six hours long and this month we are covering the film looney tunes back in action because half of it is live action so it qualifies for our live action April Fool type month this is a movie I've only seen recently I'm look really looking forward to revisit it especially after watching the day the earth blew up in theaters that's a very different movie with it a very different kind of you know visual look to it But I'm looking forward to going back to this and seeing how the Chuck Jones style was really dominating at the time and people were really working in that mode. 06 Yeah, we've a lot of our live action ones have been of the Roger Rabbit or Space Jam variety.

And this is the next one in that series. And the production of it is, it could be a very long history one just because it is a very storied, troubled production with a lot of good people who wanted to do good things and executives who didn't want things to be good. And Joe Dante, the director, don't give a fuck and so he likes to tell the fun stories about those problems. And on top of that, there's also the side story of Larry Doyle, the screenwriter, and his attempts to make Looney Tunes return. And we'll ask the question, can Jenna Elfman carry a movie?

By the way, the answer is no, but there'll be a fun discussion to follow. And yeah, it's one we've been looking forward to for a while. Definitely glad we're doing this instead of Space Jam, a new legacy. Yes, I got that. That film was five years old, and I think it's just been completely forgotten, for the best, but one of these days, when we want to hurt ourselves, we will fall on that sword. We've already covered Space Jam,

and that was painful enough. Yeah, imagine a Space Jam that you don't even have nostalgia for and is uglier. Yes, much worse in every way. So yeah, that is our schedule, so check it out, and please sign up at patreon.com, slash Talking Simpsons, if you haven't already, to get all the bonus content. And now it is time to talk about what we've been playing

And watching that's not necessarily related to our podcasting and the game that has dominated my life in the month of February or March Sorry, I forgot what month it was. Well that explains a lot because I've just it's been on my brain It's Monster Hunter wilds the newest Monster Hunter. I've been having so much fun with the game I put 50 hours into it My only complaint about it is that low ranking mode Which is kind of where you start off in Monster Hunter Low-ranking mode is what you play to kind of learn the ropes then the credits roll and then the real game starts and then there's Another set of credits once you get through the real game

My only issue is low ranking mode is very on rails and I wish there was a way to opt out of it as someone Who has played a thousand hours of this series. I was never really bored but I was just waiting for that portion to end so I can dig my my fangs into all of the mechanics and all of the other options that open up and the freedom you get in high ranking mode but I like I like the last game Rise a little bit more. I like some of the the movements and the verticality of that game a little bit more but this is a very good and I will say very very pretty Monster Hunter and I'll be playing it for another 50 hours. And thankfully, this is the one that my wife is playing with me, so we're having a lot of fun

helping each other, I'm giving lots of tips, but this one, I've noticed, is really good at teaching new players, so I've really had to tell her very little about how Monster Hunter functions. So you're not a fan of Nada, I'm guessing. No, Nina had a good joke. Not another cut scene. Yes, yeah. I was stealing from Nina's great joke there.

No Monster Hunter story is ever good, but I prefer Rise when you're just given a paragraph of text, and they're like, OK, go. I'm not invested in any of these characters. I just want to kill the monsters or trap them, get my loot, make my guy look better, rinse and repeat, et cetera, et cetera. I love the loop, and the story just kind of interferes with that.

Well, I also did say another thing I thought Nina said was funny about it, that it's like Roy going off on exploring with three sexy ladies. That's right. A number of hunting babes at your camp, I guess, will give you a hand. But I know you've been playing this as well, Henry. You played through the initial low ranking mode, at least. Yes. Yeah, I cleared the credits. I had a good time with it too. It is a good couples game because, yes, I played it a lot with my hubby, with my spouse as well. Darren had... He's a great support for me too of just like, he's like, go over there, do... He's like, no, no, no, the guy's over here, wait, wait into your wet snow. But I mean, this'll sound like I am saying,

I'm glad I can play the game less, but it is really nice to just ride a mount and do your wetstone or rations while moving and it does the walking for you. Like I really like that. Yeah, that wasn't the last game, except in the last game, your mount was not like an Uber that just took you to your next destination.

You actually had to steer it. And yeah, the online is very good. The multiplayer is very good. And I will say, Henry, I know you're allergic to playing games online. You don't like to do it. But in this game, they make it so easy and no one ever talks to you. I find the message system is not used at all in this game when it was in a lot in Rise. At least people would be posting like little emotes on the screen, but nobody is talking

to each other at all. If you're looking to do anything in the game, there are always other people currently doing it because there's a lot of people playing right now. So it's very easy to jump in and just actually get a lot done, which, which feels good for a monster hunter. Oh yes. I've had very good time with the multiplayer I've done in it. And yes, I always welcome the players.

There's never, there's never a bad player, not the stereotype online is, but I have felt it too, that if a player comes in with Japanese text as their name, you know you're getting a great compatriot. They're going to help you very much if it's a Japanese player. Yeah, and I don't know if anyone is using voice chat, but it's off by default. It's like, well, I don't care about anything anyone is saying. We're just all working together and it's fine. But yeah, Monster Hunter Wilds, having a great time.

I also, because I've been following along with the Blank Check mini series about the first half of Steven Spielberg's career, I finally got around to buying and starting Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and it is so insanely good, I cannot believe it. It's sort of like that 2008 or 2009 Ghostbusters game where you feel like, oh, it's so faithful, and this feels like a real sequel

that they could actually make, except in this case, the game is very good. That Ghostbusters game, it was basically passable. It's just like, there's basic functionality and it's fun enough. But this game, I think it is Machine Game's best game they've made so far, because it's an immersive sim with some light stealth elements, and you are just thrown into these very, very dense environments that continually reveal new layers to themselves, reveal new mysteries and challenges and puzzles.

And I'm not sure how many levels there are, but I am 10 hours in and still in the first level, which is the Vatican. And there's just so much stuff to find and do. And I will say Troy Baker, his Harrison Ford impression is uncanny. It is so good. And it really makes the game work because he just absolutely nails it. I fear Troy Baker can get a big head online because he gets too many compliments,

but he really is one of the best actors in video games in that in the realm of motion capture, full body acting, he is so good. And yeah, I played because I have game pass. I played the first first five, six, seven hours of it until you can just walk around the Vatican freely. That's when I put a pause on the game. But yeah, his Indiana Jones is incredible. And you're not thinking I'm seeing Troy Baker here. I feel like, hey, it's Indy.

Hey, nice to see you, Indy. Yeah, I know what Troy Baker sounds like, so I was skeptical. I thought, does he have this in him? But then I started playing and I thought, oh my gosh, he really worked on this. He really perfected it. And then when I watched the Last Crusade a few nights ago and listening to

Harrison Ford I'm thinking god it's just they're like almost a perfect match but the game is very good if you haven't played it I think it's technically coming to PS5 still it's not out on PS5 yet but I'm giving my full-throated endorsement it is a very good game especially if you like immersive sims like Prey and Dishonored and Deus Ex. It's one of those games, but it is so so true to the indie vibe in the indie writing. They absolutely nailed it. I hope they make more of these games. I hope this was a hit because we all know the AAA space You can sell a lot of copies of game, but then your studio goes out of business for some reason So I hope they're stuck around and I hope that they make another one of these or at least like, make new content because they really figured it out. Like, this is the best Indiana Jones game ever made.

Though by being a Game Pass exclusive at first, or not exclusive, but by being on Game Pass at launch, I wonder if that like, what even are the sales? Like, do the numbers reflect popularity because there probably are like, I don't know, at least 500,000 people maybe even who would have bought the game, but just got it on Game Pass. Yeah, I wonder what the royalty system is for that, if it's a per game, like, oh, let's say Henry downloads the game, does machine games get $7 for that?

I wonder really how that works, is it an upfront thing, like, we'll put our game on Game Pass, you give us this many millions to, you know, subsidize the cost of that. Well, it is a Bethesda game, right, so like, Microsoft just owns it straight up, so it's not likeesda game, right? So like Microsoft just owns it straight up. So it's not like a third party, right? That's what I'm assuming.

I forget who owns machine games, but maybe that's the reason why it was only on Steam and Xbox for this exclusivity window. I believe it was a Bethesda release, but I'm not as in the gaming space as I used to be. I only played a little of it, but yeah. But yeah, I don't like Game Pass or support it for that reason. So I like to pay developers money for their games at lunch. I used to be. And I only played a little of it, but yeah. But yeah, I don't like Game Pass or support it for that reason.

So I like to pay developers money for their games at launch. I want to support them. Not that if you have Game Pass, you're not supporting developers, but I feel like there are too many downsides to that system. And it seems to be killing a lot of developers. And also maybe the Xbox brand as well, it might be killing it too.

Yeah, and hey, you know what? Good riddance. Ha ha ha ha. Just get a gaming PC, it's fine. I'll help you. Anyways, yeah, please check out Indiana ha ha. Just get a gaming PC, it's fine. I'll help you. Anyways, yeah, please check out Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. It is, it's amazingly good. I really, really like it.

Moving on to stuff I've watched just to cover a few things. I've watched like an incredible amount of movies this month because I'm not traveling, just doing podcasts and watching movies with my wife and playing Monster Hunter. One movie I wanna highlight, which I think could be a potential what a cartoon movie for our podcast is Vamp hunter D bloodlust Now this is the one really good vampire hunter D movie

it was made with an international release in mind but they were maybe getting a little too big for their britches because in In the early aughts, they weren't even putting Oscar-winning Miyazaki movies in your multiplex So in the year 2000, they were not going to put vampire hunter D Bloodlust in your local theater in any way. I saw this in an anime club at my college at 2001 and blew my socks off and then I only finally got around to be watching it now. But yes, it is basically the last gasp of 90s maximalist anime. Just everything is moving, every design is too complicated, hyper violence, every scene is just pushing everything to the extreme.

The one good thing, no sexual assault or sexual violence. I think it's because they learned their lesson by this point in time that this is not really what the audience wants anymore, and this is not what the international audience wants. So that is the one thing that doesn't make it, that makes it feel not like a nineties anime, but for the best. I have the fuzziest memories of it. I definitely, I watched it once when it was on DVD, but I haven't seen it in a very long time I would love to re-explore it I I remember the 80s one a little better because I think I watched that a couple of times

But yeah that you know, we talked about that era I remember in when we covered Millennium Actress on the movie It was like after Spirited Away won the or yeah after that big Oscar push Everybody at DreamWorks and other places were like, oh, we'll get our own anime too, but then they never released it. Like, Millennium Actress sat in a vault for like a year because DreamWorks held onto it. They didn't know what to do with it.

Yeah, it makes you really treasure the modern age we live in where G-Kids or whoever else will just stream a new anime movie to your theater. Spirited Away ends in what, 2002? I think? Yeah, yeah, in the US. In the US. But despite that, I feel like it wasn't until the early 2010s where we started getting things

like Sailor Moon movies and Dragon Ball movies. And after the Oscar, when you kind of had to find an indie theater near you to see, like from up on Poppy Hill or The Wind Rises. But the last decade was just a big push to actually get anime in theaters in front of people. Yeah, I mean, now anime films aren't, I'm just even used to like, oh, this must be a fathom event.

It's like, no, this is just a fully released movie. It's not just fathom doing it as a two-night event. These films are released as films. Now, that was one of the movies I watched, a release this month I watched, but the new Gundam Quacks, the G-Quacks, it got released and it's really just four episodes of a TV show.

Like it's the Japanese style release of these things, but it was in a theater. Like that's how different things are now. Yeah, they're just desperate to get you to a theater. So the theaters are like, we'll accept anything. We're not afraid of anime anymore. And it just, watching this brought me back to the early aughts where I mentioned this in my letterbox review. We covered the Cowboy Bebop movie on What a Cartoon Movie years and years ago, but Cowboy

Bebop is the hottest show on Adult Swim. Everyone's watching and talking about it. Japan puts out a movie. Is it in American theaters? Well, technically because they can have a premiere in New York and LA for the dub. But then 18 months later is when everyone sees it on DVD in 2003 It's like they completely blew it but that's because theaters were not like we're letting not letting something called cowboy Bebop into our hallowed screenings. We were showing classy films like Pearl Harbor I had one theater in a 50 mile radius with me was playing that movie and I went to see it. But it was long after the physical media release in Japan.

So a lot of people, they probably lost a lot of money just from all of the people downloading the bootlegs of it and watching it first and then not even seeing it until the theater. Like, yeah, I mean, I wonder if Bloodluster, what is the Vampire Hunter D imprint now in society? Like, how much did the anime kids of today know about? Oh, I think it's like, it's totally Ojiisan anime.

It's for old men. Only old people like us remember it. So, and that still has a Yoshitaka Amano character designs? Yes. Right, he did the first one. It does, it does. I mean, in this case, they fully execute on those designs. The first movie, I watched it last year mean in this case they they fully execute on those designs the first movie

I watched it last year. It is essentially like TV quality I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it is a very very cheap looking movie And I'm looking it up now the director of this we covered one of his things on what a cartoon movie It's Yoshi Aki Kawajiri He directed one of the animatrix shorts And I think he had a big hand in some of the other shorts because he's a big Madhouse guy and I'm sure the Wachowskis were big fans of his work at Madhouse, things like Wicked City and other productions like that. Oh, yeah, no, you've reawakened a memory for me because yeah, in the Animatrix

research, the segment he directed is the coolest segment in it where two characters are, the segment he directed is the coolest segment in it where two characters are, it's a ninja versus a samurai fight training in the like a matrix training mode. It's just two cool people, a woman and a man fighting each other in amazing animation. And he, when interviewed about it, he was told, the Wachowski just said, "'Can you just do Ninja Scroll for us some more?'

He's like, "'Yeah, sure, it's easy for me.'" Yeah, notably he is a Ninja Scroll director, which is fun. I didn't know who directed vampire D bloodlust when I started watching it. And as I was like 20 minutes and I thought this is like Ninja scroll without the sexual assault. And then I find out at the end, yes, same guy. It's it's like Ninja scroll and that it's like a series of boss battles against enemies with very interesting powers. So if you're into that, check it out. And also the dub is totally worth it because they spent a lot of money on the

dub. This was not your typical year 2000 anime dub. The lead female role is played by Pamela Adlon, AKA Bobby Hill. Wow. Yes, and she does a great job with an adult role. I never really hear her as an adult in animation. That's awesome. They really did.

They spent some, they got union talent on that. John DiMaggio plays like three characters in the movie. Oh man, that's really impressive. They went to LA and used union actors, not people in Texas who are good, but cheap. They're community theater good, but we love them. We love them for it. They were cheap and affordable,

and they made themselves available. But yeah, Vampire Nady Bloodlust is kind of my pick of the week, but I also really loved Mickey 17, a movie that I feel is polarizing. And then the distributor is like, well, don't go see it. We're putting it on streaming almost immediately. I saw this one too in theaters. I wish I liked it more. I just I and I look, I love Mark Ruffalo, but I he's the weakest part to me that I'm going to steal this from like Will Menacher, I think said this, but just I've seen Bong Joon-ho in interviews

say like, Hey, this isn't about Trump it's like come on man. It really is it is about Trump. The thing is I didn't I don't know who Mark Ruffalo is I didn't know that was him so I had no baggage carrying that into the movie but I will say I love Bong Joon-Ho's animal rights kind of statements and animal rights movies I I just saw Okja, which is his 2017 Netflix movie. And Mickey 17, to be very reductive, is a mix of Okja and Snowpiercer. It's the animal rights story within this dystopian society

where all the sickos have risen to the top. And I did really love, I mean, Mickey, what he does with the character is, Robert Pattinson, what he does with the character, I think is funny and fun. He has a wacky voice, he's a weird loser. And also I like that it's always about class with Bong Joon-Ho, which I love. And Mickey 17 is the guy who gets all the shittiest shit jobs to the point that it just kills him. To do his job literally is death and nobody

gives a shit about his life. That is the lowest of his class level. But yeah, Mark Ruffalo, he's a great actor and I don't just mean because he's the Hulk. I saw him in movies before he was the Hulk. OK, and I like him in movies. He's a good actor. But swinging a miss in this one, I like Tony Colette a lot better in this. Yeah, Mark Ruffalo is still a new actor to me. I don't know what else I've seen him in.

But I was like, who's this guy? I have no idea. He's wearing a lot of makeup, fake teeth, probably. But yeah, I just I just like being in the Mickey 17 world. And now I only have to see Bong Joon-ho's first movie. We've been watching a lot of them together, my wife and I, and we did enjoy this one. Also, Henry, you'll be interested in knowing this.

We just saw Logan. My wife had seen it. I'm seeing it for the first time. And I will, everybody, every anime, no, sorry, not anime. Every Marvel nerd told me for years, like this is actually a real movie. And I will say, it comes close. It comes close.

And I do like James Mangold stuff for the most part. But when he has to fight his evil twin, I think, well, this movie is a bit unserious and you've lost me a bit with the tone here. But that's kind of the only thing I disliked. And then knowing that Wolverine is brought back as a big gag for the awful Deadpool movie, sorry, Henry, I don't mean to disparage your drink cup that you sip out of occasionally. The fact that he's brought back for that kind of cheapens the movie. It's unfair because the movie was made years ago, but I thought like, oh man, I guess you could never, they never let

you walk away from these things. Well, so Hugh Jackman's stance on that is, and yes, it is the joke at the start of Deadpool and Wolverine is digging up the bones of Logan. But that Hugh Jackman says after he made and released Logan the year that Deadpool came out and he loved Deadpool so much that he was pissed that he's like, well, wait, now I can't be in Deadpool movies because I've retired Logan. So it was something he wanted to do. It's not just forced upon. Then I blame him. But the most part of the movie I enjoyed the most is basically the

road trip with grandpa X because that was Patrick Stewart's great in it. And I wish his character didn't go away in quotes at a certain point during the movie. And then they kind of lost me with the third act. But I like this attempt and I will say, hey, more like this. And I'm not sure if they ever did more like this, but I kind of like the vibe this went for. No, it's a, well, Bob, did you know it's like kind of a Western?

Oh. Maybe I heard this. I'm stealing a joke now, but no. Well, but it being a throwback to, this is John Wayne's last Western, or this is Clint Eastwood last Western, especially it is so unforgiven. But but and part of unforgiven is you want to see one last ride and this guy be awesome one more time especially if you're like an old person watching it and that's so the reason there's a cool

fight at the end of the movie and he has to basically Logan just takes super steroids to have a cool fight one more time that is part of the tradition they're going for in it too. I guess I don't like the tradition then. I don't know. I like how it ended. Not a big fan of the we built a second Wolverine for you to fight kind of deal. Well, yeah. I mean also too, that's like, oh, well we can just make you look young forever with digital effects, right? So here's young you and he's, I mean, I get that. I do get that. But yes, I liked it more than,

I haven't seen the Bob Dylan movie, Mangold just did, but I definitely liked it more than the Dial of Destiny Indiana Jones movie, which I really did wanna like. I wanted to give it a chance, I really did. So 20 more years of American Dead, 20 more years of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Let's have both of those go. Nothing can die, keep it going. Support the economy,ine. Let's have both of those go. Nothing can die.

Keep it going. Support the economy, everybody. And one last thing I wanted to mention, I've been watching Yellow Jacket Season Three. That's been airing since I believe like February or January. Now I will say really good first season. Gets a little stupid in the second season because they are kind of running out of things to do.

Third season, I'm not too sure about it, but there's a big turning point about halfway through where there's a twist and I'm like, oh, it's getting good again. And the person, one of the writers of that episode is actually a former Talking Simpsons guest. Emily St. James is responsible. I'm not gonna say fully responsible,

but her name is on the episode where I think things really reach a turning point and the show gets very good again. So I am enjoying Yellow Jackets and it's fun. It's a very Vancouver show and we have fun trying to figure out like, Oh, where are they now outside? What can we go there? Have we been there? Emily is another of those graduating from Onion AV Club writer to actual TV writer now. So good, good for her. Congratulations. Yeah, Yellow Jackets is good, Henry. It's all of your favorite 90 stars, except they're all between 40 and 50 years old now. But they but they age that's wrong

But you can see then then other actors play younger versions of them in flashbacks No, no, it's it's been on my list for a while, but I've as you'll see on my list I've been watching a lot of current television as well But yeah, it's a yellow jackets now that there's gonna be three seasons of it It seems like it's not going to be unceremoniously canceled like so many promising streaming shows. That's a nice, that's a good sign. Trey Lockerbie Yeah, not a lot going on for me this month. It's been great.

Just doubling down on podcasting, watching stuff, relaxing. So I will say the one thing I did do this month is I went to see a found footage festival. I think it's the fourth or fifth time I've seen them, possibly more, but they always put on a good, very, very funny show when they come to town. And of course, Nick and Joe are friends of ours, so thank you for the invite, Nick and Joe. They always let me know when they're coming to town. I always have a great time.

And you just saw them a few days after me, Henry. Yeah, it was funny. They were in Vancouver first, then did Two Nights in Portland, and then came here. It was 20 years of Found Footage Fest. They were celebrating. It was great. They've been at it for so long. They were 10 years into their show when we started Talking Simpsons.

So that's just how long these two guys have been at it. And that's, you know, it's inspiring as two weirdos who made up our own jobs as well to see that they're still going strong. So 20 more years of American Dad, 20 more years of Jackman as Wolverine, 20 more years of Found Footage Festival, and let's say 10 more years of Talking Simpsons. We have

to get through the initial 10 first. We're almost done with the initial 10. Yes, yeah. But yeah, that is it for me for the month of March. Well, so my playing, other than the things I also did that Bob did, I finished the Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii game, which was ridiculous fun, not as good as the last side game, which was the man who erased his name, but that's, Majima is great, but there's a reason they have him in smaller doses. And there's also a reason that they give him amnesia

in this story, because if he was his regular character, he'd be too crazy to do this story. It's so, the silliest parts are my favorite parts. And stick for those post credits folks. It's a good post credits It's a good ending and also Samoa Joe professional wrestler is a major villain in the game and I enjoyed that too. Oh nice Yeah, I like these side story games because they are digestible If you are afraid of how long Yakuza games traditionally are and so for some people you should be these are the size of a regular Game like 30 hours you you would say, Henry?

Yes, I at 800 achievement points, I was there at 30 hours, which will show you how meaty or not it is. And yeah, compared to the for real 100 hours I put into the last infinite wealth, which I did, I got like 700 points in. That shows you how small this game is. I also, I finished the tutorial basically of Monster Hunter Wilds. I also finished Death Stranding,

which that was one I could not believe. I didn't start it until the director's cut just got released outside of PlayStation systems. I played on Xbox and when I finished it, I could not believe it told me I'd play 46 hours of it. Like I was like, wait, how do I put that many hours into this game? That's insane to me.

Yeah, that's actually a game I'll be starting sometime this spring. The announcement of the sequel coming in, I think June is finally motivating me to play the director's cut. I've had it for like multiple consoles for years now and this is really lighting a fire under my ass. Yeah, the announcement of the release date

got me to basically mainline the last like 10 hours of the game's main story and not do as much of the side stuff. But yeah, I really, the friction I got into it, the combat and boss fights, that was the only thing. And I hate being disappointed by Kojima boss fights, but I was in this game. So it's like Metal Gear Solid 4 all over again. Yeah. I guess actually in a lot of ways it is because the big gooey monsters also feel that way.

But yeah, I can't wait for the sequel coming out in a few months. And I just started up Assassin's Creed Shadows. It's the first Assassin's Creed I've played since Odyssey. Feeling good. It does the things that Assassin's Creed does good. But it's still feeling like an 8 out of 10 to me at best. And it also is slow going at the start, but I have wanted them to do Feudal Japan

for the longest time. They're finally doing it. They finally did it. And is this the end of Ubisoft? Will this be their last game before Tencent buys them? I wonder. I was going to ask about that. They seem to be in trouble. I definitely bought their Prince of Persia game, the new one. I bought it for two consoles because I want to support those kind of smaller games. Because I think it's unsustainable to just constantly make these giant Assassin's Creed games, right? Oh yeah, I mean, it takes everybody, like the size of the staff, the number of studios around the world, like it just seems ridiculous how huge, and these games are ridiculously

huge. Like for Odyssey, I, in deepest lockdown, I put over a hundred hours into it. Like these are gigantic games and I have been told by other people online when I said I was playing this, like people tell me you should just play Witcher games then because this game just wants to, they're trying to turn Assassin's Creed into The Witcher.

You should just be playing The Witcher. Yeah, I wasn't sure. I'm seeing a lot of praise about this, a lot of hype from people who take big breaks from this series, so it does seem promising. I think Assassin's Creed rewards you for skipping a couple games, though Ubisoft obviously doesn't want you to do this, but you can't make

an annual franchise out of a game that takes over 100 hours to play in a gigantic open world. That just doesn't work. Well, we'll see if I stick with it or if I finish it. I had a nice little time with it. I love going up on a tower and turning on it and flipping a switch on a tower. Always fun.

And then with movies, me and you both saw the day the earth blew up this month too. That was, it was really good. And I'm so glad it's still in theaters. So it must be doing all right. Yes, it's so good. It's just so much fun to look at. It makes me, it made me remember, oh right, 2D animation.

There's a reason why I do this for a living and it's in front of me on the screen. And even though the movie is not traditionally animated, it is rigged animation, like whatever you want to call it. They, it's kind of barely noticeable. That's what I was most worried about. Will the artifice shine through? Will I get this? Will I feel the

sense of the limitations of the tools they're using? And the answer really is no. And Farmer Jim is my new favorite Looney Tune character. I love that guy. Are you hot for him is my question. No, I have seen some horny people for Farmer Jim out there. But I just he had one joke, but it made me laugh every single time I saw him.

It's a good way. It's a good statement of intent upfront the Farmer Jim stuff to let you know this is the tone we're going for. And we sat through the credits just to see who worked on it. And yes, it is everybody's still doing 2D animation, every possible studio. I've sort of got like over a dozen studios worked on this. And it is like a gift that we got to see this in theaters. Like with the, and yeah, my last, oh yeah, one of the last inspiring thing that happened to me seeing it in theaters was, and it was like, I'd say 80% full in a smaller theater. So it was like, I'd say 40 people were there, which I was very impressed by on a Saturday,

but there were people who brought their kids there. It wasn't just adult men who love cartoons there. And the kids who left, they were like, they loved it. This kid was like shouting, Daffy Duck is so funny. And I was like, ah, it warmed my heart. It warmed my heart. You're damn right, kid. Now we'll be covering the very Chuck Jones-y take

on these characters next month with Back in Action, but I loved seeing the clampity earlier Daffy in this production. And then right after I see it, I go onto Blue Sky and I see you were tweeting the story about HBO Max taking off all the Looney Tunes and the promo image is all of the Chuck Jones versions or the versions that have been popularized

through merchandise and I see the Chuck Jones Daffy and I'm like, I don't know that guy. I don't know who that is. Well, he's gonna be way in your face. I know, I know, but here we have Joe Alasky. Oh yeah, and I will say the voice of both Porky and Daffy, I wasn't completely sold on him, Eric Bowser, but with this film, he is really bringing it

to the next level, and I do really enjoy his Daffy and his Porky. Yeah, yeah, Bowser, you know, he doesn't do them in everything, and he, of current people who do bugs professionally, he's my favorite bugs. I was like, can he really do the other? I love Eric Bowser, and he's very funny on, he was on podcast The Ride And he's very funny on, uh, he was on podcast, the ride. It was very funny too.

But playing them for a feature film and having to portray emotion and have actual emotional beats in it that, but also be funny. He does, he does a great, great job. And if you like the movie, check out other things the director made, like uncle grandpa and Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, which are two series from the early 2010s, I believe. They had the same kind of loony spirit within the confines of TV quality animation.

And also all of the new Looney Tunes shorts that led up to this, they are still on Max at this moment. I guess that's because they made them, but that's no guarantee. The clock's ticking, so move fast on those. Well, hey, speaking of watching a thing on Max, the new season of Jellystone is on there, and it was released with no fanfare, but it's very funny. If you want to see one of the late George Lowe's final appearances as Space Ghost, it's in there in a very good episode. And I want to compliment our pal Toby Jones. We've had many podcasts. He storyboarded a few episodes in it

that were some of my favorites, including a C-Lab episode full of C-Lab 2021 jokes he snuck into it. Nice. It makes me a little sick to know that's now nostalgia, but hey, we covered C-Lab for its 20th birthday four years ago. Yeah. That's right. Well, because it hit the year 2021.

So we were like, well, it's time to do it. That was a great call by you. Then other TV shows I'm watching the the hot TV show. I'm watching now is white the white lotus season 3 It's been a good time full of sexy people doing sexy crazy things in a beautiful place great actors having great doing great acting that It's why you go to the white lotus. It's it's international. It's sexy. It's fun, but it's also like Great writing and acting too murder. It's coming. Well. Yes, it's fun, but it's also like great writing and acting too. Murder?

It's coming. Well, yes, it's, there's, who knows who's going to die. It's my favorite thing in the White Lotus, how they have to have a line from every character who says like, I don't know, I think something bad might happen to me. As you're just wondering who's going to be the one who dies this season, who's going to die. Now, how many apparel spritzes are they drinking this season? You know, now they're having a man, what drinks they haven't named the drink of Thailand.

They're having it or I can't remember it. But yes, they you know, it was Italy last season. Now they're in there in Thailand and Bangkok a lot. So but I haven't caught what's the hot new drink from this season. Now, a lot of pill popping this season and beer drinking less less named drinks like apparel spritzes and oh, and I watched an aura Oscar winning one, which I did go to A lot of pill popping this season and beer drinking. Less named drinks like Aperol Spritzes. And oh, and I watched Enora, Oscar winning one, which I did go to it alone.

And it is weird to sit between two couples watching a film with that much nudity and sex in it. You should have turned around every time there was sex to say, I'm watching this because of the Oscar. Yes, yeah. Look at my hands. They're not touching anything. I wish the movie, I liked it. I'd give it a, I think I gave it a 3.3 and a half stars on Letterboxx,

but I wish it had more of the working relationship of the people at the strip club. I really like seeing like, Oh, what's it like to work in a strip club? And then the middle third is very funny. And then the last third is my least favorite third. I honestly dislike how it ends. But Mikey Madsen winning the Oscar, she does a very good job especially in, it is, it feels like the old way they used to give out Oscars of like not only did you do a very good job, not only do you like cry and show all these emotions, but you also do it while having to be nude for a third of the movie pretty much. And so it's really putting yourself out there. It's great to see Sean Baker win the award

because I've only recently discovered him and I've enjoyed everything I've seen. I have not seen a nori yet, but I really will be seeing it soon, I think. It's all the big stuff I've seen, but I'll say, yeah, I did get to go to the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle and the Space Needle for the first time because my mother-in-law

and sisters-in-law were visiting and we were showing them around Seattle. And yeah, that Museum of Pop Culture, you've been there before, Bob. They had a nice special showing of Keith Haring Art, the gay artist who did a lot of the blocky, when you look it up, you'll know it. It was in a ton of ads in the 80s.

Yeah, it was really in pop art all over the place. And I have a Keith Haring t-shirt from Uniqlo. I like his style. Yeah, it was really cool to see his stuff in person. And also, it was given proper context of his queer life and his commitment as a queer artist and his tragic early passing from HIV-related causes. And also, so you can see all that stuff.

And then you can also see the Darth Vader costume from Empire Strikes Back, which is the best Vader costume of all the slight variations in the costumes each film. And you can also see a horrifying gizmo from Gremlins under glass. Did you see that guy? Strikes Back, which is the best Vader costume of all the slight variations in the costumes each film. You can also see a horrifying gizmo from Gremlins under glass. Did you see that guy? Yes, I did, yeah.

Oh, and a Borg. I love that Borg, too. The Borg? Oh, from Star Trek. Yes, there was a Star Trek Borg and a pretty intact Donatello, though it's from the third TMNT movie. Hardly, why even bother?

Cheap puppets. Now, Henry, your mother-in-law visited. At any point where you hit with a rolling pin? That she gets so mad at you that one of her curlers that are always in her hair like popped out. No, no, she was actually, she was great. My mother-in-law was a whole lot of fun. She loved seeing all the stuff,

she loved seeing our very clean apartment. And my sisters-in-law were a lot of fun too. Was the first time I had talked to her over the phone before but I had not met my sisters-in-law were a lot of fun too. It was the first time I had talked to her over the phone before, but I had not met my mother-in-law in person before. She doesn't travel much. It was really nice. She is a nice lady.

And my sisters-in-law, pretty cool. One of them is in their early 20s, so I got to learn what the young people are talking about these days. Are they talking about Simpson's podcast that are three hours long? I think so, right? Yes.

Actually, when I told her our podcast, she first started looking for it on YouTube and that was like, oh, that's right. That's where the kids look for, but hey, we are on YouTube. YouTube doesn't want us to be on YouTube, but we're on YouTube. It'd be a better platform if they didn't take your podcast down immediately once you uploaded them because of copyright reasons. Yeah, yeah. Like, come on, YouTube, be cool, man. Be cool. But anyway, yeah, and the Space Needle was cool. I've gone to a because of copyright reasons. Yeah, yeah. Like come on YouTube, be cool, man, be cool.

But anyway, yeah, and the Space Needle was cool. I've gone to a lot of tall things. Like I've been to Tokyo Tower and Sky Tree, and those are, Sky Tree was like the tallest cool thing I've been, I've been to the thing that used to be the Sears Tower in whatever it's called now in Chicago. But my favorite actually is the Space Needle because it's observation deck

and it's spinning and stuff was really cool. I love the observation deck of glass floor. It was really neat. Yeah, we had never, sorry, I had never been to one of those spinny observation decks in my life until I went to the restaurant Top of Vancouver with Nina. It's a very famous Vancouver landmark. And yeah, it was great.

Those are fun. And there's a restaurant in the Space Needle too, right? Yes, yeah, that's right. Though it was pretty booked up. but yeah the most of them in Tokyo Tower they also have like a little bar there I wouldn't call it a restaurant so there I'm used to seeing like you can buy an expensive drink at most of these but yes at the Space Needle it was a full-on like restaurant was there that's been there since 1962 of it so that's everything I did this

month. And now it's time to talk about the questions and comments that were left on the Patreon for the last round of episodes. And we'll start with, Diatribe of a Mad Housewife, and Joe Wagner says, or perhaps Wagner, barely even a joke alert, could the son in Marge's book being named Bartleby be a reference to Melville's story Bartleby the Scrivener? Frankly, I would prefer if it wasn't. And this is Bob responding, yes, I believe so. And also Bartleby is a name from that era and that was kind of in the back of my head I was like, wasn't there another Melville Bartleby? But I I assume that is a Melville reference and you really nailed it Joe. So they can putting that out

Yeah, we we missed that one. But thanks. Thanks Joe for catching that one and Harry Thornton also says on that episode Well, I haven't found a UPA cartoon so far about the idea of emotions inside of your head, there is a 1943 Disney cartoon titled Reason and Emotion, which does have this as its premise, and Inside Out director Pete Docter has indeed cited it as an influence on his film. It's a wartime propaganda short, with the message being that, in times of crisis, people shouldn't let their emotions get to the better of them. So it's like HR for the war. Yeah, it's meant to control you. Only you can control how you feel.

Actually that, oh man, did you see that viral post on Twitter of people, somebody like discovered, a Nazi online discovered that they were doing anti-German propaganda and they paid for it with Disney? Yes, someone just discovered the Disney's anti-Nazi propaganda, I guess, even though it was literally released on DVD in Best Buy. You could just go and buy it. Yes, it's very well known and that it was being treated as a Psy-op of like, oh, we needed to convince people that the Nazis were bad in the 40s.

The people who were our enemies and were teamed up with the people who just bombed Pearl Harbor. We needed to trick people. Like, again, that's, look, people say dumb shit on Twitter all the time, but that one really took the cake of like, oh my God, I just discovered they had anti-Nazi propaganda. How dare they? It's like, yeah, I'm pretty sure they could still be listed on Amazon if you want to watch those shorts. I think probably even Disney Plus might have a few of the tamer ones. Also, you had a good point in your letter box that seeing the evil Nazis of the Last Crusade

now in 2025, it feels shittier. I don't like it either. No, I mean, so yeah, I just rewatched the Last Crusade not to take over this section of the podcast. And my previous viewing, it was like in Biden world. And yes, there was a resurgence of Nazis, but it was basically a matter ofof-fact like yes, the Nazis are bad And of course I recognize this but these are the enemies of the past and now watching it today I'm like feeling these stirring emotions when an Indian and Jones's father are making fun of the Nazis and saying calling them goose-stepping cowards Yeah, and that the guy who like the businessmen who work with the Nazis is like the final villain of the movie Yeah. Yeah, like the essentially not to get too like

politically-pilled about this but the villain of Last Crusade is essentially Elon Musk because he's like I'll work with the Nazis I don't care about them they're just the way for me to get what I want and I hope he drinks from the wrong cup let's just say that folks. I feel like he's you look at him it looks like he's been drinking from the wrong cup a lot these days. Yeah or the perhaps the wrong pill or needle, who knows what's going on. Oh, and I also wanted to mention that

when the Real Jims promoted that episode, Dietribe on Blue Sky, Simpsons writer Michael Price did chime in on it, I wanted to include that. He liked that Real Jims had done our show and he said it was one of his favorites, Michael Price is one of his favorite episodes he worked on and said, the two jokes I remember pitching are

when the Homer character in the Marge book says I just got back from Yarmuth now let me put my tongue in Yermuth and the runabout I stopped reading books after the To Kill a Mockingbird had no practical directions on how to kill mockingbirds. So Michael Price has had some fun memories of that. He should be he remains on my list of we should, we should interview him someday types. Yeah, I think he follows both of us now, so he must, he must know about the podcast? Yeah, yeah, and he, and if he hated it, he wouldn't be following us still, I would think. I would hope so. Uh, let's move on to Homer the Vigilante, and James Babow says,

Prior to Jurassic Park, Sam Neill was offered the role of James Bond in 1987. His screen test is easily found on YouTube, but while the producers wanted Pierce Brosnan and couldn't get him due to his TV commitments, Neill might have gotten the role if he actively campaigned for it. He was not interested in the role and it eventually went to Timothy Dalton and rightfully so IMO. So uh yeah I had no idea that Sam Neill could have been a James Bond. I'm glad he wasn't though. Yeah that he has a much more interesting career by not doing that. I had heard the, they wanted Pierce Brosnan and then he was forced to do the

TV show, Remington Steele. And so that's why Timothy Dalton got the role. And then Brosnan got it later anyway. Yeah. I did not know that Sam Neill was in the running for it. So, uh, and, and yeah, we're going to look back on that tightly controlled, businessy uncreative time of James Bond as the good old days now that Amazon owns it. Yeah, yeah. I totally forgot about the Amazon deal.

They bought all the rights to James Bond. The story goes that Jeff Bezos got so pissed at their ideas being rejected as fucking stupid by the people in charge of James Bond that he said, give them a literal blank check and say whatever amount of money it is to get them to fuck off and let me make Amazon James Bond movies, they apparently hit whatever billions of dollars that is and they're doing it. What if the new James Bond is Jeff Bezos?

Well see, Jeff Bezos should be the villain of the James Bond movies instead of owning James Bond. That is true, he'd be a much better villain, you're right about that. Mike Mariano also said on that episode, it's a mad, mad, mad, mad world premiered at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, a theater specifically built for the film.

For decades, the film played there at least a few times a year until the Cinerama Dome and the Arclight Theater complex built around it closed during the pandemic. Supposedly, the dome will reopen this year. Until then, please remember the Cinerama Dome as it should be remembered. built around it closed during the pandemic. Supposedly the dome will reopen this year. Until then, please remember the Cinerama Dome as it should be remembered. Painted green with added horns

for the premiere of Shrek 2. Yeah, I think we saw that during one of our LA trips, the Cinerama Dome. Yeah. I think we were staying near the Cinerama Dome when we were there, yeah. Because I think I remember then it was like recently purchased by Tarantino I want to say, but it was in the same neighborhood as the, like we were literally blocks from the big Scientology

Center too. And blocks from Warner Brothers? Yeah, oh well that was another one. We were across the street from Warner Brothers that year. Yeah, that's probably like 2018 maybe. Yes, that's where we recorded the Poochie episode among other episodes that time. And up next we have Marginal History Tour and Brandon says, I live in Eugene, Oregon, coincidentally where Animal House was filmed and can attest to the wet weather.

Also the city is named after white settler Eugene Skinner. Prior to being officially named Eugene, the settlement was known as Skinner's Mudhole. So despite the Simpsons making fun of the city's name, Eugene is an improvement. I am living in a real mudhole myself and I assume Henry is as well because I'm looking at the forecast in the Pacific Northwest and it is just rain for the next 10 days.

Oh yeah, a wet day. I barely avoided the rain. I love walking outside over doing the treadmill if possible to do my morning five mile exercise walk but I just dodged the rain this time. But it was a wet evening when I left the found footage festival last night. And it's wet times here,

and hopefully we're gonna have a clear summer. We had a pretty light on rain summer in the Pacific Northwest, so hopefully we stick that way. I'm kind of luxuriating in it because we were just living in Berkeley where it's sunny almost every goddamn day and it's kind of excruciating if you want to stay inside and don't want to be tempted or feel guilty about looking outside and seeing nice weather and saying, I better stop playing video games.

You know, my doctor, I just had my annual checkup and my doctor told me like, again, he was reminding me, make sure you're taking your vitamin D supplements because you're not getting enough vitamin D in a gloomy place like this like and I have been I have been doctor I have. Super Engine also says about that episode as a baseball nerd I had to comment about the deleted Ron Santo joke he was considered a really good but unspectacular player in his day but after his career he was championed by baseball nerds and early sabermetricians, think Jonah Hill in Moneyball, like Bill James because he excelled in a lot of areas that were usually overlooked, like getting on base a lot via the walk, hitting for power over

pure batting averages, and being a really good defensive third baseman. So in fact, he had many seasons where he was Chicago's best player and even rivaled legends like Willie Mays and Hank Aaron for a few seasons. For the last decade of his life he was considered one of the Hall of Fame's biggest snubs which made it a very bittersweet occasion when he was finally elected in one year after he had already passed away. So while he was deservedly inducted he did not get to celebrate it. And it is still one of the more contentious moments in Cooper towns history. I figured we get some real Santos sickos writing their messages in

because we mentioned sports and we were like, I don't know. So that's, that's where the audience comes in to fill in the blanks. That deleted scene was such an involved joke about Ron Santos performance and legacy that it was interesting to get extra viewpoint on, and to know that he was viewed as better by the metrics of the nerds, like as seen in the movie Moneyball, that it was great to have that explained here to us,

nerds who are not baseball nerds. Yes, thank you for the Santo information, we appreciate it. And moving on to what a cartoon, we have the episode Wander Over Yonder, or the episode about Wander Over Yonder, nerds who are not baseball nerds. Yes, thank you for the the Santo information. We appreciate it. And moving on to what a cartoon. We had the episode Wander over yonder or the episode about Wander over yonder. And Matthew Mahoney says, only watched a few episodes of this show

but thought it was always beautifully designed. One of my first bosses ended up transferring to Disney to help out on this show. I went on to have lunch with him and saw the Wander bullpen. Disney always decorates their show spaces beautifully but Wander seemed unique because they had just blown up their model sheets and do's don't sheets

to hang on the wall. I'm talking at least eight feet wide. They are, to this day, some of the most beautifully articulated design sheets I have ever seen. Was very excited to hear this episode. Thank you. This is Bob speaking, and I want to say thank you to ToonJ. He was the sponsor for this episode, I believe.

Yes, that's right. I probably would have never gotten around to watching this, if not for ToonJ's pick. was the sponsor for this episode, I believe. Yes, that's right. I probably would have never gotten around to watching this if not for ToonJay's pick. So I really enjoy this one as well. Yeah, this made me wanna, I think I found some of their production stuff like that, but I don't recall the do's and don'ts. It's always fun to look at the do's and don'ts.

If that's out there, I'm gonna look that up now, the do's and don'ts of the model sheets on that show. Dylan also says on Wander Over Yonder, Nate Stevenson's DNA is all over that second segment in the best way. I'd love to see what a cartoon cover his version of She-Ra sometime. I don't know if I'd say it's my number one favorite cartoon of the 2010s, but it's absolutely in my top three. So thanks Dylan for confirming Nate Stephenson that I didn't think I was going overboard thinking

like, Oh yeah, this has a lot of the tropes that Stevenson has used a lot in his career in that episode. Yeah, I've never seen that new She-Ra thing. It did look interesting and had good buzz behind it. And I think I've only seen the original She-Ra in a bar in the last five or six years of my life because in my neighborhood, was a nerd-themed bar that would just play random 80s crap on the TV and I had never seen She-Ra before

and it was very hypnotic. I watched the first season but didn't keep up with the rest. I had been meaning to. I fear that someday it'll just get delisted from Netflix and you'll never be able to see it again. But yeah, I'm glad Nate Stephenson got to run that show. It doesn't seem, it seems like he's been trying to make another show for a while but hasn't hasn't gotten the chance yet so I hope

hope that's not the only show that Nate Stevenson gets to be the showrunner on. And up next we have what a cartoon movie the episode for the month of March was How to Train Your Dragon or sorry February. March is a America Tale I apologize we'll talk about that next month but for How how to train your dragon, Covey M says, There's actually one way I know of to watch 3D Blu-rays in this modern day, and it's very funny. If you own a PSVR and a PS4, you can watch 3D movies in VR. I did this with my copy of the Lion King Diamond Edition, I think. So there you have it. If you don't have a 3D movie, sorry, a 3D TV, PSVR can do this.

Presumably, maybe other VR headsets like Oculus or the Steam one could do this. I don't know, but it seems like that's what you're limited to these days. I would guess though too, like it needs to, I'm sure, I'm sure you can hook up an Oculus to talk to a disc player, but like that at the very least a PSVR can talk to a PS4 that you can then put your 3D blu-rays into that disk drive and then watch it in there. I still, in the closet somewhere I have the PSVR. It was a fun little distraction, but honestly, like it was too, the longest I played was

like 50 minutes at a time. And when I took it off, I was just, it fucked me up. I couldn't, I didn't like how dizzy I felt at the end of it. Yeah. I bought an Oculus during quarantine just so I could experience going outside virtually and just have a new experience to keep me from, well, you know. And after the pandemic, I didn't really use it.

So it's in a closet right now. And maybe one of these days, I'll check it out just to keep the batteries from exploding inside of it. Silky PJ, meanwhile, said about how to train Your Dragon, hearing the Deblois is gay was really fascinating to hear about in the context of this trilogy. You can see it a lot in the stoic hiccup relationship and how much of the films break down or test the ideas of masculinity and relationships. It really enriches one and two, however it unfortunately makes the third movie even more awkward. You guys joke about the compulsive heterosexuality

But the hidden world makes some very uncomfortable subs text about following that when you get to the ultimate conclusion It's something that bothered me and other queer animation friends of the time That being said the quality of these movies definitely up the reputation of DreamWorks with one and two being some of the studios best. And they all had incredible 3D that was greatly incorporated in the film rather than being added in post-production that many blockbusters did at the time. I'll be curious to know how you feel about those sequels. Yeah, I guess in terms of movies that we like to talk about on here, the How to Train Your Dragon live action one is coming this summer, right? That's right. And it's going to be a huge part of the soon-to-open billion-dollar Universal

Orlando theme park, too. And is that coming out the same month as the Lilo and Stitch remake? You know, I think they're both May, actually. Yeah, I think you're right. Okay, well, it's going to be a real competition as to which one is more necessary Which Sanders DeBlois film will be at least DeBlois directs that live-action version of how to train your dragon though Chris Sanders is at least involved to the extent that he is still the voice of stitch in that new Lilo and stitch I if I were to make bets I would think the the one that'll have a higher Critical appraisal will be how to Train Your Dragon, but we shall see.

That's what I'm placing my bet on, I think. So moving on, we have Talking Futurama. The episode was the prisoner of Benda. That was the crazy mind swapping episode, in case you forget about that one. We have Solvaram who says, I think this went over people's heads, but when Bender says, I'm 60% storage space in this episode, it's a top of the series long running joke where he keeps saying, I'm 40% blank. Zinc, titanium, dolomite, etc. I think they're intentionally saying Bender is made up of 40%

blank plus 60% storage space. Yes, thank you, Solverum. I think it is a running joke, but I think every time he gives a different percentage. So I don't think they're finalizing the joke with the storage space topper. But yeah, I didn't recognize it as a I'm blank percentage something as the continuation of it Usually we're good at catching runners like that But thank you. Thanks for catching that one for us that he's I mean based on how much he is able to store in himself For joke purposes. He basically is like, you know Felix the cat's bag of tricks. He can have anything inside of him Yeah, the web so was even called the 30% Iron Chef. That's right, that's right.

Purple Comet also said about that episode, this is my favorite episode of the post-Fox era. A fun, well executed gimmick, fast paced, inter-20 stories and some great jokes. Even Big Bertha's sacrifice feels compelling when she only had 30 seconds of screen time. I'll take their word that the math theorem slash proof is solid, but it's impressive there was no cheat

to reset things back to normal. The scene with Scruffy in the wash bucket was hilarious, but when you compare how they handle Amy's young and desirable body having sex to how they handle the two grossest character bodies having sex, the 2010s era sexual politics become obvious. Also, doesn't Zoidberg die after having sex, the 2010s era sexual politics become obvious. Also, doesn't Zoidberg die after having sex?

That's true. I guess they're not really following the rules that were established in Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love. There was a funny reply to that in our comments, I believe it was. Somebody said, not the way Zoidberg did it in this episode. Ooh, okay. I guess they're saying that he didn't use the sexual organs that make you die in that when Lila is using or don't when Fry is using Zoidberg's body for sex. We will let the talented fan fiction writers handle that subject I think. And up next we

have talking to the hill. The episode was little horrors of shop and Mr. Joshua says a great episode as a woodworker and King of the Hill fan. I always think of Hank's to sand and drill and chisel things for our moms line when I do a project for my mom. After all of the hours I spent listening to you guys while doing woodworking in my garage, it feels right for me to chime in with a slight correction slash tidbit. A rabbit plane is not named for its resemblance to a rabbit,

but because it is used in cutting a joint called a rabbit, R-A-B-B-E-T, a groove at the edge of a piece of wood that another piece of wood can slot into. Hank wouldn't want a student to leave the plain blade side down, because that is a good way to dull or chip the plain blade, which are generally kept razor sharp. Hey, maybe Principal Moss had a point about not wanting kids running around the school with razor sharp tools after all. So there you have it. R-A-B-B-E-T-I, no idea. I took it at face value.

See here, I thought the rabbit plane, like I was just projecting onto it. Like, yeah, it looks like a rabbit kind of that's why they call it that. But here, here we've learned. I also love to know that the listeners are listening to us while doing woodworking. That's a, that's a fun, you know, I imagine people listening to podcasts doing many things, but woodworking I hadn't thought of yet, and that's really neat. Yes, just concentrate.

Oh my God, your finger, look out! See, I just watched that. It just takes one second to be safe, right, from the Found Footage Fest clip? Yes, that's true. That's true. Don't let us distract you too much with how entertaining we are.

And finally, Andrew Bouvier had to say about more woodworking info and a follow-up to a thing I had looked up in the episode. If I may comment on butt versus mitre joints, it really depends on the situation. I'm not sure what use case that Reddit comment was referring to, but considering they mentioned use of both plywood and 2x4s, I assume it's a more structural joint that probably won't be seen much, if at all. A butt joint is when you just take the two factory edge pieces of woods and butt

the ends together, then glue, screw, or nail them. It tends to not look as nice as other methods of joinery, but it's quick and easy. A miter joint is when the two ends of pieces of woods are cut in a 45 degree angle then pushed against each other. The best examples being trim around a window or door or baseboards when they meet in the corner. It takes a little longer to make and can be tricky if you get those two angles cut correctly, but typically looks better. So yes, thank you Andrew for explaining the butt versus minor joint thing that it's not

as clear as that one Reddit post I found. Yeah, all the woodworking guys are coming out of the woodwork, how appropriate. Yeah, I am surprised how many, it makes me feel like maybe woodworking is something we should get into too. I don't know. I don't know about the space for woodworking.

Yeah, I think I need a garage for that. That's true. And well, I mean, I guess I could put a saw blade in my living room. That wouldn't cause too much dirtiness as I cut up two by fours, right? If you don't mind the dust, and it'll clean up any spills you might have,

all the sawdust. Oh, that's true. And yes, also, there were a few comments talking about the history of running with toast in anime, but don't worry, folks. You'll get that history in the next King of the Hill we cover. Stay tuned for that.

But that has been another episode of Talk Hill we cover. Stay tuned for that. But that has been another episode of Talk to the Audience. Again, next month is live action month. We always do this in April and the topics will be Red Dwarf, the great British sci-fi comedy series and also Looney Tunes Back in Action, which is half animated. But the end of the first Looney Tunes renaissance kind of fizzles out with that movie. It's going to be really fun to go back to the end of that era, which kind of began with Space Jam or at least with Spielberg's Tiny Toons and Animaniacs and making the characters more popular with modern audiences. Oh yeah, you can follow Roger

Rabbit to Tiny Toons to Space Jam and then it really hits a cul-de-sac. Honestly, no, that's not violent enough. It falls off a cliff, much like Wile E. Coyote. And because it was looking down, it didn't keep walking. And it took a little while for it to dust itself off and get back to the Acme Novelty Kit to complete the metaphor there. And we've got a really exciting Talking Simpsons month coming up with a lot of cool guests, including we are going back to The Critic for an episode too

with a really cool guest and it's a big meaty episode we are covering. So look forward to a return to Talking Critic as well as some other great guests coming in April. Yeah, I think that one is three hours long and so much has happened in the seven or eight years, I think eight years since we last covered The Critic that we now have a really comprehensive history of how that series came into being.

Yep, yep. And yeah, it's, you know, I think after that it's only 240. Okay. Well, I'm disappointed. Next time it'll be three. But that is it for this episode of Talk to the Audience. We will see you again next week for a new Talking Simpsons and next month for another Community Podcast.

And we will see you then. Thanks for listening. another podcast while infotainment