The Big Picture - The Effing Minions Episode and Top 5 Movies We’ll Show Our Kids

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

After years of threats, Sean and Amanda finally dive deep into the franchise that houses the world’s biggest movie stars: the Minions! They discuss the movies, including the just released ‘The Rise of Gru’ (2:00) and then share five movies they will show their children (39:00). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the host that brought you to Coding Westworld and Westworld the Recapables comes the Ringer Prestige TV podcast on Westworld. I'm Joanna Robinson. I'm Danny Heifetz. And I'm David Shoemaker. Welcome to Westworld Season 4 on the Prestige TV podcast feed where we're going to break down every episode of Westworld Season 4. Every Monday, the day after the show comes out on the Prestige TV podcast feed.

Wherever you get your podcasts, but get them on Spotify. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about minions. We've been joking about addressing the giant minion in the room for years now. It's finally time.

This past holiday weekend's record-breaking blockbuster is Minions The Rise of Gru. It was everything we ever could have imagined when in the great distance Amanda saw looming over our city of Los Angeles, the giant Minion. And the Minions are here. How are you feeling, Amanda? Did you see the Minions flags that were flying over Los Angeles for like the two weeks before the release of this movie? I thought I was having some sort of hallucination, but I saw them in two distinct locations in addition to the giant minion who stands watch over Universal Studios and the Valley. And I got to be honest, I wanted to take my son to visit the minion. You know, I promised the people that I would go visit the minion. And like like babies just require a lot of gear. And we didn't like, we didn't get there.

We drove by. I pointed the Minion out, but I didn't go, like I have not yet made my pilgrimage to the foot of the Minion. But I did have multiple Minion flags, like driving along the highway of like above with me throughout the week before I left Los Angeles. And I just, I think all the time

and a ridiculous energy that we put into making jokes about the Minions has paid off, sort of. We called, I called it. At least we have a podcast to do. I don't know. The year of Amanda continues. The year of Amanda continues. The year of Amanda continues.

The minions are massive. I'll be honest. I have not paid close attention to what the minions are and what the Despicable Me franchise is since it's been going. I've actually seen the original film when it came out in 2010. But aside from that, I knew it as a bit, as a meme, as a talking point in your life as a denizen of Los Angeles. Can I just be clear? Like, I also only knew it as a bit and a talking point. No, no, no.

Just be honest. This is your favorite franchise. No, I have seen most of Despicable Me. And I watched the Minions Without Sound on my flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta with my five-month-old son, who was wrapped, I just want to say. Just that's what got us through takeoff. And he just stared at the screen. So that's all I know about the Minions. This is a joke.

This is the ultimate, just like you make a bit and then three to five years later, you're driving by yourself to your childhood mall to see the freaking minions movie by yourself okay i want to be clear we're going to talk about our viewing experiences of this new film in a little while because mine was quite interesting and how people are watching minions is a bit of a trend at the moment so we can discuss that too but you know this movie um is the fifth in the Despicable Me film franchise, which is... The universe, please. Universe, excuse me. Show some respect, okay?

My apologies to Gru and all Gru-related figures. You know, this is like, it's basically the Three Stooges. That's what I realized while watching this, is that it focuses on these three characters, these three yellow, rod, banana- like characters kevin stewart and bob um they were first seen in the in despicable me as kind of like sidekick side comedy figures and they have emerged over time is really like the whole show like i feel like grew is real secondary at this point yeah they were the toy characters they were like the the BB-8 or the R2-D2. Those are the right names, right? Thank you, you're nodding.

You nailed it, yep. And they were put there, I think, for toys and also for little kids. Because, you know, little kids like something cute. And then they really stole the show and got their own spinoff. Now, two movies. Because this is the second movie after Minions. That's correct. And so now we're 12

years into the story of these banana-esque creatures that speak in minionese did you know that that was the language that they speak in i did but i did google what language do minions speak while in the theater so it appears to be a combination of french sp Spanish, English. Someone referenced Korean as part of this, and a little bit of gibberish as well. Pierre Coffin, who is one of the co-directors of a handful of the Despicable Me films, voices all

of the minions. He is the er-minion, I guess you could say. And there is something very French, I will say, about these characters and about this style of comedy. There's a little, this is kind of high-minded,

but there is a little bit of Jacques Tati in these movies. And I'm wondering, like, were you open-minded enough as you approached the first Minions movie, this new one, could you process it as a work of art? Because there are readings

that you can do into these movies that are not just this is a dumb kids movie i'm not saying i did that but i'm wondering if you were just like i'm just gonna barrel through this as best i can or did you have an open mind to minions as art i have a simpler answer which is that i laughed like a lot okay and as many times i was the only person laughing in the theater and this three stooges are the obvious reference in terms of you know three sort of goofy characters who have silly not hugely dangerous things happen to them even though like the minions are often involved in you know they serve villains so their plots are to ruin the world.

But they are antic and hyper and slapstick. And I just find this funny. And I like, I just laughed a lot. So I wasn't thinking about, you know, European cinema. I was thinking about like, lol, I think that's funny. And I was very mad when the minions weren't on the screen i thought steve carell was very good as grew and i was like oh steve carell a national treasure great stuff um but as the you know the rest of the quote story unfolded i found i did not care about that at all and i like a child just wanted the minions back

i'm not saying that I spent a lot of time looking for Minions on Mubi or on the Criterion channel I'm I but you know there is a you know there's some Mr. Bean there's some Jerry Lewis there's some Chaplin and you know Abbott and Costello in these movies and the slapsticky kind of violent but safe approach to comedy I don't think of that as your style of comedy though that. You don't seem to really reference stuff like that too often. I don't totally think of it either, but I don't know what to tell you. It just makes me laugh.

I guess we watched a fair amount of Mr. Bean, and I was familiar with The Three Stooges. I grew up on a lot of that stuff. I don't know. People falling down does make me laugh. And there is especially. I don't know if there's some sort of almost, you know, slovenly genius or, you know, in all of it. It just I think it's really funny, which there's a little bit of this going on of these people, these people, these minions, these people. Oh, oh my god what are we doing i just we're having a conversation about film references and the minions i we did it amanda we did it i know i just i they're funny it's they're they're you know they don't know what they're doing they're a little mischievous but also they're really good at uh you know plots to overthrow the world and they're really good at, you know, plots to overthrow the world. And they're funny. I laughed.

You mentioned that you watched this film with your son on the plane, the original Minions film. I did actually fire up the first Minions film with my daughter as well. She also absolutely mesmerized. My wife was mortified that I was showing her this film, which is basically the Minions movie to a one-year-old is like getting a little droplet of crack in your throat. I mean, it is so frenetic and intense and fast-moving and mesmerizing in its own way that it's a power down a little bit after we watched Minions. Oh, she's hype.

I guess I should say that shortly after my son watched the Minions, he pooped all over me on an airplane. So if you want to read cause and effect there that's that's what we took away from the experience that's what they do they loosen our bodily functions you know they just keep us regular it was like a five star like disaster i was like wiping myself with wet wipes so i could just like make eye contact with people is truly humiliating. It's deeply gross. But with that in mind, I thought as I was watching the movie with my daughter, you sent me a photo of you and Knox watching the movie.

When I went to go see the movie on Sunday night of a holiday weekend, I thought there would be a lot of little children attending the movie over the weekend. I had been reading that it had been doing very well at the box office. So I got myself a 9.15 PM ticket. I was like, I want to go with as few people as possible. I want to just get in and get out. Oh my God, did you actually, did you get gentle minions? I did not see any gentle minions, which is to say this is a trend of people, I guess this started on TikTok, of teen boys dressing in suits and tuxedos sometimes donning a cigar and sitting down and watching the movie minions like gentlemen gentlemen of the minions gentle minions and they go like in groups too yes big groups now there was no one in a suit at my screening but my 9 15 screening in glendale was packed

full to the gills of teenagers and obviously there's a reason for this right the first despicable me movie comes out in 2010 minions comes out in 2015 a lot of these teenagers were little kids they're all grown up and this is their this is their star wars this is their toy story this is the like the same way that when toy story 4 came out i was like i am fucking there i will be there on opening night despite the fact that i'm a 35 year old man it's clear to me that despicable me and minions are the franchise of this generation and one thing that was funny when there were a lot of dates a lot of like 14 and 15 year old dates yes taking place there which was hilarious to not a lot of laughing there was a little bit of this

like feeling setting in amongst these teenagers of like did we really just spend our summer night watching a minions movie like i'm 14 years old is this a cool thing to do and it's not there were some walkouts i watched some teenagers get bored and just be like, I'm not doing this. But for the most part, they were into it. They were watching it and like wrapped by the world of minions. And I just didn't see that coming at all. I thought I was going to be by myself sitting in Glendale. There were no gentle minions at my screening, which was devastating to me because I think

that this is hilarious. I am, I don't, TikTok is way too noisy for me. I just, sorry, I'm old. And I don't really, I'm not interested in what the teens are interested in, but I saw Gentle Minions and I was like, the kids are all right. The kids are going to be great. This is amazing. The future is bright. And I really wish that I'd seen a Gentle Minion, but I went at 12.45 on a Saturday of a holiday weekend. So I had a lot of small children and parents. And the children were very cute. And they seemed way more excited about the trailers than the movie itself.

But when the Minions really kicked into high gear, there's a set piece in which Kevin Stewartvin stewart and bob um commandeer an airplane and fly to san francisco and they make it you know but very realistic sequence there yeah very scientifically accurate as well but like it was the children and amanda laughing at uh the the airplane sequence and then but that was. All the kids were like very cute. And it was also very sweet. It was, you know, maybe one or two children and then four family members because it was a holiday weekend.

So it was clear that a lot of like families, like all the adults were taking the one kid to, you know, their first or second and early movie. And I thought that was very sweet. So even though they didn't wear suits, I was pleased to be there. So even though they didn't wear suits, I was pleased to be there. This movie is a phenomenon. It made $108.5 million over the weekend. That is the biggest weekend in the history of July 4th at the movies. And we're still coming out of a

pandemic. I didn't see this coming. I didn't really either, even though I've been doing this joke for a long time. I don't know. I mean, I do know that the children really like the Minions. And then, as you said, this is now a 12-year concern. So there are a lot of former children who are now teenagers and in college and, you know, doing it for the TikTok, I guess. For the memes, yeah. What's the TikTok version of doing it for the gram? I don't know why I memes yeah yeah what's the tiktok version of doing it for the gram uh i don't know why i'm asking you that i don't speak that language okay yeah no no one nothing okay okay so there is like a wider base i guess to see it and also you know i think maybe the the the shock has been that this did this well and that also in comparison light year just really has not done well at the box office and maybe it was because light year wasn't very

good i think that's part of it um i don't know that it's kind of hard we'll talk about minions the rise of grew in detail which is a crazy thing we're going to do we're going to do it because i think it's funny to talk about but um like how good or not good these movies are is an interesting conversation because they are so big. The first Despicable Me movie made over $500 million. The next three all made a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. There's like four or five franchises that can say the same thing and they're all what you would think they are. They're Marvel and DC and Pixar and not even Pixar.

I mean, there's like, there's so few dependable franchises like this. The fact that this one is still going as strong as it is, it certainly justifies the fact that this movie has been delayed for two years. It was supposed to come out in 2020

and COVID, you know, Illumination and Universal very wisely resisted releasing this movie until this summer. And every single one of these movies has come out over the summer

because it is a perfect schools out movie um and yeah it's just i i don't think when the first one came out i was like this will be in our lives for the next 15 years but here it is i would also say that the marketing has been uniquely insane even for kids movies and just i don't know marketing in 2022 which can feel like a an assault on the senses but i mean the minions are i was joking about the flags but the flags were a real thing that i experienced but the minions are everywhere they're you know in every single like sports commercial now i've been watching a lot of wimbledon and then i'm seeing insurance commercials with the minions they're like weird tie-ins for everything i i understand why they

went all in because this franchise is valuable to them and but it's like in a lot of ways it seems like oh this level of marketing works especially if it's you know that it's three little yellow things that little kids like just get them as in as many faces as possible i it is an orwellian psyop. I'm dead serious. It's actually like, when you think about all of the little component parts of the way that this franchise

has besieged upon us, it feels almost like a science fiction novel. Wait, I forgot to tell a great story that is a little bit science fiction-y and also funny, which is how I got to see Minions,

The Rise of Gru for free. Okay. Which is, as I mentioned, I flew to Atlanta, which is where I grew up. I was staying with my parents and I let them know that I, I let my dad know that I would need him to babysit so that I could go alone to see Minions, The Rise of Gru for work, which is like a normal thing. And not only did my, God bless my dad, he was like, yep, I got you, no problem. Was he like, make sense? You know, he just, he learned early on with me to just nod his head and be like, that sounds great. You know, whatever you want, Amanda, I support you,

which is honestly all you could want from a parent. You're gonna need to do the same thing for your child. Who says I won't? When he's dressed as a gentle minion 10 years from now. I would be so proud of Knox if he were a gentle minion. I would drive him to the theater myself. Someone let him know when he understands what any of those words mean. Anyway, my dad was like, I got you.

I'd love to babysit. Also, I just had to sign up for something from Comcast. I don't know what he signed up for, but it was for Comcast. So my dad was offered two free vouchers to Minions, The Rise of Gru, along with his weird like Comcast cable, whatever subscription. And so he was like, would you like my free Minions Rise of Gru tickets? I said, yes, dad, I would. And then I got an email with the subject line Minions Assemble.

Shout out to my dad and on the joke. And I went for free. But like, that's how far the tentacles reach that my father, who is now a grandfather, is like, yeah, I can hook you up with some Minions tickets. Well, I'm glad you didn't have to pay for this. Not that it was so onerous. First of all, this movie is only 80 minutes. It's a kid's movie. It flies by. Tell me right now, are you turning on

Minions Rise of Gru? No. I thought it was fun. I thought it was clever at times. The animation is really good. It's really cool as far as animated movies go. I want to say, though, that there is a reading on this film. is really good it's really cool as far as animated movies go um i just i want to say though that there is a reading on this film oh boy that i don't i don't i've never seen this before this is just me riffing i'm sure someone has made this point before because of course the movie is called

minions and it is about drones it is about henchmen and it's about people who are the aid to camp to a capitalist infrastructure. I mean, these supervillains, there's a late capitalism reading of these movies about how we all Kevin and Stuart and Bob and Otto and the whole gang are the heroes now, superseding Gru, who is this ambitious, kind of relentless, creative figure that the leaders now of this franchise

are the proletariat, tells us a lot about what we want in our entertainment and what we want in our lifestyle. What do you think? Am I onto something here? First of all, I didn't know which way you were going at the end there. And I was going to come back to you with some, you know, textual reading, which is, I thought you were going to make an argument about how this is another movie about, you know, how capitalism destroys us all, which may be different. It is. Sure, it is. But also, you know, Gru just learns to love his family and to not be a supervillain. Sorry to spoil a movie that

came out 12 years ago. And the minions follow him, but they just, you know, they love their guy. And also, despite themselves, they get into trouble and do weird things all the time okay here's the thing in the first minions movie we see that the minions are thousands of years old which is incredibly creepy and that they have endlessly sought a leader they want to report for duty they want to serve They don't have any independent spirit. They have no self-ambition. They only want to be operating in service of someone else's vision. So tell me I'm wrong when I say this is a movie for our time. You're not wrong, Sean. You're really right. Thank you. Thank you. I feel great about this. Has anyone done this? Has anyone done that?

Yes, of course. Have you signed on to twitter.com. No, I haven't seen that. Yeah. Um, well, feel free to reach out to me, uh,

at AK Dobbins on Twitter. Why don't you just put it on your letterbox? Okay. Okay. I'm sure there's a long, you know, discourse going. Let's talk a little bit about the rise of crew.

Okay. So one funny thing is the original minions film is a it's a period piece this is also a period piece the first one set in 1968 features some beatles music i'm sure you responded to that features a lot of queen elizabeth yes so i was very excited about that i could also recognize that without the sound so i mean i gotta give them credit i did watch the first movie without sound and it had that silent film just slapped like i got the jokes it was very fun totally this new one is set in 1976 uh an 11 year old grew allows the minions to work for him as their new leader which is of course what happens in this society one day grew receives an audition invitation from the vicious six this is a criminal

organization looking for a new member. This organization was originally founded by Wild Knuckles, who's voiced by Alan Arkin, the great Alan Arkin in this movie. And the Vicious Six is now led by newly appointed leader Bell Bottom, voiced by Taraji P. Henson, following their seemingly successful attempt to kill Knuckles after stealing a stone connected to the Chinese Zodiac. Shades of Raiders of the Lost Ark here. Gru's interview goes poorly with the vicious six much to the outrage of the vicious six he steals the stone that they have been praising and then hijinks ensue the minions have to get involved to save the stone that they've lost transcontinental travel we get kung fu we get monsters we get all kinds of hijinks um across this story did you did you

like rise of grew you seem to be getting mad at me for seemingly turning on it i don't know i just thought you were really going to drive this into you know a unfun intellectual uh territory which is sort of the appeal of it it has a lot of references as you said and it's you know kind of part 70s homage there's a lot of james bond and mission impossible in this there is a lot of references as you said and it's you know kind of part 70s homage there's a lot of james bond and mission impossible in this there is a lot of superhero-ish stuff or like origin you know i mean it's an origin story of a of a villain that is meant to humanize him so it's the last it's all about trauma as 30 years at the movies um but it's also just, you know, stupid, silly, but still clever.

I mean, there's an art in silliness if it's done well, I think, or if it makes me laugh. And so, yeah, I liked it. I honestly barely remember the plot. I'm not kidding. When the minions weren't

on the screen, I was, like, texting you about the Lyle the Crocodile trailer or... Lyle Lyle Crocodile, please. Lyle Lyle the Cro... I'm sorry. I know. There's no the. You're turning into a mom. Lyle Lyle Crocodile. All right.

I have to be honest. I know that was an internet thing, but I didn't watch it. Even though you even texted it to me and Chris and I didn't watch it. And then I saw it in the theater. And when the Sean Mendez as Lyle shows up, I lost it. That was one of the instances where Amanda was the only person just absolutely cackling in the theater. Anyway, I loved the Minions part of it, and the rest was, like, fine and cute enough. And I don't care about... I like Gru. And as I said, I really like the Steve Carell performance, but...

I mean, it was cute. There were James Bond homages, and also there was this, like, James Bond aspect of, like, I didn't really care. The villains were themselves the actual villains. The Vicious Six didn't really care about them. Okay. Didn villains the uh vicious six didn't really care about them okay didn't care about the mcguffin you know i didn't care about the story so much as being in being in the world of the minions what are we doing just go with it just go because here's the thing if If the people who participated in this film

are up for it, then we have to be up for it. I'm up for it. This is an entree into talking about the cast of this movie because we've already talked about Carell and Coffin and Taraji Henson

and Alan Arkin. There's a whole list of other very well-known people who do some voice acting in this movie, including Michelle Yeoh. Michelle Yeoh. What a year Michelle Yeoh is having.

Also, seemingly reprising her role from Shang-Chi. She was in Shang-Chi, right? As this similar kind of maternal figure? Yes, I believe so. Also, the RZA

plays a biker who drives a minion to San Francisco. That's the thing that happens. We haven't talked about Otto yet. Otto is not my favorite minion. Is he your favorite? Yeah, too no no no no Bob for sure over here though I like I have real affection for Stuart yeah I fuck with Stuart yeah because you know Stuart is sort of a skeptical one his the the other two minions they have smiles and as a resting or you know neutral resting face

and he has a frown as a resting face which which I relate to. But Bob really brings the goods home, you know? And I liked the thing where he has a hard head and you can't smash him. That was very funny. I just, I forgot one part of my exegesis on minions. They are shaped like pills. This is the Soma of our generation. You know, we have to serve. And the only way to control our mood and balance our ambition is to take the minions, to literally imbibe them. Okay, that's fine. They're just, they're tic-tacs. They're cute tic-tacs that you just want to like ingest a lot of. I won't sleep. I have been awoken to the truth about minions, so you can't put me back to bed. What's a good pun?

What's a Minions pun for you and your critical theory here? Like the gentle Minions, but... From Minions to Minionette, I won't be slurping down this sop. Okay, great. That's really good. Good job. That was right off the top of my head. Other voices you'll find in this film. Jean-Claude Van Damme,

Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Russell Brand returning to the franchise, and Julie Andrews returning to the franchise. There's like 18 Oscar nominations in this cast. How many minutes total do you think Julie Andrews spent doing voice work for this film? She's been in previous films.

She has. Her character appears in one scene in this film. Yes. So, if you told me she recorded it in a phone booth, I wouldn't be shocked. Sure. But you think, like, how many takes does Julie Andrews need for this? Oh, one. Are we thinking, so, like, 20 minutes tops?

Yeah. I mean, she's a voice acting murderess at this point. I mean, she's really in her 90s and crushing murderess at this point. I mean, she's really in her 90s and crushing. She's in her 90s, right? Probably-ish. Anytime Julie Andrews gets a huge check,

I'm into it. Did she just bank a million on this? How did she do? I hope so. But I really, I want to know the ratio, kind of the breakdown, time spent, money.

Because I really think maybe 45 minutes total, but not more than an hour committed to this film. She's my hero. I love her. Alan Arkin also, no spring chicken. The man is 88 years old. I guess he voiced this two years ago, but so 86 years old. He's in a huge part of this movie. He's like sort of the, I don't know, sort of like the mentor leader figure that inspires Gru in a way. I know it's just voice acting, but still, 86. He seems like he's in great health.

I mean, I hope that you're still podcasting at 86, Sean. I believe in you, you know? God, I really don't. I really, if I, if you're listening, if you, one, if you even know me at 86, I won, right? That means I made it to 86 too if anyone out there is listening here's me podcasting at 86 hire an assassin send them to my house and take me out that's all i ask also think about your own choices that because we're talking 40 50 years into the future 46 to be exact. So I'm hoping that all of you are just, if you make it that long, are making better choices about how you're spending your time.

When are you wrapping it up in the podcasting front? I haven't decided yet, you know? Okay. There's no end date in sight. Sure. Like, listen, Cameron Diaz taught us that, you know, never say never. So she's coming back. I might take a break. I can come back too. You know, the sky's the limit for me. I still have to work on my own wine venture, but I believe in Cameron Diaz and I believe in me.

Do you think the Dob Mob would hang on for seven years if you took a little period off? Well, they also have hobbies. So they have interest outside the podcast and i would like to think that they would support and also be interested in my vanity alcohol project you know should we tease should we tease here what we're doing on the show speaking of vanity alcohol yeah i've i've been meaning to ask you anyway, like, should we start sourcing this? We are going to be doing a taste test of various celebrity alcohol products. I assume that I believe it's Aveline wine, which I've been feeling bad about this. Once on a podcast, I said that it was sugar-free wine and that's not possible.

It's made from fruit. So it's like weird, clean wine, apparently. I've still never tried it, though I spoke to a very nice woman at the Sprouts near my home who was buying like a whole shopping cart full of just Aveline wine. So she liked it very much. This is Cameron Diaz's wine? Yes. Yeah. That's what she's been up to.

So yeah, we're going to do a kind of birthday episode for you. Movie star alcohol taste testing. Wines and spirits. Yes. Which should be fun. And should we do it blind? I guess so. Though, I mean, I don't know how many different gins are there versus I think probably wine.

We could do a blind taste test. How many times am I allowed to use the phrase mouth feel okay as many as you want okay that's good to know let's go back to the minions for a second okay do you is this exciting showing these films to your son like obviously you you showed him the first film just to get him through his first you know flight across the country yes it was during takeoff i put it on and it was a narcotic just like all of these films are meant to be narcotics right but like when he's two or three or four are you like we're gonna start with the og and we're gonna run through the series of

minions and grew films no i mean i'm not gonna sit through how six minions films because i believe there is a despicable me for in the works because content never sleeps no i i wouldn't say they're at the top of my list when i went in the afternoon and there were all these families with their kids there and the kids were so excited i got really excited and i was like this will be a very cute thing to take knocks to the movies. And I have a godson as well. I've been entrusted with someone's spiritual life who's seven, and he went on Friday night to see the Minions. And like, I heard about his thoughts. So it's cute. I like this idea of kids being excited and they're like jumping up and down. I don't know. But and I would show him these movies, I guess. I might go straight to Minions or Minions Rise of Gru. I don't know if I need Despicable Me. But I'm more excited about the experience, I course, was scored completely by Pharrell. And he got an Academy Award nomination for a little song called

Happy. One, I consider myself a Pharrell expert. I've been closely monitoring his career since I began my career in music journalism. And I think it's a pretty good soundtrack. The music has been, weirdly, a huge

part of this story. Now, this installment, they drafted Jack Antonoff, the controversial front man of Bleachers and producer of artists like Taylor Swift, to enlist a series of very cool young artists to re-record hits from the 1970s. Did you clock that when you were watching it? Or did you think that these were just like cheapo versions of famous songs?

I don't think that I recognized, you know, Phoebe Bridgers or whatever. I don't know what she sang. What did she sing in Minions, The Rise of Gru? So Phoebe Bridgers sings Goodbye to Love, which is a song by the Carpenters. Okay. So I wasn't sitting there in the movie

being like, oh, that's Phoebe Bridgers. I noticed that they were doing new versions of contemporaneous 70s songs. And I was like, oh, you're doing this for the parents. This is nice. But I would say all the musical moments that stood out to me were when the Minions were singing, which included when the Minions were building some sort of lair in Gru's basement, I guess Julie Andrews' basement.

And their song, instead of Whistle While You Work, was Cecilia. Is it Paul Simon or Simon and Garfunkel? It's Simon and Garfunkel. Okay. So, and I opened my phone to write Cecilia in a note and then closed it again, just so I wouldn't forget. And then I would say the other highlight of the movie for me was at the end, there's a solemn event, I won't spoil,

for which a minion choir is convened to sing. You can't always get what you want. And they go for like two minutes and it's like a hundred minions in like gospel choir attire swaying. And I thought that that was truly hilarious. I was laughing very hard. It was by far my favorite part of the movie.

I thought it was absolutely brilliant and really weird. And truly I was like, we're through the looking glass as a culture. You kind of entertain the children. The thing about this one is if you have St. Vincent and Thundercat and Wise Blood and Gary Clark and all of these cool artists, Tame Impala on your soundtrack, like that speaks to, I would say like 25 to 35 year olds, maybe 40 year olds, but the songs that they're covering, covering you know i wasn't alive when any of these songs came out so it's this odd kind of middle ground between trying to fuse like pure 70s nostalgia like shining star and funky town and songs like that with phoebe bridgers and it was a real like neither fish nor fowl thing it's like most of the parents in that room are probably between the ages of 30 and 40. Right?

So. Yeah, but what about the grandparents? It's huge for the grandparents. Right. The disco grandparents. Exactly. So you're doing all of the buckets. Also, I mean, most 30 to 40 year olds who are going to clock Phoebe Bridgers and St. Vincent are probably also somewhat familiar with the music of the 70s, you know,

that like everyone's a self-styled music expert. So I don't know. It felt like it was for grownups. Were your parents into disco? No, but I love disco. So I was happy. You love disco? Yeah. Have you ever talked about this? No. What are you talking about? No, I just do.

Some things you can't explain. I don't think I've ever heard you just outright say, I love this. I love it. It's really fun. Okay. I run a lot to a lot of disco music. You run to disco? Yeah.

Okay. Would you run to the Minions soundtrack? No. Okay. Because I don't need to hear the Minions singing Cecilia while I run. Although sometimes I do run to a regular Cecilia as well. What do we talk? So you just will like pop on the hustle and just go for a jog? No, it's just, it's on my playlists.

And now Spotify like recommends, you know. What, like Casey and the Sunshine Band? Gloria Gaynor? Nicole and Al Rogers. Oh, yeah, sure. Chic. Yeah, okay. That's cool.

But like cool disco Donna Summer like you know okay alright Earth, Wind & Fire what about Earth, Wind & Fire I mean I like Earth, Wind & Fire

but that's can be a little cheesy you know it's like how dare you on the on the edge like

of the wedding playlist but like not quite the center of the wedding playlist is where I am I'm not like you know i'm not an expert over here i just enjoy it i've been at weddings with you i don't really remember this as a as a thing at all i wasn't in charge of the music so but they always play disco

at weddings and it's not like i saw you like race to the dance floor like a demon you were like this is my song it's well that's not the kind of love that we have. When am I like rushing to the dance floor being like, this is my song. I'm not like standing on the table at weddings. I'm like some of our friends. Have you ever seen me do that? Race to the dance floor saying this is my song? No.

I would for like a Nick Cave song. Okay. That's beautiful. Yeah. Can I just say, I watched Hustle with my dad and his wife when we were home. Great, great movie to watch with the family, by the way. Even though somehow I was not with my Philadelphia Sixers husband and just once again wound up consuming Philadelphia 76ers content. Can't escape it. But we watched it with subtitles. And so I think towards the end when Adam Sandler makes it back on the floor, they're

like playing a Freeway song. And then I tried to explain who Freeway was to my dad. And also like our wedding, which you remember, my wedding turned into sort of like a Philly rap debacle. Yeah, it turned into Hot 97, so 2004. It was pretty great. The explanation didn't really catch on, but that was okay. It was a nice intergenerational moment. Do you have anything else you want to say about minions

this may be the last time we talk about this for a while maybe ever i mean it's a huge movie so maybe not best of the year no no i just made a lot of money they're making more of these um i don't think they're disappearing from the culture anytime soon, but I guess we don't really need to lose our jokes. I don't know. I talked about the Minion Choir. That's kind of where my interest and passion ends. But it was beautiful. I'm really annoyed that that's not on the soundtrack.

It's not? No. You can't find it. Okay. But maybe we'll play the Minions version of Cecilia as the outro music today, just so people can get a little taste of that. You know, I've been asking you about showing Nox stuff, because I thought one way to kind of cap this conversation would be just to talk about what we're going to show our kids. So I'm just now starting to do it. I'm just now starting to put stuff in front of Alice.

And so there's been a short list so far. I've mentioned most of what we've done, I think. so i'm just now starting to do it i'm just now starting to put stuff in front of alice and so there's been a short list so far i've mentioned most of what we've done i think i showed ponyo and i showed mr rogers neighborhood which has been really interesting because like she'll get really locked in for like three minutes and then get super bored which is how i think how she'll be forever because she's gonna have a phone and an ipad and all those things um and she watched a little bit of minions and she seemed to dig that which is a little scary to me it's cute though i know nox watches a lot of golf with his dad what else does he watch and a lot of tennis this week though um really great grandparent performance. So as I mentioned, my dad very graciously babysat while I went to see Minions The Rise of Gru.

I came home and my dad and Knox were in the family room watching Donnie Brasco together. Which is, let me just be clear. When I left, Wimbledon was on the tv when it came back my father had opened netflix and selected donnie brasco to watch with his infant grandson so sky's the limit for nox you know really anything he wants uh nox come on the rewatchables that's all i have to say to that what are we doing donnie brasco on the rewatch. Dad, what are you doing? He's like, remember this movie? It's great. That's peculiar.

A little dangerous. Good, good, good, good movie. I like that movie. What else? Let's like we picked five movies. I don't know if we need to necessarily rank these movies as to how we're going to show them because they can all be shown over a weekend. But what would you pick? What's what are some movies you want to show Knox? So the first one that came to mind strangely was Matilda, which came out, I guess I was

about 12 and I loved this book very much. And this is one of the great book to movie adaptations. In my opinion, they really got it. And it was all of these experiences that, and scenes that I imagined as a kid, like the giant chocolate cake and the thing spinning around the room and to actually go and get to see them in real life was very exciting and has stayed with me. I kind of have those mental images in my head. It's an adaptation of a Roald Dahl book that I like very much. My favorite book when I was in third grade. Yeah. Favorite book.

Well, you know, it's about a little girl who, you know, uses the powers of her brain and to make friends and not really save the world, but make her life a lot better. Yeah, get out from under her parents and her teacher's foot, you know, and learn to experience a creative life independently. Exactly. And, you know, and learn to experience a creative life independently. Exactly. And, you know, find love and fulfillment. So it's, I love that book. And I really can't wait to read Knox that book

and then kind of see the movie and have that, that magical feeling of like, oh my gosh, it's real. Which when you're a kid, I think you like really, the movie versions of stuff have that power in a way that is incredibly exciting if it's done well. Completely agree I had forgotten about Matilda but maybe the move is to buy some

doll books. Actually this week is Alice's birthday she turns one years old on Wednesday which is mind blowing but doll was huge for me and one thing about doll books i feel like they're not gender essentialized you know they're sort of like even though there's charlie in the chocolate factory there's matilda you know even though there's the witches there's the bfg you know

what i mean like it's kind of it's a pretty balanced collection of stories um so with that in mind i actually picked two two balanced stories uh for number five i cheated you cheated later on so i feel better about this um keeping uh the studio ghibli train going my neighbor totoro is the number one movie that has been recommended to me by my i guess more cinematically minded friends that that's a movie that kids like really cling to when they're young because of the pace of the animation and because of the idea of friendship and the idea of like a creative world that exists just beyond adults grasp um and the same is true for the iron giant and i feel like the iron giant um brad bird's kind of wonderful 2d animation film set in the 1950s um they're kind of two sides of the same coin you know they're both about like

imaginary friends or unreal friends or created friends and they're both about like those friends kind of coming um i don't know not under attack necessarily but um under doubt and i like that and alice you know alice is a is a one of one she's the only person in this house that is like her there's she got no siblings i don't know if she's gonna have any siblings i don't think so Alice, you know, Alice is a one of one. She's the only person in this house that is like her. She's got no siblings. I don't know if she's going to have any siblings. I don't think so. And so I think the ability to have a creative experience

is something that I want for her. So I think these movies hopefully will unlock something nice. I could be wrong. I know that this whole project, like if we show this to our kids in like five years, they're going to be like, you're an idiot, mom. You're an idiot, dad.

But it's nice to imagine a moment in time when we can show them something that we like. Yeah, this is a little bit of project and heartbreak because even as I was putting this list together, I was so excited. And so much of the excitement is imagining him responding to something and liking something that I like. But yeah, like we're just setting ourselves up for failure on that front. I wonder if he'll like your number four. Your number four was like also one of my absolute favorites when I was a kid. Muppets Take Manhattan.

I don't really do animated films, but I definitely do Muppets. And this is a little, these are a lot smarter and more artistic I think than Minions with all respect to the Minions who made me laugh but the same thing of you know some goofy characters with a lot of and and like fuzzy and cuddly and you know something that children can respond to on a kid's level and then a lot of adult humor and references and a sort of like wry comedic sensibility which the minions have in addition to being minions i just i don't know when i'm gonna get over how much time i've spent speaking intellectually about the minions but anyway muppets take manhattan it's just my favorite. I also, like, I did grow up learning about New York as, like, you know, a cultural center and a place where, like, when you grow up, you get to move to New York. And I was lucky enough to get to move to New York.

I'm recording from New York right now. It's lovely to be back. So getting to teach Knox about that as well. But also, it's just funny. I'm also excited for Sesame Street in this vein of the puppets I can do. Okay. I find that to be paradoxical. Okay, why?

Because puppets are not real. Okay. So why not just show your child animated films? I just, puppets are funny. Puppets are, I relate to them. It's like stuffed animals. But Knox has really started responding to the faces on stuffed animals and faces in real life, too. He just grabs my face.

But it's amazing to watch him look at like the scream in a loving way at the face on like a giraffe or a lemon or whatever. Squeal. Yeah, he squeals. No, he's actually like screaming giraffe or a lemon or whatever. Squeal. Yeah, he squeals. No, he's actually like screaming. I'll send you the video of him at the lemon that you gave us actually. But, so there's something about the face

on the puppets and that you could like, something tactile I think. Okay. That's what I'm looking for. I like Muppets Take Manhattan. I think Great Muppet Keeper

might be my favorite. I think that the Muppets really shaped my sense of humor in a pretty serious i think that the muppets really shaped my sense of humor in a pretty serious way like the muppets and like i don't know steve martin like i you know i'm trying to think of what are the things when i was seven eight nine ten that i was really into i really like them watching reruns of the muppet show in particular that was a really cool show um this is a great one. I like that one a lot. My number four is Toy Story.

Talked about this movie ad nauseum. But I wonder how young is too young and how old is too old to show Toy Story to a kid. You know, I mentioned my nephew Jack got really into it. I feel like at two years old, I want to say, he really clicked with it. It's a little bit of a boy movie. A little bit. You know, Andy being the central figure, Buzz and Woody being the kind of heroes. I don't know.

Yeah. I don't know. I think it's more that once kids understand what toys are, you know, there is that, like, special moment when they're, like, imagining an entire life for their toys. And it does latch onto that. So, two seems right. And that doesn't seem, you know, gender specific. Alice is in this phase now where she has like a playpen because she's so active.

She's crawling all over the place. She's trying to like pull to stand a lot. And in her like dome, her area of play, she just has a million toys because she's spoiled. And she just like bounces from toy to toy like every 18 seconds. You know, she's just like, over here is a rod in a shape that you know she's just like over here is a

rod in a shape that i want to touch and over here is a ball that i want to roll and over here is a a card that has another child's face on it and i want to lick it and bite it and over here is a mirror and i want to look deeply into the mirror because i'm fascinated by my own image so i worry a little bit about her ability to focus so i I wonder, I don't know if these movies are going to do for her. She's a baby. It's okay. She's a baby. She'll get there.

She's not. She's one. That's still a baby, right? Aren't the babies still there too? I don't know how that works. Okay. Okay, what's your number three? Maybe we should find out.

My number three is when I cheated. It's two John Hughes movies, one for early childhood and one for middle childhood. Home Alone and then Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I've been doing a lot of Home Alone references myself. Just a lot of we forgot Kevin or where's Kevin in response to me trying to not forget my own child as I travel. But this was like a very early favorite of mine. Kid gets to be an adult and be rambunctious and, you know, outsmart everyone. And a fair amount of like slapsticks, like sight gag, you know, things.

I guess I just really like it when people run into things. Humor. But, you know know still very sweet i just even the poster with the you know um macaulay culkin doing the hands on the side of his face i remember like doing that a lot as a child i don't know this was pretty formative for me and then i don't know ferris bueller's day off might be my favorite movie every time i think about it, I'm just like, this movie rules. We should all be so lucky as to be Ferris Bueller. If Knox likes Ferris Bueller, I'll be a happy person.

Do you think Knox is going to be a Ferris or a Cameron? Well, I'm a Cameron, so genetics aren't in his favor. It's tough being a Cameron, man. It's not easy. I know. Though, you know,

you're reading that the movie is really about him is correct. So that's nice. Because John Hughes was at Cameron. Yeah. But I don't know. Confidence, ingenuity, being able to do twist and shout in a parade. That's like really all I want for my son. So I would love for him to be a Ferris.

Okay. You got to instill that confidence deeply in him. I know. I'm trying. My number three is it's kind of a strategic decision here, actually. It's The Red Balloon. I don't know how familiar people are with this. It's an Oscar-winning short film.

French film. Mostly wordless. It's live action. It's not animated. It's about a little boy who follows a red balloon that takes him all through Paris. It's not animated. It's about a little boy who follows a red balloon that like takes him all through Paris. It's a gorgeous movie.

And the reason it's strategic is because this movie is like 33 minutes. And I feel like this could be the first movie that we watch that Alice completes.

Because that's the thing. It's really hard to get a kid through a full-length movie if you're under the age of three. So can we pull off the red balloon as the first go? Especially because the balloon itself is so visually appealing, and Alice also loves to trail things.

I can just take a scarf and just walk across the room with it, and she'll just follow me all the walk across the room with it and she'll just follow me all the way across the room like some sort of dazed animal um so we're gonna try this movie maybe in a few months but i'm excited to show it to her because it's beautiful albert albert lamoureuse uh is the filmmaker and um it's from the 60s or the 50s rather but um holds up it's quite beautiful you seen this, but a long time ago. I think I was actually shown it at a fairly young age. I have a similar slightly strategic, if we can't make it through the whole movie, maybe we can make through parts of it later on.

Oh, okay. Yeah. No spoilers. What's number two for you? Number two is Mary Poppins, which is kind of like the childhood movie for me. I hadn't seen it in so long. And then I rewatched it for the release of the new Mary Poppins with Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins. And I was like overwhelmed with sense, memory and emotion because I watched this movie so much as like a two, three year old kid.

And then, you know, kind of grew up and like grew past it. But like all of the music, and obviously Julie Andrews is hugely important to me. See also The Sound of Music, which I'm also looking forward to showing Knox. But, you know, that's like I watch every Christmas. That's an unofficial Christmas movie for yours, truly. So there's something like childlike wonder about Mary Poppins. And,

you know, the bright colors and parts of it are animated, like sort of. That, you know, the,

so kind of counts. I don't know. It's magical. It's a good pick. I look forward to showing this one as well. The sequel, not so much.

No. I didn't love that. Emily Blunt forever. I mentioned once before on the pod, I think, that we played a lot of Disney classics in the house. And one of the surefire bangers is Be Our Guest. That's just heat. It's just a fire starter of a song.

Alice really likes that one. So Beauty and the Beast is pretty high on the list for us as well. I was not a huge Beauty and the Beast fan when it came out. I was, I think, 9 or 10 when this movie was released. Didn't really speak to my interests as I was evolving into a boy

who would soon discover reservoir dogs. Which is true. But I've come to appreciate it over time and i feel like she'll appreciate it as well uh where do you where does this sit for you in the kind of eight late 80s early 90s disney classics pretty high up songs are really good i found myself um singing the the intro to bell which is the first song in the beauty of the beast but with new words to nox when he was very small i don't know why um i just it it stuck in my head so this this is a good one it would be up there for me i don't have any disney movies on my list even though i consumed a lot of them and i'm not averse to it. I'm just not gonna go out there and be like here

are a bunch of of princesses and then also Robin Hood which I really liked. Robin Hood's really good. I really like Bambi too. I wanted I want to do Bambi but it's so sad. Yeah it's very upsetting. Yeah we'll see. I'll wait on that. okay what's your number one singing in the rain and this is the one where like i don't know when we'll make it through the whole movie but maybe we can at least make it through the musical numbers which are you know like bright colors and people moving and lots of energy and only like three or four minutes um and this is i'll be crushed if he doesn't like singing in the rain. And I know he might not. But also maybe if I start him just young enough, it'll just be like, wow, what are those people doing?

What's happening? There's just like such a sense of joy. And it is a lot of like kind of the fast-paced frenetic energy, but maybe not in a way that totally melts his brain. I'm like, maybe this is kind of the energy that's good for you. I don't know. It's just, I love this movie very much. I think he'll love Donald O'Connor.

He might struggle with some of the more romantic numbers. Right. You know, when it's just Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly swooning over a ladder, that might be a little more challenging. Sure, but you've got,

you know, Good Morning, which I sing to him all the time now. That's a great one. And you've got Moses Supposes and, you know, Make Him Laugh. That's, I don't know. That's enough right there. I'm not going to start with the dream ballet. I'm not crazy.

I think it's a great pick. I hope Alice appreciates this movie. If she doesn't, then we have to send her back. Where can we send her? Send her to the land of minions. My number one's The Wizard of Oz. Most important movie to me. Talk about it all the time. It's obvious. I think this will still work. It's very heartening

to hear that this movie is still in the early stages of my child's film education and that it still has a power. And that transition from black and white to color still takes the breath away. So I'm really excited to show this to her not sure what the right time will be i'm open to suggestions if any listeners out there have showed this to their children when it actually clicked for them would

be nice to know this is just a short list there's a lot of stuff you know i gotta get miller's crossing in there you know i gotta get there will be blood in there dog day afternoon there's so many others i can't wait to show. Yeah, all of Nancy Meyers' movies. I actually almost did put Nancy Meyers' The Parent Trap on there, which is a great kids movie. And that's, you know, a starter to a whole new world. Okay, let's fast forward 10 years from now. Mm-hmm.

Knox bounds down the stairs, and he looks at you those huge eyes and he says Mom, I hate the Nancy Myers movies. Stop making me watch them. What do you do? I would say okay. And then I would fume alone in my room for a while. You know, I'm trying

I'm going to try to respect his wishes but I'll also be really angry and I think this is try to respect his wishes, but I'll also like be really angry. And I think this is going to be the hardest thing. I don't know whether this is true, but right now I'd be like, that's a bad opinion, kid. Like, you know, like I love you. I want the world for you. And you can have your own opinions, but it's not a good one. Will I say that to him?

I'm going to try not to. Will I be able to help myself probably not i was wondering if you'll be wielding the amanda blade with him because aileen and i have been talking about just how to navigate some of this stuff with with allison you know the the parenting strategy of acknowledging feelings and saying rather than saying no don't do that saying i know it's frustrating. I know that this can be difficult and I understand how you're feeling, but this is important that we do this, you know, speaking in that pedantic,

theoretically, emotionally open way. I, you know, I struggle with that as a professional bicker. You know, this is really one of my great skills in life. It's kind of, is mixing it up, you know, like I'm in this line of work for a reason. So I wonder if that's going to stick for me, but for you, you're also a bickerer par excellence. So I've been haunted by a podcast that we've actually already recorded, but I don't think has been released yet, where you gave me a very hard time about my support of things that you like that I don't give a shit about. And I have felt bad about that,

but primarily I've just been like, Knox is going to be into all sorts of stuff that I just don't care about. I don't care. And I know everyone says, oh, well, you know, when you're a parent, like your child will love something. And so you'll be interested in it too. And I just like, how much pinball am I going to play with this kid? Like none, you know, I don't

care. So I'm going to have to find a more supportive way to be like, that's so cool that you love that, you know, weird animated movie. I'm really happy for you. And I'd love to watch it a thousand times in a row. You're so fucked. Oh my God. I know.

Okay. Let's wrap this conversation. This has been an intimate one about Minions, of course. Amanda, thanks. You'll be back on the show next week. Thanks to our producer, Mike Wargon, for his work on today's episode filling in for bobby wagner stay tuned later this week the big picture is going to be covering thor love and thunder

taika waititi's hugely anticipated fourth thor movie we'll see you then Thank you.