The Ringer-Verse - Ringer-Verse Recommends: July 2026 (Featuring 'Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender' and a Summer Kids' Blockbuster Battle)

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Yip yip! Ben Lindbergh recruits the Ringer-Verse's Team Avatar (Jomi Adeniran and Daniel Chin) to talk about a busy time for the beloved franchise. First, they discuss the new animated movie 'Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender.' Then, they give their impressions of another new release, 'Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game,' before reacting to the trailer for the forthcoming series 'Avatar: Seven Havens.' After that, Ben brings on Ringer colleagues and fellow parents Lindsay Jones and Katie Baker to talk about 'Toy Story 5,' 'Minions & Monsters,' 'Moana,' and other recent and upcoming kids' movies, along with thoughts on restricting screen time, Pixar sequels, live-action Disney adaptations, and more. (00:00) Intro (04:15) Avatar discussion (63:00) The Summer Kids' Blockbuster Battle Host:Ben Lindbergh Guests: Jomi Adeniran, Daniel Chin, Lindsay Jones, and Katie Baker Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And welcome into the ringerverse, your nexus feed for all things fandom. I am Ben Lindbergh, Buttonmash host, and also doing double duty as host of the monthly roundup here. Ringerverse recommends where we collect recommendations for recently released nerd culture or nerd culture adjacent properties that we have not covered in depth on the feed as of yet, but don't want to fall through the cracks entirely. And this time, we're covering. a lot. We will be covering a lot of properties, a lot of ground. I will be joined in just a moment by Jomi Deneran and Daniel Chin, returning from last month's episode. This month, we will be talking all things Avatar. We have a new Avatar movie, which is called Avatar Ang, the last Airbender. We also have an Avatar video game, Avatar Legends, the Fighting Game, and we have Seven Havens,

the next Avatar animated series, which is coming later this month. We just got a trailer at Comic Con. We will talk about all of that and the past, present, and future of the Avatar franchise with a couple big fans in Jomey and Daniel. After that, I will be joined by a couple of, I was going to say, co-parents, but that's not quite right. Fellow parents and colleagues here at the Ringer, Lindsay Jones, and Katie Baker, who will be discussing summer kids movies, Summer Kids Blockbusters, or at least movies that were envisioned as blockbusters, whether they turned out to be or not. We'll be talking Toy Story 5. We'll be talking minions and monsters. And we'll be talking live action Moana, as well as a roundup of other recent releases that have been in heavy rotation on the screens in our households among our kids. We'll talk about what we liked, what we didn't like, our philosophy of kids' movies, what we're even hoping for when we watch them with our kids or when they watch them without us. So we'll get to that in just a second.

Next month, I think we will be talking, well, a couple things probably. We have a new Star Wars animated show, the Ninth Jedi, a spinoff will probably be talking about that. Also, a lot of you will probably be tuning into Apple TV to see a new season of Ted Lasso. And I am always tuning into Apple TV to see new seasons of sci-fi series, including Silo, which has been running and will be running, as well as Dark Matter, which is coming back. I figure we can do a bit of a draft or a ranking of Apple TV sci-fi series with an emphasis on silo and dark matter next time. There's no shortage of Apple TV sci-fi. And if you're wondering why I'm wearing a colored shirt for Ring reverse recommends this month, I dressed up for the occasion.

Well, not quite. I'm actually coming directly from jury duty, which I had been doing for the past 10 days. I was selected to serve on a trial for the second time in my life. And we have finally finished our deliberations. and I am once again free to Rome society. And I will say, I don't recommend jury duty if you were wondering. I know there are people who are curious, ooh, I want to do it once. I've now done it twice.

I think once would have sufficed. I don't recommend it if you have other things to do. If you have kids, if you have obligations, if you have hobbies, if you have work, it is quite inconvenient. However, I do recommend it if you're looking to restore some semblance of faith in the justice system and or your fellow citizens. There is something about sitting in a room with 11 other strangers and trying to ensure that justice is done that actually does you make you feel quite good about your fellow humans. So I'm riding the post-jury duty high, but I am also relieved

that I am free to record podcasts on my own schedule again, including this one. So I will be back in just a moment. And as a reminder, you can always submit your own nominations and submissions for things that we should highlight here at Ringaverse Recommends. The email address is simple. Ringervorce Recommends at gmail.com. And now let's talk Avatar. All right, team Avatar to the rescue. It's a big time for the Avatar fandom, the Nickelodeon kind, not the James Cameron kind. And so I am joined by a couple of pals who will help me bend the airwave. as we discuss the new animated film, Avatar Ang, the Last Airbender, as well as Avatar Legends, The Fighting Game, possibly will look ahead to Avatar Seven Havens,

the upcoming animated series. So with me today, much like last month, though, I think under better circumstances, similar but improved, is one of the Midnight Boys, Jomi at Denneron. Welcome back, Jomey. What's going on, gang? And in New York, it's Dave. Daniel Chin. Hi, Daniel. Hello, hello. Thanks for having me back.

Happy to have you. And I think we're going to be in a better mood this time, at least when we talk about this franchise. The Ang gang is here, and we have a lot to discuss. We are, of course, talking about Avatar Ang, the new movie, The Last Airbender. This is the successor, of course, to beloved animated series, Avatar, The Last Airbender, and the Legend of Cora. And really, I think it's safe to say this is the first on-screen scripted installment of Avatar of any kind since The Legend of Quora wrapped up 14 years ago. Can you guys remember any other movies or shows that may have come out in the interim? I don't think there's been anything, right? There's no live-action series in Bossing, say. We don't acknowledge that as canon here, much like the creators of the series of the franchise who were not involved in.

making that movie and that show. So last time I did inflict live action avatar, the series on you. And I made Daniel watch a couple episodes of the second season on Netflix. And Jomey didn't even watch it, I think, for mental health reasons, really. Right. And yet taking that precaution didn't actually help because just invoking the existence of that series put you in a dangerous frame of mind. And in fact, Steve Allman, who was with us last month and is behind the boards this month.

I asked him to grab a clip of last month's legendary Jomi Adelan crash out. Just to, you know, previously on, Lingerverse recommends. Yeah, just to set up our conversation this time. We'll have Steve just insert a little clip of how Jomi was feeling last time around. They're stripping the characters to their most bare. their most bare traits and being like, cool, run with that. There's a

fellas, there is a quote from Toff where she tells Ang to shoot his shot. There are no guns in Avatar. Why do he shoot his shot? They don't have guns. What does that mean? What does that mean, guys?

What are we doing? Jomi, you feeling a little bit better about things about Avatar, about the world? feeling a little bit better I'm feeling a little bit better I mean it's hard to feel that bad considering it's really hard to feel that bad but I definitely am feeling a little bit better

about the Avatar universe after watching the Avatar Egg movie yeah I mean this is so we can talk about a couple of things we can talk about the movie itself we can talk about the way in which this movie has come to us and the way in which it was released and prematurely released slash leaked and how it is not being released. So this has been a whole saga, right?

It leaked months early. There have been spoilers. There have been footage. It's not just your typical just plot points being spoiled. This was the whole movie was accessible if you were. Yeah. If you were sailing the seven Cs and you just could not wait, then it was out there. Hopefully people refrained.

We refrained, I think, but now it's out there and it's streaming on Paramount Plus. And technically, it's in theaters, but like, barely. Just it satisfies the minimum requirement to be released theatrically. But pretty much it's a streaming movie. So, Dan, you want to talk about just the road to release here and how bumpy it's been and whether you're at all disappointed, whether your enthusiasm has been dampened by everything that preceded this thing actually premiering? Yeah, I mean, it's so bittersweet because I really think that Paramount has mishandled this so much.

Like, there was clearly so much love put into this movie, and it was meant for a theatrical release. And even just going back before the, I don't remember the exact timeline, but I think even going back before it was leaked, it was already moved off of being the theatrical release. It was just going to be straight to streaming. And then when it leaks, like several, I think it was originally slated for like an October release. and for it to just be dumped onto the internet, for it to be leased onto the internet in full, with no watermark, like, many months ago. Oh, is this like April?

I think it happened. Early. Like a long time ago. Like a long time to, like, really be able to sit on that. And like, I don't blame people for, for, like, wanting to watch it because at that point, it's just, like, kind of screw Paramount in the way that they've handled this, you know?

But it's a shame because this was clearly made for the theater. And it's like, I just went from seeing it a second time, like, in theaters earlier today. And it was like, the crowd loved it. Like, it was electric, like, seeing it on a big screen. And it's a shame that, like, not everybody's going to be able to experience that. I'm jealous. You got to watch it. You got to watch it the big screen.

I could have because all the screens in the way sold up. Sold up, man. It's in Burbank, right? Yeah, it's like in one. I was like, man, I can't wait to go see this movie at some point. And it's like, no seat, no seat, no seat. You can sit at the front at 1130 p.m. You know, like the whole thing was back down.

So if anything, Avatar fans really showed up and showed out for this movie, which you love to see that for everybody. Yeah, it's what's a tougher ticket, Odyssey in 70mm IMAX or the few screenings available of this movie. It's tough because, yeah, you might feel like, stick it to Paramount. I'll just watch this thing for free. But then the people who worked on this thing and were anticipating the release. And then it just, you know, people are seeing it piecemeal and not. in the way it was intended, and so you really feel for them. However, whenever you see it, let's talk about what you're actually getting here.

This is an interquil, I guess you could call it, right? Which we're familiar with from Star Wars. Certainly, it's just about all they've done this days, which is, you know, it's coming between other established preexisting properties. So this is set between the original series and The Legend of Cora. This is grown-up, adult, Ang, and all of his pals. and he certainly has gotten a glow up or he has at least gotten bigger and more brolic.

That's for sure. This is jacked ang right now. He's in the waist with you, man. He in the gym with you. You know the routine. Seriously. I mean, he kind of, you know, he pales in comparison to a new original character,

Taga, who is in this movie and played by Drax himself, Dave Batista, who's got an even more impressive musculature. but Ang himself, yeah, I mean, he is hitting the weights. He is potentially on some sort of substances here. And look, he's a grown up. That's fine. I got to say, though, that the body doesn't quite match the face. There's something, because he's still got like the 12-year-old kid,

Ang face basically. And then he goes shirtless and he's just got like these boulder shoulders and like massive traps. You can't work out the face, you know. But you can do a back bicep type workout, you know what I mean? You could do pool days and push days, right? Creatine in the morning, chicken breasts for lunch and dinner, you know? Yeah. Like that won't change the face structure.

This is maybe more than creatine. This is, I mean. No, no, no. Taga is definitely on the gear. Well, he for sure on the gear. Yeah. You know, he's doing that MCU, Chris Hempworth, Chris Evans diet, where yes, yes. Yes.

You are eating chicken breasts and broccoli for three meals. a day, but however, there is a side of HGH with it. I can see Aang getting that body. But to your point, though, he is vegetarian. Where's all that protein coming from? I mean, look, they're a vegetarian protein source. They're vegetarian bodybuilders out there. But Taga's maintaining his gains for thousands of years without movement,

which is even more impressive because he's been imprisoned, right? Anyway, it's an impressive physique for Aang. I guess, you know, bending provides resistance. It's great, great exercise. However, he got that physique. The important thing is that there is a crisis in the land. We have peace until we don't. And, of course, we have Taga, who is, well, briefly makes the name of the movie a misnomer

because he is also an airbender. And for a period, Ang is no longer the last airbender because Taga is essentially freed from his prison. And, you know, whenever you come across an ancient being who has been imprisoned for thousands of years, you got to think twice before you thaw them out of their ice prison or whatever it is because it's like there's probably a reason someone sealed them in there, you know? And even if it seems like this is exactly what I want, I want not to be the last airbender. Hey, here's another airbender. We could be airbender buddies together. you got to question what it, what is it exactly that Taga did to get himself sealed at the top of

a mountain for millennia. And that becomes clear. Maybe we can save some spoilers for later, but there is a reason why he has not been bouncing around and air bending. But the Ang gang gets back together, right? Because suddenly there's another crisis and it requires everyone to pull together and have the power of friendship and also all of the elements to put things right against. So because of that interquil setting, as is so often the case with a lot of Star Wars stories these days, we know what happened before, we know what's going to happen after.

That does constrain you, narratively speaking, to some extent, because you know that you're going to have to reset to where we are at the start of Legend of Quora, for instance. But in my mind, at least, they told a pretty satisfying and consequential standalone story. How did you feel about that, Jomey? I think I could agree with that. I think that coming in, you know, to Daniel, Daniel explaining, like, everything that went out and what this movie, you know, the leagues, the movement of the thing. Just the fact that I was able to watch it is, like, kind of a miracle, you know, dodging all the spoilers, dodging all the nonsense. The fact that I was able to have this experience and have these, this 85 minutes with my friends again is a treat. In of itself, I can talk.

And so just being there, having that is good enough. And it's great to see my friends again, to see Ang and Katara be together, to see Zuko being the fire lord, see Toff and Saka doing their thing. See, Apa? Oh, my goodness. Apa out there, even parts of the movie, I was like, hey, where's Momo at? Where's my dog? Where's my homie?

Not just being back in that world with those particular characters. Well, special enough. Do I have notes? Absolutely. 110%. But just being able to be there with those guys, that did enough. That did enough. Yeah.

Daniel, what's your big picture take and verdict? Yeah, I mean, I think to your point, Ben, what you were saying with, I think it really is hard to tow that line and to balance being an integral, as you called it. but I thought it did a really nice job of it and I think it forms a really nice bridge between the two series. I thought that Cora was really good at identifying certain things to build on with the last air bender

with metal bending being so prominent, like just the construction of like Republic City, like just having that there and like all the four nations existing together but then also like bloodbending. Like I think they just identified like really fit like things that were important in the original

series that would make sense that they're being expanded on. And this movie, I thought, did a good job of, like, working in between the two where you actually see the Republic City being built. You see this desire still with Ang wanting to bring the airbenders back. You see Toff, like, starting to build up metal bending as well. Like, they do a lot, like, a nice job of just, like, identifying things that need to be bridged between the two series. And I won't spoil, like, some of the stuff at the end, but I think they do that really nice job of that in the end of it, too. Yeah. It's a lot. It's It's a bit abrupt when you have to do the Benders Assemble moment, basically, right? It's like, okay, we have an existential crisis facing the realm.

Eng can't tackle it alone. He's got to get the gang together again. And so we're sending the messages far and wide so that everyone can rally around. Because it's only a 90-ish-minute movie as opposed to a multi-season series, not everyone gets a ton of time, right? And I don't know if that's among your notes. Jomey, but it's kind of like, all right, everyone's here. Nice to see all the guys again and all the gals, but they don't have a whole lot to do or say or character growth going on, really. It's

just nice to see them again, but they're very much a supporting ensemble, right? They're along for the ride. I would have, like, there are moments when the gang is talking and you've like, oh, man, look, like when they're on the beach. And, Toff is like, well, I guess if we're going to be stuck here, then I get this one, I'd call it snappy. And then I think it's Sakka's like, oh, I want a snappy. Like moments like that, we got like interspersed. But you know what I really would have loved? Like just give me like 10 minutes, five, 10 minutes of just the gang just talking.

Just hanging out, being a family, you know? Because we, again, like the scene when Taga wakes up and they're like, Toph is like, he feels handsome. and like we don't know if he's handsome or not and the Zooker's like he's definitely handsome look at his bone structure that's great yeah that's funny we are here because we love these five characters in particular

and seeing them to again just seeing them on screen together like seeing them fight together lovely great enjoyable but what we really really really wanted to see is them like interact and engage in each other's lives and they don't really do that

in this in this movie and so like it's a little bit, it's a little disappointing when I come here. Again, it's good enough to see them already, but it's not enough to where, like, I don't know, I just wish I would have just seen them like, just have a moment. Like, like, they're by a campfire or something and just like, just talking it out, man. Like, hey, man, how you been?

Oh, it's been good. You know, everything is great. How's the wife? How's the kids? This and that, which and which. I would have loved that. Yeah. And we didn't get that.

What's your gym routine? Here's my gym routine. I'm sure. I know Ang and. and Zuko be going crazy. I know they both be in there like, yeah. Like a Toff too. Toph is Jack too. Like Tauph looking crazy.

You know why Taf not in that conversation because you already know she lift more than them. You already know her is different. That's cheating. They went to the gym together and she was free lifting like four 75 and they was like, yeah, man, that's for you. You got it.

We're not really trying to compete with that. You can't be bending if you want to pack on muscle. I think that's going to make the resistance reduced greatly. But yeah, it's true because it's such a good vibe and a hangout show. And then yeah, it's just, you know, inevitably because of the format and how much you have to do here, you're just given short shrift to that just everyone's spending time together. And isn't it nice to be in these people's presence? Plus, you have Taga, who's introduced and then quickly monopolizes Eng's attention. And he's sort of single-mindedly obsessed with weight. Can I

bring back the airbenders? This is what I've always wanted. And his friends are kind of trying to talk him down and hey, this isn't you. And ultimately at the end, I was almost a little bit disappointed that they didn't play a more integral role in pulling him back from the brink. We're verging on spoiler territory here. But ultimately, he stays true to himself, right? Doesn't forget who he is. But it's sort of self-directed more than anything. You know, it's just like he realizes, wait, I can't go this far and then is able to correct at the last second more so than it's the power of friendship that helps me do this, though. That was involved.

It's just everyone kind of becomes a bystander to the central conflict going on inside. Well, to be fair, Ben, it's called Avatar Ang. It's not called Avatar Gang. I mean, truth in advertising. It's right. It is what we were told it would be. What other notes, quibbles, complaints, anything else, Jeremy? Oh, I mean, how much time do you have?

Let's start with. I need, Suki needs a better agent. Whoever Suki needs, this is not, it's not right. She's playing six men, right? She can't get no burn. The only time we saw Suki,

the movies at the end when they're in Republic City, and she's like, oh, wow, this is good. Suki, demand a trade, okay? We see what's going on. Kora's gang is whack. You could take all of Meko's minutes. You could take all of Bona's minutes.

You could take all, well, I don't think you could take Asami's minutes now because her and Cora got a little thing going on. But you would easily be the best number two on that, that avatar team. This avatar team, clearly they don't need you. Either that or they don't respect you. Because why wasn't you there?

You know? And to your point, Ben, it's only 85 minutes. They barely had enough time for Toph and Sukko and soccer. Suki, you know what I'm saying? We had to make cuts. All I'm saying is if I was, if I was Suki, somebody got to make a call and be like, hey, listen, either I'm the next one,

and I at least, I at least need like, you know, 10 to 15 minutes. I need some burn, or just trade me. Let me play 48 with chorus team, because I would easily be the second best super there. That's one. And number two, more importantly, okay, I'm going to be brave right here. And I need both of you guys to, I need everybody listening to walk with me. Okay.

I want to say this right off the rip. everybody in this, all the voice actors did a great job. They did a fantastic job. Like, specifically like, Stephen Young is the man, you know, Invincible. Like, he's been doing this for a long time. I don't know if you guys ever watched Final Space on Adult Swim, but he's like a phenomenal voice actor. The actor that specifically did,

Saka, I think, like got the inflections of Saka correct, you know. We haven't really heard a grown-up version of Ang outside of like Chora, so we don't really know what that sounds like. It's ultimately like, I'm not like, I don't want to like, like, hey, I think they all did a great job. However, those are not my, those are, I don't know those people. Like I, I just don't know those people. And maybe it's, maybe it's just something with me. Y'all can tell me how y'all feel. But I know what Saka sound like. I know what guitar sounds like. Again, Ang's a little different because he was 12, you know, he's baby, obviously he don't grow up.

muscles don't come from nowhere, you know what I mean? But I know what those characters. I know what Zucco sounds like. Even as good as Stephen Young is, I know what Zucco sound like. That's not my dog. We have shows that are coming back getting revitalized, King of the Hill, Futurama. They come back with a completely different voice cast, even if, like, yeah, the characterizations are right and the writing is right. You just know, like, that's not what Hank Hill sounds like.

that's not what Philo J. Fry sounds like. There's a little bit of a disconnect. Hank is also a grown-ass man, though. Like, you know, Zucco's growing up, you know? These were, like, 10-year-old, like, you know, their teenagers. Like, they got to grow up, you know? You're not wrong, man, but I'm listening.

Hank Hill, that would be weird if he's all of a sudden just a different dude. But I'm listening. I feel like, young Zucco, he sounds young, you know what I mean? Like, it's tough. I hear you. I hear you because it's like, that's what you grew up with, but I think that's what they're fighting with, you know? Maybe.

Like, there's so much nostalgia. There's so much built in fandom. And, like, fans wanted to have it back. But I think for some of these things, I understand the choice. Like, I think Dante Braswell, he still sounds like, like, really young. You know what I mean? That's the thing. Like, and I completely understand because he was, like, a child.

There's like 14, 15, 16. You're telling me, Jack, you're telling me the original voice actors can't be like, hey, man. Instead of making them sound like 16, make them sound 20, 25. I think they could do it. That's my thing. I think you, those, those town, May Whitman, Jack DeSena, what's her name,

Michaela, Dante Bosco. Like those are really talented Ways actors. Hey, remember when they were 12, make them sound 25. I think they could do it. It's just, there is a level of disconnect.

Again, shows like 20 years old at this point. You've seen all these, you see these episodes over and over again. These like, these things are seared into your brain. They're basically like second nature. I know what these people sound like

And when it's not quite the same Again, maybe I'm just being emotional Maybe this is just something for me But like there's a level of disconnect in this There's a level of disconnect when watching It's like I get like man the the Flamio Hotman joke at the beginning with Zucco That's hilarious. Like I'm like

These are my characters. I can see it but I can't really hear it. And so it just keeps a little bit more distance for me while I'm like trying to get into it and enjoy being back in the world. I'm just like, ah, y'all, y'all look like my people, but you don't sound like my people.

And it's a little bit discerning. Yeah, if a series starts in live action and then gets adapted to animation at some point or there's a sequel, successor series, and animation, then at first it's a little job And maybe they cast sound-alikes who are trying to imitate the actors you recognize and that can be a little jarring. But then if a show goes on long enough and you get attached to it enough, then the animated characters and the actors who play them, they kind of become canon to you just as much as the original.

You know, if you're like someone who grew up on the Star Wars prequels and then also continue to watch the Clone Wars, et cetera, for decades after that, well, suddenly it's like, okay, there's live action anime, Anakin, there's anime. animated Anakin, they're both Anakin to me, right? Or maybe even animated Anakin is my Anakin. When you're not switching media, though, you know, you're switching from TV to movies, but you're still streaming it

at home. Most likely it's still animation. It still looks sort of similar. And so to have a different sounding voice come out of a different looking, but still recognizable body and character, it's a lot to overcome. I get it. But if you can't come to this with fresh years,

it's a great cast. They do a good job. Yeah, absolutely. I think Daniel's right in the sense of like, you know, gotta age these guys up. They gotta sound adult. Yeah. I completely utterly understand.

It's just in my heart. In my heart I know. I totally hear you too on all this too. And it's just like, I think it's hard not to be a little bit greedy when it comes to this because like Avatar fans have been waiting this for so long, especially if you're a fan of the original original series.

Like, I love Quora too, but there's obviously just like a nostalgia for us because we grew up with this. And to finally have it after all this time, that's where it gets to be bittersweet because it's like, I thought they did such a nice job with the movie, but there's only so much you can do within the span of an hour and a half. And I think, I think that's where it gets so frustrating where it just goes straight to Paramount because I'm sure they would have done it a little bit differently. If they made this like a five episode like event where they could actually like have those moments to have like, all right, let's have 10 minutes where they can just chop it up a little bit. we could find out why Suki's not here, like all these things.

But when it comes to a 90-minute movie, like, there's only so much space you could have for moments like that where it's not just, like, complete nostalgia bait, like, not just complete, like,

let's just, like, relive the old series. They have to, like, actually tell a story. And I think, I think they do a good job of, like,

still, like, having those moments. Like, again, like, I really hope that you can see it in theater show me because, like, it was so fun being around people that, like,

seeing like the cabbage man, you know, like, moments like that. Like, like, people went crazy. Like, I haven't, like, it's, it's been a long time. Like, obviously, these are going to be super fans because there's, like, they're only showing this movie for, like, a week.

Was this, like, a cosplay situation? Were there people dressed up? I saw, like, a few, like, like, sweatsh, like, like, shirts, like gear, like the hat, like people had clothing on, like, but nothing, nothing crazy like that. But, like, from, from the title screen opening up, people were cheering. Like, there was, like, applause. And, like, every single time there was, like, watching it at home, I was like, all, this is probably like a crowd-pleasing moment.

Like people would be cheering for this. And like every single time something like that happened, like people were cheering. Like there was like six or seven, like eight, eight maybe like different like just, yeah. I was trying to change the number because I was like, I said six or seven. But people just started just clapping throughout. You know, they couldn't contain their joy for just like having these little moments.

And I think it is, it is tough because like you want to have a lot of the same voices again. But I think they did a nice job of just capital. the spirits of the characters and like where they be like you know what they would be like X amount of years later like like like Zucco for example is still super self serious but like he still has like that that like dry humor like he's still like you know he still cares about his honor like he has a line about like face your death of honor like yeah it's like they they do a good job of like still pointing to all these things that we know and love about them and like still trying to move forward to so it is it is tough and I wish they could have had more time to really stretch this out and allow us to spend time with the characters that we love. But this is just the reality of what they were handed. Yeah. If you're in the right age group and a fan of animation, this is a formative franchise for you and something that you bonded with at a foundational time and came of age alongside

and were introduced to a more mature sort of storytelling through. And so it's a big legacy to live up to. And yeah, I thought they did a decent job given the constraints and the expectations and everything. And introducing Taga, I mean, you know, Taga is a pretty cool character. He's kind of given you that Nolan on Invincible sort of sense that, oh, this, there's more than meets the eye here. There's something sinister and nefarious happening. And, you know, there's like a Sith holochrome, you know, like X-Arcoon kind of thing going on here. A lot of Star Wars vibes.

Very much. So, yeah, again, just don't wake up the long. dormant super powerful person who has been confined for thousands of years for unknown reasons. There will, it turns out, be a reason. It's like there's this concept called Chatterton's fence, I think, which is basically like, be careful, or Chesterton's fence. That's what I'm thinking of. It's like, if you come along and there's a fence somewhere, don't just tear down the fence

reflexively. Like, someone put a fence there for a reason and it might still be serving some sort of purpose. that's all I'm saying about the mystical imprisonment of the super powerful person. So ultimately, we get the face off. We get Ang reckoning with his own desires and his integrity and staying true to himself and his friends and all the rest of it. Animation-wise, I mean, good-looking movie, right? Cinema, even if it's not actually in the cinema? I thought it was gorgeous. Yeah, that was something I meant to say, too.

I thought the animation was so stunning. And I just loved how they just leaned even further into like the Japanese like anime like style, like, which is obviously it was always a big influence. And I remember seeing one of the creators in an interview even talking about like seeing, I think Princess Mononoke was just being like inspired by Miyazaki and just like that being one of the main inspirations like going into the original series. So being able to see that like really grow and develop in a way and evolve in a way I thought was was really cool too. It was it was so stunning. If you're going to. Yeah. If you're going to bring this movie.

or bring these characters to the movie screen, you have to justify the existence, right? You can't just put the show, take the show, and put it on TV, or put it in a movie theater and say, bet. You have to, like, why should people go to the theater and see this? Why should we make this a feature film

instead of a six-part, five-part episode series? And the spectacle in this movie is the reason why. There are three or four scenes that are just, like, incredible. The scene, they're going through the typhoon and the gang has to put the ship together while they're fighting off the denied, right? The mountain exploding and coming down. The scene at the end where it's coming down on the city from the spirit world is coming down on Republic City. You're just like, wow.

That was a very like Stranger Things finale sort of Republic City as Hawkins, you know, like dimensions bleeding into each other. And they brought the sky beam back. They brought back the sky beam. As soon as that happened at the Lion Turtle Graveyard, I was like, ah, I've seen this before, brother. You can't fool me. But, no, to Daniel's point, the spectacle is there. They made this movie for the theaters.

And even at the house, I mean, I got a nice little TV at the crib, OLED, 85 inches, you know what I'm saying? It ain't nothing too crazy, you know, but it's a little nice. At the crib, I was like, yo, I wish I would have been in theaters for this. This kind of stuff right here is what it's all about. It was very, very well done. Wow, 85 inches. How far are you sitting from that thing?

Because we're entering overcompensating territory. Brother, I'm sitting like seven feet away, man. My eyes are cooked. So you don't need to go to the theater. I mean, this is a theater in your living room. You're seven feet away from an 85 inch screen. I got the sound bar in the front, brother. You can host the premiere there.

You know? Yeah. Stop that. Okay. Well, check it out. We do recommend it as we do here on Ring and Verse recommends. But our appetite is not slate, right? We want more.

And there is more. More Avatar content coming and more Avatar content out today. We had a chance to try out Avatar Legends, the fighting game, which is available for all platforms, PC and console. Except for Xbox. That version was slightly delayed. right before the release, but it's coming soon. So checkered history, I would say, of Avatar video games. This Avatar, at least, there have been several.

Some probably people remember fondly based on when they played them, but not exactly classics of the genre, right? And I teased on Butmash that we would be mentioning this game here. We're just lousy with all kinds of licensed brawlers these days. I mean, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 1 and 2, right, which featured several Avatar characters. More recently, multiverses, 2XCO, the League of Legends fighting game. Invincible Verses, which we covered on Buttonmash earlier this year, Marvel Token Fighting Souls, which will be covering on ButtonMash next week, the just announced upcoming DCCO, which is not the injustice sequel people were hoping for, but a free-to-play mobile game. DC as in Detective Comics, not Daniel Chin.

I always have to clarify when you write about DC. So we have a ton of these, obviously, people are hearkening back to the classic days of Marvel versus Capcom, obviously Super Smash Brothers. It's a very appealing formula. Let's just take beloved characters, put them in the ring, put them on the platforms, have them fight. So what I always wonder when I see that one of these things coming, first question and criterion is, is this just a cash-in? is this just a basic brawler re-skinned with characters to try to sell it to fans of that franchise? Or does it really respect the license? And this, I think, satisfies that condition, right?

This was made with a lot of love for Avatar with the involvement of the creators. It has an original story from the creators and writers, right? The characters, the animation, it's all done very faithful. You've got about a dozen fighters here. They're all modeled very, very recognized. recognizably, et cetera. And then there's the question of who is this for? What's the target demo? Obviously, it's for fans of the franchise, but in terms of fighting games, is this more mainstream for casuals? Just pick it up, button mash, plug and play, or is it more for the hardcore

for the fighting game community for people who are going to be playing this at tournaments for years to come? Not that it can't be both, but usually there's a spectrum and it's more toward one side of the spectrum. This to me is a serious fighting game. This is like there's a learning curve. There's a high skill ceiling, which I have not reached with this game. So as someone who's played a lot of fighting games,

but would not consider myself a fighting game expert or even say that fighting games are my favorite genre or anything, a little bit intimidating in terms of just picking up and playing this thing. And I didn't find that the tutorial mode was holding my hand very much throughout. I don't know how you guys felt in terms of the onboarding here. Did you feel like you knew what you were doing, Daniel? Absolutely not.

I very foolishly, like, didn't do the tutorial first, and I just jumped into the story. And I was getting rocked. Yeah. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There was a tutorial? I'm not joking. I expected it like.

You guys need a tutorial on tutorials. You got to scroll down. You got to scroll down. down, bro. You gotta go find it. You gotta, like, seek it out. So you just jumped right in there. I just jumped right in. I was getting whipped. I was so mad. I was getting so tight, too. I was getting

so hot, bro. I was... Ben, you don't understand. I love up the game. I'm like, all right, we're going to play Avatar Legends for the podcast. Let's do it. Oh, no. Tutorial, cool. So that means I can select my difficulty. No. Okay.

That means this got to be easy. This is the first level. How hard can it be? that you can't actually customize the difficulty. It's like, dog, Ben, I didn't make it out the first level. And I can't, yeah. I played for an hour. I fought off for 30 minutes.

I said enough. Enough. I can't do it. I was getting, I would, if I went around, I was like, let's go. I'm here. It's up. It's stuck. She was given, dog, she was giving me biblical belt.

Like, lower accurate. belt the way I cannot mess with Toth. I beat Katara, that's the first one, then I beat Kyoshi, the second one, I was like, okay, that took like a little longer than it should have, right, for the first level. But maybe I'm, again, maybe the settings has put me on a medium, no, okay, there's no setting, okay, good. I guess, I just,

and like, let's be very clear. I'm not good at these games. I like Mortal Kombat. That goes down to easy. Let's be very clear. have time to be out here, fight it for my life. I go back, all right, there's no level. Maybe I'm just bad. That's cool. Toff was giving me the blues, fellas. I couldn't do it. Now, maybe, you talked about this in your, in your spiel, you know, this is a game for serious fighting game players. Y'all got it. That's for y'all. I'm glad that you have it because it's not going to find me. The game is fine. A game

plays, I mean, you speak about button mash your podcast. That's what I was doing. I was just in there mash and trying to make it work. And it wasn't working. It was not working. There are games you can button mash your way through. This is not one of them. I think if you're a serious player, you'll

love this, you'll enjoy it. If you're an avatar fan that is good at this kind of stuff, then it's for you. I feel like, man, I can't wait to try and press some buttons and figure it out. Play the put the controller down. Go outside. Yeah. Touch grass. Breathe a fresh air.

This game is not for you, big dog. It's not. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's intimidating. Even if you were aware that there was a tutorial, which I did not know I needed to mention to you both. I have no idea.

I did it like, I did it much later on, but like I think it was after I fought soccer and soccer was kicking my ass. You got to fight soccer? I can't. I can't. I got, like, I was playing it for a little while.

I was like, I think I'm getting the hang of this. But then like, could not get past Saka at one point. And I was like, I'm not, I can't go out like this. I can't let Saka be the one to, like, stop me from playing this story. Yeah, that's like, all right. Like, if it's like at least like another avatar, like, fine.

Yeah. Maybe I'm just not good at this. But Saka with his boomerang, nah, man, I wasn't, I wasn't going to go out like that. If you do get it down, there's a lot of depth here. And I think it will really reward people who sync the time in. So this is, I think, a well-made fighting game, both as a fighting game and as a tribute to Avatar. And I think it's got a good case as maybe the best Avatar video game, which is, again,

not saying that much, not a huge high bar to clear. But nonetheless, I don't think this disappoints. But yeah, be prepared. It's a somewhat bare bones package in terms of just the modes and the features and everything. But the actual fighting gameplay, it feels very fluid. It feels, you know, complex to the point where, yeah, you're going to feel out of your depth at first. but if you put the time in, you train,

then you actually will, I think. Definitely do the tutorial. Do the tutorial, but even that will not suffice, but it'll help. Also saying this is the best avatar game is like saying Arkham Asylum is the best Batman game. It's like, I mean, the bar is not. The bar is not, it's a great game.

It's a great game. But the bar is not really the highest to clear. At the time, maybe. I mean, yeah, there are many more good Batman games now. than there are avatar games. That's true. That's true. Yeah.

So check it out if you fit into this box if I need more avatar. And also I really like fighting games and I have some skill at them as well. You guys get this a story at all? Yeah. So, I mean, the issue with fighting game stories, like, I don't know that. Yeah. You do the best you can, right? It's just, I don't know that I've played that many fighting games in my life where I came

away thinking, boy, that story, that hit hard. man, that plot. DC versus the story's rough. The story is rough. Yeah, that didn't mean

none of you. At 10 years old that meant something to me, but I was a child and a baby. How much trouble did you have with the voice actors here? Because this is also

in a most entirely new. Video games I know it's fake. You give a pass. Okay. I give a pass to video games, you know what I'm saying? Here's the thing about the story that I found interesting.

I don't know if you guys saw this, but if you play far enough to the game, because, you know, the basic conceit is that this is like a universe where everything's all out of whack. I mean, the game literally every time, every fight, the balance must be restored. You got to restore the balance to the

world. And it's interesting to me, just something to note that Cora and Azula are dating in this crazy universe and I don't know that was possible. And so I just want everybody to think about that. Don't got to say nothing, but just think about what that means.

Just think about what that means. It's a very similar story to the Invincible game story because and that was also, you know, some of the same creators involved and everything, but their hands are tied, because it's like we have to come up with some justification for why all these characters are

fighting each other, including the characters who are typically allies. And so it has to be some sort of people are possessed. People are in bizarro world, whatever. Just don't remember who you are. Like, your name is un? Like, yeah. And then reference one of, come on.

Yeah, one flimsy segue after another to like, oh, here's the setup for this set piece where we're going to throwing hands again. So it's tough. I mean, there's only so much you can do, I think, given the constraints and the format of a fighting game. And it's pretty long. I mean, it goes on for a a while. It's like 22, 23 chapters? 24. I think it's even more. I think it's like 27 maybe. Yeah. It's overstays its welcome. I got like 13 in and I was like, all right, I got to just play arcade mode so I can skip through it. I didn't get past 1.3.

I give you player A, Jomi, you got to, you're in prison. You get the PS5. You have to beat Avatar Legends and you get out. It's a life sentence. I'm never leaving. I'm never leaving. Okay. I would want, I mean, look, I think this fits as a fighting game.

I would want an Avatar RPG. I know that there is a tabletop RPG and a trading card game and everything, but it's just like watching the movie even, there's this. time where, you know, Aang has to get this artifact, right? And he has to do some sort of Zelda-style puzzling, where he has to use each element he can command to unlock something in a temple. And it's like, I might be into this, you know?

Let me deploy all these different bending powers to, like, make my way through a level with combat. You know, it tends to be more action-adventure fighting-oriented. And I'd like a little bit more of a slower-paced RPG-style avatar game. But look, we'll take what we get at this stage. And we're about to get something else. So we'll finish with this, looking forward.

As you noted, Daniel, the movie was originally supposed to come out later this year. In lieu of that, we get a new animated series, Avatar Seven Havens, which is coming October 9th. It has been greenlit for a couple seasons, I believe, already, 26, 20-something episodes. Trailer just released at ComicCon. So we got our first real look at it. And it is very much in the mold of Cora picking up after Avatar with a new avatar. And here we are in Seven Havens with the successor to Cora, just as Cora was the successor to Ang. So based on the premise, the log line, a couple minutes of footage we saw in the trailer, how you guys feel in Jomey?

I feel good. Yeah. I was able to see this in all age with the creators. the cast. And I am intrigued to say the least. I think the premise, obviously,

is that Corey did something that messed up the world and that everybody lives like is the 1920s over there. They just got Hooverville's all over the place. And that's not what you want.

And so the new avatar has to deal with the fact that the spiritual part of being the avatar is a no-go. They're not really messing with all this spirit. the spirit stuff.

And so how she navigates that, I'm really interested in. And then at the end of the trailer, you see like Vatu's back. And I'm like, yo, we bring him back the, oh, like the number one op. Everybody hated Vatu.

Let's be very clear. Udon Lanku Vatu. Our chorus fans, someone op. They ruined the legacy. Right? When Cora lost the ability to talk to the past avatars,

it was over. She was never getting her lick back no matter what, right? And so to bring that particular villain back, I think it's interesting. And I would love to, I'm really excited to see what they're doing with that particular villain

because, yeah, we, at the end of season two, we're like, wow, this is one of the worst things I've ever seen. How could we ever bounce back? And here's VATU again. So I'm interested to see what that looks like. Daniel? Yeah, I'm definitely excited for it.

I hope they don't do Cora too dirty here. Like, I was like, I couldn't believe. No, man, they're not going to do that. this on Kora? No. It's got to be like she's like misunderstood, right? It's 100. You can't do it that dirty.

It's a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Not twice. One time we can get you, you know, you release the spirits into the spirit world, you know, or to the real world. Not everybody. There's, there's fines everywhere. You get one of those.

You don't get to. I think she's going to be fine, D.C. Or let's hope so. Yeah, yeah. I hope so. That was one of my first reactions to it. I mean, I'm excited for it. I'm excited for any new Avatar series.

I'll reserve my judgment in terms of the animation style. It's definitely a change. I don't know if I like it better than what we've seen. I was going to say nothing. I'll reserve my judgment. All we've seen is the trailer so far. But I'm definitely excited for it. And there's always so much potential.

And it seems like technology has really move forward to and just like the brief clip that we've seen. You got some like cool like bikes moving in it. it. So I don't know. I'm excited for it. I'm curious to see where it goes. Yeah.

Exciting times. Lots to watch. Lots to play. After a long lull, Avatar is revitalized. And I don't know whether, Jome, you can forgive the live action adaptation

or adaptations any of their sins. But if the fact that season one of Avatar and Netflix was pretty popular helped breathe new life into animated Avatar, does that make you accept it to any greater extent? Does that help just account for all of the crimes that it has committed in your mind? Short answer, no. Long answer.

Means to an end. Hell no. The math, the math, though, I see what you're saying, though. And the math is, and I hope that this is what happens.

I hope that Paramount or whoever's in charge over there, because at this point, who knows. Yeah. Who knows what's going on over there. Hope they see that people are willing to not only watch this movie on Paramount, but go to the theaters and support the movie, right? And then we watch Seven Havens, although I don't know if they're,

I don't want to say dumping, I don't think that's the right word, but I think they're releasing either all or a lot of episodes on that date. It's not like a week-to-week release. I think it's going to be like a binge, which is just disaster for that type of show. But regardless, people come out, they go to, they watch it at home, they're watching in theater, seven hammers come out, they watch at home, and they go, people want more of this universe. Let's continue to make some more stuff in this elk for the fans. And I think that regardless of how you feel, I'm pretty sure that the creators, you know, will, you know, take some of the notes we have that everybody has into account and make, you know, an Avatar Ang, too, where the gang can just, like, sit, talk for five minutes where Sukki's like,

yo, I got to call, man. Mom, I'm going to the league, man. I'm finally here, man. I'm going to get some burn. You know, like, big, like, if they, I would love a chance for them to, to, I don't know, for them to do, to have another chance to make, uh,

the Avatar, the Avatar Ang sequel that like, we would all like love. Yeah, yeah. Maybe there's room for more storytelling in this, portion of the time stream we will see. And, you know, obviously there was a Netflix bump just for the animated series, too, just getting those series on there. A lot of people discovered or rediscovered them.

So it wasn't solely the fact that live action avatar came out, but that people had a way to watch the originals if they hadn't previously. Right, right. I think that's the thing, too. There's just such a desire. There's such a hunger to have, like, this avatar. Like, if they could have just done this, like, have a full other series instead of just doing the live action.

I think people are still watching it because they love the original so much, but I think it's just misunderstanding what people want. And it's just Netflix especially just keeps on trying to do the live action recreations of shows. And like, I just would have liked to see another series of this, you know, of like expanding this, the Eng's world into, you know, another thing. Like, I don't know. It's just, it's a shame again. Yeah, they could have done a whole thing there. I know there's so much you can do.

I know there's a comment. too. But they could animate the comment. They could animate the comment. I know. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I don't know. It's a bummer, but, you know, people should still definitely go see this.

Like, Paramount did not set them up for success here. Like, they really gave them, like, a two-week window when they're like, all right, it's coming out later in July. So that means we got to show out, right? The people have to show out. Yeah, exactly. And watch it. And campaign, you got to support. As we talk about this on Midnight Boys all the time, you can't just, it's not enough to say.

hey, we want this, we want this. You got to go spend the braid. You got to go put the time in. 100% Because you can't like, fans be like, yo man, we love this stuff. They're going to read that and be like, cool. It'll make us no bread, though,

kick it down the road, kick rocks, get out of here. You got to get out of support. Okay, I'm calling on all the Avatar fans. Turn the movie on when you go to sleep. Just let it run. Bought those streams, maybe. Cook those boys. They deserve it.

Yeah, they deserve it. It's tough because, as we said last month, you know, it's not us, but there are people who just animation is too much for them or not enough or whatever it is. And I want people to experience the story and the characters. And so in principle, sure, port the thing to live action for the animation deniers out there. If they can't be convinced, if they could be turned, they would be powerful allies. But as it is, I don't want them to miss out entirely. You know, the ceiling tends to be a little lower for animation, even if it's a beloved property like this. unfortunately, but we're doing our best.

Our IP Mint Edition, but we're still reping the animated properties here at Ringiverse recommends. And we will certainly cover Seven Havens in October if it's not covered elsewhere on the feeds. And big shoes to fill for Avatar Pavi to come along after Ang and Cora and see if we can have a trilogy of classic animated series. If you were Pavi and people's like, yo, Cora kind of messed up the whole world, Are you like, yo, are you closer to being like, like, yo, I'm at Avatar, she's an Avatar. You better come correct when you speak about her. You don't know the truth.

Or are you like, I don't even know her for real. Like, you know, it's just like, you know, separate lives type thing, you know. Yeah, I think it's kind of, as we saw in this movie, there have been so many avatars that I think you kind of have to say, my hands are clean. I don't even know that other avatars did. It wasn't me. Yeah. Like when I go to other avatars for advice, I skip him actually. You know, I didn't talk to him, you know.

Like, he's his own well. He got his own friends for real. Like, we don't really run in the same circles, you know. I'm an airbender here, earthbender. We don't really, you know, like, that's for y'all. Eng has made some major mistakes of his own and continues to make them in this movie, but learns from them crucially. So that's the important thing.

And last question for you, since you brought up different types of bending, I was hoping we'd have Steve on Mike so that we'd have one of us. for each element. But give me your your most powerful element. If you could choose a type of bender to be, which would it be? Give me, Jomi, do you have a, what's your wanted to your wish list? I'm not going to like this answer. Y'all are going to be mad at me, but I want to be Hula.

What? Yeah. Easy. Yeah. Not even an element. Suit line. I'm fired. Yeah.

What are you talking about? She the man. Just specifically Azula, though. She the man. Yeah. I don't know. What kind of answer? I don't know what you expected for me,

but that's it. That's kind of, that's where I'm at. Just give me the fire. Give me the blue flames. Let me shoot lining out of my fingers. Because now, nobody's going to mess with me

if I can shoot lighting out of my fingers. Right? It's one thing to be a water bender. They might punk you, right? Earthbender's a little tough airbender. I'm for sure. I'm for sure. Like, we beat on you.

Right? You losing. Yeah. But as a firebender, all right, you want to, boom, shout lightning. In your heart, you're dead. What's up?

which you don't do. Yeah. You fight back. Hmm. I feel like I would say water, but I don't like the cold that much. Like I'm not trying to live in the south or the North Pole.

I mean, I know they can, yeah, I could probably live in Republic City. But I think I'll go with air. I feel like there's so much. I mean, I know there's not,

not, there wouldn't be many of us, but more opportunity that way, too, to come up big. Like you can fly. There's so much potential uses with air. That's the thing. Yeah.

I mean, I was just, you know, water, you can run out, right? At least in theory that happens in this movie. Yeah, cori, you're running out, you know? Like, yeah, I mean, that's... In the old series, too? That's a drawback. I feel like Earth is sort of sneakily the most powerful. I mean, they all have sort of their, you know, depending on the abilities.

I mean, it's like water, you have almost the, you know, everyone has water in their bodies, right? You can have, if you want to get dark, like, you can do some, some GenV sort of bloodbending stuff. right? But I feel like earth bending, there's always elements around. You're never really going to run out. And you can craft kind of anything for any situation. So I feel like that might be most powerful, but I'd probably prefer air bending for some of the same. You get an airbison, too. That, I mean, that's a big perk, right? And we just, we've learned there's more than one air bison. There's not one last air bison. There's a whole secret island of air bison. So given the flying powers that we're

unlocked in this movie. And that's always, you know, it's basic, but go-to favorite superpower, what I would want. Flying, flying sounds cool. I'd go with the one that would let me fly. So, sorry, if it's unexciting. All right, I'm glad we settled that. Ring orverse, nomads are formed from the mist. We walk the world for a moment in time. Then we return to the wind. Thank you guys for walking the world for this moment with me. Suki, get an agent. Rich Paul, I know Rich Paul. I can make the call.

We get you in the next one. Don't worry. And I got to get to a second segment on summer kids movies that are not avatar themed. So, to take us into segment two, Appa, yep, yep. Okay, from one kids movie that is also for adults, at least in our cases, to many more kids' movies. I am joined now by my fellow senior editor, Lindsay Jones. Welcome, Lindsay. Hi, thanks for having me.

Thanks for being here. And my longtime Grantland and Ringer colleague, senior staff writer, Katie Baker, welcome Bakes. Thank you. Thanks for having me. So we are here in our capacities as cultural commentators and also importantly parents and people who are in tune with the youth. Because when you want to know what the youth of America is thinking, I think you come to the three of us, really. We're just so tapped into that demographic and not at all. How do you do fellow kids?

When you actually have kids and we ask them how they do from time to time, then we at least get some secondhand insight into what they might be thinking. So this is kind of a guide to summer kids movies, both in terms of how kids have received them in our experience and also how tolerable to enjoyable they are for parents accompanying kids in our cases. So I had envisioned this originally as sort of a summer blockbuster showdown among Toy Story 5, live action Moana, and minions and monsters. But it's kind of no contest, I think, from a box office standpoint, because Toy Story 5 has lapsed the league. And it had a head start.

It came out before the others. But it's now the top movie, not just in the country, but in the world to date this year. So clearly people have voted with their pocketbooks and their tickets and they like Toy Story 5, or at least they've gone to see it. So collectively, we have all seen at least a portion of all of these movies and some others that we might be touching on. Maybe we could start with Toy Story. So I've seen Toy Story fully, and you have also seen it Lindsay, correct? Yes. Yes, I have.

Okay. Okay. So we can talk about where this fits is. into the Toy Story Pantheon and how much we enjoyed this movie. And I will say that this is the first toy story that I have experienced as a parent, or at least the first new toy story I've experienced as a parent, because I did subject my daughter slash treat my daughter to the original toy story not long ago as well, which was mostly for me.

And she was sort of an excuse. But this definitely landed a bit differently for me as a parent. But what did you think of Toy Story 5? Have we reached the point of diminishing returns? Why is this franchise still going? Or is there still some juice left in the Toy Story? So I really, really enjoyed it. I wasn't a huge fan of Toy Story 4 when that came out.

My daughter just turned 10. So she was a lot younger. You know, she was kind of more. We should all establish our progeny here. Just who are our kids, what age, just to give people some sense of where we're coming from. So I have one daughter who is four going on five. Yes, and I have a daughter who turned 10 this week. So going into fifth grade, very much in the like tween girl demographic.

So I think that certainly shapes like her movie preferences right now. And Katie? I have two sons, one who's the same age as Lindsay's daughter going into fifth grade, 10-year-old, and then an eight-year-old going into third grade. So, yeah, I get the boy's side of the equation. in here. Okay. We've got a bunch of our bases covered, at least. So, Lindsay, continue, Toy Story 5. So we, you know, we went to the theater to see Toy Story 4 when she was, I guess, three. She was like three, three and a half. And so it was definitely one of our, like,

early movie-going experiences. And she loved Toy Story 4. Like, we bought all the characters. We had the full set of, you know, all the toys. You know, I think Forky was like a big, big draw and real funny for that kind of the, the toddler, younger, all and school set, still enjoy it. Like, I enjoy Forky. But I think we both liked five a lot. And I liked five significantly more than I enjoyed Toy Story for. And I think, you know, some of that I think was because of the messaging and the lessons for parents and just kind of the way we could identify with a lot of the parenting challenges that we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis for like that age of children. Yeah. Very relatable. And also,

so guilt-inducing at a lot of points in this movie. I felt the same way. I think if you look at just the general reception in terms of critic scores, user scores, I think it's just kind of descending chronological order, typically in terms of how tour stories are perceived, or at least four is generally above five, and maybe the consensus is kind of that five is the worst toy story. But I'm with you, actually.

I enjoyed five more than four. My daughter was not yet born when four came out. still saw four, but I retain very few non-forky memories of four. Like, four is like the one with forky for me. And I don't remember that much more of it, except that I refresh my memory with a plot synopsis. But this one, I think, is much more memorable because it's sort of, at least superficially about the evils of screen time, right?

And what we are doing to children and are we failing as parents by sticking screens in front of their faces and is the era of toys over and have we all been supplanted with screens? And I'd imagine that we have all wrestled with that to various extents. How much can we outsource parenting to screens of various sizes? Yeah, I mean, that was the part that I mean, sorry, go ahead, Katie. Oh, no, I was just going to say, even though I haven't seen the movie, I have ascertained that it's got a screen character. and, you know, I was talking to my kids about it and they used the phrase iPad kids, which I thought was funny that, like, they had that phrase in their vocabulary.

So anyway, yeah, on to the people that have seen the movie. Sorry to interrupt. Well, and I, you know, I did like that it wasn't just, it wasn't strictly like the evil iPad character. I mean, they did weave in like all of the, like the kind of the progressive technology. And it wasn't like we went straight to, you know, the lily pad, which is, you know, the evil iPad, which is, you know, version of the iPad. But, you know, we had all of these other kind of, you know, toys that were otherwise connected, you know, the kind of the early digital camera that could then connect to the early GPS and the kind of like the tracker, the little alligator guy and then certainly the potty training toy, which was horrifying. I mean, that was just like a terrifying,

a terrifying character, really, really funny. Voice by Conan O'Brien. Yes. But my God, if that had lived in my house. I can't even imagine the nightmares that went into that. But yeah, I mean, it was, I mean, I very much like internalized, like, as a parent who has struggled with setting boundaries around technology and have a lot of concerns about the ways I felt as a parent as my child has consuming way too much technology. And then certainly the way that she behaves when she's on the iPad. So there are a number of times where I would, like, you know, I think Bonnie, you see her kind of just like zone out and like lay on the floor of her room and just like scroll and scroll and scroll and not listening to what her father is saying and then becoming not a very nice version of herself

when the iPad is taken away or the lily pad excuse me is taken away and I like elbowed my daughter and I looked at her and I was like do you see like this is you and she did not appreciate that so I don't think she fully internalized to the messaging of you know why technology is bad and why we as adults are nervous about it, the way that maybe I was hoping she would. But maybe, you know, maybe upon, she's seen it twice. So maybe upon third, fourth, fifth viewing,

maybe it'll, it'll sink in for her. Yeah, I wonder how much of that will sink in. Will there be some sort of Luddite uprising among Toy Story 5 viewers, cast aside our screens, get back to nature? I kind of doubt it. But, you know, that is, it definitely taps into some of our fears as parents. Although I always feel conflicted about this and somewhat hypocritical as someone who spends a lot of my life in front of screens by choice. And in fact, many of my formative moments as a kid were also in front of screens, whether they be sporting events or video games or whatever it is. And I owe a lot of my vocation and profession to the time that I spent in front of screens. And so I do see some virtues in that. But also they're so ever present now and you have to worry about it. the psychological ramifications of all that. So there is an element of hypocrisy where I am as

attached to the hip to my phone as any kid is. And so do I even have standing to say you can't? Obviously, I'm the grown-up and they're not. And so different rules apply. But I don't know. Do you think of that, Katie, too? Like, do you ever feel conflicted about? And your kids, probably both of you are more in the range of, boy, do I have to let them have a smartphone now? You know, like, when does that conversation start, which it hasn't for me? Yeah, I mean, there was that, there was like a tweet a few years ago where someone was like, you know, it was a picture of a kid ride in their bike. And it was like, no one never remembers the time they spent watching TV.

And I was like, oh, contrary. Yeah. I could rattle off a lot of TV formative memories. Yes. But, you know, it's interesting because my kids, you know, in between being glued to a screen, definitely call me and my husband out for being like they call a screenager sometimes if we're like in bed scrolling. And I got one of those little brick devices and they'll be like, mom, did you break your phone? And so sometimes it's annoying and sometimes it's, I'm like, okay, well, this is good. Maybe they are going to have like a healthy, slash damaged, you know, mindset about technology and seeing what it does what it does to others and being able to see what they are like sometimes. And yeah, we certainly at this age, I think the two things that I'm most constantly being asked to get and that some of their

friends already have are, you know, like a, you know, like an Apple Watch. And they eventually are always asking to borrow our computers and there's a normal video games, but then, you know, e-bikes too, which is like a whole other. Maybe that's Toy Story 6 when the kids become throttle kids, but like that's kind of a crazy thing in my town where just younger and younger kids are getting these e-bikes

and I have to say, no, you can ride an acoustic pedal bike for now. And so yeah, it's kind of a constant struggle while at the same time, like I'm obviously always struggling with it myself. Yeah. And I feel personally attacked as a gamer and a gaming podcast host because being on a screen doesn't preclude forming meaningful friendships and bonds, right? And granted, when I was playing online with friends as a kid, often those would be friends that I had met in Meetspace, you know, IRL before we connected online. But people can form meaningful relationships. You know, not everyone is as nasty as the people that bond. meets via the lily pad, right? So there's kind of a middle ground. And also, I guess, you know, is Pixar and is Toy Story 5 the best messenger for this, given that isn't there an inherent

conflict in the fact that you have a movie that people are going to be rewatching endlessly on streaming, sort of? Maybe that makes Toy Story 5 the best messenger for, hey, don't overview screens. But then again, in order to watch the movie, you have to be staring at a screen. And there's also like you can buy a lily pad at Target, you know, like a branded tie-in. So it's like, and then the message gets a little muddled not to get too much into spoiled territory. But like, you know, is the technology evil or does the lily pad actually have a heart of gold in the end? Right. And maybe there's some redeeming elements to this. So it stops short of full on dystopia. Your kids will be ruined forever if you let them stare at screens. So, you know, between.

Matt and the fact, yeah, go ahead. I was just, I mean, I think, you know, ultimately, like, kind of would come away from the movie, you know, like, LilyPad starts out as, like, clearly the villain of the movie. But it's more, it's kind of more a story about friendship and how you develop friends and maintain friendships in kind of this digital age. And, you know, I did appreciate that this movie, in this movie, the girls were the central characters, both Bonnie and. and Jesse. Like, this is very much, this is Jesse's, this is Jesse's movie. And Buzz and Woody and the other toys

are kind of the ancillary characters. And then the two, like, human character. Woody is kind of a cameo character here. Like, how can we get Tom Hanks in this movie? And we're just going to make jokes about how he's old and bald. And, you know, that's kind of funny. Yeah. But I did appreciate that there was, like, you know,

that the girl dynamics were central to the movie. And, you know, I think that's important for young boys to see and to kind of have, you know, the female characters at the center. But so much of what I'm focusing on as a parent and worried about a parent right now is like girl dynamics and girl friendships. And, you know, as you go into later elementary school and certainly moving into middle school, the ultimately like what I hope my daughter took away from the movie less so than like see see how you look when you're a zombie was more the like the group, kind of like the group chat dynamics. And, you know, what it means to be a good friend in real life and how you maintain. relationships and how you speak to each other online because that is very real. I mean, that is like

the group chats are happening between on, you know, via iPad, I Messenger, certainly Apple, you know, Apple watches and all that stuff with girls that are, you know, eight, nine, 10, 11 years old. And like, they don't know what, you know, kind of what the dynamics should be like. And so I think it's really, you know, hopefully the messages of like friendship and what. what it means to be a friend and to like try to establish, you know, real meaningful relationships that are offline and away from the group chat. You know, I hope that I found that to be really important. And hopefully my daughter took a little bit of that away, even if she didn't so much enjoy

the rest of the anti-tech messaging. Yeah. And I guess some of those themes have been dealt with before by Pixar, maybe even more effectively, because this movie is directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton. one of the long-time heavy hitters for Pixar, finding Nemo, Wally, et cetera. Also, weirdly, John Carter. But, like, he did Wally,

which I think touches on a lot of these themes, right? And was long enough ago that it was pretty prescient and is not necessarily so kids-centric. It's more we're all prone to this, right? And to the ease and these sort of, you know, we're all just staring at our screens and taking the easy way out. and losing the human connection.

So there is, I guess, sort of a rehashing of that theme here. But it's, I think among the toy story movies, at least, this one is much more centered on the human character or characters. The toys, I mean, even though this is Jesse's movie to an extent, it's really about Bonnie. And she's kind of, it's almost like inside outy in how it focuses on her mindset and her inner life. And I guess she's eight or so years old in the. a movie, but there's maybe an element of the COVID kind of obstacle being raised via screens,

right, how that affects your social development and everything. But it really does focus on them and the toys are sort of supporting players, I think, to a greater extent than they have been in previous films in this franchise. I also thought, I don't know whether you thought this, Lindsay, but Bonnie and Blaze, who is the friend that the toys are trying to match make, Bonnie with, I at first did not realize that they were supposed to be the same age. Because Blaze seems much more, I think, or roughly. I mean, I guess Bonnie's eight and maybe Blaze is like nine, nine and a half, right? Yeah, I was, I guess I was picturing Glaze older.

Yeah, it seems strange to me that they would, yeah, it seems strange to me that they would be friends because like they just seem different levels of maturity and size and everything. So it seems to me. I thought I would have said Blaze was. 12 probably. That would be my guess. Right. I think the potty trainer toy says something about how she's still nine and a half or something trying to cling to her childhood. But that threw me for a loop a little bit. But what is this problematic age gap?

Yeah, right. Yeah, it's like subtract, divide by what are we doing with? Yeah. But how age plus seven? Can you even do that with age as about young? If you are seven. Yeah, I mean, it has, you know, even the worst Toy Story movie is still a pretty good movie, right? I think the bar is set so high. And if they had ended this franchise after three, after the trilogy, which seemed to have been the plan at one point, and then it seemed like four was going to be the last one. And it will never end as long as these movies keep making a billion bucks every time, right? And so then it becomes a question of, are they just rehashing?

is there anything new to say here? And I feel like there's a little life left still, or I didn't feel like this was just completely cashing in on the legacy and, hey, don't you want to see your friends again? Like, you know, there's certainly elements of fan service and callbacks. And, you know, you could say that kind of the cathartic moment here is almost sort of trading on Toy Story 2, I guess, because it becomes like Jesse's relationship with her original kid

and it's all via memory, right? And she sort of has this realization, hey, toys are actually important because I discovered this thing about this relationship three movies ago and you sort of skip a few steps. So there's a little bit of that. But to me, it didn't feel like an uninspired sort of, hey, how do we just keep the toy story money machine going? Did you have that sense at all? Yeah, I mean, this isn't like, let's just put out a live action toy story, as we'll probably

talk about here in a few minutes. I do appreciate that there's, look, it's Toy Story 5, but it's been more than 30 years since Toy Story 1 came out. So there's a big gap in terms of maybe who the target audience is for, and it's allowing people to kind of grow up with this franchise and experience it in different ways. Like I was 14, I think, when Toy Story 1, I remember going to see, going to the theater to see Toy Story 1 is a, you know, younger teenager. And I'm definitely in that generation of being like, at some point I identified with Andy. And now I very much am Andy's mom. And now I'm probably older than Andy's mom. But while the kids have not aged as quickly, I think the audience has

been able to, over the years, identify with different parts of all of the different stories. So, you know, like I said, my daughter was three when Toy Story 4 came out and she was nine. or almost 10 when Toy Story 5. And if there's another one in seven years, and she's 17, which is horrifying to think about for a lot of reasons. She will have thrown away all her toys by then. Yeah, I mean. Yes, they'll be in storage in the garage.

Yeah. And like the lily pad will be a, you know, a relic. So I do think if they keep spacing them out and kind of allowing for the people to grow with it and new generations to kind of find different parts of it, where, you know, the people who are children are now the parents and then the people who were the children are now teenagers and then bringing in the new children and your daughter, Ben,

will find a different way to identify with the next one with Toy Story 5 than she did, you know, with the earlier ones. So, you know, I think in terms of like franchises that they keep ringing more out of, this is one that I'm okay with them doing that. And I'm glad they're not doing it on like they're just trying to rip them out, you know, just every, every, you know. Yeah. 18 months or something.

Like, the timing makes sense to me. There's been that whole conversation of, yeah, what's the right amount of originals for Pixar, right? Because you have to keep replenishing the supply with new IP, if you want to put it in those terms, but also the movies that have a built-in established fan brace tend to do better. And so they do keep going back to that well. The quality of the sequels varies, but I would say typically the true classics tend not to be the offshoots.

But Toy Story, it feels like they bring, you know, I guess with the possible exception of Light Year, if you want to count that. It feels like when they go back to the Toy Story, well, they're still kind of bringing their A game because that's just, that's the bedrock. That's the foundation of the franchise. That's the franchise player here. And I mentioned that this was the first new Toy Story movie to come out since I became apparent because Adam Neiman, in his review for Theringer.com, what a great website, wrote.

Toy Story 5 is unapologetically aimed at millennial parents who grew up with the earlier films and who want to bestow the characters and the bittersweet life lessons they so earnestly embody upon their children. And we really, it's the circle of life, right? I mean, these movies were for us as kids. We were the target market when this franchise started and now we have aged into where the people bringing kids to Toy Story movies. And that pathos that Toy Story movies have always had, that Bittersweet

element. I always thought of that in terms of myself and my own aging and putting aside childish things and everything before, whereas now I'm thinking of it in terms of my daughter and almost dreading her going through this transition, which, you know, has probably already happened for you to to a greater extent than it has happened for me. And this is the same four-year-old who drove us crazy last night because she refused to brush her back teeth the way that her dentist had told her to earlier that day, and we couldn't get her to bed. No cavities, though. We'd take the small victories. But there are times when we think, I can't wait until she's older and she's more self-sufficient and we won't have to fight and have tantrums about this or that. But then I watch

this movie and I start thinking, no, never age. I want her to be for forever, you know? So I'm sure you've both been through that and watching this movie really brings that home where it's like, must cherish every day while she is so small and innocent. Yeah, fourth grade was, I feel like a big, like, change in everything from kid to, like, you know, to tween or basically and just to, but still has that such a childlike inner core. And so it's like you're seeing both of it, you know, rotating through. And yeah, that's been an interesting year for sure. Yeah. Okay, so we are giving our recommendation, at least two of us, to Toy Story 5. Katie, you alone among us have had the privilege of seeing minions and monsters. So give us your review slash your kids' reviews.

Yeah, so one of my kids saw minions and monsters at camp. And my other kid, my younger son, who's the much more jealous, you know, always. being wronged, always getting screwed. Younger brother made me promise that I would take him just us and his brother wasn't even allowed to come. So we went, we had a great night. I had heard a little bit about it, but not really much. And I, you know, I've seen snippets of other minion movies, but I can't say I'm a minion, you know, head or complete us or anything like that. But I really enjoyed it. It reminded me a lot of, so, you know, for those, who haven't seen it. It's a love letter to cinema,

and it's got old school, all these old references to classic films, probably many of which I didn't even get. But I was laughing to myself because I was thinking about how I spent so much time watching Looney Tunes as a kid, which was classical music and Buster Keaton pranks

and things that I didn't necessarily even know what they were making reference to, but that became so ingrained in me as tropes and gags. And so I think I was recognizing probably a lot of like Looney Tunes versions of the originals. But it was really fun to watch. You know, there's, you're just kind of always saying like, oh, that's a reference to

this. My son really liked it. It was scary. You know, it's funny. There's one kind of, not necessarily gory, but like early on, there's a very visceral scene that I was imagining what some parents bringing their whole family. and all their kids might think. So if you're really young kids who were a little squeamish,

maybe like do a little Google about it beforehand. But yeah, we were fans. We, you know, my son really liked it. He liked the movie industry aspect of it. Some really good monsters. Has like a very blob, you know, blob-like monster, which is always a scary concept. So I was a fan.

And I liked the, you know, talk about childlike. I really found myself appreciating just the, you know, the gibberish language of the minions, like the very just silliness of it. Because unlike a lot of other things, there wasn't as much of a, you know, a grand lesson. And it just was fun and enjoyable to watch for me. Yeah. I have a shocking cultural blind spot when it comes to the Despicable Me Minions. verse, just the whole illumination

just because of the timing. Because I think the first Dispicable Me came out when I was 23, 24. And then this is the first one in that franchise that has come out since my daughter was old enough to theoretically see and appreciate it. So I just, it came along at the wrong time for me where I was kind of too old to be in the target demo

for myself and not yet apparent when I would be bringing my kids to it. So I have secondary, you know, by osmosis, I have absorbed things about this universe. And obviously it's been a box office behemoth. But I'm going to have to be binging minions movies. I'm going to just have to do a lot of catch up because, I mean, Lindsay, you've seen many a minions movie, right? Not the newest one. Yeah, we haven't seen the newest one. I would not be surprised if we go see the newest one within the next week or so. So I'll slack you later. with the review. I think it will be before school starts in like two weeks. I think we will be taking her to see it, or at least she will go see it without me. But yeah, all of the other ones

have been in heavy rotation in our house over the last several years. I don't think I could tell you which plot lines happened in which movie. And I think they kind of do that on purpose. It's like one of those that you can kind of just like pop it on at any time and be entertained by all of the shenanigans of the minions and, you know, you kind of, the little children and grew, you know, it's enjoyable no matter what. Like, I don't think the plot points are all, are all that important. But yeah, it's been a favorite over the years. And I'm actually surprised. I was kind of surprised that we didn't, like, rush out to go see it in the first place.

Is there a release order versus chronological order versus, I mean, In the way that there is with Star Wars where it's like, do we want to watch in release order? Yeah, because the Minions movies are prequels, is there a debate? When and if I introduce my daughter to this universe, do I go despicable me first and then go in order and then go Minions? Or do I start with Minions? Or does it not matter? That's funny. Yeah, like, I'm trying to.

I mean, I didn't feel like I was lacking for not, you know, being familiar with all the canon. Yeah. Yeah. And there is even in minions. Well, the other thing is I keep forgetting if it's minions and monsters or monsters and minions. I think I probably said them interchangeably. But it has like almost a built-in exposition in the beginning where they catch you up to speed on a lot of things. I think some people, I don't know if you compare all the different timelines and the different movies, if there's any, you know, schisms or multiverses implied or anything like that.

But I do think that they feel. focus on a different like, like, offshoot of some of the minions in this one from some of the previous ones. Yeah. So. One thing I know about minions canon and continuity, I think, is that canonically, they were frozen during World War II. So that no one suspects them of having been allied with the Axis powers during that time.

That is pretty important to Minions lore. I know. I like how that, like, you know, all the other, I guess that's the only one that's beyond the pale that requires. the freezing. But yeah, they did, they took care of that one. I think they have a few other little yada yada yada yada, you handwavy moments. But they have some good, some good bad guys that they work for for sure. Yeah. So Minions and Monsters has made more than $400 million worldwide, which is down for the minions movies. So I'm not sure if we're entering minions fatigue territory

or not, which we talk about with superheroes and potentially could have talked about with Toy Story if it had not been a blockbuster yet again. Now, where that's really come into play has been with Moana, the live action version. And I think I'm the only one of us who has seen at least a portion of live action Moana in theaters. And this was a big moment. Oh, what happened? Yeah.

So my daughter, being four, almost five. We are having a lot of milestone firsts. We went to our first baseball game this past weekend. We saw a real-life superhero show Hey Otani was in town. Went great. Despite the Mets being involved, nothing backfired. We were there from first pitch to last, and she stayed up, and she had a great time, and she wants to go back.

Wonderful. And we were fully prepared for anything that could have happened. And I was fully prepared to just take the loss on the fortune that I spent on these tickets. if circumstances demanded that. And I was prepared for that because shortly before the first baseball game, we did the first movie in theaters, which my daughter Sloan had been apprehensive about. And we've watched movies at home, and she watches lots of shows at home, but she's been anxious about the theatrical experience, which I attribute at least partly to Bluey because

of the episode where bingo gets scared at the theater. I think maybe she internalized that the theater. is something scary, even though Bluie teaches a lot of excellent life lessons. But we went to Moana because my sister-in-law got free tickets to the premiere through her work. And this was like big fancy premiere. I mean, not red carpet necessarily

and people taking photos. But Lynn Manwell was there. The Rock was there. Dwayne the Rock Johnson, excuse me. Dwayne the Rock Johnson, as your kids refer to him exclusively, was there. They did a duet on the stage, which meant nothing to Sloan.

We were like, this is the guy who wrote the songs. I don't think she was particularly impressed. But it was a packed house, and it was pretty loud. And once we got to the part where she meets Maui, and I don't think she was disturbed by Maui maybe not having nipples,

that's a debate that's been raging. The Rock says that now he has nipples. No one else can see the nipples. Maybe the nipples are obscured by the tattoos. Who knows, Disney has a whole history with nipples. or not on male characters. But there was a big storm, and it got kind of loud.

And we had meant to bring her headphones that sometimes we put on her sort of over-the-ear, earmuff style just to mute things a little, and we forgot. And so she just started bawling. And we just, we had to pull the ripcords and leave. Not that we were too broken up about having to leave live live live live live live live live live live live live, Moana, before it was finished. But yeah, hopefully she will not remember that the first movie she ever saw in theaters was live action Moana and that it made her cry. But that has been the effect that it has had on a lot of people seemingly.

Yeah, I was going to say it sounds like a trenchant review. Yeah. If not tears, at least indifference and apathy. So this movie has been a box office disappointment. You know, it's over $200 million as we speak worldwide. But given the expectations and the budget. You know, Toy Story 5 had a huge budget. I mean, a record for Pixar, $250 million,

maybe the biggest ever for an animated movie if you don't count the other avatar, right? But that's made bank and made back its budget and more Moana. It seems that that's not going to be the case. And we could discuss and debate why that is, but it seems like a big part of it is probably the fact that the animated Moana is great, and it's only 10 years old. And there was just a sequel a couple years ago. and who wanted this and who was asking for this, right?

I mean, is it telling that neither of you has seen this? Have your kids even requested to see this? My daughter did see it. My husband took her to see it. And they came home and they said, it was fine. Like, it was fine. I mean, I think, I mean, my big question is the one that you just asked is, like, who was asking for this? like what focus group did Disney have that said like people are clamoring for another just a live action version of this.

I don't know like somehow did The Rock get it. Sorry, Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Like did he have some sort of like special contract like poll here? Because like I don't know a single person who is like dying to have this as a new version. especially when it's like the songs are the same, the music is the plot is the same. And yeah, I mean, Moana, like the original Moana is,

I mean, it's like one of, it was one of our favorites forever. And I think we'll probably, one that we'll keep coming back to. I mean, what, like, iconic soundtrack. I mean, really the, it came out when my, what was it, was it, 2015?

2016. Okay. So same age as like our children. You and me, Katie. So, I mean, it was very, like, integral to, like, toddlerhood, the COVID years, that soundtrack, the Lynn Manuel. I mean, shoot, if my daughter was in the same room as Lynn Manuel Miranda, oh, my God. I mean, I have a Hamilton kid. So that would be, like, just totally iconic.

So, yeah, I just, I don't know who was for. You can call him corny, but the man has a year for melody. The man has hooks. And so, yes, that's what most. Juana 2 was lacking. I think that movie is fine, but it just, it doesn't have the Lynn Manuel bangers.

Yeah, the, my kids had a similar question, which was, you know, I think there was an ad for it on TV, and it was funny because they were almost talking amongst themselves.

They were like, why did they make this movie of Moado and could just watch Moana? And that is one of like the best movies and it's so vibrant. It kind of reminds me of what they did the live action. Lion King, which, you know, I'm sure was way more successful and appreciated and it had

Beyonce and everything. But I remember seeing parts of it and they were so specifically recreating the shots of the original Lion King, but they just looked more drab and more uncanny Valley. And I just, all of these live action remakes, I've never, they've always just kind of creeped me out a little bit, to be honest. This one seems, particularly, you know, the movie just came out. It's, there's, I just don't quite know who's clamoring for it. And all the snippets I've seen just, it doesn't seem like you can necessarily recreate the amazing things that you can do with the medium of, you know, animation and the colors at your disposal and all those sorts of things. Yeah, yeah.

The original Moana is great. And this is a fairly faithful, more or less shot for shot. sort of remake. I mean, you know what you're going to get, but why, really. It's just, you know, it's just the Moana you know and love, but a little more lifeless and, you know, just a little less vibrant. And yeah, I mean, I feel that way about a lot of these live action adaptations. As do you, obviously, the audience, the market has spoken with some of them have been big earners. And I didn't necessarily need a little mermaid or Lion King adaptation. You know, we grew up with those movies, the animated ones.

It's more defensible when you're talking about a movie from the 80s or 90s than a movie from 2016 or even Lilo and Stitch from the early 2000s. That one did pretty well. It seems like maybe there's a sweet spot where it's like not too recent and not too old because Snow White kind of bombed maybe for multiple reasons, but also maybe the kids of today are not as attached to that. Moana maybe just feels especially inessential and extraneous and extraneous and why did we need this? And so they're planning to go back to the well and make more of these, right? There's tangled, you know, and Lilo and Stitch 2. And there's more coming, right? So we'll see whether the wind is out of the sales because of what happened with Moana.

But this was very much, I guess, what did you expect or you kind of got what you should have expected maybe with this thing. So it's not aggressively bad. recognition later. I don't know. It reminds me of when, you know, some politician throws their name in the ring for, because they just have like a baseline level of name recognition. And it's like no one's actually excited about them, but they're going to get, you know, 20% in some poll.

And something about it is just so, I don't know. It just, it spooks me a little. It always has. I don't like these live action remakes. Like let animations be animations. I'm with you. And The Rock has not exactly been the most bankable star reliably. So, all right.

Anything else that you want to shout out before we finish any other kids' movies that have been hits in your household? We've covered the Mario movie, the Galaxy movie on Buttmash and elsewhere on the feed. I was not a big fan, but it made a billion bucks again. We've had some others swapped, for instance, came out earlier this year, Netflix, Goat, the sports comedy. hoppers, of course, the earlier Pixar film, anything that has resonated with you and or your kids? My sons, so I forget when it came out, I think it was not last Christmas, but the Christmas before. The movie Red One with, and I keep saying Dwayne the Rock Johnson, because my kids never say the Rock. They never say Dwayne the Rock Johnson. They only say Dwayne the Rock Johnson. So whatever his marketing, you know, change up has been,

it's working well. They love Red One. It's kind of a Christmas movie. Not necessarily a good movie, but I can watch it with them anytime it's on, and I always get a laugh out of some element of it. It's a very strange movie that I can't, I don't know how it came to be,

but they love it. Like if they were here right now, they would be telling other kids, you know, get in on the Red One craze. And they watch it all time of year. I just heard my son the other day, you know, doing the voice thing on the TV guide going,

Red One. So it's like, not again. So that would definitely be their call. I think they like Goat a lot too, which was like the Steph Curry, you know, NBA jam for a new generation or something like that. But yeah, that would probably be their number one. What about you, Lindsay? My daughter really liked hoppers. And I enjoyed it, too.

You know, we saw that one in the theater. And I think it was fun. I mean, I think she loves animals. So the like getting inside the head of animals and getting to hear the animals speak. And I remember her like initial review was it felt like there was like three climaxes. Like she kept thinking like, oh my God, this is the peak. It's going to be over. And then there was like another huge.

Return of the King style. Yeah, like another huge like action kind of sequence. So hoppers was a hand. Let me ask about hoppers because I put on hoppers the other day when my daughter was there and my wife vetoed because she's like, do you know what happens in this movie? I was like, it's a Pixar friendly animated animal movie. I tend to be the more permissive of the two of us when it comes to what my daughter can watch or play or whatever. But what's the age-appropriate-less level for hobbies? Yeah, I would probably say like upper elementary school, probably.

There were some parts of it that might have been a little scary for younger elementary school. And then I would say the other one that, I don't know, do we count sheep detectives, the sheep detectives as a kid. You tell me, does that? Because we, and I was like, I thought it was a kids movie because we saw the trailer probably a dozen times. It was, we saw the trailer at every single, like, kids movie for the last year, year and half. And I remember the first time I thought the trailer, I was like, this seems really silly.

I don't know. But the cast was so intriguing. And then we went and saw it and loved it and a lot of laughs along the way. The whole, like, the, there's a scene where. where they're trying to, like, explain what God is. And if you haven't seen it, it's like, you can see the clip. And it was, like, one of the, like, the smartest and, like, best written, like, just snippet of a scene that I've seen in a very, very long time. So we very much enjoyed the sheep detective, even if it's not technically, a children's movie.

Okay. Well, my daughter continues to be obsessed with K-pop Demon Hunters, even though she refuses to see it. She loves the songs. She loves the lore, but she's afraid of the titular demons. So maybe after she turns five, she has said she will consent to watching it. But, you know, we've been in a flow state recently, Flo, the movie from a couple years ago, the cat movie. We've been watching that a lot. And, you know, we just have the usual shows in rotation.

Gabby's Dollhouse, Bluey Doc McStuffins on regular rotation. until I start to feel bad about outsourcing screen time. But there's much more to come soon this summer and the rest of the year in the kids' movie space. Right? There's a Paw Patrol movie coming out next month, the Dino movie. There's Coyote versus Acme coming finally next year. There's the cat in the hat in November, the new cat in the hat. Did that get delayed?

I've been seeing that trailer. I swear, since, like, I don't know, it's been five years. I've seen that trailer so many times. I know, I feel like I saw the trailer. Yeah. So there's much more in store. Very excited for the Acme Coyote one, though. Like that had that very long development hell slash studio tax right off hell.

Yeah. Yeah. So that one better be good now after all the buildup. And it's really all just a prelude to the Bluey movie coming in 2027, which will be in heavy rotation in my house and many other houses. And really, all we can hope for is something that we don't hate, right? I mean, if there's something we genuinely like, that's gravy. But if there's something that we can subject our kids to without feeling bad about and also go along for the ride without wanting to tear out our eyes after the 15th viewing,

then you know what? You've kind of cleared the bar for kids' movie success. So check out, I guess, at least two of these three movies. meet that criterion. And Toy Story 5 still in theaters, all of these movies still in theaters, Toy Story 5 still making a fortune, though somehow there were just huge layoffs at Pixar. Nonetheless, seems like success does not preclude layoffs these days. But thank you very much.

We've kind of pooled our wisdom here and collectively viewed many of the big summer kids movies. So maybe we can make Parent Corner at Ringverse recommends a regular recurring feature as we all age. Thank you, Katie. Thank you, Lindsay. Thank you. Now I have to listen to my kids ask to go see The Odyssey and figure out what to do about that. I was just going to say, Katie, I went and saw it last week and I saw a girl my daughter's age, like a 10-year-old girl walking in with her family, and I was like, oh, no. Like, I don't. If those parents are out there, let me know because there's, we'll see how it goes. Yeah, there's always the one. I don't know if I

parent who just has no qualms about anything. And it's like, well, they went. So I guess I can buy the transitive property. It's okay for my kid. I don't know that we want to like judge by the lowest common denominator of parental permissiveness. But I do always feel better. I feel better about it. It's like, well, there's one kid there. Maybe that kid is psychologically scarred for life, but at least I'm not alone. Sign them up for the 40x seats. Oh, my goodness. But let him get splashed the face of water for a while. Never. Never. Tough and about. We are too old for that.

All right. That will do it for Ringiverse Recommends for July 2026. Thank you so much for coming along for the ride. Thanks to Steve Allman for producing this episode and to our junior Ramgapal for his senior podcast management, as well as Jomey and Daniel and Lindsay and Katie and some of our kids as well for weighing in. We have a lot of excellent stuff coming up. Ring averse, House of R. Of course, we will have continuing coverage of House of the Dragon, the Odyssey. We've got, boy, I mean, X-Men 97, Season 2 reactions coming. We have previews of Marvel's Wolverine and Star Wars Zero Company. We have other big games coming. We have lanterns

coming in August. So the content, it keeps coming and coming at the Ringverse at House of R. We're always happy to have you. And we're always happy to have you support. Ringiverse Recommends again, email us with any feedback or submissions nominations for next month at ringaverse recommends at gmail.com. And until next time, we hope that you'll recommend the ringerverse.