The Iron Giant / Big Steely Dan Fans (Guest: Mellinda Hensley)

Take flight with us as we join Guest: Mellinda Hensley for Dir. Brad Bird's "The Iron Giant" (1999)  Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., and Vin Diesel. Is there a strategy to releasing your movie about a living weapon on the worst day in history, or was that all happenstance? We try the ULTIMATE TWINKIE live and in studio! Have you ever wondered exactly what a Steely Dan is? Well, we did the Dirty Work, and found out for you. All this and more in this episode!

Plot: A young boy befriends a giant robot from outer space that a paranoid government agent wants to destroy.

1hr 42mins

**All episodes contain explicit language**
Artwork - Ben McFadden
Review Review Intro/Outro Theme - Jamie Henwood
"What Are We Watching" & "Whatcha been up to?" Themes - Matthew Fosket
"Fun Facts" Theme - Chris Olds/Paul Root
Lead-Ins Edited/Conceptualized by - Ben McFadden
Produced by - Ben McFadden & Paul Root
Concept - Paul Root

Transcript

Talk to me. I am talking to you. Talk to you. Talk to me in the microphone so I can get your sound levels. I'm so hungry I could eat at Arby's.

Can you Oh my god. Oh, yeah. You're good. What do you mean? Hello everyone.

Welcome to the review review. This is a movie podcast. I am one of the co hosts of this podcast. My name is Benjamin McFadden. I am not a gun.

That's the only thing I think that's important. I'm my name is Paul. I'm a co host, but more importantly by definition, I'm not a gun. And, I'd be amazed if somebody was like I know exactly what movie they're doing. If they didn't look at the title for the episode or anything.

And we have a returning guest with us. Hi. Would you like to reintroduce yourself? Of course. Melinda Hensley here.

It is so nice to be back with you guys again. This is awesome. And so glad that we get to do a slightly lighter hearted movie than Heather's. So It's true. Slightly.

But maybe also go back and listen to the Heather's episode too. Like, why not? Oh, it's so good. Repeats. It was such a fun time.

Go review our review of Review review the review review. There is a Taylor Swift anti hero reference in there somewhere, and I could not find it for my life when I was doing our clip episode. So if anybody finds that in that episode as they're all relistening now, all dozens of them. You're saying in that episode, there's a Taylor Swift reference? I I say it must be always it must be exhausting, always rooting for the antihero to you at some point about JD or something.

Oh. And either I cut it or this is a Mandela effect situation all the way and it never happened. I don't remember not not that I don't remember that. I just don't remember most of our episodes, like, doing them. That's true.

They All blackout. Yeah. First, the god's here. I I remember Heathers very well, though. Oh.

I love that movie It is a great movie. So much. I can't even remember what my ranking was on it. I can't If anyone else The 2 of y'all were 3 and a half's? Four's?

Yeah. I stayed at a 4, I believe. And I'm I was a 5, and I'm still there. Nice. Absolutely.

But we're not talking about Heathers anymore. No. We we are here for Ben's big blockbuster bonanza bash for the summer. Summer blockbusters, baby. And it had to be either Bofo box office or it had to bomb.

And it was so appropriate that it was this movie that happened to bomb. That is amazing. We watched the Iron Giant. Yes. I love that.

What a what a good movie. I'm so glad you guys let me suggest this movie. Of course. I'm so excited to talk about it. We hadn't done an animated movie in a good bit.

Yeah. Since Atlantis? Maybe. And it's interesting that the ones that we've gotten are from that era. Yeah.

Kinda crazy to me. I don't know. Yeah. It is interesting. It's like a very odd time of hand drawn and CG and mixed meat and all this shit Yeah.

Coming together like this and Atlantis and Titan, AE, and a few other things. Is was Prince of Egypt real? Am I imagining that? Prince of Egypt real. Yeah.

I was around there too. Well, we know who our fabulous guest is. Will you tell us, Melinda? What have you been up to? Oh, wow.

Been up to a lot. I think the last time we talked, we talked about the writers' strike. Oh, right. So anyone hearing my voice for the first time, I'm so sorry. Yeah.

You should have heard it earlier. She's yeah. I'm a TV writer by trade, but times are times are real weird, but I'm getting to do a lot of really fun stuff in the interim. I can't remember if I had mentioned this before. I was working on developing a kids show that I'm really really excited about.

Cool. Features a character that's based off of my senior dog named Pixie who is no longer with us but she is forever immortalized in animation so hoping that that like happens, you know. Is this there was a a show you were developing when we saw you last time that had kind of a clever name, clever premise, and I started to panic. You started to panic? I started to panic.

Because you had to explain, like, no. No. It's not that, like, the animal's in danger or anything. Like Oh, the corgi assassin one. Yes.

That is Benny. That's that is more adult. Not gonna lie to you. Right. But yes.

So the other one also has this so it teaches kids all of the basic stuff that they should learn, like sharing and feeling big feelings and a lot of things. Like, I good comp is bluey. It teaches them all those things through the lens of getting along with senior citizens, and it's through, like, a shelter for senior animals. So, like, younger animals, older animals, younger and older people coming together to take care of them. And it's called grandpas.

Oh, I love that. In a delicious bun. And it's really cute, and it's so fun, and I have really high hopes for it. We will see. I think that sounds fucking great.

Yeah, me too. And we were talking about delicious things as Melinda also was like, so we saw when Hogarth, like, injected a Twinkie Just. With lip cream. It didn't feel like any more that that was possible, and I was like, oh, I never even thought of that as an idea. So I showed up with Twinkies and a bottle of whipped cream because I just wanna see if it's possible.

Very, very scientific. I wanna get very scientific. I feel like I'm not nearly high enough for this. I think after the break After the break. I'm gonna do it.

After the break, I'm gonna give it a shot. What report? I'll get I'll get my crazy joint out of my car during the break. I'll smack that once, and then we'll just give this a shot. Why the hell not?

Oh, man. Let's do it. Also, before we get too deep into anything else, as you had walked in, you just recently got back from Japan. And I just wanted you to say so many things on mic Oh, yeah. About that.

My gosh. Yes. Feel free to edit out any of it you want to. So I'm so sorry if I take it. It was just me.

It was my first time traveling outside the country by myself. Wow. So cool. An amazing time. I just took my backpack with me.

Didn't stay in any one place for longer than 3 days, so I got to see a ton. I went from Tokyo to Osaka to Nara to just all over the place. The country was so beautiful. It just makes sense. Like, like, engineering wise, it just makes sense.

Doctor electrocution. Like a bullet train that Surely, you've heard of it. It levitates bullet trains from Tokyo to Osaka. The I know this bullet train. Transpoiling winds.

But, yes, I've never had more fun. It it well, it started out as anxiety because, like, trying to read my ticket and also read the sign and also have, like, the hundreds of people swarming around me. Oh, sure. But, like, it because I first, like, put I got into Tokyo and then had to navigate Tokyo's main train station, not knowing quite fully what to look for on my ticket versus, like, what train was leaving, what platform went. So that was a little bit of anxiety inducing moment, but I got over it.

Once I, like, learned to figure that out, I just gave myself space to have a good time. But I also ate at a 711, which if you go eat at a 711, that's the craziest thing I've ever said. Like, eat at a 711. The food is so good. It's nutty.

Oh my gosh. It sounds like it's like you go to Japan and suddenly, like, you're a human doing. Instead of doing I like that that went by right at that moment too. I'm not a human being. You're a human You're doing doing.

Then what comes next? A human going. I went to the Studio Ghibli Museum. Oh, wow. You did.

I because I have been a Miyazaki fan for Yeah. Ages, and that was, like, my main reason of going out there. I logged in at the exact time that tickets went on sale. They probably go fast. It was I felt like imagine seeing it.

I felt like I was trying to get tickets to the ARRIS tour. Like, I signed on at the exact moment, and it was like, you are 3 thousandth in line. Oh my god. And I was like, I'm just be exhausting. And I was like, because I'm out there for 2 weeks.

I'm just gonna pick any day that's open. It doesn't matter. And you buy a ticket in, like, 2 hour increments. It was really super transformative. I'm so jealous.

I just I'm so jealous. Here we go. Should I go or just moderate? Should we switch this up a little? I think we're kind of on a pretty good track.

Right? I'm sorry. That's okay. No. Don't apologize.

I'm like It's a it's a Should we shake this up? Yeah. It's a Miyazaki pod. Yeah. I mean, I can I can get onto the oeuvre?

We're on we're on the cat bus right now. We're riding it. I know that before I do know that. Before we do move on from Miyazaki though, I have have you seen the stage play of Spirited Away that is now on No. Is now on Max Discovery?

Like like, images of it. It I have it. I own it. But it also is now on Max. It's phenomenal.

It's wildly worth the watch. It's the puppetry is incredible. They capture the imagery perfectly. It it's so much fun. I highly recommend watching.

Hell, yeah. I'm in. What you been up to, Ben? I mean, I think I'll say something briefly because I've been getting ready for a busy summer currently creating sorry, in preproduction for my short. So I'm in the midst of creating a shot list.

So that's sort of my big to do is, is that. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. It's like listening to lots of scores, watching lots of western stuff.

A lot of western stuff. Getting the genre hold. Scores. Yeah. That'll be fun.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's a northwestern It's set in it's set in Seattle and Oregon. Getting a lot of dysentery, motherfucker. Yeah.

Paul, what you been up to? Me? Well, I recently got back from the Pacific Northwest. I've been helping my family, my mom, per in particular, the, the herself, go through just a bunch of shit that needs to be gone through and just kinda doing that adult kid thing. It's weird when you age like I do.

I'm a 114 years old. Wow. You look great. Thank you. If I told you that I was 18, you'd say I look bad.

You look like shit. Come after me. I'm a man. I'm 40. I did get carded for Hawaiian.

Wow. So do you feel pretty pretty fancy about that? I got carded for the Twinkies. So I don't know what this is about me. You can't handle this sugar.

They're like, you're you're legally at the right age to buy these. We just wanna make sure we're just confused. We just wanna know how sad you are. You're 33 and buying. Oh, no.

I hire you. I was really happy to see my family and stuff, though. It had been quite a while since I've been out there and visited and had my North western adventures. I I needed one. Yeah.

So Cool. That's what I was up to. Cool, buddy. Yeah. Should we move on?

Let's do it. Let's talk about what we've been watching. I just wanna hear the fucking theme song. Right? Going through my friend Steve and I are watching Boardwalk Empire for the first time.

Well, he's seen it before. The Shems. We'd gone through The Sopranos last time. Oh, fuck. Yeah.

And it kind of morphed into this show, which has most of the Sopranos cast. Like, it just got out. They morphed in there. It's really great. I started just recently, like, 24 hours ago, started Tokyo Vice.

Oh, I've watched the first I hear I hear Ansel Elgort is huge in Japan. Like, they love him. Literally, he's 64, very large. But, no, like but they love him. Yeah.

Which is not No. Everywhere he goes, he's physically It's it's just funny that they love him there because Yeah. But Ken Watanabe, man. Fucking fuck. I it feels like nicer.

It feels like if, a really cool version of cousin Greg from Succession was trying to make us a journalist in Japan. So specific. Okay. For me, we were talking about Max earlier. I watched MoviePass Movie Crash, the documentary about MoviePass because I was kind of an early MoviePass adopter.

It's not some fucking, like, 4 stars. Too. Yeah. What? You what now?

I had MoviePass. Yeah. Insane. Okay. I too got the email from the director of Barketing.

I didn't know that all. I'm 99% sure I did as well. That fucking company. I knew a lot of what they were telling me, but a lot of it is, like, the way they peel the onion in terms of the, like, who are the founders are, where it really comes from, how it was kind of taken. Just when you watch this, think of something like a very large automobile manufacturer and how stocks and stuff are being goosed by various companies or whatever, or who really founded what and whatever.

If you're interested by these things, you should watch this because you're gonna learn a lot. But also, if you maybe know a lot about this onion in the layers, it's still given to you in a pretty entertaining way, and I definitely learned some shit. Ben, what are you watching? For me, I rewatched Inside Out. Oh, yeah.

For the new one. Gotta get ready. I've seen the movie. Your anxiety was too high. I've seen the movie a lot.

It's it's steel it's it's steel proof for me. It's it's a it's a it's a phenomenal film, and I think Paul and I were saying, like, it should kind of be mandatory watching for kids of a certain age, because it and I wish I had it when I was And we're not talking about Iron Giant. No. Not yet. We're talking about Inside Out because that, you know 8 year olds, dude?

I don't think so. Anyway Iron Giant? 8 year olds? It just made me Inside Out always makes me cry. Yeah.

Every single time. And I started crying, and I was laughing because I couldn't I couldn't stop. And it was like, this is why am I I'm crying again over bing bong. Dude, fucking hate. Strong men also cry.

And it was like you at an Oscar party. Bingo. Just like a random fit of laughter like Yep. It it like, every single time I'm, I'm watching that moment, it's just death of my childhood. You know what I mean?

Like, that's what that moment is. It's childhood being left behind. I can't contain myself. So, anyway, I'm I'm very excited for the next one. I'm also a little concerned just because Sure.

I I'm always worried about a sequel. I think, it's a it's a solid movie. Should we talk about some, some factuals? Just just the facts, Bam. Just the facts.

Archaeology is the search for facts. You're like, good times and noodle salad. We watched The Iron Giant. It is a Warner Brothers, Warner Brothers Pictures animation production. It was made in 1999 with PG and it is an hour and 26 minutes.

The budget on this film was 70,000,000 adjusted. That's a 131.7. A lot of fucking money. Opening weekend was August 6th. What?

Why are you looking at me? Paul's birthday. We're gonna pause on that as you paused. I think it's really fucking weird and bold and strange, and I don't know how many different fucking words I wanna use. August 6, 1945 was the day that the atomic weapon was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

Like, the most horrible thing that's probably ever happened in the history of the planet. I think, arguably, the most. And so to as a person who has, like, weird mixed feelings about my birthday, even for, like, as a little kid, because, like, Empire of the Sun was always on, I think I've told you this and I would, like, get sad. Wait. You're a little funny.

Because I'd watch it and I'd be, like, Christian Bale, that kid's got it made. And then I'd watch that movie and I'd be like, oh, God. He's Vulcan. Yeah. I I just think it's crazy to release this movie about this thing on that day, but it's also very much anti that thing.

Yeah. So it's just like it's a it's a very bold move and we're gonna learn a lot in this fact sheet. But I'm just flabbergasted that they picked that day. August 6, 1999 in the United States. It made 5,700,000 in the US.

Adjusted, that's 10.7. That's not a Final gross, North America, 23.3 adjusted. That's 43.8. And final gross worldwide doesn't really change. 23.4 adjusted 43.9.

So Like a little Little bit of a whisper of a kiss on the wind of a summer breeze is fine. Other release? Oh, I was Go ahead. No. I was gonna say do the other releases, but I was gonna say the fact that it found new life is really On video and cable.

Yeah. Other releases this weekend, the 6th Sense, the Thomas Crown Affair to McTiernan. Dick. Dick. Dick.

Dick. Dick. More dick. Mystery men. Yeah.

You can listen to that on this program. You can? Our guest, Audrey Marlene, the great the one and only Audrey Elliot, I should say. Excellent taste in the movie. She's isn't she, just a fucking gem?

And The lumber. Is this an actual movie, Illuminata? Yes. Directed by John Dottoro? Illuminata, released on August 6.

Okay. Crazy. Weekend top 5, The 6th Sense, The Blair Witch Project, Runaway Bride, Thomas Crown Affair, Deep Blue Sea. Thoughts on Deep Blue Sea, people? I love that movie.

I think that movie fucking rules. It's not good. It needs to be in the criteria collection. It should be in the collection. It should be in the fucking loop.

That movie rules. I wanna watch it again. I It's so good. I liked it a lot as a kid, but Bestass. Can we high 5?

Can we high 5? I do wanna watch it again. Hell, yeah. Well, you don't get a high 5, but you get a partial credit. Okay.

I like the I like the parrot. Story by Air 5. Air 5. The parrot was my favorite. I like the parrot.

This movie finished 9. Top 5 films this year, domestic. Go see a Star War Phantom Menace. Here's $10. Go see a Star War.

Go see a Star War. Fuck out of here. The 6 sets. It's 1 banana. Awesome powers of spider shag me, Toy Story 2, and the Matrix.

Other films from 1999, Notting Hill, Bluestreak, Bowfinger, The Bone Collector, Pokemon, the first movie, Life is Beautiful, 8 millimeter no. 8 Not millimeter. 8 millimeter? Okay. 8 millimeter.

I was confused for a second. Not in kilometers. I thought it was 8 mile. I I I thought it was a typo. I thought it was 8 mile.

We're not doing the rabbit thing anymore. We're not talking about the You're talking about rabbit? No. Oh. But this is a movie.

That is MacKay Pfeiffer. Very confusing. He's not in 8 Mile. That's a Joaquin Phoenix. The love of the game.

We've talked about that in a couple episodes of this program. I feel like I need to go back and watch it. Letterbox Savage for this movie is 4.2. Follow us, won't you? I'm at run bmc.

I'm at paulactsbadly. You still don't have a litter box. I'm so sorry. Freedom from social media. We don't judge, but we would love to see what you're watching.

Not externally. And folks out there who have litter box, you should share your, you should follow us or share your handle with us somehow. Yeah. We'd love it. We wanna see their box.

Oh, shit. This episode brought to you by Reebok and Konami. Reebok. Thank you, Konami. Re remember us as your box.

As their box. Your number one box. Remember our box? I wanna see the letters in their box. Fair enough.

Yeah. Letter bach. Don't don't talk, Paul. Don't talk. Sysco and Ebert with Joyce Kohlhauk?

Co Kohlhauk? Quake? Yeah. 2 up. 2 thumbs up?

2 thumbs up. Rotten Tomatoes 96, Metacritic 85. Major award wins Good Metacritic score. Is is a very good one. Major award wins and nominations 5 ANNIOMS, which is winning animated effects and character design.

BAFTA winner for best children's film, which is saying a lot. And thank you again for tuning in to the 6 time potty nominee, 3 time potty winner, the review review. But not the potty is like for podcast, p o t t y. Correct. Yeah.

Definitely also a PAFTA. And I At least nominated. A PAFTA? For a PAFTA. Yeah.

I'm gonna get it together. Okay. The director of this film is the brilliant? Brad Bird. Mhmm.

Tomorrowland. Mission Impossible. Ghost Protocol. Fucking rules. The Incredibles.

Fucking rules. I think because Ghost Protocol, I think is It's the first Jeremy Renner. No. I know. But was that his first live action?

I believe so. And it's real good. It's very good. And he doesn't really do well after that in live action. Tomorrowland, I never saw.

I did. It's unfortunately not very good. It's not not a winner. That's too bad. And he didn't do John Carter.

Right? I don't think so. That was Andrew Stanton? I believe that was Andrew Stanton. Someone else from the Pixar Uh-huh.

Directors. Yeah. Writer, Brad Bird. Ratatouille. Love Ratatouille.

Tim McCanley's Secondhand Lions, which is an episode of this program. It is. And Ted Hughes, r I p. That was the writer of the book. Director of photography was Steven Weitzbach, r I p.

It looks like essentially this was the movie that he was the DP on, which is kinda nuts because this movie is very good looking. Oh, yeah. But he was in the camera department on many, many, many things. Music was the great, the amazing Michael Kamin, RIP. Last action hero, Roadhouse.

Roadhouse. The only thing missing is your ass. I sure ain't gonna show you my dick. I can't I did that while we were at Big Lebowski the other day. Yeah.

You did. I sure did. And what dreams may come? Another episode of this program. Producers, Allison Abate, Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie, Des McAnuff, Quills.

Eli Marinthal was Hogarth. He was in American Pie 12 as Lil Stifler. Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Harry Connick Junior was Dean, Independence Day, Hope Floats, and Copycat. Jennifer Aniston was Annie, the good girl. Horrible Bosses, we're the Millers.

James Gammon, RIP. Marv and a couple different characters. Major League 1 and 2, Cold Mountain, Silver Bullet. Christopher McDonald as Kent. Happy Gilmore, Thelma and Louise, quiz show.

Fun little thing, people sing quiz show? Yes. Yeah. Charles Van Doren. Mhmm.

That's like my 4th or 5th great uncle. Woah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay.

He also blazed Or once removed or something. You blazed by cold mountain, but I just want. I did. I want someone to bring that so bad because I'm Oh, really? I haven't seen it since DVD release.

Really? I've never seen it. We'll keep that in mind. Yeah. John Mahoney, r I p.

R I p. Mister Lebowski. You're a Lebowski. I'm a Lebowski. Striking Distance, Primal Fear, Atlantis, The Lost Empire from this program.

M Emmett Walsh, r I p. Earl, the jerk, blood simple, blade runner. Is that good? He only recently passed away. Right?

Yeah. Very recently. Yeah. You shouldn't run with blades. He was in Right.

He was also in Knives Out. Is that right? I don't know if he was in Knives Out. I'd have to look it up. I thought he was the fun though.

Very good. Blaze Run? Blaze Run. Blaze Run. Yeah.

I'm not into, like, rollerball movies. No Chris Klein. Denied. And we were on the American Pie train. I thought we were gonna get there.

And then Vin Diesel Iron the Iron Giant, A Man Apart, Find Me Guilty, and The Pacifier, because those are the movies I'd like you to remember. Forget about it, because. Forget about it, because. Melinda It's about family. It is about it.

It's just all about family. You should have some fun facts for us here. Fun facts fun facts everybody. It's fun fact time. So director Brad Bird worked as one of the animators on this film.

He was also an uncredited animator on Disney's The Fox and the Hound. Oh my god. Jesus Christ. Talk about crying. That movie fucks me up every time.

As it should. Fuck. So The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, and Fox's the Simpsons? I don't know. Simpson Simpson.

The the Simpsons Home. The Simpsons. I don't know. Did anybody see that senator the other day who was talking about how he's like, it's a travesty that the former president of the United States can't commit multiple felonies in a way with it. His son his son his son is literally Bart Simpson just behind him, like, fuck you.

The kid got interviewed and they're like, what do you think? How do you feel about that? And he goes, nothing at all. And I was like, the fact that Bart Simpson That's 20 24's Evie shorts. Quoted Ned Flanders.

He was like, I'm wearing nothing at all. My entire reality came apart for a moment. Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all. That's amazing. Okay.

Oh, boy. Brad Bird was, in part, inspired to make this film as a memorial to his sister, Susan, who died at the hands of her estranged husband by gun violence. His pitch was this, what if a gun had a soul and didn't want to be a gun? Oh my god. Because you no.

If if you could speak to a gun and you're like, your only reason for being is to hurt and kill, the gun would probably be like, oh, no. Oh, no. That's terrible. There's so much more about me. Have you seen my handle?

Like, that's so It's walnut. It feels warm. Speaking of crying, that'd be like a character from Brave Little Toaster. Oh, Jesus Christ. That's another leopardy.

You're taking me back to a Land Before Time here. Yeah. Which one? 1314? Which Land Before Time?

That's a secret. That's my secret of The NIM, and I'm not telling you. Okay. We're just gonna talk about movies that make us cry. I'll tell you an American tale if you wanna hear it.

Wow. He's on a roll. He's on a roll. Rock a doodle. Bebe's kids.

So this as you had mentioned before, this film is based on the novel The Iron Man. The author Ted Hughes wrote the novel as a way of comforting his children after the suicide of their mother, Sylvia Plath. So the origins of this movie are a lot episode. A lot of fucking trauma. Yeah.

Yeah. No. I like how I try to bring something lighthearted, and we're like, just kidding. Like, right to the just punch right to the gut, baby. Brad was unhappy with the lack of enthusiasm and marketing dollars from Warner Brothers.

The film's promotional wave began about a 100 days before release, which is That's not very close. It was bad. Bird noted that Tarzan, also released this year, was marketed for a full year. Yeah. Ridiculous.

I had mentioned this before we had started recording, but I felt a big comparison to The Goofy Movie for this because The Goofy Movie is very much the same in that, like, it was basically executives saying, make this movie with next to no budget, next to no promoting, and, like, your animators have to do all of the things. Like, they have to wear all the hats. And then they went, weird why they didn't work. And then it gained notoriety after the fact. It's so wild that these two things were produced, made under such incredible duress and, like, these tiny timetables.

And, like, you're saying, Melinda, like, the culture, retconned these things or whatever. And they're like, no. These things are fucking amazing. And the fact that this is animation on top of everything else makes it that much more impressive. Yeah.

Totally. Way more. Mhmm. Peter Cullen, Sean Connery, Frank Walker, and James Earl Jones, Mufasa himself, were considered to voice the role of the Iron Giant. Warner Brothers also pushed for John Travolta as Dean and Arnold Schwarzenegger for Kent.

Oh, I thought you were gonna say Arnold for the Iron Giant because That would make more sense. This is me flying up to the bomb here. The iron giant running up to you on the screen here. I'm flying up to the bomb here. This is a ferret.

There weren't nearly enough puns. I know. Yeah. Not no one could be cool. No one could be cool as ice.

Cool off. One of the scenes not included in the original theatrical cut of the movie involves a dream sequence depicting images of the Iron Giant's race and their conflict that drove him from his home world leading to his crash landing on earth. The scene is added to the movie in a signature edition DVD release. I kinda like that that's not there. Yeah.

Same. Especially because he is so and we'll get into this later, but the comparison made to Superman, he is so foreign, he's so alien, he's so different. I kinda like not knowing. So good call, though I did watch the special edition and see the scene. Like, it is Oh, yeah.

But it's beautiful. But like, I I dig it without it. Okay. That's good to to, like, have that. By the way, you had emailed another factoid over to me that I would love for you Yes.

To mention. I actually In terms of studio, like, meddling or whatever, which I think Brad Bird probably mostly fought off Yes. But clearly not entirely. Well, and it it feels like one of those things where they had so little time that the studio didn't have time to interfere as much as they would like to. Good.

But right. Exactly. So Bird later recalled that he clashed with executives who wished to add characters such as a sidekick dog to film in the present day and include a soundtrack of hip hop. Do you mean Cerberus? The original 3 headed dog from hell?

What a, like, complete misunderstanding of the movie is. Of what the movie is. Yes. The Simpsons again just fucking nails it when they they they add poochy to itchy and scratchy. And it's like nobody fuck nobody needs that.

I Stop. I legitimately think they were like, we can give you a squirrel in the first 15 minutes. And they were like, fine. I also wonder how much of that is Yeah. Is them, like We need squirrels on Nuts, bro.

Warner Brothers is always trying to be Disney in some degree. And I wonder Sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's in a lot of ways.

Warner had their hate date. Not not their classic Yeah. Animation. Seventies, eighties, Warner was But as they as Yeah. Recent days and even, like, you know, that's 30 years.

Yeah. You're probably right. Yeah. Yeah. So I also do have one more fun fact, and it is, speaking of Disney, Frank and Ollie, who are the 2, train men that Kent interviews after, the train's derailment, where, like, the air entrant is trying to put the train tracks back together, they are caricatures of Disney classic animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.

Of course they are. They also perform perform the voices for the characters as well. And Oh, wow. Animation writer Earl Kress had said that Frank and Ollie are also lifelong trade enthusiasts and have extensive scale model railroads in their backyard like Walt Disney used to have. That's really adorable.

Bobby Bacalow would love them. Uh-huh. Well, you've been here before. Mhmm. You've done this program before.

Do you know what our surprise surprise is? Do you remember? Do you remember the worst part about this show other than seeing my mustache? I don't know. We we had a I don't think I've had a surprise.

Oh, you did? I'm passing it to Paul. No. It it happened. We're gonna do it again.

I'm doing it. Melinda, elevator pitch me. What's the log line to this film? Oh, fuck. Okay.

Shit. I didn't have see, before I got to think about it oh, boy. Howdy. Vin Diesel broke his jaw and was an iron giant and had to talk about family. I said forget about it, k.

But also nuclear holocaust? Like I laugh because there's pain. Sputnik with heartnik. Like, was Sputnik a beatnik in her baby? Like I like that you squeeze Sputnik in there and that you got, like, the Vin Diesel right in there.

I'm gonna give you the the full one if you want it. Yeah. Please. It's not as it's not as fun. A young boy befriends a giant robot from outer space that a paranoid government agent wants to destroy.

No. There we go. Some of these are so boiled down that you're just, like, not they're not as interesting. No. But that that gets to the heart of the conflict.

Truly. That's the conflict of the whole movie. It's great. I know. Brody's the soul of Wayne.

I think this episode is brought to us by crying. Strong Rem also cry. I think this episode is brought to you brought to us by crying. I was gonna say Do you find yourself weeping on occasion? Listening to the review review.

And guessing crying. I was gonna say it was brought to us by a Steely Dan, which technically is a big silver bill. That feels like a I made a Steely Dan reference earlier. It feels like a yes, but, Paul. That doesn't feel like a yes, but.

Let's not talk about where the Steely Dan is. Crying's better. Crying's better. Does not feel like a yes, and. I'm just gonna put that out.

Oh, I'm gonna cut that out. The thing I said. Oh, I'm gonna sound like an asshole. I don't know. We'll leave it.

But I'm just try I for whatever reason, I just wanna refer that. I wanna keep that little sopranos thing I did so bad. I wanna, okay. You can do whatever you want. I read it.

It's too far. You can do our dirty work. I got too close to the sun. Or to the nuclear. Yeah.

Iceland. Yeah. Yeah. We'll be back. I just want you guys to know that I am so dedicated that I am crying for this episode that's brought to you by crying.

We appreciate you listening to this podcast, the review review. We'd appreciate it. If you would follow us at reviewx2podcast on Instagram, I'm I'm at paulxbadlyonletterboxed. Ben is at runbbeemconletterboxed. Thanks so much.

It means kinda everything to me. Oh, fucking hey. Strong men also cry. Strong men also cry. Well, this is me, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And this is me on the screen here riding towards the camera. To tell you all about Ben's blockbuster Bonanza summer here on the review review. I have completely taken over this podcast. I am in charge. I am the boss.

I am the captain now. And you'll see that it's fairly evident as you will join us for the running man, Zach Zashki, last action hero with Dustin De Leon. And there would be a showdown between me as the Terminator in my true form against the tyrannosauruses of Jurassic Park, the liorians, and the skateboarding kids of back to the future, and the frat boys of animal house. That's right. Here on the review review, you will choose how we cap off Ben's back buster bonanza summer by voting to the review review Instagram, review x 2 podcast.

Yeah. I love the democratic process. It's fantastic. And now back to the guys hosting there. You know what it was like to be a roadie for the dead in the eighties when Bill Walton was recovering from his foot injury?

Oh my oh my god. I smelled weed with Bill Walton and Jerry Garcia, bro. Oh my god. Very on topic. I did that.

Have you heard Drew Carey's review of the Sphere after the Sphere Fish concert? Maybe? Holy shit. Okay. I will play it for you when we are done.

Okay. Ben, are you trying a Twinkie? I I I'll I'll try a Twinkie. I haven't had a Twinkie in forever. You're not gonna load it up though?

I will. You can load it up? You're gonna load it up? I wanna see if it's possible. Alright.

Are we gonna load them up on the air? We're recording. Let's fucking load them up, baby. It's lock and load. Recording.

Is this open? Hold on. You gotta Okay. This has gotta be It's supposed to be Is this legal? Is this legal?

Now I'm understanding why you got carded. Like, just opening it and smelling? Do I stick it in the butt? Where do I stick it? Wherever it's less likely to cry.

This is where the steely Dan reference should come. I'm gonna stick it in here, and then I'm gonna squirt it. We're getting the steely Dan in there. That was that was so good. That that was when I should've oh, he did it.

He's doing it. Oh. Oh, no. He was just loading it with the gas to get high. He's just doing whippets.

Yeah. Hey, everyone. I already know that you know that I know that we know that we're back. But we're in the midst now of doing what I had promised. Okay.

I got stoned off of a pretty intense little joint. Okay. The whipped cream plays. Yeah? One of the one of the holes.

The whipped cream plays. Oh, no. Oh, no. It's not. Like a jobless list.

I swear that never happens. I'm an expert with these things. Oh, wow. This Melinda. Oh, no.

We gotta get her a towel or a napkin or something. There's whipped cream everywhere. We're doing what we promised. We're loading up our Twinkies with whipped cream, and Melinda has gotten it. Oh oh, okay.

See, it's hard to And so am I. So am I. It looks. Yep. Okay.

It's just all All we have is whip all we have is toilet bin. All we have is whipped cream. Makes sense. That's all we're gonna need after we're done with these anyway. Okay.

Oh my gosh. So we are now consuming the whipped cream Twinkies. Ben says they play. Man. I think the whipped cream plays.

Oh, Hogarth. You wonderful little man. It plays. It really does. Mhmm.

Also, I don't know the last time was that I had a Twinkie. I was just about to say, like Are these always just delicious as shit? Are they always that good? They're pretty good. I don't pretty good.

I don't lie. Wow. Okay. Now what? Grape.

We're full of There's a problem. That's for me. We're full of grape. We have we have an addition to this show. Okay.

Oh, right. The thing I will be bad at. It's a cinephile. Uh-huh. You get the freebie.

So you're gonna pick a card from here. Mhmm. It's gonna have an actor's name on it, and it's gonna have the name of a movie. So you could take that freebie. That's odd.

And then we'll go to Paul and we'll go to me. Now, I think more often than not, one of us loses. So True. Fabulous. But so whoever does lose Mhmm.

Is going to share their original watching of The Iron Giant, and their original feelings and ranking of it as well as their most recent watching and their more recent ranking. Mhmm. Cool. So here you go. Choose your fate.

I got whipped cream all over the cards. I'm so sorry. I'm just kidding. I'm so sorry. Oh, Jason Schwartzman in Rushmore.

Okay. Is that the movie? Indeed. Indeed. Okay.

I fucking love him. And it has to be a movie. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Shit. I I will take Scott Pilgrim versus the world. I can't I wanted to let you finish. I wasn't trying to be rude, but if you think too long, I've given Ben too long to think now. Oh, sorry.

You said Scott Pilgrim versus the world. Great. I'm gonna go with Spider Man across the Spider Verse. That's accurate. He's the spot.

Well, now I got a whole new reason to watch that movie. Not that I didn't want to before. Asteroid City. Fuck. I'm just gonna take the l.

Okay. I I feel like I could have probably said Moonrise Kingdom or some or Grand Budapest or some other Wes Anderson shit, but I'm just not sure enough. So I'm just gonna take the l. You're definitely in Grand Budapest. Correct?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm taking the l. I think that's only fair. I said I would do it.

I'm doing it. He's not in Moonrise. Yeah. He is. Who is he?

He's the camp counselor. No. This is Oh my god. He isn't Bruce. The chapline guy.

Oh, he's the other camp counselor. He carries the yeah. Yeah. Wow. Well, fuck me.

So you go. You were too big. Wow. Took the steely days Jason Torchman and their TV lives, watch Born to Death. Oh, good show.

Good show. Good drop. Yep. So first experience, Iron Giant. I definitely watched this on cable at some point when you know, I wanna say it was probably out of college, but that would have been the sixties, which doesn't make any sense because this movie hadn't come out yet.

But somewhere around that time. And just I remember having a really good time. And one thing that stuck with me to this most current viewing is that the main issue I mostly have with it is there's a lot of stuff with tone that doesn't necessarily always mesh for me perfectly as well as I was kind of alluding to this and as Ben was talking about inside out for 8 to 12 year olds and I feel like it almost should be like required viewing. I'm not sure I want anybody who's 8 years old to watch this movie depending. It deals with a lot of really serious subject matter and I think you might have to have some serious conversations.

It does it in a respectful way and, holy shit it's so well written but also sometimes it just feels like a little older than a pg rating. I would if there was a pg 10 or 11. I don't know. The movie's great though. I give it 4 out of 5 espressos having recently rewatched.

Had a really good time and as I think we've all agreed, I cried. I definitely fucking cried. I I slightly I had a salty discharge at one point. Dude ism cream. 1 or 2 from each eye, and then 15 or 20 minutes later, because the 3rd act of this movie is spectacular, I really just it I let it go.

Yeah. You let it go? I let it go. Let it go. Adeldesim.

Ben? Oh, it's me. This was definitely You said Adeldesim. Sorry. I didn't hear my name.

This was definitely a blockbuster rental when I used to rent movies with my mother and my siblings every Friday, and then return them Saturday and rent more. Wow. And I remember really digging this movie as a, what would I what I have been actually thinking about? Yeah. Don't do the Paul thing.

No. I think it was 13 or 14 sounds right. Yeah. 13. Yeah.

I really liked it. I remember kind of talking about it for a while with people. And every time it was brought up in conversation, it'd be like, oh, Iron Giant. Yeah. Yeah.

Everybody kinda overlooked it. Right? Yeah. Mhmm. But then it it had a long life on video and especially, I think, amongst that age group.

It's a family movie too. You know what I mean? Like But, like, for grown ups can enjoy this easily. When you're 13, at least for me, it's like your your your foot's still wanting to be a kid. Yeah.

But you're also kind of wanting to be an adult. And so you're in this weird, nebulous place. That's where I feel like the movie's at. And I think I think it works for that. It worked perfectly for my age at that time.

Yeah. And then I was really stoked when Brad Bird, go in and make live action because, it just I thought it would translate very well and even and so I would have given it back then, 4. And, in my most recent viewing, which it's been a long time since I've seen it, I can't actually remember the last time I saw it. It's solid. It's a solid fun adventure, great period piece with a lot of heart, and, I stick at my, 4 bombs.

One of the thoughts I had while watching it this time was I think Brad Bird is such a talented director and Yeah. Has such walks a very thin line in terms of tone. And I think he he does a really good job, and and he translates into live action very well. And I would have been so curious, so curious as a comic book nerd, what he would have done with a Superman movie. Sure.

Oh. So curious. This is part of why his Mission Impossible works so well for me is that movie rides the line of clearly the movie's fantasy. It's you know, so much of it's so far fetched or whatever. Done.

Yeah. But he's so good at not only executing those moments, but grounding throughout even with all this fantastical shit happening. Like, it it so much of it just feels, like, approachable. It doesn't feel Yeah. So far off base.

I recently rewatched all the missions, and I think, like, a lot of people point to, 3, the JJ Abrams one as sort of resetting the franchise. Wait. I like that movie. I do too. I think it's great.

Phil Seymour, I think. Think the Brad Bird one is the one that sets the tone and pace for the rest of the franchise. So I think Macquarie picks up what Brad Bird was doing really well and runs with it. But I don't think you have what we have now in without without a good protocol. Mhmm.

My two tens. All all respect to Chris from Macquarie or whatnot, but, like yeah. Like, Brad Bird really set the stage. Yeah. Yeah.

I agree. Melinda. You 2 seem so well adjusted. Kids who embrace the void way too early. Let's talk for a second.

Let's talk for a second as to whether or not we should have seen this movie. So okay. 2 things. 2 things about this movie in particular and animated movies in this period of time and slightly before it. Because I had a I had dinner with a friend few weeks ago and we got onto the subject of talking about The Great Mouse Detective.

Another Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Phenomenal animated movie.

I don't know if it was like our brains or the way that animation was done or like what, like how that worked. But there were moments of like animation itself that felt very satisfying to us. And by that, I mean, the iron giant trying to put the railroad tracks back together. Yeah. His like screw going into his jaw for the first time.

Like it like, there are the moment where he sees hog, like, the that Kent sees hog hug on the, on the broken bb gun Mhmm. And gets it. There are moments how the animation works and feels that will weirdly stick with you in like a sensory kind of way. Mhmm. Or like even years after the fact, like my friend and I were talking about The Great Mouse Detective.

We have moments of they're they're stupid non plot point move moments where, like, someone is playing the piano, and it's the way that the keys move that we remember as opposed to, like, any other fucking plot point. Sure. Like, it's something and I don't know if it just, like, scratches an itch or, or, like, whatever, but this movie is full of those moments from everything to where he tries to touch the deer that's died for the first time. Like, just the body moves. Body moves.

Yeah. It's visceral. Yeah. Truly. Yeah.

Like, it's just very well done, and it sticks with you in a way that is not that I do I haven't seen in a long time that hasn't been like a Miyazaki movie. Right? So there's there's that part of it, and then there's like, I who, someday, should I ever come back to this podcast, should you ever call me back, we'll watch The Last Unicorn, and we'll talk about that movie, that fucking movie. The amount of Schwarzenegger clips I'm throwing in there. So but no.

There's, so Is this me? This is me? This is me? The last unicorn is a animated Rankin Bass movie from back in the day. Everything looks like a seventies tapestry.

It's beautiful. It Mia Farrow's the unicorn. Okay. Like, the a lot of people got their start there. Anyhoo, but there's a moment where the unicorn, who is an immortal creature, is turned into a woman to, like, save her in the particular moment.

Right? And she, Mio Ferro's character, like, gets up as a woman and no longer a unicorn and starts weeping Oh, wow. And just goes because she's no longer immortal. And she says, I can feel my body dying all around me. I was 6, guys.

Yeah. Again, like, these movies with the subject matter and etcetera. But it's like but I think I agree that, like, yes. It is a lot to trust, like, an 8 year old with, but I do think that's why I highly recommend that it's a very much a family movie. I think people should watch it together and talk Yeah.

Of course. Absolutely. But also, it's like, I think that we're very capable of, like, animation not even used to be because Inside Out does it. It takes kids really seriously. Yeah.

And I think that that's always a real hallmark of sometimes they entrust them with a little too much, but, like, I think that that's the sign of a really good thing where, like, a kid can ask questions that they've never asked before. And it might be it might be like spiral of doom, like last unicorn shit. Or it might be like, what is a soul? What does this mean? Yeah.

Which this definitely asks. Is it so is this is this a 5 for you? This is this is Is, was, will be? It definitely was and is 5 out of 5 homing screws. Like, I've We'll see how it all ends.

That's a good rating system. Yes. Holding screws? Homing screws. Yeah.

But, no, I I remember watching it. Again, it was a rental for us. Adored it immediately. Thought it was lovely. The thing I remember most as a kid other than, like, animatically really satisfying moments was the score.

The score was so freaking good. Yeah. It's real lovely. It's interesting. Just to piggyback off what you're saying, I've been an educator or a teaching artist for some time now.

Mhmm. And the the way to really truly get something out of a young person or a response or, you know, to have a sort of, like, actual conversation with them is is a fine line Mhmm. In terms of how you treat them because you want them to feel like you are treating them like you might treat your friends. Sure. Sure.

But there's also a boundary, and it I think the as I'm not in animation. I'm not in making children's art, although I would I I did do children's theater, But I do think that there is a very, very, very fine line. And this one, I think, no offense, Paul, I think does it incredibly well where it treats the child like someone who can handle these subjects. Those are your final up here. He's the smartest person in the room almost always in a lot of these situations because he understand like, he's very emotionally intelligent Mhmm.

And seems to understand body language and all this other stuff. Yeah. I'm not trying to say that kids shouldn't watch this at all. No. No.

I know. But it's, like, it's heavy shit. The the tone can be a little bit rough at times. And also as, like, a lazy person with no kids, if I were to sit down and watch this with, like, a fake niece and nephew and doing, like, funcle duty or whatever, that sounds like a lot of work, bro. Well, you know because that's a conversation that mom and dad need to have.

Like, that like, there's a lot of shit in this movie that it's like Oh. 2 weeks ago, with some 12th graders, we watched Coraline. Oh, yeah. Even that, in watching, I was like, these are 12th graders, so I'm I'm not too worried. Yeah.

With the existential question. But there's a lot in there that I think you need to unpack, and a lot of them had already seen it. Mhmm. But that's another movie where I feel like you're you're talking to them at a level that might feel a little adult Yeah. But they're understanding.

Yeah. Talk talking about great animators, fucking Henry Selick. Like, big shouts. Side note. But, Melinda, you were wrapping that up, and then we kinda took over.

Like, that's the thing for me. I remember when I first saw it that not only was it really good animation or really good score, but I also it was that thing of, like, I felt taken seriously, but also not like I was gonna fully spiral now. Okay. Yeah. You know, like, it was but it was Yanks you back a lot when, like, bad stuff is happening.

Like, a kid will not understand the historical significance of the time that it's placed in Yeah. And, like, all those tensions that are there. Yeah. Eisenhower presidency, etcetera. Well and it's, like the idea of, like, military involvement.

The idea of we're going to you wanna bomb ourselves to and, like, to neutralize the the robot that's there. Like, you want to actively harm our own people in order to make things safer for you. And that, like, that discussion versus, like, the discussion of what life means and it's it's deep stuff, but I do think that, like, because kids won't always get the historical context of it. Right. They'll focus on some of the more core things.

On fantastical and Yeah. Yeah. That kind of jazz. And they have an avatar for themselves for the most part in terms of, like, Hogarth. But I we're kind of, like, now getting into minutia.

Mhmm. Yeah. And we know ratings. I think we need to go in sequence. I think it's time.

We're gonna what sequence? Start the movie. Oh, the movie. Stack the movie. Stack the movie.

Stack the movie. And now, our feature presentation. Prom. I love that the I start so many times when I start this podcast. I love, but I do that Sputnik is over.

And again, like, even without the writing, if you know the historical context and it's brought up a couple times in the movie, this is a really big fucking deal. Mhmm. That it's orbiting. Like, you immediately know we're in the cold war Mhmm. And shit is, like, not we're in a small town, but nothing feels entirely casual or relaxed.

In in my way, it feels very similar, and I don't know if this is correct or whatever or, like, if the parallel I'm drawing makes any sense. The Star Wars, the view of the death star destroyer just just overtaking the scene in the way that it, like, encompasses everything. It's so far above everyone, but yet you get the iron giant who is everyone assumes it's that coming down to this Yeah. Where stuff is like The trawler boat. Yeah.

Exactly. And this is what we would call a cold open. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's pre credits.

Oh. Yes. Nice. Well, j Edgar Hoover action. I mean, it was that time You are wearing women's underwear, aren't you?

Yeah. But the maybe. Maybe. The iron giant, like, causing the shipwreck, and then, of course, it's, like, in the town, in the little town that is there, whatnot. It it's the crazy old drunk that's telling this story of this big metal man from the sky, and it's like, okay, crazy or whatnot.

Like, nobody's gonna believe this guy, but like that that sequence of him like, crazy old Maurice. He's always good for a laugh. And in in that very first sequence, like, did anybody else go maybe at some point when watching it. I didn't this time, but I was like, is this guy did he die? For, like, a quarter of a second because that the movie feels so serious from, like, right at the get.

Oh. I knew he wouldn't because it was a kid's movie. Kid's movie. There He's naughty watching it. There weren't many a moment where I was like, I think people might have died.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. But not not that big picture. Throws the car, like, miles away. We're not gonna talk about that.

There I will say that this intro tells you everything you know. The image of him thinking that he's found the lighthouse, and it's the you see the 2 eyes is, like, lovely, and it utilizes time so well, and it, like, it's just it's very economical. It's really good. And the lighting and the shading in this. Oh, it's beautiful.

Like, the depth of field kind of stuff in this movie is pretty fucking incredible. Like, when you look at the layers from listener foreground, like, to what's in the background and what they use to animate what in terms of computers or hand drawn or what it's it's a really visually striking movie. And even that first shipwreck and when dude hits the rocks and Mhmm. We go into the beginning. And even just when, like, Hogarth is showing up at his mom's work, the way that the restaurant is animated, like, it almost feels like quasi, like, 3 d to me.

I mean, what I really like about the animation real quick is that And not like I have to wear glasses. It's just, like, the the dimensions are so the shading is so good. Is that it somehow looks both contemporary and also still looks like a classic Yes. Yep. Like a like from the sixties.

Yeah. Which I think is Jess Jess had actually never watched it, and she thought it we started it, and she thought it was an old movie. She thought it was from, like, the seventies. Oh, wow. Yeah.

She, like, saw the cast. She's like, what? This was made in 99? It's got a real throwback y kind of feel to it. It really captures, like, the era, like, very very well.

Well, the character design is super interesting for our human characters. It's really really good. Like, I I like it a lot. It's very like, I thought of Anastasia, but Oh, sure. Like, that kinda style.

I thought the same thing. Like, it was like a American Tales Secret of the Night. Like, a Don Bluth specific kind of character feel or design. Initially pitched to Don, and he passed. That's too bad.

Don Bluth initially pitched to Don and he passed. Yeah. That's too bad. That could have been cool, but Don Bluth. Bluth.

Yes. Land Before Time and all that shit, as you probably know. Mom's at work. Jennifer Aniston's at work. She's a waitress.

She works at a diner, hustling tables and shit, working doubles, the whole deal. And we get the idea pretty early that Hogarth is quite the little scamp. He gets in all sorts of shit And he wants to and his mom is just fucking tired. He wants to take care of something. Yes.

He he wants a companion or something. Mhmm. Yeah. Because it's just him and his mom. Yep.

There's no dad. There's no brothers or sisters or and he skipped a grade, so he doesn't have a bunch of pals. They're they're all mean to him. I will also say, I don't correct me if I'm wrong. We don't ever know what really happened.

I don't think they say. His dad. Right? No. Classic Disney Yeah.

Style. Right? Where you don't know what happened to one of the parents. Right. Or both parents.

I think one of the strengths of the movie and why it's, like, that tight 86 minutes, like, 80 2, 82 and a half when we're not counting credits. It's just like so much of it, like, it's trimmed pretty well. Yeah. Like, there's not a lot of fat on this thing as we're talking about trimmed well and whatever. But the the squirrel that Hogarth wants to raise.

Oh my god. Now that's a little scam. That's in the diner that gets up Dean's leg. Now I know some people are into that. I I need you to know that the line Furry little guy?

The line, there's a squirrel in my pants. In my pants, Hogarth. Oh yeah. Squirrels in my pants. Oh god.

Paul just squirted whipped cream into his mouth. We're doing Chatskies of of whip? Hell, yeah. We're doing whipskies? Hell, yeah.

Whipskies. Absolutely. Hey. I'm so sorry. Word degenerates were all Yeah.

Whipped cream for 2. You're out. Which is fine. We're doing great. Anyhoo, like I mentioned earlier, this felt like their need to satisfy we need a dog sidekick.

It's like we can give you a squirrel for 15 minutes, and then we'll never see it again. Yeah. And it'll be goof goof. It'll be fun time. And Kent's gonna take his pants down and go gonna unzip his pants.

I'm sorry for this. I'm so in advance. I'm so sorry in advance. And Hogarth is sent home seemingly not in trouble because his mom calls and says she's gonna work Yeah. The whole diner has been destroyed.

Yeah. But his mom just calls him and says, like, we need to eat some vegetables or something. He's like, fuck you, mom. I'm gonna fucking do some whippets. I'm new mom.

Oh, my god. They're still squirting that in their mouth. They're It's true. Still doing it. Dude, it's like Home Alone, scary movies you shouldn't be watching, whipped cream and, like, Twinkies, like, you got it.

Like, I'm on board. This kid's got it down. Well and so in the way that you kind of talked about sorry to derail for a moment. But, like, in the way that you had talked about, like, this movie not necessarily being suitable for, like, younger kids, the movie that Hogarth is watching, also not suitable for younger kids. Hellosexual, hella weird.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, brain eating Eating. Nonsense.

Yeah. Like It's great though because He was told not to watch it. And it puts him right in the sense already of, like He's already adult adjacent Yeah. In a way. And, like He's a latch geek.

His tense his tension's up. He's he's he's anxious, and then he hears some shit happen on the roof. Right. And then the power goes out. Right?

Well, yeah. His the the TV stops working. Oh, the TV stopped working. Right. The antenna gets knocked down.

Mhmm. And he goes up and finds and sees, like, a path. It's just destruction. Clear this path of destruction. Invaders from Mars, which he assumes.

And he goes oh, right. And he goes on a path with his gun and flashlight and helmet. So he's a brave little dude. Brave little toaster? Brave little toaster.

Yep. Runs out, and he just goes, like, full bore, like, rock a doodle. I can't. Like, I I wanna try. I'm not in cool world anymore.

But he Would you just put away your monkey bone? This is becoming a real nightmare before Christmas. When the giant eating the metal, like, this is what the noise, the antenna's gone and whatever. And we don't have to wait too long in the movie to meet the giant. No.

I mean, this movie just is clips along. It it moves along pretty nicely. The the giant is also all of our intrusive thoughts all at once. Hoops does not wanted to eat metal. I think there's some kid out there who's, like, eating aluminum foil at one point.

This sounds like this is fine. Brad Bird. Yeah. Brad Bird was like, I need to show There is something very satisfying about watching The crunch of the eat Yes. I agree.

Yeah. For sure. When you got to think, like, some of those layers in terms of the way that some of that stuff is structured, it's like when you get those chips that are folded over and you get like the double crunch. Oh. It's gotta be a satisfying crunch.

Yeah. I mean, he can seem seemingly also consume, like, satisfying crunch. Yeah. I mean, he can seem seemingly also consume, like, fuel and rubber and Yeah. Yeah.

Vinyl. If it's attached to metal or has Plastic. Yeah. I don't know if he poos it out later or how that works. Yeah.

The byproduct. The lore. But Hogarth, like, witnessing this thing Mhmm. And pretty quickly realizing doesn't seem to want to kill me. Right.

It's probably gonna die. Well, and then it gets It gets electrocuted. Yeah. Yeah. That's when the power goes out.

As it's, like, wrapped in power lines and yeah. And then its memory seemingly or we don't know this yet, but it Right. It like turns it resets. It's factory reset. It has like a lump on its head.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a little dead. It does your, you know, your iPhone got factory reset, and you lost all your photos. I was gonna say it's kind of like an internal ground, like, CTE kind of oh, gosh.

Jesus Christ. That's Dana. That's where you went. Hey, he's not a gun. I mean, you could have at least wow.

The entire world is taking No. I know. I was gonna say something worse, but I'm gonna pass it. No. You can, but I'll cut it.

No, it's alright. Okay. Well, the the atomic safety video, that happens when we go back to school because Hogarth, like, saves the giant, turns off the electricity, and, like, goes about his life. He feels he feels bad for it, so he, like, shuts it off. And then his mom comes.

His mom shows up Saves his ass. And Hogarth isn't home, and she doesn't see the giant, so she drags him back home. Yeah. But he's saved the giant at this point. Yeah.

And he knows it's like living in the forest. Yes. Well, like, the whole town has an idea because while he's at school watching the atomic safety video, they're, like, gossiping about it. It's Eki. Yeah.

All the kids yes. All the kids are bullshitting about it. And those videos are great. I love the idea that you can survive a nuclear bomb by hiding under your desk. And that Kent Mansley really buys that.

As we find out later. Kent Mansley. Okay. Sugar McGavin. Should there be a new Yes, baby.

Should there be a new version of Kent Mansley? I think it's Michael Shannon. The entire time I was like, oh, this is just Michael Shannon. That's like If it's live action Yeah. That's the only way you can go.

Yeah. That's is Sounds good. What movie where he plays a very similar character? Is it the, They Came Together. What?

They Came Together. They Came Together. I don't know that one. Anything that I'm gonna say to you isn't helpful, but I'm gonna say a lot of stuff. Okay.

Cool. I mean, he it's who he is in Boardwalk Empire, which is probably why it's in my mind. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, he's the chief of police whatever kind of government agent guy who I'm thinking of Peaky Blinders. He's like Sam yeah. Anyway, there was a movie though where fuck it. This is a bad guy. He's very he's very he's very, overzealous government agent coded.

You know what I mean? Like, that's his But there there is a I feel like there's a I'm thinking of something very particular, but I'm I can't pinpoint it. It's like about, like, a kid who has powers and Oh. He's being, like, protected. It's not chronicle.

It's I know what you're talking about, but I can't remember the name of it. I'm gonna figure this out. It's okay. I'm gonna make it happen. But, yes, that is a great we're gonna cut all that.

That is a great casting, Melinda. I mean, who knows? Wasn't it? I like that quite a bit. I mean, his current who plays him is fabulous.

It's just like that's who all Christopher McDonald's great. Christopher McDonald is lovely. He's very 19 fifties. The voice, the cadence, that he's great. Stranger, the the water movie.

He played Oh, Shape of Water. Shape of Water. That's Oh, yeah. That. Yeah.

He played like the same that's the character. It is a very similar character. I agree. I mostly deleted that movie from my Yeah. It's not great.

Memory. It's not great. The line that Kent Mansley has, when he's talking about what's important as he's searching for the Iron Giant, he's, like, chasing this lead that he's gotten that as far he can tell in the beginning, is total bullshit and a waste of his time. And he's, like, yeah. Well, look at something more important like an escaped gorilla, which is also known as a bad gorilla.

Bad gorilla. That's right. Bad gorilla. Bad gorillas. And the car gag that happens there, like, how he's he's pretty much instantly sold because he's a skeptic at first, and within a minute of meeting him, he's back at his car.

It's been chomped. He gets out of the when he's in the car and he doesn't realize it's chomped. Yeah. Great. This sounds so strange to say for an animated movie, and I don't mean to like, great camerawork, honestly.

Yes. It's such a beautiful visual joke. Don't get it. Like, we are Great visual joke. Yeah.

We're in it with him. And then, like, it zooms out and you see half the car is gone. He's like, what the fuck? It is in a word that we use frequently. Spielbergian.

It is. It does have that kind of feel to it. And that when he goes and gets the other guy and comes back and the car is completely gone, again, like, that has a touch of a certain kind of magic to it that is done really really well. It's done very well. Doing stuff like that in animation, as you were saying, like, it's really fucking hard Yeah.

To execute these things in live action or animation. But in animation to get a visual gag like that to really sing like it does Mhmm. I love that Hogarth takes the hand in like a dog. Yeah. Like, I love that the hand has its own or seemingly every body part is completely, like, on its own.

Well, and that's what we find, like, the train wreck. That's post Oh, really? This is like yeah. That's right. This is like basically Kent's doing all his stuff, talking to the mayor, lobbying with people in the city.

But what we really want mostly is, like, the Iron Giant Hogarth thing, and the movie seems to know that Yeah. Pretty well. Yeah. And it but it's just stuff like this. Okay.

We're gonna bring it to the moment of ultimate suspense where he's the Iron Giant just like, I'm gonna eat this fucking train track as we're walking home. Right. He's just being an innocent puppy dog doing his thing. Yeah. And he shouldn't and people could die and whatever, and then the thing happens anyway.

Yeah. Like that like, you don't necessarily always expect that kind of thing from these types of films. Also, no one dies. No one dies. The conductor moment.

Is the yeah. Is the conductor yelling, is everybody okay? And he's just fine. It's like, dude, are you okay? The train Does the train do it?

It's his head just talking. Yes. It just dirails. Live for 8 seconds. It feels like the tracks get put together, and it hits the the giant.

There's no, like, explosion or anything. The train just runs off the track. Yeah. Which He the iron giant's busted into pieces Yes. And is dragging himself together.

And now, like, you get the the dog hand thing. It's great. That thing is, like, very cute. Feels It's ET in the right. Specific.

It's trying to hide ET in the house. Yeah. There's so there's so many superlatives, like, so many like, we could Yeah. But I love that. 50 or 70 movie titles.

This movie is so great at sewing things in. Hogarth's mom has to be the most desired bachelorette in all of this town. I mean Oh, babe. Look at her silly floppy hair, her little nose. She's tired.

She's trying so hard. She works hard for the money. She's a single mom who works 2 jobs So hard for who loves her kids. And he's just trying to hide this giant metal hand from her. Treat her right.

And it's very funny. He knocks down the spice rack with a penny, which I thought was Yeah. It was crazy. Or a dime or something. Yeah.

Yeah. And Kent Mansley showed that. Because the kid or whatever the kid has got going on is, like, his only lead. Yes. So Kent Mansley of the is he FBI, CIA, Secret Service?

He doesn't. Did he ever say he just says government. Right? He says US government. He first shows up, he's some kind of division, but it's obvious that his division is shit.

Like, it's not really well respected because the general, what he calls to be like, I found a thing, and the general, like, do you have footprints for me? Yeah. She like, photos? Yeah. Because if you don't have that if you give me a photo, I'll send the army.

He's not like a commanding officer in that world. He's just a He's like a rogue agent. He's just a he's LARPing. He really I think he doesn't wanna get called out on these shitty LARPing calls anymore. He showed up and was like, this shit fucking sucks.

I think for him, he's so obsessed with making a name for himself. Yeah. Yeah. Like, that's the main thing. It seems like he's chasing.

Yeah. But they don't it's not clear in, like, the fucking dialogue or anything. Yeah. It seems like that's what he wants. And when he shows up at Hogarth's house to make that phone call and the whole BB gun thing, the hog hug Hug hug.

Hug hug. And when he turns back around yeah. That hog hug thing is so fun cause it's something that, like, a kid can enjoy it to whatever degree an adult can enjoy it to whatever degree. But now he knows there's a direct connection to Yes. From Hogarth to this thing.

He put his name on his BB gun. Right. And the mom says something like he was yelling about That's your Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Like giant robots or whatever. Right? Yeah. Because he's been spouting all sorts of nonsense. This is part of her concern is that he's just constantly on these flights of fancy apparently.

Mhmm. Oh, yeah. He's gotta find somewhere for him to hide. Right? Yeah.

Well, and that apparently is gonna be the barn, and this is where Hogarth shows the comics. Superman and Superman. Atomos. The thing that he that the Iron Giant does when he sees Atomos versus Superman and how peep like, this is an empathetic sensitive creature with feelings. And so the idea that he doesn't wanna be Atamo the metal menace or whatever it's called Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Makes perfect sense. Why would he wanna be that? He doesn't want he's not he doesn't think of himself as the villain.

He sees himself as he just sees himself as a big puppy, really. Yeah. Well, and, Hogarth even tells him. He's like, no. No.

No. You're a good guy. Yeah. You're not a villain. You're Superman.

I, Superman. I, Superman. It's so cute. I Vin Diesel's best acting is when he says 3 words I am Groot. I am Groot.

I am Groot. We are Groot. I just wanna see him in the booth, especially doing the sound effects of, like, ah, like, when he's, like, chewing on stuff and or, like, saying tree or rock for the first time. Wrong. That's wrong.

Like, that's what I want. That's what I wanna see. I would be interested in seeing that as well. I I I always like that when animated movie they don't do it really well. Interested in seeing that as well.

I I I always like that when animated movie they don't do it really anymore, but they used to show you, like The BTS stuff in the movie. People doing the thing. I always Are they painting cells or the Yeah. Will Smith and Sharktail? I always think of The Lion King because Angelina Jolene, are you all around?

Down, like, they have everyone around there, like Justice Smith and Shark Tale. Doing the doing the, like, voice over, and it's so I've only done a little bit of voice over, but it's very theatrical, and it's really fun to watch. I still I mean, like, as a kid, one of the things that I remember, and this is again, it's one of those, like, animation things that, like, sticks in your brain. Yeah. The, BTS for Sleeping Beauty showed the animators painting the truth.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The different cells of how they would get the different, like, shades of leaves to show up. Yeah.

Like, I found that super fascinating when I was really young, and I think that that's I miss that a lot. Yeah. Me too. This was a movie that was difficult not only to rent on digital, but, I mean, you get the from Bezos, and that's where I put my cash. Yeah.

But, this is a movie that's kinda difficult to watch and not want to dig into special features. It's almost like where it's like, oh, fuck. I wish I just had Yeah. I mean 2 disc or something. I mean, I remember I watched the special features for Atlantis when we did that just because I was curious.

I was, like, so curious about Yeah. Where this came about. It's an interesting looking thing, if nothing else. Like, it's just, like, the look of it is fascinating even if you had the volume off. And speaking of the look of it and these visual cues that they're giving the iron giant so he learns about his own personality and all this other stuff, I think this use of Superman is Warner Brothers' best use of Superman without feeling like they're using it as a fucking commercial.

To hit you over the head, like, we own this property. Like, I'm not watching Space Jam a new legacy, and I'm like, why is Malcolm McDowell, like, jerking off in the front row of this basketball game? There should be no droogs in Space Jam. What's going on? This inner, universe property or whatnot that they're using, it makes sense and it's nice.

Yeah. Yeah. Totally. It's it's the idea of it, not the direct reference of it, which is nice. It's a symbol.

Yes. It is. Honked. Is this where he sees the deer get shot? Kind of.

He has that big, like, metal chow down Yes. And he sees Dean. So yes. So we go from so we have met Dean, obviously, in the diner when we see the and that's, like, where we first meet him. But after if I remember correctly, special agent Kent moves in with Hogarth's family.

He keeps an eye on Hogarth at all times, but Hogarth keeps escaping to g to Dean's junkyard because Dean is an artist. And Dean took shit out of metal. And it's so like, I fucking love Dean. Dean's a great character. Yeah.

The fact that he shows up the first time that Hogarth shows up at Dean's place, Dean walks out, like, in a robe with like, a full robe. It's hilarious. Slippies, the whole deal. Kimono kind of Yep. Which I find to be hilarious, and Dean's very beatnik.

But that'll be said, the robot starts staying at the junkyard because that's where scrap is You can eat. Where you can eat, like, good stuff. And I cannot let this go. This is maybe one of my favorite montages. Oh, yeah.

Because the movie doesn't use the montage as like a storytelling device. Right. It uses the montage as a comedic device Mhmm. More than anything else. And it's just Kent Mansley falling for poor fucking Hogarth around being like, hey, buddy.

What's going on Tiger? How are you, sport? What's what's the score, chief? How how are you, champ? What what's going on, Scout?

What you doing? What you doing? What you doing? What you doing? What you doing?

Shoot him, McGavin. Shoot him, McGavin. And it goes from that scene to, like, let's get some frosty chocolate milkshakes. I'm your buddy. Oh my god.

And Hogarth gives him the x lax. Like, so smart. He's very slight of hand or whatever, and it ends up saving his ass. But this is when Kent goes not Kent's Kent's ass. Kent goes off the yeah.

Not Kent's ass. For, like, days. But Kent goes off the fucking rails like the train. Chocolate train, x lax. It's all together.

But, like, Kent goes fucking crazy where he's like, he's got the kid alone now, and he's like, you're gonna tell me what I wanna know or, like, I'm gonna fucking kill you Right. Essentially. Is crossing boundaries as an adult with a young person. The fact that he was like, we can take you from your mother was nuts. They're gonna cut your dick off, Larry.

They're gonna cut your dick off, Larry. That's why that's that and we talked about this, like, the chloroform thing. There are a couple things where it's like What the fuck? If I'm with if there's a kid watching this, I'd probably, like, wanna be around as long as I don't it doesn't feel like work apparently. It's like, hey, you know, the kid's gonna be fine.

It'll be fine. There's some moments that are like, oh, shit. I had adults say stuff like that to me. That shit's scary as fuck. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So That's why we need that's why we need Kent. Yeah.

Well, Kent. Kent is a stand in. Kent is and Kent is, an artist and also wrote Oh, Dean. Oh, sorry. Dean.

Dean. Dean. I mean, we also need Kent for Well, yeah. They we need both. Antagonist.

We need them both. But for him Yes. For Hogarth to have those 2 male adults in his life, one Yeah. They're the opposing sides of of a coin. For sure.

Yeah. It's great. We go to Dean's Well, we should we should deer The car spin. I gotta talk about the car spin. The car spin is In order, this is the car spin.

Part of the montage. Yes? It's at the very end of the montage. Yeah. Hogarth literally somehow has this companion, the siren giant, this thing that can fucking shoot lasers and jump over mountains and whatever, just wants to play with him all the time.

He's a puppy. And so yeah. He has a car in one hand and just starts spinning around at, like, 200 miles an hour or whatever. It just seems like the funniest fucking thing in the world. And they do such a good job of that and, like, the cannonball thing right after.

Yeah. Where you're partly worried about the environmental impact of this, giant puppy. It washes Emptying lakes. Okay. So there is a moment where they're swimming, and then Hogarth does a cannonball into the lake, and then the iron giant does a cannonball into the lake, and he washes Dean into the middle of the road.

Yeah. You're in the middle of the road. Yeah. In the middle of the road. Mhmm.

And? Lovely. What a great moment. I'm getting too endeared to this creature, this character, the iron giant. Yeah.

I'm feel it's it's that thing where it's like, I've seen enough movies. Enough has happened in this movie where I feel like something bad is gonna happen You know what I mean? At some point. And then Ken finds the picture, and and it's all he's putting it all together. The kid's been bullshitting me.

Everybody's been bullshitting me. I have my evidence. Yes. And now is the deer death. Does No.

Yeah. Question. I thought about this while watching it. Is is Big Hero 6 kind of a rip off of this? I don't know.

It's been too long. The influence, but I wouldn't call it a direct rip off. Not a direct rip off, but definitely, like Baymax is similar to I mean, I feel like there's just there's a there's a pairing. Yeah. Yeah.

I haven't seen it. I've never seen Big Hero 6. It's good. Okay. I like it.

Yes. Sorry. Not to derail. No. We're trying to be like the smoothie and keep it light.

We don't wanna stick on the tough stuff for too long. I don't want to anyway. Because that deer thing, and you mentioned it deer dead. The way that it moves Did you guys ever think about dying? Yeah.

Baby's fucking dead. He's learning mortality. Yep. He's learning He doesn't understand what death is. So he it's so interesting to me, and this is, like, the thing that stuck with me is that, like, he observes death, and by that I mean, observes, observes Hunters murder, kill a deer.

Right. And he, like, poke literally, like, pokes the deer and kill it not Get up. Yeah. You're my friend. We just met.

We're cool. And Hogarth is like, it's dead, and hours pass. Like, the giant observes this and thinks about it for hours much like I would assume a kid does the first time they, like, go to a grandparent's funeral or whatever. Right? They try to absorb what death is.

And then later that night, the giant is like, you die? Yeah. To Hogarth. And Hogarth is like, well, yeah. Eventually.

And then Giant is like, I die? And Hogarth himself Maybe? Right. Hogarth is like, maybe. I don't know.

Like, he has to reckon with the idea. He's like, well, you have like, you're made of metal. You're different than me. You're made up Yeah. Differently.

You appear differently than I do, but you feel feelings. You have a soul, which morphs into that conversation of, like, what does that mean? You may not be human, but you're a person. There's a person in there. Human to them, which is, like, common to the reality that is going on right now.

Is the first version of this Frankenstein Mary Shelley's Frankenstein? Maybe. Oh, yeah. Like that conversation? Maybe.

Because it the creature is not a a bad person at first. It's a 3 year old. They don't understand. Mentally. Yeah.

They don't they just don't understand. No. Somebody kinda has to be there to hold their hand and guide them at almost all times. It's the fucking beautiful line, and this is the first one that, like, got me where I'm like, oh, fuck. Where Hogarth says, it's bad to kill.

It's not bad to die. That's a moment that I'm like, 8 year old, watch this movie. And also Right. That that tells me that his dad probably died. I assume he did too.

Yeah. Yeah. Because it seems like he's pretty well adjusted He's experienced this. To this. I thought the exact same thing.

World building that they don't have to give us more No. The character is just telling us by who they are. Right. It's but I love I love the directed. Junkyard Yeah.

And going to the junkyard sequence. The army fake out? Well, no. The first time where he has to where he first where Dean first meets. Oh, yeah.

Back in the first yeah. He loses it. We see the art What do you have in your mouth? It is art. Yeah.

Like, what a great But a great design. He turns all this junkyard shit into art. That's his, like, side hustle. And then he makes giant art with the iron giant. Yeah.

To fake out the army because Kent has got them to come out. He sent them the evidence, the photo he saw, and they just stick a bunch of signs on him and shit. And it's so funny that Jennifer Aniston's like, wouldn't it be better without all the shit on it? Yeah. Like You got too much shit on me.

But it faked out the army. They didn't know it was the iron giant. They thought it was a giant piece of his art. He was ready to sell it, the whole deal. Well, it's a great fake out.

I mean Yes. It's a good you know, why would they think that that's a autonomous creature? No no way would they ever think that. And even the photo that was, like, used to bring them there was just Hogarth with it in the background, so they were could easily Could've been that. That's just the art piece.

Yeah. Yeah. It was believable. Man, when Hogarth and the iron giant, now the army's gone and everything seems fine, or they're leaving anyway. Mhmm.

They didn't get very far. They felt pretty comfortable pretty fast. Well, it seems like Kent is gonna lose his job. Oh, and his mind and his shorts and Trent is essentially told why the fuck did you bring me up by the army general? Yeah.

Like, why am I here? Pack up your shit. You're done. Pick up your desk. Get out.

But the Iron Giant and Hogarth and Dean are just like, okay. They're like 50 feet away. Let's let's just everything's cool and normal. Yeah. Question for you.

How tall is Iron Giant? I I thought that too. I wanna say he's probably 80 feet. So here's the thing, depending upon the animation, who the fuck knows? Yeah.

Because they say 50 feet 60 feet. And I I don't say this is like a stickler. I say that the size of the Iron Giant varies depending upon the emotional impact of the scene. Like, the hand in the house Hank Lee's Hulk. Right.

Like, the hand in the house, huge. Yeah. Yes. Compared to the house. But then there are also times that he like, he fits in the barn.

How big is the barn? Yeah. Like, when he's standing when he stands He's above trees. Army when the army sees him, he's above trees or, like, he's above the town. It doesn't technically scale wise make sense, but, emotionally, it makes sense and narratively it makes sense.

Oh, totally. Like, I was along for it. Me too. Yeah. I I was just curious.

But I say that because I don't know. It it it does constantly sort of, like Flush. Shift. Yeah. Yeah.

It doesn't bother me. It's it's fun actually, I think. Just Mhmm. When Hogarth is shooting his little, like, ray gun, sparky ray gun Is it fair to say that the Iron Giant army lose. And he fucking loses the Iron Giant loses it.

Yeah. Because they've made it pretty clear that the Iron Giant mostly doesn't like guns. It understands that guns kill. Right. Guns are bad.

That's the only thing a gun does. So he has this automatic defense mechanism that kicks in. He's being attacked or a gun's being pointed at him. He's gonna go ape shit, and his eyes go red and blast the junkyard. And Dean has to save Hogarth and literally yells, they were right about you.

You're just a giant gun. Yeah. And when he goes, I not gun. And runs away. Yeah.

The poor like, that didn't make me cry. Dude, fucking, hey. Dean realizes he was just doing it in self defense, and so they go try to track him down. Faster than they realize in Predator or Predator 2. Well Not bad.

Not at war. Dean the artist got it. Yeah. Leave it to the artist, baby. Leave it to her colleague.

Just speaking junior. Yeah. Yeah. Leave it to the Black Knights. I can't remember the whole speech from Independence Day.

Yeah. You can cut it in right here. I might. Just the whole thing. Or as the good reverend would say, why we're on this particular mission?

We'll never know. But I do know here today that the Black Knights will emerge victorious once again. Amen, man. Amen, reverend. Thanks, Paul, for that speech from Independence Day.

I'm glad you did that. It was a pleasure. So much. All of that. Thanks for doing all of that.

This isn't your birthday episode. Stop it with your bullshit. I love only the bullshit from Bezos. I everybody wants to keep the giant that knows about the giant, Dean and Hogarth. Wanna keep the giant a secret because they understand that people are fucking stupid and emotional.

And now he's running wild for everyone to see. Yeah. And then he hears someone needs help. Yes. And he just he's wearing a Superman emblem.

He put on the s. Yes. That was the like, after the army had left, he puts on when they're playing, he puts on a giant s to be Superman, and so he's still wearing it. Stands for hope. Yes.

Yeah. And Hogarth is, like, I'll shoot you Superman, and it went how that would go. And he goes but but he's gonna prove that he's not a gun because he's gonna go save these kids, which he does. Immediately without, yeah, hesitation or anything. And the town immediately is, like, this guy is fucking crazy.

He's in geared to them. Yeah. He's, like, oh, this giant middle man. Unfortunately. Yeah.

Well, but in that moment, he's got that great moment where he turns and he's like I am not a gun. Kinda this movie lays in on a little thick at times, but it's like this thing has a soul. Right. Ain't got no souls. But the army just blindly fucking attacks it.

Yes. Yes. Classic. Because unfortunately, they notice him. That's what they Literal rearview rearview mirror kind of shit.

Yep. We forgot to mention that the the whole re Kent tells the military now that the kid is dead. Yep. He's misleading. So there's a there's a moment where the okay.

So the army starts attacking the giant, and the giant, when they start attacking, he is holding Hogarth. And protects him. And he goes, oh, fuck. So he he, like, clasps his hands together, like, he cuts his style kinda yeah. And, like, protects him and starts running away.

And Dean, who's on the ground and sees this, tells Kent, you have to tell the general that there's a kid with him. Yep. We cannot keep firing at him. He he only attacks him like self defense. And Kent, big fucking Kent, turns to one of the army majors who did not hear the conversation and says, a kid is dead.

Yeah. We have to have the shooting. We have to kill the thing. Which Well, you get this beautiful moment though when it runs away and, like, all this stuff the army is doing is clearly for naught, which is kind of nice. But when he falls off the cliff and we've all seen these jets on his back for the entire movie.

Right? We have an idea that the iron giant can fly. They're in his shoes. And his back. Oh.

I didn't I didn't see him on his back. By the way, does anybody wanna guess one of the designers of the Iron Giant? I'm gonna tell you anyway. Tony Stark. That's a that's close.

I mean, well, he eventually goes full apeshit. He's very worthy of the Favra? Inspired by that to a degree. Who'd you say? I said Jon Favra because you said no.

It's, Joe Johnston Oh, okay. Who did The Rocketeer Yeah. And Captain America First Avenger. Sure. Clearly, there's some Rocketeer stuff on there.

But he's got the jets on his back, the Iron Giant. Yep. And he starts flying when Hogarth looks at him, and he's like, you're like Superman. It's so cute. It is.

It's great. Yeah. But we all know where this is going because the army's gonna keep coming. And Yeah. They think the kid's dead.

And now you're gonna fire a fucking nuclear bomb at him? And well, yeah. He thinks the kid's dead, so he goes full murder machine. And there's a moment where even the general has been kind of won over. The iron giant avoids a lot of stuff Yeah.

But then eventually gets shot down while he's holding Hogarth. Yeah. Thinks that Hogarth is dead, loses his might Oh, your machine. From War of the Worlds Yeah. And starts destroying stuff.

Oh, yeah. He opens up. His weapons are so cool. He's got guns for hands. He's got the fucking Iron Man Proton stuff.

Proton cannon. Yep. And he's got these fucking, like, snake whispers. Like, at War of the Worlds. Like Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It's fucking crazy. Well, and of course, like, as people are screaming, like, as unbelievable as it would seem in that moment, stop attacking it, and eventually, it will just, like, stop. Like, don't do it.

But, of course, it's the standard, like, American answer. Like, meh, gotta nuke something. Right. I think We got all these weapons. Gotta do something with them.

Got his own. Yep. They cost all this money. Yeah. You don't have to be a gun you choose.

Like, all the gun stuff. Well, that is the thing. Like, Hogarth eventually snaps the, Iron Giant out of this by being like, you you don't have to do that. This is not who you are. And Iron Giant returns to normal, comes back to the town.

Everyone is basically won over except for fucking Kent. Yeah. Because Kent's Well, they're gonna fire a nuke at him until they don't want him to call it off because he sees the kid's still alive. Right. Yep.

And then Kent being a fucking idiot and an asshole at the same time Yes. Is like Commands the nuke launch. What a fucking dick. And basically signs a death warrant for everybody in the town. Including himself.

Yes. Because yes. So the the the missile that they were going to fire, initially, the plan was to lure the giant away from the town, fire the missile, destroy the giant. Water. Yeah.

Let's not talk about the nuclear fallout. This is fine. Yeah. Right? This is fine.

Listen. I really thought they could get under desks. It was fine. Clearly, Kent did. Right.

But because at that point, the giant is basically in the center of town and the missile is being launched to the giant's current location, it's the entire town is fucked. Yeah. It's all Kent's fault. Yep. I do like that the iron giant puts his hand in front of Kent when he when Kent tries to steal a jeep and drive away.

And the iron giant's like, you're No. Same fate as everybody else, pal. Yeah. Which was nice. And Kent is such a coward.

Yeah. He just show shows his true colors time and time again. And this is, like, he now he called it, and now he's gonna try to get escape somehow. And he's, like, fuck you, man. Yeah.

Well and John Mahoney's general character, who I love the way he's animated. I love his teeth. I Very similar to Atlantis? Atlantis. Thank you.

It is similar to Atlantis. I was just yes. Well, and that he, eventually is like, Kent, bro, you're insane. We shouldn't be firing weapons on our own people. Weapons?

You did weapons, cloud assless. Cloud assless? And it's just like, no. You fucking suck, dude. RIP John Mahoney as an actor, a voice actor, a human being.

For this, like, that little role that, like, the couple line deliveries of just like, what the fuck is wrong with you? You fucking suck. Well, the Iron Giant knows what he's gotta do here, man. Yeah, man. He gotta do Never deserved you, Superman.

He he abides. And he he flies His giant abides. He flies up and he takes that he takes that bomb and he Right in the tail pipe. And, That'll make you cry. That creates well, Jess was like, what about the fallout?

And I was like Yeah. It's far enough in the atmosphere. It's gonna go into space. Whatever. Yeah.

The repetition of there is a moment initially when Hogarth first meets the giant that he's like, I have to go home. You can't come with me. Yeah. You stay Stay. Like, you stay.

I go. No following. It's Oh, yeah. Repeated in the 3rd act where the giant is going to go sacrifice himself and then stand to Hogarth and goes, I leave, you stay, no following. And that, like, for me just fucked up.

The self sacrifice. And it's just for Hogarth. Yeah. Yeah. I think.

I think he's gonna say he sees an opportunity to save the town. Not too, but I think the the, initial incident. Oh, separate incidences. The inciting incident. Oh, yeah.

Separate incidents. Not in this case. It was that Well, I guess we can close the case on that one. I think we can close the case here on this one. But Mister Conan, she But we we think the Iron Giant's gone for good.

He's got a statue built to him. Yeah. A nuclear weapon goes off. Yeah. Dean builds this great statue that's in the town.

And Dean and the mom now are Together. Oh. Slapping skins. They're both hot. They are.

They're beautiful people. They're beautiful people. That and the iron giant is fucking exploded, and Hogarth goes to bed. And the general He sends a sends a piece, A homing screw. Of A homing screw.

Yeah. The only recovered portion of the giant, which is the jaw screw. And apparently, all this shit has been putting itself together and arriving in is it Norway? Iceland. Iceland?

Or is it just, like, Antarctica? I I felt like it was, like, Superman wink and nudge because the It might have been. Like, Antarctica, North Pole. But they were cold. They couldn't kill the Iron Giant clearly.

Like, Warner Brothers, no one was gonna let that happen, and I assume that was always Brad Bird's plan too. I don't know. I'd be interested to find out. Well, and I feel like there was a I read a thing where he was like, I don't think that there's sequels in the works, but you it's like the thing of, like, you can't let hope die. Like, it's it's it has to keep going.

It reassembles itself even if it's not the original version of it. It's The Iron Giant does return in Ready Player 1. Yes. As well as Space Jam A New Legacy. Oh, yeah.

In Wait. Really? Yes. With Malcolm McDowell and the Droogs and Freddy Krueger and everybody I see IP orgies. Basketball movie with Bugs Bunny.

IP orgies, both these movies. Yep. Exactly. Well, let's do the thing. Let's do the thing.

We were we we did this. And I'm first because I took the l voluntarily. You know? Do you need another Twinkie? I didn't bag a ton on, like, the, like, I ain't tonal shit this long.

And I had a lot of fun talking about this. We've used the call to adventure term with the music in movies before and goddamn it is the music great in this movie and I feel like we didn't talk about that a lot. Fuck it. I'm just gonna go to 4.5. I'm just gonna do it.

It's 4 and a half espressos. I'm coming up a half a point. I think this movie this is the thing that you did both times, Melinda. You brought fantastic movies that are very specific. Yes.

Me. Me. Benjamin. Me. I love this movie.

It's great. I'm gonna stick with my 4. Four bombs. And you didn't wanna come up to a 4.5 just to make me feel that? It's a it's a solid 4 for me.

It's not 4 is varied. There's nothing there's nothing I really like this movie. I I it's one of those things for me, it's I don't have a specific thing that I can point to for why it's not a 4.5. Just it it it is a solid 4 for me, which is, like Yeah. In the high echelon of movies that I like.

I will need to look it up, but I do think the entirety of the score was recorded all at once. It was not done with cues. It was all done at once. Not in America. I had read that before we got here today, but I need to double check it.

So it's 86 minutes, and listen and it's gonna be down another half hour talking. Like, it's the full it's the full thing. Yeah. So big appreciation. But I'm still baby, I love this movie.

I always love this movie. Yeah. 5? I'm 5. I'm still a 5.

Don't feel bad about it. I came up at half a point. Why do you feel bad? I don't don't know. It's so nostalgic to me, but so, like, also just I think it's really lovely.

And I I don't know if it's, like, being over 30 now or anything, but, like, I can't tell if I cry at the drop of a hat or that it's just this movie, but boy is it good. Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol hits you in the field a couple of times. Incredibles hits you in the feels. Ratatouille hits you in the feels. This is a person that's very fucking talented at that.

That's the other thing about, like, if we're gonna talk about a in The Incredibles for, like, a hot minute, the darkness behind The Incredibles is like, the lore is that a lot of the fucking superheroes have died or been, like, dead. Like, it's that's not super it's also a huge comment on fandom. Oh, yes. Yeah. Like oh, yes.

Brad Bird goes deep with that movie. Yeah. And I like the sequel too. And, I liked Incredibles 2 quite a bit. Yeah.

But Incredibles 1 was the Incredicoaster. I wanna make a note. 44.55. Nice little escalation there by us. Yeah.

And that our theme was Jamie Henwood on the front and the back. Yeah. We also got some theme. Do we have a theme or two themes at this point? Just one theme by Matthew Foskett?

I think just one still maybe, but it's hard to say. Okay. It's stealing Dan is the real thing. The overworking It's gonna feel so random at points. I'm so sorry.

You're gonna put it in there. Don't be. I'm gonna leave out the thing where I'm like, big silver dildo. That'll probably we'll see. We have Chris Olds doing a thing in there.

Yeah. Fun facts. Me doing some stuff in there. Me doing some throwing harps on shit and whatever the fuck. Melinda Where can they follow you if they want to?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if you would like to follow me, I am on Instagram, Melinda with 2 l's.

That's not my fault. Blame my mother. So I'm Melinda H. And then if you would like to follow me on Elon Musk's rage machine, I'm on that until that shit goes to Titanic sinks. I'm Melinda, again with 2 l's, capital k.

Aside from that, I think that's the I'm on TikTok, but that rots my brain, so no one should follow me there. You can't talk about Nadine at all? Oh, no. Oh. Do you wanna talk about that briefly?

No. I mean I I mean, I should I I can. We I'm a thing that I'm very very proud of, a friend of mine, Tasha Ann, she she's an amazing director. She wrote this awesome script about she's very fascinated with old Hollywood, and I've loved learning about that from there. Movie.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So she's she wrote the script about this, like, fifties Hollywood starlet who finally stands up to like, she's kind of she's aged a little bit, but not a lot.

Like, she's, like, 30. Right? So they're all like, 80 year old. But it's the day that she gets she finds out that her, like, contract has expired, and she stands up to, like, the producer who's kind of controlled her entire fucking life. I like that.

Okay. It's a short film that we're doing. I got brought on as a producer. I'm super proud of it. We've we want it to be as historically accurate as possible.

We raised an amazing amount of money for it. I'm so if anyone's listening to this who donated to Nadine, oh my god. Thank you so much. We raised $60,000, because of you. And that right.

Right. It's very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very who they did jewelry pieces for, like, The Wizard of Oz. Like, they're historical type shit. They are donating jewelry to us for this short. Rad.

Yeah. No Any idea when when you're gonna start and finish that? So in late July, it's a 2 day shoot. We're really excited about it. We have Festivals in the fall or winter maybe?

Yeah. Yeah. We'll see we'll see where where the editing process takes us. But we have Grace Curry who's gonna be our lead. And then Tyler Posey is joining us.

The Teen Wolf will also be one of our parts. I'm ecstatic. Like it's gonna be great. Again, you know how to follow Ben. It's at runbmc on Letterboxd.

And and Instagram. You can follow me there. And you can follow us at reviewxtupodcast on Instagram. And that's all you need to worry about. Thanks so much the Iron Giant will return in the steely dan returns.