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May 17, 2022 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
48:42
Freedomain Movie Review: The Bad Guys!
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Time Text
Okay, so...
Movie review time!
I've got some music for us.
What? Movie review!
Go! Why did I agree to do this?
So that you can be fed later.
Yes. In a truly starving...
Okay. 100%, yeah.
Now, this is a movie that I didn't even know about.
Yes, I found it through an ad on YouTube, and I thought, okay, this looks kind of cool, but I accidentally...
You're on YouTube? Traitor!
Traitor! I know.
It's fair. It's fair. I'm looking at very traitorous videos about ducks.
The movie is called?
The Bad Guys. The Bad Guys.
And it's by DreamWorks.
Yes. And we're steering clear of Disney.
Yes. Like the plague.
If or when, well obviously when, Disney puts out another movie, I would love to watch it just so we could do another movie review.
For horrors. Those ones are horrible.
Everything has to fulfill a checkbox and it's just not an organic story.
I think they kind of ruined Frozen, in my humble opinion.
Honestly, I think this is a pretty popular opinion.
Rapunzel was the last good movie they made.
Yeah, Rapunzel was a very good...
No, not Rapunzel. Tangled.
Tangled. Sorry, yeah, I keep messing that up because all the other ones are called Cinderella and stuff.
So I'm used to it being the name of the main character.
Anyways. So this movie made my head spin.
Why? Because it was like being trapped in a tumble dryer.
Because there were so many twists and turns, and the good guys become the bad guys, and the bad guys become the good guys, and then they turn inside out, and everyone's a lizard, and then everyone explodes, and then they recombine, and then they end up out in the orbit of Jupiter.
That was good for the first half.
No, so you think you've got a handle on the story, and it's just like...
Like spin, spin, spin, spin, right?
It's crazy. So for me...
It hurt me. It hurt my brain.
Too many plot twists. It hurt your fee-fees.
It hurt my fee-fees, absolutely.
Now, for you, though, you were just surfing it.
You were just rolling with it. Yeah, no, honestly, I don't like the simplified kids' movies that just have, like, one plot, and it's, like, all expected what's going to happen.
I like how this one kept twisting back and forth, and I liked all the plot changes.
I think maybe if it was a little bit of a longer movie, another half hour might have made the plot twists go a bit smoother, if you know what I mean.
Because it would have given you more time to maybe expect a little bit or kind of like start guessing the plot.
It's just like, oh, quick camera cut.
Oh my gosh, now they're evil.
But I do think, I did like the plot changes.
I think they could have done it a bit better though, like maybe some extra time.
Now, when I watch a movie, I'm always concerned with cheating.
Now, cheating is when a character switches, like turns out to be a bad guy or whatever, and you look back and there's no warning.
There needs to be clues for it to be fair.
If it's not fair, Well, we have no choice but to set fire to the movie theater, obviously.
So this was right. No, I think, I don't mind if they give the plot twists, but if they just make the super good character just super evil out of nowhere and you look back and it's like there's no clues or anything, that to me is kind of like cheating.
There was a few clues when it came to the marmalade dude.
Professor Marmalade.
Of the hamster, the guinea pig.
Yeah. When we first saw him with like, I guess his, kind of like a butler.
Spoilers! Okay, if someone clicks, I'm sorry, if someone clicks on a movie review and they expect to not have spoilers, they deserve spoilers because that is dumb.
I'm sorry. I don't care if I just offended you.
You don't say I'm very sorry.
I'm not sorry. Okay, so you're lying about being sorry.
Yes. Lying!
First YouTube, now this.
What's happening? All right.
No, I think that, okay, so the guinea pig who was good turned out to be bad.
When we first saw his butler, I was like, this is giving me really weird vibes.
A butler? Yeah, he had, like, a butler or something he was doing, like, I don't know.
Oh, the guy with no words.
He had, like, no dialogue in the whole movie, right?
He had, like, two sentences or something.
Remember that guy? When we first saw him, like, I don't know, I think he got, like, the outfits ready and stuff since apparently Professor Marmalade was very rich.
I think he was a philanthropist or something it said in the...
Wait a minute. So people who get their outfits put out for them are bad?
No. Because I don't 100% choose my own outfits.
No, no. I mean, like, he was, I don't know.
I just saw him and I'm like, he looks really creepy.
The butler was creepy, therefore the guinea pig was creepy.
Well, I assume the guinea pig wouldn't hire, like, a completely innocent butler.
Like, sorry, wouldn't hire a creepy butler if it was completely innocent.
So, I was like, that's odd.
So, for you, there were a couple of clues.
Vague, creepy feelings over butlers is not enough.
It's still cheating. No, maybe you should just get the vain creepy feelings better.
Okay, I have a little bit of trouble paying attention to these kinds of movies.
Why? I'll tell you why. Because there's too many plot twists?
That makes perfect sense, don't question it.
Because... There's always these car chase scenes or some kind of chase scenes where the camera lingers for about one-tenth of one second in this, like, hyperkinetic cocaine blur of action, and I just kind of give up.
Like, I don't know what's going on.
Wait, but if you looked out the window in, like, frame 213, you could see the car chase.
I'm kidding. No, and then weirdly they slow down.
Right, for a minute in the middle just to give you a chance to breathe.
And this hyperkinetic cuts, like it's just cut, cut, cut, cut, because you animate, right?
And so you must notice that they're just like cutting.
Yeah, I don't know. Sometimes it's like five times a second.
Some transitions or like at the end of a scene, I give the character a few seconds of like staying still.
Yeah, yeah. Or at least barely moving so that you can just kind of process what happened because for some of the older people or even just people who process slower, I think that's usually pretty good to have.
Right. Right.
So I found the cuts too quick, but that's just a guy in his 50s thing, right?
That's just different. Okay. I didn't mind it too much.
So the plot twist begins when the wolf, whose name is Mr.
Wolf or something like that, right? Yeah, they literally, Mr.
Wolf, Mrs. Tarantula, Mr.
Piranha, Mr. Shark, and Mr.
They didn't give him names.
They just...
Oh, you just reminded something that totally triggered me in the movie.
What?
What is it about?
The teeth.
Oh, the teeth.
Oh, my God.
And the legs on the shark.
Oh, God.
Okay.
Make a decision, people.
Do the characters have teeth or not?
That snake was driving me insane.
Sometimes he's got two little fangs.
Sometimes he's got a whole tombstone row of chompers.
Other times there's nothing in his mouth whatsoever.
He must drive his dentist completely insane.
That triggered me a lot, too.
But let's talk about...
Just breathe for a second.
Ah! Ah! Ah!
Ah! Ah! Breathing.
It's not helping. Okay.
So, the shark had legs.
Oh, God. Oh.
Oh. And the piranha did, too.
Okay. Nice.
Because the snake was just moving around on his tail.
But I guess the shark could have hopped along on his tail or something, but...
Okay, way too many keyboards for the tarantula.
That really is just a function of envy for me, that I'd like to be able to handle that many keyboards.
I know someone online who has that many keyboards.
Like, his entire keyboard just flips out and does that.
If you're watching this, I'm talking about you.
And if you're watching the movie, keep your eyes on the shark walking.
Odd. Not explained.
Sharks have to have pants. Okay, fine.
Fine. But the...
The teeth appearing and disappearing.
That triggered me so much.
It was so distracting. It triggered me.
It's like, make a decision.
Is he a snake with fangs?
Is he an herbivore with molars?
Does he have no teeth at all?
I prefer realism.
Honestly, they all should have had fangs.
Honestly. Oh, a trench look?
They have fangs, right? Yeah. Wait, wait.
Piranha fangs? Yes. Shark fangs.
Shark fangs? Snake fangs.
Snake fangs? Wolf fangs, yeah, they got fangs.
Is that it? Yeah, that's the five.
Okay, okay. And I just gifed them.
Shark teeth. They're animals.
Yeah, that was not good.
So, anyway, what happens in the movie is the wolf, who's, like, super smooth, super slick, like, just...
He also was very long.
He was also very long.
Remember, like, his legs? Oh, these, like, stick insect supermodel legs.
That was just kind of strange. Like, why do you have to have a giraffe leg on the body of a wolf?
I don't know. Like, if you look at wolves in real life, they're very...
Chonk? Chonk.
No, they're not chonk, exactly. Wait, wait. We need to explain chonk, because other people might not know the word.
People know chonk. Chonk is fat.
Fat animals are chonk.
And what is it, that meme about the cat?
Oh, it was like, it was this lady.
It was just a meme, right? You know, the NPC meme type of things.
It was this lady who's like, come here, Chonkers.
No, it was Bob. Come here, Billy, whatever the cat name was.
Come here, cat. Let me feed you your three pounds of heavily fat and cat food so I can post you to r slash Chonkers.
And the cat was like, please stop feeding me.
I'm about to die of heart attack.
Right. Right.
So... At one point, the wolf is...
Okay, and this is confusing to me, too.
Like, the whole worldview is confusing.
So when we watched... What was that one with the bunny rabbit and the sloth?
Zootopia? Zootopia, right?
So in Zootopia, everything was an animal, right?
Yes. Okay. That made more sense.
So in this one...
Only the main characters are animals.
There's nothing else. All human beings, except for the animals.
And at one point... Yes, except for the animals, of course.
And at one point, the mare, who is a fox, whose name is...
Whose name is?
Foxington was like her last name.
Julia? No, it wasn't Julia.
Oh my gosh, my brain is not processing.
I think it might be Julia.
I think, hold on, we gotta think.
I think it's Diane for the first.
Diane, yeah, yeah. Diane Foxington.
No, it can't be Foxington. That's too obvious.
That's her last name. I will look it up.
No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. So she is on the lookout for a wolf.
Yeah. Remember, she needs to catch the wolf.
Yeah. So, the wolf shows up at a ball where there's only human beings, and he's the only wolf.
Yep. No, but Dad, he has a mustache and some glasses.
So, when I grow a mustache, as I occasionally have, and I wear glasses...
Wait, that was you? What do you mean?
Oh, yeah. People are like, who are you?
Like, anyway, they made that joke about Superman.
Do you remember Superman had...
He wore glasses as Clark Kent and nobody recognized him at all?
Nope. Which was completely bizarre.
But anyway, so the mayor is at a ball.
She's looking for a wolf.
And there's only one wolf at the ball.
But he's got glasses on and she has no idea who it is.
Yeah. Okay. So if you're looking for a wolf...
And no one has any idea.
And nobody has any... So if you're looking...
And this guy's all over the newspapers.
He's leader of one of the most famous crime gangs in the world.
So you're looking for a wolf, there's only one wolf at the ball, and nobody...
And that, to me, like, you've got to work harder as a storyteller to explain how that's possible.
I also have to say, like, everyone noticed him at the very first scene.
We missed, like, the first couple minutes, but...
They were just talking in a cafe.
Yeah, but when he went to go and pay, like, pay, he dropped the money on the counter.
Everyone ran from... Everyone knows what they look like.
Oh, yeah, that's right. So this is one of the big themes of the story, right?
Is that, well, you're terrified of these terrifying animals, but there's no need to be because they're absolutely wonderful.
Which, I hope that kids don't, like, if they're out hiking and they see, like, a wolf, they don't go like, oh, I don't want to prejudge this wolf as a scary carnivore.
I'm just going to go off and give it a hug.
Yeah, nice hug. It seems kind of dangerous to me.
Or a shark. Or a piranha, for heaven's sakes, right?
My gosh, yeah. Yeah, so we'll get to all of that cliché stuff.
Wait, no, piranhas are friendly. Yeah, that's right.
So, anyway, in the middle of this ball, this dance or whatever it is, right, the wolf...
Does a good deed. He saves what he thinks is this old woman from falling down the stairs, right?
And then, and it seems kind of out of nowhere, his tail starts wagging, right?
In other words, he's a really bad guy.
Like, he's stolen, he's run this criminal gang, he's terrorized people and so on, but then he catches an old woman and he finds that he likes doing good.
But he's never noticed that before in his life.
Well, if... And he sounds like he's in his 40s, you know, as a person.
I've known the actors in his 30s or 40s or whatever, right?
So if you've gone your whole life and never noticed...
Well, no, I'm pretty sure they made the characters younger.
And the reason we talked about this is because younger characters are more appealing.
Because if you're like some old guy who just does steal stuff, it's kind of like, I don't know if you're some 80-year-old or 40-year-old or whatever.
Yeah, it's worse, right? It's kind of like sad.
It's like you wasted your life.
But if you're young, you're still young. But he's not a teenager.
I think, yeah, if I have to guess, late 20s, early 30s.
Actually, I'm with you on that for sure.
I think all of them are around that age.
So he's a couple of decades old, and this is the first good deed he's ever done.
Like he's never noticed that he likes it before.
So his tail starts wagging, and I think this is a very dangerous idea.
It is, yeah. So we won't get into any details.
Are you okay? We won't get into any details.
But we have tried a couple of times over the years to reform people who have slight personality issues.
Yes. By the way, right before we continue, I wanted to apologize.
We have new ducklings.
Ah-ah! Ah-ah!
You may hear them in the background.
I'm sorry if you hear any chirping in the background.
They have to stay with us because they're bonded.
Okay, okay, okay. That's an adult male pecan noise.
Sorry, you may hear them in the background because they are chirping and they need to be supervised because they are like two days old.
It also is a way, and it's a very subtle way, of saying to the listeners, if you haven't donated for a while or ever, you're cheap.
Did you hear that? That wasn't me.
That was just, it was the conscience.
So, we've tried reforming, and we won't get into any details because, you know, it's not their fault that we're having a bit of a public show here.
But how is it gone?
Terribly. It doesn't work.
Now, here's the interesting thing.
They're not even like crime wards.
They're like kids.
Now, here's the thing. Yeah, and they're not like adult criminals.
These are kids. These are like eight-year-olds, nine-year-olds.
Now, to be fair, I was the very cynical one who never believed it was possible.
Dad, I made you cynical.
That's not true. I was the cynical.
I am the cynical. I'm sorry, if you could not interrupt.
I'm going to interrupt as much as I want.
You're being ridiculous. Now, Izzy was just like, oh, father, we can so help these people.
And I was like, I don't know.
It's a big thing to try and reshape a human soul.
I believe with the power of our love and positivity.
Dad, I was literally like, this will not work.
And you're like, but we must try.
Do I really sound that high? Yeah.
Yeah, that's actually... That's quite fair.
I mean, if you're going to make me sound like...
Because I don't sound like that, so...
It just did. It just broke out.
Oh, you're like Elizabeth Holmes. With the deep voice.
With the deep voice. All right.
No, but... We've tried.
It's... You know... And they try this with criminals all the time, right?
So this word recidivism, right?
Which is like, okay, do criminals who get released become criminals again?
And the overwhelming answer is...
Yes. Absolutely.
Of course they do. And this is when...
They're not successful. Now, these guys are very successful criminals, right?
They steal. They haven't got caught.
They've got an entire room full of like a whole mansion full of loot and all that warehouse thing or wherever they live.
And the entire Mona Lisa.
I don't even think it's a great painting.
I'm sorry, but like... They did have it.
It's like the most valuable in the world, right?
Yes. I'm just saying.
They had everything. So they're very successful.
They have companionship.
They have friendship. They have all the money.
They never get caught. And even criminals who get caught, who spend time in jail, who, you know, experience all the terrible things in jail, they still go back to being criminals.
So this idea that these hugely successful criminals, who seem to have no shred of conscience, who enjoy what they do, are just going to suddenly...
Decide to be better.
And this is so, this is, and you know, this totally reminded me so, when we were younger, when you were younger, well, I guess both of us, we had a whole Reform the Bad Guys thing.
Do you remember? Yeah, we had like a...
And was it Darth Vader or something like that?
No. And you...
Oh, we used to do this thing where...
It was like a role-playing game, but, like, it was based off a video game that had a character in it.
Called Meanie. Yes, and it was fun.
And you had to try and get Meanie to be nice.
And it didn't work. And he couldn't even say the word.
No. Nougat!
Nancy! And ice, remember?
Oh, yeah, and you would say, it's the word ice with the word N in front of it.
Eisen! Yeah.
Anyway, so... But, yeah, it was a silly game.
It was, like, four or five, so...
Silly. Silly. It was serious.
Serious moral instruction.
Homeschooling 101. Try to get bad guys to say the word nice without their heads exploding.
Well, also what was I going to say?
Later on, that was like stage one of like four to five-year-olds.
But later on, we did like role-playing.
More complex. Very complex.
In role-playing, you ran for mayor, you rescued people, you helped the president.
We waged war sometimes. It's kind of like Dungeons& Dragons, but instead of dice rolling, we do physical tests to see whether I got the shots and stuff.
That's right. That's right. And a lot more talking than D&D too.
Yeah, yeah. And less planning.
I don't like planning. So, yeah.
And so there's this whole thing.
One thing I did like about it is that, spoiler, the Foxington female who's the mayor is actually...
A criminal. A master of criminals.
I love that. I love that so much.
When I was younger, I saw a documentary where people went from organized crime into being cops and then back into organized crime.
And we were talking about how some criminals will join the army to get weapons training and all that.
And the idea that you can just go back and forth between being a cop and a politician and being a criminal...
It's kind of interesting, right?
Because, you know, cops are supposed to be really good at spotting the bad guys, and if the bad guys are actually in with the cops, then the cops don't even notice, ah, he's a great guy!
So the criminal justice reform, this whole idea that if we're just nice to criminals...
It will go great!
Yeah, if we just teach them how to be nice, and we get them to rescue cats from trees, they'll realize how wonderful it is to be good.
Oh, and don't forget the sheep onesies.
Totally. That's how you do it.
Oh, that's right. You put them in onesies, right?
Which they wear for way too long.
That was the animators being lazy, not wanting to make new character.
I understand that.
If I ever have to animate something about clothing and stuff, I don't change it.
I'm like, you know what? You get the shirt for the next onesie.
That's it. No laundry for you.
Okay, I do change it, but it's a drag.
Now, what I think was interesting is that, okay, if you feel good doing good deeds, Wouldn't you also feel bad doing bad deeds?
Yeah, it's not both.
And so if they felt bad doing bad deeds, they wouldn't be criminals to begin with.
No. So I think that criminals end up enjoying being criminals.
They feel like they're smarter and better, and they can't...
You know, anyone who gets up and goes to work and pays their taxes is just a total sucker.
Like, why would you bother, right? Of course.
And so they end up with it being cool, and that's the way they play the characters at the beginning, that it's all kind of cool and great and wonderful.
And with that, like, cool music and stuff.
The cool music and the shades and all that.
Oh, yeah, and you're right. So we forgot this earlier.
Everyone runs away from these creatures to begin with, but then...
I just wanted to circle back.
So the whole premise of the movie is that these characters are bad.
Everyone knows who they are.
No, but these characters are bad because everyone's scared of them.
Oh. As opposed to everyone's scared of them because they're bad.
No, it's the other way around.
It's like people take up their umbrellas and then it starts raining.
Right. The cause and effect is totally backwards, right?
Why are we scared of piranhas?
Because they'll strip a cow down to its bones in about three minutes, right?
Yeah. It's not like, oh, I'm going to pick this little fish to be terrified of for no reason whatsoever.
Yeah, this goldfish is going to murder your entire family.
Yeah, yeah. Or like, you know, everyone loves dogs, but if you see a wolf in your backyard, you run inside.
Yeah. You don't be like, oh, hi, wolfies!
It's not some weird prejudice.
It's because the wolf is actually pretty dangerous and they kill a lot of people every year.
Not a huge amount, but, you know, some.
Also, sorry, I just want to say, talking about the wolf and the fox and stuff, I'm sorry, how do they end up together?
They're completely different species.
Oh, at the end?
Yeah. Like, what is their offspring going to be like?
They probably aren't even able to reproduce.
No, no, no. Come on. Look this up online.
It's called the wolves. Hang on.
I'm looking it up.
I'm looking it up. Hold on.
Hold on. It's a fog.
Wolf and fog siren.
Is there such a thing?
Does a wolf and... No, a wolf and fox hybrid does not exist because wolves and foxes have different numbers of chromosome, making it impossible for the two species to interbreed.
Okay, okay, but have you heard of taxidermy?
No, I'm not.
No, you could half, like, you could do it, like, down the middle of the face and just a half wolf and half...
Oh no, there'd be different sizes, wouldn't there?
No. Okay, put one of them in the laundry.
Okay, you know what? Stop, it doesn't work.
Stop, it doesn't work.
So, and here's the funny thing.
So they picked these animals precisely because the animals are dangerous and people are scared of them, right?
I mean, if you've ever been in the water and you see a fin, how relieved are you when it's a dolphin, not a shark?
Very. Yeah, right, right.
So they pick these animals because they're dangerous and then they say, well, we shouldn't be scared of these animals because that's a stereotype.
And it's like, well, no, they are dangerous.
Drenches are dangerous.
And piranhas and sharks, they are dangerous.
And these ones in particular are dangerous because they're also criminals.
So you've got criminals that eat people and it's like, well, you shouldn't be scared of them.
That's just a cliche. The only reason that they turned out that way is because people are scared, but to begin with, it's like, no, it's because they're dangerous.
So this idea that we have an instinct for dangerous people, but we should totally ignore it.
And, you know, if some guy is running down the street with a bloody knife in his hand, and he says, hey, man, I need to come into your house, that we should say, well, you know, okay, he's running down the street, middle of the night, But we can't be prejudiced.
No pants on, bloody knife. It's like, well, but I don't want to prejudge these situations.
Of course. Let's be inclusive.
Or somebody who stole a million dollars from the previous business now comes to a job with you and you're like, well, I don't want to prejudge.
And it's like, no, I think prejudging is actually really important.
And there have been a lot of studies on this.
A lot of stereotypes exist for a reason.
Oh. And...
I'm sorry, is this... I'm sorry, I yawned.
Sorry, I'll try using up even more oxygen, that should help.
But no, so stereotypes really do exist for a reason, and it doesn't mean you should judge everyone according to stereotype, but you know, you should not just completely get rid of your instincts, right?
I agree. So this idea that, well, the criminal has promised to be better.
Well, of course the criminal has promised to be better because he's been caught.
Of course. Right? So the fact that...
What else is he going to do? Like, no, I'm going to keep stealing.
No, let me out of prison. It's the kind of thing where the criminal has a knife on you and he's like totally dominating you, right?
And then you grab the knife from the criminal.
And what does he say? Oh, I'm sorry.
I wasn't going to use it on you, though.
We should be peaceful. We should resolve this reason.
It's only because you got the knife.
And we can see this, like this going on in a lot of cities these days, where, and particularly in America, Criminals are all getting released, you know, and there's no bail, or the bail is, sorry, the bail is really cheap, or in certain places in, I think it's in California, they're just basically saying, we're not going to prosecute car theft.
We're not going to prosecute thefts under $1,000.
Yeah, it's like under $1,000.
Okay, just take everything, count it, you know, use your calculator and stuff, make sure it doesn't over $1,000.
And then you'd be like, well, I stole $999.99, so you can't catch me.
Yeah. Yeah, so just this idea that within every criminal, there's just a really nice guy who just wants to get out and all we have to do is care for them and so on.
I don't know. I mean, it's kind of a leftist view.
And you don't see that when leftists in general are dealing with, like, Republicans or Christians or conservatives.
No, they aren't like, oh, well, Donald Trump is so evil, but, you know, maybe he just had a really bad childhood or something.
We just should love Donald Trump. Yeah, we should just love him and then maybe he'll become good.
Yeah, and all these conservatives, you know, we should just try and bring them to the light with the force of our love and all this.
Like, this is not the way that people actually really live in the world, at least on the left.
So they want sympathy for the actual criminals, but they seem to have...
They don't want to provide it. Yeah, they kind of have a hatred for people that they view as enemies of them, and they don't have that same kind of, well, we've got to be nice to them, and we've got to be friendly to them, and so on, right?
And, yeah, so I thought, well, you liked it.
And I liked it in a lot of ways, too.
Oh, we should talk about the animation style.
It was epic. Go on.
It was so good. I'm so glad this, like, horrible era of, like, hyper-realistic but also not at all realistic, like, 3D animation that I think Disney started a lot of is finally ending.
Because it's so bad.
It's terrible. Like, I don't know.
Like, I don't like the 2D old drawn animations in, like, movies.
I don't like the way they were drawn too much.
Like, the way there's Tom and Jerry and that kind of stuff.
Yeah, I'm not a massive fan of that.
Like, I mean, also, like, I hate to say, as an animator, that is so much work.
Like, I know the 3D stuff is a lot of work, but...
Well, with the 3D, you get computer models and everything.
Yeah, so you have a lot of guidelines.
But you have to, like, especially way back, like, 30 years ago, it would have been so hard.
Like, I don't even use that advanced technology.
I use, like, flip a clip and iArtbook to animate.
Oh, yeah. They literally had to draw.
They would draw on clear plastic.
They would draw, and then they'd put them over the background and shift.
And that was crazy. I think it's really tough to build up that animation and the backgrounds are tough.
Once you've got it going, I think it's a little easier to animate.
Well, if I lost all the backgrounds I've created for certain animations...
That would be horrible because what I do, since I can reuse a lot of the backgrounds, I put hours into them to make sure they're top notch.
But these are the ones you've shown me because your app will track what you do and you show me how they get built, right?
Yeah, I show you the time lapse of how I did the backgrounds.
Some backgrounds I'll spend like three hours on because I can reuse it.
And also, if the animation isn't amazing due to the lack of good apps...
Like, honestly, if the two apps I used, if they just merged together, it would be a god app for animating.
But they don't, and it's annoying.
But that's okay. So, no, really, since I used the backgrounds, I can reuse them, and it makes it look ten times better than the animation actually is.
Because, yeah, that's why.
Well, and so this one was interesting because it had, like, ink outlines.
Yeah, but it was 3D. It was 3D, but it had this kind of...
I was like, was that a mistake?
Because at the beginning I was kind of confused.
But it is kind of like an ink-drawn comic book almost come to life, if that makes sense.
Yeah, it's really good. I love it. Yeah, and that was really clever.
I thought that was really, really clever and interesting.
I hope it becomes like a big style.
More of a style? Yeah, it's way nicer.
I hope it goes on for the next 10 years or something.
I hope that what I did comes back.
What did you do? Oh, did anyone hear that tone?
In terms of animating at least?
Does it come across in the audio the way it comes across?
Yes. Like a blistering sandstorm from Martian hat.
Give me your hand. Calm down. Take a deep breath.
No. See, I hope what comes back is the way that I animated when I was about your age.
So you would get a book, and in the bottom line...
In the corner. Sorry, I'm still talking.
I did what I was doing.
You do bouncing balls with the squishy...
Oh, I did TIE Fighters!
Like flying up to you, and you just flip the pages.
It's amazing. Yes.
They need more of that. Uh-huh, they do.
No. No. Because you can bring it closer.
So I thought the animation style was really good.
And what did you think of the voice acting?
I thought it was pretty good. The tarantula triggered me.
I think she could have done way better.
What's that? I don't know. Her voice just seemed kind of raspy like that a bit.
I don't know, like, I just, I think the voice acting, or at least, I think maybe a different person, the voice actor could have done a good job, or I guess character, but I don't know, I just think they could have done better for the tarantula.
Alright, let's talk about the tarantula.
What? I have issues. What?
Okay, first of all, really tough to keep track of the legs.
But that's true for me when I'm running up the stairs, so I won't get it.
Okay, so here's the issue I have with the tarantula, okay?
Yeah. There's this thing that goes on in movies now.
First of all, if there's a technical challenge, it always has to be the girl.
Okay, that's fine.
I spent, well, when I was a little bit younger than you, I used to spend my Saturdays in the computer lab.
There was like one or two girls, right?
Not a single one.
Zero.
Zero.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I did this for probably two years every Saturday, learning how to program computers and all of that, and never saw any girls anywhere near.
I mean, you were more likely to go to a Dungeons and Dragons convention and see girls or play one of my Dungeons and Dragons games and see girls.
So, okay.
But they're talking about breaking stereotypes.
Okay.
Zero. But here's the thing. It's really tough for the actress.
So when you're making a character, a confident character, every confident character has some insecurity.
Yeah. Every insecure person has some strength.
Except for the female characters in modern movies.
So the female characters, particularly those with technology, they always have to be super cocky.
Super confident. Never have any problems.
It's all just got to be like, I've got this.
And they've got to be super competent at everything.
And they never have any doubts.
And they never have any insecurities.
And they never wonder when they're going to have kids.
Well, for the actress, like the wolf at least, he had some dimension, right?
Like he was a bad guy.
He was super cool.
But then he, you know, he was going to be good, but only...
And so did the snake. Snake had some dimension.
The snake had some real turnaround, right?
Yeah, no, I like... Because he was really cynical and then he, you know, really cared about his friends.
And so the male characters had all of this dimension to them.
Except for the shark was kind of silly.
I don't know. I didn't really get much from the piranha.
No, the piranha was...
Was just crazy, is how he was described.
Oh, yeah, he was just insane.
Which, you know, anyway, we're getting to those other cliches another time.
But... So the male characters, at least...
Okay, at least talking about the snake and the fox...
Snake and the wolf, sorry. Yeah.
They had some dimension, right?
They had some... Those are my two favorites.
Yeah, they had some stretch to their personality, right?
Because the super cool, super suave wolf...
Went to not knowing what he wanted to do, to stumbling, to trying to become good, which was really tough for him.
So he had some dimension.
But if you look at Foxington and the tarantula, who were the main female characters, right?
Oh, you know what?
They were all perfect. Do you know what?
They never had any doubt, any insecurity.
I hated Foxington so much.
Because you're scared of foxes.
I love foxes. No, honestly, she triggered me.
Like... Nothing happens that perfectly.
Everything was perfect.
The only part I liked about it is that she was a criminal who went into politics because it's true.
That's the only... She was...
I hated her. I think you might need to break it down into a tiny bit more detail.
No, everything she did was perfect.
There was never a single mistake and never a single personality flaw.
And also like... But that's the same with all the female characters.
I know. You can't give them any dimension.
That one triggered me even more though.
Because if you give the female characters some insecurity, they're going to say, oh, so you're saying girls are weak.
It's all this politically correct checkbox.
Okay, so let's talk about her because of the scene in the prison.
Uh-huh. Okay.
So for those of you who don't know, they're all trapped in a prison and the prison guards come in and she shows up as this super ninja.
And I remember the moment she showed up, I was like, oh, I bet you that's Foxington.
No, here's what happened.
What? You had no, you were, I remember the movie.
I might've been eating. You're like, was that, is that Foxington?
Like once it showed up and look, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I don't, you're going to show off.
I promise. I'm really not.
Wait, what are you giving me that look for?
No, go ahead. Okay, no.
I saw, she jumped down, same dimension, same height, and same eyes.
Big pushy tail? No, like, yeah, I don't know.
I think she was all, like, she just came up as a ninja.
I didn't know. Honestly, I saw the eyes.
Number one, female eyes.
No one draws male eyes like that unless they're weird.
Oh, the big startled baby eyes? Yeah.
And also, it's the same eyes, the exact same dimensions on the eyes as Foxington.
And I think I might only know this because I do animating and I do drawing.
That's it! And I have to know the dimensions.
That's why? That's what I said.
Okay, no, I'm with you. 100%.
No, but that- That's why I know that.
And I think that's just my theory.
But I do notice things like that usually in movies, like little plot things like that.
Right. And I was like, but she's a politician, so she'd have to be honest and forthright and direct.
Just like all politicians. And obey the law and all that.
Absolutely. So anyway, they're in this...
You're in this prison area, right?
Yes. And the guards try to capture them, and does she execute all of her combat perfectly?
Oh, yeah, and then she just cuts to the scene.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
So she takes down, like, I don't know, eight or ten prison guards that all conveniently come one, one by one, as they always do, right?
Let's not all go together. We'll go one by one to give her a chance, right?
And then they look up and it's like there's rows and rows and rows of probably like 200 guards, right?
And you think, oh man.
And then they all rush. And then she just...
Wins. Yeah. You never see what happens.
It's triggered. I was like, what is this?
I was so mad.
Like, it just cut to the scene afterwards.
And I'm like, what happened? How did they escape the ball?
What did she do? Is he?
Oh, right. My bad. She's a girl. Female magic.
She probably just, like, seduced them until letting them go.
Estrogen is a superpower that allows women to achieve the impossible.
Regularly. This is true. 100%. Yep.
Totally true. Can confirm.
So they're like... Well, we don't want, we really want to push back against stereotype, but all women are empowered and perfect and can do things that men can't do without even breaking a switch.
But that isn't even a stereotype, it's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that, oh yeah, that was like, she's basically just turned into like magic, a god.
She's like a god. And also, how did her, like her secret base, who built that?
They never... Now, this bothered you.
Oh, this bothered you?
I still don't get why it bothered you.
But tell me. I must know.
She had this hyper-complex secret base.
Yeah. I just want to add, the guys had, like, a tunnel that ended in a house.
Yes. It wasn't complex.
But look, she had this hyper-complex secret base with all these weapons.
Who built it? If she's, like, a criminal and she's like, oh, yeah, just have this old secret base that, like, conveniently pops out stuff and all that, right?
Yeah, yeah. Who's gonna, like, all confirm that and be like, nothing suspicious about this at all?
Yeah. Right? Like...
And also, I mean, I don't know.
It just triggered me. It would have taken one sentence to fix two.
The wolf could be like, wow, how did you get this built?
And she could have been like, oh, I just hired some people to do it.
They didn't really care. They didn't ask questions.
But like, it triggers me.
She could say, I laundered the money through Ukraine and it was totally easy to build.
No, but like...
I'm sorry. Girls can't do everything.
Girls are not construction workers.
No, no, listen.
We drive along the road.
This is what I mean. We do this thing.
We'll go along and we'll see people working on power lines.
There's Spot the Girl. The only girl I ever saw was one of them holding a stop sign to make sure people slowed down and also one of them making some phone calls in an air-conditioned car.
She is keeping those people alive by making the traffic slow down.
She is an essential and integral part of our infrastructure.
Alright. Yes. Oh, okay.
So that triggered you just because it's like magic base, right?
Yeah. Like, the guys who could probably actually pull it off, like, and make something like that if they had the abilities just because they have the physical strength, just have, like, a house in a tunnel.
Yeah. But she does everything perfectly all by herself and has no companions.
Yep. Because she's a woman.
So this goes all the way back to Frozen.
So we watched Frozen a bunch of times because you really liked that.
The first one, yeah.
And I couldn't figure for the life of me, why is this scene there?
And then I realized later, like just when I did the review, and the review actually did really well, the Frozen review was basically, okay, so men have to work to get ice.
How do the women in Frozen get ice?
Oh, they're just magic. It's just magic.
They can just walk across a canyon and the ice appears magically under their feet because they're pretty and men want to date them.
Anyway, so, yeah, okay, so that, yeah, that was a little triggering that all the women are perfect.
And then also...
The woman, the fox, she likes the bad boys.
You know, the tough boys, like your mom.
She just likes the...
Nothing. Yeah, whatever you say.
Just, she likes the bad boys.
Now, that, you know, she's an attractive fox, I guess.
I mean, they drew her fairly attractive, right?
I'd say, considering...
I'm not a fox, but... No, considering, like, anatomy for characters, that was considered an attractive character.
Right, and the funny thing is that an attractive woman used to, I don't know if they still would be called a fox.
Oh, yeah. Oh, I wonder if that's, like, a secret in there.
A little history. Yeah, so she's this hyper-competent woman She can be a super criminal.
She can be a politician.
But I guess that's why she's drawn to the bad guy, because she's bad herself, right?
Yeah. So the criminals all get their punishment, like get thrown in jail and all that.
She never gets any punishment at all.
No. Never gets any punishment at all.
All the males. Well, except for one female, the tarantula.
Huh? The tarantula is the only female who ended up in prison.
Yes, that's true. That's true.
Well, of course, as a tarantula, she could get out pretty easily, right?
Yeah, I think they kept her in like a glass box.
And so here's the thing, too.
This fox, the wolf, right, who just wants to do good, does he ever say, oh, by the way, the mayor is a criminal?
No, because chemistry!
Okay, so for those who don't know, you actually really love the science of chemistry.
No, no, what is it just for those who don't know?
So all these women who are like, there was such chemistry between us.
Are all like horrible and annoying women who I dislike.
So the word when someone's like, oh, there's so much chemistry between us or whatever, right?
I just get automatically triggered and enraged.
So chemistry just triggers me.
We should read that story about this woman.
She left her husband of 14 years and her two kids.
Because of this guy named Jacob who like shared a cup of wine with her.
He shared a cup of wine and it was electrifying.
Now, do you know why you don't like these women?
Why? Well, clearly, there's no chemistry between you and these women who cry that they have no free will in their pursuit of the bad boys because chemistry!
Chemistry! Yeah.
Oh, my God. I don't think that even comes across in the recorder.
I don't even know if that did either, but you know what?
Good luck for your ears if that did.
Sorry, the ducklings are telling me that you're squeaking too high.
If you could just bring it down a little.
Oh, that did pick up. Yay!
So if the wolf has become such a good guy, why doesn't he turn the criminal mayor over to the authorities and make sure that she doesn't be in charge of the entire city because she's a total criminal?
Yep. But nope. Well, no, politicians, you know, criminals just end up as politicians and that can't change.
Crazy, crazy. All right, so we came out.
I thought it was a lot to think about and I enjoyed it.
Again, a few too many twists for me.
Without enough...
Hints ahead of time. Because then I just feel like cheating.
It's just kind of like cheating. Like, oh, this totally perfect good guy just turns out to be this totally bad guy.
And then the bad guy turns out to be the good guy.
And then they flip again. And it's just like, to me, it just gets a little disorienting.
And I think it's kind of like, well, you can't tell who's good or bad in this life.
And it's like, I think it's kind of breaking down people's...
Okay, you, I mean, this is something you've taught me a lot.
Because people have actually asked me from time to time what I've learned from you, right?
Because, you know, homeschooling, all that, right?
Your instinct for good or bad people is really good.
Yeah, that's true. And it has been from the very beginning.
And it's better than mine because mine gets clouded up with all of this mental optimism.
And chemistry. And belief.
I don't know why chemistry has anything to do with that, by the way.
No, no. You... Like, when you see people, it's kind of like a robot.
There's a dude to scan, outline, evaluate, moral alignment, future path, moral free will, choice, essence, personality, soul.
Name a 14th grandchild. Name a 14th grandchild.
You have this scanning thing.
Like, I just feel like I need to, like, strap you to my forehead when I'm out in the world.
If you see a child strap to his forehead, send help.
You'll know what's going on. Send help.
Send help. No, so I meet someone new and they're like, hey, you want to go out for lunch?
I'm like, I'm sorry, you're going to have to go past my daughter.
Like, you gotta be vetted by her?
Yeah. She's gonna have to give you her Cylon scan?
I'm just gonna stare at you for three minutes and decide.
Three minutes? No, no, no.
Don't do it to me! Don't do it to me!
I did. Do not scan the foother.
I will scan the foother.
Uh, foother. The philosopher. The philosopher.
And the freedom mom. The freedom mom and philosopher, yeah.
So, no, you have, like, and you've taught me a lot about this, and I've tried...
Am I getting any better at it?
No. No, hang on.
Take your time. No. Take your time.
No. Take your time.
I will not. Take your time!
No. No, I think I'm getting less...
You're mildly less optimistic.
You've killed my hope. Yeah. You've killed my hope. You have no hope, but you still hope, but you also have none.
It's like, it's a mix. Like, you have hope, but you know it will lead to nothing.
Oh, I think it's not fair to say that it will lead to nothing.
It'll lead to an absolute destroy...
It will lead to bad things.
Yes. I think that's, you know, so I think that I... I mean, that's one of the things I've definitely learned from you is...
Jump to conclusions. Pre-judge everyone.
No, you know, never judge a book by its cover.
Every single book I've read that looks like it has a really dumb and cringey cover is a really dumb and cringey book.
Like, I'm sorry. I look at the cover of a book, if it's good, like, well, okay.
I was going to say, I really enjoy the series Wings of Fire.
15th book completely ruined it for me, and then I was rereading 10th book and I realized I slipped something in there too.
No, I love some of this propaganda wokey stuff.
Yeah, but a lot of the books, basically book 11 onwards got terrible, but the first five books, I'm going to say first five, one to ten were really good, and I'm pretty sure they had great dragon drawings on the covers.
It was a great book. I read another book that had dragon drawing that looked like some two-year-old splattered paint all over it, and it was a terrible book.
Right, right, right. I'm sorry.
Never judge a book by its cover?
That's not true. Books with bad covers are bad books because they don't have a big enough budget.
If you're never supposed to judge a book by its cover, why did they spend so much money creating great covers?
It makes no sense, right? Yeah, just say, you know, go into like the, you know, what's it called?
That auto app that's always on like the laptops, MyPaint or something like that.
Just do that and say, cool book for cool people.
Write it with your fingertips, you know?
Write it with your left toe or something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure, yeah.
Oh, you know how hard it is to draw with feet?
I've tried it. It's terrible. I'm sorry, I have.
Well, no, it's actually very easy to draw with feet if what you're trying to draw is the outline of a foot.
No, because you have to do your hands to do the outline of the foot.
We'll diagram this later.
We probably don't want to get into this in the middle of the call.
Oh, of course. Yeah, she's definitely not just changing.
So you would recommend this movie?
I would. I think...
It's not too wokey?
No, there's a few mentions, but that was...
I didn't even hear it. Oh, I heard the one.
Yeah, I heard that. So the tarantula says she voted for the politician.
I said, why? It's like, she's really good on global warming.
But the criminals believe it.
But the criminals believe that global warming is really important.
They also made fun of the shark when he pretended to be a woman.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They did? They did.
It was a very silly scene and it did not bother me.
Yeah, it was pretty funny.
He was like, oh, I'm giving birth.
And he's like, oh, wait, I forgot I don't have a baby.
Right. So, yeah, as far as Wokey stuff, not too bad.
I think, you know, if you're going to go see it with kids, talk about...
Okay, so if somebody is presenting in a dangerous way, right?
If, I don't know, they've got some horrible Satan symbol carved on their forehead and, you know, like, okay, or, you know, tattooed faces.
No, but they're safe and nice. Yeah, yeah.
So talk about, okay, the way that people present themselves is kind of important.
Yeah. And you can, to some degree, have caution based on how someone...
It's true that there's some really bad people in the world who dress really nicely, three-piece suits and so on, do some really bad things.
But you're not likely to meet those people in your life.
No, unless you're in politics.
So I think it's important to say, okay, well, why did they choose these animals?
Because these animals are dangerous.
Okay, so it's the only reason in this...
It's the only reason that the animals are disliked because people just are afraid of them for no reason?
Well, first of all, they're dangerous creatures.
They're criminals, yeah. Like, they didn't choose bunnies and ducklings.
Except for the guinea pigs. Well, yes.
And then they're saying, okay, so the cute little guinea pig also turns out to be monstrously dangerous, right?
Well, that's because he's got an identifiable British accent.
I was not surprised when the British guy turned out to be evil.
Yeah, yeah. But at least they weren't as bad as Disney.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, I think it's worth watching.
And I think it can have really good conversations about cliches and stereotypes.
I'd say it's worth watching. Honestly, I mean, for kids' movies nowadays, it was pretty good.
I gotta say, I would have... I would have rewatched it.
Like, I mean, I'm not going to, but I mean, like, if there was like, hey, do you want to rewatch this?
I'd be like, sure, if there was like an opportunity.
I mean, like, it's not a bad movie.
I think the two main characters, the Snake and the Wolf, are likable characters and a lot to talk about.
And I think a rewatch, you probably missed some stuff the first time you liked it.
Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. And I would also say that, well, thank you, of course, because I never would have gone to see this movie.
And also, first time we went to a movie theater in...
Like two years? Probably more.
Three years. No, three or four years.
The last time we went to a movie theater was to do the review on Frozen 2.
Okay. Really?
I think, yeah, that was.
Oddly enough, in winter. Wasn't it summer?
I have no idea.
All I know is we got Subway.
So, out of ten?
I'd say eight. No, well, look, I think the plot's good, but...
Animation, great? Animation, great.
But the characters, I only like two of the characters.
Right, right. Well, I'd say three.
I thought the shark had some...
He was kind of a bit bland, but he was kind of funny.
He had some good parts. We had the dressing up and giving birth thing, so that was funny.
So I'm going to say... The plot was like an 8 out of 10.
Overall, with all the characters put together, the characters were a 3 out of 10.
The only ones dragging that up for a 0 are the snake and the wolf.
Right. Stereotypes, 0 out of 10.
What I mean by 0 out of 10 is there were crazy amounts.
Like, 10 is like very few.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And let's see what else.
Animation style, 10 out of 10, I'd say.
Animation style. Amazing.
Overall, I'm going to say about seven.
Seven, yeah. Yeah, it's funny because they're saying, well, you can't judge a book by its cover.
People are complex and they have many dimensions and layers.
And it's like, well, why didn't you put those in the characters?
Because that would be nice, right?
No, honestly, just a few things.
Like a few little things.
Like maybe, I don't know.
Make the tarantula shy with boys so that she's not just this, hey, I've got everything under control.
Everything's great. Or maybe, I don't know, like have the shark.
I don't know, just a few things.
Like they're terrible at something.
Maybe the shark's terrible at driving.
Have the shark have a real desire to eat sushi.
Yes, that would be good.
Just give him some dimension.
Obviously, we are available to write the sequel.
Yes. If you want to write the sequel, come to us.
I promise all the propaganda will have been cleaned with a vacuum cleaner and a straw.
Right. That's how you clean things.
Ask my mom. She'll totally agree with me, I promise.
So thanks for suggesting to see the film.
I thought it was great. Thanks to everyone for listening.
Freedomain.com forward slash donate.
Subscribe, be better.
Or I'll be in your closet at three in the morning.
That is a threat. Excellent.
Alright, thanks everyone. Lots of love from up here and we'll talk to you soon.
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