Episode 0038: I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
Not so terribly long ago, Overlord Miller and I gathered an elite group of minions in a conference room and asked them a very important question: Who is Jared Axelrod? We were informed that Mr. Axelrod is responsible for, among other things, The Voice of Free Planet X, Aliens You Will Meet and Fables of the Flying City. As is often the case, we were not entirely confident that the information our minions provided was accurate, so we took it upon ourselves to consult a more authoritative source, that being the man himself, Jared Axelrod. Little did we suspect that Jared Axelrod would use his Tricksy Mind Rays to distract us from exploring his innermost secrets, subtly veering the conversation toward other topics, all the while making us believe that it was our intent to discuss said topics in the first place. Beware! Should you dare to listen to this episode of the podcast, you, too, may be entranced by Mr. Axelrod’s Tricksy Mind Rays. No one is safe…
Overlord Miller’s plans to attend GenCon were ultimately foiled, possibly by rampaging mega-nanobots.- Overlord Miller recently finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies).
- Overlord Miller’s beard currently resembles a Recognizer from TRON.
- Overlord Miller also read The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer.
- Overlord Miller is researching the history of Medina County.
- Overlord Johnson accidentally learned about William Stinchcomb, founder of the Cleveland Metroparks.
- Who even knew Billy Squier had a castle? Oh, Squire’s Castle. Well, that’s different.
- Overlord Miller has been re-watching The X-Files. That Charles Nelson Reilly episode? It’s called “José Chung’s From Outer Space” and it is made of win and bleeping dead aliens.”
- Nuketown’s Monster Week.
- Overlord Johnson recently listened to A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin.
- Overlord Johnson is reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest.
- …and On a Pale Horse (Book 1 of the Incarnations of Immortality) by Piers Anthony.
- Overlord Miller recently listened to The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. [Link goes to YouTube trailer.]
- Overlord Johnson stumbled across an unaired trailer for Power Pack.
- Overlord Johnson recently watched the first (and thus far only) season of Gravity, an original series from Starz.
- Both overlords have seen Inception, which is not a documentary about how babby is formed.
- Overlord Johnson really enjoyed Between the Folds, a documentary about origami and paper-folding.
- Not to mention Helvetica, a documentary about a font.
Discussion: Kids’ Movies That Appeal to Adults vs. Movies for Little Boys Who Never Grew Up
- Show notes coming soon. Honest!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:23 — 62.6MB)
Episode 0048: The Great Old Pumpkin
An interesting discussion, but I was really captivated by the deconstruction of the Muppets. That was totally new for me, and I thought the observations were quite astute.
On a related note – While Kermit the Frog is commonly considered Jim Henson’s alter-ego, I read that he more closely identified himself with Rowlf the Dog. It’s interesting that you pointed out how Rowlf is the only competent Muppet, and the one to whom all the others look for guidance and advice.
Brain Cramp. I meant to say the deconstruction of Toy Story. I just had muppets on the brain, although that was a pretty cool discussion as well. Muppets Toy Story – falls under the category of “Unfortunate Synergy.”
I was saddened to have my cherished Muppet memories tarnished by that sadly accurate perception that they really are famous because they fail. Maybe it was foreshadowing that we boxed up our collection of Muppet video tapes just a day before I listened to the episode.
Leaping a long conversation with a single sentence I have a different perspective on the “superhero loses their powers trend”. It might seem like a growing trend in the movies because it’s happened a lot with a relatively small number of movies. However I don’t see it as a trend but as a standard story telling element within the superhero genre in general. It happens often enough in the comics I think it’s an expected occurrence now. Just about every superhero story has a plot at some time (and occasionally more than once) where they lose their powers, whether they sought to or not, and learn about being a normal human for a time. It’s not unusual and, until it had been done so often it had become the cliché that it is, it was a valuable storytelling element. It was that opportunity for the reader to connect more closely with their chosen hero. Now, at least for a time, the hero was more like the reader. You could more closely empathize because your hero now understood your vulnerabilities. Now that you have superhero movies it makes sense for that particular element to come along from page to screen.
I have only seen Toy Story 1, which I liked a great deal. And despite the dark undertones it implied I really enjoyed Overlord Johnsons deconstruction of the underlying motivations in the film. The only idea I would like to offer up is not that’s he’s necessarily an evil parasite but perhaps his life is more bound to a long standing psychosis. Interrogation Subject Axelrod mentioned an excellent point in the irony of Woody pointing out Buzz’s delusional behavior. In the end Buzz gave up that worldview but Woody continues along the same general path. I haven’t sat down to do a full assessment but I might go check out Toy Story 2 & 3 and see if I can come up with a formal diagnosis.
I take some exception to the comparison, and admittedly it’s an emotional reaction, of the Muppets motivation though. The Muppets are a theater company. Their motivations are the motivations of all performers, which tend to be on the lower side of Maslow’s Hierarchy (though you could make the case for some of the higher needs the Muppets are most often concerned with getting through the show alive and making sure the rent on the theater gets paid). Woody’s motivations, whether based on psychosis or an evil parasitic desire, are on a different plane. Having brought up Maslow I will say the motivations in Toy Story are on a higher level of the hierarchy.
Another great show gentlemen!
I think I need a shower too after listening to analysis of Woody’s motivations [shiver]. KJ, I liked Enemy Mine as well. Just thought I’d throw that out there.