Episodes
Friday Jan 12, 2024
Gravity Falls (Show 6: Episodes 37-40)
Friday Jan 12, 2024
Friday Jan 12, 2024
[School of Everything Else 2024]
Part 6 of 6
We come to it at last. The final episodes of one of the greatest animated shows ever gifted to TV. And we pulled out all the stops this time, because it's bittersweet to say goodbye again.
Originally I planned to get this whole season discussed in one sit-down session, considering how much ground we had covered back in Season 1 with two sessions. But in the end a second was essential. What we have here is that unplanned final session with Kaoru & Debbie (joyfully back after a long absence while they brought a small person into the world) blended with segments held over from that first recording to close us out with fireworks. Many thanks to everyone involved in this challenging and rewarding project. You made it special, like it deserved to be.
Episodes Covered: Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future / Xpcveaoqfoxso / Escape from Reality / Take Back the Falls I / Take Back the Falls II
Guests:
From Sequentially Yours Kaoru Negisa @Moonpanther22
and Debbie Morse @bastet8300
Toby Jungius @TJungius of Through the Wind Door
Hollywoo Actress Maya Souris @Mayasantandrea
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Theo Leigh of The New Century Multiverse
Friday Jan 05, 2024
Gravity Falls (Show 4: Episodes 21-36)
Friday Jan 05, 2024
Friday Jan 05, 2024
[School of Everything Else 2024]
Part 4 of 6
Back in early 2020 (pre-pandemic even) just as Disney+ had launched, making this show super-accessible to everyone at last, we recorded three podcasts on the first season. Now we are finally back to talk about the second and final season and one of the most satisfying, bittersweet endings of any television series, and I am not being hyperbolic with that statement.
Dipper and Mabel Pines are a pair of tweens who have to spend the summer in the strange Pacific Northwest town of Gravity Falls with their conman Grunkle Stan. Now answers to the big mysteries of the first season finally bubble to the surface, presenting us with both hilarious hijinks and mind-bending sci-fi. It's the kind of smart, emotionally sensitive, poignant and genuinely funny programming for kids that we've seen rise most reassuringly over the past decade.
Episodes Covered: Into the Bunker, The Golf War, Sock Opera, Soos and the Real Girl, Little Gift Shop of Horrors, Society of the Blind Eye, Blendin's Game, The Love God, Northwest Mansion Noir, Not What He Seems, A Tale of Two Stans, Dungeons, Dungeons, & More Dungeons, The Stanchurian Candidate, The Last Mabelcorn, Roadside Attraction.
Guests:
Hollywoo Actress Maya Souris @Mayasantandrea
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Theo Leigh of The New Century Multiverse
Friday Dec 29, 2023
Wakanda Forever
Friday Dec 29, 2023
Friday Dec 29, 2023
[School of Movies 2023]
This is one of the hardest episodes we have ever had to record.
I'm not dealing in hyperbole when I describe the shockwave that rippled through our house when we found out that without the slightest warning Chadwick Boseman passed away in the night. He represented, for want of a better term a great responsibility. And much of these few hours is spent talking about that impact.
On top of that, there were elements of the film that bothered both of us, and our guests, but the undertaking of bringing this movie into existence, soaked in real world tragedy and during a pandemic was so challenging that how could we possibly be critical?
This is why it has taken us a silent year to gather our thoughts. And we are so grateful to our guests for being able to manage the weight and breadth of what gets discussed and land -as intended- in the most human place possible. Special thanks to Maya Souris who was actually IN this movie and gifted us with some precious insight into the filmmaking process.
Guests
Maya Souris iMDB Listing
Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst
Aquila Hope
Greg Downing of Through the Wind Door
Chris Finik @finmonster09
Friday Dec 22, 2023
Tokyo Godfathers
Friday Dec 22, 2023
Friday Dec 22, 2023
[School of Movies 2023]
One of only FOUR movies directed by the all-too-soon-departed anime darling Satoshi Kon (along with Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and Paprika), this is by far and away his most heartfelt, funny, camp and soulful tale, and it is most definitely Christmassy in nature, considering it concerns three impoverished homeless people and their desperate attempts to protect and ferry back to her parents a holy infant, so tender and mild.
But as well as being a fair and compassionate story of the destitute, this film has an exceedingly rare trans heroine in the shape of Hana, a hot mess who nonetheless has the most determined and forthright of dispositions. Together with the alcoholic Gin and the runaway girl Miyuki, they experience a series of unlikely coincidences that require them to do the right thing in order to reverse an interconnected web of hilariously bad situations.
No matter how lonely and depressed a viewer might feel at the beginning there is no way someone can reach the end without smiling from their very core. This somewhat obscure 2003 Holiday parable is deserving of its cult status.
This episode was commissioned by Alejandra Vargas & Joe G.
Guest:
Mackenzie Eastram @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Gravity Falls (Show 3: Episodes 13-20)
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
[School of Everything Else 2020]
Part 3 of 6
The third of three shows on Season 1 of Gravity Falls. Season 2 will be covered in 2021.
We round off the first batch of episodes with a showcase of villainy, as a crazed piglet who holds small-town America in his thrall seeks unlimited power for himself. And on the other side of the reality curtain, a chaotic yellow triangle man hatches his schemes.
There's also a hilarious take on boy bands which was in fact creator Alex Hirsch apologising to his sister Ariel for being such a scornful bounder, admonishing her musical taste when they were tweens.
Episodes Covered: Boss Mabel/Bottomless Pit/Carpet Diem/Boys Crazy/Land Before Swine/Dreamscapers/Gideon Rises
Guests:
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Theo Leigh of The New Century Multiverse
From Sequentially Yours Kaoru Negisa @Moonpanther22
and Debbie Morse @bastet8300
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Gravity Falls (Show 2: Episodes 7-12)
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
Wednesday Dec 20, 2023
[School of Everything Else 2020]
Part 2 of 6
The second of three shows on Season 1 of Gravity Falls. Season 2 will be covered in 2021.
We return to one of the best animated series' to grace the TV screen. A rich, hilarious, fast-paced puzzle-box of twisty mysteries and subversive, genre-savvy capers. Tween twins Dipper and Mabel Pines are staying with their Grunkle Stan for the summer, at his combination gift-shop and rube-trap. But strange things are both out there in the woods, and inside the wooden walls of the Mystery Shack.
Both seasons are available on Disney+ And if you have already finished it and want something similar but haven't yet sunk your beak into The Owl House, that's what's for dessert.
Episodes Covered: Double Dipper/Irrational Treasure/The Time-Traveller's Pig/Fight Fighters/Little Dipper/Summerween
Guests:
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Theo Leigh of The New Century Multiverse
From Sequentially Yours Kaoru Negisa @Moonpanther22
and Debbie Morse @bastet8300
Tuesday Dec 19, 2023
Gravity Falls (Show 1: Episodes 1-6)
Tuesday Dec 19, 2023
Tuesday Dec 19, 2023
[School of Everything Else 2020]
Part 1 of 6
Throughout the year we will be releasing episodes covering one of our very favourite animated shows, now available worldwide on Disney+ which is why we waited until now. Most people haven't seen this, so you can watch along with us. We won't spoil any later episodes and the podcasts won't release all at once. Next week the Spielberg Season continues with E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.
The elevator pitch for this one is "The Simpsons meets Twin Peaks". A pair of twins, one of them fascinated by strange and mysterious things, the other determined to have fun at all times go to stay for the summer with their grotty con-man of a Great Uncle Stan. As it turns out; Gravity Falls, this sleepy Pacific Northwestern Town is filled with both strange and mysterious things and fun!
Episodes Covered: Tourist Trapped / The Legend of the Gobblewonker / Headhunters / The Hand that Rocks the Mabel / The Inconveniencing / Dipper vs. Manliness
Guests:
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Theo Leigh of The New Century Multiverse
From Sequentially Yours Kaoru Negisa @Moonpanther22
and Debbie Morse @bastet8300
Friday Dec 15, 2023
Love Actually
Friday Dec 15, 2023
Friday Dec 15, 2023
[School of Movies 2023]
If you love Love Actually this show is for you.
If you hate Love Actually this show is for you.
If you consider Love Actually to be kind of a mixed bag and there's actors and/or scenarios in there that you really like and yet some of the characters behave in awful ways that the film doesn't judge as awful, but overall it seems to have its heart in the right place, this show is for you.
And if you've never seen Love Actually... then this show is for you.
What we have done is recruit Doctor Hunter Mulcare from the Two Shrinks Pod and asked him to help us with a challenge (that it turns out Cinema Therapy did last year - though their half-hour show and family audience doesn't allow for anywhere near as much detail or not-safe-for-work content). Join us as we rank the relationships in this 2003 film, written and directed by British institution Richard Curtis, ranging from most unhealthy to out and out life-goals.
The winner may surprise you.
Guest:
Dr Hunter Mulcare @realhuntermmm
Friday Dec 08, 2023
Final Fantasy VII
Friday Dec 08, 2023
Friday Dec 08, 2023
[School of Everything Else 2023]
The first global blockbuster hit in this long-running series from Squaresoft. As we noted before, the excellent Final Fantasies IV, V and VI were not released in Europe (neither were I, II or III) until long after this one, and it was utilising the power of the PlayStation, so this really was the introduction to what a modern-day cinematic RPG video game could be, for an entire generation in 1997.
Playing it today, there are a number of drawbacks, some of which (annoying random battles, slow-progression) are mitigated by Quality of Life additions in recent remastered versions (the Switch version that Sharon played all the way through this adventure for the first time). However, the blocky, awkward character models and static backgrounds do warrant the glossy Remake that we are still only halfway through, and will not be taking about until it's over... in 2028.
None of these drawbacks of the PS1 original can taint the fact that this really is beloved for plenty of great reasons. We talk at length here about the story and characters, meaning and the manner of how this tale is imparted to us. Powerful bitter-sweetness is a feature, not a bug.
Next Week: Wakanda Forever
Friday Dec 01, 2023
The Studio Ghibli Series Part 6: Spirited Away
Friday Dec 01, 2023
Friday Dec 01, 2023
[School of Movies 2023]
Arguably director Hayao Miyazaki's finest hour, and by extension the peak of composer Joe Hisaishi and for Studio Ghibli in general. This one is almost too easy to either sing the praises of, or to dismiss because it was so popular. Disney distributed it in America, and it made $395 million, which might make it the most successful theatrical release for an anime movie. By contrast, My Neighbours the Yamadas two years prior in 1999 made $11 million on three quarters the budget. Spirited away was showered with critical praise and won many awards. It's the popular girl.
But this girl is also endlessly fascinating; stirring, whimsical, intelligent, exciting, funny, and unforgettable. She stays with us, and we return to her again and again for comfort and to feel that sense of quiet awe. It's also noteworthy that this has one of the best American language tracks for any Japanese film; Daveigh Chase (Lilo of Stitch fame, Donnie Darko's sister and the girl from The Ring), Jason Marsden (Max in The Goofy Movie), Susan Egan (Megara of Hercules fame and the Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast) Suzanne Pleshette (The Birds) David Ogden Stiers (Lilo & Stitch and Beauty and the Beast) and Tara Strong (literally every cartoon ever made). On this one occasion you should definitely try Dub AND Sub.
This is the film we chose to close out our 2023 series on the studio (though we still have The Boy and the Heron, along with 'The Imaginary' from Studio Ponoc, and whatever the future brings. We will be there to curate their art.
Guests:
Brenden Agnew of Cinapse @BLCAgnew
Alejandra Vargas @Plutoburns whose YouTube channel is here