School of Movies

Toy Story 5

[School of Movies 2026]

After the 2022 failure ($226m on a $200m budget) of Lightyear to succesfully spin-off from the main Toy Story franchise (and we did a show about that at the time), they went back to the billion-dollar well that is the direct link to so many warm feelings across multiple generations.

And here they finally tackle the issue of tech, tablets (and the strangely absent phones and even video games) and their role in drawing modern children's attention away from their traditional toys. This felt like it was a long time coming and (especially after covering WALL-E for MA.I.) I had built up in my head a hard-hitting critique of not only losing our kids to glowing screens, but losing ourselves.

And from the glowing critical acclaim this has received across the board (92% freshness and 95% audience score) I appear to be wildly out of step with contemporary critics and cinemagoers. I have... some things to say.

This week's After School Club: Toy Story Shorts

Next week: Supergirl (2026)

Toy Story 4

[School of Movies 2026]

Back in 2011, early in my podcasting career I recorded three shows with Daniel Floyd on what seemed at the time to be a now-completed very rare example of a Perfect Trilogy. Even legendary grump Mark Kermode remarked on how neither Star Wars nor The Godfather could pull that off. And to a degree that Trilogy became enshrined in the eyes of many millennials who grew up alongside Andy.

Many years have gone by, and what was always a temptation was breaking that world back open and making more movies at the potential cost of outraging Disney fans (something that seems easier each year, despite making billions from mediocre remakes and sequels). The artists and creators at Pixar maintained that this would only go ahead if there was a phenomenally good hook for the story, and in 2019 they presented us with this.

This is the first time Sharon gets to talk about Toy Story, as she wasn't the host back then. This one wound up being her favourite of the first four!

This week's After School Club: Blacksad

Next Week: Toy Story 5

Toy Story 3

[Digital Gonzo 2011]

The third and final of this short series of archival re-releases, this time dealing with what we thought at the time was the last ever Toy Story film. An ending that moved the world to tears and became not only the highest earning Pixar film at the time, but the first animated film to break a billion.

It also repositioned who the toys were and who Andy was. Now, suddenly grown-up, this young man was going off to start the rest of his life. The day Woody has always dreaded. Now all these questions about what to do start slamming home, and his responsibility to the others become so much more important. It's gripping and funny as hell and occasionally disturbing (Buzz takes to being a jackbooted thug way too easily when reset).

And in the end it is intensely meloncholy as we are presented with the vibrant spring green of Bonnie and her fresh imagination, making for one of the most memorable, powerful and bittersweet closing scenes in cinema history. Once again, thank you so much to Dan for gamely joining me for all these and never once getting irked when I interrupted him. He's always got a friend in me. 

Guests

Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus

Toy Story 2

[Digital Gonzo 2011]

Another archival show from my early days, but one that is good enough to be re-released without re-editing.

Toy Story 2 was originally begun as a straight-to-VHS sequel, and then-CEO of Disney Michael Eisner was fine with it being done in cheap, 2D animation, similar to Aladdin II: The Return of Jafar, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II and of course the unforgettable (and tasteful) Pocahontas II: Journey to the New World. Pixar undertook the challenge of making this themselves and at a certain point mid-way through production proposed that it be a full theatrical release with a higher budget. The result is still many people's favourite of the series, bringing in complexity and serious decisions for toys that fear for their own existance. 

Once again Daniel and I, (here accompanied by Nikki Taylor) delved into the making and execution of this evolving elaboration, which in so many ways represents what Pixar at its best could reach for. 

Guests

Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus

Nikki Taylor of GameBurst

Toy Story

[Digital Gonzo 2011]

This is an archival re-release from my early days of solo podcasting with weekly guests. It is a rare example from that era that doesn't need a revisit or re-edit. I'm proud of how much Dan and I brought to the table, though I am even more disappointed in retrospect of how much adulation I heap upon John Lasseter. His mantra of 'Quality is the best business plan" has always been hugely influential on me, and he has been a key figure in creating and spotlighting some of the greatest animated films of all time... he's also a testament to why having real life heroes is a minefield.

Toy Story 1 absolutely holds up, more than three decades later. The elegance and joyful momentum carry it to the stars, and it is an absolutely key Rosetta Stone from which modern animated movies draw their inspiration. 

Guests

Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus

WALL-E

[School of Movies 2026]

Our month of movies about A.I. continues, this time with something everybody loves. And WALL-E is in fact pulling double duty on this one, because we get a heartwarming story about robots who fall in love despite their differing classes and stations, and having to defy their employees in order to not only be happy but bring Earth back to life again...

AND we get an unexpected sledgehammer of a glimpse into the future from 2008. It was as though Andrew Stanton and Pixar saw how easily Social Media would take hold of us as a species, and cater to our every dopamine whim in order to keep our attention, as we sacrificed everything about ourselves for the sake of convenience, including but not limited to complacency over ecological disaster. This movie is a masterpiece, and has become chillingly, shockingly more relevent with every year.

This Week's After School Club: Weird Science

Next Week's Main Event: Ex-Machina & HER

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

[School of Movies 2025]

An extremely long-awaited show on a game-changer of a blockbuster movie.

The first Pirates film, released in 2003 before Lord of the Rings had completed brought the world many things: A fantabulous extravaganza of practical effects, combined with a surprisingly light smattering of digital VFX that would be leaned into a lot harder later down the line, The notion that the swashbuckler could still do big business (the hidden caveat was that Johnny Depp being strange absolutely must be present) Keira Knightley as a leading lady, Gore Verbinski as a major director, the supposition that audiences would flock to cinematic adaptations of Disney park rides (they won't, just this one. See above regarding Johnny Depp) and Geoffrey Rush as an all-time iconic big-screen presence embodying the most consistently enjoyable pirate of all time.

But there's more going on, beneath the frothing surface, a fantastically witty, urbane and efficient script by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, one of the greatest scores ever composed (in a shockingly short amount of time) and Orlando Bloom's character actually being quite good, especially when held against Jack Davenport's Lawful Neutral Commodore James Norrington.

This was a commission for Lincoln Alpern and features clips from the best audiodrama I've ever composed; Panther Soul, and the first chapter of the brand new Dracula adaptation Castle of the Moon.

Guests:

Hollywoo Actress  Maya Souris @Mayasantandrea

Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Make Me Watch It

The Nightmare Before Christmas

[School of Movies 2023]

An absolute landmark in terms of stop-motion animation within cinema. Conceived in the early 80s by Disney animator Tim Burton and manifesting first in an 11-minute poem after the style of both A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas from Doctor Seuss.

That was developed into this oddball story of a pale loner of an outsider (who is also wildly popular because of course he is, this is Tim Burton). The skeleton king of Halloween town falls in love with the unfamiliar and delightful trappings of Christmas itself. This leads him into drumming up the spooky but hapless monster people of his realm into crafting their OWN Christmas, with all kinds of horrors!

Our guest tonight has literally written a thesis on stop-motion, and we have been waiting for him to record this show. It launches almost exactly at the 30-year anniversary of the movie. Coming this weekend we have a Cutting Class episode on Patreon  with all the material that didn't make this final edit. 

And if you're on the lookout for Halloween reading, my Lady Dracula novel "Castle of the Moon" will be available to buy in Paperback form (as well as the eBook version on Patreon)

Guests:

Toby Jungius @TJungius of Through the Wind Door

The Big Mermaid

[School of Movies 2023]

For many years we have been planning a show or a series of shows on the Disney live action + CG remakes. The plan was to start with the 2015 Cinderella (or even the 1994 Jason Scott Lee version of The Jungle Book, thence to 101 Dalmatians with Glenn Close) and we would watch every single one of them, and talk about the good and the bad. 

But over time, having covered the details of all of the originals in our Disney animated series, the job itself grew insanely huge and exhausting, with so little to say that wasn't already being said by every film pundit on YouTube (because Disney gets you maximum clicks). Luckily this one came along, 8 years into the remake period that boasts both high points and low for the whole concept. 

By absolutely NO means anywhere near the level of the small original 1989 film with its $40m budget and its changing of the world of cinematic animation in a way that would not be matched and diverged from until Toy Story and then Shrek, there are still definitely things to like about Mermaid '23, including the earnest and talented Halle Bailey as Ariel. 

However, with its $250m budget and the remit of adherence to photorealism at the expense of abstraction that Disney seem to have slammed all of these with, it makes for an extensive focus point to talk about many of the elements which have been frying our fishes. Back as a special guest this week is Willow. 

Tarzan

[School of Movies 2018]

This time we go deep and we go long. Tarzan is for me one of the absolute greats of the Disney canon and so rarely talked about with the reverence of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, so this time that's what we did.

It's been hugely influential on my writing and stands as maybe the crowning spectacle of the marriage between 2D characters and luscious 3D backdrops utilising the "Deep Canvas" technique. 

Daniel Floyd joins us once again to explore the last of the 90s renaisance. After this it was Fantasia 2000 and Dinosaur and while they occasionally put out something amazing, Disney lost their way until Tangled established the new normal. 

Guest

Daniel Floyd of Extra Histories