Episodes
Friday Feb 03, 2017
Aladdin
Friday Feb 03, 2017
Friday Feb 03, 2017
[School of Movies 2017]
This one was recorded immediately after the Beauty and the Beast show, so we are absolutely exhausted by the end. What you can't hear because I trimmed it out is all the times we lose our thread and forget the point we were making. The magic of audio editing.
As it is, with musical breaks and comedy clips, this is another superbly detailed show where we praise the animation and efforts that went into making this a truly unique Disney experience.
It was recorded one month before Robin Williams died, and 23 years after master songwriter Howard Ashman died, and it is a celebration of their amazing work.
Extra Credits: https://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz
Cane and Rinse: http://caneandrinse.com/
Support our shows on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/alexandershaw
Come listen to my audio drama series, New Century:http://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
Guests:
Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits
Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse
Friday Jan 27, 2017
Beauty and the Beast
Friday Jan 27, 2017
Friday Jan 27, 2017
[School of Movies 2017]
Get ready for a show of epic proportions, and a roller-coaster journey through the making of an absolute classic.
Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits and Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse join us for a deep study into what made this work so well, and why it manages what so many of the previous films in the canon couldn't quite reach. Every aspect is discussed, from animation to music, to rejected ideas, to what makes Beast and Belle so endlessly appealing and what function the supporting cast serve.
This is either one to absorb in two sittings or a long evening spent watching the movie with the sound off at the same time... twice.
Support our shows on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/alexandershaw
Come listen to my audio drama series, New Century:http://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/
Guests:
Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits
Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse
Friday Jan 13, 2017
The Little Mermaid
Friday Jan 13, 2017
Friday Jan 13, 2017
[School of Movies 2017]
We finally his the 90s third renaissance for Disney, and this kicks off a series of two hours plus shows of super detail and perspective on this era. Disney was under new management and after a string of mediocre successes and big failures now aimed to pull themselves out of the doldrums they had settled into following Walt's death. This entailed a storm of creativity with artists being ridden ruthlessly by cold-hearted businessmen. By all rights it shouldn't have produced such wonderful results... but it did.
The Little Mermaid is a story of a human girl born as a mermaid, who just never feels right down under the sea, looking up longingly at our world. The emotional arc of the movie is the barely-seen King Triton getting over his overprotective desire to see his child stay down aith her family, culminating in him letting her go for her own happiness.
Plus it has a Jamaican crab.
Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits and Extra Histories joins us again and you will hear the music of Alan Menken and the late, but indescribably great Howard Ashman.
School of Movies is funded not by advertising, but by Patreon. It's you guys who keep this show going, help us pay our bills and buy more stuff to watch and talk about. So if you get a major kick out of these shows consider throwing a few dollars per month our way: https://www.patreon.com/alexandershaw
Guests:
Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits
Saturday Jan 24, 2015
The Great Mouse Detective / Oliver & Company
Saturday Jan 24, 2015
Saturday Jan 24, 2015
[School of Movies 2016]
We're back on the Disney shows with Daniel Floyd, this time on the cusp of the 90s renaissance. This episode delves lightly into two of the last examples of their Dog/Cat/Mouse fetishism that defined the post-Walt wilderness years.
The Great Mouse Detective, originally named Basil of Baker Street (from the novel) is Sherlock Holmes with rodents. Oliver is the Twisty Dickens tale with a cat and a bunch of dogs in a painfully late 80s New York, presided over by prostitute-hating mayor Rudy Giuliani. We never see him in the film, but he's there all the same, along with his derision for people of colour and the impoverished, which fits rather well into the Victorian principles of the source novel.
This show was actually recorded several years ago and I apologise for my frequent interruptions of Dan and Sharon. I knew better than that back then and I have no excuse. I'll simply try my level best to let them speak without butting in as we record the next Disney shows.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Friday Jan 23, 2015
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh / Rescuers / Fox & Hound / Black Cauldron
Friday Jan 23, 2015
Friday Jan 23, 2015
[School of Movies 2016]
Continuing our Disney podcasts with Daniel Floyd of Extra Histories, this one covers the fifteen year period between 1970 and 1985.
It was a dark and odd time for the once great animation studio. Their mentor and namesake had fallen and they were carrying on without him, or the acclaim that went with the bold and beautiful films of their golden years.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh theatrically released a package of three animated shorts. The Rescuers had a budget so low it barely had to sell any tickets to succeed commercially. The Fox and the Hound swung in the other direction, piling on the budget, only to receive middling critical and box-office response.
And as the company reformed in the early 1980s, having lost a dozen animators in a crippling walkout, the decision was made to throw untold amounts of money into a project that is now barely mentioned in the hallways of the House of Mouse, principally because the Black Cauldron only made half of that money back.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Thursday Jan 22, 2015
Disney's Robin Hood
Thursday Jan 22, 2015
Thursday Jan 22, 2015
[School of Movies 2016]
Robin Hood (1973) is 83 minutes of amusing shenanigans. It's twee, minimally dramatic, fun and light with lovable simple characters. It did not restore Disney to the heights of Snow White and Cinderella popularity it had previously reached.
Originally we recorded a paltry ten minute chat about Disney's Robin Hood during our sessions with Daniel Floyd, because there really wasn't much to talk about aside from it being a pleasant experience. We decided to add to this with an in-depth discussion about the impact of this movie on a community that's been going far longer than any of us have been alive; the furries.
Since Sharon and I are not experts in this matter we brought in the ever-foxy Victoria Luna B. Grieve to explain how these folks tick in different ways, what media they love and some of the history, whilst dispelling a few prejudices along the way.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Wednesday Jan 21, 2015
101 Dalmatians / Sword in the Stone / Jungle Book / Aristocats
Wednesday Jan 21, 2015
Wednesday Jan 21, 2015
[School of Movies 2016]
The Disney shows return. Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits is back to talk us through the difficult 1960s period for Walt Disney Studios.
*101 Dalmatians
*The Sword in the Stone
*The Jungle Book
*The Aristocats
Animation was changing, cinema was being influenced by television and for some reason people really liked British writers. In this show we'll talk about where Disney went after their expensive Sleeping Beauty project failed to hit Snow White status, and the aftermath of Walt's passing.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Tuesday Jan 20, 2015
Tuesday Jan 20, 2015
[School of Movies 2015]
The much-needed success of Cinderella cemented Disney as more than just a one-hit wonder. Following this we delve into the absurd ramblings of Lewis Carol to talk about Alice in Wonderland. According to the Disney of the early 1950s royals will chase you down on black horses in the middle of the night, base the future of their family upon footwear, play croquet with live animals, hold complex legal disputes over jam tarts and cut your head off for the slightest offense. Either way don’t go anywhere near Buckingham palace.
Then we move onto the uncomfortably racist peter Pan, before Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty. These were the last gasps for ink and paint animation. If you look at the lustrous colours and brush strokes you will see a distinct difference from the more pencilled xerox process that ran from 101 Dalmatians all the way up to The Little Mermaid. It's a charming little story about a dog that gets ignored over a new baby and falls in with a vagrant, and a beautiful girl who sings to owls, says 18 lines and then falls asleep causing the social and economic upheaval of an entire kingdom. But delve deeper and the America portrayed in Lady is a very personal idealized one to Walt himself, and Sleeping Beauty was an immense risk tied up in the making of the parks that was one of the most successful movies of the year, yet still failed to meet its expectations.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Monday Jan 19, 2015
Dumbo / Bambi / Disney's Wartime Films
Monday Jan 19, 2015
Monday Jan 19, 2015
The Disney series continues with two cute animal pictures with unfortunate mother figures. One gets locked up and deemed insane, the other gets shot dead by the most terrifying monster of all. Both of these moments have a profound effect on what we take away from the viewing experience.
The third sections covers the period between 1942 and 1949 when, due to World War II the studio held off on major animated features and instead focused on cheaply produced package films designed to foster relations with South America and keep their struggling animation house afloat.
It’s an odd bunch, comprising Saludos Amigos, The Three Cabelleros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time and The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr Toad. Virtually none of these are remembered or cherished and on listening to this episode you’ll understand why. Daniel Floyd shoulders the majority of the appraisal this time.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Sunday Jan 18, 2015
Snow White / Pinocchio / Fantasia
Sunday Jan 18, 2015
Sunday Jan 18, 2015
This is the first of a series of podcasts covering the full history of Disney’s animated classics. Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits is with us every step of the way.
It is without question that animated cinematic features throughout the 20th Century were defined by this company. Learn more about the studio, the animators and how the animation techniques changed with the time, as well as what the world was doing when each film was released. Also find out which films we love, which ones we don’t and more importantly, why.
Since this is an unabashed analysis that pulls no punches, bad language is used but it is bleeped for the benefit of children.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus