#episode 1 is in 2010 and episode 6 is (probably) in 2013

[the-spooky-children]

Whenever someone on like Reddit or Pinterest or whatever tries to be a smartass like "um ackchually 🤓 Pelo made a Tweet in 2018 saying Skid and Pump are 8 and 7 years old" I just want to grab them by the shoulders and yell "IN WHICH EPISODE, THE TIMELINE CURRENTLY SPANS OVER 3 YEARS AND IT'LL PROBABLY GET EVEN LONGER"

[zinphandel]

If you’re reading this it’s too late - Drake

heyyyy guys! welcome to the FINAL episode of dan howell’s albums of the year listen through and rating with kate @zinphandel : 2015 edition! (i really need to think of a catchier name) today album is…

Initial thoughts?

girlsssss i’m not gonna lie i am not looking forward to this. i am NOT a drake warrior. his kind of over commercialised hip hop of some of least favourite and drake would never be an artist i listen too out of choice. However, all of dan’s choices so far have been good so im hoping this one is a pleasant surprise!!! Having drake on his favourite albums of the year list is the straightest thing dan has ever done.

Is this a first time full album listen through?

Yes, although i know some drake songs, and as this was released in 2015, which was prime drake era (i don’t like him but you have to admit the hold he had on rap music circa 2013-2018 was unmatched). I don’t really know much about this album at allllll so im going in pretty blind to be honest! Let’s get into this listen through!!!

Listen through:

• right girls gays and theys let’s into this! at 17 songs and 1hr 8mins this is a loooooooong one

•track 1: legend, i’m enjoying the beat, fun lyrics, sounds like every basic song from the mid 2010s (not surprising, drake is very much the blueprint) as album openers go, i think it’s a great intro into the album

• okay track 2 is ‘energy’ which i am familiar with. enjoying this one much more! i can tell why 15 year old white boys went crazy over this in 2015.

• okayyyyy lol maybe i am much more familiar with this album than i thought whoops i kinda vaguely know quite a few of the tracks

• the drop in know yourself is chefs kisssss

• although this is reallllllly not my type of music i can appreciate that this does what it sets out to really well!

• i’m unsure how well this mixtape has aged. i feel it would have hit better listening on release but nearly 10 years later it feeeeeeels dated

• ngl im bored quite a few tracks sound repetitive and the minimal production is not my favourite especially when his lyrics are kinda mid and not that interesting, im hoping it improves as the album progresses as we are not even halfway through

• this could have been a 45 minute 10 track mixtape and would have been much more enjoyable in myyyyyy opinion

• this is not a party album, it’s quite depressing and lonely (A Theme I Have Spotted In The Albums Dan Has Picked So Far,,,,,.)

• drake complains and whines a lot on this album it’s definitely a sad boy album (hi dan!!!)

• thank GOD we’ve reached some features on the album (PARTYNEXTDOOR) it really breathes some life back into the songs, and the production seems to be ramping up as well which i’m enjoying

• lil wayne feature always improves a song!!!

• really enjoying 6 man, much more interesting sonically than the rest of the album so far

• ngl guys it’s dragging now i can’t wait for this album to be over it’s far to long the man needs an EDITOR!!

• and he’s pulled it back with the album closer. 6pm in new york is great!!! much more what i was expecting from the album

Favourite song(s)

star67, 6 man, 6pm in new york

Least favourite song?

no tellin’

Would i listen again?

probably not i’m not gonna lie, drake just really isn’t for me and listening to this record proved that to me, and if i WAS gonna listen to drake, it would defo be his more upbeat hype stuff

Do i recommend?

not personally but it is a fantastic time capsule of 2015 commercial rap if you are feeling particularly nostalgic

What would I rank it out of 10?

5/10

well that’s 2015 DONE!!! i hope you guys enjoyed :) i will be back very shortly to start on 2016s list!!!

I have created a playlist with my favourites from each album, which you can listen to here

OR

read my other reviews from 2015 here

[bleedingmyway-blog]

on the subject of nintendo hype, i also miss pokemon hype pre XY (which are already 11 years old, wow !), which i know is : 1- oddly specific 2- really old ? i'm talking about basically, back in 2006-2007. now, while i was pretty much a kid back then, i remember that the internet was only useful for three things for me back then : 1 cartoon/anime openings (the dragonball Z op was the first thing i ever searched for on youtube) 2 videogame help and 3 pokemon. whenever i had access to the internet, i'd look for stupid fan art of pokemon fusions, fanfics shipping a variety of the characters from the series and news on the games.

the reason why i specified before XY is because Pokemon X/Y were the first episodes of the series to be announced globally.

on tuesday 8th of january 2013, pokemon xy was announced. i remember running home from school at 12 to open my laptop (that i had left on in the morning so i wouldn't waste a single second) to see the trailer

you have to understand that before, the games were first announced in japan, released there and then eventually announced for the rest of the world (europe, usa) and released. this was a BIG event. but prior to xy, unless you could speak japanese and lived there, you were practically left in the dark about the most recent pokemon news/events. "why not watch the trailer in japanese then and quit dramatizing past events lol ? "

the reason is that back then, a trailer was the culmination of months and months of mystery and hype. you didn't get the trailer first. rumors would circulate from "insiders" and so called trust worthy leakers from japanese and american image boards that a game was in the works (and these rumors would usually start 6-9 months after the release of the most recent mainline game), then speculations about the region, thematic, features would start; i remember how each gen we had someone saying "this time, we'll be able to explore ALL regions !" or "this is going to be open-world in 3d on the TV console !".

remember : the internet was a much more decentralized entity back in the mid/late 00's. information did not drip down from a single verified source on 3-4 social media accounts ; it spread unevenly, gathering misinformation, theories and the interpretation of the relayer along the way. you're probably going to ask "well, if you didn't get it from the official twitter/facebook (this is 2008), where did you get the info from ?"

we got it the old fashioned way. i present to you, the corocoro magazine

the magazine, launched in 1977 is a children's mag that advertised a variety of manga and most importantly video games to a younger audience. and you would not believe how dependant the online pokemon community was on this magazine : any info concerning a new game, teasers, shadows for the shapes of starters would be there. mind you, google trad was not as developped as it is today : you couldn't just up and whip out your phone to translate the text from your computer screen. you had to wait for translators to do so; and boy, was it exciting. i remember how on the french pokemon bubble, it was a race between various websites to translate the info first ; either from the english translation, or directly from the source, if they could comprehend japanese.

source : japanese TV show "Pokemon Sunday" circa 2010-11

and since i mentionned shadows, here is a tradition that sadly disappeared : shadows of the new gen starters as a teaser. surely, i don't have to name or even show you the starters on the picture above for you to recognize them. instead, let us see how creative such teasers got the community :

(i'm too lazy to currently fire up the wayback machine and get some of the fan designs which i remembered to be quite interesting back then)

and so it went on: drip fed teasers, leaks and speculations about info that we take for granted now, like the very names of the new pokemon in english, of the rival and the game's evil team, new or returning mechanics, etc. the hype would go on, info would become clear as we near the japanese release, then once it does, we all sit behind our screens jealous at the lucky ones who either lived in japan or uhm, accidentally received an online package containing a rip of the game's file (jokes aside to avoid getting censored, if this was the case, the games would have safety patches that didn't allow it to be read by the current firmware of jailbroken consoles).

the lucky ones would document their adventure, some try to prepare guides in advance for the international release, others cook-up fan translations ; and at that point, theories have begun. all before we even get the game !

to be honest, i did not expect this to be this long, but as i wrote, i remembered more and more, and like an old sailor, got to recall why i was so excited for pokemon back then. i lived for the hype : play pokemon, next game gets announced, get on the hype train, write theories, debate with other fans on forums, convince people that we're not getting a 3rd gen remake on the Nintendo DS, game releases, rinse, wash and repeat.

to me, this entire topic is an interesting look at the aspect of a bigger topic; the centralization of the internet over the years and the controlled spread of information. of course, i won't get into this here or now, but i'll also add that whatever i put down does somewhat apply to not only nintendo but also games from japanese manufacturers as well : even more obscure light novels on ps4 are getting releases in various languages now. before, you needed a japanese console to play japanese games, a german game would not work on an american console, etc. i am not necessarily nostalgic for this - it was annoying, and some of us missed many games because of it. but i will admit that the absence of teasers and hype when you can just datamine or immediately get the info on twitter from a game dev is saddening. i shall leave you, dear reader, with this trailer for pokemon black and white 2 that had me excited for a month :

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who 10 for 10 Part 7/10: Series 7

For me, 2012 and 2013 were some of the hardest years of high school for me. No, I wasn’t bullied, if that’s what you’re thinking. That first half of high school (from Year 7-9) is probably the most formative out of all the high school years, as that is where fundamental friendships are made, in my opinion. But instead of making friends, I was busy getting into the Doctor Who fandom, waiting for new episodes and ripping off old episodes to make stories while incorporating my original ideas into them, eventually forming and defining what would be known as my personal project.

Each series of Doctor Who in the modern era so far has remained confined to a single calendar year, but the Series 7 split saw it being spread over two years. While the Series 6 split was a creative decision on Moffat’s part, there are a few reasons why the Series 7 split happened; it was a creative decision on the BBC’s part, Steven Moffat wanted to leave as short a gap as possible between the end of the series and the 50th Anniversary, the BBC didn’t want Doctor Who’s coverage being overshadowed by the upcoming 2012 London Olympics (though if a series premiered in March/April it would have ended before the opening ceremony), the production team thought it would be nice to delay production on the series for a few months to allow the cast and crew some time to rest while also allowing Moffat (and Mark Gatiss) to focus on Sherlock, the list goes on.

Thanks to the 50th Anniversary, Series 7 and the 2013 Specials are another peak in the revived series history next to Series 4 and the 2013 Specials. To elaborate, let’s jump into the retrospective for Series 7.

1. Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver Review

Near the end of 2012, I bought an Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver toy from an ABC Shop (when those were still a thing) on a school shopping trip (believe it or not, in Years 7-9, the school took us out to a popular shopping centre for “Christmas shopping” but I think everyone else was just focused on hanging out and chilling - I don’t think they did it anymore when I got to Year 10). The intention was that I would bring it to swimming and athletics carnivals for a bit of fun on those days; even when the sonic screwdriver was changed in 2015 I did still get a final year of use out of it in Year 12 because I didn’t want to buy another sonic screwdriver for one year, not when I was just getting into Kamen Rider and tokusatsu.

The sonic screwdriver toy was the 2010 model from Character Options. It was able to extend itself with a touch of a button, though the spring-loaded action was a bit too strong, scaring people who were unfamiliar with the sonic screwdriver. The release button wasn’t that good either - it could extend itself if you flicked your wrist hard enough or sometimes when the red button is pressed, which can’t be good for it in the long run. When extended, the sound activation button wouldn’t work - you could press the red button under the flap on the bottom end of the screwdriver, or you could press the button in the space where the screwdriver extended, which despite looking a bit awkward, doesn’t seem to detract from the fun. There are two sonic noises at high and low pitches and there are two secret sounds that can be activated by pressing the button three or four times.

This model was rereleased in 2014 as the Twelfth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, with touch control or single-button versions available. Both versions improve the weaknesses of the previous model by either changing the activation button to a touch-based system or making it so that the sounds can be activated when fully extended, though the red button at the bottom is removed and replaced with a power core prop in the touch control version. I think the sonic screwdriver was only held like that once in Series 5 so it’s not that big of a loss. The touch control version doesn’t separate in two for the battery compartment, which has been moved to the white ceramic-like portion of the screwdriver. Some people may think it’s annoying but if you hold it with the release button facing up, you won’t notice it all that much.

Speaking of which, according to the comments of this video, the Eleventh Doctor has used his sonic screwdriver more than any other Doctor in the series. Also, considering how long this model was used (discounting times when it was replaced), the Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver design has lasted the longest in the modern era, at least by virtue of continuous appearances. Overall, the sonic screwdriver design used by the Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors in the 70’s and early 80’s has lasted the longest, even with slight modifications here and there.

2. Radical changes

Series 7 saw radical changes over the course of the series as a result of changes in production. The major change saw the production move from Upper Boat Studios to the newly constructed studios in Roath Lock. Apparently there was no way to preserve the TARDIS set for the move, so a new one ended up being designed and constructed, moving away from the organic feel of the RTD era to enhance the machine aspects of it, harking back to the classic series.

The darker appearance of the TARDIS console room also brought with it a new darker look for the Doctor, changing from a tweed jacket with braces/suspenders to a more proper purple frock coat with a waistcoat underneath, maintaining the bowtie. Towards the end of Series 6, the Doctor wore a green greatcoat in place of his tweed jacket. After briefly wearing a pair of glasses similar to the Tenth Doctor’s brainy specs that Rory would use to allow the Doctor to see through from the TARDIS in The Girl Who Waited, the Doctor would keep Amy’s round reading glasses. To be honest, I must say that I’m not a big fan of the Series 7 Part 2 look because it makes him look too mature and proper, kind of like the Tenth Doctor. Same with the round glasses as they look absolutely outdated. Apparently, Matt Smith wanted a purple coat at some point and there was a scheme on Moffat’s part for the Eleventh Doctor’s attire to evolve over time. My favourite look for the Eleventh Doctor would have to be the tweed costume look from Series 5. The longer and messyish combed-back hair also accentuates his chaoticness, which gradually stops working when his hair was made shorter in Series 6.

Before the 2011 Christmas Special premiered, it was announced that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill would be leaving the series during Series 7, having discussed their desire to wind down their tenures on the show earlier that year. The upcoming split in the series was a great opportunity to create a closing reunion arc for the Doctor, Amy and Rory; Amy and Rory’s time on the TARDIS ended at the end of The God Complex, but the Doctor’s reunion with them resulted in them becoming part-time companions, something which I’m not really a big fan of. I wrote about my thoughts on “the companion commitment” in my review of Series 13’s The Halloween Apocalypse:

Looking at the companion side of things, I tend to prefer having full-time companions who don’t seem to have many significant attachments or anchors, whether it be in the form of employment, family or even education. This is because if you have someone who is already making a life for themselves, you have to remember to go back and address those things, otherwise you make them look as if they’re shirking commitments to be the Doctor’s companion. Also, I don’t like the idea of the Doctor having to pick up and drop off a companion multiple times during the series.

Moffat wanted to make Series 7 comprise standalone stories instead of the arc-driven nature of Series 6, so there were no two-parters in this series. There was a story arc threaded through this series which I’ll get into later. Every episode in this series was created to be like a movie, from the differing genres to the movie-like posters created for each episode. In Part 1, the title sequence for each episode was different, with the Time Vortex and logo designs changing between each episode. A couple of fundamental changes made as well was the font used for the lead actors and episode titles along with the way the logo transitioned into the TARDIS at the end, which really lessened the impact of the title sequence used since The Eleventh Hour.

For Part 2, an entirely different title sequence was created which was rather reminiscent to the title sequences of the classic series, most notably with the reintroduction of adding the Doctor’s face. It’s a more epic and bombastic sequence that kind of fits the darker tone the series was trying to portray. I only wish that the sequence was used a bit more.

Nightmare in Silver introduced a sleeker and evolved Cyberman variant and overcame weaknesses such as their vulnerability to gold and the inability to convert non-human beings. It also saw the debut of the Cybermites as an evolution of Cybermats and the reintroduction of the Cyber-Planner.

3. The overlapping Amy and Rory timeline

In The Power of Three, Amy mentions to the Doctor that she and Rory have travelled with him for ten years, on and off. But what does that mean for Earth’s timeline and the Ponds after their final parting from the Doctor? See, with Amy and Rory being part-time companions, I wonder what year it actually is on Earth because it isn’t elaborated, potentially leading to more complications in the timeline when we move to Clara’s time as the Doctor’s companion. Let’s do some estimates and solve this mystery.

Between the Doctor dropping the Ponds off at their new home at the end of The God Complex and revisiting them at the end of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, two years would have passed for them, give or take a few months. The prequel mini-series Pond Life has the Doctor maintaining contact with the Ponds from April to August in what we’ll assume is the third year. Asylum of the Daleks needs to take place two years after Pond Life because before UK divorce law was changed in April 2022, a two-year separation period was required before applying for a divorce, so that would mean it would need to at least take place from August in the fifth year onwards. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship takes place 10 months after, so we’re looking at June in the sixth year. The Power of Three features The Year of the Slow Invasion, which starts and ends in July. The start of that episode is where Amy mentions “ten years”; whether she meant ten years since she met the Doctor or ten years since she and Rory were dropped off at their new home, though given what Amy tells the Doctor later in the episode about how she doesn’t know if she wants to continue travelling with the Doctor when they’ve already built a new life, I’m inclined to believe it was the latter.

So when does The Year of the Slow Invasion take place? Firstly, we can see that Amy and Rory were at the department store in Closing Time, so they would have had to have been dropped off at least before 19 April 2011. Considering the Doctor visited the Ponds at some point after April 2011 and when River told them how the Doctor survived, I think that their cameo scene would have to take place in either Christmas 2011 or 2012, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume the latter, meaning that the Doctor dropped them off sometime in 2010 (probably the day after their wedding, 27 June). This would give Amy enough time to establish her career and still allow for the Doctor’s “death date” while shying away from the 2009 Dalek invasion of Earth. This would also explain why they weren’t dropped off in Leadworth because their past selves would presumably return there from time to time until Let’s Kill Hitler.

From there, Pond Life takes place from April to August 2013, Asylum of the Daleks would have to take place in August 2015, then Dinosaurs on a Spaceship should take place in June 2016. As such, the Year of the Slow Invasion could have started in any July from 2016 to 2020. Considering that Clara’s time on the TARDIS starts in 2013, I can safely say that she misses them enough in terms of location for there to be no paradoxes, but then The Day of the Doctor takes place in 2013, apparently, which takes Kate’s first meeting with the Doctor completely out of continuity.

A reference guide known as The Whoniverse puts The Year of the Slow Invasion from July 2012 to 2013 and the Doctor’s words in The Angels of Manhattan sets the present-day scenes of the episode in 2012, but that obviously doesn’t make sense given what we just learned. I mean, we could bring the timeline back four years (so that Amy and Rory were dropped off in 2006), but then they’d be living through the bulk of the RTD era’s stories. The latter could probably make sense if the Doctor travelled back in time though. I really wish Moffat kept track of the years instead of leaving everything ambiguous so that maybe we could have Clara’s time start five years later, but hey, that’s just me obsessing over little details.

Wait a minute, those episodes were written by Chris Chibnall? No matter the whole timeline is confusing. I suppose Moffat focusing on the 50th Anniversary meant that he didn’t have time to look over other writers’ scripts.

4. A Pond Farewell

The Angels of Manhattan marks the end of Amy and Rory’s time in the TARDIS, killing them off in the same story with no chance of survival through intervention. While having a picnic in 2012 New York, Rory is sent back in time to 1938 by baby Weeping Angels. Upon arriving, he encounters River Song, who had been pardoned from her crime of killing the Doctor due to him erasing or concealing every mention of himself (except on Earth) so that he essentially never existed.

Upon discovering what happened to Rory through the book Amy was reading that was actually written by River, the Doctor and Amy attempt to head to 1938, but they have difficulty landing without landing lights. After landing, River is grabbed by a Weeping Angel and is forced to break her arm in order to free herself. The Doctor discovers this and uses some of his regeneration energy to heal it. I’ll get back to it when we get to the Doctor’s regeneration.

Meanwhile, another baby Angel sends Rory to Winter Quay, an apartment building that the Angels are using as a battery farm. The Doctor, Amy and River follow him there and they discover an old Rory dying. They find the young Rory there as well and they inform him of what they just saw. Deciding to escape from the Angels, the group heads up to the roof. Rory decides to jump off the roof in an attempt to create a paradox and kill the Angels. Amy joins him as well and the ensuing paradox blows Winter Quay out of existence.

Amy and Rory end up in a graveyard with the Doctor and River. As they prepare to leave for the pub, Rory discovers his name on a gravestone and is immediately sent back to 1938 by a surviving Angel. With no way for the Doctor to retrieve Rory due to the paradoxes scrambling the timelines in New York, Amy allows herself to be sent back to the same time to be with Rory. River goes to write the book and send it to Amy to be published while also telling her to write an afterword for him. In the afterword, Amy tells the Doctor to tell her young self about the adventures awaiting her, which kind of ruins the story of her waiting for the Doctor that defined her whole arc but is still a beautiful ending nonetheless.

So how old were Amy and Rory when they were sent back to the past for good and what year did they pass away? Evidence from Series 5 and 6 shows that they were in the same year level at school, so they both would have had to have been born in 1989, making them around 21 years old when they got married. Rory says in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship that he is 31 years old, so if we take off six years to make him 25, that means that he and Amy would have been continuously travelling with the Doctor for four years until he dropped them off at their new home. Put on another year for The Year of the Slow Invasion and Amy and Rory would be 32 when they rejoined the Doctor.

The graves at the end of the episode state that Rory and Amy died at the ages of 82 and 87 respectively. Assuming that Rory and Amy were 32 when they were sent back, this means that they died in 1998 and 2003 respectively. Does that mean that they never got to greet their past selves in The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood? Put the Year of the Slow Invasion in 2020-2021 (instead of 2016-17 at the earliest) and it could be a possible stretch without having to travel through time. This would make them 36 when they were sent back to 1938 and Amy would never get to experience the start of the 21st century for the second time, as Rory and her would die in 1992 and 1999.

In the online extra P.S., written by Chris Chibnall, Rory’s father, Brian, would receive a letter from an old man, who was revealed to be Anthony Brian Williams, Amy and Rory’s son that they adopted in 1946. A week after Amy and Rory left, Anthony met with Brian on his parents’ instructions to give him a letter explaining what happened to them. The scene was meant to be filmed as an DVD extra, but Mark Walliams, Brian’s actor, was unavailable, so the short was only released as a storyboard with narration from Arthur Darvill. It gives some closure to Brian’s involvement in the series and wraps Amy and Rory’s arc in a bow.

5. Your Impossible Girl, My Mystery Girl Part 1

Imagine having a crush on someone. Imagine having a crush on someone so hard that you write them into a story with a deeply established character. Imagine having a crush on someone so hard that you write them into a story with a deeply established character, then retcon that character’s history so that the person you’re having a crush on is involved with the character in times where it wouldn’t have been realistically possible for them to have met. Through recent reflection, this is the kind of vibe I got from Clara and the Impossible Girl arc. And why did I get this vibe from that arc? Because I did something like that in my personal project for Hiroki and Akari.

In Asylum of the Daleks, the Doctor, Amy and Rory are brought to the Parliament of the Daleks, where they are asked to save the Daleks by having them deactivate the shield of their Asylum so they can destroy it. During this, they are guided by someone named Oswin Oswald, who had been hiding out on the crashed starship Alaska for a year making souffles. Oswin refused to deactivate the shield until they came to rescue her. The Doctor proceeded to find Oswin, at which point he discovers that she had been fully converted into a Dalek instead of becoming their puppet. After the Doctor helps Oswin regain control of herself following her realisation, she lowers the shields and the Doctor leaves with Amy and Rory.

After losing Amy and Rory, the Doctor eventually decides to retire to Victorian London, where Madame Vastra, Jenny and a resurrected Strax, now known as the Paternoster Gang, tried to convince the Doctor to begin adventuring again. In the 2012 Christmas Special The Snowmen, the Doctor becomes intrigued when a barmaid named Clara brings attention to some sentient snow that makes snowmen by itself. As the Doctor continues to be indifferent to the situation, Clara manages to sneak onto his carriage, but when he fails to wipe Clara’s mind of their encounter using the memory worm thanks to Strax’s mishandling of it, Clara manages to get away and follow him to his TARDIS.

The next day, on Christmas Eve, Clara, acting as a governess, learns from Francesca Latimer that her family’s previous governess, who died a year prior from drowning in the garden pond. Clara goes to find the Doctor, but is taken to see Vastra, who gives her the one-word test and manages to convince the Doctor to investigate further. That night, after briefly confronting the snow form of the Great Intelligence in Simeon’s lab, the Doctor goes to the Latimer house and so does Simeon. The previous governess becomes animated in ice form and begins pursuing Clara and the Latimer children, but the Paternoster Gang arrives to back up the Doctor while he takes Clara up to the TARDIS in an attempt to get the Ice Governess away from Simeon. The Doctor shows Clara to the TARDIS and offers her a chance to become his companion, but the Ice Governess manages to follow them, dragging Clara out of the TARDIS and to her death.

Together with Vastra, the Doctor confronts Simeon one last time, revealing that the Great Intelligence is a reflection of Simeon since he was a child. Simeon is tricked into being bitten by the memory worm in an attempt to leave the Intelligence with nothing to mirror, but the Intelligence had evolved enough to be able to possess Simeon instead. The Intelligence attempts to freeze the Doctor, but then it is suddenly defeated thanks to the snow mirroring the Latimer family’s tears from Clara’s death as it approaches Christmas Day.

The Doctor, Vastra and Jenny went to Clara’s grave some time after. The Doctor notes that he never learnt Clara’s full name, Clara Oswin Oswald, but when he learns it and recognises Oswin’s name from the Dalek Asylum, he is inspired to end his retirement and find Clara again.

Apparently, during the development of this series in 2011, it was decided that the Victorian-era Clara would be the Doctor’s new companion (who was named Beryl at the time), but by late-January 2012, it was decided that Clara should come from modern-day Britain. Given the circumstances surrounding the loss of Amy and Rory (even stretching back to Donna maybe), the Impossible Girl arc was developed to inspire the Doctor to seek Clara out as his new companion, which we’ll cover next due to length.

6. Your Impossible Girl, My Mystery Girl Part 2

Kicking off Series 7 Part 2 with The Bells of Saint John, while the Doctor was at a monastery in 1207, Clara was given a phone number by a woman in a shop and she ended up calling the Doctor, who immediately goes to find her. After having the door shut on him, the Doctor goes to change, but when he goes back, he finds Clara being uploaded to a cloud by a Spoonhead and interrupts it because she can be fully integrated. The Doctor decides to protect Clara from whoever tried to upload her, but when a plane attempts to do a Twin Falling Towers on them, they escape to the plane and the Doctor manages to save everyone on it.

The Doctor takes Clara to the next morning where the Doctor tries to track down the location but fails due to the security being too good, though Clara manages to do it after being partially uploaded to the cloud and being bestowed with genius computer skills. While doing so, a Spoonhead impersonating the Doctor manages to fully upload Clara. The Doctor heads to the Shard to confront the people responsible for the Spoonheads and get them to download Clara back into her body. The leader, Kizlet, says that they can’t because Clara has been fully integrated, but the Doctor reveals that he is on Clara’s computer, taking control of the Spoonhead impersonating him and using it to upload Kizlet. The Doctor gets the people to download the entire cloud before UNIT is called in to take control. Kizlet reports her failure to her benefactor, the Great Intelligence, and parts with her by having her restore the factory settings, wiping everyone’s minds of being under its influence.

The Doctor learns from Clara that she is acting as a nanny for the Maitland kids because their mother died a year ago while she was staying with them and she decided to return the favour by staying with them instead of leaving to travel. Clara decides to begin travelling with the Doctor, but on a part-time basis. The Series 7 Part 2 opener wasn’t bad, but I think it felt a bit rushed due to the length. If it was done as a New Year’s Special to compliment The Snowmen, it would have been a bit better in my opinion. The episode also introduced a new mystery of “the woman in the shop” which wouldn’t be addressed until the following series the year after, though even I thought Rose Tyler would have had something to do with it.

In The Name of the Doctor, Clara is called into a conference call by Vastra, who informs her, Jenny, Strax and River’s data ghost about the Doctor’s greatest secret being revealed. When they are attacked by Whispermen created by the Great Intelligence, River makes the Paternoster Gang wake up before they find themselves taken. Clara wakes up as well and she tells the Doctor what happened, which leads him to head to Trenzalore, the location of his grave, to save his friends.

As they make their way to Vastra, Jenny and Strax, the Doctor and Clara (guided by River) go through the secret entrance to the Doctor’s tomb, which is actually the dying TARDIS. As they walk through, Clara begins to remember the Doctor asking her about her apparent previous lives in the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London, but the Doctor gets her to run when the Whispermen close in on them. The Doctor and Clara meet with the Paternoster Gang to confront the Great Intelligence and they go into the Doctor’s tomb, which is the console room with a column of light instead of the usual time rotor and console. The column of light is the scar tissue of the Doctor’s eleven lives.

The Great Intelligence goes into the light, scattering himself across the Doctor’s timeline and rewriting his victories into defeats. With the Doctor in pain, the stars disappearing and Jenny and Strax disappearing as well, Clara decides to follow the Great Intelligence into the Doctor’s timeline, splitting herself into a million echoes to help save the Doctor across his eleven lives, including in the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London, and undoing the damage caused by the Great Intelligence.

With the Doctor recovered and Jenny and Strax restored, the Doctor goes into his own timeline to rescue Clara, but not before farewelling his invisible wife which he could somehow sense the presence of. He sends Clara her leaf in order to guide her to him so that he can leave with her, but as they do so, they encounter a previously unknown incarnation and it is there that we are told that we missed the point of “the Doctor’s name”, which is actually like a promise rather than his actual name. The unknown incarnation justifies his actions as being “without choice, in the name of peace and sanity”, but the Eleventh Doctor states that they were not “in the name of the Doctor.”

So how did the Impossible Girl arc vibes relate to my personal project? Long story short, I met this girl at the start of Year 7 and forgot to ask who her name was, fell in love with her at first sight and then after I learned who she was I got the brilliant idea to write her into my stories, then because those stories were also an outline of my personal life, I retconned my own past in them so that we would meet in the times before we would actually meet in real life. She was my Mystery Girl to Moffat’s Impossible Girl and that’s why I’m creeped out by this story arc in reflection, but I stand by my stories because of creative integrity.

The Series 7 Part 2 finale was pretty good, but considering what would come after, I’m disappointed Moffat never addressed the Valeyard’s origin or the Doctor’s actual name. People can say that “not knowing the Doctor’s name gives him a bit of mystery”, but the series has gone on for so long that I don’t care about the mystery and neither should you. Just enjoy the epicness of it like everyone else. Besides, anyone who follows my personal project knows that his name is Hiroki Ichigo (because he was born from him).

7. Chaos in Cardiff 7: Dolphins

There was Chaos in Cardiff before Series 12. Before we move onto the 2013 Specials, here’s a brief look at some production chaos during Series 7.

Caroline Skinner worked alongside Steven Moffat for the 2012 Christmas Special and the entirety of Series 7, but stepped down in March 2013. Bleeding Cool apparently reported that Skinner and Moffat had a “very public row” at a BBC event the month before, Moffat telling Skinner that she was “erased” from Doctor Who, but there’s nothing much apart from that.

Steven Berkoff, who played the Shakri hologram on The Power of Three, was apparently difficult to work with during production, refusing to do what he was told, deliberately ruining takes or throwing temper tantrums. Virtually all the footage shot with Berkoff was unusable, so what was in the episode was all they could cobble together along with some shots allegedly taken between takes. Apparently even filmed footage of Berkoff walking across the floor couldn’t be used either and at this point one has to wonder if his pants were down in those shots. Also, he was apparently supposed to be stabbed to death by Amy and Rory with syringes, but the BBC rejected it and they resorted to having the Doctor save the day with his sonic screwdriver once again.

In the US, the Series 7 Part 2 Blu-ray was shipped early to people who had pre-ordered it, which led the BBC to ask fans to keep the spoilers of the finale secret until the episode actually aired. Needless to say, they did and the BBC released this video of Matt Smith and David Tennant as thanks.

Moffat had a difficult time getting started with scripting The Day of the Doctor because of the complicated contract process. Initially, Jenna Coleman was the only actress contracted for it so Moffat potentially had to draft a version of the special with different actors playing the Doctors after the Doctor erased his own existence by walking into his own time stream. Luckily, however, Moffat managed to secure Matt Smith and David Tennant eventually. He did attempt to negotiate with Christopher Eccleston, but given his previous bad blood with the BBC and his stance on multi-Doctor stories, he naturally declined.

Moffat also attempted to get Paul McGann back as the Eighth Doctor, but it was probably vetoed by the BBC for some reason. Either that or Moffat actually couldn’t see Eight taking part in the Time War, which is a bullshit excuse when Big Finish (and the extended universe) is a thing. Although Moffat created the War Doctor and cast John Hurt in the role while negotiating contracts with Smith and Tennant, getting everything together six weeks before filming was due to start, the BBC somehow allowed Paul McGann to come back for a minisode that would see the Eighth Doctor regenerate into the War Doctor.

It is speculated that as a result, Steven Moffat was burned out from the experience and wanted to quit alongside Matt Smith when decided to leave after Series 7 instead of staying for another series, but the prospect of Peter Capaldi apparently renewed his enthusiasm and he ended up staying. Some people say that’s why the quality of the Capaldi era dropped as it went, but who really knows at this point?

8. The 50th Anniversary

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor, was the thing that I was waiting all 2013 for. I, like many other fans, had to endure the six-month wait following The Name of the Doctor, but at least I had my personal project to pass the time. They screened a trailer at Comic Con 2013 in July, but it was never released to the public with even Steven Moffat requesting that it not be leaked online, so we didn’t actually get a teaser or a trailer until late in October. Then I had to go on a shitty school camp, but the good thing about it was that the night I came back (or the morning after), we got The Night of the Doctor, which featured the surprise return of Paul McGann. After failing to save a pilot named Cass, the Eighth Doctor’s body is recovered by the Sisterhood of Karn and thanks to Ohila’s elixir (the novelisation says that it was just lemonade and dry ice which kind of ruins the impact of the scene, thank you Moffat) he regenerates into the War Doctor, deciding to abandon his name and the promise it represented.

The special itself was broadcast simultaneously around the world with a worldwide 3D premiere in cinemas as well because 3D was very much a thing back then, but after the special was filmed, the BBC announced that they were putting 3D programming “on hold” indefinitely. I remember getting up early on the Sunday morning to watch the episode live when it aired on ABC1 at 6:50 AM.

The main premise of the story has the War Doctor preparing to activate the Moment to destroy Gallifrey, though due to the interface developing a conscience, it appeared to him in the form of Rose Tyler (as the Bad Wolf) and showed him to his Tenth and Eleventh incarnations, the men he would become if he destroyed Gallifrey. During this, the three Doctors (and Clara) are embroiled in a Zygon conspiracy spanning 451 years, eventually ending in them making UNIT and the Zygons broker a peace treaty in the Black Archive.

Soon after, the War Doctor heads back and prepares to activate the Moment, but the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors arrive as well, ready to help him because for 400 years (frankly, it should have been 100 years shorter or the Doctor should be 100 years older given how old the Ninth and Tenth Doctors claimed to be when the revived series began), he resented that incarnation when he was the Doctor more than anyone else. The Moment shows the Doctors a vision of the last day of the Time War before showing them a vision of everyone coming out from the rubble the next morning.

This leads the Eleventh Doctor to get the idea to change his personal history by freezing Gallifrey into a pocket universe instead of destroying it. Together with all twelve previous incarnations and an early cameo from Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, the Doctor successfully saves Gallifrey and destroys the Daleks in their own crossfire, though due to the nature of this being a multi-Doctor adventure, the War and Tenth Doctors wouldn’t remember it until he eventually comes around to the Eleventh Doctor, meaning that Nine and Ten were free to continue believing that he destroyed Gallifrey and was the last of the Time Lords.

As some people have pointed out, The Day of the Doctor felt more like a celebration of the revived era rather than the classic era, but in all honesty, who cares? We’ve got David Tennant back, we’re finally addressing the Time War, we’ve got the Zygons and UNIT back, we’ve got archive footage of previous Doctors (along with surprise appearances from Peter Capaldi and Tom Baker) and we’ve finally addressed the source of the Tenth Doctor’s animosity towards Queen Elizabeth I. Besides, the classic era would get a decent celebration nine years later with the BBC Centenary Special, The Power of the Doctor. Well, not really, Peter Davison and Georgia Moffett created The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot featuring Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, John Barrowman and even RTD among those who didn’t appear in the special itself.

The End of Time showed that the Time Lords were just as bad as the Daleks during the Time War, but The Day of the Doctor showed the innocents caught in the crossfire and gave them hope when they needed it the most. The special broke records, with it being the most-watched episode of the series since the 2008 Christmas Special, The Next Doctor, and earned a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest ever simulcast of a TV drama, though BBC Entertainment carried it for most of the world because by that point, very few TV stations were willing to buy rights to air the series.

9. Back to the Pilot (and other specials)

In addition to The Day of the Doctor, another special, An Adventure in Space and Time, was produced and broadcast on BBC Two a couple of days before the anniversary. Written by Mark Gatiss and featuring David Bradley playing William Hartnell as the First Doctor during a time when Doctor Who began to make its mark on British culture. It covers the production of the first episodes, the creation of the Daleks as the first of the show’s iconic monsters and Hartnell’s reluctant decision to leave the series due to his failing health. The ending also features a surprise cameo from Matt Smith, beautifully signifying the future that the series would continue to experience in the 21st century.

Early in his career, Gatiss was interested in developing a TV movie chronicling the early days of the series that was well-documented in Doctor Who Magazine and other publications. He originally hoped that it could be made for the 40th Anniversary in 2003, but the BBC saw little potential in it. He revived the idea in 2010 to help bridge the transition between David Tennant and Matt Smith, however it was ultimately decided that it would be better as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations, so the special ended up being commissioned in early 2012.

David Bradley, who had previously played Solomon in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, was later invited back to play the First Doctor in Twice Upon a Time and The Power of the Doctor while also reprising his role in Big Finish audios.

In addition to An Adventure in Space and Time, two other documentary specials were also produced and broadcast in the lead-up to the 50th Anniversary, namely The Science of Doctor Who, a lecture hosted by Brian Cox about the nature of space and time in relation to the series, and The Ultimate Guide, yet another similarly-named retrospective documentary, but about the series as a whole. Both specials contained skits featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor.

10. The Tenth Day, the Eleventh Hour and the Twelfth Night

With the Eleventh Doctor’s final episode looming, there were still some threads, particularly from Series 5 and 6, left to be resolved and as such, the 2013 Christmas Special, The Time of the Doctor, finally addresses the Siege of Trenzalore, the First Question and the Silence. The Doctor investigates a message being broadcast from a planet which is causing thousands of ships to approach it. Picking up Clara to help him, the Doctor meets with Tasha Lem of the Church of Papal Mainframe, who sends them both down to the planet to investigate.

The Doctor finds where the message is coming from; a remnant crack in the wall where someone is trying to break back in, the one thing he feared from The God Complex. Noting that the message was identified to be of Gallifreyan origin, the Doctor uses the Seal of the High Council (that he stole from the Master in The Five Doctors, thank God I somehow had the foresight to adapt this episode in my personal project) on Handles, his Cyberhead companion and he discovers that the message is a question being sent through all of space and time along with a truth field so that anyone within it wouldn’t be able to lie. The question is translated and the translation is immediately available to everyone orbiting the planet; “Doctor who?”

The Doctor tricks Clara into going home while Tasha speaks with the Doctor. The Doctor learns that the planet he is on is called Trenzalore and that if he gives his name, the Time Lords will return and the Time War will begin anew, so the Doctor decides to stay on Trenzalore and become its protector while Tasha dedicates the Church to ensure that the Doctor will not speak his name to the Time Lords, thereby making silence fall upon Trenzalore.

Over the course of the special we get answers to the remaining plot threads from Series 5 and 6; the Silents are actually genetically engineered confessional priests that allow people to forget what they said once they look away from them, the Kovarian Chapter broke away and orchestrated the events of Series 5 and 6, and the Doctor is actually in his final incarnation thanks to the War Doctor and the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor. Somehow, River using up all her regenerations to revive the Doctor in Let’s Kill Hitler didn’t give them to him, but I suppose doing so would have made things more confusing.

Eventually, we get to the point where the Doctor has been on Trenzalore for 900 years, with only the Daleks continuing the siege where others had retreated or burned. Tasha picks up Clara and takes her to him before the Daleks demand the Doctor’s surrender. As the Doctor resigns himself to his fate, Clara pleads with the Time Lords to help him, telling them that his name is the Doctor and that is all the name he needs. This leads them to close the crack and grant the Doctor a new regeneration cycle, allowing him to regenerate and destroy the last of the Daleks. The Doctor is restored to his youthful self again and says goodbye to Clara (with a cameo from Amy) before the regeneration finishes and the Twelfth Doctor makes his debut.

Some people say that The Time of the Doctor was rushed because of everything that happened during Series 7 plus Steven Moffat burning out, but I actually thought the episode was pretty good considering what we got. Apparently Trenzalore was meant to be explored in Series 8 but Matt Smith deciding to leave after Series 7 meant that Moffat had to wrap the story arc up quickly. I’ve already pitched the two-parter Festive Special for The Snowmen/The Bells of Saint John, so I’m happy with leaving The Time of the Doctor as a one-parter.

And so we come to the end of the Matt Smith era, the era that catapulted me deep into fanfiction writing and my personal project. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are probably the Takeru Satoh and Masaki Suda of Doctor Who due to them being featured in Hollywood films following their time on the series.

Series 7 was kind of a mixed bag for me particularly because of the split series format, but the series shows a stage of the show’s evolution thanks to all the changes happening during the production of this series. It started off as being a continuation of Series 6, then by the end it became a celebration of the show and its fans from not only eight years of the series’ revival, but fifty years of the show’s history.

This instalment took longer for me to write than I expected. Stay tuned for Part 8 as we enter the Capaldi era with my 10 takes on Series 8.

[krazys-ass-emporium]

8 Shows to know you

@j-ellyfish​ tagged me and my slow ass is finally filling this out.

1. Star Trek (Mostly TOS, but also TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Sorry, but the new stuff just doesn’t look like Star Trek to me.)

This was my first fandom I guess?? I didn’t actually interact with anyone since this is before I ventured onto the depths of the interwebs. I was 10 years old and everyone kept calling me a Vulcan because of how literal I was. I did not know what a Vulcan was but soon found out and got my grubby hands on every piece of media I could find at the local library. I probably watched every VHS and read every novel they had. Spock is still my favorite to this day. I wrote my freaking GED essay about him.

2. Redwall

I might have been even younger when I got into this than when I got into Star Trek. This is just so unknown no one knows what I’m talking about lolol. It was more the books than the show, but it has a short animated series so it still counts. I was obsessed with this. I made forts out of logs by the stream across the street from my house and swords out of wood and play-fought my brother with them.

3. Teen Titans

This was probably my segue into anime. Yes, this isn’t actually an anime, but since it incorporates anime aspects it got me used to them?? I was very into superheroes in general when I was like 12 to 15 or so, but these were my top fave. Controversial opinion: DC is better than Marvel. I made my very first OC based on Teen Titans I think she might have been partly Star Trek too lol. I also started drawing people because of this show. Before that I only drew horses and wolves.

4. InuYasha

My very first anime. It all started when I saw a manga at the library and then looked up the anime on YouTube. Ah, the memories of watching an episode in three parts and you’d never know if it would be the dub or the sub. This was the first fandom where I actually joined the interwebs and interacted with human type people. The internet in 2006 was a very different place lol. I got my first email address (which I still have lol) to join this website called Fanart Central so I could post my InuYasha fanart. I found my first online friends there too. I miss them...

5.  Pokémon

I’m not entirely sure how I managed to watch as much of this as I did, but I only gave up when I got to Alola. The original is my favorite, but I also liked some of the newer stuff too. I drew art for Pokémon too and let me tell you, it’s the most toxic hell hole of a fandom ever. I’ve never gotten flames before Pokémon, all for liking an unpopular ship lol. The internet in 2010 was the Wild West.

6. Yu-Gi-Oh!

Holy crap was I into Ygo. I still have my room covered in it lol. I still love it to bits, but I’ve calmed down a lot. I have a lot of cards too and I do know how to play, but not competitively and I don’t know anyone in person who wants to duel me :( I got into cosplay because of Ygo and made my first cosplay (Joey Wheeler) in 2013. I apparently like to suffer because Ygo cosplays are NOT easy. I made my still best friend in this fandom. Seriously, this is one of the best fandoms out there, most everyone is so nice.

7. Supernatural

(Don’t look at me, I know pfft). I can’t deny how much I like this show... it’s honestly the one I’ve rewatched the most times. I no not know why. I guess it’s just easy to binge lol. You can blame my group of gay guy friends back in 2013 for me getting into this. It’s also why I got Netflix, and tumblr. And here I still am...

8. Hetalia

Oh wow, a Hetalia blog having Hetalia on the list, weird. Got into this at the crusty old age of 28, so I don’t have the nostalgia for it like a lot of y’all. I fell hard pretty fast. I also have made way more friends than probably any other fandom I’ve been in? Probably because I stuck my head out of my shell for a bit lol.

I tag no one because I’m lazy, do it if you want and you can blame me pfft.

[petrorabbit]

I recently decided to watch all Batman movies. Then I saw how many movies that was, and added a bunch of qualifiers. It’s still too many movies but, you know, we do what we can.

I’m going to be posting about each movie after I watch it. I don’t expect this to be interesting to anyone who isn’t me but I might as well document the process. More rambling details under the cut.

The full list of theatrical and direct-to-video movies that feature Batman was 83 movies long, 84 if you count Catwoman (2004) which I do intend to watch for reasons of historical significance even though Batman doesn’t appear in it. For purposes of this list, a movie counts as a Batman movie if Bruce Wayne, or another character acting as Batman, has at least one line of dialogue. Crowd scenes like Space Jam 2 don’t count but baby Bruce in the Joker does. 

The first qualifier that I tried was that I wouldn’t watch anything with a runtime under 1 hour, or anything that was just episodes of a TV show edited together, but this didn’t pare down the list nearly as much as I hoped. I really didn’t want to use different qualifiers for direct-to-video movies versus theatrical releases, but I made it about 10 minutes into Mask of the Phantasm before I was forced to confront the fact that I don’t actually care about Bruce Wayne The Man Himself that much. So for direct-to-video movies, at least one of his children has to be in it as well. Theatrical movies get to skip this requirement because otherwise I wouldn’t be watching uh, almost any of them. 

These qualifiers only mark which movies are mandatory - I’ll probably end up watching a bunch that break these rules, but at least this takes the pressure off a bit lol

I haven’t gone back through and culled the list yet, so here is the full list of 84 movies.

Batman (1943 serial)

New Adventures of Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder (1949 serial)

Batman Dracula (1964 Warhol)

Batman: The Movie (1966 Adam West)

Batman (1989 Keaton)

Batman Returns (1992)

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

Batman Forever (1995)

Batman & Robin (June 20, 1997)

Subzero (1998)

Return of the Joker (2000)

Mystery of the Batwoman (2003)

Catwoman (Jul 19, 2004 no batman)

Batman Begins (2005)

The Batman vs. Dracula (2005)

Justice League: The New Frontier (Feb 26, 2018)

Batman: Gotham Knight (July 8, 2008)

The Dark Knight (July 18, 2008)

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Sep 29, 2009)

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (Feb 23, 2010)

Under the Red Hood (July 27, 2010)

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (Sep 28, 2010)

Batman Live (July 19, 2011 stage show)

Batman: Year One (Oct 18, 2011)

Justice League: Doom (Feb 28, 2012)

Holy Musical B@man! (Mar 16, 2012)

The Dark Knight Rises (Jul 20, 2012)

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 1 (Sept 25, 2012)

The Dark Knight Returns - Part 2 (Jan 29, 2013)

DC Super Heroes Unite (May 21, 2013)

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (Jul 30, 2013)

Justice League: War (Jan 21, 2014)

The Lego Movie (Feb 1, 2014)

Son of Batman (Apr 22, 2014)

Assault on Arkham (Jul 25, 2014)

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (Jan 13, 2015)

Batman vs. Robin (Apr 7, 2015)

Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts (May 12, 2015)

Justice League: Gods and Monsters (Jul, 21, 2015)

Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem (Aug 18, 2015)

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League - Attack of the Legion of Doom (Aug 25, 2015)

Batman: Bad Blood (Jan 20, 2016)

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League - Cosmic Clash (Feb 9, 2016)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Mar 25, 2016)

Justice League vs. Teen Titans (Mar 29, 2016)

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League - Gotham City Breakout (June 21, 2016)

Batman: The Killing Joke (Jul 22, 2016)

Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants (Jul 24, 2016)

Suicide Squad (Aug 5, 2016)

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (Oct 6, 2016)

Justice League Dark (Jan 24, 2017)

The Lego Batman Movie (Feb 10, 2017)

Batman and Harley Quinn (July 21, 2017)

Batman vs. Two-Face (Oct 8, 2017)

DC Superheroes vs. Eagle Talon (Oct 21, 2017)

Justice League (Nov 17, 2017)

Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold (Jan 6, 2018)

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (Jan 12, 2018)

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash (Feb 13, 2018)

Batman Ninja (Apr 24, 2018)

The Death of Superman (July 20, 2018)

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (July 22, 2018)

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Aquaman: Rage of Atlantis (July 22, 2018)

Reign of the Supermen (Jan 13, 2019)

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Feb 2, 2019)

Justice League vs. The Fatal Five (Mar 29, 2019)

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mar 31, 2019)

Batman: Hush (Jul 19, 2019)

Lego Batman: Family Matters (Jul 21, 2019)

The Joker (Aug 31, 2019)

Superman: Red Son (Feb 25, 2020)

Lego DC: Shazam!: Magic and Monsters (Apr 28, 2020)

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (May 5, 2020)

Batman: Death in the Family (Oct 13, 2020)

Batman: Soul of the Dragon (Jan 12, 2021)

Zack Snyder's Justice League (Mar 18, 2021)

Injustice (Oct 19, 2021)

Batman: The Long Halloween, Parts 1 and 2 (Jun 22, 2021)

The Batman (Mar 4, 2022 Pattinson)

DC League of Superpets (Jul 22, 2022)

Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (Oct 7, 2022)

Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires (2022)

The Flash (2023)

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

[mvsic0]

OK QUICK TYPE

so first over there are 3 generations, all different versions of monster high (just basically taking the idea of monster high itself and the characters and doing a spin on it)

in this thing i’ll just talk about the major pieces of media so i won’t talk about the spin off semi-canon books or g1 diaries or g3 monster mysteries

the most familiar one is generation 1, abbreviated to just G1

this is the first iteration (aka original) monster high, and probably the one you’re most familiar with

g1 media is pretty accessible, like all of it

first we have the webisodes, they were short little videos with 2d rigged animation (tweening) that were 2-6 minutes long and were posted on youtube (aka FOR FREE!!)

there are 5 (6?) volumes of the webisodes, you can just search up “monster high webisodes” on youtube and you should find a bunch of playlists

the actual channel for monster high has playlists already but they’re disorganized, so i just watch the playlist uploaded by Clarita Torres which to my knowledge is organized right

next is the movies, there are in total

1. New Ghoul at School (2010) (TV Special)

2. Fright On! (2011)

3. Why do Ghouls Fall in Love? (2011) (this is when the movies switched to 3D)

4. Escape from Skull Shores (2012)

5. Friday Night Frights (2012)

6. Ghouls Rule (2012) (actual first full length mh movie)

7. Scaris: City of Frights (2013)

8. 13 Wishes (2013)

9. Frights, Camera, Action! (2014)

10. Freaky Fusion (2014)

11. Haunted (2015)

12. Boo York, Boo York (2015)

13. Great Scarrier Reef (2016)

all of these movies (to my knowledge) aren’t available on normal streaming platforms Buuut it’s pretty easy to find them pirate style, like on youtube and google drives (@/draculaura on twt and @/monsterhigh.confessions on ig both have links to mh media for all generations and @/bluebelleisabelle on here has a post with [spoiler alert] g3 episodes)

and if you’re wondering, more beloved movies in that list are ghouls rule, 13 wishes, and haunted while not so beloved are freaky fusion, new ghoul at school, and heavy on great scarrier reef.. or at least what i’ve heard

(although personally i think all movies are fun even if they are messy sometimes [and no i’ve not watched boo york or great scarrier reef i was out of mh by that time （╹◡╹）] )

one more for g1 media, there’s a short anime available on youtube with english subs so if you’re interested you should check it out! i believe it was made as mattel attempted to push mh into the japanese kid scene but that wasn’t successful

so if you want to start off with g1 media, i recommend first to watch some webisodes to get a feel for the characters and then you can really just dive into any movie, they don’t hold any story over to the next in my knowledge

(oh also there are books for g1 and all gens overall.. i’ll explain one day but the only thing you should know right now i think is that the lisi harrison novels are NOT same canon as mainline g1 canon)

now onto…

GENERATION 2!

sorry for my lack of knowledge for this one, i haven’t dipped my knee into g2 yet..

g2 has a way shorter time run that g1 so it’s less complicated

first is another webisode series called “Adventures with the Ghoul Squad!”

they’re animated in a cool 3d art style and run for 11 minutes with only 14 episodes rather than the like 180 webisodes for g1

there’s also 2 movies

1. Welcome to Monster High (2016)

2. Electrified (2017)

same for g1, probably watch some episodes and watch a movie!

now g3!! (the ongoing one)

there are 2 major medias that are different canons

1. the nick show (seen above)

and

2. the live action movies

nick show is mainline canon, again @/bluebelleisabelle has episodes in pinned post, and the show is currently running new episodes now at 5 pm (in us at least) mon-thurs

movie just ran it’s running i think? but you can find it on the users pages i mentioned in g1 section

only 2 movies so far BUT are connected canon and you should watch the first one first before the second

1. Monster High: The Movie (2022)

2. Monster High 2 (2023)

most people prefer the nick show gravely but i personally like the live action movies a lot :3

so if you start off with g3, you can watch the cartoon show’s first episode (and a little more episodes) on the nick website for free (in the us..)

and i think episodes 2-4 are uploaded for free on youtube, and the mh channel posts just snippets of the show overall

and of course you can catch the show live on air at 5 pm 👍

sorry this got more and more less detailed my phone is screaming and burning my fingers BUT Maybe i’ll edit this if i realize i messed up badly somewhere

but also those accounts i mentioned above (@/draculaura on twt, @/monsterhigh.confessions on ig and @/bluebelleisabelle on here) should help you with just a little scrolling on their little master docs of all mh media

aaa ok done

guys i have a confession to make. ive never seen monster high. only things ik about it are from crossover fics. i reallyyy want to start watching tho but as far as i know there are several different versions and movies right?? so can someone tell me what order i should watch in and where its available? pretty please??

[mogwai-movie-house]

The Best of South Park

The 100 greatest episodes of the greatest animated TV show of all time, ranked and rated high-to-low: 1. Scott Tenorman Must Die (2001) ★★★★★★★★★★ 2. Fishsticks (2009) ★★★★★★★★★★ 3. Asspen (2002) ★★★★★★★★★★ 4. Britney's New Look (2008) ★★★★★★★★★★ 5. With Apologies to Jesse Jackson (2007) ★★★★★★★★★★ 6. Cartmanland (2001) ★★★★★★★★★★ 7. Imaginationland (2007) ★★★★★★★★★★ 8. Imaginationland: Episode II (2007) ★★★★★★★★★★ 9. Imaginationland: Episode III (2007) ★★★★★★★★★★ 10. Red Hot Catholic Love (2002) ★★★★★★★★★★ 11. AWESOM-O (2004) ★★★★★★★★★★ 12. Towelie (2001) ★★★★★★★★★★ 13. Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society (2002) ★★★★★★★★★★ 14. The Biggest Douche in the Universe (2002) ★★★★★★★★★★ 15. Cartman Sucks (2007) ★★★★★★★★★★ 16. Jared Has Aides (2002) ★★★★★★★★★★ 17. Cartman's Incredible Gift (2004) ★★★★★★★★★★ 18. The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers (2002) ★★★★★★★★★½ 19. Fat Butt and Pancake Head (2003) ★★★★★★★★★½ 20. Casa Bonita (2003) ★★★★★★★★★½ 21. Cartoon Wars: Part 1 (2006) ★★★★★★★★★½ 22. Cartoon Wars: Part 2 (2006) ★★★★★★★★★½ 23. The Simpsons Already Did It (2002) ★★★★★★★★★½ 24. Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset (2004) ★★★★★★★★★½ 25. Marjorine (2005) ★★★★★★★★★½ 26. Tonsil Trouble (2008) ★★★★★★★★★½ 27. The Death of Eric Cartman (2005) ★★★★★★★★★½ 28. All About Mormons (2003) ★★★★★★★★★½ 29. Cartman Gets an Anal Probe (1997) ★★★★★★★★★½ 30. Go God Go (2006) ★★★★★★★★★½ 31. Go God Go XII (2006) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 32. Trapped in the Closet (2005) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 33. Something You Can Do with Your Finger (2000) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 34. The Death Camp of Tolerance (2002) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 35. Lil' Crime Stoppers (2003) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 36. Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000 (2000) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 37. Christian Rock Hard (2003) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 38. The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000 (2000) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 39. Krazy Kripples (2003) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 40. Medicinal Fried Chicken (2010) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 41. HUMANCENTiPAD (2011) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 42. The Ring (2009) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 43. A Nightmare on FaceTime (2012) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 44. Butters' Very Own Episode (2001) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 45. The Hobbit (2013) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 46. Insheeption (2010) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 47. Ginger Kids (2005) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 48. Raising the Bar (2012) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 49. You're Getting Old (2011) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 50. Black Friday (2013) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 51. A Song of Ass and Fire (2013) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 52. Titties and Dragons (2013) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 53. Make Love, Not Warcraft (2006) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 54. Cartman Joins NAMBLA (2000) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 55. The Passion of the Jew (2004) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 56. A Ladder to Heaven (2002) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 57. My Future Self n' Me (2002) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 58. 200 (2010) ★★★★★★★★★☆ 59. 201 (2010) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 60. Professor Chaos (2002) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 61. Faith Hilling (2012) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 62. Child Abduction Is Not Funny (2002) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 63. The Succubus (1999) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 64. Butters' Bottom Bitch (2009) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 65. Good Times with Weapons (2004) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 66. How to Eat with Your Butt (2001) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 67. Quest for Ratings (2004) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 68. Board Girls (2019) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 69. Super Best Friends (2001) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 70. Hooked on Monkey Fonics (1999) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 71. Spontaneous Combustion (1999) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 72. Raisins (2003) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 73. W.T.F. (2009) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 74. Kenny Dies (2001) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 75. Free Hat (2002) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 76. The Wacky Molestation Adventure (2000) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 77. Here Comes the Neighborhood (2001) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 78. Starvin' Marvin (1997) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 79. Prehistoric Ice Man (1999) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 80. Informative Murder Porn (2013) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 81. Pandemic (2008) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 82. Pandemic 2: The Startling (2008) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 83. Grounded Vindaloop (2014) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 84. Do the Handicapped Go to Hell? (2000) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 85. Probably (2000) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 86. Stunning and Brave (2015) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 87. The Big Fix (2022) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 88. Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus (1999) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 89. Weight Gain 4000 (1997) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 90. Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery (1999) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 91. ManBearPig (2006) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 92. Cancelled (2003) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 93. Safe Space (2015) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 94. Crème Fraîche (2010) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 95. Ass Burgers (2011) ★★★★★★★★½☆ 96. Reverse Cowgirl (2012) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 97. Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub (1999) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 98. The Cissy (2014) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 99. Grey Dawn (2003) ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 100. Starvin' Marvin in Space (1999) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

[deanwasalwaysbi]

I've gotta say, I find the concept of Bedlund trying to Ben-Hur Jensen absolutely hysterical. I'm just imagining Jensen getting a script and being like "Ben?? What's this? Is this gay? This seems gay????" and Ben just soothing him like a frightened horse.

Hahaha - Look it wouldn't be the first time. What is this verb we're working with? Okay. Strap in everyone. The Multi-Oscar-winning 1959 movie 'Ben Hur' had a bunch of gay subtext. The writer, the director, and the second lead actor all knew that Charlton Heston's character, Ben Hur, was gay. However, one person didn't find out until the 1990s: Charlton Heston. The consensus on set was "Don’t tell Charlton, because he’ll freak out." and when Heston found out in the ninties, freak out was exactly what he did. (x) [the movie may have gotten a reference from Misha back in season 6 (x)]

Whether this happened with Jensen on SPN depends on two things.

Was the character of Dean intentionally written as Bi and, if so, at what point did that become true?

Did anyone tell Jensen? Did he figure it out? if so, when?

I personally DO believe at this point, I really do, that Bedlund - Ben Hur'd Jensen. I think it was part of the writers room but not all of it, until it was. (Which RN I believe finally happened under Dabb.) I think Jensen wasn't in on it, until he was. So for me? I think he really was in the dark at one point. But at what point that changed? Probably only he can answer that question. and RN? He ain't talking.

In the meantime we can only look at things Jensen has said on the subject - Like this unbearably ambiguous GIF set from @nikadd. Was this tongue in cheek? Legitimate ignorance? You're killing me, Jensen. That cheeky lil smile, Jensen. Nvm - I'm going to kill you instead. It's for my own survival. No hard feelings right? You understand.

UH OH HERE COMES A CUT TO HIDE A LONG DERANGED POST...

We can look at the text for number 1 - and I do that uh - a lot - see the blog name #Dean Was Always Bi

For number 2 we can look over some points when we got clues from what Jensen thought was going on [regardless of whether they make sense based on his jacting or directorial choices I guess] and get left wondering whether at any point he felt pressured to lie for his career, for self protection, or to protect the narrative from the network: 

2010 - 'We're missing the gay angel' (x) (Season 5 gag reel) (x) “Sorry man, not what the show’s about.” Jared: One of the good and bads about playing the straight [non-comedic] character on the show… Jensen: What wait? I’ve been playing him so wrong

2012 / S8 - Trenchcoat - Jensen talking about how sometimes they change the lines because they're way too gay. Calls Cas a third brother

2012 - "What's Destiel?" Ben Edlund: That’s some weird shit. Jensen: Is this something that you created, Ben? Ben: You don’t want any part of that.

“Don’t ruin it for everyone now” “I still don’t know what the question was. I’m going to pretend I don’t know what the question was.”

2013 @ JIB, re Dean’s reaction to Aaron’s flirting in the season 8 episode Everybody Hates Hitler,  (x)

“And the scene wasn’t written to be that kind of - I mean - It was written to be awkward.  Ben Edlund wrote the - my favorite line in that scene was ‘carry on . citizen’ that was - I almost couldn’t say that with a straight face I was laughing so hard.  But it was - you know - it was comedy. It was a comedic moment in the show and fortunately Dean gets a lot of the comedic moments in the show and it was just, you know, Ben was poking fun at the fact that - you know, how can we make this very kind of manly, heterosexual guy uncomfortable - uh -you know, or  or have him back on his heels and throw him off his game a little bit.”

The thing is - Bedlund and Phil Sgriccia made very clear on the commentary track that THEY saw this scene as a 'romantic comedy kind of fluster' "This potential for love in all places."

Ben Edlund calling the writer’s room a boy’s club in 2013 (x)

Misha Collins telling Destiel fans they aren’t Crazy in 2013 after some executives said they were (x).

2014 Jensen says he was glad there wasn’t much Dean and Cas in season 9  - HA Hah HAH (x)

“I think the whole Cas and Dean thing has gotten out of hand”  “I don’t think there’s anything secret to their relationship even though a lot of people wish there was” REMINDER - that season we got the nightstands acknowledgement and “play him like a jilted lover” and the “he dumped me James” cut and -

I certainly know that Misha and I don’t play that. SIGH. they Ben Hur'd Jensen.

2014 - the fan fiction joke - 10.05

“I didn’t have a positive reaction, The first time in I think 200 scripts I went and sat down in the showrunners office and said, ‘What in god’s name are you doing?! Why? I need to understand why this is happening.’” “[Carver] gave very eloquent answers and did a great job of explaining why we were doing what we were doing, I guess I had been aware of this ‘fan fiction’ for a while and I felt like maybe if I ignored it, it would eventually go away. When I read it in the script that is what I do for a living and is my work—I’m very protective of these characters and the story and I think we have a right to be—I wasn’t angry. I just wanted to understand why and what was the message we were ultimately sending with this script and story. By the end of it, I felt good and it gave me all the confidence I needed. It was better than I could have ever hoped.”

But then there's Jensen in 2015 talking about all of Dean’s bromances. (x)  [gifs at the top] Could go either way - starting to figure it out? or No?

What had changed if anything? the entire Crowely season 10 story line?  This was July 2015 - the same day as the SDCC 2015 panel where Misha talked about Destiel   (x @ 13) Carver and Dabb were there - 

By this time Jensen and Misha were nominated for a teen choice award for best chemistry against various tv couples (and one ensemble cast, but the award nomination did NOT include Jared) .... Misha and Jensen would go on to WIN this award one month after the panel.

At the Panel Rob and Rich ask the question: “You two have branded yourselves as TV’s greatest team since, ... idk who.... Ernie and Bert so.”  [Misha says to Jensen & Jared, half not on the microphone: “I really didn’t expect them to throw us under the bus.”] “are we going to see that continue? Is the Castiel Dean relationship still aflutter and still growing as we move into season 11?”  Jeremy Carver: “Ish.” [mocking from panel ensues] “Yes. Of course. I mean Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. There’s no doubt.”

Jensen Directs 11x03 and the choreo mimics Goodbye stranger (x)

2016 - Jensen: Dean could have a huntress, but you’d kill her.

Jan 2017 Con the infamous - no hedge - harsh - “Destiel doesn’t exist.” (x)

I would hope that if he knew he wouldn’t have been so harsh with it.  So by that point either he still didn’t know - OR - to him ‘Destiel’ was specifically about internet porn/sex and not like - the potential for feelings / a relationship.  It makes me think about something Misha had actually said, around 2013, “It’s called ‘Destiel’ and it’s about the romantic interludes between Dean and Castiel.” (x)

2017 - jib8 Jensen called Dean a lover of the ladies

May 2017 - After filming the end of season 12:

2018 - Misha confirms he and Jensen have talked about Destiel (x) - also 2018: The Bisexual Dean essay "? No." (Oh god was this really this recent?! I can't deal with this.)

Well. SOMETHING happened in 2019. cuz here it comes

2019 - "Dean has no taste, clearly." 2019 - 'So, tell us just a little bit about what you're most excited to tackle with your character this final season.' "Cas. Just like a full football form tackle."

Look at this face he gave Dean when Cas told him he loved him and tell me he wasn't playing into it here. You can't. (x)

[peridottea91]

SPN TIMELINE RANT

Okay. So, Tumblr being a little c*ntbag deleted my post literally in the middle of me typing, so here we go again (woo-fucking-hoo). No, this is not the 1st time it’s happened, and it is taking everything in my power not to punch the computer screen.

A lot of timelines I see on various blogs, websites, and wikis for SPN tend to mess up the dates of the series.  While there are 2 year-long time skips, the showrunners had decided to go by “Soap Opera Time” and nobody seems to properly account for that.  This can be quit frustrating when, if you’re anything like myself, you’re trying to figure out dates for fics and things.

SO, my annoyed, neurotic self decided to post a more accurate version of the timeline that better coincides with the episodes themselves as well as real-world events mentioned in the series.  I’m also taking into account some script details and things the cast and crew have said during interviews and conventions.

S1 - October 31, 2005-July 2006

S2 - July 2006-May 2007

S3 - May 2007-Approx. May 2, 2008

S4 - September 18, 2008-May 2009

S5 - May 2009-May/June 2010

-- 1 Year Time Skip (Dean w/ Lisa & Ben; Sam hunting with the Campbells)--

S6 - Presumably May/June 2011-June 4, 2012

S7 - Approx. June 5, 2012-May 15, 2013

--1 Year Time Skip (Dean & Cas in Purgatory; Sam w/ Amelia)--

S8 - September 2014-May 19, 2015

S9 - May 20, 2015-June 16, 2016

S10 - Late July/Early August 2016-Late May/Early June 2017

S11 - Late May/Early June 2017-Presumably April 2018

S12 - Presumably April 2018-May 18, 2019

S13 - May 18, 2019-September 2020

S14 - September 2020-May/June 2021

S15 - May/June 2021-June 2022

Series Finale (15x20) - Either December 2022 or 2027 (Dean’s Death); Approximately 40-50yrs later (Sam’s Death)

**NOTE: The reason I have 2 hugely different dates for Dean’s death is because Jared previously stated in an interview that Dean died 5yrs after defeating Chuck. However, the scripts for the final episode have indicated that Dean died only 6 months after they defeated Chuck.  As much as I would love it if Dean had the 5yrs of peace and happiness, realistically I know that the 6 months is probably more accurate. Regardless, I included both.

[akamarulover]

Top 100 anime of the decade!

My personal favorite 100 series that aired from 2010-2019. It was harder than I thought to narrow down the list! I have watched all of these (some multiple times) and would recommend them all! *Some of these are not inherently “good”, but were entertaining enough for me to include :9 **If I specify a season, then I probably dropped it at some point or watched all of it but didn’t like the later material ***Cutoff is October 2009. Unless there are multiple seasons, the majority of which aired after 2010.

#41-100

100) Fairy Tail (2009-2019): Action, Adventure, Fantasy -328 Episodes 99) Black Clover (2017-Current): Action, Adventure, Fantasy -116+ 98) Violet Evergarden (2018): Slice of Life, Coming of Age -13 97) O’Maidens in your Savage Season (2019): Slice of Life, Coming of age -12 96) Fate Apocrypha (2017): Action, Fantasy, Supernatural -25 95) The World God Only Knows (2010-2013): Romantic Comedy -36 94) Kobayashi’s Maiddragon (2017): Comedy, Slice of Life -13 93) Sword Art Online [season 1] (2012): Isekai, Action -25 92) Space Brothers (2012-2014): Comedy, Slice of Life, Sci-Fi -99 91) The Ancient Magus’ Bride (2017-2018): Fantasy, Supernatural -24

90) K: Project Kings (2012, 2015): Urban Fantasy, Action -26 89) Darling in the Franxx (2018): Mecha, Romance, Drama -24 88) My Love Story (2015): Romance, Comedy -24 87) Beyond the Boundary (2013): Romance, Fantasy, Supernatural -13 86) Kiznaiver (2016): Sci-Fi, Drama -12 85) Waiting in the Summer (2012): Slice of life, Romance, Supernatural -12 84) Rokka no Yuusha (2015): Mystery, Supernatural, Adventure -12 83) Arslan Senki (2015): Action, Historical, Drama -25 82) Nichijou (2011): Slice of Life, Comedy -26 81) Ozomatsusan (2015-2018): Comedy, Parody -54

80) Golden Kamuy (2018): Historical, Adventure -24 79) Danganronpa [season 1](2013): Mystery -13 78) Charlotte (2015): Comedy, Drama, Supernatural -13 77) Magical Girl Raising Project (2016): Magical Girl, Battle, Dark Fantasy -12 76) Letter Bee (2009-2011): Adventure, Fantasy, Supernatural -50 75) Bakuman (2010-2013): Slice of Life, Comedy, Coming of Age -75 -Manga is really good! By same creators as Death Note 74) Cells at Work (2018): Comedy, Slice of Life -13 73) Acca 13 (2017): Mystery, Drama -13 72) Assassination Classroom (2015-2016): Comedy, Action -47 71)Mekakucity Actors [Kagerou Project] (2014): Supernatural, Sci-Fi -12 -Good music. Story based on Vocaloid songs.

70) No.6 (2011): Dystopia, Shounen-ai, Sci-fi -11 69) Orange (2016): Romance, Slice of life, Coming of age -13 68) Dr.Stone (2019): Adventure, Post-apocalypse -24 67) Your Lie in April (2014-2015): Musical, Romance, Drama -22 66) Scums Wish (2017): Drama, Romance, Seinen -12 65) Children of the Whales (2017): Fantasy, Supernatural -12 64) Food Wars (2015-Current): Battle, Cooking, Ecchi -73+ 63) Rage of Bahamut: Genesis [season 1] (2014): Adventure, Fantasy -12 62) Terraformars (2014-2016): Battle, Sci-fi, Seinen -26 61) Land of the Lustrous (2017): Action, Fantasy -12

60) Blood Blockade Battlefront (2015-2017): Supernatural, Urban Fantasy -24 59) Silver Spoon (2013-2014): Slice of Life, Coming of Age, Comedy -22 -By Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist) 58) Death parade (2015): Psychological, Drama -12 57) Yona of the Dawn (2014-2015): Adventure, Fantasy, Romance -24 56) My Little Monster (2012): Romance, Comedy -13 -Anime unfinished. Manga is my fav shoujo romance 55) Little Witch Academia (2017): Fantasy, Magic, School -25 -Studio Trigger (Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann, Promare) 54) Ajin (2016): Horror, Supernatural, Psychological -26 53) Magi (2012-2014): Adventure, Fantasy -50 52) Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (2013): Sci-fi, Psychological -13 -By Gen Urobuchi (Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero, Psycho Pass) 51) Anohana (2011): Coming of Age, Drama -11

50) Sakamoto Desu Ga? (2016): Comedy, School, Slice of life -12 49) Fate/Unlimited Blade Works (2014-2015): Supernatural, Battle -26 48) Megalo Box (2018): Sports, Sci-fi, Drama -13 -Really awesome classic art style 47) The Promised Wonderland (2019-Current): Horror, Psychological -12 46) JJBA:Stardust Crusaders (2014-2015): Action, Adventure -48 45) Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (2014): Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life -12 44) Wandering Son (2011): Coming-of-age, LGBT+ -12 43) Run With the Wind (2018-2019): Sports, Slice-of-life -23 42) Dororo (2019): Supernatural, Historical, Action -24 -By Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, etc...) 41) Yuri on Ice (2016): Romance, Sports -12

#11-40

40) Demon Slayer (2019-Current): Supernatural, Action -26+ -Gorgeous art/animation. Great soundtrack. 39) Psycho Pass [season 1] (2012-2013): Dystopia, Psychological -22 -Smart, capable, well written female lead. Interesting social commentary.  38) Space Dandy (2014): Sci-fi, Comedy -26 -Very funny. Great leading character. Really good English dub! -Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) 37) Future Diary (2011-2012): Psychological, Romance, Mystery -26 -Murder game (so pretty trashy lol). Fun characters. 36) Banana Fish (2018): Drama, Romance, Crime Thriller -24 -Engaging characters. Great Story. Very emotional and tragic.  -Dark Themes. Check trigger warnings before watching! 35) Usagi Drop (2011): Slice-of-Life, Drama -11 -Incredibly sweet and heartwarming. Emotional. Bittersweet. -DO NOT (and I cannot stress this enough) EVER! Read! The manga!

34) Erased (2016): Mystery, Psychological -12 -Good story. Endearing characters. Emotional. Bittersweet. 33) Free! (2013-2018): Sports, Slice of Life -37 -Fun characters. Beautiful art. Great animation. 32) JJBA: Phantom Blood (2012): Action, Adventure, Supernatural -9 -Unique and interesting characters. Engaging storytelling. -If you haven’t watched any Jojo yet, start here! 31) Gintama (2006-2018): Comedy, Parody, Action -367 -Stupid funny bullshit. Fun characters. Emotional scenes done very well! 30) Fire Force (2019-Current): Action, Supernatural -24+ -Stunning visuals. Incredible fire effects. Top notch animation. Good characters. Great OP song! Good aesthetics. Good atmosphere. -Manga by Atsushi Ohkubo (Soul Eater) 29) Parasyte (2014-2015): Horror, Supernatural, Sci-fi -24 -Among my all time favorite horror series. Creepy body horror and cool fights. Good animation. Good soundtrack.

28) Blue Exorcist (2011, 2017): Action, Supernatural -37 -Great characters. Good demon designs. Standard shounen done well. -Anime is unfinished but manga is GREAT! Amazing art. Woman writer! 27) Deadman Wonderland (2011): Action, Thriller -12 -Great character designs. Cool powers (all blood based). Creepy Atmosphere -Anime unfinished. Manga among my all time favorites! Great art. 26) Tsuritama (2012): Comedy, Sci-fi -12 -Charming characters. Feel good show. Super fun and sweet. Good vibes. 25) Gangsta (2015): Action, Drama -12 -Deaf main male! Nuanced characters. Thoughtful handling of difficult subjects. Female writer! Emotional and tragic. 24) Tatami Galaxy (2010): Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy -11 -One of the most unique series I’ve ever seen. Very unique characters. Engaging storytelling. Bizarre and funny. Defies expectations.  -Has an accompanying movie (Night is Short Walk on Girl, 2017) 23) Angel Beats (2010): Drama, Supernatural -13 -Emotional, bittersweet, tragic, heartwarming. Every character gets focus. 

22) JJBA: Diamond is Unbreakable (2016): Action, Drama, Battle -39 -Unique characters. Cool powers. Good OST.  21) One Punch Man (2015, 2019): Action, Comedy: -24 -Incredible animation. Great fight scenes. Great characters. 20) Kids on the Slope (2012): Musical, Romance, Coming of Age -12 -Great jazz/blues style music. Good character growth. -Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Carole and Tuesday) 19) Hunter X Hunter (2011-2014): Action, Adventure, Fantasy -148 -Good character dynamics. Great animation for a long running series! 18) Noragami (2014-2015): Supernatural, Action: -25 -Amazing atmosphere. Great use of color. Cool fights/powers. Fun characters -Anime unfinished. Manga is great! Good art style. 17) The Eccentric Family (2013, 2017): Drama, Comedy, Romance -25 -Charming unique characters. Quirky storytelling. Very fun to watch.

16) JJBA: Battle Tendency (2012-2013): Action, Adventure -17 -The most fun JoJo part imo. Great villains. Fun characters. Colorful.  15) Natsume’s Book of Friends (2008-2017): Supernatural, Slice of Life -74 -Main chara is very sweet. Wholesome, funny, bittersweet, episodic stories. 14) Devilman Crybaby (2018): Action, Horror, Supernatural -10 -VERY intense scenes/gore. Unique art style. Leaves a lasting impression. 13) Haikyuu!! (2016-Current): Sports, Comedy -60+ -Huge cast of fun characters. Great animation. Good OP/ED songs 12) Kill la Kill (2013-2014): Action, Battle, Magical Girl -24 -Great supporting characters. Majority female cast. Good fight scenes. Very fun, over the top and weird. Fantastic OST. 11) Chihayafuru (2011-Current): Sports, Drama, Romance -74+ -My all time fav sports anime! Female lead. Well developed characters. Great character dynamics. Good art/animation.

10) My Hero Academia (2016-Current): Action, Fantasy -75+ -When they actually try, animation is great. Great character designs. Fun cast. Great character interactions. Great chara development. Cool powers. Basically everything a superhero series should be. -If this were based on manga it would be my #1 pick haha 9) Mob Psycho 100 (2016, 2019): Action, Supernatural -25 -Animation consistently incredible. Good use of color. Unique art style. Unique and interesting characters. Shigeo is a national treasure. Great fight scenes.

8) JJBA: Golden Wind (2018-2019): Action, Adventure -39 -Unique characters. Unique powers. Great chara dynamics. Interesting fights. Probably the most unique character/ability designs of any series. -As a collective whole, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure would be in my top 3. But since each part has its own complete story, I separated them. 7) Attack on Titan (2013-Current): Action, Mystery, Horror -59+ -Interesting premise. Impressive animation. Amazing art. Great atmosphere and tone. Engaging and interesting story. Good writing. Great OP/ED songs. Well executed plot twists. -I would say best animation of the decade. Huge scale of characters and the world framed very well. Consistently great looking action. Best use of 3D animation in anime that I know of.

6) Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (2016-2017): Drama, Romance -25 -Young (absolute best boy) ex-con Yotaro gets inspired by performative art form Rakugo. He begs Rakugo master, Yakumo, to teach him. Yakumo however is a bitter, depressed, gay old man with deep emotional wounds and a tragic past. -Incredible voice acting (best of ANY series out there.) Emotionally captivating. Great story. Fully fleshed out depth of characters. Great character interactions. Great character growth. -Funny when it tries. Heartbreaking and angsty. An amazing, thoughtful, heart wrenching series led by well rounded characters. 5) Made in Abyss (2017): Adventure, Horror, Fantasy -13+ -In the center of a certain city lies a massive abyss containing countless unimaginable sights, treasures and monsters. Once you enter, it is impossible to return. 12 year old orphan Riko ventures inside with robot boy Reg to find her mother who disappeared many years ago. -Great art. Great concept. Mind blowing backgrounds and environments. Good monster designs. Great characters. Great atmosphere. Fantastic OST. Truly terrifying and horrific. Captivating and enchanting worldbuilding. -Season 2 confirmed (with no date)

4) Madoka Magica (2011): Magical Girl, Psychological -12 -Great OST. Good characters. Plot very well done. Handles plot twists very well. Good character design. Leaves lasting impression. -Among the most influential anime of the decade imo.  3) Fate/Zero (2011-2012): Fantasy, Action, Battle -25 -Interesting characters explored very well. Great animation (same studio as Demon Slayer). Great OST. Good story writing. Interesting premise. -Prequel series to Fate/Unlimited Blade Works -I hesitate to call it “historical”. But it includes many historical figures and mythos from a wide variety of the world and time periods. I have learned a lot of lore through the franchise and my own research.  -Those unfamiliar with Fate franchise, this is an acceptable starting point. My own first step into Fate (now I’m fully entrenched in lore).

2) From the New World(2012-2013): Psychological, Dystopia, Supernatural -25 -1,000 years in the future, after apocalyptic events, all remaining humans possess psychic abilities. All humans are considered ticking time bombs, and children are closely monitored and dealt with as the government sees fit. Saki and friends discover all the dark secrets of their society and human history. -Great character development. Fantastic worldbuilding. Great storytelling. Plot twists delivered well. Good story. -Plot twists are truly mind blowing. And really alter how you view the series. Grey morality explored and makes you question who is truly good or bad.  -Almost every main character is canon bisexual :9 -One of the best written villains I have ever seen. -Avoid the manga :/ 1) Durarara!! (2010-2016): Urban Fantasy, Drama, Romance -62 -Unique writing style. Great character development. Interesting character interactions. Good handling of a large cast. Multiple plot threads handled well. Good OST. Well rounded female characters. -No one “main” character. Just central characters the plot tends to revolve around. Multiple plots and charas are thrown around until they all come together in a very satisfying way. -I love series with a large cast. And DRRR handles it better than anything I have ever seen (which is why it’s my fav). The character progression through each arc is fantastic.

Special Mentions

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (2009-2010): Action, Adventure -38 -One of, if not the best anime ever made -Did not include bc majority of the show aired in 2009. Mushishi (2005-2006, 2014) Supernatural, Adventure -46 -Majority aired far before 2010. Most of my fav stories in first season.  -Great episodic, surrealist anime. Explores interesting concepts and supernatural powers and entities. Carole and Tuesday (2019): Drama, Musical -24 -I have not watched the recently released second half yet  -Great music. Charming characters. Good animation. FGO/Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia (2019-2020): Action, Fantasy -12+ -Still airing, reserving judgement until full adaptation is complete -Great OST, Fantastic animation, great story. -My favorite story from FGO mobile game. So far the adaptation is done great. Fight scenes translated beautifully.  Stars Align (2019-20??): Sports, Drama, Coming of Age -12 -Unfortunately series was cut halfway through production. Big cliffhanger waiting on unconfirmed second season. -Thoughtful handling of difficult subjects. Good characters. Nice art style. -Surprisingly dark at times. Sharp changes in mood. Kings Game (2017): Horror, Murder Game -12 -Awful. Hilariously awful. Incomprehensible.  -Truly baffling choices in direction and storytelling -Character motivations and actions absolutely unintelligible. -Actually watch it though. The roller coaster of terrible decision making and incompetence is a real treat to experience.

And with that, my top 100! Curating this list was a huge nostalgia trip. And very fun. Some older shows feel like they aired barely a year ago, while others feel like they’ve been around forever. Let me know if you watch something from my list! (Or message me if you want to know more about a series. I would love to talk about it.) Also send me recommendations! I obviously can’t catch every show ever aired, so if something’s good I would love to know about it. This decade or otherwise. If you read through everything, thanks so much! Happy New Year!

[kamiondir]

NCIS Fic Rec List

I’ve always enjoyed finding new stories from other people’s rec lists and since I have managed to accumulate my own list, thought I’d make my own! I watched NCIS through to S12-13. Tony was by far my favourite character, so most of my recs center around him in some way. I also have a number of crossover recs - mostly with Stargate. A lot of the recs are from FFN as lots of these stories are from 10-15 years ago. All recs complete unless otherwise indicated.

* - really like   ** - love  ♥ - favourite

Case Fic

Title: One Less Author: joykatleen Season: 6 Relationship: Gen Rating/Year: PG-13; 2010 Word Count: 100-200k Content/Warnings: Character Death (Minor), Disability, Rape/Sexual Assault, Torture

Author's Summary: 'The murder of a sailor in a DC warehouse reveals a conspiracy that's been silently destroying lives on a Navy carrier for years. Someone high is covering it up. Can Gibbs and company get to the root of it before more lives are lost?'

Review:  Well-written story about a series of cases too much of a coincidence to not be connected. Gibbs goes after it with his usually stubborness, and his own brand of compassion - and his team is there to prop him up. Not the type of fic I usually read, but well-done, and probably the best NCIS Case-fic I've found. ♥

Character Study

Title: Slices of a Life Worth Living Author: Angelus1 Season: 1,2 Relationship: Gen, but meant to be pre-Tony/Kate Rating: PG-13; 2006 Word Count: 10-20k Content/Warnings: None

Author's Summary: 'Kate is surprised at how easily they fall into a routine.'

Review: An awesome, well-written look at Tony and Kate's relationship. Pre-Kate/Tony. ♥

Title: Truth is in the Sodium Thiopental Author: Mahiri Chuma Season: 7x01 Truth or Consequences Relationship: Gen Rating: PG-13; 2009 Word Count: 3-5k Content/Warnings: None

Author's Summary: 'Ten hours was an awfully long time to be stuck on a plane with a concerned Gibbs while under the influence of truth serum. Tony/Gibbs non-slash - Hints of TIVA, S7x01-Tag.'

Review: Great fic, set on the plane ride home. Tony's feeling guilty, and Gibbs notices. Very well done and an excellent Tony POV.**

Family of Choice

Title: Lessons Learned Author: jumpfall Season: 1-5 Relationship: Gen Rating: G/PG; 2010 Word Count: 1-3k Content/Warnings: Allusions to child abuse

Author's Summary: 'Gibbs' rules vary from the investigator-savvy to the cyncial to the life-saving. For every rule there is a reason. Behind every reason is a lesson learned.'

Review: A look at five different episodes where Gibbs rules come into effect. Very well done. ♥

Title: A Sense of Duty Author: GraveDigger Resurrection Season: 7x12 Flesh and Blood Relationship: Gen Rating: PG-13; 2010 Word Count: 3-5k Content/Warnings: Allusions to child abuse

Author's Summary: "You have children, Gibbs?" And in the silence of that moment, Gibbs realizes the answer is not as simple as he thought. Set mid-'Flesh and Blood'. Allusions to child abuse. Gibbs/Tony, father/son.'

Review: Well-written. More parental!Gibbs than canon, but totally in character. Has a sequel, A Sense of Family. ♥

Title: T.L.C. Gibbs’ Style Author: Obsessed Pam Season: 5 Relationship: Gen Rating: PG-13; 2008 Word Count: 10-20k Content/Warnings: None

Author's Summary: 'Tony has done it again - got himself into trouble and he is now having to face the unpleasant results of his own actions. Gibbs decides to intervene.'

Review: Tony covers for an agent who made a mistake, exposing himself to the elements and getting sick in the meantime. Gibbs is soooo not impressed. Especially when Tony seems to lose all common sense afterwards. Very well done - definitely get a harder side of Gibbs than you normally see, and a Tony who you can tell is more than just a bit broken.**

Crossovers

Title: Blood and Water Author: Commodore Norrington Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate SG-1 Relationship: Pre-Jack O’Neill/Sam Carter Rating: PG-13; 2005 Word Count: 10-20k Content/Warnings: None

Author's Summary: ‘When the leader of SG3 is murdered, Jack is forced to bring investigators to the SGC...investigators from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.’

Review: There’s an OOC fact about Kate and Jack that’s kind of odd but doesn’t detract from the story.

Title: Conference Call Author: Moonbeam Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate SG-1 Relationship: Gen Rating: G/PG; 2009 Word Count: Drabble Content/Warnings: None

Author's Summary: ['Special Agent Tony DiNozzo makes a call to the Pentagon for a case.'

Review: Jack is willing to help when it's one of his men in trouble, and Tony thinks he could like this particular Air Force General.

Title: Detached Duty Author: zathara001 Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate SG-1 Relationship: Gen Rating: G/PG; 2017 Word Count: Verse Content/Warnings: None

Author's Summary: ‘When Gibbs, DiNozzo, and McGee are sent on TAD to investigate a death at Cheyenne Mountain, they find more than they expected.’

Review: As above! One of the more recent in this genre.*

Title: Echoes Author: Gadfly (no link available) Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate SG-1 Relationship: Gen Rating: PG-13; 2006 Word Count: 10-20k Content/Warnings: Torture

Author's Summary: ‘ Sometimes the past is echoed in the present.’

Review: Gibbs and another Marine were detained along with Jack in Iraq. When the other Marine goes missing, and Jack suspects the NID, he calls in Gibbs for assistance. With Gibbs undercover, they are able to get back the missing man, and then Jack has fun torturing Gibbs team in training scenarios. Realistic and interesting fic.* 

Title: A Fed, a General, and a Linguist Walk Into A Bar... Author: Trinket2018 Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate SG-1 Relationship: Gen Rating: G/PG; 2018 Word Count: 20-40k Content/Warnings: Kidnapping

Author's Summary: ‘Tony is hunting a serial killer in Alexandria, with competition and no back-up.’

Review: I love Tony’s interactions with SG-1 as well as the story, but the NCIS bashing is a bit more than I usually like. Overall interesting! Love the use of Tony’s undercover skills.*

Title: In Need of Shelter Author: etrangerici Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate SG-1 Relationship: Gen Rating: G/PG; 2009 Word Count: 1-3k Content/Warnings: Character Death (Canon), PTSD

Author's Summary: 'Jack was prone to collecting strays.'

Review: Where Jack runs into a distressed Tony at the grocery store after the events of 2x23 and knows what to do. Short and sweet - always wished we got more of this verse.* 

Title: Kindred Spirits Author: alcimines Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate SG-1 Relationship: Gen Rating: G/PG; 2013 Word Count: 3-5k Content/Warnings: None.

Author's Summary: 'Stargate Command and Gibbs' team from NCIS get crosswise with each other.'

Review: Jack is a 'person of interest' in a Captains murder. This doesn't go down well with anyone. Quite well done, with a hilarious tone throughout. ♥  

Title: NCIStargate Author: Keith_company Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate SG-1 Relationship: Gen Rating: PG-13; 2005 Word Count: 10-20k Content/Warnings: None

Author's Summary: 'NCIS investigates an abnormal number of Marine deaths at an Air Force facility.'

Review: An excellent crossover, set during S8 of SG-1, and between seasons 1-2 of NCIS. The NCIS gang goes to Cheyenne, where they learn of the Stargate program, and discover that Tony's had a silent visitor for most of his life.** 

Title: Open Mouth, Insert Foot Author: Willow Fireheart Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate SG-1 Relationship: Jack O’Neill/Sam Carter Rating: G/PG; 2007 Word Count: Drabble Content/Warnings: None

Author's Summary: 'Tony just can't seem to keep his mouth shut, especially when it concerns attractive blonde women.'

Review: Concerning Sam, when she and Jack are married. Tony is afterwards concerned for his life. Cute! ♥

Title: A Coin is a Coin Author: ancientmaverick Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate Atlantis Relationship: Gen Rating: G/PG; 2008 Word Count: 1-3k Content/Warnings: None.

Author's Summary: 'Tony meets a new friend and reflects on life over the past few years. Crossover with Stargate Atlantis.'

Review: S6 NCIS, S5 (or after) for SGA. Tony goes drinking with off-duty navy-men, and they're playing a 'who's met who' game at a bar, when they're challenged by an Air Force man, who uses John as the highest challenger. Tony & John get into a (very drunken, but good) conversation. Well written &a in character X-over.*

Title: Cross Jurisdiction Author: casus17 Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate Atlantis Relationship: Gen Rating: G/PG; 2008 Word Count: 40-60k Content/Warnings: None.

Author's Summary: ‘When a marine turns up dead, you call NCIS. When a marine turns up dead, with Iratus bug DNA... well then you need SGA-1. Head butting will ensue. NCIS crossover.’

Review: Good, but not great fic of the genre.

Title: Highly Classified and Very Hush Hush Author: rageprufrock Fandoms: NCIS x Stargate Atlantis Relationship: Gen Rating: PG-13; 2010 Word Count: 1-3k Content/Warnings: None.

Author's Summary: 'Gibbs sometimes wonders what he did to deserve these morons, but then he looks through the one-way window at three naked and extremely uncomfortable-looking Marines and figures it could be worse.'

Review: Hilarious, with wonderful characterizations of both fandoms by a truly excellent and well-known author. I especially love John. Also has a sequel. ♥ 

[pochapal]

rank every year of the 2010s from best to worst i want some pochapal lore

[warning for discussion of my fucked up mental health and my myriad traumas. we’re really opening the pandora’s box here gang]

ok time for me to overshare on the internet again! super long post because i can’t shut up and you asked for it. anyway, by objective ranking: 

#1: 2012 - halcyon era, my personal peak. spent the whole year writing hunger games oc fics with my deviantart fanfiction besties whom i still think about all the time and always hope are having the best possible day. if you were here for this era understand i still hold you so closely and dearly in my heart <3. 

#2: 2013 - god i was such a good example of a human being back then. was the year my writing like actually took off and i had a healthy balance between creative stuff and a social life (said social life consisting of spending lunchtimes at school breaking into classrooms and discussing fandom shit with five other people. reading homestuck updates in the music room on one person’s really shaky mobile data...legendary). highlight of the year and maybe my life was in the april of 2013 when i got out of failing to submit a hard deadline essay by telling my english teacher i wrote a whole novel over the two week break and then producing said novel. god i wish i had that level of like. fucking confidence back me back then knew what i wanted and how to get it. 

#3: 2010 - the last year of childhood. i was 12 and played pokemon all the time with my friends and went places and had a moderately successful youtube channel and it didn’t matter that i was bullied so badly at school because i was basically high off life. summer of 2010 was so good specifically. i’d used to get the bus with a friend and go see movies and break into historical sites and get into normal childhood mayhem and maxed out my pokewalkers twice a month and i was buzzed because i had two (2) whole friendship groups to choose from and that was such a huge deal to me the terminal social outcast. it was so simple and carefree and even though everything and everyone involved in this era grew up to suck except for one specific person i kinda really miss it.

#4: 2018 - this was the first year i wasn’t depressed to the point of nonfunctioning. it was 20gayteen, i was on antidepressants, i was as close to thriving as i got at uni (going into town with people once a week, attending art and culture events, getting good grades across the board), i started to write for fun again, i got my cat whom i love dearly, i was exhibited in my uni’s city’s literature festival, GOD i actually nearly attended a pride event that year can you imagine. this year was basically my life’s second peak. miss getting the 8am train and daintily sipping on a cherry coke to keep me from passing out. wish this time could have lasted longer.

#5: 2019 - kinda absolute middle of the road year not for lack of anything happening but because the overwhelming amount of good and bad things cancelled each other out. so like there’s the fact that i was at the top of my uni game this year, was basically making the first steps into a professional writing career (covid i will never forgive you for killing all that dead </3), finally saved up enough to buy myself a gaming pc, and the summer after the homestuck epilogues, but equally 2019 was the start of the Pochapal Gender Fiasco which is by far the most horrible thing i am still currently undergoing and i burnt myself out mentally about halfway through the year (being stuck overnight in a hospital for a panic attack absolutely horrible horrible irredeemable) and then got like super death plague flu that i was sick with for three months (literally recovered less than a month before rona hit. god’s cruel karma.). so like...it kind of averaged out? the good shit was good but not as great as other years and the bad shit was awful but nowhere near as terrible as it could have been. gotta give a shoutout to 90% of my current mutual cohort for following me in 2019...omelette route gang make some noise !!

#6: 2014 - oof. this year essentially marked the start of a four year long downward mental health spiral because everything fell into awful alignment. i’d just turned 16, finished secondary school, had all my friends up and ditch me at once, was home alone for a whole summer, and was hit with Sudden Intense Body Image Issues that i couldn’t explain until uh. after very recent developments lmao. this one goes out to the me of july 2014 who did nothing but lay in bed and listen to the same two marina albums on a loop because fuck i’m attracted to men and also my facial and body hair are really starting to come in and if i think about this for too long i will literally kill myself because oh god i can’t handle getting older which is clearly and definitely the issue going on here. my brain fucking broke super hardcore and it’s a miracle that an overeating disorder was like the worst thing i walked away with. 

#7: 2015 - downward spiral year two!! i was so volatile this year it was such a mess. i was totally socially isolated after a brief stint of falling in with a group of people at the start of my first year of sixth form until january where in quick succession a) it turned out every single one of these people was friends with the person who sexually assaulted me whom i obviously had a lot of complicated feelings towards and b) baby’s first crush came out as bisexual but in the “women and also trans women” kind of way which tore me up so terribly in ways i couldn’t begin to understand. no words for the experience of seeing a girl kiss a boy and crying so hard at night you threw up because you could never be her no matter how much you wanted it. actually kinda get the sense what was going on there was bigger than just some crush lmao. then after that i was so mentally ill i basically attended school less than half the time and it was the only year in my life i failed my exams. i ended up having to resit my entire set of first year a level exams because jesus christ was i in such a bad way it was a miracle i even showed up to them. all i did was either have anxiety attacks or enter bedbound depressive slumps for weeks at a time. but it’s okay because it gets worse.

#8: 2016 - downward spiral act iii: the spiralling. prefacing this by saying that i actually had two whole good months (april - may) in that i was functioning enough to do my exams and finish school with decent grades. the rest was super extra mega terrible. my school attendance for year 13 dipped below 65% and literally the only thing that kept me from being kicked out was the fact that i was naturally smart at the subjects i took and also because the school would have a lot to answer for after letting me get to that state despite having a hefty file on how damaged i was. keep in mind every single part of this was fully untreated btw - i was just floundering around and letting it all fester. i spent three solid weeks going to school but locking myself in the bathroom all day every day and having mental health episodes then going home like nothing else happened only to continue the breakdown that night. then things got kicked into fucked up overdrive when i moved out to uni and was cut off from what little support structures i did have. it was so bad all i did was cry all the time and never went anywhere to the point where three separate sources recommended me to the wellbeing and crisis counselling service that i stopped going to after two sessions because i was fucked up in ways cbt techniques could not even touch. at least i tried to make an effort for the first two months of uni which like. good for me?

#9: 2017 - what lieth at the base of the spiral. helltrench year. i was at literal rock bottom. i stopped going to class, i didn’t hand in a single piece of work. i lied to my parents and would book trains each day only to go back to my student flat and sit there and contemplate suicide. like i would just slump on the floor in a catatonic state and vividly contemplate one of four or so ways i could end my own life. i only didn’t because i wanted to wait until the summer to collect my last student loan and transfer it to my parents as an apology for my death which obviously didn’t end up happening. honestly i can’t remember much of the first half of 2017 that’s how bad it was. i remember taking a gender studies class and the teacher made it Weird that i was the Only Male Student in the room and then she sent me a scolding email after i walked out halfway through a class and never returned. apparently i got into a lot of online discourse in this year but i don’t remember anything other than being put on a blocklist by the milkfic author over ace discourse which is funny if you have the context. mostly i just baited terfs and weirdo freaks to get them to say horrible things to me as what i guess amounts to some kind of digital self harm. anyway breaking point came in late august when i got kicked out of university and then nobody could ignore it any more so there was no choice left but for me to seek out help and recover enough to function which luckily i did. i really Do Not remember 2017. you could tell me anything about that year and i’d probably believe you.

#10: 2011 - extra circle of hell for this little fucked up gem of a year. on the surface it wasn’t actually that terrible, until the Summer 2011 Domino Effect Of Bad Shit. up until like may/june it was a pretty all right year! i was 13 and had a surprisingly successful youtube channel uploading pokemon soundfont remixes to an audience of i think ~350-400 subscribers at my peak? anyway then i got hit with the early summer triple combo of childhood friends moving away, cute and quirky sexual assault at the hands of a person in my friend group, and then having some Really Great and Super Appropriate interactions with adults on deviantart. like obviously there’s the actual ptsd-inducing event which totally disrupted and killed the person i was right up until that moment and reshaped every facet of my life for better or worse (there’s an alternate timeline where that didn’t happen and i got into electronic music and/or coding instead) but really it’s the events that followed in its wake which were kind of more fucked up. so like all of a sudden i was super aware of my body and me growing my hair out and being mistaken for a girl in class suddenly became this Less Innocent thing and i ended up spending hours overnight going to transgender questioning forums and looking up hrt timeline videos and having the wikipedia article on tracheal shaving saved because it was a life raft to me whose voice was imminently gonna deepen and i was simultaneously reeling with constant trauma flashbacks and the whole thing was so so fucked up. then i was on deviantart and i don’t remember exactly how but a small group of furry guys ten to fifteen years older than me started messaging me and encouraging and requesting me to produce nonsexual fetish stuff for them and talking to me about stuff like if i’d ever thought about growing up to be gay and i didn’t think anything of it for a long while because they called me a very talented writer and it felt so good to have someone be nice to me after being so alone and isolated for months on end. anyway the only reason i got out of that before it got bad was because they invited me to one of the big furry sites and i was weirded out because i thought it was a porn site and thinking about sexual stuff was a huge trauma trigger so i just ended up blocking them all and pretending like it didn’t happen. at the time half this shit didn’t bother me but in retrospect holy fuck 2011 was such a damaging year. to think if like three events didn’t happen i wouldn’t be the fucked up mess you see before you today.

god fuck this turned out super long but i’m not apologising because this was a therapeutic exercise for me and also constitutes as one of the biggest pochapal lore dumps of all time. come get your food or whatever.

[phantombandit-films]

Childhood Tv Shows.

So me and my friend where talking about tv shows that we use to watch when we were young. So I thought I’d make a post of mine to see if I could find some people who use to watch them too 🙊

1) The Adams Family (1964 - 1966) ~ I have vivid memories of summer time, at dinner time playing with my Barbies and I would be eating a cornetto and watching the old Adams Family on Tv. 

2) 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996 - 2001) ~ To this day this is still mine andmy dads fav Tv show, it’s so good!

3) Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996 - 2003) ~ Who didn’t watch Sabrina growing up?

4) Hornblower (1998 - 2003) ~ This probably kicked off my love for period dramas, I remember being made to watch a episode with my parents one day because I’d been naughty so I had to sit there and be quiet :’).

5) Charmed (1998 - 2006) ~ Honestly this show is probably why I like all the spooky stuff I do today :’)

6) The Tribe (1999 - 2003) ~ This has to be my fav Tv childhood memory, me and my mum have been recently re watching them. This is one of the ones I mention to people but no one has seen, I get sad because it was so good.

7) My Family (2000 - 2011) ~ This was one that you could wait to watch, just a fun time.

8) Malcolm in the middle (2000 - 2006) ~ I remember watching this show and liking it but I honestly don’t remember much about what happens :’)

9) My name is Earl (2005 - 2009) ~ Another just feel good funny one, again one that me and my dad use to watch.

10) Heroes (2006 - 2010) ~ I remember watching the first season of this when it aired and just being so blown away by it. I don’t remember watching past season one though.

11) Surface (2005 - 2006) ~ This is another weird one that I loved but no one remembers.

12) Doctor Who (2005 - ) ~ I started watching doctor who from 2005 when it first started airing again and god I loved it, but unfortunately I did stop watching like midway Capaldi era. It just lost that Doctor Who spark for me, but I miss it dearly.

13) Pushing Daisies (2007 - 2009) ~ Honestly you have never experienced a Tv show like this. WOW. I was extremely sad when it got cancelled. BRING IT BACK. 

14) Life on Mars (2006 - 2007) ~ Another WOW series, absolutely amazing! another fav that’s shared with my parents. 

15) Primeval (2007 - 2011 ) ~ Another show I watched as aired and stayed with until they made that spin off show, but it wasn’t the same without the original team. Probably a big part of why I still love Dinosaurs :’)

16) 90210 (2008 - 2013) ~ Ah the old days when I needed my dads parental code for catch up on the Channel 4 website so I could catch up on this :’) 

17) Demons (2009 - 2009) ~ A supernatural show that unfortunately didn’t last long, but for my brain it was good enough! I still have it on DVD!

18) Ashes to Ashes (2008 - 2010) ~ I love Life on Mars so much, it’s OG. But honestly I think Ashes to Ashes is my fav, we actually get more info about what the hell is going on :’)

19) Merlin (2008 - 2012) ~ I feel like I don’t have to explain this one, if you’ve watched Merlin you just know the intense love and sadness for this show.

20) Britannia High (2008 - 2009) ~ Another one that people don’t remember. But I loved it and still to this day listen to most of the songs. 

[sammysreelreviews]

Counting Down My Top Ten Animated Tv Shows Of The Last Decade

What’s up bitches?! It’s time for my second decade countdown! If you know me you know I love animated shows so I just had to give them their own countdown! So many amazing animated shows have happened in the past ten years and I’m so excited for future shows! I’ll probably cry writing this cause I’m a little Pisces bitch! Enjoy the list and there will be ***SPOILERS!!!***

10. Disenchantment (2018- ) Netflix

Disenchantment in a way is a feminist cartoon because Bean is a princess who wants to do things her way but she’s also flawed which I think is important! I only started watching this show because I’m obsessed with Broad City and Abbi Jacobson voices Bean so of course I’m going to watch it! I really hope we get more lore and Elfo in season 3 and I can’t wait for what they come up with next!

9. Aggretsuko (2018- ) Netflix

A show about a red panda who likes to song metal karaoke sounds ridiculous but it’s ridiculously good. This show not only makes you think about how draining corporate work life is but also about how people make you feel and how sometimes you just need a mental health day. I’m so grateful Netflix kept this show running and I even have Aggretsuko days of the week socks that my therapist loves so I don’t wanna hear shit!

8. Steven Universe (2013 - ) Cartoon Network

My friend Genna literally does not stop asking me to watch this show and she made me before I made this list and I actually like it. I haven’t finished the show I just started season 3 but Steven Universe is charming and vulnerable which is hard to do with a kids show. Another thing I love about it is the backstory. I feel like one of the best parts of the show is the intricate backstory of the different gems and it’s what makes me keep watching honestly. I can’t say much cause I’m not done yet but I’m liking what I’m seeing and I love Steven and Garnet’s relationship so much!

7. Big Mouth (2017- ) Netflix

Big Mouth. I’ve talked about this before so I won’t say much but this show is so fucking weird but so fucking funny I hope it never ends. “Lucky Malala, that’s what they call her.”

6. The Amazing World of Gumball (2011- ) Cartoon Network

Ok so I always saw random episodes of Gumball on TV but I never watched it fully until like a couple months ago and it’s just so creative, hysterical, and the animation is insane like there’s 3D and 2D characters just co-existing together. I wrote about Gumball like two or three articles ago in shows that ended way too soon but they’ve announced that we indeed are getting new Gumball episodes very soon! I’m PRAYING we get some closure after that cliffhanging as fuck season finale! Also, is Darwin not the cutest animated character since Flounder!? Maybe it’s a fish thing!

5. Bojack Horseman (2014- ) Netflix

Ok so this is probably the millionth time I’ve mentioned Bojack here but this last season was about Bojack taking responsibility and getting his life back together which really resonated with me. In a way I could relate I wanted to stop making mistakes and better myself for me and for my friends and family. Bojack is the king of self sabotage and and one point I was too. Unfortunately I’ve been having crippling anxiety but this time I’ve tried every step and opportunity to get better which is what Bojack is doing now and I’ve never had an animated show explore that. I’m so sad it’s ending but honestly it’s a must watch! Sorry that got so personal I have no idea why I’m feeling so fucking emo right now. Bojack Horseman is funny as hell too just FYI!

4. Gravity Falls (2012-2016) Disney XD

Gravity Falls, yet another show I’ve mentioned countless times, is not only hysterical but there’s a mystery that makes you want to rewatch it the minute you finish it. I really wish this show would’ve gone on forever and ever but all good things must come to an end.

3. Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2015-2019) Disney Channel

This show actually broke my heart when it ended. Star is a show that not only has a heartwarming plot but it has tons of laughs too! Ponyhead was another character that I could relate too and I loved the LGBTQ representation it had. Everyday I pray they reboot this show so we can see what happened after the world was rid of magic and to see Marcos and Star get married.

2. Bob’s Burgers (2011- ) FOX

I’ve made an entire list of my favorite Bob’s Burgers episodes which you can read here, so I’ll keep this short. Who couldn’t love this show about the best family on tv? Bob’s Burgers is a show that I can tell you what happens in each episode. I watch it when I’m in any mood whether I’m angry, sad, or super happy it’s my go to pick me up and that’s why I’m obsessed with it.

1. Adventure Time (2010- ) Cartoon Network

I don’t know how to put how much I love Adventure Time into words because it’s a show I binged in one of the lowest parts of my life mentally. Not only is Adventure Time hysterical but it has so many characters and story lines that would make the most macho man cry. I’m so happy that HBO Max is giving it four epilogue episodes because I missed Finn, Jake, BMO, and the rest of the gang so much. Ok let me stop typing about this show before I start really crying lol. Adventure Time is not only one of the best animated shows of the decade but it’s my favorite animated show ever made and I’m so happy it was there for me when I needed it. Yup. I just cried and that’s why Adventure Time is number one.

[tentpoletrauma]

Transcript of our Wolfman 2010 Podcast

Unknown Speaker  0:12   Welcome to Tentpole Trauma, the podcast where we look at movies that came with hype and high hopes, but left with crushing disappoint either critically at the box office are both. Free from the weight of expectations, we seek to examine these underperformers under a new light parsing through the good, the bad and everything in between the hopes of gaining a better understanding as to why they failed to find their audience.

Unknown Speaker  0:43   Warning, there will be spoilers. So if you haven't seen the movie that we're discussing today, I suggest you stop the podcast and go watch it. Then when you come back and listen, you'll get more out of the discussion. This episode we examine the 2010 remake of The Wolf Man.

Unknown Speaker  1:23   I've been a universal horror fan for as long as I can remember. So I was pretty excited back in 2010 when the Wolf Man remake got rooms I've been following the production I knew Benicio del Toro was playing the Wolf Man, which I thought was great. I knew the original director left and was replaced with Joe Johnston, who I liked but didn't think was that inspired of a choice. But still, I was really excited to see it even after numerous delays. The first signs of real trouble were the extremely tepid reviews and tepid is a kind descriptor, but I maintained my enthusiasm and on opening weekend dragged my pointedly disinterested girlfriend to see it. The movie started promisingly enough with a pretty cool werewolf attack. But as the stilted drama set in, I could feel the audience snickering and turning against the movie. And more importantly, I could feel my girlfriend turning against me for dragging her to see this thing. We didn't last much longer. Still, over the years, I've maintained a certain affection for the film, even buying it on blu ray to have it as a, as I call put on in the background kind of movie, something that's visually pleasing that you can just look at not really pay attention to it. Over the years, I've even tried to get friends and family to watch it with me and perhaps reevaluate the film. But usually I'm just met with a healthy serving of side eye and skepticism. So am I insane for liking this maligned movie? I guess that's a question we'll have to address today as we deep dive into the 2010 remake of the wolf, man.

Unknown Speaker  3:19   All right, this is Sebastian, and I'm here today with Jennifer Hello, and Chris.

Unknown Speaker  3:25   Hey, how's it going?

Unknown Speaker  3:26   And we're gonna be talking about the Wolf Man remake from 2010. Directed by Joe Johnston, who did Captain America The Winter Soldier, and he did the Rocketeer and Jurassic Park three, and written by Andrew Kevin Walker, who wrote seven and some other stuff. So you know, there's kind of a pedigree there. I already in my intro talked about my experience with this film. Jennifer, do you have any previous experience with this film?

Unknown Speaker  3:57   Yes, I do. My first exposure to this film was through you insisting that I watched this film, I think it was probably around 2012 or 2013. Does that sound right?

Unknown Speaker  4:10   It sounds right.

Unknown Speaker  4:10   Yeah. And I remember just not really, not really getting that into it. I was just kind of I wasn't, I didn't hate it by any means. But I just was kind of like, okay, that's, it's that was fine. But then watching it for the podcast. I had a different experience this time, which we'll go into also watching, both theatrical and the unrated version made a big difference. So But yeah, I did not see it in the theater. I it's not really I'm a horror person but, and I like universal monsters. The creatures more my guy, but I'm not you know, not super

Unknown Speaker  4:58   Wolfie Okay, Chris.

Unknown Speaker  5:01   Um, yeah, so my experience with Wolf Man was, I saw Dracula in high school loved it thought it was great. I thought it was like a great goth movie that everybody seemed to be into. And goth was a big thing. And then Frankenstein came out, which was, I guess, and unofficial sequel to that it still had the same vibe had a good director and a bunch of golf production design. And that was not

Unknown Speaker  5:32   just to be clear, we're talking about the Coppola Dracula and the Kenneth brown a Frankenstein.

Unknown Speaker  5:37   Exactly. And so I was kind of following that thread. Because I love Dracula, even though I it's flawed. And then Frankenstein came out, which I didn't love as much, but it was still a good time. And then Wolf Man came out. And I believe it was touted as like the third of a trilogy of, you know, the same type of pedigree we're gonna make, we're gonna give this treatment to these three monsters. And I believe, I don't know why I didn't see it at the time that it came out. Maybe because the reviews were bad or I was busy or something like that. But it took until now that Sebastian was doing this podcast that I was like, Oh, I guess it's time to watch it. And, and I've seen it for the first time.

Unknown Speaker  6:22   All right. Well, before we get into your feelings on the movie, let's just kind of dig in. This movie had a troubled production. It was originally going to be directed by Mark Romanek, who's a pretty cool director. Yeah, one one hour photo. Mm hmm. And

Unknown Speaker  6:38   lots of great music videos, too.

Unknown Speaker  6:41   That's right. And I was working at cinephile at the time and Benny not to name drop but Benicio del Toro would come in. And he was a huge Wolf Man fan. And he was really excited that he was going to get to play the Wolf Man. And I'm a huge Wolf Man fan. I love the 1940s original, so I was excited for him to play it. But it took a long time for the movie to come out. Because there were just you know, Mark Romanek, ended up leaving at the last minute, and there were like delays, Joe Johnson took over and had to just work with whatever they had. And you know, then it ended up with the release ended up being delayed, for whatever reason, so it ended up like taking two years for you to come out. But that's a little background on the movie. So let's just get into it. It starts with the universal logo. So this is definitely they're setting it up that this is a universal monster movie. In the the theatrical version. Yeah, it's cool. And the theatrical version. It's pretty easy. It's just black and white, but in the unrated version, you get a sort of more old school like 1940s universal logo.

Unknown Speaker  7:51   Yeah, I love that. It's really up. It's updated, but feels old school and it's like, it's really the right way to go iPod.

Unknown Speaker  7:58   Yeah, it sets the tone. I don't know if they intended this to be the first of the quote unquote, dark universe that they were trying to do. A few years back, they would keep saying, you know, they, they I think they set it with this movie. Then they set it with Dracula Untold. Then they set it with the Tom Cruise mummy. They were really hoping to do a marvel universe of universal monsters, which I would have been game for. But they

Unknown Speaker  8:23   shouldn't that should have been the tagline.

Unknown Speaker  8:27   But they couldn't seem to get that going. Anyway. So this isn't really the beginning of the dark universe because there is no dark universe. It starts off with some Danny Elfman music, which reminded me a lot of the 1979 Dracula that came out in the disco era with Franklin gela Mm hmm. It really borrows some themes. for that.

Unknown Speaker  8:48   To me the score just sound doesn't sound like Danny Elfman at all it very it to me, it just sounds like they're ripping off the score of the Coppola Dracula, you know, with that sort of luxurious string arrangements. And it's a strange like, I remember thinking like didn't then I think he is he a Czech composer for the Coppola Dracula, and he had died. So I was like, who composes because it sounds exactly like him. So and I was shocked to see that it was Danny Elfman because it doesn't sound like his trademark, you know, score at all.

Unknown Speaker  9:22   It doesn't sound like a kooky circus.

Unknown Speaker  9:26   Not at all.

Unknown Speaker  9:27   No, I think he was intentionally trying to evoke that apparently, he was originally hired to do the score. And then they tried to go with another score, I think and then they went back to his score. Anyway, it just sort of typical of the sort of troubled production of this, this movie. And anyway, moving on, it opens with the quote from the original the, you know, man becomes a wolf when the wolf Bane bloons that's straight from the original and it's pretty stylish in a sort of computer generated way. Yeah which is a which is a thing I think this movie it can either be a plus or a minus to you like it's very you know they're going for that really God thing but it's pretty computer CG golf.

Unknown Speaker  10:14   Yeah, agreed 100% I think

Unknown Speaker  10:17   that's the problem. That's what that's something that makes the Bram Stoker Dracula standout is that they went with a lot of old school visual effects and just you know, the feel of the whole thing was purposely sort of antique whereas this the production design works but the filmmaking techniques are very modern and in their hidden Miss You know, sometimes they work and then sometimes you see Oh, that's just a Morph cut that just, they just put in there because they could.

Unknown Speaker  10:46   Okay, so we get the opening attack, which is, you know, we later find out is Larry Talbots. I'm gonna call him Larry just because I think that's funny. Larry Talbots brother getting attacked on the Moore's there's sort of a voiceover from Emily Blunt, which didn't feel added anything to it really. And you know, we get this whole attack, which is pretty cool, but I feel like it It feels very rushed.

Unknown Speaker  11:13   The whole beginning feels rushed. Like, well, the voiceover from Emily Blunt in the theatrical version is she's writing a letter to Larry. Right. Yeah. So she's and you know, we're getting this this backstory. And that was, like the beginning. I just felt like, Is it me? I don't know what, what just happened? What is going on here? Like is it just it felt it feels like we just, it zooms by and not in a good way. Just wait way too much too fast. And it just feels like it's just kind of thrown together. And that Yeah, I was completely just baffled at that some of the things that were going on,

Unknown Speaker  11:56   well, in the unrated cut, you get a little more of the attack, and we get this whole scene of Larry acting. He's supposedly on stage in London, he's performing Hamlet or something. And Gwen does not write a letter to him in this version, she actually comes to the theater and he's backstage and he sort of got a cool bathrobe on he sort of rock starring out and she floors him to come check because I think his brother is missing at that point. But he sort of puts her off but she kind of gives him a guilt trip. I felt like compared to the theatrical version, where all you get is this voiceover from Emily Blunt. And you're suddenly right at the right at Blackmore Manor, I felt like the unrated version was an improvement.

Unknown Speaker  12:49   Yeah, I see, having watched both of them, I definitely can see how the pendulum swung hard both ways. You know, like, the Extended Cut is way too long. There's way too much intro, you know, it'll take like half an hour before like that Gypsy attack happens. So I understand why they cut a lot of that stuff, because it's just needless exposition. But now hearing Jen's reaction to it, I think, you know, they obviously cut maybe too much, because they're, they're really just, you know, trying to keep it tight and compress everything so that it gets going. But I will say having watched the Extended Cut that man, it's kind of a slog and a drag to, to get to where the movies going,

Unknown Speaker  13:30   you're sort of coming at it from the opposite end of Gen where you felt like the extended was taking too long.

Unknown Speaker  13:35   Definitely. And in you saying that it's a troubled production and that the you know, the director got swapped out at the last minute totally makes sense, because this feels very, you know, made by committee where nobody had a strong vision. And they were like, Okay, well, it's too long. Well, now let's make it too short or whatever. And, you know, no one actually said I understand the story. We're gonna make this happen. This is you know exactly what it's gonna be like, it definitely feels that way where there's not a strong vision hand at the helm.

Unknown Speaker  14:06   I wouldn't want more. This was like, in this case, it just for me, I was like, I felt so much more like, Oh, this is what they're doing. Because I remember even being like, is Larry an actor? like is that what he was doing? Because it's like literally like just like a quick flash of him on the stage or something. And I'm like, wait, and setting up also with Emily Blunt. Like, because throughout the film, I was like, Okay, I know she's supposed to be you know, it's complicated, but she's, you know, supposed to be kind of a love interest. And I just wasn't really feeling it. But then with this at the beginning with her coming there, there was this more to their relationship, and I actually was more invested, so to speak, but yeah, so anyway, the the unrated worked worked for me, especially in the beginning.

Unknown Speaker  14:51   I wouldn't say that in any version, their relationship is is a strong point of the movie, but in the theatrical cut, you get nothing zero, you're like, I don't care at all, at least in the unrated cut you you have some reason to care. They've had some scenes that are meaningful. Yeah, in the in the theatrical, there's nothing.

Unknown Speaker  15:15   Um, well, this is just kind of a general note on just about the action and how the wolf, you know, plays out in his attacks. Like, it's something, there's movies like Jurassic Park, or, you know, other werewolf movies, which gives you that sense of, you know, a wild animal attack. And, you know, if you've ever been around, like, you know, an angry dog or anything like that, you get that sense, where it's like, oh, my God, like anything can happen. But when he attacks it, it feels more like a bus hit. And then an animal attack, you know, because he just comes in out of nowhere and just slams. It's like, half jumpscare, half bus hit. And it just, I don't know, I just feel like it doesn't, it doesn't work. It's not a unique way of, you know, having him attack and it just doesn't feel scary to me.

Unknown Speaker  16:02   It feels more like a superhero thing. Yeah. And I feel and I think that a lot of this movie has that kind of feel where it's almost more of a superhero movie, even though the superheroes, you know, killing people. It just has a more modern superhero vibe to it in a weird way. If that makes any sense.

Unknown Speaker  16:21   Absolutely. This is relates to a point that I have with just the story in general that I feel like they set up a lot of things that never pay off. Like, why haven't be an actor, why, you know, have the meet backstage at the beginning. It's just, there's, there's so many weird threads in this story that just don't seem to pay off. And, and I feel like I feel the story being stretched. And like we were saying, the right amount of information is somewhere in the middle between the theatrical and Extended Cut. But there's just so many ideas in this story that never pay off that they were trying to, like, give love to some and then not enough for the others. It's just kind of a mess. I think

Unknown Speaker  17:07   with the him being an actor, I totally know. There's definitely things I agree with you Chris that never come to fruition, but I feel like part of the him being an actor is like they're trying to paint this picture also, which I think again, is more represented in the unrated version, is that he is such an outsider to the town, as at this point, like he's totally like a fish out of water. Like, you know, and I think like even at one point Anthony Hopkins is this you know, kind of says something along the lines of like, oh, coming back to the you know, small town or something along the lines of that, you know, so I think they're trying to make him like just as uncomfortable they're like not wanted there you know, even without even before all the other stuff happens that that's I mean, but yes, there's so many things that are set up the door really pay off but that's that's all I could gather from from going into his acting career.

Unknown Speaker  18:02   Maybe it's also to say that his Mid Atlantic accent is because he's an actor and has been away for so long. That's right. Oh, he's in New York. That's where he picked up this weird accent. Like, I also

Unknown Speaker  18:12   think that's what it how it was in the original, which didn't really play into anything in the original film either. But I think they just that's why because that's the character gotcha as as known from the 1940s film, you know, in the unrated cut, we get a scene on a train with the great Max von seido like why do you cut Max von side obviously, Larry is looking at a picture of his mom and then Max von seido sitting across from him and Max von seido. Has this silver wolf cane, which to your point Chris doesn't end up paying out in any real way in the movie. And it's only in there and I think this might be the the overall answers your question as to why things don't pay out and why they're in there is because in the 1940s movie, he's the Wolf Man is killed by his father with a wolf head cane just like that. Okay, so it's

Unknown Speaker  19:13   a setup without payoff as like a twist to the old be the people who knew Okay,

Unknown Speaker  19:20   yeah, the cane is not the strongest point of this movie. Okay, so we get to Blackmore Manor, which is the Talbot estate, we find out at that point that his brother's dead. You know, I think the production value whatever you feel about this movie, I think the production value is pretty great. All the locations are really cool. I love the look of the manor. It looks like a you know, kind of like a rundown Downton Abbey. Yes. With lots of leaves in the interior and my squeaking, lots of squeaking. We get Anthony Hopkins and he's you know he's doing you're pretty much like standard late period Anthony Hopkins performance. But it's one of those cases where he's Anthony Hopkins and he, he's totally watchable. It's you know, it's he's not doing anything. He seems kind of half asleep in a way. And he's not doing anything spectacular, but he's just great because he's Anthony Hopkins.

Unknown Speaker  20:16   totally true. Totally agree. Yes. I just Yeah, he's just kind of being creepy and just yeah, doing doing his thing. And it's a great I think opening scene to having him come in there looked up. Definitely rundown Downton Abbey. Lots of spider webs just kind of in disarray. But yeah, it's that I was happy, happy just to spend some time with with Anthony.

Unknown Speaker  20:42   You know, Anthony Hopkins at 50% is still better than most people's on 100% Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker  20:48   Yes. Yeah, the productions that design is definitely stellar. I mean, it's got that golf feel and it's definitely the I think the best thing about it, you know, I mean, the cinematography as well with the high contrast lighting and the smoke everywhere, everything looks right. You know, they they definitely spent the right amount of money and, and have the right fuel going. It's the other stuff. It's the story and the acting that to me don't work. And Anthony Hopkins can do no wrong. Of course, he's definitely phoning it in and like you said it, his phoning it in is already better than most people's full throttle. But can we talk about Benicio for a second? Like I feel like he is not giving me much of anything. And I'm also trying to think of what other lead roles he's had where he's knocked it out of the park. Like he's always great as the crazy sidekick. And I think maybe he's not capable of pulling off the lead in a movie like this where there's not a lot to Larry. I mean, he's just this mopey guy. He's supposed to be an actor, but like, I feel like I get nothing from his character.

Unknown Speaker  21:53   He's definitely trying to, I believe, especially with his haircut and everything, which is not terribly flattering on him. He's got a sort of like almost bowl cut,

Unknown Speaker  22:04   like a Caesar cut. Yeah, that was was that the style at the time? Was that cool?

Unknown Speaker  22:08   Or it was? I don't think so. He looks a little puffy. And he's kind of looks a little overweight. So I think he was trying to actually invoke Alon Chani Jr, who played the Wolf Man in the original. I mean, he was a huge, huge fan of that movie. But I also think he might be a little checked out because I think he was very supportive of Mark Romanek. And when I think he was a little upset that, you know, they switched out directors, and, you know, he may have been sort of checked out. We need

Unknown Speaker  22:45   to have a term for that, like, you know, like Marlon Brando with Island of Dr. Moreau when an actor gets ditched by the director, and then just phones in the movie, like, Can we call that something? Well, but I don't know.

Unknown Speaker  22:56   I don't I wouldn't compare those two because Brando and Island of Dr. Moreau is crazy. Right? Right. Like, does whatever

Unknown Speaker  23:04   you want. Well, he Benicio should have done that, you know, that would have been more interesting.

Unknown Speaker  23:08   Yeah. I think he's got his moments. I think we know when he's getting ready to change and stuff. I think he does good. But I agree, when we're doing the sort of straightforward stuff and he's just trying to be sort of, you know, mysterious romantic lead. It doesn't really work. And I don't think that that's his, his wheelhouse. No,

Unknown Speaker  23:28   I was fine with it. I just I think but also, I'm just like, such a fan of his I really like him a lot. So I'm, I'm just giving him a pass. Like, I don't know, I was fine with it. I wasn't looking at him and his performance that critically, especially once I got to see the unrated version and got to spend some more time with Larry lots and lots of more time with Larry so I knew what was uh, what was really going on with Larry. But yeah, I thought I thought his performance was was fine for for what it is.

Unknown Speaker  24:01   Okay, so moving on, he goes to the village to see his brother's body which is being kept in a slaughterhouse. I don't know if that was common for the time or if they just thought it would be a kind of a cool touch. But we get sort of a you know, quick shot of the body and I feel like the gore effects are good. Overall, in this movie, they make a real attempt to lean into the our rating, which I appreciate a lot of the times it's sort of CGI gore and violence, but you know, they don't hold back which I like about the movie.

Unknown Speaker  24:36   I thought that scene was gross like I in my notes I wrote yuck because it was just that's how I felt because I mean, it's our I yeah, I had the same question. I was like as this is how it was done. I was like are they just really hate Ben and they hate the tall but family and they just throw them in here and that the slaughterhouse because this is this is gross. I mean, and they're like you really feel it because it's like, Benicio is like just covering His face and I'm like buying it I'm like, this place stinks. This is this is nasty. And I thought also when they pull it back it was it was good good like it may be the first time it made me kind of jumps is like oh, like it wasn't ready for for that like, though there was some serious wolf chowing down on Ben.

Unknown Speaker  25:19   Well, and I think you might have a point about the town's folk, because in the next scene, we go to the pub, and the town's folk are sort of talking about the brother's death. And you know, Larry's there at the, in the corner at a table and he's, you know, hearing them talk. He looks a medallion that he found on his brother, which isn't very well explained. The townspeople are blaming the Gypsy, and we you know, we get a werewolf story. You know, a lot of this reminded me of the pub scene and American Werewolf in London. Absolutely. Now in the unrated version, one of the guy starts talking smack about the family, you know, talk smack about his mom going crazy. And Larry, the scene ends with Larry throwing a drink on the guy, which, again, I felt this made the scene better in the theatrical cut. It's just the scene. He doesn't interact with him at all. He's just sort of sitting there. So I felt like the unrated cut at least shows you Oh, he doesn't get it. He doesn't like the villagers. They don't like his family. This is probably why he left and puts a nice button on that point.

Unknown Speaker  26:26   Yes, I agree. Because Yeah, and the theatrical he's just sitting over there kind of just sulking and listening. And the townspeople are also alluding to the fact that it might you know, it might not have been a beast it could it like they're kind of talking about seems like they were I think they're talking kind of about like jack the Ripper or something like that. I do remember they're kind of talking about that there's there's a mentally unstable, you know, man that could have done this or something.

Unknown Speaker  26:52   Right. And wasn't a Hugo Weaving, like was his last case was the Ripper. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  26:57   yeah, he was. Yeah, he was on the Ripper case, which Yeah, Larry kind of needles him with because obviously, they never caught jack the Ripper. So

Unknown Speaker  27:06   and I think like they were also kind of alluding to Larry's mental state, which we learn more about later.

Unknown Speaker  27:13   So this this whole pub talk, and you reminding us that you know, this happened in American Werewolf in London. And how it's, it's pretty much the same scene, same beats, you know, beware don't go out and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, trying to be spooky warning. But I feel like it there's no twist on it. You know, in Frankenstein, and in Dracula, the mo was, let's go back to the book. Let's go back to the source. Let's let's do it really was in the book that in because it's never been done. beholden to the book, The way we're gonna do it. And that was what they were thinking. Whereas with Wolf, man, what was the mo here, you know, to be beholden to the old movie, because they're just retreading all these cliches without adding anything new to them. I feel like they're, they're just, you know, are here's the tip here, we're gonna do the Wolf Man story, the way it would be as if it were a cliche. And you're like, well, so why All right, I guess we get some better special effects. Get some good actors get some good lighting and production design, but there's no imagination, there's no umph to it to me.

Unknown Speaker  28:21   Well, they're I think they're just trying to update the whole thing for a modern audience who don't want to go back to the 1941 and watch it. But to your point, they're kind of taking from just werewolf movie history and kind of throwing it all throwing it all in there because they don't have a book source. They do. You know, there is no novel of the Wolf Man. The 1940s movie was the original version of it. So you know, I kind of see what they're doing. I feel like they're just trying to sort of update Yeah, Gothic werewolf movie as an abstract, not as a specific thing. Got it. Now in the unrated cut, we get a dinner scene with dad, Gwen, Larry and the Kim fail sheet See, doesn't get introduced at all, or he gets really barely introduced at all in the theatrical version. He's just sort of standing in the background. And they dine on baked eel, which is just about the grossest thing I can imagine. I can't think of anything that I'd like to eat less baked eel. And they talk about the superstitious villagers. And we get a real sense that there's tension between dad and Larry here, which I like and it gets really uncomfortable for Gwen and she leaves. I appreciated the scene because it set up more of the dynamics dramatically.

Unknown Speaker  29:46   Yes, I appreciated this as well. Also with his, I believe he called him his manservant, the Kim Valle. Seek. I that was another thing we're like in the future. conversion. I was like, when did we meet this guy like it happened so fast with him and that the electrical version I was like, Wait, what? What's going on here? And you

Unknown Speaker  30:09   want to know who he is yours that guy?

Unknown Speaker  30:11   Yeah, no, you definitely want to know who he is. So yeah, I appreciated more of him. The seek is another thread that just never pays off.

Unknown Speaker  30:20   Did you see in the unrated cut when he picks up the guitar and starts ripping on some Soundgarden,

Unknown Speaker  30:26   I would have loved to have seen that.

Unknown Speaker  30:28   Now, in the theatrical version, they cut right to the manor. And, you know, there's this sort of awkward scene where Larry goes to Gwen's door and he's like, Hey, I'm here. And I know, when you've seen the unrated, you can see that this is a scene they threw together to sort of set it up that they've met. Yeah, at this point, because, you know, she's in the theatrical she's only written him a letter. But there is this weird thing where the letter she wrote, keeps coming up, again, in the unrated version, which didn't happen in the unrated version. So when a mess, yeah, like as an editor, I think it's interesting to have you on this conversation specifically, Chris, because you are an editor. And you've probably been involved in some projects where they've had to sort of cobble things together from different versions definitely

Unknown Speaker  31:21   obviously just left in and they're like Foghat who cares. And you know, I'm sure it made sense in like, probably like, the first, you know, maybe two and a half hour cut of it, and then they just kept chopping away. And then who knows who they brought in to do a hack job, but I'm sure a lot of those threads were left in and they just, instead of, you know, in that in specifically in that scene, if you look where he meets, I think it's the theatrical cut where he meets her for the first time in the hallway. A lot of his dialogue is on her. So it's just ADR him saying, like, I got your letter, very nice to meet you. And you can totally tell that they just ADR, those lines into shoo in that he is meeting here for the first time there. So yeah, this, it's definitely a mess. And there's a lot of those things that I think people just wouldn't notice on our first viewing. But now we're analyzing it. Yeah, you're like, Oh,

Unknown Speaker  32:16   no, I wouldn't if I only watched the unrated cut, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. It's just because I'm familiar with both versions. What what I find kind of weird about it is that you would assume the unrated cut was closer to say the assembly directors of the assembly cut and then they whittled it down. But she talks about the letter in the later scenes in the unrated cut so it's almost as if they made the decision to cut it down while they were still filming

Unknown Speaker  32:47   it. Maybe it was like a bigger even bigger thing where she wrote him a letter then went to visit him then you know, like so it's probably a thing on the thing on the thing. And then they were just like, let's all just cut it out. And

Unknown Speaker  32:58   I think that would have made sense since actually Chris because it would have like that she could have written him first and then he didn't respond and then she went in person, because you know, he wasn't responding. The other thing that I wanted to point out about when she does when he goes to her door, is that her maid or lady and waiting or whatever you want to call her is Yara Greyjoy Did you notice that? No way from Game of Thrones? Yeah, I was like, Oh my God, that's the Greyjoy sister tiara,

Unknown Speaker  33:28   which was like can you miss her? She disappears I think

Unknown Speaker  33:31   you might get her on one more scene like but very very brief.

Unknown Speaker  33:34   That's like the only reason for me to go back and watch

Unknown Speaker  33:38   Yeah, we're giving away your hand Chris

Unknown Speaker  33:42   and just to touch upon Emily Blunt now you know i think you know she's well cast in this movie. I guess she does a really good job considering what she's been given which I think is a pretty thankless role. There's not a lot to it but I mean, she gets some moments to cry and stuff and I you know, I think she delivers I think a case could be made for the her being the best for sure in the movie. I agreed.

Unknown Speaker  34:08   Let me bring up one more point about just the brothers story in general like why I don't maybe this is originally in you know, in the original Wolf Man, but it just makes no sense to have this brother standing in the way of a the love story, all of it just like why doesn't Why don't they just give the story to Benicio and have him be in love with her. And it's like this trifecta between him and Anthony Hopkins. It just seems to be a step too far.

Unknown Speaker  34:34   The brother is just a plot device to get him

Unknown Speaker  34:37   but he's so important because it's like oh, that's Emily Blunt's you know, fiance and all this stuff where it just seems like they could have figured out a different way of doing it. You know, it seems like

Unknown Speaker  34:47   a gothic romance kind of thing. You told Oh, the dead brother, you know, okay. It adds a layer of you know, sadness to it.

Unknown Speaker  34:58   They just need to do it. It was I agree they just needed to get him as far as like the why why that's important is just like because it comes to you know, to light later about you know how much she hates his father and how much he hates this town and like wouldn't come back so it's like and and again if we you know if we do believe that there was a letter and then there was her going there and you know, I mean there could have always been some sort of kind of thing between them because yeah, it's the whole Gothic like, you know, longing and all that stuff. Yeah, but yeah, it's just I think it's totally just to get him back home and to just make it the most dysfunctional family ever. We pretty much and worst dad award of all time. Yeah, we'll come to find out later.

Unknown Speaker  35:47   And I will say this. I don't think that Benicio del Toro and Emily blonde have sizzling on screen chemistry. On speaking of worst dad award, we get another scene with Talbot and his dad and Anthony Hopkins looking out the telescope to the moon. Again, the telescope is a reference to the original film. His dad in the original film, who was played by Claude Rains is fascinated with his telescope, but the telescope never comes into play later. So it's yet another sort of reference that doesn't have a real point in the story.

Unknown Speaker  36:25   That scene I do love that Anthony Hopkins takes the time to blow out almost every single candle that he has in the room which I'm like you know what fucking a that's realistic you know like with the production design like this year like how many freakin candles does this guy have and they show him like you know what, it's time to go to bed this was a ritual we used to have I would you'd have to sit here open up this thing blow inside put it out and it's actually a fun callback when you see him in his sorry spoiler when if we just jump ahead to his little man cave or wolf cave thing? There's like 8 million candles there and I just kept thinking like how long is it gonna take him to blow these in his gave man it will take a long time.

Unknown Speaker  37:06   It was the family crypt I believe

Unknown Speaker  37:08   Okay, I'm surprised he didn't make his poor Kim fail manservant Yeah, blow out all these candles. But I thought also Chris I noticed the candles as well. And I was also really impressed with like, some of the cool like lantern type devices they have like candles as well like kind of these like kind of mini torch type things. I don't know what you would call it but I was like I thought that was really again with the production design. The attention to detail was was really cool.

Unknown Speaker  37:37   You know that blowing out all the candles thing was was all Hopkins I was like, I need to blow out all these.

Unknown Speaker  37:45   Okay, Anthony, go ahead.

Unknown Speaker  37:48   All right now in the unrated cut, we get Larry going to Gwen's room. But it's a different scene than in the theatrical and he apologizes for making her uncomfortable into over dinner and gives her items of her brothers. It's you know, it's not like a great scene or anything, but it definitely helps sort of, you know, you feel that her character is more endeared to him by it, as opposed to in the theatrical where you don't really understand why she would be endeared to him at all, because they don't even really have any real scene. So again, I feel like it's a better scene. Then we get to one of few sequences in the film where Larry is having a flashback. It plays like a dream sequence but he's not sleeping he's awake. And he's just sort of having these traumatic flashes of

Unknown Speaker  38:42   maybe he took the spice

Unknown Speaker  38:46   and he's playing with his brother and the mother's watching you know they wake up at night and something sinister is going on in the house like in the hallway This is

Unknown Speaker  38:54   where we see the blood come out of the sidewalk I remember that being a very cool image

Unknown Speaker  38:58   Yes, yes, I believe that's where we see that it's all done in this very stylish Gothic kind of look, but it feels a little like they're trying hard to be trippy and spooky and I don't know if it's they kind of go like a little too far I think with some of the techniques, but he goes out into the garden we get a cool topiary had some cool topiary hedges a gorilla which I appreciated the topiary a gorilla, for sure you know in the movie looks expensive. They didn't spare any expense, which is why it's appropriate to do for Tentpole Trauma because they spent a lot of money on this movie and it bombed so I feel that it's appropriate for this podcast no

Unknown Speaker  39:42   doubt and I will say that the night scenes all look like they're shot at night, you know, and the lighting is great. And you know, there's no Day for Night here at all. And kudos to those cinematography for making it look appropriately scary.

Unknown Speaker  39:56   Yeah, I mean, I think the cinematography is is impeccable. I forget who the cinematographer was. I feel that it fits in with the Coppola Dracula and the Kenneth brana. Frankenstein, at least in that regard where you know, you know, it's high high production value update.

Unknown Speaker  40:15   Interesting. The cinematographer is Shelley Johnson. And he was also the cinematographer for Captain America The First Avenger. Okay,

Unknown Speaker  40:25   yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Because that same director, right

Unknown Speaker  40:28   buddies with Joe, but also what to Chris's point about, you know, bringing up a new agreed with that as well bringing up the superhero feel to some of the film anyway.

Unknown Speaker  40:38   Yeah. And Joe Johnson also did the rocket tear, which was also sort of a throwback, superhero 1940s type of things. So it's kind of his wheelhouse. I can see why he was hired for this when Mark Romanek left the production.

Unknown Speaker  40:51   He was also a special effects guy, right? Did he work on Star Wars? Yeah, stuff. So

Unknown Speaker  40:57   yeah, he was like a Spielberg protege, a guy who came up through Spielberg. Yeah, we get to see a quick shot of a D aged Hopkins with a goatee and the dead mother and it's sort of framed to look like a suicide. She's got a straight razor in her hand, you know, but I think at this point, nobody's really thinking that that is a suicide. The mother having, you know, spoiler the fact that the mother was killed by Hopkins, is really not a surprise at all. You know, even on first viewing, you're like, she didn't kill herself. It's kind of one of those performances by Hopkins where, you know, immediately he's a bad guy, you know, sort of like the sort of like the jack nicholson shining, where you're like, yeah, of course, he's gonna go crazy. He's clearly crazy.

Unknown Speaker  41:49   Yeah, even if you don't know exactly what his deal is, you know, he killed her, like you don't even if you don't know how it went down, you know what I mean? Like, there's more more to be revealed, but you immediately know that he's, he's the villain.

Unknown Speaker  42:03   And in that scene, Benicio, I feel like gives nothing right after you see his mother dead. Like, that was one of my notes. When you see that happen? You think, you know, I'm, I'm reliving this childhood trauma, and it cuts to him. And he's just like, Oh, yeah, I remember that. And I'm like, Whoa, what's going on here? Why didn't anybody direct this guide? Or? I don't know. That's an example of my of a moment where he he failed to deliver for me,

Unknown Speaker  42:29   I feel like it's a little unfair to judge his performance. Totally. Because the the editing is so suspected it but I feel like a lot of the especially the scenes where he's having these flashbacks, they could have been, like, put together from something else. Like I would have to have read the script to know if this was all intended to be in there. From the beginning.

Unknown Speaker  42:50   Maybe I'm reading too much into Larry. And maybe I'm just too much of a Binney SEO defender. But I also think that, you know, as we find out more, you know, sorry, spoiler alert, that Larry spent some time in asylum. Yeah. And they did a lot of bad things to Larry, I don't know if he is even able to have the proper emotional responses at this point. Because I mean, you see what goes on in the asylum. It's bad news. So maybe Larry's just tapped out like this is, you know, like, this is all the reaction that he can muster. Or maybe he just saves it all for the stage.

Unknown Speaker  43:31   Alright, so then moving on, we go to the brother's funeral. There's, you know, more Gothic imagery, then Larry and Gwen haven't have a moment by the waterfall. He talks about his father's cruelty. And then that's, as you were mentioning, Jen, where we get our first mention that he was put in an asylum, and then after that sent to America, this sort of waterfall setting will also come back into play at the very end.

Unknown Speaker  43:58   Yeah, that's where he says, Gwen says, Ben said that you guys played here as children. And Larry says it was our refuge. So we

Unknown Speaker  44:05   find out that Glen is leaving. You know, whatever. This is all happening super fast. It just feels like the scenes are really cut to the quick here. Then we get Lawrence goes off to find the gypsies because he's learned that his brother was involved with them or something like that. And you know, I like the Gypsy camp. It's pretty cool. It's you know, it's about what you would expect from a big budget movie Gypsy camp. Geraldine Chaplin, the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, is the gypsy woman

Unknown Speaker  44:36   I know she's also I know her from Do you guys know the movie with Holly Hunter home for the holidays? Do you remember that at all with like, Claire, I've heard of her name. Well, I highly recommend it. It's really good Robert Downey Jr. and Holly Hunter. And anyway, it's a fun holiday film, but that's where that's where I reckon

Unknown Speaker  44:52   Downey Jr. was in Chaplin.

Unknown Speaker  44:55   Oh, interesting. Yeah, good connection.

Unknown Speaker  44:57   Also on this scene, we get a quick Rick Baker cameo Rick Baker's the famous makeup artist who did design the way he designed American Werewolf in London and lots of Famous Monsters he designed just did he work on this? He did. He designed the werewolf. We get a quick cameo of him here. He's the guy that's just kind of on lookout and he's watching and then he gets slammed by the werewolf really quickly.

Unknown Speaker  45:24   I also wanted to bring up that before we get Larry going to the Gypsy camp, which by the way, we all know is not a good word, but that's just how they use it. And the film. Yes, just disclaimer. I was it's a little puzzling that Larry's Dad, I made a note of this because he's like telling him me like, you know, yeah, you should stay inside because it's going to be a full moon. I don't want to lose you too. And then he says all of that and then it's like cut too. We see Larry riding off to the Gypsy camp like you know, whatever, dad, because he of course he's not going to listen to him. So I guess as I'm talking it through now I'm thinking like, maybe it was some sort of reverse psychology to like to get

Unknown Speaker  46:04   him to go out. It is weird though. The way it cuts right from him saying Don't go Don't go out and I don't

Unknown Speaker  46:11   want to lose you too. And then yeah, he's there he is galloping away another great cut.

Unknown Speaker  46:17   We get the prerequisite in a universal monster movie. We get villagers with torches they show up for the bear because they're they blame the gypsies bear for the attack on Larry's brother. The bear is very clearly not a real bear. It's a CG bear. But you know, we don't want them torturing. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  46:36   well, did you hear what he said? He says to somebody says like he doesn't all he does is dance. And I was like, Oh, that's sad to like dancing berry circuses.

Unknown Speaker  46:48   Yeah, but that's like

Unknown Speaker  46:49   somebody said that he's supposed to be an old like bear that's like about to be put out to pasture. Right? Like, I think the pub people are like, there's no way that bear could have done this. He's so old. And yeah, you feel a lot of sympathy for that bear even though he's CG.

Unknown Speaker  47:02   At least they don't have the bear fight the werewolf and get torn apart. Well, that would be more so I

Unknown Speaker  47:07   will say the claws through the policeman's mouth is pretty cool. That was one of the cool dads. I love that shot

Unknown Speaker  47:13   high. high praise for that, Chris. Yes, that that. I love that. I love that kill.

Unknown Speaker  47:19   Yeah, that's, you know, that's what happens the way the werewolf attacks that camp. And you know, we get that shot and a bunch of other pretty fun gore moments. This is when the movie really comes alive. For me these scenes. There's a lot of fair criticism to be had of the film when it's trying to be dramatic, but I feel like when we get to werewolf faction, it's pretty good werewolves. Action. I mean, yes, yes. Guilty of maybe being a little too CG at times. But you know, I don't know. I'm just happy to see a wolf man werewolf running around killing people. You know, I like the way the werewolves run on all fours. At some points. It's a little goofy, but I just like it.

Unknown Speaker  48:02   That's great. It's almost like, you know, in Transformers when they transform to the different mode to go faster. You know, it's like, yes, it's almost like a cheer moment. Like, you know, if the movie were better, you would definitely be cheering at that part. Because you're like, I need to go fast. I don't do this boop, boop. And then it's just great.

Unknown Speaker  48:19   I love it too. It's It's It's total chaos when when wolf wolf thing happens, but it's like chaos in the best way. It's like it's exactly it's like for all the the slow burning that's going along. It's like you really get a payoff. And I love this scene in particular, because you have people screaming, it's the devil. Yeah, the devil. And then yeah, it's just total chaos. And then like he, there's like the little boy or the little girl that like loses or mom or dad or the mom's looking for them and like the kid wanders off or there's just like, it's Yeah, just so much so much happening. And like it's really intense. And like, you're Yeah, you're just kind of on the edge of your seat, literally. Sure.

Unknown Speaker  48:57   But in the in the Extended Cut, it takes like, what 4050 minutes to get to this point. Is it Yes, definite reason why they cut it.

Unknown Speaker  49:06   At this point. You know, we get to sort of see that Larry has a hero in him. He grabs a gun and sort of goes to help people being attacked. There's this one kid who runs off he goes to help him the kid runs off into this like Stonehenge. Yes. Like I don't think it's literally supposed to be Stonehenge in

Unknown Speaker  49:27   England or there's just mini stone hedges like all around the corner in the countryside. I have the same

Unknown Speaker  49:32   exact same thought I was I just was like, is there just one that we know of here in the states are there there are many, many of these.

Unknown Speaker  49:40   Makes me want to live in England even more. I'm a druid No, you can just have a mini Stonehenge in your neighborhood. How cool would that be?

Unknown Speaker  49:49   You know the neighborhood stonehedge you know,

Unknown Speaker  49:51   and it's super foggy and gothy which I love. I'm a sucker for that kind of imagery. I don't care if a computer is doing it. I love it. That's the point where we get that Lawrence's attacked by the werewolf and bitten really savagely on the neck. So we know he's now bearing the mark of the wolf. And the villagers show up and drive the wolf away with their guns. And they bring Larry to the gypsy woman. And you know, everybody's basically telling her to kill him, but she won't do it. She tells them, he can only be released by someone who loves him. And we're all wondering who's

Unknown Speaker  50:33   this his dad doesn't love him let

Unknown Speaker  50:36   him fail. But stitching up of the wound was pretty gross in a good way. That was great. Like what she's stitching it up that was

Unknown Speaker  50:42   with one of those long curved needles.

Unknown Speaker  50:45   fishing hook. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  50:46   that was that was cringy. And a good way

Unknown Speaker  50:49   not to bring it back to Bram Stoker's Dracula again, but there's I feel like with Dracula, you almost get more bang for your buck. Because Dracula can be Dracula. He can be a bat and he also becomes a wolf. And the wolf in that is almost more interesting, because he can do way more things. Even as sex. Yeah. Which is more than you can say for this, you know, but I mean, I guess this is again, doing the classic wolf thing, but I would have liked a little bit even more craziness with with the wolf here, where, what else could he do? You know, but I know they're trying to keep it classic.

Unknown Speaker  51:24   Yeah, but then you'd be dealing with angry werewolf, right? Tell you what you can and can't do with a werewolf. And if you don't think that they'll do that, think again. Because horror fans can be really pedantic about what their movie monsters are allowed to do. If you ever want to find out go wander into a zombie conversation because there's a lot of strong feeling and a question

Unknown Speaker  51:47   Where did the term like isn't lichen, right, that lycanthrope? Like and throw? When did that become coming to use? Because I know what it was that underworld? Is that? Is that where they use it the most? But, you know, was it always around? Well, they call them lichens. Okay. Right.

Unknown Speaker  52:04   I think it's been around since the 1800s. I didn't research it. I don't know. But it's it's a term that's been around a while it's been around before,

Unknown Speaker  52:12   because it's in one of the books where she's researching. And I was like, oh, there's that word again. But like, when did pop culture? When did the movie start using it? Because I don't remember it from the 80s. It definitely

Unknown Speaker  52:22   no, it was definitely being used in the 80s. It was, it

Unknown Speaker  52:26   was it seems like instead, like you know how they go the Batman instead of Batman. They're like, let's say let's call them this. And so we don't have to call them werewolves now. And it just seems like like let's latch on to a new term.

Unknown Speaker  52:38   Yeah, it's a kind of it sounds sort of scientific. So it Yeah, sound smart. Right. When you say it?

Unknown Speaker  52:44   Well, it was first, the first mention of the word according to Wikipedia, was in 60. Ad.

Unknown Speaker  52:51   Whoa, wow.

Unknown Speaker  52:52   Yeah. Okay. So it's a it's a it's a Greek word, apparently. And it's translation. It's leukosis, which is Wolf and anthropos, which is man says Luke can throw pa or throw PA. That's where it comes from. The definition of it is that it's a form of madness involving the delusion of being an animal usually a wolf with corresponding altered behavior. But yeah, so it's been around for a long time. I don't know when it was, like, like subset I don't know when it was first mentioned in films, but it's it's a term that's been around a long, long time. It's used in movies and stuff earlier than you think. I wouldn't be surprised if it's used in the original Wolf Man or werewolf of London, which was the first official will universal were watching not American. Were right London, werewolf and of London. But um, yeah, good research. Interesting fact. So Lauren, Larry is brought back to the manor. When comes back, and like Glenn keeps coming and going. In the movie. It's like, just stay put, when

Unknown Speaker  54:02   the funeral is over. What is she doing? Like leaves?

Unknown Speaker  54:05   And then she comes, you know, it's just like, Why are Why are they moving her around so much in the story, just have her stay there. Who cares? It's a weird, baffling you know, sort of plot thing that keeps happening. You know, Larry's his head is swimming from I don't know, you know, being infected with lycanthropy. And we're getting these sort of dreamy, you know, heroine visions. You know, we get the sort of Gollum looking wolf boy,

Unknown Speaker  54:35   so Gollum. Yes. I wrote down the same thing.

Unknown Speaker  54:39   It looks like they just took the like, they took the Gollum model. Just through some, just, He really looks like Gollum. And you know, we'll later learn what that will boy is and it all it's, it's all fine, but it just seems kind of, you know, thrown together to add some scares or whatever.

Unknown Speaker  55:00   And then this is an again this is this is when Kim sale seek showed up and in the theatrical version, I was like wait, who is this guy again? It was just so like in the unrated. We get so much more of him. Anyway, so he shows up he comes in with a tray. And then you know Larry's like oh take when I thought you were leaving and Gwen's like this place is it's possible to escape. And this is, you know, this is Besides, this is the least I can do. Yeah. And then we see Larry, starting to heal.

Unknown Speaker  55:30   Then we pass over the spot where Anthony Hopkins and Emily blonde pass each other on the stairs. And he just I was just about to bring that up. I love I mean, talk about classic, awesome Anthony Hopkins where he's just eating the apple and just gives her the creepiest stare in the world. I love it.

Unknown Speaker  55:47   Well, that's only in the unrated cut. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  55:50   How could they cut that? But I mean, come on, like,

Unknown Speaker  55:53   yeah, I mean, in in the unrated cut. This whole section is much better because it's really montage in the theatrical and the unrated. They kind of let it breathe a little like, you know, we get that scene, like you said, where they pass each other on the stairs. And you can tell while he's eating the apple that he really doesn't want her there.

Unknown Speaker  56:11   Now, does that make sense with I'm sorry to skip to the end again. But he said, is he supposed to be in love with Emily Blunt? Okay, because there's a certain point where he's like, your brother was gonna take her away from me and blah, blah, blah, and I can't deal with her being away. I was like, wait a minute, what was was he into her the whole time? And I was totally confused.

Unknown Speaker  56:30   No, Chris, I felt the same way. But I think and maybe I'm wrong, but I think it was just because she kind of reminds him of Gen Y.

Unknown Speaker  56:40   Right? Because then the statue of his dead wife looks exactly like Emily Blunt too. Right. So yeah, okay. All right. I guess that makes but

Unknown Speaker  56:48   I had the I had the I had the same thing though, too. But then again, I was like, Okay, this is Gothic, like anything go right. Like the dad could be in love with her too as Emily Blunt. You know, it was like, damaged, you know, like that movie damaged.

Unknown Speaker  57:00   Yeah, you know, now that you're bringing it up, I think maybe you might have a point. And I've seen this movie more times than you guys. And I never that never really sunk in to me because it's so sort of thrown in there. But yeah, I think you know, he does have sort of some weird thing for her because she reminds him of his his dead wife.

Unknown Speaker  57:20   Maybe Anthony Hopkins was like remember legends of the fall? That's the only type of movie I'm going to do where everyone falls in love with the girl all three brothers.

Unknown Speaker  57:27   Well, yeah, it's a real crime against cinema that that Apple moment was cut out of the theatrical a great people needed to see that on the big screen. So Lawrence is better sort of miniseries just kind of seems like he's been on a like five day bender.

Unknown Speaker  57:45   Got a stiff neck right, that scene?

Unknown Speaker  57:47   Yeah, the doctor comes and checks him out. And you know he's healing miraculously which the doctor is clearly unnerved by Hopkins. Dad is kind of being nice to Gwen but it feels sort of threatening now that I'm thinking about it. Maybe he's attracted to her as you pointed out, just a basic like Okay, it looks like he's on the mend kind of part of the story. But we know better. He you know, he's looking at his wounds and he's seeing how how much healing he's gone through. And then Kim fail when they get the real scene with Kim fail seek. And Larry where he's the Sikh is in the dining room or something and he's like loading up

Unknown Speaker  58:33   cleaning the he's cleaning the gun or

Unknown Speaker  58:36   elephant gun or whatever it is.

Unknown Speaker  58:38   Yeah, he was cleaning guns

Unknown Speaker  58:40   and you'll we learn that he's been there. The Sikh has been there since Larry was a kid. His name is Singh. Yes. You know, he shows. Larry is the silver bullet that he's made. Well, he

Unknown Speaker  58:53   says, and then Larry says to sing now that you thank you for remembering his name. He says, Are you preparing for a war? And then sing says Do you believe in curses? Mm hmm.

Unknown Speaker  59:05   Yes. And that's it. This is when we really it's really driven home that sing is the man servant. And everybody needs a man servant. I think

Unknown Speaker  59:14   I need man's servant.

Unknown Speaker  59:16   Now incomes one of my favorite character actors, especially when he's playing a villain Hugo Weaving. He shows up as the inspector not really a villain in this case, but he is an antagonist. Weaving is just basically doing Agent Smith from the matrix here but he's doing like Agent Smith of Scotland Yard basically, it's pretty much the same performance. He goes to the manor to question Lawrence about the going the wolfy goings on. You know, Hopkins is sort of like gatekeeping but Larry's like no, go ahead, let them in. I'll talk to them. So they have the sort of scene in a in the park. Where we even starts off by saying, you know, I've been following your acting career, Mr. Anderson, and you know, starts off sort of ingratiating himself, and then the questioning becomes more pointed. You know, he's bringing up Larry's time in the asylum, and then he brings up how, oh, he's an actor, so maybe he's playing another role, you know, or, you know, this implication that, uh, you know, an actor would be more, you know, likely to be a murderer. And, you know, I think that's when Larry sort of needles him about not catching jack the Ripper.

Unknown Speaker  1:00:38   Yeah, but he's no, he's no Van Helsing from when actually when Anthony Hopkins played Van Helsing, he did bring a little bit more craziness to the role where it's like, everyone's kind of stuffy in this movie, and I feel like this would have been the opportunity for him to bump it up a notch and be like, a little bit different than this like stuffy straightlaced Scotland Yard guy, you know, in Anthony Hopkins, Van Helsing literally humps, Billy Campbell in Dracula, you know, and it's like, Yeah, he plays him totally crazy. And I feel like this movie could have used a little bit more like passionate melodrama over the top, you know, acting just to just to make it more a little bit entertaining. Yeah. Jen, like you're saying like, Alright, so if Benicio is, is a mopey guy who's like, all inward and whatever, you need something to balance that out. Like there needs to be a little bit of Yeah, agree. You know that other flavor?

Unknown Speaker  1:01:29   Yeah. And there's definitely no performance in this that goes, it's sort of in the crazy direction of, of Anthony Hopkins, and Dracula, or of Gary Oldman, and Dracula. Yeah, nobody's nobody's boring it on to that level. The movie could have benefited from a little more. Hey, agreed. Then now then there's some more hallucinations outside. There's another scene with Glenn, where he teaches her how to skip stones. Were you guys swept into the romance of this?

Unknown Speaker  1:01:59   Honestly, that's the one moment that they actually have that I feel like feels human. And I was like, I guess that's it. They're in love. That's it. That's all we get.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:07   That's all it takes Chris. That's all it takes.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:11   Stones a love that will stand the test of time, right?

Unknown Speaker  1:02:15   Oh, I think I might be skipping ahead. But there's that other moment where he she says something to him and then there's a big close up of her lips and he's just like losing control because she's so sexy and alluring and yeah, I feel like that's the one deep moment of sexuality in the movie that I feel like could have been threaded throughout the entire thing. Everybody is just driven crazy because of because they're Woolfson you know, tie it to sexuality and then this whole thing that peeked out for a moment there maybe that was from Roman x you know idea but like they didn't really go go there with it. It's just like this odd one moment where it's like oh, I got to get away from you Emily because you know you're driving me crazy.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:56   He sends her away again Yeah, right that point

Unknown Speaker  1:03:00   go skip some rocks.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:03   But no, he has like yeah, I think that is in the moment, Chris because it's like we're getting his Wolfie hearing and then I think he's like Wolfie horniness

Unknown Speaker  1:03:12   with it's, it's it's very, it's just a few See, it's like a another scene. Okay, it's right. It's right around that area. It's a different scene, but

Unknown Speaker  1:03:20   it's close by where he's like, yes, zooming in on her like her pouty lips and like, kind of, I think maybe even like her chest area or something like her neck

Unknown Speaker  1:03:28   or something. He's like, like the nape of her neck. And he's like, looking at her pulse.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:32   Yes. That's the point of the movie, as Anthony Hopkins will later say is like, it's so good to be the wolf. Let the wolf free. Like, you know, that should have been been nice to struggle the entire time has been like, well, like, it feels good to be the wolf. But no, I can't I know, I can't but where's that touched on in a second? But, you know, I feel like if that's your thesis of the movie, that's the reason why the main bad guy loves being the wolf. And I feel like that's an interesting concept, you know, and they touched on that in what Emily's Hulk. He knows like, the craziest things I like when I Hulk out and yeah, so I feel like that could have been explored and brought to, you know, a satisfying the Matic point.

Unknown Speaker  1:04:13   I think he's got a complicated relationship with his wolf Enos because he's like, I think, you know, he would maybe if he didn't have such the past that he did and the family issues that he did, he might be able to lean into it more, but I think it's because of all this family stuff that's happened and like all this, like, you know, all the stuff that happened to him or whatever, he doesn't really get to enjoy being a wolf. Like we just get, because usually I feel like with the wolf, man, there's usually some enjoyment and then there's remorse. Afterwards, you know, like when they come back down or whatever, it's like going on a bedroom, you know? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:04:50   But it's definitely while it's on and it's always been a sort of metaphor used in at least in movies. It's often been a metaphor for alcoholism. Yeah. You know drug addiction beat yeah yeah right and I think to Chris's point like a probably would have been strengthened better if we got some sense of being you know for for beneath CEOs care we get it from Hopkins but oh yeah like from beneath to his character that this is can be fun and exciting and exhilarating and you know you get a rush out of becoming this monster and killing

Unknown Speaker  1:05:26   I don't think he allows himself to have that

Unknown Speaker  1:05:29   so you know the villagers are sort of you know gathering up in there you know they've they they think they know what's going on here and they want to take Larry in they have this really creepy priest with them. They show up at the the manor we see them sort of in montage making silver bullets and stuff. We see that the full moon is coming so we know that you know, Larry is gonna wolf out soon. We get a quick sort of scene with Hugo Weaving at the time. Totally not buying into this werewolf shit. He keeps asking for a pint of bitter please.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:03   Right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:05   And the lady in the pub is not having it because her husband was killed by the wolf. So she's like, you should be out there looking for this killer. And he says all he wants is his beer. Yeah. And yeah. And she's, she's like, so bent out of shape. He was like I you know, there, there are rules. I can't just hang around here, you know, rules that will keep us from a doggy dog world. And then he's just like, you know, where's my pint of better? I skipped today, the scene where the they show up at the manor with a priest. And Hopkins comes and fires at them with his his gun. And he's like, oh, sorry, I meant to hit you.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:41   He apologizes for missing. Right. It's pretty great. And it's sort of you know, you're it's a weird kind of moment, because he you know, you haven't really seen him sort of stick up for Larry. Yeah, but now he's like, he's sticking up for him. And you know, he's like, my men servant is hiding in the on the roof. And he's a crack shot. Yes. But he's not really there. Seek is not on the roof. It's a bluff. Right.

Unknown Speaker  1:07:03   And that's when he says to Larry, he's like, that's what he says. He goes, you're not the only actor in the family.

Unknown Speaker  1:07:09   Yeah. So it does pay off. It does pay off. So

Unknown Speaker  1:07:13   yeah, basically, we're all just heading towards Larry turning into the Wolf Man, which is what we sort of been waiting for. Basically, dad knows it's coming and he lures Larry out to the family mausoleum. He's got it all set up with candles and everything. And you know, the mom's sarcophagus is there, which is a pretty sweet sarcophagus. Later in a hallucination, we see it sort of, you know, it's this carved marble thing and we see it move and say something to me. It's

Unknown Speaker  1:07:42   technically a wife Kane, isn't it? Kind of Yeah, keep

Unknown Speaker  1:07:46   that's where he keeps his wife. Every good wife deserves a mausoleum. That's right. Anyway, so you know, they go down into the crypt, and we find out that and this is a little confusing, because he like closes a cage door. And you think that he's the dad is going to lock him in? Mm hmm. But I think it's just to separate them like he doesn't we don't see Larry breaking out of anything, so he's not locked in there.

Unknown Speaker  1:08:14   Oh, it's because he's gonna turn into a werewolf too. Yeah, right. That's where that's where he goes all the time to keep everyone safe, right?

Unknown Speaker  1:08:22   Yes, right. Yes. But usually thing has to come in a lot. I think he gets he has to lock it from the outside.

Unknown Speaker  1:08:28   Yes. That's you know, that's what he says is saying locks me he says that later. He says Singh locks me in every time I change. But you know, I don't want to be locked in anymore. The wolf must must outright and so it's just a little the way it's sort of blocked is a kind of confused, confusing to me, because we see him close a cage kind of door between them. But neither of them is actually trapped in there. Because then Larry starts to change. We get the first real werewolf transformation that we see. It's good. It's see again, it's very CG. You know, and I know I from what I know about the movie about the production. Originally they wanted to do practical transformations and Rick Baker was really excited to do that. But because Roman EC left under such short notice, Joe Johnston didn't feel he had the time and you know, I remember people who were fans of Wolf Man having a lot of problem with that at the time. Let's do CG needs to be needs to be practical and I mean, I agree it would have been better if it had been practical but

Unknown Speaker  1:09:43   absolutely i mean that's that's your money shot right there. That's why people come to see the movie is to see you know, the transformation and if then to that if you're going to make the Wolf Man update you got to do I'm not saying it shouldn't have been maybe it should have been a mix of CG and yeah and practical, but they should have, you know, it's like, oh, I don't have time to do that. Well then don't do the movie. Yeah. Like, I feel like that's, that's an important section of the movies is the transformation. Right? And if you can't be, you know, American Werewolf in London, right, then why bother

Unknown Speaker  1:10:14   here? Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get why it happened. It is a disappointment. And if they had pulled off something really spectacular, it would have been a selling point for the move. Yeah, yes. But, you know, and, and this is, you know, key. This is pertinent to the point of this podcast, I think, you know, the transformation was shown a lot in the trailers. And I think, you know, it was very clear from the trailers that it was CG, and I think that that turned a lot of people off. Yeah, they saw that and they were like, yeah, just looks like a CG mess.

Unknown Speaker  1:10:47   I'll give you the moaning sounds so painful, like waves like,

Unknown Speaker  1:10:52   just like, God Damn, that sounds painful, man. Like,

Unknown Speaker  1:10:56   he's bringing it there, Chris. He's bringing it. He's coming alive.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:01   And I and I like the things that they focus on in the transformation. I like they show his hand getting all gnarly. Yeah, they show his like, leg getting bent back like a wolf. scenary. Yeah. So it's like, I feel like they knew what to focus on.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:18   They just write the concepts there. Yeah, the

Unknown Speaker  1:11:20   concept was there. They just you didn't have the time to execute it in the way that would have been the most effective.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:27   And along with what Chris said, with the moaning I think the sound was really good for the transformation, too. There's a lot of the like the crack, you know, here the bone. Yeah, it's gross. And then yeah, like, I always love like, when the feet come out, like the shoes and stuff to like, just everything just busting out and just like, yeah, does gnarled and knuckled and, yeah, it's just a it would have been It's a shame. I agree with what you're both saying, if it could have been a mix of CG and practical, I think that would have really been been something that could have been a standout for the film, but, but I think also, yes, that's something that our fans want. But our fans also have, you know, set the bar high with like you're saying with like, American Werewolf in London, or the howling? Like you have, like, you know, these transformations. Can we talk about the way he looks though? Because, yeah, I think I think he looks great. And I know you love him to Sebastian because he looks like

Unknown Speaker  1:12:23   Hold on, though. When we first were watching it together. You said you didn't think that the the wolf man looked very good.

Unknown Speaker  1:12:31   I came around to it though. I came around to it. Well, because of

Unknown Speaker  1:12:35   why did you

Unknown Speaker  1:12:35   because because I think as we talked earlier about the effects, like there's certain times where it looks better than others. Like there's certain lighting, there's certain things like it just there's times where he looks better. there's times where he truly looks like our action figure, which is what I want him to look like, we have a wolf man action figure. And he looks I mean, I think he's identical to that. But then there was like, the first maybe it was the first shot of him. When we watched the theatrical version. I was just kind of like, I don't know. And it could also be just because like it was more of the the maybe the movement of him as well like being more like, like we said, like more superhero esque or something. I don't know, but later, I don't know. I grew to be like, Alright, no, I'm into this. Like, I like the way he looks now. But yes, you're right. In the beginning, I was like,

Unknown Speaker  1:13:26   Well, I mean, I brought it up. The reason why I brought it up and wanted you to restate your feelings on that is because you're not alone. There's a lot of people who don't like the look of it. I have friends in the horror community who weren't into the design, and I like the design the reason why I like the design is because it evokes the original Wolf Man. It's an update of the original Wolf Man. And it's also a sort of take on the Oliver read werewolf from

Unknown Speaker  1:13:57   Curse of the werewolf,

Unknown Speaker  1:13:58   right Curse of the werewolf the hammer werewolf movie it's sort of a combination of those two more the Oliver read werewolf and in his clothing,

Unknown Speaker  1:14:07   I love the clothing and for me that that kind of makes it I mean, I don't I'm not aware of you know, the various looks as you guys are but to me it feels like the correct way to update the classic werewolf you know, and when he's got bad vest and shirt on and just the the shape of his head and the way everything looks. Yes, it's, you're like, that's, that's perfect. You know that that? That's him?

Unknown Speaker  1:14:31   Yeah, I love that too. And it's that that sort of vest look is sort of similar to what Oliver Reed is wearing in the curse of the werewolf. Yeah, I love the costuming of it. I really like the look of it. I understand like at first glance it seems maybe a little awkward. But it works for me his he doesn't really have an extended snout like a lot of modern werewolves do it's sort of you know, more compact like the original Wolf Man.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:00   I think it's what I like about it.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:01   I like that too.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:02   Well, to me, there's a difference between just a werewolf and the wolf. Ah,

Unknown Speaker  1:15:06   wow. Okay,

Unknown Speaker  1:15:08   the Wolf Man looks more like a man. Yeah, he's a specific type of werewolf. He's

Unknown Speaker  1:15:14   right, man. You know, recently recently, I discovered I think I watched like on YouTube or something about special makeup effects for thriller, and they were mentioning how that is actually aware cat, right? Oh, because he's, you know, they got the long whiskers and it's a flat face as well. And I'm like, Oh, that's why that that stands out to me as well. Is that that? That look is very cool, too. And yeah, and I think I'm on your wavelength Sebastian, where I think it's cool. The design is always cooler when it's more man than wolf.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:46   Yeah. This is when we get the first Howl, which I think sounds pretty great. You know, who was involved in making the howl?

Unknown Speaker  1:15:54   I do. But I'll let you deliver x interior. No.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:58   You did the stuff for Dracula?

Unknown Speaker  1:16:00   No, it was David Lee Roth and Gene Simmons. The clap

Unknown Speaker  1:16:04   the two classiest people in the world. Yeah. I

Unknown Speaker  1:16:07   don't know. And you know, it's fitting that we're discussing this now because Eddie Van Halen just passed away the day before yesterday and was sad, really sad. super sad piece Eddie. So yeah, I mean, I don't know how much of David Lee Roth and Gene Simmons there is actually in the howl but they were apparently brought in to record some howling for the howl. So the villagers try to trap the Wolf Man with this like deer and that sort of dugout trap. But you know, it doesn't go well for them. One of the guys gets pulled into the trap and the Wolf Man messes him up pretty bad. There's some good slashing and gore

Unknown Speaker  1:16:49   we haven't talked about because I think this might notice is I don't know if this is the first one this might be the second one because there's there's definitely a couple throughout the film, the wonderful decapitations this film deliver? Yeah. And yeah, it definitely happens. I think it might happen also at the first Gypsy wolf out but it definitely happens during this time with the little pit or whatever. You totally the decapitation.

Unknown Speaker  1:17:13   No, it happens. One of the guys who is one of the river Yeah, no, he goes into like quicksand or something. Yes. Um, he's one of the guys. He's the guy in the Extended Cut that he throws the drink at

Unknown Speaker  1:17:25   that he has probably his beef with. Yes, yes. Yes. That's why I was talking about was so satisfactory because of now knowing what goes down in the pub. I'm like, Oh, that. That's why Paul had some meaning behind it.

Unknown Speaker  1:17:37   Yeah, that that guy runs into what looks like quicksand. And he gets stuck there and the Wolf Man, Wade's out to where he is and swipes off his head with a claw and it goes flying. And it's extremely satisfying. Yes, I really like this whole sequence. It's action packed and gory and fun. And this is basically why you come to a wolf man movie, in my opinion.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:02   Yeah. I mean, I always could use even more blood. Like when, you know, granted, there's a lot of killing and maiming. But like there's not a lot of splashing of blood like that's to nitpick. You know, I just would like a little bit more splashes

Unknown Speaker  1:18:17   more blood.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:18   Okay, so then we get the scene, but that's in every werewolf movie where the werewolf wakes up and the next day and he's all covered in blood and rags. He's a human again. I've all been there. Yeah, we've all been there. You know, he's sort of near the manor. I don't know. He's like out in the backyard. I don't know where he is. But he's

Unknown Speaker  1:18:36   inside a tree tree. He's He's in a tree like the trees like hollowed out and he's like, curled up in there.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:42   Yeah. And dad is there basically like laughing at him like, Oh, you did some terrible things.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:50   Yeah. reminded me of your two terrible Mariel

Unknown Speaker  1:18:57   these clearly delighting in the fact that like he's been on that Lawrence has been on a murder rampage.

Unknown Speaker  1:19:03   This movie had been more successful that you've done terrible things could have been like a classic line. Yeah, you know, if everybody knew this movie, people would be quoting that left and right, you know, after that, nyan that bachelor party you've done.

Unknown Speaker  1:19:17   But yeah, he basically dad basically gives him up to the villagers who knocks him out, then, you know, they they haul him to London to back to the old asylum. And you know, they've got the total cliche German doctor, clearly based on Freud. They put him in this chair, which is pretty amazing. I have no idea if this is based on anything real but they dunk him in a big pool of ice. And like what looks like an electric chair, but it's just an ice dunking chairs a

Unknown Speaker  1:19:47   great image though. Yeah, and like whoever Who cares if it works, it looks like straight up torture, but it looks so cool. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:19:54   we go back into sort of montage mode here which I'm not crazy about. It's you know, he's He's getting tortured. Like at one point he's got like a bit nice teeth and he's like, jabbering, like, I also think that we're supposed to pick up on the fact that time is passing here. Yeah. Which, Jen, I know you had a problem with it because you're like, there's this place is just got nothing but full moons.

Unknown Speaker  1:20:20   I said the same thing like they never show a not full moon. Like, here

Unknown Speaker  1:20:25   it is. I think the montage is are supposed to serve as a feeling of passing of time without like, you know, doing the cliche thing of showing like a calendar whipping by really sad. You know, I mean, it's

Unknown Speaker  1:20:38   a month goes by because he's got a turn at some point. And I believe that they're trying to set up the fact that they all do think that he's really legit crazy. Yes, because he's acting crazy. And so that you know, the payoff later will be everyone thinks he's crazy. And then he's not aware. Well, yes,

Unknown Speaker  1:20:53   Hopkins shows up to hang around his cell as Lawrence is sort of straitjacketed. And then we get the story of, you know, how dad became a werewolf, which was he was, you know, out in the Himalayas or something. And he went to a cave, and the Gollum werewolf boy was in the cave. And that werewolf boy bit him and that's, you know, how he became a werewolf. If you're wondering why that's the story. It is similar to the setup of the story in werewolf of London. The original werewolf movie from that was actually before the Wolf Man

Unknown Speaker  1:21:35   sounds vaguely racist.

Unknown Speaker  1:21:36   Yeah, probably.

Unknown Speaker  1:21:38   There's some feral Asian kid man. Goddamnit.

Unknown Speaker  1:21:42   Yeah, it was racist. We'll just assume it's racist if it's old. And this is when we get confirmation in a flashback that dad killed mom as a werewolf. which is surprising to no one. And, you know, we get to look at the Anthony Hopkins werewolf and the Anthony Hopkins Wolf, man, it's it's pretty good. It looks more like it's CG than makeup to me. I you know, it's just for a flash. So who knows? My guess is probably Anthony Hopkins was not keen to put on tons of makeup. So he's probably you know, they probably had to do it like that, because he wouldn't go for it.

Unknown Speaker  1:22:24   Well, it's also where we learn that this is when Larry says to dad, like you should just kill yourself. And he's like, I consider that but life is too good.

Unknown Speaker  1:22:34   Yeah. I like I like Wilson is awesome. Yeah, yeah. But he but he gives Larry a straight razor and it's like, yeah, kill yourself. And then, you know, so yeah, he gives Larry the razor and then he we see Hopkins leaving this the Siloam. And he's he's jamming down on the harmonica as he walks out.

Unknown Speaker  1:22:56   Yeah, I said to even said to you, I was like, Who is playing the harmonica in this asylum? And you're like, that's Hopkins like he's just like do to do on the little mouth harp going down the

Unknown Speaker  1:23:08   hallway. A little john popper?

Unknown Speaker  1:23:13   Yeah, the character is musical. He's always playing the piano. And I know that Anthony Hopkins always plays the piano and like, anytime he can put it in it, put it into a movie, you know, he even writes the the pieces and then so he'll play some noodle on the piano and there'll be like, leave it in. What is that? He's like, I wrote that. And then so though, he does that a lot, because he's pretty accomplished pianist. Oh,

Unknown Speaker  1:23:37   cool. So that's totally cool. Okay, yeah. Nice. All right, cool. Well, that's good to know. Then we go on to what may be the best scene in the movie, which is the very ill advised nighttime asylum lecture. I mean, at first I'm like, why are they doing it this this at night, but then the doctor says like, I'm doing this to show you He won't turn into a werewolf. Yeah. Oh, good. But yeah, so they're in like a you know, theater, operating theater or whatever. And they will and Bernice CEO, and he's in you know, like, it's strapped down chair. It definitely at this point, we're veering into sort of dark comedy, because the the doctor is, you know, lecturing with his back turn to Benicio about how he's not going to turn into a werewolf and how he's just crazy. And Benicio is like, you need to go get out of here. I'll kill all of you. And and nobody's listening. And then so the doctor is lecturing, and he starts to change behind him. And the guys in the theater are like pointing like like, Look, look behind you. And he just keeps talking. Oh, good. It's pretty funny.

Unknown Speaker  1:24:51   Best don't The only thing that bothers me is that he doesn't kill everyone. I want everybody in that room that it should have been a pile of bodies, man, like That was the only minor quibble with that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All those fuck all those guys.

Unknown Speaker  1:25:06   Yeah, I mean yeah, they did promise everyone would die and not everyone died

Unknown Speaker  1:25:10   and the transformation they do like show his like jaw like snapping and like eath rolling into weird place. Yeah, that was cool it like oh we'll save some weird transformation stuff for this time so that you know you see different anatomy changing

Unknown Speaker  1:25:26   yeah and the first transformation is done in that crypt and it's sort of dark and there's candlelight so you know yeah this is like bright You know, this is a brightly lit Yeah, nothing operating theater and he's, you know, they're really showing you the change.

Unknown Speaker  1:25:40   I think that change looks really good here. Actually, I was I was really like, I was super super into this and just really ready for Larry to fuck everybody up. And it just it looked so much the change. I just I liked it so much better in this in this scene. And I don't know if it was pot, you know, partially because it was leading up to something it was going to be very satisfying. You knew it was going to be

Unknown Speaker  1:26:02   just the sweetest plum. It's all about the scene and wanting to see him go apeshit on all these doctors it's it's a lot of fun. There's a funny moment where one of the one of the doctors is trying to get out and the guy's at the door and another guy's in the door and not letting him out. And meanwhile, Larry's carving through people left and right.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:25   The guy at the door is like like mopping the floors. Yes. Like I think it's locked. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:33   The most it's not my job.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:35   There's some like slightly poor wirework here where you can tell like when he actually throws the the main doctor out the window. Yeah. And it's just like there's no way to him at all. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:26:47   the gravity

Unknown Speaker  1:26:48   so it's out the window instead of actually being thrown. But you know, it's nitpicky, you know,

Unknown Speaker  1:26:54   it's this. It's the satisfying though. It's still all satisfying.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:57   Yes. Yeah. Oh, and I just love that one part where he I think he's got a big chunk of a guy in his mouth. Yeah. And he just he looks at it. That's when he spots the actual doctor. And then the piece of meat just drops and he's like raw.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:11   It looks like a liver.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:12   Yeah. Is that is a great shot, like that is so good.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:16   And they throws the doctor out the window and he lands on the Oh, yeah, that spiked fence, you know, which is always good.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:23   skewered.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:24   Yeah, somebody skewered on a spiked iron rod fence is always a winning proposition. So Larry escapes from the asylum, he basically goes on sort of a rooftop chase scene. They have the seat, they have, you know, the sort of prerequisite scene where he like, gets on a gargoyle and howls at the moon. You know, it's an easy lay moment. But I'm an easy lay for gargoyle perches, pretty much like that. whenever it's in a movie, we get Hugo Weaving has clued in to this and he's sort of chasing him on ground while the Wolf Man is running across the rooftop, we get a really, you know, this sequence really sort of highlights this running thing where he's running, you know, along the roofs, and then he drops into the onto all fours and starts around all fours. Again, this moment feels to me kind of like a superhero movie moment, you know, because he's going from rooftop to rooftop, you know, and I can see why maybe some people you know, who are expecting a more sort of straightforward, grounded horror movie might not like this stuff, but I like big budget spectacle. And this is where the movie is sort of delivering on that

Unknown Speaker  1:28:45   for sure. Why Why would you have an issue with this just because it's too CG and too fantastical. It's just

Unknown Speaker  1:28:50   not a horror movie thing. It's you know, it's it's like a like I said, it's like a big budget, it's more of a sci fi or superhero thing

Unknown Speaker  1:28:59   because to him like jumping off of rooftops, or just to be like a big sort of animal loose because me isn't that what American Werewolf in London ends like that. So,

Unknown Speaker  1:29:09   right, but not done with $100 million in computer. Right, right. Right facts. Okay, I didn't

Unknown Speaker  1:29:15   have a problem with it. I was enjoying it. And I just was like,

Unknown Speaker  1:29:19   you're kind of you know, you're more of a horror fan than a sci fi or superhero movie fan. So like, I

Unknown Speaker  1:29:25   was okay with that. Okay, no, didn't bother me at all. No, I was just like, like, it's been like, it's, it builds up so much to this moment, where I kind of feel like, you know, I know we talked about earlier that, you know, Larry doesn't get to fully enjoy his wolfing. But I feel like for a minute here when he's like going all around London and do I mean, I think he might might be enjoying this rooftops for a minute, you know, like being able to, like okay, maybe this isn't all bad. You know, like there's, you know, the superhuman strength that he has. But yeah, I just, I mean, it's such a such a climax that it comes to With everything that happens at the asylum, and then he's just like, you know, he's just he's just going balls out. So I think they deliver. They

Unknown Speaker  1:30:09   there's a fun sort of little bookend to the scene where he sort of jumps down and he's in, you know, I don't know, Piccadilly Circus or something like that. A train, there's a train car that gets derailed, and it like runs over a dude while it's getting derailed. And you see the guy like, pretty great and falls over on its side, and it's full of people. And the Wolf Man like jumps on top of it. And he looks in through one side window, and there's a really cool shot of him, like looking in through the glass, and then breaks through the glass and like falls into the train car and then start slashing away at people really messing them up. I think the action is pretty well done. Could it be a little better, maybe. But I think for the most part, and this might actually be one area where Joe Johnston was a pretty good choice to come in. Because I don't imagine Mark Romanek would have really cared very much about these action sequences, Drew and Johnston does. I mean, he's not like known for being a great action director, but he's solid, you know, he did Jurassic Park three, which has some fun sequences. So you know, he comes from the Spielberg camp, so he knows what he's doing with action.

Unknown Speaker  1:31:19   And the action is not the sticking point here for sure.

Unknown Speaker  1:31:23   Lawrence goes on his werewolf bender. And he ends up under a bridge as we all have been after a bender by London Bridge, in fact, and he drinks some wakes up in the morning and he's back in his tattered bloody clothes. And he like drinks some really gross water from a puddle. And then we learned that Gwen apparently owns an antique shop or something in London, which is not set up at all. No, but she's she's going to her open up her store for the day. And Larry has I guess, figured out I mean, it says her name on the if you look at the signage on her store,

Unknown Speaker  1:32:06   wait, wait, is this where we learned that? That Mary Poppins and Wolf men are in the same universe?

Unknown Speaker  1:32:10   God? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:13   Yeah, so she goes into her antique store that hasn't been set up. And he's like sleeping under something in their table or some table. And then, you know, they have a scene, he tells her that he knows his father was the original werewolf and she wants to help him. We get more sort of romance moments here, which don't necessarily

Unknown Speaker  1:32:36   that's in quotes, romance, right? No, but

Unknown Speaker  1:32:39   we get it, we get a kiss here.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:41   All right. It was so hot, I forgot.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:45   Anyway, Hugo Weaving shows up and, you know, he shows her the newspaper drawings of the wolf carnage. And, you know, he basically detains her, you know, they figure out that Larry's been in there and they they think he's hiding behind a mirror. And he like shoots the mirror and, but behind the mirrors like this pan's statue, like a statue of the god Pan. I'm a pan fan. Not a Peter Pan fan

Unknown Speaker  1:33:13   and pan Greek god Pan, one half goat the other half man.

Unknown Speaker  1:33:19   Yeah, so yeah, the mirror gag is cool. In the and now in the unrated cut. That's where we get the scene of Larry walking around London. And there's a paper boy selling papers like Wolf Man kills everyone. And Larry buys all the papers from him sort of weird comedic moment that doesn't really fit but you know, and we get this montage as both of them make their way back to the Blackmore mansion, cheese on a train and a horse and stuff. But poor Larry's, he's just hoofing it the whole way. That's right. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:33:55   I'm in through the Moore's looking very for Lorne.

Unknown Speaker  1:33:58   Yeah. And there's, there's like a solid five to 10 shots of him, depending on which version you watch it like just walking. If they didn't do that, everybody like would it just work? could look. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:34:12   yeah. You can't when Gwen is trying to find Geraldine Chaplin's gypsy woman. So she does eventually meet her in a barn. And you know, there's this whole sort of scene where she's talking about how much you know, she wants to save him. And it's kind of like uncomfortably anti feminist sort of moment. You know, where it's like I can change him that kind of thing. Like I can change the abusive boyfriend, right oh man, which was a little uncomfortable there.

Unknown Speaker  1:34:46   Also at this time, though, there's there's a total souped up scene going on with Hugo Weaving. Yes, it right in the carriage and loading up a silver bullets. Yeah, he's a believer now.

Unknown Speaker  1:34:57   Yes, he's turned turned a corner on This Wolf Man, this werewolf business and he's ready to like lay down some silver bullets.

Unknown Speaker  1:35:04   Wouldn't all of London have turned believers after a giant Wolf Man just came marauding like in Piccadilly square. I mean come on what's going on fake

Unknown Speaker  1:35:14   fake news Chris fake news.

Unknown Speaker  1:35:18   There were crazy urban myths going around London in that period there is a famous sort of monster called Spring Heeled jack that would like supposedly come jumping down from roofs and like attack people and then jump away into another roof doing impossible things so that kind of stuff actually happened in London and there was never any explanation for it. I'm sure I'm in all parts of the world but they're famous stories from London of crazy crazy stuff like that so so Larry makes it back to the manor just in time for the full moon but poor Kim fail seek manservant is dead. He's a corpse sort of hanging on the wall. So I guess we're to assume that a pop killed him didn't have any more use for me. Yeah, that was

Unknown Speaker  1:36:08   why I wanted to see what happened to him I mean what

Unknown Speaker  1:36:11   well they sort of set him up as a badass so

Unknown Speaker  1:36:14   yeah, he's a great shot and then like way he's just dead

Unknown Speaker  1:36:18   it is off screen and we don't get I mean we can only assume that it you know it was dad we'll find out when he did it you know Yeah, but it's Yeah, he deserved he deserved it on string screen kill if he was going to

Unknown Speaker  1:36:32   die He Larry gets the key off of the dead seek that unlocks his case full of his trunk full of silver bullets. The dog who we haven't mentioned I forget his name but he gets a nice sort of a big dog he gets a nice jumpscare here and one thing I appreciated there's a shit is about to go down in the manner but Larry lets the dog out Yeah, he lets him go

Unknown Speaker  1:36:57   this the wolf and also let the deer go at 1.2 and chase a man instead of a deer yeah

Unknown Speaker  1:37:02   the deer with when they first try to trap him with the deer he doesn't kill the dog

Unknown Speaker  1:37:06   is Samson By the way, Sam Samson Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:09   Nice. Larry. Here's dad in the parlor playing the piano laying it with bloody fingers. Yes. Little shot. Very Yes. It's the Sikhs blood on his fingers. I don't know. Somebody's blood.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:20   Well, there's a there's a dead guy on like the chair.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:23   All right. It's the it's like the inspectors pal.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:26   You go weavings right hand guy. Yeah, man. We get sort of Hopkins doing the supervillain speech. It's pretty great Hopkins ham. So yeah, they they kind of have their big confrontation moment. Hopkin hits him with the cane that point it's a little bit repetitive just because I feel like we already kind of got the supervillain speech from dad at the asylum and we're just kind of getting more of that Hopkins starts throwing shit around and this is I love

Unknown Speaker  1:37:54   when he throws that chair it's so badass

Unknown Speaker  1:37:57   but but it's totally what you were saying where the wire work is kind of like suspect like it just kind of flying off

Unknown Speaker  1:38:04   but Hopkins man just like the look on his face and the way he's so nonchalantly does it it's ridiculous but awesome at the same time

Unknown Speaker  1:38:11   I didn't I didn't have an issue with any like I just like buy in that these like wolf dudes have all the strings in the world so like anything is gonna be like just like nothing you know? It's like no, I like it in concept it's

Unknown Speaker  1:38:23   just like technically if you're if you're really paying attention to it yes, it looks a little like somebody yanking a wire and pulling a yeah pulling a piece of furniture off exactly right. So they both wolf out and they do the thing where they like charge at each other and like smash chests to definitely a host matrix C type of werewolf wire fight for for a minute, and it ends with Larry. decapitating dad just great good decapitation, it's you know kind of CG looking but it's it's a pretty good death. And doesn't he doesn't his head like fly into the fireplace?

Unknown Speaker  1:39:05   I know he kicks

Unknown Speaker  1:39:06   him into the fireplace okay yeah, he

Unknown Speaker  1:39:08   kicks him to the fireplace right but

Unknown Speaker  1:39:10   the head actually we see the head kind of de wolf Yeah, it starts like going back to dad but another thing about dad wolfing out and then having the big fight which I appreciated because I was able to differentiate as to who was who was the dad shirtless?

Unknown Speaker  1:39:26   Thankfully only as a werewolf Yeah, that's shirtless. So gwenan Hugo show up and yeah, the Wolf Man bites Hugo which is a setup for a sequel that'll never happen. I think they're you know, the sequel was gonna maybe be Hugo Weaving as inspector werewolf or whatever.

Unknown Speaker  1:39:46   I would have watched that.

Unknown Speaker  1:39:47   Yeah, me too. I totally would have watched that. We do get Hugo Weaving in Joe Johnston's next movie, Captain America because he plays the Red Skull. So I guess maybe they liked working together. Who knows. And you know, the manner burns down because that's what manners always have to do in our movies. The Wolf Man chases going out into the woods with the torch wielding villagers following after them because you got to have that universal monster movie. You know, the woods look cool. She's sort of hiding behind some trees and there's lots of fog. And he sort of, you know, chasing, chasing, you see him in the background. He chases or to the waterfall where they had that moment, but not the place where they skipped stones, the waterfall,

Unknown Speaker  1:40:31   where the where the brothers had there was a refuge

Unknown Speaker  1:40:33   refuge.

Unknown Speaker  1:40:35   Yes. He's sort of like, tackles or pushes her down to the ground. But she's like, No, me, you know, me good acting here from I mean, she's good. The whole movie. Oh, yeah. She's great, really good moment here, where she's sort of trying to convince him to kind of recognize who she is, even though he's in wearable form.

Unknown Speaker  1:40:55   I liked that. You could see her in his pupils, by the way that I thought it was. I mean, I know it's kind of hokey or whatever. But I appreciated that.

Unknown Speaker  1:41:02   Yeah, I mean, the whole thing is kind of hokey. But yeah, it's the scene you need to have, yes, the werewolf movie. villagers are coming, basically, you know, he's gonna kill her. But then he, she gets through to him, and then he, you know, he stops, then they hear the villagers coming. And then she shoots him because she's got a gun with her with silver bullets, presumably in it a little. I mean, I would have preferred the cane. But, I mean, why didn't she have the cane? And then, you know, pulled out the knife and stabbed him in the heart or something. And then he, you know, transforms back into Larry and dies in their arms. And they have this sort of, you know, sad, doomed love moment, which, you know, honestly, no one cares about.

Unknown Speaker  1:41:49   I cared. You care? Yeah, I did. Actually, I did. I did actually. Well, that that moment was like, I mean, it was because he, he like kind of he starts to after she shoots him, and then he kind of like turns over to a side. And then he kind of I think he grabs her arm, like a little, a little bit of a jumpscare. But then you can see he's coming back to being Larry. And then he says, that's when he was like, thank you. And he was like, it had to be this way. You know, it's like he was this, you know, now he's tortured guy and I don't know, I I actually didn't care.

Unknown Speaker  1:42:22   I cared. He dies, and Hugo shows up and we see that he's got the cane and you know, again, they're sort of I think it's sort of, you're supposed to sort of think, Oh, this this is he's going to be in the sequel. And then you know, they show the moon and there's more of Emily's voiceover and then we're out. And you know, we've got sort of horror movie style Wolf Man and credits, which are pretty cool. They're, you know, they're stylish and cool.

Unknown Speaker  1:42:50   I can't help but think of, you know, Dracula, where Amina chops Dracula's head off. And, you know, they're this sort of lovers souls that are always meant to be so that makes sense to me that, you know, she should be the one to kill them. But I just feel like they're trying to shoehorn that same story into this by by the Gypsy saying, it has to be someone who loved him. I'm like, Well, does she even say like, oh, for his soul to be fine, or I mean, like, what's the point of that? Like, would he have lived if anybody else shot him with silver bullets? Like, why does it have to be someone who loves him? It just it seems like they're just really forcing a story at this point.

Unknown Speaker  1:43:26   I think. I think they are sort of going to that. Well, they're, you know, I think there's figuring Hey, it worked for Dracula, you know, right. It'll work for the wolf. Man. I definitely think this movie is is trying to capture the magic of in some ways of that Coppola Dracula, that's definitely what it's aiming for. Right. I mean, some people hate the Cobo Dracula, so right. No, it's not like that movies universally loved either. Sure, sure. It's more people like it now than they used to. But I remember back in the day, nobody was hankering for more of that. Well, there's a lot of problems. You know, everybody was just like, Look, you know, sucked, you know, and like, actually, it's, it's not like it was that beloved at the time.

Unknown Speaker  1:44:08   It made money though. That's why they made so

Unknown Speaker  1:44:11   and this movie didn't. So on that note, you know, my sort of feelings about why this movie tanked. Like I said, I think that trailers unfortunately, by showing the CG transformation, I think turn some people off. I think that Benicio del Toro is not the kind of actor or leading man that brings in money, you know, like he's just not. If this had been Brad Pitt or somebody I think it would have probably stood a better chance even though like Benicio, and I know he was really passionate about doing this. I think that probably didn't help. And I think that, you know, when it came out, the reviews were pretty abysmal. And I think that is largely due to the sort of editing, I think that the editing is bad. And I think that sort of hurt the movie critically, I don't know if if they had released, the longer version in the theaters, if that would have been received any better probably wouldn't have been. Because I think like Chris fairly pointed out that I think a lot of the problems are in the script, unfortunately. Yeah. So you know, I don't think it was going to do that well with critics, either way, but if it had been more embraced by fans, then maybe there would have been some word of mouth and it wouldn't have tanked nearly as badly, but even a bigger sort of issue. And I think that we're seeing this with all of these universal these attempts at these universal monsters is that, I don't know if people care about them. You know, like, they've tried now with Wolf Man, they've tried with, you know, a new Dracula. They've tried with the mummy with Tom Cruise. And it's like, there, none of them are hitting it. It's too bad. Because obviously, I'm a fan. I love the universal monsters, but I just don't think that they're big money movies. Now, you know, the recent Invisible Man that just came out, did it smart, because it's a low budget movie. It's contemporary. It's not hinting on your love of the Invisible Man. To sell it. It's, it's just giving you a movie with an invisible man and calling it the Invisible Man. And it's like a, you know, whatever, a $5 million movie as opposed to 100 million dollar movie. So it's, you know, 150,

Unknown Speaker  1:46:32   right?

Unknown Speaker  1:46:34   Yeah, or whatever, if you bring the budgets of these things way down and do these sort of scaled back attempts at rebooting these series and do them, you know, in a modern setting, which isn't to my preference, because I like the cool Gothic setting, but you know, you could probably do Gothic for cheaper than 100 and 50 million How

Unknown Speaker  1:46:56   do you know how much it costs to make shape of water? Because that's, I mean, that's clearly got some creature going on.

Unknown Speaker  1:47:02   Yeah, I mean, but it was probably, you know, 50 million or something, but the shape of water wallet had a lot of design and really rich design and everything. It didn't have a lot of action. The action is what costs a lot of money. Yeah, for a lot of these things, you can have something look great and have it be period and stuff but as long as you're not throwing in like massive action sequences, you know, you're not going to reach that hundred million dollar mark or whatever.

Unknown Speaker  1:47:31   But also how much did Anthony Hopkins get walk away with here? I feel like he you know, he was commanding some money

Unknown Speaker  1:47:39   the costs were high you know, and I think something like shape of water, though it's not like cheap it's not you know, Michael Shannon isn't gonna demand $50 billion

Unknown Speaker  1:47:51   right felt like they weren't holding back on the budget on anything here. I feel like they were just like open the floodgates and just make the best movie we can and

Unknown Speaker  1:48:02   there's a lot of good things here though. I like it you know there was the It looks good like I mean it's just it's it's kind of it's it's a bummer and I you know I would love to see the the universal monsters live on I haven't seen an attempted a creature film and that's why I was thinking of shaper water but now I don't know it's it's it's it's weird because like I said, in the beginning my first watch I was kind of ambivalent about the whole thing and then watching closely, the theatrical and the unrated version. I just came to like to film a lot more

Unknown Speaker  1:48:39   Yeah, I think if you were to see this bar if you were to see this movie, you know at a bar with the sound off you'd probably be like this movie looks incredible. Oh my god the Wolf Man Anthony Hopkins is in this Emily Blunt you think this is the greatest movie and then you'd go home rented watch it with the sound and go wait this movie sucks like what what happened? You know because the production design the cinematography all there so so many of the elements are right but then the crucial elements like the story the editing and the direction fail and that's it's kind of like right down the middle where you got half good half bad and then it just doesn't come together and knowing that you know every everybody it went forward with last minute director change will pull the rug out from any production I think so. Just look at solo or and you know, like I mean, like they brought it into port it's not a terrible movie. I you know, it was watchable.

Unknown Speaker  1:49:39   You mean the Wolf Man or

Unknown Speaker  1:49:40   the wolf? No, the wolf sorry the Wolf Man was watchable and is a fine enough movie but especially with the watching the Extended Cut was a bit of a drag.

Unknown Speaker  1:49:50   So you prefer the you prefer I prefer

Unknown Speaker  1:49:52   the theatrical cut because it just gets to the point, you know, gets to the gore and gets to the but I understand why you would watch the Extended Cut, if you were just you want to luxuriate in the feel of the movie because the feel of the movie is, is good, you know, they got the gothic horror thing, you know, we've gone over it and yeah, I just I think that it's just too boring. And they needed to add some more interesting twists and add a little bit more, you know, modern lies juice to it, yeah, in order to in order to make it stand out.

Unknown Speaker  1:50:23   And then also, to piggyback on that Chris was, you know, I feel like, because, and you brought this up to Sebastian, it's like, Who is it really for? Because, like you said, it's not, like, there's elements of it that aren't something that a horror fan is going to really be into, you know, because of more of the action type. Like, the sequences and it's just, I don't know, I didn't I don't know if it was really defined for a person, so or it could have become like, I had a cult following. He other than, you know, having like, the basis of being the Wolf Man, but the actual film didn't have like that thing that it's like, oh, you know, this is what horror fans like, loves. I mean, you kind of have that because you love the way he looks. But like, if if, you know, if, like we said earlier, if like the transformation could have been kick ass, then like, that would have been something that people were talking about, you know, if it would have been at the transformation, or, like, if there would have been some real hamming it up, like, we would have got like full Hopkins, like, you know, being really Machiavellian, like over the top or something like that. there needed to be something that had people talking.

Unknown Speaker  1:51:40   Well, I think your point of, you know, who is this for? It's not quite, you know, hitting the target for horror fans. It's not quite hitting the target, because there's too much sort of slow drama scenes. Exactly. Or for fans of big spectacle action movies, or sci fi or whatever stuff with big money and big production designs not really hitting that target. And it's not really hitting, it's definitely not hitting the target for people who are into period dramas. If that's what you're going for, so ivory,

Unknown Speaker  1:52:17   it is not

Unknown Speaker  1:52:18   I think, you know, it's, you know, yes. They didn't know who they were making this for, which I think is going to be a theme that we find a lot in this podcast.

Unknown Speaker  1:52:29   They made their made it for podcasters in 2020

Unknown Speaker  1:52:33   to dissect

Unknown Speaker  1:52:35   this will be great for them.

Unknown Speaker  1:52:37   That's who this is made for. All right, well, um, that wraps up our discussion of the 2010. Wolf Man, thank you for joining me. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:52:47   yeah, thank you.

Unknown Speaker  1:53:01   That about does it today for Tentpole Trauma. If you like what you heard, check out our social media presence on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Just look for Tentpole Trauma. That was easy, wasn't it? If you like us, hit subscribe, and leave us a sterling review on iTunes. If you dare. If you really like us, head over to patreon.com and get involved in one of our fabulous tiers. You'll be glad you did. Want to communicate with Tentpole Trauma, send an email to Tentpole trauma@gmail.com we'd love to hear from you. And who knows, one day you may even get your email read on one of our shows. Well, thanks for listening, and we'll see you real soon.