Best Seat on the Couch

The height of the Disney Renaissance made the Mouse fabulously wealthy, and so alongside powerhouse films like Aladdin came many direct-to-video sequels like Aladdin 3, or Aladdin and the King of Thieves. Iris's childhood nostalgia notwithstanding, the gang is pretty whelmed by this film overall, and in this episode we discuss the hard hitting questions like: what makes a sequel worth making? Has Robin Williams' Genie simply gone too far? Are Jasmine's eyeballs okay? Does Aladdin actually make an intelligent decision, ever? Will Iris's brother Andrew read this and stew ever more angrily that we're tearing down a pillar of his childhood? Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Osmosis Jones is the first movie that the gang - even Marcus, who brought this film for discussion - unanimously dislikes. Split between live-action sequences of Bill Murray's truly abhorrent mid-life crisis lifestyle and an animated TV series buddy cop back-and-forth, we can begin by completely disregarding the live-action half of this movie as irredeemable. Ozzy and Drix's camaraderie, Fishburne's performance and construction of Thrax as a character and villain, and the clever medical jokes and references about the human body are the highlights of this film, and Michael and Iris even have a couple of brain blasts of how to redesign this movie to be...actually good. New Best Seat segment when? Content warning: Medical horror, strong language.

In this latest episode of Best Seat on the Couch: Civil War, the gang is split on our opinions of computer-animated 2005 film Hoodwinked, which is regarded to be the most profitable animated film in movie history - one of its many accolades. It's undeniable that this movie is probably the worst-looking animated movie we've ever seen, perhaps looking even worse than Polar Express, but the story is a fun twist on the classic Little Red Riding Hood folktale with some real bangers of dubiously necessary musical numbers, many excellent jokes, the legendary Patrick Warburton, and good old-fashioned FUN! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

In Episode 1 of Best Seat on the Couch - yes, our first recorded episode, on Avatar: The Last Airbender - we not only embarked on a podcasting journey that has spanned over 2 years, but Alex also surfaced a cherished memory of U-Pick Live that we, for a very long time, believed was lost to the aether. But fear not, dear listeners. It is lost no longer. 

Content warning: bamboozles

Death Parade is a home-brewed anime series that rests at a short 12 episodes and talks about purgatory, the meaning of life, and the philosophical ramifications of life after death. It's beautifully animated and emotionally heavy, has a banger opening track, and relies heavily on its audience to humor it as it asks thought-provoking questions and explores interesting topics about life and death. Not into that? Fret not, dear listener - Michael adds a dissenting perspective to the anime's construction and brings up some valid criticisms to just how much we should really expect from an anime TV series. Remember to put your thinking caps on before joining us! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Pokémon has had an arguably larger impact on millennial/Gen Z culture over the past 20 years than similar elementary school foundational pillar Yu-Gi-Oh!, and in addition to the popular trading card game and campy Japanese anime that the two franchises share, there's a whole suite of award-winning video games, not-so-award-winning movies, and Detective Pikachu too. This episode discusses the very first animated film, Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back, and our thoughts on the characters and post-production changes when it was introduced to Western audiences; plus, stick around for a very mathematically advanced Pokémon Trivia Corner! Content warning: strong language.

Megamind is another Dreamworks staple from 2010 that seemed to miss a lot of us on the Couch, but it's experienced a bit of a resurgence in the pop culture sphere as of late, so we gave it a watch. It's unassuming and well animated, and has an interesting subversion to its plot, but it's actually quite well-written and has wonderful characters and voice acting, plus Tighten is a pretty complex and well-portrayed character considering he's basically an incel. Ultimately, with the superhero genre so saturated with Marvel-esque stories that are a dime a dozen, it's refreshing to see a movie that really tries to put a big-brain twist on the formula as a whole. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

If you've ever dabbled in Dungeons and Dragons, then you've likely heard of the immensely successful web series Critical Role, where critically acclaimed voice actor Matt Mercer runs a D&D campaign for a bunch of other big name voice actor friends. After a record-breaking Kickstarter, the group was able to take their first campaign and translate it into an animated TV series (a feat never done before with a D&D campaign!) and it's...actually pretty good! It is at once a faithful rendition of the party's battles and character moments as they were played out on stream, but also distills the extra moments and slow pacing typical of a D&D campaign into a more streamlined, easy-to-follow series that's easy to hop into whether you're a hardcore roleplayer or a casual fan. Stick around to hear the Couch's own fun times playing D&D together as well as a D&D-themed Trivia Corner to cap off this episode! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

The Couch has suffered great emotional trauma over the last few months thanks to Alex's brutal anime recommendations, so as penance Alex brings us Laid-Back Camp, known as Yuru Camp in Japan, to soothe our souls. It's the epitome of slice-of-life, moreso than Bofuri was, but still hits excellent emotional notes while presenting a lovely story about high school girls camping around Japan's picturesque landscapes, cooking up deliciously animated meals, bringing some legitimately useful camping advice, and having a great time enjoying each other's company. So sit back, set up your campfire, pull out your curry noodles, and relax with us on our coziest entry on Best Seat on the Couch. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Season 8 on the Couch starts with yet another nostalgia trip for the gang, as we deep-dive into our childhoods filled with buckets upon buckets of Legos and how special these little plastic building blocks were in our lives. Naturally we're all very high on The Lego Movie and what it brings to the table - and boy does it bring a lot to the table! The pseudo-stop motion, photorealistic animation is unlike everything we've ever seen before, from the fingerprints on the individual minifigures to the crashing Lego ocean waves to the camera angles they use to make it feel like it's a real video camera filming this movie; it pays homage to the best Brickfilms of the past while elevating the CGI to a mind-boggling level. And we haven't even mentioned Will Ferrell! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.